Our Family

Our Family

Sunday, April 28, 2019

Homeschool Wrap Up Week 33

Several of the children's spring activities wrapped up this week, making this a busy week!

The children ended up with a half day off on Monday because I was working with our Ag Agent on completing all of the necessary paperwork for Nick, Alex, and Anthony's trip to the International SeaPerch competition at the University of Maryland in June.  We received two very generous donations and had 3 fund raisers that gave us enough money to fund the trip for the three boys and two chaperones.  We made their lodging and plane reservations and also booked the rental car and paid the necessary fees to enter the competition ($635 just to enter the team and the robot!)  All that is left to submit is their engineering notebook which we are finishing up and submitting this week.

Week 33 in our Homeschool

Bible: We completed 4 lessons in the 10 Minute Bible Journey. This completed the book.

Read Aloud: We finished our biography on Henry Ford in the morning. We are still reading DragonKnight and Badge of Honor in the evenings. 

History: We finished weeks 5 and 6 in Pathway to Liberty.  Lily's level had her finishing the biography and answering questions on her reading.  The boys' assignments were more readings in War, Peace, and all that Jazz and watching a documentary on Trench Warfare.  Lily really enjoys this curriculum and wants to continue with it.  The rest of us want to go back to MOH.

Poetry: We are working on The Hayloft by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Science: The boys completed the lesson on Alexander Graham Bell in Techie Homeschool Mom and we started looking at a unit on plants in Supercharged Science (upcoming review.) 

Individual School:  Emmie did 3 lessons in Singapore Math.  She completed one lesson in All About Reading Level 2 and worked on Reading Eggs.

Lily completed 4 days of math in MLFLE.  She worked everyday on learning how to type using EdAlive's Typing Tournament (she loves this!)

Anthony and Christian completed 4 days in math.  They completed step 19 in AAS Level 6.  They finished up their papers on any nonfiction topic in SWI A.  Anthony wrote about drones and Christian wrote about tadpoles and frogs.  Christian worked on Math Invaders from EdAlive.com and Anthony worked on Spelling Tutor 3 days and engaging eyes 1 day from Dyslexia Gold.

We played some Math Bingo this week too.




Other Activities this Week

Monday soccer was a home game so the girls and Art and I went to the game.  Chelsea and Liam met us there.

Tuesday Nick went live on the radio and talked about SeaPerch and pulled the raffle winner for our last fundraiser.

That afternoon was a long trap practice.  At the end of practice Alex started having pain in the back of his right arm and couldn't finish shooting his round.  We iced it when he got home and it felt better.

Wednesday was the last day of Kid's Club and Children's Choir until school starts up again in the fall.  We had an end of the year pizza party and went to play at the park.

Afterwards we went to the pool to test the ROV.  It is a little off balance and needs a few adjustments.

Thursday Emmie had dance and Christian and Alex had another trap practice.  Alex only fired 6 shells and had a lot of pain in the arm again.  We did more ice and ibuprofen wrapped his arm and added a recoil pad to the end of his gun.

Friday morning we headed out to the Trap Regionals in Jacksonville Arkansas.  The junior squads shot on Friday morning.  Christian did not score very high but I am very proud of him for learning something new and continuing even when it was hard.





Alex wanted to practice to see how his arm felt and he did ok shooting 23/25.  I thought he was only going to shoot a few rounds but he completed the whole 25.  We did more ice and ibuprofen and wrapped it again.

Our hotel had a pool so the children enjoyed that when we got finished.


Then we ordered pizza and hung out at the hotel.

Nick played his last game of the season Friday night.

Saturday  it was time for the seniors to shoot.  Alex's arm was hurting him.  He had to carry his gun in his left hand when they changed positions but he did get through all 50 shots.  He only shot 42 and was really disappointed but I was proud of him!  I think the pain is from a muscle pull and am hoping that it will have a chance to rest and heal now that trap is over for him.





The school year is winding down.  We will be finishing some things up and starting some new reviews.  I am really excited about some of our upcoming reviews including 2nd Grade Lightning Literature for Emmie (I love Lightning Literature!) I need to make some decisions on curriculum for next year.  I really hadn't thought much about it yet.  Our regular school year will be ending in a few weeks and we will just do some reading, math, and review stuff over the summer.

No goat babies yet!


I have been in several conversations over the last couple of weeks where I have been questioned on my parenting decisions and made to feel like I need to defend these decisions.  Parenting is hard enough without that.  Every day I try to make the best decisions I can for my children.  Sometimes I make good ones and sometimes they are not so good, but I get up everyday and do the best I can.  No matter what you do or what decisions you make someone will criticize or think it is wrong.  I think it would be a much better world if we worked on encouraging rather then criticizing or making people feel like they are doing something wrong if they aren't doing it our way.  Just my .02 on that....

Dance still has a month left and music lessons go all year round.  4 H will have different activities over the summer but we should have a bit more time at home over the next few months.
My roses bloomed this week!


I hope you had a great week!

Happy Homeschooling!

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Homeschool Crew Review: Techie Homeschool Mom

My boys love science and were excited to have an opportunity to review Famous Inventors Online Unit Study from Techie Homeschool Mom   .

I had never heard of Techie Homeschool Mom until her Online Unit Studies came up for review.  I stopped by her website to find out some information and I loved what I read there.   Beth Napoli, mother of 5, talks about how it was more important to her that her children know how to learn rather then what to learn.  She recognizes that we live in an amazing information age and created online studies to help parents utilize technology without having to do a lot of research or have a ton of extra resources to go along with them.  But she also talks about how important it is to do hands on learning as well and not use screens to do everything.  She created some online studies for her children and then began selling them to the homeschool community. She has several Online Unit Studies available including:

Ancient Egypt Online Unit Study
Ancient Greece Online Unit Study
Ancient Rome Online Unit Study
Famous Artists Online Unit Study (Vol. 1)
Famous Artists Online Unit Study (Vol. 2)
Famous Inventors Online Unit Study
Solar System Online Unit Study


I had a hard time deciding which one to choose when I looked at the list, but since my boys that would use the study (12 and 13 years old)  love science, engineering, and inventions I decided that the  Famous Inventors Online Unit Study would be the best choice for them.

Famous Inventors Online Unit Study covers 10 different inventors:

Archimedes
Galileo
Leonardo da Vinci
Alexander Graham Bell
James Watt
Charles Babbage
Nikola Tesla
Johannes Gutenberg
The Wright Brothers
Steve Jobs

The courses were designed for upper elementary to middle school aged children but younger children can participate with help.  The course is self paced and flexible.  Once you pay for the course you have permanent access to it across all devices.  It can be used with multiple children and the sections can be visited multiple times.  To complete the online portions all you need is a device with internet access.  Each unit has a project to make.  If your children want to make the project (and they will) you will need those supplies.  A supply list for all of the projects is included in the Before You Start section of the course.  Each section of the study can take up to 2-3 hours to complete depending on the project being made.

Navigating the course is very easy.  All you have to do is click.  Each inventor starts off with a video talking about that person.


Then there is a link to a timeline of events in that persons life.

And a quiz.

Next is another video or two talking about their inventions that they are famous for, and links to more information such as articles about that inventor or timeline of inventions.


Then comes the project.

Galileo's Telescope



A parachute from the lesson on daVinci

After completing each section you click complete and continue at the top of the page.  The course saves your progress and tells you how much of the course you have completed.  As I mentioned above if you wish to go back and rewatch a video or visit a section again you can.  All you need to do is click it in the sidebar.

Anthony and Christian have been using this course independently as a supplemental course completing one inventor per week.  It takes them around 2 hours to complete each unit including the project.  The first inventor, Archimedes took longer because they were using an online software to try and create the Archimedes Screw (it was a free link included in the course) but it had to be downloaded which took some time, then they had figure out how to use the software and try and design with it.

