Saturday, January 24, 2009

Another daily day

Well, it's Saturday, and we actually began the day with school.

Weird
, I know, but we did take Monday, Tuesday, and half of Wednesday off, so we had some history and science to finish up. (But no math... and there was much rejoicing.)

We've been using a very creatively named book called "The Geology Book" by John D. Morris (part of the Wonders of Creation series) as a springboard for our earth science unit. Love it. Yes, it's somewhat above Gunnar's 1st grade understanding, but I'm amazed what he "gets". We're making a chart to compare Uniformity to Catastrophe. Today we talked about three different kinds of rocks (igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic).

We made a sedimentary "rock" turn into a metamorphic "rock" with crayon shavings. And in spite of what I thought were adequate precautionary measures, I now need a new ironing board cover.

Heat and pressure do have dramatic effects. Yeah.

Down in the kitchen we're growing "rock" crystals. Sugar. Refined white sugar. Ya gotta love science you can eat :0)

And - wrapping up last week's history lesson on China - we made paper. I think I managed to fix the blender, but I'm not in a hurry to make any more!

Next Friday is a PTO day :0)

3 comments:

The dB family said...

So far we haven't had a Saturday school day yet...but I like the idea.

leah said...

A benefit of homeschooling I never thought of- the little ones get exposed to ideas and curriculum that the older ones are doing. I hope your blender recovers! Haha.

Herding Grasshoppers said...

Deborah,

I wouldn't want to do Saturday school every week, but I like having options. A lot of things came up early in the week, and we finally had good weather after a lot of rain and I wanted the kids outside!

Leah,

It amazes me how much Gunnar picks up. He remembers all kinds of details from our Story of the World history that I don't remember. And he shows me that he understands it by the connections he makes. Can't think of an example just now, though. He's a whiz at the logic puzzles :0)