South Korea

We spent a little over a week learning all about South Korea with our Expedition Earth curriculum as our guide. I found many books at the library, a couple of DVDs, poetry, music, artwork and more -- making for a great week!

Holly really enjoyed the video on South Korea best. She learned about female divers who dive for sea creatures to sell.... only women do this, a career they've had their entire lives. The gals they interviewed were in their 50's and 60's. Pretty cool!!! The changing face of South Korea, new technologies and world influences however are causing the new generation to not follow their families paths in careers as history had once dictated, including this one. This generation will most likely be the last to continue this tradition/career, one of many dying careers.

The weeks work included reading up on South Korea and a small discussion on North Korea (the best we could for her age), making some various art work, a fan, learning about their culture, listening to some music, animals of the region, map work and writing. Another fun week... we are now off to Japan!

Nature Club ~ McLane Creek

Last week our Nature Club met up at McLane Creek nature trail for a day of exploring and seeking out signs of fall. We spent time enjoying the trail as we moved along beaver ponds, creeks, evergreen forest, fields and deciduous forests. They had a wonderful place to head off trail a little while and explore along a creek with many fallen trees that offered great climbing. The kids had a wonderful day and Holly got in some good nature journal work!

Little Learning

This year Hudson has become a big part of our learning environment. I can no longer do simple stations of activities, he desires to be a part of what is happening at the table in general. I am working very hard to accommodate him and still keep things on his level. He is not afraid to try things, enjoys art tremendously, is very interested in letters and numbers more than ever and pours over books all day long.

With that knowledge I have decided that even though he is only 2 1/2 we will move forward with more letters and numbers. He can identify all letters in upper and lower case but lately wants to know what 'they say', his words.This means he is ready for phonics, basic but phonics none the less. So, we are beginning some small projects to work on the order of letters, review them in different fonts and now sounds... which he LOVES!!!

Aside from this we are mastering counting to 10 and number recognition. Many little games or transfer work to master this. Beading, pattern work, memory games and one to one counting -- all through ten only. As well, he is enjoy an abundance of art and scissor work in which he is getting pretty good at. I still put out some activity stations for him each day and work with him side by side and we read many, many books a day.

There is a LOT of learning happening during our schooling hours for Hudson and I can tell he loves it!

Here he is working on sorting his lowercase letters and gluing them into a Letter Book. He then read the whole book and told you all about how his project. Hudson adored having a final product to share with Daddy and has it tucked away in his books now.

Science With Dad

This year in addition to our nature studies, Nature Club, slowly working through our Basic Fundamentals of Scientific Understanding, general seasonal work and experiments we have added a science curriculum called Real Science 4 Kids in the subjects of physics, chemistry and astronomy. Holly is a science minded child, she loves to learn about it, reads up on it all the time and asks a lot of questions. So, yes -- we have a heavy focus on science with her schooling but that is the joy of homeschooling, we can embrace her interests and provide more studies to keep her moving forward with them.

Bryan picked out the program we ended up adding in this year and with that decided he would like to be the instructor for her with it. Bonus for me!! Really though, what a treat for Holly! A couple evenings a week they are working through each unit (right now they are doing physics). He ensures she does a lot of experiments, really grasps the concepts, encourages her questions and thoughts -- he does an amazing job to put it mildly. They are both enjoying working through the materials together.

Last night they were doing a review session and I have to say I was stunned at what Holly has already picked up in just the three to four weeks they have been doing this. Apparently this program is working beautifully for her, she gets it, is into it and cannot wait until it is science night. What a treat!!

Working on some lab book work and an experiment.

Nature Club ~ Seeds

Our Nature Club met up a few days back and enjoyed a fun day of learning about seeds and how they transport and seed. The kids learned about several different ways the seeds can be moved about from a presentation done by a fellow student (third grade)... he did a fantastic job!! After his presentation the kids all suited up with big fuzzy socks on the outsides of their shoes and took off for some wonderful field play and exploration.

Exploring the field was amazing! We rarely get a chance to explore an open field that has not been manicured, is mowed down or off limits - so this was a real treat! The trees in the field were wonderful for climbing as well. We found some berry patches on the outskirts of the fields along with many trails carved through. Best of all... we found SEEDS!!! Many, many seeds came back on the fuzzy socks.

After all the kids had returned we invited the kids to break out their magnifying glasses and loupes to do some observations on the socks and journal their findings. Some unique seeds were discovered along with many little burs. To finish up the kids planted their seed covered socks in pots and will now observe them to see what might grow. This was a great activity that offered a longer observation process to follow, perfect for patience with nature.

It was a very fun day!!

China

This year Holly is doing a year long look at countries throughout the world with Expedition Earth as our guide. We will augment with projects, books and materials as I see fit.

She just completed the first country on this world tour, China. We enjoyed a couple of weeks with China as materials available are amazing and plentiful. Fortunately we had some friends and family share some little artifacts and ephemera from China as well. Holly and I enjoyed the series on Netflix called Wild China, she read many books on China as well as story books from various China tales and folk lore. This along with some wonderful little crafts, projects, map work, a look at animals in China and amazing food -- made for a fantastic unit!

Holly's favorite part of this unit was the food... she adores Chinese food (Americanized of course). We had originally planned to find a nice restaurant to visit but she eventually asked if we could make her favorite meal at home together so that she would know how to again. Great idea!

She made chicken egg rolls, orange chicken (what she was really after) and rice. We also had bbq pork from the store. She made ALL of the food with my guiding her and adding food to any hot grease or ovens. The meal turned out perfect and was delicious!!! We will be making it again sometime soon I am sure.