Homeschool Day 7/26

 2nd Grader

Well....he did not do any school today, because he was busy pretending to be a pirate.  Oh well.

10th Grader

Math

• Mathusee Geometry

Bible

• Daily Bible reading (1 Kings)
• Mere Christianity (CS Lewis)

Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate workbook

Bookshark J History of Science (history and literature)

• She finished her mini-essay on a quote by Friedrich Nietzsche.  She did a great job.
• We did our reading
• I found a TED Talk video about Pythagoras and the Pythagorean theorem, so we watched that together
• String, Straightedge, and Shadow - this is one of the Bookshark books that we are reading right now and neither of us are liking this book.  It is very long-winded and dry.  We're almost finished with the book, so we will finish it, but if I can find some videos to accompany the book, then I'm just going to do that (like the TED video about Pythagoras)

We ended early so they could go rollerskating with another homeschool family.

Homeschool Day 7/25

 2nd Grader

Math

• Mathusee Alpha 

Reading

• He read another BOB book to me.  He finished that box of BOB books, so I got the next box ready.

Language Arts

• All About Spelling 1
• Handwriting without Tears

Sonlight B World History 1 (Bible, literature, history)

• We are almost finished with Henry Huggins - this has been his favorite book so far
• Hands-on History box
• We made the Senet game project.  This turned out really nice and he had a great time playing the game (it was a bit confusing at first). 

10th Grader

Math

• Mathusee Geometry

Bible

• Daily Bible reading (1 Kings)
• Mere Christianity (CS Lewis)

Science

• We completely finished Ellen McHenry's Protozoa

Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate workbook

Bookshark J History of Science (history and literature)

• We did our reading
• She wrote her spelling words several times
• Writing prompt
• We are almost finished with The Thief (GREAT book!!)

It doesn't look like we did much, but school took us until almost 2pm.

Homeschool Day 7/21

 10th Grader

Math

• Mathusee Geometry

Biology

• Ellen McHenry's Protozoa
• LAB: we checked on our agar streak plates again (the ones we put discs with anti-bacterial agents on the bacteria)

Music

• Easy Peasy Music Appreciation

Bookshark J History of Science (literature and history)

• spelling words
• Reading
• Writing prompt

Homeschool Days 7/19-7/20

 The website wasn't working, so I couldn't record what we did on 7/19.  Here's a gist of what we did for two days.

2nd Grader

Reading

• He read to me

Language Arts

• All About Spelling
• Handwriting without Tears

Science

• The Good and Beautiful Marine Biology
• We looked at the specimens from Home Science Tool's Sea Life Pack again
• Paid attention to the starfishes - symmetry, mouth, etc
• Watched the video that accompanied the lesson

Sonlight B World History 1 (history, Bible, literature)

Music

• Easy Peasy Music Appreciation Ancients (free online)

He went rollerskating

10th Grader

Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate workbook

Bible

• Mere Christianity (CS Lewis)
• She wrote a short narration of the four cardinal virtues from Mere Christianity
• Daily Bible reading (1 Kings)

Science

• Finishing up Ellen McHenry's Protozoa
• Parasites
• LAB: We set up 4 agar streak plates using swabs from 4 different places
• Dog's paw
• Cat's paw
• Dog's water bowl
• Cat litter box
• LAB continued: we left the agar plates in the garage for a couple of days and looked at the bacterial growth.  Here is the list by most bacteria down to least bacterial growth:
• Cat litter box (surprise, surprise)
• Cat's paw
• Dog's water bowl
• Dog's paw
• LAB Part 3: we soaked 16 coffee filter discs in anti-bacterial agents.  4 discs of each agent.  We then placed the 4 discs on the bacteria-filled agar plates.  We will check on the plates in a couple of days and measure how well each anti-bacterial agent kills bacteria on the plate.  The 4 anti-bacterial agents we used are:
• Vinegar
• Lysol
• Method All-Purpose Cleaner
• Kroger brand Antibacterial Hand Soap

Music

• She practiced ukulele

She also went rollerskating.

Homeschool Day 7/18

 2nd Grader

Math

• Mathusee Alpha

Reading

• He read an Easy Reader to me

Language Arts

• Handwriting without Tears
• Funschooling Curious Creatures Journal
• He did some writing in the journal and colored pictures

Music

• Easy Peasy Music Appreciation (free online)

Science

• The Good and Beautiful Marine Biology
• We finished the lesson on coral reefs

Sonlight B World History 1 (literature, Bible, history)

• Henry Huggins is our read-aloud and he absolutely loves this book
• Kate and Mack Around the World is pretty good, too

He rode his skateboard and played catch with the football.  He built a farm with blocks.

10th Grader

Bible

• Mere Christianity (CS Lewis)
• We had to have a discussion of the chapter using a literary website, because it was difficult to understand
• Daily Bible reading (1 Kings)

Math

• Mathusee Geometry

Science

• Ellen McHenry's Protozoa
• Slime Molds
• We watched a video of a slime mold recreating the Tokyo subway system
• We now believe slime molds are amazing
• LAB: We made our final agar streak plates.  We are growing bacteria and then planning to test different anti-bacterial cleaners on the plates to see which cleaners work the best
• One agar plate was contaminated with mold, so we looked at it under the 3D microscope

Bookshark J History of Science (literature and history)

• The Thief is excellent.  We are both enjoying that book.

