Homeschool Days 3/30 & 3/31

 Kindergartener

• Lots of reading - probably 4-5 picture books a day
• Playing at the park 
• P.E. today - we played baseball for PE.  We worked on catching, throwing and batting skills
• He went to an Easter egg hunt at church and his Wednesday night class at church

13 Year-old

• Gospel of John
• Algebra
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child
• Free reading
• To Kill a Mockingbird and Mrs. Frisby
• Apologia Anatomy - reading from the text
• History 
• video: "Brutal Execution of the Romanovs"
• video: "The Revolution that Shaped Russia"
• movie depicting life around WWI: Legends of the Fall (we fast forwarded the Brad Pitt love scenes 😬)
• Group discussions during the two days we watched the videos and movie
• trench warfare
• mustard gas
• the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
• Austria-Hungary and its alliance with Germany
• Prohibition
• the draft 
• the murder of the Romanov's - also specifically talked about the daughters
• Ballet 
• Confirmation class at church
• P.E. - baseball
• EasterNow app - following Jesus' activities during Holy Week in real time

History was very productive this week for both teens.

16 Year-old

• 2 Samuel
• Algebra 2
• Language Lessons for the High School Student - I'm, once again, getting pushback from this kid, because the program is too easy.  This time, she wrote an essay on how to write a really bad essay - it was an instruction guide.  She's asking to do more creative writing, so after we finish this batch of stuff, it's time for more creative writing, I guess.
• Apologia Biology - reading all week about spiders and other arachnids
• German together
• History 
• video: "Brutal Execution of the Romanovs"
• video: "The Revolution that Shaped Russia"
• movie depicting life around WWI: Legends of the Fall (fast forwarded the Brad Pitt love scenes)
• Group discussions during the two days we watched the videos and movie
• trench warfare
• mustard gas
• the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
• Austria-Hungary and its alliance with Germany
• Prohibition
• the draft
• the murder of the Romanov's - also specifically talked about the daughters
• Communism
• Scarlet Letter Unit Study
• Read Scarlet Letter
• Whatever Happened to Justice
• The Fallacy Detective
• Viewed The Mayflower Collection from the Pilgrim Hall Museum
• "The Mayflower on Her Arrival in Plymouth Harbor"
• "The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth"
• Ballet
• Youth Group at Church
• P.E. - baseball
• EasterNow app - following Jesus' activities during Holy Week in real time

Here is the EasterNow app:  https://easternow.com

Homeschool Day 3/29

 Five more weeks left of this "semester" - even thought we school year-round and it really doesn't matter.  But, I have been keeping track.

Kindergartener

• Summer's Lab science - what is living and what is non-living (kinda obvious, right?).  This led to a discussion of cells, looking at onion cells under a microscope, looking at a model of a cell and watching an animation of the inner life of a cell.  This is actually a fun video - made by Harvard.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_zD3NxSsD8  We also watched a video of bacteriophages attacking an E. coli bacteria.  (He's really interested in cells for some reason)
• We read I Am a Booger: Treat Me With Respect - yes, it was gross
• We read Far North in the Arctic: Counting Alaska's Animals
• I Spy! Extreme Challenger - we did one of the challenges
• Ballet class today

13 Year-old

• Gospel of John
• Algebra video
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child
• Free reading
• She read To Kill a Mockingbird, I read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
• History video: "WWI: The Aftermath"
• I'm going to try to find All Quiet on the Western Front tonight on streaming
• Anatomy reading
• Ballet class today

Our cat sleeping on To Kill a Mockingbird.  Maybe the title of the book was interesting to her.

16 Year-old

• 2 Samuel
• Algebra 2 video
• Also Ballet Class
• Language Lessons for the High School Student
• History video: "WWI: The Aftermath"
• She'll also watch All Quiet on the Western Front if I can find it tonight 
• Scarlet Letter Unit Study
• Read The Scarlet Letter
• Researched Cotton Mather and write a short narration about who he was
• Read "The Witches of Salem" from The New Yorker
• Whatever Happened to Justice
• The Fallacy Detective
• Apologia Biology: Crayfish Dissection lab.  We followed along with this video during the dissection:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ79ivCgNe8

This was probably one of the more disgusting dissections.  Its leg and claw popped off right away and the smell lingered around for several hours.  We were able to find everything in the dissection video, though.  A success!  

