Our beans are growing.

October 17th we started our been project. 
 

We took 3 pinto beans:

1 Ziploc baggie

 

1 wet paper towel

 

 

We put the wet paper towel into the Ziploc baggie and placed the beans on top of it.  Every day we open up the bag to allow fresh oxygen to enter the bag and we set it near the window for sunlight.

 

Today we have a bean that has completely lost its shell and has a little leaf popping out of it.  The other two are working on getting that bean shell to shed off. 

 

This has been a very fun and exciting project for my 6 and 7 year old to participate in.  They are excited to see how much they have grown each day!  It is great that in home school you can make EVERY thing a fun experience!

Day 4

Day 13

 

Have you tried this in your home class?  How well was your experience?

 

 

Reading Time

I remember being in public school and we had the Accelerated Reader program.  I was never a reader, hated reading books that had no purpose. The program gave me an incentive to read more and gain points in order to get treats. Well I have been searching high and low for something similar that I could use for my kids at home. I finally found it with the help of some other homeschooling mama's.
http://bookadventure.com/Home.aspx

Check it out!

Schooling on the go...

We had a bit of a travel we had to make away from home for about 3 days. I was trying to prepare for out trip with lots of printables and busy work for the trip and for our daily assignments. I stopped and thought about it and decided not to. I did bring some book work from our current work books (my 2nd grader thrives on book work) but I left the rest. I have blank paper and plenty of pencils. I do believe this trip will be a learning as we go, sorta unschooling way. We already got our fill of the wonderful Bill Nye The Science Guy this morning on T.V. The show was on mirrors and telecopes. They talked about the difference between a reflector and refractor. I thought this was amazing as I just did a paper on the differences for my Astronomy class in college. It was great to just jump in and know what to add to the intrest. They also played a small segment on star gazing as well. I think later we will start a writing journal of our stay away from home. Math we have in our workbooks and I brought the craft sticks to help my 1st grader with her subtraction.  Even better yet we are in a historic old town that will make for a good social studies lesson! I just love the freedom of learning what we want where we want.

How do you do school while you are away from home?

Copywork...What is your take?

Having a daughter, that I feel may be a bit dyslexic, that has a hard time with spelling and reading has made me look into other avenues.  After many months of trying every method of getting her to even be able to read her sight words I thought I would try copywork with her.  Classical Writing and Charlotte Mason both had similar stands on this.  So I researched both of their views and this is what I came up with.

Classical Writing approach:

"Copying, the earliest written form of imitation, has always been an important part of a classical education. Copywork is a very simple exercise where the student reproduces a well-written literary selection in his best handwriting with careful attention to correct spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. "

~from Classical Writing

Charlotte Mason approach:

Copywork is a whole language approach to spelling and grammar. By seeing and copying the words, the child learns how to spell. Grammar is also learned in this indirect way.
Choose passages worthy of meditation that stimulate the mind of the student but are not beyond his comprehension. Discuss the passage and have the child copy it in his best handwriting. Passages can be hymns, Scriptures, poems, quotations, or excerpts from living books.

~from Squidoo Charlotte Mason Basics

 

I also wanted to incorporate our bible learning as well with this.  So I made notebooks and each day I will write a simple verse for her to copy.  I will also have my older child do this as well but with more complex versus. This will help her with her puncuation and grammer as well as her spelling.  I think this is also a great way to teach penmenship too.

 

What are your views on copywork and do you use it?

Plant Project

Today we started our plant project. We took 3 beans and are allowing them to sprout in a baggie. By doing this we hop to be able to tell the process of growth as well as see all the parts of a plant as they develop. The kids are very excited as am I. I remember growing my bean plant in school and it was so exciting to see how it grew!

Supplies
* plastic baggie
* bean seeds
* paper towel
* water

Steps
1. Dampen paper towel and place into baggie.
2. Place bean seeds on wet paper towel inside baggie. (We used 3 in case one didn't sprout.)
3. Seal baggie up leaving some air in it.
4. Watch for growth!

Homeschool Change

So I moved from Georgia to Missouri. The law in Georgia is you have to count 180 days of homeschooling a year. Now in Missouri I have to count out 1000 hours of homeschool with 400 being of the core subjects. Why does every state have to be so different? We learn every day all day long! So in reality we could hit 1000 hours quick. My frustration is how in the world do you chart hours? We go on a trip in the car something may pop up for a lesson. We maybe in the store shopping and we get into a lesson on greater than and less than on prices. States are so funny on how they want to keep tabs on us homeschoolers. I do have to say I am very thankful to be in a state now where we do not have to participate in state testing. Now to figure out how to chart our hours....any suggestions?