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

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

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

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