Weekly Update February 7-11, 2010

We are still working on getting back on track, since our few sick weeks.

 Everyone went back to swim team practice, and are ready for the swim-a-thon tomorrow.   Everyone has a goal of swimming 1 mile each.    Together as a team, their goal is to swim from here to Chicago---2,073 miles.

Memory Work this Week:
Locating states and identifying their abbreviations
Reciting Jonathan Bing
Facts about the sensory system

Math this Week:
E-R and I-E  worked on percentages
E worked on Graphing Linear Equations and Inequalities

English this Week:
With E-R and I-E I had to back up and review direct objects and predicate nominatives.    It seems all the information about these two topics have left their not-so-little heads!    They are also having a bit of trouble remembering the different cases of pronouns.    Instead of piling on more info, we've slowed way down and are working on memorizing what we've already covered.    E is doing fine and we continue learning about the different cases of pronouns---the latest being demonstrative case.   E has also been working on his vocabulary, word roots, prefixes, and suffixes.   Everyone has also been working in their Critical Thinking Books.

Writing this Week:
E has conveniently lost his Windows to the World book, so instead he was assigned a report on castles.   He didn't finish it, but will be doing that tomorrow morning!   I may have to wade into the dreaded and feared boys' room to find the book myself!   E-R and I-E are getting ready for their writing test coming up in March.    This week they completed a persuasive paragraph.

Spelling this Week:
We did it! 

Lit this Week:
E-R and I-E started reading The Family Under the Bridge.    I am reading The Great and Terrible Quest aloud.   This book was a favorite of N and A-M and is proving to be quite popular again!

History and Science didn't happen much this week.   Instead, we concentrated on getting ready for our MacBeth performance.    We put together our costumes and worked with the director's notes to get ready for Friday's practice.    E is working very hard on getting ALL those lines memorized, and if I may say so---is looking good in his kilt!  E-R did finish her Story of Western Civilization Middle Ages Workbook.   I-E read chapter 32 in SOTW volume 2 and took the corresponding test.

All in all this week wasn't as productive as I had hoped, but we're heading in the right direction.   How did your week go?

School Week Janaury 31-February 4, 2011

What Happened This Week

• Sleeping In
• Watching International House Hunters
• Napping
• Reading The Samurai's Tale
• Napping
• Writing a Paragraph about something that could be changed
• Napping
• Eating of the Corn Dogs
• Napping
• Reading The Great and Terrible Quest
• and then some more Napping

Things We Didn't Do

• Math
• Science
• Memory Work
• English
• Spelling
• Getting up at a reasonable hour
• Swimming
• Being Upright for any length of time

We have been sick at our house.    I think the kids have a virus that I had three weeks ago.   E-R and I-E fell ill last Thursday.   N and A-M were struck down on Friday.  E was the last man down on Saturday.    Monday was an official day off, but the rest of the week was a sick week.    Although I would never want my kids to be sick, it was kinda nice that we had a quiet week together.   No pressure to get things done.    No running 5 different places.    Makes me kinda think what I can do to slow things down on a regular basis.    





Joy Hakim's The Story of Science Teacher's and Student's Quest Guide Review

Joy Hakim's History of Science is a series of well-written books that follows the story of science throughout history. Although the books by themselves are an excellent read, the Teacher's and Student's  Quest Guides combine with the books to make a complete science program.


The Teacher's Quest Guide is the meat of the program chock full of information, helps, and lesson plans to teach the science concepts introduced in The History of Science book. It divides the forty chapters of Newton at the Center into seven units. Each unit starts with an introduction for the teacher with background information, a materials list, and the National Science Education Standards covered. Next the unit divides five to seven chapters of The History of Science into seven lessons.

Each lesson starts with an introduction to the theme of the chapter with a quote from a scientist and a cartoon which visually expresses the theme. Underneath the theme the goals for the lesson are listed. Then comes the who, where, and when of the chapter. Also listed is the what of the chapter which is a list of vocabulary words.  Consider the Quotation follows.. This sections instructs students to read the theme quote and to rewrite the quote into their own words and also includes background information about the theme quote for the teacher. Next comes the Directed Reading section giving information to the teacher on the main ideas covered in the chapter. At this point the lessons vary in what comes next. But they all include at least one of the following and often more than one. Classwide Activities are activities meant to be completed as a class to demonstrate ideas presented in the reading. Cooperative Team Learning and You Be the Scientist are hands-on activities and labs that are meant to be completed in small groups or individually. These are introduced in the Teacher's Quest Guide, but the actual instructions for the activities are in the Student's Quest Guides. Next all the lessons have a conclusion which covers discussion points about the activities. Every lesson includes writing assignments in the form of a homework assignments. These assignments vary and include dialogue between two scientist, newspaper article memorializing scientists, further research about inventions, and many other ideas to cement the concepts with writing. After the homework assignment  Curriculum Links  list ideas to connect the concepts learned in The History of Science with what else was going on in the world during that same time. The different curriculum links are history, language arts, art, music, and geography, Two other curriculum links are a little different. The Science links share how the science concepts read about relate to science today. The Math links suggest projects which are useful in cementing math used in science.

