Hanson's Ridge
Well, originally when I laid out my plans for science for the year, we were going to talk about the Five Senses in August, along with some extra detail about the human body. While AW had a bit of studying on that previously, it would be new to DC. Then I realized that there was going to be a SOLAR ECLIPSE and we had an Ivy Box with a space theme that I'd saved up. The great thing about homeschooling is the ability to course correct. We also worked on ordinal numbers in math, which worked out perfectly with our study of the solar system. We read a lot of books about space. Eight Spinning Planets by Brian James is a favorite library book at our house (this was not the first time we've checked it out). We might end up buying it. I also loved The Planet Gods: Myths and Facts About the Solar System by Jacqueline Mitton. It ties in all the myths of the deities that give the planets their names, and it's beautifully illustrated. We watched a video of the first moon landing and all the Sci Show Kids space episodes on YouTube. We explored the solar eclipse and solar system with chalk pastels. And I made black playdough to represent space. I had to use all my black gel food coloring to get it right, but it's totally worth it. We went hiking on the "easiest trail in the Shenandoah," which was wonderful. It's the Limberlost Trail, named after the book A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter. We also took a trip back in time with our reenacting group. The kids aren't picking up too much history from these outings yet, but I'm confident that the immersion will have an impact over time. They do get to see a lot of 18th century skills in action. AW makes art wherever she goes, even with found objects. She also learned to play cards. I got her to show some visiting kids how to card wool for spinning, but she lost interest pretty quickly. We also started exploring the resources on Khan Academy and Moby Max for math. The kids love Starfall (an app and educational website), so I've been looking at doing some more online schooling from time to time.
From space, we are now moving in a little closer to home. We are talking about our place in space and in the world, and we will be doing some map making. Today we did some exploration with Google Earth (it's so much fun!). We pretended we were on a hot air balloon ride, after reading a picture book about the first hot air balloon flight with passengers (a rooster, a duck, and a sheep). We are going to Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum this week for a field trip. For this coming month, I also checked out a number of picture books about places and people in Africa. The first History Unboxed American history box ships this month, and it's all about the Mali Empire. When I was teaching sixth grade, I learned that Virginia's current standards include a study of three African empires at the beginning of a year of American history. I love that idea, so I opted to start there in the history timeline that we created. After all, American history at its birth is the coming together of three (very broad) cultures: African, Native American, and European. So we will be doing the Mali box and enjoying literature based on African stories and people, both in the past and today. We are doing money math, and I actually found a picture book to go along with both Africa and money. Yay! It's great to really be back in the swing of things with school. I'm looking forward to the next several weeks!
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AuthorHi! I'm Stephanie Hanson. I live with my husband, Himself, on Hanson's Ridge in Virginia. Archives
September 2017
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