Journey to Excellence

Weekly Wrap-Up ~ Snow, Shows and Smiles that Glow

2012-02-17T08:00:00.001-06:00

As "normal" as last week was, this week was the total opposite!

We started out Monday by declaring a Snow Day! We got a little over an inch of good snow Sunday night into Monday. And, since it will likely be all we get this year, we decided to call off school for the day and play in it!

Tuesday was Valentine's Day. Eli had his class party that afternoon.

Dawson, Brynne and I spent the morning watching some subject-based videos. Dawson watched "Frontier House" and Brynne watched the "2012 Westminster Kennel Dog Show". They also each did a Valentine activity. On Wednesday, they finished their videos.

I branched out this week and created a collage of our activities for Collage Friday with Mary at Homegrown Learners. I used a free App for my iPad called PicCollage. For some reason I have been reluctant to try collages. But, with this, it was just too easy.

1. Our family gathered together on Tuesday night and each painted a canvas, anyway we wanted, using the same four acrylic paint colors. I am going to hang them down the hall to our kitchen.

2. Dawson's Valentine activities were to make up Rejected Candy Hearts and to write a LOVE acrostic poem and an Anti-LOVE acrostic poem. I got these activities from a FREE download from Teachers Pay Teachers, my Favorite Resource this Week. You can sign up to receive a weekly e-mail highlighting their Top 10 Free Downloads. I download things frequently!

3. "Frontier House", a reality mini-series from 2001 about three families who leave their 21st century lives to travel back to 1883 and try to set up a Homestead in Montana, was a highlight of our week. Rick and I watched it back in 2001, and I enjoyed it just as much this time around. It is a great historical video for this era. The characters are engaging, and it gets pretty real. The producers do a great job of giving historical facts throughout the production.

4. Brynne's school focus this week was the dog show, so in her free time she spent lots of time playing with her Barbies.

5. The "2012 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show" was very fun to watch. Brynne watched the entire 6 hours of it, taking notes as to the winners of each class. She enjoyed seeing dogs that she has learned about in the past couple of weeks. And she learned a lot more about the classes.

6. And then Brynne just had to get out her stuffed dogs for some playtime of their own.

We ended our week on Thursday, going on a field trip to the Blue Bell Creameries with our Homeschool Co-op. Field trips are always fun with this group. We even took Eli out of school to go with us. He loves factories and seeing how things work. He wore his little ice cream hat the whole time. And, we got to enjoy a free scoop of ice cream when the tour was over.

Watching a video on the history of the Creamery

Our public schools are off today, and Monday, for President's Day. So that means we are too! We are heading out this afternoon to go spend the weekend with Grandma.

We'll be back at it on Tuesday!

As always, we are linking up with Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

More Than a Valentine

2012-02-14T20:17:00.000-06:00

So, I went to Eli`s Valentine party at school today. This was the condition of the classroom when I got there ...

That class knows how to party!

They had a pj day, and played games and watched "Mr. Popper`s Penguins". There were snacks for about 10 classes!

What was so great, though, was watching Eli with his Valentines. The other kids in the class were tearing through them, ripping off the candy and quickly discarding the ones without. Eli, though, went through his box SLOWLY! He read each one carefully and then got up out of his seat and went to that person and THANKED each one for giving him a Valentine. He was so incredibly sweet and I was so proud of his gratitude and manners.

Experience vs. Live

2012-02-13T15:17:00.000-06:00

We had a snow day today.

Last year we had over two feet of snow AT ONCE and were snowed in for two weeks. We. loved. it. This year, nary a flake. (Okay, a few flakes one day, but it was melted by mid-morning).

Snow boots and gloves were on clearance last week, so I stocked up on some for both the little kids for the future. But with this mild winter, the chances of us using them were slim.

Until yesterday. There was a possibility of some snow that was to come in overnight! It looked like Tulsa could get around 5 inches. At 5 a.m. this morning, there was snow on the ground, but not near what was predicted. I checked the school closings (because Eli still goes to public school) and EVERY SCHOOL IN OUR AREA WAS CLOSED ..... except for ours.

So I laid in bed and tossed and turned and remembered how excited he was before he went to bed because there might be snow to play in, and recalled how the extended forecast showed that the mild temps would be back by tomorrow afternoon so the snow would likely be melted before he got home from school.

And that's when I made the decision to declare it a snow day, even if the schools weren't. Why? Because I want us to experience life, not just live it.

The Merriam-Webster's Dictionary gives these two definitions:

Experience ~ direct observation of or participation in events as a basis of knowledge

Live ~ to conduct or pass one's life

Do you want to just conduct your life or just pass through it? Isn't there a little too much of that going on around you, around me? I want us to have a direct observation of events, and participate in events, as a basis of knowledge (and, dare I say it, a little fun)!

Eli and Brynne will only be 8 and 6 years old once. This might be the only day, at these ages, that they will get to experience the feel of snow down their boots, in their gloves, and on their lips as they participate in the age-old ritual of eating it! (And, yes, I have warned against eating "yellow snow". We have four dogs.) I want them to experience the thrill of flying down the hill on their sleds, of trudging through the snow in their too-big-boots, of coming inside for some hot chocolate to warm up.

I want us to experience this life we have been given. And, if that means putting the books away for a day, then so be it. The books will be there tomorrow. But, today, they enjoyed the knowledge of directly participating in the important event of a snow day in Oklahoma.

America: The Story of Us ~ Episode 1: "Rebels" Lesson Plans

2012-02-11T10:09:00.001-06:00

Here it is ... the first installment of our American History lesson plans using "America: The Story of Us" as our spine. We are currently on Episode 6 and I anticipate us at least getting through Episode 10 by the end of the school year. I hope that you find these posts helpful as you plan your lessons.

The first episode of America: The Story of Us is "Rebels". We spent three weeks on this unit.

We started reading Blood on the River by Elisa Lynn Carbone. We read an equal number of pages each day to cover the three-week unit (** highly recommend).

We watched Episode 1, did the discussion questions/video quiz for the episode and the vocabulary words. These can be printed by going here. The Episode Guides are down the left hand column on the site.

All "notebooking pages" are printed from Advanced World History Vol. 2 from Hold that Thought!

All "America's Heritage" references are materials printed from America's Heritage: An Adventure in Liberty by The American Heritage Education Foundation, Inc.

We did the following activities:

* Powhatan letter to John Smith (from Episode 1 Guide)
* On the Trail with Captain Smith Interactive Activity (from National Geographic Kids)
* Photo analysis of Revere's Bloody Massacre Engraving
* 13 Colonies notebooking page
* "The History of Thanksgiving" activities from America's Heritage
* Research The Mayflower Compact online and do notebooking page of The Mayflower Compact noting significance, reason, number of signers and more
* Virtual Midnight Ride of Paul Revere
* Read "Paul Revere's Ride" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and do Venn Diagram with the real history story of Paul Revere's Ride, to see facts of the two to see likes and differences
* Boston Tea Party and Boston Massacre notebooking pages

Books Read (maybe not the whole book, but reading through it for notebooking pages and general information):

The Thirteen Colonies by Marc Tyler Nobleman
Squanto and the First Thanksgiving by Joyce K. Kessel
John Smith Escapes Again! by Rosalyn Schanzer
Three Young Pilgrims by Cheryl Harness
The Story of Pocahontas by Caryn Jenner
Thanksgiving on Plymouth Plantation by Diane Stanley
Joining the Boston Tea Party by Diane Stanley
And Then What Happened, Paul Revere by Jean Fritz
A Picture Book of Paul Revere by David A. Adler

Videos Watched:

"Early Settlers" by Rhonda Fabian and Jerry Baber
"Squanto and the First Thanksgiving"
"Jamestown" by Schlessinger Media

** These lesson plans were based on planning for an American History course for a 9th grade boy. I allow some activities to be under his grade level and some to be above in order to give him a fun, exciting, and well-rounded understanding of the materials.

Weekly Wrap-Up ~ Dogs, Dogs, DNA, more Dogs, and the Heartland

2012-02-10T17:42:00.000-06:00

This was the first "normal" week of school that we have had in a while. That means that we were home doing school Monday through Thursday, and had our regular Co-op activities on Friday. It was a productive week, and I am ready for the weekend. We have nothing planned this weekend, other than church on Sunday, and I couldn't be happier. I'm tired! In fact, I've been on the couch since about 1 p.m.

Regular studies (and when I say "regular studies" I mean grammar, copywork, handwriting, math/algebra, critical thinking, and literature) are all progressing at a good speed. I am happy where both of the kids are at, both in how well they are doing with the material and in how far they are along in the number of completed lessons. All of these regular studies are moving along easily. Both kids know what is expected of them in these courses and do them each day with ease and independently, for the most part.

I do have to add that for Brynne, I am loving Mathematics Enhancement Programme that we decided to do this year. It is a completely free and downloadable program with daily practice pages, oral lessons, full teachers guides, and copy master (if needed).

"Much of the material developed for this initiative is based on a Hungarian Series, edited by Professor Sándor Hajdu at the Petö Institute in Budapest, and published by Müszaki Könyvkiadó. This has been adapted and modified for UK schools with the help of Professor Tibor Szalontai and Rita Szalontai." ~ from the website (FYI, Hungary is ranked 6th in the world in mathematics.)

What I really like is that most of the math is done in a problem solving fashion and, most often, in the form of "puzzles". Brynne is doing double digit math, but doing it in her head instead of in the form of math facts. She loves it and I love it. I feel like she is very advanced in math. She is doing full-out second grade work as a 6 year old. If you are looking for something a little different, I highly recommend it.

Math is one of those subjects that you HAVE to find the way that your child learns best! Brynne is learning math the MEP way. Dawson is learning Algebra the Life of Fred way. They are extremely different ways of learning, but both highly effective for my particular students.

Brynne has continued her in-depth study of dogs. We moved on to learning about Dog anatomy this week. And, she even get in on some DNA studies of Dogs with Dawson and I. (More on that in a bit.) She has learned about the following breeds: Golden Retrievers, Siberian Huskies, Weimaraners, Alaskan Malamutes, Scottish Terriers, Beagles, Yorkshire Terriers, and Poodles, in the past two weeks. She has also learned about sled dogs and therapy dogs.

Here are two carousels showing the materials she has used in the past two weeks.

Dawson started two new units this week.

In American History, we started learning about the moves westward and the settlements in the Heartland. He started his week watching Episode 6 of "America: The Story of Us" and working on the vocabulary and discussion questions. Then we spent a couple of days doing a Map Study of the states and government territories, and Document Analyses of "The Homestead Act" and the "Pacific Railway Act".

My Favorite Resource this week was DoodleBuddy on my iPad. Dawson was able to save a photo of a States and Territory map of 1860 and download it onto DoodleBuddy. Then he was able to draw on it as we did our map study, much like you are able to use a SmartBoard. It is an incredibly useful App.

In Biology, we started our unit on DNA and Heredity. I had a Favorite Resource in this area, as well. The University of Utah has an entire Teach.Genetics site, and I was able to pull out a couple of great activities.

First, Dawson extracted DNA from spinach in this cool experiment.

See the DNA rising?

The DNA of the Spinach is the white vertical blob.

Then on another day, Dawson and Brynne both were able to participate in "A Recipe for Traits ~ Dog DNA". They drew DNA strips out of an envelope for eight traits for their dog and taped them together to form their DNA strand.

Then they found the corresponding trait on a Legend and highlighted which DNA strip they drew.

Then they sketched and colored their Dog according to the particular DNA strips they each drew out of the envelope.

As you can see, random drawing of DNA produced two very different dogs. (I think this would be a super fun activity to do in a classroom with several students to see if ANY two dogs ended up alike.)

Finally, yesterday, Dawson did a "Generation of Traits ~ Gingerbread People" by using colored pompons. It was another demonstration of how random drawing of traits from family members produces very different people in a family.

These were all great activities. They weren't overly complicated, but they took the complicated text that Dawson was reading in The Way Life Works and gave him visuals to use with it.

Today we had PE and Choir at Co-op, and I had the chance to sit and talk with one my very good friends and review a curriculum that she uses with her girls. I am leaning toward using it next year for Eli and Brynne.

It was a great week!!

As always, I am linking up with Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and Susan at Learning All the Time.

VALENTIMES

2012-02-09T13:11:00.000-06:00

Brynne's Homeschool Co-op Valentine's party was last Friday. When she was working on some Valentines, she said, "I wish you would write where I could read it." I asked her what she was talking about. She was copying "Happy Valentine's Day" that I had written for her, and she pointed to the second "n" in "Valentine's" and said, "What's that?" I told her it was an "n". She gave me the blankest stare, like I had lost my mind. I spelled the whole word for her and she said, "Ooooohhhhh .... I thought it was ValentiMe's Day." The girl is a trip.

Anyway, here is a photo walk through her party.

And Dawson never ceases to amaze me. He told me that next year HE wants to do a box. I just laughed at him. I told him that if I would have handed him a box and said, "Here's yours and your Valentines to hand out," that he would have had a COW! When I don't think he would want to participate in something, he does. What's funny is that there aren't any kids his age in our Co-op. There is an 11+ age group, but none as old as him that participate in activities. He just wanted to do it for fun. The younger kids would have LOVED it, and so would the moms. They think he is hilarious. He is. And, as you can see. He loves his baby sister ...

And his mama ...

(**Blurry pic) We made cards for each other at the party. His to me says, "UR Cool I Guess!" and mine to him says "You Make Me Leap for Joy".

America: The Story of Us ~ Lesson Plans are Coming

2012-02-08T06:54:00.001-06:00

On July 31st, I posted about my intention to post my lesson plans and materials used in our "America: The Story of Us" self-built American History curriculum. I did have plans to do it, but as we have gotten into school I haven't made the time for it.

I have noticed that one of my most popular blog posts was THAT POST on July 31st. That tells me that there are educators out there who are searching for lesson plans that incorporate "America: The Story of Us". And today I received an e-mail from a sweet reader who wants to use the series as a spine, but isn't used to building her own curriculum so is feeling overwhelmed. She asked me if I would mind sharing what we have done this year.

And I would be so glad to.

So, HEADS UP! Starting this Saturday, my Study America Saturday post will feature my American History lesson plans using "America: The Story of Us" as the spine. And just to show you how serious I am, I have already completed the first installment and it's ready for launch on Saturday.

We have watched the first six episodes of the dvd series. WE ... HAVE ... LOVED ... IT !!!!!!

The video is excellent! We do the vocabulary and episode discussion questions on the day that we watch the video. We also start a Living Book, a piece of historical fiction from that era, and read it each morning. Our units have, typically, lasted for 3 weeks each. However, we spent double that amount of time on the Slavery and Civil War units because they were just so rich.

I have used the following resources for the materials for the units:

* America's Heritage: An Adventure in Liberty by The American Heritage Education Foundation, Inc. (This is a free cd that has EXCELLENT activities!)

* Notebooking pages printed off of the cd: Advanced World History Vol. 2 from Hold that Thought! (This cd costs about $20. You do not necessarily have to have the pre-printed notebooking pages to do this. You could have your student just start a spiral Notebook and title the top of each page. The notebooking pages just make it look uniform and pretty.)

* Many informative websites, that will be linked in the individual lesson posts.

* Netflix videos and any documentaries and movies I can DVR from DirecTV.

* The LIBRARY! This is an invaluable, and free resource. God Bless the workers at our library for all they do for me each week!

These are all the materials you need to do what we have done. As you can see, the study is practically free. It just takes preparation. The study has been rich and exciting and meaningful.

** These lesson plans were based on planning for an American History course for a 9th grade boy. I allow some activities to be under his grade level and some to be above in order to give him a fun, exciting, and well-rounded understanding of the materials.

The first unit, Rebels, will post on Saturday.

Mindset for Moms

2012-02-07T10:35:00.001-06:00

I think Joyce Meyer calls it "Stinkin' Thinkin'". You know it ... all that negativity that floods your mind and thoughts. We all do it, at one time or another. The mind can be a bad place to reside. It can convince us our circumstances are insurmountable. The stresses of being a mom, thinking other moms "have it all" and "do it all" is one place where "Stinkin' Thinkin'" can certainly come into play.

When posting my Day in the Life post the other day at Simple Homeschool, Jamie Martin's new e-book, Mindset for Moms, caught my eye. I looked at what it had to offer and considered purchasing it for some reading on my iPad.

What is "Mindset for Moms"? Jamie Martin says this:

"In time I realized that much of my negativity stemmed from my thinking. I slowly discovered that my happiness had less to do with my circumstances and more to do with my thoughts about those circumstances. As I began to learn how to choose my mindset with more intention, I found that much of my life also started to change…from the way I felt physically, to the way I handled challenges, to even the home we now live in. Life isn’t perfect, but it is incredible. I want that for you, too."

