Quarter 3 Weeks 4-6 Learning Outside the Cement Box

It is amazing what the addition of two hot little bodies to the school room does for spare time. The mathematical equations are as follows, where c = children; t = tween; k = kindergartener; T = teenager:

c + t + k + T = 1 hr spare time/wk

However, add the following equation and the math comes out quite differently:

c + 2t + 2k + T = -1 hr spare time/wk

And so by the wayside go such niceties as the school blog, my personal blog, and any semblance of organization to the time after lunch each day. On top of the extra bodies we are now venturing out of the house almost every day to explore the nooks and crannies of Muscat, take tennis lessons, dance like mad people, and visit other homeschoolers in the area, which takes time and energy and time. And so it has been good-bye blog, until today.

Today I sat down to dump the photos off of the camera and thought, "Shoot, I have 10 minutes to kill here before I start my nightly round of medical journal edits and planning for tomorrow. Let me post some shots." If all goes well, you should see some picts of the last few weeks of school.

Week 4

We started a quick dash through cell studies, which pretty much devolved into knowing the names and functions of the parts of a plant cell, as well as the workings of the cell as a system. In actuality, it was an excuse to make a cells out of the green jello we have had sitting in our cupboard for the last 8 months.

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Silas and Alfie eat their cellular cytoplasm together.

Hamid and Cady and their cell. Notice the crumpled paper acting as a vacuole? Very clever!

Week 5

This was a "Whoa! How did we almost miss that?" week. The Tour of Oman, a professional bike tour that comes every year and attracts great bikers, went right past our neighborhood a couple of times. Finally I threw in the towel, packed the kids into our great big car, and chased the boys down as they started their last day of the tour.

As you may have predicted, this whole event put me miles behind on what I had planned to cover for the rest of the week and eventually I just kind of threw in the towel and **GASP** followed the kids' lead in terms of when and what they were ready to learn. That was a hard pill to swallow. After all, in spite of the rhetoric we are fed as public school teachers ("Differentiate differentiate differentiate and engage them with creative instruction!") inevitably this is what that command is followed with: ("But only after you have dragged them kicking and screaming through the state mandated crap"). I have been going full tilt on someone else's schedule with these curricula I am using, kind of just out of habit. However, I am now seeing the light. At least a sliver or two. Running on the kids' timeclock for once made for a very pleasant week, some amazing stuff from the kids, and some great photos by Silas, who was the cameraman after Hamid started vomiting everywhere minutes before the bikers left the starting line.

Week 6

After two weeks of running the kids and myself ragged with at least an hour in the morning spent OUTSIDE and well away from the house, I decided that this had been a GREAT idea and that I should continue in that strain. So we inaugurated the new school week with a wadi walk for science. In one fell swoop we covered geology, botany, ecology, biology, and geography (who knew that Azerbaijan has sections that are just as desolate-looking as the areas around Muscat?).

I personally learned that photographing six children is far harder than photographing three, as is evidenced by their collective inability to look at the camera WITHOUT their mouths wide open.

Alfie's hat gets lifted by an accacia tree.

And so Al Mawaleh American School chugs along.

The Last Week of Quarter Two

Hi. This is Tian here. Another quarter of torturous school is over and when we get back we will have two new students to join us in our daily regimen of torture. Poor them. In the meantime we are going crazy finishing up this quarter with completing art projects, making videos, and compiling photos of things we have done in the last eight weeks. Oh, and we are driving Mom crazy.

Language

OK, you know, there is nothing usually going on in Language but last time with the test in language I actually got a 78%. Ugh, not good. This time I got a 98% on the test and I am so happy!

I also had to make a video on giving oral instructions, so I instructed on making tomato soup. As always, everyone had to help me make the soup (and eat the soup). Even the cat helped!

Math

I just started up with the Order of Operations in math. It's OK, but only if I remember PEDMAS

or Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally. They both stand for parentheses, exponents, division, multiplication, adding, subtracting. Ugh...

History

The other day we learned about this South African guy who was named Shaka Zulu and he was really weird. He went on a killing spree and killed a lot of the dudes in South Africa. And when he killed one tribe the remaining people moved to another tribe's land and killed (or displaced) all of the guys in the tribe. And so then the tribe who got taken over moved over to another tribe's land killed them and so on. Pretty nice, huh?

Science

We are learning about fossils and we went on this AMAZING fossil walk that was sooooooooooo cool and we found these amazing fossils! And dad found these really BIG and I mean BIG clam fossils the size of his fists! OH! Does anyone know the song by Lady Gaga called Born This Way? Well we are making a parody of it about the making of the earth and it's so cool!

