The Happy Homeschool Mom: July 2019

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Our Week in Review (July 22nd-28th)

Nick and Alex headed off this week for their last trip of the summer to 4 H State O' Rama in Fayetteville AR. You have to place in the top 7 at a District event to qualify for some of the competitions, other contests are state only contests, and some of the competitions are team competitions. You can also attend and participate in workshops and tours. Nick placed in the top 7 for BB Shooting at District so he competed in that at State. Alex placed in the top 7 for Bait Casting at District so he competed in that. Nick did not place in BB Shooting. Alex won 4th in Bait Casting. They also participated in some workshops and got to do some fun things like ice skating at the Jones Center.

The awards for state record book winners are given there as well. I was able to watch Nick receive his award via live stream.

They both had a great time and were so glad to be able to go. They have had a great summer. I am glad they are home for awhile though!! And I am no longer responsible for feeding and watering the pig!

Our goat baby boys are 12 weeks and the girl is 9 weeks. We've been moving the mamas out to the pasture during the day so the babies can get some extra feed without their mothers stealing it from them.

The girls went to the last Wild Wednesday Day Camp at Grandview on Wednesday. They got to do a wagon tour, see a fish being dissected, went canoeing and swimming, and started making baskets. They had a great time. They baskets did not get finished, they are still sitting on the playroom table.

Anthony had a birthday on Thursday. These children are growing up too fast! Nick and Alex were gone, Chelsea had to work, and Art had to work late so it wasn't a very exciting birthday but Anthony is usually happy with anything so some take out pizza, a new movie, and an ice cream cake made for a great birthday for him.

We worked on some math, several lessons on Ancient Rome, and completed the book Who Was Mark Twain? We finished Tunnel of Gold and started Canyon of Danger. Lily worked on Typing Tournament. Emmie did some work in her Reading Eggs workbook.

The next couple of weeks will be very busy so it was nice for this week to not be so crazy. The weather was also very nice this week with highs only in the 80's and lows in the 60's. One morning we went out to feed animals and the girls came running back on for their coats! That never happens in July in Arkansas.

I hope you had a great week!

Happy Homeschooling!

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Homeschool Crew Review: Apologia Exploring Creation With General Science

Apologia is one of my favorite homeschool curriculum companies. We have used many different products from Apologia over my 14 years of homeschooling and have been impressed with all of them. I was very excited when I heard that they were releasing Exploring Creation with General Science, 3rd Edition this summer and even more excited when we received an opportunity to review it!

Exploring Creation with General Science, 3rd Edition is designed to be the first course students take in middle school to help transition them from the elementary series to work more independently and help them get ready to tackle the high school level courses. The course contains 14 modules and if you follow the suggested schedule of working four days per week for 45 minutes to an hour per day should be completed in 33 weeks.

The 14 Modules in the course are:

The History of Science- Search for the Truth
Scientific Inquiry and the Scientific Method
Documenting and Interpreting Experimental Results
Scientific Analysis and History
Earth Science- Astronomy
Earth Science-Geology and Paleontology
Earth Science- Meteorology and Oceanography
General Chemistry
General Physics
Life Science
General Biology
Marine Science
Environmental Science
Science and Creation

The text is written directly to the student, there is no separate teacher manual. There are 3 main components to the course:

Textbook- The textbook is a hardcover 430 page book. It has the information for the student to read, colored illustrations, charts, and diagrams. Definitions that students should memorize are in blue. On Your Own Questions are in dark blue boxes. Explore More sections to enhance learning are in purple. Experiments are also in the text. The first few modules have a What to Do section breaking down information for students on how to take notes, complete On Your Own questions, experiments,lab reports, and timeline. Answers to the On Your Questions are at the end of each chapter followed by a Study Guide for each module. The back of the text has the Lab Supply List and Index.

Inside the text

Student Notebook- This book is spiral bound and 550 pages long. The front of the book has a note to parents, information about note taking, grading, and experiments. It also has a daily schedule with boxes for students to check off as they complete each day's work. The notebook has places for students to define vocabulary questions, answer On Your Own questions, take notes, fill out answers to the Study Guide, and write down thoughts about Creation Connections. In the back of the notebook there is an Introduction to Labs and a place to record each lab from the course and write formal lab reports.

