Week 23 (Fin!) - Mother's Journal

We had a pretty productive week this week, academically. 

Sunday:
The snow drops were blooming! It was so sad that we never got the leaves up last fall, and that these sweet flowers have brown leaves under them, but at least they're up. They don't last long, so I photographed them.


 

Monday:

Can you believe it? So we took a partial snow day.

We still got done Math, Science, Spanish, some History/Literature, and some Geography. Monday was St. Patrick's Day. I'm not Irish, but my grandmother was born in Dublin... (RAF Base, British citizenship). So, we served corned beef and cabbage, with potatoes. We love that meal!

In our homeschool... I review products for The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew, and there are a lot of new products percolating in my home right now. We are working with CTC Math, Homeschool Adventure's Philosophy Adventure, Victus Study Skills System, SuperCharged Science, as well as a DVD called "Captivated", and an audio adventure series called "Brinkman Family Adventure".  And on Friday, ARTistic Pursuits arrived. I finished the review period for Mango Languages, but we're still trying to keep up the Spanish.

In addition, I'm working on Ambleside Online's Year 7. We're working our way through so many, many books, mostly in the Middle Ages. We're working on Martin Luther, The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, Ivanhoe, The Once and Future King, Watership Down, Winston Churchill's Birth of Brittain from History of the English Speaking People, Loefwine the Monk, Charlotte Mason's Ourselves, ...and many more. I won't bore you... But we are keeping a busy schedule.

With only one student, much of our work is me reading aloud. That way we both enjoy the stories, and I know the work is done. Miner currently works independently on CTC Math, Spanish, and much of his PE (physical activities). Today he was doing Wii Fit.

Our favorite literature right now is Watership Down. I am really enjoying CTC Math right now. Miner is able to do it independently, and he is doing well. He's hitting a bit of a bump right now in Spanish (where he doesn't remember the words for the phrases they're asking him in English to say in Spanish), but we'll stick with it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay, so you saw our 9-1/2" of snow on Monday. As it was melting, on Tuesday or Wednesday, I got this neat photo of the snow melting down the rail of our side stairs.

Can you believe that this is what my deck looked like today (Friday)?

In our county here in Maryland, the public schools have had so many snow days this year that they might not take their spring break in April. I was already leaning toward skipping the break, so it would be helpful to have the county do the same. Our home school was on break for six weeks this winter, and will have some break time this summer, so spring break is not in the cards.

So, what's going on in your home school this week?

   

This post is (or will be) linked at SoYouCallYourselfaHomeschooler.com, and at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

President's Day Week - Wrap up

 

Monday was President's Day, and we opted to take the holiday, so yet again we had a short week. Miner had the opportunity to share lunch and a movie with some other hope schoolers, so that was fun for him. We were expecting a new refrigerator to be delivered at the same time, so that's what I was doing Monday. After dropping Miner off with the group I came home and emptied the fridge into tote bags, which I then stored outside on our back deck, which was conveniently refrigerator temperature. Then the new refrigerator arrived, was installed, the old one removed, and I spent the next hour putting all the food into the new refrigerator. It's real nice. The old fridge was in this house when we moved in 15 years ago, and was two or three years old at that time. The ice maker had stopped working correctly long ago, and lots of plastic parts were cracked and broken. Hubby opted for a nice replacement fridge. Hopefully it will be a nice selling point for the house when it is time for us to relocate, when hubby retires. In the meantime I get to enjoy having the nicest refrigerator I've ever had! 

I sure try to be content, but I really love it when God blesses us abundantly every now and then. After the fridge arrived and Miner got home, we went to the Scout Store to get some supplies.  

Tuesday we opted to focus on Boy Scout Merit Badge work, working on reading part of the Emergency Preparedness Merit Badge booklet, the Communications Merit Badge booklet, and the Citizenship of the Nation Merit Badge booklet. We also attempted to begin work on some of the requirements, but didn't finish anything that could be checked off by the Merit Badge Counselor. I also set up a notebook of the three Merit Badges to prepare Miner for the Merit Badge University at Catholic University Saturday and Sunday.

Wednesday and Thursday were good, solid academic days with work on Bible, Algebra, Literature, History and Science, as well as Physical Fitness. I think we did Bible all five days. 

Friday started with finalizing preparations for Merit Badge University, and then was consumed by errands - haircut, dentist, allergy shot...

Saturday and Sunday were Merit Badge University. Miner worked on Emergency Preparedness, Communication and Railroading Merit Badges (last minute change).

Another one bites the dust! (Another week, that is)

Another week done of the school year. How did you do at your house? Here's how we did at mine.

 

My student had a conversation with older sibling, who reads this blog, and my student felt that I was not using an appropriate degree of tact with some of my posts. Student also wishes to be known, hereafter, by the code-name "Miner", related to his love of playing Minecraft. So be it. I will be going through my history, as I am able, to alter all entries related to Miner to change entries to reflect his chosen code name, as well as to make sure I am speaking about him with adequate tact so that he does not have to be embarrassed if he gets into a conversation with someone who has read the blog entries. So that was the first new thing this week (last week end).

Still in the throes of winter, I stumbled across this awesome video of 30 porpoises beached, being saved by the people on the beach. Awsome!

