Curriculum 2013-2014, Holly

I have finally wrapped up planning and began prepping for our 2013-2014 school year, third grade and preschool. Along with that I have decided to ramp up blogging once again to share our journey. I enjoy hosting it, some family and friends enjoy reading it and I especially love having a small history of our days with photos that I can easily pull to print for years end.

We have Holly's year all planned out now. I am still working on Hudson's school year however we have determined this will be his last preschool year, next school year he will start kindergarten as all of those benchmarks have easily been met now, so we will refine them this school year, mature a bit and move forward next. It is earlier than we had originally thought, but he is ready. Now to adjust that college financial plan, ha!!

Here is a rundown of Holly's school year:

Reading: Selection of works and a book study with Latin Road/Phonics binder 2

Writing: Bravewriter/Partnership Writing, poetry binder and ZanerBloser Cursive

Spelling: Latin Road/Phonics binder 2

Language: Latin Road/Phonic binder 2, pre-latin 

Math: Horizons, online games/practice

Science: finishing up geology through fall, RS4K Astronomy, Nature Club and Nature Studies, fun projects intertwined, (still determining full path beyond this, next curriculum)

Social Studies: Expedition Earth second half (world study) and World Religions (Usborne)

History: History Odyssey Ancients (modified)

Health: ‘Be Fit, Be Strong, Be You’, body study, swimming, group games with our homeschool group

Occupational Education: continue weekly cooking, field trips to various businesses, sewing, learn about professions in science, inventors/inventions

Art and Music Appreciation: Atellier, Usborne and self created. Artist study. Tacoma Youth Chorus, begin intro to piano and attend arts performances.

Special Units: Geology, Gallapagos Islands & Darwin, Food Chains, Coral Reefs

Activities: Camp Fire (4th year), Swimming (working on level 9 of 10 - if completed move to a swim team), Tacoma Youth Chorus (2nd year)

Inspired Art

We have been looking at various artists from children's books this past few weeks. This week we enjoyed some time with Eric Carl, Leo Leoni and Lois Ehlert. While they are different, they are pretty similar. It was great to pull out books and really take a look and compare the styles, uses of materials and design.

To finish up we read The Tiny Seed (which also ties into some planting we have recently done) and the kids both created flowers. Hudson's was modified as he isn't cutting in round form yet, so he created a rather square flower but a flower none the less. Their art is colorful, full of texture, creative and perfect to have up this time of year! Holly even created a another small project where she made a hummingbird. So pretty!!

Tissue Paper Garden

A beautiful spring art project Holly created a week or two ago has been a wonderful addition to our art wall. This project was so much fun and produced such great results that she wants to create a much larger version that will include more nature to put in her bedroom as art. This child loves art!

The project was simple and with easy, around the house supplies. We took a piece of thick cardboard and she painted it a light yellow and then watering down a white Elmers glue and using a paint brush she decoupaged a whole sheet of lime green tissue paper over the whole board, this was her canvas to work on. The cardboard was not a lighter color surface to create on, however if you have a white canvas or white cardboard I do believe the tissue colors would be a lot more vibrant.

Next Holly used an array of tissue colors I keep on hand for art to cut out grass shapes, leaves and various styles of flowers. She then layered her grasses (in different greens) and added a few leaves. When you add a piece of tissue you use a paint brush and paint a light layer of watered glue and place the tissue, then paint over the tissue gently with another light layer of watered glue, ensuring it is fully covered in glue. After she had her greenery completed she then added her different styles of flowers repeating the same process with gluing, tissue, gluing. Careful with the glue as if that hand is not gentle or rushed you can smudge the tissue up or break it, creating frustration. Once the final design is completed she used a larger brush and painted one more layer of watered glue over the entire artwork. Allow to dry and display.

State Capitol Tour

This week we joined in on a field trip to our state capitol. The tour was geared beautifully to the children's ages, not too overwhelming yet interesting. They were invited throughout the facility, asked many questions, learned about the history of our capitol building as well as a brief introduction to our government. A really nice balance.

Zoo Fun!

Maintaining a zoo membership is a lovely thing in conjunction with homeschooling! We recently attended with a few homeschool friends, it was a beautiful sunny day - making for many hours of fun, exploring, playing and animal observation. A wonderful day!!

Rain Forest Lapbook - 2nd Grade

I let Holly choose a couple of subjects to do special projects on each year. And, for this school year she chose Rain Forests and Coral Reefs. We wrapped up the rain forest unit a couple weeks back - it was a lot of fun! I created the objectives I had in mind for her unit and then planned around them with tons of books, documentaries, art work, games, online resources, mural, and a lapbook.

Holly chose all the elements she put in her lapbook. We did not include every little project or study in it as there is just no way we could do that and keep the sanity and fun in lapbooking. She did include some pretty key elements though, so that is good. She kept lists of animals, plants, fish, reptiles, amphibians, insects and foods from the rain forest that we learned about and researched. She also included a couple of art projects and drawings, maps, work packs, vocabulary review, layers of forests, comparisons between tropical and temperate, locations of forests, small projects and more! She had a great time designing her lapbook as she went along. It is all her work, a representation of how she enjoys being creative and a wonderful end product that stores easily.

Making Chocolate

For part of Holly's rainforest unit she learned about various products we consume from there. We looked at different foods, spices and medicines we all use. However one particular item was the most popular... chocolate! What seven year old wouldn't find chocolate to be the most exciting.

We started with a tasting of dark and milk chocolate to see if she preferred one over the other. Holly enjoyed both but preferred the milk chocolate. With that we used a kit I had ordered to make chocolate. She used a cocoa powder, sugar and cocoa butter to make the chocolate over the stove top, then had to temp it and make the little chocolates with treats in them (peanut butter, nuts, cranberry and marshmallows. They turned out fantastic!

The kit also included a few real cacao beans for her to explore - she rubbed them in her hands, smelled them, tasted them, cut them open and sampled it a bit more. She didn't like them at all - 'too bitter' for her. A good experience!