Weekly Wrap-Up ~ Lots of Science and World Religions

This past week was great. We covered a lot of physics. We had decided to focus on science this month and this week was a great start. For our science, we don't follow a particular curriculum. You can read more details in this planning post.

We use the Usborne Science Encyclopedia to read aloud more explanations and we also use the internet links. With Celeste, I use the First Encyclopedia of Science. There are links in that book as well. I preview all the links ahead of time and bookmark the ones that I think will be of interest.

This week, we learned about speed and velocity by building an all-terrain vehicle.

We learned how to calculate its speed by doing a time test. This vehicle has a battery motor and we let it go for 10 seconds and measured how far it went. Santa took a ride too...

We learned about forces and in particular the gimbal. For this experiment we made a ship's lantern. The gimbal is a mounting system that is used for compasses and lanterns on boats.

You can see the tealight staying in a stable position, in the two photos. The first one Andre is holding the ship's lantern straight, but then in the second photo he is tilting the apparatus. Besides very tiny movements, the tealight stays in place.  

Another fun experiment was the shot put device. The shot put device has an angle indicator and a power scale as well. We tried shooting the little wooden balls using different angles and drive power. This experiment helped us understand force, trajectory, angles, and gravity. It was also a lot of fun! Once we were finished testing the different angles and distances with the numbered target board, we put a mug instead and did a little target practice!

We started learning about simple machines at the end of the week and built a lever postal scale. We talked about different simple machines as well, levers, pulleys, screws, and gears. Adrienne and Andre have both covered these before, so we didn't spend too much time on defining the terms. They did write out short definitions in their notebooks.

With each topic, they spent some time on the computer, checking out the internet links suggested in the encyclopedias that I had bookmarked. Some of their favourites this week were:

Experiment with centripetal force with a model of a carousel.

Explore forces as you design your own rollercoaster (down the page a bit)

Do forces experiment with a toy truck (in the box below):

Can you throw a basketball through a hoop? Scroll through the games using the arrows in the top right corner, and click on "Free throw". Adjust the angle and strength of the throw, then click on "Launch".

Help Digger and gang on their rollercoaster.

 

This week I started reading aloud from a great book written by Mary Pope Osborne and filled with great photographs, "One World, Many Religions: The Way We Worship". We don't follow any religion at this time, but I find it important to teach my children about all the main religions present in the world, so they can be aware of them and respect them. This book does a wonderful job of introducing seven major religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism). Each chapter is a different religion and explains where and when the religion started, the traditions, sacred writings, major holidays and ways of worshipping.

Once we are finished reading this book, we might choose to read more about a particular religion or religious leader.

This week, when we read about Christianity, we also read a fascinating book about Mother Teresa written by Demi.   I was raised Catholic, and remember learning about Mother Teresa when I was in school. She was a wondeful person and made a huge difference in many people's lives. I highly recommend this biography by Demi.

 

 

 

This week, we also did some recycled paper decorations. If you would like to see, visit this post.

 

You can see many more wrap-up posts at Weird, Unsoscialized Homeschoolers.

Dear Santa...

Recycled Paper for Holiday Decorations

After wrapping presents over the weekend, there were pieces left of the wrapping paper that were too small to use. We decided to make a guarland with those instead of just putting it in the recycle bin. This particular wrapping paper is reversible, so it was perfect for this project!

The other easy project uses a catalogue from Joe Fresh (a clothing line from our grocery store).

I had picked up the winter catalogue for Celeste, she likes to see all the fashion pictures.

Once she was done, I told her we could use it to make a big 3D snowflake (like we did last year).

We took apart the pages and Celeste chose which ones to use for the snowflake.

You can find very easy-to-follow instructions here. 

Here is one of the snowflake branches:

And here is the final complete snowflake, we like to hang ours

from the light fixture above our school table:



Book Sharing Monday :: The Beautiful Christmas Tree

The Beautiful Christmas Tree is written by Charlotte Zolotow and illustrated by Yan Nascimbene.

The story shows Mr. Crockett who moves in a small house on a fashionable street of brownstone houses. He is plain and does all the work on his little house himself. With years of attention and patience, he transforms his shabby brownstone into an elegant home and brings a scrawny, neglected tree to life, teaching his neighbours a very valuable lesson.

You can see a short preview of the book at Google books here.

"On Christmas Day, when the neighbors went to church, they glanced at each beautifully decorated tree in the window of each brownstone until they came to Mr. Crockett's house. There was a brown pot in the window with a stick of a tree, crooked and almost without needles. "Awful!" they exclaimed."

We have used a fake tree for our Christmas decorating forever. The main reason is because we don't want to cut down any more trees. That is our choice, but I know many families that prefer live Christmas trees. You can replant them, if you have space, after Christmas if you like! Here is a quick how-to explanation: How to Replant your Living Christmas Tree.

Please include your link to your Book Sharing Monday post below:



Weekly Wrap-Up ~ Staycation edition!

This week, my husband was off work and we all stayed home. School work was put on hold, and we relaxed together. We also took advantage of him being home to catch up on appointments, dental and eye care in particular. We also cleaned up our finances and put the final signatures on our new mortgage. Lots of paperwork and medical stuff, but still a lot of time for playing, especially board games. We had a lot of time to hang out and chat, watch a couple of Christmas movies, and read aloud holiday stories.

We read a very funny story called The True Story of Christmas by Anne Fine. Here is the inside of the book jacket for a little summary:

"Everyone knows the story of Christmas. Decking the halls with boughs of holly. Hanging stockings by the chimney with care. Roasting chestnuts on an open fire. Then there's the true story of Christmas. And Ralph Mountfield is smack in the middle of it. Great-granny is crustier than ever. Grandpa is singing to the dog. Great-aunt Ida is completely crackers. Uncle Tristram is giving out bricks. The cousins are whining and throwing tantrums. Mum is looking for Dad. Dad is looking for aspirin. And Ralph is looking to stay out of trouble. But when a Christmas quiz brings out some hidden truths, trouble is exactly what Ralph finds. It's anything but a silent, holy night for the Mountfield family!"

We also spent some time together this week doing some crafts. We made little juggling rice bags. Andre wanted to make some at first, then the girls joined him. They have been playing with these all week.

Andre, Celeste and I went to the movie theatre on Tuesday evening and watched Tangled. Honestly, I didn't think I was going to enjoy it, based on the trailers, but I was very surprised and loved every minute of it!

Today, Adrienne went to the shooting range for the very first time with her Air Cadets squadron! She loved it, but said her elbows hurt. She was laying down shooting the rifle.

Our week off was great. Next week and for the month of December will be focusing on science, physics in particular. The kids and I decided a few weeks back to do science in December, every day. We prefer to do it this way, similar to a unit study, than only a little bit every week. Andre and Adrienne will continue on doing math, and Celeste will practice her math and reading with me too, but the focus this month will be more on science.

You can read more wrap-ups on the Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers blog.