2nd Grade Completion Planning Update

It has been a fight to finish 2nd grade after many setbacks with this pregnancy but we are nearing the end!  We finished up Saxon Math 2 last week and are taking a break from math until August.  I decided to do a quick update to show our estimated completion dates for each subject leftover:

First Language Lessons 2 - this Saturday or Monday
All About Spelling 2 - July 10
Writing With Ease 2 - July 18 or if I do it on Saturdays, we will be done by July 14

With science, we will keep doing it through the summer and starting chemistry in September.  With history, we have anywhere from 18-30 days left, depending on if we want to expand the chapters, do crafts or if we miss some days.  I think we will spend more time on history and science once the above subjects are all done and complete.

With K's reading lists, she only has one more book to read on her 2nd grade morning reading list and then a few left on the evening list and she will probably finish both lists by August and start the 3rd grade lists then.  We have loads of parent read-a-louds we are reading and plan on reading, so we won't finish that list until possibly mid-August to close the book on 2nd grade.

*Here is K's list of all the books she read in the morning assigned reading time, books that were at or above her reading level: http://www.cambridgeshireacademy.com/2011/09/2nd-grade-independent-assigned-reading.html

2nd Grade Completion Planning

Since I found out I was pregnant, we decided to forgo our plan to start 3rd grade in January 2013 and go ahead and start it as soon as possible.  That way, I will have time when the baby comes around Thanksgiving to take off about 3 months.  We had a schedule of completion for 2nd grade by the end of June, with most things completed by the end of May but since I was on bed rest for about 5 days and just now regaining my strength, we didn't do full homeschool for the past week and a half.  So, today, I re-evaluated and came up with new completion dates, we do plan taking off a week in late June for my freezer cooking.

Finish by.........
WWE 2 - July 13
FLL 2 - June 18
Saxon Math 2 - June 6
AAS 2 - June 29
SWO C - this is on hold till we finish AAS 2

With history and science, we aren't entirely concerned about finishing those up in a hurry.  With science, we should finish Astronomy by the end of summer and start Chemistry in August.  Chemistry involves a lot of experiments, so I want to complete the majority of it before the baby arrives.  With history (SOTW 2), we will probably not start SOTW 3 until mid-August.  It will be easier for me because K will be reading SOTW 3 independently and can do that even during my "break" with the newborn.

Fun Dough

My mom sent K 2 Easter eggs that had "fun dough" in them.  I thought it was just play-doh, but it is actually better than play-doh in my opinion.  It doesn't crumble and get all over the floor or table and it is easy to play with, build with and smoosh and restart.  K made all kinds of different things even though she only had 2 colors and I thought I would showcase them:

Cities & Towns, Natural Resources, Food Web & Pollution

Read

1. Usborne's First Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of Our World - pgs.52-61
2. Fossil Fuels

Experiments/Projects/Crafts

1. None planned yet...

Interactives

1. Energy-related animations
2. Coal Animation
3. Various links covering pollution, natural resources, etc.

Videos

1. Bill Nye - Food Web
2. Science Clips for Kids - Using Natural Resources
3. All About Natural Resources - Schlessinger Media
4. Various Videos on Natural Resources
5. Brain Pop - Food Chains

Games

1. Town Planning Game
2. Energy Efficient Game
3. Food Web Quiz
4. Food Web Game
5. Web of Life Game
6. Food Chain Game
7. Endangered Game
8. Various Games on Pollution

Ice & Glaciers

Read

1. Usborne's First Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of Our World - pgs. 48-51
2. DK Arctic and Antarctica
3. Polar Lands
4. The Best Book of Polar Animals

Experiments/Projects/Crafts

1. Polar Regions Diorama from "Instant Habitat Dioramas"
2. Polar Regions Double-Sided Wheel of Arctic & Antarctica from Animal Habitats

Interactives

1. Antarctica Crittercam
2. Glacier Interactive
3. Glacier Animation

Videos

1. Planet Earth -Ice Worlds
2. Antarctica Videos
3. Brain Pop - Glaciers
4. Glaciers on Dragonfly
5. Various videos on ice and glaciers

Games

1. Penguin Game

Asia Lapbook

 

Australia Lapbook

K loves doing these!  I helped her cut out the pieces but she did the answers and glued the lapbook pieces together.

 

 

 

Mosaics-by-Number Wooden Butterfly Wall Art

My daughter loves doing mosaics, she completed the mosaics castle a few months ago, and this past week completed another one - a butterfly.  This one was very nice and wooden and she gave it to a family as a gift.  You had to match the color/shape by number and it was for her small fingers because I couldn't seem to manage the pieces! 

