Menu Monday for 9/28/15

Here is my dinner meal plan for this week. Not strong on vegan suggestions; reality is that I'm busy with school right now, and my carnivore training makes carni meals easier to come up with quickly. I ate the beef chili last night, but tonight's corn chowder will be made with almond milk. Other nights I often just don't eat the meat but don't focus on my day's protein intake, which isn't good either. ::sigh:: Just a busy time for me, and vegan cooking is very time-consuming (as is parallel cooking - vegan AND carnivore on any given night).

Sunday (9/27) (afternoon youth group):  
Chili, corn bread

Monday (9/28)(Evening adult & youth Mtgs.):

Corn chowder, pumpkin muffins, salad

Tuesday (9/29)(Evening adult appointment):

Leftovers

Wednesday (9/30):

Stove top barbecue chicken, noodles, broccoli

Thursday 10/1(Evening youth meeting):

Corned Beef & Cabbage, potatoes

Friday (10/2) (Evening adult meeting):

Leftovers (or hot dogs, rolls, beans, potato chips)

Saturday (10/3):  

Date night: dinner out

 

Friday Wrap-Up

The week began with "Miner" working with his Civil Air Patrol squadron serving at the Joint Base Andrews Open House. 

My son got to don the Eagle mascot costume.

 Mom and dad did not go, but some fabulous photos were taken.

The long day took its toll, though, and "Miner" was feeling poorly when he got home, which developed into a bad cold  by morning. In spite of my school plans, he took sick days Monday and Tuesday (did minimal school). Wednesday was a public school holiday, and he took yet again a minimal day. So M-W he did Literature, History (biography) and some grammar.

Thursday he was doing much better, and got his morning run in, as well as Chemistry and Algebra 2. Thursday night "Miner" got promoted to Senior Airman at the Civil Air Patrol meeting.

Friday was a replay of Thursday minus PE and CAP, adding in some merit badge work.

Short report for a short week. Even though it was "short", we were happy when Friday arrived.

Heroes of History: George Washington - A TOS Crew Review

We were recently offered the opportunity to review our choice (out of many) of biography by YWAM Publishing.

It was difficult to decide which biography to request, because there were so many great ones available that corresponded with the historical period we are studying, but I finally decided to request Heroes of History George Washington: True Patriot. We received not only the biography, but also the Unit Study Curriculum Guide.

George Washington lived from February 22, 1732 to December 14, 1799, and while most of us will remember that he was the first President of the United States, there are so many other things about his life that I wanted my son to know. So, even though we wrapped up our studies of the 1700's in June, I decided I wanted my son to learn about George Washington's life.

My son began reading George Washington: True Patriot in August. I began looking through the Unit Study Curriculum Guide so I could pick and choose what ideas I would use. Whenever I got a chance (when I could find the biography at a time when he was not reading it), I worked on reading it as well.

This is an easy book for a 15 year old. It is a book easily enjoyed as a read-aloud by young grammar students. Upper grammar and middle school students can handle this book on their own. So why have a high school student read it? Well, when a student reads a book that is "below their 'grade level'," it is easier for them to glean more, understand all, and generally just enjoy the book.

My son was reading this while we were driving to a distant appointment, and he said to me, "This is good information! I want to remember this." It is unusual to get an unsolicited comment of praise of any type from my son regarding a school assignment, so I consider his comment to be significant.

I appreciate the nature of the information one can glean from a well-written biography. The content goes so much deeper than what is touched on in the typical textbook. Here are some of the salient points I read in this book that helped make it so interesting to my student:

• Information about Washington's childhood and the make-up of his family: siblings, half-brothers, etc.
• Information about his education and influences that helped develop his personal character;
• That he taught himself how to be a land surveyor and then moved into the career;
• That he became a British officer not because of his education (which was lacking) but because of his contacts and his personal incentive;
• How he increased in rank, again, because of his incentive, and also because of the nature of his previous service;
• How he survived a horrific trip through the winter to complete an assignment to go to the French and discuss a hot topic (leading up to the French Indian War); nearly froze to death after getting dumped into a river that had to be crossed to get home;
• How he represented the British in the French Indian War....

I don't want to continue, because I want you to get the book and read it yourself with your student(s).

The accompanying study guide has lots of 'meat' in it as well to help enrich your student's studies of the life of George Washington. The (paperback) book is about 5"X8" and contains 64 pages. It contains an Introduction, eight chapters and two Appendices.