This e-book is for purchase for only $5. I think that is an incredible bargain! Many days I scour the internet, reading blogs of other wives and moms, seeking their wisdom on how to be better at those most important jobs. Jamie gives you her thoughts, compiled on one easy, interesting, and inspiring read.

You can go here to read more about Jamie's e-book and to purchase it. Well, what are you waiting for?

Homeschool Showcase

2012-02-06T08:37:00.000-06:00

Kris's January Homeschool Showcase is up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. Go over and see links to some great articles. Our Yummy Fermentation post is featured.

Weekly Wrap-up ~ A Day in Our Schooling Life (15, 8, and 6)

2012-02-03T06:55:00.003-06:00

Over at Simple Homeschool, we have been invited to post about a day in the life of our schooling day. We homeschool a 15 year old 9th grader and a 6 year old 2nd grader. We also have an 8 year old 2nd grader who is in public school. Here is what our typical day looks like:

6:30 a.m. ~ I start my day before everyone else. Ideally I like to get up at 6:00 a.m., but I've gotten lazy as of late! I get up and have my quiet time with the Lord and spend a little time on the computer. Then I get in the shower and get ready for my day.

My Bible, devotional, glasses, computer, books I'm reading, Homeschool planner, and more.

8:00 a.m. ~ Eli is up, but not too excited about it. He has his breakfast, watches a show on t.v., and then gets ready for school. Before he leaves, he reads his book to me while I am making his lunch.

9:00 a.m. ~ I have just dropped Eli off at school, and I come home and get Dawson up for the day. While he is showering, I feed the dogs and straighten up a bit.

9:30 a.m. ~ Usually by this time Dawson is eating his breakfast on the couch while I read our current read-a-loud. Right now we are reading Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson. I call this class "Lay on the Couch in PJ's while Mom Reads to Me 101". He has an A+ in this class.

This is my favorite time of the day. An ease into our day, and time to learn together.

10:00 a.m. ~ If we are watching a history video, as we are now (North and South), we do it around this time. Brynne has typically woken up by this time and is eating breakfast and watching a video, playing her 3DS, or playing with the dogs. A lot of times she is doing all three at the same time.

Historical fiction videos have been an enriching part of our history lessons this year.

11:30 a.m. ~ Our video and discussion time is over. Dawson and I discuss his assignments for the day and he usually retreats upstairs to get started on his independent work (Algebra, Grammar, Critical Thinking, Literature, History assignments). And it's time for Brynne and I to get started with her work.

She always starts her day with her Grammar assignment, Copywork, Handwriting, and Spelling.

12:00 p.m. ~ It's time for lunch. We usually eat for about 30 minutes. Sometimes Dawson does some kind of work while eating. Today it was watching more of our North and South video. Brynne likes to eat her lunch in her and Eli's room. She was watching Beethoven on her 3DS (LOVE the 3DS!). She has been learning about Dogs for the past couple of weeks, so has watched lots of movies about dogs in her spare time.

Dawson's favorite lunch of homemade mini-pizzas.

And Brynne's staple of life: macaroni and cheese.

12:30 p.m. ~ Dawson heads back to his Independent Work. Brynne and I move into her Unit study. Right now we are studying Dogs. We read books, do activities, typically learn an Idiom, discuss class and breeds of dogs, watch videos. If we have U.S. States assignments for that day (we usually work on it a couple days a week), we do them at this time, as well.

We ALWAYS have a dog, or two or three or four, with us.

Brynne's Missouri notebooking and mapping pages from this week.

1:30 p.m. ~ Usually around this time, Dawson and I have come back together for any other work we need to do together. Typically, it's Biology. We either read, do experiments, have discussion, work on projects. Here is where we also do any group art assignments, if we are working on them. Brynne is usually doing her independent reading during this time, as well.

2:00 p.m. ~ Brynne and I end our time together doing her Math assignments. Sometimes we do our MEP book lessons. Sometimes we do Living Math. And sometimes she does math games on the computer.

2:30 p.m. ~ Dawson finishes up his Independent work by about 2:30 p.m. every day. At the end of the day, Brynne usually plays some computer or iPad games. "ABCya" and "Stack the States" are her two favorites.

In the afternoon, I usually start dinner preparations. I also do any housework that needs to be done.

3:30 p.m. ~ I pick Eli up from school. He and I come straight home and do any homework he has. We are usually done by 4:30 p.m. I have got to where I then give him and Brynne their baths, unless they are playing outside. After baths, I get all of the bedtime rituals done and finish up dinner.

This was his hardest spelling test this year, and he got a 100% on the Pre-test!

5:30 p.m. ~ We have dinner when Rick gets home. Then the kids usually head upstairs to play while Rick and I retire to the couch and watch television and/or read until 8:30 p.m. when the kids go to bed.

This is pretty much what our days look like, if we are home. But, of course, we are not always home. On Monday afternoons Dawson has guitar lessons. On Fridays we have Homeschool Co-op in the mornings. And we might have other activities and field trips. Like yesterday, Brynne went to the library at 4:45 p.m. to read a book to a Therapy Dog. This is definitely an activity that we will do every month. Our library was definitely my Favorite Resource of the week!

Brynne got to read to Tasha, a German Shepherd. We learned about German Shepherds last week, and have been learning about all of the different working breeds this week. She read two books to Tasha.

School for us certainly does not just happen between 9 and 2:30 each day. Sometimes it's earlier. Sometimes it's later. Sometimes it's on the weekend instead.

Our philosophy is that School is everywhere all the time. Learning has no beginning and no ending.

And sometimes school is "work" and sometimes it's "relaxing" and, maybe even, "fun". As I look back at the pictures of Dawson in this post, his day(s) look pretty relaxing and, maybe even, fun. I never could get a picture of him actually doing his independent work this week. And, on this particular day that I took the photos, we decided, at the last minute, to just finish the North and South series and move the other assignments to another day. Yeah, we can do that.

We are also linking up with Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

and Favorite Resource this Week at Learning all the Time.

Planning for Next Year

2012-02-01T21:44:00.000-06:00

Yeah, I've been doing that ... planning for next year. There are going to be some significant changes in our homeschool next year, so I am trying to figure some things out.

We have decided to bring Eli home from public school to begin homeschooling next year. We feel like he has probably gained everything he can from public school and is now ready for our kind of learning. I am also talking with a good friend of mine (who happens to be Eli's speech pathologist at his school) about a partnership whereby I will help in the schooling of her 15 year old son while she helps with speech needs for Eli. Her dad is also a science and math whiz who loves to teach, which would come in very handy!

Generally speaking, I am thinking of going to schooling SIX days a week, with five of those days being what we do now and adding time on either Saturday or Sunday for in depth science study. This would allow us to take some big breaks in the year. I am thinking of starting the first Monday in August, taking a week off in September, taking two weeks off in October, taking off from the day before Thanksgiving until the Monday following the New Year, taking off two weeks in March, and then ending about the time the public school kids end in May, giving us all of June and July for summer break.

Have I been thinking about curriculum? Yes.

Eli and Brynne would be taught at the same grade level, approximately 3rd grade. I will likely do school much the way I do now, although I am very interested in doing Five in a Row with them. I have found, over the past two years, that Literature-based learning is the way to go for us.

We'll stick to Easy Grammar, Copywork for Little Girls/Little Boys, Handwriting Without Tears, Math Enhancement Programme, and Usborne for art.

I am also looking for a good spelling curriculum, although I may just do spelling from lots of reading and by using words from the book we are Rowing with Five in a Row. I feel like spelling and grammar are built primarily from reading.

They are both very interested in Space and Astronomy, so that will likely be our year-long science study. Any recommendations for curriculum? WE DO NOT LIKE APOLOGIA. I am looking for something a little more hands on, with lots of reading and exploring. I would like a basic spine that I can build off of. This will also be where my husband and the 6th day of school come in.

Dawson will be a sophomore next year, and so will the young man we are thinking of supervising in his studies. His name is also Eli, so I hope that won't be too confusing!

I am thinking of just continuing Dawson with Algebra, moving onto Life of Fred Advanced Algebra, and then maybe going back to do Teaching Textbooks after he's done.

He will continue to do Easy Grammar, IEW, and Critical Thinking. I would also like to get a good Spanish dvd curriculum for him. He already has a good understanding of Spanish, so I would like for him to continue that into more of an advanced study.

I will also continue to purchase good books of literature and have Dawson read them with literary guides. So far I have A Wrinkle in Time, Johnny Tremain, and Journey to the Center of the Earth. I purchased these each for 50 cents on the sale cart at our library. I browse through that cart every time I go in. I will keep my eye out for other books to add to our list.

The two biggies, as far as planning, are in Science and History.

For Science, I am thinking of moving onto Chemistry. So far I am looking at the following combination of curriculum:

Chemistry 101 dvd series by Wes Olson
The Elements and then Carbon Chemistry by Ellen McHenry
The Periodic Table of Videos
The Elements: Visual Periodic Table

My friend's dad (Big Eli's grandfather) is a science whiz, so I am looking at him teaching the boys on the 6th day, on the weekend, for a couple of hours, expanding on what we are learning during the week.

For History, we are going to be doing a semester of Current Events and then a semester of U.S. and Oklahoma Government.

For Current Events, I purchased an Amanda Bennett Download N Go unit study. We will daily read the Tulsa World and then weekly read Time Magazine to prepare a Current Events journal and for discussion. We will use Are you Liberal? Conservative? or Confused? by Richard J. Maybury and A Bluestocking Guide: Political Philosophies.

For Government, I also purchased an Amanda Bennett Download N Go unit study. We will use What Ever Happened to Justice? by Richard J. Maybury and A Bluestocking Guide: Justice, as well. There will be other lessons here, but I just haven't thought that far ahead yet.

So, that's what I am looking at so far. Big changes ahead. But, good changes, I think. Exciting changes, for sure.

If you have comments or suggestions, please share!

How about you? Mapping out next year's plans yet?

Science Sunday ~ Yummy Fermentation

2012-01-29T16:55:00.001-06:00

Dawson has been working on a fermentation experiment for the past 10 days. I have often received the ziplock bag from a neighbor with an alcohol-smelling concoction and a 10 day plan for turning it into Amish Friendship Bread. We usually save a cup of the start, giving the remainder away to friends (thus the FRIENDSHIP part of the bread), and keep it going for a couple of rounds. But then we either get tired of it or accidentally miss a day or two of the instructions, so end up throwing it away. And then later I will get a hankerin' for some Amish Friendship Bread, but no start to start it with.

Enter the Fermentation Experiment. We found a recipe for the Amish Friendship Bread Starter. The purpose of this recipe is to get the proper fermentation going to successfully bake the bread.

The "fermentation of sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide by yeast ... is the fundamental step to making bread dough. Before most bread doughs get baked, they require time to rise. This is also the time when fermentation takes place."

"The fermentation process serves three primary purposes:
1. To produce carbon dioxide gas to create a light and airy texture in the bread;
2. To enhance the flavor of the bread;
3. To change the protein structure of the bread to prevent a chewy texture."

"Yeast requires a form of sugar or starch as food and a moist environment to grow in."

"The fermentation process is the time during which the yeast converts the sugar present in the flour and the dough into carbon dioxide and alcohol. Carbon dioxide is the compound that humans breathe out and plants consume. In bread, carbon dioxide provides the light, airy texture of bread by leaving gas pockets inside the bread dough. The alcohol, in addition to more complex compounds, produces the main taste in the finished bread."

Today was the end of the 10 day preparation time. After we saw my daughter off back to her home in Kansas City, Dawson headed to the kitchen to bake the Amish Friendship Bread. We sent one of the starts, with recipe, home with Kyndal's boyfriend to give to his mom. And we froze the other three starts for future use.

Before the bread was baked, we tasted the starter (well, I did and described it's taste to Dawson because he refused to do it). It had a strong alcohol taste. So, the fermentation definitely worked! The fragrance of the cinnamon and sugar bread then filled the air as it baked. And when it was done, baked to a fluffy golden brown, we slathered it with butter and had a treat.

** All quoted information was taken from the article "Fermentation of Sugar in Bread by Yeast" by The University of Arizona.

Linking up with Ticia at Adventures in Mommydom.

Weekly Wrap-up ~ All About ...

2012-01-27T16:48:00.002-06:00

... Dogs

Brynne's week has been all about studying the Download-n-Go Dog unit we purchased from Amanda Bennett. We have had fun learning about Labrador Retrievers (or "Lavender" Retrievers, as she calls them), German Shepherds, English Springer Spaniels, and Newfoundlands. She has read non-fiction books about each of the breeds, and a fictional book, as well, and watched a couple of movies.

She did four spelling words each day, about dogs, and then orally gave me each word in a sentence. She has done lots and lots of drawing. We learned about working dogs, dogs owned by American presidents, and the Newf, Seaman, owned by Meriweather Lewis.

My favorite part has been learning dog Idioms: "Top Dog", "That Dog Won't Hunt", "Doggie Bag". I had her write the Idiom, then draw a picture underneath it of what she thought it meant by reading it. Finally, we looked up the real meaning and she wrote it at the bottom of her page. These were fun to do.

We move on to four new breeds next week.

... The Civil War

I think Dawson and I could study the events leading up to the Civil War and the war itself forever. There are so many facets of it that it could be a whole class itself.

Last week we finished The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick. This week we are reading Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson. In my personal time, I am reading I am Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira. And we have been watching an episode of North and South each day.

I love, love, love how all of these books and the mini-series have topics that overlap. We have learned about how initially 75,000 men volunteered for the Civil War, until they realized that people really died, and then the rich paid poor boys to take their place. We have learned about laudanum and the different ways it was used in the medical field. We have seen President Lincoln in many different ways, but always the same. We have read about the attempted murder of Secretary of State Seward on the night Lincoln was assassinated, and seen his advisement of Lincoln in the mini-series. We have seen the many, many things going on that had the North and South so heated up that an explosion was bound to happen. And we have seen how blacks were being treated during this time. Whew! It was a contentious time nationally, politically, socially, and personally.

We are going to do our best to finish up The Civil War this next week, but I can't make any promises.

... Others

Today Brynne and I ended our week by meeting up with our Homeschool Co-op friends and visiting a local nursing home to deliver handmade Valentines. Brynne made hers yesterday.

Those types of situations cause Brynne a lot of stress. After a while, though she started to warm up. The kids sang songs to the residents and walked around and handed out their Valentines.

The man sitting in this wheelchair was someone who received one of Brynne's Valentines. I talked with him for a long time.

A special moment occurred when a nurse asked us if we could go sing to a resident who was bedridden. When we entered the room, the lady was sleeping. The nurse woke her up, although she was pretty incoherent. The kids started singing "Jesus Loves Me", and she started wiggling and dancing in her bed. The kids just lit up her spirit.

Brynne and I discussed having the Co-op choir teacher record the children singing so that we can purchase a cd player for this lady so she can listen to their singing as much as possible.

... Fred

Life of Fred, that is. Dawson is about half-way through Beginning Algebra and this week he had a breakthrough while learning how to multiply polynomials. If you are at your whit's end with your current math curriculum and you don't know where to turn ... turn to 6 year old Fred and see if he can get your child back on track. He has been a God-send to us.

These topics above kept us very busy this week. Dawson will be finishing up his Fermentation project this weekend. My daughter is here for a visit, so we will be soaking up as much time with her as we can.

You can read All About my Favorite Resource of the Week by clicking here.

To see All About other homeschooling weeks, head over the Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

ABCya

2012-01-25T10:56:00.000-06:00

Eli's reading resource teacher shared a website with me yesterday that I would like to pass along. It's called ABCya. There are separate educational sections with fantastic games for ages kindergarten through 5th grade.

I browsed the 2nd grade level, and it includes age-appropriate games about Letters, Numbers, Shapes, Geometry, Patterns, Mouse Manipulation, Art and Holiday games. There are lots and lots of fun and creative games for children to play. They are fun, but oh, so educational.

Eli's favorite, in his short time playing it, was Create a Car.

A lot of the games also have Apps available for purchase (99 cents for most of them) for the iPad and iPhone.

I have been looking for another free website for games similar to Starfall, for some time. I think I have found it. I can feel confident having Eli and Brynne play these games.

A Tribute to a Teacher

2012-01-23T06:54:00.001-06:00

In high school, I had a favorite teacher. I don't think she was probably everybody's favorite teacher. But, she was mine.

She was my Junior and Senior English teacher, my Speech and Debate coach my Senior year, and my pom pon sponsor. I like to think that my pet peeves about grammatical errors have everything to do with this teacher. She was a stickler for grammar, and taught me well.

Her name was Louise Rhondes, and she passed away this past week.

What made Mrs. Rhodes such a good teacher? PASSION.

Mrs. Rhodes had passion for what she taught. She loved grammar and literature and public speaking. She ate and breathed Speech and Debate. She loved it! Her love for her subjects was always contagious to me. She was bold and had high expectations.

A couple of times over the past couple of years, I have been asked to give the devotional at my childhood church's Mother Daughter Banquet. Mrs. Rhodes and my mom were in the same Methodist women's circle. Mrs. Rhodes loved speaking in front of people, so she had the job of introducing me. I could tell that she was so proud of me. She even told me so. I could tell she took a small amount of credit for the woman I had become. Rightfully so.

I grew up in a small town, so the teachers were typically not the most high-quality. A lot of the teachers were new teachers, or coaches who had to have a class in order to coach. I did have a science teacher who was pretty good. But, for the most part, my high school teachers were a blur. Mrs. Rhodes loved her subject matter and loved teaching it. And I have always held a warm spot in my heart for her and what she instilled in me.

What does this have to do with our homeschool journey? Well, first, I feel like the things that Mrs. Rhodes taught me have helped me to be a better teacher. And, based on her impression on my life as my teacher, I have to ask myself if I have the passion necessary to cause my students to want to learn, to be excited to learn.

Some days I do. Some days I clearly don't. Some days I just try to get through our planner and make sure everything is checked off so that I feel like we have completed all we should. On those days, I would say, my students feel like I did in the majority of the classes I had in high school ... bored, uninspired. But on the days that I throw myself into our subject matters, I can feel my students engaging and enjoying what they are learning. And that means that sometimes we don't get everything on our planner completed.

I want to have the passion that my former teacher had. She was an inspiration to me and I want to be an inspiration to my students, to my children. If I am not going to have the passion for teaching them, then why am I doing it?

How about you? Have you lost your passion?

Rest in Peace, Mrs. Rhodes.

Weekly Wrap-Up ~ Did You Know?

2012-01-20T18:26:00.000-06:00

Did you know ... that when you have the public school 2nd grade teacher who was named "Teacher of the Year", who is super fun and energetic and encouraging, that Homeschool seems "kinda boring"? On Monday night Eli had a meltdown about going back to school on Tuesday. In fact, it was so serious that he was having trouble breathing and we had to break out a paper bag for him. It was so strange! Because he was up so late, I kept him home from school on Tuesday. I copied all of Brynne's work and he did a real day of Homeschool with us. It just so happened that this day was the one where I leave for a couple of hours over lunch to go to a Bible study with a friend, so the day was pretty light. At the end of the day I asked Eli what he thought of Homeschooling. He said, "Well, it's kinda boring." He wanted to go back to school on Wednesday, so he did. Honestly, his teacher is that great! I have told her that if she would follow him through completion of high school, that I would keep in him in public school. Obviously, it doesn't work that way. Rick and I are seriously considering bringing him home starting next year. Looks like I'm going to have to vamp up the excitement level, if I want him to be happy, though!

Did you know ... You can go to a Vocational-Technical school in our area FOR FREE as a homeschool student, starting your junior year, with transportation provided, AND participate in a 3D Animation program, which would be totally fun? Did you also know that you can dual enroll with a couple of local colleges and use your VoTech hours to build a transcript at those schools for only $8 per credit hour? Yes, Dawson learned some very interesting things at the meeting we attended on Wednesday. He is planning on applying for VoTech to start attending part-time his junior year.

Did you know ... that Louis Pasteur invented the Rabies vaccine? That was something Dawson announced to me this week while researching information for his Pizza Box Biography project on Louis Pasteur. (Remember last week I said he was really interested in Pasteur, so we decided to camp here for a while.) He has really enjoyed his research so far, and this project I found will allow him to use some of his creativity instead of just writing an informative paper. I will be doing a full post on the project upon it's completion.

Did you know ... that the yummy Amish Friendship Bread you have eaten is really an experiment in Fermentation? We usually receive the bread starts from a neighbor, take care of it for the required 10 days, and then make our bread. This time, however, Dawson made his own start. It certainly fermented! I can't wait for the next 10 days to get over so we can eat some of that delicious bread!!

Did you know ... that our public library is my most important homeschooling resource? Our local library is linked up with about 15 libraries in the area, so the books are unlimited. I do all of my searching online and request books throughout the whole system and they are delivered to the local branch. The sweet librarians at my local library collect those books and have them waiting on a shelf for me every week. They don't get paid near enough! There is also a Book Sale shelf where books are anywhere from 50 cents to 1 dollar. Recently I purchased Slaughterhouse Five, A Wrinkle in Time, and Johnny Tremain for 50 cents each for Dawson to read in a Literary study. I find books there to purchase every week! Awesome!

Did you know ... that I cannot think of one thing Blog-worthy that Brynne did this week? We planned to really get started on our Dogs unit this week. But, with Eli home on Tuesday and us going to the VoTech informational meeting on Wednesday and then having Co-op today, it just didn't make sense to jump in with only one good full day of school. So, we are officially starting on Monday! She has pretty much just done her daily basic work of grammar, copywork, spelling, math, and reading books. Otherwise she's tagged around with Dawson and I, watching him do experiments, listening to our read-a-louds, and even watching North and South. Oh, and she's been playing Starfall and Stack the States whenever she can, and also some coloring.

Did you know ... I was awarded one of the 100 Top Homeschooling Blogs by TeacherCertificationDegrees.com with the likes of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers (who hosts this wrap-up), Adventures in Mommydom, Our Side of the Mountain, Handbook of Nature Study, and Homegrown Learners, just to name a few? What? My little blog? I seriously feel like a losing Academy Award nominee who says, "It was just an honor being nominated," because the company I am in is that amazing!

Here is what was said about Journey to Excellence:

"Attorney turned homeschool mom Nicole discovers that the “Journey to Excellence” involves different learning paths and paces for her family, while ‘reading & doing’ through hands-on activities and a rich itinerary of field trips brings lessons to life in ways worksheets can’t and schedules are always a work in progress."

Did you know ... that this is all I have for you this week? But, if you want to see some other exciting homeschooling weeks, then visit Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Weekly Wrap-Up ~ Lessons Learned

2012-01-13T19:10:00.000-06:00

We had another excellent and very productive week with great attitudes ... well, almost. We were away from home on Monday, had book school at home from Tuesday through Thursday, and then were off school today (and again Monday) because the public schools are off again. (Didn't we just come off a two-week Christmas break?) I should have never told Dawson and Brynne we were going to be off school again, because by Thursday they were checking out already. We made it through, though, and here's what we did.

Monday

Because the public schools were going to be out, we were unable to use our Co-op facility today because the church has a daycare that meets there on school breaks. Follow that? Anyway, we made up our regular Co-op day on Monday. Brynne had Choir and P.E., and Dawson volunteered with the P.E. teacher.

Afterwards we grabbed lunch and went to the zoo. The temps were in the low 50's that day, and they have $1 admission on Mondays in January and February. We have season passes, but many don't, so we took advantage of the cheap day and nice weather.

Because the temps were colder than when we usually go, we got to see some animals we don't normally get to see. Our favorite were the white foxes. Beautiful! And, as Brynne pointed out, they are Canines. She had been learning about Canines last week. We also spent about an hour in the Chimp house. Love those chimps!! So funny and so entertaining and remind me so much of my own kids. Fun time!

I forgot my camera that day (unheard of), but it was nice to just enjoy ourselves instead of worrying about taking pictures of us enjoying ourselves. Do you ever do that??

When getting Brynne's assignments together for Tuesday, I noticed the difference between her handwriting from the first week of school to now. Thank you, copywork and Handwriting Without Tears!

Tuesday

On Tuesday we were at home and back in the books, er, electronics. Brynne has discovered the wonders of the iPad and spent much of her day playing Stack the States and then playing her daddy and me in Words. She did get the rest of her regular schoolwork done, too. Our unit study we were planning to start on Dogs was giving me fits on the computer, so we decided to just give up on it until next week. I realized I could download it on my iPad as an iBook and it worked much better.

Dawson worked on memorizing The Gettysburg Address, and did some vocabulary about it, answered questions, and did a text puzzle, in addition to his other regular daily studies. He also was learning about Fermentation in Biology and after watching a video about Louis Pasteur, we decided to camp here for a while because he announced that Louis Pasteur is "cool".

Wednesday

A doctor's appointment of mine, that I had to end up canceling, put us behind on Wednesday. But, Dawson did rush downstairs to tell me that he learned what "!" means in Algebra. I didn't know it. He was happy to show me that he knew something I didn't. He continued to work on The Gettysburg Address.

I learned a very valuable lesson: Just because a video that you check out from the library about dogs is a cartoon DOES NOT mean that it is appropriate for children. Yikes! My Dog Tulip is not a children's movie. Really, I just had to laugh. Again, we are putting off our study of dogs until next week when I can be more properly prepared.

We did gather together at the end of the day and learn about Henri Matisse and the kids did their notebooking page about him.

Thursday

This was the day that attitudes weren't as good. We had a small amount of snow fall in the night and I had to repeatedly remind Brynne that for every moment she was uncooperative, another snowflake melted. And then she melted. So, we got her basic stuff done and I sent her outside with the dogs for a bit.

Dawson and I read a great book called When Were the First Slaves Set Free about the Emancipation Proclamation. He then did a notebooking page about it, researched some facts on Robert E. Lee and did a notebooking page about him. He also worked more on his Gettysburg Address.

In Biology we did an experiment about Fermentation. Somehow, our results turned out completely opposite of how they were supposed to. Our corn starch fermentated first, then the regular table sugar, and then the corn syrup. It was supposed to happen the other way around. We just aren't too good at experiments. But, we did understand what was supposed to happen, and the experiment was easy enough that Dawson was able to easily write a lab report. And that is something that I am wanting him to work on.

This week Dawson also read Chapter 2 of Slaughterhouse Five and answered the literacy questions about it.

We ended our week making our own colorful musical collages by "drawing with scissors", as Matisse put it.

Friday

And today we are off school for teacher's meetings. Brynne went to a bowling party for one of her friends and the boys just hung out at home. Tonight Dawson is going bowling with some of his friends. And I actually got my house clean.

Eli had a great week in public school. Kyndal also had a much better week this week at her new school, although she has an Upper Respiratory Infection. When she gets stressed, she gets sick.

Hoping for another great 4-day week next week!

We're linking up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. I'm going to spend some time this weekend reading about others' weeks. You should too!

Giveaway at Taulman Times

2012-01-11T12:02:00.000-06:00

I currently have a Giveaway happening over at my regular blog, Taulman Times, for a chance to win a prize pack from Lemi Shine (one of my favorite products from 2011).

If you would like to enter for a chance to win, you can post a comment by clicking here. The giveaway ends Sunday at midnight.

Good luck!

Louis Pasteur Anyone? ~ I Need Your Help!

2012-01-10T15:27:00.001-06:00

In learning about Fermentation today, Dawson really got into Louis Pasteur and said that he thought he was really cool. Of course, as a homeschool mom, my thought was, "Well, then let's not move forward and, instead, study him some more." I mean, if your child shows an interest in something, especially a microbiologist, don't you just want to park there for a while?

But, I don't have any direction on a lesson plan.

DOES ANYONE HAVE A GREAT LESSON PLAN ON LOUIS PASTEUR, OR IDEAS FOR HOW I COULD BUILD ONE?

I do not want to waste this awesome opportunity.

Read a Little of This and That

2012-01-09T16:12:00.000-06:00

There are some good articles out there in the world-wide web this week. If you have a moment, check them out ...

Simple Homeschool by Jamie Martin has several linked articles about how preparing high school students for college is ruining high school for them.

And, Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers has her Homeschool Showcase up for this month.

Good reads!

Study America Saturday ~ C-SPAN Classroom

2012-01-07T16:53:00.000-06:00

Next year, for Dawson's 10th grade year, he will be studying Current Events and American Government. With the presidential election in November, these topics will be soooo relevant!

Sadly, I do not know near as much about the election process as I should. I have never understood why we don't just count each person's vote and the candidate with the most votes wins. What the heck is the Iowa Caucus, and electoral votes .... huh???

Several months ago I came across C-SPAN Classroom. It all started with a forwarded e-mail about requesting a free electoral college map poster. YOU CAN STILL GET YOUR COPY BY CLICKING HERE! The website has constitutional clips, lesson plans, and so much more.

It sparked my interest about teaching Current Events even more when I went to the site and realized that there is a companion website called C-SPAN Classroom Deliberations that "engages students in classroom deliberations about current issues being debated in Congress." For instance, a current issue is "Should students support or oppose the 'Occupy' movement?" For this topic there is a Lesson Plan, Vocabulary Preview, notetaking handouts, and activities. I just think this will be an informative and fun way to go through American current events.

I highly encourage you to visit these highly informative, and did I mention FREE websites, for all of your Current Events lesson plans.

Weekly Wrap-Up ~ Three Out of Four Ain't Bad

2012-01-06T21:43:00.002-06:00

It was a great back to school week for three out of my four kids. One, not so much.

We only had two days of book school in homeschooling this week, because we started back on Wednesday and then had Co-op today. But the two days we were home doing school were probably the best two days we have had all year!

Dawson ~ 9th Grade

Dawson started learning about The Civil War by watching Episode 5 of America: The Story of Us. He did the episode questions and vocabulary, and then we started our current Civil War read-a-loud of The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick.

We were planning on reading The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, but it was another heavy reading and after Uncle Tom's Cabin, I was feeling doubtful as to Dawson's excitement level, especially when coming off a long break. I had checked it out a couple of weeks ago (it came in quicker than I thought) and it was already due to be returned the day we started back to school. There was a hold list for it so I had to return it. I was standing in the library and just happened to see the 2012 Sequoyah list. Homer Figg was one of them. It is an easyish chapter book, albiet in the children's section, but it reminded me of Huck Finn, and Dawson loved it, so I decided to allow us a little fun in our historical fiction this first time out. So far, so good!

After first semester we decided that in Algebra, Grammar and Critical thinking, I need to review his work each day and discuss it with him that day instead of letting a week (or sometimes two) go by before I review them. This way I can immediately see any concepts he still needs to master. This has worked well, and it will keep me caught up on grading.

In Biology we went back and did some additional work on photosynthesis and cellular respiration. He did sooooo great on those assignments. It was awesome to see him really getting the material, and getting into doing his work. He did an experiment on the effects of the breakdown of high energy glucose molecules on carbon dioxide and heat energy release.

One other thing that we realized is that although we have been doing lots of read-a-louds, and Dawson has been doing some leisure reading, that we were not feeling confident in the level of his study of Literature.

So, again, while standing at the library, I found a copy of Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut on sale for 50 cents. I purchased it and found a literary guide for him to use. It's going to be challenging book for him, but we are determined for him to dig into this book piece-by-piece and use the literary guide to help him. I am excited to see what he thinks about it when he is done.

Dawson's attitude and work ethic was superb this week! I couldn't have been happier!

At the end of the week, he and Brynne got back into their artist studies and studied Alexander Calder. Then they each made a paper and pipe cleaner mobile. These were pretty rude examples of Calder's detailed mobiles, but they got the concept of his work.

Brynne ~ 2nd Grade

Brynne had an excellent week, as well. Next week we are starting a 4-week unit on Dogs from Amanda Bennett. Because we only had two days this week, I didn't want her to start it. So, I had downloaded a Canines unit by School Express a couple of months ago, so we completed those work pages this week. It was a good introduction to the history of Canines so she is ready to head into the Dogs unit. She loves dogs, so it's going to be really fun! We will be learning about different breeds and reading lots of books and hopefully doing some fun projects!

She got right back into Grammar, Copywork, Handwriting, Personal Reading (she has read 49 books so far this year!) and Math. Those subjects just breezed right along. She finished her first copied poem called "The Robin's Advice" by Sara Orne Jewett and then read it back to me. It then opened up a discussion about being content with who God made you to be, and not wishing you were someone else.

This week she also got her first taste of the iPad, and she liked it! She needed to look up a definition of Carnivorous and write in on her work page. We looked it up and then she was able to sit and copy it. She also did some math problems on a fun (although way-too-juvenile) math app. It is going to be a great tool for her. And, she was able to use it while Dawson was using the laptop for something else.

Eli ~ 2nd Grade

Eli cried on Wednesday when he had to go back to school. But when I picked him up in the afternoon he said he had a 'great day'. He told me that he chose his next AR (Accelerated Reader) goal and it is 12 points. That means he has to read 24 half point books. Today, however, he took an AR test on a book his teacher has been reading in class, that was worth 1.5 points, and he got a 100%! He was so excited! And this is a book that they were reading before Christmas break, so he obviously comprehended it. That's another big accomplishment for him.

