Writing... Science... Egypt... Oh My!!!
WRITING
Seth was asked by his teacher to turn in a sample of his writing. The subject was what he did over the summer. Even though it wasn't over the summer Seth decided to write about Yellowstone. He dictated to me what he wanted to write and then he used my copy to write it for himself. He did a great job. I haven't heard anything from his teacher about it yet, but I think she will be pleased too. I took pictures of the work, but I'm not sure if you'll be able read it or not. After the pictures I'll type up what is written.
(On my trip to Yellowstone I saw lots of animals. My favorite geyser was Old Faithful. I went to the Grand Prismatic Hot Spring. I did the Young Scientist program. I got to use a laser thermometer. Yellowstone was rockin' awesome.)
SCIENCE
In Science class Seth has been learning all about Matter and its different states. James has taken over teaching science which Seth loves! He is always excited on Science days to have James come home for lunch or after dinner and the two of them go down and have an hour or so just to themselves. They've talked about liquids, solids, gases and molecules. They've done experiments where they've frozen things, thawed things, and boiled things. Seth built models of molecules using marshmallows to show how molecules look when they are in a solid, liquid or gas state.
EGYPT
In History we have been learning all about the Ancient Egyptians. It has been a great set of lessons for us. We have been reading every age appropriate book on the subject that we can find. I've been showing Seth pictures of the trip James and I took in 2002, when James' parents lived there. Today we learned about the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt by King Narmer. When the unification was complete Narmer combined the two crowns of Egypt. The course material had us cut out the shapes of the two crowns and paste them together, but we took it a step further and actually made a crown that Seth could wear. I used craft foam I had left over from Halloween last year and ta-da:
We had so much fun in our lesson today, we decided to push on to the next lesson which was all about hieroglyphics. We learned about papyrus and Seth was actually able to look at and touch some real papyrus we brought home from Egypt. Seth was also able to spell his name in hieroglyphics and then he did Jacob's name too. I printed out some cartouches and we wrote his name again in royal style! He liked it so much he even did some of his Phonics lesson in hieroglyphics (he spelled "pull" in hieroglyphs). So, here he is... Seth: the Pharaoh of the United Kingdoms of Ancient Egypt!
Isn't he cute!?!
PROGRESS
Seth continues to make good progress in math and his reading skills have improved astronomically. I think he is finally starting to enjoy reading a little more, which is great! I have realized as we have been in school a little over a month now, how much my attitude affects the way Seth feels about things. I'm not much of a math person and I think he can tell. Also there are days when I get frustrated and my patience is too thin and on those days it is hard for either of us to learn. I am trying to get better at being more positive and patience.
Jacob and Lia are cooperating fairly well with our school schedule. Lia still takes two good naps during school time, and when she is awake she will hang out downstairs, getting into whatever she possibly can, but mostly being good. Jacob participates in some of the lessons with us and I have also started him on making his very own alphabet book and teaching him some very beginning phonics. He has been extremely clingy lately and I am wondering if it is because of how much time I need to spend with Seth for school. James and I are working on trying to spend an hour or so exclusively with Jacob every night so that he doesn't feel too left out. Jacob is also enjoying his neighborhood preschool and spending every Wednesday with his cousin Caleb.
All in all, we are still loving our School at Home and are extremely happy with the results so far!
Seth was asked by his teacher to turn in a sample of his writing. The subject was what he did over the summer. Even though it wasn't over the summer Seth decided to write about Yellowstone. He dictated to me what he wanted to write and then he used my copy to write it for himself. He did a great job. I haven't heard anything from his teacher about it yet, but I think she will be pleased too. I took pictures of the work, but I'm not sure if you'll be able read it or not. After the pictures I'll type up what is written.
(On my trip to Yellowstone I saw lots of animals. My favorite geyser was Old Faithful. I went to the Grand Prismatic Hot Spring. I did the Young Scientist program. I got to use a laser thermometer. Yellowstone was rockin' awesome.)
SCIENCE
In Science class Seth has been learning all about Matter and its different states. James has taken over teaching science which Seth loves! He is always excited on Science days to have James come home for lunch or after dinner and the two of them go down and have an hour or so just to themselves. They've talked about liquids, solids, gases and molecules. They've done experiments where they've frozen things, thawed things, and boiled things. Seth built models of molecules using marshmallows to show how molecules look when they are in a solid, liquid or gas state.
EGYPT
In History we have been learning all about the Ancient Egyptians. It has been a great set of lessons for us. We have been reading every age appropriate book on the subject that we can find. I've been showing Seth pictures of the trip James and I took in 2002, when James' parents lived there. Today we learned about the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt by King Narmer. When the unification was complete Narmer combined the two crowns of Egypt. The course material had us cut out the shapes of the two crowns and paste them together, but we took it a step further and actually made a crown that Seth could wear. I used craft foam I had left over from Halloween last year and ta-da:
We had so much fun in our lesson today, we decided to push on to the next lesson which was all about hieroglyphics. We learned about papyrus and Seth was actually able to look at and touch some real papyrus we brought home from Egypt. Seth was also able to spell his name in hieroglyphics and then he did Jacob's name too. I printed out some cartouches and we wrote his name again in royal style! He liked it so much he even did some of his Phonics lesson in hieroglyphics (he spelled "pull" in hieroglyphs). So, here he is... Seth: the Pharaoh of the United Kingdoms of Ancient Egypt!
Isn't he cute!?!
PROGRESS
Seth continues to make good progress in math and his reading skills have improved astronomically. I think he is finally starting to enjoy reading a little more, which is great! I have realized as we have been in school a little over a month now, how much my attitude affects the way Seth feels about things. I'm not much of a math person and I think he can tell. Also there are days when I get frustrated and my patience is too thin and on those days it is hard for either of us to learn. I am trying to get better at being more positive and patience.
Jacob and Lia are cooperating fairly well with our school schedule. Lia still takes two good naps during school time, and when she is awake she will hang out downstairs, getting into whatever she possibly can, but mostly being good. Jacob participates in some of the lessons with us and I have also started him on making his very own alphabet book and teaching him some very beginning phonics. He has been extremely clingy lately and I am wondering if it is because of how much time I need to spend with Seth for school. James and I are working on trying to spend an hour or so exclusively with Jacob every night so that he doesn't feel too left out. Jacob is also enjoying his neighborhood preschool and spending every Wednesday with his cousin Caleb.
All in all, we are still loving our School at Home and are extremely happy with the results so far!
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Writing... Science... Egypt... Oh My!!!.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.thelances.net/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/220
Leave a comment