Grace and Fur

Weekly update for week of 2/20/12

2012-02-27T13:17:00.000-08:00

This was week 24 of RTR. This was a week of finishing up several books, which is sad and exciting at the same time because then next week he starts 3 new books. In Storytime we finished reading "Good Queen Bess" by Diane Stanley. It was a good condensed version of her life and monarchy. To go along with this N. watched an episode of Horrible History on Discovery Streaming called "The Terrible Tudors". He thought this series was funny so I think I will have to find some more of those that tie in with what we are learning.
In his Reading about History he read about Bloody Mary, Mary Queen of Scots, Queen Elizabeth and John Knox. He decided there are way too many Mary's during this time period. In his Independent History Study he finished up the book "Gabriel and the Hour Book". This book was a hit and he said her enjoyed it. To go along with that he made a final Hour Book page for his History project. This one he drew the illuminated letters himself and darkened the border of the page.

In Science he finished the book "A Child's Geography: Explore His Earth". He finished up by learning about time zones and he made a time zone clock for his history experiment. He then wrote up his lab report on the Ipad. He still is struggling with getting his drawings precise, but he likes the fact he can draw and type on the same sheet.

In IEW he had an assignment that I had my doubts about him being able to complete. He was to borrow a conflict from a familiar fairy tale or fable and set it in Medieval times. He had to outline it and then write the story on his own adding all the required dress ups and openers. I decided since we are over half way through the year I would let him go and see what he could do on his own. He wrote it all, even remembering to include all the required elements. I came in at the very end and did some minor proof reading. He did seem to wear out a little at the end and I suggested a different ending, but he wanted to keep his so I let him. I wanted this to be a good representation of where his writing was at right now. I was pleasantly surprised. I had my friend who used to teach Junior High English look at it and she said it would get a solid B and definitely an A if he just revised the ending. I am thrilled. He has always been way behind in his writing proficiency. The fact that he is now at grade level is something that I didn't expect. The varying writing programs that HOD uses have made this possible for him. So here is his story.

TheThree Scaly Dragons and the Wimpy Squire

One day in a dark, damp cave three dragons went out to destroy the city.Slowly, the wimpy squire walked in to the cave to stay. The squire, who wasvery hungry, saw three lamb chops. He tried the first one, but spit it outbecause it had too much slobber on it. He tested the second one, it was tooburnt. Then he tried the third one. It was just right. After he ate, he felttired and tried to find a place to sit. He found three thrones, so he tried thefirst one, it was too uncomfortable. Next, he tried to sit in the second one. Hecould not reach it. Finally he tried the baby dragon's and he said, “This isjust right." Then he got up and tried to find a place to take a nap. He foundthree rugs. First he checked to lie on the first rug. It was too itchy so hetried the second. It had too many bumps on it. He finally tried the third, it wasjust right. Although exhausted from ruining the whole world, baby, mama andpapa dragon came hastily back. When they got back they saw that some of theirfood was gone. Then they saw that their thrones where broken. Finally, amazedin what was in their bed papa dragon yelled not knowing fire would come out.The squire got his tunic burned off. Because of this, the squire then ran backto the river and dived in like a hippo. The squire lived happily ever after.

Weekly update for the week of 2/13/12

2012-02-19T11:31:00.000-08:00

We finished week 23 of RTR this week. It is hard to believe that we are already that far. This week in History N. studied about the Spanish Explorers, William Tyndale, Nicolaus Copernicus, and Bartolome de Las Casas. He enjoyed all these readings. He was having a little trouble remembering all the explorers and what they did so I called up a very short video on Discovery Streaming that highlighted each one. This really seemed to help. He also mapped the Spanish/Portuguese Empires. Here is a picture of his map before he finished coloring it in. He struggles with writing small enough, he really just can't do it. As long as he puts his best effort forth I don't make a big deal about it. I will even write something for him if the word is just too long for him to fit it in.

In Storytime we finished up Mr. Pipes and Psalms and Hymns of the Reformation. The ending gave us a great chance to discuss plot twists.

In Independent History Study he is still reading Gabriel and the Hour Book and for his history project he was supposed to write his own prayer and then illustrate it with a fancy border. He worked so hard on this project. I was amazed how much time he put into it. He also used ideas from the book to add in nature elements that the characters saw as they sat in the woods. For him to apply what he has read like this is a big step for him. He also got creative and made the border continue from above his prayer and picked it back up below his prayer.

In Science he studied the Parallels of Latitude and how it is measured using a sextant. Again when he did his oral narration I could tell he wasn't quite picturing it in his head so I had him watch 2 short video clips on Discovery Streaming that showed exactly how you use the sextant to measure latitude. This is proving to be a fantastic resource for him and it really doesn't add any time to our day. He usually watches them right before lunch while he is waiting for S. to finish up fixing her lunch so he can get in the kitchen and fix his.