Inside the Notebook

What to Do in each section is clearly laid out

Pages to Fill out for each lab

This image has the chart in the text on the left and the chart the student copies in the notebook on the right.

Solutions and Test Manual Packet-This packet has two books in it. The first is a 31 page thin paperback booklet that has just the tests in it. The second is an 83 page paperback book that has the solutions to the study guide questions, the tests, and solutions to all of the tests. The tests for the first two modules are designed to be open book tests. There is no study guide or test for the last module, module 14.

You will also need a variety of easy to obtain supplies to complete the experiments. A list broken down by module is in the back of the text. You can also choose to purchase optional components such as the MP3 Audio CD ,Video Instruction Thumb Drive, and Apologia Online Academy.

This review came at the perfect time for me. We have been using the Young Explorer series for years from Apologia with my younger 4 children but I really needed something for next year for my 13 year old that would allow him to easily transition from all of us doing science together to him working independently. He is VERY interested in all things science (his main project for 4 H is STEM) but he is dyslexic and doing a lot of reading and writing can be a bit of a challenge for him. We followed the suggested schedule in the front of the notebook and Anthony had no trouble reading and completing the assignments. He worked around 40 minutes per day 4 days a week.

One of the reasons we love Apologia is because it is creation based and gives glory to God. But that doesn't stop the course from being very scientifically thorough. The lessons in the text are broken down in very manageable chunks for middle schoolers. The text is written in a very conversational tone and is written right to the student. I think they did an outstanding job demonstrating in the first few chapters what the expectations of the course are such as note taking and how to complete the experiments. I love all of the illustrations, photographs, and charts that are included in the text.

The experiments of course are always a fun part of learning about science and I love that the materials for the experiments are easily obtainable. The only thing I had to purchase so far was a lemon. Everything else we already had on hand.

A Density Experiment. Anthony was so happy when it worked!

In this experiment he had to find some corroded pennies and see what would happen when they were inserted into a lemon.

And then what would happen to the pennies when salt was put on top.

The Explore More sections are not required for the course but add an additional element to what is being covered. Anthony loved making the mechanical hand.

The Student Notebook is an awesome compliment to the course. It breaks all of the tasks for each module down for the student. There is plenty of space for students to answer questions and define their vocabulary words. I love the charts and graphics that are included for the students to complete. The instructions for the labs are written in a very clear, step by step manner. We also we very glad for the charts and reports to fill out for the labs.

I love the improvements that Apologia made in this third edition of Exploring Creation With General Science. The text is broken down better for the students, it is more colorful, the work is more manageable for the intended age range, and the student notebook is the perfect compliment to the course (they didn't have notebooks back when my oldest used the 2nd Edition of this course.)

I am very impressed with Exploring Creation with General Science, 3rd Edition. I think that Apologia succeeded in making a course that will help students work more independently after completing the elementary courses and will ready them for the high school courses. To see what my Crew Mates had to say, stop by the Crew Blog!

Sunday, July 21, 2019

Our Week in Review (July 15th-21st)

Our weather forecast had showed that we would get some rain coming from Tropical Storm Barry. We had a bit of rain Sunday the 14th and Monday the 15th. Around midnight on the 15th it started raining really hard. We could hear the wind blowing and rain pouring down along with loud thunder and lightning. Weather alerts went off on our phones twice in the middle of the night about possible flash floods. It was quite a storm that at times seemed to be right over our house. In the morning it was still raining. Art got up to go to work and called me less then an hour later. He had gotten about 15 minutes away when the roads started flooding and cars in front of him were stalled out in the middle of the road. He turned around to come back to the house and about a mile from our house the road was gone. I had washed out. He tried to go around to the other way to out house and the road that way was completely flooded. They had to evacuate some people from their homes. He sat a gas station for about 3 hours until road crews filled in the spot that washed out and he was able to get to the house.

We had lost power but we were not flooded and our animals were surviving. Chelsea was texting me to see how we were doing and was sending me pictures of what was going on in Nashville. Several roads and businesses were flooded including Dollar General, the fire station, and police station. Not too far down the road in Dierks Arkansas the flooding was even worse. They got close to 17 inches of rain in less then 24 hours. Nobody was injured although there was some damage to some homes and businesses.