All in all, we had a very good school week, academically speaking. I wish I felt free to have a good week "Charlotte Mason-speaking", but I feel bound by the regulations in my state regarding home schooling. ::sigh::

Bible:

Regular daily Bible readings, but no school Friday (for all subjects) because Miner and I are both sick.

Mathematics:

We were able to do a lesson-a-day together, except Friday (sick). It is with a sigh of relief that we move into equations involving greater than and less than (that I don't know how to do the symbols of), such as: (the square root of x-2) , x - 4 - solve for x (where you have to square both sides to solve the "less than" than value of x). Don't try to solve that one -- I don't know how well it solves since I pulled it out of the air, not out of my book. (We're using Horizon's Algebra I.)

Science: 

Since we weren't making any headway in finding a different Science to be working on, I have gone back to working on Apologia Physical Science with Miner. I find the content, actually, to be quite challenging. It demonstrates why we are doing upper level lmath, because it is necessary in scientific conversions and all that. Yesterday's experiment and write up was regarding cubits (length from elbow to tip of fingertips) and inch (lenght from tip of your pointer to the next knuckle), and measuring the dining room table's length and width in cubits, and then converting it to inches. At one point, even with a calculator, the converted width was coming up as twice the length. I think Miner forgot to hit "Clear" between equations. 

We've had a lot of great bird feeder activity going on here this week! Hairy woodpecker doesn't want his photo taken.

I also had a group of starlings hit the feeder yesterday, but I didn't get the photo. Lots of chickadees and house sparrows, cardinals and titmouses, house finches and some mourning doves, dark-eyed junkos and at least one white-breasted nuthatch.

Social Studies:

We are working our way through Geography. This week we were looking at the way the world looks globally - the seven continents, the four oceans (that are actually all one big ocean), the seas, rivers and mountains. We looked at plate techtonics, and how the continents look like they may once have all been one great land mass. We watched part of the "debate" between Ken Hamm and Bill Nye (The Science Guy), but when we learned that it would not be following normal debate format we decided not to continue watching. It was formatted for each to present their side's perspective for 30 minutes. I didn't have that type of attention span than night, let alone Miner.

Language Arts:

Desiring to be able to give Miner credit for 9th Grade English, we have picked Bridgeway English back up to work on. He took a test in it (that I haven't graded yet). I also located the IEW writing workshop that he and I will watch together next week. We have been working our way through Arabian Nights stories, as well as the book Loefwine the Monk, and we started Men of Iron.

Miner had begun January with a preference for studying French (probably influenced by watching Dr. Who), but has again veered back to a preference for Spanish. Since I currently have the flexibility to permit him to study either (or both), I was fine with that. My goal is that he learn a foreign language, and that he do some work on it daily. He did a really good job at it this week.

Music:

The folk song for February is "Wade in the Water". We listened to it, but Miner didn't like it. It could have been the version that he found on YouTube was too depressing, or the song in general just depressing, but I let him turn it off.

Art:

Minecraft art drawings this week, nothing of particular note. No photos. I need to work on having photos to include in my weekly summaries. But frankly, I just don't feel well today and don't have the energy to bother about that right now.

Phys Ed:

Miner continued to work on his Personal Fitness Merit Badge for Boy Scouts. This involves running (can be running in place), sit ups, push ups, various stretches and strengthening, pull ups, etc., for 12 weeks.

Health:

Regular discussions about health issues. Miner recently took a one-day course for his First Aid Merit Badge that I might not have remembered to list when he did it in January. That counts, right?

Projects I am working on....

I am currently working on crocheting an off-white baby hat to donate to my charity, Online Angels, in Pottsville, PA.

Places we are going and people we are seeing.....
Between sickness and precipitation, just hunkering down. Come, Spring! Quickly! (Someone shoot the ground hog, please!)

Things I am cooking..... 

Made chili last night. Tonight will be French Bread Pizza. I started Minnesota Wild Rice Soup, but lost my momentum and put it away to do later. I also made chocolate chip cookies. I don't have my meals for next week planned yet.

Things I am reading....

It came! It came! I'm up to chapter 6.

Well, I need to go rest and get well. Have a great weekend!

10/18/13 Mother's Journal

This week in our home and life:

In my life this week.....

My cousin, who is about five years older than I am, is physically disabled and has COPD (a lung disease caused by smoking) and is always on oxygen. On Tuesday, getting home after a doctor's appointment, after getting out of the car fell and injured himself so badly that it was touch and go that he might pass away that night. He survived the night, and had an up and down week that included being put on a trach tube, having surgery to reconstruct his hip, and staying in ICU. Yesterday I finally got to go visit him. They were able to take the tube out of his airway while we were there. We had a good visit, although he couldn't talk - he still had the tube most of our visit, and after they removed it he was on a "positive airway", which made talking like trying to shout out a car window at 90 mph. Mostly he wrote down things and we read them and answered what he had written. But it was a good visit. I hadn't seen him since 2006. It was a long drive to get there, but I hope I don't wait so long to see him again.

In our homeschool this week...... 

J-Boy worked on Notgrass America the Beautiful for History, Geography, Literature, Bible, Creative Writing; for Math he used IXL Math and began Horizon's Algebra; in Science we worked on Apologia Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics; for Grammar and more Writing he worked in Bridgeway's English; for Spelling and Vocabulary he has been working through words I programmed into VocabularySpellingCity (from the SAT Vocabulary list for college prep); and we worked on French using French Essentials.

