Weekly Wrap Up-13!

 This week we celebrated  Sweet Girl's(my oldest)13th birthday.  I can't believe she is 13!!  How time does fly!! I remember when we brought her home from the hospital I couldn't put her down.  Holding her in my arms felt so right.  I literally held her for the first two weeks of her life.  In every picture we have I am just gazing at this little baby girl with amazement.   I am so thankful God has leant her to me and made me her Mommy.    She brings such joy to our lives!! 

 

  My week has been busy with lesson planning.  We are about 1/3 through our school year.  I made some new timelines for the kids and notebooking pages.  The other timelines we were using worked but I wanted a timeline that had boxes.  The timelines I made have boxes with lines for writing and some empty boxes for drawing.  I will be putting them on my page at HSLaunch.com .  I also finished Silly Guy's Science notebooking pages for Christian Kids Explore Biology.   I worked on record keeping a bit but have some more to do.  I also started thinking of next year already.  I am trying to decide what to do with Sweet Girl for high school. 

This week we made(and ate)Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies.  I used to have a good recipe but couldn't find it anywhere.  So I searched through some online recipes and  one at  http://www.pickycook.com/.  I will post the recipe in a later post:) 

Some of our school week highlights:
Well, much of this week we seemed to be in auto drive:(  I think it was the fact Thanksgiving is coming.  The kids (and I)are looking forward to having a break to recharge the old battery. 
Little Man learned the letter B.  One thing he did was made this baby.  I just think it is so cute. 

For Science we went back yard bird watching.  Silly Guy has started the bird unit in Christian Kids Explore Biology.  Can you believe we didn't see one bird!!  It was kind of a bummer.  Then later in the day they heard a bird twittering around in the juniper in front of the house. 

 Silly Guy also made a birdhouse to put in the back yard.  We realized during the bird watch we had to make our back yard more bird friendly.  In writing he wrote a friendly letter to his friend in Hawaii. He is really hoping to get a letter back in return.   
 

Silly Guy's birdhouse

We started reading aloud Mocassin Trail by: Eloise Jarvis McGraw this week.  It's about a boy who ran away from home when he was 11.  After a grizzly bear attack he was adopted by an Indian tribe.  After living with the tribe for 7 years(now 19), has been contacted by his family who needs him.  It's an interesting story so far. 
Silly Guy also has been reading Freedom Train:  The Story of Harriet Tubman(History).
In Math he continues to work on fractions. 
Sweet Girl worked on study guide question's and reading in Apologia.  She finished Streams to River, River to Sea which she said is a great book.  She continues to read Tom Sawyer in Lit.  Her writing assignment this week was to take Aunt Polly's soliloquy(in chapter 1)and then translate it into modern day language. This was fun and a little challenge. 
I bought a new devotional for the family, The One Year Bible for Kids.  Until now the kids have been working on their Bible assignments in Alpha Omega's Bible Lifepacs.  These are great, but in addition I wanted something we could study together.
In History we are still reading History of US book 4.
   
Art-The kids finished painting the Turkey bowls. 

This week I signed the kids up for the 4H Sking and Snowboarding Club.  They meet twice a month through March and go Lake Tahoe.  They are thrilled to join!! 
Friday morning my husband called to give us the upcoming weather report-snow. We made a Walmart trip to buy snow boots, salt, and a shovel.  By Sunday, we are supposed to get around 6-8 inches of snow.  Little Man was born in HI so he's never seen snow before.  He's so excited to see snow, make a snowman, and thow a snowball. 
So that was some of our highlights.  Hop on over to Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers !

Weekly Wrap Up- Time to Make New Friends

  Our main focus over the past month has been to get the family back into a normal routine and   settling into the house.  I felt like it was time to find a home school group in the area. So last week I was searching and emailing and was contacted by a couple of kind ladies.  They were welcoming and asked us to join the group for park day on Wednesday.  We woke up in the morning eager to go meet some new friends.  We arrived at the park and were welcomed with smiling faces.  Soon after we arrived it began to sleet.  The kids didn’t mind and were having fun so we hung around for a little while. It was so great to be around other homeschooling mommies again.  The group sounds just the right pace for us.  We are looking forward to meeting up with them again. 

Some other highlights...

We woke up to snow capped mountains this week

Little Man came to me this week and wanted to make a necklace for Grandma.  We pulled out some penne pasta, pony beads, and yarn.  He found this bead in the container(the only one like it)and thought it was “so cool”. 

