I'm homeschooling my beautiful, smart little girl and having this blog gives us a chance to share our homeschooling journey with interested family and friends. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KrugerChristianHS/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Sun, 26 Apr 2009 09:43:00 -0500 Sun, 26 Apr 2009 09:43:00 -0500 On Saturday in the mail we got Mieke’s test scores. Just as I suspected she had all the questions right in both the language and math sections. Smart girl :-) She did really well and at least I’ll have the hubby off my back for a couple of months.   Our Bible memory verse for the week came from 1 Peter 2:22 “Jesus committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth” Just another reason why we can believe EVERYTHING He says...He is incapable of lying or deceit. He committed NO sin. Wow, as a sinful being I cannot even imagine what it must feel like to never have committed any sin...   Our Bible studies this week focused on Joseph, Joseph in Egypt and his role there. Joseph facing his brothers, testing his brothers and finally revealing himself to his brothers.  Yikes, can you imagine the therapy this family would’ve needed. For years they lived with the lie, the brothers knowingly deceived their father into thinking that his beloved son, Joseph, the apple of his eye, was dead and now they come home with the news that he is alive??!!!?? Wow, I’m sure they had a lot of explaining to do. I wonder if they ever came clean about what really happened all those years ago. Nonetheless I’m sure Jacob was very happy to be reunited with his son, even though I think it must’ve been a little weird not seeing each other for such a long time...people change so quickly...   The rest of our studies focused on Insects and food preservation. Of course in Ancient Egypt and bible times the way of food preservation was a lot different than it is today. And with improper food preservation techniques you’ll get food poisoning, another one of our focus topics. We also learned about the food pyramid and making informed choices about the food we choose. Some are just saturated in fat and oil and often times we eat too many grain portions a day. Mieke enjoyed learning about the food pyramid and that frozen yogurt is healthier than ice cream.....now, if only we can walk the walk :-)   This week we finished the last LLATL lesson in the red book. There’s a sense of accomplishment with each last lesson completed. I like the feeling :-) Our spelling words were water, sand, little and land. We ended the year’s work with the 7th assessment and Mieke scored 16/16 on that.   On Monday MAFA ended. The parents were invited to a “Muster Day” where the kids showed us how they have learned to march and also showed us the colonial games they’ve learned through the year. We got to sample some goodies...and boy those cookies were GOOD!! :-) There was also some corn bread and lemonade.   In the evening MAFA held their end of year program where we got a sampling of what the kids have learned, not just in Mieke’s class but in all the other classes too. It was nice to be able to see what the kids had the opportunity of doing especially with regard to the music, drama and art.   Mieke’s group performed a short play titled “Tea Overboard”. It was set in the time of the Boston Tea Party. Mieke played the role of Mrs. Conrad and she thoroughly enjoyed it.   On Tuesday we went to the B&G club for some swimming. I just watched from the bleachers but it’s getting hot fast and maybe next week I’ll take my swimming suit too and join in the fun.   On Wednesday we went to a friend of Mieke’s house to work on our AHG. We learned what it means to “Honor my country” The girls had fun and made some sand art cookie jars where the dry ingredients are poured into a canning jar in different layers. It came out beautifully. We’ve decided to present it to people in our group who has served their country in the armed forces. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KrugerChristianHS/687799/ Sun, 26 Apr 2009 09:43:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KrugerChristianHS/687799/ 2 Peter 2:19b  “For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved”  The first thing that comes to mind is....money....gambling, debt, credit card...buy buy buy....lies, cheating...so many things keep people as prisoners, as slaves. We can be free in Jesus. He came to die for our sins and to set us free. Now why would anyone want to go back to being enslaved???  This week we are working on the finishing chapters of the Weaver, the Bible, Science, Social studies etc. Our studies this week was about Jacob and Joseph, about life in Egypt and about Joseph’s family.  We finished our second last chapter of LLATL this week and I can hardly wait to be able to say we are finally done. We’ve worked hard but it was worth it. We had some fun using LLATL. Part of our work this week was making a timeline of Abraham Lincoln’s life.  