Greek Theatre and Magic Iodine

Okay people out there, I'm pregnant, and pregnancy and homeschool means a major slow down on everything.  But I'm not actually that bad, and I usually do accomplish the overall scope of what I would like to....but slowly.

This week we finished up our Ancient Greece unit.  We talked about how the Greeks loved theatre and were the first civilization to really effect our theatre culture.  We made a puppet theatre by sewing a curtain and hanging it with a shower curtain rod.  (Not as fantastic as I had wanted....an example of a pregnancy slow down.)  We made Greek theatre masks and acted out the story of Hades and Persephone.

We also talked about Alexander the Great's library, and went to the library ourselves....although this wasn't too special since we go to the library all the time...oh well.

For science we continued to learn about chemical reactions and showed how iodine reacts to things.  We showed how iodine reacts to starch, so you can test if foods have starch in them.

See how the cheese and sugar have red and the rest are dark blue?....It worked!

We also made secret messages by writing in lemon juice and then revealing the messages in iodine water.  They thought this was pretty nifty.

I love it when experiments actually work.

Philosophy and chemical reactions

We continued learning about ancient Greece this week.  I had wanted to teach my kids about the Greek philosophers (kind of a daunting task) and got all the children's books from the library I could (which I always do...the librarian told me awhile ago "We gave you your own bin for all your holds.") and I found the best book for kids:

It tells so simply the most important things about Socrates, and he tells it in a cute way.  I wish more historical writers for children realized that often less is more.

We talked about how important "ideas" are and how coins are just an idea.  We learned how trading was the main way of buying and selling until the Greeks (inspired by others) really made coin currency popular.

We made our own coins....okay people (and I know some people read this, because even though no one leaves comments, people come up to me and tell me they've read this...) how lucky was this?.....I was planning all my activities for the semester and realized I wanted to do something with greek coins and went to the second hand store and found ceramic unpainted medallions with zodiac symbols on them!  Random yet perfect!

We also learned about Alexander the Great...not the greatest story in my opinion, but important, and we made Pharos lighthouses  in his honour, complete with real candles being magnified by mirrors.

For Science we learned about Chemical reactions and what effects them.  Light (showed how paper had faded in the sun.)  Heat (hard boiled eggs in warm water vs. hot water) Surface area (thick french fries vs. thin french fries) How condensed something is (fabric dyed in water with hardly any dye vs water with lots of dye) are all ways chemical reactions can be effected.  And of course, they are effected by catalysts.....and what better way to show a catalyst then Mentos in soda!.....I found out the hard way that Coke is the only soda that works really well for this experiment....don't buy orange pop instead.

But it still worked a bit.....

And for field trip Maxwell had a birthday party!!!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAXWELL!

Math and my love for Mary Pope Osborne

The subject of Math and Mary Pope Osborne really don't have anything to do with each other, but that's this week's title none-the-less.

Okay, so math....math has been going really well.  There hasn't been any struggle or frustration with it, we just do it everyday, and that's just how it is.  Maxwell's personality might be in this happy equation.  I think I might be spoiled with my first pupil.

Rightstart mathematics has been really good.  We do each lesson twice to really sink the concepts in.  Rightstart is great because it teaches mostly reasoning skills, geometry, and how concepts work.  Basically, it teaches you how to THINK like a mathematician. Maxwell's liked all their interactive lessons.

But, there's no worksheets.  That's where Saxon math comes in.  I believe in drilling.  In music, you can know where the notes are, you can know rhythm, but unless you actually PLAY the song MANY times, even hundreds of times, you don't master the song.  It's the same with math.  You can know the concepts, you can understand the principles, but unless you drill the numbers and write out 2+2=4 a hundred times, it's not second nature, and the basics of math need to become second nature.  I don't do ALL the busy work that Saxon offers, because it's just too much, but we try to do something like the following each day:

Isn't he getting good?  It's SO NICE that he is at the point of doing these type of worksheets (worksheets that you can do without reading instructions) so I can give it to him and leave to do Hyrum's learning or clean.  My eventual goal is to have my children basically teach themselves math once they can read good enough.

The combining of these two math curriculums has been pretty smooth. I did have had to jump ahead in the rightstart theories so that Maxwell would understand how to add 6+6, 7+7, 8+8, and 9+9. For example:

I had him enter two 7s onto the abacus for 7+7:

I showed him how the two groups of five made ten (Rightstart really pounds it in that 5 and 5 is ten.) and  then there are 2 and 2 left which equals four.  So, one-ten four....or 14 (Rightstart kind of discourages saying "fourteen" at this stage since it doesn't make any sense mathematically)...well, Maxwell gets it, and that's what counts.

