Homeschool Day 4/27

 2nd Grader

• He spent the entire morning rolling around on the floor and then watching Bluey.  Oh well.  Can't win them all.
• Ballet classes at the ballet school

10th Grader

Writing & Grammar

• They Say, I Say writing course with her friend
• Finished reading their final drafts
• I'm giving her 0.5 credit Composition = A
• I'm so happy with the amount of progress she made in writing in just one school year

Science

• 30 Days Lost in Space
• Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities

History & Literature

• John Hersey's Hiroshima

Extras

• Ballet classes at the ballet school

4/17-4/19

 I was too busy to post each individual day, but here is Monday through Wednesday of this week.

2nd Grader

Math

• Singapore math 
• We played Mathemagical World

Reading/Language Arts

• Sonlight Reading/LA
• Reading his dyslexia reader at night before bed
• Bedtime read-aloud: The Mouse and the Motorcycle (Beverly Cleary)
• We learned how to alphabetize names

Science

• Apologia's Land Animals of the Sixth Day

Sonlight B (history, Bible and literature)

• The Ology
• Kate and Mack 
• Usborne's Time Traveler
• National Geographic poetry reader
• We finished Gooney Bird Greene and started reading Mountain Born (read-aloud)

Physical Education

• Biking

Extras

• Tuesday homeschool karate class
• Wednesday night church activities
• A visit to the optometrist

10th Grader

Bible

• Almost finished reading through Psalms

Math

• Mathusee Geometry - almost finished with this, too

Writing & Grammar

• They Say, I Say - we are calling it "finished" for the school year, since this is a writing course she's taking with a friend (who follows a traditional school year)
• Persuasive Essay finished - 6 pages in MLA format - this paper was a great experience for her - even her sister (the college sophomore) was giving her feedback on her paper
• Typing practice

Science

• Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
• Crash Course Anatomy & Physiology
• Integumentary System videos 1 and 2
• Ellen McHenry's The Brain
• Videos on Phineas Gage, Wernicke's aphasia and Einstein's brain

History & Literature

• John Hersey's Hiroshima
• Days of Elijah

Physical Education

• Biking

Extras

• Collaborative ukulele/guitar class at enrichment center
• Working on DuoLingo Korean
• Ballet classes at the ballet school
• Helping teach gymnastics on Tuesdays
• Wednesday night church activities

Lots of Nature: 4/20

 2nd Grader

• Singapore math 
• Sonlight Reading/Language Arts

10th Grader

• Mathusee Geometry
• She worked on her persuasive essay

Both Together

• Rollerskating at homeschool skate time
• Ballet classes all evening at the ballet school
• We released our butterflies that we grew from caterpillars
• We watched a red-tailed hawk attack a nest full of baby birds and watched as the parents tried to fight off the hawk 

Homeschool Days 4/18 and 4/19

 2nd Grader

Math

• Singapore Math

Sonlight Reading/Language Arts

• Introduce the new words
• He read his reader
• Copywork
• Reading his dyslexia reader at night

Science

• Apologia's Land Animals of the Sixth Day
• Bears

Sonlight B (history, Bible and literature)

• Read-alouds: Gooney Bird Greene and Socks (Beverly Cleary)
• Usborne's Time Traveler

Extras

• Tuesday Co-op Classes and Karate
• Wednesday night church activities

10th Grader

Bible

• Finishing up Psalms

Math

• Mathusee Geometry

Writing & Grammar

• They Say, I Say writing course with her friend
• Persuasive essay
• Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate series

Science

• Wicked Plants

History & Literature

• John Hersey's Hiroshima

Extras

• Tuesday co-op classes: Gymnastics and Ukulele
• Wednesday night church activities

4/17: Tons of Science Today

 2nd Grader

Math

• Singapore Math
• We played Snakes and Ladders

Sonlight Reading/Language Arts

• Copywork
• He read his Sonlight reader
• Handwriting practice- capitals

Science

• Our butterfly chrysalises from Insect Lore hatched and five butterflies survived!
• Apologia's Land Animals of the Sixth Day
• Bears

Sonlight B (history, Bible and literature)

• Gooney Bird Greene (read-aloud)
• Time Traveler
• The Ology
• Hands-on History Box
• We made the final project - the Roman chariot!

