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. 

Noah’s 2012-2013 schoolbooks

We will be starting school for this year on August 27th.  Yes, later than usual, because I have jury duty.  (Which makes Noah really excited that he can wait an extra week.)  However, he has been warned that this year he has PLENTY of work to do.  (He is not too happy about that)  But, I know he will do fine.  We are also trying something new to us, and he get his whole week’s work at one time, and can CHOOSE when he wants to do it.  It has to be done by the due date , and properly!  I, obviously, will still teach him the new stuff, I just won’t be hounding him each day to finish his work.  All in the continuing process of raising a child to be independent. 
So here it is our curriculum for Noah’s fifth grade year…. 
MATH ~ I have decided to change what we have been doing (Christian Light).  While I loved it while we were doing it, he was beginning to be bored with this program, and I can’t have that!  So, we are doing BJU Press Math 6.  Yes, I know he is doing “sixth grade”, but he is ready.
GRAMMAR ~ I am changing this subject too, for the same reasons as Math.  He would breeze through the Christian Light books and I would never have to explain anything.  Again, one of the reasons I homeschool him  is so that he is challenged, so BJU Press English 5 it is. 
SPELLING ~  We are continuing on with Spell to Write and Read.  We started this last year, and it works great. 
VOCABULARY ~ During this year homeschool conference, I sat in a workshop by Judith Darling.  She recommended Vocabulary Workshop by Sadlier-Oxford, so we are giving that a try.   
HISTORY ~  Continuing with Tapestry of Grace we are going through Year 1.  This will cover the Ancient world from Creation to the fall of Rome. 
SCIENCE ~ I am taking a big chance in Science this year, and jumping him up to what most consider science for 7-8th grade.  I believe he will handle it well.  In keeping with MY (and his) for him to graduate early, he needs to begin this year by doing this book.  He LOVES Apologia science so I forsee no problem.  It is his favorite subject.  We are doing Exploring Creation through General Science.
CREATIVE WRITING ~ One page creative writing due at the end of each week.  In addition to the Jump In writing book.
GEOGRAPHY ~ I have searched and searched for a geography program I liked.  I found it this year at the homeschool conference.  I was not surprised when I turned the book over to find out who published ~ Apologia.   It is called Around the World in 180 days.
LATIN ~ Continuing on same as last year, we are sticking with Visual Latin.  Absolutely Awesome. We just download the lesson onto the ipod and away he learns.  Check out the site, you can see a whole lesson!
SPANISH ~ Rosetta Stone.  What can I say we have been doing this for 21/2 years now. Hopefully, he will finish this year.  But, he likes Latin better than Spanish. 
ART ~ We are going to try and have him work on pastel drawing this year, through the info we get from this blog.  Hodgepodge.  They have awesome ideas.
GYM ~  Mostly we are going to work on Nutrition, Endurance, and swimming. 
BIBLE ~ He is going to have a verse (or few) a week to memorize.  Because memorizing is good for the brain, memorizing the Bible is perfect. 
TYPING ~  Mavis Beacon, and some other technology stuff. 
READING ~  I will post a list of the books I have him reading this year later.  The first book will be Captains Courageous. 
After Christmas, Noah will be doing basic electronics, and making an oscilloscope.  Honestly, I don’t even know what that is, but the course teacher will help him!  He will be taking this course through this company, Applied Inspirations.

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.

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. 

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. 

Science Experiment - Blubber

Noah has been learning about whales and pinnipeds (seals, and sea lions).  So, yesterday, it was time for an experiment.  This always makes Noah’s day….experiment time! 
He was to “test” whether the blubber on the whales gave them much protection in the icy waters. 
We got out our ingredients… petroleum jelly, gloves, and ice water.  


He stuck two gloves on each hand, adding 1-2 inches of petroleum jelly to the other hand. 
Hint: when testing make sure you don’t stick your wrist in also – that isn’t covered.  :)  We had to test twice.  You know, just to make sure he couldn’t hold his hand in the water longer. 

Get a stopwatch, and time how long he can hold his hand in the ice water.  Test each hand separately.

He got a big kick out of his “blubber” hand. 

Final step: write down the observations in the Science Speculation Sheet. 
This is the book we are doing right now for science.   I love it!

From Apologia Science

Our Curriculum for 2011-2012

Ok.. so I am a planner... or I try to be. 

    So.. I FINALLY (to me) have our next years curriculum all set.   And I discovered something about myself  :)  I like curriculum that is multi-grade level...   I don't know if it has a specific name or not, but...you know...  those subjects that are not just "for 4th grade", but more like Tapestry of Grace, for instance.  Which brings us to our first one. 

HISTORY
We will once again do Tapestry of Grace for History,  I will get  some geography, and his missions, with a little of writing (see all-inclusive?) 

