Wordless Wednesday - Hummingbird Festival

Owl Pellet Dissection–Apologia Zoology

 

 

We finished chapter 7 in Zoology 3 last week and for an experiment we dissected owl pellets.  Why I thought this is a good idea is beyond me, in high school biology I made a deal with my lab partner I would do all his work if he did all the dissections, it was a great deal  Since Dad was home for Labor Day it seemed like a great time to dissect owl pellets. Everyone got to participate.  It was very interesting and a great learning experiment. We found so many bones such as 6 vole skulls, 2 larger and 4 small ones.  We were able to piece together a entire skeleton.

I ordered the supplies from Home Science Tools I spent less than 20.00 for a kit, gloves and extra pellets. The ordered arrived within a week.

Supplies

Large owl pellet, Kiddo was not sure about touching it but once we started finding bones he had fun.

Found a large skull

We determined it was a vole by the orange teeth.

I think Kiddo did a great job assembling the skeleton from the picture.

 

I am glad we are done with the rodentia family and are moving on.

Wordless Wednesday–Glasses

 

 

 

Guess who got glasses this week.

 

Wordless Wednesday - Book Ledges

Kiddo's new book ledges in his room. 

Wordless Wednesday

Just one of many many attempts at a good back to school picture. 

Weekly Review–Week One - 4th Grade

We completed our first week back at school. It was a successful week thanks in part to a reward chart I am trying to help with attitude problem we have been having. Kiddo has developed an attitude about doing his work and saying he doesn’t like school etc. He does his work but complains about it,  has an attitude, or works at an insanely slow pace. I am trying to nip this in the bud before it becomes a real problem. The first week of the reward chart was a success so I hope it will help him to develop a better attitude and better work habit. I found a reward chart on pinterest that fit what I was looking for.  He has to do a few things everyday in order to mark that complete on the reward chart and if at the end of the week he has all the circles filled in he gets a reward. I let him help pick the reward he wanted to work for the week. He has to complete the list without be told to do so and I give him only one attitude warning a day any more and the attitude circle does not get filled in for the day. He did really well this first week, he wanted to fill in the circles on the chart so I hope it will continue. The reward chart is on my pinterest homeschool board here is a link: Homeschool Board Pinterest


Our curriculum this year is:
Math - Singapore Math 3B (for review) 
               Teaching Textbooks 4/5
               Beast Academy (he and Dad are doing this together)
History – Story of the World 4
Geography – Apologia Around the World in 180 Days.
Science – Apologia Zoology 3
Grammar – Easy Grammar 4
Spelling – Sequential Spelling 2
Vocabulary - Wordly Wise 6    
Handwriting – Handwriting Skills D
Foreign Language – French via Live Mocha
Bible – Gotta Have God Devotional for Boys
Music – Piano lessons and The Great Composers
Reading – Reading classics books this year. First one is Little    House in the Big Woods.


We are not doing all those lessons every day, we would never finish.  French and handwriting is 3 days a week.  Math he does one page on Singapore a day, 2 to 3 days a week a Teaching Textbook lesson and he and his Dad are doing Beast Academy together usually once a week. Most of the others we do in some form every day, I have not started The Great Composers book and I may not he has read the book twice and listened to the cd several times since I ordered it.


I am disappointed that Telling God’s Story 3 won’t be available until next spring.  We have really enjoyed the first two books. The devotional book I bought to use for Bible is good maybe a little simple for him but will be good to use everyday.

Apologia’s Around the World in 180 days is going to be a challenge for me to plan.  It is more of a study guide than a curriculum book. There is a great deal of planning and researching on my part. I decided we are going to study one continent a month so we can take our time and really study each one.

I have no trouble stopping to go in depth on something he is really interested in.  For example when we studied Ancient Egypt in STOW 1 we spent 6 weeks on it because he likes it so much and he is already excited to study Egypt again in geography.

This week we went to the library and got books on Africa and canine animals for geography and science. He built Africa with Lego.


We did an internet scavenger hunt for Africa’s topographical features. He colored a map of all the countries in Africa.

And we got our Geopuzzle in for next week.

We also did a fun experiment for this hot weather. A root beer float experiment on gas, liquid, and solid.  Here is the worksheet we used: Root Beer Experiment
It was a quick fun experipment and perfect for this heat!
 

On to week 2. Have a good week everybody.

Wordless Wednesday

Kiddo's little "math office" his help for when doing math problems.  One day he will memorize his times tables, I hope.