Homeschool Day 8/31

 9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship/Personal Finance (11th)
• Bible reading
• World Geography
• Mapping the World with Art (England)
• Red Scarf Girl (China)
• Trail Guide to World Geography (Africa)
• German
• Komm Mit 1 (9th)
• "Des Teufels russiger Bruder" (11th) - fairy tale in German, read and translate, going over grammar while we work through it
• Coding
• 9th grader spent some time with the Raspberry Pi

College Students

• Freshman has a 100% average in all his classes so far this semester
• Sophomore is also all A's so far and she's about 3 weeks ahead in one class

Homeschool Day 8/30

1st Grader

•  Math
• Moose Math (app)
• Drew a number line on driveway with chalk, 0-10, placed a plastic dolphin on 0
• Practiced adding +1 and +2 to each number
• Moved the dolphin along the number line
• Reading
• Read a BOB Book (extreme reading resistance - sigh)
• Beginner's Bible
• Science - Summer's Lab
• Lesson on Mountains
• Mapped the major mountain ranges
• Read DK Children's Encyclopedia: Mountains
• Ballet
• Cub Scouts

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship/Pers Finance (11th)
• English
• Read Animal Farm
• Discussed Orwell and the book's meaning
• Discussed Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Spent some time on https://www.annefrank.org/en/  We did the virtual tour of all the rooms.
• Elements of Style - worked with commas on the dry erase board
• Bible
• Bible reading
• St. Matthew the Apostle
• Rose Book of Bible Charts & Graphs
• The 12 Outlaws
• Discussed bio and possible martyrdom of St. Matthew
• Gladys Aylward (missionary to China)
• Ballet class

We did not cover as much material today, because we had long discussions about Animal Farm, Anne Frank and St. Matthew.

Homeschool Day 8/26

 1st Grader

• Dragonbox's Numbers (app)
• Teach Your Monster to Read
• Handwriting - he wrote a-z in lower case letters on the whiteboard app on the iPad
• KONOS: Predators
• Watched "Kingdom of the Wolf" on Disney
• Ballet class

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship/Finance (11th)
• 11th Grader finished Whatever Happened to Penny Candy
• Both finished Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Bible reading
• English
• ACT Practice questions (about 5)
• Grimm's Writing Prompt book
• Reader's Theater (9th grader - outsourced class)
• Ballet class

Homeschool Day 8/25

 1st Grader

• Teach Your Monster to Read app (he loves this app)
• Beginner's Bible
• Math
• Building 10s with cuisinaire rods
• Counting by 5s and 10s
• Counting to 100 with a Montessori board
• Watched Schoolhouse Rock video - counting by 5s
• Summer's Lab Science: Rocks
• We took the rocks out of the rock tumbler, washed them off and looked at them.  I refilled the rock tumbler with medium coarse sand and restarted it.  The rocks are already very smooth!
• We looked through our rock collection again

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th grader)
• Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Born Free 
• Bible reading
• Shakespearean Theater class (11th grader - outsourced)
• PHYSICS: Speed and velocity
• Conceptual Physics: section on speed and velocity
• Mythbusters: "Speed Bus Jump"
• Video: "Speed's Bus Jump - How They Did It"
• LAB
• Measured velocity using a set distance, stopwatch, a ramp and matchbox cars
• Calculated average velocity and compared
• Weighed each car in grams and looked for a pattern of weight/speed

Homeschool Day 8/24

 Ok, this was a terrible, terrible school day.  One of the teens had a car accident this morning, so the whole day was awful.  Here's what we got done, in spite of that.