I LOVE Tapestry of Grace, we started with Year 3 - mostly just because that's the part of history I was interested in, and being a new program, I wanted an idea of what I was doing. 
There are different levels depending on the acedemic level of the child, for instance  Lower Grammar, Upper Grammer, Dialectic, and Rhetoric.   I, in all honesty, did a blend of some of these, based on what I wanted to do, and what he was especially interested in.
                                    Story:  We got to the part of slavery, and the Underground Railroad.  Now, I      KNOW Noah can be sensitive at times, but I had him watch about slavery on YouTube. I shouldn't have  Though, I was busy elsewhere,  after he was finished I came in and asked him what he learned and all.  He was so distraught, he DID NOT want to talk about it. I felt so bad.  So, needless to say, that was about all the slavery subject we did.  We will learned more when we come around to that part of history again -- in four years! 

There are field trip suggestions, links to the internet, project suggestions, and church history.  I currently don't go over the church history part, but we do read the missionary books given as suggestion!
Oh... and I don't really buy the books listed, unless I absolutely think I will need it, we have a great library system, and that works just fine. 


Click the image to learn more





MATH -

Again, we will stick with Christian Light.  I think it's great.  Just the right amount of work, and review for NOAH.  Not to much.   Not to little.  Though sometimes for incentives sake, I do allow him to work every other problem. 

...otherwise we would be on math FOREVER. This is just one of those things I don't get.  If he is calculating something in real life {read:  his money}  he does it quickly and correctly every time.  But, the minute that paper comes out, and he has to write them down....well..I think you know what I mean. 

Language Arts -

This will also be from Christian Light Publications.  We don't do the Penmandship part, or the Spelling.  I just use other curriculum for that. 

Spelling -

Spelling this year to say the least was a disaster.  He just doesn't get it. His week to week test look great, because he can memorize really well.  However, when it comes to the standarized test he gets a low spelling grade.   So... for next year I am going to try Spell to Write and Read.  From what I have read, it might be the key to what we need.  Hopefully.  Again, this one is an "all the way to 12th grade curriculum"  I like that, we can just start where we need to start and work our way from there. 

Vocabulary -

This is the first year I am going with a separate vocabualary program.  I have read some articles that said one of the most important things to know in the SAT's is vocab.  So.  I know, college?  But I told you I was a planner.  Besides, he likes vocabulary and words.  He seriously has his dictionary by his seat in the car, just to randomly read it.  Which can lead to some pretty funny conversations.  Trust me.  This is the book we are using... 

Reading -

Last year, we did reading with Christian Light, and it was very good.  But, this year I think we are going to try some more of the books listed in the Tapestry of Grace program.  I will just be buying a separate Reading Comprehension book, though he has no problem with comprehension.  We also have a book report book from Lakeshore Learning, he will fill in after he has read a book. (time limits imposed, of course!)

Geography -

I am going to be using some of the MANY resources that are on the internet, and we   he is going to make a Geography Notebook. 

Other Stuff We Do

Rosetta Stone Spanish 

Latin   - Visual Latin

He will be writing his own blog (his idea), to give him more writing skills (my idea)

For Handwriting we will do A Reason For Handwriting

Art -- Artistic Pursuits

So... that about covers our curriculum for next year....  It's going to be a great year!

Science Challenge

I found a new science blog that looks great!  She is having a science challenge.  And we are going to try.  Or rather Noah is.   

It is going to be the perfect week for it -- since apparently it plans on raining a few times this week...

Anyway, go check out her blog if your curious, and found out about her challenge...  hurry it is only running until the end of April. 

Our Version of a Science Fair Project

Before we left for the homeschool conference, I wanted to make sure Noah had all "major" projects done.  One of those was our version of the science fair.  I wanted to teach him what was involved in research and putting together a project.  This was a slow process, and we did a whole lot of it TOGETHER. 

He came up with the idea all by himself -- only after spending a good portion of an ENTIRE day  going over Steve Spangler Science videos in Youtube. 

 ** Hey, he was learning, right? 

He was required to write out the whys, and wheres and what fors. 

I think he did pretty good for the first time. 

The items needed for "Milk Magic"






Noah doing his experiment. 



Robot Museum!

Noah is very much into robots... He talks about them all the time.  He wants to make them, he wants them to do jobs for him.  He is constantly telling me about ideas he has for what his robots will do one day.  So, when I came across a pamphlet showing an opportunity to go to a Robot exhibit at a museum near us-- we just had to go. 

He loved this part!  Showing others "blueprints" -- Noah has drawn notebooks worth of blueprints of different robots.

Using the mechanical arm -- this was harder than one might think!

All in all, a successful field trip, where he learned cause and effect, what it takes to build robots, and a historical timelime of robots, to name a few.