Our Week in Review - Math and Science

It's been a while since I have posted much about school, but we have been plugging away. Getting spring fever and wanting to be done, but at the same time wanting to finish strong! We are finishing things on a somewhat staggered timeline. Our grammar books will be done before the end of May, but math and science will continue probably well into July (we actually do math year round). Writing (and co-op) is done for the year except for end of the year projects. We will wrap up our history study of the 20th century the first week in June.

Here are snippets of what we've been learning in math and science the last few weeks.



Daughter G and I have really been enjoying Apologia General Science ~ much more than I thought we would! It has been a great fit for our family and I can't say enough good things about it. If you recall, we were on a mission last year to find a general science program that was written from a christian perspective but still had "good" science in it ~ "good" meaning the science has not been bent to fit Scripture. We have been exceedingly pleased with our choice, and have seen how Scripture and science support each other.

These pics are all from the module where she learned about geology. She loved this module! One of the first experiments we did was build crystals with alum powder. The glass below with white liquid is just alum and water. The glass with red liquid has the same ingredients with red food coloring added. This was supposed to become rock candy for her siblings to eat, but for some reason the crystals never really formed in the red liquid.


However, after only a few hours, crystals began forming along a string in the clear liquid!


We compared the shapes of crystals with the shapes of small rocks, and learned that much of the earth is made up of angular shaped minerals in the form of crystals. We learned about different types of erosion that wear down the sharp corners of crystals, making them more smooth.



Another experiment she did involved making a cast and then a fossil of sea shells. This was to illustrate how fossils are formed. We started with purple modeling clay, smeared some shells with vaseline so they wouldn't stick to the clay, and then pushed them into the clay firmly, leaving an impression.



We mixed up some plaster of paris and poured it in the mold. I forgot to take a picture the next day, but the "fossils" turned out really cool looking!


Meanwhile, the boys and I learned about ocean reptiles, including frogs and salamanders. The brown frog in the picture below is a "pipa pipa" and is almost completely flat. It looks like a leaf lying on the ocean floor. Further evidence of how God gave animals some defense against predators so that some of their species always survive. We had fun adding these animals to our ocean boxes.






We then learned about prehistoric reptiles which are now extinct. One group of them was the pliosaurs, and the largest pliosaur of all was the kronosaurus, whose head was 9 feet long! To illustrate this we went outside and drew his head on the driveway. Each one of his teeth was the size of a banana! The boys had lots of fun with this activity.



We also read about the leviathan in Job 41, and then made a Venn diagram showing the similarities and differences between a leviathan and a whale. There is much Job 41 does not tell us about leviathan, but what it DOES say is pretty amazing. Go check it out!



We are now learning about all the different fishes God created. One of the first things we learned is that both "fish" and "fishes" are correct. If you are talking about two or more fish from the same species, the plural "fish" is correct. But if you are talking about one fish from one species and another fish from a different species, you would refer to them as "fishes." Something I didn't know before!

In math our daughter is continuing her mastery of decimals and percentages, while son G is working on division and fractions, son L on multiplying 3 and 4 digit numbers, and son C recently learned how to add 3 digit numbers. One reason I love Math U See, is that we can literally see how the problem works out when we use the blocks. Here C is "regrouping" (you may know this as "carrying the one") when the numbers in the blue tens column add up to more than 10 and he can make another red hundred with them.



How I thank God for the fascinating world He made for us to learn about! And for the privilege of learning together with my children at home!