Our 3rd Has Now Applied to College

 Oldest two are still in college.  Both are straight A students and on the Dean's List.  The third will most likely be joining them in the fall (that will be my oldest daughter's last semester at that college, since she will be transferring in January 2023.  Oldest has also decided that she would like to continue with her Master's in Fine Arts, so she's going to be in school for quite a while yet.)  

My third plans to double major (like her sister) in Studio Art and Theater.  She also wants to take music classes at the college. 

We are going to work on essay-writing practice tests all next week to get her ready for the TSI. 

Homeschool Day 1/6

 9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship (11th)
• The Way Things Work Now
• Chemistry
• The Mystery of the Periodic Table
• Notebooking through the periodic table
• Alkaline Earth Metals
• The Elements
• Characteristics
• Electron orbitals
• Rutherford Models
• Boiling point, melting point
• Density
• Reactivity
• Radioactivity
• The Little Prince (deSaint Exupery)

Homeschool Day 1/5

 1st Grader

• Reading
• Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading
• Explode the Code
• Miquon Math Orange
• Literature
• The House on Pooh Corner
• The First Adventures of Spider
• Practiced his address
• Human Body
• First Human Body Encyclopedia
• 50 Wacky Things Humans Do
• Lab - sugar tasting lab
• Tested the taste of sugar on different parts of our tongues (in the name of science)

9th and 11th Graders

• 11th grader took a TSI English practice test - only missed one question
• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship (11th)
• English
• Windows to the World - outlining the literary essay
• The Little Prince (discussion and reading)
• Bible
• Study of Book of Revelation - chapter 9 reading and discussion
• American Government
• The Infographic Guide to American Government
• You Decide! Applying the Bill of Rights to Real Cases
• 8th Amendment
• 2 Supreme Court cases
• Discussion of death penalty in the US
• Physics
• The Way Things Work Now
• QSL Physics Lab
• Transistor lab - measuring voltage around a circuit with a transistor in place on the breadboard
• This is actually our last electronics lab

Homeschool Day 1/3

 1st Grader

• Reading
• Explode the Code
• Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading
• Miquon Math Orange - he did several pages - he likes math
• Literature
• The House at Pooh Corner
• First Adventures of Spider (African folktales)
• Human Body
• First Human Body Encyclopedia
• 50 Wacky Things Humans Do
• Van Cleeve's Biology for Every Kid (labs)
• Optical illusions labs

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship (11th)
• English
• The Little Prince (Saint Exupery)
• Windows to the World - literary essay
• The Way Things Work Now
• Mystery of the Periodic Table (9th grader)
• American Government
• You Decide! Applying the Bill of Rights to Real Cases
• Fifth and Sixth Amendment
• Discussed 2 Supreme Court cases
• The Infographic Guide to American Government
• Bible
• Revelation chapter 7

2022 -New Year, End of Year Tasks, etc

Records

 I keep records by the calendar year.  This weekend, I updated and finalized everyone's end of year records for 2021.  

On these EOY records, I include what we did for the year in these topics:

• Math
• Language Arts
• Literature
• Bible
• History/Geography
• Science
• Art & Music
• Extras
• Physical Education
• Field Trips
• Extracurricular Activities

Organizing

In our school room is a rolling book cart.  I cleaned everything off the cart that we are finished with and put it back on the book shelves.  

I filled in the month of January on our dry erase board calendar.

Planning: High Schoolers

Because we school year round, nothing is going to end in May.  I'm guessing we'll be finished with everything. except Stewardship at the end of March.  

My plan is to have them continue with:

1. Literature - I have a list of modern novellas that look interesting
2. Algebra 1 - she is almost finished with this.  I might have her finish and then either immediately start Geometry or take a break and work on some fun math or something
3. Stewardship/Personal Finance - I think she is only about halfway through this
4. Windows to the World
5. American Government - continue with Bill of Rights and Infographic Guide.  I'm going to do a mock trial with them and I want to take a field trip, but with Covid, I don't know how possible that will be.
6. Chemistry - I have two more science kits + finish periodic table
7. Physics - We still need to build our engine, launch our Estes rockets, finish the last 3 labs in the QSL Physics kit and do the ultra glider kit
8. Coding  

Another thing I need to do this semester is have the 11th grader apply to college and take the TSIs.  As soon as she passes those, she's going to graduate at the end of the semester.  She's very much ready for college.

Planning: 1st Grader

We followed The Well-Trained Mind this semester.  This is the first semester we've done that, because I usually put together unit studies.  I'm going back to unit studies this semester.  I've noticed a couple of things:

• He is not progressing in reading this semester.  I need to put half of what we're doing away and really, really focus on reading.  
• Our set-up had way too many moving parts and I prefer the continuity of unit studies.
• Life of Fred is being dropped, because he has absolutely no idea how to answer the questions.  It's too conceptual for him.

My first unit study for him will be the Human Body, because we were already studying that and I had more plans for it.

After that, I plan to do a study on the Ancient Greeks.

Homeschool Day: 1/1

 9th and 11th Graders

• Physics
• Capacitors Lab (from the QSL Physics Kit)
• Use a breadboard, LED, battery, resistor and 3 electronic capacitors to light an LED after a battery is disconnected
• Showing that capacitors store electrical charge
• Used a stopwatch to time how long it takes for the capacitors to run out of energy

    

Lutheran Bible Translators Living Water: New Testament through Music

https://lbt.org/livingwater-2/

Starting January 7 (it looks like from their website), Lutheran Bible Translators is offering the entire New Testament (ESV) set to music.  They are planning to release a chapter a day.