 While he was stringing on the pasta and beads he was talking about how much “Grandma is going to love this necklace.”   “I think this necklace will make her happy!” Such a sweetie pie! Then he wanted to model his creation-he, he.

 He has become mama's little helper in the kitchen too.  Everytime I am baking he's there "I want to help!".  Then he drags the step ladder over to the counter top ready to be of assistance.  His favorite part is licking the bowl of course:)

We also worked on numbers and counting a bit this week. Most of the time he was enjoying tag along lessons, baking, and hanging out with mom.  We had a lot of cuddle time on the couch reading books and playing with his toys(doctor and his Thomas trains were his favorite this week). 


Sweet Girl has finished A Gathering of Days:  A New England Girl's Journal.  She wrote a book report about it for her writing assignment.  She has now started reading Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.  We'll have to check the weather reports and plan a trip to go back to Virginia City.  There is a Mark Twain museum and it's where he started his career.
She started Module 4:  Science, Applied Science, and Technology in Apologia General Science.  She has had a couple of experiments this week learning about simple machines( making a lever and pulley).  I can't say enough about how wonderful this curriculum is. The book gives wonderful information and explanations of what was supposed to happen and why it happened.  I am no scientist and Dr. Jay L. Wile has made teaching Science painless.
For her independent History reading she has started reading Streams to River, River to Sea which is about the Lewis and Clark expedition. 

Which brings me to History...this week we started A History of US:  The New Nation(1789-1850)Book 4.  Some of the topics included in our studies-President George Washington, President John Adams, President Thomas Jefferson, Judicial Review, and Lewis and Clark.  Some links I found this week-  Washington is Elected ,  Thomas Jefferson, Judicial Review and Construction-the nature of the Supreme Court, Biography of John Adams, and Lewis and Clark Expedition.  We only viewed a couple but I figured I'd share what I found;) 
Silly Guy wrote a newspaper this week in.  It was to take place in 1803.  He had a lot of fun with this assignment. Many of the topics he wrote about we've covered in his History and Literature lessons.  However, he did some additional research for the assignment.   Usually for writing I have him write out his assignment.  But being a newspaper, I gave him the option of choosing a template and to type the assignment.  Writing a newspaper was a hit with my Silly Guy.  

Literature-he finished reading The Lewis and Clark Expedition which he really liked. I also had him read some short stories (historical stories)in an Abeka book I picked up at an used curriculum fair.  

In Science this week he learned about trees.  Mostly reading the text and some books I grabbed from the library. We did do some tree and leaf rubbings.  Today he finished up the "Plants Unit" with a quiz.   

  I enjoy decorating the house for Thanksgiving and Christmas. So for art this week we started a two week project "Ceramic Turkey Bowls"using air drying clay.   Little Man had a different idea about the clay project. At first my 3 year old refused to allow anyone to help him.  Then he made a HUGE mess with the sponge and water.  I had a small pond on my kitchen table. So, I helped him to form the bowl.  I think he'll enjoy painting his bowl more.  Not to say he didn't have a blast splishing and splashing clay water everywhere:).       

 









Oh, I think they're gonna be cute filled with nuts or candies. 
I am so glad to have worked Art and Music into our weekly schedule this year.  In the past it has been on the schedule too but it was one of those things-If we have time.  With our schedule not jammed packed with so many activities we now have the time.  It's  really been a gift.  A gift of  time together to create:). 
 One thing that arrived in the mail this week is our new wall map. Our old one was ruined in the move. The kids(especially Silly Guy)loves to look at the map. They'll quiz each other for fun. Just by having a map on the wall since Silly Guy was 4(when we started homeschooling) he can pretty much locate anything on a map quick too. This year we've used Sonlight's maps(which aren't labeled) for our History/Geography lessons.  We've had fun with these maps and have turned Geography lessons into a daily Geography bee.
Let's just say Geography has become quite competitive around our home. Fun!
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Weekly Wrap Up-A Week of Perfect Timing

When I started writing this post I didn't know what to title it.  As I went through our week I realized we had some perfect timing. 
Some highlights for the week...
Our week started off with a much needed nature walk.  It always is relaxing and therapeutic to spend time in nature and appreciate His creation. 
I might be behind the times on this one but wanted to share a link I found.  It is an online field guide for identifying wildlife- enature.com .  Which is going to be useful to us being new to these parts.  We found this lizard sunbathing on some rocks in our front yard.  This website was great and user friendly.

the desert spiny lizard

Art this week, we stepped away from the picture study.  My kids love picture studies and are learning a lot about art and the artists. However, I chose to do a "lesson" from Incredible Art Lessons.  The objective of the lesson was to create a design by reversing positive and negative space. They used leaves that we collected from our nature walk to develop the designs.

