Exploring and Letterboxing at the Botanic Garden

Today was the perfect day to spend at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden--a nice, cool day after several days in the high 90's (I think we even hit 100* once).  We enjoyed a picnic lunch by a pond with a healthy turtle population, and the boys shared quite a bit of bread from their sandwiches.

Red-eared slider

We also did some nature study, checking out different plants and collecting leaves and other plant specimens for our plant unit.

checking out honeysuckle (again)

Nature study!  He's drawing a swamp rose.

Brennan drawing the fountain

Aaron got some really good pictures:

 There are a bunch of letterboxes hidden in the garden, and after lunch, we had a great time tracking some of them down--I think we ended up finding seven.

Great family time--what a wonderful way to spend the afternoon!  Oh, and Aaron got a kick out of a bumper sticker we saw on a van parked not too far from us:

*grin*

Science: Learning about Plants, lessons 1 and 2

After learning all kinds of cool things about various animals, we're (finally!) moving on to plants!  I've been having fun putting together my own unit, and we're planning to do lots of hands-on experiments and projects.  I'm going to try to devote at least one blog post each week to what we're doing.  We've also planted a square foot garden that will (hopefully!) nicely complement what we're learning. 

The main spine we're using for our plant study is What Is a Plant? by Bobbie Kalman. 

 It's pretty thorough, but it's not over their heads.  Here's the basic rundown of the lessons:

1: What is a plant?

2: Parts of a plant

3: Roots

4: Stems

5.1: Leaves (overview)

5.2: Leaves--photosynthesis (more than one day)

6: Other ways of getting food (carnivorous plants)

7.1: Flowers (overview)

7.2: Parts of a flower

7.3: Pollination/fruit/seeds (more than one day)

8.1 Uses/functions of plants: supply oxygen

8.2 Uses/functions of plants: food

8.3 Uses/functions of plants: clothing, shelter, other products

9: Conclusion/wrap-up

So far, we've done lessons 1 and 2.

Lesson 1: What is a plant?

We discussed what they already knew about plants, what plants do, and named some plants.  Then we read p. 6-9 in What is a Plant? ("What are plants?" and "Not a Plant"").  Connor copied the definition of a plant that we're using (and memorizing) for his notebook: "A plant is a living thing that is green, has more than one cell, and can make its own food."

I made a cut-and-paste sorting activity, "Plant/Not a Plant."  They had to cut out each picture and glue it under the correct heading.

Lesson 2: Parts of a plant

We discussed what they already knew about the parts of a plant, and between them they came up with all of the major parts (root, stem, leaf, flower) that we're learning about.  Then we read p. 10 in What Is a Plant?, which gives an overview of roots, stems, and leaves.  We made models of flowers (inspired by this project at Homeschool Creations), and because we had examined some honeysuckle blossoms over the weekend during a letterboxing expedition, they insisted on adding a pistil and stamens to their models. *grin*  Connor also created bugs and worms to put on his flower.

Tying on roots

Adding leaves

Finished products!

Our other hands-on activity for this lesson was examining a real plant to see the parts.  I picked up some cheap petunias and we pulled one of them out of the soil and checked it out:

It took a little work to get the roots (mostly) free from the dirt!  We looked at and felt each part of the plant, reviewing what we'd just read about each part's function.  I put the plant on some white paper and took pictures to make a notebook page:

(I cropped it for the notebook page)

Connor's completed notebook page

We opened up one of the flowers and looked at the pistil and stamens up close (and felt the stigma at the end of the pistil to discover that it was sticky so the pollen would stick to it).  I hadn't planned to do that yet, but they really wanted to after checking out the honeysuckle the other day.

We'll be adding this to our memory work:

• Plants have roots, stems, and leaves.  Many plants also have flowers.  
• Roots grow down to anchor plants in the ground and take in water and nutrients.
• Stems grow up, hold the plant up, and transport water and food between parts of the plant.
• Leaves absorb sunlight and make food for the plant.
• Flowers produce seeds to make new plants.

We've also been collecting different leaves, seeds, and other plant specimens to bring home, examine, compare, and do leaf rubbings.  Brennan is an especially avid collector!  I'm working on an idea for displaying our finds and trying to decide if I want to mess with pressing the leaves.  We're having lots of fun so far!

Oh--and we also planted seeds in our garden (more about that in another post) and we're now seeing the first sprouts!

Our Weeks in Review . . . a quick catch-up!

Well, I've been wanting to blog but haven't been getting it done!  So I'm just going to write a catch-all, catch-up post with lots of pics and call it good. *grin*

So here's what we've been up to in the last couple of weeks . . .

