Homeschool Day 1/31

We did not do schoolwork yesterday, because of the terrible ice storm and the stress of trying to get everyone home safely.

 2nd Grader

Math

• We played Mathemagical World
• He worked on multi-digit subtraction problems

Reading/Language Arts

• Explode the Code 2
• Sonlight Reading/LA

Science

• We read The Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System (this is just a great book)

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

• The Ology
• National Geographic poetry book
• Little Pear (read-aloud)

Extras

• James and the Giant Peach (bedtime read-aloud)
• Doing some programming with Dash Robot Kit (borrowed from the library)

10th Grader

Bible

• The Book of Psalms

Math

• Mathusee Geometry

Grammar & Writing

• She finished her essay from They Say, I Say (persuasive essay)
• Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate workbook

Science

• Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
• Smithsonian's The Planets
• Smithsonian's The Stars

History and Literature

• Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie

Extras

• DuoLingo Korean
• She practiced classical guitar yesterday and today

School stuff I am ordering this week:

Clumsy Thief Money Game:  https://melonrind.com/products/clumsy-thief

Sleeping Queens:  https://gamewright.com/product/Sleeping-Queens

Homeschool Day 1/26

 2nd Grader

Science

• Solar System Stress Ball Play Set
• We read the informational card for each planet in the solar system and then lined up the planets in order

Extras

• James and the Giant Peach (read-aloud)
• We took a nature walk at the park

10th Grader

Writing & Grammar

• She finished the rough draft of her essay for They Say, I Say

Science

• Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities

Literature and History

• Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie

Extras

• Ballet class

Homeschool Day 1/25

 2nd Grader

Math

• More multi-digit addition and subtraction practice on the dry erase board

Reading/Language Arts

• Workbook for Kids with Dyslexia
• Reading Eggs

Science

• National Geographic Kids: Planets
• He drew planets with colored pencils in his notebook

Coding

• DASH Robot (we got this from the library again)
• He wrote a couple of programs for the robot

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

• Little Pear (read-aloud)
• Usborne Book of World History

10th Grader

Math

• Mathusee Geometry

Bible

• Reading through Psalms

Grammar & Writing

• She worked on her essay from They Say, I Say (for a class she's taking)

Science

• Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
• Smithsonian's The Planets
• Soil Ph LAB
• We tested two more soil samples
• Rain Water Ph = 6
• Soil from Yard = 6
• Soil from Garden = 6.9

Technology/STEM

• Elenco resent our FM radio kit, so she got started with that
• (Build an FM Radio Kit) 

History and Literature

• We watched the movie Dances with Wolves
• Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie
• We talked about John Hersey's Hiroshima book - which she wants to read next

Homeschool Day 1/24

 The weather was terrible, so we spent a lot of time in the car, driving everyone to stuff.

2nd Grader

Math

• He did some problems on the dry erase board - multi-digit addition
• Life of Fred Butterflies

Reading/Language Arts

• Handwriting without Tears
• Sonlight Reading/LA
• Went over some new words
• He read from the reader
• Copywork

Science

• National Geographic Kids: The Planets
• Notebooking - he drew and colored with colored pencils some of the planets + Titan (Saturn's moon)

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

• The Ology
• A Child's History of the World
• Little Pear (read-aloud)
• National Geographic poetry book

Extras

• James and the Giant Peach (read-aloud at bedtime)

10th Grader

Fine Arts

• She worked on classical guitar and practiced her ukulele
• She taught gymnastics at the homeschool co-op

Science

• Ongoing Botany Lab: to collect soil samples from around the local area and test the Ph of the soil
• Rainwater: We collected rainwater today and tested it with Ph strips.  
• Ph = 6 (acidic)

Homeschool Day 1/23: Technology and Writing

 2nd Grader

Math

• Wild Math 2
• We read The Action of Subtraction
• Math dice (subtraction)

Reading/Language Arts

• We played Scrabble Junior

Science

• We read National Geographic Kids: Planets
• In his sketchbook, he drew the sun and the Milky Way with colored pencils

Extras

• James and the Giant Peach (read-aloud)

10th Grader

Math

• Mathusee Geometry

Technology

• She spent two hours on the Arduino Uno kit 30 Days Lost in Space
• Learned about resistors
• Did the project where she added a switch to the breadboard

Foreign Language

• DuoLingo Korean

Grammar & Writing

• She started writing an essay from They Say, I Say writing book
• Typing practice

Field Trip 1/21: Rafes Urban Astronomy Center

https://astronomy.unt.edu/observatories/rafes-urban-astronomy-center

https://astronomy.unt.edu/observatories/star-parties

Super cool field trip.  $5 per person and it's entirely outdoors, so wear coats/gloves/hats in winter.  Also, when we went, it was very crowded.  It's owned and run by the University of North Texas Physics Department, so there were staff/students everywhere to ask questions and work the high-powered telescopes in the two silos.  

