Amazed!!!

Jul. 13, 2009

Weeks 34-36

Well it looks like I will probably never get around to writing an excerpt about each individual week so I will just combine the last 3 weeks of our homeschooling year into one year.

Yes, we finished Core 4!!! The last 3 weeks were really fantastic. I know I say that every week, so you can take that with a grain of salt, but we covered so many profound topics and had some really great discussions!

We covered Chicano rights and Cesar Chavez, Native American rights, more Black rights, and women's rights. We discussed the Vietnam War, and in particular our family's perspective of it, since I was born in Saigon and left in April of 1975. I think when the children are older, I can see if my parents will talk to them about it. They never would talk to me much about it, but maybe now that so much time has elapsed, the memories won't be as painful. We can at least try.

We have really loved Core 4. This Core truly had no duds, IMO. Not that there were many duds in previous cores, but there was always a book or two that I could have done without. Not Core 4. We really enjoyed every book, the readers and the read alouds, and we can't wait to see what Core 5 will unveil for us!!

The language arts program was great as usual, and MUS continues to work well for us.

L. finished up her Core PK 4/5 stuff and is reading so well I don't know what to do with her. She just turned 6 but has finished the Regular readers for LA 2. I think I will have her wait until she does LA 2 Intermediate since I want her to do the grammar that goes with that program. So we'll see!!

Okay, I think this is it for this blog piece. I have lots more stuff to blog about but I am glad I at least got this done.

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May. 18, 2009

Week 33, May 11-15, 2009

Posted in General

Another week covering Civil Rights. This time we discussed Chicano rights, Native American rights, and women's rights.

When discussing Chicano rights, we learned about Cesar Chavez and his method of fasting as a non-violent protest. We talked about whether we'd do it for something we believed in. Both girls said emphatically no! But we did discuss why it would be beneficial to do so, when one is making progress in a struggle for rights. We talked about how, if someone was fighting for something important like equal rights, if that person hit a roadblock--such as a unjust law that the government is adamant about not changing--that doing something as drastic as a fast might achieve quick results. We discussed how it might even be a win-win situation for the cause. If the government did change policy due to one important leader's fast, then the people got what they wanted. If the government did not change policy and the fasting leader died as a result, then the people would really turn against the government, since the leader has thus achieved martyr status and might become more powerful in death than in life, as his/her legacy would continue for years afterwards.

When discussing Native American equality, we revisited some of the tragic events that we learned about last year, about how our own US government cheated and abused Native Americans. We had a very interesting discussion based on this question:

"White Americans sometimes say that it was not wrong white settlers to take land from the Native Americans. They say that the Native nations 'did nothing' with the land, but the white settlers took over and built America into a great nation. What do you think about this argument?" (The Story of the U.S.A. Book 4, by Franklin Escher, Jr., published by EPS, copyright 1993, page 51)

I personally had never heard of this argument, so I thought it was a great foundation for a discussion. To set up for the discussion, though, we had to really go over why there was such a big conflict. We discussed the Native American belief that the land is for everyone to share and that no one should own any one piece of the land. We contrasted that with the white settler's beliefs that every person can buy land that will then belong specifically to him/her. That set up the basis for the huge clash in culture and belief between Native Americans and whites. K. initially said she thought it was good for the whites to develop the land and build roads and buildings and bridges and the like, but that "they should have set aside land for the Native Americans". I reminded her that they did sort of do that when they set aside "reservations". We then discussed how reservation land was usually land that wasn't really profitable or fertile for the whites and how, when the whites decided they needed more land, they violated treaty after treaty and invaded even reservation land. We then discussed another cause for the conflict and that is the Native American desire to live a simple life off the land, with no real desire to "build up a city". We discussed why that belief isn't wrong, and both girls thought that those who wanted to have that life should have it.

So..we concluded that there were no easy answers and that this question continues to rear its head in other countries and with other cultures.

Lastly, we discussed womens' rights. We read about womens' suffrage and the fight for that, and we discussed the feminism of the 50's through today. We hit a very sticky spot that I had failed to pre-read. Sigh. I thought we were just reading about women's suffrage and equality in the workplace and education. But towards the end of the reading, there was a discussion about abortion and abortion rights. Sigh. I stopped reading at that point, but by that time, K was reading over my shoulder and A wanted to know why I stopped. So I felt that I had to plunge ahead. So I had to explain to the girls what an abortion was, and what our beliefs as Christians are wrt abortion. We discussed the real debate between pro-choice and pro-life advocates--when life begins, and the Biblical definition of when life begins. We then talked about what the current law is, and why some Christians continue to try to change policy wrt abortion. I think overall the discussion went well, but I really wish I had remembered to pre-read it and prepare for it!

In science, we learned about solids, liquids and gases and the effect of heating and cooling. We also read about boiling and freezing and what affects the weather.

K began The Seventeeth Swap for her reader and I started it for A's read aloud. It is a very charming story so far. No read aloud for K. Taking a break!

Blessings,
A.H.

