February 15, 2011
The sun has been shining today. The breeze was cool. The kids played outside for a few hours: climbing trees, hitting baseballs, and riding bikes. Our days are spent mastering math equations and science equations, exploring American history, and writing research papers. Although constructing the research paper is grueling work, it always ends up being a highlight of the year. I assign the kids a general topic and then they pick a sub topic that interests them. One year we explored weather phenomenon; hurricanes, tornadoes, lightening and rainbows enthralled us for weeks. Then we discovered the history of our favorite toys; Lego's, doll houses, bikes, and Webkinz were analyzed for every scrap of detail. This year we are documenting how something works. Some found their topics easily, others struggled to find something personal. This years topics are the piano, a film camera (a little awkward since the child has never used one, but an old relic was dug out of the attic,) the internet, and our favorite encyclopedia...Wikipedia. As we polish the final papers and put the footnotes in order we are glad the task is nearing completion, but grateful for all the knowledge that was gained.
In honor of President's Day we are beginning a unit on presidents. The government websites are a wonderful resource. Our current favorite is usmint.gov. It has lesson plans as well as games. The kids have loved collecting the new coins then learning about the people and places featured on the obverse.
It is so fun to read about what you have been doing lately. I've sbeen thinking about you a lot lately, and wishing I had more contact info for ya'll. My phone number is still the same... We are launching rocket again on monday (presidents day) You are invited to join us so leave now so you can make it on time!!!!!
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