Homeschool Week 4/26-4/29: Fire Safety and First Aid Unit Study

 This week is independent reading, a read-aloud and Language Lessons.  Besides that, we are doing a week-long, hands-on unit study of fire safety and first aid.  For reference, I am using things like Red Cross videos on Youtube, first aid series on Youtube and the LIFEPAC High School Health Unit 4 book.

Monday:

• We are watching the "Catching Fire" series on Youtube - its an Australian series on fire safety (yeah, I know, but there are no puppets or rap songs about fire safety in the videos)
• Covering house fires
• Escape plans
• Kitchen fires
• What to do if YOU catch fire
• Smoke detectors/carbon monoxide detectors
• How to work a fire extinguisher

Tuesday:

• Going through a real first aid kit and explaining the purpose of each item
• Wounds and bleeding
• Sprains, Strains, Fractures and Dislocations
• Splints

Wednesday:

• Burns
• Poison Control
• Hypothermia and Frostbite
• Heat Exhaustion and Heat Stroke

Thursday

• Choking
• CPR
• Infant CPR

The Phase of Planning Called "I Just Don't Like Any of These Plans"

 I've entered the phase of planning where I just don't like my plans.  😐

I'm happy with the 1st grader's plan, because I can always add so many fun things to his year.  If I see a book or unit study that looks like fun, I can spontaneously add it to our year and it'll be great.

I'm not completely happy with my high school plan.  I originally wanted to blend chemistry and physics together into one course - Physical Science or Integrated Chemistry & Physics. 

I made the mistake of buying a chemistry curriculum and a physics textbook to use as a guide.  The mere presence of curriculum or a textbook kills my planning creativity every time.  Without fail.  Now I look at the table of contents and subconsciously think "oh, no, now I have to cram all of this information into our school year."

*sigh*

The curriculum trap.

Now neither chemistry or physics look enjoyable this year.  I don't feel excited about teaching either after looking at the textbooks.  

I also wanted to have time to do some creative writing with the high schoolers and now after looking through my plans, I don't know where to fit that in.  I think I have planned too much and not left enough room for spontaneous learning.

I very much like the Trail Guide to World Geography curriculum.  We are going to love geography this year!  

Adding: Homeschooling high school - I feel very much trapped by what needs to be on the stupid transcripts.

Summer Plans 2021

 Here are my tentative plans for summer 2021 (after I take a short break to do the things I listed in my other post).  It looks like a lot on paper, but it's very toned-down from what we usually do.  It's probably 1-1.5 hours of work per day.

1st Grader:

• Reader
• Read-Aloud
• Summer's Lab

It's possible that we will do this for a couple of weeks and he'll beg to start school again.  (This has happened before when I tried to take a summer break). If this happens, I will just start school again.

9th Grader (age 13 -skipped 6th grade, which is why she's only 13):

• Finish Algebra 1
• Finish Language Lessons for the Secondary Child
• Reader
• Read-Aloud

This child will happily take a break from school.  

11/12th Grader (age 16 - most likely skipping 11th grade):

• Finish Algebra 2
• Finish Language Lessons for the High School Student
• Government & Economics
• Reader
• Read-Aloud

Mark my words...this child will get mad when she finds out we are taking a "break" from our full schedule.  *rolling my eyes*

Homeschool Week 4/19-4/23: Planning a Break

 We are almost completely finished with all of our curriculum.  I'm giving this another week or two and then we're stopping for a break.  I don't know how long our break will be, but there are some things around the house I need to take care of - so we may actually stop for about a month or longer (we usually school year-round).

Things I need to take care of:

1. I need to declutter/rearrange the school books, their book crates and my book shelves.
2. I need to update all of their school records for 2021 up to date - I keep an Excel file for each kid for each calendar year.  On this Excel sheet, I include what we did for:
1. Literature
2. Language Arts - grammar, spelling, writing
3. Math
4. History
5. Science
6. Art & Music
7. Bible
8. Field Trips 
9. Activities  

At the end of the year, I just print these out and put them in a binder where I have all of our school years for each kid stored (in case we are ever accused of educational neglect, etc).

    3.  Plan for each of their new courses - Sometimes I "wing it," sometimes I plan everything out ahead of time.  I may plan more than usual since this is my 16 year-old's last year before college.

    4.  New planner - I just bought a new planner for 2021-2022.  I bought the A Simple Plan Planner:

https://www.mardel.com/asimpleplan  I heard Mardel was having a planner sale this week, so when I went, this was literally the only large planner available, so I bought it.  I need to plug all of my information into the new planner - all of their activities for Fall 2021, curriculum, etc.

