Homeschool Day 9/27

 1st Grader

• P.E. - we played disc golf together
• Math
• Telling time on the hour 
• Balance scale with gram weights
• Copywork
• He copied a sentence from his reading
• Reading
• Go, Otto, go (he finished reading this to me)
• Winnie the Pooh (read-aloud)
• First Language Lessons 1
• Story of the World 1 (Ancient Egypt)
• MetKids: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Looked at virtual exhibits of ancient Egypt
• Cub Scouts

9th and 11th Graders: World Geography Week (finishing our geography credit)

• Animal Farm (read-aloud)
• Night (Elie Wiesel)
• World Geography
• Mapping the World with Art (South America)
• Red Scarf Girl (audiobook)
• Trail Guide to World Geography (Asia)
• Map of the world puzzle
• Country Fact Reports - North America
• 9th grader did Canada
• 11th grader did the U.S.
• P.E. - we played disc golf at the park
• Piano Practice
• 11th grader did Driver's Ed and practiced driving (Aceable for driver's ed)

Homeschool Day 9/15

 1st Grader

• Reading
• Winnie the Pooh (read-aloud)
• Moo Bird (finished)
• Writing
• He wrote a letter to his cousin and mailed it
• Beginner's Bible
• Ancient History
• Read a book about ancient Egypt
• German
• Learned the names of 5 animals
• Wednesday night church

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship (11th)
• Bible reading (Joshua - 9th, Esther - 11th)
• SAT Prep (11th)
• Animal Farm
• Coding
• Python projects
• Chemistry
• Masterbooks Chemistry, chapter 8: Chemical Equations 1
• Chemical reaction lab
• Shakespearean Theater (11th grader - outsourced class)
• Wednesday night church

Homeschool Day 9/14

 1st Grader

• Reading
• Winnie the Pooh (read-aloud)
• Moo Bird 
• Math
• We learned how to tell time by the hour
• Land Animals of the Fifth Day (bats)
• Ancient History
• Tutankhamen's Gift
• Gymnastics class
• Played at the park

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship (11th)
• Bible readings (Deuteronomy - 9th, Esther - 11th)
• Animal Farm
• World Geography
• Red Scarf Girl
• Mapping the World with Art (Africa)
• Trail Guide to World Geography (Africa)
• German
• "Des Teufels russiger Bruder" (11th)
• Komm Mit 1 (9th)
• Teaching Gymnastics class
• Played at the park

Homeschool Day 9/13

 1st Grader

• Reading
• Winnie the Pooh (read-aloud)
• Moo Dog (he read this to me)
• Copywork
• Math
• Measured 5 items outside with a tape measure 
• Graphed their sizes on the driveway using sidewalk chalk
• +2 math facts
• Beginner's Bible
• Ancient Egypt
• P.E. - Volleyball at the park
• Boy Scouts

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship (11th)
• English
• Animal Farm (read-aloud)
• Creative writing
• Strunk & White's Elements of Style
• Bible
• Bible reading (Esther - 11th, Numbers - 9th)
• Gladys Aylward
• Saint James the Lesser, the Apostle
• bio
• The 12 Outlaws
• Rose's Book of Bible Charts and Graphs
• P.E. - Volleyball at the park
• Piano - both practiced 

Homeschool Day 9/9

 1st Grader

• Teach Your Monster to Read
• Handwriting practice on the whiteboard app on the iPad
• Winnie the Pooh (read-aloud)
• Math
• Rolled yard dice, lined the dice up in order from smallest to largest
• Rolled four yard dice and added them
• Beginner's Bible
• History
• Read Egyptian Gods and Goddesses
• Read How People Lived in Ancient Egypt
• He did better with school today.  He seemed to be less shocked by history.

