Week in review

We are trying to get into a better routine here. Well, at least I am still *hoping* we can get into a better routine. I am being met with much resistance though from the boy. But this week we've gotten a fair amount of work done. No where near what I had hoped for, but...

Jake's doing pretty decent at getting caught up on his math. He in finally on book 3 of the Key to Geometry. He HATES Geometry. He HATES using the compass. But I wanted him to do a little bit of the work, which is why I didn't order ALL of the Geometry books and just the first 3. If the time comes and he needs or wants (HAHA) more, we can get the rest or find something else. He has no problem with the Algebra, so I shortened his work on that. Basically he just has to do half of the problems on each page. As long as he isn't struggling, we'll continue this way for now. He does make careless mistakes, but when I say "hey fix this answer" he knows exactly what he did wrong as soon as he double checks it.

He is WAY behind on Grammar and his writing. So I need to get him moving there. I know he hates the grammar as well (must be something with G's.. grammar, geometry and geography, he hates 'em all) but seriously it takes 5-10 minutes for each day.

We still haven't started our chemistry. That's my fault though. I still need a few supplies and I've been dragging my feet on getting things in order. We WILL get started on it in Feb. though, I swear! I had expected to do some simple & fun biology work this month. I ordered one of Janice VanCleave's biology books from Paperback swap earlier this month. It, of course, has not shown up yet. I have 1 more day before I can, hopefully, cancel it and order from someone else. I just wanted it to do some simple, quick experiments.

Week in review

Ok so this week was a little better. :) Maybe we'll get back into a routine by, oh Jan or Feb. hehe It is hard enough getting back into a routine after "taking a break for the summer" but after taking a break from sit-down-book-learning for a few years, it is REALLY hard to get back into things.

I had hoped to do some geocaching this past week, but the weather was not all that great for being outside. The temps were low but the humidity was just ridiculous! I felt miserable just going out to get the mail. Our upcoming move (no clue as to where yet, but we are staying in the same town just really need to get out of this apartment!) is looking like it will be Nov or later. We're going to have stay here at least another month. The places we've been looking at just aren't nice on the inside. And while we hate living here, moving into a new shitty place just to get out of another one isn't going to work. So the search continues!

On the school front, here's what we did:

We have everything (or will after I go shopping for the last few items this weekend) for chemistry, so Mon will start on that finally. My Home Science Tools order came in on Thursday right before I had to head out for my weekly MNO. (A bunch of us went to see The Help, great movie! We were all crying, and a group of 8 ladies crying together is quite a scene! We all looked like Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer coming out of the theater. hehe) So anyways, back to chemistry... I should have lots of fun reports next week on our experiments. We're looking forward to getting started.

Math - Jake finished book 1 of the Key to Algebra. He breezes right through most of it and actually went ahead and finished this coming weeks work as well. As for the geometry, he only did the minimal amount he had too. LOL There are 8 books in the set but we only have the first 3. Not sure if I'll have him do them all or not. I just wanted him to have a little bit of geometry, so if we do more it might be next year.

Writing - This weeks lesson was on Parts of Speech. He had to copy out the sentences and label the parts of speech. Not the boys most favorite way to spend his time. LOL But he got through it ok and didn't do too bad.

Grammar - Not much to say here, he finished up his 5 lessons for the week.

Economics - Same here, Chapter 3 read and questions answered. These chapters and questions are usually pretty short, so he gets them finished up quickly.

Art - He finished up his chapter reading, but didn't get the Artist Bio pages started. So he can either do them over the weekend, or first thing Mon.

He also finished up a "small" amount of his geography work. Why he is dragging his feet on this is beyond me. *sigh*

Another thing I wanted to note is the reason I do not mention Amanda in my posts is because she has basically "finished" homeschooling. But she isn't quite ready for taking classes at the community college yet either. So she is actually doing some things at home as well. She needs some math review so we are working on that. But she also wanted other work so she is doing the art lesson along with Jake. Plus she is doing a Shakespeare unit study and some other Language Arts "classes" (vocabulary and writing). And of course reading history books. We have to go digging through the boxes of books I've already packed up because apparently one of her fathers military dictionary type books was packed away by mistake. And she needs it out.

So that's out week. Hopefully I'll have picture to add in next week. :) Of chemistry and hopefully some nice Fall scenes.

Week in review (a few days late)

Better late than never though, right?

We didn't get a lot done last week. Too much was going on (and not anything fun sadly) and I just let things slide. But some work was completed, so it could have been worse I suppose.

Chemistry is still on hold. I did a group order with some other moms so we could get free shipping from Home Science Tools. (LOVE THAT SITE!!) So the materials will be here Thursday hopefully. Chemistry will then begin next week. :) The getting out of bed thing still needs work.