We got his report card today for second quarter and he received all A's.

And he was so happy to have temps in the mid-60's this whole week (January ... in Oklahoma ... can you believe it?) He and Brynne spent some time outdoors riding their scooters. And no coats, in January!!

Kyndal ~ 11th Grade

Kyndal started her new school in Kansas City today. (If you didn't know, she made the decision before Christmas to move with her dad.) At the end of the day today, she was not very happy. She said that the school is just not the same. She didn't want to talk to me about it. I told her to just keep her chin up, and that I am sure it will get better in a couple of days. I hate it that she is having a difficult time, but there isn't anything I can do about it. New situations are always hard, so I am praying that she finds her niche and makes some good friends soon. She was certainly having more fun in Florida last week.

Our two days this week were just very packed and full of good attitudes. Our curriculum is still working great for us. I have started thinking about curriculum and possible changes for next year, and gathering some things, but will probably stay about on the same page. I think we have definitely figured out what we like and how we like to do it. Good times!

We are linking up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

If Every Day Could Be Like This

2012-01-04T15:28:00.000-06:00

I have to admit, I was dreading starting back to school today. I thoroughly enjoyed our two week break, and I know the kids did, too. We enjoyed sleeping in late, sitting in bed drinking coffee (me, not the kids), playing video games in our pjs (the kids, not me), and leisurely going about our days.

This morning when the alarm went off at 6 a.m., it actually scared me! I woke up wondering what the heck it was!

But, I drug myself up, had my quiet time, went for a walk, came home and showered and got ready for the day, and just got right to it. Eli DID NOT want to go back to school. In fact, he cried and I had to walk him in to his class. I thought, "Uh oh. This day is going to be tough."

But, when I got home, Dawson immediately came downstairs and was ready to get started. And he kicked it all day!

We started reading our current read-a-loud, then he watched the next episode of his history dvd. He answered the questions and did vocabulary. Then he went upstairs and did his algebra, grammar, and critical thinking. He came downstairs for lunch and when he was finished, started on his new Literature reading. I didn't even have to yell upstairs to him to come finish up his work. He came downstairs and did a photosynthesis animation on the computer and answered the questions. THEN he said, "Let me tell you the answers," and he read me what he had just done, almost with a proud smirk on his face. Lastly, we all sat down together and did our notebooking page on our latest artist.

While he was doing his work, Brynne completed her grammar, handwriting, and spelling. Then we did half of the packet from her new unit on canines. She read the rest of her book she had been working on and then did math. Then she joined us for art.

All the while, I was doing laundry, dusting, cleaning the kitchen, giving the dogs a bath, and cleaning their room. I got so much accomplished!

At exactly 3:15 p.m. they were done with their school work and ran upstairs to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening playing video games.

I'd like to say I am done for the day, but I am getting ready to go pick up Eli and I am sure we will have spelling words to practice, and he'll have to read.

But when that's done, I'm going to fix an easy dinner of calzones, grab a glass of wine, and hit the couch for some R & R with my husband. I know he's tired, too, and ready to veg out.

I wish every single day could be just like this.

I'll start praying for tomorrow RIGHT NOW!

How have you done getting back into the post-Christmas schedule?

First Semester Wrap-up

2012-01-01T09:02:00.001-06:00

Happy New Year!!

Our Side of the Mountain posted a mid-year summary that I thought was inspiring. It was nice to be able to see the exact progress of the first semester of school, as well as state some second semester goals. I told her I was going to copy this great idea. So, here goes ...

Dawson ~ 9th Grade

Algebra: Life of Fred Beginning Algebra

finished Lesson 49 of 108

Grammar: Easy Grammar

finished Lesson 44 of 180

Critical Thinking: Reading Detective, Beginning

finished Page 61 of 146

Typing: Good Typing

did about 15 minutes, twice a week

Writing: Institute of Excellence in Writing, U.S. History Supplement

finished Lesson 10 and extra Thanksgiving poem

History: America: The Story of Us

finished Lessons 4 of 12

the First Settlers

Boston Massacre

Boston Tea Party

Paul Revere

Valley Forge

The Declaration of Independence

Westward Expansion

Lewis and Clark

Pioneers

Gold Rush

Alamo

Trail of Tears

The Erie Canal

Slavery

Underground Railroad

(spent extra time on the Westward Expansion and Slavery)

Literature: Group oral history reading

Blood on the River by Elisa Lynn Carbone

The Winter of Red Snow by Kristiana Gregory

Yankee Doodle Boy by Joseph Plumb Martin

The Captain's Dog by Roland Smith

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

also did about 30 minutes of personal reading daily

Science: Biology. After a slow start with Apologia, we switched to The Way Life Works

finished cells, solar energy, life patterns, watched "The Andromeda Strain", studied atoms, bonds, enzymes, photosynthesis and cell respiration with various readings, virtual labs, and experiments

Fine Arts

beginning guitar class every Monday for 1 1/2 hours

studied the following artists and did an art project using their specific mediums: Vincent VanGogh, Hendrick Avercamp, Katsushika Hakusai, Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, and Henri Rousseau

Extra

attended our Homeschool Co-op and volunteered in child care for upper elementary aged boys during the parent meetings and was helper in physical education, as well as helped me teach a World Geography class to middle school aged kids

Second Semester Goals

Finish Beginning Algebra by Spring Break to move on to Advanced

Give more of a steady emphasis on Biology with a focus on labs and writing lab reports

Start Driver's Education
Read two pieces of Formal Literature and follow Literature Guide

Stay on our steady pace with all other subjects

Work really hard and stay focused until Spring Break

Brynne ~ 2nd Grade

Grammar: Easy Grammar
finished Lesson 51 of 180

Copywork: Copywork for Little Girls
finished Lesson 20 of 180

Handwriting: Handwriting without Tears Printing Power
finished Page 34 of 85

Spelling: Sequential Spelling
finished Lesson 9 of 180
(started well into second quarter at Brynne's request, and only do it when we have time)

Math: (MEP) Mathematics Enhancement Programme
finished Lesson 30
completed lots of other theme-related math assignments and living math

Personal Reading
independently read 48 books toward goal of 100 for the year

History: U.S. States Study
Virginia
Minnesota
Florida
Kansas
Oklahoma

Unit studies
Columbus Day
Autumm
Thanksgiving
Dream/Legacy
Christmas

Science
Human Body
Food Pyramid
Recycling
Fossils
Flower parts: Poinsettia

Fine Arts
studied the following artists and did an art project using their specific mediums: Vincent VanGogh, Hendrick Avercamp, Katsushika Hakusai, Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, and Henri Rousseau

Homeschool Co-op
physical education two times per month
choir two times per month
various field trips and learning opportunities

Second Semester Goals
Complete at least another 30 days of MEP
Do steady unit studies
Literature study on "The Secret Garden"
More nature studies
Back into U.S. States studies

What are my general observations? WOW! We accomplished a lot this semester! Sometimes I know that I sit and wonder if we are getting anything done. But, obviously we are. I feel like we are pretty close to being where I want us to be. Somehow I need to figure out a way to help the other child feel engaged in what they are doing when I am going full force on a subject with one child. I am not sure we will ever get that figured out. Thankfully both of my kids have independent work that they can do every day, so we just juggle that around when I'm tied up.

I know that a lot of teacher moms make some curriculum changes at the half-way mark. But, we made all of our changes early on and I am elated with what we are doing!

So far, so good! Here's to another awesome and productive semester!! We will start back at it on Wednesday.

Study America Saturday ~ Amanda Bennett Download-n-Go

2011-12-31T11:47:00.000-06:00

Have you ever used any of Amanda Bennett's Download-n-Go unit studies? They are excellent! In fact, we will be starting one on Dogs next week when we start our second semester of school.

Right now Amanda Bennett is having a 12 Days of Christmas special, and some of her BRAND NEW unit studies are on sale! I have decided to cash in on some of these for next year.

Our History plans for next year include a semester on Current Events, with the presidential election being our main focus, and then a semester on U.S. Government.

Well wouldn't you know it ... Amanda Bennett has a unit called Elections 2012 and one called American Government which are brand new! They are regularly $10.95, on sale for just $5.00!!

The thing I love about the Download-n-Go unit studies, other than the fact that the entire unit is completely prepared for you, is that there is a younger grades lesson plan and a Junior High/High School lesson plan, so BOTH my kids can study the same thing at their own levels!

Check with Amanda Bennett each day to see what other specials she has. I have an affiliate link on my sidebar and would love for you to order through me!

Meeting Goals

2011-12-23T10:28:00.000-06:00

Eli ended his first semester of 2nd grade this week. He has met a couple of big goals and we are so proud of him!

He had an Accelerated Reader (AR) goal of 10 points this quarter, which meant that he had to read 20 half-point books and get a 100% on the reading comprehension tests for them. He is still developing his reading skills and isn't ready for chapter books, so he has to read lots of books to meet his goal. He has really been into a series of non-fiction books about animals. He reads one almost every day. And he has to read each book twice before he can take the comprehension test on it. Usually he reads it to me after school and then to his daddy before he goes to bed. This week, however, I made him read one to Dawson instead of me. It was about naked mole rats. Yuck!

This quarter I also started paying Eli $5 per week for every spelling test he got a 100% on at the Pre-test on Wednesdays. If the students get a 100% on the pre-test, they don't have to take the test on Friday. If they get under a 100%, they get a second chance. Honestly, I was not trying to bribe Eli to do good on his tests. My main goal was to get him to take his test in the classroom and work hard enough early in the week to get a 100% so that we wouldn't have to spend the rest of the week studying. The reason for this is that last year he took his spelling tests separately with his reading resource teacher. She would go slow for him so he wouldn't get behind. But I really wanted to push him this year to try to keep up with the other students and learn to take the tests in the busyness of the classroom instead of in private. That little stinker has made $52 this quarter!!! He got a 100% on every pre-test except for one, and he got a 100% on the Friday test (he got paid $2 for that.) The real goal was met, and he has some cash to buy a new video game.

Since math and science are his strong subjects, improving in reading and spelling is so very important. He has accomplished so much!

Tea Time

2011-12-22T09:37:00.000-06:00

On Tuesday, Brynne had her Girls Club Christmas Tea. She woke up that morning so crabby, which is not like her, and was crabby all day. As we were getting ready for the party, she started getting teary and weepy. She said she just didn't feel very good. I asked her if she wanted to stay home, but she really wanted to go. She got all dressed up and I was able to snap a photo of her and Eli before we left (he was on his way to his Boys Club Christmas party).

The tea was absolutely lovely! The tablescapes were beautiful!

And so was this little girl.

The girls decorated "gingerbread" people and then took turns telling about the cookie they brought to share. By this time Brynne was really not feeling good, and was shivering. She wouldn't take off her coat. I felt her head and, yep, she was warm. We stayed separated from the rest of the girls so that she could participate in the gift exchange. She just sat with me, covered with a quilt, sipping hot cocoa.

In the gift exchange she chose a large gift that was full of makeup (oh, joy!). She was so happy with it, and the other girls were bummed that she left before they had a chance to steal it from her (it was a Dirty Santa exchange).

The leader of the Girls' Club and her assistants are fabulous! Every month the girls do some amazing things!

(On a side note, Brynne came home and had a fever of 102 degrees. She took a bath, drank some hot tea, took some ibuprofen, laid on the couch and watched Elf, and then went to bed. This morning she woke up perfectly healthy. But now Daddy has the yuck. I hope it stops there!)

Eli's 2nd Grade Christmas Party

2011-12-21T22:14:00.000-06:00

On Monday, Eli had his class Christmas party. They had snacks, made a couple of crafts, and had a Secret Santa gift exchange.

Eli got a Nerf gun for his Secret Santa friend.

The boy who drew his name happens to be one of his best friends. The kids each wrote four clues about who was their Secret Santa friend. They stood at the front of class and read the four clues and then the students tried to guess who it was. His friend gave these four clues about Eli:

I have had dinner with him.
He has long hair.
He loves to play Wii.
He doesn't like to watch movies.

His friend knows him so well. Eli does not like to watch movies in class. A lot of movies scare him and he feels trapped in a classroom, so kind of freaks if he has to watch one. When they start to watch a movie, he gets up and goes out into the central pod and gets on the computer. He's always been like that and all the kids know that about him. As soon as the clues were read, his teacher said, "All together now ..." and the kids yelled, "EEEEEEEli!" His friend got him a $10 gift card to Gamestop.

He'll be spending that at their Buy 2/Get 1 Free promotion that starts tomorrow, on his birthday!

Times are good for Eli right now!

Study America Saturday ~ Slavery

2011-12-17T07:21:00.000-06:00

Dawson is studying the period just prior to the Civil War, when Slavery was at it's height.

We have been reading Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Dawson has done some activities about Harriet Tubman and The Underground Railroad at the Scholastic site. And he wrote a Character Sketch about Harriet Tubman.

He watched the History Channel video "Underground Railroad" hosted by Alfre Woodard. I thought this was an excellent video because it covered all aspects of slavery that we were studying in more detail, even the true story of Eliza as told in Uncle Tom's Cabin.

We read Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, his personal account of slavery, and did some literary studies on it. You can read the entire book by clicking on the link.

We finished our study this week by watching the entire mini-series Roots. I can remember watching that with my dad when I was a kid. It was a good end to our study. Dawson said, "Watching this makes me ashamed to be a white American."

Obviously, this is a study for the older student. We have not held back in the graphic details of the plight of American Slaves. It is such an important part of our history that needs to be understood. I would suspect that in the public schools this topic is merely mentioned in the study of American History because of the African Americans that attend the schools. It's a sensitive subject. Probably the key people are taught but the specifics glossed over. That, to me, is a travesty to both the white and black students. Don't you think? I think, as Americans, we like to pretend that it wasn't a big deal. But, oh my, it was a big deal. It's still a big deal.

It has set the stage for the Civil War that we will study after Christmas break.

Weekly Wrap-Up ~ Freedom

2011-12-16T19:27:00.000-06:00

Our Christmas break will begin next Wednesday, but we are certainly short-timers around here! We have had a lot going on in our family, that is no secret. It has been difficult to keep on with our everyday lives in the midst of it. But we have done our best to trudge ahead.

Our week this week consisted of sleeping in a little bit, staying comfortable, and finishing up some units.

Dawson and I have been watching the mini-series Roots. What a great movie! Along with that we have been finishing up Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. I never knew that this book was so faith-based. If Uncle Tom can be a missionary in his dire circumstances, can't I be one? I feel like Dawson has gotten a real, deep understanding of Slavery and it's impact on our country. Because of the 2 1/2 hours + of movie watching and reading we have done daily this week, we decided to put off our Biology lessons until next week. Dawson has kept up on his other assignments, though, making steady progress.

Brynne has spent her week in her pj's mostly, working on a Christmas unit I received free from SchoolExpress. I highly recommend you register for their free unit studies. She loves them! I print them off, put them in a manilla folder turned notebook, and she works steadily on the pages every day. There is reading comprehension, sentence structure, spelling, word unscrambles, crossword puzzles, word searches, and lots of drawing and coloring. Additionally, the unit is discussed at length. Each unit can easily be completed in a week, doing 3 or so pages a day. She is really into coloring right now, so if I am busy doing work with Dawson, I can sit her down with those parts of her unit study and she is occupied for a long time!

Because of all we have had going on, we kind of abandoned our Christmas Books and Activities. I hate it when I start to follow someone's blog who has a great idea, and then they quit doing it. But there just hasn't been enough time (or energy), so we have just been doing what we feel like doing when we feel like doing it. My mother-in-law sent us some wooden Christmas crafts and Brynne has been loving working on them. She has also worked steadily on her grammar and reading this week. After the new year, we will get back into our science studies by doing a unit on dogs and will resume our states studies.

While I see many homeschool bloggers talking about changes they want to make to their curriculum, I am feeling very confident in what we are doing. I just want to hit it a little harder in the next semester, with a little more consistent focus. Without all of the birthdays and holidays and turmoil (turmoil be GONE, in the name of Jesus!), that should be much easier to accomplish.

I pray that everyone has a blessed and lovely Christmas season. Hold tight to the ones you love.

** Linking up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

A Sad Wrap-up

2011-12-11T10:18:00.000-06:00

We were chugging along so good, until Thursday. Kyndal decided that she couldn't live under the constraints of the rules of our home anymore, so she moved out with a friend. She has made plans to move to Missouri with her dad next week. She refuses to see me or talk to me. She claims I don't love her.

