Summer School Week 7

Clearly, the Summer is long over, but I wanted to post the last two weeks of our field notes as we did actually do them, but I didn't have time to post them.  I'm only posting them for my own record keeping sake.  

Week 7 Field Notes 

Bird Call: Gold Finch 

Classical Music: Haydn's No. 94 in G Maj. (the Surprise) and Piano Sonata in D Maj. - The kids cracked up everytime we played the "Surprise Song", very fun.  I also have a Juni quote about the Piano Sonata, "This song reminds me of the birds in the tree in that picture, of our family and how much we love each other."  Awww!

Picture Study:  Renoir, "Luncheon of the boating party"

Animal: Wildcats - Here's a Nat'l Geographic video on wildcats

Insect: Beetles - Here's a video showing some beautiful tropical beetles and one on Hercules Beetles

Flower: Daisy - I made flashcards for our flowers this week and below is one of the pictures I used for the daisy!  I printed the pictures I'd collected, cut them out and taped them to flashcards.  They await a trip to Staples for laminating.  I did two of every kind of flower so they can play games with them and also to show different views of each flower - close up and farther away, open or shut and different colors of a flower.

Tree: Chestnut - We have some chestnuts our neighbor gave us, so we'll have to roast them and find the tree in their yard.  

Fungi:Shaggy Mane

 

Rocks: Basalt - "The ugly one"

Constellation: Gemini - The Twins

Dinosaur: Apatosaurus

American Sign Language: Reviewed ABCs

Sea Life:  Oysters  - Here's a Discover video that covers the oyster basics!

Biography: George Washington

Fiction Summer Must Reads: The Random House Book of Humour

Summer School Week 6

Week 6 Field Notes

Bird Call:  Blue Jay

Classical Music: Vivaldi Fall Allegro and Winter - To help differentiate the four seasons, we've been talking about parts of the songs that remind us of things to do with that season.  Sometimes I'll tell a story about Ez and June running around the backyard playing in the snow shivering like the music.

Picture Study:  Monet, Venice Twilight

Animal: Cows

Insect: Ant - A very good book by David Suzuki called, Looking at Insects, gave us cool ideas for science projects related to different bugs.  For ants he tells you how to make your own ant farm in a jar. 

Flower: Lily

We celebrated the lily by filling one with whipped cream and eating it.  It doesn't taste like much of anything, but it was a great means of eating whipped cream.

Tree: Birch

Fungi: Morel

Rocks: Granite

Constellation: Cygnus, the Swan 

Dinosaur: Ankylosaurus

American Sign Language: Reviewed ABCs

Sea Life:  Tuna - Did you know that tuna fish can grow indefinitely?  One video we watched talked about tuna fish bigger than dolphins!!  

Biography: Louis Braille

Fiction Summer Must Reads: James Herriot's Treasury for Children - still lovin' it!

Summer School Week 5

Week 5 Field Notes
At the start of the week I make this list out here on my blog and spend a few minutes looking up fun things on-line to do.  Then throughout the week when we need something fun to do (read: When the kids want to watch TV or play video games and I don't want them to), I get on-line with them and we pull up the post for this week.  Then I'm not searching for good videos with them right there begging to watch ones I don't want to waste our time with.   At the end of the week I go through and add notes about what we actually did and didn't do for record keeping.  Then it gets published.  So, I'm using this blog for my own strange on-line record keeping and organizational purposes.

Bird Call:  Mourning Dove

Classical Music: Vivaldi Spring and  Summer Presto

Picture Study:  Monet, "Madame Monet and her Son"

Animal: Horse - Here's a video from Nat'l Geo. on them

Insect: Praying Mantis - Three Nat'l Geo. vids on this bug: The bug, what they eat, and reproduction

Flower: Lilac - A coloring page

Tree: Buckeye Tree - Nice informational page

Fungi: Green Spored Lepiota - 

Rocks: Gabbro

Constellation: Canis Major - I'm so happy I found this treasure!  It's ready to print constellation flashcards!!  

Dinosaur: Velociraptor - Read a book from the library

American Sign Language: W-Z

Sea Life: Clam - This was the best video we found:  giant clams.  Also, this guy is too funny, had to include his video on how to hunt for clams in Florida.  Printed out our on-line colored clams!  

Biography: Daniel Boone

Fiction Summer Must Reads: James Herriot's, "A Children's Treasury" - WE LOVE THIS!