1st Grader

• Explode the Code
• Handwriting without Tears
• Addition flashcards
• KONOS Attentiveness
• Predators - we watched cat body language when pouncing (well, and then we practiced sneaking up on our cat)
• We looked through a library book about predators
• We watched a video about Narwhals

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship (11th)
• Diary of a Young Girl
• Chemistry
• Lesson 4 of Masterbooks: Molarity - I taught the lesson on the board
• Happy Atoms
• Coding
• We spent some time playing with the Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi 3b+: What We Learned Setting It Up

 This little computer is so much more than I thought it was.  I think this could even work as a simple desktop computer for a kid.  I am very impressed.  I paid about $70 for the CanaKit (Rasp Pi 3b+) - which is probably considered expensive for the Pi.  We took a keyboard and a mouse from someone who was going to just throw them away (free).  We have it hooked up to our TV (free), but someone is also giving away a small monitor, so we are going to use that for the Pi.  So far, this ended up only costing us $70.

What we learned putting this thing together and setting it up:

1. I'm glad I bought the 3b+ and not the Zero.  I kinda wished I would've bought the 4 (the newest version).  But the 3b+ is very fast.
2. We bought a small LCD touch screen that fits onto the Pi.  It was terrible.  You need a monitor or TV to be able to see everything on the Pi.  Waste of money.
3. The CanaKit is pretty good.  It came with everything.  The instructions are very helpful.
4. The initial set-up of the software took a looooong time.  And then it needed updates, etc.  It took us a couple of hours to get it going.
5. You can open a window on the Pi and type Python code directly in the window, giving the Pi directions (like installing a screen).  All the Python code I wanted was available online - just from googling.
6. The NOOBS microSD in the kit really helped.  The microSD card contained all of the software I needed to get it started.  But, these programs are all online for free.  So, you don't have to buy the kit with the NOOBS card.
7. This little computer has Scratch, a word processing program, a bunch of simple computer games, it can access the internet (and it's very fast)...  And that's just a few of the applications it has.
8. If you don't have a monitor, you can hook it up directly to a TV using an HDMI cable.   
9. There are tons of videos on Youtube and articles on how to do different things with the Raspberry Pi.  There is even a magazine you can order.

Homeschool Day 8/23

 1st Grader

• AAR Reader - I wrote the words on the whiteboard again.  I know he can see the letters just fine, but still resistance to reading.  I gave up after a couple of sentences and took out the foam letters and we played around building words with them and saying their letter sounds
• Math
• Addition problems with the cuisinaire rods +2's
• Practiced writing numbers
• Summer's Lab Science
• Recorded weather
• The Quicksand Book 
• Hiking field trip - looking for rocks

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship/Personal Finance (11th)
• Bible
• Reading
• Apostle Study: St. Bartholomew the Apostle
• Rose's Book of Bible Charts, Maps & Timelines
• The 12 Outlaws
• Bio of Gladys Aylward (read-aloud)
• World Geography
• Trail Guide to World Geography: Africa
• Hatchet
• German
• Komm Mit 1 (9th grader)
• "Des Teufels Russiger Bruder" (fairy tale in German - 11th grader)
• Coding
• The Raspberry Pi is all set up!!!  It is awesome!  

Homeschool Day 8/19

 1st Grader

Yeah, those are Roblox Guys in the background. 

• He used a hammer (gasp) to crack open the geodes.  We looked at the crystals.
• He did the Crystal Mining lab - which those really aren't crystals.  He spent a looooong time on this.  He is really enjoying learning about rocks right now.  He found 14 rocks in the kit (which was great, because it said there were only 8).  He stood on a chair at the kitchen sink and washed them all.  
• Rock Tumbler - we put the stones in the rock tumbler and added course grit + water.  We oiled the seal around the tumbler and turned it on.  It's LOUD!  I had to unplug it and carry it to my bathroom closet and shut the door.  It needs to run for about 2 weeks and it's very loud.
• He has been carrying his library books about Rocks & Minerals around the house and looking at the pictures.
• Ballet class tonight.

9th and 11th Graders

• Stewardship/Personal Finance (11th grader).  9th grader skipped math today.
• Bible reading
• Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Hatchet (audiobook)
• English
• ACT Practice problem (boy, this angered the 11th grader, because she felt it was "duping" her.  She's not used to standardized testing)
• Elements of Style
• We went through commas together on the dry erase board
• Creative Writing
• We used Grimm Writing Prompts.  Each kid wrote a short story using the writing prompt.  We read them aloud to each other.  They were hilarious.  I corrected a couple of writing mistakes, but there weren't many.  They are very good writers!!
• Ballet class tonight.

