Homeschool Week in Review: Weeks 1 and 2

When I first started blogging. I thought this blog o'mine would be all about homeschooling. I really had not anticipated the massive diversions. Segues. Bunny trails. But I did attempt to get back on track with a weekly report of what we had accomplished. And then last school year. Well. It started weekly. Then it moved to a once every two week discussion. Then I combined three weeks into one. And that was apparently the end of it. I did not do another week in review after week 9 last year. Ooops.

Hopefully I can get back on track. And hopefully ya'll will bear with me and all my homeschooling posts.

Both girls started back to school on the 10th. With Madalyn in public school, it's just easier to have Katie follow her schedule. I spent the weekend before school started really going over all her books. And figuring out a plan of attack. I know. Procrastination is my friend. My really good friend. My BFF.

I like to plan out three weeks at a time. And now that we are entering our third week. I think that I can add a little more to her day. Or not give her as long to complete an assignment. So...this is what we have done:

LANGUAGE ARTS: Katie started her first literature program with Lightning Lit. Learning about different elements of plot. And then reading "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" by Rudyard Kipling. (Do any of you remember seeing the animated version on tv when you were young? I remember loving that story!)

Much to Katie's chagrin, we went back to grammar this year. She is doing a few lessons a week from her Language Arts today book.

And then the new element we have added for this year is Memory Work. My friend Abbey found this great book called Living Memory. It is divided into subjects. And is just full of things to memorize. (I love that last poem to help you remember the kings/queens of England!) The plan is that Katie will go through the book each week and choose something to memorize. It will keep building because she will keep reviewing selections from previous weeks.

The first week, she chose to memorize the 11 states of the confederacy. The second week, she memorized all the prime numbers under 100.

EARTH SCIENCE: We learned about the different branches of Earth science, the scientific method, models, and measurement.

ART: I am still surprising my craft-despising self with this subject. But we are doing art. And by we. I do mean Katie. She spent the first week learning about different types of art. Then she narrowed her medium. And picked an artist to do a little more research on: Vincent Van Gogh. And her research makes one wonder if craziness goes hand and hand with genius.

In her second week, she read more about "line, shape and value." She studied two art pieces with a lot of lines in their components. And then created her own.

GEOGRAPHY: Our focus right now is on globes, maps, and charts. I am looking forward to going back to what we were doing last year. I really liked the cultural studies. There is just one more section before the book starts covering cultures and countries. I can't decide if I want to follow the order of the book...or pick and choose like we did before. Decisions, decisions...

LOGIC: We decided that rather than work through one type of logic book - we would do all 5 books at the same time. Doing one lesson - and then rotating to the next book. And on Fridays we have game day. We have a lot of cool logic games like: Rush hour, Railroad rush hour, Tipover, and a new game called "Shut the Box" that was popular with pirates!

HISTORY: This year our focus is on the Middle Ages. I am thinking that we can do fun stuff like watch "The Lord of the Rings" triology (great scenes of medieval warfare). Or even "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." We also have dvd lectures from "The Teaching Company" that we have started to watch. Right now we are discussing the end of the Roman empire, the rise of Christinaity, and Jewish persecution during the Middle Ages.

Katie has read about monasticism. Life in a monastery. Drawn a bird's eye view of a monastery. (Which was hilarious. I love the monks in the pictures. You see the tops of their bald heads! Katie didn't like it so much. She says her monks look like tomato plants.) And we read the book "The Door in the Wall." She didn't like it so much because of the medieval language. Lots of thees, thous, and hasts. Just wait till we get to Cantebury Tales!

Along side of our history program, we are reading from "Famous Men of the Middle Ages." Katie really likes this because so far the focus is on Norse/Germanic mythology. She has fun trying to figure out how to pronounce the words. Ginnungagap and Niebelungs are her new favorite words to say.

ALGEBRA I: Her class with Derek Owens does not start until the Monday after Labor Day. So we are working on review. Michael is also covering a few topics with her that she did not have with Singapore math last year - but were covered in preAlgebra. I am staying out of the way!

ACTIVITIES: We are constantly on the go. Katie is in her 5th year of piano lessons. She is on the tennis team - and practices three times a week. She has her first match scheduled for September. And she even has a cooking class tomorrow.

Inspired by "Julie and Julia," I have reserved episodes of "The French Chef" on netflix. Maybe we'll see if we are inspired to emulate Julia!

So...what about you? What was your favorite subject in school? Have you seen "Julie and Julia?" Any suggestions for movies we should watch about the Middle Ages?

Homeschool Week in Review: Weeks 9, 10, and 11

I know how much you all love my homeschool posts. They are full of such flash. And sass. And it's the one original tendril of intent that I am hanging onto. So there will be homeschool reports. Every so often.

I have spent the past 30 minutes looking over the planner from the past few weeks. And I am not quite sure what we have done. My notes in the planner are cryptic. Sort of. They read like this: MMON 50-51...OR text page 82 #6 - WB #54...OR WAH upload...OR "keep reading." It made sense at the time. But, three weeks later, not so much. I suppose that I could go and get the books so that I could tell you exactly what she learned about on page 50 and 51 of that science book (hey, I DO know what MMON stands for). But. I am lazy.

Let me see what I can manage to recreate:

ACTIVITIES: I said I wouldn't over-schedule my child. I lied. But I couldn't help it. With homeschooling we have a lot of flexibility. But, realistically, we do need to be home to actually get some schooling done. Some days, that is actually challenging. Katie takes piano lessons and tennis lessons. She is in a once a month cooking class - and will actually be there today. Girl Scouts. Church choir. A professional children's choir. And she takes classes through our homeschool group - swimming/stroke clinic, Latin, and folk dancing. I'm tired. Are you tired? Don't let anyone EVER tell you that homeschoolers aren't socialized.

