• Nov. 9, 2009 - Pregnancy Center Gala time again!

Posted by earthenvessel

www.homeschoolblogger.com/earthenvessel/

This past Saturday was the annual Pregnancy Center Gala and Auction. As usual, my hubby was there that morning to set up the computers and make sure all was running smoothly in that realm.This is the same time that many hard working volunteers and Pregnancy Center staff are busy decorating the room for the evening.

Around 4 pm our sweet sister team of sitters arrived. We showed up at the St. Petersburg Coliseum a little before 5 pm and had a little time to look at the all the wonderful silent auction items before it was time for us to work. (We call it work, but it really is a joy!) Hubby was going to bid on a fishing pole but when the bidding went over $100 he decided that was too much for us.

My job every year is to connect with the lady who works out all the problems with registration. She keeps a list of changes to names and bidder #s which I take to make changes in the computer. That way when all the bidding is over, the item that were won go to the correct people!

I am also part of the data entry team. Once again, after all the bidding is over, there are volunteers assigned to go gather up the bidder sheets and they are brought to the computer room. That's when the computer room really comes to life! Usually about 3 of us meticulously enter each Item # and the winning bid and price. I'm not sure how many Items there are in each auction but I would feel safe in guessing maybe around 200 items. As we are entering the items and winning bids, hubby is gathering the already entered sheets and sorting them by item #. When we finish entering we take over fine sorting what hubby started while he starts running reports for the cashiers and invoices for the folks who won their bids. It is a fine tuned machine as we all work together!

As we are doing all this we get to visit with wonderful friends, who unfortunately, we seem to only get to see at this one event each year. I should have brought my camera but didn't this year.

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• Nov. 9, 2009 - The Simple Woman's Daybook ~ #52 ~ 11/9/09

Posted by Kim Wolf<>< in The Simple Woman Daybook

For Today...

Outside my window...grey & over-cast. A cold front moving in after our 2nd Indian Summer. But that's OK...it's fall, after all. :-)

I am thinking...that I need to get ready to leave. My DD#2 & I are going to lunch w/my mom.

I am thankful for...still having a warm house, cars & not missing a meal during my DH's layoff.

From the kitchen...lunch out w/my mom this afternoon; possibly pasta & sauce for supper.

I am wearing...jeans, & a red, pink & white shirt.

I am reading...sermon notes.

I am hoping...things will go well w/my mom while we're out. She's not a happy woman & it can wear on us.

I am creating...a peaceful home.

I am hearing...radio, DD#2 in the shower, a neighbor's leave blower.

Around the house...laundry, dusting, running sweeper, dust-mopping kitchen & bathrooms.

One of my favorite things...a hot mug of Hazelnut or Vanilla Biscotti coffee on a cold, dark morning.

A few plans for the rest of the week...household chores, taking DD#2 to/from work, praying for miracles.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...

This is the Collins Schoolhouse in 1854. This was a working schoolhouse until the 1940's. The family who now owns it has hired 2-3 retired teachers who now 'teach school' for school & homeschool field trips; an entire day just like in the 1800's. When our girls were little you homeschool group went there - it was great - the kids dressed up, took lunches in a pail or basket, they drank from the well, played old-fashioned games, the school was heated by the Franklin stove, they worked from McGuffey Readers on their slates, make bookmarks. This was also a year when we were working through "The Priarie Primer" unit study, so it was awesome!

Enjoy other Daybooks at: http://thesimplewomansdaybook.blogspot.com/
Blessings from Ohio, Kim Wolf<><

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• Nov. 9, 2009 - Lesson Plans for Nov. 9-13

Posted by Emily

I thought I'd post my lesson plans for the week, just for my reference as well as to show what we do each week.

