Out of this World

Inspired by a Cincinnati Park District class on constellations at the Planetarium, we decided to revisit space (the final frontier) this week. Space is one of those topics that we have a LOT of resources on, meaning no trips to the library were needed. This was a good thing, as there is way too much happening around here right now, so the less complicated the lesson planning is, the better.

Lest you think I am kidding, here is what I pulled out of our schoolroom the Sunday before we started this topic. As in, we OWN all these things:

I took a democratic approach to lesson planning this week, and let AJ sort through all the resources and decide what he wanted to study first. We did a space unit last year (or maybe it was the year before), so certain things were old news. Space exploration, constellations, and black holes seemed to be the most interesting this time around.

 

 

It might have been the constellation class the week before, but he was quite taken with learning all the names and stories of various constellations.

H.A. Rey, of Curious George fame, has a lovely book that describes all the constellations, how they got their names, and where to find them in the night sky at various times of year. This book alone occupied half a day. 

We also had a surprisingly good resource/activity kit–the Dover Fun Kit of Space Exploration (not sure where I picked it up–Half Price Books, maybe) that contained coloring and activity books on space exploration and the planets, planet stencils, stickers of the planets, constellations, spaceships, and even paper spaceships (similar to paper airplanes) you could make. That is, you could make them if you are better at it than I was…

We also had 2 separate planet kits that had been in the science lab–one a smaller version of the others. AJ’s baby-sitter came over and together they constructed both sets, and hung them in the living room, essentially turning the room into outer space. They faintly glowed in the dark, adding to the effect.

 

We also pulled out our Melissa & Doug Solar System floor puzzle, which we have owned for probably 7 years, but we’re always up for a good puzzle around here.

Coincidentally (meaning I didn’t plan it this way), this week also contained Earth Day. We gave Earth Day our own spin, choosing instead to study Earth, the planet on that day 🙂

The internet of course provided all kinds of resources for this week as well, including several NOVA episodes of various levels of interest (one was shut off fairly quickly, with the strong declaration that it was NOT EVEN INTERESTING). You never know with a NOVA.

One of the things I continue to appreciate is that as long as AJ has a big stack of books on a topic, he’s pretty happy. Some weeks we get fancier and have all kinds of activities, kits, projects, and those are always fun and add to the variety, but if he can comb through a big stack of different books and pick out a few to read, that’s the most important thing to him. Some he reads on his own, and some he still asks us to read with him, just because he loves to read with us.  Weeks like this allow us to rediscover books we already own that have been sitting too long on the shelf. These were some favorites this week:

We are moving right along with our math curriculum (I say we, but this would be all Matt and AJ). AJ and I work on fractions and telling time together (we have the greatest games, tools, and resources for both of these things), but Matt has been in charge of the main math curriculum (Math U See) and what they have accomplished has been nothing short of amazing. After spending a good amount of time on Alpha (the first level), and sticking with it until AJ had it absolutely mastered, the second level (Beta) has gone really quickly. He has mastered multicolumn addition, adding and subtracting money and making change, odds and evens, estimating, perimeter, so many things that seemed unlikely at the beginning of second grade.

Spelling also seems to be progressing at an amazing rate. As long as he doesn’t have to write the words (which he does, particularly early in the week), spelling seems to come very easily. The writing part not so much, but we work on that every day too, and it is coming along.

This week wrapped up in an epic style….a field trip was canceled, so instead we headed to the store with a plan to make an Out of this World Dinner.  We decided on an appetizer of star fruit and moon cheese, a main course of Galaxy Shrimp (which looked like moons) and Rings of Saturn Tortellini, and dessert of Milky Way brownies (brownies with tiny pieces of Milky Way inside). We also ended the week with Friday Family Movie Night, where we watched Ender’s Game (which does take place in space, so close enough). We could have watched Star Wars AGAIN, but this one we hadn’t seen yet.

The Menu!

out

 

Out of this World.

 

Poor Pluto…

This week at the Schoolhouse the theme was Outer Space. It was very clear that we would need to schedule another week of Outer Space sometime this winter, because we didn’t even come close to exhausting this topic. There was so much to chose from!

We focused on learning about the solar system and the first moon landing. Using the newly constructed chalkboard, we used one of our resources books (All About Space) to create our own solar system:

Lost in Space...

Okay, so I won’t be any art awards anytime too soon, but we had fun with it. AJ insisted the asteroid belt be included, so he added that (it’s between Mars and Jupiter, in case you didn’t know).