On Monday at MAFA Mieke learned about Samuel F. B. Morse who invented the telegraph. They discussed how important the invention was and how it affected communication at that time. They worked some more on their timelines. In Art they learned about Samuel F.B Morse the painter and then created their own “inventions” out of “stuff”. In Drama they had a dress rehearsal on stage. It’s getting close, next week is the play....tea overboard...quite fitting for tax time :-)  On Tuesday before we went to the B&G club, I had Mieke complete the math section of the test. Again I didn’t think she would have any trouble since it’s very easy. She can already add with carrying over and subtract with borrowing but the addition and subtraction on the test is really very easy, no carrying over and no borrowing. I mailed it that same day and was hoping to get the results soon although it may take a while since I’m sure they have lots of tests to score.  Tuesday was quite an eventful day for us since just before we left for the B&G club I spotted a girl who was suspiciously sneaking around in my neighbor’s yard, checking the mailbox and then she went and hid behind the bushes. We were just getting ready to leave when I saw all of this and so I decided to call 911 since they’ve had a break in not too long ago and I wasn’t sure if there was any connection.  When the police showed up (and this is the funny part) there were 4 girls hiding behind the bush and they were skipping school...ha-ha, I bet they won’t do that again anytime soon :-) I’m not sure if they got into more trouble but their backpacks were searched and they took a ride in a police car...lucky them! On Thursday we went to the Capitol Center for the Arts and watched a performance of Charlotte's Web. It was very good. They way they changed the scene was really impressive. Well worth the $7pp :-) http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KrugerChristianHS/680950/ Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:23:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KrugerChristianHS/680950/ On Monday at MAFA Mieke learned about the Lewis and Clark expeditions. They viewed maps of their route of exploration and talked about some of the difficulties they encountered. They also discussed Sacajawea and her role with the “Corps of Discovery”. They viewed pictures of her with her baby and the coin minted in her honor in 2000. In art they studied Native American Art and pictographs. They listened to a story and viewed corresponding pictograph.  They created their own pictograph on a teepee. In Music they learned about Native American music and instruments. They listened to samples of the music while sitting around a campfire. In Drama they rehearsed the play.   We took the week off since Mieke’s birthday is Wednesday. On Wednesday her dad took the day off too so we can treat her a little. We took her to Bolton, Mass to Animal Adventures and we all had a great time. Her enthusiasm about the animals is truly contagious. We also went out to eat at the diner and it was fun. It was very quiet, we beat the dinner crowd and missed the lunch crowd so we were almost the only customers in there and the service was excellent :-)   I ordered the first grade CAT test and it arrived on Thursday. On Friday morning I had Mieke do the language part. I didn’t think she would have any problem since I thought it was very easy. It’s technically supposed to be “vacation week” but she didn’t even consider it school since she enjoyed it so much. I want to send it in to be marked but we’ll have to finish the math section first, maybe early next week   On Saturday we had a birthday party for her at Leda lanes’ light house and the kids had a blast.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KrugerChristianHS/680862/ Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:22:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KrugerChristianHS/680862/ Wow, how time has flown. I can't believe it's April already!! This week our Bible lessons centered around Jacob and Esau and how Jacob tricked his dad, Isaac, how he fled to Haran to his uncle, Laban (another trickster) and the dream Jacob had about the angels going up and down the ladder. In Math we reviewed some more. Mieke wrote a test on Thursday and scored 21/24 and now we're starting to practice using test prep materials. We continued our language studies and the words this week were: night, read, fire, helped. These words are a piece of cake compared to the ones from sequential spelling and even though I don't mention this often we still do our sequential spelling daily. On Monday Mieke went to MAFA and they discussed the Industrial Revolution. They learned about machines invented during the Classical Era and how the new industry affected lives positively and negatively. They learned that kids worked in the factories operating machinery, often kids as young as 6yrs old and for 14hrs per day!! Shocking huh? Then they watched a video demonstrating the cotton gin and steam engine. In Art they learned the importance of sheep and wool in the classical era. They reviewed