Rest and Relaxation part 3

On May 18, 1980, a five you old Collin stepped outside to what he thought was falling snow. However, it wasn't. It was ash. Ash that was ejected from the earth as Mount St. Helen's erupted over 100 miles away.

In the weeks leading up to our trip, the boys and I learned much about volcanoes. It was pretty cool to be able to end our studies with a visit to the Mount St. Helen's National Volcanic Monument.

This is the new lava dome that is building.

This is one of Collin's and mine favorite hikes. It's amazingly beautiful.

A herd of elk.

Collin and the boys 2010

Collin, Magnus, and Me 2002

Magnus' 4th Grade Picks

Magnus is going to be in fourth grade. Did you hear me? FOURTH GRADE!!

Collin and I have been talking a lot lately about giving Magnus more independence and responsibility this year. We haven't quite figured out how that is going to look, but it is on our minds. On thing's for sure, he's going to be doing more writing (physically) this year than was previously expected of him.

History

Magnus and Thane (2nd grade) will continue doing this subject together. We're going to continue with US History focusing on the people and events after the Revolutionary War but before the Civil War. We'll be using the Time Traveler Early 19th Century cd from Homeschool in the Woods as our spine. The boys really enjoyed the projects as we worked through the Colonial Times and The Revolutionary War cds last year. I am sure this one will not disappoint either. We're going to stretch it out to last the whole year by adding in lots of books and videos and by doing more in-depth studies on American Indians, Lewis and Clark, the Pioneers, and CA State history.


Science
Magnus and Thane will continue doing this subject together. Magnus has expressed interest in becoming a missionary doctor like his hero, David Livingstone, so I thought it would be a good idea to do a unit on the human body. We'll be using the Usborne Internet-Linked First Encyclopedia of the Human Body as our spine. Yes, it is a little below his level, but I created this unit two years ago and I don't feel like redoing it. Besides, it'll be a good fit for Thane. We'll be doing activities from Head to Toe Science by Jim Wiese, Easy Make & Learn Projects: Human Body by Donald Silver, and the My Body book by Teacher Created Resources.
We're also going to be doing a unit on Earth science which will include topics such as geology, weather, natural disasters, and the ocean. I still have to plan it, but have a massive amount of books I borrowed from a friend.

Math
Magnus and Thane will continue doing this subject together as well. I am pretty sure we will stick with the Math Mammoth Blue series. It's easy to teach and the boys understand it. I may add in Right Start Level D if I feel MM is not getting it done. The boys have worked through RS Levels A-C already. We will also continue reading books from the large list at Living Math and playing lots of games to reinforce the skills they are learning.


Language Arts
Last year we switched to Michael Clay Thompson's Language Arts program. Magnus worked through the Grammar Island book and started on the Music of the Hemispheres Poetry book. It is an absolutely incredible program and one that fits his learning style to a "t". We're going to review the Grammar Island book while working through the Practice Island book and then continue on with the Music of the Hemispheres and Building Language vocabulary book. Once the Island Level is completed, then we'll move onto the Town Level.


Not sure if we're going to do the writing portion of the MCT curricula yet. We've been using Institute for Excellence in Writing Student Writing Intensive A and I believe it's a great fit for him. It's straight forward and he enjoys doing it. He's going to be taking a writing class, this year, that is using the Medieval History Based Theme Writing Lessons. I'm very excited to have him take a class from someone other than me!

As far as spelling goes, he'll continue working through Phonetic Zoo which is also produced by IEW.

There is also a possibility of him joining a Great Books discussion group. This would be an answer to prayer! Magnus wears me out with his talking and asking questions. Don't get me wrong...I love it. He is curious and sees connections and needs to discuss things, but I can't always do that with him. It'd be great for him to be able to share with others and contemplate their ideas too.

Latin
I tried to teach it to him last year and I failed miserably. Thankfully, he'll be taking a Latin class this year using the Latin for Children program.

Art
The Atelier Art program was a big hit last year. We'll continue working through the DVD modules as well as other projects found in Artistic Pursuits and Discovering Great Artists.


Not sure which artists we are going to study this year, but I am pretty sure a couple will be Van Gough and Renoir.

Other Stuff
Mindbenders, Building Thinking Skills, Typing,and Handwriting Without Tears Cursive.

Activities
He'll continue with fencing and drama, as well as, AWANA.

I'll post Thanes stuff soon.