History: Map Work

Each of our chapters in history includes a map. This map shows the many empires and peoples who ruled the Middle East.

Cooper glues down a different color circle to represent each empire.

Birds of Prey Field Trip

Our homeschool group visited Wheatley Birds of Prey on October 10. It was an incredible experience, thoroughly enjoyed by kids and adults. Clive and Jayne, the handlers, are both very knowledgeable and personable.
Holding a Barn Owl was definitely a highlight...

Kestral

Sky, a Peregrine Falcon, feasting after her flight. 

Sky

Hannah slept through most of the outing.

Eagle Owl

Check out those eyelids.

Moon Phases

Our first science unit has been on the solar system. Below, the boys are learning about the phases of the moon.

Red Kites

Sarah continued our nature unit on birds of prey with a lesson on Red Kites.

As well as facts about the birds, we learned much about the history of Red Kites in Britain.

Worksheets were completed to revise the lesson.

Everyone also completed a painting of a Red Kite. An outline was provided by Sarah.

Noah's painting

Music Theory

Kirsty is teaching music theory to the older group on Thursdays.

The boys have to complete homework each week.

Birds of Prey

On Thursday, Sarah began our series on birds of prey. Our homeschool group has been an immense blessing, and I'm so thankful for the fellowship and teaching of the other moms.

Noah: Bigger than a Kestrel; Smaller than a Golden Eagle

Math - the daily grind

Math is one of the subjects we do daily. We usually tackle it early in the morning as it's not a favorite of the boys even though they do quite well.

Noah - Saxon Math 3

Cooper - Saxon Math 5/4

Caleb - Saxon Math 1

Hannah - plotting while brothers do math.

First Day of School

Our 2013-2014 school year began September 2. After 1+ weeks, I'm happy to report things are going well. School time has been busy and intense (3 boys at 3 levels and a newborn). I hope to take some photos during school as we settle in.

Cooper

Caleb

Noah

Field Trip: The Globe and more...

We stayed in London at our friends' flat for a few days and worked some learning into our adventures.

First on the agenda, tour The Globe.

Each of the boys completed a set of questions related to the exhibit. 

Waiting for our tour guide to tell us lots of interesting things. 

We spent most of a day at the Science Museum. While there, we enjoyed a presentation about structures.

The "hands-on" room tied in nicely to our physics lessons in science. 

We did a run through the Natural History Museum. It was insanely crowded. 

Princes in the Tower

After reading about the princes who were imprisoned in the Tower of London, the boys made a pop-up card. The boys were introduced to the story of the princes during our tour of the Tower last June and learned much more during our history lessons.

Space lapbook - spelling

After a more than 2 month hiatus from posting, I've decided to attempt to get some photos up on the blog.
Caleb often did activities from his space lapbook while the older boys completed their work.

Sweet boy!

Here, he's using his letters to spell the names of planets.

African Drumming

Our Thursday group had 3 consecutive weeks of African drumming workshops. The boys LOVED this! Oxford's a great place to homeschool!

The younger group has a go.

Boomwhackers were used as well as djembes.

 Here's a little sampling of the fun...

Science: Physics - Forces and Wheels

We also learned how rollers and wheels make work easier.

Noah lined up pencils and then used a rubber-band to pull the heavy book across the "rollers." Less force is required with the rollers than without.

Our 3x5 card didn't move down the inclined plane, so we added axles (straws) and wheels (mints).

Gravity pulled our car down the inclined plane.

Large wheels can move over objects more easily.

The salt on the gameboard caused more friction and the car didn't travel as far.