Baby on the Way!

My life has changed the past few weeks with finding out that I'm pregnant with our 2nd child!  We have waited for this day for years and I've been very tired and we also had 3 weeks off homeschool.  I'm redoing our schedule to finish up 2nd grade earlier and then start 3rd before the baby arrives by Thanksgiving.  I will update with a new schedule soon hopefully, just wanted to give an update as to why I've been missing 'round here! ;-)

Cave & Mountain Dioramas

Here are K's dioramas from "Instant Habitat Dioramas" of a cave and a mountain:

Exploding Volcano Paper-Craft

Here is K's exploding volcano from "Lift and Look: Science Mini-Books and Manipulatives":

Molecular Model Set for Homeschool Chemistry

We purchased the deluxe molecular model set from home science tools and K already loves it!  She is a kinesthetic learner and needs something she can touch or do to fully grasp a concept.  Since we are soon to be embarking on chemistry for the first time this fall, I wanted something that could help her understand and came upon this set.  We have already put together a few: water and oxygen and will definitely be implementing this into our chemistry plan for 3rd grade science!

Here is water, which is 2 hydrogen and 1 oxygen or H2O:

You can also see the video from Home Science Tools:

3rd Grade Curriculum & Goodies Arrival!

I know I'm not the only homeschool mom who gets ecstatic over ordering and receiving new curriculum!  We got our 45 pound box this past week full of 3rd grade curriculum and some extra goodies.  I snapped some shots of what we got and have yet to open them and go through them.  Then, I have to find a place to store them EEK!  We may need another bookshelf......

Deserts, Grasslands and Rainforests

*You can add in the Arctic Tundra to this week along with the other habitats, but we are saving it to do with our study of ice and glaciers.

Read

1. Usborne's First Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of Our World - pgs. 42-47
2. Warhol's - Grassland; Forest; Desert
3. Other books coming soon.........

Experiments/Projects/Crafts

1. Rainforest & Desert Diorama & African Savanna Diorama from "Instant Habitat Dioramas"

Interactives

1. Rainforest at Night
2. Serengeti 
3. Amazon Jungle Journey

Videos

1. Planet Earth - Deserts; Great Plains; Jungles; Seasonal Forests
2. Bill Nye - Deserts; Forests
3. Temperate Rainforest
4. Cactus (Desert)
5. Brain Pop - Savanna
6. Brain Pop - Ecosystems (Deserts)
7. Grasslands

Games

1. Magic School Bus Habitat Game
2. Habitat Game
3. Deserts and Rainforests activities

Rivers, Floods and Oceans

*We already covered oceans a few months ago, you can find an index of resources here.

Read

1. Usborne's First Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of Our World - pgs. 26-29; 32-37
2. Rivers; Nature's Wondrous Waterways - Harrison
3. Floods - Koponen
4. Floods - Trumbauer

Experiments/Projects/Crafts

1. From "More Mudpies to Magnets" - p.81 Water Flow, p.82 Sand Shake, p.90 High Tide Wipe Out, p.94 Muddy Muddy River and p.95 Cleaning Muddy Water
2. What Lives in a Pond? and Life in the Sea from "Science Mini-Books & Manipulatives"
3. Pond & Ocean Dioramas from "Instant Habitat Dioramas"
4. Flood PDF booklet
5. Deep Sea Craft and Other Activities
6. Wacky Water experiment

Interactives

1. Animations
2. Flood Animations

Videos

1. Planet Earth - Fresh Water; Shallow Seas; Ocean Deep
2. Bill Nye Lakes & Ponds; Rivers & Streams; Ocean Life; Wetlands
3. Floods - Schlessinger Science Library 
4. Rivers
5. Wetlands 
6. Brain Pop - Underwater

Games

1. Sea Game
2. Lakes, Rivers, Oceans games

Trip to a Pond

We are learning about ponds this week along with rivers, floods, etc.  We decided to take a trip to a pond nearby and the birds were ready for us.  We got to feed them some bread and look at them and K loved it.  The only downside was all the bird doo everywhere and we still had some on our boots.  Luckily, my daughter suggested to splash in a puddle on our street at home and the doo came right off our boots!