10th Grader

Writing & Grammar

• They Say, I Say writing course she's taking with a friend - persuasive essay

STEM/Technology

• 30 Days Lost in Space circuitry/coding kit
• She programmed the hero board to accept a code on a keypad
• This took a big chunk of the morning

Science

• DNA Extraction Lab Kit from Home Science Tools
• This worked wonderfully
• We extracted DNA from her cheek cells and suspended it in a 95% alcohol solution

Extras

• She is choreographing a short dance from the Royal Ballet's Romeo & Juliet to perform on stage during the homeschool center's end of year recital
• Ballet classes (at the ballet school)

Homeschool Day: 4/13

 2nd Grader

Math

• Singapore Math
• We played the card game Sleeping Queens

Reading/Language Arts

• Sonlight Reading/LA

Science

• Apologia's Land Animals of the Sixth Day
• We finished canines
• On the world map, wrote in the countries where raccoon dogs, African wild dogs, jackals, coyotes, timber wolves, etc are found

Sonlight B (history, Bible and literature)

• Read-aloud: Gooney Bird Greene (we are both enjoying this book!!)
• Usborne Time Traveler
• Reading Beverly Cleary's Socks at bedtime

Extras

• Ballet class (at the ballet school)
• Activity Book for Kids with Dyslexia

10th Grader

Mathusee Geometry

• She needed help with algebra review problems

Bible

• Reading through Psalms

Grammar & Writing

• Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate series
• They Say, I Say - writing class she's taking with a friend
• She spent probably TWO hours on this today (Ack!!)
• Writing persuasive essay
• She and I looked at persuasive essay examples online
• We looked at what makes a good introduction

Science

• Video: The Twisting Tale of DNA (TED Talk)

Extras

• Ballet class (at the ballet school)
• Working on choreography for a ballet dance for the recital in June

Homeschool Day 4/12

 2nd Grader

Math

• Singapore Math

Sonlight Reading/Language Arts

• He wrote his spelling words
• He read his Sonlight reader
• Grammar exercise
• He's reading his dyslexia reader at night before bed

Science

• Apologia's Land Animals of the Sixth Day

Sonlight B (history, literature and Bible)

• Kate and Mack book
• The Ology
• Usborne's Time Traveler
• Read-aloud: Gooney Bird Greene
• We're reading Beverly Cleary's Socks before bed

Extras

• Wednesday night church activities

10th Grader

Bible

• Reading through Psalms

Math

• Mathusee Geometry

Grammar & Writing

• She wrote a rough draft of her persuasive essay for the They Say, I Say class she's taking with a friend
• Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate workbook

Science

• Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
• We watched the video: "How Mendel's Pea Plants Helped us Understand Genetics"
• DNA Lab: we did karyotyping - matching chromosomes using their centromeres, sizes and stains
• We talked about tetraploidy, quadraploidy, Turner syndrome, and XYY syndrome

History & Literature

• Days of Elijah

Extras

• Practicing ukulele
• Wednesday night church activities

We were finished with everything by about 1pm.

Homeschool Day 4/10

 2nd Grader

Math

• Singapore math

Sonlight Reading/Language Arts

• Introduced the new words in the lesson
• He read his reader
• Copywork

Sonlight B (history, Bible and literature)

• We started Gooney Bird Greene (read-aloud)
• Time Traveler
• National Geographic poetry

Science

• Apologia's Land Animals of the Sixth Day
• Wolves
• Caterpillar to Butterfly kit
• The caterpillars have attached themselves to the lid of the container and have formed chrysalises
• One of the chrysalises fell and we super-glued it back onto the lid

Art

• Draw, Write, Now

10th Grader

Mathusee Geometry

STEM/Technology

• Coding/Circuitry projects from the kit 30 Days Lost in Space
• Coded into the keypad and a buzzer would go off on the circuit
• She spent a good hour on this

Grammar & Writing

• They Say, I Say writing course with a friend
• Persuasive essay

Science

• She finished enough astronomy last week for me to give her 1 credit Astronomy on her transcript
• DNA
• We watched the video Genetics 101 by National Geographic
• We made a DNA model of base pairs in the shape of a double helix
• We looked at pictures of the staircase at the UIC's molecular biology building: https://www.instagram.com/p/BFVAWA4SuQ1/

Extras

• Ballet class (at the ballet school)

Field Trip to Texas Civil War Museum

https://texascivilwarmuseum.com/

Relatively inexpensive field trip.  $7 adults, $4 children.  It takes about one to two hours to see the museum.  