Okay, now moving on to "my love for Mary Pop Osborne."  I LOVE her books!  Fiction and non-fiction. I have been reluctant to read them to Maxwell, because I've wanted him to discover them when he could read them himself, but I figure, there are SO many books that if I only read the ones that pertain to the history we are learning at the time, that there will be plenty left over for him to discover for himself.

And this week we are studying the olympics.  There's something wonderful about snuggling up on my bed with my boys and reading and reading and reading.  The two younger ones end up wresting and running off, but Maxwell and I are carried away into the land of literature.  It's so cute how he hides under the covers when the stories get too intense or if it gets too romantic.

By the way, out of all of the Greek myth books we've read (and I've looked through a lot this month) I think probably the best one was "Usborne Greek myths for young children."

To celebrate the olympics we also had a miniature olympics of our own.  It included races and dart throwing.  The jump roping didn't work out very well though...

For science we learned about the water cycle.  We made our own miniature water cycle by putting water in a small jar and taping it to another jar and warming it up enough that it steamed up to the top and rained down again.

We also reviewed how gases expand and how heat rises at part of the water cycle and blew up a balloon with just the air in a bottle being warmed up.

For preschool we learned that "I" says ihh ihh ihh icky and ate pudding without utensils.  This was supposed to get my boys "icky" but they were amazingly clean.  I emphasized to Hyrum that we needed to get icky, so he purposely put some on his nose to fulfil my plans....he's pretty cute.

Mythology brought to Life

I absolutely loved greek mythology as a kid.  As a mom, I kind of wince at all the affairs, jealousy, revenge, and murder.....well....it's culture....right?  Hummmm.......and I thought the arabian nights were bad.

Maxwell has been a fascinated student as usual anyway.

We started out or Greek learning by acting out Theseus and the Minotaur. We actually had two Minotaurs who lived in the centre of our yarn maze in a cavern made out of toppled over couches.  We also had two Theseuses and of course the beautiful Ariadne.

There IS a maze, but you can't really see it in this photo.

We also leaned that Greeks would paint myths on black vases with gold so....

Maxwell did Pandora's box.

Humm not the delicate artistic creations I had imagined....maybe in four years eh?

And yes we didn't get to this activity until night time...I just dare you to judge me!


For preschool we learned that "h" says hhhh as in hhhhot and made lei necklaces.  Hyrum is OBSESSED with the letter 'H." so I was very happy for him that we finally got around to celebrating it properly.

And no, we didn't do "official" science this week, but we did do plenty of unofficial science from Christmas present kits.

A Homeschool Success Story

I went to my niece's wedding this Christmas break.  This is Rachael.  I met her when she was about 11.  She's a big part of the reason I homeschool.

I never thought I would homeschool my kids before moving to British Columbia as newlyweds even though I knew that all of Dustin's nieces and nephews were homeschooled.  Dustin told me it was my choice how to educate our children.

Then I met Rachael and her family.

Rachael did go to kindergarten and I think she went to first and maybe even part of second grade.  She was shy, and her mom was worried about her socially, and thought about homeschooling.  Then when they moved to a tiny island in the west coast that was VERY liberal, it was clear to Rachael's mom that homeschooling was the right thing for their family.

Rachael was homeschooled on an island that didn't offer any support. Although her shyness disappeared, she only had about two close friends (one LDS and one not LDS) for most of her preteen years, because that's all that was on the island.  I say this because some people think that if you aren't surrounded constantly by tons of other kids, you end up awkward, which just isn't true.

As she went through her teenage years, awkward was NOT a word anyone would have used to describe her. She had TONS of friends at this stage of life. She is proof that most homeschool stereotypes are false.

Even though I'm over ten years older then her, I've always admired her.

Rachael could run her whole house hold complete with dishes, meals, diapers, laundry, and all other motherly/housework tasks by the time she was 12. She had FIVE younger siblings at the time.  All without begrudging anyone.

Rachael had a love of learning like no one I had met before.  If I was doing a project, she wanted to do it too.  I made a home made scripture case, she made a home made scripture case.  I wrote and illustrated a children's book, she wrote and illustrated a children's book.

The whole family's motto was "If someone else can do it, then we can do it too, and why not do it now for fun."

Her goals and values as a teenager were so inspiring.  She knew who she was, who she wanted to be, and would not compromise.  And all the guys for miles around knew where she stood too.

As a teenager she went with her family to a remote island in the south pacific, and she helped her dad be the only doctor on the entire island.  She was a midwife and nurse, and loved the whole thing.

When she went off to school at BYU Hawaii, she was homesick for only a couple of days, although she called home almost daily, because her mom and her sister were still her best friends.

She got straight "A"s and didn't feel like it was a hard transition.

And now she just got married in the temple to the boy next door.

I know that not all homeschool stories are successful.  I'm not that naive, but when I saw Rachael and her family, I hoped that my future family could be like them...and so I homeschool too.