Homeschool Day 3/31

 1st Grader

• Math
• Dragonbox's Numbers (app)
• Reading
• He read me a BOB book
• Science
• Snap Circuits
• We made a motion detector
• He designed his own circuit that spun the propeller

This is the motion detector.  You wave your hand over the circuit and the light bulb turns off:

This is the circuit he built without directions.  It uses a switch to turn on the propeller.

The 9th Grader 

• English
• WordTeasers SAT Vocabulary Cards
• Spell, define, use in sentence
• 10th Grade Ultimate Grammar workbook (9th grader)
• Sonlight 230 (Till We Have Faces)
• The Outsiders (read-aloud)
• Bible reading
• Great Tales from English History
• Arthur, Once and Future King
• Pope Gregory's Angels
• They listened to Gregorian chants for a couple of minutes (talking about Pope Gregory)
• Famous Art Cards
• Renoir's Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette
• https://joyofmuseums.com/museums/europe/france-museums/paris-museums/musee-dorsay/dance-at-le-moulin-de-la-galette/
• Theater class (outsourced)
• Ballet (outsourced)

The Autodidact (the one who's graduated, but won't stop learning)

• Read from Norton's Anthology of British Literature (Medieval lit volume)
• We edited an essay she wrote
• Bible reading
• She listened to Great Tales, Outsiders and looked at Renoir's painting with us
• Ballet (outsourced)

Homeschool Day 3/30

 1st Grader

• He had a hard time doing anything today.  He just wanted to roller-skate all over the house.
• Reading/Language Arts
• We played Bananagrams
• Handwriting without Tears
• Explode the Code
• Mathusee Alpha
• Science
• Snap Circuits
• Sonlight Level B (history, literature and Bible)
• Ballet class (outsourced)
• Wednesday night church activities

9th Grader

• English
• WordTeasers SAT cards
• Sonlight Literature 230 (British Literature)
• I already own this.  We aren't going to read every book in this core, just the ones she's interested in reading.  We started with Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis
• Writing assignment from the Instructor's Guide
• The Outsiders (read-aloud)
• Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate Grammar workbook
• Biology
• Ellen McHenry's Protozoa
• Chapter 2: Other Ciliates
• Notetaking in the Funschooling Biology Journal
• German Picture Bible - Matthew chapter 5 (11th grader)
• Shakespearean Theater (11th grader - outsourced at the homeschool enrichment center)
• Wednesday night church activities 

Homeschool Day 3/29

 1st Grader

• Reading/Language Arts
• Explode the Code
• Funschooling's Storyteller Book
• He narrates a story to me based on the pictures
• Funschooling's Curious Creatures Journal
• He colored and wrote a couple of words in the journal
• Math
• Mathusee Alpha
• Sonlight Level B (Bible, literature, history)
• Gymnastics (outsourced)

9th and 11th Graders

• The 11th grader finished Mathusee Stewardship.  This curriculum was very much worth it for us.  I'm going to have the younger two also work through it during high school.  The things it teaches are very practical - things like interest rates, mortgages, car loans, giving to charity, house repair costs, etc.  
• English
• The Outsiders (read-aloud)
• Writing assignment (continued from yesterday): write a short essay about Alexander Solzhenitsyn (author of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich)
• Bible reading
• British History: Hadrian's Wall and the Druids
• Youtube Video: A Day in the Life of a Celtic Druid (TED Talk)
• Youtube Video: The Roman Wall that Split Britain into Two Parts (Smithsonian)
• Art
• Edgar Degas' "Dancers in Blue" (1890)
• Gymnastics (outsourced)

We were finished with school by 2:30 pm.

The "11th Grader" is Finished

• After her college placement scores (she tested into the highest tier in English and math), I set her as graduating high school on May 1st (in about 4 weeks).  The only thing I wanted her to finish was Mathusee Stewardship, continue reading her Bible and The Outsiders.  She finished Mathusee Stewardship today.  I told her anything she does now is just because she is an autodidact.  I'm not going to assign her anything or tell her what to study.  She's more than ready for college this summer.
• Her diploma, cap, gown and tassel have arrived in the mail.  I need to take her graduation pictures soon, so I can order her announcements and scrapbook that I've been making on Snapfish.

Homeschool Day 3/28

 1st Grader

• Reading/Language Arts
• Explode the Code
• He read a BOB Book.  He finished the box of BOB books, so I got the next box down for tomorrow
• Handwriting without Tears
• Math
• Mathusee Alpha
• Science
• Snap Circuits- we did a couple more of the circuit projects
• Sonlight Level B (history, literature, Bible)

9th and 11th Graders

• Stewardship - chapter on Investing (11th grader)
• English
• Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate Grammar workbook
• The Outsiders (read-aloud)
• One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich 
• They finished the book
• Writing assignment: Write a short essay about the author, Alexander Solzhenitsyn
• WordTeasers SAT words
• Spell, define, use in sentence
• German (together)
• German Demystified
• Biology
• Ellen McHenry's Protozoa
• We finished the chapter on Paramecia, watched the videos from her Youtube channel and answered the questions at the end of the chapter
• Search on Youtube: Ellen McHenry's Basement Workshop: Protozoa
• Ballet Class (outsourced - both girls)

We were finished with school by 1pm today, which is good.

