By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; and by knowledge
the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. ~Proverbs 24:3-4
• Nov. 20, 2009 - Blog Not Forgotten
I haven't forgotten my blog, just been busy hanging out on Facebook instead.
Change is in the air ----
Mark has finished Algebra! He ended up with a high B. I am going to have him spend the rest of 2009 reviewing word problems. We will start Jacob's Geometry in January.
Mei finds her LA to be very easy. So we are going to add to it by doing the Total Language Plus study on Courage of Sarah Noble. The spelling is much harder than what she is doing now. It uses some of the kinesthetic methods of learning spelling, so I am curious to see how she does. She will still do the basic grammar, writing, and cursive handwriting from WP's LA3.
We have pretty much dropped Mei's science but will pick it back up in January. She will be learning about weather. Mark has asked to sit in on it.
We will also be finishing the Sea portion of Sea & Sky by Christmas, so the new year will start with Sky.
Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. I am doing the ABCs of Thanksgiving on FaceBook. I may post them here after Thanksgiving.
We have been doing school but we have also been taking field trips! I love the outside ones this time of year.
Last week, we went to a local state park that is along a river. The rangers did two classes for us - one on identifying trees and the other on animal tracks. Although they did not find any tracks, the kids made their own by pressing molds into sand. It was a beautiful fall day and great to be outside.
Don't you wish you were this excited over cedar trees?
Yesterday, we went to a School Days event put on by a local Native American tribe to educate children on what Indians were really like in this area. Perhaps the most surprising thing I heard was about the animal populations in our state:
- there are more deer now then there was prior to first contact - i.e. early 1700's
- elk and bison used to live here but they became extinct in the early 1700's
- wolves are pretty much gone here
- coyotes and bear are on the rise and they estimate there will soon be more of them than there was in the early 1700's
So maybe those bear and coyotes can start controlling the deer population, but only if we don't mind the bear and coyotes in our backyards in the cities.
Demonstration of Indian hunting weapons.
Women's Dance by Elder of the tribe.
Storyteller - her dress weighs 45 lbs. The jingles are made from the lids of chewing tobacco cans.
I let the kids get slingshots, but they have strict orders to only point them at squirrels, deer, and non-living objects such as box targets and trees. These pictures are at the tribal grounds, but they have been practicing at home too.
Kids & I learned that you can use arrows in sling shots, so they were trying with sticks.
In school news, Mark is loving his General Science. I got this Knex Educational Kit on levers and pulleys for the chapter he just finished. It was a great review.
Mei is zooming ahead and I am considering adding additional Language Arts to her work. She is so efficient in getting her work done that she distracts Mark from his.
I would like to think I am more Charlotte Mason like than other schooling styles, but we never seem to get around to nature studies, or art, or music, or .... So I must be eclectic.
However, we do love nature and are often side tracked by it. Here are some recent examples:
Our hummingbirds of course - but can you see the spider hiding in the corner of the door?
Here she is up close:
Everyday she spun a new web across the door or across the deck -- until one morning when I was in a hurry and forgot to look for the web. I walked right into it and got it in my hair. The spider is no more.
Her web:
Then occasionally we just happen to look out the window and see this fellow (or his look alike) booking across the backyard. He likes to see what our treats our compost pile has to offer.
Of course, nothing can compare to Mr. T and ...
Sally the goldfish. We got her for an experiment last year and she has down quite well.
James finally convinced me that Mr. T is a red slider with yellow spots instead of the usual red spots that sliders have. We have been putting him outside for sunning and swimming every day. He really likes it. Soon he will be able to climb out of his current house, so we are in search of cheap new home for him. Plus in another couple months, it will be too cold for him to be outside.
James is also playing around with the meal worm beetles in hopes they give him more meal worms. Yuck! We have banished them to the garage since their rotting food is attracting fruit flies and smells.
Of course, we also have lots of birds and deer in the back yard. We even the occasional rabbit too. So nature just seems to come to us, rather than us going out to look for it. Does that count?
We just finished our first week of school. It went mostly well.
I made this nice assignment schedule for Mark and then both of us forgot to look at it each day. We left off some work.
We started learning about ships from our Adventures in Sea & Sky history class. I kind of forgot about having Mark do his extra work for this class, so we will need to fix that this week.
Mark did well with doing science on his own and enjoyed it too! He also jumped right back into Algebra rather than reviewing first. He is doing that more on his own this year.
Mei likes her new work and is as busy as ever being a third grader. She likes having science that is just her subject.
We mostly figured out the extras we will do this year. Mark will do Boy Scouts and Mei will do Girl Scouts. Mark will also do Odyssey of the Mind with some other homeshcool kids. He really likes it. Not sure what Mark will do during Girl Scouts. Another mom is trying to organize a class or something for the boys. He may need to spend that time on school work.
As for Paul, we officially moved him into the dorm at college. His classes start on Wednesday. So far it has not sunk in that he is gone. Seems like he is just away for awhile. Of course, he does plan to come home every weekend, so maybe we won't miss him too much! Via Facebook,I read that he found all his classrooms and visited the cafeteria to eat! Just what a mom wants to hear!
Mark - first day of school
Mei - first day of school
Why we love homeschooling!! Yes, we had real food before we had ice cream. The game is called SET. It was rated a top game by Mensa, so we are getting in a little critical thinking skills over lunch. We usually play some game at lunch. Our favorites are Skip-Bo, Phase 10, Uno, Set, and Blokus.
Our new books for this fall started arriving last week. What fun! I think I was more excited than the kids. Only about half of the Sea & Sky books came, so we should be getting more boxes soon!
In other news, James's father passed away last week and we traveled to Ky for the funeral. We were so glad that he and the 2 youngest kids got to spend the weekend with them about 2 weeks prior. They had a great weekend together. We will miss you, Dad and Grandpa.
Paul took 3 of his AP exams this week, with one more to go next week. School is winding down for him. Graduation is June 10. We have just 2 more weeks left of homeschool. Yay!!
In case you are wondering, here is what we are doing this coming year: History: WinterPromise Sea & Sky with the Older Learners Guide for Mark (i.e. more work :) Science: Sea & Sky includes science which both will do. In addition, Mark will do Apologia's General Science. Math: Mei is using Horizons 3. Mark will finish Jacob's Algebra and move into Jacob's Geometry (we made it through 11 of 17 chapters in algebra). Language Arts: WP LA3 for Mei. Total Language Plus for Mark (Julie of the Wolves, Carry On Mr. Bodwitch, Treasure Island, Out of the Dust) Bible: reading & discussing Art: going to try again doing my own thing Typing: going to try again to make this happen Computer: Mark says he wants to do this, will see if he has time Other: Monthly co-op - Mark may do Shakespeare again if he likes the play; Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts
This summer we will be reading Zoology 1: Flying Creatures for the fun of it. Mei will be working on word suffixes/prefixes and grammar. She is skipping LA2, but needs to cover a few things from it before diving into LA3 this fall. Mark is going to youth conference and to Boy Scout camp this summer.
Paul will be hopefully working this summer He also has orientation for college. He will be attending our state university to study computer engineering.
Books in the mail are always fun!
Mei's books - still waiting on some readers for LA.
Mark's books and the Sea & Sky history books. Still missing some S&S books. Still need to buy rest of TLP workbooks.
He also has orientation for college. He will be attending our state university to study computer engineering.
Books in the mail are always fun!
Mei's books - still waiting on some readers for LA.
Mark's books and the Sea & Sky history books. Still missing some S&S books. Still need to buy rest of TLP workbooks.
James's younger sister Angie, James, James's mom, James's older sister Pam.