We made an appointment to tour one of the local universities.  She is possibly interested in majoring in dance, so we chose a university with a Bachelor of Fine Arts program in Dance.

Reposting my 2022-2023 School Plans

 I've had all summer to try out these plans, so I am reposting them, including the things I added over the summer.  We school year-round and don't necessarily follow the school year, but I think these things will get us to next summer.  It's a lot.

10th Grader

Geometry (1 credit)

• Mathusee Geometry
• Horrible Maths' series Savage Shapes
• Any project-based geometry books I find at the library.  I have A Blueprint for Geometry: Math Projects Series.  We will do that this year, too.  They learn how to read blueprints and design a house

Grammar (no credit)

• Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate workbook

Bible (1 credit Biblical Studies)

• Continue reading through the Old Testament
• Finish The Chosen series (as it's being made)
• Works by CS Lewis - as many as she wants to read
• We read The Screwtape Letters
• She's reading Mere Christianity
• Her next book is probably The Problem of Pain

History and Literature (1 credit Classical Literature?, 1 credit World History)

• Bookshark J History of Science

Science - maybe finish 2024 (1 credit Biology, 1 credit Astronomy)

• We're spending 2 years alternating between biology and astronomy
• I have way too many ideas to list here
• We are working through several of the Ellen McHenry books for biology
• Lots of labs, dissections, microscope work, etc
• Astronomy - her first book will be Smithsonian The Planets: The Definitive Visual Guide
• Telescope work

German (1 credit)

• Finish German Demystified

Music Appreciation (0.5 credit)

• Easy Peasy High School Music Appreciation
• Ukulele class (outsourced)

Art Appreciation (0.5 credit)

• Sketching, painting
• Museum visits

Technology/Intro to Engineering (1 credit of "something" - not sure what I'll call it)

• We are planning to spend one afternoon a week with another homeschool friend, working on electronics projects and robotics
• I'm looking at Radio Shack's Lost in Space and Lego Robot Inventor.  Also different soldering kits on Amazon and some simple electronic kits (like build a radio)
• I would like to find some junk electronics that they could disassemble
• Spend some time with the Raspberry Pi 3b+ that we put together last fall

Physical Education (0.5 credit)

• Playing pickle ball, basketball, hiking, etc

Extracurriculars

• Ballet (this is becoming very serious, as she is thinking of going professional)
• Teaching gymnastics
• Youth Group at church

2nd Grader

Math

• Mathusee Alpha
• Life of Fred Apples

History, Bible, Literature

• Sonlight B World History 1

Language Arts and Reading

• Handwriting without Tears
• Explode the Code 2
• All About Spelling 1
• Funschooling Journals and The Storyteller Book
• Reading Easy Readers to me

Science

• By interest
• Currently using The Good and Beautiful Marine Biology.  But we might not continue with this series after we finish marine biology.  

Music Appreciation

• Easy Peasy Music Appreciation Ancients 
• He's learning piano

Art

• Learn to draw books from the library

Beginning Engineering Projects

• One afternoon a week with me.  Planning to do some engineering kits made for younger kids

Physical Education

• Working on sports skills

Outsourced classes at an enrichment center

• Learning with Legos
• Intro to Theater

Extracurriculars

• Cub Scouts
• Karate
• Youth Group at church
• Sports league for little kids (they do baseball, football, soccer, basketball)

I hope I'm not forgetting anything.  It's hard to remember all of this.

Editing to Add:  We don't do everything every day.  That's just not possible.  Also, I alternate enrichment items like Funschooling books, math projects, etc.  We might do those only once a week.  

I do not have a schedule or checklist this year.  I don't see the need to have one now that I am only homeschooling two kids.  I have materials organized by subject in individual book bins (see my recent organizational post) and we go down the row of bins every day and work on whatever they're interested in working on that day.    

 

Homeschool Day 7/14

 2nd Grader

Math

• Life of Fred Apples
• We threw the math dice and added them up

Science

• The Good and Beautiful Marine Biology
• LAB: We looked at specimens from Home Science Tools' Sea Life Pack

Music

• Easy Peasy Music Appreciation Ancients (free online)
• Traditional Chinese music, pipa

Sonlight B World History 1 (Bible, literature and history)

I'm taking him to a trampoline park to play, since it is too hot to be outside.

10th Grader

• Ballet Intensive this week (no school)

College Kids

• Classes, working
• Kid #3: Working on a musical theater production

Homeschool Day 7/12

 2nd Grader

Math

• Mathusee Alpha
• We are adding by 9s and he just really can't grasp this.  I put the book away, got the math blocks out and walked him through creating 10-20 with 10s.  10+1 = 11, and so on.

