Sonlight B World History 1 End-of-Year Review

 My 8 year-old is finishing Sonlight B World History 1 this week.  We used the History, Bible and Literature portion of B.  He also finished Sonlight Reading/Language Arts 1 and has just started Reading 2.

For Sonlight B, he really enjoyed the Hands-on History Box.  The glue that came in the box was not very good, but we easily used a hot glue gun.  Every project worked and the instructions were really good.  His favorite projects were:

• the Chinese dragon
• the Trojan horse
• the Roman chariot

Our favorite from the Bible portion:

• The Ology - this was a great book.  As a Lutheran, I was worried about it conflicting with what we believe, but it didn't.  We both enjoyed this book

Our favorites from the History portion:

• A Child's History of the World - he retold some of the stories I read to him from this book.  I thought these stories might be too complicated for him, but he liked them and understood them just fine
• Tut's Mummy, Lost and Found
• The Great Wall of China

Our favorites from the Literature portion:

• National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry
• Mr. Popper's Penguins
• The Year of Miss Agnes
• Word of Mouse
• Henry Huggins
• Charlotte's Web
• Happy Times in Noisy Village

He had a hard time telling me which book was his favorite (I think he liked almost all of them), but he says Henry Huggins was his favorite.  

Timeline Book

• I liked this more than he did, but I think it's because he can't quite grasp time periods in history yet.

Books he had a hard time with:

• Mountain Born
• Catching Their Talk in a Box
• Sing the Word: A New Commandment (music CD)

Homeschool Days 6/27-6/28

 3rd Grader

Math

• Singapore Math

Sonlight Reading/Language Arts

• Finished The Fire Cat (reader)
• Started Mouse Tales (reader)
• Cursive practice on HWOT chalkboards
• Spelling

Sonlight B (history, Bible and literature)

• We finished the entire level, except Catching their Talk in a Box
• Finished National Geographic poetry reader and The Ology

Science

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

Extras

• Karate class
• Reading Phonics Readers at night before bed - Star Wars reader and The Berenstein Bears readers from the library

11th Grader

Having the time of her life beachcombing all week on the Bolivar Peninsula, Texas

Homeschool Day 6/26

 3rd Grader

Math

• Singapore Math
• Multi-digit addition

Sonlight Reading/Language Arts

• The Fire Cat - he finished this reader today!

Sonlight B (history, Bible and literature)

• The Ology
• National Geographic poetry reader
• Catching Their Talk in a Box (read-aloud)

Science

• Apologia's Land Animals of the Sixth Day 
• Cougars
• Bobcats
• Lynxes

Extras

• He's been reading the Star Wars phonics readers at night before bed (from the library).  These are excellent.  There are two versions - readers that follow the old Star Wars movies and readers that follow Lego Star Wars cartoons. They are progressive readers, too - each reader has a number and they go in order.

11th Grader

• Trip to the Bolivar Peninsula and Galveston, Texas

Homeschool Day 6/22

 3rd Grader

Math

• Singapore Math

Sonlight Reading/LA 2

• The Fire Cat (reader)
• Cursive practice
• Spelling
• Explode the Code

Sonlight B (history, Bible and literature)

• The Ology
• National Geographic Poetry Reader
• Catching their Talk in a Box

Science

• Apologia's Land Animals of the Sixth Day

Extras

• Swimming

11th Grader

Bible

• Bible Project video on Book of Amos

Science

• Mammal Organ Microscope Lab.  We looked at different animal tissues under the microscope.
• Skeletal muscle
• Blood
• Cardiac muscle
• Stomach lining
• Esophagus
• Connective tissue
• Spinal chord
• Motor nerve and identified neurons and glial cells

Salem Witch Trials Unit Study

• Started looking through the Salem Witch Trial court papers: https://salem.lib.virginia.edu/people/
• Went through the number of court cases and executions
• Picture Study
• "The Salem Martyr" (painting in oil)
• Read The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Crash Course US History

• We watched "Who Won the American Revolution"

