Our Curriculum

Since I was on a search today for some of our curriculum for next year, I thought I would share what we are using.

Math:  We use Abeka Arithmetic.  We do math just about everyday.  We might miss a day here and there due to field trips or incidentals like that but we try to get some math in everyday.  During the summer, we have managed to do some math about once or twice a week since the beginning of June.  I had intended to do a little more, maybe two to three times a week but once or twice has worked out ok so far.

Language:  We use Abeka for this as well.  As with math we try to do Language everyday. We have not done any language during the month of June.  We will start back up in August.  We also use Abeka for reading, spelling and handwriting.

History:  We have really enjoyed The Mystery of History volume 1.  the nice aspect to me of this curriculum is that it starts with Creation and moves chronologically through both Biblical and world history.  Tying them together and showing the student (and teacher! :-)) what was going in Bible History and in the world at the same time!  The activities that go with the lesson can be geared toward appropriate ages and making the time line is fun, that is one of Riley's favorite parts.

Science:  We are using the Apologia Exploring Creation series.  Right now we are in Exploring Creation with Zoology, Fifth Day the Flying Creatures.   We have also done some of Botany and Astronomy.  What can I say about this curriculum?  Well, the things I have learned about God's creation is amazing!  Jeannie Fulbright has covered several aspects of all of the elements of Creation and has done a great job at showing the student why God created somethings the way He did.  There is a reason for everything.  The text is very informative and easy to read.  The experiments can be done on many levels of age groups and are easy to do with easy to acquire materials. 

Music:  Is done through piano lessons which I am teaching Riley right now.  Later on he will take from someone else.  I don't play well enough to continue on past a certain level.

Art:  He is getting through our COOP classes right now.

We will also occasionally do a unit study depending on what is going on.  We might do one on a holiday or a person (that is all we've done so far).  We recently completed a unit study/lapbook on Dr. Martin Luther King.  We also found a free Knights and Castles lapbook at homeschoolshare.com which I hope to complete this summer.

That is our curriculum for Third grade.  We have not made a lot of changes over the past three years or so.  We used the Weaver Interlock curriculum at age 4 and had a lot of fun with that.  We started out in Math U See in Kindergarten and Riley really did not like it.  We changed to Abeka and that worked for us, Riley still doesn't like math but it isn't as much of a battle as it was then.    Other than those two changes we have stuck with what you see above.  Time will tell if we need to make other changes later on down the road.

What are you using?  Have you stuck with the same things each year or have you changed up your curriculum choices?  Was it easy for you to decide?  Let me know, I would love to hear from you!

From Tadpoles to Frogs

Sometime in April about the first or second week on a Thursday, we got up and went to Coop.  Riley went to his science class first that morning and then came into Art Class for second hour.  He was so excited!  "Mom!  Look what we got!"  As he held up a Ziplock storage bag full of water, I looked closer and saw four little tadpoles swimming around in the water.  I experienced a mixture of thoughts and feelings at that moment...Oh my, I hope these don't die...what will we do with these?...Oh how fun this will be to watch them turn into frogs!  What a cool lesson this will be!

Well, I must say it has been a pretty cool lesson.  We left Coop that day and headed to Dollar Tree to buy a container to put some pond water in.  Then we headed to Chris' office because there is a pond where we could get some water.  When we got home we pulled out the little aquarium Riley's former Beta had lived in and got it all set up so this would be the tadpole's home.

Over the next few weeks we noticed that there were only three tadpoles swimming around so one did not make the move to the aquarium.  We fed them fish food and then eventually added lettuce to the menu, which they seemed to devour.

After about 5 - 6 weeks we noticed two of the smaller tadpoles had back legs.  Then their front legs showed up and their tails were getting shorter.

 Can you see his back legs?