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship (11th)
• Animal Farm
• Movie: Hotel Rwanda (ok, not for kids, but I let the teens watch it - it's a true story about the genocide in Rwanda in 94)
• Bible reading (9th grader is in Leviticus/11th grader is in Esther)
• Physics
• Acceleration - discussed on the whiteboard
• Mythbusters episodes
• "Mythbusters vs. Race Car"
• "Cutthroat Race"
• Video: "The insane speed of F1 cars"
• LAB: Acceleration lab using a physics cart, an inclined plane and weights
• Calculated acceleration of a cart as it travels 1.5m down an incline plane
• Calculated acceleration of a cart loaded with 150g of weight as it travels 1.5m down an incline plane
• Calculated the difference in acceleration.  Obviously, the weighted cart had a faster acceleration
• Reader's Theater (9th grader - outsourced class)

Homeschool Day 9/8

 1st Grader

• Winnie the Pooh
• Moo Dog (he read this to me)
• First Language Lessons 1
• Explode the Code
• Apologia's Land Animals of the Fifth Day
• Wednesday night church

9th and 11th Graders

• Animal Farm
• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship (11th)
• Bible reading
• German
• Komm Mit 1 (9th)
• "Des Teufels russiger Bruder"
• Chemistry (Masterbooks)
• Chapter 7: Chemical Reactions
• I taught the lesson
• We did the lab
• We watched a video showing the reaction via chemical equations
• Happy Atoms
• Coding/Programming
• 9th grader worked with MIT's Scratch
• 11th grader downloaded Idle onto the Raspberry Pi and did one of the graphics projects from the Python project book
• They spent a GOOD hour and a half just on coding today
• Shakespearean Theater (11th grader - outsourced class)
• Wednesday night church

Homeschool Day 9/7

 1st Grader

• Gymnastics Class
• Winnie the Pooh (read-aloud)
• Moo Dog (reader)
• Phonogram Bingo
• Explode the Code
• Beginner's Bible
• Math
• Math War Game from www.educationunboxed.com

9th and 11th Graders

• Animal Farm
• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship (11th)
• Bible reading
• World Geography
• Countries of the World Geography puzzle
• Red Scarf Girl (China)
• Trail Guide to World Geography (Africa)
• Mapping the World with Art
• Teaching gymnastics

Homeschool Day 9/6

 1st Grader (our first day giving The Well-Trained Mind a trial run)

• Winnie the Pooh (read-aloud)
• Moo Dog (reader)
• Copywork - he copied a couple of words from Moo Dog
• First Language Lessons 1
• Apologia's Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day (Bats)
• The Great Animal Search
• Bat - connect the dots coloring page

9th and 11th Graders

• Animal Farm
• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship/Personal Finance (11th)
• English
• Strunk & White's Elements of Style (went over clauses and commas/semi-colons)
• Written narration of Diary of a Young Girl 
• Went over outlining when writing
• Bible
• Bible reading
• Gladys Aylward (read-aloud)
• St. Thomas the Apostle
• biography
• discussion using Rose's Bible Charts and Graphs, also The 12 Outlaws
• German
• 9th grader - Komm Mit 1
• 11th grader - "Des Teufels russiger Bruder"
• Khan Academy's SAT Prep (11th grader)

Changes to 1st Grade

I'm giving The Well-trained Mind a trial run week with the 1st grader.  Throughout the day, he's crying and interrupting the high schoolers' school time.  He's begging to do the high schoolers' chemistry and physics labs.  A couple of days ago, he was climbing all over the kitchen island while the girls were trying to do their Chromatography lab.  Yesterday, he cried because the 9th grader was working with Python and well, he wanted to program with Python, too.  *rolling my eyes*

I am basically tripling his school, which I've never had to do with a kid before.  He seems to need more structure and more challenge.

This is a great thing about homeschooling - you can try new things and adjust their workload to meet the needs of your child.

I've put together a curriculum based off The Well-Trained Mind 1st grade/Grammar Stage.  It was the most structured method of homeschooling that I could think of.  

