Homeschool Day 6/30

1st Grader

• Beginner's Bible - we started the New Testament
• Math
• Counted to 100
• Skip-counted by 5s and 10s
• Used farm animals to learn about even and odd
• Did some simple addition problems using the rubber farm animals
• BOB Book - he read an entire book
• Alphabet puzzle - he put the puzzle together, but I also made him tell me the letters' proper names
• Summer's Lab Science - we made a solar oven and cooked s'mores in the driveway...well, and then ate them
• We read Flat Stanley 

9th Grader

• Bible - Genesis
• Algebra 1 - she needed me to do more problems on the dry-erase board.  Solving two equations with two variables
• Online Spelling Bee
• She read Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• I read The Wave
• Trail Guide to World Geography (South America)
• Mapping the World with Art - the Caspian Sea
• A Long Walk to Water
• We watched a video about the Panama Canal and watched a time-lapse video of ships traveling through the canal + the locks
• Video about Venezuela's Angel Falls
• Video about the Mid-Ocean Rift

11th Grader

• Bible - 2 Kings
• Algebra 2 - she's on one of the final lessons
• Online Spelling Bee
• She read Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• I read The Wave
• Trail Guide to World Geography (South America)
• Mapping the World with Art - the Caspian Sea
• A Long Walk to Water
• We watched a video about the Panama Canal and watched a time-lapse video of ships traveling through the canal + the locks
• Video about Venezuela's Angel Falls
• Video about the Mid-Ocean Rift

Geography Videos

Building of the Panama Canal (TED Talk): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE_UuHRtXCY

Panama Canal Full Transit Time-Lapse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8TkcWhmByg

Angel Falls in Venezuela: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_tqK4eqelA

Homeschool Day 6/29

 1st Grader

• Handwriting without Tears
• Math
• Game: flip a penny onto a 100 board and then build the number the penny landed on with Cuisinaire rods (Mathusee blocks)
• Lawn Dice - we rolled the dice and then he told me which number is bigger and then he added the numbers
• Skip-counting by 10s and 5s
• He counted to 100 again
• Explode the Code
• We read Flat Stanley
• Trail Guide to World Geography (North America)
• He put together a puzzle of North American countries

9th Grader

• Bible (Genesis)
• Algebra 1 - she needed me to do the workbook page on the dry-erase board (solving 2 equations with 2 variables)
• Language Lessons
• Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• The Wave
• Trail Guide to World Geography
• She read A Long Walk to Water
• She put together a puzzle of Europe, complete with each country's flag/capital

11th Grader

• Bible (2 Kings)
• Algebra 2
• Language Lessons for the High School Student
• Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• The Wave
• Trail Guide to World Geography
• She read A Long Walk to Water
• Puzzle of Asia and Africa, complete with each country's flag/capital

Homeschool Day 6/28

 1st Grader

• Beginner's Bible - read about Daniel and the Lion's Den & Jonah and the Whale
• Math - we watched about half an hour of SchoolHouse Rock math videos, especially the videos on skip-counting
• Explode the Code
• Summer's Lab Science - we started a unit on Weather.  The first lesson is about the sun.  Today, he did a sun coloring page and we read an easy reader science book about the sun.
• Flat Stanley - we read the first chapter of the book and he colored his Flat Stanley and cut it out.

9th Grader

• Algebra 1 - she watched the video
• Language Lessons 

11th Grader

• Algebra 2 - she's watched the video on Hyperbolas
• Language Lessons for the High School Student

9th and 11th Grader Together

• Read The Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Read The Wave and discussed genocide in different countries around the world and the question of "how could the German people let the Holocaust happen"
• Trail Guide to World Geography
• We did more map work on North America
• Mapping the World with Art - they drew the Black Sea region
• Read A Long Walk to Water (Sudan)
• We answered questions from the Guide about Mexico, watched videos about the Yucatan Peninsula and some of the Mayan cities.  We learned about the Temple of the Moon and Temple of the Sun (Mayan ruins).  We watched a video from the National Parks about the Native American cliff dwellings in New Mexico.

Update on the College Freshman

 Summer Session 1 is over.  He has a 97% average before the professor even curves the class (there will be a curve for this class).  He did this all on his own with no extra credit.  

Each session is only 4 weeks long.  The students are only allowed to take two classes (it moves way too quickly to take any more than that).  

He has a week off and then he is taking Speech and American Music for Summer Session 2.  

Learning Curves for his first semester of college:

• Technology - Holy Cow does this college use a lot of technology.  Using Blackboard is a learning curve; figuring out how to submit all of your assignments and use the Message Boards take a bit to get used to.  He learned how to create PowerPoints and create charts, graphs, etc.  Converting files to different kinds of files was something he was constantly doing.  He was able to figure it all out, but the first week was rough.