Planning Ideas

 Although we school year-round and our school year doesn't usually coincide with normal school years....this time it will.  We will probably be finished with almost everything in May.  I feel a bit unfortunate about this, because summer is usually a bad time to order homeschool materials - especially since so many people have pulled their kids from school this year.  I remember trying to order things last summer and everything was out of stock, etc.

I can not decide what to do after May.

I really wanted to combine the 13 and 16 year-olds, but after talking to them and thinking about it, there is no way I can combine them.  It's way too much of an age and ability gap, especially since teens take huge developmental leaps at 16/17.  The younger one wouldn't be able to keep up.

I'm thinking about following The Brave Learner for the summer and see how we like it.  This isn't really a curriculum, but more of an eclectic routine.

I plan to sit down with the book this weekend and take notes/map out my ideas.

Homeschool Day 3/25

Kindergartener

• Summer's Lab - he drew and colored a Panda Ant in his lab workbook
• He worked on Teach Your Monster to Read
• He went with us to the college to help his older brother get ready for the semester

13 Year-old

• Visual Thesaurus Spelling Bee
• Free reading from her book crate
• To Kill a Mockingbird, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
• Anatomy reading
• History
• We looked at the CDC website about mustard gas, what it's made of, what it smells like, how it behaves in the air, what are the symptoms, etc.
• History Channel: "Life in the Trench"
• Video: "WWI The First Modern War: the Germans Release the First WMD"
• Video: "World War One Tanks"

16 Year-old

• Honors page for Algebra 2
• 2 Samuel
• Visual Thesaurus Spelling Bee
• History of Medicine
• German together
• History
• We looked at the CDC website about mustard gas, what it's made of, what it smells like, how it behaves in the air, what are the symptoms, etc.
• History Channel: "Life in the Trench"
• Video: "WWI The First Modern War: the Germans Release the First WMD"
• Video: "World War One Tanks"
• Scarlet Letter Unit Study
• We went through the Progeny Press Lit Guide together
• She finished everything for the week.  Next week, we start reading about the Salem Witch Trials

I talked with the two teens about our plans for the summer and fall.  This conversation went nowhere.  The 13 year-old wants to take the summer off.  The 16 year-old does not.  The 13 year-old wants to do something that's more like unschooling in the fall, the 16 year-old wants to do more unit studies.

*sigh*

Homeschool Day 3/24

 Kindergartener

• Beginner's Bible
• I brought out the blocks that have tinted windows and he built/played with those for quite awhile
• We played Alphabet Soup (reading - lol)
• Summer's Lab: Insects.  We discussed the results of yesterday's lab.  We read the DK Children's Encyclopedia entry on insects and watched several videos on ants and what their colonies look like underground.  One video was a time lapse video of ants building a colony
• DK Children's Encyclopedia: Europe.  We watched a video of wolverines.
• P.E. - we went to the park and went walking on a trail.  He played on the playground.

13 Year-old

• The Gospel of John
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child
• Free reading from her book crate
• She read To Kill a Mockingbird - I read Mrs. Frisby
• Anatomy reading - the respiratory system
• History - she watched the video "World War I Facts: Summary of WWI for Kids"
• We did German together
• P.E. - we went walking on a trail with her homeschool friends

16 Year-old

• Algebra 2
• 2 Samuel
• Language Lessons for the High School Student
• Biology reading
• History - she watched the video "World War I Facts: Summary of WWI for Kids"
• P.E. - we went walking on a trail with her homeschool friends
• Scarlet Letter Unit Study
• The Scarlet Letter
• Whatever Happened to Justice
• The Fallacy Detective
• She read a summary of Thomas Paine's "Common Sense"

Homeschool Day 3/23

 Kindergartener

• StoryCubes - you roll these dice with pictures on them and then tell a story based on which pictures you get.  He loved doing this.
• Finished 100 Animals - the counting book he started last week.  He still can't count to 100.  I think his brain just can't handle it.  I'm putting that task away until he's older.
• Follow Finn: A Search and Find Maze Book - he finished this
• Summer's Lab - Insects - we did the lab where you place different foods on a paper plate outside an ant mound and record which food the ants preferred.  Well, they all preferred the honey.
• Nature walk at the park, skipped rocks in the creek (fell into the creek) and played on the playground