In Medieval History Based Writing Lessons he finished up his King Arthur story. I was very pleased with how this turned out.

In his bible quiet time he continues to study Philippians. I have been neglectful in really pushing him to recite his verses. He works on it, but he doesn't have it memorized like he should. He and I have talked about it and he is making a renewed effort to memorize the verses from here on out.

Apps for our homeschool part 1

2012-02-13T13:28:00.000-08:00

I want to start posting some ways we are using the Ipad apps in our homeschool. N. and S. use the Ipad for schooling and N. also uses it for educational games in his free time. I thought I would review just a few of them today.
1.Dragon Dictation : This is the app I was most excited to use for N. So far we have had mixed results. There are times when it is pretty accurate and other times that it misses every word. I think one of the things we need to do is have him use it more so it gets trained to his voice. The other thing we tried this weekend was using the headset/mic that came with my iphone. Just playing with it for a few minutes, this seemed to help quite a bit. If we can get it to accurately dictate it will be of huge benefit. It will come in very handy for notetaking.
2. Notability : This app gets used every week to write up his science lab sheet. He can type as well as draw and write on it. He then sends it to dropbox and I print it out from the desktop computer. This app will also read pdf's. We haven't even touched on all the things it can do and it's developers continue to make improvements. It also has voice recording capabilities.
3. World Fact Book: S. uses this for all her World Geography Research.
4. Video Science: This app has been a huge hit. N. has watched every video I think. It was designed for teachers, but shows videos of science experiments. He watched one and then had the idea to make cubed bubble wands out of his Knex and was blowing square bubbles. This is really sparking an interest in different areas of science for him.
5. Blueprint 3D: This app is a game, but it is so much more. You have portions of blueprints to many things, some of them famous buildings like the Eiffel Tower. You have to rotate the blueprints in different directions until the lines line up completing the blueprint. I am terrible at it. N. on the other hand finished all the levels in a day and a half, and he wasn't even playing it that much. I now need to have him try a harder mode. He just is able to see thing visually perceptually in a way that I can't. The testing we had done on him identified this as a huge strength and we were told to nurture that strength, so many of the so called fun or game apps on the Ipad do just that.
6. Discovery Education Plus: This isn't really an app, but it is something new for us and we are utilizing it on the Ipad. I bought a subscription from the homeschool buyers co-op. This gave me access to thousands upon thousands of video clips and full length videos to use to supplement things that N. and S. are learning. N. especially is a visual learner so if he can read about something and then watch a video of it all the better. He can access it either through Safari on the Ipad or there is a mobile app page that is designed specifically for the Ipad. I had read that there were not as many videos available if you go through the mobile app page, but so far we haven't found that. Today he watched a video on illuminated manuscripts, and 3 video's on Spanish Explorers. In his free time he is searching for videos on animals.

Weekly update for week of 2/6/2012

2012-02-12T13:07:00.000-08:00

Once again we had a good week with RTR. I didn't take many pictures this week. It was day 4 before I knew it. That is one thing I love about HOD, the days and weeks just fly by because everything just seems to flow.

In Science he continues to learn about earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunami's. This week's experiment was looking at the type of waves that are made with a earthquake. He did the experiment fine, but it was hard to see the types of waves. It worked better if I hit the table and he watched for the waves so I did help him. He continues to improve on writing up his experiments. He wrote a written narration on how he can help victim's of earthquakes. His science narration's tend to look more like summaries, so I am reminding him that they need to look like his history ones now look. One thing I did like is that he added his own connection by mentioning a specific ministry here in town that he has volunteered at and he knows they send help to victims of earthquakes and hurricanes.

In history he learned about the paintings of Sonfonisba Anguissola. He labeled the paintings in his notebooking pages. Writing this small is tough for him, but he did it by himself instead of asking me to do it.

He researched the city of Madrid and wrote a written narration on Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier. I am very pleased with his written narrations now. He is getting so much better at giving them his own twist as well as capturing the authors words. He is doing them independently and then looks over the written narration checklist. I do come in at the end and just correct anything grammar wise or wording wise that he missed. He tends to use words where they really don't fit so I help him with figure out what word he meant to say.

His history project this week and the following 2 weeks is working on pages in a Book of Hours. He is reading "Gabriel and the Book of Hours" and he loves it. I knew this history project would be tough and not a favorite. I debated how I was going to modify it for him. I finally told him he could write in cursive instead of manuscript and I drew lines to help guide him. It isn't the neatest writing in the world, but honestly when he is writing that much it probably is the best he can do. You can see when he was coloring his illuminated letters that by the third one his hand was tired and he didn't color it as nicely as the first.

He continues to read "The Sign of the Beaver" for DITHOR. He really does enjoy that book. I let him dictate the answers to his student workbook to me. At this point I am more interested in him really thinking about his answers and that happens best if he doesn't have to write.