LANGUAGE ARTS: Katie is still plugging away at the twice a week grammar exercises. And she's doing okay with keeping up with her blog. My intent was for her to update about 3 times a week. But that is what gets skipped when we get pressed for time. Ya'll need to read this story she is writing. I am pretty impressed. Prologue; Chapter 1; and the newly posted Chapter 2.

And along those same lines, she is doing very well with Write at Home. I love this program. I am so glad that they said the right things and that we signed up with them. I like the assignments. Her coach has had great feedback for her. Very, very encouraging. And I thought you guys might like to see another one of her assignments. The focus of this lesson is the topic sentence. She had to write three narrative paragraphs (they didn't have to relate) - and with one of the, she had to put the topic sentence at the end of the paragraph. Here is what she wrote:

Jake just led us into a trap, a very dirty one. You see, Jake and I lead a resistance against the Lord of Darkness who has taken the world and plunged it into darkness. Well, I was hurt from a battle wound, and the two of us were in a field in the middle of nowhere. Then, out of the nowhere we were in, a pretty girl appears behind a tree nearby. She said she Amber the healer, and she offered to take me to the place she came from. Jake was quick to reply, because she was so pretty, and he had a problem with pretty girls. But it turned out that this Amber person was a spy for the Lord of Darkness, and now Jake and I are doomed to rot in this dungeon. Therefore, yesterday I was the angriest I’ve ever been.

Hurricanes can be pretty scary, especially when they are stuck in time warps. My parents and I were at the beach that day, and the sky looked bright and sunny. But for no reason, the sky began to get dark and cloudy. The hurricane started immediately after that. It went by so quickly that I thought the sun was getting to me and I was seeing things. But afterwards we saw people walking around the beach quickly, like someone had hit a fast forward button. Later, my parents and I learned we were caught in a time warp.

I remember the first time I met Shadow. Terra and Jessica, the thirteen year old twins were at home doing their usual mini fashion show for their friends, and because I hate anything to do with fashion, I went for a walk. I remember the sky being dark and mysterious. As I passed a dark alley, I heard a moaning noise. Reluctantly, I walked through the alley. There, I saw a boy who looked a little younger then Terra and Jessica. He had dull brown hair and he wore pathetic scraps of fabric for clothes. But the most noticeable feature was the two bloody bandages around his arm.

LOGIC: We are breezing through the second book in the series - covering patterns, syllogisms, analogies, and sequencing. But analogies are giving Katie a difficult time. And she wants to turn me into her personal dictionary. We have been working on figuring out relationships between words - so that even if you don't know what all the words mean, you can probably figure out the answer. But this problem really gave her trouble because she didn't know what any of the words meant:

awl:cobbler as jute:

a. rope b. shoes c. sailor d. tools

this one gave her some trouble as well:

ornamentation: simplicity as modesty:

a. man b. model c. woman d. vanity

The last one gave her trouble because to her, modesty simply means not wanting people to see you change clothes. I think we might need to work on some dictionary skills!

MATH: We finished the last chapter in our math text - and I realized that there is a lot of math that I really don't remember. It was a lot of word problems like: you have a tank of water, where the water measures 10x15x4. And you add a stone to the tank. The stone has a volume of 300 cm² - what is the new height of the water? Katie just finished up a week of review quizzes and on Tuesday we are moving on to a new book. Yippee!

GEOGRAPHY: Wow. We have done a lot here! We have been arranging the countries that we study to coincide with festivals. We have done Japan Fest. And a few weeks ago we studied Greece - and went to the Greek festival. I even did a post about making Greek Pasta (has anyone tried it?). The Greek Orthodox Church in Atlantahas been sponsoring the festival for as long as I can remember. I know I went 25 years ago with one of my high school classes! And it is just a wonderful day of food, music, and more food.

Our first order of business was to eat. And the menu at the festival is extensive. Michael naturally got the combo plate. Yummy! (I think souvlaki is my new favorite thing) Katie had the pasta and I had an gyro. I wanted to take home some lamb...but all the signs said it was sold out. I wonder who bought this one? Katie also realized she has an affinity for spanakopita. Which for some reason she keeps referring to as Puerto Rico. Can ya just see her at the Greek restaurant asking if they have any Puerto Rico? And this was our view as we ate our lunch. Bet you never thought you'd see a sight like that in a homeschool post. Or any post. Just wait till I write about the next festival.

We decided that our eyes needed cleansing, so we went to see the sanctuary. It is gorgeous in there. This is the mosaic on the domed ceiling. And some of the detail of the work.After we have marveled over all the mosaics, we decide to marvel our taste buds with a few pastries. I even bought a bunch of loukoumades - which are kind of like a dense beignet with cinnamon and butter - but they were all eaten before I thought to take a picture. Wait. Did I say that I bought a bunch of them? What I really meant was I bought one. Just one. Not 24. And I didn't lock myself in a closet to eat them all. Nope. That was someone else.

And then we ended our day with a little shopping. And Katie got a belly dancing scarf. Noisy clothes. What was I thinking?

After we finished our studies of Greece, we moved on to Scotland. And so that this post does not become an epic...I'll be weaving tales of the Highland games in another post. Sometime. Oh...and I have a very yummy Scottish recipe to share, too. Speaking of yummy. And Scottish...(why does this picture make me want to ask Mr. Butler if that is a sword...or if he's just happy to see me?)You really never do know where a homeschool post will go do you?

