Let the Science Experiments begin ~ Density

Noah has many science experiments to do this year.  He loves them all!  In fact, it is safe to say that Science is his favorite subject. 
The first experiment was on atoms and density.  He was surprised to find out his hypothesis was a little off. 

Reading the instructions carefully  is very important! 

The instructions called for safety glasses, and these “spy glasses”  were the only ones we had! 
  For this experiment he was to have the water level at equal levels.  One jar with cold water, and one jar with boiling water.  Then, put one drop of your choice of color food coloring in each jar.  What was he testing??  This…

He is funny.  He thinks he looks like a mad scientist in this picture.  But, as you can see, to Noah the results were impressive!
He’s admiring his work…and waiting for something else to happen. 

In Science this week

Currently, we are studying Apologia’s Exploring Creation in Botany.  I purposely waited until the Spring to do this book, with the intent of doing the planting projects.  As Noah read his lesson each day, he excitedly tells me each sentence.  Or it seems like it is every sentence!  But excitement in learning is a great thing. 
To begin learning about plants and how they grow.  We planted herbs.  He is so excited and can’t wait until they grow, because he has big plans to make herbal soap for gifts for his family! {So, if you are reading this, and are in his family…forget I said that :) }  We will also make some tea!

We have a total of four trying to grow.  They are thyme, cilantro, lemon balm, and spearmint.  It’s a good thing this is Noah’s project.  The poor plants may have a chance, considering I have no luck with growing plants!
This week we are learning about seeds.  He dissected a bean seed, and because they are slightly bigger, I used a kidney bean. 

After he split the kidney bean, he drew it and labeled it to put in his Science Notebook.

When he finds a book he likes

I am constantly on the lookout for books Noah will read.  For that my goto places are  the Sonlight website, the Well-Trained mind forum, and my local librarian – she’s great, and always has wonderful suggestions. 
Last Monday, I was studying the Sonlight list again.  (I do this often).  I noticed a book about dragons.  We all know that Noah loves Dragons.  This certainly had some possibilities.  It had some things going against it.  First, it was rated for 12 years plus. (on Amazon)  Though I knew he could read it.    Second, it was 288 pages.  If we got that in book form, he would let the size of the book, um, prevent him from reading it.  He’s just like that.
So, I knew how to get around that…  I put it on my Kindle Fire.  And it worked!  He hasn’t stopped reading it since –Every. Single. Spare. Moment. 

So this is what I see.  He tries to get out of schoolwork, by telling me he is reading, and that is part of school! 
I love it when he reads!  This is the book he is reading now. 

Plus, it’s a series. 

The Ultimate field trip

We have been waiting and saving for four years (at least) for this trip to Discovery Cove, Orlando, Florida. 
Ever since Noah found out a person could swim with dolphins he wanted to do it.  He and his grandma.  Good thing she wanted to, because swimming with dolphins was not really on my list of things to do.  :)  It is a good things Discovery Cove has plenty of things to do.  Though all we ended up doing the WHOLE day was snorkeling.  Again, putting my head UNDER the water and snorkeling was something I had to get over, but I did it!  And it was awesome.  There’s a whole world down there in the water.  Though it is a bit, um, worrisome, (to me, at least) when the sting rays would swim near and around you.  Some of them were big!
Where was Noah?  In the water, of course.  Noah and his Grandpa took off snorkeling having a great time. 
So, here are – a few – pictures of our trip.

Discovery Cove scenery

Where we did our snorkeling.

Noah in his wet suit and snorkeling gear
… his swim with the dolphins

one thing he didn’t like though was … kissing the dolphin! 

We were able to see many manatees.  A rare treat since it was cold in Fl.

Noah sitting 2 rows down so he can be in the splash zone
AND  he got wet!

His face says how excited he was to be splashed by Shamu.
Nothing like pretend parasailing
It was really quite windy there that day. Noah got a big kick out of what the wind was doing to his hair, he had me take a picture of it.


Tarzan, maybe??   I think he is speaking gorilla.  He tells me he knows how to speak it.  (only one sentence though)..  He is saying, “I’m stronger than you.”
       
At SeaWorld.

After all that water time, he could walk on the water at The Holy Land Experience. 

Teaching about World War II

Figuring out exactly which parts  about World War II has been a bit challenging.  I wanted to take three weeks to cover it.  I wanted to go into a lot of detail, but not too much.  For instance we kinda just touched the surface of concentration camps and all that.  {we will save that for when we get to this again in 4 years from now, he’ll be old enough then} 

The plane he made after today’s lesson

Our Plan

So, we will notebook the main people involved during the dates of 1939-1945.  For us, notebooking means we use

 this page.
Read a basic book about Anne Frank, and read this Corrie ten Boom book.


We also will have a list of Vocabulary words.  Dividing an extensive list of words between three days a week. 
Subjects we are covering.