One other addition to our homeschool this week was I sold some old curriculum and that helped pay for a subscription to Discovery Education Streaming Plus through homeschool buyers co-op. I spent weeks looking over the list of titles figuring out which ones would compliment what he is learning. He can watch the videos on the Ipad. He is very visual so I figure it will cement his learning when he watches short video clips about the subject. He also has already searched for things that interest him,like how dogs learn, and was watching videos on those things. This is something the neuropsychologist had suggested for him. I will only schedule a few short clips a week, but I imagine in his spare time he will find more to watch.

Weekly update for week of 1/30/2012

2012-02-04T12:32:00.000-08:00

Once again a good week with RTR. He continues to learn so much.
In Science he is reading all about Plate Tectonics. He put together a Plate Tectonic puzzle for his notebooking page. It was pretty difficult and he did need my help for a few of the smaller pieces. I just found an Ipad app called Puzzling Plates that I plan on having him do this weekend to reinforce what he has learned.

For his experiment he and his sister did the Sea-Floor Slide and I have to say it was pretty funny to watch as they demonstrated the different ways the plates move.

In history he learned about Henry VIII and all his wives. He was pretty disgusted by Henry's life and what he did to his wives. He also did a written narration on Titian the painter. He was fascinated by him and wrote a long written narration about him.

In Language Arts we talked about various ways to write quotations and also important things to include in a book report.
In Math he continues to delve deeper into solving algebraic type equations. This is a little challenging for him, but he seems to be getting it now.

In Boyhood and Beyond the topic was about resting so you could work and not working with the reward of rest. We spent quite a bit of time talking about the value of work and the attitude that should go along with it. This was a timely lesson and something that N. agreed he needed to work on. I love how the book convicts in a gentle, but no nonsense way.

He is now reading The Sign of the Beaver for DITHOR. He is really enjoying this book and often puts it near the top of his day, which is a big deal for him.

Update on S. and her year

2012-02-04T12:18:00.000-08:00

I don't post much on S., because she isn't doing HOD, but I thought I would give an update. She is really doing well this year. She has seemed to enjoy all her classes.
Bible: She just finished up the 2 Old Testament Volumes of "The Most Important Thing You'll Ever Study". She enjoyed it and learned a lot. I only had it do it as a survey of the Old Testament and not read the entire Old
Testament. I wish now I had had her read the entire thing. We are now filling in with other things.

Science: She is doing Apologia Physics and is doing very well. Her dad does help her out as needed. So do the cats on occasion.

Algebra 2: She is using Lial's Intermediate Algebra and is understanding things pretty well with just a weekly meeting with dad to clarify anything.

Child Development: She is about to finish up this class. She has really enjoyed it and is already putting her knowledge to use as she interacts with different small children she comes in contact with.

French: She continues to work through Tell Me More French, but has also added some workbook work and also is working on increasing her vocabulary by making flash cards on the Ipad. She also has translated 2 letters from Operation Christmas Child Children that live in Africa and speak French. There is a little girl in our co-op that has received them and loves that Sarah translates them for her.

World Geography: Her favorite class this year. Done in a living book, Charlotte Mason style it is right up her alley. Makes me wish I could have used Charlotte Mason with her for all of her schooling. Here are some of her projects/cooking

British Literature: She is using Smarr British Literature. I really like the Smarr course. The books move at a nice pace and the essay's make her think. I am reading all the books along with her. The best so far has been "Scarlet Pimpernel".

It is hard to believe she is a Junior. She is now setting up college visits and studying for the ACT/SAT. It is so hard to think about her going away to college in a year and a half.

Weekly update for the week of 1/23/12

2012-01-29T13:48:00.000-08:00

N. had another good week with RTR. I asked him this week since we are a little over half way through how he has liked it this year. He said he has liked it a lot and really enjoys all the books.

I see him making progress in so many areas. DH and I were talking about how much his writing is improving and how he is really making connections now in his reading. He also is picking up on things in ways he hasn't before. He has really enjoyed his study through Philippians. This week he noticed that the verse said "every knew should bow and every tongue confess...". He came to me and said "I thought it was every knee will bow and every tongue confess..". This prompted a comparison of different versions, but no that wasn't the issue. He then told my dh about it and dh spent time researching it and finding out that in the Old Testament God says about Himself that "every knee will bow.." and in Philippians Paul is saying "every knee should bow.." about Jesus. We then had a very good discussion about why that was. I was just amazed that N. picked up the difference in wording, just 6 months ago I don't know that he would have done that.

Every week he does a Research postcard about a city that is important to the history study for the week. He has decided that each week he will write to a dog that is at the animal shelter we volunteer at. This weeks was a little shorter than most, but usually I am pleased with what he writes. I was also very pleased with his written narration this week. You can see on this page the compensations we make for his C.P. and writing challenges. He types anything of length and I write the labels for his timeline.

