Flight Camp

Next week is Flight Camp! Now, by "camp," I actually mean a short but intensive focus on flight. For four days we will live and breathe the subject.

Day 1: Intro to flight. We'll be looking at some carefully selected books (carefully selected by Bill who noticed we were doing Flight Camp). We'll do the Bill Nye "Flight" episode as well as the relevant Brain Pop movies. We will also do a packet that includes many of these. In the afternoon I am hoping to do some amazing paper airplanes.

Day 2: We will pop on down to the Air and Space Museum for their excellent How Things Fly exhibit. After a year of touring museums, it's the most comprehensive hands on exhibit I've ever seen about anything. In the afternoon we will start building some (hopefully) working models that I stashed away when the kids were too young to do them.

Day 3: The College Park Aviation Museum - a lovely small hands on museum with a ton of imagination and a plane you can climb into. And aviator scarves, helmets, and goggles! I love this place!! I am hoping we can finish the build projects in the afternoon and start flying.

Day 4: Clean the entire house and then make a trip to BWI to watch planes take off and land (there is a nifty little museum featuring a cut up jet on the Observation Deck). While we are there we will pick up an actual person who has really flown in on a plane... a very favorite friend!

I wonder how I would have home schooled before the internet. I totally take for granted that I can Google a week's worth of fabulous lessons on practically any subject (with worksheets and You Tube videos) in less than a minute. Is this being lazy or resourceful? I can remember before the internet. I can remember before e mail. I remember computers without mouses. I can even remember typewriters!!!

Unit Studies Run Amuck

Leena (cheerfully, before breakfast): Mom! I read that Thomas Jefferson invented a teeny tiny elevator for his house! Can we do that?

US History: The Age of Exploration vs. The Swine Flu

I've learned the hard way that you can't do high tide all the time! After the high tide mini unit on Native Americans, we are enjoying a quieter micro unit on the Age of Exploration.

This mostly is me (or a random kid) reading from our anchor book and all of us looking at the globe and time line. I am getting feedback by having them tell the Emperor about it over dinner.

In case you are wondering about the video idea, our recorder is not on speaking terms with our computer. After arguing with both, I've decided to try again after our friend Bill switches us over to a different computer.

Behind the scenes, I am gearing up for the Colonial mini unit. And dealing out ibuprofen.

Oh, yes, we do seem to have the swine flu! Klenda and Leena have it so far, and we are hoping it is quick and mild and does not completely derail our plans for the Inside Catholic banquet and my first retreat in 3 years (all next weekend). The girls are feeling OK - about the level of a bad cold as long as we keep the ibuprofen up and the fever down.

On the plus side, we could be over the whole thing before CCD, Scouts, and Co-op all start next week. And think of all the time, hassle, and expense we will save by not needing the vaccine.

I could just squeal with delight!

US History: Wrapping Up Native Americans!

We're wrapping up this mini unit. I thought it would be tough to get back into it after 5 days off and our jaunt to Air and Space, but it wasn't too bad.

We did the punch out North Western Village as our diorama. Klenda and Mxyl did most of it, and they had a good time. I think I will have them glue it onto a board so that we can keep it in our museum as part of our diorama time line.

We spent more time on our time line today. Did you know that agriculture sprang up all around the world around the same time? Between 10, 000 and 8,000 B.C. from North and South America to the Fertile Crescent, everyone figured out how to grow food.

Back to the Native Americans, we made our moccasins while sitting outside and enjoying the fine weather. This project turned out to be tremendously fascinating, not only to the Zoomlians, but to everyone who passed by.

I would definitely recommend the kits. They worked out to be the right balance of complexity and practical "doability." And now they all have self made shoes!

I'm sure that we will do more with Native Americans as we go into the colonial period, but for now, we are starting to look at the Pre- Columban explorers, particularly the Vikings.

Beowulf

I find I almost always end up with a high tide unit study in January. I think it has to do with taking down the Christmas stuff and seeing all that blank wall space again.

We are having a fabulous time with Beowulf, reading and coloring. I would like to extend the moment, and do a unit study. Poking around, most things seem to be geared for high school.

I'm not doing the Old English version, though I'd like to show the kids what it looks and sounds like. I think we will act it out (with me or the Emperor as Grendel with a detachable arm made from my big roll of paper). I'd like to explain about thanes and gifts and the warrior culture. And make food (danish?). Any ideas?