13 Year-old

• You Do the Math: Solve a Crime - she worked on this again today.  It's clear to me that she needs a review of decimals
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child - copywork with her beautiful fountain pens
• Free reading from her book crate
• She read To Kill a Mockingbird - I read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
• Anatomy reading - the respiratory system
• History - she watched a video about the race to the South Pole in the early 20th century
• Gymnastics class

16 Year-old

• Algebra workbook page
• 2 Samuel
• Language Lessons for the High School Student - the Narrative Essay
• Biology reading
• German together 
• History - she also watched the video about the race to the South Pole in the early 20th century
• Scarlet Letter Unit Study
• Read The Scarlet Letter
• Whatever Happened to Justice
• The Fallacy Detective
• Artwork from the Mayflower Collection at the Pilgrim Hall Museum
• "The Mayflower and Speedwell in Dartmouth Harbour"
• "The Mayflower at Sea"
• "The Signing of the Compact in the Cabin of the Mayflower"
• Gymnastics class
• Went to a youth activity where they knitted hats for themselves

College Students

The sophomore visited her horticulture teacher on campus, came home and declared that she is changing her major and plans to open her own business after graduation.  *sigh*  

Homeschool Day 3/22

 Kindergartener

• Beginner's Bible - story of Ruth and Naomi
• Explode the Code - I could only get him to write one word, which was fine
• DK Children's Encyclopedia: we read the entry on Asia and searched some of the animals online
• Summer's Lab - we read Day 1 about Insects, did the coloring page and then watched some videos about preying mantises and different species of ants
• Follow Finn: A Search and Find Maze Book - I happened to pick this up at the library last week.  It's similar to Where's Waldo.  It gives you a riddle and then you have to find the item/items it talks about in the riddle.  He LOVED this.  We did most of the book in one sitting.
• Ballet class

13 Year-Old

• Gospel of John
• For math, she's taking a break and working through a book called: You Do the Math: Solve a Crime.  It walks you through a crime scene and you have to do various math word problems to solve the crime.
• Languages Lessons for the Secondary Child
• Free Reading from her book crate - she's finished most of her books now
• She read To Kill a Mockingbird - I read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
• Anatomy & Physiology - the respiratory system
• Ballet class

16 Year-old

• 2 Samuel
• Algebra 2 video
• Language Lessons for the High School Student
• Biology reading and Lab - we observed a Planarian under the microscope - located its eyespots, intestines and pharynx.  Our planarian looked like it was winking.
• She read a short bio of Albert Einstein
• Scarlet Letter Unit Study
• Read The Scarlet Letter
• Read a short bio of Jonathan Edwards
• Read the sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"
• Wrote a short narration about the sermon
• Whatever Happened to Justice
• The Fallacy Detective

College Students

The college students actually had a very busy week.  

The freshman registered for all of his classes for the summer semester.  He's taking New Student Orientation, Kinesiology, Speech and American Music.  By the time August rolls around, he'll already have 8 credit hours.  He tried to register and we found out that they did not receive some of his paperwork, so we resubmitted it (ALWAYS do things early when it comes to college, because things go wrong, they lose paperwork, etc).  Their website crashed when he was trying to register.  He was up until 2am trying and then gave up and we registered the next morning.  He also had to take a long learning assessment that told him his strengths and weaknesses, what kind of learner he was, etc.  I now need to take him to the campus and get his ID and he wants a college hoodie (lol).  A couple of weeks before class starts, I need to get his books.

The sophomore met with her advisor and was told that she qualifies for the Chancellor's Scholarship at the private university about 10 miles from our house.  It's 3 years of tuition covered by the scholarship.  

She is also thinking about changing her major to horticulture with a business emphasis and opening her own nursery, so she is going on campus this morning to talk to her teacher about going into that field, instead of nursing.  I honestly hopes she changes her major.  I think she would be happier and she would be a great business owner.

Saint & Hymn Study 3/19

This week, we read a biography of St. Patrick and listened to the hymn Be Thou My Vision.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihJAJA4ibEs

We also went through the Stations of the Cross.  The Kindergartener watched the Lego Stations of the Cross:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs5Z8TAVoGg

The teens watched the Stations of the Cross using the Passion of the Christ movie:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CLBy2r72Cg&list=PLm16ih_BT9xjWau5ETineOJYx2ZAVSCqR

This led to a long discussion and some online research of Veronica's Veil, the Vatican and the Shroud of Turin and whether or not these are authentic artifacts and why the Catholic Church has an interest in these (and also, why the Lutheran church does not have an interest in religious artifacts like the Catholic Church does).

Homeschool Day 3/18

 Kindergartener

• We played with the Mathusee block set - he made 100 and then 1,000 with the 10s and 100s. He also filled in a 100 square with various numbers
• Dragonbox's Numbers app
• Explode the Code 1
• Summer's Lab: we read In Focus Reptiles and the reptile entry from the DK Children's Encyclopedia.  We made the fingerprint snakes
• He painted a clay pot.  We bought a small plant and he's going to pot the plant when the pot dries and then take care of it

13 Year-old

• Dragonbox Algebra app
• Review problems from Mathusee Algebra
• Visual Thesaurus Spelling Bee
• Copywork
• Free reading from her book crate
• She read To Kill a Mockingbird - I read Mrs. Frisby
• Mystery of History 4 - The Wright Brothers
• Apologia Anatomy - she filled out the MyPlate questionnaire, we looked at the results for each food group/serving per week and then she made out a meal plan for a day based on the results

16 Year-old

• 2 Samuel
• Honors page in Algebra 2 workbook
• Visual Thesaurus Spelling Bee
• History of Medicine chapter 11
• Mapping the World with Art - northern Asia/Siberia
• Scarlet Letter Unit Study - she finished the reading for the week

Homeschool Day 3/17

 Kindergartener

• eh...he skipped school today.  He went to Home Depot and looked at plants and played all day.

13 Year-old

• Gospel of John
• Algebra workbook page
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child
• Free reading from her book crate.  She finished A Treasury of Poetry for Young People
• She read To Kill a Mockingbird, I read Mrs. Frisby
• She also went to Home Depot, which meant we didn't do more than we would've

16 Year-old

• 2 Samuel
• Algebra workbook
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child
• Health - reading
• Scarlet Letter Unit Study
• Read The Scarlet Letter
• Whatever Happened to Justice?
• The Fallacy Detective
• Apologia Biology - Earthworm Dissection. Boy, this was disgusting.  Surprisingly, we were able to identify the organs, including the ganglia.  I didn't think we would be able to, but our worm dissection abilities exceeded our expectations!  Yuck!

We ordered this earthworm from Home Science Tools.  It was huge and she didn't want to touch it.

Probably much easier to see in real life and not on a computer screen, but we were able to find all of its organs.  Dissection pins are an absolute must when you do dissection labs!  They really help.

Homeschool Day 3/16

Kindergartener

• Read 100 Animals on Parade (math counting book) 
• Handwriting without Tears - H
• Explode the Code - HE READ SENTENCES!!!!!  (Yes, I'm shouting)
• Summer's Lab: Reptiles
• We did a temperature lab outside.  We measure the temperature of the ground in direct sunlight, ground in the shade and the temperature inside some bushes.  We talked about cold-blooded animals and how they regulate (or don't regulate) their body temperatures
• We read a book on reptiles
• Geocaching - we went geocaching again and found 2 caches.  He was so excited - he actually found one before we did

13 Year-old

• Algebra worksheet
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child
• Free reading from her book crate - she finished a book on the US Presidents
• She read To Kill a Mockingbird - I read Mrs. Frisby
• Mystery of History 4
• We watched a video on Women's Suffrage
• We read the chapter about Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce
• Geocaching with me and the 5 year-old

16 Year-old

• 2 Samuel
• Algebra 2 workbook
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child
• Biology reading
• German together
• Health activity - finding how much fat is in different foods (saturated fat, etc)
• Scarlet Letter Unit Study
• Read Scarlet Letter
• We did the discussion questions in the Progeny Press study guide
• Read Whatever Happened to Justice
• Read The Fallacy Detective
• Viewed artwork from the Pilgrim Hall Museum online
• "The Mason Children" 1670
• "Ships in Harbor"
• "Departure of the Pilgrims from Deft Haven"
• "Embarkation of the Pilgrims"
• Went to the park and walked the trail with her BFF

Homeschool Day 3/15

 Kindergartener

• Beginner's Bible
• 100 Animals on Parade (book about counting)
• Explode the Code
• Summer's Lab: Reptiles - we read Remarkable Reptiles and did a coloring page
• Played outside all evening

13 Year-old

• Gospel of John
• Watched her algebra lesson
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child
• Free reading from her book crate
• She read To Kill a Mockingbird, I read Mrs. Frisby
• Mystery of History - Japan and Comodore Perry
• Anatomy - nutrition
• German together
• Played outside all evening