Homeschool Day 8/18

 1st Grader

• We played a game where we took turns making words with plastic letters and then he read them
• Math
• He's not writing his numbers correctly, so we played a game where he rolled dice and then wrote the numbers with his finger on the Whiteboard app on his iPad.
• Addition -rolled dice, turned the dice into an addition problem and then solved using the cuisinaire rods
• Bible
• We read St. Jerome and the Lion by Margaret Hodges.  This is a wonderful picture book.  He really enjoyed it.
• Summer's Lab Science
• We recorded the weather on his weather chart
• We started the lesson on Rocks and Minerals
• We looked through the book My Book of Rocks and Minerals
• I got out my rock kit from Home Science Tools.  He looked through the rocks and we identified them.  We also talked about igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks.  Here's a picture of the kit:

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Personal Finance/Stewardship (11th)
• Bible readings
• Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Physics
• We watched the Mythbusters episode "Appliances in the Bath Mini-Myth"
• Electricity Lab Kit 
• Discussed volts versus amps
• Made an electromagnet and tested it - added more batteries and tested the difference
• Discussed Maglev trains/watched video
• Used resistors to change a circuit
• Tried to use a solar battery, but there was not enough light outside (it's raining)
• Coding/Programming
• We spent a couple of hours putting the Raspberry Pi 3b+ together
• We are planning to hook it up to the TV this weekend and install the software and begin the set-up

Homeschool Day 8/17

 1st Grader

• Handwriting without Tears
• He read a BOB Book - there's some reading resistance, because of the glasses
• Math
• Counted by 10s
• Counted to 100
• He rolled two dice and I drew addition problems (from the dice) on the whiteboard and he solved them using the cuisinaire rods, then wrote the answer on the whiteboard
• KONOS - Predators & Prey activities

9th and 11th Graders

•  Algebra 1 - I needed to work this entire lesson on the dry erase board with her
• Personal Finance (11th)
• Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Chemistry
• I taught lesson 3 on the dry erase board
• We did the Solubility Lab - we also measured the max solubility of sugar in water
• Coding/Programming
• We unboxed our Raspberry Pi 3b+ and its monitor
• We used our beginning coding book to do a project on Python Idle

Homeschool Day 8/16

 1st Grader

• The glasses are here!!
• Beginner's Bible
• All About Reading - sounded out words
• Explode the Code - read some sentences
• Math
• "What's Under the Cup" - addition game from Education Unboxed (website)
• Threw math dice in the yard and added them
• Played "what's the bigger number" with the math dice
• Counted by 10s to 100 with the cuisinaire rods
• Summer's Lab Science
• Recorded the daily weather
• DK Children's Encyclopedia: Seasons
• KONOS: Predators and Prey
• Read The Deadliest Creature in the World
• Trip to the library

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Personal Finance (11th)
• Read Diary of a Young Girl
• Bible
• Bible reading
• Watching The Chosen, season 1
• Gladys Aylward biography
• German
• Vocabulary
• Worked on verb conjugations/pronouns
• Watched Mulan in German
• World Geography
• Listened to Hatchet
• Trail Guide to World Geography - mapwork of Europe
• Trip to the Library
• Ballet class

College Students

• They are completely ready for school on Monday.  Schoolbooks are in.  They have their school supplies and their class schedule.  

Homeschool Day 8/12

 9th and 11th Graders

• Stewardship (Personal Finance) - 11th grader
• Bible reading
• Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Creative writing - the 9th grader finished her short story.  I'm going to read it and work with her on any editing, etc.
• World Geography
• Mapping the World with Art
• Trail Guide to World Geography (Europe)
• Verdon Gorge
• The Vatican
• The Alps
• Pitcairn Island - it's inhabitants and the HMS Bounty
• Hatchet
• Gladys Aylward (read-aloud)

College Students

• College sophomore went to campus and mapped out her schedule and found where her classes are going to be.  She lost her British Literature professor, so now we have to look at her section again and make sure she gets a new teacher.  She's also going shopping for school supplies.