This week in History we finished A History of US Book 3 From Colonies to Country.  Some

topics studied this week: the Constitutional Convention, Constitution, the Northwest Ordinance, and the Bill of Rights.  Perfect timing #1- learning about the forming of our government during election week.  We ended it with the question"Will you preserve America's democracy?".  Which lead us into thought and discussion about voting and some current events.     

Anywho, what an amazing time period!  We are loving this series.  Mrs. Hakim writes like she is sitting in the room having a conversation with you.  Anything that grabs their interest(and mine-he,he) and provoke's thought get's a thumbs up in my book.  The kids also worked on memorizing the Preamble to the Constitution, finished up their timelines(for this period 1735-1791), maps, etc.  I wanted to share a couple of links  The Constitution Preamble Song- Schoolhouse Rock video

Ratification of the Constitution- video accompanied by text

The Bill of Rights- a slide show naration



Sweet Girl's History notebook

Perfect timing #2-Sweet Girl  read some poems about autumn this week by Robert Frost.  She finished Traitor: The Case of Benedict Arnold this week for her independent history reading.  In Literature she began reading A Gathering of Days: A New Enland Girl's Journal, 1830-32 by: Joan W. Blos.  She also read the tale of Rip Van Winkle. 

Which leads me to her writing assignment.  It was to write two epitaph's for Rip Van Winkle.  One that might have been on his gravestone before he fell asleep for 20 yrs, and one that may have been written after his actual death.  Perfect timing #3-We set out for Silly Guy's dry seed hunt project at Fort Churchill.  At the fort they had a cemetary where she was able to read some epitaph's that were on the tombstone's there. 

She had a quiet week in Apologia General Science.  Basically reading and finishing up Module 3 with studying and taking the test. 

On to Silly Guy, this week in Science(Christian Kids Explore Biology) he continued learning about plants.  His lessons were focused on plant reproduction and fruits/vegetables.  Along with reading he had an experiment and a project.  His experiment was to dissect fruits and vegetables and then classify them first into either a fruit or vegetable.  Then into different groups:  dry, juicy, pomes or drupes/stone fruits.  The best part of this experiment was all of the taste testing going on by both Silly Guy and Little Man.  It was funny.  It was as if they had never tasted a fruit or a vegetable before.  Little Man ,who loves Science, was chiming in,"Ohh, it has seeds...Yup, it's a fruit!" 

Big knife but under my supervision!! Kids don't try this at home!!

Silly Guy's Science notebook

Then they(the boys) had a project- a dry seed hunt.  We pulled into the parking lot at Fort Churchill.  Which brings me to perfect timing #4- I almost didn't park in this lot and we wouldn't have seen these trees otherwise.  Little Man got out of the van, pointed up to the tree and shouted..."Seeds!!"  

We really didn't know what kinds of seeds we would be finding in the desert. Much to our surprise we did find some.  It was a beautiful place to go on a seed hunt too!!  Silly Guy added his findings to his Science notebook.   

Silly Guy's Science notebook

 Although he didn't want to leave, Little Man couldn't wait to make a collage with his findings. 

Silly Guy finished Sign of the Beaver at the start of the week for his Literature study.  Now he is reading Lewis and Clark Expedition by Richard L Newberger. For his independent History reading he read and finished If You Were There When They Signed the Constitution. 

I added Easy Grammar to his Language Arts curriculum last week.  I felt he needed more grammar practice.  The lessons are short, sweet and to the point.  It's great for him and he's picking it up(getting 100%'s ).  Now if I can get him to use what he learns in his writing!! In writing he had a few journaling assignments.  He loved this assignment!! He is my journalist.  He carries his journal with him everywhere; the house, outside, the car, to bed, to the store, etc. Always writing about something:)

Math went a little better this week.  Previously, I was having him complete his Math assignments in the school room/office.  Well, I decided I would move him into the kitchen. He said he likes having me in the same room with him for Math.  So that's what we did;)

  Always growing and learning what works best for them. 

