Homeschool Day 5/31

 2nd Grader

• Mathusee Alpha
• Language Arts
• All About Spelling (this is going surprisingly well)
• Explode the Code
• Reading
• He read another BOB book to me
• Sonlight B (history, Bible, literature)
• We added Mesopotamia (4000 BC) to his Timeline
• We tried out his Sumerian clay cylinder seals from the Hands-on History Box.  If you roll the cylinder seals onto wet clay, they make an imprint

10th Grader

• Mathusee Geometry
• Bible reading (2 Samuel)
• Bookshark J (History of Science + literature)
• Ballet class (outsourced)

College Kids

• They started the summer semester at the college today.  Today was the 17 year-old's first day of school ever (she has homeschooled from the beginning).  She loved college today.

Funschooling Journals

 Here's a link to their website: https://www.funschooling.com

These journals are sold on Amazon and Rainbow Resource.  I'm seeing some on ThriftBooks and AbeBooks, also.  

We bought three of their journals/books this year, which is why I am writing about them.  I really like these books and I would like to use more of them.  The books are very sturdy and the paper is good quality.  The artwork inside the books is cute.

The 7 year-old has the Funschooling with Imagination: The Storytelling Book.  It's a book with a scene on each page.  The scenes show stuffed animals and toys doing different things - climbing mountains, hiding in flowerpots, opening doors, etc.  The 7 year-old tells me a story about what's happening on each page and I write it down in a notebook.  We have a long story going in this notebook about all these stuffed animals.  It's a good creative writing exercise for younger children who can't write yet.

He also has the Curious Creatures Funschooling Notebook.  This is basically a blank journal with lines, bubbles, boxes and pictures to color.  He draws pictures in the boxes and tries to write a few words on the lines.  

The 14 year-old has the DIY Biology- Make Your Own Book.  It's also a blank journal with lines and boxes.  She takes notes from her biology studies and sketches diagrams, pictures of cells, microorganisms, etc in the boxes.  You can write definitions and notes on the lines. 

I wish Funschooling had more science notebooks, but it looks like they are adding more options over time. 

The only thing I don't like about the books is that some of them are very repetitive.   

Homeschool Day 5/26

 7 year-old

• Mathusee Alpha
• Language Arts/Reading
• Handwriting without Tears
• Explode the Code
• He read an Easy Reader book to me
• Science
• High? Low? Where Did It Go? All About Animal Camouflage

14 year-old

• Geometry
• Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate workbook
• Bible reading (2 Samuel)
• Ballet class (outsourced)

Homeschool Day 5/25

 7 year-old

• Sonlight B (history, Bible, literature)
• We did the read-alouds
• Ballet class (outsourced)
• Wednesday night church activities

14 year-old

• Mathusee Geometry
• Bible reading (2 Samuel)
• Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate workbook
• Sonlight J (history and literature)
• Journal writing assignment (an excellent writing sample from her today)
• Wednesday night church activities

College students

• We went shopping for school supplies

Homeschool Day 5/24

 7 year-old

• Math
• Mathusee Alpha
• Language Arts
• All About Spelling - this was our first day with this and it was definitely time to start spelling.  He probably could've done this a few months ago with no problem.
• Handwriting without Tears
• Reading
• He read an Easy Reader book to me
• Sonlight B (history, Bible, literature)
• We did the ancient Sumerian cylinder seal project from the Hands-on History box.  He made a cylinder from clay, imprinted the clay with writing and we baked the clay.  When you roll the cylinder onto a sheet of wet clay, it should imprint the wet clay with the writing.  We absolutely love the Hands-on History box
• He rode his bike outside and we walked to the park

14 year-old

• Geometry (Mathusee)
• Bible reading (2 Samuel)
• Easy Grammar 10th Grade Grammar workbook
• Bookshark J (History of Science)
• Our second day with this curriculum.  So far, so good.  She is enjoying the book The Thief (by Megan Whalen Turner)
• Biology
• Ellen McHenry's Protozoa
• We looked at Volvox colonies under the microscope. These are fascinating - especially how they form a wall around the colony with individual Volvox cells
• She also went outside/went to the park