HISTORY: Hello! You have a little drool on your chin. Other side. Okay...moving on. We finished up our unit on Ancient Greece. I am still not feeling the love for this history curriculum. I would have liked a more in depth look at some of the Egyptian leaders - especially Hatshepsut. Katie read two novels set in ancient Egypt - The Golden Goblet and Mara, Daughter of the Nile. She did not like either one. And she even tried to talk me into letting her stop reading Mara when she only had 20 pages to go. So that brought about a discussion of books and subjects in her future that she'll have to study...even if she is not enthralled, interested or entertained.

After Egypt, Katie moved on to Ancient African kingdoms, the Assyrians, and the second rise of Babylon. Then we finished out with a time line comparison - looking at all the groups we had studied to see which ones happened first - and which were existing in conjunction with others.

BIOLOGY: I am loving the way this curriculum builds. First we studied about the taxonomic system...and then we moved on to study about fish. About how their bodies are designed to move in water, the weapons they have to defend themselves, partnerships with underwater creatures, how they communicate, life cycles, "houses," what they eat, special senses, and unique abilities. And we have just started studying about birds.

So...what about you? What country or culture's festival do you want to attend? Do you have a favorite pastry? What assigned books did you struggle with in school?

Theme song: Gomez - See the World

Homeschool week in review: Weeks 7 and 8

A few weeks ago, I asked you to ask me questions. For fodder. I keep procrastinating the answering of said questions. But I thought answering the homeschool ones in my week in review might be a good idea. That way those of you who could care less about this type of thing...well, you can easily move on.

From Trish: Why do you homeschool one of your girls but not the other? Or why does one of your girls go to public school while the other is homeschooled? When we first started homeschooling, it was not by choice. We lived in a horrible school district. And there was no way I was going to send Katie there. I looked at all other options. And none of them was "really" an option. So, quite reluctantly, I knew for first grade, we'd start. Then an aquaintance of mine suggested that I read Susan Wise Bauer's "The Well Trained Mind." I devoured that book. Read the entire thing. Even about how to homeschool the high schooler. And after reading that book, I was so empowered. I KNEW I could homeschool.

Now, Katie is rather advanced. AND she's an independent learner. She doesn't need a lot of hands on work. And she, with a planner and guidance from me, is practically self taught. And that is what works for her.

Madalyn on the other hand is a COMPLETELY different child. She is me. Stubborn. Willful. Argumentative. My way or the high way. If she was homeschooled, we'd just butt heads. And argue. I'd pull out all my hair. She would spend her days lounging in front of the television. Or hanging from the ceiling by her toenails. Crimes might be committed. Jail could be mentioned. BUT...all of these hijinx are reserved especially for me. She is a peach at school. I get reports about how sweet she is. How helpful. What a good friend she is. So, school is where she needs to be. It's what works for her.

Another really cool thing about having Madalyn in school is that as a second child, this is something that is completely her own. There is no prescendent set before her. No shadow of her sister's accomplishments. She can blaze her own path of glory.

From Tiffany:Have you always followed the classical approach to hs'ing?How long do you plan to hs your older daughter?If you weren't hs'ing, how would you spend your days? We have always homeschooled this way. If you want to read my attempt at explaining the Classical method, click here. At the moment, I would say we'll homeschool Katie through high school. We have managed to get so far ahead in certain subjects that I am not sure how she would integrate back into the system. However, our county has a special high school for students on a math or science track. And that is something I might consider.

If I wasn't homeschooling, I really don't know what I would be doing. Maybe I would go back to school. Get my PhD. Maybe I would sit here at my computer and blog all day. Wait...I do that already...

From Debbie: Do you and Katie have a strict homeschool routine? Or I guess my question is really, how do you manage your homeschool day? I am always curious about that with HS moms. We are ruled by the planner. I did a post about it when I first started blogging. I plan every three weeks - so Katie knows exactly what she is supposed to do on any given day. She can manage her own time. Do her subjects in whatever order she wishes. And then when she is done, she comes and shows me everything that she did. She cannot have priviledges until everything is checked off for the day - and that includes things like practicing piano.

Now, not all days are perfect. Sometimes I assign things for her to do that take longer than I would have anticipated. Or there are doctor's appointments that mess with our time. Which is why the planner is written in pencil. And why she does a lot of work in the car.

And this is what we accomplished over the past two weeks:

LANGUAGE ARTS: We are moving along with Daily Grammar. And I decided to stop Wordly Wise for a bit. She was getting a little overwhelmed with the volumne of her school work. I want to figure out a way to break up the assignments a little more before I work it back into her schedule. I have made writing her blog part of her weekly work. She has to update it at least three times a week. And right now she has posted the first two parts of a story. It's really good. Click here if you want to read it - I know she'd love some comment luv.

I also continue to be impressed with her work with Write at Home. They started out with just an assessment - to write about themselves. Then they went back to basics. With how to form sentences. How to make them interesting. Here is her post about one of those exercises. She had to write sentences using all different subjects and verbs. You should see the silly sentences she created for the next assignment. I'll have to get her to post those. This week her assignment is to write her first narrative paragraph.

LOGIC -- We finished her first book and moved into the second. It's the same activities she did in the first book, but it's stepped up the difficulty.

GEOGRAPHY -- We have spent the past two weeks studying Japan. We (we meaning Katie) read about the Shinto religion. She made a Japanese screen. Read lots of Japanese stories. Read about traditional holidays such as Children's Day. And in the middle of our week, we went to Japan Fest. Where the kids got to make lanterns:

Get a tattoo:

See bonsai trees (they had soooo many questions for the guys in this area. Wanting to know how they trained the trees to do that. How they got them in rocks. They were completely mesmerized. I knew they would like the festival. I didn't know that this would be one of their favorite parts.):

Eat Japanese food:

See Kimonos (oh, were they gorgeous):

And they even got their names written phonetically in Japanese:Here is Katie's version of the events. Next week we are moving on to study Greece. Because the Greek festival is this weekend.

HISTORY: We continued with ancient Egypt. Katie finished reading "Tales from Ancient Egypt" and "The Golden Goblet." And this weekend she is starting "Mara, Daughter of the Nile." We went to the library to do research on how pyramids are built. And did a section of different forms of art and recreation during this time period. I am trying to figure out when we can go see the Egyptian collection at the Michael C Carlos museum. I had planned to go next weekend...but Katie is going camping with girl scouts. So many things to do, so little time!

BIOLOGY: Katie has been reading about different protective measures animals use to survive. Things like: body coverings, camouflage, coloring, mimicry...

MATH: We finished our sections on geometry and tessalations and this week moved to volume.

LATIN: She is still reviewing materials from last year. And then this week moved on to learn about third declension nouns.

So...what about you? Have you been going to any festivals in your area? Did you like to write stories when you were younger? What time period was/is your favorite in history? Have you ever contemplated homeschooling?

Homeschool Week in Review: Week 6

We all had a good week. There was very little drama. School work was done in a reasonable amount of time. Even Madalyn has gotten over her "subtraction is not my thing" and scored in the 90's for her timed tests.

GRAMMAR/WRITING: We are still plodding along with Wordly Wise and Daily Grams. Katie got her first writing assignment back from her coach at Write at Home. She did pretty well - and got some great suggestions for next time. This week, you must see her assignment. She has it posted to her blog - but let me explain what she had to do. The lesson this week was on proper sentence formation. Then she was given a list of 10 nouns and phrases that she had to use as the subjects of her sentences. Click here to see into the imagination of my whacked child.

LOGIC: We moved on from syllogisms to puzzles. I am sure that there is a fancy name for them. But it escapes me at the moment. The puzzles are of this variety: Connie, Virginia, Steve, Randy, Valery, and Karen are cheerleaders at Southside Junior High. One of their routines calls for them to form a pyramid with three people on the bottom, two people in the middle tier, and one person on top. Read these clues and then put everyone into their proper position. CLUES: 1. Connie is between Steve and Randy. 2. Virginia is on top of Connie and Steve but helping to support Valery. 3. Karen is on the right side of the pyramid.

GEOGRAPHY: This week we studied our first South American country: Uruguay. Katie was disappointed that she could not find a recipe that matched her taste buds. She didn't want anything with lentils or peppers in it. Maybe next week. I haven't planned for our next few weeks yet - something for me to do this weekend - but her request is somewhere with yummy food.

HISTORY: We have continued with Ancient Egypt - focusing on their religion, myths, and legends. Katie made this cool flip book of the Egyptian gods and goddesses. You can read what they are responsible for - and then because it is cut, you can flip flop the heads and bodies. She also read the book Tales of Ancient Egypt.

BIOLOGY: Katie stayed with the Mysteries and Marvels of Nature book - learning more about insects. She learned about how insects defend themselves, how they live together, and how aphids can even change their gender.

MATH: We finished up our chapter on triangles and moved into Chapter 7 on four-sided figures. Parallograms, rhombuses, trapezoids, rectangles, squares - and how to tell the difference.

LATIN: She is still reviewing Latin Prep I - this week continuing to review vocabulary, 1-3rd conjugation verbs, declensions, and translations. I am in my third week of teaching Latin to high school homeschoolers. They are really struggling with the language - but most of their trouble centers around their ignorance of English grammar. If they cannot find the subject; a prepositional phrase; a direct object in an English sentence - it makes it mighty difficult to find them in a Latin sentence.

So, what about you? Are you proficient in English grammar? Where did you learn English grammar- in an English class or in a foreign language class? What languages did you take in school? Do you still remember or use them?

Theme Song: Doors - People are Strange

Homeschool Review: Weeks Four and Five

Didja miss my review? Or are you thanking your lucky stars that I am publishing this on a Sunday when you don't go blog surfing anyway? I must admit that it still amuses me to think that I wanted this blog to be completely about homeschooling. Yeah. That didn't last long.

A few days after I moved on from homeschooling, I thought I could do a blog about books. But then I remembered that I love to read books. I like to talk about books. But write summaries of books - or critiques of books - that is so not my forte. I wanted to do updates on the books I am reading for my 888 challenge...but I believe we have established that I am all about the big idea. With no follow through.

Speaking of big ideas. I have lots of them. I want to host a swap. Would you all want to participate? What kind of swap? I have no idea. Anyone want to do it? I must admit to being leary of the whole idea. I signed up for a swap back in May. My partner liked her goodies. I think she forgot about the swap part.

I want a blog stalkers convention. But...what to do? I could arrange for a hotel. Or better yet a house on the beach. But would there be activities? Who else is big on ideas - and is a DOER?

See...the meanderings? The segues? Like I could keep this blog on one topic.

Let's see if I can at least accomplish that in my week (err...two weeks) in review:

GRAMMAR/WRITING: We have really beefed up our activity in this area. Katie continues her work in Wordly Wise and Daily Grams. I have write posts for her blog most every day. We added in handwriting. And then last week she started with the formal writing program, Write at Home. I am looking forward to her getting back her first critique. And it being from someone that is not me.

