Science Experiment #3: What Happens to Pine Cones in Water?

We did this experiment the first week of April.  Why so long putting this up?  My camera, with the pictures I took, is missing.  I'm beginning to suspect Scooby-Doo might of thrown it out...

If I find my camera I'll update this post, if not, well... we're not doing this experiment again.

So, in case you did not know pine cones have a natural defense built in to protect their seeds from falling out too soon.  Wind, animals, etc. knock pine cones off of trees, but the seeds are not always ready to fall out.  Maybe it's the wrong time of year, maybe the seeds aren't ready yet, whatever.  So, pine cones close themselves up until they are ready to drop their seeds.

The library has a huge tree in front that regularly drops pine cones, and Optimus Prime and Bumblebee like giving them to me as presents.  So, when faced with over two dozen pine cones in our home I was happy to find a use for them.

Supplies:

• A bowl
• Open pine cones
• Towels

Place the pine cones into the bowl and cover with water.  Walk away for an hour, come back.  What you will find is the pine cones have completely closed up.  Why?  They don't want their seeds drowning and becoming completely useless.  So, they close up to save them.

Then, take the pine cones out of the water and put them on the towel to dry.  As they dry out over the next couple of days they will completely open up again, because they now know it is safe for the seeds.

Pretty neat, huh?  This experiment was by far our simplest, but my boys loved it and that's honestly all that matters.

Two Week Review: April 13 - 26

These two weeks were crazy busy.  Most of our weeks are.  The first week I started rearranging furniture in our house, and the second week my grandmother came for a visit.  We also had an Easter egg hunt in our local park (where Scooby-Doo walked around saying "egg" the whole time).

Scooby-Doo had his speech therapy everyday, as well as his schoolwork most days.  Last night we had a major breakthrough in his speech.  We went to Dollar General, and I let him push the cart.  He was so excited because I let him walk - I always make him ride, I don't need three kids grabbing at stuff, thank you!  Well, he walked around the store picking things up and naming them.  I was so shocked!  Then, he kept repeating what I was saying.  Things like "Go this way," and "Over here," etc.  I was very shocked!  Last night he said more words than he usually does in two weeks.  Maybe we are FINALLY getting somewhere.  (He also had a big speech day today, but I'll tell you about that in the next Two Week Review post.)

Onto his big brothers.

Optimus Prime & Bumblebee had a bunch of t-ball games.  They also did their schoolwork with a bit of complaining.  Thank god this quarter is almost over...  We did not do much reading.  We still read everyday, but only 1 book.  Usually we read 2-3 a day, but with my grandmother here things are a bit crazy.  They are more interested in spending quality time with great-grandma than they are in doing schoolwork with mommy.  She's here for another week, so I have more of this fighting to look forward to...

Optimus Prime:
Olivia Goes to the Library by Jared Osterhold
Dragon's Fall Fair by Mara Conlon
Dragon Happy Valentine's Day! by Gabrielle Reyes
The Magic Footprints by Melissa Balfour
Shout, Show and Tell by Kate Agnew
Flora the Fairy by Tony Bradman
Fancy Nancy Pajama Day by Jane O'Connor
I Can Read Phonics! The Berenstain Bears: Let's Sell It
I Can Read Phonics! The Berenstain Bears: The Funny Pup

Bumblebee:
Olivia Goes to the Library by Jared Osterhold
Dragon's Fall Fair by Mara Conlon
Dragon Happy Valentine's Day! by Gabrielle Reyes
Shout, Show and Tell by Kate Agnew
The Magic Footprints by Melissa Balfour

Flora the Fairy by Tony Bradman

Fancy Nancy The Show Must Go On by Jane O'Connor
I Can Read Phonics! Batman: Meet Batman
I Can Read Phonics! Batman: Gotham's Villains Unleashed

On a side note, we've finished ALL of the library's Level 1 & Level Pre-1 books.

Pokemon Junior

So, last night we finished up the Pokemon Junior series.  Well, that's one more thing marked off my life goal list...

It's mostly full of book series I want to read on my own, with my husband, or to my kids...

Synopsis: Ash and his Pokemon Pikachu travel around the world finding adventures on a quest to make Ash the best Pokemon trainer ever.  They are accompanied by friends Brock (or sometimes Tracey) and Misty with their Pokemon, and are constantly running into Team Rocket (Jessie, James, and their Pokemon Meowth) who are on their own quest to steal rare Pokemon.

Ash Falcon: "I loved the Pokemon t.v. show when I was a teenager so when I found these books I was thrilled.  I'm even more thrilled now that I have my kids hooked on Pokemon too.  These books are super easy, and I look forward to them reading them on their own in about a year.  My only complaint is there are only 15 books.  5/5!"

Optimus Prime:  "Good.  Awesome about Raichu and Bulbasaur and the mankeys.  The books were fun.  I liked the Pokemon books."

Bumblebee:  "The books were good and great.  I liked Raichu because he shot Team Rocket off the boat and into the water.  He was a good Pokemon.  I wonder why Team Rocket kept doing bad things like trying to steal Pikachu.  I wonder why Victor wanted to surf on Humungadunga?  I liked the Pokemon books."

Pokemon Junior by Bill Michaels, Sarah E. Heller, Gregg Sacon, & Tracey West (author's initials in parentheses)

1. Surf's Up, Pikachu! (BM)
2. Meowth, The Big Mouth (BM)
3. Save Our Squirtle (BM)
4. Bulbasaur's Bad Day (BM)
5. Two of a Kind (SEH)
6. Raichu Shows Off (SEH)
7. Nidoran's New Friend (GS)
8. A Pokemon Snow-Down (SEH)
9. Snorlax Takes a Stand (SEH)
10. Good-bye, Lapras (GS)
11. Bellossom's Big Battle (SEH)
12. The Snubbull Blues (SEH)
13. Hoothoot's Haunted Forest (TW)
14. Pichu's Apple Company (SEH)
15. The Wobbuffet Village (SEH)

1st Grade Spelling Units #27-39

This post is ridiculously late.  If you want to know why, it's because I didn't even know what the units were going to be each week until the week started.  Finally the first week of April here rolled around and I decided that it was time to get my shit together and decide what the rest of the units were going to be so I could (1) stop writing up an entire week's work of sheets on Sunday night and (2) get this post up already, since it was supposed to go up the last week of January.

Our theme for these units was sight words, since our main focus for this quarter was learning to read.  I made three of our units a combination of holidays and sight words.  The units were all 10 words long instead of our usual 5.  This is for 2 reasons: (1) it's common to increase the spelling units to 10 words half way through 1st grade and (2) they were all easy words (except for the two holiday units, which is why they ended up a blend).

Unit #27 - Sight Words 
said
it
that
this
up
in
was
for
his
but

Unit #28 - Valentine's Day
candy
heart
rose
cupid
love
not
like
then
thing
did

Unit #29 - Sight Words Part 2
when
who
all
at
of
me
with
her
what
we

Unit #30 - Sight Words Part 3
come
down
fun
had
him
out
will
look
some
had

Unit #31 - Sight Words Part 4
every
time
walk
came
were
now
cry
oh
bed
here

Unit #32 - Sight Words Part 5
day
don't
just
there
back
friend
very
let
from
them

Unit #33 - St Patrick's Day
clover
lucky
gold
shamrock
rainbow
could
good
if
home
got

Unit #34 - Ostara/Easter
basket
rabbits
bees
flowers
butterfly
long
how
make
put
as

Unit #35 - Sight Words Part 7
right
nice
well
night
may
help
take
body
never
has

Unit #36 - Sight Words Part 8
try
saw
kid
off
us
took
does
hard
mama
papa

Unit #37 - Sight Words Part 9
morning
pet
sure
says
ran
soon
am
why
by
tell

Unit #38 - Sight Words Part 10
yes
over
thank
fast
house
our
door
room
head
ball

Unit #39 - Sight Words Part 11
do
your
about
think
grand
school
self
always
side
give

Two Week Review: March 30 - April 12

These two weeks were busy, busy, busy.

Scooby-Doo had his speech therapy (of course).  He also did a few workbooks in one sitting.  I guess he really wanted to learn... or maybe he's possessed...  His therapists say he talks all the time for them.  Just a word here and there.  But does he talk for me?  No.  Of course not.  Why would he?

Optimus Prime & Bumblebee had some t-ball/baseball confusion.  First they were on t-ball, then baseball, then back to t-ball, then the league manager called me at home to ask if I wanted to put them back on baseball.  Ummmm, let me think about this.  NO.  Let's just pick something and stick with it already, people.  Their first game is on Tuesday.

They did good with schoolwork.  Two more days and we will be completely caught up and then I case ease off of our insane schedule.  So, onto what we read!