Chapter 1 contains "Key Quotes". I liked to start each week with a fresh quote on the white board for my son to read as we began our day. I was going to pick my favorite, but I just can't. These are key quotes most of us have heard before, but it is good to remember who made the quote, and I hadn't known who made five out of six quotes.

Chapter 2 suggested creating a display corner. This idea wasn't suited to where my son is right now, but I could imagine he might have enjoyed this activity when he was 11 or 12. There is some discussion in Chapter 2 about maps and studying where George Washington grew up, where he traveled to, where Fort Necessity was. We live right in the thick of "George Washington country". We have visited Mt. Vernon. We went to Boy Scout summer camp scant miles from Ft. Necessity, and I went there with a Boy Scout group working on an archaeology merit badge. (Ft. Necessity had been recreated one way, but an archaeological dig proved the errors in the recreation and the lay of the fort was redone to reflect accuracy. Very interesting information available to the visitors.)

Chapter 3 contains chapter questions. Some were very young for my almost-16-year-old (vocabulary questions like, "What is a 'vessel'?"), but there were enough questions to enhance his studies and to spur relevant conversations.

Chapter 4 is called Student Explorations and offers suggestions for writing assignments, hands-on activities, audio/visual projects and arts and crafts. This chapter is so helpful for me, particularly the essay questions and other writing assignment suggestions. I always need help in those areas.

Chapter 5 contains ideas for enriching field trips. We did not do any of the suggestions at this time -- life was just too busy. We took time, though, to recall our previous trips, including our trips to Philadelphia, which I didn't mention above. I also wondered if some of the other historic locations, ones from Washington's childhood, are available for tourists, such as Pope's Farm.

Chapter 6, Social Studies, among other things includes a pull-out "George Washington Fact Sheet" as well as a timeline to use to plot out events in the history of George Washington and his family (forebears). There is also a concise list of vocabulary terms from the book to use with your student. This list is much more relevant for my son than some of the chapter question vocabulary words.

Chapter 7 and 8 contain "Related Themes to Explore" and "Culminating Event". 

This book, used as a unit study, can very easily be spread out over an eight-week period. I thought we'd be finished with it by now, but we're not. My son, initially, read the pages I assigned him grudgingly, and never more than I assigned. Usually he read less than I assigned, getting a little more behind "my" schedule with each week that went by.

Now, however, the book has gripped him. He doesn't know I am writing the review right now. He's sick, with a cold, but we all know that we make our home schooled kids "do school" when they are sick if we can. He walked by a moment ago and said, "Never have I been so intrigued by a reading assignment you have given me." (Yes, we really talk that way in my house.) To be sure which assignment, I asked him which one and he said, "George Washington!" I love it! It has now gone from, "My mom assigned this." to delight-led study! That's what I want his education to be as much as possible.

So there you have it -- my difficult-to-please son absolutely loves this book! That says a lot. I have other YWAM biographies in my home -- I'll be considering which other ones I can use with my son this year as we work our way through the 1800s.

Other members of the Review Crew also reviewed other YWAM biographies. To see other product reviews, please click the button below. 

 

Menu Monday for 9/21/15

Here is my vegan-carnivore-blended menu plan for dinners this week. I have some vegan leftovers that I am eating some nights where I only list a non-vegan menu night.

Sunday (9/20):  
Lasagne roll-ups, salad, TX toast (3 in freezer)

Monday (9/21)(Boy Scouts night):

Spinach pie, muffins

Tuesday (9/22):

Baked chicken, stuffing, broccoli (in freezer)

Wednesday (9/23):

Beef Stew, muffins

Thursday (9/24)(CAP night):

sizzleburgers (veggie burger), egg noodles, green beans

Friday (9/25):

fish, green beans, sweet potato

Saturday (9/26):  

Spaghetti, salad, garlic bread

 

Fascinating Chemistry - A Schoolhouse Crew Review

This summer I learned that Fascinating Education was going to let me review Fascinating Chemistry for them. I was delighted! My son used Fascinating Biology last year and liked it. (For my son to like a product I review is huge!)

I received access to Fascinating Chemistry in early August. I had permission to be the student for purposes of this review. My son is taking Chemistry now, but he and I had agreed that he did not have to start until September. When September arrived, he started with the other Chemistry curriculum that I had acquired (borrowed from a friend) for this year. (I borrowed it before I knew that I would receive Fascinating Chemistry.) So far he has not decided to switch programs, but when I was working on my Chemistry one day he heard Dr. Margulies' voice and said, "I remember him! I like that Science!"