College students

• They start school back up again on Monday and we are not prepared.  Oldest is taking Art History for the first summer session and Kid #3 is taking Drawing 1.  I still need to buy their school supplies

Homeschool Day 5/23

 7 year-old

• Reading
• Explode the Code - he finished one level and is moving onto the next
• Mathusee Alpha
• Sonlight B (history, Bible, literature)
• Science
• We read DK: Rainforest
• He became interested in bats, so we spent a lot of time researching different species of bats
• Prehistoric Planet - documentary series with David Attenborough - this is basically the old Walking with Dinosaurs series remade (Apple TV streaming)

14 year-old

• Bible reading (2 Samuel)
• Easy Grammar 10th grade Ultimate series
• Mathusee Geometry
• Bookshark J (history and literature)
• We just started this today
• Biology
• Ellen McHenry's Protozoans
• Algae 
• Ballet class (outsourced)

17 year-old

• Audition for a pre-professional musical

Updated Homeschool Plans

The month of May was:

• Prom
• High School Graduation
• Updating the high schoolers' transcripts
• Getting the 17 year-old ready to start the summer semester at the college
• End of year performances for everything - theater, gymnastics, ballet, etc
• Getting the oldest three registered for the fall semester at the college

I will "graduate" the last two kids into the next grade on June 1.  We usually have a pretend knighting ceremony with a sword in the living room.  As of June 1st, we have 3 college students, a 10th grader and a 2nd grader.  

I revised our curriculum plans a little.  The 14 year-old was not enjoying history, so we switched that.  The 7 year-old needs to beef up his language arts.

Here is our updated curriculum plans.  Some of these things are still the same as what we were doing before.  I'm starting them both back up on Monday.  Things should be more normal now that everything has ended.

7 year-old - 2nd Grade

Math

• Mathusee Alpha (continuing)

Reading

• Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading (continuing)
• BOB Books, Easy Readers from the library

Language Arts

• All About Spelling 1 (it's time...I'm adding spelling)
• Handwriting without Tears
• Funschooling Journals

History, Bible, Literature

• Sonlight B: World History 1 (continuing)
• Hands-on History Box 

Science

• Books from the library, projects based on what I find/what looks interesting

Art

• Art projects based on what looks like fun

Physical Education

• Our once a week of playing sports together at the park

Outsourced Classes (at homeschool enrichment center)

• Intro to Theater
• Learning with Legos

14 year-old - 10th Grader (she turns 15 in the fall)

Math

• Mathusee Geometry (she started this on her own during our break)

History, Literature

• Bookshark J: History of Science (this was a spontaneous purchase, because she did not like what we were doing for history and there is a big overlap in the old Sonlight 230 and Literature J - they are basically the same books)

Grammar/Vocab

• Easy Grammar Ultimate 10th Grade Workbook (continuing)
• WordTeasers SAT Cards (continuing

Bible

• Daily reading through the Old Testament
• She fell in love with CS Lewis after reading Till We Have Faces and The Screwtape Letters, so we are going to continue with Mere Christianity

German

• German Demystified (continuing)
• We might add DuoLingo German

Science

• Still planning to spend two years alternating between Astronomy and Biology

Art

• Projects based on what looks like fun.  We just went to the art store and bought an acrylic paint set plus some practice canvases

Physical Education

• Our usual once a week of playing sports together at the park

Outsourced Classes (at a homeschool enrichment center)

• Beginning Ukelele 

I am adding an afternoon a week for her to spend with another homeschool friend, working on beginning electronics/engineering projects, but I don't have firm plans for that, yet.

Extras - Sports, etc for the Fall

They are continuing ballet, Cub Scouts (7 year-old) and Youth Group at church.  14 year-old will continue helping teach gymnastics on Tuesdays and the 7 year-old is continuing taking gymnastics.  He wants to add karate.  I'm trying to talk the 14 year-old into taking tennis.

High School Credits for 10th Grade

These are possibly what I'm assigning as credits for 10th grade.

