Math Fact Recall

When we were doing our dynamic addition/subtraction I noticed that DD6 worked out each step of her sum rather that recalling number facts. I did drill with DD8 when she was younger but DD6 isn't overly fond of drills so I put my thinking cap on and remembered some number bond cards I'd seen previously.

As you know I've just done some ladybug cards with DD4 for number recognition so decided to use the same and created the number bond to 10 cards (available on the download page). Once she has mastered these facts I'll move onto doubles and subtraction facts and post those cards when we've done them.

Human Body Unit

We have spent a fun couple of months studying the body - all the girls have joined in and made their own body and the older 2 have written up the experiments and activities.

We loosely based our lesson plan on this book My Body - teacher created resources the basic idea is you draw an outline of the body and stick on pictures of the organs, muscles and skeleton. Each organ picture comes with an explanation. This was a good base line to start from and for younger kids it would have been enough but we are working with older girls as well so we added different experiments/activities and did some additional research using various books and Brainpop

Our activities:
Brain - looked at a walnut to show what a brain looks like and how it is encased in a hard shell (skull). Pre-recorded an excellent documentary called 'How our brain works' BBC which we watched and discussed. It used CGI to show which parts of the brain reacted in different circumstances and how our brain can trick us.

Heart - heaving heart kit from Horrible Science - this activity shows how the heart valves operate, was messy but fun.
Also did some heart rate activities - using a stethoscope to count heart beats for 30 secs resting and after exercise. Finished with a circulatory animation from Brainpop.

Kidneys - turn away if you are queasy - the girls asked for a real kidney they could dissect.

Followed this up with drawing a kidney and a diagram of the urinary system.

(DD4's effort)

We discussed how kidneys filter our blood and used a coffee filter to filter sand from water.

Spleen/Pancreas/Gall Bladder - couldn't come up with any :(

Skeleton - used some chicken bones, snapped one in half and looked at the marrow and structure of the bone alongside a great animation from Brainpop.

The favourite old standby of popping a bone in vinegar to remove the calcium and being left with a bendy bone. Various games to identify the bones and their names. The younger girls also made plasticine people around toothpick skeletons to enforce the concept of the skeletons providing structure to our bodies.

Reproductive Organs - watched a great documentary showing the stages of foetal development in animals - showed the sperm meeting the egg, the eggs journey to the womb and the fetuses growth.

Muscles - relied on Brainpop for this one as the animation shows how muscles work in pairs, one contracting whilst the other relaxes, to create movement. We did ask them to hold their leg and identify which muscle caused the leg to bend and which caused the leg to straighten. After this I asked them to guess which muscle would bend or straighten their arms based on what they had learned from their legs.

Stomach - another great activity kit from Horrible Science - Sick Stomach. as you can guess we made our own vomit  :(  it even smelled realistic!
For those willing to try the recipe is 50ml water, 50ml milk (together they represent mucin in saliva) half a mashed banana, half a carrot (finely chopped), 1 digestive biscuit, vinegar and 1 teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda.

Once we placed the mix in the stomach we squeezed the sides (to mimic your stomach muscles) to my horror the mix started foaming out of the top - took this opportunity to introduce the topic of heart burn - once we had left the mixture for 1/2 hour we could 'sick' out our vomit and examine it - lead to an interesting discussion on chyme (been in you stomach for 4 hours) and colours of vomit (green/yellow usually coloured by Bile and a sign of a gut blockage whereas black can be a sign of yellow fever - or too much cola)

Small & Large Intestine - used a 1.5m piece of thick rope (woolen belt) and a 7m piece of wool to explain the size difference and asked which they thought was the large intestine and why. Also watched another great animation from Brainpop.

(we also took this out in the garden to comapre the lengths but didn't manage to get a photo)

Liver - another dissection.

