This Week at the Super Awesome School

Another fun week at the Super Awesome School! Where do I begin?

In math, we discussed place value to the hundred millions. We pretended we had A LOT of money and wrote checks for some really weird purchases. Did some goofy story problems involving dogs and Stinky Liver Treats. We did a lot of multiplication review, both on paper and out loud (and I do mean LOUD.)

Science was all about atoms! I love the Classic Science curriculum (downloadable from www.eequalsmcq.com.) Since Dudeman requested chemistry, we started with that chapter. We also love Discovery Streaming (available by subscription.) We read a lot of science books (real books, not textbooks) together, and did one really gross but cool experiment, which is documented below. Also made models of atoms, played games on quarked.com and just for fun, looked at a buncha stuff under the microscope.

Language arts was eclectic, as it should be. We practiced spelling words, reviewed parts of speech, worked on handwriting, did some proofreading, and discussed telling sentences, commanding sentences, and questioning sentences. If you're my age, you may remember these as declarative sentences, imperative sentences, and interrogative sentences. Oh, and we read some great books: My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett, Bad to the Bone by Lucy Nolan, The First Dog by Jan Brett, and others that I can't think of at the moment!

History was the coolest of all. The agricultural revolution, domestication of animals, and the huge changes in how people lived that brought about the rise of great civilizations. Dad piled a bunch of blankets and pillows on the floor and pulled out a ton of great books (real, not text.) The kids loved working on The Mystery of the Ice Man (a.k.a. Otzi.) The game Dad invented was fun and we all learned a lot They finished the week by choosing their favorite domesticated animal and telling why it was beneficial to humans.

At some point, piano songs were practiced, pictures were drawn, Bendaroos turned into birds and other things, dogs got fed and played with, the Ken Burns series was watched, and life was good here at Big-Mountain-Snow-Not-On-Top-Yet.