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May. 17, 2009

Week 32, May 4-8, 2009

Posted in General

Another week of great discussions.

It seems that we will be covering the Civil Rights Amendment in the next few weeks. Our first lengthy discussion was about the Civil Rights Movement as it pertained to Blacks or, to be more PC, African-Americans. Chapter 2 from The Story of the USA was about the Jim Crow laws and subsequent segregation and the long road back to integration, from Plessy to Brown v. Board. The readings mentioned that even today, cities are not fully integrated. This surprised K., and so we plunged into a very long discussion of the segregation in cities today. We talked about how most cities are divided up into sections--poor areas, middle class areas, upper middle class areas and upper class areas. In addition, some cities seem to have specific ethnicities living in their "own" specific parts of town. While it is legal for any person to live anywhere in the city, there are still barriers such as what a person can afford for housing and where a person feels comfortable living. We talked about, e.g., how a person who may have endured a lot of racial prejudice may feel more comfortable living with others of the same race to reduce the chance of having to endure any further prejudice. We talked about how, because of the inequality that Blacks endured in the workplace and in academia, many Blacks could not make enough money to live in the "nicer" parts of town. We talked about affirmative action, how many universities and colleges offer scholarships to attract qualified students of specific minorities, in an attempt to undo some of the injustices of the past. We discussed how this can and has caused hostility with whites who feel that some schools will accept minority students who are less qualified, just to have the numbers.

Whew! What a heavy discussion. In fact, we realized that we had discussed it for nearly an hour and a half and had to quickly rush to Chik-Fil-A for lunch and then dash to piano lessons!

The next day we discussed in more detail what the fight for equality for Blacks involved--we discussed MLK and his method of non-violent protest, including boycotts and sit-ins. We talked about Ms. Rosa Parks, and the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. We ended with the assasination of Dr. King. For our discussion questions, we talked about whether we personally would be able to use non-violent methods if we were attacked. This is such a sticky topic. I have taught my children that they are allowed to defend themselves if attacked. I did discuss other things to do, like walking away from the situation and/or informing a person of authority. But I do not want my children to lie like limp rags while someone is truly threatening their lives or safety or in any way harming them. In fact, I will be signing up the children for karate/self defense classes this summer and A. is already in karate classes year round.

Our last heavy discussion was about JFK and his brief time as our president. We discussed why someone might want to assassinate a president or important leader and why some people might care about the religious beliefs of the president. We discussed JFK's actions at the Bay of Pigs and whether we thought it was the right thing to do or not. K and A both said they thought that he was right not to really involve any US troops but that honestly, he should not have supported the exiles with weapons to begin with. They both thought that he should have just granted them political asylum and told them to trust God, more or less, and to try to move on in their new country.

Heavy stuff! We finished up our excellent Bible study book, Starting Strong this week with a lesson on how a seemingly insignificant spark could light a big fire. We read the story of Naaman and how his servant girl's advice to him helped turn this skeptical leader into a believer. We discussed ways to be encouraged and strong for Christ, even if we think we're just one person. We talked about how one person could make a wealth of difference.

Otherwise, K finished up Bruchko, and I finished reading A School Story to A. K and I finished listening to Miracles on Maple Hill on audio. We were supposed to start In Search of the Source as a read aloud, but I decided to do that book during the summer. So we are enjoying a nice read aloud break right now, at least K and I. LOL

In science we covered musical sounds, how some animals "see" with sounds, and what things are made of (atoms and molecules).

God bless!!

A.H.

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May. 17, 2009

Week 31, April 27-May 1, 2009

Posted in General

We had some fantastic discussions this week, so instead of blogging an update on everything we have been doing, I will just hit the highlights of our discussions. These discussions have been sparked by what we are reading in history, from our readings in The Story of the USA and Landmark.

We started with readings about the Cold War, as the US and the Soviet Union emerged from WWII as the two superpowers. So we discussed the pros and cons of a democracy and communism. We discussed some of the pros of a socialistic or communistic society--no unemployment, and health care, food, housing, etc all provided by the government. We discussed the type of people who might like socialism and we thought about what situation we might be in such that we might prefer socialism.

We then moved into a discussion about LBJ and his initial popularity as he carried out JFK's programs, and his subsequent slide into unpopularity as he continued and escalated the war in Vietnam. Discussing the Vietnam War was always a touchy topic for me when I was in school. I hated the way everyone talked about the Vietnamese people as "them". I always felt that Vietnamese people were depicted as either small and weak, or pigheaded and cruel. I absolutely did not ever like watching movies about the War. No matter what angle the movie or book was, I just never felt that the essence of Vietnamese culture was captured, nor the spirit of the Vietnamese people. Oh well. I hope to bring some of that into our readings, as I am sure that in future years, we will be discussing this in greater length.

In Starting Strong, we studied the life of Joseph. We talked about how things that we think are "bad" sometimes end up being something "good". We discussed how only God knows what will happen in the future, and that if we learn to trust Him in our "bad" times, we will be able to grow and see Him more clearly during the "good" years.