(Not my photos, they were sent to me)

The children were supposed to be leaving for 4 H camp around 11:30. They started out postponing for an hour and then pushed it back 3 more hours. The area that the camp was in was fine with no flooding. The rain finally stopped and the roads were passable and the children were able to go on to camp. That left me with only Emmie and Anthony at home.

Wednesday Art attempted again to go to work but the roads he needed to take were still flooded so he returned home. We had a bit of excitement with the children's animals when some chickens got into the pig pen and a goat jumped into the air and landed head first and got herself stuck but we got the chickens out and fixed the pen and the goat was fine once I got her unstuck.

Emmie is not good at playing by herself. She's never really had to. To keep her occupied on Wednesday after doing all of the animal chores and a few household chores and having lunch we decided to work on a sewing project. She has wanted to make a pillowcase every since Lily did so that is what we worked on. After she finished sewing it we embroidered her name on it.

We also got the new Dumbo from Redbox and watched it. She made it all the way til almost bedtime on Wednesday before complaining that she was bored.

Thursday the children were back and the girls had music lessons.

We did a little bit of school work on Friday. We listened to some of The Misadventures of Tom Sawyer, completed one lesson in Home School in the Woods Ancient Rome and worked on CTC Math. We finished The Door in the Wall and started Dragon Light. I can't believe the new school year starts in just a few weeks.

Nick and Alex leave again on Tuesday, this time to Fayetteville for State O' Rama. They will be gone until Friday. This is their last trip this summer.

I hope you had a great week!

Happy Homeschooling!

Friday, July 19, 2019

Homeschool Crew Review: Crafty Classroom USA Activity Bundle Pack

The Crafty Classroom has a variety of downloadable products for grades Pre-K-3rd. These products are designed to be very easy for parents to use and require very little prep time. We recently had an opportunity to use and review USA Activity Bundle Pack which contains three different ebooks: U.S.A. 50 State Mazes, U.S.A. State Bird Art Cards, and U.S.A State by State Activity Notebook.

The U.S.A State by State Activity Notebook is a 60 page downloadable PDF. In it you will find a page for each of the 50 states with the state flag, state bird, and state flower. It also has places for students to write the abbreviation for each state and the state number and nickname. Each page has a small U.S. map for the child to color in that state and a blank outline of the state for the child to add things like rivers, mountains, and the capital. At the bottom of the page are two blank lines to add one or two interesting facts about the state. The download also includes two games: Bingo USA and Roll Across America. The state pages are in black and white and the game pages are in color.

U.S.A 50 State Mazes is a 52 page download. Each page has a maze in the shape of the state. The states are in alphabetical order and each of the pages is in black and white.

U.S.A. State Bird Art Cards is a 30 page PDF download. Each page has a colored picture of the bird along with the names of the states it is the bird of with some blank lines underneath for filling information on the bird. The other side of the page has a bird for the child to color in. At the bottom there is a small colored in image of the bird along with the name of the bird to use for a memory match game. There are 27 birds included as several states use the same state bird.

To complete the pages in the U.S.A. Activity bundle you will need supplies such as writing utensils and colored pencils. The information for each state is not included so you will also need an atlas, a book with information on the 50 states, or internet access to look the information up. The U.S.A Activity bundle can be purchased for $15 or you can purchase each book separately for $5.

I did a 50 state study with the children a few years ago, but my girls were really little and didn't remember much of it. We were excited to have the opportunity to review this bundle from Crafty Classroom. We decided to work alphabetically through the states working on one state per week and using the pages from each of the workbooks. I used to have a really good book with great information on the 50 states, but I sold it with a curriculum set and then wished I hadn't. So for this study we used the internet to do some research and a children's atlas.

The U.S.A. Activity Bundle is a great value. They get so many things on the state pages without it being overly cluttered or overwhelming for younger children. The images are large enough to be easily colored with colored pencils and there are two small lines for a few interesting facts. By the time students finish these pages they will know a lot of information on our 50 states. I love that they print black and white and were very easy to download, print, and use.

Emmie used a bit of artistic license on this one she wanted it more colorful

The girls thought the mazes were fun and helped remind them of the shapes of each of the states. We loved the Bird Art Cards. Having the colored image on the card made it really easy for them to color it in. When they are finish all of them they will use the pages to make a book on birds of the U.S.