Homeschool Wrap Up Week 21

Our internet was out this week from Tuesday afternoon until just before lunch Thursday.  Having no internet is certainly not the end of the world (unless you are a teenager!) but it can be a bit of an inconvenience and caused me to have to change some homeschool plans.  The art lesson I wanted to do on Wednesday could not be done because it was online.  Emmie could not use Reading Eggs and we could not use IXL.com as planned.  We could not stream our song for Music Appreciation. When the technician came out to our house Thursday schoolwork came to a standstill for the time he was here.  The reason for our internet being out? Bats got in the junction box at the end of the road and their droppings corroded some of the wires.  But it is running again.  Even though our internet has always been super slow, its all we have, and are thankful to have it back.

Monday was a day off from public schools and my husband ended up off work so we took that day off of school at home too.  We did watch Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream Speech on Youtube.

Week 21 in our Homeschool

Bible: We read 3 lessons in the 10 Minute Bible Journey from Master Books.

Read Aloud: We read 3 chapters of the YWAM biography on Ernest Shackleton.  In the evening we finished Prince Caspian and have read the first 6 chapters of Dragon Quest.

P.E.: We did two days of Family Time Fitness.

History: We finally were able to put together the Folderbooks for the MOH Vol. 1.  Setting them up took a little bit of time. Then we completed the ones for the first set of lessons ( there were not any for the second set of lessons (4-6.)  We also read the lessons for Week 3 (7-9) and they made ziggurats out of LEGO.

Science: We completed our activities for lesson 10 including the experiment that showed what would happen to our brain without fluid to cushion it.  We used a plastic egg, real eggs, and corn syrup.  I had store bought eggs (I had Nick grab some when he was at the store one day) and happily most of our chickens are laying again so we have plenty now :)

Music Appreciation: We completed chapter 25 in Music Appreciation I on George Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue.

Art: We did an Art Achieve Level 2 lesson called The Russian Fortress on Thursday after our internet was fixed and Liam was napping.  He woke up before they got finished and needed some rocking snuggles so I did not get many pictures.

Spelling/Reading: The boys completed step 7 in AAS Level 6.  Emmie completed lesson 30 in AAS Level 2.

Language Arts: Emmie did one lesson of Language Lessons for a Living Education.  There are things I really like about this curriculum and some things I don't really like.  One of the difficulties is that it includes spelling but does not even come close to the way AAS teaches it and I think it's confusing.  She also did some IXL language arts activities.  Lily did 2 lessons in Hake/Saxon Grammar and one day working on her Little House binder builder.  Anthony and Christian watched the video for lesson 8 in IEW SWI A.

Math: 3 days of math in our various books.  I just found out that I will be getting an opportunity to review Singapore Dimensions Level 1 A that I plan on using with Emmie. We have never used Singapore before but have heard good things about it and am curious to get to try it out.

Other Activities this Week: 

Monday Nick and Alex worked on pre-sales for our big 4 H BBQ fundraiser next week.

Tuesday the girls had gymnastics.

Liam having his snack right before his mama came to get him

Wednesday We had Kid's Club and Children's Choir.  Lily accompanied the choir when they sang This Little Light of Mine.

Thursday Liam discovered LEGOs that his Uncle Christian put together for him.

Emmie had dance.

Friday  morning Christian and Anthony were being crafty.  Christian made a prototype web shooter and Anthony made Thor's hammer.

Lily had piano and we had our Nature Seekers 4 H Meeting. 

Emmie wasn't acting like herself at the meeting and right before bed that night started running a low grade fever.  She had a snotty nose and her biggest complaint was a stiff neck.  I kept her home from church this morning but she is already much better and got outside for a little while this afternoon to enjoy the beautiful weather.

I hope you had a great week!

Happy Homeschooling!

January Nature Seekers 4 H Meeting

When we were at Grandview in December for our STEM co-op, one of the ladies that presents programs mentioned that she had a fun program that taught bird calls.  In January it is too unpredictable to have meetings outside and Game and Fish always puts on great programs for us so I asked if they could come for our January meeting.  The E H House where we usually hold our meetings was unavailable but my church is great about allowing us to use the fellowship hall when we need to. 