The big hit this week was his Science experiment. He made an edible groundwater contamination model. It didn't go exactly as planned with the the contamination getting through the containment layer, but then his dad explained to him how real to life that was and how he was presenting such a case to our State EPA this week. He continues to play around with the notability app. for writing up his experiment sheets. This week went better. He still needs practice drawing with the stylus and he is going to play around with it some and see if he can type the labels for his drawings. Of course I missed a capitalization error and also a typo because I was focused on the layout.

He also wrote an imaginative paragraph for a story in his IEW program. This program continues to be a good fit for him.

His history project was a Spanish Doubloon, but no pictures since it was still drying at the end of the week and he actually still needs to paint it.

Weekly update 1/16/12

2012-01-21T06:56:00.000-08:00

This week started a little rough because N. who had just gotten over his cold came down with a stomach virus. He did manage to catch up on all his school work though. He is really enjoying this time period in history. This week he read about some of the explorers as well as about Martin Luther and his 95 Theses. His history project was making a salt dough map of the world and then drawing Magellan's voyage.

He also learned about Pizarro and Cortez and his mapping activity was marking the Aztec and Inca civilizations. It is tough for him to write small enough on these maps, but I have him do it anyway so the locations get imprinted in his brain.

He finished up his report on Knights in IEW medieval history based writing lessons. My dh read it last night and was very impressed. He had a hard time believing that N. did it on his own because it was so much better than anything he has written before. IEW doesn't fit my learning style at all, but it is perfect for N. He loves the step by step progression and how it tells him exactly what he needs to add and make sure he has. I see carry over in his other writing assignments also.

In Science he did an experiment that showed how salt water from the ocean becomes fresh water when it comes down as rain. He used his ipad and the Notability app to write up his experiment sheet. He typed a much longer guess and conclusion than usual which is exactly what I was hoping for. The drawing is still a little rough. He used the stylus, but had trouble getting it to write every time.

In storytime we are reading Mr. Pipes and the Hymns of the Reformation. He loves it. He has become quite a fan of hymns so if it talks about one he doesn't know he wants to find it on youtube to listen to it.

Since we are halfway through the year my dh and I sat down and looked at the progress N. has made this year and it is very encouraging to see the gains, especially in expressing his thoughts that he is showing. Sometimes it is easy to think that gains aren't being made because he does make them slower than a neurotypical kid, but they are definitely there. In fact I see the narration skills he is learning in HOD carrying over to other things. He is in a constellation class in co-op and last night he gave a presentation to the family about what he is learning.

Week in review 1/9/12

2012-01-14T07:02:00.000-08:00

This was a little bit of a tough week since N. wasn't feeling well for the last part of the week. He managed to get all his school done until day 4. By Thursday he ended up doing most of his boxes, but skipped Math and DITHOR because I knew his thinking wasn't clear enough for those and those are his most taxing subjects.

In Art Appreciation we read about the uses of various pigments to achieve the colors. We looked at Monet's Water-Lily Pond. He was pretty excited because his assignment for his Discovering Great Artists Co-op class was to bring in a Monet picture and try to paint it. He said it was much harder to do those little brush strokes than he thought. His co-op class and the things he is learning in RTR really compliment each other well.

In History reading he read about Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and several other painters. He also read about Niccolo Machiavelli and Cesare Borge. We had some good conversation about some of the quotes in Machiavelli's The Prince and how they were the exact opposite of what the Bible teaches. I love how HOD teaches him to look at things and then compare that to what the Bible says.

To go along with his readings his history project was painting like Michelangelo. He found out this was much harder than he thought.

In Science he continues reading A Child's Geography of the Earth and learned about Ocean Currents. He did an experiment involving currents and used his Ipad to write up his lab report. We decided he needs a stylus to be able to draw the pictures the way he wants.

In Boyhood and Beyond we talked about not being a spectator in life and if you have something you would like to achieve you don't just sit around and think about it. You should take steps towards doing it. He said "I want to experiment with tape and string so can I do that?" I agreed and walked out later to find he had done this after school.

I don't know that this was exactly what the book was talking about, but it made me laugh. Also discussed if you see something that needs done around the house doing it and not waiting for someone else to do it. I have seen him put that principle in to action a few times this week. I love our time with Boyhood and Beyond.

In Rod and Staff he did an oral presentation about a story from his life. He presented it to his Dad who thought he did a great job. In CLE math he has been working on calculating how much he would pay for something if it is a certain percent off. It is not his favorite thing, but I told him it will come in useful the next time he sees Lego's on sale.

