Weekly Wrap-Up: The Starry Compass Edition
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It’s been a fun, good, productive week…and I’m so glad it’s over. I am so not acclimated to the more structured schedule of the school year, yet. I’m looking forward to a more free-time-filled weekend.
We have officially moved into the Renaissance period in history and have been studying astronomy in science. It has been so fun to weave the two together this week and even pull in some art, as we did on Thursday, when we talked about astronomy as a navigation tool and did some paintings of constellations and one of the most famous night sky paintings, The Starry Night.
Another history (and science, but not the science we were studying) highlight was making a simple compass…that actually worked! Isn’t it fun when that happens? First, we rubbed a needle with a magnet to magnetize it.
Then, we put the magnetized needle on a little circle of paper in a bowl of water.
At first, we thought it wasn’t working because the end we expected to point north (the “pointy” end) was pointing south. We spun the paper around to see if it would turn or if it just happened to have floated into that position. It did turn and we realized that the end with the eye was pointing north. We used to position of the sun to figure out if it was correctly pointing north, then, we used a real compass to check it. Success!
In the process of easing into a full load, we have added Writing with Ease and Rocket Phonics (review coming soon) for Josh and Megan and a great novel study guide (with which I am also very impressed and am reviewing independently) for Brianna.
Josh and Megan are really enjoying Writing with Ease. I think it’s kind of easy for them, since I’m using Level 1 workbook, the level I received for review, but that’s okay. I’d rather start with the very basics and let them get a little boost of confidence, than start at a level that’s too challenging. So far, it’s just alternating copywork and narration.
For the copywork, I have them write both sentences, rather than just choosing one, since they’re a little older than the target age. There have been no complaints about it and I’ve been really impressed with how neatly they write. I think, because they aren’t feeling overwhelmed, they’re more willing to really put forth their best effort.
We finished up the week by learning more about Indiana for our Fifty States Fridays and playing 10 Days in the USA. Now, I’m ready to enjoy some unstructured time to hang out and have some fun with my family…and, hopefully, sneak in a little time alone, too.
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Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.
We did a similar compass experiment last year. It was lots of fun.
We're using WWE this year as well. We're really enjoying it, especially with the new workbooks.
Reading this gives me renewed energy about starting up again next week. I feel I have so much prep still unprepped, but we need to start somewhere, so I think we'll just jump into it and see how far we get.
That compass experiment looks very cool. I'll have to tell my son and I'm sure he'll work on putting it together.
Better go get my week wrapped up
~Erin
Yes! I love it when that happens 🙂 We've done that experiment, it's fun when you take it outside and walk around.
Cool compass, thanks for sharing your week.