Homeschool Day 3/25

 Here's what we did for Friday.

Art Class

• 1st grader has a Friday art class at an enrichment center

Physical Education

• They played pickle ball

Nature Walk

• We saw so many cardinals!  I tried to get a picture, but they were flying from tree to tree and my camera couldn't keep up.

Homeschool Day 3/24

 1st Grader

• Reading/Language Arts
• Notebooking - he wrote some words and colored in his Curious Creatures Funschooling Notebook
• He read a BOB Book to me
• Math
• Moose Math app - I let him have an easy math day
• Sonlight Level B (Bible, history and literature)

9th and 11th Graders

• English
• One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - they finished this book 
• Writing prompt - I took a look at their mini-essays that discussed Alexander Solzhenitsyn's writing style (One Day in the Life...)
• The Outsiders (read-aloud)
• Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate Grammar workbook
• British History
• Great Tales from English History
• Emperor Claudius the Triumphant
• Boadicea
• Art History
• We looked at "The Maids of Honor" Diego Velazquez
• http://www.the-art-minute.com/the-maids-of-honor-a-visit-to-the-studio/
• Biology
• Ellen McHenry's Protozoa
• We spent about an hour again looking at all kinds of things under the microscope
• Paramecia (prepared slide from a kit)
• Amoeba (prepared slide from a kit)
• Euglena (prepared slide)
• Volvox (prepared slide)
• Hydra (prepared slide)
• Mud sample from the front yard
• Aquarium water - I can't believe our aquariums are that clean
• Theater (9th grader - outsourced)
• Ballet (both girls - outsourced)

We were finished by about 1pm, which is good.

Homeschool Day 3/23

 1st Grader

• Reading/Language Arts
• Explode the Code
• He read a BOB Book
• Funschooling's The Storyteller Book
• Mathusee Alpha, lesson 2
• We are only spending one day on this lesson, because it was too easy.  He actually did three pages of it in one sitting
• Sonlight Level B (Bible, history, literature)
• Ballet (outsourced)
• Wednesday night church activities

9th and 11th Graders

• English
• One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
• Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate Grammar (9th grader)
• Writing Prompt: Describe Solzhenitsyn's writing style in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
• Shakespearean Theater (outsourced class - 11th grader)
• Wednesday night church activities

Homeschool Day 3/22

 1st Grader

• Nature walk at the park - we saw all the damage from the tornados last night.  There was extensive damage everywhere.  I didn't know until we got to the park.
• Zoetrope
• We built a zoetrope from this kit: Goldie Blox and the Movie Machine
• The zoetrope spins on a wheel and you look through the slits to watch a short "movie" made from cards with pictures on them
• Snap Circuits
• We built the spinning propeller
• Sonlight Level B (Bible, history and literature)

9th and 11th Graders

• English
• One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
• Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate Grammar workbook (9th grader)
• The Outsiders (read-aloud)
• WordTeasers SAT cards
• Spell, define, use in sentence
• British History
• Great Tales from English History (Robert Lacey)
• The Standard-Bearer from the 10th Legion
• Jesus and the Legends of Glastonbury
• Bible readings
• Art
• The Mona Lisa (Leonardo da Vinci)
• We looked at close-ups of the painting, compared it to his earlier version of the Mona Lisa and read about the history of the painting (including when it was stolen in 1911)
• https://focus.louvre.fr/en/mona-lisa (close-up of the painting)
• Gymnastics (outsourced)

Update on College Kids

• The semester is about 2/3 of the way over.  Both kids still have all As in their classes.  The freshman has over 100% average in every class this semester.
• Kid #3 is ready to register as soon as registration opens.  Then, we will have three in college at the same time.

School took way too long today.  We were finished at 4 pm.  

Homeschool Day 3/21

 1st Grader

• Reading/LA
• Explode the Code
• Handwriting without Tears
• Funschooling's The Storytelling Book
• Science
• Snap Circuits - we made two of the projects, the Space Alarm Combo and the Conductivity Detector
•  Sonlight Level B (Bible, Literature, World History 1)

9th and 11th Graders

• English
• 10th Grade Easy Grammar Ultimate series workbook (9th grader)
• One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
• WordTeasers SAT Words
• Spell, define, use in sentence
• The Outsiders (read-aloud)
• Mathusee Stewardship (11th grader)
• German (together)
• German Demystified
• Biology
• Ellen McHenry's Protozoa
• LAB: About an hour of taking water samples from flower pots and aquariums and searching the water for protozoa.  Also, she tried dying the slides and not dying them and seeing if that helps identify things in the water
• Voice lesson (outsourced - 11th grader)
• Ballet (both girls)

This looks like a lot, but we were finished by lunch, which is my goal.