    5.  Transcripts - I need to make sure I have these going for my 16 year-old.

    6.  Declutter and work on straightening up my house - the only way this is going to happen is if I take a break from teaching

For the week of 4/19-4/23 (Finishing up)

13 Year-old:

• Bible
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child
• Free reading
• Anatomy
• Dragonbox Algebra

16 Year-old

• Bible
• Language Lessons for the High School Student
• Apologia Biology
• Scarlet Letter Unit Study
• Finish The Scarlet Letter
• Go through the Progeny Press Guide discussion questions
• Finish Whatever Happened to Justice?
• Finish The Fallacy Detective
• Writing Prompt: "What happened after the Salem Witch Trials?  What did the local government in Salem do to the families of the victims?

Homeschool Day 4/15

 Kindergartener

• Teach Your Monster to Read
• Dragonbox's Numbers
• We read DK Find Out! Human Body
• Fingerprints - we made fingerprints with an ink pad and looked at the shapes
• Listened to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
• We watched the movie
• Went for a long bike ride around the neighborhood

13 Year-old

• Dragonbox Algebra
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child
• Free reading
• Because of Winn-Dixie and I read aloud The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
• We watched the movie The Wizard of Oz
• Anatomy reading and lab - we did fingerprints and looked at the shapes
• History
• Video about Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp
• Reaction of US soldiers after discovering Dachau concentration camp
• Bike ride around the neighborhood

16 Year-old

• Skipped algebra - she didn't feel well
• Language Lessons for the High School Student - narrative essay
• Biology reading - Plants
• History
• Video about Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp
• Reaction of US soldiers after discovering Dachau concentration camp
• Watched The Wizard of Oz together
• Long bike ride around the neighborhood

College Freshman

• We set up his entire class schedule for Fall 2021!!  We went through to see what classes he needs, he chose the classes he wants to take in the fall and we searched through all the sections and found teachers that he thinks he'll do well with (Rate My Professor).  By December of this year, he should have 21 credit hours, since he is working on classes over the summer.

New Curriculum Review: Trail Guide to World Geography

 This also just arrived from Rainbow Resource:  https://www.rainbowresource.com/product/014495/Trail-Guide-to-World-Geography.html?

Also bought this as a supplement:  https://www.rainbowresource.com/product/000695/Ultimate-Geography-and-Timeline-Guide-4th-Ed.html?

This is a unit study curriculum for grades K-12.  I thought about using it with my 6 year-old, but after flipping through it, I think it's too much for 1st grade.  I think starting 2nd/3rd grade is probably about right.  I plan to use it with the 13 year-old and the 16 year-old together.  

The guide is broken up into 36 weeks, with the final few weeks a unit study using Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days.  There are also other mini-literature unit studies in the guide.  Each week has 4 days worth of activities in the guide, divided up by age groups: elementary, junior high and high school.

For 1 credit World Geography, I plan to do:

• Trail Guide to World Geography (high school level activities)
• The Ultimate Geography and Timeline Guide
• An Atlas
• Mapping the World with Art 
• Living book that takes place on or discusses each continent   

So far, this unit study looks very enjoyable and it's light enough that I can add all kinds of stuff to it to make it very well-rounded.

New Curriculum Review: Mathusee Stewardship

 This just arrived from Rainbow Resource:  https://stewardshipmath.com

This is going to be my 16 year-old's last high school year (most likely) and I couldn't decide if I wanted her to continue with Precalculus or do this Stewardship course.  She plans to major in Fine Arts, so I decided to buy the Stewardship.  She will never use Precalculus in her daily life.  But, this Stewardship course looked incredible.

I'm going to put one credit of Personal Finance on her transcript when she completes this.

It covers personal finance/consumer math, including these topics:

• income
• income taxes
• banking/credit unions
• budgeting
• credit cards
• comparison shopping
• vehicle ownership/purchasing
• mortgages
• house ownership costs
• compound interest
• investing
• charity
• insurance

It comes with 4 parts:

•  digital code to see the lectures online
• instruction manual (textbook, basically)
• student workbook
• biblical studies book (which covers what the Bible says about different financial topics)

I'm planning to have her start this by August at the latest.  1 credit under the category of math: Personal Finance.

Homeschool Day 4/14

 Kindergartener

• Find Your Way Under the Sea - this is a book I got from the library.  Each page has a maze with paths, things to find, mini-activities (like count by 2's, etc).  We did several pages and he loved it!
• Summer's Lab - we did the next activities on the human body
• DK Find Out! Human Body
• Magic Tree House: Dinosaurs Before Dark 
• Magic Tree House Fact Finder: Dinosaurs
• He listened to the next chapter of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
• Played at the park

13 Year-old

• Honors page Algebra
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child
• Free reading, including Because of Winn-Dixie and I read aloud The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
• Anatomy reading
• History
• "German Unconditional Surrender - 1945 AP"
• "What Happened at the Nuremberg Trials - History Channel"
• German together
• Also played at the park

16 Year-old

• 2 Samuel
• Algebra 2
• Language Lessons for the High School Student
• Biology reading
• History 
• "German Unconditional Surrender - 1945 AP"
• "What Happened at the Nuremberg Trials - History Channel"
• Scarlet Letter Unit Study
• The Scarlet Letter
• Whatever Happened to Justice
• The Fallacy Detective
• Also played at the park

Homeschool Day 4/13

 Kindergartener

• Listened to me read aloud The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  This was originally supposed to be for the 13 year-old, but he listened quietly to the entire second chapter, so I guess I'll invite him in to listen when I read it again tomorrow
• Played in the woods, skipped rocks in a creek, played on the playground
• Went with me to run errands

13 Year-old

• Algebra - we worked through a number of slope + y-intercept problems together on the dry erase board
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child
• Free reading.  She read Because of Winn-Dixie and I read aloud The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
• Anatomy reading - the integumentary system
• History 
• video: "Hiroshima Dropping the Bomb - BBC"
• video: "Nagasaki Bomb and Surrender - BBC"
• finish movie: Defiance
• Timeline figures (from History in the Woods) - we worked through all the timeline figures for WWI and WWII.  We reviewed/discussed them and taped them onto our wall timeline.  This took about half an hour, but it was a great review!
• Went walking in the woods and skipped rocks in a creek

16 Year-old

• Algebra - we worked through several problems together
• Language Lessons for the High School Student - editing
• German together - we are about done with the Komm Mit 2 text
• Scarlet Letter Unit Study
• The Scarlet Letter
• Whatever Happened to Justice
• The Fallacy Detective
• History 

• video: "Hiroshima Dropping the Bomb - BBC"
• video: "Nagasaki Bomb and Surrender - BBC"
• finish movie: Defiance
• Timeline figures (from History in the Woods) - we worked through all the timeline figures for WWI and WWII.  We reviewed/discussed them and taped them onto our wall timeline.  This took about half an hour, but it was a great review!
• Went walking in the woods and skipped rocks in a creek
• Apologia Biology LAB - from the chapter on Plants - we collected about 15 tree leaves and went through the book classifying the leaves by shape, branch orientation, lay-out of the leaf's veins, edging, etc.  We went to a park in the woods for this lab, brought our textbook and just sat in the grass going through the different kinds of leaves that she found 

Homeschool Day 4/12

 Kindergartener

• Summer's Lab - human body - we did Day 1 and read DK Find Out! Human Body
• Video about Hyenas
• We started the Magic Treehouse series.  We started with Dinosaurs Before Dark and the Fact Tracker Dinosaurs guide
• I Spy! Extreme Challenge
• Ballet class

13 Year-old

• Algebra
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child
• Free reading, including Because of Winn-Dixie and I read aloud The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
• Anatomy reading - the Integumentary system
• German together - we reviewed all the vocabulary that she's learned in chapter 1
• History
• video: biography of Adolf Hitler
• video: "The Attack on Pearl Harbor"
• movie: Defiance
• Ballet

16 Year-old

• 2 Samuel
• Algebra 2 video
• Language Lessons for the High School Student
• Biology reading - plants
• History
• video: biography of Adolf Hitler
• video: "The Attack on Pearl Harbor"
• movie: Defiance
• Scarlet Letter Unit Study
• The Scarlet Letter
• The Salem Witch Trial Transcripts
• Whatever Happened to Justice
• The Fallacy Detective
• Ballet

Homeschool Day 4/7

 Kindergartener

• Math game - we took our wooden lawn dice outside into the yard to try them out.  We played a version of War with the dice.  He even added a couple of the dice together.  
• Read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and used foam letters to act out the book
• Summer's Lab - mammals
• Read In the Small, Small Pond 
• Explode the Code
• Wednesday night church class

13 Year-old

• Watched algebra lesson
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child
• Free reading
• She read Because of Winn-Dixie, I read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
• German together
• Anatomy reading - the circulatory system
• Movie: Saving Private Ryan
• Confirmation class