Fascinating Education was created by Dr. Sheldon Margulies in an effort to bring up student Science test scores in public school classrooms in Baltimore. After creating the Fascinating Education courses and using them with real students, the test scores came up! Besides the fact that I live in Maryland, I was interested in a program that gives better results than a textbook method. I've always seen that my children retain a lot of information when they watch videos on topics they are interested in.

Contrary to the order high school sciences are usually presented in, Dr. Margulies encourages students to study Chemistry first, then Biology, followed by Physics. If a parent nevertheless prefers to have their student study Biology first, Dr. Margulies suggests a condensed Chemistry course (available from Fascinating Education) be taken first, then Fascinating Biology.

Fascinating Chemistry is broken down into 18 Lessons.  (Click to see the course outline.) Some students can work their way through these lessons in about two months! Others will not be able to retain so much information quite so quickly. A normal school year contains 36 weeks of instruction, so some parents might want to have their students focus on one lesson over each two week period to complete the 18 lessons in 36 weeks.

I started out my study of Fascinating Chemistry with grandiose expectations (of myself). I have (had) never studied high school Chemistry, but I have been teaching my own children for about 24 years now. Certainly, applying myself, I could breeze through this course. I mean, my son finished the Biology course in eight weeks last year. I can do this! Ummmm... This course has made me feel like my son might be smarter than I am...

The video illustrations make the lecture content of each lesson easier to understand. I quickly learned, though, that for me this would not be a "One lesson per day" course -- not even a one lesson per week! As the weeks sped by, it became clear that I fall into the one lesson every two weeks group. I would understand the concept as it was presented, but my poor old brain often got muddled again as soon as the screen changed. "Which side of the molecule becomes positive and which side becomes negative?" "What is a 'dipole'?" etc.

To work through the course you listen to/watch the video (taking notes is the best way), and at the end of the lesson take a test. To continue to the next lesson you must pass the test with a score of at least 80%. I would watch a lesson, take the test, and not score high enough, then review the test, try to remember the answers, take the test again, not do well enough, etc. Finally I would pass and move to the next lesson.

For me this repeated retaking of the tests has been a bit discouraging, but it is all part of the learning process. It doesn't matter how many times the student answers incorrectly initially if eventually the student learns the correct answers. However, I have really come to hate questions that begin with, "Which of the following is not true..."

I have really begun to understand how and why molecules combine (or don't). I honestly never understood that it is related to an atom's need to fill its outer ring. Frankly I even knew nothing about the first ring having two electrons and rings after that having a potential eight electrons. (If this changes with more rings, please remember that I have not finished the course yet.) I was intrigued that molecules that combine can do so by sharing electrons, and the difference between that type of bond and a bond caused when a molecule gives an electron. I finally understand how (and why) two Hydrogen molecules join one Oxygen molecule to make water, although it still boggles my mind how different water is (or even water vapor) from Hydrogen and Oxygen. I am still struggling to understand the explanation for why water is a liquid at room temperature when Hydrogen and Oxygen are not. 

Through the years I have come to accept that in Science sometimes I have to start by memorizing the presented information, even if I don't understand them. Later I sometimes come to understand them, but sometimes I never do. This is even a tool I have taught my students for college as well, even if/when the presented information is contrary to what we believe. If you want to pass the course, sometimes you have to tell the professor what he wants to hear even if you don't agree with it. (It is a whole other conversation as to whether to get into the argument with the professor, like in a recent movie about a Philosophy class. One of my students was not that type of strong personality to take it on; the other changed from the beliefs our family taught.)

I found the illustrated charts so helpful for learning which molecules are more likely to combine based on the number of electrons in their outer ring. I'm still struggling to remember the meaning of the number shown in the center of each molecule, and when two molecules combine what the difference between their numbers signifies.


I've been listening to some lessons over and over again, but I'm just slow on each new topic. I always wanted to study chemistry, and now that I am studying it I am so thankful to have a venue where, when I'm not grasping the concept I can just repeat, repeat, repeat until I've got it. What a great feature!

One thing my son did when he took Biology (cheating) was that when he took the test and didn't pass, he would write down the answers (1=a, 2=d, 3=b, etc.), not even including the information (Q:"Changing the number of protons in the nucleus changes the_________" A: "Element") so that he was bypassing the learning process. If the program had/has a way to rearrange the answers each time the test is presented, the student would not be able to do this cheat. I know the program has been revamped, but I don't know if the questions get randomized.

