Aside from enjoying the fantastic weather this week we have also been busy learning. Some of this has taken place in the great outdoors (reading, maths and botany), some has taken place in the library (reading) and the rest has taken place at home. A great advantage of home schooling is that learning is never confined to one location, it is fluid which has the added bonus of keeping subjects fresh and fun.
Theo has been addictively reading again. This time he was unable to put down 'Heros of Olympus - Son of Neptune' by Rick Riordan until he had completed it. He is very fond of mythology and seems to have learnt even more about Greek and Roman mythology since reading these books. I found a lapbook on Homeschool Share which I have printed out for him on his request. It isn't very in depth but it is a good starting point and he can and will add lots to it I'm sure. He is reading 'The Maleficent Seven' by Derek Landy and 'Doctor Who: 11 Doctors, 11 Stories' written by a variety of authors. He is engrossed in both of these books and is planning on reading the 'Skulduggery Pleasant' series by Derek Landy after completing the 'Heros of Olympus' series.
He really enjoys reading in the park.
Theo's reading habits have a positive effect upon his little brother who is constantly working out how to read words in books, on signs, on packaging and on everything else his little eyes spy. Theo helps him all the time which Tristan really appreciates. He likes to write his name on just about everything from the pavement with chalk to the back of his toys and he is rather fond of introducing himself as
T-R-I-S-T-A-N.
I have been teaching maths to Tristan in the park this week with a throwing and catching game. We have concentrated on counting games counting upwards from 0-30 with each catch of the squishy pig (we have lost our little ball) and counting upwards in twos. He thinks that this is enormously fun and hasn't the faintest idea that he is doing maths as well as improving his hand to eye co-ordination and motor skills. I also played this with Theo but rather than counting we did multiplication problems. We have also been discussing scale this week. For Tristan this has been to tell me which tree is the biggest, which things are bigger than him and so on? For Theo it has involved estimating the size of various objects. He has been looking at ancient Greek measurements at home and spent an hour working out the metric size of the Collosus of Rhodes. This week we will take our tape measures outside and find out whether the estimates were accurate or not. Maths in the sunshine - lovely.
We have painted in the open air this week. The boys were asked to think about the shape and forms in the landscape. We had a lovely afternoon practicing using water colours and talking about the shapes and colours that we could see. The next outdoor art lesson will occur on our next sunny day where we will take the things we learnt last time to think about creating a picture.
The sketches produced by the boys were excellent.
Tristan painted many things including his hat.
We have used invisible ink (lemon juice) to write secret messages to each other and then Theo researched why lemon juice reacts with the paper when heated. The acid in the lemon juice remains in the paper once the juice has dried and when the paper is heated the acidic parts of the paper turn brown before the rest of the paper. The boys are going to try using a variety of other substances to make invisible ink to see which is the most successful.
They also aged paper by using tea and created some Leonardo Di Vinci inspired inventions. Tristan made a map to the park instead which he rolled up like a scroll to carry around.
The invisible ink messages were very cryptic.
Theo write the instructions for his war machine in secret mirror writing.
Theo has started to write a super hero themed story and is on chapter three of his epic adventure tale. I am more than happy to let him sit and write whenever he feels the urge to do so. Tristan has been writing train tickets for his teddy bears. Each one has his name, a number and a place name again I am delighted to see him writing out of choice.
We have learnt about human skeletons by using a couple of books and our squishy skeleton man. Theo has been leaning the names for the bones and Tristan has concentrated on the names for his joints. We will be finding out more about the senses this week after Tristan asked what our tongues are made out of and what they are for. I imagine we will have some interesting tasting times.
Tristan managed to correctly put the skeleton back together afterwards.
We have played games, walked, used money in shops, Theo has completed a big spelling test after asking for one, Tristan told me the names of the letters in the alphabet and all the letter sounds and only floundered on the letter 'y'. We have played with LEGO, played with water, slept in a train tent, been to skateboarding lessons, met friends, been to athletics, learnt about settlements and our country, completed the 'about me' books, had water fights and looked at a spider. These are just some of the things which I can remember from this week, I am sure that we have done many other activites but the thing about home education is that we all learn so much from hour to hour that it can be pretty hard to write every little thing down.
Tristan learnt about where we live in the UK.
Theo learnt about settlements.
Completed 'About Me' work.
What home school adventures have you had this week? Have you changed your plans because of the weather or carried on regardless?
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