LOGIC: We have moved on to syllogisms. Katie thinks that these are great fun. I never even knew what a syllogism was until college. And now my 5th grade daughter is learning about them in a 3rd grade logic book.

GEOGRAPHY: Last week we wrapped up our study of China. And I was informed that we must get Chinese take out. Because it would contribute to her "educational experience." Her words. Really. She might have even used a syllogism in her argument. We did get the take out. This week we studied about Kuwait. In her Geography book there were a bunch of internet links and she had fun surfing and learning about children in that country. And then today we made our recipe: Arabian Honey cakes. Who wants to learn how to make them? Karen? Anyone? Anyone? Are ya'll still with me?

HISTORY: Last week we wrapped up our studies of the Mesopotamians and moved to the Egyptians. Did you all know that the King Tut exhibit is coming to Atlanta? It will be here from November through May. I cannot wait to go see it. We also need to make a trip to the Michael C Carlos museum. This is the museum at Emory University that is sponsoring the Tut exhibit. They probably managed to snag this for Atlanta when they discovered that one of their mummies was a Ramses - and returned it to Egypt. I have a big guest room if anyone is coming to town!

BIOLOGY: Katie is getting a lot of use out of our microscope. She went down to the creek to get water to see what she might see under the lens. I was quite relieved that she really didn't see anything. But, Michael went back down with her and they got water from a more stagnant area and they did find something. What? I have no idea. Another day, she got dust from somewhere to look at. It was mostly carpet fibers. I think I would get majorly creeped out if there were visible dust mites.

MATH: Right now we are working on measuring angles and angles in triangles.

And, guess what? There's more! Last week Katie started her classes that she takes through our homeschool group. She began her fourth year of studying Latin - and right now they are just working on review. She is also taking a swimming stroke clinic and folk dancing. And because I am a glutton for punishment, let me tell you about our Wednesdays. In the morning she rides with me to drop Madalyn off at school. Then we head over to the pool where I take water aerobics. And she does school work while she waits for me. Then we go to her piano lesson. We come home for lunch, and she does more school work. Then at 2:30 she has tennis lessons. We race home after that to beat Madalyn's bus driver. Then she has about 45 minutes to finish school work. At 4:30 she has to be at church for girl scouts. It's over at 5:30 - and we just stay at church for dinner - and then at 6 she has choir practice. We are home about 7:30 - and it's time to shower and go to bed. I think I may have overscheduled her. Just a smidge.

So, what about you? Were you involved in lots of activities as a kid? Anything that you still do today? What activities are yor kids in? Are they overscheduled? How have you found that balance?

Week in Review: Week 3

Another week breezed by here at casa Sunshine and Lemonade. A week without too much drama. Which is surprising. Especially since my children live here. But I'll take it. Anytime.

Last Friday, Madalyn brought home her work from the week in her Friday Folder. They had been taking timed tests in math - to work on their 0-5 math facts. She got a 92% on addition. And a 53% on subtraction. I asked her what happened with subtraction (she got that low because she didn't finish most of the page, not that they were wrong) - and she says "Well, mom. Subtraction is just not my thing." So...can you see her now? In high school. Telling her math teacher - "yeah, subtraction is not my thing. But I can do a mean quadratic equation."

On Tuesday, Katie went to a homeschool cooking class at our local Young Chef's Academy. There were 19 kids there. I don't think they were expecting quite so many! It was an hour and a half class (or a little less for us because I thought it started at 11:30 rather than 11) - so I got a little time alone - and Katie got to cook a breakfast burito and blueberry muffins - and most importantly, she got to eat them. The classes are only once a month, so she'll have to make do with cooking in our kitchen until the next time.

And then last night after dinner, the girls presented me with this:

The good mother award. I am not sure what I did to spurn this creativity. Oh, wait, yes, I do know. They lost all privileges yesterday - so perhaps this was their way of entertaining themselves. Hmmm...maybe instead of asking what I did...I should be wondering what they did. And why are they trying to butter me up? Aren't they sweet?

This is what we accomplished homeschooling:

GRAMMAR/WRITING: I did what I said I would do. We stopped the Note taking workbook and I got a vocabulary program. We started Wordly Wise.I really like it. And after a week, she has learned new words. And how to use them. And I think she'll retain it. It's very challenging - which is just what she needs. Also, I have made writing for her blog part of her school work. She got a blog back in February and I let her write what she wanted. Most days it was text speak and craziness. And then she let it fall by the wayside. I told her that if she really wanted to be a writer, then she needed to write. Go check out her blog.

LOGIC: We are continuing through the workbook and this week has mostly been analogies. Did you know that they took those off the SAT? Anyway, today she had to make up her own. She was provided with the first part - and had to do the second. For example: sour is to pickle as _______ is to __________. So she did sweet to molasses. My favorite one was this one: net is to fisherman as guillotine is to executioner. She can be a bloodthirsty one.

GEOGRAPHY: This week we started studying China. I meant to do this first. To go hand in hand with the Olympics, but it just didn't happen that way. She read a book about China - and some articles from a DK encyclopedia about the country. And we finally used our Geography through Art book. To make it so that I didn't have to be the crafty one - I just told her to pick what she wanted to do out of the China section. And she chose to make a paper cut out. She did a great job with her dragon:

HISTORY: We continued along with History Odyssey, this week studying the Akkadians, Sumerians, and Mesopotamia. I made her watch a "They Might be Giants" video. And now she can't get the song out of her head.