• Pacing/reading.  Because the pace of reading was so fast, he had to learn how to skim/highlight.  It was just physically impossible to read that entire textbook in four weeks (and do all the projects, quizzes, tests, etc). 

• Advocating for himself/Communicating with the Instructor - there were several issues that he needed to advocate for himself.  Two quizzes, which used an online questionnaire format, had glitches to where he would type in the correct answer and the program would mark it wrong.  This happened at least twice and he had to contact the instructor and ask for help.  She adjusted his scores and told him the program has issues.  She was very helpful, but you had to communicate with her first.  If you just let it go, it would affect your grade.    

Homeschool Week: 6/21-6/25

 When you homeschool, there are weeks like this.  😐 

Monday = new carpet installed throughout the house.  Surprisingly, we DID get a bit of schoolwork done. The usual suspects: world geography, creative writing, literature, etc.  Also, hours of moving all of our earthly possessions from the garage back upstairs and into the bedrooms.  And our family just owns way, way too many books.  I had to carry thirteen years of schoolbooks up a flight of stairs and organize them onto the bookshelves.  

Tuesday

Impromptu fishing trip.  We caught 10 fish - 1 catfish and 9 bluegill.  6 year-old boy is a very good fisherman.  Four were his catches.

Wednesday

Boy, the success of Tuesday's fishing trip really encouraged us to ditch the books and fish again.  We hiked out to a waterfall and fished IN the waterfall (lol) and caught 7 fish - all bluegill.  I know there were bass and catfish in there...  You could look into the water and see a catfish and all of his bluegill friends.  The only reason we stopped fishing is because we ran out of bait.  This particular lake had a massive algae bloom and you just can't fish anywhere on that lake unless you follow the creek that it flows into.  

Thursday

A lot of reading...  We started The Wave by Tod Strasser and The Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank).  The Diary of a Young Girl is obviously excellent reading for high school.  We are about four chapters in The Wave and so far, I like it.  It's a short, quick, easy read.  For geography, we started A Long Walk to Water.  Excellent.  Also a short, easy read, though.  

Friday

We took friends with us to a water park.  Afterwards, we did some more reading and I read-aloud.  We are all enjoying this round of books.

 

Homeschool Week: 6/14-6/18

 1st Grader

• Beginner's Bible
• Wild Math 1st Grade - still more counting to 100, counting by 10s (he's actually understanding it now!).  We took the Mathusee blocks and built 100 with 10s, then we built up to 1,000 with 100s.  We also built random numbers by combining the blocks
• Explode the Code - he wrote an entire page of words, sounding them out and then writing them in the workbook
• Handwriting without Tears
• Extra apps: Teach Your Monster to Read
• Summer's Lab Science - we worked on the lesson about trees.  We also walked in the woods and did bark rubbings
• Trail Guide to Geography - started North America

Hymn and Saint Study (1st Grader)

• Listened to hymn The Old Rugged Cross
• He sat in on high schoolers learning about the Apostle Saint Andrew
• Read Patrick, Patron Saint of Ireland (Tomie dePaola)

9th Grader

• Bible reading (Genesis)
• Language Lessons
• Finished The Great Turkey Walk and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  She said the books this past year were some of her favorite we've ever read (even though they were on the easy side).  The easy, enjoyable books were chosen, because she had been having serious vision problems (she's in bifocals now) and I was trying to make reading enjoyable again.
• Online spelling bee
• Creative writing - still working on her short story.  She's writing a story from an interesting perspective.  The main character is deaf.
• Math Camp! - she had Math Camp at an enrichment center all week.  This has been wonderful and she's glad she went.  They used games and manipulatives to work through Algebra 1 and 2 topics as a group

11th Grader

• Bible reading (1 or 2 Kings)
• Algebra 2 (parabolas)
• Creative writing - also working on a short story
• Online spelling bee
• Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?

Geography (9th & 11th Graders)

• Trail Guide to World Geography (North America - mapwork and notetaking)
• Mapping the World with Art - Greece
• It's A Jungle Out There (South America) - they both finished this book

Hymn, Saint and Missionary Study (9th & 11th Graders)

• Hymn: The Old Rugged Cross
• The apostle Saint Andrew
• Read a short bio of Saint Andrew
• Mapped his 4 journeys around the ancient world
• Read about his death
• Read his section in The Twelve Outlaws
• Missionary reading: Gladys Aylward, The Adventure of a Lifetime (China)

College Students

• Freshman only has one week left of the first summer session.  So far, he has a 96% average for the session.  The summer sessions are only 4 weeks long and we've both concluded that 4 weeks is just way, way, way too fast for a college course.  Although he's getting an A for the session, both he and I talked about it and he probably will never do summer sessions again, unless he really has to.  He's registered for two courses for the next summer session (starts in 1 week) and I'm trying to talk him into dropping one of the courses.  Trying to condense 16 weeks of material into 4 weeks is just ridiculous.