We learned about all the planets–how they differ in size, how far they are away from the sun, the inner vs. the outer planets, and spent a moment mourning poor Pluto. Most of our resource books that we own are old enough that they still included Pluto as a planet, so we talked about why Pluto is no longer considered a planet. Poor pluto!

I have to say, reading through our resource books together was the greatest part of the week for me. I always pick up any and all books about science that I find at garage sales and thrift stores, so when we chose Outer Space as our theme for the week, there were a dozen books we already had that we were able to use–we didn’t even need to make a trip to the library this week. Two of the books were my favorite:

These pictures are from a book I found at the Half Price Bookstore clearance rack for (wait for it….) $1. Yes, $1. I don’t remember when I found it, definitely years ago, but it was quite a find this week when we opened it up. It had great pictures, and included transparency pages that lifted off to show the inside of things, like the space shuttle, and the different parts of a space suit. I’m not sure which of us enjoyed it more…

Hmmmm….maybe I’ll be an astronaut

Man on the Moon

Space Revealed

The other book that’s worth mentioning is our Usbourne Encyclopedia of Space. We also have the Usbourne Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs, and the Usbourne Encyclopedia of Planet Earth, and who knows what other ones are up there on the bookshelf. The Usbourne Encyclopedias were another unexpected treasure when we started homeschooling. Again, we have had them for a long time, but until I started pulling from them as a resource, I didn’t realize how great they were. You see, all of them are internet linked. This means we can logon to the Usbourne website:

http://www.usborne-quicklinks.com/usa/usa_homepage.asp

look up our book, and fill an hour exploring. AJ can just type in a page number, depending on what pages he finds interesting, and the site will pull up all sorts of related material online–all screened and kid-friendly. There are video links from NOVA, National Geographic, Discovery Channel, etc…slideshows, website links of museums, you name it. Very fun. I have found a few more Usbournes I am going to put on his Christmas list that I know we don’t own–there is one on world history, art, foreign language, even Shakespeare (probably will wait a few years on that one!) –I cannot believe how many are listed on the website.

We did some fun art projects on space this week too. AJ made his “favorite” planets out of air dry clay–Jupiter and Saturn, in case you were interested. We also did a watercolor painting of a supernova using watercolors and table salt. He splatter painted on a canvas and then sprinkled salt all over it, which he brushed off once it was dry. We were inspired by a picture of a supernova in one of those books:

Supernova!

We also had a breakthrough this week. AJ was working on his cutting, and I had given him 4 or 5 cutting worksheets to do while I did some grading. Now, as background, cutting is one of those fine motor skills that has been a bit of a struggle around here. His autoimmune condition makes fine motor work kind of a pain, and before his condition was diagnosed, there were two solid years where this kid would not pick up a pencil, a crayon, a marker…much less a pair of scissors. (As a sidenote, the way I knew for sure we had solved what was going on with him was that 48 hrs after we started his treatment, his interest and willingness to do fine motor activities went through the roof. It was clear his joints/hands were feeling so much better, because he raided the arts and crafts cabinet and went to town. He pulled out his pair of scissors and said “how do you use these things again?” He also started writing, and drawing, and coloring. He was 4 yrs old at the time. So for the last two years, we’ve been playing a bit of catch up, and when he doesn’t feel well, you can completely tell, because among other things, his fine motor skills are affected. So strange, but there you have it). Anyway, I went back to check his work, and I was blown away. He cut right on the lines–even on the pages that had curvy lines and zig zagged lines. We have been practicing a lot, and the little champ is doing amazing. Go AJ!

There are some big developments happening around here. We have signed up for some Homeschool Monday classes at the Cincinnati Museum Center, as well as some November and January classes at the iSpace education center and some December classes at the Cincinnati Zoo. I am hoping we can also sign up for a homeschool co-op in our area that sounds amazing–the next term starts at the end of February, and it sounds like it will give AJ a chance to have art, drama, music, and PE with kids his age. 🙂

In addition to that, stay tuned for my post on the schoolroom remodel. We moved the whole operation upstairs, where we have a lot more room, and more importantly, much more storage. I had so much fun organizing and decorating the space, I almost want to go to school there myself. I am also meeting with two students this week who are interested in helping us next semester. I went looking for students who could nanny as well as teach/tutor, and I think I have found two amazing girls who can be here while I am at work. I can continue doing lesson plans and teach him after work and on the weekends, and they can help out during the day. More to come on all of this…stay tuned!