Reading wise, K started Bruchko as her reader. I read A School Story to A since I thought Bruchko might be too graphic for A. We continued Miracles on Maple Hill for K's read aloud.

In science, we finished up colors, and began a unit on sound. We discussed sound waves and how we hear.

L is still chugging along. Finishing up all her kinder stuff and reading well past 2nd grade level.

Ciao!
A.H.

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May. 9, 2009

Week 30, April 27-May 1, 2009

Posted in General

This week we were somewhat rushed since I was going away for the weekend and had to leave on Friday. So we did a lot of our Friday work on Thursday. I love how the kids can direct themselves when we have a change in plans!

We wrapped up WWII this week, and read about all the plans to recover from the war. We also read about the beginnings of the Cold War and all the Soviet satellite countries.

We finished up both Thimble Summer and The Winged Watchman. We started Miracles on Maple Hill for K's read aloud, on audiobook. I still love the audiobook thing!! Thimble Summer was nice and The Winged Watchman was touching. Miracles is okay so far though I have to confess that K and I don't really like the readers for the audiobook. There was only one reader for Roll of Thunder, and she was excellent. We prefer one reader over a cast, which is how Miracles is set up.

We read "listen children" by Lucille Clifton, which we really enjoyed. The girls had to think a bit about what the poem meant. K really likes poems written in dialect.

We read more about light this week and related topics. Mirrors plus bending and reflecting light, in addition to how the human eye sees.

The girls continued on with their math and language arts.

And of course, L. cruised on as usual. She is nearly done with everything. She will have a great year next year.

We're getting near the end!!!

A.

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Apr. 21, 2009

Week 29, April 13-17, 2009

Posted in General

We continued on with Ephesians this week, finishing up chapter 3 and going through chapter 5. We discussed unity among Christians and living as representatives of Christ.

Our Starting Strong lesson was about choosing to do what is right but unpopular versus following along in the crowd. The scenario is an unpopular girl at school that no one wants to be friends with. One girl, though, feels compelled to reach out to her, but worries what her friends will think. Our study came from Luke 1: 26-38, the story of Mary carrying the Christ child and doing what she knew was right. We discussed situations where doing the right thing might make us unpopular or might lead us to sacrifice a great deal.

We continued reading about the middle years of WWII, during the wars on both the Pacific front against Japan and on the European front with Germany. We also read about entertaining the troops and how women were managing on the home front, taking over jobs that their husbands and sons previously held.

For K's read aloud, we finished up The Winged Watchman. A very touching ending and a very good book overall. We also began Thimble Summer for K's reader and A's read aloud. This is the same author of Gone Away Lake so we already were familiar with the style. This book seems very different though. A finished up Frindle for her reader. I am impressed that she understood just about all of the story. She is really getting much better.

Our poetry reading was written by Sonia Sanchez and was called "To PJ (2 years old who sed write a poem for me in Portland, Oregon)". We had a nice discussion about dialect and when and why it is used in literature.

Nothing unusual for L this week. She is cruising.

More next week!

A.H.

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Apr. 21, 2009

Week 28, April 6-10, 2009

Posted in General

We had a very busy weekend, so our Monday was very slow. This past weekend, K. had her dance competition (her studio did very well and one of her performances came in 4th overall) and my parents came up to visit. They got to see some of the competition as well. That was really nice, to see them!

We finished up Ecclesiastes and started Ephesians. We read up to chapter 3 this week. Our Starting Strong lesson was about making difficult choices that may either make you unpopular or leave you on the outside of the crowd. Our Bible study came from Exodus 2: 1-10. I am so grateful for this book. The scenarios presented are very much like the scenarios our children will face in life and it is great to discuss these things with our children. It is just great to discuss the Biblical way to handle tough spots, like the one we read about this week, where a girl is invited to a slumber party along with all of the other girls in the class, but she is unable to go because her parents won't let her. Last year's slumber party resulted in some wild behavior and this girl's parents won't let her go because of that--she ends up being the only girl in class who is not going.

This week in history, we covered the biggest tragedy of WWII, that is, the concentration camps and Hitler's attempt at genocide. We also covered the turning of the tide in the war, with American involvement, and the Allies beginning to strike back. Reading about the Holocaust is always such a sobering thing, but it really needs to be done. We continue to be amazed at how many people carried out Hitler's orders and how many higher ranking officers remained loyal to him, even though his orders led them to sure death.

We finished up In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson and highly recommend it! Very delightful! A. finished up A Llama in the Family and began Frindle. Like all Andrew Clements' books, this one is quite enjoyable. A. has to narrate this one too but did a fine job. K. had to find alternative reading material since she finished the Jackie Robinson book last week. We read The Winged Watchman for her read aloud. Such brave people to take such risks to hide Jews and fight the Germans in the Underground Resistance. It always leads me to ask myself what I'd do in such a situation.

For science, we learned about floating and sinking, pressure, simple machines, and engines.

Once again, L. had a good week, just humming along with her programs.

That is it for this week!!!