And of course, since it is the end of the quarter, we are also finishing up a science unit on inventors which we started WAAAAAY back in October. We had to research an inventor, write an interview for that person, and then dress up and do an interview like we were that person. We are all interviewing and, if I may say so, my portrayal of Ruth Wakefield, inventor of the Toll House Cookie, is excellent. I will post it after I finish it, maybe in a second post that I will create later on. For now you will just have to be content with the video "How To Make Tomato Soup".

Later,

Tian

Quarter 2 Week 4

This week we went to a co-op meeting, made Christmas cookies, studied Indians in history, started studying fossils in science, made gingerbread houses, started new math books (except for Tehva, who is still using her old one), took a spelling test, started reading The Courage of Sarah Noble (except for Tian, who is reading The Broken Blade), and worked on the last part of our play. Whew.

My Favorite Thing

Going to the homeschool co-op was my favorite thing. We went on Tuesday. I met a new friend named Callum, and he had AWESOME TOYS (you can see that there was a lot of educational type of stuff going on). One lady taught us about how Santa Claus formed. She said that a man, I mean a boy, saw that two girls had been sold to a slave trader. When the boy heard about this, he decided to leave some of his gold at the house of the slave trader (the boy was really rich).

When the boy left the gold at the house, the slave trader heard him and ran after him with a stick. Finally, the slave trader caught the boy and asked him why he had robbed his house! Then one of the girls came out and told the slave trader that the boy had left sacks of gold at the house. The slave trader grumbled but left the boy alone.

And guess what the boy's name was...Nicholas! Saint Nicholas! Get it? Now Saint Nicholas has gotten used to the secret leaving that he started all those years ago. He is, in fact, immortal!

My Tastiest Thing

We made gingerbread houses out of graham crackers, candy, and icing. I will post some pictures below.

I LOVE Math (actually I don't)

I have a new math book and it is called Singapore Primary Mathematics 3B. I'm learning new things in there. Tian says that her math is too hard, but guess what...even if she has to write one word down she still complains. Easy? So easy. My sister complains too much.

Also Tasty...

This week we made our first batch of Christmas cookies! Mine was chocolate chip almond cookies and I made them almost all by myself. Tian chose gingerbread, Cady chose peanut butter, and Tehva chose MnM cookies. We tested them, of course. We will give them to the people who helped us this year so far in school as thank you presents. I think that is a good thing to do.

I learned that you always have to use the right amount of ingredients when you make cookies. That is definitely an important lesson to learn at my age.

Other Stuff

The Indians and fossils we studied were not so interesting. I am much more interested in reading my school book, Gulliver's Travels, than doing much of anything else right now. I actually already finished it so I will have to read the other versions that we have here.

I don't know. I think that is all.

Silas

Quarter 2 Weeks 2 and 3

Last week we finished school and got a shocking surprise--the government announced that we would get a surprise holiday this week, which meant no school Saturday, Sunday, or Monday! Hooray! We were so excited we packed up the school room, forgot the blog, and didn't think about school until today, Tuesday. I (aka Teacher Lady) also made the executive decision to postpone the blog until this week since we were looking at a two day school week and how much can one really complete in two school days?

All in attendance are going to contribute to this week's blog since I, Teacher Lady, have determined it will be so.

Top Ten Things We Did in School

Number 10 (by Tehva)

We played King Philip's War. I forget who I was when we played, but Tian pretended she was the frozen dead guy in the lake, John Sassoman. It was pretty violent. Lots of settlers got captured or scalped.

King Philip, who was the Wampanoag leader (his real Indian name was Metacom), eventually got killed. They put him in a lake (Tian: NO! That was John Sassoman!). No, wait then they hung his head on a pole and left it there for 25 years!

Number 9 (by Tian)

We went out all over Muscat and collected soil samples to test, kind of like Marie Curie did when she worked with pitchblende. It was really fun. We did lots of experiments on our soil like testing the soil for magnetism. By running a magnet over the soil, we discovered that some of our samples were very magnetic while some were not magnetic at all. Mine was one of the magnetic ones and it was very cool because, with the magnet, I started picking up bits from the soil that I had not even imagined were there.

We also figured out elements our soil might contain by throwing a bit of the soil into flame. We could look at the color of the flame and that gave us an idea of what might be in the soil.

Number 8 (by Silas)

We finally tested our bridges which we had been working on for weeks. All we used were tooth picks and glue. Mine was in the shape of a triangle, because triangles are stronger than squares. Tian and Cady's had no roof on theirs so their designs were different from mine.

During the test we tested the weight they would hold by first putting a matchbox car, then a rock, then 25 grams suspended from the bridge, and then 50 grams. My bridge looked weak but it wasn't very weak at all! It held everything--all of that weight! It was amazing!

