The Language We Speak

For the second year in a row, we are using the second Story of the World for our history curriculum. Today we resumed talking about England after the Norman conquest. We discussed the effects of feudalism on the country and the pros and cons of such a setup. Life as a peasant/serf was definitely not fun. Who would want to have their pigs and chickens sleep in their home at night, but that's just what they did? The lords had a much better life, eating elaborate foods and enjoying spacious homes. This unbalanced situation upset the serfs, and they sometimes would revolt against their lords. That's why the lords began building stone castles. Creed and Cole built a stone castle replica out of blocks, complete with a keep, prison tower, kitchen, secret passages and windows from which arrows could be shot.

We also talked about the influence of the many groups of people that came to England. The Vikings, the Anglo-Saxons (who brought latin and greek words), and the Normans all contributed to the english language that we know today. The kids thought it was interesting that the words that the Vikings contributed were words like hungry, angry, and death.

Science is Fun!

Tuesday is Science Day! At the request of the children, we are studying the Human Body this year. We used Janice van Cleave's Biology for Every Kid to start our study, and drew models of an animal cell. Everyone agreed that "golgi bodies" is a funny name for a cell part. Then we used jello, plastic sandwich bags, and grapes to represent cell membranes, cytoplasm and the nucleus. But the best was yet to come. I pre-baked little cakes for each child, which they decorated with frosting and candies to represent all the parts of the cell.

Anya says she LOVES school. In fact, after everyone else completed their work, she wanted to continue doing math pages.

Back to School

On Monday, we were back to school and started our new curriculum and schedule. The older three kids were thrilled to get back to PE, so we started our morning with soccer at their PE class. While Creed, Cole and Anya played soccer, Mom and the twins cruised the track and played on the playground.

Once back home, it was time for SPANISH. We learned words for school supplies, played spanish bingo with our words, and made a collage.

Later, the children worked on their math and language arts. Creed and Cole were excited to start Life of Fred, a silly math narrative. Creed began reading Carry on, Mr. Bowditch for language arts.