the steps from shearing the sheep to weaving the wool and they each took a turn carding wool and then they began working on their weaving. Mieke brought her unfinished project home and finished it the same day...with Dad's help after she got confused :-) Robert Schumann was the subject of the music class for the week. They learned about his life and listened to samples of his music. In Drama they learned about the Brothers Grimm and their famous fairy tales. They looked at different scenes in the opera Hansel and Gretel while they read about the story. They rehearsed the play. I can hardly wait to see it...only a few short weeks left. On Tuesday when we got to the B&G  club they said they had no lifeguard on duty and so we weren't allowed to swim (policy blah blah) but I had time to chat with some of the other homeschooling moms and Mieke and the other kids kept themselves busy playing in the gym and they even got out the parachute and had tons of fun playing with it. It was impressive to see how they managed to get together, make up a game and work together to make it work. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KrugerChristianHS/680716/ Sat, 4 Apr 2009 18:16:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KrugerChristianHS/680716/ Our Bible memory verse for the week was from Romans 12:10a and it states "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love" Our Bible this week focused on Death and how it's a part of life. It's more important to focus on God's will than it is to focus on death. We also discussed burial practices in the Bible times and compared them with burials today. We also discussed Marriage practices then and now. The Scripture centered around Abraham's death and Izaac getting married to Rebecka. We closed our human body study with learning about the circulatory system and the nerves and brain. Mieke made a nerve necklace showing how the message are being transferred from one nerve to another and then she made a brain hat. She had fun playing with all the human body crafts. For Math this week we reviewed some of the work we've done during the year. I want to do testing sometime in early April. I decided on the CAT test since it's easy, inexpensive and only a low stress way of getting her used to testing in general. In Language this week our spelling words were liked, school, teach & more. We focused a little more on our vocabulary curriculum and finished 2 lessons this week. On Tuesday we finished a lesson about building sand castles and on Thursday we finished a lesson on flying a kite. We are very close to being done with the Wordly Wise Vocabulary Curriculum. On Monday Mieke had class at MAFA. They played "A day in the life" where each child had to portray a child in a colonial family. They acted out some chores like fetching water, gathering eggs, sweeping, making beds etc. They also learned how to knead bread. In Art they learned about the history and importance of candles in the classical period and then they took turns dipping taper candles. In Music they learned the terms concerto and oratorio and then reviewed the instruments and sections of the orchestra. For Drama they colored pictures of a colonial person similar to their character in the play. They reviewed lines and worked on stage movement and positions as they practice "tossing tea" On Tuesday we didn't go the B&G club but we did go to the AHG meeting Tuesday night. On Friday we had a fun day of rollerskating at the Roller Kingdom. Some homeschoolers got together and decided to rent the place for 2 hrs or so and we had the place to ourselves. It was a lot of fun and not even expensive. Mieke made a new friend, Jordan, and I met a new homeschooling mom, Jeannine :-) http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KrugerChristianHS/680714/ Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:03:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KrugerChristianHS/680714/ Our memory verse for the week was Ephesians 5:23b "Christ is the head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body." This week our studies continued with learning about the human body. We studied and made crafts to learn about the digestive system, respiratory system and touched a little on the reproductive system. I'm not in any hurry to get into the details of the reproductive system :-) We completed our last math lesson for the year this week.  