3 Daily Subjects

• Language
• Read-aloud and a Reader
• All About Spelling
• First Language Lessons 1
• Writing
• Copywork (1-2x per week)
• Writing letters to grandma (1x per week)
• Math
• Continuing Wild Math 1

Subjects 2-3x a Week

• History 
• Ancient History
• Library books, projects, etc
• Science
• Land Animals of the 6th Day
• Wild Animals Coloring Book
• The Great Animal Search
• Bible
• Keep doing what we're doing

Fridays

• Art - outsourced at an enrichment center
• Music
• Starting piano
• Beethoven's Wig series
• German
• I'm looking around

I'll update at the end of next week and see how these changes went - if he liked them or disliked them.

Homeschool Day 9/2

 1st Grader

• Read some CVC words using wooden letter blocks
• Wooden lawn dice - we threw the dice and added the numbers
• Beginner's Bible
• We read DK Children's Encyclopedia: Volcanos
• He built a volcano from clay, poured red-colored vinegar in the volcano and added baking soda to make it "erupt"

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship/Pers Fin (11th)
• Bible reading
• Physics (we spent hours on physics today)
• Mythbusters: Penny Drop Mini-Myth
• Mythbusters: Bus Chaos from the Speed movie
• Discussions
• Center of gravity
• Maximum acceleration of a falling object
• LAB: Whirlybird Speed
• Made a helicopter from paper
• Dropped from about 3 m
• Calculated average speed after 3 trials
• Made alterations to each helicopter
• Retested the new helicopters/calculated average speed
• Found that adding weight increased the speed the helicopters fell

Homeschool Day 9/1

 1st Grader

• Reading
• We went over the alphabet again and each letter sound.  He practiced writing each letter with his finger on the Whiteboard app on his iPad
• Math
• We played "What's in the box?" http://www.educationunboxed.com/whats-in-the-box-part-one/
• Rolled dice, listed numbers from smallest to largest
• Summer's Lab Science
• Lab workbook about mountains
• Started the Volcano section
• Looked at igneous rocks from our rock kit

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship/Personal Finance (11th)
• Bible reading
• Animal Farm (read-aloud)
• Chemistry
• Lesson 6: Atomic Theory - I taught this lesson on the dry erase board and answered questions
• Chromatography Lab
• Coding
• Boy, they really went nuts with this one.  One of them tried out a project from a Python project book from the library.  One of them spent hours writing code for a game on MIT's Scratch.  She even watched some videos on how to program Sprite movements she was unsure of.
• Red Scarf Girl (world geography)
• We listened to the audiobook for about an hour
• Discussed Communism, China, the Communist Revolution in China, how the communists tried to erase traditional culture in China, etc.  
• Shakespearean Theater class (outsourced - 11th grader)

Homeschool Day 8/31

 9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship/Personal Finance (11th)
• Bible reading
• World Geography
• Mapping the World with Art (England)
• Red Scarf Girl (China)
• Trail Guide to World Geography (Africa)
• German
• Komm Mit 1 (9th)
• "Des Teufels russiger Bruder" (11th) - fairy tale in German, read and translate, going over grammar while we work through it
• Coding
• 9th grader spent some time with the Raspberry Pi

College Students

• Freshman has a 100% average in all his classes so far this semester
• Sophomore is also all A's so far and she's about 3 weeks ahead in one class

Homeschool Day 8/30

1st Grader

•  Math
• Moose Math (app)
• Drew a number line on driveway with chalk, 0-10, placed a plastic dolphin on 0
• Practiced adding +1 and +2 to each number
• Moved the dolphin along the number line
• Reading
• Read a BOB Book (extreme reading resistance - sigh)
• Beginner's Bible
• Science - Summer's Lab
• Lesson on Mountains
• Mapped the major mountain ranges
• Read DK Children's Encyclopedia: Mountains
• Ballet
• Cub Scouts

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship/Pers Finance (11th)
• English
• Read Animal Farm
• Discussed Orwell and the book's meaning
• Discussed Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Spent some time on https://www.annefrank.org/en/  We did the virtual tour of all the rooms.
• Elements of Style - worked with commas on the dry erase board
• Bible
• Bible reading
• St. Matthew the Apostle
• Rose Book of Bible Charts & Graphs
• The 12 Outlaws
• Discussed bio and possible martyrdom of St. Matthew
• Gladys Aylward (missionary to China)
• Ballet class

We did not cover as much material today, because we had long discussions about Animal Farm, Anne Frank and St. Matthew.