Homeschool Day 6/21

 3rd Grader

Math

• Singapore Math

Sonlight Reading/LA 2

• The Fire Cat (reader)
• Spelling
• Handwriting practice
• Explode the Code

Sonlight B (history, Bible and literature)

• Catching their Talk in a Box (read-aloud)
• The Ology
• National Geographic poetry reader

Science

• Apologia's Land Animals of the Sixth Day

Art

• Draw Write Now 4 - Arctic animals

11th Grader

Bible

• Bible project video on Joel

Science

• Crash Course Anatomy & Physiology - Respiratory System, part 1
• Ellen McHenry's The Brain 
• Brain cells

Salem Witch Trials Unit Study

• The Witch of Blackbird Pond
• Video: "Who Were Samoset, Massasoit and Squanto"
• Read about Cotton Mather and his involvement in the witch trials and executions
• Read about the witch's mark, etc
• Painting study
• "Mrs. Elizabeth Freake and Baby Mary"
• "Cotton Mather"
• "Examination of a Witch"

Trail Guide to US Geography

• We finished Maine

Fine Arts

• Practicing classical guitar

Homeschool Day 6/20

 3rd Grader

• Karate class
• He just didn't feel like doing any schoolwork today, so I let him have the day off

11th Grader

Bible

• Bible Project video on Hosea

Science

• Crash Course Anatomy & Physiology
• Digestive system, part 3

Salem Witch Trials Unit Study

• The Witch of Blackbird Pond
• Video: "America Before the Pilgrims"
• Video: "Landmark Tour of Plymouth, MA"

Writing

• Writing Prompts From Grimm: A Fairy-Tale Themed Workbook for Grades 7-12

Extras

• Practicing classical guitar

Homeschool Day 6/19

 3rd Grader

Math

• Singapore Math

Sonlight Reading/Language Arts 2

• The Fire Cat
• Spelling
• Cursive practice
• Explode the Code

Sonlight B (history, Bible and literature)

• The Ology
• National Geographic poetry reader
• Catching their Talk in a Box

Science

• Apologia's Land Animals of the Sixth Day

Art

• Draw Write Now 4
• Orcas

Extras

• Swimming 

11th Grader

Bible

• She watched another video explaining the Book of Job

Science

• Crash Course Anatomy - the digestive system, part 2
• Sheep Kidney Dissection
• Her brother, the nursing student, did this dissection with her and did a spectacular job explaining everything to her

Salem Witch Trials Unit Study

• Read The Witch of Blackbird Pond
• Watched TED Talk video "What Really Happened During the Salem Witch Trials"
• Artist study 
• Sculpture at the MET "The Pilgrim"
• Painting - "Trial of George Jacobs Sr for Witchcraft"
• Drawing - "The Execution of Mrs. Ann Hibbins"

Trail Guide to US Geography

• Maine
• Mapwork

11th Grade Planning, Part 2 or 3 (I lost count)

Our finalized plans - after talking everything over.  She wants to go back to unit studies and she wants to do more together.

Here are her plans for this school year (11th Grade).

English

• Advanced Language Lessons (Aldine Book Series)
• Writing Prompts from Grimm

Math

• Mathusee Algebra 2

Bible

• Finish reading through the Old Testament and begin reading the New Testament

Science

• Finish Crash Course Anatomy & Physiology
• Finish Ellen McHenry's The Brain 
• Kidney dissection
• Labs looking at different tissues under the microscope
• Work on biology topics based on interest.  We still need to cover:
• Animals
• Genetics
• Possibly Geology after we finish biology

Unit Studies (including Literature, Writing, History, Geography & Art Appreciation)

• Literature-based unit studies centered on US history/American literature
• First unit study is based on the Salem Witch Trials
• Trail Guide to US Geography

Fine Arts

• Continue classical guitar and ukulele
• Continue ballet classes

Physical Education

• Continue helping teach gymnastics
• PE activities we do together

Under the Home - free Charlotte Mason curriculum

 I just stumbled on this:  Under the Home, a free Charlotte Mason curriculum for grades K-5.

https://underthehome.org/

I only clicked around the website for a few minutes, but I spent some time looking at the music selections and really liked what I saw.

