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.

Science: Physics - Force, Gravity, Friction, Work

We completed a science unit, "Investigating Forces and Work." There were a lot of hands-on experiences and experiments.

Mass and Force: It took less force to push the empty box than the box full of heavy items.

Gravity: Galileo discovered that all objects are pulled to Earth at the same speed. We dropped an empty water bottle and a full water bottle at the same time, from the same height, and they hit the floor at the same time. Mass was not a factor. We dropped many, many other items as well. In the case of the paper ball and sheet of paper, we were introduced to result of friction...

Friction slows moving objects. The toy car moved much faster down the smooth gameboard than the towel-covered gameboard.

Reading Readiness

Caleb is now working through Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and is making great progress. He has his lesson first thing in the morning while Cooper practices violin and Noah reads an assigned book. This new schedule has been working well!
The rest of his school day is spent doing various activities. Many of these are independent so that he can work while I do lessons with his brothers.

Caleb was proud of his work on his Read, Build, Write mat.

I recently made playdoh mats for each letter of the alphabet. He loves them.

The Read, Build, Write mats and Playdoh mats can be found at Homeschool Creations.

Thursday School: Trees in Spring and French Brunch

After Davinia's lesson on trees in spring, students compiled a booklet with information related to four common British trees. 

Noah was SO diligent in finding and writing information about each tree on his fact pages.

 We had our second annual French brunch. So much fun and oh so yummy.

Each of the kids decorated a French-themed placemat while waiting for everyone to be served.

Each child requested various foods and drinks in French. Maeva asks Caleb, "Qu'est-ce que tu vourdrez?"

Knights

During our history study of knights and samurai, each boy designed a Coat of Arms.

School in the States

Our trip to the States was too long to abandon our normal school routine. Over the seven weeks, we were able to do 15 days of school work as well as some fun field trips.

Our first field trip was to the Aquarium of the Americas in Atlanta. Amazing! We arrived just after 10am and didn't leave until after 4pm. The boys loved every minute. The pictures are sadly of a very poor quality. Nick needed our camera for his work in the museum, so we used a disposable.

Penguins!

Whale Shark! The sharks, manta rays, and dolphins were among our favorites.

We spent a lot of time at this touch pool.

Great day!

Gigi helped Caleb while I worked with the older boys.

The boys joined Aunt Ginger's painting class.

Here's Caleb's masterpiece.

 Our second field trip was to the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport. The tour was intimate with only one other couple joining us.

Touch pool in the Discovery Room.

Horseshoe crab - He was a favorite.

This guy was seriously aggressive.

Sifting through the sand for a shark tooth in the fossil dig.

We each matched our fossil with the appropriate animal.

Up close with the dolphins.

Our final field trip was to Fort Conde.

Running on the grounds.

Imprisoned.

The tunnel below the fort.