  

Places we went and people we saw......

Well... we kinda hunkered down and didn't go anywhere or see anyone because we had a lot on our plate. J-Boy had his Boy Scout Court of Honor on Monday night and received three merit badges and received his rank advancement to 2nd Class. And I wasn't counting this weekend, but I should -- he just got back from a two-night camping trip at Antietam National Battlefield. I didn't go; that's why I wasn't thinking of it because it wasn't a place "we" went, but rather a place where "he" went.

What I am cooking......
Well, I'm posting my menu plan in my next blog entry. Last week included beef stew, which was yummy. We also got to have a date night when J-Boy was camping. We drove that long drive to visit my cousin in the hospital, and after that we went out to dinner and dessert, which we don't get to do as a couple all that often.

What I am reading.....

I'm working on At Home in Dogwood Mudhole, by Franklin Sanders; Redemption, by Mike Wilkerson; and in my pile but not read this week are Boundaries with Teens by Cloud and Townsend as well as White Gold Wielder by Donaldson.
 

Projects I am working on.....
Doll clothes for Samantha (American Girls Doll) and baby hats for my charity.

Something I am eyeing......
A safe cover to protect my Kindle.

Something new I learned......
Way more than I wanted to know about ways my efforts at Parental Controls can be hacked when I'm spend hours trying to keep boundaries up to keep my little computer-user safe.

Questions for all you smart mommas out there.....
Are you still reading this entry, way down here at the bottom of my blog entry?

A couple more photos from our week....
Sorry, that'll have to wait. I took video of the Court of Honor, and it's probably long and boring. My other photos are on my phone, but it's off charging. So for now, no photos.

Thanks for reading!

Friday wrap-up for 9/27/13

• In my life this week…

My daughter, heart-heavy and missing her Milly, got herself a puppy! Her new puppy is named Bella, and she is ten weeks old! We get to babysit sometimes. She's a doll!

• In our homeschool this week…

JD trying to work independently this week. Left me feeling out of touch with where he is in his studies, and unsure if he is actually doing what I want him to do. Need to get this better figured out this week.

• Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…

A bad day of home schooling is better than a good day of public school any day!

• Things I’m working on…

Lots of products for review, and things previously reviewed:
- VideoText Interactive Algebra;
- Bridgeway English (Grammar and Writing);
- Flip Flop Spanish;
- America the Beautiful for History, Bible, Literature, Timeline, Mapwork, Creative Writing;
- Logic of English Cursive;
- Apologia Physical Science;
- WYAM Biography of Jim Elliot;
- Vocabulary/Spelling City

• I’m cooking…

Watch for my menu mailer every Monday.

• I’m grateful for…

The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Review Crew!

• I’m praying for…

Oh... so many people!