After these seven lessons, a lesson is scheduled to prepare students for an assessment. Each unit gives at least three choices of assessments. Assessment suggestions run the gamat from pulling together a scene, creating a song or rap, writing an essay, creating a poster tracing the history of scientist's understanding of certain science concepts throughout history, creating a game, creating a science hall of fame to a traditional assessment which is included in every unit. The traditional assessment includes multiple choice and short answer questions along with essay questions. Of course, answers are included for the traditional assessments, but the information that should be covered in the other choices is also listed for the teacher.

At the end of each unit is an appendix. The appendix is full of images meant to copied for use in the classroom. It includes pictures of scientist with caption balloons, name of scientist,and the years he lived. There is one of these for most lessons. A few lessons have more than one. These are meant to be used during the Consider the Quote portion of the lesson. The caption balloons are there to fill in with the theme in the student's own words. Each chapter also has a full page science cartoon which shows the concept taught in each chapter in picture form. Next are the activity sheets needed to complete the Classwide Activities. Ballads covering the scientist and concepts taught in the units follow the activities sheets. Next is the information needed to review for the assessments. Last is the traditional assessment and the answers for the all of the assessments. 

The Teacher's Quest Guide ends with a Whole-Book Assessment Unit. This unit covers review of all the concepts taught throughout The Story of the History of Science and includes three different options for assessment.

The Student Quest Guide follows some of the format of the Teacher's Quest Guide. Each lesson starts with a Theme, Who, What, Where, When, Science cartoon, and a Picture of Scientist with caption balloon, After these introductions to the chapter, the Student Quest Guide includes all the lab sheets needed for the Cooperative Team Learning and the You Be the Scientist Labs.

This curriculum is written for the classroom, but I have found it to be a great fit for homeschooling. The many different activities fit all different learning styles. It has worked well with all of my children working together. This would work well as a core curriculum.  Of course the founding and discovery of science concepts are included, but if you choose to use all of the resources included in the Quest Guides this could work well to cover art, music, writing, research skills, and real life application of math.    If this is not your core curriculum, you can NOT do everything crammed into this curriculum!   About half of my children's Student's Quest Guides are empty.   That's okay!   They still do a ton of hands-on activities and labs.   I enjoy the Theme, Who, What, Where, and When sections.   I also adore the assessments.    I like to use the traditional assessments, but we also have utilized many of the alternative assessments.   My children took great joy in creating a conversation between the great minds of Aristotle, Galileo, and Copernicus.   That assessment suggestion had them researching each scientist, writing out dialogue, working together, and performing their parts while learning how these scientist differed in their beliefs about how the world worked.   My children's favorite part is the end of unit ballad.     With great gusto they have memorized each one.

I have always heard great acclaim for Joy Hakim's The Story of Science books.   But to be honest, until I found the Quest Guides, mine sat on the shelf untouched.    They included great stories;  I just didn't know what to do with them.    I didn't have enough science knowledge to make them into a science class.    I didn't understand Boyle's law and the historical events happening at the time enough to whip up a cool demonstration to illustrate it and  a lab to further cement  both the law and how it applies to science today.  And that is the brilliance of the Quest Guides.   They add the information I need to teach the science included in the wonderful stories told in The Story of Science books.  

I used Newton at the Center Quest Guides for this review.   Aristotle Leads the Way also has Quest Guides available.   Currently, Quest Guides are not available for the newest addition to the series,  Einstein Adds a New Dimension, but they are in development.    Quest Guides can be purchased through Smithsonian Publishing as well as other sources.  

Be sure to check out other reviews at Homeschool Curriculum Review Round-Up   

 




  

Where the Heck Have I Been?

The short answer----not here!  

The long answer---I have been busy!    Life is so full right now.   We have been working on college applications, swim team,  a MacBeth performance, school, and life!  

The good news---I've decided to make it a New Year's Resolution to get back on here and journal our home school  journey.    I will have a different blog to journal my exeryday thoughts and happpenings.   

Today, We Learned Punctuation Can Save Lives!

"Let's eat Grandma!"   

No, no, not so tasty!  

 "Let's eat, Grandma!"