Home Base For Learning: Week 5

And I-

I took the one less traveled by.

-The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost

Edmentum Language Arts and Math practice

Math: Division of decimals and 4th grade math review. (Last year we tried a different online math program which didn't work out, so we were about a month behind in math. We went back and made sure A1 understood all 4th grade concepts before moving on to make sure the strong scaffolding is there.)

LA: Creative writing, spelling, and working on capitalization. For a fun activity, he wrote a paragraph with as many proper nous as he could fit, but, I reminded him, those were the only capitals he was allowed to have in his sentence.

Science: For the past few weeks we have been using The Good and The Beautiful Reptile Amphibian and Fish book. And I was hoping it would be valuable in teaching my reptile loving son. I know a lot of people love TGTB curriculum and it works great for them. However, I'm not one of those people.

I personally feel like reciting information from a textbook and then handing kids a worksheet takes all the joy out of teaching for me. I understand that is the easiest content for entrepreneurs to create and sell, and it's what many parents are familiar with from their own schooling, but it's not for me.

I love hands on exploration. The more senses we can get involved the better. If my kids want to learn about reptiles I want them to go see and touch reptiles.

Pictures from 2023/2024

I admit, with four kids in four different schools, it has made the logistics of field trips nearly impossible, so we have been searching for fun ways to learn from home. I hope we succeeded this week and will continue to have awesome learning experiences.

This week we focused on the scientific method as we prepare to do some hands on K-9 research. Sadly, we learned one of our K-9 friends- my parent's dog- had to be put down due to severe arthritis.

We also started a nature connection journal. We went out and explored the changing world around us. Fall is a magical time. We heard the birds screech, and the bugling elk, the babbling water, and sound of footprints along the path. We saw the changing leaves and smelt the cool crisp air signaling the earth is preparing to rest.

Listening to birds

The leaves are starting to change

And yes, we watched a couple of episodes of Crocodile Hunter, too. Got to keep the reptiles in there somehow. ;)

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History: A1 is loving history. We learned about the French and Indian war and excessive taxation on the colonists. As A1 put it, they didn't like it. He learned about the Boston Tea Party and the mounting tensions between the colonist and Great Britain.

A1 also had Minecraft and Chess Club and Piano lessons. We did cooking, too.