In my life this week…
Winter is upon us! Much colder this week, although it never gets really cold here on the coast. But time for throw rugs and reverse cycle air-con in reverse.
After finishing C25K, I have found I have very sore calves after running and it has slowed my progress. After reading up on strained calves, I've been stretching, icing and stationary biking.
In our homeschool this week…
We focussed much on maths/science than english/history/geography this week. No reason, just the way we flowed!
More geometry in maths - types of triangles,
quadrilaterals, polygons and polyhedra - do you know what the difference is? The kids were quite engrossed in constructing various polyhedra from their nets:
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| Note Video Boy's icosahedron (that's a 20-sided polygon!) |
I will leave constructing and deducing angles until we've done some algebra. Looking into Life of Fred to supplement our maths work, as both the kids learn well by reading.
We moved onto Electrical Energy in science. Loved Bill Nye's Electricity and Static Electricity
videos! We made an electroscope:
videos! We made an electroscope:
and made water move:
The kids had been constructing simple electrical circuits using Jaycar's Short Circuits kit, but I felt Video Boy was ready to go a bit more in depth. So we looked at series and parallel circuits and did some calculations using Ohm's Law. We got out the trusty multimeter and measured voltage, current and resistance on our circuits.
Meanwhile, Wombat Girl was wanting to create an "app". So I looked into computer programming for kids and found Alice, which is a teaching tool for introductory programming. It is 3D, drag-and-drop so she was able to see the results of her programming decisions straight away. We downloaded Storytelling Alice which is aimed at Middle School students - particularly girls! She spent hours and hours working on her creations!
Also had quite a bit of cooking, with pancakes (and the accompanying mess):
and Anzac biscuits and tacos.
Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…
Wombat Girl had a birthday party to go to, but it meant me driving for hours in the pouring rain (grrr). But she enjoyed herself. Both kids had a play-over - the mother was curious how they get socialisation if we are homeschooling (err, duh).
My favorite thing this week was…
Still being my jammies when all the other mum's were dropping their kids off to school in beanies and scarves!
What’s working/not working for us…
Working on individual interests as projects!
Homeschool questions/thoughts I have…
Watt? (that's a little electrical joke for you!)
A photo, video, link, or quote to share…
We REALLY enjoy Bill Nye videos, but they're hard to come by at our little rural library. (We know longer go into the city to the big library since we don't have to be down that way anymore.) The polyhedra are NEAT! Stopping by from THMJ!
ReplyDeleteJessy
" the mother was curious how they get socialisation if we are homeschooling (err, duh)". LOL!
ReplyDeleteYour science looks wonderful! I have no clue what the difference is between quadrilaterals, polygons and polyhedra.:)
Congrats on running a 5K! Hope your legs feel better very soon.
I have a little confession about the Bill Nye videos - a teacher friend of mine gave me err "copies" on a hard drive of ALL of them! A lot are on YouTube, but not complete. Our rural library has very little in the way of videos too.
ReplyDeleteThe hint for polyhedra is in the photo...
My two children also love the Bill Nye videos. We'll get them from the library even if we aren't studying that particular topic.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had a really good week.
Visiting you from Homeschool Journal. Following you.
marthaschool.blogspot.com
Ingi, your days look so great. Your words and pics make me want to drive on down and spend the day/s with you! My kids would get into every single thing you're doing.
ReplyDeleteWe love Bill Nye here, and my boy has just inhaled Life of Fred. And I just went to download the Alice program (having called my girl over to see), but it's only for PCs—poo! My girl growled at the computer then :)
I really enjoy coming here and seeing what you're up to, Ingi. I'm glad to have found you, and we will definitely have to come down to visit! If you ever want to contact us, my email is on my blog :)
new follower from homeschool m/journal-
ReplyDeletelove your blog - the header is awesome- my son needs the link to Alice - cannot wait to check it out... also.....
would your kids be interested in swapping "virtual travel packages" ?
we are putting together brochures and information on our area (Florida/ USA) we live on the gulf coast & have lots of fun info to share. it will be like a travel pack for someone who is (virtually) coming for a visit to our town/ country.
Local info as well as some general USA info will be included. It will give your children a peek into what life is like for kids here & will give my boys a look at life in Australia! I would soooo love to have you be a part of it - eventually we will link everyone up so you can exchange info w people from wherever you want! just let me know if you want to do it- (it doesn't have to be hard or complicated- I don't like complicated) :)
Hi Helena - we would love to share some day(s) with you! Will send you an email :-)
ReplyDeleteAlice Storytelling was only for PC - it was a PhD project. But I note that Alice 2.2 had a Mac version http://www.alice.org/index.php?page=downloads/download_alice2.2
Hi Kelli, thanks for following! We would love to do the virtual travel package! We have email pals in Ohio and we love the stuff they send, and Florida would be cool (or hot and humid!). Send me an email (ingrid.mccarthy0707@gmail.com)
ReplyDelete