Connor

Math:  He finished RightStart level B!  We've been doing a bit of review before taking the year-end test.  I don't think he'll have much trouble with it, other than a subtraction problem that seems to have come out of left field (it's waaay harder than anything we've done yet, and other than guessing/trial and error, none of the lessons have covered any ways to do more difficult problems.  I'm going to use the next couple of days to introduce some more challenging problems in hopes of encouraging him to dig at them with perseverance and figure them out (rather than get frustrated and throw a fit, which is what usually happens.  Sigh.)  We'll see!  After the test, we'll continue doing "math lite"--math games (RS's math games are really good--instead of drilling with flashcards or endless worksheets, RS uses the games to teach kids their math facts), fun worksheets/puzzles, and math games online until we get level C.  Aaron and I are going to a curriculum fair in May, and RS is one of the vendors, so I'm waiting to order until then, hoping that they'll have a good sale (or at least free shipping!).

Completing a graph showing how many pockets various friends/family had on that day

His uncle (who was in uniform) was the clear winner with 14 pockets!

History:  We've been wallowing in ancient Greece. *grin*  As you can imagine, the library has lots of books about ancient Greece, so we've read a few of those, including Greek Hero by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom and The Librarian Who Measured the Earth by Kathryn Lasky.  He's almost done with the Mycenaean helmet (the never-ending project!)--only a little gold trim left to go.  We need to finish it up so we can move on to other projects!

He was thrilled to use the computer to make a narration page about hoplites (Greek warriors).  So proud of himself!

Reading (literature): We've been reading Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliff.  It's been a bit intense, and I was a little worried about how well he'd follow it, but he's doing fine.  I haven't been requiring narrations from this (we're still reading and narrating Greek myths), but we discuss the main points of each chapter when we read it.  So he's narrating and he doesn't even know it!  Plus, he's been inspired to draw pictures:

He also read The Trojan Horse: How the Greeks Won the War by Emily Little.  Twice, actually.

Science: We finished up turtles and tortoises and just started a unit about plants.  Brennan is officially joining us for that, and I think I'm going to make a separate post about what we're doing.  So stay tuned!

Grammar:  Moving right along!  We started a new poem--"Mr. Nobody," which he thinks is pretty funny.  We finished through lesson 83 last week.

Spelling:  Finished up step 10 and began step 11--more "-vce" words.  Pretty easy for him, so we should finish step 11 tomorrow.

Latin:  We finished Song School Latin!!  He has really enjoyed SSL.  I'm bummed that SSL 2 won't be available for another year or so, but I think Prima Latina will work well.  Once again, I'm waiting to order PL until the curriculum fair, so we're listening to the SSL songs and playing games with the flash cards in the mean time.  Here, the boys are playing charades with the cards (I have to tell Brennan what to do *grin*)--definitely Connor's favorite way to review!

imber (rain)

flos (flower)

Handwriting:  HWT cursive is still going well.  He does it with a great attitude--it's probably one of his favorite things to do.  He's getting close to the end of the book!

Writing:  WWE is quick and painless.  In fact, it's painless because it is quick!  He doesn't usually complain about doing it, and he's doing well.  I usually let him choose to write either both sentences or just the longer sentence for copywork, and he usually does both.

Memory Work: Ephesians 6:13-18 (almost done!), moving on to the books of the New Testament since he's mastered the OT, catechism question, "O Worship the King" (they know this--it's time to choose another one!), "Mr. Nobody" (poem), pronoun list, definition of a verb, definition of a plant, Latin phrases, and history chant.  It sounds like a lot, but it really isn't!  It takes us less than 5 minutes to go through all of these.

Brennan

Math:  We're working on getting into a better routine of getting math done!  We've been doing better over the last week or so.  As of last week we finished lesson 35 in RS A, working on writing addition equations and adding using tally marks and the abacus.  He's also been finishing up a project from a previous lesson--cutting out shapes and then cutting them in half (and gluing them on a piece of paper so we can put them in his notebook).

Phonics:  He's been working on "magic e" words.  I can see the impact on his reading, which is nice.  Since he's been a little more resistant to doing school in general lately (not sure why!), I haven't pushed too much, so he's moving a little slower than he probably could.  Still, slow and steady works!

Handwriting:  Continuing with copywork.  I am planning to get him another handwriting book soon, but he'll still be doing copywork too.   Lately he's done copywork about apples for our apple lapbook (another never-ending project!), a sentence from The Story of Ferdinand, and a sentence from a Mercy Watson book.

Reading:  Continuing to read through Reddy Fox.

Together:

Bible:  We been reading about Mary and Martha and Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.  No creative projects lately, unfortunately.  They usually ask for coloring pages (I'm thankful for the internet!), though, so we have been doing those.

Science:  We're learning about plants using a unit that I'm putting together.  See new post soon!


We haven't started How to Teach Art to Children yet--I have the first lesson ready to go, but it seems like we're struggling to get the basics done lately.  Hopefully this week!