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Today we worked on measuring. Gresham (age 5) and I worked on measuring with non-standard units. We made a “hand” measurement device by tracing his hand on cardboard and attaching a craft stick to it to make it easier to hold on to. I gave Gresham a clip board with a list of things to measure using his hand. It was good practice for him – it was hard at first to get the concept of using his finger to mark the end of the “hand” and then moving the hand down to where his finger was. Aidan worked on measuring to the nearest eighth of an inch. I asked him to get out his ruler and show me what the lines on it meant. He already knew quarters of an inch, so we went on to eighths. He also had a clipboard with a list of things to measure to the nearest eighth of an inch. Stay tuned for more “Concept of the Day” posts! Some concepts I have in mind are gravity, momentum, volume, and liquid measurement. What ideas do you have for practicing measurement? Here is an idea for a unit study notebook that can be customized for any topic! We had planned to take some time off of homeschooling after our new baby was born (he’s almost 3 weeks already! I can’t believe it!), but as it turns out, a lot of “down time” just doesn’t work with a house full of boys! Aidan has been doing some school work each day – mainly the things that he can do on his own. This year, we are doing Sonlight Core D, which is American History Part 1. If you’re not familiar with Sonlight, it’s a literature-based approach to history. Aidan has a history textbook (which I read to him), history books and a workbook that he does on his own, readers that correspond with the topics we are studying, and books that I read out loud to him. The books on our Sonlight list are the best of children’s literature, I think. One day, the idea struck me to do a history notebook as sort of a scrapbook of all that he is studying this year. This has proved to be a great idea!
What makes this notebook so great is that Aidan does his best work on it since each item is part of a larger finished product! He enjoys showing his work to his grandparents and reading his reports to them. The other benefit is that it’s so open ended that I can cover many different skills as I see the need. We have done lists of American history spelling words (battle, colonist, convention, etc.). The spelling words are easy to come up with – I just read his writing and pick ones that he has spelled incorrectly! And at the end of the year, we’re going to have this great scrapbook of the work that Aidan did during his third grade year. I have a feeling that we’ll hang onto this one forever!
Here’s a closer look:
BOYS!
Baby Jonathan is a week old today! I can’t believe how fast it’s going – although the days seem long due to sleep deprivation! We’ve been thankful to have my mom here each day this week to help us out while I’m recovering from a c-section. Life with three boys doesn’t stop just because there’s a new baby and mom is out of commission for a while! In fact, Aidan actually invented today’s activity! I got out some pipe cleaners and our strainer (or colander, whatever you call it) so that Owen could play with them while the older boys did a little of their homeschool work.
Then, Aidan decided that he would like to use the pipe cleaners to make animals. I was totally surprised at how well the animals turned out and how long it kept the boys busy – in fact, they played with them for a long time again today!
And when we’re doing, we can bend the pipe cleaners into something else and use them again. Are you cooped up in the house? Maybe not for a new baby, but bad weather or sickness? What is keeping your boys busy? |
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