Thursday, July 30, 2009

Bee Unit Study

The boys were really excited the other day when Pa-pa & Grammy gave them a bee's hive. We ended up keeping it for about a week, and then it started to mold so we had to throw it away. It was so fun to study it!
It was very fascinating because the queen bee was right on top of it, and you could see eggs and worker bees on and in it as well. Unfortunately I didn't get a good picture of it but it looked a lot like the one here----> click this link.

Because of this experience, Justin told me he wanted to do a study about bees. Great idea since this would epitomize life-integrated learning!

I decided we should do it in note-book (scrap-booking style). We hope to including copy-work, work sheets, essays, pictures, dictations, art work, and whatever else we decide to add. I have already collected a lot of resources to use throughout the upcoming weeks.

Justin said he is making TWO of them (One that is directed by me and the other to make "however he wants it".) :-)

Today we read an introduction to our unit study, and then we proceeded to create the covers and artwork for their notebooks.

They drew & cut out several pictures before a decision was made on the final product. You can click any of them to see a closer picture.


Ryan enjoys cutting and pasting. Of course he is at the perfect age for this.
You gotta hold your mouth just right. I caught him sticking his tongue out a couple of times, but couldn't get it on film fast enough.
He animates just about everything he draws. If you look closely, you can see smiling clouds and a smiling sun.


Justin did not want to use the bee the other two boys used (too cutesy, I think), so he drew his own bees.


Here Justin is drawing a "killer bee" for his very own "separate notebook." (you can click the picture to see his drawing up close and the copybook nearby.)


I am looking forward to seeing the final products, yet I am anticipating enjoying each moment as we learn together.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Famous People who Were Homeschooled

Very encouraging!

Educators

    Frank Vandiver (President - Texas A&M)
    Fred Terman (President - Stanford)
    William Samuel Johnson (President Columbia)
    John Witherspoon (President of Princeton)

Generals

    Stonewall Jackson
    Robert E. Lee
    Douglas MacArthur
    George Patton

Inventors

    Alexander Graham Bell
    Thomas Edison
    Cyrus McCormick
    Orville Wright & Wilbur Wright

Artists

    Claude Monet
    Leonardo da Vinci
    Jamie Wyeth
    Andrew Wyeth
    John Singleton Copley

Presidents

    George Washington
    Thomas Jefferson
    John Quincy Adams
    James Madison
    William Henry Harrison
    John Tyler
    Abraham Lincoln
    Theordore Roosevelt
    Woodrow Wilson
    Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Scientists

    George Washington Carver
    Pierre Curie
    Albert Einstein
    Booker T. Washington
    Blaise Pascal

Statesmen

    Konrad Adenauer
    Winston Churchill
    Benjamin Franklin
    Patrick Henry
    William Penn
    Henry Clay

United States Supreme Court Judges

    John Jay
    John Marshall
    John Rutledge

Composers

    Irving Berlin
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
    Anton Bruckner
    Felix Mendelssohn
    Francis Poulenc

Writers

    Hans Christian Anderson
    Charles Dickens
    Brett Harte
    Mark Twain
    Sean O'Casey
    Phillis Wheatley
    Mercy Warren
    Pearl S. Buck
    Agatha Christie
    C.S. Lewis
    George Bernard Shaw

Religious leaders

    Joan of Arc
    Brigham Young
    John & Charles Wesley
    Jonathan Edwards
    John Owen
    William Cary
    Dwight L. Moody
    John Newton

Others

Charles Chaplin - Actor
George Rogers Clark - Explorer
Andrew Carnegie - Industrialist
Noel Coward - Playwright
John Burroughs - Naturalist
Bill Ridell - Newspaperman
Will Rogers - Humorist
Albert Schweitzer - Physician
Tamara McKinney - World Cup Skier
Jim Ryan - World Runner
Ansel Adams - Photographer
Charles Louis Montesquieu - philosopher
John Stuart Mill - Economist
John Paul Jones - father of the American Navy
Florence Nightingale - nurse
Clara Barton - started the Red Cross
Abigail Adams - wife of John Adams
Martha Washington - wife of George W.
Constitutional Convention Delegates
George Washington - 1st President of the U.S.
James Madison - 4th President of the U.S.
John Witherspoon - President of Princeton U.
Benjamin Franklin - inventor and statesman
William S. Johnson - President of Columbia C.
George Clymer - U.S. Representative
Charles Pickney III - Governor of S. Carolina
John Francis Mercer - U.S. Representative
George Wythe - Justice of Virginia High Court
William Blount - U.S. Senator
Richard D. Spaight - Governor of N. Carolina
John Rutledge - Chief Justice U.S. Supr Court
William Livingston - Governor of New Jersey
Richard Basset - Governor of Delaware
William Houston - lawyer
William Few - U.S. Senator
George Mason

Monday, July 20, 2009

Dictation

Dictation is a great way to improve attentiveness, spelling, penmanship, and grammar. We are using Benjamin Franklin's quotes.

Today we used:
  • "A penny saved is a penny earned."
  • "A good conscience is a continual Christmas."

Bending bones

I meant to post the results of what happened to the bones soaking in vinegar.

The chicken bones obviously bent, but the deer bone only softened. It would probably need quite a bit more time to soak since the deer bones were so hard.
The reason this works is because vinegar is an acid, and dissolves the calcium and magnesium in bones. You could actually see powdery stuff in the bottom of the bowl at the end of the week. Fun experiment!