Zoology - Ocean box

For Science this year, we are doing Apologia's Zoology 2 - Swimming Creatures of the 5th Day. Back in September, I showed you our ocean box that we are creating as we go through this study, adding the different animals that we learn about. I wanted to share what it looks like now. We aren't finished with it yet - still have 3 or 4 more chapters.

You can see the dolphin and blue whale from the first picture. We have added a seal on top, a gray shark in the middle, the far left is a manta ray, and the right is a sea turtle with a giant squid behind. On the ocean floor is a snail, crab, octopus, clam and sting ray. On the back (behind the whale) are schools of fish.

This is such a fun way to apply what we have learned by using our creativity.

M is for Melody

We did the M is for Melody free unit study from homeschoolshare. The boys learned many new things about music, musical instruments and reading music. It was an enjoyable study. I just love all the "alphabet" books there are out there. So much information, but fun to read.

We learned all about the brass instruments and how long they would stretch if they were straightened up.
Here are the 3 B composers - Bach, Beethoven and Brahms.

The instrument families - Woodwinds (which most aren't wood anymore), Brass, Strings, Keyboards, Electronic (which is new since I was in school), and percussion.

They've been learning some about the piano already, so this went great with what we were already doing.



This one is Nicolas's acrostic. And below is Alex's.

Welcome!

Ever since my last blogging home changed formats, I have been unhappy with the way I must write and design the posts. I started this new blog several months ago, but have been reluctant to use it until I could get my old posts moved over. Today a friend told me how to do it, so I've officially made the move. Welcome to our new home!

Into the Wardrobe co-op class

Alex is taking a class called "Into the Wardrobe". They are reading C.S. Lewis's book "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and discussing the parallelisms to the Bible. Here are a few pictures from that class:


They made and tried Turkish Delight.


Here is the entire class listening to the audio book. They follow along in their books.

In the book, the witch turns people to stone statues, so they played a game. Someone got to pose the others into whatever they wanted their statues to look like.

Lego Building class

For co-op this semester, Nicolas is taking the Lego Building class. They have the first 45 minutes of class to build whatever they would like - taking any challenges that are available, if they want to. The last part of class is for show and tell time. They are focusing on one part of the public speaking aspect each week - speaking loudly, asking for questions, introductions, etc. Here are some of his creations so far:


He made men snowboarding and skiing.



A tank


He and a friend, Justin, combined to make a Wii - complete with remotes, game system, games and the Wii logo.



A man