The museum has a collection of artillery pieces from the civil war, uniforms, muskets, swords, grenades, personal equipment, saddles and personal artifacts that belonged to Generals Ulysses S. Grant, Jeb Stuart and Robert E. Lee.  The museum has several dioramas depicting scenes from civil war battles and models of ships and submarines used during the war.

On their website is a printable document showing civil war sites in Texas: https://texascivilwarmuseum.com/visit-us/current-exhibits

Both the 15 year-old and the 8 year-old really enjoyed the museum.  

Homeschool Day 4/6

 2nd Grader

Math

• Singapore Math
• We played Snakes and Ladders

Reading/Language Arts

• Sonlight Reading/LA
• We are reading Socks (Beverly Cleary) at night

Science

• Apologia's Land Animals of the Sixth Day
• Our Songbird - Canada goose
• We watched videos of Canadian geese
• He drew a goose in his sketchbook

Sonlight B (history, Bible and literature)

• Usborne Time Traveler
• We finished Babe, the Gallant Pig (GREAT book!)

Extras

• Ballet class (at the ballet school)

10th Grader

Math

• Mathusee Geometry
• She needed help with a problem on the dry erase board

Bible

• Reading through Psalms

Writing & Grammar

• Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate series

Science

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

History & Literature

• Days of Elijah

Extras

• DuoLingo Korean
• Ballet class (at the ballet school)

Homeschool Day 4/5

2nd Grader

Math

• Singapore Math

Reading/Language Arts

• Sonlight Reading/LA
• He's reading his dyslexia reader at night
• We're reading Socks (Beverly Cleary) before bed

Sonlight B (history, literature and Bible)

• Babe, the Gallant Pig (almost finished with this book, so I ordered the next)
• A Child's History of the World
• Ancient Rome
• National Geographic poetry reader
• The Ology

Art

• We started Draw, Write, Now (polar animals)

Extras

• Wednesday night church activities

10th Grader

Math

• Mathusee Geometry (almost finished)

Bible

• Reading through Psalms

Grammar & Writing

• Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate series

Science

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

Literature and History

• John Hersey's Hiroshima
• We watched the movie Glory (excellent movie that takes place during the Civil War)

Extras

• DuoLingo Korean
• She practiced classical guitar
• Wednesday night church activities 

Homeschool Day 4/3

 2nd Grader

Math

• Singapore Math

Sonlight Reading/Language Arts

• Spelling words
• He read his reader
• Copywork
• He's reading his dyslexia reader at night

Science

• Apologia's Land Animals of the Sixth Day
• We checked on our caterpillars.  One of them is now hanging from the bottom of the lid (getting ready to form a chrysalis)
• Our Songbirds
• We watched a video about the mute swan
• He drew a swan in his sketchbook
• We are reading Socks (Beverly Cleary) at bedtime

Sonlight B (history, literature and Bible)

• Usborne Book of World History
• Babe, the Gallant Pig (he loves this book)
• I ordered Gooney Bird Greene.  We are going to skip Detectives in Togas until he is older, because he most likely will not be able to understand it.  

10th Grader

Math

• Mathusee Geometry

Science

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

Literature

• Days of Elijah - she read this book for over an hour (she really likes it)

Extras

• Practicing classical guitar.  Over the weekend, she spent hours practicing, also.
• Three hours of ballet classes (outsourced) 

College Kids Update

• I do not want to post personal information about them, but I can give some updates without doing that
• Oldest is transferring to a university with almost a full scholarship (including a departmental scholarship), starting in August, so she is registering and going through advising at the uni
• Second is ready for a nursing program in January.  We double and triple-checked his college coursework to make sure it matches the university, we bought a TEAS study guide (nursing entrance exam), we've contacted an advisor from the nursing department and we are getting ready to apply to that university and apply to take the TEAS in June.  We are looking at back-up programs to apply to 
• Third is still moving right along in college
• All 3 college kids still have a 4.0 and are about done with the spring semester.  They will easily have all As. I think Kid #3 has over 100% in each class
• Kids #2 and 3 have registered for the summer semester