Field Trip: Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

 We took a field trip to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.  www.themodern.org

Admission is free for children under 18.  It's also free for everyone on Fridays and half-price on Sundays (double check website just to make sure, though).

There are some outdoor sculptures and water landscapes right outside the building, which are nice.  

The museum's website has some printable art cards here:  https://www.themodern.org/art-cards-0

The art cards are printable PDFs that show artwork and background information about various artists.  

Build and Grow Woodworking Kits from Lowe's

 We've just discovered these.  Each kit is about $10.  They are very basic woodworking kits for children.  The 6 year-old built the car:

Not the best picture in the world, but you get the idea.  The kit comes with the wood pre-cut and includes nails and stickers.  He didn't put the stickers on correctly and he took the hood off (did I mention he's 6- ha!).  He loved loved loved hammering the nails into the wood.  In fact, after he finished the car, I took out some scrap wood from the garage and taught him how to hammer nails into wood.  He absolutely loved it.  And no fingers were smashed.  He was very, very careful.  The next day, he was begging to practice hammering nails again.

Here are the kits. 

I think I'm going to try to make one of the projects once a month with him.  The castle and airplane look like fun.  Also, the sports arena.

The Lessons of Saint Francis (Book review)

 I'm currently reading The Lessons of Saint Francis: How to Bring Simplicity and Spirituality Into Your Daily Life by John Michael Talbot.

The Lessons of St. Francis on Good Reads

I'm only halfway through the book, but I am really enjoying it.  I've always thought St. Francis was interesting, because of his interest in nature and well, isn't he the patron saint of ecology (I have a degree in biology)?  I definitely wanted to read more about him.  Plus, anything involving simplicity appeals to me.  So far, this has been a great beginner book on St. Francis.  The author also lived in a Franciscan monastery, so he adds his own experiences about the effects of solitude, prayer, etc in the book.

 

Evernote Update

 This was our first week using Evernote to create checklists for the 9th grader.  👍  Excellent!  This worked out wonderfully. The 9th grader was able to go into Evernote on the Kindle every morning and check off the things she did on her own.  I will definitely be continuing this - using Evernote for school records.

Here's the link again.  It's free:

www.evernote.com

Homeschool Day 3/10

 1st Grader

• Mathusee Alpha
• Reading/LA
• Explode the Code
• Handwriting without Tears
• Funschooling's The Storytelling Book
• Sonlight Level B (Bible, History and Literature)
• He played with his friends outside at the homeschool enrichment center

9th and 12th Graders

• We did not get much school done, because they had doctor's appointments and helped renovate the new ballet school
• English
• Easy Grammar 10th Grade Workbook (9th grader)
• One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
• Theater (outsourced class - 9th grader)

Homeschool Day 3/8

 1st Grader

• Mathusee Alpha 
• Language Arts/Reading
• Explode the Code
• Handwriting without Tears
• Sonlight B (World History 1)
• Oh, my.  I forgot how fun this curriculum is.  He is absolutely loving it.  What a good choice for him going into 2nd grade.
• Science: Snap Circuits
• These are so much fun.  Here's a video of what he made today.

9th and 12th Graders

• English
• Easy Grammar 10th Grade workbook (9th grader)
• WordTeasers SAT words
• Spell, define, use in sentence
• One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
• The Outsiders (read-aloud)
• Bible readings
• British History
• Great Tales from English History (by Robert Lacey)
• Cheddar Man
• Pytheas and the Painted People
• They helped with renovations at the new ballet school

Homeschool Day 3/7

 1st Grader

• Mathusee Alpha
• We started this.  It was easier than where we were in Miquon, so hopefully it helps him to back up
• Reading
• Explode the Code
• He read a BOB Book
• Sonlight B (World History 1)
• We started this today.  We only made it about halfway through Day 1.  We've done Sonlight before (about 5 years ago) and we are only able to do Sonlight at half-pace.  It moves too quickly, in my opinion.  
• Hands-on History box
• He built the Mongolian Yurt.  He LOVED it.  In fact, we spent two hours on it and he grabbed rocks, miniature horses and guys and he was playing with it like crazy.
• Cub Scouts

This was the miniature yurt he made from Sonlight's Hands-on History box.  The miniature residents moved in immediately.