The lesson was about bar graphs and line graphs and reading and making them. Mieke enjoyed this. On Friday she scored 11/12 on her test. We finished yet another lesson for LLATL and now have about 4 lessons left...it's so exciting to be able to count back the weeks now, knowing the end is near. The spelling words for the week was born, every, state and farm. On Tuesday we went to paint pottery. Mieke painted a doggie and I painted a leprechaun. On Monday night we made a Leprechaun trap. Unfortunately we didn't caught the naughtly little leprechaun who turned our toilet water and milk green, but Mieke did have a note for him, would he decide to return :-) Of course I had to rewash all the floors where he left his green little footprints, not to mention the mess he made once he realised that the gold we left wasn't real :-) On Monday Mieke attended MAFA. The reviewed rooms in the colonial home and discussed the meaning of Muster Day. In Art they completed their diorama's of colonial rooms and in Music they studied the life and music of Franz Schubert. In drama they practiced the play and did a full run-through of the play and learned stage terms such as "off stage" and "feeding lines". They played "Quoits" and reviewed the games they've learned so far. We would have a chance to see what this is all about once Muster Day comes along :-) On Tuesday we went to the B&G club for some gym time and some swim time. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KrugerChristianHS/680702/ Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:29:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KrugerChristianHS/680702/ I've fallen a little behind on the updating....(what else is new huh?) so I'm going to recollect the thoughts as much as possible. Our bible verse for the week came from Philippians 2:8b and states "He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" It is of course talking about Jesus and the big sacrifice He made out of both love (for us) and obedience (to His Father). This week we studied the concept of Marriage, what it means to us and how God intended it to be. We discussed the various home settings and decided that our house is a Patriarchal home. We're working hard to keep it this way, since I'm a little bit of a control freak (did I just admit that? - it's the first step right:-) but really, all jokes aside we want our home to be the way God intended it to be. With the husband/dad as the head of the house. We also discussed family and our differences and similarities to each other and to other families. In Science we were working on the human body. We had a short overall of the whole body and then we tried to dig in a little. Mieke had a lot of fun learning about different cells and making a cell mobile. We covered just lightly on the urinary system and then we made some crafts to go with our other lessons on muscles and the skeleton. This is my piece of cake. I love the human body studies and everything that goes with it.  In Math this week we are on our second to last lesson and covered the reading of gauges and thermometers. Mieke found this to be quite easy. On Friday she scored 9/12 on her test. For language this week our focus was mainly on Poetry with a new poem or two every day. On Monday we read "The Swing" which we knew as a little song. Tuesday was about "Tired Tim". Wednesday was "Celery" and "The Kitten". Mieke really enjoyed learning the one about the kitten and made it into a little song that she was singing the whole afternoon especially while swinging on the swings in the backyard. Thursday's poem was "How doth the little crocodile" and on Friday we did "My shadow". This last one was not new to us as we had previously studied it. On Friday Mieke had to complete Assessment #6 in LLATL and she scored 16/16. We continue using the sequential spelling...and still love it very much. On Monday we were late for MAFA....we overslept....now you may wonder how it's possible to oversleep when MAFA only starts at 12:30pm....but it was Daylight Savings Time and I think my age has finally caught up with me because for the first time in 8 years I'm having trouble adjusting to the change!! So at MAFA Mieke learned more about life during the Classical Era. They reviewed all the historical figures, artists and composers learned so far and also reviewed clothing, homes and modes of transportation like carriages, coaches and boats and also the incorporation of the newly developed steam engine into transportation of the early 19th century. In Art they learned about dioramas and then they began making their own diorama of a room in a colonial home. In Drama they reviewed their lines and practiced one scene. They also made Jack snow (maple sugar snow, Jack Wax) and discussed the importance of maple syrup to the early Americans. On Tuesday we didn't make it to the Boys & Girls club for the gym and swim since we had a little work to catch up on after Monday's episode. We did go to the American Heritage Girls meeting on Tuesday night though. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KrugerChristianHS/680698/ Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:12:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KrugerChristianHS/680698/ This week our Bible verse for the week was Hebrews 11:1 :  Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This week was a vacation week for public schools and some homeschool co-ops but since we are trying to finish this year so we can have a little vacation before we start with second grade, we decided not to take any time off. This week we continued our study of the planets and used our planet models to study the relationship between the planets. We also learned about the moon and sun in more detail. Pluto was demoted and is no longer being viewed as a planet, so now our solar system has 8 planets. Regardless we still studied pluto and Mieke still learned all the names by singing a song. Mercury Venus Earth and Mars These are the planets that dwell with the stars Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus too Neptune and Pluto I know them, do you? In Math Mieke learned more subtraction by using money. Subtracting money...interesting. LLATL's spelling words for the week included lose, found, lady & then. We also continued our spelling. Since it was vacation week, Mieke didn't have classes at MAFA on Monday and we didn't go to the Boys & Girls club on Tuesday either. Since they cater to all kids we knew the place would be very crowded. On Thursday we had some friends over for pizza and some playtime. The kids enjoyed it and so did us moms :-) I should organize stuff like this more often but it takes so much planning. It had to be rescheduled since it snowed on our previous set date. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KrugerChristianHS/666394/ Thu, 5 Mar 2009 18:43:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KrugerChristianHS/666394/ This week we didn’t learn any new bible verses. We are currently on a catch up chapter in our Weaver Curriculum and so we took this week to just study the Bible. We were supposed to make character sketches but we didn’t really get that far, instead we just read the stories and did some extra activities. Maybe after the Human Body unit when we get back to more character sketches we’ll just tackle them all at once. I’m really excited about getting into the Human Body study since it’s my favorite subject.   Anyway, so we studied in depth Abram’s walk with God and the promises that God made to him and how Abram’s part was to simply have faith. Not too much to ask one may think but of course a lot harder to apply. We studied the relationship between Hagar and Sarah and Abram....triangles are never good :-) We talked about covenants and what it means and we discussed how making covenants with God resulted in circumcision and also name changes in Abram’s family. Abram is now name Abraham and Sarai became Sarah.   In Math Mieke practiced some more subtraction, multiple digit subtraction with carrying/regrouping. She’s becoming quite good at it and on Friday she scored 10/15. Again an issue with her concentration. If time’s up and she’s not done they’re being marked wrong. I’m at a loss here. I just don’t know WHAT I can do to help her stay focused.   We continued our daily spelling exercises using Sequential Spelling, which I absolutely love!! I doubt there is a better fit for us out there. This is IT!! Yes, I love it that much!! The spelling words for LLATL this week were: sea, rain, around and tree. I’m not sure that I like LLATL much any more but I guess we’ll stick it out for another year since I already purchased the next year’s school books, but after that I want to move on to something else.   On Monday we got tons of snow and MAFA declared a snow day. They were in a lot of company since most schools in NH and MA was closed. Unfortunately on Monday Mieke and DH woke up with stuffy noses. Yep, we’re sick...again!! Seriously we’ve been sick for most of the winter and it sucks!!   Needless to say we didn’t go to the Boys & Girls club for our weekly gym and swim.   Oh, lol, almost forgot. Mieke was in tears over a word problem on Thursday. Not so much the usual tears kids have with word problems but rather the content was upsetting to her. It stated: 10,456 spiderlings hatched in my garden. 8,912 of them got eaten by the birds. How many grew up to be big spiders? Well, she was extremely upset about the birds. I should’ve known trouble was coming when after reading the first sentence she started talking about how “cute” baby spiders are etc. Lol, I tried not to laugh too hard :-)   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KrugerChristianHS/666389/ Sat, 7 Mar 2009 18:38:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KrugerChristianHS/666389/ This week our memory verse came from Ecclesiastes 12:1a that states “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.”   We continued our studies on space with a special focus on the sun this week and of course our rotation around it being responsible for our seasons and weather. Mieke learned a little song to memorize the names of the planets in our solar system and learned about how all the planets rotate around the sun, how they form 2 groups (inner and outer planets) divided by an asteroid belt and how we’ll never be able to land on the outer planets since they’re mostly made of gas and doesn’t have a rocky core like the inner planets. Pluto was demoted and is no longer recognized as a planet but we still learned about it, not too much since this week’s study was just an introduction and we’ll really get into it the following week. She also learned how our rotation around the sun causes our seasons and that during some times of the year the north pole has only daytime and some other times only night time.   