16 Year-old

• 2 Samuel
• Algebra workbook page
• Language Lessons for the High School Student
• Scarlet Letter Unit Study
• The Scarlet Letter
• Whatever Happened to Justice
• The Fallacy Detective
• Movie: Saving Private Ryan
• Wednesday night church

Homeschool Day 4/6

 Kindergartener

• Cuisinaire rods + Math Dice.  We rolled the math dice and then built the numbers with Cuisinaire rods.
• Explode the Code
• Beginner's Bible - David and Goliath
• Summer's Lab - we read the DK Encyclopedia on mammals and did the lab from the workbook

13 Year-old

• Algebra Honors page
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child
• Free reading from her book crate
• She started Because of Winn-Dixie
• I read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
• Anatomy reading - the cardiovascular system
• History videos
• "How did Hitler rise to power?"
• "Nazi Germany - A Child for Hitler - Youth in Hitler's Germany"
• Movie: Saving Private Ryan
• Gymnastics class
• A church activity

16 Year-old

• Algebra workbook
• Language Lessons for the High School Student
• History videos
• "How did Hitler rise to power?"
• "Nazi Germany - A Child for Hitler - Youth in Hitler's Germany"
• Movie: Saving Private Ryan
• Scarlet Letter Unit Study
• The Scarlet Letter
• Whatever Happened to Justice
• The Fallacy Detective
• Art history - view the Mayflower Collection at the Pilgrim Hall Museum 
• "The Landing of the Pilgrims" (all 3 paintings)
• Gymnastics class
• A church activity

Homeschool Day 4/5

 Kindergartener

• Math reader: Boom Chicka Rock
• Explode the Code
• Beginner's Bible - King David
• Summer's Lab: Mammals
• Reader: About Mammals
• Ballet class

13 Year-old

• Algebra - we worked through some problems on the board together
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child
• Free reading from her book crate
• She finished To Kill a Mockingbird - we had a short discussion of the book
• I read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
• German together
• Anatomy reading - the cardiovascular system
• History videos/discussion
• "The Great Depression - 5 Minute History Lesson"
• "Educational Film: The Great Depression and its Consequences for the Weimar Republic
• We also watched 1917 over the weekend
• Going to watch Saving Private Ryan tonight
• Ballet class

16 Year-old

• Algebra video
• 2 Samuel
• Language Lessons for the High School Student
• Biology reading - Vertebrates
• History videos/discussion
• "The Great Depression - 5 Minute History Lesson"
• "Educational Film: The Great Depression and its Consequences for the Weimar Republic
• We also watched 1917 over the weekend
• Going to watch Saving Private Ryan tonight
• Scarlet Letter Unit Study
• The Scarlet Letter
• Began reading the Salem Witch Trial Transcripts.  Here's the link:  http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/category/swp.html  There are verbatim court records of the depositions, trials, warrants for the apprehension of different defendants, date/method of execution, etc.  It's frightening.
• Whatever Happened to Justice
• The Fallacy Detective
• Ballet class

School Plans for 2021-2022

 We school year-round and are going to be finished with our stuff in 4 weeks.  I would really like to take a break after we finish this round, because this has been a very hard year.  I do need a break.  We've also had a number of significant life changes this year - two kids going to college, etc.  

The kids do not want to take a break.  *sigh*

The kids do not want to do interest-led learning (that was my idea). *sigh*

The kids do not want to do Sonlight for the fall (my go-to curriculum when I need an actual curriculum, because life is overwhelming).  *double sigh*  They both want to continue unit studies (claiming they learn more - bwah ha ha haha).  *rolling my eyes*

Ok, learning = good.  Me = exhausted.

😅  

Here are the plans we all came up with together.

Changes for ME

• After a four year hiatus, I am back to using Evernote.  I have this installed on all of my devices and that way I can access our records and plans from the laptop or my Kindle, etc.  I've created some planning notebooks and record-keeping notebooks.
• I broke down and bought a new Kindle.  The old one was maybe 7 years old and had stopped working, which meant that we stopped buying Kindle books.  We have so many Kindle books that I needed to just buy a new one.  Now I can buy books on Kindle again, because we are running out of room in this house for books.  