Optimus Prime:
Ready for Kindergarten, Stinky Face? by Lisa McCourt
Handy Manny: Pinata Party
Reader's Clubhouse: Nick is Sick
It's the 100th Day, Stinky Face! by Lisa McCourt
I Can Read! Phonics The Berenstain Bears: The Chipmunk
The Giant's Garden by Cindy Leaney
What's Wrong Mrs Wolf? by Cindy Leaney
I Can Read! Phonics The Berenstain Bears: Search for Gold
Jungle Journey by Cindy Leaney
Nice News by Cindy Leaney
The Circus by Cindy Leaney
Barron's Reader's Clubhouse: Doc Block
Barron's Reader's Clubhouse: Too, Too Hot
Curious George: Librarian for a Day
An Amazing Machine by Cindy Leaney
Rooster's Alarm by Ian Smith
The Talking Telescope bu Cindy Leaney
Curious George: A Winter's Nap
Night, Night by Sue Graves
Happy Halloween, Mittens! by Lola M. Schaefer
Eloise Decorates for Christmas by Kay Thompson
No New Pets! by Hans Wilhelm
I Spy Thanksgiving

Bumblebee:
Handy Manny: Pinata Party
Ready for Kindergarten, Stinky Face? by Lisa McCourt
It's the 100th Day, Stinky Face! by Lisa McCourt
Reader's Clubhouse: Nick is Sick
I Can Read! Phonics The Berenstain Bears: The Sleepover
Station K.I.D.S. by Cindy Leaney
Rachel the Shy Jellyfish by Cindy Leaney
I Can Read! Phonics The Berenstain Bears: Family Fun
An Amazing Machine by Cindy Leaney
The Circus by Cindy Leaney
Nice News by Cindy Leaney
Curious George: A Winter's Nap
Barron's Reader's Clubhouse: Doc Block
Barron's Reader's Clubhouse: Too, Too Hot
Jungle Journey by Cindy Leaney
Rooster's Alarm by Ian Smith
The Giant's Garden by Cindy Leaney
Curious George: Librarian for a Day
Night, Night by Sue Graves
I Spy Thanksgiving
No New Pets! by Hans Wilhelm
Eloise Decorates for Christmas by Kay Thompson
Happy Halloween, Mittens! by Lola M. Schaefer

I cannot wait for them to figure out this reading thing.  Optimus Prime almost has it down.  He should by the end of the summer.  Bumblebee is going to take a LOT more work.  But if one of them would get it down it would be easier on all of us.  Then I could really focus with the other...  This summer, we're pretty much going to be reading all the time.

Anyway, I have to go and practice today's reading with them now.

Quarterly Curriculum: February - April 2014

Ahhhh, here it is, our curriculum again.  Posted so I can start getting ready for next quarter.

There was panic this quarter.  The schedule I had written was thrown out when Scooby-Doo started speech therapy every day for two hours a day.  Driving the half hour there, spending the two hours there, and then driving the half hour home was too much for us so we shelved most of our schoolwork for about a month and just focused on reading until we got our stride down.  Then we had to go back and cover all that lost ground.

Optimus Prime & Bumblebee:

So, our schedule was schoolwork Monday-Friday with Saturday & Sunday off.  I was not happy about this, but I had to work with what I was given...

Handwriting - Practicing handwriting (mainly numbers and letters), some counting, some letter sounds, etc.
Days - Monday & Wednesday
Textbooks - Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills Grade K (American Education Publishing), Brain Quest Workbook: Kindergarten (Workman Publishing Company).
Number of Pages - 3

Science - Learning about different animals (broken into units) with some reading comprehension thrown into the mix.
Days - Monday & Wednesday
Textbooks - The Complete Book of Animals Grades 1-3 (American Education Publishing).
Number of Pages - 1

Spanish - Practicing Spanish vocabulary (broken into different units) and comprehension.
Days - Tuesday & Thursday
Textbooks - The Complete Book of Starter Spanish Grades PK-1 (American Education Publishing).
Number of Pages - 3

History/Geography - Map reading, directions, land-forms, continents, etc.
Days - Tuesday & Thursday
Textbooks - Scholastic Success With 1st Grade Workbook (Scholastic Teaching Resources), World Countries, 50 States (both of these workbook were from Target's dollar section) .
Number of Pages - 2

Art - Painting, other activities, etc.
Days - Friday
Textbooks - None.  Just a weekly project
Number of Pages - N/A

