Bird's-Eye View of the Week: Masterly Inactivity. Doctor's Orders!

If it weren't for the pain, I could get used to this house-bound thing.
   Our school week has been so relaxed. So easy. With my foot in a soft boot, and doctor's orders to stay off it, I am completely excused from spending valuable hours running us from activity to activity. This must be the ultimate Masterly Inactivity that Charlotte Mason advises.
   School takes place entirely from a big easy chair in the living room with sun pouring in from three sides. Hot tea in a Thermos, laptop on the ottoman, stacks of books on the floor and we are ready to go.The only thing to ice the cake would be if I could successfully build a fire.

Master Skylark. Scan for
 download to your device

  Our main focus this week has been making steady progress in the book, Master Skylark,  the tale of a country boy in Shakespeare's time, who runs away from home to London, not to join the circus, but the theater. He discovers, Dorothy-like, that there's no place like Stratford and his dear mother's arms. Along the way he is essentially abducted by Gaston Carew, a "master player" who makes many empty promises to let him go "tomorrow." Except, that day never comes because, in classic Shakespearean double-speak,  it never is Tomorrow, always Today! In fact the book is full of word-play, most of which goes right over Mei's head but nonetheless demonstrates, along with the thickly-spread descriptions of scenery, clothing, and action, the author's intelligent writing. It is another selection by Simply Charlotte Mason for Module 5 that Mei at first protested about because of its high literary style that includes heavy use of the Elizabethan tongue, but now begs to be read from. Fits in nicely with our affinity for Shakespeare and the theater too. (see our theater field trips!)       Available as a download to your device such as a Kindle or smart-phone with reader and appropriate for late-elementary through middle school.

Sample pages from the Atmosphere and Rock Lessons.

    The other subject that is commanding our attention is Science. I just am so pleased with Considering God's Creation .This publication, which has been around since the 90's, uses two books, one for me and one for thee (oops, can't lose that 16th century lingo!). It covers general science from a--Surprise!--creationist point of view following the seven days as laid out in Genesis. There are others that do that too, most notably Apologia's Exploring Creation and 106 Days of Creation. We tried Apologia last year with Day Six, Land Animals, but got so bogged down. There was just TOO MUCH of a good thing as far as we were concerned.
    Considering God's Creation is broken up into lots of short lessons with lots of hands-on stuff.Very easy to adapt to a multi-age setting or a co-op. There are extension ideas given with every lesson for deeper research for older students. The heart of it is the notebook that the student will create from the pages in the Student Book. It's all bound there with the mini-books ready to be filled in. I especially loved the solar system that hangs from a pop-up page! It also brings in other subjects from across the curriculum including Bible, music on a CD, vocabulary, and history lessons. A clever notebook page is entitled Science Detective, a fill-in-the blank form for researching those who have contributed to science in a notable way. Oral review questions and a crossword puzzle complete the units. For under $30, it has got to be the best science deal out there.

But the best part about our week of sofa rest has been seeing Mei involve herself in self-directed projects. She is currently making a 3-story dollhouse out of a large cardboard box. Today she is working out how to build staircases. I am totally uninvolved and she is totally loving it. Never would have happened if I was able to drive us to all the "important" stuff. Maybe I can keep on mastering masterly inactivity when I am more...active!

Cardboard townhouse.
Staircases ready to be installed.

   Have you ever taught more by NOT teaching? I need more ideas! Tell Mother all about it below and then head over to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and see if anyone else mastered inactivity this week!

 

Considering God's Creation
by Eagle's Wings Ed

Science: Slime!

This is what you get when you combine Borax, Elmer's glue, a little paint for color, and water. Yucky fun! See recipe below. (from Last-Minute Science Fair Projects (Scholastic): When Your Bunsen's Not Burning but the Clock's Really Ticking )

Combine 1/2 cup water, with 1/2 teaspoon Borax (available in laundry aisle).
Dissolve completely. In a separate bowl combine 3 tablespoons water with 6 tablespoons Elmer's glue and a tablespoon or so of tempera or acrylic paint. Mix well.

Now combine the two mixtures. Watch what happens! EEEwwww!!

Science Fair Display Board

And Here is MeiWei's final project (most of it).

All the kids, right down to the kindergarteners, did a superb job! Watch out, world!

Coop Science Fair!

For six weeks, our coop met on Friday afternoons for 2 hours of PE, art, and this season, Science. Since it was Mother R's idea to have a science fair, MotherR ended up teaching it. Such is what happens to people who have a popular idea.

The focus was on the scientific method--you know, lite stuff. Each week we explored another step of the process. If you've forgotten, it goes like this (with small semantic variances): Problem, Research, Observation, Hypothesis, Experiment (within which lies Materials, Procedure, and Data collection), Results, and Conclusion.

The kids in my group were between 3rd and 6th grade. We had lots of fun (I think) doing experiments and discussing the progress of our projects. I made sure we made messes and blew things up. But in the end, I was not sure if the fair would fly or fail.

MeiWei was very gung ho with a hypothesis of her own making after a subject near and dear to her heart: doing laundry. She postulated that clothes hung outside would fade at the same rate as clothes in the dryer.

The materials were purchased: a half dozen t-shirts in an array of colors, cut up into pieces that would be divided between line-drying and machine-drying. But after a couple of loads, the scientist ran into weather problems that prevented collecting enough data. The trending forecast was not good. With a week to go it was time to bail.

Experiment 2 was out of a God-send of a book entitled Last-Minute Science Fair Projects (Scholastic): When Your Bunsen's Not Burning but the Clock's Really Ticking . She chose (with a little urging by Mom who thought the mommies would be interested) "Young and Lovely: Does Vitamin E Really Prevent Aging?" Three rose petals were treated to either a dip in water, a smear of vitamin E oil, or plain old air and then baggied.

Sho' nuff! After several days the "E" petal was still fresh while the others had shriveled to brown little wormy things.

Research showed it's best to apply topically, so I'm headed to that health food store and get me some youth in a bottle!
Like MomR always says, "You never stop learning!"