• I rewarded my kids this week by…

A surprise trip to Krisy Kreme Donuts for a doughnut and to watch the doughnut making machines.
~~~~~~~~~~~~

So... I don't know which format I like better, this one or my normal subject-by-subject one, but I figured I'd give this one a try. Next week I'll probably do the other format as it gives me a better record of what we have done during the week.

Have a great week this week!

Friday Wrap-up - 9/20/13

This week was another fairly good week. I was pleased with the way my son is beginning to (most days) tackle his assignments as a matter of course. There were, however, many times of grumbling, complaining, groaning, begging for things I'd already said "No" to, etc. I took comfort in reading comments of some other 13-14 -year-olds, and apparently this is not unique, although I wish I did not have to suffer through it.

Anyway, here's the week's summary:

Bible:

Assignments done in conjunction with other subjects; verses from America the Beautiful assignments and from Apologia Physical Science assignments.

I'd like this next week to also incorporate memorizing verses from the unit study we are currently doing on Jim Elliot, by YWAM, which (even though a biography) I guess would also fall under "Bible", so we've worked on that this week.

I need to ramp up to include "Hymn Study" in our "Bible" next week as well.

Math:

Have been working on Videotext Online Algebra. We are in unit 1. I don't know whether to decide that he still "doesn't get it", or if he is being lazy and not working hard enough to memorize terms and what they mean. Regardless, Math is a subject where I get a lot of resistance always and still. He tries to do the worksheets without watching the video, then he tries to watch the video and take the quiz without doing the worksheets. Net effect is that we are progressing very slowly. I am trying to get him to do this independently, so he tells me he did his work for the day, and he moves on to another subject. I try to quickly get to his work to review it, only to find he has lots of incorrect answers. I ask him if he watched the video, reviewed the class notes, before he did the worksheet, or did he do the worksheet before he took the quiz, and inevitably he has intentionally skipped a step because he just wants "to get on with it", which really isn't getting on with it at all. Because when answers are wrong we have to slow down, do it over, do it together, etc. So, worked on math a lot this week. Did not get very far.

Science:

Working on Chapter 1 of Apologia Physical Science. He was really dragging his feet at the beginning (probably this happened last week) and would not round up the materials and do the first experiment. My schedule (and my attitude, and my recovery from the loss of our dog) did not contribute to getting this experiment done, so I pulled up a YouTube video of it and we just watched it. Not ideal, but it got us to a point of moving forward in our Science.

So this week I really was very, very pleased when he tackled experiment #2 on his own. That went well. He wrote things up in the Journal and everything, too!

But then we got to some math, right there in the Science. "If you have 2.853 ml, how many liters is that equal to?" He balked. He didn't want to read, read, and reread the chapter to find out how to do it. And I, unfortunately, really don't remember the answer either, and I don't have a teacher's key to the book. So it took us a long time, but we got through that section. I don't know if we got through it well, or correctly, but we got through it.

So we didn't get as much done as I had hoped, but we did do Science. My son actually got to a point where, when I told him that a lower level Chemistry was coming up for review with the TOS Crew and did he want me to ask for it, he actually said, "Yes!" He NEVER asks for review items, and there were two this week that he wants, so it was quite surprising to me.

Social Studies:

We are working on America the Beautiful by Notgrass. Again, not making quite the progress I had hoped, but I think he got three or four lessons done this week.  Similar to Math, he is to do this independently and I am to go back over his work to check it for "done"ness, accuracy and correctness, etc. Like Math, he will sometimes just decide to not do something, and I have to call him on it. "Hey, you need to do the mapwork for the day." Etc. But we're making progress.

So "Social Studies" includes history, geography, mapwork, and timeline work. The curriculum also includes some Bible and some Creative Writing, which I won't also list under Language Arts, but I'm pleased with what he did this week!

Language Arts:

We are currently working on Bridgeway English (a remedial program that will count as 1 year high school credit when we finish). So far I have been really, really pleased with his work in this program and with the program itself! I need to spend some more time looking at it, but I remember that Book 1 is primarily Grammar and Book 2 is primarily Writing. He is working out of both books right now. This is a review item, so for the review I have to have him work out of both books, but after the review I will just focus on Book 1, finish it and move to Book 2 and finish it in that order.

We have not been working on Spelling or Vocabulary, but I am working to ramp this up in his schedule. I have a membership to VocabularySpellingCity - another review item - and I am going to create vocabulary and spelling lists to correspond to College SAT preparation. Next week I'll have him working on the first list, and I'll be working to get more lists ready for future weeks.

We are also working on Spanish. We are reviewing Flip Flop Spanish, and it is going really well. This seems to be a gentle, fun, mostly painless way to absorb, learn and play with Spanish, and we're both learning! I love it!

Health: 

This week in J-boy's life a palatal expander was inserted in the roof of his mouth. His top palate needs to be wider than his lower jaw. We're also hoping it will widen his nasal canals and make nose-breathing easier.

We're also working on healthier eating. For this boy with the voracious hunger and the corresponding wasteline, we need to purge the house of things we don't want him to eat, because at night he goes on the prowl and eats and eats and eats. So away are going the white flour, white sugar, chocolate chips, crackers, etc., etc., etc. It has been helping. I am hoping it can eventually become a more painless process as well.

The palatal expander might also decrease the amount he eats. We'll see. Hopefully he will also work on healthy lifestyle in Boy Scouts soon too.

Phys Ed:

Have not been keeping this written down yet, but he has gone down and worked on the treadmill two or three times this week. I think I should put a chart by the treadmill where he can check off a box each day that he walks or runs a mile.