Religion
Sarah: Read lesson 8 in Faith and Life 5, complete workbook pages
Robbie & Riley: Complete First Penance text
All: daily religion readings from either Faith and Life, Bible, Once Upon a Time Saints or Devotional Stories for Little Folks

Math
All: Complete lesson 11 in Math U See
        Play games (computer, dice, cards, etc.) to practice math facts

Language Arts
Sarah: Lang. Lesson - Valiant, Dog of the Timberline
             read from True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
Robbie & Riley: Sonlight LA 1 week 1
Riley: finish reading Magic Tree House The Knight at Dawn
Robbie: read from I Can Read It 1
All: cursive practice

History
All: Listen to The Striped Ships
Robbie and Riley: Story of the World ch. 15 -- finish
Sarah: Write a mini report about the claims to the throne and who had the better claim
             History Odyssey lesson 22 : mapwork, timeline, entries about Domesday Book and Bayeux Tapestry
All: Memory Work - Norman and Saxon by Rudyard Kipling
      Craft Project - A Day in Your Life Bayeux Tapestry

Science
All: Listen to Body Battles and Magic School Bus Inside Ralphie
      Work on Healthy Habits chart (for Cub Scouts, but Sarah is keeping one as well)
      make notebook pages about what we read

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• Nov. 9, 2009 - Making adjustments

Posted by Emily

We are now 11 weeks into the school year. How did that happen? Time just goes way to fast nowadays. After a few weeks in, I started tweaking, and now we've sort of thrown out those lesson plans I worked so hard writing.

I have been reading lots of Ruth Beechick lately. I think she's almost as inspiring to how I home educate as Charlotte Mason. And in a lot of ways, I think they are very similar.

One of the things that needed adjusting, is Robbie's reading lessons. He's been struggling, and we had already dropped spelling since it seemed pointless--if you can't read, you can't spell. So, I've gone and dug out our I Can Read It books from Sonlight, as well as the Language Arts 1 I had put away. We just started it today, but already I can see it's a better fit.

For Sarah, we are using the language lessons provided in You Can Teach Your Child Successfully. I think once we've gone through those I'll dig out the Sonlight Language Arts 2 -- Reading With Chapter Books that I have put away. She wants to be a writer, and this just seems a better fit for her than workbooks. I think she remembers things better when they are used in context. She is enjoying the lessons, except that it requires her to do dictation--which she hates. I'm hoping it will help with her listening skills though, because that is an area that needs a LOT of work.

I've also adjusted our history lessons a bit. Sarah is using History Odyssey, which was taking her hours at a time to complete. Currently we are studying the Normans. Instead of doing the whole lesson in one day (which requires reading a chapter from a history text, 2 pages from Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, outlining that history reading, marking dates on a timeline, mapwork, and 2 short entries written about the Domesday book and the Bayeux Tapestry--WAY too much for one lesson!!) we are reading the historical novel The Striped Ships aloud, and taking our time to complete all those assignments. Plus she's listening in on the Story of the World chapter about the Norman Conquests. She is actually almost enjoying her history lessons now! Yay!

Sarah is also participating in National Novel Writing Month. She is having fun just writing without worrying about making complete sense.

It's also helping her to work on description in her writing. She tends to write only part of what's in her head--leaving the rest of us to wonder what she's talking about sometimes. I'm hoping that stretching her writing to meet the word requirement (I think she's supposed to hit 10,000 words) will help her to get all the story written down.

I like the way our school year is shaping up. We're adding in a few lapbooks here and there, and I've got a wall time line idea brewing as well. I love it when my kids tell me that they love school!!

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• Nov. 8, 2009 - FIAR Field Trip

Posted by Dawn in FIAR

Our Five in a Row group studied Madeline this month. To go along with our study I decided to coordinate a field trip to our local kids science museum. They have an exhibit right now called, Grossology~the impolite science of the human body. I wasn't sure what to expect. It was a little boys dream come true and my girls loved it too.

Did you ever want to know the science behind a sneeze? Well, this exhibit not only explained the process but then the giant nose you stand inside of sneezes on you!!!

This lovely fellow explained all about allergies, sniffles, colds and anything else that can cause you to have a runny nose. Yes, his nose ran frequently! See what I mean about a little boys dream....

The kids spent lots of time at the life size operation game. Remember that game? What a concrete way to learn where all the body parts go. It didn't hurt their eye hand coordination either.

The girls could have stayed in the digestive system playground all day. Yes, they crawled through the whole digestive system. The joke of where they came out of the digestive tract was not lost on them either. Yucky!!

