Fourth Grade Week 34

We finished up another week of our deschooling/unschooling adventure.  I know that to the ‘unread’ eye, it may seem like there’s not much going on.  But – you have to trust in the process, and that’s what I’m doing.  Like I mentioned before, we’re trying this out until the end of 4th grade, and we’ll reassess at that point.

Books – Caleb spent time reading the following books this week…
100 Facts:  Saving the Earth by Miles Kelly
How It Works:  Giant Machines by Miles Kelly
Discovery Kids:  So Cool!
How It Works:  Space Exploration by Miles Kelly
Usborne Encyclopedia of World History
How to Do Homework Without Throwing Up by Trevor Romain
Usborne Discovery:  Knights by Rachel Firth
National Geographic Encyclopedia of Animals by Karen McGhee & George McKay, Ph.D.

DVDs/Movies 
America Unearthed:  Hunt for the Holy Grail  -- History Channel
The Bible – History Channel
The States:  Florida, Indiana, Washington, Utah, and Rhode Island – History Channel
Nature’s Deadliest:  Australia – Netflix
Nature’s Deadliest:  Africa – Netflix
Meerkat Manor – Netflix
The States:  Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Hawaii, South Carolina, and Montana – History Channel
Deadly Dozen:  Central America – Netflix
The Lincoln Assassination – Netflix
Nature’s Deadliest:  Brazil – Netflix
Nature’s Deadliest:  Africa 2 – Netflix
How It’s Made:  Steel, Apple Juice, Aircraft Landing Center – Netflix
How It’s Made:  Holograms, Package Printing, Skin Cultures, Canned Corn – Netflix
Deadly Dozen:  India – Netflix
The American Bible Challenge – Game Show Network
19 Kids and Counting:  Duggars Do Asia – TLC

Games Played 
Animal Jam – PC
Stack the States – iPad
ToonTastic – iPad (he created a cartoon movie, and he had lots of fun with this game)
Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution – PS3

Projects or Activities 
You Tube Video of St. Patrick – Caleb’s Omi emailed him a link to this, so he watched it.

Drawing – he spent lots of time drawing with stencils.  Micah joined in on the fun, too.

Seussical the Musical – we joined up with many other homeschoolers to go see this performance at a local theater.
 
Save the Animals Poster – Caleb has always had a love for animals.  Well, he decided to cut out pictures of animals and glue them onto a poster.  He wanted to find out how many animals are killed every year, so we used the Internet to find the answer (58 billion...if this isn't correct, oh well...it's what we found).  Using this information, he then wrote a little bit about how animals are hunted, and he ended by asking for donations.  While I know he’d love to use this for donations, I’m not sure how well that would go…I’m not sure folks would be inclined.  We’ll continue thinking of ways to make this happen for him though…mom has to do some thinking. 


Wet Chalk & Tape Resist Easter Eggs – I found this idea on Pinterest.  The boys had a lot of fun, and I think the eggs turned out great.  I’m thinking we’ll try the activity again using other shapes/holidays.

Linking Cubes – Caleb used these to spell out Micah’s name and other words (they are like Unifix cubes, but they can link on all sides).

Treadmill – Caleb spent some time walking on the treadmill this week.

Overall, our adventure is still going well.  I’ll admit that it’s hard for me to sometimes sit back and relinquish all control.  However, Caleb seems to be doing well and enjoying this process.  There's only 6 more weeks, so I think we can hang on for that long.