A.H.

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Apr. 21, 2009

Week 27, March 30-April 4, 2009

Posted in General

We continued reading through Ecclesiastes this week. The girls seem to understand well what it means to "chase the wind" and when things are "meaningless, meaningless!". LOL

We started up with Starting Strong again. Our first lesson was about valuing God's opinion of us over others' opinions of us. We studied 1 Sam 16: 1-13, the story of how God chose David to be the next king. David was an unlikely choice, since he was the youngest of Jesse's sons, but we learned that what God values (our hearts) isn't necessarily what people value.

We continued studying about WWII in our book, The World Wars. We covered quite a bit this week, going from the Battle of Britain, and the German invasion of Eastern Europe, through the war in N. Africa and Hitler's betrayal and invasion of the Soviet Union, to Pearl Harbor and the war in the Pacific and the involvement of the US.

We were very impressed with the Russian people. We read about their resistance to Germany, even when they were attacked unawares, and their grit and spiritual strength during the Siege of Leningrad. Up until now, we haven't read much about Russia and of course, growing up as I did in the public school system in the 1970's and 1980's, we weren't taught much about Russia at all. I was near tears during some of our readings this week.

For K's reader and A's read aloud, we began a very pleasant book called In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson. What fun! We have enjoyed this book so far with its mix of humorous and poignant stories. K could not help herself and read the whole book the first day. I also realized that A. had no idea how to play baseball or any rules of the game. I had to take the time out to explain that to her. It made me think--I had not thought much of "teaching" my kids Physical Education because they are in dance, gym, yoga, tennis, etc. and are physically very active. But I remembered that PE in schools also taught kids how to play many different games, games that are important to our culture like baseball, football, soccer and basketball. So I'm considering doing something about that..but not sure what.

Anyway, for K's read aloud, we read The Winged Watchman which has good adventure and spirit so far. A. is reading A Llama in the Family and enjoying it. She is narrating it to me since we don't have the comprehension questions for it. It was added to the curriculum after we bought the instructor's guide and I'm too cheap to buy the new IG. LOL

They are also moving along fine in math. A. does need more practice problems than what MUS gives us. MUS does offer a package for "extra practice sheets" so I believe next year when we order her next level, we will get these. I am no good at making up math problems and I frequently find the free online worksheets to be lacking.

For science, we continued reading from The Usborne Science Encyclopedia. We read about friction, gravity, moving in a straight line, and appropriately enough, moving in curves, or bending.

L. continues to do very well with her stuff. She is so far ahead in reading that I don't really know what to do. She has cruised through SL's 2nd grade "regular" readers, which are, actually, pretty easy for her to read. I believe she actually reads at 3rd grade level, and she has great spelling skills and can probably spell at first grade level, if not 2nd grade. However, she has not had any grammar (she's only 5!) so next year we will do the grammar pages from SL's LA 1. However, I am stumped as what to offer her for reading. I considered doing Core K using the 4 day program, and letting her read the books left over for her readers. We'll see. At any rate....she's just a gem to teach.

FQ is really enjoying all of his preschool readers. He will start SL's Core PK 3/4 next year and I believe he will do fine. He is getting his letters and numbers down. He is also just a cute kid.

Oh, I almost forgot--our poetry readings were by J. Kennedy--"One Winter Night in August" and Mary Ann Hoberman--"The Folk who live in Backward town". A. has developed a real love for poetry. She makes sure we read all of our poetry readings for the week.

That concludes week 27!! We are nearing the end...

A.H.

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Apr. 6, 2009

Week 26, March 23-27, 2009

Posted in General

After our sun drenched beautiful vacation in Jamaica, we plowed back into our books.

We read chapters 9-12 in Ecclesiastes, again, reminding ourselves of what is important in life and what we should be focusing on.

We began our study of WWII in earnest, this week. We started with an overview chapter from our Landmark book, but we quckly plunged into The World Wars. We read about the rise of Hitler and Mussolini in Germany and Italy, and the rise of power of the Japanese military. We discussed the state of many of the newly created countries in Europe after WWI, and how fragile their governments were. We talked about the race hate and propaganda that littered German streets and airwaves. And we finally read about all the events that led to the Hitler's invasion of Poland in September of 1939, marking the beginning of WWII. Tough, heavy stuff.

For her reader, K. finished up Gone Away Lake, and A. finished it up for her read aloud. They both enjoyed this book, though I believe A. liked it more than K. I read Letter to Mrs. Roosevelt to K. for her read aloud, and A. finished reading Lumber Camp Library and began A Llama in the Family. She really liked Lumber Camp Library.

For our poetry, we read "Cardinal Ideograms" by May Swenson, and "Some Opposites" by Richard Wilbur. Both enjoyable and whimsical poems.

For science, we read some basic facts about our planet, and some of the fuels that we use. We discussed alternative energy as well. We finished out the week by discussing forces and why things move.

So a full week after a great 2 week vacation.

More later,
A.H.