We also learned how the sun benefits us with it’s warmth and light and how God placed it just the right distance from us to really be perfect. Light breaks up into colors (rainbow) and we even decorated Mieke’s bedroom ceiling with some constellations and she’s keeping a weather diary for the rest of the month.   In Math this week we focused on subtraction using four digit numbers. She’s really getting good at this, even though I have to sometimes remind her to pay special attention to the sign (+ or -). On Friday, much to my surprise, she scored 100% on the test.   In LLATL this week the spelling words were: bark, made, mind and same. We also finished the Success in Spelling this week and I’m so thrilled about it. Now we can focus all our spelling attention on the sequential spelling. We still practice daily and it’s really a wonderful program. I can recommend it to anyone looking for a great spelling program. The best part is that she doesn’t have to study for it and she willingly participates every day...without much complaining :-) as long as I tell her ahead of time what the first and last words are.   We also did some vocabulary study this week. I’m also working on getting this done but I don’t want to do more than one lesson a week. The curriculum calls for 3 days a week and completing 1 lesson over a 2 week period but I find that that’s just ridiculously slow and unnecessary.  It’s a little overkill since the words are very easy and in most lessons Mieke only learns about 1 new word out of the 10 we cover. This week’s lesson was about welcome wheels and was about a boy and his dad who goes to the opening of their town’s new bicycle trail at the park.   We went to the Boys and Girls club for some swimming on Tuesday but when we got there they had a sign up saying the swimming pool was closed (life guard not on duty = no swimming) so we had an extra hour of gym time. It was good and the kids actually started all playing together unlike other times where they usually team up and play by themselves. They invented some games and enjoyed it. The exercise is good too :-)   Oops, forgot to mention earlier that the spelling words for the last 4 SIS tests were. Spelling test # 14 (2nd grade level): end, even, here, home, land, large, men, move, must, need, put & read. Spelling test #15 : such, try, turn, us, well, went, why, again, air, America, animal & answer. Spelling test #16 : away, change, found, hand, high, house, kind, learn, letter, mother, off & page. Last test #17: picture, play, point, should, spell, still, study, world, (first name)(last name)(city of residence)(street name). The last four I just added because the test had fewer words than the other tests and I thought it would be great for her to practice her first & last name and other important information that she knows by heart and may not know how to spell. Turns out I was wrong :-) She scored 100% on each of the 4 tests the first time she wrote them. We did one test a day starting on Monday and by Thursday we were done. There’s a certain amount of emotion going with the completion of each subject area. A job well done. It’s a great feeling. We only have about 2 more months of the school year left since we started a little ahead of the gang we are going to end up ahead of them too, but it works out perfectly since it would correlate with her birthday month too and it’s always nice to have vacation around your birthday. We’re taking her birthday week off too. It’s still a little while since then but I like to think about it :-) I’m practically counting the weeks and days until then.   On Monday at MAFA they reviewed the artists, composers and historical figures they learned about and then discussed homes and chores in the colonies during the classical era. I have to start searching for  a shoe box since they’ll be making dioramas (making a mental note right now!) In art they learned about quilts. There’s a lot more to it than what it sounds like. The patterns actually have some real meaning behind it.  They’re also working on making their own quilts. “but you can only see it at the end of the year” according to Mieke :-) Quite frankly, I can hardly wait for the end of the year because I know they’ve been working on a lot of great projects. In music they listened to fiddle and banjo music of the period and learned a common group dance....haha, wished I was there to witness that!! In drama they’ve been working hard on the play, making a full run-through, reviewing blocking, stage position and projection. Mieke knows both her lines. “It’s not against the law to burn tea, Captain” and “Ladies, we are gathered here today to speak against the tea tax!” – yep, you guessed it...the Boston Tea Party...I can’t wait to see it :-)   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KrugerChristianHS/666382/ Wed, 4 Mar 2009 18:23:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KrugerChristianHS/666382/