I thought it was pretty funny...

BIOLOGY: We moved from the microscope to the Science encyclopedia - and learned about the taxonomic binomial system of organizing living things. And we have talked about the parts of an animal cell. Today were were supposed to capture an ant and look at it under the microscope. Michael made our slide to trap the ant. But he used corrugated cardboard. So, the ants keep escaping. He needs to re-engineer it!

MATH: We finished up our chapter on rate.

So, that was our week. There is that old saying of "you learn something new everyday." What did you learn this week?

Week in Review: Week 2

Katie has scoliosis. She was diagnosed three years ago. And has been wearing what is called a Boston Brace for almost two years. She has an "S" shaped curve. What her brace does, is it has padding where those curves are. And the pads PUSH her spine straight. It is painful to wear. So painful that in the beginning she would cry for hours. Sometimes it is even more painful to remove the brace. Which she needs to wear at least 20 hours a day. She gets heat rash on her skin. Which tends to bleed, scab, and then scale. But, amazingly, over time. She has gotten used to her brace. You wouldn't know she had it on. Unless you hugged her. Or touched her torse. And felt the hard plastic. Or the metal clips. She does not like to acknowledge that it is there. She doesn't want to answer questions. And she doesn't want anyone to know. I wish she could find an explanation that would make her comfortable.

And on Monday, she was casted for her third brace in 2 years. At $7000 a pop. She has grown 2 1/2 inches just since March. I tried to convince her to let me take pictures of this process. Of how they cast. The strange table that she has to lay on. Her maniacal orthodic maker, Larry, as he had fun with her in cutting off the cast. With an electric saw. But no. She said no. I and respected her wishes. And now she is respecting mine...in that I have to report it. Maybe next time she'll be comfortable enough to let me take pictures. Because I know there is going to be a next time. For another $7000.

We did manage to have some fun this week, too. We went to the indoor aquatic center (and I have more about that another day). We started church choir. Our homeschool group had its "Not Back to School Party." And we did school work. That counts as fun. Right?

BIOLOGY: Most of the work Katie has done this week centers around observation through the microscope. A microscope that we bought many many moons ago. And that we had not taken out of the box. Until this week. And it still works! She loves it. We have all kinds of slides. And today we had to take the netting off of a bandage for her too look at. And see what the fibers are doing. I tried to take a picture through the microscope, but it didn't work. It would be very cool to have one of those microscopes I could attach a camera to. Or one that could be hooked up to your computer so that you could view on your monitor. But...I think we will just be content that we have a microscope. And that the girls are so fascinated with what they can discover

HISTORY: We started off the week with a little drama. Because I asked Katie to draw a cover for her History Odyssey notebook. It caused a complete meltdown. I suppose I should be sympathetic. I think I would have a break down too, if someone asked me to draw something. But, she got over it. And found something to trace. And we labeled the sections for her notebook. And talked about how to follow the lesson plans. She read about the first civilizations, irrigation, trade, and the first megaliths in Europe.

Who wants a trivial educational side note? It was a rehetorical question. There is a theory that the entire reason we have civilizations. The entire reason that people stopped their nomadic existence. And planted crops. Was because of beer. That someone accidentally discovered the "feeling" fermented grain gave them. And they put down roots. And grew crops. Not for sustenance. But for beer. Beer: the root of all civilization.

LOGIC: Katie continued with Logic countdown. And we moved into analogies this week. We talked about process of elimination - and how to make educated guesses when you don't know the answer. Like in this problem:

Cod is to trout as grouse is to: ________

a. covey b. bird c. fish d. egret

She was stumped because she didn't know what a grouse was. Or a covey. So, I asked her what she could immediately eliminate - and that was bird and fish. And then, she could just make an educated guess. And then we talked about another problem. In which a lot of the answers appear to fit:

Beggar is to poor as president is to __________

a. chairman b. leader c. powerful d. nation

She knew that nation could be eliminated. But the other three seemed to be possible. So then, I asked her what kind of word is beggar. And what kind of word is poor. And then the answer becomes obvious.

WRITING/GRAMMAR: We still have another week before Write at Home begins. So we have continued with Daily Grams and the Note taking workbook. I am now on the same page as Katie. The note taking workbook is boring. So, we are going to switch tactics and do daily grams and a vocabulary program. I got Wordly Wise. And we'll see how that goes starting next week.

GEOGRAPHY: This week Katie studied Malawi. There is no such thing as a book about this country. So we did our research on the web. Katie wanted to study it because at her summer camp they talked about that country. And things that we might do to aid them. In monetary and missionary relief.

Other Stuff: At the Not back to school Party we registered for classes. Katie will be starting her fourth year of Latin. And continuing with swimming/stroke clinic and folk dancing. All of those start after Labor Day. Next week we get back into our regular routine with piano lessons.

That was our week. And then tonight? Only 6 hours and 15 minutes and my girls will both be spending the night with friends. Both of them. Not that I am counting or anything. Which means Michael and I get a date night. Without having to arrange for a babysitter. What shall we do?! When was the last time you went on a date? What do you like to do?

Week in Review: Week 1

Let me tell you, I am feelin' the love. I have gotten emails. Comments on other posts. Asking where are the Friday Follies. And even more importantly, asking where I am. Rest assured, I am right here. In my disaster of a basement. While I gather everything for my consignment sale. But more about that another day. And Friday Follies - tune in tomorrow for their new incarnation.

