Feb. 3, 2010 - Astronomy

We started Apologia's Astronomy book this past week.  We will probably go well into the summer to finish this unit, but hopefully that will be the best time to study the stars.  As an introduction, we were to make a "to scale" solar system.  They gave us the dimensions for each planet.  We used balloons and wadded up pieces of paper to get them all to scale.  Some of the planets are hard to see in the picture, so I have labeled them for you.

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Jan. 29, 2010 - New glasses

Alex went to the eye doctor a week ago and it was discovered that he needed glasses.  This explains his eye tiredness and headaches.  He is to wear them for reading, computer work and other close up things.  He does not need to wear them all the time. Here is what he looks like now:

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Jan. 29, 2010 - Simple Machines

We read the book The Very Last First Time for co-op last week.  In the book, the girl uses a stick to pry up mussels from the sea floor.  This is a simple machine called a lever.  I had Alex study simple machines.  He learned the difference between a simple machine (one that uses human effort to work) and a complex machine (one that uses artificial power to work.)  After he read about the simple machine and understood it, I had him look in a book that lists experiments for each.  He was to do the experiment with Nicolas in order to explain the concept to him.  He learned about the following simple machines and examples of each, along with the experiment that went along with it.

inclined plane (a ramp or a slide)

A raw egg dropped from the height of the can onto the plate broke.  (Actually it fell to the floor and broke on my rug, so we had to do a little laundry.)  But an egg rolled down an inclined plane from the same height did not break because there is less force.

a lever (shovel or a see saw)

The stool with Nicolas on it was hard to lift by hand, but when using a broomstick and chair as the fulcrum point, it was easier to lift.  This is because he was using his weight to push down in order to lift the stool rather than using his strength against gravity to lift the stool on his own power.

pulleys (on a crane)

We made our own pulley using an empty spool of thread and ribbon.  The pulley reverses the effort so that we need to pull down on the ribbon to lift up the bucket.

wedges (an axe or a nail)

For wedges, the boys cut wedges out of carrots and stuck them into an apple.  They discovered that it is easier to push carrots in when they have the point at the end than when the edges of the carrots are rounded.

screws (self explanatory)
wheels and axles (also self explanatory)

We did not do experiments for these two types because they are so common.

Here is the lapbook he created:

Characteristics of a simple machine.

This is a machine Alex invented that uses several simple machines - the lever to move the axes, wheels and axles to move from tree to tree and in the steering wheel and wedges to cut down trees.

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Jan. 29, 2010 - Penguins

We have been reading Mr. Popper's Penguins for our read aloud.  Since I had Alex working on Simple Machines this week, I decided to have Nicolas work on Penguins.  Here is the lapbook he created.

Map showing where penguins live.

Pop-up penguin book.  We wrote interesting facts about penguins.

And finally, Nicolas used drawing instructions to create his cover....

And when I told him he was going to draw a penguin for his cover, he said, "What?  I can't draw a penguin!"  But, you know, he CAN draw a penguin because I think this one looks pretty good!

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Jan. 13, 2010 - Sorting through memories

So since we moved I have been meaning to go through all the boys' schoolwork that I have been saving and discarding much of it, keeping only the minimum in order to save storage space.  So all the workbooks that I have been saving, I went through and tore out pages that show an overall view of the work that was done for that subject.  Then I threw out the rest of the workbook.  It's amazing how much space is left over !  Of course I couldn't part with the drawings, stories, book reports and those kinds of "personal things".  It was enough to get rid of the majority of the math and language workbooks.  Whew... I feel so much better. 

The next job to tackle will be the rummage sale stuff.  The books will go to a local bookstore that buys used books or Half Price books and the clothing will go to a local children's clothing resale shop.  The broken toys will go to the landfill :), and the rest will be saved for the summer rummage sales.  BIG JOB that I am not looking forward to, but will breathe easier when I step into the garage once it's done.

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