Math Homework

Math homework in a cozy kitchen with a warm mug o' something! Mane is drinking her "not-no" coffee, Cafix, with coconut milk in a Harry Potter inspired hand-painted mug.

This year she's doing Saxon Math 87. This is our fourth year with Saxon, and Mane is doing awesomely well. We like the way Saxon teaches incrementally, making learning feel pretty effortless. And we like the way that lessons provide constant practice and review for maximum retention. And, FINALLY, today I heard Mane exclaiming, "Oh, I like these kind of problems!" as she hit certain problems in her lesson.

America: The Story of Us

This is how history is done at Peregrin House! We've been watching the History Channel series, America: The Story of Us. The History Channel website has study guides, bonus videos, and links to other websites to extend the lessons. Mane kicks back on the couch with her history binder and answers study guide questions as we go along.

We're currently on episode six. (This is Week Eleven of the school year for us.) I must say that the videos have been a little bloody, but, then again, that is what a lot of history has been. I'm happy that the series is not sugar-coated. It *does* go by fast. Twelve episodes take the viewers from the revolution to modern times. We've taken some time in the middle to watch supplementary videos about President Lincoln, the Civil War, and the Civil Rights Movement. We've also checked out picture books from the library about a number of the early presidents and their families. Mane has been keeping a list of presidents and their wives. She's working on memorizing the names of the presidents.

After this, our plan is to work our way through the PBS series, Faces of America, about the history of immigration in the U.S.A.

Covalent Bonding Experiment - Day 2

Yesterday I posted the beginning of our project separating hydrogen and oxygen in water with a 9v battery. Here's what we've got today:

 See the gas bubble in the top of the test tube? That wasn't there yesterday, and the tube was completely submerged under the water. So, no outside air could get into it. That's hydrogen gas!

We know it isn't oxygen collecting in the tube because the oxygen is reacting with (oxidizing) the copper wires and turning it blue at the bottom of the jar:

Note: This project is set up somewhat differently from the project described at middleschoolchemistry.com. We used 2 test tubes under water in order to collect the gas (rather than just watching the gas bubble in the jar). The wires go directly into the tubes under the water. We held the tubes close together with a rubber binder so that the electricity would flow between them better.

Atoms, Molecules, and Bonding

We are still working our way through chapter 4 of MiddleSchoolChemistry.com. We've worked through the lesson on energy levels and valence electrons. Today we talked about covalent bonding, double bonds, and ionic bonds. Then we put together a contraption to separate the hydrogen and oxygen in water! This one we did with Mango's help:

Submerged test tubes filled with water (no air bubbles) in a mason jar full of water

Placed wires under each of the test tubes without letting any air into the tubes!

Set-up Success!

Wires connect to 9 volt battery...

This one will sit on our table for a few days while we watch the tubes fill with hydrogen and oxygen, as the water molecules are blown apart by electricity!

The Three Questions

Last night we had a smart and lively philosophy discussion surrounding the book, The Three Questions, by Jon J. Muth, based on a story by Leo Tolstoy.

I cannot begin to tell you how much we enjoyed this book and the discussion that followed. We used several of the questions from The Center For Philosophy For Children as a springboard:

What do you think of Nikolai’s questions? Do you think they are the most important questions in life?
Do you believe that what we think about these questions changes over time and with experience? Should it?
Are the most important questions in life the same for everyone?
How do we know the right thing to do when we are faced with a difficult decision?
What does it mean to do the right or wrong thing?

Mane is currently working out her own Three Questions. Last night she was able to articulate one of her own questions and the rationale behind it. I enjoyed seeing the conversation move from Mane simply agreeing with the questions in the book to being able to ask her own questions and think "bigger picture" about them.

It has been important to establish that I am not interested in "right" answers. I'm interested in where she gets her ideas and how she formulates them. This is different from a lot of parent-child or teacher-child conversations, since often we're asking questions to assess knowledge and correct misconceptions.

Last week we had a conversation about philosophy in general: what it is, what the word means, what philosophers study and what questions they tend to ask. We drew some connections between logic, faith, and philosophy. This week's conversation extended how those things are interrelated. We tend not to be able to answer the Important Questions in life unless we are informed by something. For us, our faith lays a foundation that helps us answer the Big Questions and make meaning out of life.

It has been interesting, also, for me to see how Mane has conceptualized faith up to this point in time, how she views the Bible and our studies of Torah. She has always been a rule-follower, and she talks about right and wrong being about following "the rules." When I inquire about "the rules," she points to scripture. I'm looking forward to investigating with her the nuances of "rules" - the "letter" vs. the "spirit" of rules and laws.

Minneapolis Institute of Art - Impressionists

After spending some time studying impressionism this fall, we took a trip to the Minneapolis Institute of Art to see some famous paintings in real life!

Autumn in the courtyard is stunning!

Admiring Van Gogh's Olive Trees

Sketching in front of one of Monet's paintings

Working on water lilies

Inspired to paint at home!

Corn Maze Field Trip

Earlier this week we took a field trip to the Waldoch Farm corn maze. Mane had five straight hours to run with her friend. They raced pedal cars, ran obstacle courses, got lost in the maze, jumped hay bales, and swam in the corn pit! Nothing beats homeschooling in the autumn in MN. This is the time of year when everyone should be outside!

 

Corn Pits are for big kids, too!

Pedal Cars at the finish line!

Um...big blue feet?

Periodic Table

We're currently working our way through Chapter 4 of the American Chemical Society's middle school chemistry curriculum. Most recently, we did this activity matching elements with their symbols and with their numbers of protons, neutrons and electrons:

I sure did wish I had a laminator. I used packing tape to reinforce every single one of those cards!! The cards say things like, "The atom you are looking for has 3 more electrons than carbon." Or, "The atom you are looking for has about 16 neutrons." Students need to understand atomic number and atomic mass in order to figure out what those numbers are and what they mean. The elements table in front of Mane had places for her to fill in the blanks with numbers of protons, neutrons, and electrons based on atomic number and atomic mass.

Eisenhower Observatory - Hopkins, MN

We recently visited the Eisenhower Observatory in Hopkins, MN with members of Mane' Percy Jackson book club.

Unfortunately for us, it was a cloudy night, and there wasn't much to see. Being in the dome and seeing the telescope was an experience unto itself, though, and we were inspired to look up the Observatory at the University of MN, which we hope to visit soon.

Lawrence Sauter Telescope

Game Schooling - IZZI

We found this logic puzzle at the thrift store the other day...solvable in dozens of different ways - if you can manage to solve it all!! Simply match up the edges of each piece until you've build the entire 8x8 square:

It's a little like trying to do a rubics cube - infuriating and addicting.