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Mar. 11, 2009

Week 25, Mar 2-6, 2009

Posted in General

We read from Ecclesiastes this week, from chapter 1 through 6. I love Ecclesiastes and am glad we read it. It is so poetic and it really reminds me of what I was like before I was a Christian. Lost, chasing the wind, going from one "high" to another, one "fun thing" to another. It makes me just so grateful that God brought me back home with Him.

We read Letter to Mrs. Roosevelt as our history reading. It was very enjoyable and we all felt like cheering at the end. We continued with Gone Away Lake for A's read aloud and K's reader. It has become very interesting and we really like it. K and I especially appreciate it because it is a mental rest from Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, which is emotionally very draining to read, or in our case, listen to. A started Lumber Camp Library, which she is enjoying.

For science, we studied heat. We learned about conduction, convection, and heat rays.

We also read "The Floor and The Ceiling" by William Jay Smith. We thought it was a very neat poem.

I admit we rushed a bit through our school this week. We start our 2 week spring break next week! Off to Jamaica we go!! Whoo whee!!!

A.H.

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Mar. 11, 2009

Week 24, Feb 23-27, 2009

Posted in General

Well this was indeed a very interesting week.

We read selections from Matthew and Luke. We read Matthew chapters 5-7 and selections in Luke chapters 6 and 11.

We read from the Story of the USA about the roaring Twenties, the Great Depression and FDR and the New Deal. We read about the same topics from our Landmark book as well.

We began Gone Away Lake for K's reader and A's read aloud. Very enjoyable story so far!! We also began Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. I bought the audiobook for this as I thought we'd be pressed for time. I am really glad I did. This is a tough book. It is excellent, and I am so very glad we're reading it, but it deals with some harsh racism. We are a biracial family, as you can tell from our pictures, and we live in a fairly diverse and liberal city, so my kids aren't exposed to much racism or prejudice. I don't mean just against them, but other people. So right from the first chapter, we encounter that harsh racism and it just got progressively worse. It is so hard to believe that that sort of thing happened and continues in many parts of the world. We have had many good discussions on it but I am sad that we have to have these discussions at all.

In science, we read about the history of measuring things, time, what energy is, and the different types of energy.

We read "Catch a Little Rhyme" by Eve Merriam and "Michael is afraid of the storm" by Gwendolyn Brooks. We thought "Catch" was cute and that "Michael" captured well the feeling of a boy growing up and being ashamed of being afraid.

A. fiinished up Misty of Chincoteague. It wasn't her favorite but she ended up doing okay on the comprehension questions so I feel better. LOL

L. plowed on, reading everything in sight, doing great with her MUS Alpha, and continuing with her ETC workbooks. I seriously do not know what to do with her reading. She is reading up the Little House on the Prairie books.

Great week as usual!!

Blessings,
A.H.

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Feb. 23, 2009

Week 23, Feb 16-20, 2009

Posted in General

Our week was very interesting. First off, I substituted the assigned Bible readings (2 Sam 11 and 2 Sam 13) with selections from Psalms. If you are wondering why I did that, just look up those chapters in your Bible and you will work it out pretty quickly!. I was pretty upset that SL had assigned those readings, since we are doing Core 4 and those themes seem way too mature for the intended age group, which is 9-12. I did write a letter to SL about it, so I hope they look into it.

It seemed that this week we got to the end of a lot of things. We wrapped up our readings about WWI in The World Wars book. We finished up Cheaper by the Dozen, and we even finished up K's reader and A's read aloud, Hero Over Here.

I wanted to indulge in a few minutes just to give my thoughts on these books. The World Wars is certainly not a "nice" book. It is pretty graphic and spared no details. The photographs were at times very shocking as were the descriptions and readings. However, we have learned quite a bit about WWI and I feel that the book really covered this tragic period in our history very well. So I give it a thumbs up, with reservations. I think it may be too graphic for children who may really be sensitive or on the younger side of Core 4.

Cheaper by the Dozen was certainly very enjoyable. It was the 2nd book so far, though, that had some cursing in it. We had a good talk with K. on what cursing is, and why we don't use it, and I tried to skip it when I could when I was reading aloud. A few times I was caught unaware and said the word out loud, which made me really flushed! LOL I know SL sometimes gets flack about using books with language in it, but I am glad they aren't willing to toss out great books just because of some mild language. I think it is an excellent time to explain to your children what cursing is and why it is not appropriate language to use.

Hero Over Here was also a good book showing a side of WWI that is not well known. There was a flu epidemic that spread like wildfire throughout the world toward the end of WWI. The epidemic killed more people than the war did! So it was very good to be exposed to that part of our history as well.

We reviewed different types of protists in science this week.

K. moved on in math and A. had a review week. She may have another one. I am a bit perplexed as what to do with her. She knows the math, but makes numerous "mental" mistakes, due largely in part to lack of focus. However, she doesn't have ADD or anything like that, she just needs the right environment, I think to do math well. She doesn't make mental errors in any other subject. I am going to try having her do her math at the kitchen table, next to me.

L. had her usual good week. No major issues or concerns.

That is all.