Logic - Same/different, patterns, opposites, mazes, dot-to-dots, word searches, crosswords, etc.
Days - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Textbooks - Big Puzzle Play (School Zone).
Number of Pages - 2 1/2

Math - Addition, subtraction, fractions, counting by 5's & 10's, time, money, etc. 
Days - Monday - Friday
Textbooks - Addition, Subtraction, and Time & Money books from Dollar General and Target.
Number of Pages - 2

English - Learning the difference between vowels and consonants, learning how to sound words out, synonyms, antonyms, compound words, rhyming words, nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, sentences, punctuation marks, reading comprehension, etc.
Days - Monday - Friday
Textbooks - Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills Grade 1 (American Education Publishing), Scholastic Success With 1st Grade Workbook (Scholastic Teaching Resources).
Number of Pages - 2

Spelling - Spelling words & units
Days - Monday - Friday
Textbooks - None, just loose worksheets.
Number of Pages - 1 1/2

Some final notes:

• The schedule had to get slimmed down a bit since Scooby-Doo is starting speech therapy.
• The first week of each month will just be our "core" subjects (Logic, Math, English & Spelling) and our Concept Week.  Trying to tackle "core" classes, "secondary" classes, and a Concept Week all in one week was too much.  
• Baseball in March and April!
• Sight Words has been dropped.  I only intended to do it for one quarter.  This semester most of our spelling words will be sight words.
• Art will just be once a week, and it will be a project.  No more coloring books (for now, at least)!
• Letter & Number Practice has been combined into just Handwriting.
• Reading Comprehension has been dropped.  I'm not too happy about this, but I had to slim down our schedule so it was combined with English.  We'll have to see if we like this or not as time goes by.
• Since our schedule has been slimmed down so much we're going to use what (little) extra time we have learning how to read.  We'll be spending A LOT of time on one-on-one reading to make up for the very basic schedule.

Scooby-Doo:

Scooby-Doo isn't preschool age yet, but he loves watching his older brothers do their schoolwork, and he likes to feel involved so I decided to start doing schoolwork fairly regularly with him.  This quarter we have a "real" schedule written up, but if we don't stick to it, I'm not going to worry.

• First off, we are dropping our book goal.  He just hasn't been interested this past month, so there is no point in setting a goal he has no desire to meet.
• We have the goal of 1 page (front & back) a day in a Colors & Shapes workbook.  He finally getting his shapes down and he's trying to figure out his colors.
• We have the goal of 1 page (front & back) a day in an Alphabet workbook.  He's starting to recognize letters so I don't want to stop!
• We have the goal of 1 page (front & back) a day in a Counting workbook.  I'm excited over this, since he already knows how to count to 10.  I thought about dropping the alphabet books to do this, but since he's starting to get that I don't want to.  So we'll just do both!
• Lastly, Scooby-Doo is currently doing speech therapy.

Concept Week #12: Knights

Knights was kind of a mellow concept week, so I really don't have much to say.  I really couldn't find many worksheets (which was fine) so all we really did was read about knights in our book and do knight themed puzzles in our jigsaw puzzle book (which was called Knights and Castles Jigsaw Book).  And we read another Time Traveller book (The Time Traveller Book of Knights and Castles) so my kids were super excited.

To flesh out this post a bit more I'll point out that we talked more about the "mythology" of knights rather than the "truth."  What do I mean?  Well, I didn't get into things like church politics, state politics, rapes, murders, oppression, slavery, ignoring the knights code, Crusades, etc.  In my kids eyes knights are heroes and I figured they're six, they can live with that myth for as long as they want.  So what they learned about was the ideal situation.  Where knights always followed their code, where lords never attacked a neighboring land unless they had too (and not because they wanted to spread their own territory), where the words rape, torture, and genocide don't exist, where religious or state politics didn't determine who should live or die or who should marry who, where people were civilized and not... human.  More of a Disney version of knighthood with clear good and evil than a A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones version which is far more accurate and truthful.  

So, they learned about how castles worked, why knights obeyed their lords, what a serf was, why serfs served the castle, political marriages, etc.  All of which is true, and accurate... and the ideal which is only part of the reality.  

These last three concept weeks (Pirates, Viking/Norse Mythology, and Knights) were more about the fun aspects than the truth.  Granted, I did tell my kids that these people killed other people, I just omitted than some of these people were bad people.  My kids still live in the world where good always triumphs over evil, and I'm not ready to burst that bubble yet...