Here's the list of what was done last week:

Math - He finished up most of his work for his Algebra review. Not so much for Geometry. So he has that to get caught up on this week. It really takes him less than 20 minutes to complete 10 pages. He just hates geometry, so he drags his feet on it.

Writing - He started his lesson for the week, but didn't get it all finished. So he did that all up today.

Grammar - He finished his 5 lessons for this. It really only takes him about 15-20 minutes to do a weeks worth of lessons in this book as well.

Economics - He read chapter 2 and answered the follow-up questions in the guide book.

Art - Last weeks lesson was still just doing some reading. This week we'll be adding in biography History Scribe Artist Biography pages.

He did some more geography work as well. And we didn't get around to adding in any History. Might wait until next week for that.

Week in review

I'm going to try this again. :) Maybe I can at least do a weekly review throughout the year... that shouldn't be too hard right?

We had our first day "back" on Tuesday. We still need to do some work on Jake getting out of bed when I wake him. I find myself going back every 20 minutes or so and he's gone back to sleep! (But yet on a Saturday morning when he goes with his dad to the game store he either wakes up right away or wakes himself up almost 2 hours earlier than he needs to!!) So yeah, we need to work on that. But all in all, it wasn't too bad of a week. Tuesday was the hardest.

He finished most of the week I had planned, Chemistry I put on hold until next week because I needed a few other items. And I had planned to start working through the Movies as Literature book, but since we are packing to move all the DVD's are boxed up. So we'll pick that up once we get moved and unpacked.

So here is what we did accomplish this week:

Math - for the time being, I am having him work through some Key to... books. So the schedule is for 2 pages of Algebra and 2 pages of Geometry each day. He truly hates Geometry. lol But he got through it just fine and finished everything for the week on Thursday.

Writing - Since his goal is to start writing more, I had this book from last year when I was planning on working through Oak Meadow with him. But we changed our minds. I did keep the writing book to use though. It is The Least You Should Know About English: Writing Skills. I have an older copy, the 8th Edition, of Form B. Forms A, B and C are all the same except for the exercises in each book. So no need to buy all 3.

So Jake will be doing a section or 2 each week. Each chapter is broken into sections, which have explanations and exercises. Then there is also a proofreading exercise and sentence writing. The sections are about 10 pages each. They don't take him long to finish, which is why some weeks he'll be doing 2 sections a week (plus there are a few with just 2-3 pages).

Grammar - He is using the Easy Grammar Ultimate Series Grade 11 book. The Ultimate Series books are just like the Daily Grams, but for grades 9+ (they do still have the Jr/Sr book, but recently came out with these.) Just a page a day, takes about 5 minutes. He'll most likely do all 5 pages on one day just to finish it up quickly for the week.

Economics - I had picked up Whatever Happened to Penny Candy (An Uncle Eric book) at the curriculum fair in the Spring to use this year. Not sure how I feel about the rest of the Uncle Eric books, but this one got a decent review (even from secular homeschoolers). Then he'll also be working through the Bluestocking Guide: Economics book.The schedule is 1 chapter and worksheet per week.

Art - I put together a quick and easy art history lesson plan. Using a few Usborne books I have along with the History Scribe Artist Biography pages. So he will read a section/chapter in the book and do any biography pages we have with artists that were in the time period he is reading.

He also still has some Geography work he is finishing up. Next week will add in Chemistry (The Joy of Chemistry) and Social Studies/History (Critical Thinking in US History)

So that's it for the week. Not a ton, but it was enough. LOL

Updates and plans

Last week well, school wise. The kids finished up a lot of work. Grammar and math are finished until January, YAY! We have a little history and science to do yet, and well get that finished up this week. Hopefully by Thursday at the latest.

We didn't have an Earth Scouts or book group meeting last week. Our Earth Scouts had planned to go to a local nursing home to sing and spend some time with the residents. We didn't make it because I had some kind of yucky sinusy thing. I had a constant headache for almost a full week, couldn't sleep, and anytime I tried to do something I just felt horribly tired. But all better now.

Friday we had our co-op. Pretty much it was the last session of classes for this semester. So in Wizardology, the boys worked on understanding wizarding codes. Then they each had to write something in code. 2 of the boys wrote out what they wanted for supper, the 3rd used a form of pig Latin to tell me goodbye. LOL Then in science we used baking soda and vinegar to blow up a balloon. Place the baking soda in the clean bottle, vinegar in the balloon. Attached the balloon to the bottle and pour in the vinegar. The reaction of the 2 will puff up the balloon. It was simple and quick. The kids had fun.

Now, for this week, we'll be finishing up Unit 1 in our science book. We didn't get to work on this today any. We have 3 lessons to do, so we'll have this finished by Thursday. For history, we are behind in our Lewis and Clark unit study. But by the end of the week, we'll have at least 5 lessons out of 9 finished. So once we pick back up in January, we'll be finished that within the first week. Then we're moving on to Pioneers.

The kids are having some teens over Friday for a game day. They wanted to do something before Christmas, and I wanted them to do so before we put up our tree. LOL Otherwise, our small living room gets smaller. And I don't want anyone knocking into the tree.

Weekly review

Well last week we got all of our math and Grammar finished that was planned. We did some science, not as many lessons as I had wanted. And of course History took a back seat again. We didn't have our Earth Scouts meeting, most of the families were going to miss it, so I didn't want to run the families that live further away out, especially since we just were going to do some reading.

But we did have a great day at co-op on Friday. The boys (my heathen son included) in Wizardology were EXTREMELY hyper this week. But we got through that with no bloodshed. hehe During my break (2nd class session, I don't teach) I got to hang out with Mr. Lincoln. He is a 10 month old on the verge of walking and an extremely busy guy. He kept me on my toes for an hour. :)

Then after lunch, it was Kitchen Chemistry. Again, some of the kids tend to be very hyper and very impatient. This can be nerve wracking when 16-18 kids are yelling at you at once. But we got into the activity, making Lava Lamps!! I think Amanda has some pictures, so I need to get those form her. Here are directions for the Lava Lamps. I highly recommend this, it was a lot of fun. Just be sure the kids DO NOT SHAKE the bottle once the food coloring is in. :)

Materials
- One clean, plastic soda bottle (16 oz. size works well)
- Soda bottle cap
- Vegetable oil (the cheaper the better)
- Food coloring
- An Alka-Seltzer tablet
- Water

* Fill the bottle 3/4 full with vegetable oil.
* Fill the rest of the bottle with water (almost to the top but not overflowing).
* Add about 10 drops of food coloring. Be sure to make the water fairly dark in color. Notice that the food coloring only colors the water and not the oil. Hmmm?
* Divide the Alka-Seltzer tablet into 8 pieces.
* Drop one of the tiny pieces of Alka-Seltzer into the oil and water mixture. Watch what happens. When the bubbling stops, add another chunk of Alka-Seltzer. It’s just like a lava lamp!
* When you have used up all of the Alka-Seltzer and the bubbling has completely stopped, screw on the soda bottle cap. Tip the bottle back and forth and watch the wave appear. The tiny droplets of liquid join together to make one big lava-like blob.

How does it work?
First of all, you confirmed what you already knew... oil and water do not mix. The molecules of water do not like to mix with the molecules of oil. Even if you try to really shake-up the bottle, the oil breaks up into small little drops, but the oil doesn’t mix with the water. Food coloring only mixes with water. That’s why it does not color the oil.

When you poured the water into the soda bottle with the oil, the water sank to the bottom. That’s because water is heavier than oil. Scientists say that the water is more dense than the oil. If oil from a ship spills in the ocean, the oil floats on top of the water.

Here’s the surprising part... The Alka-Seltzer tablet reacted with the water to make tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide gas. These bubbles attached themselves to the blobs of colored water and cause them to float to the surface. When the bubbles popped, the color blobs sank back to the bottom of the bottle. Now that’s a burst of color!

And last but not least, check out the fun video Amanda made of her and some of the kids dancing to Chumbawumba's Tubthumping. Great song to be blaring in a church gym. hehe

Things don't always go as planned

The past 4 "school" days we have not gotten no where near what I wanted to finished. I don't plan a lot, but sheesh.. Thursday was spent redoing Halloween costumes. The kids were going as the Beatles until one other kid told us at the last minute she was going. I was pissed. She could have said so a week before, not the night before. But that aside, Amanda and Katie dressed up as Punk Rockers. Jake kinda wore what he did last year, a version of Leon from Resident Evil. (The girls were wavering back and forth on being zombie punk rockers, or just punk rockers.) Another friend came along as well, then we met up with Ben and Deana at their house. Another family also met us there. So we had a nice group walking around the neighborhood Trick or Treating.


So, for the rest of the week, here is what I HOPE to finish:

Wed Nov 5 - 5 pgs DG; 6 pgs math; Science lesson 3; History intro to Lewis & Clark and lesson 1.

Thurs Nov 6 - 5 pgs DG; 6 pgs math; Science, finish lesson 3 or begin lesson 4; History Lewis & Clark finish lesson 1.

Fri Nov 7 - Co-op.

Then sometime in between there, I have to get my books packed up and ready for 2 vendor events this weekend. One in Hagerstown on Saturday, another on Sunday in Frederick.