Homeschool Day 8/25

 1st Grader

• Teach Your Monster to Read app (he loves this app)
• Beginner's Bible
• Math
• Building 10s with cuisinaire rods
• Counting by 5s and 10s
• Counting to 100 with a Montessori board
• Watched Schoolhouse Rock video - counting by 5s
• Summer's Lab Science: Rocks
• We took the rocks out of the rock tumbler, washed them off and looked at them.  I refilled the rock tumbler with medium coarse sand and restarted it.  The rocks are already very smooth!
• We looked through our rock collection again

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th grader)
• Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Born Free 
• Bible reading
• Shakespearean Theater class (11th grader - outsourced)
• PHYSICS: Speed and velocity
• Conceptual Physics: section on speed and velocity
• Mythbusters: "Speed Bus Jump"
• Video: "Speed's Bus Jump - How They Did It"
• LAB
• Measured velocity using a set distance, stopwatch, a ramp and matchbox cars
• Calculated average velocity and compared
• Weighed each car in grams and looked for a pattern of weight/speed

Homeschool Day 8/23

 1st Grader

• AAR Reader - I wrote the words on the whiteboard again.  I know he can see the letters just fine, but still resistance to reading.  I gave up after a couple of sentences and took out the foam letters and we played around building words with them and saying their letter sounds
• Math
• Addition problems with the cuisinaire rods +2's
• Practiced writing numbers
• Summer's Lab Science
• Recorded weather
• The Quicksand Book 
• Hiking field trip - looking for rocks

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship/Personal Finance (11th)
• Bible
• Reading
• Apostle Study: St. Bartholomew the Apostle
• Rose's Book of Bible Charts, Maps & Timelines
• The 12 Outlaws
• Bio of Gladys Aylward (read-aloud)
• World Geography
• Trail Guide to World Geography: Africa
• Hatchet
• German
• Komm Mit 1 (9th grader)
• "Des Teufels Russiger Bruder" (fairy tale in German - 11th grader)
• Coding
• The Raspberry Pi is all set up!!!  It is awesome!  

Homeschool Day 8/19

 1st Grader

Yeah, those are Roblox Guys in the background. 

• He used a hammer (gasp) to crack open the geodes.  We looked at the crystals.
• He did the Crystal Mining lab - which those really aren't crystals.  He spent a looooong time on this.  He is really enjoying learning about rocks right now.  He found 14 rocks in the kit (which was great, because it said there were only 8).  He stood on a chair at the kitchen sink and washed them all.  
• Rock Tumbler - we put the stones in the rock tumbler and added course grit + water.  We oiled the seal around the tumbler and turned it on.  It's LOUD!  I had to unplug it and carry it to my bathroom closet and shut the door.  It needs to run for about 2 weeks and it's very loud.
• He has been carrying his library books about Rocks & Minerals around the house and looking at the pictures.
• Ballet class tonight.

9th and 11th Graders

• Stewardship/Personal Finance (11th grader).  9th grader skipped math today.
• Bible reading
• Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Hatchet (audiobook)
• English
• ACT Practice problem (boy, this angered the 11th grader, because she felt it was "duping" her.  She's not used to standardized testing)
• Elements of Style
• We went through commas together on the dry erase board
• Creative Writing
• We used Grimm Writing Prompts.  Each kid wrote a short story using the writing prompt.  We read them aloud to each other.  They were hilarious.  I corrected a couple of writing mistakes, but there weren't many.  They are very good writers!!
• Ballet class tonight.

