Focus on Sciences... Week 1...

It was our first week of focusing primarily on one subject (besides the daily basics of math and writing/reading), and I think it went quite well!

The Main Focus This Week

In it this week, we read about DNA, Gregor Mendel, Darwin, evolution and natural selection, the time it takes light to travel, Watson and Crick, and much more. There are so many possible jumping off points in this text!

We also read and watched...

No hands on projects quite yet, but we'll get there! We did have some fantastic discussions as we read, and I hope these in-depth talks continue!

The Basics This Week

Ummm... yeah. Once again, Fred has been set aside in favor of the old classic Saxon Math. Neither kid felt they're getting enough practice with Fred, so that's that. We did play a rousing round of Totally Tut, which The Boy loved (he won) and The Girl was so-so about (as she didn't win). I personally think it is a great game as it really encourages, requires in fact, some good mathematical thinking.

The Boy worked on free writing this week, and we'll be getting back to Write With the Best next week. The Girl read out loud every day, and wrote letters to everyone in the house.

And The Rest of It

It was collage and painting week for The Girl, who spent a fair amount of time cutting up old magazines, and painting...

The Boy worked on scooter repair this week, completely dismantling an old scooter, meticulously cleaning every part of it, and then he will be reassembling over the next week. He and his best buddy have also been "hired" to repair (his friend) and repaint (The Boy) another friend's scooter.

We watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind for this week's movie night, and the kids loved it! I'll gladly take recommendations for other good movies.

We read some more of the third Harry Potter book, The Girl and I read more of the Story of Dr. Dolittle, and The Boy read everything from car repair manuals to Calvin and Hobbes.

Coming Up

More of The Magic of Reality. We may add in some biographical reading about Darwin. I've decided to adapt a friend's art of the week approach, and choose an artist of the month. Each week, I'll place a [new] printout of the artist's work on the fridge for the kids to study or not. This month I think we'll study Vermeer.

More Bill Nye videos for sure. Some hands-on art. Saxon Math, daily writing and reading. We'll start either A Wrinkle in Time, or The Hobbit, after the kids choose. Maybe a science project at long last!

Have a good week!