Art:

I came so close... so close to opening the Artistic Pursuits this week, but didn't. Hopefully I'll get it started next week. I'd also like to be doing the Ambleside Artist Studies simultaneously, but we'll see. This is feeling like a lot.

Music:

Have not done any music this week. Goal for next week: to include Hymn and some classical music into our week.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So that's it for my week. How did your week go?

Friday Wrap Up - 9/13/13

This seemed like a pretty good week. We are still ramping up for the new school year. With Milly's illness last week, last week was shot as a good "first week". We have all been emotional wrecks this week, so considering that, I figure what we got done was very good.

BIBLE:

Not done every day, but assignments completed as they came up in America the Beautiful.

MATH:

We're working our way through Videotext Online - Algebra, a Complete Course. I will be writing a review of the product in a few weeks. What I am really liking right now is the way the course is set up so that if the student understands, you move forward, but if the students isn't "getting it", you bump back, review, rework and retest. Perfect. The main struggle for me is in the daily checking of quizzes and worketext pages.

SCIENCE:

We have started Physical Science this week, not perfectly, but still I am pleased. A lot of the Physical Science experiments are available online (Youtube), which is great. We really couldn't round up the materials for the first experiment and would have stayed stuck there if not for the online video. We watched it and moved on. Still trying to help on be more indepently-minded, but I keep having to "spoon feed" certain subjects to him.

Social Studies: 

Working our way through America the Beautiful, he covered four lessons (more or less) this week, with which I was relatively satisfied. We're trying to increase his independence, but I'm trying to figure out how to balance that with checking his work and holding him accountable for completing assignments (vs. saying he's done when he has actually skipped stuff).

Geography:

Began work on a biography of Jim Elliot, and was kind of amused/dismayed when my son insisted Equador is in Mexico... He was being difficult at the time(s) we were working on this this week.

PHYS ED: Did some walking; nothing major. Not keeping track yet. Possible starting 90-Day Physical Fitness Challenge shortly..

HEALTH, Art, Music: No work done this week.

So that's it so far. Still recovering from the loss of our sweet Milly girl (our dog that we adopted when my son was a month old, Milly was a month old). Milly, we look forward to loving on you again when we get to heaven... 

 

Homeschool Mother's Journal - 8/31/13

I'm not real good at doing this weekly, but it looks like I'll get 'er done for this week!

Government schools are back in session where I live. All the local schools are up and running. However, our home school marches to its own beat. In one way or another we have continued our home schooling most of the summer.

But my daughter is getting married this weekend, and this week's school was relegated to a lower priority than will be true in the future. Things that JD could do mostly on his own were fine, but things that required my assistance mostly didn't happen. So, here's the run-down:

BIBLE:

For this week I suspect this week contained no Bible. My son is not self-moving on personal quiet times at this point, family life just didn't include group reading times. Just being real. Didn't happen.

MATH:

Absolutely blessed, I am, to have the opportunity to review Videotext Online's "Algebra: The Complete Program" in exchange for a review. We have had the program just over one week now, and it is not one that I will be able to just hand to JD to have him do on his own. Between that fact and the fact that he does not accept or adjust to change well, it has taken us six school days to: 1) watch Lesson 1, Video 1; 2) review and study to lesson notes that correspond to the first video; 3) get JD to do problems that correspond to Video 1; 4) re-review and study the lesson notes to convince him that, yes, I am serious that he is going to do this program and needs to take it seriously; 5) get him to take a new shot at different problems from the Lesson 1 Worksheet; and 6) take the quiz to the first lesson. Since he is in 8th grade and can do the "slow track", this can be considered two days worth of work. But it had to be done more slowly because if he doesn't "get" it, I need to wait a day and try again. He did not need to watch the video again, because that wasn't really the issue. He just didn't want to cooperate because he didn't want to change math programs (even though he wasn't understanding Horizon's Pre-Algebra at the end of last year).

He knows I'm serious now, and I think we're off to a strong, albiet slow start.

LANGUAGE ARTS:

This week did not include any Grammar. We did not do any read-alouds this week. JD has previously not been doing any independent reading, and desperate to get him to engage in this activity we pretty much said, pick a book and read or you don't get computer. Any book.

He has older siblings, so sometimes he has access to materials that other homes with a 13-year-old might not have to think about his picking, so don't judge me please. His book of choice was Hunger Games. I've seen the movie, haven't read the book yet, so on many levels I am not comfortable with this choice, but I need to get him going on reading and it seems to be doing the trick. (His sister, similar situation, had been a lover of the Harry Potter books, and is now a very strong Christian. Ideally I would have loved it if his choice had been Lord of the Rings or something, but it wasn't. I'm moving forward.)

He has also been working his way through a handwriting program that we were blessed to receive to review, from the "Logic of English" people, so you'll hear about that one soon. I've been pleased with the way he has been able to take that one on and work independently.

SCIENCE:

The only science he got this week was watching some YouTube videos that interested him. If you think that's odd, go back to the beginning of this blog entry. ::sigh::

HISTORY:
Like Science, we set History aside for a few weeks to prepare for the wedding.

ART:
Yeah... no.

MUSIC:
Zip, zilch, nada

PHYS ED:
Nah...

