Great Britain, DInosaurs, 'Sp' and 'Sn' blends, Subtraction

Geography/Literature/Science: This was our second week on Great Britain, with an extra sidetrack on dinosaurs to compliment St. George and the Dragon (dragons and dinosaurs stole the show away from England's sheep). We checked out a few books on dinosaurs:

Dinosaurs by Gail Gibbons
The Magic School Bus In The Time Of The Dinosaurs by Joanna Cole
Dinosaurs Before Dark (The Magic Tree House) by Mary Pope Osborne
Did Dinosaurs Have Feathers? by Kathleen Zoehfeld

This last book explained how paleontologists found fossils of dinosaurs with feathers and wings, and some of them looked just like the typical dragon. We discussed how '-saur' means 'lizard', and 'asura' means 'demon' in Sanskrit. We discussed how the Srimad Bhagavatam tells of huge snakes during Krishna's time 5,000 years ago, and how the Bible describes a huge beast with a tail like a tree in the Book Of Job, and how this is different than the scientific theory of dinosaurs living millions of years before people and never together, as well as a comet killing the dinosaurs. Both the Srimad Bhagavatam and the Bible describe a worldwide flood in which 8 people and the animals survived in a boat. The Srimad Bhagavatam says that this flood happened 120.532 million years ago, which happens to be what scientists call the mid-Cretaceous period, which is said to have ended with dinosaur extinction. If the Srimad Bhagavatam is accurate, than the scientists are 55 million years off on their 'mysterious mass extinction' theory. The boys love dinosaurs, and I love researching this stuff, so we had a lot of fun with it.

Back to Great Britain, we reflected on how Gandhi helped India become free from Britain with nonviolent resistance, and how that approach was much more successful than the drawn out fighting of the 100 Years War between England and France. We also built a castle out of blocks and read more library books about and from Great Britain. We sang and played 'London Bridge Is Falling Down', which I remember loving as a kid.

Language Arts: We did lessons 26-30. The focus was on worlds with 'sp' and 'sn' blends. G finds consonant blends pretty easy, but the review and practice with long and short vowels is always helpful. The reader was Spice And Mice, a funny story about a mouse who outsmarts a snake, which gave some good review of when the 'c' makes the 's' sound. We also practiced more with suffixes, adding 'ed' and 'ing' to short and long vowel words, and also reviewed 'apostrophe s'. Handwriting has improved so much, I am so thankful. He writes like a pro now!

Math: We did lessons 26-30. Subtraction was taken to further levels with subtracting 1 and subtracting a number that is 1 less always equals 1. Adding and subtracting 0 is always his favorite. He did great with choosing addition or subtraction for a story problem, and he loves the speed drills (that's one of those surprises I didn't expect).

I've decided to start adding more science to our school, and luckily found a free curriculum made by a generous homeschool mom based on library books called Little Otter's Science. I plan to start it soon when the requested library books arrive. We're warming up for this 7 month study of the human body with a favorite book, The Magic School Bus Inside The Human Body. I think the boys will like this journey, and it will balance out all of the time we've spent on animals.

Take care and God Bless! Happy Mother's Day to all of the mother's out there.