Thursday, December 30, 2010

I have really enjoyed this week of homeschooling. I'm sure it's partly because we are only having 2-hour days, and I've been fairly organized and completing my preparations for the next day as soon as they're done with the current day. I even had extra time yesterday to finally complete a poster center for Joel about life during the colonial times:

Joel is learning about bird eggs. We had fun cracking open, and TRYING to crack open, eggs while learning the different parts.

Joel learned that mom birds don't crush the eggs because it is impossible to crush an egg if you apply EVEN pressure. He got to try to crush one:

But he couldn't! The egg already in the bowl was purposely cracked to be able to see the different parts. We could clearly see the inner membrane and chalaza (the stringy white things that hold the yolk in place.) Also, after we rinsed the shell out, Joel got to stick his finger to the other end and feel the air cell. He popped it just as a baby bird does right before cracking out of the shell. After washing our hands, we went on to English. Joel has successfully memorized two poems. I was dubious when the curriculum we use suggested memorization, but Joel seems to really like it. I know my grandmother would approve and wish he'd known them while she was still alive because one of her favorite questions was, "Do you have a piece to speak?" and then she would whip out some of her repertoire of memorized pieces. Joel would finally have had a piece to speak!

Not sure I will blog tomorrow, but if you are reading, thanks, and I wish you a wonderful 2011!