HEALTH:  Are you kidding me? No, seriously, there were some unfruitful conversations about choices he is making in his eating. Still working on it. Can't force him to be healthy; need to help him make that lifetime choice on his own.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The good news is that I can really and truly start school next week. The bad news is that... In my little house... I had to stash all the school work to have the house clean for company.  It will take me a while to get school functional again. I'm in transition trying to get my daughter's room empty to rearrange my house. But she owns more stuff than she can fit in their new apartment. She needs to go through her stuff and make decisions on stuff to part with, but she just hasn't had time, so I'm in limbo. I can't make those decisions for her. So it's really hard every time we "clean up" to get back to normal. Right now, "normal" does not include every item having its own place where it belongs. We're in transition, and it's really a difficult time. But a good thing.

So that's my summary. How was your week? This post is linked up with "So you call yourself a home schooler?" Visit her blog and read more folks' entries!

Homeschool Journal - 5/10/13 & 5/17/13

Monday: We started the week of 5/10 knowing it had to be a short week. We were going out of town. In Horizon's pre-Algebra, JD is having trouble with the section on calculating the slope. He really just needs to pay attention and do some memorizing, but he can't stand that. He wants to ignore me and figure it out on his own, and he's getting it wrong every time. So, since I don't want to frustrate him, I closed the Horizon's Pre-Algebra book and switched to the Mastering Essential Math Skills for Monday. That was also a good day just working on our regular assignments.

Tuesday: Today I had to just hand JD the pile of assignments and walk away. I have no idea how much work he did. I had SO much to do -- first the geriatric dog had peed all over the upstairs of the house. I had to dry up and mop everywhere. Then I also had about 5 loads of laundry that all had to be done and folded and put away so that we could all pack. PLUS I cleaned two bathrooms, because I wanted to come home to clean bathrooms. And we all packed.

Wednesday: Got up at 2:45 AM to get together and out the door to the air port. Had over an hour drive, then park in long term parking and ride to air port for a 6:00 or so AM flight to DIA (Denver International Airport). Got to Arizona (don't remember when, but we had flown for 6-7 hours including the lay-over). Then the day was suddenly two hours longer because of the time change. We swung by a couple of places we used to live, and looked at all the stored air planes and such at Davis Monthan Air Force Base.

Then we got a bite to eat and drove to Huachuca City to stay with our friend. He lives in a mobile home on a very nice lot. He has a nice shaded porch, and when we sit there we can look out at the mountains and fields, and watch the birds in the trees and visiting his water supply and hummingbird feeder.

Thursday: The major trips of the day - we drove to Tombstone, AZ! My son got really excited about the gems and minerals. He and his dad went on a tour of the silver mine, and then he went into the store at the OK Corral and had fun selecting tumbled rock samples to buy and take home. It was a great trip. We also drove to Brisbee and saw the excavation pits that were left behind when they decided the copper mines were no longer profitable. 

Friday: We went to a Titan Missile Silo Museum where my husband worked 33 years ago! We took a tour. They re-enacted a missile launch where they appointed ME the crew chief and had me turn the key to launch the missile. I almost flinched, but I knew it was play, so I went ahead and did it. It was pretty fun -- they were playing all the bells and buzzes that would have gone along with a real launch. Then they gave me a card with my name on it that said I turned the key!

Saturday: I think I'm getting my days confused, but I'm doing my best. Saturday should be the day we took a long hike in a fabulous canyon that walked us through five different Arizona habitats. I'll have to cover this material in a future entry, but I'll give you a view that canyon residents in 1910 saw when they walked out their front door each morning.

We also took a trip to a lovely little Nature Conservancy. I think it must have been earlier in the week, but I really don't know which day. There were many high lights, but I think one of the big items to mention is a cottonwood tree there that is hundreds of years old.

Sunday - Mother's Day - started with a visit to Calvary Chapel in Sierra Vista. We took the rest of the day easy. JD and Dad did some metal detecting and wash searching for Apache Tears and gems (but found not much but rocks and sand). We went out to dinner - had a very nice dinner. Unfortunately for waitress we couldn't take leftovers home, so we split a main dish. Wish I could have explained it to her, but she was a good sport.

Monday - We said good-bye to our friend in Huachuca City and went up to the Tucson area. Our main focus of the day was the Sonoran Desert Museum. An amazing place; I'll have lots of Nature Study posts in the future about things that we saw. I'll tease you with a photo of garden eels, from the aquarium - apparently they are native to somewhere in Arizona.

Leaving the Museum, we next stopped at a very rustic gem and mineral shop. My son's new love is gems and minerals. I wish I had taken a picture of the outside of the shop, but I didn't think of it. But the owner let me take a photo of some Bisbee turquoise, which is very rare. It is embedded in quartz.

After that we headed to a hotel where JD and I swam for a while (quite a treat after a long winter).

Tuesday: Travel day, again. We ate breakfast at the hotel, packed the car, and checked out. Unfortunately, there were HOURS until we needed to be at the airport. There were still a couple of things we wanted to do, though. Big sister wanted us to take photos of our old homes, which we had visited our first day but not taken photographs. We went to two locations and took photos. Then JD wanted to go to a "real" wash (dry river bed" and hunt for metals and stones and things. We headed to a wash by Ft. Logan. The "guys" went down in the river bed while I hunted around in the park for last minute photos of indigenous birds. There was a beautiful orange oriole that would NOT stay still long enough for a photo. The boys had similar (non) luck hunting in the wash. The time finally came to go to the airport. We grabbed lunch on the way.

There are no direct flights between Tucson and our home airport, so our first leg was to Denver, where we switched flights and had an hour or more's layover. We had dinner there, and JD got his first view of the snow-capped Rockies. The sun was dropping, but I took a photo from the airport window.

Wednesday: Midnight to 2:00 am, we were still flying. We finally arrived in our home state, disembarked the airplane, got our luggage, transported to our car and drove home. We got home after 3:00 a.m. The rest of Wednesday was a day for rest, readjustment to the time zone change, laundry, etc. No school. Went to Advanced Electric 4-H Club where JD worked on his project for the fair. It's some sort of electro-magnet-morse code machine or something...