God bless,
A.H.

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Feb. 16, 2009

Week 22, Feb 9-13, 2009

Posted in General

We were able to get everything done this week even though we pretty much lost a day due to A.'s orthopedics appointment. We managed that by doing all of our readings for Wednesday (her appt. day) on Tuesday. Daddy was home so that helped us get a lot done!! Yay for Daddy, our secret weapon.

So this week we covered 2 Samuel 8 through 10. We read about David's many victories and his kindness toward Mephibosheth, one of Saul's sons. SL had assigned 2 Sam 11 for part of the week, which I decided to skip. I couldn't find a suitable version of the Bible that handled the Bathsheba story without too much detail, so I figured we could skip it until it comes up again in a Core!!!

In history, we continued reading about WWI in The World Wars. As the war is coming to an end, we are reading about some very sad and tragic things. So many very young soldiers losing their lives, the Battle of the Somme, and the Russian revolution. We also read about the effects of the war to the soldiers emotionally, how some of them never really recover from "shell shock". The US has finally joined in on the war, and it looks like Germany is finally getting exhausted.

We finished up All of a Kind Family, which K read as a reader and I read to A. as a read aloud. It was a very cute and enjoyable book, and we enjoyed the details of Jewish customs and holidays. We continued with Cheaper By the Dozen for K's read aloud, and A. continued reading Emily's Runaway Imagination. Daddy is reading Cheaper to K when he can and reading on his own on days when he can't read to her. You can hear both him and K. laughing out loud. It's great to read and laugh!!!

We read about protists this week for science. We are still reading from Biology Level I.

The girls are still continuing onwards with their math. K. started Epsilon last week and started using the fraction overlays this week. A. had some trouble with math this week, not so much with this week's material, but old material, so we will have a review week next week.

L. keeps plugging away, reading everything in sight and doing great with her core. She is also a math champ! She tried out for the pre-team in gymnastics a few weeks ago and made the team, so she has a new gymnastics day and time!! She is also continuing with dance and piano.

We read Triolet Against Sisters by Phyllis McGinley and The Sloth by Theodore Roethke. We were pretty impressed that the sloth poem gave us such a strong impression of how slow a sloth was.

That's it for this week. We accidentally read next week's science readings a while back when I read the wrong schedule

, but that means that we get a week off of science!!!

God bless,
A.H.

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Feb. 11, 2009

Happy momentous day!!!

Posted in General

We had a momentous day today! A. had an appointment with her orthopedist and he said that she had improved a lot in the last year and that he was wiling to let her go without her "braces" or AFOs as they are officially called!

Here they are, the latest pair that she had:

She has worn AFOs since she was 2 years old. We thought she may have to wear them for a long long time, so we were thrilled that she has improved so much that she doesn't need them anymore! I know she might have to wear something later, but this was such a huge victory for her today!!! Yay!!!

God is so so awesome. A. has made so many strides and done so well since she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. He has provided for us and blessed us with her progress and great therapists and doctors all along the way. Praise to Him!!!

A.H.

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Feb. 9, 2009

Week 21, Feb 2-6, 2009

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This week's Bbile readings were from 2 Sam, chapters 4-7. We read about David's victories and his rise in power and authority as the king of Israel. We read about the Ark coming back to Jerusalem and about the heir of David building the house of the Lord.

We finished up our unit on Peter in Starting Strong. It was wonderful to read about his strength and confidence as a Christ follower, especially after his initial struggles and failures. Again, Peter just gives me hope and his life and works were a wonderful study.

We read more about WWI in The World Wars this week. We read about the German U-boats, chemical warfare, and continued stalemates and deadlocks. The rest of the world--all the colonies of the European countries--have gotten involved and we read about the Turks, the Australians-New Zealanders and Austria-Hungary and Serbia and their roles in the war. We have been very impressed with how truly devastating this war had been.

We began reading Cheaper by the Dozen this week, as K's read aloud. What an enjoyable book! So hilarious. Now, I have to admit the mild language put me off a bit, but it was a great time to explain to K. and A. what "cursing" or "swearing" was and why it is not good language to use. I am glad they are getting this lesson at home! K. started All of a Kind Family for her reader and I am reading it to A. for her read aloud. A. is continuing forward with Emily's Run Away Imagination for her reader. She's doing so much better with comprehension.

L. is on week 21 in her core and doing great as usual. She is really speeding through her readers and I'm at a loss as to what to do with her next year. I guess I will just wait and see what happens. She's reading at a second grade level, possibly even easy 3rd grade.

All the girls are doing well in math. K. began Epsilon this week and A. and L. are continuing in Gamma and Alpha, respectively.

For science, we continued with our unit on plants. We read from Mysteries and Marvels about plants who survive harsh extreme cold or hot climates. We also read about plant cells and reproduction.

We are going to be hard pressed next week to get everything done due to a doctor's appointment in the middle of the week, but we'll try very hard!!

A.H.

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Feb. 2, 2009

Week 20, Jan 26-30, 2009

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Great week as usual. We began 2 Samuel this week and read about David's reaction to Saul's death and then the subsequent fighting of the different army factions--the army loyal to Saul versus the army loyal to David. I'm very impressed by David's devotion to Saul as a king! I know if my king were trying to kill me and doing so relentlessly, I would not be so gracious!!!

We continued reading about WWI in more detail this week. The thing that stands out the most was the description of the trenches and how gross they were. Those poor soldiers had to keep all their dead in them, and so the dead would begin to rot and large rats would start eating them. Plus all the lice and mud and....well just plain yuckiness. It made us very appreciative of all that these soldiers went through. We are having to really keep tabs on who is on whose side and what exactly happened in this war!

We finished up both The Wright Brothers and Little Britches this week. Both great books. The audiobook really saved my life! It was nice for K to hear it read to her with the dramatic voices. We now have bought an MP3 player speaker for our car so now we can both hear the story on audiobook. I did nearly cry at the end of Little Britches. K also said that the book was so sad. She enjoyed it.

A. finished up B is for Betsy this week and began Emily's Runaway Imagination. She is enjoying it. She liked the Betsy book as well.

We realized that we had read the wrong assignments last week for Science so we decided to read both last week's correct assignments and this week's. We began with learning about the different parts of a plant cell, and then we covered photosynthesis briefly. We read this from Biology Level I. Then we went back to our Mysteries and Marvels book and read about parasitic plants and plant reproduction.

We had a busy Friday so we could not get to our art projects. I always get sad when we can't do that. Next week!

God bless!
A.H.

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Jan. 26, 2009

Week 19, Jan 19-23, 2009

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Week 19 went well as usual. In our Bible studies, we finished up 1 Samuel, reading about David's exile in Philistine territory, the attack on his adopted town when he and his army left to offer their services to the Philistines, his counter-attack, and finally Saul's not-so-glorious death.

We continued studying Peter in Starting Strong. We read about Christ reinstating Peter, and what that meant. We discussed how different Peter was now, than he was not too long ago when he confidently said he would never fail Christ, and his failures. Peter gives us great hope! We discussed what it took to get back on your feet after a failure and continue forward.

We have been reading about some of the events that lead up to WWI. We have not started studying WWI in any detail. It seems that our readings this week just tied up some loose ends and touched on some of the events that were happening in Europe. We began The World Wars this week, which we expect would cover WWI in detail.

K. began reading The Wright Brothers for her reader, and I am reading it to A for her read aloud. We are simply amazed at these brothers' ingenuity and their fresh approach at everything! This has been a very good book. We continued reading aloud to K. Little Britches. I ended up "cheating" this week and buying the audio book. This is the first time we have ever used an audiobook but it won't be the last! This has made my life so much easier! It took away the stress of having to read it, and yet, we can still enjoy it together if we listen together. But on busy days, K can just listen to it on my Ipod! It has truly been a spectacular find.

We read several poems this week from the Oxford Illustrated Book of American Children's Poems. Our selections were Something Told the Wild Geese by Rachel Field, Books Fall Open by David McCord, and Adventures of Isabel and The Panther, both by Ogden Nash. The girls enjoyed the Ogden Nash poems the best, as did I.

We studied protists this week in science. We read about the Euglena, paramecium, and amoeba. We realized that we read the wrong readings for this week, but oh well. We enjoyed them anyway.

Next week should be promising!

God bless,
A.H.

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Jan. 19, 2009

Week 18, Jan 11-16, 2009

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We had an extremely busy but fun week. First off, Daddy had a birthday, so we got a chance to thank God once again for His goodness and His provision. Daddy and I celebrated by going to see Jesus Christ Superstar, which was touring in our city. It was a fun evening!

We continued with readings from 1 Samuel this past week. We read about Saul's continued pursuit of David, and how David spared Saul's life not once but twice. We marveled at the hate and jealousy in Saul's heart that would make him continue to try to kill David, even after David had shown him such mercy. The girls are memorizing John 15 and covered verses 3 and 4 this past week.

We read about poor Peter's failings in our Starting Strong Bible study. We read Luke 22: 31-34 about Peter's confident statement that he would go with Christ to the death and contrasted that with Peter's actions in the next verses, 39-62. We discussed the things that may make us "deny" Christ, even though we say in our minds that we will always follow Him. A. commented that Peter had no idea what the future would hold for him when he said that he would follow Christ no matter what. K. said that it was fear and panic that caused Peter to falter. We all felt bad for Peter but were encouraged that Peter's story was far from over.

In history, we read about the various "champions" of the people. We read about the Populist party, William Jennings Bryan, and Teddy Roosevelt. We covered what a trust was, and how companies were buying out their competition so that they could have a sort of "tyranny" over the common person. Our readings were from Landmark entirely this week.

We continued in our botany unit this week in science. We read about some plants' defensive mechanisms, including some "tricks" that plants use to trap their predators. We also read about some symbiotic relationships with insects and some parasitic relationships. We finished with learning about how plants can live in "communities" for protection.