Needless-to-say, it's been a difficult weekend. Not only have I had to suffer the loss of my daughter and our relationship, but I have encountered other selfishness as well that has really taken a toll on me. To say I am fed up with the world right now would be an extreme understatement!

Rick and I are in the midst of trying to make plans for our future. We have determined that what we have been doing just has not been working. Something needs to change. Hopefully there will be news on that front soon.

In the meantime, we still have seven days left of this semester and I need to get myself in gear!

Dawson and I will be wrapping up our unit on slavery and pre-Civil War. We plan to take it kind of easy this week by finishing Uncle Tom's Cabin and watching the original mini-series Roots.

Brynne and I will concentrate this week on our Christmas books and activities. Later today, I will give a preview about what we are doing this week.

I feel like we have done really well this semester, despite the upheaval and turmoil we have experienced.

Stick with me. I'll be back to my old self soon.

Tulsa Festival Ringers

2011-12-07T18:28:00.000-06:00

Today we went to a bell choir concert by the Tulsa Festival Ringers. It was held at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center in a theatre containing a backdrop of "The Christmas Carol" that is currently being played by the American Theatre Company. The scenery was a.maz.ing. It was truly beautiful with snowflakes falling in the background.

The Tulsa Festival Ringers is the only auditioned bell choir in Tulsa. They played a free concert of Christmas songs. A large group of our Homeschool Co-op attended.

After the concert we went with our friends for some lunch at Spaghetti Warehouse.

Then we took the opportunity to run by Bass Pro Shop and visit Santa! Brynne had written him a letter because she didn't want to tell him what she wanted. She did manage to give him a hug, though. Eli wasn't shy at all about telling him what he wants.

It was a nice, Christmas fun day!

Snow

2011-12-07T07:20:00.000-06:00

Other than just a tiny bit of accumulation on the roofs from flurries, we haven't had any snow yet. But, we're reading about snow this week! Our book for Thursday is Snow by Uri Shulevitz.

We will also be reading the book Super Snow Day ~ Seek and Find by Michael Garland. When I saw this book I just knew that we needed to check it out. It will be so fun!!

We will also be making shaving cream snow scenes. We'll make the scene of snow on blue construction paper and then once it's dry we will cut out winter shapes (trees, snowmen, houses, etc.) to glue on our scenes. This is always a fun project!!

The Legend of the Poinsettia

2011-12-05T21:17:00.000-06:00

We will be doing our Christmas stories and activities on Tuesday and Thursday this week. Tomorrow's book is The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie DePaola.

In Mexico, the poinsettia is called flor de la noche buena: flower of the Holy Night. At Christmastime, the flower blooms and flourishes, the quite exquisite stars lighting up the countryside. A Mexican legend tells how the poinsettia came to be, through a little girl's unselfish gift to the Christ Child. Tomie dePaola has embraced the legend using his own special feeling for Christmas. His glorious paintings capture not only the brilliant colors of Mexico and its art, but also the excitement of the children preparing for Christmas and the hope of Lucida, who comes to see what makes a gift truly beautiful.

We will be doing a couple activities. First, we will learn about the parts of a poinsettia, draw and label one, and inspect the leaves of a fresh one we have in our living room.

Then we will make a paper towel poinsettia to mail to my grandma. (Scoll to the bottom of this link to see the instructions.)

Study America Saturday ~ The Five Senses of American History

2011-12-03T09:30:00.002-06:00

When you have the opportunity to see American History ... see it. When you have the opportunity to hear American History ... hear it. When you have the opportunity to touch American History ... touch it. When you have the opportunity to smell American History ... smell it. When you have the opportunity to taste American History ... well, we didn't have that opportunity (unless you count McDonald's on the way home). But we had opportunities to do the others. And it was awesome!

The Nina and Pinta, lifesize replicas of the originals sailed by Christopher Columbus, made a stop in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and we went to tour them this week.

In preparation for our trip, we read a couple of books, of course. We sketched some pictures. We talked a lot about it.

But on Monday, we experienced it!

We saw replicas made in the exact dimensions of the original Nina and Pinta (well, the Nina is the exact dimensions but the Pinta was made larger for some reason). The Santa Maria has not been made, as it would be too big to travel down the rivers and ports that the replicas travel down to dock for the public to see. When you see how big, or how small, the ships really are, it's amazing! Really, those many crew members all lived and worked (mostly worked) together on those tiny ships.

We opted for a guided tour from one of the actual current crew members of the Nina. How fascinating it was to hear the history told by him, and to hear about his modern-day adventures as a crew member aboard one of the ships. Of course he has luxuries the original crew members did not have. But he had real life experiences to share!

We touched the deck and the ropes and the "mechanics" used to sail the ship. We touched a piece of American History! We read a flier on the ship seeking current crew members. Dawson thought that would be so awesome! I asked him how many of his friends would be able to say that they were a crew member aboard one of Christopher Columbus' ships.

And there were even things to smell! The guide told us about how the ship, ropes, everything, were always covered in tar as a way to protect it and camouflage it from enemies. He told that you didn't have to worry about the smell of bad body odor, because the overwhelming smell of tar was constantly in the air. He passed around a jar of tar for us to smell.

There wasn't any food for us to eat at the ship. Unfortunately, the crew members did not have a lot of food themselves. What they did have to eat were salted meats and brick solid biscuits. He told about how the water would be rancid and germ infested. They would pour wine into the water, to kill the germs and make it taste better. The Vitamin C in the wine was what kept the crew members from getting Scurvy. Interesting.

My point? Get out of your books. Scour the internet for opportunities to use your kids' senses to learn about a topic, even if it's not a topic you are currently studying. Take a week-long break and learn about it and then go experience it. Dawson and Brynne loved this field trip, even though we were outside on a 35 degree morning. Hmmmm ... I wonder what kind of weather conditions the original crew members had to endure???

Good times and memories made. A school day and lesson that will likely never be forgotten.

Weekly Wrap-Up ~ Books and Bookends

2011-12-02T21:28:00.000-06:00

We jumped right in this first week back after the Thanksgiving Break. We started and ended our week having some fun outside the house. And sandwiched in between was three days of good 'ol fashioned schooling.

On Monday, we went on a super cool field trip to a nearby town to see replicas of the Nina and Pinta sailed by Christopher Columbus. I have a full post about this field trip scheduled to post tomorrow on Study America Saturday. Check back because it was really something to see!

On Tuesday, Brynne started her Christmas unit. My intention during this time is to read a Christmas book every day, do a Christmas activity related to the book, and do as many Christmas themed reading, writing, and math projects as possible. I gave her a new set of spelling words with a Christmas theme which she wrote two times. Then I drew a Christmas tree with markers and she wrote her spelling words inside the ornaments. Her book for the day was Snowbear's Christmas Countdown and we made our annual Paper Countdown Chain.

Dawson focused primarily on a new unit about Energy in Biology (he read about atoms, learned their parts and took a couple of comprehensive quizes online) and Harriett Tubman (he did a web hunt and an interactive activity on The Underground Railroad). He and I are still reading Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beacher Stowe (about 40 pages a day, which takes us quite a bit of time) and he has started reading the How to Train a Dragon series. He started working on an essay (summarizing extensive resources) about the French and Indian War.

We dug in hard again on Wednesday. Brynne worked on grammar in her Easy Grammar book and then did a noun activity. I drew a snowman on a piece of paper with markers and labeled the three snowballs "person", "place" and "thing". She took the book she was reading, I Broke My Trunk by Mo Willems, and sorted every noun she read by writing it in the appropriate snowball.

She then plotted coordinates on a graph and followed the legend to color the blocks specific ordered colors and ended up coloring a Gingerbread House. I was honestly doubtful that she could complete this worksheet, but she proved me wrong as usual.

Her book for the day was Snowmen at Christmas and we made Snow Playdoh for some playing fun. She used winter cookie cutters to make angels and stars. Then her and Dawson made some snowmen. They had a good time.

Dawson worked steadily on Algebra, his IEW essay, grammar, and Critical Thinking. In Biology, he moved onto learning about ionic, covalent, and metallic bonds, and about the second law of thermodynamics. Our Uncle Tom's Cabin reading took us quite a long time, so we simply read a poem about Harriett Tubman and discussed character sketches.

Thursday was another book school day, but I was feeling the beginnings of a cold and Brynne was feeling the effects of the one she has, so we were a little slow. Our book was A Wish to be a Christmas Tree. We did easy drop sugar cookies (instead of rolling and cutting out trees) and decorated them. We intended to decorate our pine tree in our backyard, but just never got outside to do it.

We saved some cookies for Eli to decorate when he got home from school.

Brynne actually spent the majority of her time "playing school" upstairs in the playroom while completing some Christmas worksheets on Capitalization and math game called "Santa's Sleigh Drop" with her students.

Dawson finished strong in his independent daily assignments. We made some more headway in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Dawson is not enjoying it much, but I am! It doesn't have enough action for him.

The majority of his day was spent completing his IEW essay. It turned out so good because I saw some incredible progress. It was obvious that he was using his sentence starters, quality verbs and adjectives, appropriate uses of introductory and clincher sentences, and just really applying what he has learned in the past few lessons.

He ended his Biology lessons this week learning about Enzymes and doing an experiment with an apple. We all know that if you apply lemon juice to a cut apple that it won't brown. But do you know why? We now do. The high ph of the lemon juice destroys the co-factor that is necessary for the enzyme to work.

At this point in our week we were feeling extremely productive.

So, on Friday (today) we enjoyed ourselves by attending our Homeschool Co-op's Christmas party. The kids ate, played games, did a craft, and just played with their friends.

This afternoon we had one more activity. Dawson and Brynne were the "Mystery Readers" for Eli's class at school. This is always fun because the kids don't know who is coming to read until they walk in the door. Eli was shocked to see that it was Dawson and Brynne! This was the first time siblings came to be the Myster Reader. That is what is so beautiful about homeschooling. We can do these things. Dawson and Brynne read I Broke My Trunk by Mo Willems, with Brynne reading the part of Piggie and Dawson reading the part of Elephant. Brynne was adorable because she read the part in a high, squeaky voice. Then I read Moosletoe to his class. We enjoyed some hot chocolate and the smiles and excitement of Eli.

I love how Eli is captivated in the lower left corner of this picture.

This was really a week full of reading. And, personally, I like weeks like this.

We are linking up with Kris at Weekly, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

A Wish to be a Christmas Tree

2011-11-30T16:29:00.001-06:00

Tomorrow's book is A Wish to be a Christmas Tree by Colleen Monroe.

This charming tale of an overgrown pine that was always passed over for Christmas, and what his woodland friends do to help him.

We will be doing two activities with this book. First, we will make sugar cookies in the shape of Christmas trees and then decorate them. Then we are going to take extra tree decorations and decorate our lone little pine tree that is in our backyard. It was our Christmas tree last year, and we planted it after Christmas was over. I think we will cover some pine cones with peanut butter and bird seed and add some suet bars, as well. That tree is a favorite of our local birds.

I will post pictures of all our activities from this week on our Weekly Wrap-up.

Snowmen at Christmas

2011-11-29T11:15:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow's book is Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner.

Snowmen at Night shared with us the magical, slip-sliding adventures of snowmen after dark . . . but have you ever wondered what snowmen do for Christmas? Well, now’s your chance to find out! The snowmen are back, and this time they’re celebrating Christmas—the snowman way!

We will be making, and playing with, the ever-popular Snow Playdoh. It's easy to make and so fun to play with, making snowmen and other snowy creations.

Photo Credit

Here is the link for how to make it. Have fun!

Snowbear's Christmas Countdown

2011-11-28T06:42:00.002-06:00

It's time to start counting down the days until Christmas. One of our favorite activities for Christmas is the simple paper Christmas countdown chain. My kids love to wake up each morning to decide whose turn it is to tear off the chain. We keep it pretty simple. We use green and red construction paper (or two patterns of Christmas scrapbook paper if we have some), cut them into strips, and staple them together into a chain. The only link that is not a Christmas color is the one for December 22nd. That's Eli's birthday, so we always dazzle it up with birthday paper and ribbons.

Here is a picture of our Christmas chain from last year.

This week we will read the book Snowbear's Christmas Countdown by Theresa Smythe and make our countdown chain so it's ready for December 1st.

On the first day he wrote a list of all the presents he wanted Santa to bring him. Come celebrate with Snowbear as the days leading to Christmas fly by in merry preparation! December is full of joyful anticipation for Snowbear-there are just so many things to do before Christmas arrives. For starters, Snowbear must put up decorations, buy gifts for his friends, make hot chocolate and cookies-and let's not forget-play in the snow, and go for a sled ride! So count along with Snowbear as the days pass and the excitement builds to Christmas day!

Shopping List for Christmas Book Activities

2011-11-24T23:16:00.000-06:00

Are you planning to join us in our journey through our planned Christmas Books and Activities? If you are, here is a list of the supplies you will need for the activities for the first six books (the first two weeks):

about four sheets of Christmas scrapbook paper
flour
salt
oil
cream of tartar
silver and/or iridescent glitter
white paper towels
red and white craft paint
shaving cream
white glue
construction paper to make Christmas trees, snowmen, or foam ones
sugar cookies (either prepared or homemade)
Christmas tree cookie cutter
frosting and cookie decorations
popsicle or craft sticks
hot glue gun

We will be making Christmas countdown chains, snow playdoh, paper towel poinsettias, shaving cream snow scenes, popsicle stick snowflakes, and will decorate Christmas tree sugar cookies.

We will be starting these projects on Tuesday. I'll post the specifics about the first activity on Monday. See you then!

Weekly Wrap-Up ~ Yes, we had school!

2011-11-23T12:13:00.000-06:00

We actually had a couple of days of school this week. We follow the public school calendar, because two of mine are still in public school. So we had school on Monday and Tuesday.

Of course I wanted our focus to be on Thanksgiving. But since we are going to see replicas of the Nina and Pinta next Monday, I wanted to throw in a little Columbus and ship study, too. So we did a little mash up.

Dawson finished watching The Andromeda Strain for Biology and answered questions about it. He sure thought that learning the effects of deadly viruses on ph balances and amino acids through a movie (albiet low-quality) was much better than just reading about it in a book! It was obvious from our question-answer discussion that he picked up some good stuff. On Monday we will actually be starting our first chapter on Energy. Our focus has been on cells and the patterns of life so we are ready to jump into our first major topic!

In addition to his Biology studies, Dawson plugged away at Algebra, Critical Thinking and Grammar. Then he joined Brynne and I in our Thanksgiving/Columbus studies.

He read The Nina, The Pinta and The Santa Maria by Dennis Brindell Fradin.

He drew one of the ships and Columbus from the Draw Write Now book we picked up from the library. These two were actually two separate lessons, but he put them into one drawing. Notice Columbus' Santa hat? Dawson always finds a way to throw in something quirky.

He also wrote a five senses poem from his IEW curriculum.

Thanksgiving

Once our boat hits the sand,

We go to the indians to shake their hand.

It's cold outside, they keep us warm.

They teach us proper ways to farm.

We hug them tight cause we have peace,

So tomorrow we have a delicious feast.

We catch the scent that the food is done.

We all gather to have some fun.

We sing and dance upon our feet.

Thank you, LORD, for what we're about to eat.

Brynne and I, in the meantime, read Oh, What a Thanksgiving by Steven Kroll and A Picture Book of Christopher Columbus by David A. Adler.

She drew her picture of one of Columbus' ships, and put a stick-figure of Columbus on it. This picture reflects Columbus landing on an island that has a mountain (the gray thing) and a palm tree. She also copied the text from the Draw Write Now lesson.

In math, she did a couple of worksheets. One was a number order sheet and one was a math addition facts sheet. She said, "This is so boring." I knew they were well below her knowlege level, but I couldn't really find anything Thanksgivingish that was at her level.

So, I had her paint a paper plate to look like a pumpkin.

And the next day I cut it into parts and we did an introduction to fractions lesson.

She also worked on her handwriting, copywork, grammar, and did some personal reading to finish off the week. She has a nasty cold (again) so by yesterday afternoon she was winding down pretty hard and ended her day on the couch watching a Barbie movie. She was supposed to go with her homeschool choir to sing at the Community Center this morning, but I decided it probably wasn't a good idea to expose her snottiness to the elderly.

Over the next few days, we will be discussing the First Thanksgiving and also reading the book Thanksgiving on Thursday by Mary Pope Osborne.

I know many of you took the whole week off. I hope that you are enjoying your family time!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Counting my blessings,
Nicole

Weekly Wrap-Up ~ Dream

2011-11-18T16:35:00.000-06:00

Our Weekly Wrap-up is going to look a little different this week. We did normal schoolwork this week, but I thought I would share where our focus has been ...