It was a fun program.  We were introduced to several Arkansas birds and got to listen to their calls. Some of them I had never heard before and I will not forget!  After learning the different calls we played bird call Bingo.

Each of the participants also earned a beginner patch for participating in the Watchable Wildlife Program from Game and Fish.  It is a new program they are starting that children and adults can do that for different programs they attend and activities they do they earn different levels of patches and after so many levels get a vest or bag to put them on. 

Homeschool Wrap Up Week 20

I wish if we had to have these cold temperatures, we would've gotten some snow as well.  The children really want to be able to play in some snow. We did see some flurries in the air yesterday, but nothing that stuck to the ground.  The wind was awful though!  And cold (it was 24 this morning!) We got out the heat lamps and some tarps and blankets for the animals.  Art and the boys made two sleeping platforms for the goats out of the wood from our old swing set so they could sleep off the ground.  One set of goats figured out what they were for and slept on them, the others slept on the ground anyway.

Week 20 in our Homeschool

The deadline for our 4 H Record Books was Friday and this caused some changes to our homeschool plans.  We only have one computer so we did not get to do ArtAchieve since the computer was being used for the Record Books.  Most of our Language Arts this week was spent finishing them up.  Nick is over 16 now which means that his is entered in a state contest rather then just county and district so the competition is a little stiffer and he has to include a resume with his.  But we got them all completed and turned in on time! 

Bible: We completed 5 lessons in the 10 Minute Bible Journey.

Read Aloud: We read 4 chapters in our biography on Ernest Shackleton.  We are still reading Prince Caspian in the evening but finished Dragonspell. 

P.E.: We did one day of Yoga and 2 days of Family Time Fitness.

History: We completed the readings for week 2 (lessons 3-6) in The Mystery of History Vol 1.

Science: We finished reading lesson 10 in Apologia Anatomy.  I love the kit that we got that includes experiment supplies but sometimes you have to add perishable things.  This week I needed eggs.  You would think that since we have chickens we would have plenty of eggs.  But they are molting and not laying regularly.  I am out of the habit of buying eggs and forgot to get some.  Hopefully I will remember next time we go to the store and we can do the experiment along with the notebooking pages.

Music Appreciation: We completed chapter 24 in Music Appreciation I on Aaron Copeland's Hoe-down from Rodeo.

Christian, Lily, and Liam were dancing to Hoe-down

Spelling/Reading: Emmie completed lesson 29 in AAR Level 2.  The boys completed step 6 in AAS level 6.

Language Arts: Lily did two days of Hake/Saxon Grammar and Writing and read the next chapter in Little House in the Big Woods.  She also wrote a story for a contest based on Susan K Marlow's books. In her story Andi enters Taffy in the fair.  Emmie did 3 days of Language Lessons for a Living Education.

Math: The girls did 4 lessons in MLFLE.  The boys did 4 days in Rod and Staff.  They are not used to having a textbook rather then a workbook so copying over the problems has been a bit of a challenge.  Each lesson has a lot of problems to work out, so I pick and choose what I would like for them to complete each day.

Other Activities this Week

Monday we had a 4 H STEM Club meeting.  I am leading this club as well as the Nature Seekers.  There is a competition coming up in February called the SeaPerch which involves building a vehicle that can navigate hoops underwater and pick up items.  We received a grant for our kits and funding to enter the competition.  We have enough to send three teams. Now we just have to build the ROV's and practice driving them to be ready to compete on February 23rd.

Tuesday the girls had gymnastics.

Wednesday we had Kid's Club and Children's Choir.  When we got home Emmie complained of a sore throat and then fell asleep on the floor when I was reading the evening read alouds so I knew she wasn't feeling well.

Thursday I kept Emmie home from dance.  She wasn't running fever just had a sore throat and was tired so she laid around all day.  Lily and I had some things to take care of in town and did some grocery shopping.

Friday morning we had a STEM co-op at Grandview.  Emmie felt much better after her day of rest. We got to see a love owl and dissect owl pellets.  We have dissected owl pellets many times but they still enjoyed it and of course getting to see the owl was very exciting!

Lily had piano Friday afternoon.


We decided not to have Nick take the ACT in February.  He may take it one more time next fall. 