Lungs - created our own 'lungs in a bottle'. A very simple activity to show the importance of our diaphragm in breathing. Basically its 2 balloons attached to bendy straws inserted into half a plastic bottle, a further balloon is stretched over the base of the bottle to act as the diaphragm. the child is asked to blow in the straws to inflate the lungs which is really hard to do, when they realise that it can't be done they are asked to push the diaphragm in and out and see what happens to the lungs - when the diaphragm moves the air pressure is forced in and out of the lungs inflating or deflating them and breathing is mimicked.(this only works if the aparatus is airtight so use a sturdy bottle and plenty of blue tac to cover any gaps)

Skin/Eyes/Ears/Nose/Tongue - relied on the usual senses experiments.

To finish we spent some time talking about how to care for our bodies - sleep habits, food etc. and watched a couple more animations from Brainpop - the girls favourite was 'Bogies'  (need I say more?!?) and mine was 'The Human Body' which discussed each system and how it interrelates.

Homeschool Mothers Jurnal

In my life this week...
My chickens have started laying again - it makes me so happy to see my 2 little eggs each day.

In our homeschool this week...

We've been having a desperate race to finish our human body unit - there were to many additional activities they wanted to do. By far the worst was when DD8 decided she wanted to see a real kidney and cut it up (my cousin is a nurse and was telling the girls about various dissections she had done in her training - suppose I should be glad they decided against the heart)

Places we're going and people we're seeing...

Next week we are off to the Roman museums to finish our history unit - can't wait to walk on the Roman wall in Chester :)

My favorite thing this week was...

DH volunteered to do school on Fri giving me a much needed day off (admittedly I did use it to catch up on work and planning - seems I've forgotten how to relax)

What's working/not working for us...

Just bought the 'more Greek and Latin roots' book and can't wait to try it.

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...

Do you have any taboo topics in home school?
DD8 was reading a history book and wanted to know what 'Holocaust' meant, I really didn't want to share that with her until she was older. I have given her Anne Franks diary and told her to read that while I take time to think of a way to break it all gently to her.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share...
This week I have had to keep reminding myself of a quote from Maria Montessori
'Never help a child with a task at which she feels she can succeed'
Especially hard when you know you can get their shoes and coats on faster than they can !

Science Curriculum Giveaway

A creative in-depth encounter with natural science from a biblical perspective.

This is a great science curriculum. It is choc full of activities and makes learning really good fun.

We have thoroughly enjoyed this set so I thought it would be nice to share it with you.

I love this manual because it is written to cover grades 2 – 7, all the lessons can be adapted for different ages/levels within the home school setting and every activity we have done from this curriculum has been requested again and again by the girls (they even use the detective sheets during their 'free play' time - What better recommendation than that?)

The giveaway will be for one lucky family to receive the Considering God's Creation set.
This consists of:

Teacher Manual - All preparation is clearly outlined for each lesson and includes Bible references, suggested experiments/activities, a scripted lesson (with questions and answers), notebook activities and tips/suggestions for further study.

Student Book - This makes up the notebook section and is reproducible. I absolutely adore the detective pages (covering solar system, rocks, clouds, flowers, trees, insects, animals etc) where with careful observation and questioning you can correctly identify an object – a great tool for teaching scientific observation.

Song CD – fun way to learn scientific facts – lyrics included

Giveaway information:

• This giveaway will close 20^th March 22:00 GMT and the winner will be announced on Mon 21^st March. 

• You are allowed a maximum of 2 entries. You can enter as follows: 

1. Become a follower and leave a comment on this giveaway (existing followers just need to leave a comment)
2. Subscribe via email and leave a comment on this giveaway (existing subscribers just need to leave a comment)
3. Blog about this giveaway and leave a comment to let me know
4. Place my button on your blog and leave a comment to let me know

• Winner will be chosen by random.org
• Please make sure you leave a way for me to contact you in your entry.
• This is a world wide giveaway

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Number recognition

DD4 has been working on number recognition.

This is one of her favourite puzzles - she has to line the numbers up in order and then find the right picture to go with it.
She loves ladybugs so I put together a quick game for her - she has to count the number of spots on each ladybug and use a peg to cover the correct number (again more bugs). Available on my download page.

Yes she is in her PJ's - she liked it so much she decided to play it again just before bed : )