Summer Learning: Vancouver Aquarium

School was still in session for those in public schools and so a sunny, weekday afternoon was the perfect opportunity to visit the Vancouver Aquarium before the summer crowds.  We were able to catch three presentations, and had a good view for all of them.

John's favourite was the Pacific White-sided Dolphin.

We also learned about Beluga whales, even getting a bit wet.  And lastly, we caught the presentation on seals and sea lions.

Then we went to the 4D theater for the show about salmon.  It was fantastic, highlighting all the animals that are dependent upon the salmon as well as the salmon life cycle and habitat.

On our way out we caught sight of the display with the giant Pacific octopus where he was hanging out on the glass - such a rare opportunity to see one out of the cave.  An aquarium employee was nearby and John engaged her in conversation about the octopus!

End of the Year

I'm finding it very ironic that the last time I posted was the beginning of the winter school term!  Our little school kept me very busy these last few months.  Nearly doubling our numbers, even for two days a week, made a significant difference to my days!

I always find at the end of the school year that I am both tired and very ready for a break but also excited about the coming year and making plans.  So this week, as I've been wrapping things up I've also been planning for the fall.  This past weekend I purchased our math, grammar and general reading for the coming  year and started getting notebooks  ready to use. Adding to my excitement is the further development of our Orthodox Homeschool Co-op and the new families.  I really love helping other families get started and this year is the most exciting ever as I approach entering UBC in September and received confirmation of a job with TLA the following September!

Back to School

This term our class has expanded to included Simon and Sina.  We are all really excited to have them join us two days a week.  The plan is to study grammar, reading, science, math and art together!  I think this will really help me to plan art lessons once a week and to (hopefully) do more hands-on science. 

 We are going to be working through Art Treasury for our art lessons.  The book presents famous paintings, gives a brief biography about the artist and information about the painting.  Then it gives instructions for a project based on the painting.  The projects are not exact replicas; they incorporate strategies used in the original.  This week the painting we looked at was Starry Night by Van Gogh.  The kids then created their own swirly landscape with acrylic paints.

Today we studied animal tracks and other traces of animal's presence and then went exploring to see if we could find any.  We found puppy tracks (Daisy) and our own tracks.  Although we had seen both the cat and squirrels in the yard earlier their tracks had either been covered in new snow or blended into the surroundings.

Pronouns

Simon came over to play today but I wasn't ready to release Gabe to play so after a short break I gathered them together for a language lesson.  We are going to start doing school together two days a week and Simon and Gabe are working through the same grammar book but Simon is a couple lessons behind.  So today I had Gabe do a few handwriting exercises while I taught Simon the lesson on pronouns.  Then they did the dictation exercise together and the above pronoun exercise on the whiteboard.

Bridge Building

We started an exciting new science unit this week -- bridges!  I had originally planned to cover this topic with just the boys but due to a delay in resources Lily has been able to join us. Lily completed a unit on electricity at the TLA Surrey campus and as I don't have any specifics planned for her this month she's joining in.  We had so much fun on Monday that we decided to invite Justin, Simon and Sina to join us for the rest of the unit.
Lily reviewed some bridge building basics with everyone while I made playdoh --one of our building materials for today.

Lily and Justin testing the strength of their bridge

John and Sina retired to the living room for a game of chess after building part of a bridge with playdoh.

We learning about "The Amazing Arch" today and built (or began to build) bridges from two different materials.  They first made piers, beams and arches from the playdoh.  These are still drying out in the oven.  Then moved on to building a cofferdam from popsicle sticks (it didn't quite work out).  Then onto building arched bridges with cardboard and comparing the same bridge with and without abutments.

Here is the book that we're using, Bridge! Amazing Structures to Design, Build & Test  Don't be deceived by the childish cover-- it covers the topic in depth!

Gabriel and Math

As we pulled out math today, Gabe started grumbling.  So I decided that it might be a good idea to find out if he just didn't want to do math or if there was some other reason that we could find a solution for.  Turns out that he's bored.  I have been aware that he can pretty much do his math without help and I haven't had to actually teach him a lesson for awhile but I've been reluctant to just jump ahead.  So I found an assessment about 25 lesson ahead of where we are and worked through it with him today.  The examples above are just two of the questions.  We worked out the problems on the white board so that I could see that he actually understood the math.  The only part of the assessment I knew he wouldn't be able to answer from memory were the multiplying by seven equations.  However, I do know that he understands multiplication and he knows how to find the answer.  Those particular facts just haven't been memorized yet.  So, following today's lesson we agreed to jump ahead in his math book (from lesson 35 to lesson 60) but that we'll need to focus on memorizing the times 7 facts.

Water Wheel Experiment

Gabe really likes experiments and crafts so I'm making an effort to do more of both and let him choose an experiment.
This was easy and fun!  Afterwards we watched some videos on how water wheels are used and the development of their technology.