The School House Review Crew has started up for 2019.  We received our first review product at the end of this week, a subscription to IXL.com that we will use for supplemental language arts and math.

I hope you had a great week!

Happy Homeschooling!

Homeschool Wrap Up Week 19

Back to school this week after an extended Christmas break.

It was mostly a good school week.  It can be hard starting back after a break but aside from starting a little late each day the children did a pretty good job getting back into the school routine.  Children only cried a couple of times over school work (grammar and math of course) I made a mistake and bought the wrong kind of file folders so we could not do the file folder activities to go with MOH Vol 1 but we did do the reading and map work.  We made big timelines the last time we went through these books (with Nick, Alex, and Chelsea) so I am not going to make more.  We will just look at the ones we already have.  We did PE everyday this week which made this homeschool mama very sore after having such a long break!  The new math and handwriting books were delayed in the mail and did not end up arriving until Saturday so we will start with those next week.  We did not get to spelling this week.

Week 19 in our Homeschool

Bible: We did the first 4 lessons in the 10 Minute Bible Journey from Master Books.

Read Aloud: We started a YWAM biography on Ernest Shackleton.  In the evenings we are still reading Dragonspell for the boys read aloud and we finished A Horse and His Boy and started Prince Caspian for the girls read aloud.

P.E.: We did two days of Family Time Fitness, one of Yoga for Kids, and one bike riding and roller skating.

History: We completed Week 1 (the first three lessons)  in The Mystery of History Vol 1and did a map of the world.

Science: We started reading Lesson 10, The Nervous System Extended, in Apologia Anatomy and Physiology.  We made a model of the brain out of clay and did an activity showing how interconnected and myelinated we are.

Art: ArtAchieve, a company we reviewed a few years ago and loved are now a part of ShoolhouseTeachers.com, which I have a membership to because of my involvement with the Schoolhouse Review Crew.  We did the Mermaid from Denmark this week, a Level II activity.  They turned out really good.

Anthony

Christian

Lily

Emmie

Math: Anthony completed 4 lessons in Rod and Staff 7.  The girls did 4 lessons of MLFLE.  Emmie did hers all on Monday so she could take off the rest of the week.

Spelling/Reading: We did not get to spelling this week.  Emmie completed lesson 28 in AAR Level 2.

Language Arts: Christian and Anthony worked on their book reports for Carry on Mr. Bowditch and their stories for their 4 H Record Books.  Lily did 2 days of grammar and completed the activities for chapter 3 in Little House in the Big Woods.

Nick added Chemistry from Master Books to his workload for this semester.  Alex added Biology 101 to his.  I'm still debating whether to have Nick add Economics as well but I don't want to overload him.

These three ladies stopped by on Monday.  They were right outside our playroom window.  They looked in on us then headed off into the woods back towards home.

Other Activities this Week

Tuesday  the girls were back to gymnastics.

Wednesday we were back to Kid's Club.

Thursday Lily had piano and Emmie was back to dance

Friday Anthony had an appointment to see a podiatrist.  I have noticed for a very long time that his walking was getting worse.  But the first time we discussed it with his doctor several years ago we were sent to Physical Therapy and were told he didn't qualify for therapy,  do some ankle strengthening exercises at home.  As his feet went through a major growth spurt it got worse and discussed it again and were sent to another Physical Therapist even though I wanted a podiatrist appointment.  The physical therapist gave us some new exercises and said there definitely was a structure issue and recommended a podiatrist so we got a referral and had to wait for an appointment.  As soon as the xrays were developed we could see the structural problems in the bones in his feet.  It is progressive which means it will just get worse over time.  If he were younger they would do corrective surgery but because he is almost full grown they will wait until he stops growing.  It explains why he tires so easily when walking and hates to run.  For now he will wear really good tennis shoes with inserts and may have to wear ankle braces at some point.  I wish I would have pushed the issue more.

Nicholas had a birthday this week.  The sweet baby I gave birth to 17 years ago has become a wonderful young man.  I can't believe how fast time goes.  Some days seem so very long but the years are so short!

Liam was playing some kind of game with Emmie.  He came up and took her by the hand, said good bye to the rest of us and back and forth they walked between the family room and the play room.

I hope you had a great week!

Happy Homeschooling!