Homeschool Day 8/18

 1st Grader

• We played a game where we took turns making words with plastic letters and then he read them
• Math
• He's not writing his numbers correctly, so we played a game where he rolled dice and then wrote the numbers with his finger on the Whiteboard app on his iPad.
• Addition -rolled dice, turned the dice into an addition problem and then solved using the cuisinaire rods
• Bible
• We read St. Jerome and the Lion by Margaret Hodges.  This is a wonderful picture book.  He really enjoyed it.
• Summer's Lab Science
• We recorded the weather on his weather chart
• We started the lesson on Rocks and Minerals
• We looked through the book My Book of Rocks and Minerals
• I got out my rock kit from Home Science Tools.  He looked through the rocks and we identified them.  We also talked about igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks.  Here's a picture of the kit:

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Personal Finance/Stewardship (11th)
• Bible readings
• Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Physics
• We watched the Mythbusters episode "Appliances in the Bath Mini-Myth"
• Electricity Lab Kit 
• Discussed volts versus amps
• Made an electromagnet and tested it - added more batteries and tested the difference
• Discussed Maglev trains/watched video
• Used resistors to change a circuit
• Tried to use a solar battery, but there was not enough light outside (it's raining)
• Coding/Programming
• We spent a couple of hours putting the Raspberry Pi 3b+ together
• We are planning to hook it up to the TV this weekend and install the software and begin the set-up

Homeschool Day 8/17

 1st Grader

• Handwriting without Tears
• He read a BOB Book - there's some reading resistance, because of the glasses
• Math
• Counted by 10s
• Counted to 100
• He rolled two dice and I drew addition problems (from the dice) on the whiteboard and he solved them using the cuisinaire rods, then wrote the answer on the whiteboard
• KONOS - Predators & Prey activities

9th and 11th Graders

•  Algebra 1 - I needed to work this entire lesson on the dry erase board with her
• Personal Finance (11th)
• Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Chemistry
• I taught lesson 3 on the dry erase board
• We did the Solubility Lab - we also measured the max solubility of sugar in water
• Coding/Programming
• We unboxed our Raspberry Pi 3b+ and its monitor
• We used our beginning coding book to do a project on Python Idle

Homeschool Day 8/16

 1st Grader

• The glasses are here!!
• Beginner's Bible
• All About Reading - sounded out words
• Explode the Code - read some sentences
• Math
• "What's Under the Cup" - addition game from Education Unboxed (website)
• Threw math dice in the yard and added them
• Played "what's the bigger number" with the math dice
• Counted by 10s to 100 with the cuisinaire rods
• Summer's Lab Science
• Recorded the daily weather
• DK Children's Encyclopedia: Seasons
• KONOS: Predators and Prey
• Read The Deadliest Creature in the World
• Trip to the library

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Personal Finance (11th)
• Read Diary of a Young Girl
• Bible
• Bible reading
• Watching The Chosen, season 1
• Gladys Aylward biography
• German
• Vocabulary
• Worked on verb conjugations/pronouns
• Watched Mulan in German
• World Geography
• Listened to Hatchet
• Trail Guide to World Geography - mapwork of Europe
• Trip to the Library
• Ballet class

College Students

• They are completely ready for school on Monday.  Schoolbooks are in.  They have their school supplies and their class schedule.  

Homeschool Day 8/12

 9th and 11th Graders

• Stewardship (Personal Finance) - 11th grader
• Bible reading
• Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Creative writing - the 9th grader finished her short story.  I'm going to read it and work with her on any editing, etc.
• World Geography
• Mapping the World with Art
• Trail Guide to World Geography (Europe)
• Verdon Gorge
• The Vatican
• The Alps
• Pitcairn Island - it's inhabitants and the HMS Bounty
• Hatchet
• Gladys Aylward (read-aloud)

College Students

• College sophomore went to campus and mapped out her schedule and found where her classes are going to be.  She lost her British Literature professor, so now we have to look at her section again and make sure she gets a new teacher.  She's also going shopping for school supplies.

1st Grader is still waiting for his glasses to come in.