Homeschool Day 11/12 + Nature Walk + Homeschooling with a Friend

 Today, another homeschooled fifth grader spent the day homeschooling with us and going on our nature hike.  

Book Basket

• Because of Winn-Dixie - we finished the book today.  This is one of the best books we've ever read.
• Seabird

Botany

• We wrapped up our Apologia Exploring Creation with Botany book today by going on another nature hike.
• We went on a mile-long trail, saw one of the few natural waterfalls in our county and the boys played on the natural rock formation that lines the lake
• They caught tadpoles (and put them back).

Math

• BJU Math 5

English

• Voyages in English 6
• Independent reading

Ancient History

• You Wouldn't Want to Be a Greek Athlete
• D'Aulaire's Greek Myths
• The Usborne Illustrated Odyssey

Latin

• Prima Latina lesson 21

Homeschool Day 11/10 + Nature Walk/Tree Identification

 Fifth Grader

Book Basket

• Because of Winn-Dixie
• Seabird 

Math

• BJU Math 5

English

• Voyages in English 6
• Cursive Success
• Independent reading

Ancient History

• You Wouldn't Want to Be a Greek Athlete
• D'Aulaire's Greek Myths
• Usborne Illustrated Odyssey

Latin

• Prima Latina lesson 21

Botany 

• We are finishing Apologia's Exploring Creation with Botany this week by going on two nature walks in a natural Texas forest and using the Trees of Texas Field Guide.
• Today we walked along a natural creek known for fossils and identified several trees that looked interesting.  
• We identified Ash trees, a Live Oak tree, Chinaberry, Holly and Sumac.

Homeschool Day 7/15

 Fifth Grader

Book Basket

A Light in the Attic

Little House in the Big Woods

Apologia's Exploring Creation with Botany

We looked at different clippings from cedar, juniper and cypress trees using the hand microscope.

Language Arts

Queen's Language Lessons for the Elementary Child

We tried out McGuffey Readers today.  We started with the Third Eclectic Reader.  I used it to teach spelling and reading.  He claimed he liked the McGuffey Reader.

Bible

Action Bible

Anytime Devotions from the Action Bible

My First Hymnal (CPH)

Geography

Geography from A to Z

Around the World Coloring Book - China

Music

Story of the Orchestra - Debussy

Homeschool Day 2/20

 3rd Grader

Wild Math 3

• We worked fractions onto a number line
• We played the Board Game Prime Climb

Reading

• Explode the Code

Sonlight C

• Captain Nobody

Science

• We started the lab kit Botany Experiments and Discovery.  I bought this on Amazon for around $25.  It has about 30 labs. This is a very messy lab kit, but he enjoyed it so much.  He said he could do this kit all day.
• Cress lab
• Growing zinnias

These plastic plant models are part of another kit called "Cognition Series Growth Cycle".  They're a Montessori botany learning aid.

11th Grader

Bible

• Hebrews

Mathusee Algebra 2

• More graphing

Literature

• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

History & Geography

• Crash Course US History
• The Roaring 20s
• Trail Guide to US Geography
• North Dakota

Extras

• Gymnastics class
• 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 1/18

 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 1/10: 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 12/5-12/9

 2nd Grader

Math 

• We read 365 Penguins
• We played Math War (addition and subtraction game)
• We backed off on math to really concentrate on reading this week

Reading/Language Arts

• Sonlight Reading/LA 
• Handwriting without Tears
• Explode the Code

Science

• Monday's nature walk
• Identified species of trees
• Eastern red cedar
• Osage-orange
• Mesquite
• Shumard oak
• Identified lichen and moss
• Looked at five species of live tarantulas
• Several old world and several new world
• Looked at baby preying mantises
• Lego Engineering class (outsourced)

Sonlight B (History, Literature and Bible) World History 1

• Greek Myths
• A Child's History of the World
• Sparta
• The Olympics
• National Geographic Poetry book
• I ordered our next read-aloud

Physical Education

• Karate class (outsourced)
• Ballet class (outsourced)

Fine Arts

• Theater class (outsourced)

10th Grader

Bible

• The Book of Psalms

Math

• Mathusee Geometry

Writing and Grammar

• They Say, I Say 
• Typing

Science (astronomy and biology)

• Tree identification
• Shumard oak
• Osage-Orange
• Cedar
• Mesquite
• Lichen and Moss
• Photographed trees, leaves, etc
• Smithsonian's The Planets
• Wicked Plants
• She researched Coyotillo (a deadly plant from Texas and Mexico)

Literature and History

• The Westing Game (read-aloud)
• Marie and Pierre Curie

Foreign Language

• DuoLingo Korean
• Watching Korea No 1 on Netflix

STEM Thursday

• She continued soldering the components onto the circuit board for her FM Radio Kit that she's building from Elenco
• Two of the metal disc connectors pulled up from the circuit board after soldering.  We contacted the company and now we're trying to figure out how to fix it

Physical Education

• Gymnastics (outsourced)
• Ballet class (outsourced)

Fine Arts

• Photographing scenery during our nature walk on Monday
• Collaborative Ukulele and Guitar class (outsourced)

Nature Walk/Tree ID 12/5

 We took the morning to work on local tree identification and hike a trail through the woods.  We're using the book Trees of North America (National Audubon Society) to identify trees.  