Both girls had great weeks - even after Madalyn's refusal to get on the bus the first day of school. All of the second grade is outside the school in trailers. Oh, wait. Excuse me. They are called "Learning Cottages." I am constantly corrected on that one.

Before I delve into what we did this week, I thought I'd tell you a little bit about why and how we homeschool. Hopefully there will be no snoozing. And hasn't this just been an educational week? Not a lot of flash. Well, except for the lightning. But then again, there is not a lot of flash in my life. I have to invent it.

As usual, I tend to digress. HEY! Are you all back with me? Good. Moving along. I did not want to homeschool. Not at all. I wanted to put my child on the bus. Wave good bye. And have some me time. A lot of me time. But that is not the way things worked out. We used to live in a horrid school district. Where the public school was so not an option. And the price of private wsan't an option either. I went to schools outside of our district to try and convince random principals how much they would enjoy having my child at their school. But no one was buying my stories.

And then, serendipity steps in. In the form of the book The Well trained Mind. I read this book from cover to cover. Including all the parts that were about homeschooling high schoolers. And I knew. I just knew that this was something I could do. Do well. And love doing.

The Well Trained Mind advocates for the classical method of homeschooling. Which is history based. So, in year one, you start at the beginning. With Ancient history. There is no seperate reading/literature program, because along with your history, you read stories from that time period. We studied ancient Egypt - so we read Egyptian myths and legends. We studied Ancient Mesopotamia, and we read The Epic of Gilgamesh. Can you believe that there are beautiful picture books of this story? There are. If you haven't read them...go to your library and get them for your kids. Or for you. (Gligamesh the King, The Revenge of Ishtar, and The Last Quest of Gilgamesh - all by Ludmila Zeman.)

There is a four year cycle for history - ancients, middle ages, Rennaissance/Early modern, and Modern. As well as a four year cycle for science - that corresponds with what the people of that period knew: biology (plants, animals, and humans); Earth Science/Astronomy; Chemistry; and Physics. What I love about this is that Katie will read Shakespeare three times. The first time more in story method. The second time, at a junior level, and the third time in the original. And it won't be scary. Or overwhelming. Because we will have done it before.

Also, central to The Well Trained Mind is learning to write. And learning to write well. It starts with copy work. The idea being that you know good writing when you read it. And when you write it yourself. Copy work moves into dictation. Which is an excellent precursor to note taking. And I will have a child that has been doing that since first grade. So when she is in a class with a lecture portion, she will be well prepared.

When she reads - for any of her subjects, she writes a narrative.(This is what she wrote for Bio today. Can you even read it?) A simple one or two paragraphs telling me what she read (in the beginning it might have just been one or two sentences - and now we are moving to outlining). This is a huge skill. To learn how to summarize. And pull out the most important pieces (instead of the strange or fantastical like she tended to do in the beginning).

So, this year for fifth grade, we are starting over our four year cycle. And we are going to dig a little deeper. This is what we learned:

BIOLOGY: We are using Noeo Biology II for our curriculum this year. And the lessons started with Usborne's Complete Book of the Microscope and learning about their history(since the 1600's) up through modern optical and electron microscopes. We even made a microscope using a piece of cardboard, plastic film, and a drop of water. (although it was more like a magnifying glass than a microscope...but still quite cool!)

HISTORY: We have not started on our History Odyssey curriculum because I wanted to back track a little. And go over some early forms of hominids. We started with Australopithecus and moved up to Homo Habilis, Erectus, Neanderthals, and then Sapiens. We finished off our week discussing the ice age and reading the hilarious book You wouldn't want to be a Mammoth Hunter. (This is another book series I highly recommend - there are lots of book - all by different authors. I am sure you could look up "You wouldn't want to be" as the series at your library or amazon)

MATH: We had not quite finished with Singapore Math's 5B last Spring...so we picked up where we left off: the chapter on Averages.

LOGIC: We started with the workbook Logic Countdown - which is listed for 3-4th grade - but after thumbing through it - there are a number of difficult problems. It starts with lists of items and you have to tell what they all have in common. Like: book, poster, tablet, envelope: all are made with paper; cup, vase, bucket, pot: all are containers. But the difficult one for Katie: salt, sugar, flour, soda. She thought of soda - like Coke. But when I told her it was baking soda, she decided that it was things in the kitchen. Of course it could be things you use to bake. Or, they are all white. Or how about this one: what do these have in common: peach, cherry, olive, and avocado? This one was tough for her!

WRITING/GRAMMAR: Our formal writing program does not start until after Labor Day. In the meantime, I have Katie doing a workbook called "Note taking." It's boring to her. As is the grammar. But it's good to keep up her skills.

GEOGRAPHY: This is now Katie's favorite subject. (She said it was a toss up between Geography and History) We started the week just reading about Europe - and then moved on to our first country : Denmark. I had planned to start with China - to go with the Olympics. But I accidentally put China in another week, and didn't feel like erasing it to go back to the beginning (I know...shocker...I use a manual planner...not a computer!).

Katie read a book about Denmark: city and village life; and another book about how the Danish King helped to save the Jews from the Nazis. We watched a short movie about the country. And we made a Danish recipe for Æblepandekager which is a Danish apple pancake (or cake, really). It was quite yummy.

That was our week. Pretty good start. What about you? When you were in school - what was your favorite subject? And do you want to learn how to make Æblepandekager?

Week in review: May 19-25

I have just realized that I haven’t actually written a blog entry in about a week. Have ya’ll missed me? Joye says I’m slacking. Rhea has emailed me to make sure that we are all safe and sound. I must admit it’s nice to be missed. But this week has just flown by in a flurry of activity. None of it exciting…or blog worthy…but a flurry nonetheless.

