Ok, so I am actually posting two days in a row! WOW! Actually, I wanted to include some photos and lessons that we have done, but wanted the post separate from my learning experience yesterday.
First let me say that being able to incorporate so many fun and hands on projects really brings so much to the lessons. Not only is it fun, but it's engaging my son in a way that he is thinking about what he learning outside of 'school time'.
The second week of school we learned about the 5 senses. Each day that week we learned about a sense and usually had some kind of experiment/project that went with it. For sight he was blindfolded and had to find his way through the house, we also did the objects on the tray where he had to tell what they were blindfolded. For touch, we found samples all through the house of things with different textures and added them to our 'hand' paper. For hearing we used a Foley site and I played samples for him and he had to tell what the sound was. Smell was more discussion than action. Neither of us are into having to smell something unpleasant, lol. And for taste I had drawn out a diagram of the tongue with all of the areas of taste and what each area tasted. We did taste tests of different things and wrote them on the tongue where we thought they were being tasted.
At the end of the second week of school I wanted to treat him to something special because he'd been doing so well. The Amazing Spiderman 2 was coming out that weekend and my son is a Spiderman Freak!! I made plans to take him to the neighboring town, (we live in a small rural town and don't have our own theater,) to catch the movie that Saturday afternoon. After, we stopped at the DQ, (They also have the only DQ I know of anywhere around and I was craving a peanut buster parfait. Hadn't had one in years.) to have a late lunch and ice cream. As we are eating he is trying to figure out which part of his tongue is tasting which of his foods. I felt so pleased and excited that our lessons were sticking with him and that he was using them in everyday situations!!
This week we've been doing 'The Moon'. The moon has always caught his attention so I figured that it would be one he enjoyed. We've read a couple books, did a couple projects (and aren't done yet) and have had in depth discussions (well, in depth for a six year old anyway.)
This was our moon craft project. I'm always getting ideas off from pintrest to do my lessons and I ran across a pin for 'puffy moon paint' when it dries it's supposed to resemble the moon's surface. I figured we'd give that a try. I used a circle cut out from black foam board (readily found at the local dollar store-yes, we actually have one of those, lol) and the 'paint'. The paint was 1/4 cup white school glue and 3/4 cup shaving cream mixed together well. I dumped it in the middle of our circle and as you can see, he had a blast spreading it over it.
This what it looks like dried. I really think it looks like the moon. Hills and craters, light and dark. I was rather impressed with it. Of course you could have added more I suppose and had more of a 3-d (ness) to it, but I was happy with the way ours turned out.
We also did a visual to help understand how the earth rotates and orbits the sun (causing day/night) and how the moon orbits the earth (causing the moon phases.)
He loved this simple project that simply used colored paper and paper fasteners. Every night he has to get up and look at the moon out the window and try to figure out what position the moon is in according to his paper model.
Another source I use a lot to supplement our lessons is YouTube. There are awesome kids learning vids and songs to go with almost any topic you can think of. I keep the lap top on the table and when we're running short on material to cover our 'time' for the subject, (Got to keep the board of education happy and get the full amount of minutes to cover a unit.) we jump on the internet and find a video or song to supplement what we are doing. It also comes in handy for when my son asks a topic related question that Mommy has no clue about. Like when we were discussing presidents and George Washington being the first president and I get the question 'Who was the second president?' Ummm....who was the second president? (Anything social studies was my nemesis is school.) Google...here I come. I can proudly say now that John Adams was our second president, (just don't ask me who was 3rd!)
It's definitely proving to be a wonderful experience. Seeing the educational growth and knowing that I am part of that is an unbelievable feeling. I think I look forward to some of our projects and lessons even more than him. I know I enjoy sharing them with anyone that will listen.
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