Chapter 7- First Day of School

Parent Summary-
Tom's first day of school arrives. With Pitt and his mother by his side, Tom sets out for the one-half mile walk to his new schoolhouse. Tom has heard bad stories about his new schoolmaster, MR. Crawford, but he tries to be optimistic. When Tom arrives, Mr Crawford tells him that even though he is seven, Tom must be in first grade since he has no formal schooling. The rest of Toms day does not go any better. He is sent to the corner for drawing pictures instead of doing his penmanship, and his lunch is stolen by the biggest boy in class. That boy, Michael Oats, however, decides to befriend Tom and the lunch hour becomes the best part of his day.

What will we cover in this chapter:
History and Geography: One- Room Schoolhouses
Mathematics: One half mile- How far is that?
Language Arts: Penmanship Review

History and Geography: One- Room Schoolhouses 
Tom's School was a one-room schoolhouse. All the grades from kindergarten up were taught in the same classroom. Because we are a homeschool family it is not much different in our house today.  We spent some time discussing many different types of schools which included private, public, boarding, military, etc.... We also looked at pictures of one room schoolhouses and orally answered questions. Then we had discussion about them. Lily and Aj completed a worksheet about one-room schoolhouses too.

Mathematics: One Half Mile- How far is that?
Tom walked one half mile to school. The children completed a worksheet about distance. Also, while we were talking about one-room schoolhouses I had them answer sample math questions orally like they did in the 1800's.

Langue Arts- Penmanship Review
Lily  and Aj completed a page in the "Handwriting without Tears" workbook.

Thanks for Reading!

St Patrick's day!

On St. Patrick's day we had a fun breakfast, made some art, read books and made a potato clock.

Chapter 6 - The House in the Grove

Chapter Summary-
The Edison's complete the final chapter of their journey to Port Huron. They pass the area schoolhouse on their way to their new home. His parents tell him he must go to school soon. Finally, they turn onto a narrow road and see a large white house straight ahead. Mrs. Edison is shocked by how big their new house is and Tom runs off to explore the grounds. Soon they begin to move things into their new home, and Tom and Pitt spend the better part of the day helping their mother insulate the floors with straw. After the family eats supper, they decide to name their new home. "The house on the grove" The next afternoon, Mr. Edison takes Tannie back to the train station and sends her back to Milan. That evening, the family sits and listens to Mr. Edison read The Detroit Free Press about current events. Tom listens closely to stories about President Fillmore and Commodore Perry. he is interested in the concept of trade and commerce. Learning things from his father's reading becomes a wonderful tool for Tom.

What we will cover in this Chapter-
History and Geography: President Fillmore
Science: Tree Identification

History and Geography: President Fillmore
In this story Tom listens to stories about President Fillmore as his father reads from the local newspaper. We learned some interesting facts about President Fillmore. The kids enjoyed watching two videos, reading a story and coloring a picture about the 13th president.

Science: Tree Identification 
We went on a hike on a beautiful winter day. We talked about the different kinds of trees we saw. Some examples are pine, oak and maple. We also learned the difference between deciduous and coniferous trees. When we got home Lily and Aj completed two pages in our science work book about conferees trees and carnivorous plants.

Thanks for reading!!

Chapter 5-Toms First Train Ride

Chapter Summary-
The Edison's arrive at the train station. Unable to contain his excitement, Tom races and begins to ask the engineer, Mr. Benjamin, many questions. Mr Benjamin likes the young boy's energy, and says Tom may ride in the engine with him for a few miles. Mr. and Mrs. Edison agree and Tom is Joyous. His ride with the Engineer goes quickly, and Tom learns all about how a steam engine works. When he is back with his family, Tom relates his experiences to them and the rest of trip to Detroit goes by quickly.

What we will cover in this chapter-
Science -Water and ground Pollution
Language arts- Writing
Math- Addition
Art- Painting with primary colors


Science- (water Pollution)
We did 2 hands on experiments about water pollution. We also watched a video of the affects of changing climate on Antarctica.

The first experiment was simple. We used materials around the house to learn about pollution within our interconnected waterways. We used and egg carton, water, food coloring and flax seeds. We talked about about how water ways are all connected to each other- creeks run into river, then into lakes and oceans. We put the flack seeds and food coloring  into one of the egg cups and watched how it slowly spread into the other cups. This taught the kids that if you throw trash into a creek or river it doesn't just get that waterway dirty. The water caries the trash to other places like oceans and it will eventually spread into the ground.

The next experiment the kids learned you can't undo water pollution.  We used a bucket of clean water, trash from around the house, vegetable oil to represent toxic oil spills, tongs and a sponge. First the kids took turns adding trash to the water. When the water looked polluted enough the kids had to use their tongs and sponge to remove the trash. After awhile they removed all the big items but soon realized they were unable to remove all the pollutants from the water.

Math- (Addition)
Lily and Aj completed 2 addition worksheets. The worksheets  had a train theme.

Art-(Primary Colors, Acrylic Painting)
The kids used only the 3 primary colors and white to make their paintings. They were asked to paint pictures about nature and how to help stop pollution.

Language Arts- Writing
Thomas Edison rode the train for the first time in this chapter. The kids had to write about something they remembered doing for the first time.

Thank for reading Chapter 5!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

On Dr. Seuss's Birthday we celebrated his special day by reading some books, eating green eggs and ham, reading 2 poems, working on SH sounds and watching the movie Horton Hears a Who.