Weekly School Round-Up

I guess since this is partially a homeschool blog I should do at least one homeschool post a week...so here goes.

Math
T continues to excel in math. We have mastered addition and subtraction facts up to twenty and have moved onto basic multiplication. I wasn't surprised to see that T quickly grasped this concept. I found a helpful hint for teaching multiplication..instead of stating 3x4 we say 3 "groups" of four. This works well since multiplication is just a quick way of adding the same number "multiple" times. This verbiage should make the jump to division much simpler. T will be able to visualize the groups within each number.

History
This week we have been covering ancient Asian history, specifically civilizations from China and the Indus river valley. T constructed a typical Indus valley home, complete with it's own well and Lego mini-figure. He was intrigued by this civilization since it seems to have mysteriously disappeared. His bedroom is beginning to look like an archaeological dig site with all of this ancient architecture strewn about. Science
We are still studying the systems of the human body. We covered the respiratory and digestive systems this week. Our respiratory lab involved breathing for a "Giant". T had to inhale through the nose, travel down the esophagus into the lungs and oxygenate red blood cells. Next he moved the RBC to the heart where it was pumped to the giant's foot and exchanged for carbon dioxide. The RBC was then pumped back to the heart and the carbon dioxide was exhaled by the lungs and out the esophagus exiting through the giant's nose. The children really enjoyed this and my three year old was able to tell her daddy at dinner that red blood cells carry oxygen:) As a result of his digestive system lab T learned that his digestive system is 21 feet long and it takes three days for his food to travel through it. You can only imagine the fun my 6 year old son had discussing his food "waste" and how it exits the body.....um how many times can you say poop in one school day?

All of our curriculum choice this year seem to be a hit. We have finally hit our groove...just in time thrown off kilter by the excitement and bustle of the holidays.