Europe in the War
Homeside and women in the war
Spying in the War
the Pacific side of the war
planes of the war
Inventions during this time

Projects we are planning…

make  your own plane
make a yellow star, and write about what you think your feelings would have been if you were a Jewish child during this time
make invisible ink
put together a ration kit
map the countries involved
send a care package to a soldier
listen to WWII era music

I got a lot of my ideas from these books

Both of these are excellent books. 

Today, was a day in our studies that Noah liked – project day.  He is not so much a fan of notebooking day. 
World War II planes. 
Some pictures of him in action. 

Copy the pages from above WWII project book


He really liked reading about all the planes


We needed a better color example for our project, so we googled it. 

Notice the gum – he insist it helps him concentrate. 


The finished project – to make this he just used white poster board, and colored pencils, and markers. 

It’s time to begin again

Wow.. time sure does fly.  It’s been a long since I last posted.  
We finished up school on December 15 before we had a short break.  To short according to Noah.  Because we start back at it today. 
Before we had our break, Noah had to give me a report on a state:  he chose Massachusetts.  It had to be two FULL pages, with some pictures, at least.  He waited until the last minute, but he did it.  And he did a pretty good job at it also.

These are the pictures he chose, because, according to him, “these just say Massachusetts”.
I had him type the report.  (So I could read it)  Handwriting is NOT his best subject.  And now that we have his multiplication and division down.  Handwriting is what we are working heavily on.  
He found out that he had to come up with more info when typing.  -- A fact he didn’t like too much. 
All in all, I am proud of him for finishing this project – and on time!

Our plans for this week…

We are going to have an easy school week this week…  What with Thanksgiving and all, I thought he could have that day off from school work. :)
BUT.. before that we are still learning much.  Yesterday we watched the movie   Squanto: A Warrior’s Tale  from Netflix.

It was a great movie.  Though now  there are some facts we have to look up.  <smile> 
We will also be taking a virtual trip BACK to the first THANKSGIVING.  You can do it too here.
For MATH  -  plenty of division practice especially.
For LANGUAGE ARTS – he will be writing to his pen pals for thanksgiving…  Other than that no LA – he is already way ahead in this subject. 
For SPELLING – We will be reviewing the Spelling Rules.  No new words this week, just the rules. 
For READING – The Story “No More Molasses Cookie”  from his Christian Light Reading Book.  This is in addition to the other books he must read.  Over the last few months Noah has become quite the reader… his current BOOKS he is reading…
  
Thimble Summer is the only one that is “for school”.  Elijah of Buxton is his current reading for while he is in bed before sleeping.  And Shadow Wolf is during the day, because he loves wolves!  He was so excited when I bought the first book in this series for him. 
For WRITING – He will have a 10- minute writing plunge.  He usually does this twice a week.  He gets a list of four different topics or sentences he must finish, and just writes for ten minutes.  Nothing matters but getting thoughts on paper during this activity.  Not Spelling.  Not Punctuation.  Or Grammar.   Surprisingly, he really likes this – I think because I am not grading his mistakes. 
AND of coarse, SPANISH AND LATIN  - Of the two he currently likes Latin better than Spanish. 
ART  - We will get caught up and finish our study on Jackson Pollack.  I, personally,  didn’t like this one, because (no offense to any Jackson Pollack fans) some of  his paintings look like he just splattered paint on a canvas everywhere making a huge mess.  Noah, however, had the idea that maybe he could try that and make some money selling his “art”. 

That will pretty much sum up our short week…  Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Big Ambitions…

So, we are going to try writing a novel.    In a month.  
Noah often says that he would like to write a novel.  He says he would like to do a lot of things.  When I read about this opportunity, I had to let him try.  So beginning November 1, 2011  Noah will begin writing a novel.  For this particualr program.  He already has some parts of a story he's working on typed out on his Ipod Touch.  I tell him now, to beginning to get all those thoughts rolling around in his brain into order! 
We are going to use this as our guideline:  NANOWRIMO: Young Writers.  And National Writing Month is November 1-30th!
This may be ambitious on my part, but I set his word count number to 18,000 words. 


I will keep the updates coming. 

A Visit to a Rock Quarry

This was a neat field trip, I’ll admit.  It was fascinating to see all the layers of rock in the earth, and they are still drilling – with plenty more for many years to come.

This past weekend we went to Vermont to a Rock Quarry Open House they had in Middlebury. 

Noah is very interested in rocks of all kinds.  He loved this place!  They had a scavenger hunt for kids to do, all kinds of different rock displays, and even microscopes set up so you could see what the rocks looked like. 
…And Noah’s favorite part
….pounding rocks. 

His least favorite parts, (which I found out later)
… the scavenger hunt.  They were given a paper with questions listed on it, and they had to go find the answer.
He, apparently would rather just break up rocks.  We stayed there quite a while.


We went with his cousin and my sister.  There were many kids there, so Noah and his cousin shared the hammer back and forth.

Noah is showing me his hands, cause they were sore after he carried half the quarry out with him.  I told him that if he wanted them, he had to carry them.  It’s a wonder the bag held!  

…not overly enthusiastic to be leaving the quarry. 
The thing that impressed Noah the most??   They use rock (calcium) in toothpaste.