Weekly update 1/2/12

2012-01-07T15:35:00.000-08:00

After taking a full 2 weeks off it took us about a day to get back into the groove. My ds and dd went to a Winter Youth Conference with church so they were pretty tired at the beginning of the week. My ds got quite a surprise for Christmas. One of the recommendations by the neuropsychologist was an Ipad due to the ability to use dragon dictation and also other apps that could help streamline his work some. Also since he needs to see things more than once it is beneficial to have the ability to call up videos and multimedia to reinforce what he is learning. We knew we couldn't get him one, but my dh's family went in together and got him one. He was very surprised and excited.

In history he learned about what was going on in Africa during this time period. He enjoyed telling his dad about the different empires. For his history project he made an African mud cloth. He really took his time with this. He then made a virtual one of the computer.

In Storytime we are reading Leonardo DaVinci by Diane Stanley. He knew some of the information from other times we have looked at Leonardo, but this book went into more detail about all the things he invented. He continues to love Mystery of History 3. He seems to really grasp this book. His written narration this week was also on Leonardo and he choose to write on the section about the Mona Lisa. He continues to show improvement in this area.

In Science he did a simple experiment with Graham Crackers to show how faults develop and how earthquakes occur. I thought it might be too easy, but it really helped him visualize things and he applied what he learned later in a conversation we were having. One area I feel he could improve on is his Science Experiment sheets. I have had him write them and he always writes short answers and doesn't go into as much detail as I would like on his experiment sheet. I have found an app for the Ipad called Notability that will allow him to type out the question, guess and conclusion and also draw the procedure. Once he has it done we can convert it to a pdf and print it. He didn't do an actual sheet yet, but I am anxious to see how it works.

In Grammar he continued to learn more about comma placement and he started working on an oral presentation. He needed to take brief notes so he dictated it on the Ipad on dragon dictation and it typed it for him. He loves this even if he does have to edit when it doesn't understand him.

In Boyhood and Beyond we talked about not complaining or whining. That is a good lesson for all of us. Talked about being willing to try new things. My dd listened in and it challenged her also.

I really think if we weren't using HOD I would be completely burned out at this point, but as it is I have as much fun as he does seeing what all each week holds.

Weekly update for the week of 12/12/11

2011-12-17T14:09:00.000-08:00

This past week was a fun, but busy week. Between N. and S. we had lots of cooking projects going on. N. is studying the early explorers and therefore his history project was making hard tack. After tasting it he decided that he understood why the sailors would stage mutinies after so long at sea.

In Science he is studying all the layers of the atmosphere. To give a visual of this his science experiment was to make a layered model using edible ingredients. It really allowed him to see the ratios of the different layers. He was amazed to see how small the troposphere is in relation to say the thermosphere. He then added a few more ingredients to his model to make cookies.

S. is studying Canada for her World Geography course so she made Blueberry Crisp.

Noah also finished up last weeks science experiment which was looking at the effects of acid rain. He put a penny in each cup and added water, water and salt, vinegar and vinegar and salt. He was fascinated with the fact that the salt and vinegar cup grew blue crystals on the outside of the cup. The vinegar turned the penny quite blue in just a week.

His written narration this week was about Columbus and his four journey's. It was by far his best written narration. He did adapt how he did it now that we know he has some memory issues. He read the paragraph's about his first voyage and then stopped and wrote those sentences and then did the same thing for each voyage. I am allowing this because he truly would not remember near as well if he waited until the end of the reading to try and write it. This way he didn't need to look back at the book unless it was for spelling. It was more than 8-12 sentences, but I allowed that because usually he gets the bare minimum.

In Boyhood and Beyond we had good discussions on what defines a leader. I really like how this book makes the types of topics very tangible.

The one other exciting thing this week was that we had a friend give N. an older version of the Lego Mindstorms Robotic kit. The neuropsych had strongly recommended that we explore Robotics for N. because he tested very high in the engineering related areas. We didn't know how we would afford a kit for him. Then this friend called, knowing nothing about the doctor's recommendations and offered the kit to N.
It is like new and N. is having a great time learning how to program it. This will serve as a nice addition to his studies on days that he has some time.

Update for the week of 12/5/11

2011-12-09T16:33:00.001-08:00

Once again this is going to be a bi-weekly update. These past few weeks have just flown by. We have had Choir Cantata's to go to and co-op performances and this weekend is the kids/teens musical at church in which N. is playing Isaac. We have managed to still keep up with school though.

N. continues to really enjoy RTR. The history projects continue to be his favorite part of each week. Last week he made a banner like the one King Sigismund carried.

This week he made a replica of a Fra Angelico's painting "The Annunciation". He really took his time coloring it. I was proud of how hard he worked at it.

He started Mystery of History Volume 3 this week for his history reading and he is enjoying it. Even on days he doesn't have to narrate he likes to stop and tell me about each person he is reading about. For Storytime we are reading "Ink on His Fingers" about Johann Gutenberg. We both have really enjoyed it.

During the good sales around Thanksgiving we broke down and bought a laptop computer. Both kids end up needing the computer during the day and with N's CP he really does best if he can type things. He likes being able to do his research for his postcard right there at the table.