1st Grader is still waiting for his glasses to come in.

Homeschool Day 8/11

 9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Personal Finance (11th)
• Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Bible reading
• Physics
• Electricity labs:
• Build a circuit, use diodes to regulate the direction of current in the circuit
• Build a series of lightbulbs in a circuit, experiment with resistors
• Video (Youtube): Inventions: The Tesla Coil
• Mythbusters Episode: The Mythbusters Control a Lightning Bolt with a Stream of Water
• Coding/Python
• Both kids spent about an hour working on their projects on MIT's Scratch.  The 11th grader created an entire game using The Beginner's Guide to Coding as a guide.

College Students

• Freshman and I went to the college campus, bought the remaining schoolbooks he needed, plus the subscription he needs for Biology.  We brought his schedule with us and found where all of his classes will be.  We also found the library and Writing Lab.  We found the gym and pool.  This took us two hours, because that place is a MAZE.  It was well worth it, though.  I'm taking the college kids out to dinner tonight, so we can spend some time together without the younger ones.    

Homeschool Day 8/10

 1st Grader

• Because of his eyesight issues, we're only doing science and Konos until his glasses get here
• Summer's Lab Science
• Lesson on seasons
• Read What Makes a Shadow
• Used a flashlight to make different kinds of shadows on the wall
• Recorded the daily weather
• Konos Attentiveness
• Read Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett
• Learned how to make trail markers with rocks and sticks
• Watched a video about beavers
• Watched a night-vision camera that showed inside a beaver lodge

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship/Personal Finance (11th)
• Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Bible reading
• Biography of St. Philip the Apostle
• The 12 Outlaws (Philip)
• Gladys Aylward biography
• Masterbooks Chemistry
• Lesson 2: Metric Measurements - we did the lesson and lab
• Happy Atoms
• German - we watched Henry Huehnchen (Germany fairy tale)

Great Picture Book: The Ocean Calls

 We really enjoyed this picture book from the library: The Ocean Calls by Tino Cho.  The last couple of pages in the book provide background information about the Haenyeo divers from Jeju Island in South Korea.  The divers are all women, some of them up to age 80, who catch abalone, etc and sell their catch at the market.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/609075/the-ocean-calls-by-tina-cho-illustrated-by-jess-x-snow/

Homeschool Day 8/9

 1st Grader

Issues reading from a book, but not from sidewalk chalk on the driveway or words made from big plastic letters...

Complaining of headaches...

Not able to play a video game for more than a few minutes before complaining of headaches...

His optometrist appointment was today and without giving too many details, he has serious vision problems.  It took two hours for the doctor to even figure out his prescription.  He needs to be in glasses all day.  The doctor said not to force him to read until his glasses come in and his eyes adjust to them.  So, I put everything away for today to give him time to rest his eyes.   

If reading is an issue and it's not because of inconsistent instruction, lack of phonics, dyslexia, etc, I would recommend a visit to the optometrist.  I'm very upset that his vision was that bad and I didn't know.

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th)
• Stewardship/Personal Finance (11th grader) + ACT Math Practice
• English
• Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Creative writing
• Bible reading
• World Geography
• Born Free (Africa)
• Trail Guide to World Geography - map work of Europe
• Hatchet (Canada)
• Mapping the World with Art

Homeschool Day 8/5

 1st Grader

• Read another story from the AAR Run, Bug, Run reader.  This time, I wrote each line on the Whiteboard app on his iPad.  Counting down until he has his optometrist appointment, so I can figure out what's going on.
• Handwriting - we also practiced "S" on the Whiteboard app on the iPad
• Wild Math - we looked at patterns outside in plants.  We used multi-colored rocks to take turns making patterns.  We added yard dice.
• KONOS Attentiveness: 
• We read "You Wouldn't Want to Explore with Lewis and Clark"
• He played for three hours in an indoor playground

