One Lemony Quarter in Our Homeschooling Journey

Life threw so many lemons at us on our second quarter  so we made use of them in our third quarter – figuratively and literally. LOL! (wink to my bez gen!)

Oh ok, it wasn’t a deliberate plan to make lemons the theme of our third quarter lessons but everything just fell into place and made it a wonderful lemony learning time.  This is the first themed quarter we’ve had so I’m sharing it with you! ♥♥♥

It all started with a lemon battery kit the kids have had for more than two years but have not been able to use at all.  Since their Science topic for the third quarter was Matter, Energy, and Electricity, we decided to try the kit out.  I was actually only interested in seeing whether it would really work but our special Science teacher this quarter, engineer Lolo Mel, had so much more to teach.  From a simple lemon battery kit, the kids learned about electricity (they now know more about positive-negative terminals, voltmeter, etc, than I do!) and how even common acids at home can power a simple clock.  Kids also learned how to use Lolo’s handy-dandy voltmeter!

Since Lolo Mel was helping the kids with Science, we thought it would be great to get the whole family involved and asked Lola Mira to teach the kids about common household uses of lemons.  Kids learned that lemon rind can still be used to clean and deodorize the house. ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

Then we asked Tita Lala to prepare an art activity using lemons.  She came up with an awesome invisible ink painting activity where the kids learned about “oxidation” as well.  That’s Science in Art! This is also very easy to do.  All you need is some lemon juice (any weak acid would work – try it with calamansi or vinegar), cotton buds, paper, and lots of creativity.  Draw on paper using the cotton buds dipped in lemon juice, wait for it to dry, pop it in a warm oven for a few seconds, and watch the magic happen.  (my kids would say though – “It’s not magic. It’s Science!”)

For Health, we researched on the health benefits of lemon and, of course, checked some recipes out.  Tita Che sent us recipes for Dory with Lemon Caper Sauce (which we weren’t able to cook) and Lemon Squares (which Jade can bake all by herself now!).

It was quite easy to integrate Science with all the other subjects this quarter.  For reading, we classified acids and bases and created a Pie Chart.  We made a Line Graph to show the relationship between the number of lemons and their total voltage.  We also made a Bar Graph to show the voltages of different acids.

Since we were also studying the different parts of a book, we made a “book” complete with Table of Contents, Chapters, Glossary, and Supplements.

For Language, Bible, and Character, the kids wrote short stories about a “lemon character” who learns about the importance of Obedience and Self-Control.  They wanted to make just one story book but I told them they had to make separate ones so I can include the books in their respective folders.  They still collaborated though so we have volume 1 and volume 2 of The Lemon Rascal. 🙂

For AP and Filipino, the kids also wrote short stories. This time about a “calamansi character” who shows people in the community how they can help protect the environment. The kids wrote the stories all by themselves.  It may be barok but I’m glad that they both tried their best and managed to write in Filipino.

There may have been days when we were unproductive, days when I felt like giving up and just sending the kids back to school, days when the kids seemed to have conspired to go on a school strike…but, overall, I think this is the best quarter we’ve had so far (we’ve only had three though, tee-hee).  What I love most about this quarter is that the kids were also able to spend time with and learn from other family members.  I’m hoping we could have more of these as we continue our homeschooling journey.

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