Homeschool Day 6/15

 3rd Grader

Math

• Singapore Math

Sonlight Reading/Language Arts 2

• The Fire Cat (reader)
• Spelling
• Cursive practice
• Explode the Code

Sonlight B (history, Bible and literature)

• The usual read-alouds - we are nearly finished with everything

Science

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

11th Grader

Bible

• The Book of Daniel
• She watched the Bible Project video
• We read some of the passages about the writing on the wall and the angel visiting Daniel

Literature & History

• She wrote a short narration of Days of Elijah
• We went through her writing and proofread what she wrote, made corrections, etc

Fine Arts

• Practicing classical guitar

Planning

• I felt like this was a great year with unschooling, but the 11th grader is asking to change this for the next school year.  She wants to go back to doing unit studies centered on literature.
• I bought The Witch of Blackbird Pond and I'm going to find my Salem Witch Trial unit study I made a couple of years ago

Homeschool Day 6/14

 3rd Grader

Math

• Singapore math

Sonlight Reading/Language Arts 2

• Spelling
• The Fire Cat (reader)
• Cursive practice - writing his name in cursive

Sonlight B (history, Bible and literature)

• The Ology
• Catching their Talk in a Box (read-aloud)
• National Geographic poetry reader

Extras

• He went to a splashpad and played at the park

11th Grader

Bible

• Watched the Bible Project's video on the Book of Ezekiel (both videos)

Science

• Watched Crash Course Anatomy & Physiology's The Digestive System, part 1
• Ellen McHenry's The Brain

History & Literature

• She finished Days of Elijah
• Watched Crash Course US History's "Taxes and Smuggling"

Extras

• Practicing classical guitar

Homeschool Day 6/13

 3rd Grader

Math

• Singapore Math

Sonlight Reading/Language Arts 2

• Spelling
• Explode the Code
• Handwriting practice
• He read The Fire Cat

Sonlight B (history, Bible and literature)

• Read-alouds from the IG
• We finished Kate and Mack

Science

• Apologia's Land Animals of the Sixth Day

Extras

• Karate class

11th Grader

Bible

• She watched the Bible Project's video on the Book of Lamentations

Science

• Sheep Heart Dissection
• Heart is from the organ dissection kit from Home Science Tools
• Included a dissection guide, but we also used a dissection video we found on You Tube

Literature & History

• The Days of Elijah
• We watched Crash Course US History's The Seven Years War (Youtube)

Extras

• We talked about what she liked this past school year and what she wanted to do differently.  She said she would like to go back to doing unit studies.  She feels like choosing materials herself to study is daunting lately and she has always enjoyed unit studies.  She also seems to want to do more school together instead of just on her own.  We may say 'good-bye' to unschooling for now.

Homeschool Day 6/12

 3rd Grader

Math

• Singapore math

Sonlight Reading/Language Arts 2

• The Fire Cat
• Spelling
• Explode the Code
• Cursive practice

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

• Catching their Talk in a Box (read-aloud)
• National Geographic poetry reader
• Kate and Mack
• The Ology

Science

• Apologia's Land Animals of the Sixth Day

11th Grader

Bible

• She watched the Bible Project's video about the Book of Jeremiah

Science

• She finished the book Wicked Plants
• We watched Crash Course Anatomy & Physiology The Heart Part 2

History & Literature

• Days of Elijah
• Crash Course US History: The Quakers, the Dutch and the Women

Rising Cost of Homeschool Curriculum

 I went to Mardel yesterday (a store with a large homeschool curriculum section) planning to purchase the next Handwriting without Tears workbook.  We were going to start the cursive workbook.

Almost twenty dollars for a simple workbook.  I remember when these same workbooks were eight bucks.

*sigh*

I looked at some of the other cursive curricula out there and they looked like a nightmare for a dyslexic kid.  One of them was like the size of a telephone book.  This was why I always used Handwriting without Tears.