In Science he is now reading A Child's Geography of the World. He seems to like this book and likes that we are back to a predicable Science routine using Carrie's plans. Right now his written narrations for science are back to sounding more like summaries, but I know this will improve as he goes along.

He is reading "Guns for General Washington" for his DITHOR book. He seems to really enjoy this although sometimes he seems to get stuck when it comes to filling out his pages for the workbook. I think he is afraid to give a wrong answer. I keep encouraging him to just say what comes to his mind.

We received the results of his neuropsychological evaluation this week. It clearly showed his strengths and weaknesses. HOD definitely teaches in a way that will help with his areas of struggle. His math and visual perceptual scores were very high, which according to the Dr. is unheard of with kid with CP. We are praising God for his news.

The other big news in the past 2 weeks was that N. tested for his Interim Black Belt in Karate and got it!! This has taken a lot of dedication on his part. His next belt will be a black belt. When he first started Karate in 2nd grade I never believed he would make it this far. Once again an answer to prayer.

Weekly update for week of 11/14

2011-11-22T05:27:00.001-08:00

I am a little behind in writing this. It will actually be 2 weeks worth of updates. I went out of town for 3 days the week of 11/7 and my dh took off and schooled the kids. Without HOD I don't think he would have been able to do that, but the guide makes it very easy for this to happen. My dh schooled N. for a few subjects last year and was pleased to see the progress he has made, especially in the oral and written narration area. He also helped him finish the final draft of his Vikings report for IEW and was very impressed with that.
The project for that week was Chinese Egg noodles. N. really enjoyed making these, but I will say I think we made them too thick and then we didn't cook them long enough so they were a little tough.

His project for the next week was to make a game so he could see how fast the Black Death spread. This was a great way to bring this home without dwelling on the gory details of the Pestilence. He also saw how he would get infected much faster if he was traveling by sea instead of by land. He couldn't quite figure out why this would be so we had a good discussion about how crowded boats and seaports would be.

He was very excited that he was able to finally draw a Greyhound for Draw and Write Through History. We have a Greyhound so he has been looking forward to that all year. He also drew a Falcon.

He continues with Rod and Staff Grammar and is doing well with it. He has had a few lessons on Poetry lately and he likes those. CLE math continues to go well also. He is now learning the Distributive Property as a starting point for Algebra. I like how CLE gently introduces this and then builds on it.

Overall he continues to make steady progress in all areas. He has really enjoyed this time period in history. In fact he wants Knights and Castles Legos for Christmas. I hated history in school so I love that he really enjoys it.

Weekly update for the week of 10/31/11

2011-11-05T10:45:00.000-07:00

N. finished week 12 of RTR this week. He really worked hard this week. He finished up the Answers in Genesis Science Book Wind and Water. He said he enjoyed it. Since in the HOD plans there are 2 more weeks of the Astronomy book we needed something as a filler so for the next 2 weeks so he requested to build and study volcanoes. Since that fit in well with the Earth Science theme I bought a kit and he will be reading the guide that came with it and seeing how different volcanoes erupt. Should be fun and messy.

In independent history he drew Robin Hood. He enjoyed this as usual.

For his history project he made Saladin. He had fun with this and was even able to make the origami turban on his own. This was a big deal because folding paper is really tough for him. In fact when he read the directions he said "origami oh no!." It took him 2 tries, but he stuck with it.

He continued to read about the Crusades this week and was able to tell his Dad some of the things he has learned. His written narration this week on was about what a castle looked like. He didn't even ask for help with this one. This was easy for him. It is when he has lots of names and wars and details about battles that he usually gets confused.

In Boyhood and Beyond we talked about what our response should be when we fall down. This was very applicable to him this week and he recognized that and made the application. I really love the way this book presents lessons. It seems to really strike a chord with him.

He continues to enjoy doing his Bible Study of Philippians. I think he likes that he can do it on his own. He does this early in the morning before really anyone else is up and going.

Next week I will be visiting a dear friend for a few days so my dh is going to do the schooling. If it weren't for HOD I would be very nervous about that, but the way HOD is set up and the fact that N. is so comfortable with it should make it easy for dh.

Weekly update for week of 10/24/11

2011-10-30T12:18:00.000-07:00

This week we did week 10 of RTR. This week the history focus was on the Crusades. His history project was writing out cards and then going on a Crusade with someone. During school time I hid the clue cards and he went on the Crusade. Later that night he went sent Daddy on the Crusade. This activity was a big hit. He wasn't able to write the long clues on the fronts of the cards, so I did that for him and he wrote the placement instructions on the back.

This week his history reading on the day of his written narration was 20 pages. I read half of it for him, but he still had some pre-teen attitude as I like to call it. I reminded him of some of the things we have been talking about in DITHOR as far as the character trait of diligence and he came around and then did a nice job of writing his written narration on his own.

For his written narration I have realized that I have a tendency to want him to fix everything at once. I think his content could be stronger so I comment on that, but I often comment on all the grammatical things also. I think in my head I do too much comparing him to what I have seen other dc do on the HOD board etc. . So I resolved to focus on 1 thing from the written narration checklist and 1 content type thing. So this week I told him I wanted him to make sure he used different length sentences and also that he should make his narration sound more like a story. It was tough, but I made sure to not critique anything else that I saw that might need tweaking. This really worked to encourage him and he seemed to do well with only having 2 major things to focus on. So here is his written narration, again I know it isn't perfect or even equal to what most kids his age are doing, but it is a improvement for him.

Bernard was asked to preach about the Crusades. He answeredyes and preached to King Louis and Queen Eleanor. He got several workers andtowns’ people to go on the Crusade. Then Bernard went to Germany to meet withConrad and ask him to go. Conrad at first refused to go, but then he did. WhileBernard went to France, Lois and Conrad went on the Crusade with several othertowns’ people. After a year a knight was sent to France to tell Bernard how itwent. The knight said, “It was bad with the Muslims winning Damascus.” Louis and Conrad went home in humiliation.The knight gave Bernard dishonoring letters from the town’s people. Finally, theCrusades failed after all that work.

He did more map work using the Map Trek CD. He enjoys this and I feel like it is a good way to cement some of the geographical locations of the history he is studying.

In storytime we started reading "Morningstar of the Reformation". It is about John Wycliffe. We started reading it on Monday and that day we got an e-mail from our youth pastor saying that Wed. night they would be doing an activity centering around the reformation and he would give bonus points to anyone who knew who the "Morningstar of the Reformation" was. N. was so excited that he actually knew that and couldn't wait to go to church that night to tell what he knew about John Wycliffe.

N. also finished his report on Charlemagne in IEW Medieval Writing Lessons. This is a challenging program for him, but I feel he is learning so much.

Weekly update for week of 10/17/11

2011-10-22T12:17:00.000-07:00

N. enjoyed another week of RTR. This week he got to cook for his history project. He always enjoys doing that. He made Marzipan cookies and then read portions of the poem "The Cyd" to S. and I why we ate them. They were quite tasty.

He also drew 2 more drawings from his Draw and Write Through History book. He then later in the week drew more castles and princesses in his free time.

We have one more day of reading in "The Illustrated Book of Knights." He has found this book fascinating. I understand there is a episode of Modern Marvels called "Battle Gear" on Netflix that I plan on letting him watch this weekend because it covers some of the things he has read about in this book.

In Grammar he is working on identifying adjectives. He is doing well with this although I will say Grammar is probably his least favorite subject. In dictation he is what I consider behind for his age. He is in Level 4 and was on around 40 or so. He was getting where he wasn't missing anything so I jumped him up about 8 passages and he was still getting them all right so I jumped him up another 8 or 9 passages. He finally missed one, so we will continue to work from there. I don't want to get caught up in whether he is behind, but I also want to make sure it is challenging for him. He continues to plug away with the IEW writing. It is a good fit for him.

He still loves the Looking at Pictures Art study. He does a great job describing the pictures from memory.

I can tell we are in the pre-teen/teen years. Some days he is right on his game with everything. Other days it is as if he has never done any of this before. Most days thoough he continues to give it 100% and continues to make gains.

Weekly update for week of 10/10/11

2011-10-15T11:50:00.000-07:00

We finished up week 8 of RTR this week. As usual he really had a good week. Unfortunately I wasn't good about taking pictures this week. He is getting very independent with things. He is getting to the point where he really doesn't want me to help him which I think is a good thing since he is 12 and moving faster than I would like towards those high school years. For his history project he made a game called Lord of the Castle. He and I played it once, but he is anxious to play it with daddy. It is an easy to play game but reinforces some of the words he had learned in his readings like serf and vassal.

The most exciting part of the week for N. was when he opened his guide to find out that he was going to draw from Draw and Write Through History this week. He had to do that 2nd each day right after his Bible Study time. He loves this series of books and loves drawing the different things. This week it was a Viking Ship and a Long House.

He read about the feudal system and Edward the Confessor this week. In fact he read about Edward and then when I was busy in another part of the house he sat down and did his written narration all on his own. This is huge for him. He had one fact confused that I had to correct him on and we talked about how great it was that he did it all on his own. I did encourage him to make it more story like next time and not as much like a summary. That is still a struggle for him, but it is one I see in his creative writing also. He is a "just the facts mam" kind of person. With the IEW writing I feel like banging my head against the wall some days when I am trying to get him to come up with more descriptive words and phrases. I am realizing it is not natural for him and I just have to keep showing by example and encouraging him.

