Homeschool Day: 11/10 Nature Journaling

 Today was our first day of our starting our new school year (starting two months early).  I'm planning Tuesdays to be mostly a nature walk and nature journaling.  We went for a hike in a nature preserve, looked at the baby fish in a shallow creek, climbed around on rocks and chose something to draw in our notebooks.  He chose a red dragonfly and I chose a Maximillian's sunflower.  It was a very relaxing and enjoyable afternoon.

I'm also nature journaling with him, but let me just say that I have a science degree...not an art degree. 

2027 Curriculum Plans (6th/7th Grade)

 This week, we've finished our 2026 school plans.  This was for an 11 year-old who would be in 6th grade if he went to school.  Even though he's in 6th grade, I do feel like our 2027 plans are solid 7th grade.  We plan to begin our 2027 plans early, because we are expecting a grandbaby in a few weeks and we need all the buffer of time we can get before the baby comes.

2027 Curriculum Plans (2 months early)

Bible

• Loyola's Book of Saints
• Confirmation Class at church
• Working through some of the prayers, etc in The Reverent Lutheran app

Math: Pre-Algebra Part 1

• Life of Fred Decimals and Percents
• Hands-on Equations
• Dragonbox Algebra

English: Myths and Legends

• Copywork, written narrations, studied dictation
• Life of Fred Australia
• D'Aulaire's Book of Norse Myths
• The Book of Mythical Beasts and Magical Creatures
• Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
• Grimm's Fairy Tales
• Other reading we choose

History: American History and Geography

• Story of the World 3 with Famous Figures of the Early Modern Era
• Trail Guide to US Geography
• Books we choose about US History: Biographies, historical fiction, non-fiction, etc
• US President Flashcards
• Smart About the Presidents
• The United States of America: A State by State Guide

Science: Biology (this only goes until May, because it's a co-op class)

• BJU Press 7th Grade Life Science with labs
• Nature Studies we choose
• I will need to find a new science in May, probably chemistry

Art & Music

• Private violin lessons
• Various books about drawing, etc

Our Weekly Schedule

Monday

• Bible
• Math
• English 
• History

Tuesday

• Nature Studies
• Karate
• Boy Scouts

Wednesday

• Bible
• Math
• English
• History

Thursday

• Bible
• Math
• English
• History

Friday

• Biology Co-Op

Week 5 Biology Co-op: Protista

Here's what we did today for our little biology co-op that I teach using BJU Press' 7th Grade Life Science textbook and lab manual.

Because I always open class with a video about an interesting animal, we watched the video “Wolves 101: Nat Geo Wild” on YouTube.

I asked them the question: What is an Apex Predator? We discussed.

We reviewed the Kingdoms.

We went through the first half of the Protists and Fungi chapter in the Life Science textbook.

Animal-Like Protists

• Ameoba 

• Pseudopod

• Video ”Amoeba Locomotion”

• Paramecium

• Cilia

• Video “Paramecium and cilia”

  
  

Plant-Like Protists

• Dinoflagellates

• Some are bioluminescent when disturbed

• Video “The beating of the longitudinal flagellum of a dinoflagellate”

• Video “Life that glows”

  
  

Fungus-Like Protists

• Slime Molds

• Video of slime mold solving a maze

  
  

Protist Behavior

• Video “Amoeba eats paramecium”

• Video “Microbes use flagella and cilia for movement”
• Video “World through microscope 675x/binary fission in paramecium”

Practical Lab:

We looked at Paramecia, Euglena and a Hydra under the microscope.

 

Finishing Our School Year 2026

 We're at the end of our school year for 2026.  We have one more week to wrap up Bible, Story of the World 2 and one of our literature selections.  My son and I have discussed taking the rest of the year off for a break or just continuing with our 2027 plans.  We decided to try to continue with 2027's plans, but it really would be ok if we took a break.

This is an 11 year-old boy who would've been in 5th grade the first half of 2026 and in 6th grade for the second half of 2026 (if he went to public school).

Here are some of the things we've accomplished in 2026:

California Achievement Test - this was a good experience

Bible

• The Action Bible
• The Action Bible Anytime Devotions
• My First Hymnal (Concordia) 

English

• Voyages in English 6 (January to May)
• Grammar Island (summer)
• Building Language (summer)
• Practice Island (summer)
• Spelling Workout D and F
• The Good and the Beautiful LA 6 (fall)

Literature

• My Side of the Mountain
• Dungeon Runners 3: Ocean Chase
• Bridge to Terabithia
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
• The Wild Robot
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
• Where the Red Fern Grows
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Stories of Beowulf Told to Children
• The Usborne Illustrated Tales of King Arthur
• Saint George and the Dragon
• The Whipping Boy
• The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn

History

• Story of the World 2
• Famous Figures from the Middle Ages and Renaissance

Math

• BJU Math 5 (1st half of the year)
• Saxon Math 6/5
• Life of Fred Fractions

Science

• Apologia Exploring Creation with Astronomy
• Apologia Exploring Creation with Earth Science
• Planet Earth III series
• Co-op Science for January-May semester was Physics and Technology w/ Labs
• Co-op Science for August-December is BJU Life Science w/ Labs

Health

• Guy Stuff: The Body Book for Boys
• Are You What You Eat
• Co-op Physical Fitness class for August-December

Foreign Language 

• DuoLingo German
• Minimus Latin I

Art & Music

• Composer Studies
• John Dunstable
• Guillaume Dufay
• Thomas Tallis
• de Palestrina
• Private violin lessons
• Artist Studies
• Cimabue
• Bosch
• Duerer
• Michelangelo
• The Stone Giant: Michelangelo's David and How It Came to Be
• The One Hundred Greatest Paintings
• The Good and the Beautiful Drawing I

Field Trips Included:

• Multiple camping trips with Boy Scouts
• Engineering merit badge at a local university
• Attended a professional ballet production
• Art museum
• Aviation museum
• Aquarium
• Zoo
• Island historical tour
• Beachcombing on an island
• Dolphin tour
• Airport observation area
• Botanical gardens
• Nature center
• Plumbing merit badge workshop at a local trade school

Biology Co-op Week 4

 Week 4: Identifying Bacterial/Fungal Colonies

To open the class, we are discussing why animals dream and which animals scientists have discovered that dream.  

Video: "Do Spiders Sleep and Dream Like Us? CBS News"

Video: "Jumping Spiders See with Rose-Colored Glasses"

LAB: Bacteria Part 2

Last week, we took swabs from different surfaces and made streak plates on Petri dishes with agar.  Over the course of the week, colonies grew on the Petri dishes and now we're going to examine them

Rank/chart surfaces by growth

Loosely identify bacterial versus fungal from visually observing the Petri dishes

Take a couple of samples, make slides with coverslips and examine under the microscope

Discuss the three main shapes of bacteria: Coccus, Bacillus and Spiral

Discuss how autoclave machine sterilizes

Homeschool Day 10/22

 I'm posting this before we start our school day, because we will be busy afterwards.  Here's our plans for today:

Bible

• The Action Bible

Reading

• The Wild Robot
• We are finishing Where the Red Fern Grows and then we're going to watch the old movie version of the book.  It seems to be streaming on Tubi or Plex.

Math

• Life of Fred Fractions - we are hitting another bridge today - he's flying through this book

History

• Story of the World 2
• Martin Luther and the Reformation
• We will make the paper Luther from Famous Figures from the Middle Ages and Renaissance

Extras

• Violin practice
• Work on knots for Boy Scouts
• Prepare for the Plumbing Merit Badge workshop this weekend

Homeschool Day 10/21

 Bible

• The Action Bible - story of the Good Samaritan

Reading

• The Wild Robot
• Where the Red Fern Grows

Math

• Life of Fred Fractions - reducing fractions

History

• Story of the World 2
• Cortes and Montezuma

Art & Music

• Lots of violin practice
• Private lessons with the violin teacher

Extras

• Confirmation Class at church