We have a very unusual schedule. We typically do school for 5 weeks and then take a week off of course during the holiday season it gets a bit tricky. Well, for those of you who follow my blog closely, you probably noticed that I did not have a week 6 update last week. Yup, you guessed it, we were on our week off. But we are back this week. So now we have 6 weeks under our belt. This week was a very amusing week and we, I mean I Learned a lot.
First we started our week off learning about William Penn. OK, now don't laugh, but I really had no idea who he was. I mean, I knew about Pennsylvania, but I had no idea how good of a man he really was, or that he was a Quaker/Friend. And I certainly did not know how much he did for the Indians with the very first Treaty! Well, the kids really enjoyed learning about William Penn and they had even more fun do the jumping History activity. My son of course did really well, but mainly because he is 3 years old and a whole head taller then my daughter. But she did not get too discourage. They really enjoyed that and kept jumping even after the activity.
On Monday we were able to finish our art work in our art class. I have to say I am very impressed with my daughter. She is really giving this art class a run for its money. The curriculum we are using is really geared toward 6th, 7th graders. I knew my son would do very well with it…he the up and coming artist. But my daughter is doing fantastic. The project was to draw either a King, Queen or Jack of whatever you want. My son chose to draw a King of Rockets and my daughter drew the Queen of Butterflies. Just take a look at the pictures below and how cute they turned out.
Hmmm, green pine cones rubbed on the face for wrinkles. Come on ladies lets go get some NOW!!! LOL. Yea, the kids enjoyed giggling at some of the silly remedies that people use to do as Folk Remedies. However the Willow Bark my daughter found interesting. We giggled about how I need to go plant a willow tree in the yard and lick the bark daily for my daily headaches and migraines. LOL! Loved both the kids drawings for the Folk Remedies.
But that lead quit nicely into the immune system. HOD had us cut up some circle for each of the different type of cells. I decided to explain the immune system in a different way then HOD explained. I wanted to make it a bit more real for them.
This is what I said. The Virus is like the bad guy trying to steal your health by setting off a bomb in your body. The T-Cells are the police which are there to maintain control of the situation and keep the virus contained. The B-Cells are the SWAT team who then send in their most well train bomb squad the Antibodies and lastly is the K-Cell come in as the clean up crew. OK, so the kids really understood it so well that they actually each day asked if they could play the game again and again. I caught it on video for you all to watch below.
Lastly we learned about I think one of the very first American Artists, Benjamin West. I liked the little project we did with the paint box circles. Although my daughter complained a bit about all the copy work involved in that, but she did it and it turned out well. And of course we filled out Timeline with William Penn and Benjamin West.
Oh, I have to mention here that we are reading Seabiscuit right now and we are totally enjoying that book. Now I have to say that my husband usually does not involve himself with our school work (he has to work of course) unless he happens to be in the room at the moment or I need help explaining something.
On Wednesday, my husband sat in on our reading of Seabiscuit. He was enjoying it so much he kept making me read more and more until he got the answer as to whether Seabiscuit won the race or not. It was so much reading we got 3 days done in that time with Dad and even the kids really enjoyed all of that reading! I think it was the first time he really understood how the kids really enjoy the Charlotte Mason way of learning.
Anyway, all in all, it was another prosperous week. It was (I feel like) a light week for HOD, but we still learned a ton.
We are currently on day 4 of week 6…I've really enjoyed reading your wrap-up of the unit :).
Oh so glad you are enjoying my posts. I have so many good things to say about HOD. It really is a great program. If you have a blog, post it here so others can go look too.
We are starting Week 6 (we do Classical Conversations and then a four-day week with HOD). Love your ideas!