Reading

• He read to me

Language Arts

• All About Spelling 1
• Handwriting without Tears

Science

• The Good and the Beautiful Marine Biology

Music 

• Easy Peasy Music Appreciation Ancients

Sonlight B World History 1 (history, literature and Bible)

10th Grader

Ballet Intensive this week - no school

Homeschool Day 7/11

 2nd Grader

Math

• Mathusee Alpha - this was a really hard lesson (adding by 9s).  He really didn't understand it.

Reading

• He read another BOB book to me

Language Arts

• All About Spelling 1 - he's writing all kinds of words now

Music

• Easy Peasy Music Appreciation Ancients (free online) - he loves this

Science

• The Good and the Beautiful Marine Biology

Sonlight B World History 1 (Bible, literature and history)

10th Grader

Ballet intensive this week - no school for her 

College Kids

• Kid #1 is really enjoying Ceramics 2 at the college.  
• Kid #3 is currently in a musical production over the summer - The Newsies
• Kid #2 is working still - on summer break from school

History Book by Book (a free resource)

I know about Build Your Library (the curriculum and website), but someone told me about this history booklist project they started and it looks amazing!

http://historybookbybook.com/Main_Page

The booklists are divided into historical periods.  If you click on a time period, it shows you a chart by title, author, reading level, geographic area, etc.

For example, the Vikings chart looks like this:

http://historybookbybook.com/Viking_Booklist

It says there are 961 books in their booklist at this point.

Homeschool Day 7/7

 2nd Grader

Math

• Life of Fred Apples
• Addition flashcards (he knows most of them now)

Reading

• He read a BOB book to me

Language Arts

• Handwriting without Tears
• All About Spelling 1 

Science

• The Good and the Beautiful Marine Biology
• We made a model tide pool and discussed tidal levels and what animals live in tide pools
• He spent a lot of time looking at shells we found on the beach in Galveston, Texas

He went rollerskating (again).  P.E.?

10th Grader

Math

• Mathusee Geometry - she watched the teaching video and did one lesson

Bible

• Daily Bible reading (1 Kings)
• Mere Christianity

Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate workbook

Music

• She practiced ukulele

She also went rollerskating (again).

Homeschool Half-Day 7/6

 2nd Grader

He had a Cub Scouts event, so he got to skip school today.  We are going to finish the final chapter of Mr. Popper's Penguins today (from his Sonlight literature).

10th Grader

She did some school, even though I told her not to.

Math

• Mathusee Geometry - she did the Honors page

Bible

• Mere Christianity (CS Lewis)
• Daily Bible reading (1 Kings)

We read a chapter from The Thief (her Bookshark literature reading).

Homeschool Day 7/5

 2nd Grader

Math

• Life of Fred Apples
• Addition flashcards

Reading

• He read an Easy Reader book to me

Language Arts

• Handwriting without Tears

Science

• The Good and Beautiful Marine Biology
• We looked at the Pelagic Zones in the ocean using this website: https://neal.fun/deep-sea/.  This website is incredible!  At least, the 7 year-old thought it was.

Sonlight B World History 1 (Bible, literature and history)

• All the usual Sonlight readings

10th Grader

Math

• Mathusee Geometry

Bible

• Daily Bible reading
• Mere Christianity (CS Lewis)

Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate series

Science (Biology)

• Ellen McHenry's Protozoa 
• Foraminiferans
• Radiolarians
• LAB: Boy, this was a nasty lab.  We took the bacterial cultures that we prepared yesterday and identified the bacteria by shape under the microscope.
• One culture was clearly Cocci bacteria - I'm guessing staphylococcus.
• One culture had a mix of cocci and bacilli. (the swab of the dog paw)
• The culture from the dog's teeth looked like cocci bacteria
• We read about how different antibiotics work for killing different kinds of bacteria
• We talked about how autoclaves work

Bookshark J History of Science (history and literature)

• We only had time to read The Thief (the literature selection)

Art

• She sketched using pastel sticks on mixed media paper

Homeschool Day 7/4

 2nd Grader

Math

• Mathusee Alpha 

Reading

• Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading

Language Arts

• All About Spelling 1

Science

• The Good and Beautiful Marine Biology unit study

Music Appreciation

• Easy Peasy Ancients Music Appreciation

Sonlight B World History 1 (Bible, literature and history)

10th Grader

Math

• Mathusee Geometry

Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate workbook

Bible

• Daily Bible reading
• Mere Christianity (CS Lewis)

Science (Biology)

• LAB: Last week, we cultured bacteria on Petri dishes.  One dish was a swab of her teeth before brushing and one was a swab of her teeth after brushing.  Today, we looked at the results.  The Petri dish "after brushing" had significantly less bacteria on it.  We looked at the bacteria under the microscope.
• LAB Set-up: We set up three more Petri dishes.  I'm going to check for bacterial growth around Thursday.
• 1 - a swab of the dog's teeth along the gum line
• 2 - a swab from underneath the dog's paw
• 3 - a swab from an open sore on skin (yep, really gross)

Music Appreciation

• Easy Peasy High School Music Appreciation (this is surprisingly pleasant)

Bookshark J History of Science (literature and history)

• I added a writing assignment.  She wrote a short narration on the reading.