Homeschool Day 10/13

 1st Grader

Still very sick.  No school.

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship (11th)
• Bible reading (Judges - 9th, Job - 11th)
• English
• Windows to the World Literary Analysis
• Animal Farm (finished reading this today)
• Apologia Chemistry
• Module 2 - converting F to C and back
• Computer Programming/Coding
• We took apart a laptop, identified the parts and removed the hard drive.  This was a GREAT lab.
• History Project 
• Our first day - we are working our way backwards through time, using our family tree as pegs.  Today, we looked at my parents' generation and current events for the 50s.  We ended up spending a ton of time on this and the kids really liked it.

Homeschool Day 10/12

 1st Grader

• He is still very sick, so no school for him today

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship (11th)
• English
• Animal Farm (read-aloud)
• Windows to the World: Literary Analysis (new curriculum)
• Annotations
• Bible reading 
• German together
• 9th grader - Komm Mit 1
• 11th grader - finishing up Des Teufels russiger Bruder
• Microeconomics
• https://mru.org/courses/principles-economics-microeconomics/demand-curve-shifts-definition
• We watched the Intro to Microeconomics video plus "The Demand Curve"
• Physics
• Inertia
• Inertia experiment with beaker, card and coins
• Video - Mythbusters Tablecloth Chaos (inertia): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK1ci50DUgc

Homeschool Day 10/11 - 3 new subjects + a curriculum change

 1st Grader

• He's very sick today, so he did not do anything.  Mostly watched cartoons and napped.

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th grader) and Stewardship (11th grader)
• English
• Elements of Style together on the dry erase board
• Animal Farm (read-aloud)
• Written narration of Night
• Bible
• Bible readings
• Apostle Study: Judas
• The 12 Outlaws
• Rose's Book of Bible Charts and Graphs
• Gladys Aylward
• US Government (new subject)
• Research our city government
• What kind of government does our city have?
• Who is the mayor?  Party affiliation?
• How many districts is our city broken into?  Which district are we in?
• Chemistry (curriculum change - we dropped Masterbooks Chemistry and switched to Apologia)
• Module 2: Energy, Heat and Temperature
• LAB 2.1 - Calibrating Your Thermometer

Since we finished World Geography, I've added three new subjects for this term:

1. US Government - my plan is to start with our city and county government and learn work our way into state and federal government.  I'm not using curriculum, just using research-based learning.
2. Economics - we are going to try videos from here: https://mru.org  We are starting with the Microeconomics course.
3. Project-Based History - we are going to work backwards through time using our family tree to study different time periods and events that occurred with each generation...what life was like, etc and how past events relate to current events.

Curriculum change for Chemistry

    We switched from Masterbooks.  We were almost halfway through the course and my kids just weren't learning anything.  The labs were difficult to do at home.  We were halfway through chemistry and had never even boiled anything.  If I use that course again, it would be for middle school.  We switched to Apologia.  It's cumbersome, but I can teach the book myself + the labs are very homeschool-friendly.

10/7: Final Review of Trail Guide to World Geography

 We did it - we finished World Geography!  I'm giving both of the high schoolers 1 credit World Geography on their transcripts.  

Altogether, it took us 6 months to get through this unit study.

For World Geography, we did:

• Trail Guide to World Geography
• Mapping the World with Art, by Ellen McHenry
• Literature that takes place in different countries around the world
• It's A Jungle Out There (South America)
• A Long Walk to Water (Sudan)
• Hatchet (Canada)
• Born Free (Africa)
• Red Scarf Girl (China) - EXCELLENT book
• Gandhi (movie version - India)
• Around the World in 80 Days (movie)

Trail Guide to World Geography

• We made it through the guide using a large, dry erase markable map sold by Rainbow Resource:  https://www.rainbowresource.com/product/001554/USA-World-Double-Sided-Laminated-Map.html?
• It's recommended to buy Ultimate Geography and Timeline Guide, but we did not use it as much as I hoped.  We mostly used the internet, National Geography videos on Youtube, etc.
• We did not do the Around the World in 80 Days unit at the end of the Trail Guide, because I had added so many other things to the course
• There is an absolute ton of map work in this course.
• Altogether, this was an absolutely wonderful unit study.  This was one of my favorite curricula - ever (in 13 years of homeschooling).

Mapping the World with Art

• This was a wonderful resource to add onto the Trail Guide.  It's a series of DVDs (I think she might have downloads now, I'm not sure).  On the videos, she guides the kids into drawing the entire world.  You just need the videos, paper, pencil, ruler and sometimes a protractor and compass.  There is also a PDF with notes about each region, and she has a YouTube channel with videos.
• The girls ended up drawing the entire world.  

Literature

• All of these books were excellent, but we particularly enjoyed Hatchet and Red Scarf Girl.  Red Scarf Girl is absolutely an incredible book.  It's an autobiography of a girl who lives during the Cultural Revolution in China.  High school age is probably best for Red Scarf Girl, in my opinion.  We ended up having a lot of conversations about communism, how the Communist Party tried to erase Chinese culture, etc.  Hatchet - that was a book I had never read before, but we listened to the audiobook during lunch, etc and we all really enjoyed it.  Even the 6 year-old liked the book.

Homeschool Day 10/6

 1st Grader: School Break

9th and 11th Graders: Finishing World Geography week

• Animal Farm
• Finished Night by Elie Wiesel (excellent book)
• World Geography
• Trail Guide to World Geography (Australia and Oceania)
• Mapwork - Australia and Oceania
• Country Fact Sheet (Europe)
• 9th grader - Norway
• 11th grader - Italy
• Mapping the World with Art (Western North America)
• Shakespearean Theater (outsourced class for the 11th grader)

This is it!  Tomorrow we are finished with World Geography!  1 credit World Geography on their transcripts.

Homeschool Day 10/5: Field Trip to Log Cabin Village

 Field Trip to Log Cabin Village, Fort Worth, TX

What a great field trip!  Friendly interpreters in almost every house/building.  They were dressed in 19th century clothing and told the kids about each of the buildings.  There was a blacksmith and a candlemaker there.  My kids got to make candles.  The buildings are very well-maintained and they had a house specifically where the interpreter showed the kids toys from the 1800s and how they worked.  There's a gift shop at the end with candy, toys, postcards, arrowheads, etc.

Entrance is not free, but it was very worth it.  I had a great time (my kids did, too).

The gift shop sold little craft kits and if you scan the QR code on the package, there is a video of one of the interpreters showing you how to put the craft together.

https://www.logcabinvillage.org

Afterwards, we went to Dream Park in downtown Fort Worth along the Trinity River.  

https://dreamparkfw.org

The 6 year-old did not want to leave.

Pictures from Log Cabin Village:

Later that evening, we brought the telescope out into the driveway and looked at Venus, Saturn and Jupiter.  Here is a photo we were able to get of Jupiter and its moons.  (It looked better in person through the lens). That blue thingie??  I have no idea what that is...UFO?  *shrug*

Homeschool Day 10/4

 1st Grader - School Break

9th and 11th Graders - finishing World Geography week

• Night (Elie Wiesel)
• World Geography
• Mapwork (Asia)
• Trail Guide to World Geography (Asia)
• Country Fact Sheet
• Russia (11th grader)
• Japan (9th grader)
• Ate at a French restaurant for lunch
• Voice Lessons (11th grader)
• Escape Room with their homeschool friends (both 9th and 11th graders)