Number 7 (by Cady)

We made marble tracks. Well, we had to use at least three toilet paper tubes, three pipe cleaners, six inches of aluminum foil, a sock, paper clips, and any other kinds of objects we could think of to add to it. I added a can to my design, as well as paper, which I taped to the can. My marble track worked and the marble went through, but I didn't score very high because, as usual, I didn't follow the directions very carefully. In the end, also, my marble rolled away because I forgot to build a place for my marble to fall in.

Number 6 (by Tehva)

I did really well in handwriting. My letters actually look like letters instead of snake poop!

Number 5 (by Cady)

My reading was amazing! I can read text very well and I understand the meanings of words! I definitely couldn't do that before!

Number 4 (by Tian)

I think I did my marble track well because, when I looked at the rubric, I realized I had included all of the elements and the marble did what it was supposed to do. Apparently, if this had been graded I would have gotten an A plus! I rock!

Number 3 (by Silas)

My marble track was well done. I loved my design. I included straws, toilet paper rolls, tape, tin foil, and a beer can. Oh, and a sock. Of course as I worked I had to make modifications but it all worked out well.

Number 2 (by Jebel)

I caught a fly. And then I ate it.

I also sneezed a lot and sprayed snot everywhere. I am constant entertainment.

Number 1 ( by the teacher)

Cady and Tian made a kicking lunch on Wednesday. Tian made tomato soup from scratch, which was full of veggies. Cady made frying pan sandwiches (aka grilled cheese) and didn't burn anything. Well done, girls!

Silas began to write things in cursive unbidden which, considering he has the coordination of a spastic monkey, was very well done.

Tian finally figured out the difference between perimeter and area which meant that she did not cry when it came time to work on her math review. Finally!

Quarter 2 Week 1

I want to write about the best things in school last week. There are only three. And they are all by me, Tehva.

But first, before I do the blog, Daddy took the funniest picture of Jebel this week, so I will add that here. She was looking at my friend Izzy's dog, Rosie, and she was so angry! It didn't happen in school but it was really funny anyhow!

The Funnest Thing (in school, besides Jebel I mean)

I memorized this poem:

The Caterpillar

by Christina Rosetti Spaghetti

Small and furry,

Catepillar in a hurry!

Take your walk to the shady leaf or stalk.

My no toad spy you.

May the little birds pass by you.

Spin and die,

To live again a butterfly.

That was so fun cause it was like singing.

The Yummiest Thing

This week I made pretzels because we are studying Pennsylvania! I made the best dough because I did the longest knead and it was really fun. After we baked it mine was really good. Really good. It was so good that my tongue was full with pretzels!

The Funniest Thing

I read the Singing King book. It was a little hard and I think it was too long so we had to read it over a bunch of days. I loved the Singing King though because we read it half and half and the story was funny. When Trent's daughter puts the crate on her head to sing good...that was hilarious.

I learned the ing last week and now I know how to read words like going, camping, farting...hee hee hee...crying, shaking. After school I realized I could read books like Junie B. Jones and the Smelly Schoolbus. Well, I can't read it by myself. No, I think I can read it by myself.

That's the end.

Tehva

Quarter One Week Nine

Hi, this is Silas. This week was kind of good for me. Today we went to the beach to look at the gigantic front that is sitting off the coast of Oman in the Indian Ocean. It was awesome! We saw clouds, which were very grey. I suppose that they are full of rain!

I have made great progress this week on my toothpick bridge. It doesn't have a roof. Instead my walls are slanted to make a triangle. I just realized a problem though. Oops, nevermind, no problem.

This week was kind of just an end of quarter review and wrap up and stuff. So yesterday we went to Magic Planet. That was awesome! Magic Planet has bumper cars, a ride called the jumping star, shooting games, driving games, a jungle safari car, and there are horses, a playground, and air hockey. It is so much fun and, best of all, they have a deal on the weekdays that mom really likes because it is cheap. And it is right behind our house.

We made a movie this week called "The 13 Colonies". You can watch it at the link below:

Our cat, Jebel, has been learning in our school. She did the blog last week out of movies and, although Mom tried to load it, it wouldn't load. So we are hoping that it loads this time. This week the cat has been sick with a cold which is really gross. Sometimes she sneezes and a string of snot comes out of her nose and hangs on her face. Disgusting.

