Homeschool Day 11/30

 1st Grader

• Miquon Math Orange
• Reading
• Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading
• Handwriting without Tears
• Story of the World 1
• Tut's Mummy, Lost and Found (we finally finished this)
• Biology/Anatomy
• Library book about the digestive system
• Gymnastics (outsourced)
• Physical Education
• We played baseball at the park for PE

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship (11th)
• Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea
• The Mystery of the Periodic Table (9th grader)
• Gladys Aylward (read-aloud)
• Physical Education
• We played a giant game of baseball at the park.  Even the college freshman played baseball with them
• Gymnastics (outsourced)

College Freshman and Sophomore update

• Finals are here.  Both have solid A's at this point.  They should both finish the semester with 4.0 GPAs again (both kids have a 4.0 overall).  
• They are registered for classes in January.
• The sophomore has like a 130% average in British Literature (which we all thought was funny)

Homeschool Day 11/29

 1st Grader

• Miquon Math Orange
• Reading
• My Father's Dragon (read-aloud)
• Explode the Code
• Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading
• First Language Lessons 1
• Story of the World 1
• Tut's Mummy, Lost and Found
• Science (biology)
• Library books about the human body
• For Cub Scouts, he collected blankets for the homeless and turned them in today
• He learned how to ride his bike without training wheels over the weekend

9th and 11th Graders

• This was actually one of the best homeschool days ever.  The teens were very excited to do school today.
• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship (11th)
• Finished reading Steinbeck's The Pearl
• We had a great, excited group discussion about the book.  
• We discussed Steinbeck's background 
• Introduced Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea (their next book) and talked about his biography
• Physics
• Lab: Reflections from Curved Mirrors from QSL Physics Kit
• Calculated the focal length of lenses of different thicknesses
• Inverted image using a laser, concave lens and note card
• Chemistry
• Mystery of the Periodic Table (9th grader reading)
• Started our notebook of the elements.  We're going through each element of the periodic table and covering Rutherford models, atomic number/mass, properties, boiling point/melting point, classification, when the element was discovered, what the element is used for, etc.
• Hydrogen and Helium - notebooking 
• Watched footage of the Hindenburg airship explosion and talked about why hydrogen is so flammable
• 11th Grader had a private voice lesson
• We are going to walk to the cookie store to buy cookies

Homeschool Day 11/19 - Python Coding

 We worked more with Python and our Raspberry Pi 3b+.  The 9th grader wrote code for the Matchmaker game in the book Coding Projects in Python.  The game wouldn't work, so I had to look through the code and figure out why.  She misspelled a word and missed a space and that caused the game to crash.  We fixed it and the game worked!

I coded the graphics "Starry Night" from the same book.  It's similar to the code in this video:

Homeschool Day 11/18

 1st Grader

• Life of Fred Apples - I thought we could read this once a week as a supplement, but he didn't really like it.
• Bananagrams - we played this and he built all kinds of words with the pieces
• He wrote a letter to his grandparents and mailed it
• Mary, Mother of Jesus

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship (11th)
• Steinbeck's The Pearl
• German 
• Frau Holle (11th grader) - Brothers Grimm fairy tale
• Komm Mit 1 (9th grader)
• Physics
• Mythbusters episode "Sonic Boom Sound-off"
• Research the speed of sound
• What is it?
• What causes a sonic boom?
• Is thunder a sonic boom?
• LAB - The Speed of Sound in Air (from the QSL Physics Lab Kit)
• Using tuning fork, graduated cylinders and water
• Observe standing waves and resonance
• Reader's Theater (outsourced class for 9th grader)

Homeschool Day 11/17

 1st Grader

• Miquon Math - third day with this/so far so good
• Reading
• My Father's Dragon (read-aloud)
• Explode the Code
• He read an easy reader from the library 
• First Language Lessons 1
• Bible
• Mary, Mother of Jesus
• Story of the World 1
• Tut's Mummy, Lost and Found

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship (11th)
• Steinbeck's The Pearl
• Chemistry - read more of Module 7 and answered the questions
• History through Genealogy Project
• This was wonderful today.  We worked on the Civil War generation.
• Drew the boundaries of the Union states and the Confederate states
• Learned about the Battle of Stone's River
• Looked at an old tintype photograph of one of our ancestors from about 1860-1862.  
• Learned about tintype and early photography.  Looked at the oldest remaining photograph and the oldest photograph with a person in it.
• Shakespearean Theater (11th grader - outsourced)
• SAT Prep (11th grader) - I don't always post about it, but she does Khan Academy SAT prep every morning.  This morning, for the Science thru Reading practice session, she got a perfect score.  So, I was happy.  So far, her highest practice scores are English, Reading and Science.

Homeschool Day 11/16

 1st Grader

• Miquon Math - second day and it's a hit!
• Reading
• My Father's Dragon (read-aloud)
• Explode the Code
• He read to me from an easy reader from the library
• Handwriting without Tears
• Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day
• Gymnastics (outsourced)

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) and Stewardship (11th) - 11th grader needed a lot of help, lesson covered mortgages and amortization
• English
• Steinbeck's The Pearl
• Government and Economics
• Fun Facts About Texas
• When Texas became a US state
• Area
• Population
• Flag
• State flower
• State animals
• State sport
• State tree
• State Nickname
• Gymnastics (with a homeschool group)

We did not get to finish Physics and German, because the 13 year-old started to not feel well.  So I let them call it quits.

Homeschool Day 11/15

 1st Grader

• Miquon Math - this was his first day with it and it went very well
• Reading
• My Father's Dragon (read-aloud)
• Explode the Code
• McGuffey Reader Primer (he read the story to me)
• First Language Lessons 1
• Story of the World 1
• King Tut's Mummy, Lost and Found
• Play It! Piano
• Played outside

9th and 11th Graders

• Algebra 1 (9th) - we did the problems on the dry erase board together - it's multi-step factoring equations and she really doesn't like them
• Stewardship (11th grader) - home ownership
• English
• Steinbeck's The Pearl
• Windows to the World
• Bible
• Gladys Aylward
• Study of Revelation of St. John - we located Patmos on the map and read the first 5 chapters
• Government and Economics
• Read about the Texas State Legislature
• Researched who our Texas State Representative is
• Researched who our Texas State Senator is
• Looked at the "Who Represents Me" website www.wrm.capitol.texas.gov
• Apologia Chemistry
• Read textbook Module 7
• Lab 7.1 - Electricity
• Voice Lesson (11th grader)