15 Year-old

• 2 Samuel
• Watched her algebra lesson
• Language Lessons for the High School Student
• Biology Lab - viewed a hydra under the microscope
• Health
• Scarlet Letter Unit Study
• Read Scarlet Letter
• Watched video "America Before the Pilgrims"
• Watched video "Who Were Samoset, Massasoit and Squanto"
• Read Whatever Happened to Justice
• Read The Fallacy Detective

Saint and Hymn Study 3/12

 Saint and Hymn

We watched a video about Saint Christina the Astonishing: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmn69EDWN6I  

We also read the background information and listened to the famous Lutheran hymn A Mighty Fortress is Our God.  (This actually led to a discussion on the German princes at the diet that created the Augsburg Confession)

Because of the video on Saint Christina the Astonishing, we ended up having a great discussion on the Catholic belief in Purgatory, why Lutherans do not believe in Purgatory, the Augsburg Confession....we talked about at the apocryphal texts, Sola Scriptura....why there are more books in the Catholic Bibles than the Protestant ones...I mean, it was a GREAT discussion.

Always have a laptop handy when you do Bible study with teens.  They ask some deep questions that I don't know the answers to.

Homeschool Day 3/11

 Kindergartener

• Teach Your Monster to Read
• Dragonbox's Numbers
• We read Mr. Gumpy's Motor Car, which he really liked
• We drew and colored a picture of his favorite bird, the blue jay and read some details about that bird species
• We walked around the neighborhood again with the Texas bird guide and the binoculars and looked for and identified birds

This bird unit has been absolutely wonderful.  Even I learned some stuff about birds.  And he enjoyed it so much that he's been pretending he's a bird all day.

13 Year-Old

• Algebra Honors page
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child
• Book crate reading
• She read To Kill a Mockingbird, I read Mrs. Frisby
• Apologia Anatomy - talking more about vitamins, scurvy and rickets

16 Year-old

• 2 Samuel
• Algebra workbook
• Language Lessons for the High School Student - still dictation
• Biology reading
• German together - boy, did she have fun with this chapter.  It's about how to tell people you're sick and injured in German.  Teenagers....
• Mapping the World with Art - New Zealand
• Discussion questions in the Progeny Press guide - The Scarlet Letter

And I am absolutely exhausted today.  😑

Homeschool Day 3/10

 Kindergartener

• Attempted to read the Reader (All About Reading 1).  For some reason, he can not read the Reader.  I'm going to put it away for awhile and switch back to BOB Books and Explode the Code.  There's something about the Reader.  If he sees a word written in sidewalk chalk or spelled out with plastic letters, he's able to read it.  Once the word is part of a sentence in the Reader, he can't do it anymore.  I think his brain needs to tread water and develop a bit more before we start reading stories in books.  Explode the Code is working well - I'm just going to focus on that.
• Summer's Lab (Birds) - we checked our homemade bird feeder made from peanut butter and seeds.  They completely ate all the seeds and you can see the imprint from their beaks in the peanut butter, which was REALLY cool for him!  We also found a small bird egg in the grass, so we looked at that.  It must have fallen out of the nest or blown out by the wind.  Or maybe the birds threw it out - I don't know.  But, it was cracked.  
• https://www.homesciencetools.com/product/sea-life-shell-pack/  He spent some time this morning looking at the creatures from the Sea Life Pack with a magnifying glass.  
• P.E. with our homeschool friends

13 Year-old

• Gospel of John
• Algebra review page - getting better, but I cringe every time she forgets how to convert a fraction to a decimal
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child - dictation of an Emily Dickinson poem
• Book Basket reading
• She read To Kill a Mockingbird and I read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
• German together
• Mystery of History 4 - The Dominion of Canada
• P.E. with our friends

16 Year-old

• 2 Samuel
• Algebra 2
• Language Lessons for the High School Student - dictation
• Biology Lab - we looked at a sponge (a real one)
• ACE Health - Calcium lab
• P.E. with our friends
• Scarlet Letter Unit Study
• Read The Scarlet Letter
• Read Whatever Happened to Justice
• The Fallacy Detective
• Paintings from the Puritan time period
• "Thomas Anguish, Mayor of Norwich"
• "Cotton Mather" by Peter Pelham (we also discussed who Cotton Mather was)
• "Increase Mather" by John van Der Spritt

