Finally, we’ve gotten into a groove with our schoolwork. Here’s a little of what we’re getting into this year:
Keeping a Plant Alive
Feeding the Venus Flytrap “Dion” has been an eye-opener. Did you know that cultivated Venus Flytraps turn black after they digest a bug? Yeah, neither did we.
So, we did a little more reading and found that digesting a bug takes a lot of energy (duh!) so we’ve moved him to a much sunnier spot. So we’ll see how subsequent fly-digesting goes.
The trap to the left of the blackened one has a fly in it now:
Catching flies vs just swatting them with a fly swatter has been quite interesting. I’ve got a system down though. I use a clear glass jar to sneak up onto the fly, then once I have that around him, push a notecard in between the jar and window/wall.
Putting it into the jar the Venus Flytrap is in is a little more precarious.
I turn the jar upside down and hold it in the bigger jar the plant is in, with the bigger jar’s top ready to go down as soon as the fly gets out of the smaller jar and I move that away quickly. So far, nobody has escaped…
DD’s Valentine Hoya has been positioned in its sunny spot as well. It needs a lot of light to photosynthesize as well as to grow those big leaves. The leaf is about 3.25 inches at its widest part!
It’s in a really small pot. Like most succulents, it does best slightly root-bound.
Our Spider Plants’ roots are growing nicely as well. It’s fun to see the roots through the clear tubes, they are so white and fuzzy!
Spelling/Vocabulary
Stump Your Mom! is going great. Last week was entertaining. The kids were so disappointed that I didn’t get all the words wrong! They tried hard. Haha – my secret plan for them to learn new words and dig into spelling is working great! 😉
Art
Art is going well – we’ve been learning about Van Gogh. I found this great pdf by ConfessionsOfAHomeschooler. I purchased all the needed resource books, and we’ve dived right in.
Here’s an unfinished version of Van Goghs’ “Bedroom at Arles” DD is working on. We’ve combined our love of chalk pastels (which we got into last year) with this year’s art-copy practice, and I think it looks great.
Math
For Math, we’re using Math U See this year. The kids are enjoying the videos and manipulatives that come with it. And I’m enjoying how well put together it is.
Reading
Narnia is going well – We just finished Prince Caspian and the kids watched the movie. They completed a page in their Reading Adventure Journal and both agreed that the book was WAY better than the movie. Isn’t that always the case?
We’ve jumped right into The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and we are using this book:
Roar! as a study guide with the book this time. It adds little tidbits of knowledge like the meanings of some of the words, and hints like C.S. Lewis loved mice and that is why Reepicheep is featured so often in the Chronicles.
We use SuperKids.com for a word of the day activity – A little copy work and creating a sentence example of your own to show understanding of the word.
Cursive
If you need cursive printables, there’s a great site that you can use to create pages that your kids can trace that say whatever you want. I’ve been using corny jokes for some of their work.
Why is the barn so noisy? Because the cows have horns!
I’m pleased with how the year is going. It’s a mesh of all things good, and we are enjoying ourselves (KNOCK ON WOOD RIGHT NOW!!). Seven years into this adventure called homeschooling and I finally feel at ease with my (lack of curriculum) choices.
I hope things in your neck of the woods are falling into place. What’s your favorite subject for the year so far?