Some of the homeschool curricula has become unaffordable in the past few years.  Mathusee, which we've used for years, has almost doubled in price.  It is now almost $400 for Algebra 1.  This is a shame, because it was my go-to math program for high school.  I can now no longer recommend that one to new homeschoolers.

I feel like I'm going to be forced to use different resources for my youngest (age 8) than I did 15 years ago for my older kids.  No wonder new homeschoolers are constantly asking for curriculum that is "free and online."

Homeschooling does not need to be overly expensive.  Of course, it's not free to homeschool.  Businesses need to be sustainable.  Educational expenses can be reasonable, though.  

I'm going to teach my 8 year-old cursive without a workbook or a curriculum.  I guess I'm going to start with lower case letters and just go through the alphabet.  I have the old Handwriting without Tears cursive chalkboards and chalk.  I'm going to use that and the dry erase board.  We can later move onto lined paper.

I'm sad that everything is becoming so unaffordable.

Homeschool Week: June 5-9

 3rd Grader

• Reading at night before bed - he's reading through all the Dr. Seuss books that we own right now
• Field Trip to Amon Carter Museum of American Art (a free art museum in downtown Fort Worth)
• Cub Scouts day camp
• Shooting BB guns
• Archery
• Slingshot
• Built a model rubber band car

11th Grader

• Ballet camp at a pre-professional/professional ballet school (keeping its name anonymous)
• Field trip to Amon Carter Museum of American Art

Strategies for College Kids with Dyslexia

 Here are some of the strategies my college kids (with dyslexia) are using to make it through their classes:

1. They sit at the front of the class.
2. Oldest uses a text-to-speech app that reads her textbooks out loud to her. 
3. Bullet journals for note taking seem to be a big hit with two of them.  They seem to like the visual lay-out of bullet journals.
4. Use large print books when possible.
5. To keep up with the reading pace, they use Audiobooks when they need them.
6. They use the Writing Lab or a second person to read over their essays, etc before submitting them. 
7. One of mine has a multi-colored fountain pen set to go with her bullet journals.  Colorful text in their notes = Good
8. One of mine uses an online planner that updates him automatically when an event is coming up (because he loses track of time).
9. My daughter says it helps if she studies in the exact same room where she takes her quizzes and tests (if she is taking an online class).
10. They make a point of going to their professors' office hours if they need additional help.  They don't wait until right before the exam to get help.
11. All three of them use noise-cancelling headphones when they are reading/studying.

Homeschool Week 5/29-6/1

This week, we had our annual ceremony, where I took a sword and "knighted" the kids into the next grade level.  I usually use a foam sword, but this year, the 8 year-old wanted to be knighted with a plastic Samurai sword.

3rd Grader

Math

• Singapore Math
• We played the math games Sleeping Queens (card game) and Snakes and Ladders

Sonlight Reading/Language Arts 2

• The Fire Cat (reader) - he is doing so well with this
• All About Spelling
• Explode the Code
• Handwriting without Tears

Sonlight B (history, literature and Bible)

• We finished Mountain Born (our last read-aloud for B)
• The fall of Ancient Rome

Science

• Apologia's Land Animals of the Sixth Day

Extras

• Cross-stitching
• He asked to learn to sew, so we bought him a cross-stitching kit and he's spent hours working on this
• Ballet class - at the ballet school
• We went fishing twice this week

11th Grader

Bible

• She read Song of Solomon 
• She watched the two Bible Project videos on the Book of Isaiah

History & Literature

• She finished John Hersey's Hiroshima
• Days of Elijah
• We started watching Crash Course US History
• Watched episodes 1-3

Science

• Wicked Plants
• Ellen McHenry's The Brain
• Chapters 3 and 3.5
• Crash Course Anatomy & Physiology
• The skeletal system
• The heart

Fine Arts

• Practicing classical guitar
• She attended Texas Ballet Theater's performance of Alice in Wonderland
• Ballet classes at the ballet school
• She went wakeboarding/boating

No school next week.  Boy Scouts Camp and Ballet Camp.