Homeschool Day 3/9

Kindergartener

• We didn't get to formal school today.  He spent the entire morning at the park, playing on the playground and then skipping rocks in the creek.  After lunch, we took him fishing.  Oh, well.  lol

13 Year-old

• Gymnastics class
• Algebra review problems - she did better this time
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child - semicolons and commas
• Book basket reading
• Apologia Anatomy & Physiology

16 Year-old

• Gymnastics class
• finished 1 Samuel
• Watched algebra 2 lesson
• Language Lessons for the High School Student
• Biology reading
• German together
• Scarlet Letter Unit Study
• Read The Scarlet Letter
• Whatever Happened to Justice
• The Fallacy Detective
• Also went fishing with us 

Homeschool Day 3/8

 Kindergartener

• Beginner's Bible - story of Joshua and Caleb and the 12 Spies
• Explode the Code - he wrote an entire page of words!!!  I can't believe how much progress he is making all of a sudden
• Dragonbox's Numbers app
• Summer's Lab - more from the bird section and we spent a big chunk of time this morning bird watching

13 Year-old

• Gospel of John
• Algebra 1 - we did yet another review page
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child
• Book crate reading
• She read To Kill a Mockingbird - I read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
• German together
• Mystery of History 4 - Cinco de Mayo

16 Year-old

• 1 Samuel
• Algebra 2 - Honors page
• Language Lessons for the High School Student
• Biology reading
• ACE Health
• Scarlet Letter Unit Study

Scarlet Letter Unit Study

• Read The Scarlet Letter
• Watched a video touring Plimouth Plantation
• Watched "Landmark Tour of Plymouth, MA"
• Read Whatever Happened to Justice
• Read The Fallacy Detective

Saint/Hymn Study 3/5

 Kindergartener

• Teach Your Monster to Read
• Dragonbox's Numbers App
• Hymn/Saint Study

13 Year-Old

• Gospel of John
• Dragonbox Algebra
• Visual Thesaurus Spelling Bee
• Hymn/Saint Study

16 Year-Old

• 1 Samuel
• Visual Thesaurus Spelling Bee
• Mapping the World with Art: Australia
• Hymn/Saint Study

Hymn and Saint Study

• We listened to "Lift High the Cross" - a popular Lutheran hymn - A Capella version 
• Saint: St. Christopher - https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=36
• We looked at an old painting of St. Christopher and talked about the halos in the painting.  We're now wondering about the origin of halos in religious paintings.  I'm going to do some research into this for next week
• Both older kids remembered the Lutheran Common Table Prayer.  5 year-old couldn't remember it, so I guess we'll practice more.  We listened to the prayer in German.

Homeschool Day 3/4

 Kindergartener

• All About Reading - he read half a story from the Reader.  I wrote the story in sidewalk chalk on the driveway and he used his foot to move across the letters and sound out the words
• Handwriting without Tears
• Summer's Lab Science - we started the unit on Birds.  We did the coloring page, read the text and took our binoculars, walked around the neighborhood and looked at birds with the binoculars.  He had a great time!  I also ordered a Texas bird-watching guide, which should be here tomorrow.  I'm going to use that when we're bird-watching

13 Year-old

• Algebra worksheet - once again, I needed to do all the review problems on the board with her
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child - a lesson on commas
• Free reading from the book crate
• She read To Kill a Mockingbird and I read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
• Mystery of History 4 - the last lesson on the Civil War

16 Year-old

• Algebra 2 - review worksheet- she said it took her an hour and a half, which is just way too long.  I'm going to circle odds or evens for the next review sheet
• Language Lessons for the High School Student - she wrote her Descriptive Essay, which was honestly, one of the best writings I've ever read from her
• History of Medicine
• German together
• Scarlet Letter Unit Study - we worked through the Progeny Press Literature Guide

Homeschool Day 3/3

 Kindergartener

• Beginner's Bible - the Ten Commandments
• Explode the Code 1 - HE SPELLED WORDS!!!!!!  Yes, I'm shouting.  I'm so proud of him!!  He spelled an entire list of CVC words on his own.  I can barely read his handwriting, but it was so cute. 
• DK Children's Encyclopedia - we read the page about Antarctica.  Then, I learned that there is an actual active volcano on Antarctica and we ended up googling it, because I couldn't believe it.
• P.E.

