Weekly Updates

Week 33 of Homeschool: We learned about ancient China and the Qin, practiced our numbers with paint, read a story about a dog named Biscuit, wrote haikus, started reading Spirit Flyer book #5, reviewed the water cycle, learned about Chinese calligraphy and created our own characters, went hunting for wild bunnies and found one, started reading again in Treasure Island, learned new Spanish words together, created our own codes, and went to the Crocker Art Museum to see the exhibit Big Ideas!

 

Week 32 of Homeschool: We learned all about whales, sold hand-painted flower pots at our CC market, made a mechanical sweeper to sweep up messes, learned about the Mauryan Empire of India, made a glowing pendulum that paints with light, dressed up like ancient Romans for our end of the year CC party, painted abstract design cards to give to friends, sent one of Field’s original books to a real author, read in The Hobbit, made notes for story-writing, had friends over for tea and scones, finished Spirit Flyer Book #4, made easter eggs, learned about the Aryans of India, and went to Fairytale Town with our cousins!

 

Week 31 of Homeschool: We drew cardioids, wrote a song, went to a friend’s house to play math and reading games, read Mac For Dummies, read and discussed Psalm 46, made a paper Windows laptop computer, wrote words and practiced cursive, read in Sense and Sensibility, went on a roller skating field trip and learned about friction, read Windows for Dummies, wrote a poem inspired by our skating rink field trip, read in The Hobbit, drew a triangular circle fractal, and went on two easter egg hunts!

Week 30 of Homeschool: We played t-ball, learned about Rome’s war with Carthage and Hannibal’s war elephants, played Roll a Robot, made ancient Roman cuffs with the Latin abbreviation for Senātus Populusque Rōmānus (The Roman Senate and People), wrote a presentation of Powerpoint and Microsoft Word, painted pots for our upcoming Classical Conversations Market, played indoor baseball, made a mini-book about plants, searched for easter eggs using a compass and clues, rode a bob-cat (or “kabob,” as Francis called it) to help Daddy level the front yard, did a classical music cake walk with our CC friends, and made rainbow tarts!

Week 29 of Homeschool: We explored hydraulics by building a mechanical claw and an elevator, found South America East on our maps, smashed geodes and discovered crystal formations inside, learned how to persuade a reader, explored mirror illusions by building a trick mirror box and mirror-flipping goggles, learned about the liberation of South America, marked key words in our Bibles, learned about types of clouds, practiced writing key signatures and learned how to find relative minor and Major keys, studied Latin 5th declension noun endings, read a book about a lighthouse and made our own, learned about the gladiators of ancient Rome, gave a presentation on coding with Scratch, learned about the parts of an orchestra and looked at orchestra seating charts, practiced writing adjectives in a silly story called “Finlandia,” listened to Peter and the Wolf and compared classical orchestral music to pop orchestral music (Bolero vs. Bittersweet Symphony), and hung eggs on our Easter tree!

Week 28 of Homeschool (Spring Break!): We learned about Joseph Haydn and his travels, identified the rocks we found sluicing at Black Chasm Cavern, located the countries of South America West on our map, read in Spirit Flyer Book #4, learned about the British North America Act, started working through Mom’s college book Tonal Harmony (Field), performed an experiment to see the eroding effects of moving water, worked on Latin 4th declension noun endings, listened to Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22 in Eb, 3rd Movement and discussed, performed an experiment to observe the effects of slope on erosion, learned about weather fronts, worked on memorizing the Circle of Fifths, made our own sandstone with sand, sugar, water, heat and cold, took a look at the water cycle, performed an experiment to create rain-like condensation, performed an experiment to demonstrate how rain falls from clouds, and learned about the life cycle of an ant!

Week 27 of Homeschool: We started reading book #4 in the Spirit Flyer series, found Canadian Waters on our maps, started writing a silly song called “The Odd Table,” learned about the exploration of Canada, went to the Inspire Lending Library and played Math Games with friends, performed a series of tests to learn about minerals, had fun learning how to create and crack all kinds of codes, made globe maps showing 5 circles of latitude, folded the pages of Sense and Sensibility to form the word “LOVE,” then started reading it, looked at the helping and linking verb “to be,” learned about Bach’s life, then listened to a piece and discussed what we heard, read more chapters in Moby Dick, and went on a field trip to Black Chasm Cavern, where we went sluicing for stones, and stepped deep into the earth to see a world filled with millions of Helictites!

Week 26 of Homeschool: We learned about the early people of the Americas, made a thaumatrope like the ones used in Victorian times, studied Latin 3rd declension noun endings, built a box with layers of filters and little fishy’s to create polarized light, learned what a linking verb is, got to be the umpire in t-ball, learned Latin prepositions, made an Ames room to create optical illusions, went to our cousin’s birthday at Chuck E Cheese’s, learned some parts of the atmosphere, drew an impossible triangle and created our own fractals, and visited a Roseville fire station where we got to hold the jaws of life, get in a fire truck, and try on a real fire-fighter uniform!

Week 25 of Homeschool: We learned about the Anasazi, made pop-ups of the 4 levels of Ocean Zones, read about Alexander the Great, learned how to write addition problems using plus and equals signs, wrote silly poems, reviewed the area of a circle, grew crystals on glass with Epsom Salts, water and dish soap, found the cities of Mesoamerica on a map, learned how to tie Gordian Knots, met some beekeepers and learned all about honey and how it is made, looked at chord patterns using only white keys, learned “ou” words and looked some up in the phone book, studied Latin 3rd declension noun endings, and went to Fairytale town!

Week 24 of Homeschool: We finished reading book #3 in the Spirit Flyer series, learned Spanish names for animals and played a match-up game, painted upside-down like Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel, learned about the wars of the Ancient Greeks and built a model of the parthenon, wrote a presentation on our overnight field trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, started reading Moby Dick, built Wordblobs, finished chapter 1 in The Fellowship of the Ring, discovered our dove had returned and built a new nest in our entryway (more babies soon?), started writing words, and started t-ball!