One morning Riley was eating his breakfast and all the sudden he exclaimed, "Mom! He is a frog!!"  I looked and sure enough one of the tadpoles had just a tiny tail left and was frantically coming to the surface for air.  Riley had used some of his birthday money to buy a frog/bug habitat so we used a cup and scooped  him out and poured him into his new home.  He climbed up on some of the "rocks" and just sat there as if to say, "ahhh....air....".  He is tiny (about 1/4") and seems to enjoy his new home.  We have been catching bugs to feed him but have yet to see him eat a bug.  We bought crickets for him today hoping he will eat those and grow some.

 If you look closely, he is stretched out on the side of the habitat, there is a bug up above him in the corner.  This must be some special move to catch those bugs...I hope he's not stuck.

The next tadpole we found sitting on a "leaf" the next day.  He proved to be a little more difficult to move to the new habitat because as we attempted to remove him from the aquarium he swam away.  After we finally caught him, we went to pour him into the frog habitat and he ended up going down the side of the habitat and disappearing underneath.  We tried to rescue him but could not do so with out tearing the whole habitat apart.   We were disappointed but there wasn't much else we could do.

We now have one tadpole left, he is the biggest one and only just now has his back legs.  His tail looks different from the other two frogs.  Maybe he is a different kind...?  We will feed him lettuce and fish food till he develops his front legs, then he will stop eating till he becomes a frog.  As their tail is absorbed they will not eat because they get all their nutrients from their tail.

Can you see him there below the rocks?  He has little back legs and his tail is wider than the others.

It has been fun and very interesting to watch these little tadpoles grow into frogs.  I've always seen pictures but never saw it in real life.  I have to admit, I'm a little skeptical about our LITTLE frog making it because he is really LITTLE.  But we'll see.  Thankfully Riley seems to understand there is a chance this little guy might not make it but he keeps trying.  He looses his zeal to catch bugs but seems willing to catch a cricket and drop it in the habitat.  It's been a good summer lesson, full of ups and downs though.

Our Bird Feeders

As I posted earlier in the Homemade Bird Feeder post, we have been studying birds through our science curriculum Exploring Creation with Zoology 1:  Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day from Apologia (Jeannie K. Fulbright).  I'm sure this will be an ongoing study, (at least as far as I am concerned! :-)) hopefully Riley's interest in identifying birds will continue on into the spring and summer.
I had originally signed up to do a Project Feeder Watch through Cornell University School of Ornithology, thinking this would be a help in our study of birds.  I will say that it has done a couple of things:  It has definitely fueled Riley's interest in birds.  He can identify more birds now than he could when we first started our study this fall.  It has also increased the number of birds in our yard and provided many opportunities for taking photos (which I have thoroughly enjoyed!).  It has been however difficult to consistently keep watch at the designated times and count the number of birds on our feeders.  Hopefully we can do better now that the holidays are over and we have gotten into the full swing of school.
Winter is a great time to hang feeders (and no, it's not too late).  The birds are looking for other sources of food since the berries and seeds are not as prevalent.  It provides a great source of education and entertainment as well as an awesome opportunity to watch God's magnificent creation at work.  We have identified types of birds, watched their mannerisms and listened to the different songs and calls they make.  In our science curriculum we have been able to learn why certain birds make a call as opposed to a song.  Did you know that how many different calls a bird makes depends on how many muscles he has attached to his voice box or syrinx?  And to think God planned it all this way! Great stuff!

Here are some pictures of the different types of feeders we have put out in our yard this winter:

 We have 4 suet feeders:  3 store bought and one Riley made in Scouts with a pinecone, peanut butter, lard and birdseed.

 

This wire mesh tube feeder above is filled with Black sunflower seeds.

 This inexpensive Hopper feeder has a mix type seed and is easy to fill.

And of course there is the Homemade Bird Feeder from my previous post which is still a work in progress.

(see the Ooopps! post)

And of course you must have water for your birds.  Yes, water in the winter.  So we have a bird bath.  Some of the best pictures and fun we have gotten is from the birds enjoying the bath.  If you are looking for some bird feeders check out the Amazon links I have on my blog.  You may find what you are looking for at a great price!

I leave you with this picture of a Mocking bird enjoying his bath in our bird bath.