The skin climbing wall was loads of fun too. While they climbed along they were supposed to guess if they were climbing over a pimple or mole or hair follicle.

I did not take pictures of all the things to smell. Really gross things to smell. Aren't you glad this is not a scratch and sniff blog. LOL! Somehow I missed pictures of the statue that you crank up and make burp or the tooting machine. We will have to go back when it is less crowded. The exhibit just got to us and lots of the school groups were there. All in all it was a really cool and gross exhibit. Hey, IT"S GROSSOLOGY!

Blessings,

Dawn

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• Nov. 6, 2009 - Time To Paint!

Posted by Dawn in Homeschooling

We are at the point in construction where it is time for us to start contributing to the process (more than just financially) to keep costs down. I have three rooms to paint, numerous doors to paint, furniture to move, 5 or so pieces of furniture to refinish, shades/curtains to buy and hang, closets to build, oh and so much more! Then there is Thanksgivng and, dare I say, CHRISTMAS on the horizon! This is my favorite season, and I want to savor it somehow in the mist of all of this change. I want my children to remember Christmas season 2009 as a great year, not the year mom went crazy. LOL!

So to create balance, this is officially our last day of highly structured and planned school for this season in our lives. We will still school, but in a lighter, less structured way. The plan is to do reading, math, and tea time each day and have two goals for the week. Notice ~ I can't help but have to have a plan. I really lack the unschooling bone, even though I wish I had it .... The rest of the time, the kids will be learning skills in painting, weeding out toys, cleaning, playing peacefully and independently (still a challenge around here for some), and continuing to practice flexibility.

On top of the basics mentioned earlier, the two goals for next week are to make an Arctic mural and do another outdoor challenge. We will be studying the arctic and arctic life for the month of November.

I leave you with this picture of the kiddos! Our outdoor challenge last week was to find squirrels and study them. We could not find a single squirrel, but we did have fun climbing trees.

Blessings,

Dawn

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• Nov. 5, 2009 - Wooly Worm Weather

Posted by McCHEO in Homeschool

Using wooly worms (Pyrrharctia isabella) to predict winter is old American folklore that traces its history back to early Americana. Supposedly, Native Americans taught the pioneers to read wooly worms to predict winter weather. Wooly worm is the common name for the larval stage of the Isabella Tiger Moth. They are also called wooly bears.

Step 1
Look for wooly worms under rocks and inside hollow logs.
Step 2
Examine the wooly worm, paying attention to its bands of colors. The wooly worm will curl into a ball when touched or threatened. When they crawl, they can crawl very quickly!
Step 3
Wooly worm forecasters say that the size of the brown band of color will tell you what kind of winter is coming. Legend says that the thinner the brownish red bands, the harsher the winter will be. If the wooly worm is mostly brownish red in the middle, winter will be mild.
Step 4
Wooly worm enthusiasts claim an 85 percent success rate over the last few decades. Scientists tend to disagree and say wooly worm weather prediction is as unscientific as using groundhogs to predict winter weather. The groundhogs likely side with the wooly worms.
Step 5
Whether or not you believe in the power of wooly worms, they can be a fun project for children and adults.

{from www.ehow.com}

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• Nov. 5, 2009 - Old Farmer's Almanace ~ A Quiet Sun, A Cold Winter

Posted by McCHEO in Homeschool

A Quiet Sun, a Cold Winter

The Old Farmer’s Almanac is calling for a colder-than-normal winter. One contributing factor is sunspots—or the lack of them!

This year and next, sunspot activity will be very, very light. Whenever this phenomenon has occurred in the past, the result has been a cooling influence on Earth. Solar experts believe that the Sun will remain calm for another year.
See sunspot activity for 2009.

Robert B. Thomas, who founded this Almanac in 1792, believed that weather on Earth was influenced by sunspots and solar radiation. Sunspots are magnetic storms on the surface of the Sun. Click here to read “What Are Sunspots?”

To this day, the Almanac uses three disciplines to predict the weather: meteorology, climatology, and solar activity. (See How We Predict the Weather.)

If you’re interested in learning more about the Sun’s effect on our climate, read “The Influence of Solar Activity on the Weather.”

Or, join this forum: “Are Sunspots Disappearing?”