Our fifth week in review: 9/27-10/1

A four day week for us!  Older Sister had Monday off, so Daisy did too.  I did some reading, planning and researching and then made four lasagnas, one for dinner and three for the freezer.  See my Thrifty Thursday post for more about the "real me" if you're so inclined.  We've finished up our Friday work early today by starting way earlier than usual (I'm on the second pot of coffee, yawn) because someone is itching to go to the Grand Opening of the new Lego Store today---talk about motivation LOL

Math
Yep, review and extension.  Percents were the focus this week, with the usual moaning about too many word problems... Since we just had a four day week, there was no fun Friday math topic.  Next week we'll do some more MOEMS problems on Friday.

Science!
Check out this lovely post for pictures of last week's stream table experiment! 

(Tuesday) Watched Bill Nye Energy, then read and discussed section 3.1 Types of Energy (potential, kinetic, heat energy, energy flow and heat loss).

(Wednesday)  Prelab demonstration with a lava lamp, followed by Investigation 3A: Convection in Earth's Atmosphere.  When I first looked into the CPO Earth Science text, I thought I'd have to skip this lab.  How would I recreate their "GeoBox" with a lid containing two chimneys?  But I did it!  Pictures and information will be in a separate post, so as to concentrate the geeky science fun.  The lab was a success.  Daisy thought it was lots of fun though she said she enjoyed the stream table much more.

(Thursday)  Read and discussed section 3.2 Heat (heat, temperature, convection,conduction, radiation).  I used one of the skill and practice sheets available on the website linked above for more practice on the types of heat transfer. 

(Friday)  Can you take another lab?  Investigation 3B: Density, baby! The lab called for density cubes (equal sized cubes of steel, wood, copper, aluminum and PVC----I found something similar in the Nasco catalog) but my resourceful lab assistant (my husband) helped me create our own density cubes.  I didn't have a graduated cylinder but I marked a drinking glass in 25ml increments using an old medicine cup to measure.  Again, this lab will be featured in its own blog post.  Stay tuned!  Oh, and we also watched Bill Nye Buoyancy.

History
We've shifted focus from Sumer to Ancient Egypt.  Now Daisy doesn't just want to be an archeologist but an Egyptologist! 

This week focused on the very early period (or Ancient Ancient Egypt as we called it) of the pharohs and pyramids.  Reading came from the first part of Human Odyssey chapter 8, The Ancient Egyptian World chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7, and three Dig magazines ( Jan 2008 Egypt's Great Sphinx , Jan 2010 Ancient Egypt's Saqqara Secrets and Sept 2008 Valley of the Kings).  We also watched a 90min dvd National Geographic's Into the Great Pyramid .  I couldn't get the dvd version of David Macaulay's Pyramid soon enough from the library, so I substituted this one.  Daisy loved it!  I thought some of the made-for-a-TV-show bits were on the cheesy side but overall it was a very informative show.  The information she read during the week came alive through seeing it on video.  Sometimes still pictures don't transmit well the drama of history.

Next week we'll explore hieroglypics, the Rosetta Stone, and daily life of everyday Egyptians. 

Grammar
Pronouns: possessive pronouns and adjectives. pronouns in contractions, demonstrative pronouns and interrogative pronouns.  Nothing new for her this week---her grammar background is solid.

Writing
We finished up the second week of the Writing with Skill beta test.  Time to get our thoughts organized and send in our feedback.

Literature
Michael Clay Thompson's Building Poems, just the very beginning talking about sounds and rhyme, plus the rhyme activities from Figuratively Speaking.

French
French was one of the subjects Daisy asked to learn when we decided to homeschool.  We began our studies with So You Really Want to Learn French and the first half of chapter 1.  I am very grateful for the accompanying CD since I don't speak French!  Now we can both say our names and ask others what their names are.  Next week we'll be able to talk about where we live and count, too----at least, that's the plan.  We've been practicing on Older Sister who is breezing through French 2 at highschool.

Other stuff
Girl Scouts, finally!  The troop is down to five members but all want to be there, a nice change from last year.  Focus this year is on the Bronze Award process, so this week they completed the second part in their required Journey.  We visited the only Platinum LEED certified building in our state, which happens to be the science lodge at the local Girl Scout camp!  The girls toured the building and created an energy audit of it.  They were fascinated by the green roof, the water storage, and the choose-your-strength-of-flush toilets.  Of course LOL

Daisy had planned on attending a geology class at the local state park but it was planned on the day of the East Coast Deluge (Thursday), so she decided to skip figuring it wouldn't be as fun if it had to be indoors.  I agree.

The best of the week: the labs, of course.  What did you think I would say?!  Actually, reading about Egypt is fascinating and has caused me to search out more adult books for my own.  Our library table is groaning...

The worst of the week: the writing, sigh.  If we weren't beta testing, I would have dumped it last week.  She is past learning how to outline, which I didn't know until we started the section of WWS.  I expect the later parts of WWS will be more useful for us.

Looking ahead to next week: our very first homeschooling field trip!  We're going to join a group of 3rd-9th graders for a trip to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire------and Daddy is going to take the day off, too!  It's a special day designed for 3rd-6th graders, not just homeschoolers, so the antics will be age-appropriate.  I can't wait.   It's been years since we've been to a RenFaire---Older Brother, the high school senior, was a baby then!

Have a great weekend :)