History Pockets, Journals, Tops Experiments & More

Since the school year is almost complete for us, I thought I would share some of the things the kids have worked on. Each child has their own large binder to put special projects in. I use plastic sheet protectors to keep the work looking nice. This is the first year we have started something like this, and I hope to continue. I like that it gives all of us a feeling of accomplishment; that we did actually do something throughout the school year.

Drake did lots of Tops experiments the past two years. This year he learned how magnetism and electricity work. I don't have any of those to put up, but I do have the corn and beans experiments he did last spring/summer.

When the seeds first sprouted, he had to draw and label the different parts.

Keeping a daily record is very important because the plants progress fast.

This year Drake did Sonlight Core 4 (the second half of American History). He learned a lot about the Civil War and World Wars. He also learned about different inventions of that time period. We used the Civil War History Pocket to add something fun and crafty to the mix. Instead of making a pocket out of construction paper, we slipped each project into one of the sheet protectors.

Below is a Sonlight LA 4 assignment. Drake had to think of something he wanted to invent and try to sell it to people by creating an eye catching ad for a magazine. He also had to create some kind of logo for his product. His invention turned out to be a car that, when driven, can actually make the world a better place.

(Notice the not so good spelling, ex: ded instead of dead. This is before using the All About Spelling program. I will post our progress with spelling sometime in the future.)

Here we have Ava's binder.

This year Ava did Sonlight Core 1 (the first half of World History). She learned about ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, India, Africa, Europe, and China and how the people lived many years ago. To go along with her Sonlight studies, we chose the Ancient Civilizations History Pocket.

The picture on the right shows a scene Ava drew of herself coming back from war, galloping through a Triumphal Arch.

The "Words to Know" section provides four vocab for words, which are great for review.

Here are a couple of Ava's journal pages. She can write about anything she wants to.

These last two are assignments from Sonlight LA 1. In this first one, she had to write a simile and draw a picture to go with it.

Here she had to write a poem about a color. Each line had to begin with that color, and she had to use her five senses to describe it.

There you have it. A little insider look at what we've done this year.