I love that they can do the entire thing on their own.  I did not even help with the projects with the exception of downloading the software for Archimedes Screw.  It has been great for them to use this study while I have been working one on one with the girls on other things.  I love that you do not need to search out any other resources to be able to use this course.  The boys have been fascinated with the information and especially have enjoyed making the projects.  We have studied Leonardo da Vinci in art many times but have not focused very much on his contributions to science so they were especially interested in learning about him. 

Members of The Crew reviewed several different studies from Techie Homeschool Mom.  To see what my Crew Mates had to say, stop by the Crew Blog!


Monday, April 22, 2019

Homeschool Wrap Up Week 32

I had this moment this week where I was somewhere just watching my children and listening to them laugh and play that reminded me how very thankful I am to have the time that I do with them and how much I enjoy being with them.  NOT that every day is easy and Not that I dont look forward to bedtime and the end of the day sometimes or send them out in the afternoons just so I can have 10 minutes of peace and quiet or that I never get frustrated or impatient (I do way more then I should) but I am so thankful for the time I have to be with them watching them grow into amazing people.

Week 32 in our Homeschool

Bible: We did 4 lessons in the 10 Minute Bible Journey.

Read Aloud: We started Badge Of Honor by Susan K Marlow ( I have read these to the boys a few years ago but not to the girls) and are still reading DragonKnight.

History: We finished Week 4 in Pathway to Liberty and started week 5.  Lily's level still has her reading a biography on Henry Ford ( I am reading this aloud) and Christian and Anthony have started reading about The Great War in War, Peace and all That Jazz A History of US by Joy Hakim.  I am not a fan of this series.  It is very opinionated to me.  We have had lots of discussion on author bias and the differences between fact and opinion.

Poetry: We are working on The Hayloft by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Art: This week we did another lesson on Ancient Egyptian art.  It was on gardens.  The children did soft pastel garden drawings.  ( I forgot to take pictures of them)

Individual School: Emmie did 2 lessons in Singapore Math.  Each one took her two days to complete.  She read the story In My Backpack in All About Reading Level  2 and worked on Reading Eggs.

Lily copied and illustrated the poem The Hayloft for her language arts.  She also worked on her Little House in the Big Woods papers and completed 4 days in math.  She started a new review from EdAlive.com learning how to type.

Christian and Anthony completed 4 days in math.  They completed Step 18 in AAS Level 6.  Christian worked on a review of EdAlive called Math Invaders and Anthony started working on a Spelling Tutor review for Dyslexia Gold.

Other Activities this Week:

Monday was the 4 H Egg and Dairy Contest.  I did not get any pictures of them making their food.  I was trying to get some school work done with some of them in the morning and then we had Liam in the afternoon.  Nick and Emmie made cheesecake (he helped her with hers.)  He won 1st she got a participation for hers.  Lily made Oreo Cookie Balls and got a participation.  Christian made Key Lime pie and won 2nd.  Anthony made a French Toast Bake and got a participation.  Alex made egg casserole and won 2nd.

Lily and Christian taught Liam how to hold a baby chick.  They have a mix of feathers and down right now and are past their cute stage.





During the break while waiting for judging the children wanted to go to the park.  They didn't want to go to the playground though they wanted to go to the Nature Trail.  The girls had a camera and took lots of pictures.  They had a good time.


Tuesday the boys had trap.  One of the ladies that works at Grandview brought out supplies for the girls to make walking sticks and then took them on a hike.  They had the best time!  They have to entertain themselves quite a bit at these trap activities and it was very sweet of her to do that for them.

Wednesday We had Kid's Club and Children's Choir.

Thursday the girls had music and Emmie had dance.  Alex practiced cooking chicken.





We also made adjustments to the ROV and tested it in the bathtub.  We need to get back to a pool.




Friday we had a 4 H meeting at Grandview.  We earned our Conservation Patches by taking a half mile hike and talking about conservation.  We also fed an alligator minnows.





Then we went to the Good Friday church service.

Saturday there were 2 trap shoots, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.





Sunday was Easter!





All 5 of the baby rabbits died the day after they were born.  I do not think she made a nest big enough to keep them warm enough.  We should be having baby goats soon.



I hope you had a great week!

Happy Homeschooling!