And the kids are Uber thrilled to get to go to the Midnight Release for Gears of War 2. This comes out on Nov 7th. It is one of Jake's birthday presents, but I'll be nice and let him have it a bit early. (Even though part of me wants to make him wait until his birthday on the 26th to allow him to play it. Bwahahaha!!) So anyways, I told the kids we can go to this, they can play for an hour.. then they have to get to bed so we can get up for co-op in the am on Friday.


So I'll be beat by Sunday evening.

This week went by quickly

Even though we didn't do too much (outside of the house), but it just seems like it went fast. We did get a good bit of work done this week though.

Both kids have finished up the first Key to Decimals book. They'll start #2 next week. They've been breezing through the Daily Grams nicely. They want to finish these up so they don't have to work in this book the rest of the year (well for half of it anyways, since they only have the last half of the book to do). But at the pace they are going, they'll be finished about the middle of Nov. We started our Explorers/Lewis & Clark study this week. We read up on some of the explorers in the Americas and did a worksheet on Columbus regarding facts & myths.

And then we started with our Science program. So far I am really liking it. We're using Joy Hakim's Story of Science Aristotle Leads the Way and the Teacher & Student Quest guides. We've read through the first 2 chapters of the book and did the first 2 lessons. The kids are really asking a lot of questions and paying attention. They do like science, so I am hoping this will keep them interested.

We also had another Earth Scouts meeting this week. I was reading on another blog about a group that went on a lantern walk to celebrate the Autumnal Equinox, and I really liked the idea. So we used recycled jars to make out lanterns and we'll be planning a lantern walk soon. The kids really had a fun time of pasting tissue paper on the jars, and they all turned out very nice.

I was told about about called Runemarks by Joanne Harris that sounded good. So I picked it up from the library and then downloaded the audio book from our library as well. We read through the first "book" and my kids really did not like it. They complained every time I would tell them we'd be listening. So I'll just take that back to the library. We're going to start reading George's Secret Key to the Universe by Lucy and Stephen Hawking. Hopefully they'll enjoy this more. If not then too damn bad. LOL

Not too much going on next week aside from a Halloween party and of course Trick-or-Treat night. We need to get to the store this weekend and pick up a few items.

Weekly schedule

Here's what we have planned for this week:

Mon Oct 20th: 4 lessons Daily Grams; 4 pgs math; Science - (We didn't get started last week on this) Unit 1 Lesson 1 & 2:Preview & Introduction - Start timeline; discuss Epictetus; discuss what B.C. and A.D. mean & why this system may cause problems; discuss C.E and B.C.E.; Vocab; Begin reading ch. 1 & 2; History: Read Explorers books; Internet Scavenger hunt - Columbus The Myth Behind the Man; Reading - begin Runemarks.

Tues Oct 21: 4 lessons Daily Grams; 4 pgs math; Earth Scouts Meeting; Read Runemarks

Wed Oct 22: 4 lessons Daily Grams; 4 pgs math; Science - Continue reading; History - Internet Scavenger hunts ( Louisiana Purchase and Lewis & Clark); Read Runemarks.

Thurs Oct 23: 4 lessons Daily Grams; 4 pgs math; Science - using vocab in workbook, find places on map in textbook; Compare Myths and Science chart; Discuss Persephone; Read Runemarks.

Fri Oct 24: 4 lessons Daily Grams; 4 pgs math; Watch Planet Earth DVD; Read Runemarks.

Week in review

This week seemed to go fast! I guess 'cause we kept pretty busy with school things. I am proud of us, because we did our week EVERY single day. :) I'm a slacker at times, so this is a big deal for me.

The kids really do not enjoy Grammar/English/Language Arts (whatever you wanna call it), and I just want to be sure they know something. So they don't have a lot to do this year. Just a book (maybe more later in the school year) of Word Roots and the last half of the Daily Grams Jr/Sr. So since they hate it so much, we do lots of extras each day just so they finish it early. By Wed next week, they'll be finished the Word Roots books. they did 4 pages a day. Then we'll start the Daily Grams. And these literally take less than 5 minutes per day/lesson, so they do another 4 pages of these a day. So that should be finished off by mid Nov. They are happy knowing that they'll be done then with that stuff. And for L. Arts then, we'll just be doing lots of book reading (with some study guides now and then).

And hopefully if they continue with at least 3 lessons/pages per day of the Key To math books, they'll be finished with the Percents books by the end of Nov. as well. then after the Holidays we start with MUS Pre-Algebra.

Amanda missed photography class this week, since she wasn't feeling good. But aside from that, we had no outings planned. So it was a nice calm week. :) Next week is going to be busy thought. Only 1 day we have no where to be. *sigh*