Oh, another thing I did this week was I made a movie on xtranormal. It was the first time I used that site. It is about Squanto NOT going to help the Pilgrims. He, of course, did go to greet them in real life and that probably saved the Pilgrims, but in my video, he goes hunting instead. In the movie, history meets disgustingness. Squanto goes with another Indian from the Wampanoag Tribe. They go into the forest. The fellow Indian sees a rabbit, but Squanto says he will get it later. Then Squanto says, "I've got to do something." The other Indian says, "What is it?" I will leave you with the suspense.

The link below has the movie:

What if Squanto wouldn't help the settlers at Plimoth?
by: rschiera

This week was also Trick or Treating. I dressed up as Harry Potter. Tehva was a ballerina. Tian was Pocahontas. Cady was Bloody Mary (also known as Mary Tudor or Mary I). We dyed my hair black as you can see from the picture here.

The thing I hated doing most this week was getting all of my reading summaries and vocabulary exercises into my reading lapbook. I don't like doing that lapbook at all! I never know what to write. I never remember what I read in the books that I have to read for school. Actually I do remember but it hurts my brain to pull all of that information out again.

Next week we have a school holiday! It is Eid (the one where people go on pilgrimage on the haaj) so we will have the whole week off. However, we are supposed to go camping, but I DO NOT WANT TO GO! I hate sand!

The End.

Silas

Quarter 1 Week 8

The cat was in charge of the blog this week. As the responsible teacher type I did my best to protest this but was met with such vehment opposition I decided to just let it go. The cat, who has not yet developed the ability to type, put together a video blog instead, highlighting the things she most enjoyed over the course of the week. (video blog would not load...maybe next week?)

The rationale, to which I could not object, was that the cat spends her whole day every day with us in the school room. She has become a mascot of sorts, although don't tell the kids I said that. They insist that she is a dedicated scholar.

So for the five of you who foolishly **cough cough** faithfully follow this blog, I am sorry about this. Please don't stop following us. We need all the followers we can get.

8:20 a.m. The Morning Round Up.

video will eventually be here, inshallah

Once the entire student body has reported to school, it is time for morning stretches to get our brains cranking. The cat must, as always be present for the event.

And then we get on with the day. This week was especially low key as we all recovered from various colds, cramps, and exhaustion. There were no field trips or outings as we were simply trying to drag our sorry behinds through each day. And the cat, of course, was right there with us.

Lapbooking

A nice thing to do during a low energy week is to work on the lapbooks and Tehva enjoys having control of the camera, so she was sent to chronicle her latest additions to her lapbook on New England (this green strip is her Massachusetts mini-book). Seems lapbooking is the newest hottest thing for homeschoolers and I have to admit, it does have a huge appeal. After all, it is lots of cutting and pasting--great for Tehva, plus loads of little folding things and books--a winner for Tian. Silas likes nothing at all, so he hates this as much as he hates anything else we do, although he admits to hating it slightly less than normal. And Cady is learning a good bit about the use of space, and that rulers CAN be her friends. The cat especially enjoys lapbooking as it gives her lots of little scraps of paper to chew on, which is disgusting and, therefore, cool.

Language

If you keep up with this blog, you will have noted that Tian consistently hates anything that attempts to organize her thinking into any creature that resembles logic. Language, therefore, is at the top of her hate list, right next to math. However, when the cat is around, Tian will sit and complain just a bit louder than quietly because, it she complains too loudly, the cat gets up and leaves her station. And simply giving a child a reason to stay put does incredible things to that child's ability to tolerate learning for extremely long periods.

Science

Silas was enthralled this week by Jebel's sudden awareness of the window being a view of the world and it all started with the greennhouse gas experiment we did this week. The kids placed identical water-filled jars on the sill outside the school room window, slipping one jar into a plastic bag and letting the other ride free. After an hour they measured the temperature of the water inside the jars to discover that the one wrapped in plastic had retained more heat.

soon to come...a photo of the cat drooling on the window

I read a homeschool mom's blog last weekend in which she pontificated upon her children's enthusiasm for science and how they learn so much and just love school and blah blah blah. I tried for that this week with this experiment. Unfortunately the kids thought it was cooler that the cat had suddenly found the window.

Bridge Building

We continue on with the bridge building which is astonishing to me considering they have been plugging along with the bridges for two weeks now. The cat does not enjoy bridge building at all, especially since she stabbed herself with a toothpick in the top of her mouth during the first days of bridge building. Instead, she hides in Tehva's lap while everyone else is busy building.

Reading

Tehva is busy at school. She wants to do everything, including picking up the cat, helping her

walk across the room, feeding her food to her, wiping her behind, and reading to her. In this picture she is reading to the cat which you would be able to hear if only I could get the videos to download!

Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, I will have to post the rest of the cat's blog later. She is really very little help, and the internet is not terribly cooperative either. Tune in next week to see if I managed to win this battle.