 This week a milestone was reached in our house. I was in the shower and a little boy comes into the bathroom with a shirt on his head..."Mom, I am going to get dressed." I replied,"Okay honey.I'll be out in a few minutes to help you." "No mom. I am going to do it all by myself." I giggled as I peeked out of the shower door watching him walk away. A few minutes later that same not so little boy walked back in completley dressed from head to foot. He had picked out his clothes and got dressed all by himself. He knew how proud we all were and asked me to get the camera. This is his pose-he, he. We were so proud of him(holding back the tears)!!

such a proud big boy

Along with learning by his big brother and sister side, Little Man worked on writing some of his letters and numbers.  He is very interested in learning how to read.  He is pointing to words on the page and asking me,"What does that say?"  Also if a book has sight words listed he will ask me too. At bedtime after we read some books he will then  tell me a story of his own.  I can not express in words how much this excites me!!!

Ruins at Fort Churchill-more about the fort later:)

It was a great week where lesson plans worked with perfect timing!
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Weekly Wrap Up- A Bit Chilly

 Our week was great but very COLD!!  We just moved from a tropical island a little over a month ago to the desert.  We had no idea it would be getting so cold so fast.  One morning we woke up to a temperature of 26 degrees!!!  We are not prepared at all for the weather.  We had to make a trip to the store to get hats, coats and gloves. 

When my husband came home from work we had to drain and shut off the sprinkler system.  Inside the access panel we found this little guy all cozied up.  Immediatley the kids asked..."Can we keep him?"  I convinced them that he looked like he was ready to hibernate for the winter and we should leave him be.  Sweet dreams...

On to our school week...Some highlights...
Silly Guy is studying plants in Science.  This week he learned about photosynthesis.  An experiment he did was to compare the effects of keeping the leaves of a plant in the dark and in the sunlight. 

He covered one leaf with a black trash bag.  Then after a few days we brought both leaves inside to investigate.

He boiled alcohol and dipped each leaf into it.  Then afterward he used iodine to determine which leaf contained starch(product of photosynthesis).  Kind of neat!  The leaf left in the sunlight turned black which showed that it had contained starch. 

He did a research assignment on George Washinton Carver.  Now that it is getting colder, I asked him if he wanted to finish studying plants in the spring.  He replied,"No mom.  I am having fun learning about plants."  He decided to purchase his own plant with some of his birthday money -a venus fly trap.

In Math Silly Guy did an invesigation about fractions and percents.  He loves the Saxon investigations acutually now that I think back Sweet Girl did too.  He has been struggling with math lately.  I am not sure if it's just been the move.  I am hoping now we are getting settled things will become less frustrating for him.  He usually does well in Math so I am going to give it a little more time to adjust. 

He is still reading Sign of the Beaver and enjoying this tale.   

In History this week we are still learning about the American Revolution.  Some things we read about is week:  Battle of Bunker and Breed's Hill, the surrender of General Burgoyne, women and children of the revolution, soldier life during the Revolutionary War, the winter of 1777 at Valley Forge and how important that winter was, and The Declaration of Independence.  They memorized some of Thomas Jefferson's words from the Declaration:)

I did find a couple of links I wanted to share...

Valley Forge on Youtube - this a 5 minute slide show about the winter at Valley Forge.

John Adams-Declaration of Independence on Youtube- a 5 minute  scene from the John Adams mini series.

The Road to Independence - this is an online Revolutionary War simulation.  The kids enjoyed!!

A Revolutionary Webquest - I went under the" lifestyle and culture" icon and we listened to some of the music played during the time period we've been studying. 

Art this week we studied Winslow Homer's "October Day".  Here is a link to the Winslow Homer page at the National Gallery of Art for more information about the artist.  This is Silly Guy's interpretation of the painting using pastels. 

Science for Sweet Girl involved some reading and three experiments.  She made these cardboard boats each having a different motor- chewing gum, soap, tissue, and no motor.  Which motor would make the boat move?

Soap was the winner, but why?  The next two experiments gave her the answer...

The pepper didn't do much with either the chewing gum, tissue, plain tweezers...

but wow look at what happened when she put the soap in the pepper...

After the third experiment(much patience and some help from mom. no pictures)she learned that the soap decreased surface tension causing the boat to move through the water. 

Sweet Girl took a Math test this week and got a 93%.  She is doing very well with Algebra.  She finished up Indian Captive but is still reading The Case of Benedict Arnold.

In writing this week Sweet Girl finished up her assignment-writing a colonial newspaper.  Dad and I thought she did a good job. 

Little Man had a great week too!

(Coloring and counting in his pumpkin counting book)

 He was intrigued by big sis's science experiment.  So he joined in too.

On a home improvement/moving note...I am happy to report the last of the carpet has been replaced and the last of the boxes have been unpacked(excluding the garage).
Great week!!
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