Me

• I'm almost finished with the Gospel of John -getting ready to start Acts of the Apostles

Ordering our next round of books

 Bible

For the 1st grader, I ordered from the library:

• The Song of Francis by Tomie DePaola (St. Francis)
• Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland by Tomie DePaola (St. Patrick)
• Saint Francis of Assisi: A Life of Joy by Robert F. Kennedy 
• The Twelve Apostles: Their Lives and Acts

For the high schoolers, I ordered from Amazon:

• The Twelve Outlaws: A Disciple Bible Study for Tweens and Teens (bios of the Apostles)
• Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps and Timelines (spiral bound, so it will lay flat)

Geography

For the 1st grader:

• Flat Stanley: His Original Adventure - I'm signed up for the Flat Stanley Project, where we are going to take pictures of Flat Stanley in different locations in Texas and mail the pictures to other families registered with the project. 

Science

For the 1st grader:

• The Sun by Melamie Chrismer
• What Makes a Shadow by Clyde Robert Bulla
• The Sun, Our Nearest Star by Franklyn Branley

Literature (high school)

• The Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• The Wave by Todd Strasser

Homeschool Week 6/7-6/11

 The bookmarks I made with our daily subjects listed have worked out wonderfully again.  No planning needed on my part - we just pull out the bookmarks and start working.

I ordered our next reader and read-aloud from the library: 

• The Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• The Wave (Todd Strasser)

1st Grader

• Beginner's Bible
• Wild Math 1st Grade - he mastered counting to 120!!  We also started learning to skip count by tens and we broke out the Mathusee blocks and built up to 100 and then using 100s, we built up to 1,000
• Explode the Code
• BOB Books
• Summer's Lab science - we finished the unit on plants and flowers
• Trail Guide to World Geography - still going strong with this
• Handwriting without Tears

9th Grader

• Bible reading (Genesis)
• Algebra 1
• Dragonbox Algebra
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (read-aloud)
• The Great Turkey Walk
• Language Lessons for the Secondary Child
• Piano

11th Grader

• Bible reading (1or 2 Kings)
• Algebra 2
• Language Lessons for the High School Student
• Piano
• Economics reader: Whatever Happened to Penny Candy

9th/11th Together

• Trail Guide to World Geography - North American, specifically Canada
• Mapping the World with Art
• Reading: It's A Jungle Out There
• Online spelling bee
• Creative writing - both of them are writing a short story

Saint, Missionary and Bible Study (Fridays)

• Peter the Apostle (we are going to study one apostle each Friday)
• His ministry and travels (mapped)
• Acts of the Apostles
• His death at the hands of Emperor Nero
• Reading: Gladys Aylward: The Adventure of a Lifetime

Homeschool Week 5/31-6/4

 Last week, I made bookmarks from card stock for each kid.  The bookmarks list all the subjects I want to cover for each day of the week.  Instead of planning out each page of each book all week....I had them work through the bookmarks and just stop reading when they felt like it.

This worked very well!  I'm going to continue this.

1st Grader

• Beginner's Bible
• Wild Math 1st Grade (he's working on counting to 120 and adding the lawn dice)
• Explode the Code
• Teach Your Monster to Read (app)
• Dragonbox's Numbers (app)
• He read one BOB book this week.  I've been trying to find him phonics readers from the library, but the ones I've seen don't seem to be true phonics.
• Summer's Lab Science - he finished the unit on flowers and moved onto seeds.  We took two bean seeds, folded them into wet paper towels, put the towels in a sandwich bag and taped it onto the patio door so it can get light.  Hopefully, the bean seeds sprout and he can see the baby plant.
• Trail Guide to World Geography - he's on Week 2

9th Grader and 11th Grader

• Algebra 1 and 2, respectively
• Language Lessons
• Creative writing - both of them are writing short stories, 1x a week
• The Great Turkey Walk (9th grader) and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (our read-aloud)
• Independent reading (11th grader)
• I strewed some graphic novels and a book of short stories (mystery) and they've been reading these
• Online Spelling Bee
• Dragonbox Algebra (9th grader) ((app))
• Whatever Happened to Penny Candy (11th grader)
• Trail Guide to World Geography
• Trail Guide - North America (this is still wonderful - we love this curriculum)
• It's A Jungle Out There (South America)
• Mapping the World with Art

We won't be able to do our Saint/Hymn/Bible study this morning, because we are going to the airport to pick up grandma and then they need to be at ballet to help set up for the recital.

Me (Bible)

• Still reading through the Bible at a snail's pace.  I'm reading through The Gospel of John right now.  One of my favorite books of the Bible.

College Freshman

• Working on his Kinesiology course.  He got an A on his first quiz.