Another thing my son did (that I tried to do as well) that still reinforces learning is, if not able to pass the test first time, open a 2nd window, play the video in that window while having the test open in the other window. Snag the answer as they go by. This is not a freebie way to pass. Many of the questions require you to figure out the answer with elements 'C' and 'D' based on the information you were given about elements 'A' and 'B'.

When my son breezed through the Fascinating Biology course last year I couldn't help but be skeptical about Fascinating Education's claim that the course counts as a full year biology course. (It does not, however, include labs, and my state requires labs with two of the three high school science courses students are supposed to complete.) Now, taking the Chemistry course myself, I am convinced that this Chemistry course indeed is sufficient to count for one full-year Chemistry credit for high school. Chemistry even includes labs, although I haven't done any of them yet. I knew in my brain that the labs were there, but I just wasn't seeing the Lab button at the end of the lesson. 

Then when I clicked on the lab I learned that I need a special password from the administrator to get into the labs. I just requested it. I might not do the labs by myself, since I don't need the high school lab credit. (I might try to find an on-line video of each lab.) But if my son switches to this course I will do the labs with him.

I spoke to the representative from Fascinating Education a couple of times during the course of this review, and she also emailed a couple of times to check on how I was enjoying the course. One frustration for me with Fascinating Education's website was that if I forgot my password, if I guessed at my password too many times I got locked out of my account and would have to be manually unlocked by that representative. I tried to learn that if I got the password wrong once, maybe I made a typo; if I got it wrong twice it was time to reset the password rather than risk getting locked out of the account.

I plan to continue the course and learn my Chemistry. If my son decides he wants to switch to this Chemistry course, I will gladly permit him to knowing that it is a great course to give him a solid Chemistry education in a format that will be a great fit for him.  Click here to get a free introduction to Fascinating Education.

Other members of the Review Crew also reviewed this product. To see other product reviews, please click the button below.
 

Friday Wrap-Up - Schedule Review

 

So we're finishing week 2. I thought I'd give you a run down of the schedule we're settling into. This is our daily schedule, that varies in content a little from day to day, but it will give you the basic idea.

5:00 a.m. -- Dad's up, and out the door for work by 5:30 a.m. (How do guy's do that?)

6:00 a.m. -- Mom's up, morning routine (shower, dress, make bed, etc., make coffee, make mom's breakfast)

7:00 a.m. -- Mom wake's "Miner". Miner gets up, does morning stuff, gets out the door and does his morning run, cools down, showers, dresses, gets breakfast. Mom does morning computer time: emails, school preparations.

8:30 a.m. -- Mom and "Miner" meet in the family room and have separate devotions time.

9:00 a.m. -- Algebra I class together, with mom doing other stuff whenever "Miner" is working independently ("Other stuff" throughout the day is laundry, bathrooms, sweeping, preparing for next subject, etc.)

9:50 a.m. -- transition to Spanish together.

10:30 a.m. -- "Miner" takes a break (to wake up!) -- usually involves going outside to walk for ten minutes.

10:40 a.m. --  Chemistry together, then when "Miner" works independently on notebooking, etc., Mom sneaks in some "other stuff" (see above).

11:30 -- Literature reading time (currently When Worlds Collide -- Puddn'head Wilson, by Mark Twain)

noon-1:00 -- lunch break

1:00 -- "Fix-It! Grammar", followed by work on Progeny Press Introduction to Poetry, followed by Student Writing Intensives (IEW)

2:00 -- History work from Tapestry of Grace assignments and currently YWAM biography of George Washington

3:00 -- "Miner" gets some "down" time or does chores. Mom works on personal projects (currently includes studying German) and whatever else is in the schedule (this week included physical therapy and "Miner"s orthodontist appointment, actually in mid-day.) 

5:00 -- Mom starts dinner, serving it at 6:00

Only one evening meeting this week, but most weeks have two evening meetings.

7:00 -- Mom is already longing for bed. Evenings vary in their content -- outing, "Miner" going driving with dad, reading, "homework", CAP studies, computer time, Boy Scout leadership matters, and sometimes mom and dad watching something together.

9:00-10:00 -- Mom and dad turn their lights out. "Miner" determines his own bedtime as long as he doesn't disturb others and can get up at 7:00 each morning.

_______________________________________________________________________

Do you follow any framework of a schedule in your home?

I Bind Unto Myself Today - 09/2015 AO Hymn Selection

The September hymn selection for the current Ambleside Online hymn rotation is "I Bind Unto Myself Today". I have selected a You Tube video that presents the song with the lyrics: