Wednesday, October 21, 2026

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

Tuesday, October 20, 2026

Homeschool Day 10/20

 Bible

  • The Action Bible - healing the blind man in the synagogue
Reading
  • Where the Red Fern Grows
  • The Wild Robot
History
  • Story of the World 2 - the Slave Trade
Extras
  • Karate class
  • Boy Scouts 
  • Playing basketball at the park
  • As we wind down with our school year, he and I went over my school records showing everything he's done this year

Monday, October 19, 2026

Homeschool Day 10/19

 Bible

  • The Action Bible
Reading
  • Where the Red Fern Grows
  • The Wild Robot
Language Arts
  • The Good and the Beautiful Cursive 6
  • The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts 6
Math
  • Life of Fred Fractions
History
  • Story of the World 2 - the Incas
Art & Music
  • The Good and the Beautiful Drawing I

Saturday, October 17, 2026

Biology Co-op 10/16

 I didn't post this yesterday, because I was overwhelmed, but here's what we did for the biology class that I teach on Friday mornings.  It was a great class.  The boys were actually listening and enjoying it.

Bacteria and Viruses (reference: BJU Life Science textbook)

Thylacine

  • We learned about the Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger, an extinct marsupial from Tasmania/Australia
  • We watched videos of the last Tasmanian Tiger from 1936
  • We discussed what led to its extinction
Bacteria
  • Bacteria structures, size
  • Bacteria types
  • How bacteria help the environment
  • Can you see bacteria with a microscope?
Viruses
  • Viruses are not living organisms
  • Virus structure
  • Video of a virus attacking a cell
  • You can only see viruses with a special microscope
LAB
  • Using 10 Petri dishes with agar and 10 cotton swabs, the kids swabbed various surfaces (including a toilet seat, doorknob, cat's paw, cat's water bowl) and then created streak plates.  I'm keeping the Petri dishes in a warm place until next week when we can compare/contrast bacterial and fungi growth on the plates.  Maybe we can take some small samples, form slides and try to identify bacterial shapes under the microscope


Wednesday, October 14, 2026

Homeschool Day 10/14

 Bible

  • The Action Bible
Reading
  • The Wild Robot
  • Where the Red Fern Grows
Language Arts
  • The Good and the Beautiful LA 6
  • The Good and the Beautiful Cursive 6
Math
  • Life of Fred Fractions - adding fractions
History
  • Story of the World 2 - Tenochtilan and the Aztecs
Art & Music
  • Violin lessons with a teacher
Extras
  • Confirmation Class at Church
  • Homeschool Recess Group

Tuesday, October 13, 2026

Homeschool Day 10/13

 Bible

  • The Action Bible
Reading
  • Where the Red Fern Grows
Art & Music
  • The Good and the Beautiful Drawing I
  • Violin practice
Extras
  • Karate class
  • Boy Scouts

Monday, October 12, 2026

Planning for Winter 2027

 I'm flipping through the remainder of our books and curriculum.  By my calculations, we have about 4-5 weeks of schoolwork left, besides math and language arts (we've got plenty of that).  We are finishing Bible, Story of the World 2, literature, Earth Science, etc.  This is one of the dangers of schooling year-round.  You find yourself in mid-October wondering what you're going to do next.  And our "school year" is very off-kilter with everyone else's school year.  

Do I want to continue our current homeschool method?

Do we want to try something else?

Do we need a break?  With ADHD, we tend to get bored with breaks.  

Do we want to go back to Sonlight?  I do, but I don't think he does.

It's exciting when we finish our curriculum, but it's also stressful, because I don't like to plan.  I don't like record-keeping, planning, picking curriculum....  I do better with the actual teaching and working with my student.

It's time to look through things like Sonlight's website, Ambleside Online's website, The Well-Trained Mind and even reread The Brave Learner and some of Charlotte Mason's writings.  


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 - reducin...