My kids were able to locate/see Mars, Jupiter and four of its moons, Saturn and its rings, two meteors, and a star cluster in Orion using the telescopes that they have for people to use.  We also went inside the missile silo and were allowed to look through a high-powered telescope at a nebula and star nursery.  About an hour after it started, the staff gave a talk, pointing out various objects in the sky.

Super awesome astronomy field trip!  We were there for over two hours, which was a lot longer than I expected.  

Astronomy Field Trips Around DFW

Updated: If you plug in your location, this website gives the time/location of astronomical objects in the sky.  https://theskylive.com/guide?geoid=4691930

Since we are spending a lot of time on astronomy this year and next, I have included some great field trips in our studies.  

We visited Frontiers of Flight in Dallas, TX: https://www.flightmuseum.com  Awesome field trip - one of my favorite museums of all times!

We visited NASA in Houston:  https://spacecenter.org 

We plan to visit the University of North Texas observatory in Ponder, TX:  https://astronomy.unt.edu/observatories  UNT also has Sky Theater on campus in Denton: https://astronomy.unt.edu/sky-theater  These are all run through the Physics Department at UNT.

Our final astronomy field trip will be the Monnig Meteorite Gallery on the Texas Christian University campus:  https://monnigmuseum.tcu.edu/visitor-info/

We love astronomy!!

Homeschool Day 1/19

 2nd Grader

Math

• Wild Math 2
• We rolled math dice and added three numbers together
• Life of Fred Butterflies

Reading/Language Arts

• Sonlight Reading/LA
• Explode the Code

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

• Little Pear (read-aloud)
• Hands-on History Box
• We made the Chinese dragon puppet

Physical Education

• Homeschool Skate (rollerskating)
• Ballet class 

10th Grader

Bible

• Book of Psalms

Math

• Mathusee Geometry
• She worked on the Honors page

Physical Education

• Homeschool Skate (rollerskating)
• Ballet class

Homeschool Day 1/18

 2nd Grader

Math

• We played Dragonwood

Reading/Language Arts

• Sonlight Reading/LA

Science

• Dinosaurs for Every Kid
• Peripheral vision test
• Camouflage and dinosaurs
• Mushroom Dissection
• He did this with the high schooler

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

• National Geographic poetry book
• Little Pear (read-aloud)
• A Child's History of the World

Extras

• Wednesday night church activities

10th Grader

Bible

• Book of Psalms

Math

• Mathusee Geometry

Writing & Grammar

• They Say, I Say (writing book)
• Essay

Science

• Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
• Mushroom Dissection
• Identified parts of the mushroom
• Looked for spores
• Talked about how mushrooms excrete enzymes, digest and absorb nutrients
• Looked at the gills under a microscope

History and Literature

• Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie

Extras

• Wednesday night church activities

Homeschool Day 1/17

 2nd Grader

Math

• Wild Math 2
• Multi-digit addition practice problems

Reading/Language Arts

• Sonlight
• Handwriting practice on the whiteboard app

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

• Read-aloud - Little Pear
• The Ology
• Usborne Book of World History

Physical Education

• Karate class at co-op 
• We played baseball at the park

10th Grader

Fine Arts

• Collaborative ukulele and guitar class at an enrichment center

Physical Education

• Gymnastics class at co-op

Homeschool Day 1/16: Technology & Writing

 2nd Grader

Wild Math 2

• Multi-digit multiplication
• We played Blokus

Sonlight Reading & Language Arts

• He wrote his spelling words
• He read his reader
• Grammar worksheet

10th Grader

Mathusee Geometry

• Circles and Pi

Writing & Grammar

• They Say, I Say (writing book)

Technology

• 30 Days Lost in Space 
• This is our second week working on this.  It's a kit that is a combination of an Arduino Uno and a breadboard/circuitry set.  You have to download Arduino software to work through the 30 challenges (you are repairing your spacecraft using coding and circuitry)
• There was a moment of panic this morning and we had to do some serious problem-solving.  Even I was panicking.  This course is going to be difficult!
• I didn't realize the kit basically included an Arduino

Enrichment Class Friday 1/13

 On Fridays, 2nd grader has enrichment classes at a homeschool center.  He takes a Lego Engineering class and a Beginning Theater class.  He also spends time running around the school yard with his friends at the center.

10th grader is performing in a dance competition today.  She had most of the day for herself - to read or whatever she wanted to do.

Homeschool Day 1/12: Board Games

 Today was not very school-productive, but we played a lot of board games.

I played Dragonwood with the 2nd grader, which has a lot of addition in it.  He also worked on Reading Eggs.  He played Minecraft. 

