dragonsandme

A Geography Project

2013-04-08T10:23:00.001-04:00

There are certain things I require Noah to do every year for school. A research project, and a geography presentation are just two of them. I always get excited when these things are due, because it means the school year is almost finished!

Last Wednesday, his geography project was due. When asked was country he was going to do his project on? Australia! He loves that country. He learned quite a few lessons – cutting neatly with a cutter, making ones project visually appealing, and doing proper research are a few of those things. Oh, and doing your work by the due date. This is a very important one! He finished his project on time –even if it took the whole day! We are still working on spreading the work out so it doesn’t seem like such a big project.

Notable Noah~ Braces

2012-12-06T09:06:00.001-05:00

The time has come for Noah to get braces. He is not too happy about it. That is why I had to wait almost two weeks to get this picture!
I think the only thing he likes about it is the fact that he can change the colors on the braces every month when he goes to get them checked. We had our second visit yesterday, so guess what colors he chose? Christmas colors… He told me he had to “festify” his teeth. Aside from the fact that he now bites his cheek A LOT when eating, he is getting used to the idea that he has braces.
The first night he had them on, he told me he wished he could take them off at night when he was sleeping, you know, like he can take his glasses off.
See those headphones? Yeah, he wears them all the time now. In order for Noah to calm down (especially when they put the braces on) I had him listen to a book on his ipod. And…once he starts listening to a book he listens until it is finished.

Mummies

2012-11-12T19:37:00.001-05:00

In the past few weeks we have studied Egypt. It has been a lot of fun, in fact I have learned quite a lot of things myself. Mostly about the Egyptian gods.
It is not uncommon to hear this while Noah is reading…”That is interesting!”, or “That is just so fascinating!” He makes me smile with his many interests.
We tried something that I don’t think worked out quite like I intended, but Noah had a great time doing it. He wanted me to make him a mummy – minus the pulling out the guts and brain and stuff. (his words)

We used a roll of paper we hand on hand. I just wrapped him up in it.
Amongst the many books we read on the subject, we also watched this youtube video on mummification.

Noah got a real kick out of this mummification song.

Let the Science Experiments begin ~ Density

2012-09-04T19:20:00.001-04:00

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.

Sturbridge Village

2012-08-28T16:20:00.000-04:00

We decided to visit Old Sturbridge Village, for our first field trip of the year. It was busier than the previous times we had visited, but it was a free day. It wasn't overwhelming, like I thought it would be, but it was hot!

Noah found out that the seats in the schoolrooms in the 1800's were not comfortable!

Not overly happy, that I asked him to pause talking for a second while I took this picture. He was telling me about drying herbs he saw in the house behind him, and wanted me to go see! He knows I like to dry herbs too!

Carding wool

Resting in the shade on a "rock chair" he was excited to discover!

Reading List for Fifth Grade

2012-08-18T09:03:00.001-04:00

This is the reading list we are starting with. The PLAN is for him to read one book (at least) every two weeks, or less. We are starting with Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling. Noah will read this on my Kindle Fire.
So here it is …
Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Hans Brinker by Mary Mapes Dodge
The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S Lewis (the whole series)
Holes by Louis Sachar
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman
Because of Winn- Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

Noah’s 2012-2013 schoolbooks

2012-08-12T23:04:00.001-04:00

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.

Vacations and birthdays

2012-05-21T19:00:00.001-04:00

In the last couple weeks we have been on vacation, been to interesting attractions, and had a couple of birthdays.

Here are the pictures (some of them anyway)

First of all, while in Ohio, I took Noah over to the Wolf Park in Indianapolis. It was a beautiful day. We went specifically for a wolves birthday party! It was very cool! The look on Noah’s face was priceless! He says he likes wolves even better than before. If that is even possible.

Now for Peter’s birthday, we went to Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament.

Noah waving his banner for his knight!

Raising his cup for honor…

Peter and Noah at Medieval Times.

This is Noah, on his 10th birthday. Playing his new skylander.

He wanted a picture of what this guy could do. :)

Heading out to his game.

He is once again playing baseball. He was not happy that he had to play on his birthday. He kind of lost some enthusiam for the game when he had a odd accident in which he hit the ball into his face, while up at bat.

Titanic

2012-03-26T17:04:00.002-04:00

This coming April 15th, is the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. We are going to do a unit study on the the Titanic. One because it’s history, and Noah likes history, and he likes learning about the Titanic.
There are so many things to study and learn about the Titanic that even you will be learning something. Which is another reason we will be doing a study on the Titanic –it interests me also. Besides, this time of year, we all start to get a bit antsy for things other than our same old/same old work.

Picture of newspaper article from 1912 – from titanticuniverse.com website

A really good website I found for a good listing of Titanic websites is Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day.
There are articles to read, even some sites with interactive stuff!
Titanicuniverse.com is also a good site.
BOOKS:
Here is a list of books on the Titanic -
Voyage on the Great Titanic by Ellen Emerson White
Remembering the Titanic by Frieda Wishinsky
I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic, 1912 by Lauren Tarshis
Titanic (DK Eyewitness book) by Simon Adams
The kid’s guide to the Titanic by Sean Price
Ghosts of the Titanic by Julie Lawson
The incredible quest to find the Titanic by Bradford Matsen
Check your local library for many more titles!
There are also History channel documentaries on the Titanic.
Netflix also has many titles on the Titanic.