6 Year-old (Late K-1st Grade)

Bible

• Finish the Beginner's Bible
• Not sure after that

Math

• Wild Math - I bought the pdf and downloaded it onto the Kindle.  It's a kinesthetic math program meant to be taught outside.
• Accessories I bought - Yard Dice, a Montessori 100 Board, a child-safe tape measure
• Need to make: I have a bucket of river rocks that I'm going to paint numbers on
• I'll add Living Math books with each unit

Reading/Language Arts

• Continue Explode the Code
• BOB Books and phonics readers from the library
• Continue Handwriting without Tears
• Read-aloud from the library or bookshelf

Science

• Continue Summer's Lab - looks like we will finish in Oct/Nov
• Sassafras Adventures: Zoology (same curriculum as Summer's Lab)

Social Studies

• Library books or books from the bookshelf

I spent about $85 on his schoolbooks/math accessories.  (I already had Summer's Lab and his current ETC workbook)

13 Year-old (9th Grade)

Math

• Finish Algebra 1 (she's a third of the way through it)
• Begin Mathusee Geometry

Theater Class (outsourced)

16 Year-old (12th Grade - she is skipping her Junior year)

Math

• Mathusee Stewardship - Personal Finance/Consumer Math - we decided to do this instead of Precalculus, because it looked so much more useful.  It covers credit cards, mortgages, investing, car loans, buying a house, comparison of costs, taxes, etc.  In hindsight, I wish I would've used this with the older two kids.

Finish Government/Economics

• She's already done a lot with government this year, but I'm going to add some living books for both of these subjects and combine them in one course on her transcript.  She's currently reading the Ray Maybury books - Whatever Happened to Justice? and she'll read Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? next.  After that, I'm going to need to look around.  One of my friends is recommending the Marginal Revolution Economics videos:  https://mru.org  I plan to be finished over the summer.

Shakespearean Theater Class (Outsourced)

SAT Prep

Both Teens Together 

English

• Literature selection from the library or bookshelf - using Bravewriter or Progeny Press Literature Guide
• Read-aloud
• Language Lessons for the High School Student (Queen's Homeschool)
• Creative writing

World Geography

• Trail Guide to World Geography (this includes Ultimate Geography and Timeline Guide)
• Mapping the World with Art
• Living Books about different parts of the world

Science  (rotating Physics one day. Chemistry the next.)

• Physics
• Lab-based using Conceptual Physics as a guide (I bought this textbook used on Amazon)
• Mythbusters videos, YouTube videos, etc
• Chemistry
• Masterbooks Chemistry (lab-focused)
• Labs

Beginning Coding

•  MIT's Scratch (free online)

German

• Everyone just work on their Komm Mit texts with me

Bible

• Continue Bible readings
• Missionary Book/read-aloud - some from the Christian Heroes, Then and Now series - some not
• Continue Friday morning Bible discussions, Saint & Hymn studies, etc

I spent about $195 on the two teens' schoolbooks.  (I already own a lot of science lab equipment and I plan to use the library)

My total cost for the three kids this weekend: about $300.  I ordered from Rainbow Resource, the Wild Math website and Amazon (for math manipulatives).

Saint & Hymn Study 4/2

We had great discussions today!  Here's what we did:

Lutheran Hymn

I Know That My Redeemer Lives,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkLuZxqPPzE

Saint Study

St. Drogo, https://inkyn.wordpress.com/2018/01/14/st-drogo-patron-of-the-unattractive/

Process the Catholic Church Uses to Become a Saint

https://people.howstuffworks.com/question619.htm

(And the Lutheran church teaches that all believers who die are saints)

How the Roman Catholic Church chooses a Pope

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUtj8nd_pl4

Future Plans

I want to put together a weekly study on what the different denominations believe and how that compares to the Lutheran church.  Just studying some of the Roman Catholic beliefs has been fascinating and great platform for discussion.

Homeschool Day 4/1

 Kindergartener

• Beginner's Bible
• Handwriting without Tears
• Explode the Code - more identifying words - he did great
• Summer's Lab - more on what is living or nonliving
• Lab activity
• We read: Living Things and Nonliving Things
• Playing outside and going to his brother's track meet

13 Year-old

• Algebra review page
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child
• Free reading from her book crate - she has several books going right now from the library - one book on art history and another science book
• To Kill a Mockingbird; Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
• Anatomy reading
• History video: "Benito Mussolini: Biography pf Italy's Fascist Dictator"
• Ballet class

16 Year-old

• 2 Samuel
• Algebra Honors Page
• Language Lessons for the High School Student
• History video: "Benito Mussolini: Biography of Fascist Italy's Dictator"
• Biology reading and a short lab, which didn't use any lab equipment *whew!*
• German together
• Ballet class

College Freshman

• Got his college ID.
• Completely registered for classes over the summer