Thursday: We got through all our subjects. The second "school day" in two weeks (as if that solid week of Arizona nature study was nothing!) Thursday night was Boy Scouts.

Friday: Roused JD at about 8:30. He came out into the living room to promptly fall asleep in the chair. Since I don't do school with sleeping children, I let him sleep. He's still adjusting to being back. While he was sleeping I mowed the lawn. When he finally woke up he had to do his school work on his own. I don't know how well he did, but he says he did everything. 2nd day like that in two weeks, but if I count that I guess we've done four "school-ish" days in two weeks, with a solid additional week of new nature and science and geography.

So that's my wrap-up. How was your week?

Homeschool Mother's Journal, 5/3/13

Homeschool Mother’s Journal: May 3, 2013

In my life this week…

It is spring, but the heat keeps cranking. It's cold.

My biggest struggle in our homeschool right now is with my student's sleep patterns. For a while this year I was okay with him doing schoolwork late at night and sleeping in late in the morning. But he is just not doing the schoolwork. He has reached a level in Math where he needs my instruction each lesson, so he can't just do his Math. He's not doing his Latin at the intended pace, and is not getting as much out of it as hoped since he doesn't want to watch the DVDs.

To add to issues with my son, one of our dogs is becoming geriatric and unable to hold her urine. Extra cleaning; extra smells.

And the most stressing issue overshadowing everything, my step-sister's breast cancer, which I won't discuss on this public forum.

In our homeschool this week…

We are almost done with The Hobbit. It has been fun seeing how my son has enjoyed this book. He rarely is interested in anything that is not science or Lego related.  Finished/finishing two product reviews this week. Work completed in plotting functions in Math. Studying nature without documentation right now. Have a tadpole we're watching transition to frog. Son had caught eight frogs, too, but let them go because the care of eight frogs was more than he could handle. 

We're trucking right along in Halliburton's 2nd Book of Marvels. In Literature and History we largely decided to park longer in the 2nd half of the 1800's to catch some material we haven't gotten done. One of our current books is even the American Revolution era: Amos Fortune, Free Man. I guess its title made me think it was Civil War era. Then when I pulled it out I found it was 1700's. Oh well. 

We're also reading Across Five Aprils, The Light in the Forest; and Our America.... The King Philip's War Adventure (another book set in the 1700's).

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

We're also reading Arizona: Cavalcade of History in preparation for an anticipated trip to southern Arizona. More on that later.

My favorite thing this week was…

when my 13-year-old son willingly held my hand as we crossed the parking lot. He was in his Boy Scout uniform on his way to a camp-out, and we were getting his dinner at the Subway, all a bunch of his favorite things (Boy Scouts, Subway, camp-outs), so I guess he was just happy enough to risk being seen holding my hand. Made this mama smile!

My kiddo’s favorite thing this week was…

An unexpected box full of gifts that arrived unexpectedly from someone, just because he enjoyed talking with my son over a year ago while he fixed our screen door!

Things I’m working on…

Product reviews, house cleaning, decluttering, geriatric dog care, menu planning, figuring out next year's school books, arrangements for a vacation.

I’m cooking…

Burgers on the grill.

I’m grateful for…

Date night with my hubby last night.

I’m praying for…

my step-sister, Debbi, and my daughter's dog, Milly.

I rewarded my son this week by…

letting him get a Smithsonian Geology Kit at the Scout Store.

Something I am ogling or have my eye on…

My daughter's bedroom, which she will be vacating when she marries in September. It will ease the cramped conditions in my home when I can make that bedroom into a sewing/classroom.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share (silly, serious or both!)…

"May the 4th be with you!"

Friday Wrap-Up

 
Here's a wrap-up for our week. My young adolescent is staying up late and sleeping late. It is cramping my plans. I have resorted to writing him a "To Do" list some days, and that has helped some.

Bible:
Reading: We did well, most days, but I entirely forgot on Monday. Yeah, I've strayed far from using my Daily Lesson Planner... And we're falling behind on our "Read through the Bible in a Year" plan, because we don't tend to work on the scheduled readings on weekends.
Memory: I'm working on my "100 Verses in 2013" and JD is working on Awanas verses; we've both been working.
Hymns: We've been working on This is My Father's World, but we only did it once this week.

Math:
Working on Horizons Pre-Algebra, lessons  66-70, and Test #7

Science: 
Working on Apologia Astronomy, Chapter 2.

Language Arts:
Grammar: Working on Essentials in Writing (Grade 6), Lessons 2 - 6. (Watched DVD for Lessons 1-5 last week, but couldn't start written work til Friday, last, when Lesson 1's written work was done, so this week written work for Lessons 2-6 and Video for Lesson 6.
Latin: Working through Latin 1 - First Form Latin by Memoria Press. This week: Lesson 2, finished, at beginning of week and Lesson 3 begun.
The Art of Poetry begun: Lesson 1, Imagery
Literature: Readings from Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass; Little Britches: Man of the Family; Lassie, Come Home; and Ever Hopeful, Hannah Lee.

Social Studies:
Working on post Civil War era, Reconstruction and Reform. Sadly, The History of Us: Reconstruction and Reform seems to have found some hiding place, so this subject has been neglected this week. Weekend plans: find the book!

Art:
Study of Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) French Impressionist (This term's composer: Debussy)

   1. La Grenouilliere, 1869, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm
   2. Les Grands Boulevards, 1875, The Henry P. McIlhenny [travelling] Collection
   3. La Loge, 1874, Courtauld Institute Galleries, University of London
   4. Girl with a Watering Can, 1876, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
   5. The Two Sisters, On the Terrace, 1881, Art Institute of Chicago
   6. Girls at the Piano, 1892, Musee d'Orsay, Paris

Music:
Study of Johann Sebastian Bach
Listening selections for this term:
    Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major, BWV 1047
    St. Matthew Passion (for 4 weeks)
    Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 (consists of one toccata and one fugue; do-able in 2 weeks)
    Well-Tempered Clavier (Prelude and Fugue in C minor, Book I)
    Goldberg Variations

Health:
Discussion of ways to try to stay healthy during cold and flu season.

Physical Education:
Bowling, and general outdoor activities.

Other:
Working on Week 2 of College Common Sense
Scouts: JD got a few things checked off in his book at last night's meeting.
4-H: Tomorrow night is the annual Recognition Night: JD is getting one or two awards. 

Nature Study: Hopefully we'll be doing Backyard Bird Count this weekend. :)

Delighted mommy-moment of the week: My son working on his Latin, reciting to himself various congegations, turns to me and says, "Well, we wanted a language to study, and we found it. We found it. Latin. I like it!"  Wow! My son seldom says things like things like that!  It took me a long time to "learn" my son. I have finally learned that it really takes a month of insisting him to do something so that he can become comfortable with it. Then it is easier to make a valid decision of whether or not something is a good fit with him. 

Another mommy-moment: Reading from Exodus, he begins stopping me every time it tells of the length of curtains in cubits so that he can convert it to feet. Then he says, "I love Math!" Then he pauses, and continues, "I hate it, too, but I love it!"


Spreading the word: 
My daughter has been apprising me of Daisy's situation for years, praying for her. Just found this video; wanted to spread the word. Please pray for Daisy:


Linking up with other homeschool moms at iHomeschool Network.  Be sure to visit them!!

Weekly Wrap-Up and Finding my MoJo

Trying to implement a weekly meme on  Saturday for wrap-up and mojo will be challenging for me. (mojo = mother's journal) I don't know how I will do, but here goes for today!



This week in our homeschool we did:

Bible: Awana's work and Bible readings from Ephesians;

Math: Horizons 6, Lessons 81 through 85

Ambleside Online, Year 4, Week 29. This included:
Nature Walk: Silent Nature Walk (I'm like so behind on these challenges -- this is the one from three weeks ago!)  - The boys opted for taped mouths to remind themselves to keep silent! (I have not yet made my "Friday" Nature walk post, or I would have linked to it. It is still upcoming.)

 A little ice on the water. Note the child on the right is only in a hoodie sweatshirt. This was two days before our little storm. We now have a 1" layer of snow covered with a light icy crust. I'm too lazy to take that photo right now -- it might be the straw that keeps me from getting this post done...

Okay, back to the wrap-up, AO 4 week 29 also included some:

Composer Study: Felix Mendelssohn, listening to

Songs Without Words Op.19 No.1 in E Major

I have learned that unsupervised YouTube use by the kids will not be permitted. For example, next week I want them to listen to Mendelssohn, the original Wedding March, but I found offensive comments had been posted below it on YouTube. How sad.


Artist Study: Focused on the life and works of Albert Bierstadt, particularly:
Facts from Wikipedia biography;
The Wetterhorn;
The Rocky Mountains;
Looking Down Yosemite Valley;
Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains;
Seal Rock; and
Butterfly

Science:
We read Madam How and Lady Why, chapter 8

We read The Story Book of Science, chapters 32, 33 and 34 (we're playing "catch-up" to where we are supposed to be in the book, which would be chapters 62 and 63)

We began our co-op studies of Bob Jones Life Sciences. We independently did chapters 1 and 2 last week, and this week together we did a quiz on Chapter 2, and moved into readings and activities in Chapter 3. Yesterday we did a lab from the Student Activities book on acids and bases, using litmus paper. The kids seemed to enjoy it, and one of the boys, at least, was disappointed that the designated teacher did not choose to test saliva for its acidity, so he took some litmus paper to test it on his own. Sorry, we didn't get photos this time. We are hoping the kids will be able to enjoy this Science more, now that we are getting into the hands on stuff.

Literature: This week we finished our reading of the book Kidnapped, by Robert Lewis Stevenson. I found it's ending abrupt and unexpected... "That's all? But what about... What happens to..."  ::sigh::

We also finished listening to the recorded book of On The Banks of Plum Creek, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. We're scrambling, hurriedly, trying to get to where we are supposed to be, which is to be reading By The Shores of Silver Lake, but we're not there yet. You might think that's next, but we skipped and are going back to Farmer Boy, because we have the recorded book checked out, and we're getting these done so nicely by listening to them when we're in the car!

We read, "Cupid and Psyche" (Chapter X), from Bullfinch's Age of Fable.

We read The Incredible Journey, Ch. 5.

We read At the Back of the North Wind, by George MacDonald, ch. 1 

We read poetry by Emily Dickinson (we're trying for a poem a day, but not there yet...)

Social Studies:

We read George Washington's World, pages 234 - 255 (playing catch-up - somehow my assignments had gotten off the correct schedule)

We read This Country of Ours, chapter 56 ("The Darkest Hour, Trenton and Princeton")

We read Our Island Story, Ch. 95: George III—The Story of How America was Lost

Geography: No mapwork. We discussed country of origin of both our composer and our artist.

Physical Education: We did a lot of walking.

Health: (Our state requires we are educating regularly and diligently in Health and P.E.) We washed our hands a lot, drank lots of water, and ate healthy meals.

*********************

So, there's the wrap-up. Here comes the MoJo!

Here's what I'm laughing at today:

In Our Homeschool This Week: See Above

What's Working/Not Working in our Homeschool This Week:

I was having certain subjects I was struggling to get done in my homeschool this past fall. In my area I have only one other mother I know of using Ambleside Online, and she and I were chatting about how things were going. She was experiencing the same thing. She has certain subjects that she is strong in getting to, which are not mine, and I have certain subjects which I am strong at getting to, which are not hers.

It looked like a puzzle. So... guess what? After some talk, some Parent/Teacher conferences, and some prayer, we have teamed up, and this was Week 1! How did it go? Ups and downs, but compared to previous weeks, it was smashing! Amazing! Wonderful! Lots of good assignments done, character issues appearing and being worked on, and mommy fellowship to boot! We're both happy campers today. :) (Shouts out to you, NM, you know who you are! :)

See "Composer Study" above

Is anyone hosting a button for "Artist Study" posts?