This week we have been on a journey of Dreaming by exploring the Dream Exhibit by The Legacy Project.

The jumping point for our study was the book Dream by Susan Bosak.

Believe, Do, Think: This triad represents what author Susan Bosak calls the "core essence" of reaching for life dreams. It's based on social science research that has looked at how people achieve dreams and goals throughout their life. It has multiple meanings:
1) Pursuing a dream requires believing in it, acting upon it, and making strategic, thoughtful choices; 2) There must be a unity of spirit, body, and mind; 3) We need psychological and social qualities from all stages of life – childhood, young adulthood, and older adulthood – to succeed; 4) We also need to learn from the past (think), live fully in the present (do), and continue to build for the future (believe).

Dream by Susan V. Bosak

Remarkable illustrations from 15 internationally acclaimed artists complement a beautifully poetic story that celebrates living and dreaming. Children will discover all the possibilities within themselves and adults will be reminded that their best can be just ahead.

We spent the week reading some other suggested books and doing related activities. On Monday, we started with the book Zoom by Istvan Banyai.

Zoom by Istvan Banyai

Zoom in--what do you see? Two children playing on a farm. Zoom out--what do you see? One child playing with a toy farm. Don't stop zooming yet--just when you think you know where you are, guess again. Nothing is as it seems--and there's nothing to do but hang on tight as this tilt-a-whirl goes zooming by.

We engaged in a fun activity where Brynne stood a long distance away from an object (a decorative pile of rocks) in our neighbor's yard. She told me what she saw and then moved closer. Then she told me what she saw then. And so on. She ended up with a magnifying glass to look at it up-close-and-personal. Then she would take steps back and stop when she couldn't see certain objects that were revealed to her. We learned: The closer you get to something, the more you can learn about it.

On Tuesday, we read Three Cheers for Catherine the Great by Cari Best and made stained glass stars. In the book, a star is found on each page of art and represents the journey of a dream. They really turned out neat.

Three Cheers for Catherine the Great by Cari Best

When Sara's grandma, Catherine the Great, suddenly announces, "This year for my birthday, I want no presents! I have music in my Russian bones, and laughing in my heart. I have the day and the night, and I have all of you, " Sara is surprised. How can Grandma have a birthday party with no presents?"Her mama explains that a No Present can be anything from a kiss or a hug to a game of gin rummy -- as long as it comes from deep inside you. But what kind of No Present would be good enough for Catherine the Great? Mr. Minsky, Monica and her dad, Mary Caruso and her baby, Mimmo, already have good ideas. But it isn't until Sara is surrounded by Grandma's bundles of Russian newspapers and books that she gets her own idea: She will teach Grandma to read and write English. This lively borscht-and-blintzes birthday celebration shows that sometimes No Presents can be the best presents of all.

That day we also had a discussion suggested by my friend, Megan, who is also sharing this journey with us: Psalm 37:3-4 ~ Your Heart's Desire

Trust the Lord and do good! Live and be happy. You are God's child. Make the Lord your greatest joy, and He will give you your heart's desire. (*he will place His dreams for you inside your heart.)

If you could have anything in the world, what would you want? A new toy? A special gift for a friend? When you give your heart to Jesus, and then live in a way that is pleasing to God - when you make your friendship with God the most important thing in your life - He will gladly give you your heart's desire!

*from "I Can Read God's Word" from Phil A. Simouse

On Wednesday, we traveled to Tulsa to the Tulsa Historical Society to view the Dream Exhibit. Our friend, Brena Mathews, from the Tulsa Children's Museum was there to read the story to the kids, take them through the Exhibit, and do a craft project with them.

The Exhibit contained all of the original artwork from the book. The art is absolutely exquisite. Fifteen illustrators contributed to the book. The Exhibit also had the original sketches or ideas of the illustrators to show their original dreams for the book.

The kids made a piece of art where they cut out a "seed", decorated the page to show what the seed grew into. Brynne had sunlight, water, and love helping her flower grow. Her seed grew into a dream of "I want my kids to have fun ... swing, swim."

Before we left the Exhibit we made small origami stars and put them into the Dream Chest while making a wish. Then they wrote on a star what they dreamed for the future of Tulsa and pinned it to a bulletin board. Brynne put "love and people".

On Thursday, our friends came over so that the girls could make their very own Dream Chests. They painted them and decorated them with glitters, flowers, and jewels. They were told that when they have a dream, they are to take it out of the air and toss it in the box.

On Friday, we read All the Places to Love by Patricia MacLachlan.

All the Places to Love by Patricia MacLachlan

A little boy recounts all the special places on his family's farm. Eli knows that no matter where the rest of his life takes him, all the places to love are right here, connected to the land.

Then we spent several hours making turkey plates to send for all of the residents of my grandmother's nursing home. The plates say, "I am thankful for your Legacy." We are mailing them tomorrow so they can use them for one of their meals around Thanksgiving.

We have had several spontaneous discussions this week related back to this theme and our study of it. We have talked so much about family, and legacy, and hopes for the future. It's been a dreamy kind of week, full of hope and nostalgia. Even though the lessons were geared toward Brynne and her friends, Dawson shared in the journey with us. I think that's important for Brynne to see. And, it's a perfect preface to our short studies on Thanksgiving we will do next week. We will do school on Monday and Tuesday and then take the rest of the week off.

"Come and Dream a Dream with Me ..."

HP TouchSmart 320 Giveaway

2011-11-14T12:31:00.000-06:00

My son goes to public school and they use, extensively, a SmartBoard! The SmartBoard allows the teacher to pull up computer programs on a large screen and the kids can touch it to play it. It is so cool. It's almost creepy what all it can do.

Now there is an HP TouchSmart 320 that does basically the same thing. It look sooooo coooool and would be the most amazing homeschool tool!

Big Mama is giving one away on her blog. I have entered and you should, too! If you would like the chance to enter to win it, go to Big Mama's blog and register. Then read some of her posts. She is hilarious!

My Favorite Weeks of Homeschooling

2011-11-14T06:11:00.004-06:00

I think if you break it down, we all have our own styles of homeschooling. Yes, there are technical names for a lot of them. But not all ways are established, published styles. I like to think I lean more toward a Charlotte Mason style in some ways, but I am certainly not hard-core. We also do a lot of classic work, like grammar, handwriting and creative writing, math, etc. We have a basic schedule and stick to it most days. When I looked at what makes us really tick, however, I see two things: Reading and Doing.

We have got to where we read (extensively) about every topic we study. We oftentimes translate what we read into a notebooking page of some sort, just to put our thoughts on paper. But a lot of times, we just discuss it.

When I look back on my favorite weeks of homeschooling, they have all definitely looked something like this (with an example).

I hear about a field trip opportunity. This week we will be going to the Tulsa Historical Society to see the Dream Exhibit as part of their One City, One Book initiative with The Legacy Project. It looked interesting, so I signed us up.

I go to any available website. The Legacy Project has a website for this initiative, with tons of suggestions for teachers and parents. While browsing the website I learned that the majority of the initiative is in teaching students about the importance of dreaming for their future and how their grandparents and the past have formed a legacy for it.

I choose books for us to read. The initiative is based on the book Dream: A Tale of Wonder, Wisdom and Wishes by Susan V. Bosak and illustrated by 15 different amazing illustrators. I immediately requested that book from our library.

Then I looked at the recommended books on the website and chose other books for us to read that week.

I plan activities. The website gave an abundance of activity ideas. We will do some "ZoomArt", make a 7-point stained glass star, and make a Dream Chest to include our dreams for our future.

We go on the field trip. We will meet our good friends for a day of learning and fellowship. We are planning to meet for lunch and then attend the exhibit, taking all we have learned from the week of books, activities and discussions.

We have recently done this same type of planning on fossils and The Trail of Tears. In a couple of weeks we will be doing the same thing based on an exhibit of replicas of the Nina and Pinta that are appearing in a nearby city.

Yes, the worksheets are important. Yes, the 3 R's are vital. Yes, we need to learn to follow some sort of schedule and learn how to plan and complete projects. Yes, we need to be writing.

But, for us, we always, without exception, learn the most when we can read about a topic, do activities surrounding it, and then touch it!!

These weeks are what make me giddy about homeschooling.

Weekly Wrap-Up ~ E is for Effort

2011-11-11T21:02:00.001-06:00

We have had a great couple of weeks. The greatest thing has been the Effort that has been given by both Dawson and Brynne. We haven't gotten everything done that I have planned each week, but more times than not it's been because the two of them have gotten involved in something else that could arguably be considered educational. It's been a joy to see.

Dawson and I finished our Westward Unit from America: The Story of Us. We took six weeks to dig deep into this era so as to cover everything we could. The last two weeks he has been learning about The Trail of Tears, the invention of the Steamboat, Abe Lincoln's and we have read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I had never actually read it, so it was so much fun. Dawson said he really enjoyed it. I must say that I'm exhausted because it was a hoppin' book with the necessity to read in several different dialects. Sometimes I would have to take a break for us to do some other work and then come back to it. That Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer were rascals!

He has been working on his IEW lessons, learning to take notes from references and rewriting in a summarized three-paragraph report. He finished a report last week on Colonial Medicine that turned out pretty good. We were able to see that he needs more practice on writing introductory and clincher sentences. He will get that chance with his current lesson on the French and Indian War.

In Biology, we are finally through the introduction of The Way Life Works. We have taken several weeks on this, making sure we covered all of the web exercises associated with each of the common patterns of life. Because Thanksgiving Break is coming up, and we don't want to launch into our first big unit on Energy, we are going to review the 16 patterns of life this next week and watch the movie, The Andromeda Strain.

His other subjects of Algebra, Critical Thinking, Typing, Personal Reading, Grammar, and Guitar are all going well. Like I said, his attitude has been amazing and made my days very easy.

Brynne has been working on some Autumn assignments from an Amanda Bennett Download-n-Go unit. It always seems, though, that if I am focusing on a unit with one of the kids, the other kid's main unit gets put on the back burner. That has happened with Brynne the past couple of weeks.

Every morning she does some computer work or watches a Super Why! episode while Dawson and I are doing his read-a-loud. Then she jumps right into her Easy Grammar, Handwriting Without Tears, and Copywork for Little Girls. She has gotten to where she can do these assignments independently, with minimal guidance.

We have been doing Sequential Spelling assignments every day. I don't personally feel like she needs formal spelling lessons with all of the reading and writing she does every day, but SHE WANTS TO DO IT! So, that's what we do. I purchased her a dry erase board, with writing lines. I read her the word and she writes the way she thinks it's spelled. She shows it to me and I either tell her that it's correct (which it is most of the time) or give her the correct spelling and she corrects it. I don't know if this is how you are supposed to do Sequential Spelling, but it works for us and she's happy.

After Brynne is done with these assignments, she takes a book and goes into my bedroom to read to our dogs. She has read 40 books so far! She doesn't believe she can independently read 100 books this year. I have assured her she can!! She is an amazing reader for a 6 year old. She reads a variety of levels of difficulty.

After lunch is when we usually do her math and history and science units. Math this week has involved doing math fact worksheets. They have been 50 and 100 problems long and she rarely misses any. We studied Oklahoma in preparation for our trip to the Cherokee Heritage Center to learn about the Cherokee Indians and The Trail of Tears. This week we did not study a state. I don't think we will next week either. We have something else altogether planned. And it's going to be a fun and exciting week! We will try to work more on our Autumn unit, leisurely. But we also have some pre-Thanksgiving studies to do because right after the holiday we are going to travel to Muskogee, Oklahoma, to tour life-sized replicas of the Nina and Pinta. I can't wait!

We did happen to get through our Henri Rousseau art projects this week. But I don't have pictures of them yet. Let's just say this: Artists during Rousseau's time chided him saying that his art was so "simple". First of all, he did mostly tropical paintings and he had never been to the tropics. So the fact that his art was so tropical shows how good he was. And, his methods were anything but easy! Dawson and Brynne had to each sketch their tropical pictures three times before they got them "right" and ready to paint. Then painting wasn't too easy, either. His art was not simple.

Like I said, the past couple of weeks have been full of Effort! I feel like we have just stuck our noses to the grindstone and worked hard. I haven't taken any pictures. You'll just have to take our word for it.

We are linking up with Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Christmas Books and Activities

2011-11-10T14:58:00.000-06:00

I can't even believe I am already writing this post!

Last year we participated in a Christmas Book and Activity a Day project with my friend Shannon at Peace, Love and Rainbows. It was so fun and really got us in the Christmas spirit.

I decided that this year we will do the same. We will do three books per week, with an activity attached to each.

Here are the first six books we will do. I have a general idea about activities, but will post the specifics of them later when I get them finalized.

Snowbear's Christmas Countdown byTheresa Smythe (make a countdown chain)

Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner (make shaving cream snowmen)

The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie de Paola (a poinsettia craft)

The Last Snow of Winter by Tony Johnston (make snow-doh)

A Wish to be a Christmas Tree by Colleen Monroe (christmas tree craft)

Santa's Snow Cat by Sue Stainton (a cat in a stocking?)

We will start the Monday after Thanksgiving. Join us if you'd like!

Stuffed Animal Sleepover

2011-11-08T13:43:00.000-06:00

Our local library had a fun event last night. They hosted a "Stuffed Animal Sleepover". The kids showed up in pj's for stories and songs. Then they left their stuffed animals at the library for a sleepover.

It was great that it was an evening event because Rick got to take Brynne. She had a great time, until it was time to leave Pup there. Then she started crying. Rick convinced her to go ahead an leave him, but at home she had a couple of breakdowns.

She was up bright and early this morning, ready to go pick him up. We went for preschool storytime and they were reunited.

Brynne received a packet of pictures from the evening, showing her everything that Pup and his friends did at their sleepover.

She has spent the majority of today posing several of her stuffed animals and taking pictures of them.

Study America Saturday ~ The Trail of Tears

2011-11-07T17:19:00.000-06:00

Sorry to have abandoned you on the Study America Saturday posts. I was out of town one weekend and last weekend I had absolutely nothing to share nor time to do a post. This weekend I had this post prepared, but hadn't had time to put on the pictures. So, here it is, better late than never. I just had to share our history week, even if it is late.

On Wednesday, my kids and I traveled to Tahlequah, Oklahoma, to the Cherokee Heritage Center. The Trail of Tears, a result of the Indian Removal Act, ended in Tahlequah in 1838. Living in Oklahoma gives us a plethora of field trip opportunities when we are studying Native Americans.

To prepare for the trip, Dawson read the book The Trail of Tears by Alan Pierce.

He did a photo analysis of "The Trail of Tears" by Robert Lindneux. Did you know that there is no firsthand pictorial accounts of The Trail of Tears? Every picture or painting you see is one done by at least a secondhand perspective.

Dawson also did a map study by taking the different trails followed by the indians and drawing them onto a modern US map.

And then it was time for the field trip. Wow. What a place. We learned about the Cherokee Indian culture, both past and present, by going on a guided tour of the Ancient Village.

Blowing handmade darts. She was a good shot!

Making arrowheads for weapons.

The sign of a Cherokee basket is the signature weaving on the bottom.

This is the summerhouse with the winter house behind it. See how it's open at the top for air circulation?

The door of the winter house twists and turns to keep the cold blasts out. It's also buried into the ground and has a domed roof for the smoke to escape from the fire. The winter houses are round to keep them warmer. Is that why igloos are round?

We took a self-guided tour through Adam's Corner Village, a replica of buildings in the Cherokee villages after their communities were established. There is even a real house built by a Cherokee woman upon her acquisition of the land during the Land Run, that was donated by her granddaughter.

Dawson yelled at me to come over to this church and when I got there I found him and Brynne doing this.

The horse in the top photo is in the direct lineage of a horse that traveled The Trail of Tears.

Finally, we walked through The Trail of Tears Museum. I took a couple of photos (against the rules). I wish I could have taken one of the white statue room (but there were too many people in there). It was a dark room, with winter trees painted on the walls, the sounds of blistering winds, and white statues of indians on the Trail. There was a statue of a mama on the ground sheltering her baby and one of a pile of rocks containing the remains of a mama with her son being pulled away from her grave site by an elder. It was so moving!

Dawson ended his week by watching a boring video (after you've seen things up close and personal, videos are booooorrring!) and doing a notebooking page.

THIS, my friends, is what homeschooling is all about.

Science Sunday ~ The Decomposition of Sugar

2011-11-06T19:42:00.000-06:00

Dawson has been learning about the basic patterns of all life. One that we studied this week is: Life Runs on Sugar.

From The Way Life Works by Mahlon Hoagland, "Sugars are simple, energy-packed chains of three to seven carbon atoms festooned with hydrogens and oxygens." Sugar is carbon and water fused together. When sugar is heated, it breaks down into it's original carbon and water elements.