 

SOTW 2: Chapter 14 - Viking Boat

 

*New 2nd Grade Daily Schedule

We are trying out something new with our schedule and its really a trial to see how it goes.  At the end of the school day when it's time for history or science, we are exhausted.  The thought occurred to me yesterday about doing a history/science day and only doing those subjects on that day.  Since we school 4 days a week right now, I'm going to use the free day for history and science.  This will actually free up time on the other 4 days (1 hour each day!) of schooling.  So shorter days 4 days of week sounds great to me.

We are also adding in Geography/Map Skills because I've found some great lapbooks and material that covers things K hasn't learned yet and not sure when she will learn.  Things like longitude/latitude, directions, etc.

Here is our new schedule:

Mon-Fri
Bible
Reading - 30m morning; 60m evening

Mon, Wed and Friday
Spelling - 40m
Grammar - 10m
Writing - 10m
Cursive - 10m
Math - 40m
Geography/Map Skills - 20m

Tuesday 
History - 90m
Science - 90m

Weekend
Art - 1 hour
Home Economics - 1 hour

Daily (Sun-Sat)
Piano practice -10m
Violin practice - 10m

Husband Helps
Bible
Reads classics
Music

Under the Ground, Caves and Caverns and Mountains

Read

1. Usborne's First Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of Our World - pgs.38-41;30-31
2. Early Bird Earth Science: Caves - Walker
3. Caves: Mysteries Beneath Our Feet - Harrison
4. How Mountains Are Made - Zoehfeld
5. About Habitats: Mountains - Sill

Experiments/Projects/Crafts

1. Make Stalactites & Stalagmites
2. Cave & Mountain Dioramas
3. Make a Cave Model

Interactives

1. Soil Safari Underground Interactive - click "get in"
2. Virtual Caves
3. How Caves Form
4. USGS Cave Poster
5. Unleash an Avalanche

Videos

1. Planet Earth - Caves & Mountains
2. Bill Nye - Caves
3. Brain Pop - Mountains
4. Brain Pop - Mountain Types
5. Caves by Marie & Michelle
6. All About Land Formation & All About Soil - Schlessinger Science Library

Kindle Fire Homeschool Apps

If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment!  Here are the apps we have so far that are homeschool-related:

Free
50 States
Awesome Arithmetic Free
GeoQuiz
Developer Whiteboard Demo
KJV Bible
Kid Math Game
Learning to Draw is Fun
Let's Do the Math
Periodic Table
Speed Anatomy
US Presidents
Rhythm Cat
Music Sheet Workout
Flash Cards Max
The Candy Factory HD
How much do you know about History?
Peter Pig's Money Counter
This Day In History
PowerVocab
Telling Time
Picasso - Draw! Paint! Doodle!
MathOpen - Kids Math workout 

Buy
Touch Bible (KJV Bible + Strong's) - well worth the 99 cents as a study bible

Earth Science Projects for Week 3 - Part 2

K did the Smithsonian Rock and Gem Dig and it was well worth the money!  She loved it and still has some more to excavate for another day.  She was eager to show a neighborhood friend how to do it as well, it was awesome to hear them find a new gem!  We also had purchased the 75-piece quality rock and mineral collection for her to keep throughout the years.  Each rock or mineral is labeled with a number and the chart tells what it is and it comes with a small guide as well.  You can also test the rocks for the different characteristics (hardness, streaking, etc.).

Here are some video clips of the rock dig:

Earth Science Projects for Week 3

Here are some of the projects we did for Week 3; Rocks, Fossils, Earthquakes and Volcanoes.

Busting open some geodes to see the crystals inside:



Instant Volcano Experiment from "More Mudpies to Magnets":



Grow Crystal Tree:

Part 2 of this week's projects:
http://www.cambridgeshireacademy.com/2012/01/earth-science-projects-for-week-3-part.html

K's Drawings

I'm amazed at how K is advancing in art, especially drawing.  She didn't trace these!  Could be I'm just proud of my baby but I think she draws really well:

Medieval Castle With Mosaics

We bought this awesome model of a Medieval Castle and my husband and daughter put it together.  I loved how we have a model of a castle now and she also learned about mosaics at the same time!  Here it is during the progress:

Here is the completed castle and figurines:

Earth Science Projects for Week 2

These are some of the projects we did for Week 2; Weather, which included: clouds, water cycle, storms, tornadoes and hurricances.  It was a perfect week to learn weather as we had a snow/ice storm, which enabled us to do a few more experiments.

Weather Prediction paper craft:

Hurricane Mini-Book:

Hot Bubble Fliers Experiment from "More Mudpies to Magnets":

The Big Meltdown Experiment from "More Mudpies to Magnets":