Homeschool Day 8/4

 1st Grader

• Reading - I wrote out the text of the AAR "Run, Bug, Run" story on the driveway in sidewalk chalk and he read it.  I made an appointment for him to see a pediatric optometrist, because something isn't right.  He can read when I write in sidewalk chalk, but he claims he can't read the book.  He's also complaining of headaches.
• Bible - Christopher, the Holy Giant - this was an excellent book
• Math - we used the Mathusee blocks to count by 10s to 100.  We also made numbers 10-20 using the blocks and then doubled the ones and counted by 2's.
• Summer's Lab Science
• Watched WonderQuest's Water Cycle video
• Read the DK Children's Encyclopedia entry on Weather
• Identified clouds outside
• Tried the lab in the lesson, but it didn't work

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship/Personal Finance (11th)
• English
• Online spelling bee
• SAT English Question of the Day (which she got right)
• Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• World Geography
• Hatchet
• Born Free
• Physics
• Biography of Nikola Tesla
• Watched a video explaining how electric current works
• LAB: 2 labs from the Home Science Tools electricity lab kit
• Building an electrical circuit
• Using resistors to limit current
• Bible
• Gladys Aylward (read-aloud)
• Apostle Study: the Apostle John

Homeschool Day 8/3

 1st Grader

• Teach Your Monster to Read (app)
• Handwriting without Tears 
• KONOS:Attentiveness (continued from a few months earlier)
• Read A Picture Book of Sacagawea
• Read a book about Animal Tracks
• Learned the cardinal directions
• Learned to use a compass
• Played a compass game
• Made treasure maps of the house, hid "treasure" and then took turns using the maps to find it

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th grader)
• Stewardship (11th grader)
• English
• Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Finished The Wave and had a group discussion
• We are going to rent the German movie version of The Wave tonight (Die Welle)
• World Geography
• Hatchet (Canada)
• Born Free (Africa)
• Bible readings
• German
• 9th grader reviewed verb conjugations, pronouns, and some vocabulary, she also played on PollyLingual (website)
• 11th grader watched "Herr Vogel und Frau Wal" on YouTube
• Chemistry
• I taught lesson1 and we did the lab together
• They built several molecules with the Happy Atoms set
• Coding
• They started accounts on MIT's Scratch.  Both of them started trying it out and the 9th grader created a game where you click on baby ducks and they quack and move back to their mother
• We downloaded PYTHON (coding language) onto the laptop.  We used A Beginner's Guide to Coding to go through beginning coding steps - we created a short program to get the computer to print certain phrases when prompted

MIT's Scratch: https://scratch.mit.edu

Downloading PYTHON: https://www.python.org/downloads/  This is for Mac.  Click on Windows, etc, to download for Windows.  It's free.

Solus Christus: A New Lutheran Bible Curriculum

https://thefaithfulhomeschool.com/product/lcmsbiblecurriculum/

A fellow LCMS homeschooler has created a multi-age Bible curriculum for Lutheran homeschoolers.  You can see samples on her blog, as well as a list of subject areas covered in the curriculum.  This program covers topics like church history, catechism, hymns, and memory work.

Lutheran-specific resources for homeschoolers are so limited.  I am so excited that someone has written a Bible curriculum for Lutheran homeschoolers.  Hopefully, this is just the beginning, as far as more curriculum and resources being created by Lutherans - especially with the big surge in homeschooling now.

She has some free printables, also: https://thefaithfulhomeschool.com

Homeschool Day 8/2

 1st Grader

• Beginner's Bible
• Dragonbox's Numbers (math app)
• Summer's Lab Science
• Weather
• Identified clouds outside
• Played outside for H O U R S

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th grader)
• Mathusee Stewardship (Personal Finance - 11th grader)
• English
• Creative writing
• The Wave
• Diary of a Young Girl
• Bible
• Gladys Aylward
• World Geography
• Hatchet
• Mapping the World with Art
• Trail Guide to World Geography (England)
• Born Free
• Also played outside for hours