A project we will be doing after we have read and watched our fill of Titanic information – Noah will write a front page newspaper article on some aspect of interest to him about the Titanic.

In Science this week

2012-03-21T20:41:00.002-04:00

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.

Notable Noah

2012-03-16T14:07:00.002-04:00

It really doesn’t need words to say that Noah now needs glasses. It really was inevitable, since just about his whole family wears them. What the doctor was surprised about what that his left eye is twice as bad as his right eye! Though, if you ask Noah about it, he will seem quite proud of this fact. He doesn’t need them all the time, only when he has distances to see.
Noah went around ALL DAY LONG exclaiming about how clear things were now. And saying, “My view with glasses off,(as he pulled them down to the tip of his nose), and now my view with glasses on.” Really though, I am glad that he likes them.

When he finds a book he likes

2012-03-01T10:46:00.002-05:00

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

2012-02-20T15:33:00.002-05:00

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

2012-01-16T16:31:00.002-05:00

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.

Notable Noah: New Experience

2012-01-05T13:02:00.002-05:00

We did something today, I have never done. Well, two things actually.
1. We went to a homeschool activity. We don’t usually do these, because they are 45 minutes to an hour away.
2. We went ice skating. Or well, Noah did. Not me. I decided to go to this hour away activity, because I wanted Noah to have some ice skating experience.
Besides, the rink manager will help the kids. Which means I don’t need to get on the ice. I thought it was a good idea for them to have cones for “helps”. So, he didn’t hang on the wall the whole time. Hopefully, as the weeks go by he will abandon the cones, though even the skilled skaters were using them – for fun I guess.

It’s time to begin again

2012-01-02T11:07:00.002-05:00

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…

2011-11-21T11:01:00.002-05:00

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!

Notable Noah – Something new

2011-11-08T14:54:00.002-05:00

We did something today we have never done. We walked down our road to the end of the street where there is a brand new Big Y Supermarket.
It was my way of doing school with Noah, but in a different way. I asked him math facts he’s having trouble with along the way. He told me stories, and idea after idea that he has…
When we got to Big Y, we got some water, and Noah says he can have science by going over to look at the lobsters. LOL ( We are studying crustaceans after all, was his logic)
We certainly got our exercise in for today, as it is 3.8 miles round trip.
Noah says it was all worth it because he got some treasures – his mother calls it junk. Which is why I am reminded all of the time, “As the saying goes, One man’s junk is another man’s treasure… well, I’m the other man” says Noah.

Noah and his ‘treasure’.

last hill before home Charging up the hill, shouting
“Let’s do this!”

It kinda blends in.. but this was my not-so-pleasant surprise…a snake, sunning himself.
Believe it or not, I didn’t even freak out. I managed to stay perfectly calm.

An unusual day

2011-11-06T16:55:00.002-05:00

Normally we don’t do school work on Friday. That day is reserved for other things. But this Friday is Veteran’s Day, so we will be doing something for that day.

There are SO many ideas all over the internet for teaching children about Veteran’s Day. So for simplicity sake, I have narrowed what we will be doing down to this:
Getting the book called H is for Honor: A Military Family Alphabet by Devin Scillian from the library. And using that with this unit. This unit study has a lot fun and fact hunt ideas, that by the time we are finished we will have a pretty good idea of what Veteran’s Day is about.

He will also be writing a thank you note to a Veteran or two!

A beautiful day!

2011-11-05T19:55:00.001-04:00

In contrast to last Saturday, today was a very nice day.

We decided to take a little walk…

He is bouncing back and forth on the bridge to make the bridge bounce up and down

He kind of blends into the shadows…

Because there is a bench…he wanted to rest awhile…

A rare picture of the two us. We took many to get this one. By the time we were finished we were laughing hysterically.

Big Ambitions…

2011-10-24T16:12:00.002-04:00

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

2011-10-20T12:16:00.002-04:00

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.

Notable Noah – Making breakfast

2011-10-06T10:10:00.002-04:00

Noah wants to learn how to cook. So, we are starting with basic things first. Pancakes, grilled cheese, etc…
Today, he wanted to make the eggs for breakfast. Which is good since we have eggs most every day. He did a great job.

He is dancing to the music.
He says, “Cooking eggs was so fun, he wants to make all the meals for the family!”

Art!

2011-10-03T10:22:00.000-04:00

I must admit teaching art is not my favorite. In fact, if I could skip it I would, but I can't so that is why I am using Erica from Confessions of a Homeschoolers Art Unit study. She is so creative.

I would have a hard time getting "the artist" lessons in without this study. So, our first artist to study was Pablo Picasso.
Here is Noah's first try at a "Picasso - like drawing" (or rather second- I made him go back and do it agian when he didn't listen carefully to the directions the first time.)

He is rather proud of it.

He calls it "Stained-glass man". If you want to know how he created this drawing then visit The Art Fairy. She gives step by step instruction. We used colored pencils, instead of regular pencils though.
Next up.....Van Gogh.

Science Experiment - Blubber

2011-09-27T09:47:00.002-04:00

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