13 Year-old

• Algebra worksheet
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child
• Free reading from her book crate.  She read To Kill a Mockingbird.  I read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
• Anatomy reading - nutrition
• German together - more verb conjugations
• P.E.

16 Year-old

• Algebra worksheet
• Language Lessons for the High School Student
• She read The History of Medicine
• ACE Health
• Scarlet Letter Unit Study
• P.E.

Scarlet Letter Unit Study

• She read The Scarlet Letter
• Whatever Happened to Justice?
• The Fallacy Detective

Physical Education

•     We went fishing and geocaching at a lake with trails.  The boys and I fished off the fishing pier, while the girls went geocaching (it's an app you can buy that shows the GPS location of "treasure" - which are usually tiny containers that are hidden in trees, etc.  You log into the app when you find the treasure). https://www.geocaching.com/play

Homeschool Day 3/2

 Kindergartener

• Spent most of the morning playing at the park, walking a trail and skipping rocks in a creek
• Explode the Code 1
• All About Reading - read some more CVC words with plastic letters
• Handwriting without Tears
• Summer's Lab Science - Day 3 of Amphibians
• Watched a short video on Africa
• Started an art project from the book Wild and Free Handcrafts

13 Year-old

• Algebra 1
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child
• Free reading from the book basket
• She read To Kill a Mockingbird.  I read Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
• Mystery of History 4 - the Civil War

16 Year-old

• Algebra 2 - I had to teach this entire workbook page on the dry erase board
• Language Lessons for the High School Student
• Biology reading
• German together
• Scarlet Letter Unit Study

Scarlet Letter Unit Study

• She read The Scarlet Letter
• Whatever Happened to Justice
• The Fallacy Detective
• She recorded Mayflower dates in her Book of Centuries

Homeschool Day 3/1

Kindergartener

• Beginner's Bible 
• Explode the Code 1 - today he read a page of words and then copied the words on the page
• All About Reading - we built the words from the lesson with plastic letters and sounded them out
• Summer's Lab (Science) - the lesson on Amphibians - frog development cycle
• History/Geography - we read a page in the Children's Encyclopedia on Africa
• Read-aloud - I haven't been including these in my blog posts, but we cover these at night before bedtime

The DK Children's Encyclopedia.  We needed this for the Summer's Lab science curriculum, but after flipping through it, he absolutely fell in love with it.  I decided to take a Five in a Row break and use this encyclopedia to pull History/Geography from.  There weren't samples on Amazon, so I bought this book without seeing it.  I absolutely love this book for a 5 year-old!

https://www.dk.com/us/book/9781465462077-dk-childrens-encyclopedia/

13 Year-Old

• Mathusee Algebra - she watched the video lesson
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child
• Free Reading from her book crate.  She's still working on To Kill a Mockingbird and I'm reading aloud Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
• Apologia Anatomy
• German - we did this together

16 Year-Old (she just had her birthday)

• Mathusee Algebra 2- she also watched the video lesson
• Language Lessons for the High School Student - she's working on Descriptive Essay writing
• Apologia Biology
• Health - she did an activity where she researched the nutritional content of her favorite foods
• Scarlet Letter Unit Study

Scarlet Letter/Salem Witch Trials Unit Study

• Read a chapter of The Scarlet Letter
• Watched the History Channel's "The Mayflower"
• Read the Mayflower Compact and it's history
• Read Whatever Happened to Justice?
• Read The Fallacy Detective
• Artwork Viewed
• "The Puritan" sculpture by Saint Gaudens (Met Museum)
• "Mrs. Elizabeth Freake and Baby Mary" painting
• "Oliver Cromwell" painting by Robert Walker

Me

After the 16 year-old finishes the Scarlet Letter Unit Study, I don't have anything planned for her.  I'm planning to put together a large (and I mean like a YEAR-long) Steampunk Unit Study.  I'm wanting to include:

1. Steampunk literature - half classic/half contemporary
2. Physics and Advanced chemistry
3. Beginning Coding and/or Robotics
4. History of science during the Industrial Revolution, with maybe science biographies of famous scientists

It's going to take me a couple of months to get this idea going...plus I need to plan for the 5 year-old.

Registration for the homeschool enrichment center has started, so I am busy planning outside activities for the fall and sports, etc.  

I finished the Martin Luther biography by Martin Marty.