9th Grader

• English
• Easy Grammar 10th Grade Workbook
• WordTeasers SAT Words
• Spell, define and use in sentence
• One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
• The Outsiders
• Biology
• Ellen McHenry's Protozoa
• Looked at aquarium water under the microscope with stained and unstained slides
• Watched YouTube videos of paramecia spinning/moving and eating

12th Grader (let's call her a 12th grader now, since she is graduating in May)

• She did WordTeasers and read One Day in the Life... and Outsiders with us

Planning: Evernote (trying something new)

 I'm going to try something new with my weekly planning.  I'm kinda tired of papers everywhere.  I have an Evernote account.  I'm creating two notebooks for the rest of the calendar year - one for the 6 year-old and one for the 14 year-old.  In each notebook, I'll create a page for each week.  On the page, I'll have a weekly school schedule, including what I plan to work on each day.  You can include boxes to check, so the 14 year-old can check off things she's finished.  This might help me with record-keeping and reduce the number of papers everywhere.

For example, I could have....

Notebook: 9th grader's Notebook

Page: 1/5/22-1/10/22

On the page:

Monday

• Geometry lesson 4
• Read...blah blah chapter 43
• Watch this video on how to open a portal to another dimension

You can imbed videos and links on Evernote.  So, she could click on the video or link in her checklist.

I already do a weekly paper checklist for the high schoolers, but I thought this might be less papers everywhere.  Plus, I would have everything saved on Evernote for record-keeping.

Evernote: https://evernote.com

You can get the app on the Kindle, too.  I plan to put the app on Kindle and then the 9th grader can check things off her list from there.

Graduation Planning 2

 Graduation Scrapbook

For each graduate, I make a scrapbook on Snapfish.  I include pictures all the way from baby pictures to current ones.  I started the scrapbook yesterday.

www.snapfish.com

FAFSA

I'm going to fill out the FAFSA for her 2022-2023 school year.  I'm doing that this weekend.  I'm also going to fill out the FAFSA for the older two college students.

Graduation Planning

 I spent so much time working on my graduation planning checklist for the 17 year-old this week.  So far, here's what I finished.

Ordered Cap, Gown and Tassel

Both girls said they would be willing to wear a cap and gown for graduation pictures (even though the 14 year-old's graduation is a long time from now).  

I bought them from here: https://www.homeschooldiploma.com/graduation-apparel/high-school-caps-and-gowns.html

I bought the navy color gown/cap.

Designed and ordered her diploma

Also from www.homeschooldiploma.com  

I think I spent about $40 on the diploma, but I customized the entire thing and added stuff.

Started working on graduation announcements

I'm buying them from www.snapfish.com 

Finalized transcripts

I finished her high school transcripts.  I used Word to create them.  I printed about 12 copies, signed and dated them.  I sealed 4 copies in envelopes and signed the back.

Printed her graduation packet

I make a folder with a graduation packet for each kid when they graduate.  In it, I include transcripts, printed lists of extracurricular activities, volunteer work, sports, subjects they studied, books we've read, field trips, etc.  I figured that information would be handy in one place for when they apply to college or a job.

Planning: 14 Year-old

 The 14 year-old is a late 9th grader - starting 10th grade in the fall.  As we finish everything this month, we have planned for (hopefully) the next calendar year.  Also, keep in mind that we school year-round.

She basically told me what she wanted to study and I put together a plan for her.  She also said she wants us to do a lot of this together - in other words, she doesn't want to sit alone in her room and do this independently.

Math

• Mathusee Geometry - we are continuing with Mathusee
• Geometry enrichment stuff
• I have a couple of enrichment geometry books.  One is how to read blueprints and you design your own house.  You also design a playground.  Another book shows you how to do all kinds of things with circles.  
• Horrible Maths - we are going to do the geometry book for fun

English/Language Arts

• Easy Grammar's 10th Grade Workbook (she needs a grammar review)
• Word Teasers: SAT Words
• One word per day - spelling, definition, use the word in a sentence

Literature

• Sonlight 230 - the old version.  This is basically British Literature or Classic Literature.  We are going to read these books together and do the writing assignments

History

• She asked to study British History.  So far, I have Great Tales from English History (Robert Lacey). I'll add more resources over time.

Bible

• Continue reading through the entire Bible

Science: Biology and Astronomy

• We are going to spend the next two years alternating between biology and astronomy.  She asked to do biology first, so we will spend a couple of months on that and then work on astronomy.
• Ellen McHenry's Protozoa - we are starting with this.  It's a book and activity guide for learning about microscopic organisms

German

• Continue German Demystified

Art & Music

• Nature drawing
• I'm still looking for ideas on these two

Technology

• My daughter and another homeschooled teen are going to get together once a week and start working on robotics together.  I'm looking at buying Lego Mindstorms' Robot Inventor.