So…what have I been up to? Let’s see. Tuesday night, we hid out in the basement because of tornado warnings. What was that line from that movie “Twister?” It’s something like: “we have hail. We have debris. Cow!” Well…we had hail:

Then on Wednesday, we officially entered summer with Madalyn’s last day of school. Poor Katie still has six more days.

On Wednesday night, we went to our usual hangout…Summit’s tavern for trivia. We were actually in first place when we got the final question: In which comedy series have all of the main characters received Emmy awards? There are three correct answers…and we just had to come up with one. Wow…there was a lot of hashing out to do! I said “Will and Grace.” Someone else said “Seinfeld.” Another, “Fraser.” Then we started digging deep. We ruled out “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” because there were just too many actors to contend with. We discussed “All in the Family” and then thought that Sally Struthers probably never won an Emmy. Then Michael had the brilliant idea that it must be “The Odd Couple.” And especially with only two main characters, it had to be a winner.

We turned in our answer…and then listened to hear the correct answers: “Will and Grace” (ahhh…I was right!); “All in the Family” (we live in a world where Sally Struthers won an Emmy?!); and “The Golden Girls” (cannot believe we didn’t think of that one!). But no “Odd Couple.” We lost. Michael was sure they were wrong. So, naturally, first thing when we get home, he looks it up. We were robbed! Jack Klugman won twice, and Tony Randall won once…but they were each nominated in every year that the show was on! Robbed!

On Thursday, I taught my last Latin class of the school year…and then the girls had friends over to play in the afternoon. In the late afternoon we discovered that our neighborhood pool had opened…so we went over to check it out. I am hoping that the girls will meet more kids in the neighborhood and not be so dependent on the kids next door for their entertainment. But they can actually make their own entertainment. They feel the need to do a dramatic scene every time the camera comes out. Every. Time. Woe is me...
Friday morning, I took the girls to get hair cuts…and Katie’s was finally long enough to donate:

Friday was also Michael’s birthday. When he got home from work…he opened his cards. Here is the card I got him:
And after you all read on Thursday about his favorite things – you know how much he likes the band, Rush. When tickets went on sale for their concert here this summer he decided not to go because the tickets were too expensive. So, I naturally bought one for him! He was quite surprised. After reading about all his penny pinching ways, you all can imagine how he gets when I head out to my happy place.

Anyway…Madalyn had been invited to a slumber party…so we dropped her off and then Michael, Katie and I went to Ted’s Montana Grill for dinner (yummy!) and then to see Iron Man. What a great movie! Very fun…and Robert Downey Jr is so underrated. And if you haven’t seen it yet, go see it…and be sure you stay until ALL the credits are completed.

On Saturday we went to pick strawberries again. Well, first we picked up Madalyn from her party – and she brought her friend Kari with us to pick berries. Why is it that my child feels the need to show off her tonsils every time the camera comes out? This was the last of the season. We picked four buckets full…but they were the tiniest berries I have ever seen. I actually got it in my head that we might freeze some of them to make smoothies when they are not in season. We’ll see how that goes.

After we got home, the girls were invited to a pool party and to spend the night with their friends Diana and Shannon. So…what exciting things do Michael and I have planned? Why to go to the grocery store of course. I can see my husband the coupon man in action. We got $300 worth of groceries for $200. See…this is why I don’t grocery shop. I go and get $70 worth of junk. Because I was hungry. Then he did take me out to dinner. Because he had a coupon. Don’t tell me you didn’t see that one coming.

And then Sunday brought our neighborhood Memorial Day pool party. Because nothing says “remember those that have died for their country” like a hot dog and a good game of Marco Polo.

See?! Flurry of activity. And somehow in all that…we DID manage to homeschool:

MATH: We finished the section on percent. And Katie learned about interest rates. I had to explain to her why the bank would give their customers money in the form of interest. And explain that if you are earning 1% interest on 500…you would have 505 at the end of one year…but if you want to find out how much money you would have in the bank after two years, you cannot just multiply that interest amount times two…but that the interest would be on the $505, not the $500. She finished the chapter with multi part word problems and then a review. We will go back to 5B in the fall…and the plan will be to completely finish Singapore by the end of next school year.

HISTORY: Katie completed both chapters 39 and 40 this week (hey, Gwyneth, no skipping this time!). She learned about the conflict between Iran and Iraq (I remembered their long war…but I had no idea what it was all about), Chernobyl, Gorbachev, Glasnost, and the end of the Cold War.

GRAMMAR: We are about to wrap up grammar…and the last chapter of the book focuses on troublesome words – like the differences between rise and raise; let and leave; lend and borrow; and teach and learn. You know what? I am actually contemplating not doing grammar at all next year. She has such a good basis (she actually scored in the 99th percentile on her Iowa tests in the grammar section) – and will get reinforcement from both Latin and her writing program. I am also thinking of leaving off spelling as well. Someone is welcome to convince me otherwise. It seems so wrong…but there it is

WRITING: Katie continued to work on her first lady paper this week. After a first draft without even a mention of the words “first lady” she was back to the drawing board. The second draft was much improved…but I had her actually hand write it…and even with doing it first on the computer…her spelling skills leave little to be desired. (Again…convince me to keep a spelling program. On second thought…what can I get that will actually teach her to spell…she has a huge vocabulary…but spelling…ack!) And, she actually forgot to do her bibliography. So, after a brief speech about plagiarism…she’ll do what will hopefully be the final draft next week…and include that bibliography.