Classical Conversations Recap weeks 1-4

We are going strong in our second year of Classical Conversation.  We love this program.  It helps me have a focus and a goal as I homeschool Nicole.  I understand the philosophy and model behind it...and we will be sticking by it.  In about 5 years, I'll let you know how it's working.  Until then...it's memorize, memorize, memorize.

This year our history and geography are revolving around the United States of America and our science for the first semester is the Human body.  (Do you know the parts that make up your axial skeleton?)

We have learned the four types of tissue (connective, epithelial, muscle and nerve)

The 3 types of muscle (skeletal, smooth, cardiac)
The parts that make up the nervous system (brain, spinal cord, nerves) and our
Axial skeleton (cranium, vertebrae, ribs and sternum).

Last week, I found a really cool science lab discecting a chicken wing and discovering a lot of the words we've already talked about, and introducing others we will (like tendon and ligament).  I did most of the "work"  but, Nicole sat there, asking question,touching, poking and prodding her chicken wing.  I was fascinated.

Investigating the skin.  How does it feel?  What does it look like?

Hannah was a part of the investigation as well...at least for a while.

Nicole found evidence of feathers that were on the chicken.

This is a pretty good picture of the connective tissue.  We slipped the probe under it to break it so we could better loosen the epithelial (skin) from the muscle.



Just checking out the muscle



This looks like a regular piece of chicken you may see.  The white part are the tendons.

She has stuck a chicken bone onto her skewer.  We talked about how bones are made and the function of spongy bone and bone marrow

We practice all of our memory work every day.  One way we practice geography is by tracing the map.  She is using a dry erase marker to trace the states and capitals

We have also been learning about basic drawing.  This was some of our practice at home.

There are five basic elements to drawing: OiLs - Cirlce, straight line, dot, angled line and curved line (like the word OiLs).  This is a mouse.

Finally, we learned about Massechusettes the other day.  Did you know that a big industry in MA is cranberries?!?  I didn't.  So, we ate craisins for a snack:)



Finally, here is Nicole's Presentation on her family, I think from week 2.