Unit 6 Bigger and Creation to Christ

Bigger

There weren't as many notable projects this week, I felt.  It did make for a long week since Bean quickly became tired of doing "regular" work.  Hopefully next week goes back to a good balance between the necessary reading/writing work and fun activities.  I'll admit that we did leave out one project.  Perhaps just that one project made the difference.

We did not do the painting project that involved using different fruit juices (day 4).  I could not justify purchasing containers of orange, apple, grape, and lemon juice just to do a painting that I couldn't imagine would turn out well.  Bean was a little disappointed to lose the artistic project of the week, but she recovered quickly.

Also, this was the first week that we started a new spelling curriculum.  For Bean, I chose to use a Christian Liberty Press spelling book that I happened to already have on hand.  Although Building Spelling Skills: Book 2 is technically a 2nd grade textbook, I felt it was a good starting point for where she's at now.  Since spelling is tied with visual memory, and that is something she's getting help with at her occupational therapy, I do not want to make it too difficult for her.

This was a fun activity! To see how well she could have competed with William Penn, a Quaker who enjoyed playing jumping games, we took measurements of her leaps.  I think her gymnastic classes gave her the edge! LOL

This week Bean learned that is took some trial and error to discover which things were effective medicine.  I'm not sure how anyone could ever think that pine cones would remove wrinkles, but I doubt it took many trials for them to figure out it was ineffective!

The supplies to illustrate how the body fights off infection and forms an immunity to disease.

Eventually people did learn that our bodies have the ability to kill some viruses and bacteria and even protect us from getting it again.  Since Bean is more interested in the human body than any other aspect of science right now, she found this extremely intriguing.

The Storytime box on day 3 calls for 10 or more hot air balloon baskets to be drawn ascending on a piece of paper.  I created this document to use and want to share it with you all.  I've never shared a document before, so if it doesn't work, please let me know right away.  You can click here to download it from Google Docs.

I also created this Benjamin West paint palette as called for on day 5.  You can click here to download this document from Google Docs.  Again, please let me know if you have any difficulty obtaining this.

Creation to Christ

Bug made a column like that found in Egypt at the Temple of Karnak.  A trick we discovered to help while decorating was to stick an empty toilet paper tube inside.  That gave it good stability so she was able to do the drawings.

A week learning about primates wouldn't be my favorite week of science, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much Bug learned.  It became evident one night as the family was watching the TV show Cash Cab.  The bonus question included a video of an Aye Aye and asked the contestant what kind of animal was being shown.  Bug jumped off the couch and shouted, "I know this! That's an Aye Aye!"  I was as proud of her as she was of herself! :)

Science also explored the topic of depth perception and its importance to both humans and primates.  Sorry for my shadow in the picture! I'm not a spectacular photographer by any means.  Here Bug first estimated the distance from where she was standing to the car.  Then Bean helped her to do the actual measurement. 

I loved this week's painting! The background colors go together beautifully and the fireflies scattered across the page are so cute.  However, we did have to talk about what trees look like! I think we'll see better branches in future paintings.

I knew some of the reasons behind each plague that God sent to the Egyptians, but it was nice to learn the significance behind each one of them.  It really helped Bug to make sense of this situation, too.

All in all, another great week of Heart of Dakota!