Field Trip to Galveston, Texas 2026

 Because we are kicking off next Friday with the first week of our co-op, in which I will be teaching biology, we took a long field trip last weekend to Galveston Island off the coast near Houston.  

We took a boat in the harbor and watched dolphins.  There's a nursery pod of about 1,000 dolphins that live together in Galveston Harbor.  They patrol the harbor looking for sharks.  If they see a shark, they will usually kill it.  So there aren't a lot of sharks in the harbor, even though they have found hammerheads, etc.  The last time we watched the dolphins, two of them had a flounder and were throwing it up in the air to each other.  The dolphins have a ton of personality and will play in the wake of boats, following them and jumping out of the water.

We did some beach combing and playing on the beach. I think that's a blue crab in the picture. 

We also went to Moody Gardens, which are three glass pyramids containing a rainforest exhibit, an aquarium and a Children's Discovery Museum, which showed an exhibit about animal skeletons.  Moody Gardens also has a zipline, gift shop, several restaurants and several mini movie theaters, which show nature-based 3D movies.  We enjoyed the rainforest the most.  The aquarium was very crowded, which made it difficult to see the animals.  Ironically, no one was in the children's museum and we were able to spend a lot of time in there looking at the skeletons.

This field trip was a great start to our biology co-op.  I will be teaching from BJU Press' Life Science, which is written for 7th grade.  Each week, I'll be teaching concepts from the chapter, followed by a lab.  I'm very excited, because my degree is in biology, so it's generally an easy class for me to teach.

Day 2 of Testing

 We're actually learning a lot doing this.  Even though it sounds dumb to take a standardized test as a homeschooler in Texas, we both are actually get a lot out of this.  It's been a huge boost to his self-confidence.  He was much faster with the test on Day 2.  He was less confused and knew more of what the test was looking for.  During the last section, he didn't even want to look at the instructions and do the example problem.  He just kept trying to grab the computer and get started.

Blue light lenses.  He needs them.  He told me that he's turning on the color-blind settings when he plays Playstation.  I didn't realize that he was having so much nausea/headaches with screens.  That was eye-opening.  No pun intended.  

I realized that his reading scores are so high because he starts every morning reading his Bible.  I honestly think that might actually be boosting his reading skills.  Not that boosting reading skills is why we read the Bible...lol. I guess it's an added bonus.  

We did the language mechanics sections today, which took all day, because he has a five minute attention span.  He scored in the 97th percentile, so apparently The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts is pretty awesome.  And thank-you, Spelling Workout, because his spelling was in the 96th percentile.  Even I can't spell some of the words in Spelling Workout.  I'm very happy with our curriculum selection right now and he doesn't want to change anything.

No School Because of Testing

 We're doing some standardized testing this week and probably next, so we won't be doing our regular schoolwork this week.  We are using the California Achievement Test (CAT) that is available online through www.academicexcellence.com.  It's $25, you can get the untimed version and break it up over the week or even two weeks.  It scores almost immediately.  It's actually a great way to introduce how to take a standardized test, because a lot of homeschoolers in Texas don't have any experience with standardized tests.  It's helpful to test once in middle school so they learn some strategies and are familiar with what these tests look like.

What I am learning from testing this week is that my son has no stamina.  We only did three sections today and he's wiped out.  He also started getting nausea and a headache from looking at the computer screen.  So we are going to need to break this test up even more than I already had planned.  Also, the reading comprehension score is probably not accurate because he literally knew all the answers before even reading the passage.  The reading passages were science-themed and he knew the answers to the questions.

So far, he scored in the 96th percentile for spelling, the 99th percentile for reading comprehension and the 75th percentile for vocabulary.  Those scores feel like a bit of a mystery to me.  I'm not sure why he struggled so much with vocabulary/word meaning, but it was noticeable when he was taking the test that he was uncertain what a number of the word meanings.

Homeschool Day 9/3

 Bible

• The Action Bible - Jesus' Birth and John the Baptist

Reading

• Where the Red Fern Grows
• The Wild Robot

Language Arts

• The Good and the Beautiful LA 6 - still working on the persuasive essay
• Spelling Workout F
• The Good and the Beautiful Cursive 6

Math

• Saxon 6/5 - circumference, diameter, radius and perimeter

Science

• Apologia's Earth Science - Different landforms

Homeschool Day 9/2

 Reading

• The Wild Robot

Language Arts

• Spelling Workout F
• The Good and the Beautiful LA 6 - we continued the persuasive essay
• The Good and the Beautiful Cursive 6

Math

• Saxon 6/5 - reading numbers into the hundred billions place

History

• The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn
• Story of the World 2 - Joan of Arc
• Famous Figures from Medieval Times - we did the paper figure of Joan of Arc

Homeschool Day 9/1

 Bible

• The Action Bible - we started the New Testament

History

• The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn

Science

• Apologia Earth Science
• Erosion types
• Mountain ranges

Health

• Are You What You Eat?

Extras

• Boy Scouts

Homeschool Day 8/31 and College Kids Update

 College Kids Update:

Kid #1 was invited to apply at the college as an adjunct professor.  I don't know if she will get it though.

Kid #2 is going to be an ICU nurse.  He's now considered a nurse extern, is passing his NCLEX practice tests, graduates in December and has a verbal offer from the hospital ICU.

Kid #3 graduates in December and is working on her BFA Exhibition at the university (she's a fine arts major).  She is rounding up recommendation letters to apply for graduate school.  She still has a 4.0, so I'm assuming that's graduating Summa cum Laude if she keeps it this last semester.

Kid #4 is changing her major to Kinesiology.  She is also thinking of adding a teaching certification to it, so she can teach in school.  She also still has a 4.0.

What the 6th Grader Did For School Today:

Reading

• Where the Red Fern Grows
• The Wild Robot

Language Arts

• Spelling Workout F
• The Good and the Beautiful Cursive 6
• The Good and the Beautiful LA 6 - we worked on the introductory paragraph for the persuasive essay

Math

• Saxon 6/5 - multi-digit multiplication

History

• Story of the World 2 - Henry V and the Battle of Agincourt
• The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn

Art and Music

• The Good and the Beautiful Drawing I
• Private violin lesson

He also helped his sister film videos for her college First Aid class.