I played backgammon and some card games with the 10th grader, also.

They both have classes at the ballet school as well.

Homeschool Day 1/11

 2nd Grader

Wild Math 2

• Solving multi-digit addition problems
• Addition flashcards

Sonlight Reading/Language Arts

• Copywork
• He read his reader
• Explode the Code 2

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

• Our usual Sonlight readings + Little Pear (read-aloud)

Dinosaur Study

• Janice Van Cleave Dinosaurs for Every Kid
• We made the dinosaur models from play dough
• Talked about how scientists estimate dinosaurs' weight
• Travel Back through Time to the Land of the Dinosaurs

10th Grader

Mathusee Geometry

Grammar & Writing

• They Say, I Say (writing exercises)

Bible

• Reading through the Book of Psalms

Science

• Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
• Smithsonian's The Planets

STEM Lab

• She started 30 Days Lost in Space (engineering and coding kit)

History & Literature

• Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie

Homeschool Day 1/10: Flower Dissection Lab

 Flower Dissection Lab

We had specimens from the following flowers: Euphorbia, Haworthia, Tropical Hibiscus, orange Bird of Paradise and Purple Heart Tradescantia.

We identified:

• xylem
• phloem
• stamen
• anthers
• carpel
• ovules
• petals
• receptacle
• sepals
• pedicel
• pollen grains

We looked at the petals and pollen grains under the microscope.  It was a great dissection.

Tropical Hibiscus

Very clear dissection

Petal with pollen grains under the 3D microscope

Leaves from a bird of paradise

Homeschool Day 1/9

 I'm back to trying to blog daily again.  Maybe easier.

2nd Grader

Math

• Wild Math 2
• Practiced adding 3 numbers

Sonlight Reading/Language Arts

• Sounded out new words for the week
• Handwriting without Tears
• Explode the Code 2

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

• We started Little Pear today for our read-aloud and he really liked it

Extras

• Cub Scouts

10th Grader

Bible

• Book of Psalms
• We talked about the authors of Psalms

Mathusee Geometry

Grammar & Writing

• Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate workbook
• Typing practice

History & Literature

• Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie
• Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb - she finished this book today - this was an excellent book
• We talked about the history of yeast, including how it was discovered in ancient times

Science

• Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
• Yeast Fermentation Lab
• We tested expired yeast and discovered that the spores were dead
• We fermented yeast in warm water with sugar and observed changes in the foam over time
• We looked at the yeast under the microscope with and without blue dye

Extras

• Ballet class (outsourced)

Homeschool Week: 1/2-1/5

 Back to school after a two week break is very difficult.  2nd grader really struggled this week, even though we did a lot of fun activities together.

2nd Grader

Math

• Wild Math 2
• Board games
• Snakes and Ladders
• Mathemagical World
• Math War (addition and subtraction)
• Addition strategies
• The Missing Number Game (addition)

We played The Mathemagical World and used Mathusee blocks to add/subtract

Reading/Language Arts

• Sonlight Reading and Language Arts
• Practiced writing capital letters with the whiteboard app on the iPad
• Sight word memory game
• Reading Eggs

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

• The Ology
• A Child's History of the World
• Around the World with Kate and Mack
• Usborne Book of World History
• We finished Happy Times in Noisy Village (read-aloud) - he LOVED this book

Science - Dinosaur Study

• T-Rex puzzle
• What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs? (read-aloud)
• Travel Back through Time to the Land of the Dinosaurs (activity book)
• Janice Van Cleave's Dinosaurs for Every Kid (book of hands-on activities)
• We made a timeline on the floor with a measuring tape and plastic dinosaur toys showing the different time periods throughout history and which animals and dinosaurs lived/went extinct during different times
• Design your own dinosaur activity - he drew/designed a made-up dinosaur and gave it a scientific name

Activity Book for Kids with Dyslexia

•   He worked on this - especially the mazes

10th Grader

She spent the night at a friend's house on the lake, so it doesn't look like she did much, but that's ok.

Geometry

• Mathusee Geometry

Grammar/Writing

• Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate Workbook
• Typing practice

Science (astronomy and biology)

• Smithsonian's The Planets
• Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities

History and Literature

• We finished The Westing Game (read-aloud)
• Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie
• Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb

Foreign Language

• DuoLingo Korean

30 Days Lost in Space

 Here's the link:  https://inventr.io

If you buy, look for a sale. They regularly have one on their website.

You're in your spaceship, trapped on an alien planet and you have 30 days to repair your control panel.  You learn circuitry and coding while you work through the projects.  

Ours arrived and the 15 year-old is going to start this kit next week.

No tools needed. No soldering.

There are videos on their website that walk you through the challenges.

Here's what the kit looks like: