Posted in home schooling
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I am going to attempt to post one of these every week...or at least every other week. If not, then once a month. Truly, I should not even state my intentions because that's usually the kiss of death for said intentions. I'm serious. I can say, "I'll be right back. I'm going to the mailbox and mail this letter." And I will walk right outside and throw it in the trash. Whereas if I had not told anyone what my plans were for the letter, it would be well on its way to the indicated destination. OK...OK...I'm not that bad! But I have admitted here before that I'm not a good finisher. My intentions are good (most of the time). My stick-to-it-tiveness is bad. Well, now that I've given you very little hope for seeing this series of posts again, here we go. My thought is to give an overview of our week, with pictures of course, so that long-distant grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, enemies, bosses, ex-bosses, old teachers, OB/GYNs, ....I think you get the picture....can peek at what we're up to here at Hilltop Academy. This week I'll start with Harrison. Harrison is very sharp with math. I admire this in him because I am not so sharp with math. He's actually working a grade ahead, using Saxon 3, and I learn little math tricks all the time. Hey...I admitted to borrowing a friend's toothbrush once, so why not fess up that I learn from a 3rd grade math book?! Harrison and I discovered long ago that Star Wars figures make the best manipulatives.
He likes to make up what Saxon calls "some and some more stories" with them. They go a little something like this: "Obi-Wan, Yoda, Mace Windu and Kit Fisto went to the Jedi temple. Darth Vadar, Count Dooku and Darth Maul met them there to fight. How many Star Wars figures are in the temple now?" Harrison's answer: "Six and a half because Obi-Wan sliced Darth Maul in half with his light saber." Ohhhh Kaaaay....onto less violent subjects. Harrison says that this year Spelling is one of his favorites. Actually he hasn't done a whole lot of formal spelling up to this point. I was a little surprised by his enthusiasm. Here he's painting his study words for this week:
In History he's been getting kind of an overview of world cultures through the book Peoples of the World by Usborne before we dive into chronological world history. When we read about different foods earlier this week, the book included a recipe for the Indian yogurt drink called lassi. He really chugged it down.
"Do you like it Harrison?" "Yeah...it tastes a lot like yogurt." Uh....yeah. The following is a descriptive paragraph he wrote (actually from our first week....but who's keeping track?!). My cat's name is Baxter. He is fat and furry. He has a pink nose and green eyes. He is a little stinky. He has a loud meow and a purr. He is soft and warm. He got a 97 on his first math test and 100 on his spelling test today. I may not always share their grades, but when they're that good, why not? And now on to Annaleigh.... The big news for our 6th grader is that she had her first tutorial classes earlier this week where she is taking 2 classes, voice and drama.
As homeschoolers we don't always get the chance to take the first-day-of-school-backpack-on-my-shoulder-going-out-the-door shot, so I rose to the occasion. Here she is busy working on a color-coded Bible project:
In history she's learning about Ancient Egypt right now. I bought one of those treasure chest thingies for that time period, so today she made some hieroglyphic messages with some stamps that were included.
A couple of the things she wrote were "God Rocks!" and "Johnny Depp." The next series of photos I'm calling "Indiana Mimi" as they are of my mom, trying to decode Annaleigh's messages. She told me not to post any of them here, so, of course, I'm posting all of them.
Annaleigh explaining how to use the decoder and Mimi thinking that the print is way too small.
Mimi laughing because I just told her I'm calling these pictures "Indiana Mimi" and she still is not "getting" the decoder.
"OK, I think I've got it," says Indiana Mimi. "Where, by the way, is my whip?"
Here Indiana Mimi tries to hide behind her decoder, but she should know there is no hiding from the papparazzi.
Annaleigh: "Look! It's Indiana Mimi cracking the code!" Mimi: "Where are my BC headache powders?" Stay tuned for the Adventures of Indiana Mimi and the Daycare of Doom.... Alright...enough of that. Later today Annaleigh did her first science experiment, and I'll just be upfront and say that I really don't know what she was doing. It involved rubbing alcohol, canola oil and some food coloring. She used impressive little droppers and made impressive little drawings and notes, so I think I'll give her an A. Give me a break...my lowest college grade ever was in Chemistry where I went down an entire letter grade every test. Thankfully there were only 4 tests!
Wouldn't you give her an A? Look how closely she's examining...whatever it is. Thankfully, Big D arrived on the scene and was able to have an intelligent discussion about....whatever she was doing.
And then, I kid you not, right in the middle of this big mess on my dining room table, a big storm brewed up and our power went out for about 40 minutes.
Maybe God was saying, "Don't do Chemistry." Huh...ya' think? Maybe...please.!!! For some reason, I see science in her future at that tutorial. And, yes, Annaleigh is wearing flashlight strapped to her head. I've tried to tell you we're a little nerdy. Now, do you believe me? And, finally, I can't leave out our mascots who learned how to play the congas...
and got steam-cleaned...
I promise the cleaner is NOT on. And I promise those are not my legs. Damon just wanted to show Ripley what could happen if he sits on his congas again, and Baxter just volunteered to help out. He's just that kind of cat. (Actually, he's about 17 years old, and it's hard to get him to move out of the way!) I hope you enjoyed this peek into our week. Happy schooling! |
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