For some reason lately it has been so hard to keep up with my blogs. I just have no energy. Everyone here seems to be passing around one cold after another. Add to that the fact that the Spring-like weather we enjoyed courtesy of El Nino has traded with sub-zero temperatures, and we have a serious case of the winter blahs. (Actually, it is in the 20s; I’m just whining.)
I’ve been meaning to do some posts about what curriculum we are using and change my categories around a little to include a “Resources” category. That would involve changing the label on some of my older post, though, so it will be somewhat time consuming.
We just ordered some new science materials. I tried to do science using an unschooling approach, but the kids really like to have a curriculum. Who knew?
We do science together, even though the boys are a grade apart. (I still talk in grades because they were in PS for three/two years. Hey, I just realized that after this year, Big E will have been home schooled as many years as he was public schooled.)
I decided to try the Alpha Omega Life Pacs since I could pick and choose which subjects to buy. (The LifePac curriculum is divided into 10 workbooks for the year.) In my curriculum that I submitted to the state, I had a list of topics we would be covering, so I wanted to make sure I had materials for those topics.
I just hope that I don’t have any problems doing it without the teacher’s manual. I have a background in science, so I doubt it will be a problem.
Since they are in grades 3 and 4, I selected materials from both grade levels. They should be here, hopefully, Saturday.
From Grade 3, we are doing book 1 and 4 - You Grow and Change and You are What You Eat. From Grade 4, we are doing books 1, 2, and 8 - Plants, Animals, and Solar System.
We also have a book on Weather that we are doing; another topic on our curriculum. And I ordered a forth grade science manual with reproducibles that covers Life/Physical/Earth Sciences. We will probably do that for the first half of next year, then we will move into grade 5.
I am doing a sort of split year approach because I don’t want to go to far ahead for E, but I don’t want to stay too far behind for D. Blending ages requires a delicate balancing act, but it has worked out well so far. I might have to change the way we do things when D moves into the high school grades depending where E is at that point.
So far this year, we have been getting books and videos out of the library for science, and performing experiments at home. We learned about trees, sea life, squirrels, the human body, weather, and a few other topics. They really enjoyed making an acid/base indicator using purple cabbage. We did the experiment from a book we got out of the library, but here it is online.
As I mentioned before, I am glad that the kids wanted more structure and written work. I could certainly benefit from more structure and discipline, too.
And maybe next time Not-So-Crafty Daddy stays home because I am sick, I will have an actual lesson plan for him to follow. He was not too impressed when he asked what we normally do and I said, “I don’t know.”