We were supposed to start our TOPS project about corn and beans but we decided to put this off until spring. We were disappointed that our radishes didn't do as well as we had hoped and decided that it would be best to start trying to grow our corn and beans in the spring or summer. We would also have more time then to devote to them.

We began Little Britches for K's read aloud. Honestly, while this is a good book, we are not too impressed with Ralph's mother. Just an opinion. LOL K. finished George Washington Carver for her reader while I read it to A. for her read aloud. We are really so impressed with GWC. In fact, we discussed how the GWC museum that we went to did not do him justice. There were no exhibits highlight all that this brilliant man had done for the world! I am really considering writing to them imploring them to really expand their museum. We went through that museum and left without an idea of how great he really was. A. finished Little House on Rocky Ridge and began Socks.

Both of the older girls are doing really well in math. K. should be done with Delta soon and A. is more than half way through Gamma.

L. had her usual great week. She is still doing SL's PreK 4/5 program and is on week 18 too. She's reading so well, about 2nd grade level or higher. Her math is also impressive and she's doing a great job teaching the material back to me.

The only thing we did not get to this week was art, so we want to really make an effort to do that this week.

Happy MLK day!

A.H.

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Jan. 11, 2009

Week 17, Jan 5-9, 2009

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We had a really nice week last week. Things seem to fall back into place pretty well.

Of course the first day of the week we celebrated A.'s bday. We didn't do anything big, actually. This year is not a Birthday Party year (we have them every other year). But we all wished her a happy bday and many friends and family members called.

For our Bible studies, we continued reading in 1 Samuel 20, ending up at chapter 23. We read about Saul's murderous envy of David and his frantic pursuit of David and his men. We also studied Matt 14:22-33, the story of Jesus walking on water. This was from our Starting Strong study. Since we are focusing on Peter, we are reading various accounts of Peter's interaction with Christ. This week we talked about the storms of life, and how we are to stay focused on Christ. We discussed how Jesus does not keep us from having storms, but how He carries us through them.

We read from Landmark this whole week. We read about the development of the railroad system, the postal system, the standardization of the time, and the rise of the skyscrapers. The last part of our readings discussed the Empire State Building. This triggered my comment that the Twin Towers was taller than the ESB for some time. This, of course, in turn, led to me telling them about the 9/11 tragedy. We then went to see some news footage about 9/11 on YouTube, and K. was really moved. "How sad!" she kept saying.

We have traveled so much that my kids just take all those airport security measures for granted. They have never complained because they don't really know different. But when we watched all the 9/11 footage, K. remarked, "oh, now I see why they make us do all of that at the airport", and I nodded and said, "yes, and that is why everyone, for the most part, cooperates with it. It is inconvenient, but that is the best way to try to prevent this." It was so sobering. When we went to NYC 2002, we went to Ground Zero, but both K. and A. were really too young to understand what it was all about. Anyway--I felt that same sadness all over again, watching that footage. Such a tragedy.

K. and her daddy continued and finished The Great Wheel this week. They both seemed to enjoy it. K. said she thought it was very funny. A. continued to read Little House on Rocky Ridge. She also read McBroom's Wonderful One-Acre Farm. She began Socks at the end of the week. K. read George Washington Carver on her own, while I read it aloud to A. We all love the book. GWC was such a wonderful man! Such a faith in God! We can't wait to keep reading.

In science, we started a botany unit. We began reading about the different parts of plants, and then we focused on animal eating plants and plants that "move". Apparently we will begin some gardening next week. The children are very excited. I admit I'm not that excited. LOL

L. had her usual great week. She is flying through all her stuff. She began ETC book 4 this week and is doing great. I will run out of things for her to read. I'm not sure what to do with her. She is reading so well.

It was nice to get back to our normal activities as well. A. began her martial arts classes this week. So far she really likes it! We'll see how far she goes with this.

That is it for this week. We have a big week next week! Daddy's bday is next week and K. has a gym meet coming up.

Blessings,
A.H.

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Jan. 5, 2009

Happy birthday A!!! And our new Writers' Circle

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Today A. turns 8!!! Our big beautiful baby girl!! She still has to do school though. LOL

We are trying something new this week. It's called Writers' Circle.

I used to write a lot when I was younger. I had a natural ability for it, and my teachers kept encouraging me to write. I was admitted into a writing honors program in college and continued to write for my classes. One professor encouraged me to write professionally.

But I insisted on doing the doctor thing and so after I graduated from college, I rarely wrote. Since I am obviously not working as a doctor now, I have often felt sad that I gave up writing. It has been really hard to just "write" on my own, without assignments or direction.

So I decided to do the girls' writing assignments too! Then, at the end of the week, we will get together for our Writers' Circle and read our assignments to each other. Then we will blog them. I hope this will get me into writing again and also into the habit of blogging the girls' work!

I hope it goes well. More to come!

A.H.

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About Me

HELLO!!! This blog is a place for us to publish some of our children's work and just to journal our amazing educational journey.