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/600056/national-audubon-society-trees-of-north-america-by-national-audubon-society/

On this walk, we found lichen, moss, looked at tree rings...  We identified Eastern red cedar, mesquite, Bradford pear, Shumard oak, and Osage-Orange.  

We talked about how Osage-orange wood was nicknamed "bow wood" by the French, because Native Americans would use its wood to make bows.  The seeds are also called horse apples or monkey balls.

We talked about how the stoma work (on the leaves) and why leaves fall off the trees before it gets too cold.

Botany Lab: Plant Slides

 We looked at the difference between Monocot and Dicot stems under the microscope.  We also looked at Zea mays cells (corn), Ranunculus cells (buttercups) and onion cells.

Here are the Zea mays slides - this is a monocot, because the vascular bundles are not in a clear ring around the edge of the stem.  The vascular bundles are in a random arrangement.

Also, these pictures are terrible, because it is really hard to take a picture with your phone through the eyepiece of a microscope.

Slice of a root (corn)- Monocot

Slice of a stem (corn) - Monocot

Onion cells with clear cell walls and nuclei.  One cell is undergoing mitosis.

I didn't take pictures of the ranunculus, but I should have.  It was clearly a dicot, with a ring of vascular bundles around the edge of the stem, with a pith in the center.

  

Homeschool Week 10/31-11/4

 2nd Grader

Math

• We played Math War (addition and subtraction game)
• We worked on money, coins, dollars, etc
• We read Money Math: Addition and Subtraction
• Counted coins up to $1

Reading/Language Arts

• Reading Eggs
• He read a couple of easy readers from the library
• Handwriting without Tears

Science

• Field Trip to botanical garden
• We watched butterflies in a pollinator garden
• The Everything Book of Cats

Sonlight B (history, Bible and literature)

• Usborne Book of World History
• National Geographic poetry
• The Year of Miss Agnes (read-aloud)

Fine Art

• He did some sketches from a drawing book 
• Homeschool theater class

Physical Education

• Homeschool karate class
• Ballet class

10th Grader

Bible

• She finished 2 Kings

Geometry

• Mathusee Geometry

Writing/Grammar

• Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate workbook
• She wrote an argumentative essay from They Say, I Say
• She started learning to type (typing.com)

Science

• Field trip to botanical gardens and pollinator garden
• We toured a greenhouse with edible plants
• Foraging Texas (Falcon Guides) - we looked at the section on poisonous plants of Texas and identified one of them at the botanical garden
• Took pictures of migrating butterflies at pollinator garden
• Smithsonian's The Planets

STEM

• She finished the WeMake/Elenco European Siren Kit
• She finished all the soldering and tested it with a 9 volt.  It worked!  Here's a video:

 

Literature and History (we rabbit-trailed our way out of Bookshark J)

• She finished The Giver
• Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie
• The Westing Game (read-aloud)

Foreign Language

• DuoLingo Korean

Fine Arts

• She practiced ukulele and classical guitar
• Ukulele/Guitar Collaborative Class (outsourced)

Physical Education

• Homeschool gymnastics class
• Ballet

Even More Plant Photography

 10th grader took these pictures on our field trip to the botanical gardens.    

10th Grader's Amazing Butterfly Photography

 Pictures taken from a pollinator garden at a local college.  If you click on the picture, it should enlarge.

More Plant Identification/Nature Study

 For biology, we are familiarizing ourselves with different species of local plants.  Here are some books we checked out from the library:

• Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
• Wildflowers of Texas (Adventure Quick Guides)
• Foraging Texas (Falcon Guides) - this book is very interesting
• Trees of North America (National Audubon Society)

We took a trip to a local college with edible plants and a pollinator garden.  Here's some pictures.

Buffalo Melon (gourd) - this plant was used by Native Americans.  They would roast the seeds and eat them, similar to pumpkin seeds.  They would also make a tea from the root.  This plant grows in semiarid environments.  https://www.foragingtexas.com/2012/09/buffalo-gourd.html

Silverleaf Nightshade.  One of the most dangerous plants in Texas, according to Foraging Texas.

https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=soel

These are butterflies flying around the pollinator garden.  The flowers are Fall Aster.   https://austinnativelandscaping.com/plant/symphyotrichum-oblongifolium-fall-aster-aromatic-aster/

Zinnia, I think.

Mealy Blue Sage.  Important plant for pollinators.  

https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=safa2

More butterflies.  We spotted monarch butterflies in this garden.

Wild garlic.  https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=alca3

Standing Cypress.  https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=ipru2

Passionflower with a caterpillar, I think.  https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=pain6