So, to demonstrate the decomposition of sugar, we did the following experiment:

Dawson poured 1/2 cup of sugar into a small pan and heated it until the hydrogen and oxygen were revealed in their natural combined form: water.

As it was broken down into the carbon element, it turn into a blackish color.

Once the sugar was caramelized into a liquid form, he slowly added 1/2 cup of water. It sizzled and popped, so he poured slowly and stayed back.

Part of it crystalized immediately and it tasted like rock candy.

The sugar was decomposed and made into a completely different substance. Had we wanted, we could have continued to heat and stir it until it was pure caramel, and used it as sauce over ice cream or another dessert.

This is what you DON'T want to do: Turn on the burner, and take someone's word for it that it takes about 5-10 minutes for the sugar to turn into liquid form. It only takes a couple of minutes, at least with an electric stove top.

I was busy making the beds. Apparently Dawson didn't see the smoke. Hmmmm ... That sure didn't look like something we wanted to serve on a dessert.

Linking this up at Adventures of Mommydom's Science Sunday.

Field Trip to Cherokee Heritage Center

2011-11-02T21:22:00.000-05:00

Today the kids and I went on a field trip with our homeschool co-op to Cherokee Heritage Center to learn about the Cherokee Indians and The Trail of Tears that ended in nearby Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

On Saturday I will have specific pictures of the Cherokee Indian villages and The Trail of Tears. But today I will just show you some of my favorite pictures from the day ...

It was just a beautiful day in a very beautiful and meaningful place.

Straight A Student (with crazy hair!)

2011-10-29T21:27:00.000-05:00

This past week was Red Ribbon Week at Eli's school. He dressed up various ways: clothes wrongside out, all in black, and crazy hair. Eli has very long, fine hair, so doing something crazy is a tad difficult. This is what we came up with ....

Crazy hair or not, this child got STRAIGHT A'S on his report card for first quarter! Absolutely amazing for a little boy who started his little life with so many delays. He is progressing in leaps and bounds this year. SO PROUD OF HIM!

Weekly Wrap-up ~ The Last Two Weeks

2011-10-29T11:28:00.000-05:00

We have had school. It has just taken on some different forms. For instance, Dawson celebrated his 15th birthday and spent the day showing me all the educational aspects of his games on Xbox 360.

I surprised Dawson by picking up his two best friends (one who has moved to a nearby town), and some pizza and cookies, for a weekend of hanging out.

Dawson has spent the past couple of weeks concentrating his studies on Lewis and Clark, The Alamo, The California Gold Rush. He has moved along in Algebra, Grammar, Critical Thinking, Typing, and the patterns of cells. He continued working on his IEW writing lesson practicing summarizing references. We finished The Captain's Dog, but didn't enjoy it as much as we had hoped. But we have been pleasantly surprised with the first several chapters of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, that we started this week. I think the most enjoyable part has been me trying to pull off the various dialects. He spent this past week covered in poison ivy, so did the best he could to concentrate and get his required studies done.

Brynne continues to blow me away with her ability to pick up on new material. She has begun multiplication, has continued reading lots of books everyday. She can now do her Easy Grammar lessons, Handwriting Without Tears, and Copywork for Little Girls independently. This week we studied our own home state of Oklahoma in preparation for a trip next week to the Cherokee Heritage Center to learn about the Trail of Tears hands-on. Science has been put on the back burner because of time, but we are getting ready to do some Fall unit studies next week. She even announced that she wanted to start having spelling tests. So, I pulled out my Sequential Spelling book that I bought at a used curriculum sale and we started this week.

Her favorite thing this week was her Girls' Club where they had an all-girl's birthday party. They decorated individual cakes and had a gift exchange.

Then they participated in jump rope activities.

Not a normal couple of weeks for us, that's for sure. But we will definitely be getting back on track this next week. Linking up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Fly Guy

2011-10-17T14:41:00.000-05:00

Eli's librarian e-mailed a note last week asking for families to paint pumpkins in the theme of their favorite storybook characters. I immediately knew what we would do! Eli LOVES the Fly Guy series by Tedd Arnold. Those are the books he brings home from the library every week. They are perfect for him.

So, meet Fly Guy [the Pumpkin] vs. the Flyswatter.

Eli's librarian was elated and thought it was the perfect character for Eli to choose!! It is now being displayed in the library at his school.

Weekly Wrap-Up ~ Fossils

2011-10-16T16:25:00.000-05:00

When I think about the past week, I only think two things: Dang, another week has whizzed by and I'm exhausted; and, Fossils.

We had kind of a different week this week. It's so great when an opportunity comes up (especially when it's FREE), that is about something we haven't really studied much. Then I can take that thing and work it into a unit. This was an unexpected unit on Fossils because we had the opportunity to tour the Tulsa Geoscience Center on Wednesday. So, Dawson and I took a breather from Cells to study about the relationship between fossils and solar energy (we were going to do more with solar energy, but ran into a glitch when his solar kit we purchased was missing a couple of important parts). And Brynne and I chose not to start our Fall science unit and, instead, to focus on learning about Fossils.

We were out of the house all day Wednesday, and then again all day Friday (to go on a field trip to the zoo with Eli). With our short day on Monday, because of Dawson's guitar lessons, that only left Tuesday and Thursday to do book work at home. It was a steady week for both kids doing grammar, reading, writing, math, typing/computer, critical thinking, copywork, and history lessons. We chose not to do any art again this week, and won't next week either because of Fall Break. We will resume art in two weeks.

We made many kinds of fossils. Some with bread and gummy fish, some with clay and white glue, some at the geoscience center with plaster, and some with magic clay. We also did some rubbings and Brynne played a fun dino digging game on the computer.

Brynne also spent some time doing some Columbus Day activities, including watching a really good animation on Youtube.

Yeah, I think that's all I got for you this week. It was a great week, just not our normal five-day-a-week-do-school-at-home kind of week. It was an explore-great-opportunities-and-love-life kind of week.

Next week we have another strange week. We have a Co-op make-up day on Monday, and I will teach my Continent Crossers class while Brynne has P.E. and Choir, then Dawson will have guitar in the afternoon. Tuesday is Dawson's 15th birthday, so we will try to make it a special day for him. Then Wednesday is our only day home doing book work. I think we will just make that day a day of catching up on things we need to do before our couple of days off for Fall Break. At the end of the week we will have completed our first quarter of this school year. Unreal!!

I am linking up late (as usual, these days) to Weekly Wrap-up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Homeschool Resource Game of Tag

2011-10-13T07:37:00.000-05:00

My sweet friend Cheryl tagged me in the newest Meme about Homeschooling Resources. Here are my answers.

ONE HOMESCHOOL BOOK I HAVE ENJOYED ... My absolute favorite was Pocketful of Pinecones by Karen Andreola. It is the greatest inspiration. I plan to purchase the sequel soon, because our library doesn't have it.

ONE RESOURCE I WOULDN'T BE WITHOUT ... My local library.

ONE RESOURCE I WISH I'D NEVER BOUGHT ... Apologia Biology. Textbooks are not for us.

ONE RESOURCE I ENJOYED LAST YEAR ... Learning Adventures' "A World of Adventure". It was an excellent all-inclusive unit study for a first-time homeschooler, especially for a teenage boy.

ONE RESOURCE I WILL BE USING THIS YEAR ... The internet, always.

ONE RESOURCE I WOULD LIKE TO BUY ... A microscope.

ONE RESOURCE I WISH EXISTED ... A voice-activated assignment record keeper and gradebook.

ONE HOMESCHOOL CATALOG I ENJOY READING ... I don't really look at catalogs. But, I have books and resources in my Amazon Cart at all times!! If you ever want to buy me a gift, Amazon giftcards will be used within seconds.

ONE HOMESCHOOLING WEBSITE I USE REGULARLY ... Handbook of Nature Study and I always check Scholastic, PBS, C-Span, and many others.

TAG OTHER HOMESCHOOLERS! I decided to tag some of those homeschool moms I admire so much! Hope they will share their knowledge with you.

Ticia at Adventures in Mommydom
Stacey at BrainInTrainin
Mary at Homegrown Learners
Kellye at One Mom's Walk
Sarah at Small World at Home
Mary at Winecup Christian Academy

Tulsa Geoscience Center

2011-10-12T17:04:00.002-05:00

Today is National Fossil Day.

A couple of weeks ago we received a notification about a FREE event being held at the Tulsa Geoscience Center. I didn't know this place existed and am now so glad to know that it does!

We signed up for an 11:00 a.m. time slot that would allow us to do as many fossil activities as we could in one hour. We met our good friends there, and were pleased to find out that there were only two other children signed up during our time slot with us. They are a new family in our Co-op, so it was nice that they were in our group. The group before us was quite large with lots of little ones.

The geologist who led our group was very informative and great with the kids. He allowed them to touch so many fossils.

They got to make a cast in plaster.

They got to do fossil rubbings. I even had to get in on the action. Fun!

They got to make fossil casts in magic clay.

They saw how small they were compared to a dinosaur footprint.

They got to dig in sand and take home a small artifact.

The geologist even pulled Dawson aside, since he was the only one his age, and took him into the mineral room and gave him a great hands-on demonstration of mineral identification. He really enjoyed himself. In fact, he said he would love to work there. They have internship opportunities for teens. Maybe when he is able to drive, he could have that opportunity.

After we concluded our time at the Tulsa Geoscience Center we shared lunch with our friends at Mazzio's.

It was just a beautiful day and we really enjoyed doing school away from home. Brynne and I have spent the other days of this week studying fossils and will finish our week doing the same. This is my favorite kind of homeschooling: an opportunity arises to teach us something new; we turn it into a unit; and complete our unit with a hands-on field trip.

The Tulsa World was there and took lots of pictures of our kids and interviewed me and the other mom. We might be in the newspaper! I love being able to promote homeschooling.

** Click here to read the web article in the Tulsa World.

Study America Saturday ~ Kansas

2011-10-08T19:59:00.000-05:00

We took two weeks to study Kansas. The farming aspect of Kansas went so well with our Science unit of Nutrition and The Human Body that we dug in a little deeper than our normal book, coloring page, notebooking page and license plate map.

We read the books Kansas from the Rookie Read About Geography series and Farming by Gail Gibbons.

We also read Climbing Kansas Mountains by George Shannon. This book was about a little boy and his father who, because there aren't really "mountains" in Kansas, drove to the wheat silos and climbed to the top to view the farming landscapes.

We learned, however, that Kansas really does have some cliffs, hills and even a summit at Mount Sunflower which is in excess of 4,000 feet. It's not completely flat farmland like we tend to believe.

We studied the topography of the state of Kansas and made a salt dough map to demonstrate it. Brynne painted it primarily yellow to represent the color of wheat, Kansas' greatest crop, and sunflowers, Kansas' state flower.

In studying wheat, we watched a couple of movies: Vrrrooommm 1: Farming for Kids and Bread Comes to Life: A Garden of Wheat and a Loaf to Eat.

We did a cereal comparison worksheet, comparing bran cereal and a sugary kids cereal. And then we made wheat bread together.

If you studied about America this week, in any way, feel free to link up!!

Weekly Wrap-Up ~ No Art???

2011-10-08T13:46:00.000-05:00

Is it just me or are these weeks just flying by?! It seems that I just get one Wrap-up done when it's time for another. I feel like we have accomplished so little in these 7 weeks, yet so much!

I'll start this week with a shocker ... We didn't do any art this week. Yep, no art! We had it scheduled in, but didn't get to it this week. We had a field trip and an unexpected dentist appointment that put us a bit behind. And, our art project was going to be a more complicated one this week, so we decided to put it off to a time when we could devote to it fully. That will be in two weeks, because we will be out of the house three days next week.

What the heck did we do this week? Let me think ... oh, yeah ...

On Tuesday, the kids and I took a trip to a local missions pumpkin patch. Then on Wednesday we went to the Tulsa State Fair to Oklahoma's Largest Classroom.

On Friday, we had our monthly mom's support meeting at Co-op. Dawson provides child care for the 3rd grade and up boys. He says he is teaching P.E. He did something great this week. He gets paid a nominal amount of money, usually around $10 for the two hours we are there. The child care coordinator's son, who is getting ready to turn 13, helped Dawson on Friday. She doesn't pay him. As they were walking out, Dawson gave her son $5 of his $10 for helping him.

After the support meeting we headed to Eli's walk-a-thon at his school. This is the school's major fundraiser for the year. Eli takes it very seriously, and we wanted to be there to support him.

Individual studies went as follows ...

Brynne ~ 2nd Grade

We combined history and science this week. Brynne has been studying nutrition to conclude her unit on The Human Body. She was studying the state of Kansas in history. Because Kansas is the leading wheat producer in the United States, we focused on wheat this week. She watched a farming video called Vrrrooommm 1: Farming for Kids and read the book Farming by Gail Gibbons.

Then she watched the video called Bread Comes to Life: A Garden of Wheat and a Loaf to Eat.

We sat down together and did a cereal comparison, comparing her favorite Cocoa Roos and my favorite generic bran cereal. She was very disappointed that my cereal choice is healthier than hers.

Then on Thursday, we baked some wheat bread. For some reason it didn't rise this time. I don't know what happened. But, she got to see the process anyway. And, it was just fun to get our hands in all that dough.

Using my grandma's sifter, that I used when I was a little girl at her house.

Our other big accomplishment this week was starting multiplication in her MEP math studies. I thought it would be impossible for her to understand. But, she picked right up on what was being taught. It was a good introduction.

All of her other subjects are moving along nicely. She still does a Grammar lesson every day, alternates days between doing a Handwriting Without Tears lesson and Copywork. And she is still reading independently every day for about 30 minutes.

We are also still getting in our Nature walks on Monday afternoons. Although we haven't been following any kind of actual study for nature like I had planned, we are getting out and walking an exploring and just spending time together.

One final cool thing that happened this week: Brynne came in from playing outside and wanted me to see something. I had been watering my flowers and there was a puddle on the driveway. It had taken shape and she said, "Look, it looks like the Great Lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior." She recited all five of them, pointing to where they would be on a map.

Dawson ~ 9th Grade

Dawson tagged along with us on all of our outings this week. When we were home, he was doing his daily independent work (reading, comma practice, critical thinking, typing, reading, and guitar practice.)

In history, he spent the week looking into the history of the U.S. Flag. He did some date studies, vocabulary and notebooking pages. We had plans to dive into the Star-Spangled Banner, but because of an unexpected dentist trip for him, we didn't have time to give it the attention it deserves. Rick and I visited Fort McHenry in Baltimore a couple of years ago and it is a moving and cool place. I want to be able to share that experience with him, so we will do it next week.

About the dentist appointment. We went because of a sore he had on one of his gums. I was afraid it might be an abcess, but it ended up being a canker sore. However, in the process of x-raying his teeth, they found that he still has a baby tooth. The reason he has that tooth is because under it is a dime-size cyst that has trapped the permanent tooth and caused it to grow completely sideways way down in his gums. He is going to have to see an oral surgeon to have the baby tooth and cyst removed, possibly a root canal, and try to figure out what to do with the permanent tooth. They will also biopsy the cyst, but we were assured that it was probably nothing to worry about.

In science, we are still on cells. I found a couple of great experiments in a book by Janice VanCleave.

He has been using eggs, vinegar and distilled water to evaluate cellular osmosis and the effect of turgor pressure on small and large cellular membranes in hypertonic and hypotonic solutions (seriously, I can't believe I just put all of those weird words together in one sentence AND that I know what they all mean!!)

Dawson knows, too. He is learning with our new process. I handed him a diagram of a cell this week, without preparing him or without any warning. I told him I wanted him to see if he could list the parts on it. He said, "You said I wouldn't have any tests!" I told him, "It's not a test. It's an assessment." You see, he is used to being handed a study guide, probably the identical diagram with the answers to study. I wanted to see if he had learned about the parts of the cell with all of the reading and experiments we have been doing.

He has. Out of 13, he only missed 2, and that was because he just got two things in the nucleus mixed up. I was able to demonstrate to him the difference between learning something and memorizing something.

And that was our week. We are switching gears next week because of a free opportunity that has arisen. We are going to the Tulsa Geoscience Center on Wednesday. So, Brynne will be learning about fossils this week in anticipation of that visit, and Dawson will be learning about solar energy. More on that later. Then on Friday we are going to Eli's class field trip to the zoo. We just can't ever pass up a trip to the zoo.

Have a great weekend!

Check back later this evening for my Study America Saturday post.

In the meantime, see what's going on with Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. We are linking up with her Weekly Wrap-up.

Weekly Wrap-Up ~ Magical!

