Journey to Excellence

Our study on The Human Body is coming to a close, and we are ending it with a study on Nutrition . It has come at the most perfect time. We have been having some "chunkey monkey" issues with our littlest one and using this opportunity to learn about healthy food choices will be very beneficial to her. Brynne and I have been discussing healthy food choices versus non-healthy food choices. We have discussed that eating treats are okay, as long as they do not tip the balance of the Food Pyramid. We read the book Showdown at the Food Pyramid , that demonstrated this perfectly in a cute story! We have referred back to it many times this weekend. Brynne made a large Food Pyramid by cutting out pictures of people exercising, and different foods from the food groups (notice that she put Goldfish crackers in the milk category because they have "cheese" in them). We used the USDA My Pyramid for Kids site to learn about the Food Pyramid. She played the game Blas...

I am participating in Teaching Blog Addict's Science Week this week. Yesterday's topic was Favorite Science Books . It is no secret, with our Human Body study this past month, that the series of books by Pamela Hill Nettleton have been my favorite! They are so perfect for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd grade level, even kindergarten. Heck, I've even enjoyed them!

This week in our study of the Human Body , Brynne moved on to the Nervous System . Our first stop was a Pamela Hill Nettleton book called, Think, Think, Think: Learning About Your Brain . As part of our discussions about the brain , and the fact that it's the BOSS of the body, we discussed the importance of the spinal cord . We did a hands on spinal cord project by alternating gummy Life Savers and wagon wheel pasta on a pipe cleaner. We talked about why there was the "squishy" stuff in between the vertebra and how the back can bend and sway because of it. We completed "The Brynne" by adding the stomach, small intestine and large intestine, from our study last week of the Digestive System (although I just realized I have the large intestine coming out of the stomach, when the small intestine should be) and the brain and spinal cord. We are now done talking about the parts of the body and will conclude our study of the Human Body with a two-day unit ...

This week Brynne and I doubled up on Science! "The Brynne" received her heart and blood vessels. We intended to add her stomach, esophagus, liver, small intestine, and large intestine, but just ran out of time. We'll do that first thing tomorrow. Brynne sewed and stuffed a felt heart. Red and blue yarn were used as blood vessels. We read the two Pamela Hill Nettleton books on the Circulatory and Digestive systems (again, cannot recommend this series of books enough! ) We listened to and measured our heart rates both before and after exercise. We even worked in a couple of extra walks and scooter rides to drive home the point. Brynne listened to Crusoe's heartbeat with her homemade stethoscope from the Y oung Scientists Club's "The Magic School Bus: Journey into the Human Body" kit . We did a Digestor Inspector experiment with a cool gadget we received at the Mad Science! camp Eli and Brynne attended this past summer. It was gros...

Let's start with a book recommendation. The Human Body can be a very complicated thing to teach to young children. Brynne is 6, and although we had some great hands-on things planned for our unit, I didn't want to overwhelm her with the book choice(s) for each of the body systems. No problem with the Amazing Body series of children's books by Pamela Hill Nettleton!!! This week we were learning about the Respiratory System , so I checked out the book Breathe In, Breathe Out: Learning about your Lungs . I gave Brynne a balloon to "play with" while we were reading the book. The information on each page is simple, concise, informative, and completely on-the-level of a 4-8 year old child. The illustrations are nice, as well. It was the perfect length, and the way it was written made it interesting to listen to. There were also little fact bubbles on each page, so I would read the text and Brynne would read the fact bubbles. There are many books in this series an...

This week we continued, or, rather, really began our study of The Human Body. We started by reading The Magic School Bus: Inside the Human Body by Joanna Cole. This week we concentrated on the bones of the body. We read Dem Bones by Bob Barner. Since I was doing a terrible job singing the song, I pulled up this version on Youtube and Brynne watched it a couple of times. Then we did a couple of demonstrations. The first was something I copied from Pink and Green Mama . I took two latex gloves and filled them both with flour. In one I put a craft stick down into each finger. When they were completed they were a perfect demonstration of a hand that did not have bones and one that did. After having some complete fun, we did a couple of visuals about ball joints and synovial fluid. I also had Brynne attempt various movements without moving her joints. Jumping without the ankle joint ... not happenin'. We finished our bones study by applying the bones stickers to ou...

This will be our first ever Science Sunday post linking up with Adventures in Mommydom . I am very excited to be officially venturing into the world of science with Brynne. We will do unit studies on Thursdays, using lots of library books and doing hands-on activities. We are starting with The Human Body . This idea was launched when I received a bunch of free money from CSN. I decided to purchase as many homeschooling tools as I could. One of the things I purchased was The Magic School Bus: A Journey into the Human Body kit by Young Scientists. It has a Teacher's Guide and lots of items for hands-on experiments. Then I decided to copy an idea I've seen on the web multiple times: Making a life-size body on a large poster and adding parts of the human body to it as we learn them. We are going to make ours 3D! This week was just an introduction into what we will be learning, so we only did a couple of things: We watched The Magic School Bus: Human Body dvd. And t...

On Thursdays, Brynne will do unit studies, most of them Science-based. This year we will study: The Human Body, Autumn, Veteran's Day, Christmas, Shells, Winter, Dogs, and The Solar System. Some of these are Amanda Bennett Download-n-Go unit studies. Some are Magic School Bus based studies. And we'll just build our own Christmas lessons. Our first study will be on The Human Body . Supplies Used:   The Magic School Bus: Inside the Human Body by Joanna Cole  "The Magic School Bus: The Human Body" dvd Young Scientist Club kit: A Journey Into the Human Body "Build a Body" by WikiEducator "Banquet for the Bunch" by Kortni Nelson We will do the following for this unit: Thursday, August 18th ~ Introduction Watch "The Magic School Bus: The Human Body" dvd Trace Brynne's body onto the back of a large body poster provided by the Young Scientist Club kit: A Journey Into the Human Body (Magic School Bus) Thursday, A...

As part of my opportunity to review CSN products, I chose some Magic School Bus activity sets called The Young Scientists Club . We have not used these sets yet, because I actually have plans for them for next school year. As soon as I received them, though, I became immediately inspired! The first one is The Magic School Bus: A Journey into the Human Body activity kit .   Ms Frizzle and her students take children on a wild ride into the human body with these breathtaking experiments. This exciting kit includes a life-size poster with 8 sheets of body part stickers! Seatbelts, everyone! Features: Winner! 2007 National Association of Gifted Children Gifted Child Holiday Pick List, Dr. Toy’s Best 10 Educational Products and 100 Best Children’s Products Awards, 2007 Toy of the Year Award from Creative Child Magazine, 2007 Father's Day Seal of Approval from Mr. Dad eChoice (Editor’s Choice) Award, 2007 Seal of Approval and Award of Excellence from The Toy Man, Three iParenti...

We really have just gotten so busy , it seems, during the week that I feel like I am giving Dawson an hour or so of my time and then going over what he is to do on his own only to leave him for the day. Then Brynne and I have lots of activities to attend to, like: library, coop, grocery shopping. And this week we added additional errands, a physical therapy appointment for my older daughter, picking daddy up from the airport and going to my younger son's Veteran's Day program. I enjoyed all of the learning that went on at these various events, but I felt like Dawson was left behind and on his own more than I would like. Part of what I enjoy about homeschooling is the time I get to spend with my kids . So, not spending time with him really bugs me. Wish that was going to get better in the next few weeks, but with the holidays it's not likely. Here's what we did:  Brynne~ 1st Grade Math can be done anywhere at anytime. I walked by Brynne on Monday and she had our ...