1 credit Geometry

1 credit History of Science 

1 credit Classical Literature

1 credit Old Testament Studies (continued from last year)

1 credit German 2

1 credit Astronomy (finishing Junior year)

1 credit Biology w/ Lab (finishing Junior year)

0.5 credit Visual Arts or Studio Art

0.5 credit Beginning Ukulele

0.5 credit Physical Education 

Possibly 0.5 credit Technology or Engineering

8.5 - 9.0 credit hours

Lutheran Homeschool Marketplace and Press

https://www.lutheranhomeschool.com

I haven't posted about this website in about a year, but I'm looking through it today to get some ideas for Bible this summer.  Most of the curriculum on the site are free, but you have to "buy" it in the shop to have access to it.  We did the Angels & Demons study about a year ago and it was excellent (and written by a Lutheran pastor).

Our Bible study was on life-support all spring and I really wanted to add more to it over the summer.  I wanted to go back to doing a Saint study and a Hymn study once a week - in addition to our daily Bible readings.

The Screwtape Letters - audiobook and extra resources (free)

 We are finishing up The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.  In the book, Screwtape is a demon/devil who is writing letters to his nephew, Wormwood.  In the letters, he's instructing Wormwood on how to corrupt a particular human and commenting on different aspects of the human's life and events that occur.  Themes in the book include relationships, marriage, war, compassion, cowardice, hell, temptation, humans' relationships with God, the ultimate goal of demons and Satan, etc.

This is about my third reading through the book.  This time, we decided to listen to the audiobook version.  

On Youtube, there is an audiobook version of the book narrated by John Cleese and it is excellent!  This audiobook is an abridged version, but it's really only condensed by a couple of chapters.

We used Sparknotes to get through the book.  Several of the chapters are difficult to work through and we needed some extra help.

https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/screwtape-letters/

This website has a book summary, individual chapter summaries, literary devices, essay topic suggestions, and in-depth character analyses.

The audiobook + Sparknotes turned out to be excellent.  I'm working though this book with the 14 year-old and she has been able to follow everything with no problem.  She said this was her favorite book so far this year.

If anyone would like to hear C.S. Lewis actually speaking, go onto Youtube and search for "C.S. Lewis' surviving BBC radio address."  He's giving a talk about how God doesn't experience time like humans do - where we have a past, present and future timeline.  God and Heaven doesn't experience time the same way.  It's fascinating.

Glencoe Literature Guides

Glencoe is taking these literature guides down soon.  They are free to download until June 30th.  

http://www.glencoe.com/sec/literature/litlibrary/?fbclid=IwAR34hhwl6jVNwVx7PbdlUSz4lM8f2wFo_jihZ0v5kNEayivk_m8_IjIXuAQ

These literature guides have been available for years and they are great guides.  

Mathusee Stewardship

 My daughter finished Mathusee Stewardship and I wanted to post a quick review of this curriculum.

Here is a link to Stewardship on Mathusee's website:  https://store.demmelearning.com/building-faith-families/stewardship

Stewardship is a personal finance/consumer math course written for high school.  On my daughter's transcript, I assigned one credit Personal Finance.  It took my daughter about 6-7 months to finish the course.  I do think an advanced 8th grader could successfully use this course.  

The course includes the videos (which are found online for free).  At the beginning of each lesson, Steve Demme teaches the lesson material in a video.

Link to videos: https://stewardshipmath.com/videos-and-other-resources/stewardship-videos/

The course also includes an Instruction Manual, a Student Workbook and a book called Biblical Principles (which is almost more like a devotional, but covers the subject discussed in each lesson).

The course covers:

• Income
• Overtime pay
• Bank accounts
• Budgets
• Credit Cards
• Interest and Compound Interest
• How much it costs per day to own a vehicle
• Car Loans
• Mortgages
• House Repairs/Maintenance Costs
• Medical Insurance
• College Costs
• Investing
• Charity/Giving

The math in this course is not challenging.  It's mostly prealgebra and algebra 1 skills.  But, most of the math we use every day is not beyond that level.  We thought the content and topics covered were excellent.  My daughter learned a lot during this course and I will definitely have the younger two work through this course during high school.  I regret that I didn't buy this for my oldest two before they graduated.