2011-10-03T12:01:00.000-05:00

~~As I sit here on Thursday night, I realize that WE DID IT! We had a full, successful week! I am exhausted but so excited! It has been magical!~~ Dang! I realize that it's Monday and I still haven't gotten my wrap-up done for last week. Darn beautiful weather and desire to get ahead of the business of the week!!

I still stand on the premise that our week last week was Magical! It was the kind of week I wish we could have every week.

Dawson ~ 9th Grade

I attribute a lot of our success last week to recognizing that we needed to camp out on a topic. We could have moved on to the next topic in science, but I felt like we could use one more week of reinforcing the concepts involved with Cells. And I am so glad we did!

First, I found a great site called Quizlet that has previously prepared flashcards on all of the parts of the cells. Dawson practiced with the tools, played some games, and took a test. Then he did a plant cell virtual microscope lab, and we had some great discussions about it. Since I don't know a lot about this topic myself, there were times when I would ask a question and he would teach me! (Ahhhhh ... I stumbled across another teaching tool ... be act dumb, ask him questions, and have him explain things to me. We did this more than once this week.) And, to have a little fun, I checked out a Bill Nye the Science Guy dvd about cells for him to watch. He still loves those videos! I know that we are ready to move on now!!

Algebra is going fantastic with Life of Fred! His grammar is moving along easily, and I have been more than impressed with his essays written as a part of his IEW program.

In History, Dawson has been concentrating on Lewis and Clark. He has done some map studies and done assignments provided by PBS. The questions are thought-provoking and the map comparisons are excellent!

We started The Captain's Dog by Roland Smith (a story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition told by Captain Smith's dog). It's kind of fun to read this with our dogs sitting there staring at us. Makes us wonder what they would say out loud if they could!

Dawson also finished up some notebooking pages on Valley Forge, the surrender of Cornwallis to Washington and Daniel Boone. He learned a disappointing fact about Daniel Boone ... there is no proof he ever work a coonskin hat!

Dawson just had such a great attitude this week, working hard and appearing eager to learn. All's well again. And, of course, guitar is going well.

Brynne ~ 2nd Grade

Things continue to move along nicely for Brynne. She loves to learn so just moves easily through her day.

The main focuses of Brynne's week were Nutrition and the State of Kansas. These two topics ended up going hand-in-hand, as Kansas is a huge farming state and the largest producer of wheat in the United States.

The topic of nutrition has come at a perfect time, because Brynne has gotten a little chunky as of late and it's time that she start learning about good food choices and the importance of physical activity. I inputted Brynne's height, weight, and age onto a chart that revealed that she is overweight! Now, I take that with a grain of salt, of course, but the fact that her BMI was in the 85th percentile did cause me some concern. All of our other kids are tall and super skinny with super-fast metabolisms. By this age, they were completely over being chunky. Brynne, however, is shorter, stockier, heavier, and has an obvious slower metabolism. I don't want to get hung up on that, and don't want her to either, so learning about nutrition as a natural part of our school lessons couldn't have come at a better time.

She made a Food Pyramid and played a fun game called Blast Off! to help reinforce the concepts. We have talked about it a lot and it is obvious that she understands the concepts clearly. And, just talking about the importance of physical activity has had her outside multiple times a day getting exercise.

All of Brynne's other lessons are coming along nicely and at a leisurely and perfect pace. I cannot be happier with how her school year is going. So far she has independently read 25 books on her own. Some are shorter readers, some are chapter books. Her goal is to read 100 books this school year, although I know it will be more than that.

And, of course, we had another great art project this week! We learned about Paul Klee and his combination of oils and watercolors. Dawson and Brynne made "Magical Sea Creature" paintings. They sketched fish and underwater plants and colored them with oil pastels. Then they painted over their entire pictures with watercolors. The watercolor attached to the paper, but not the oil pastel fish and plant life.

Brynne's Magical Sea Creatures

Dawson's Koi Fish

At our 5th Friday Fun Day at Co-op, the kids got to dive into the Magical world of Bubbles! The Tulsa Children's Museum came and did a series of presentations called "Pop! The Art and Science of Bubbles". It was a lot of fun!

We are linking up with Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers, albiet late!

Science Sunday ~ The Food Pyramid

2011-10-02T22:21:00.000-05:00

Our study on The Human Body is coming to a close, and we are ending it with a study on Nutrition. It has come at the most perfect time. We have been having some "chunkey monkey" issues with our littlest one and using this opportunity to learn about healthy food choices will be very beneficial to her.

Brynne and I have been discussing healthy food choices versus non-healthy food choices. We have discussed that eating treats are okay, as long as they do not tip the balance of the Food Pyramid.

We read the book Showdown at the Food Pyramid, that demonstrated this perfectly in a cute story! We have referred back to it many times this weekend.

Brynne made a large Food Pyramid by cutting out pictures of people exercising, and different foods from the food groups (notice that she put Goldfish crackers in the milk category because they have "cheese" in them).

We used the USDA My Pyramid for Kids site to learn about the Food Pyramid.

She played the game Blast Off many times, building daily menus. This was a great visual for her to see how to choose foods from the major food groups without going over a recommended daily calorie base. It also reinforced that she should be having 60 minutes of exercise every day. She has been very diligent since then to make sure she rides her scooter, or plays, or something several times a day. She has been outside a lot in the past several days, since we started this project. I have also been diligent about finding ways for her to get physical activity.

Also to help her out, I purchased her snacks (that we chose together) and put them into little snack-size ziplock bags of 100 calories each. We put those, and other pre-packaged health(ier) snacks in a tub in the pantry for her to choose her snacks from. She can have one of those snacks a day, and then needs to choose a fruit or dairy item as her other snack.

It's great that we can use this lesson on nutrition to jump start Brynne into a healthy lifestyle. The rest of the kids are tall and super skinny. They have naturally fast metabolisms. Brynne is built a little stockier, and more solid, and her metabolism is obviously slower than the other kids. We have always tried to lead a healthy lifestyle. It's time, now, to teach it to Brynne. And she is an eager learner.

We are linking up with Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom.

Study America Saturday ~ U.S.A. Maps

2011-10-01T21:32:00.000-05:00

Sorry this is going up so late! Last night my husband and I went on a date. And, today was just an absolutely beautiful day, and I spent it outdoors planting fall flowers, cleaning out my gardens, and doing some fall decorating.

This past week, Brynne studied the state of Kansas. We have more activities to complete next week, so our official Kansas post will be next Saturday.

For "homework" in Eli's public school second grade class, his teacher sends home Literacy Bags for them to work on for a week or two and complete. So far he has had bags on frogs, main ideas, and this week, U.S.A. There are many mapping activities in the bag, so we have really been soaking them all in. Brynne has caught the fever and extended the bag lessons into her regular school day.

Here are the different things she did this week with U.S.A. maps:

Eli and Brynne used a United States laminated map to answer questions.

Eli has a fascination with China and wanted to know where it was located. The other side of the U.S.A. map had a world map. He said, "So you go this way [pointing to the right] to go to China?" I explained to him that the flat map is an "orange peel" of the Globe, and that you would actually go the other direction to get there because it would be closer. Their daddy went to Taiwan a few year ago, so he explained to them how he traveled there. We spent some time looking at the differences between the globe and flat maps.

While picking up some items from Dollar General to send to my grandma in a care package, I saw a U.S. foam puzzle for $1.00. Brynne came home and immediately went to work on that puzzle, completing it several times over the next several days. She used the laminated map from Eli's Literacy Bag for reference.

For her birthday, my mom gave Brynne a 60 piece, 2-sided jigsaw puzzle of the United States. Brynne worked on it on Thursday and completed the entire puzzle herself. While she was doing it she listened to "Fifty Nifty United States" on Youtube over and over.

We read There's a Map on My Lap! by Tish Rabe.

In the process of doing her puzzles, Brynne started reciting The Great Lakes that we learned about a few weeks ago, using the HOMES method. I was so proud of her!

In other map news, Brynne worked on a salt dough map of Kansas. The finished product will be shown next week. He's a sneak peek.

How did you study the U.S.A. this week?

A Free Lesson on Cell Walls

2011-09-28T17:43:00.000-05:00

I have been participating in Teaching Blog Addict's Science Week this week. Today's Linky is for Science Freebies and Science Unit Sales. I didn't have anything to contribute, until Dawson was working on a plant cell microscope lab this morning.

One of the questions posed was: Why doesn't an animal cell have a cell wall, when a plant cell does?

Here is the technical answer from Wikipedia:

The cell wall structure provides a lot of support and stabilizes the overall structure of the plant. Cells can't move around. In animals, multiple interactions between cells and molecules around them (referred to as the extracellular matrix) help to hold everything in place but animals have no real equivalent to the, relatively rigid, cell wall.

Dawson had an example to share:

He put water in a glass to represent the plant cell with cell wall. It was stable, and the cell did not move. And he dropped three drops of water on the kitchen counter, to represent animal cells with no cell wall (glass enclosure).

After time they began to start to move toward each other.

Eventually they attached to one another. They never fell apart and disintegrated. They were stabilized by each other.

This was a great visual for what he was studying. And it is your Science Freebie.

A Nature Walk

2011-09-28T06:13:00.001-05:00

On Mondays, while Dawson is at guitar lessons, Brynne and I like to do a nature study. This week we decided to venture out to the neighborhood across the street from ours. It's a fairly new subdivision, with a nature theme (the elementary school is built in the subdivision and it has a nature theme, too). There are gravel walking trails everywhere.

We pulled off at the side of the road near the walking trail and our first stop, the cattails.

Then we went on toward a tree that looked interesting. It had huge red thorns on the branches, about every 2-3 inches. It was the coolest looking thing. Looked kind of like the briar patch.

We saw lots of neat wildflowers.

But our greatest finds were cactuses! I had no idea that we had natural cacti near us! They were everywhere and so cool to see up close and personal and in their natural environment.

It was a beautiful afternoon and we got to see lots of things we haven't ever seen before. We will definitely be hitting more of these trails soon.

Website Help ~ Cells and More

2011-09-27T18:18:00.001-05:00

For continued study on the basics of cells, I wanted Dawson to know the parts and their definitions.

I came upon this website, Quizlet, where you can make your own flashcards. Then you can do different practice techniques and games with the flashcards. There are also some pre-made flashcards, like for Cells.

Dawson was able to study the flashcards, then do practice activities called: Speller and Learn. Then he played a couple of games called: Scatter and Space Race. Finally he was able to Test on the terms.

This is a great tool!

I am linking up with Teaching Blog Addict's Science Week. Today's theme is Links to Science Videos and Fave Science Websites.

Favorite Science Books

2011-09-27T08:24:00.000-05:00

I am participating in Teaching Blog Addict's Science Week this week. Yesterday's topic was Favorite Science Books.

It is no secret, with our Human Body study this past month, that the series of books by Pamela Hill Nettleton have been my favorite! They are so perfect for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd grade level, even kindergarten. Heck, I've even enjoyed them!

A+ with a Star

2011-09-27T05:18:00.001-05:00

A little history. When Eli started having spelling tests last year in the 1st grade, he would have a lot of trouble keeping up with the pace. He would scream "WAIT!" when the teacher tried to move on to another word, when he was not done with the previous one. So, we decided that we would have him do his spelling tests with his Resource Teacher.

Eli's Resource Teacher is an amazing woman, and her class is a safe place for him to land when he is needing some peace and quiet or some extra help with something.

This year, at his meeting, we discussed having him take his tests on Fridays with his Reading Resource teacher again so as not to stress out Eli, the teacher, or the other students. But on Wednesdays, they have a pre-test for their spelling words and sentences. If a student gets 100% on the pre-test, he or she does not have to take it on Friday.

He's had some bomb pre-tests, because he takes them in the classroom with the other students. His teachers and I discussed this and I told them that I would prefer that he go ahead and take the pre-tests in the classroom as a way to gently push him out of his comfort zone.

So, this week I bribed him. I told him I would pay him $5 if he got a 100% on his Wednesday pre-test including writing both sentences correctly. We studied. He took the test.

And he got a 100%!!!

Now, he's not going to turn down the money, that's for sure. But with him, the money means nothing compared to the words of affirmation he received for doing such a great job! He eats that up!

We are so proud of him for accomplishing this, and are hoping for more success stories.

(If a student gets a 100% every week of a month, they get to eat lunch in the classroom with the teacher. Maybe I'll throw in an extra incentive to see if we can get that accomplished.)

And more success stories there are! I actually typed this last Wednesday evening. On Friday, Eli carried out of the school a certificate for Start Student of the week in Music! He continues to charm the pants off all his teachers.

Math Monday ~ Arithmetickle

2011-09-26T08:59:00.000-05:00

For Fun Math this week, we did a riddle out of Arithmetickle written by J. Patrick Lewis and illustrated by Frank Remkiewicz.

What is 6+3+4+1+5+7+2+4+12+2+4+10+3+1?

The numbers in the problem were the answers to 14 Where's Waldo type questions found in the poem "How Many Coconuts?" on page 21 of the book.

Brynne went out to one of our trees and picked a bucket of acorns to use as coconuts. I drew a grid on printer paper to help keep her "coconuts" contained.

We read the poem in full, and then read each line separately. Brynne found what it was asking for, i.e. "How many toes on the three-toed sloth?", to get the answer to the question in each line. Then she counted out that number of "coconuts" and put them on the grid.

When the poem was over, she had 14 grid squares containing "coconuts". So, she just added them together to get the answer.

It was really fun. She wants to do more of these riddles, so I will hang onto the book for another couple of weeks for us to use.

More fun math ideas are at love2learn2day. Go see!

Cells ~ It's What's for Dinner

2011-09-25T07:17:00.000-05:00

Dawson made edible cells on Friday.

He made an animal cell pizza ...

and a plant cell chocolate chip cookie ...

He reviewed what he's learned about cells the past two weeks, and I had dinner made by someone else. Win, win!!

I am linking up at Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom.

Science Sunday ~ Hmmm ... Let Me Think About It!

2011-09-25T07:16:00.000-05:00

This week in our study of the Human Body, Brynne moved on to the Nervous System. Our first stop was a Pamela Hill Nettleton book called, Think, Think, Think: Learning About Your Brain.

As part of our discussions about the brain, and the fact that it's the BOSS of the body, we discussed the importance of the spinal cord.

We did a hands on spinal cord project by alternating gummy Life Savers and wagon wheel pasta on a pipe cleaner. We talked about why there was the "squishy" stuff in between the vertebra and how the back can bend and sway because of it.

We completed "The Brynne" by adding the stomach, small intestine and large intestine, from our study last week of the Digestive System (although I just realized I have the large intestine coming out of the stomach, when the small intestine should be) and the brain and spinal cord.

We are now done talking about the parts of the body and will conclude our study of the Human Body with a two-day unit on nutrition and the Food Pyramid.

This has been fun!

See what other fun things have been happening in the world of science at Science Sunday hosted by Adventures in Mommydom.

Study America Saturday ~ Resources

2011-09-24T10:24:00.000-05:00

This week Brynne studied the state of Florida in her U.S. States study. It was an ordinary week, no bells and whistles. So, I thought I would take this opportunity to share the resources we use for our states studies.

Rookie Read About Geography

If at all possible, I check out a book about the state from this series. These books are very short, concise but with lots of pertinent information, and have great pictures. In fact, if we were pressed for time, Brynne could even read these books herself.

A Fun Book about the State

To me, I want us reading about everything that we do. I try to find a good fictional book that is set in the state we are studying. I do this in a few ways ...

Do a Keyword search through our local library database
Get a recommendation from Mrs. McGowan's 50 States Book List
Get a recommendation from NEA (National Education Association) 50 State Book List

An Activity

I try to draw something from our book we read above and do a hands-on activity, like cooking or a craft. We don't always get to this, however, because we only do our history studies two days a week. I just read the book ahead of time and see if something catches my eye. Like for the state of Virginia, we read Bring Me Some Apples and I'll Bake You a Pie. So, we baked an apple crunch. I also pay attention to your ideas and bookmark those for later use.

Coloring Page

While I am reading books to Brynne, she is usually working on a coloring page. I print off our pages from the Crayola site.

Notebooking Page

Honestly, I can't remember where I got mine. But, Jimmie's Collage has a great set of state notebooking pages. We do one of these for each state and print off pictures of all of the state symbols to attach to the page.

State License Plates

I printed off the state license plates from here, and made a large blank map of the United States for Brynne to attach the license plate to.

Postcards

Brynne learns which state we will be studying that week by getting the mail on Mondays and finding a postcard from that state, that I have received from a Postcard Swap that started this past summer.

Did you do something fun this week in your history studies? (And it doesn't have to just be about a particular state.) If so, link up!!