In Science he did an experiment with Ocean tides that worked exactly like it should and I wish I had a picture of it. In Story Time we are now reading "The Illustrated Book of Knights." This book fascinates him. He has no trouble narrating this and loves to tell his dad about all the cool weapons they used.

In DITHOR he started in his new 6/7/8 student book. He is doing the Biography Genre and picked Benjamin West and his cat Grimalkin to read. He didn't do the Bigger guide so he never read it. Since he loves animals and loves to paint it is a good fit. It is easy for him to read, but he found that he had no trouble finding 5 new vocabulary words for his workbook pages. So far he hasn't struggled at all with the new level of student text. I can really see how the thinking required at this level will get him ready for High School Lit.

I love how each week things are different enough to keep it interesting and yet there is enough of the same to make it where he can move toward independence.

Weekly update for week of 10/3/2011

2011-10-08T13:33:00.000-07:00

We finished up week 7 of RTR this week. This week's history focus was on Charlemagne. I loved how he read from several different books about Charlemagne and other people that were part of his story.Hearing the same story told in different ways really helps him retain things. Last night at dinner at a friends house he was telling her all about Charlemagne and Pope Leo III. For his history project he made a shield with the German Eagle on it. Cutting is very challenging for him due to his tremors, but he was very determined to make a good eagle and cut it out himself.

In Storytime we finished reading "The Mystery of the Silver Coins" and it ended with somewhat of a cliff hanger ending. N. wanted me to order the next one in the series so I did and he will do it for DITHOR. I told him it would be a longer book than he usually reads for DITHOR and he didn't care. He just wants to know what happens with Bree, Keely, Devin, and Mikkel. I love seeing him excited about a book.

In Science he made a rain gage and we tried to make a Barometer, but our plastic tubing wasn't working quite right. I think it was too rigid.

He finished his final draft for his IEW writing. He required a little more help with writing descriptive phrases that refer to your senses. He just wanted to add a descriptive adjective, but with some examples from me he was able to do it eventually.

We continue to love Boyhood and Beyond. This week we discussed what it means to covet something. I really see him applying the character lessons he is learning as well as the skills he is learning to every day things. This morning he was on the team that was to cook for the men's bible study. He got up at 5:45 after being up late last night and didn't whine or complain. He then went in and my dh said he helped get things set up and turned on and then he fried the bacon on the big skillet all by himself. He is becoming much more confident in the kitchen thanks to HOD. He also then helped put chairs away and put tables back after bible study. Whenever I get a little discouraged about the struggles he has due to his CP I think on these things and remember what is really important in the big picture of things and that is that he is learning to hide God's word in his heart and apply it to his life.

Weekly update for week of 9/26/11

2011-10-03T10:39:00.000-07:00

Pretty routine week again this week. N. is handling all his I boxes well with the exception of needing occasional help with the Research postcard and sometimes he needs physical help with the history project due to his hand weakness.
His history project was baking 5 loaves of bread that had scripture verses in them. He did very well with this. This is one area I am thankful that HOD has scheduled in. I don't know that I would work on cooking skills with him due to his hand weakness and tremors, but it is something he needs to learn and he is capable of doing so this pushes me to push him towards independence in this area.

He is working on his project now for DITHOR and is making a timeline for the book "Gentle Ben". This is a nice way for him to review the different things that happened in the book and for me to see how much he comprehended. I am really glad I returned to DITHOR this year. He really gets much more out of it than doing Bob Jones lit.

In Science he learned about Hurricanes which is a topic of great interest to him so he did a very nice written narration.

In history he read about Mohammed and the founding of Islam. This led to some good discussions regarding the differences between Christianity and Islam. We also discussed what a Jihad was. I feel he is the perfect age to be having these discussions.

I continue to have him do 2 lessons in Megawords a week and I am seeing some pay offs as far as his comprehension of certain words. I am also seeing some improvements in his spelling although I am not doing it for this reason because I truly believe that dictation is the best way to learn spelling.

Weekly update 9/19/2011

2011-09-24T12:12:00.000-07:00

We finished up another week of RTR and once again things went well. In Science using the AIG book N. made a tornado using a tornado tube and 2 pop bottles. He has done this before, but he loves doing it so I let him do it again.

We continue to do Rod and Staff for Grammar. I will say that the chapter on pronouns has been challenging for him. He has a hard time remembering the names of the different pronouns. He usually can pick the right one to use in a sentence, but telling what type of pronoun it is can be tough.

In Math he is almost done with LU 602. He is learning many pre-algebra type concepts as well as some Geometry and graphing.

I think one of my favorite parts of this year is Boyhood and Beyond. It is really challenging him to strive toward becoming a Godly man. This week his assignment was to pick a task he hadn't done before and do that to take a step towards becoming the man God wants him to be. He has started going to men's bible study with my dh and they were on the team to fix breakfast today. So N. decided his task would be to plan and make the fruit salad. He wrote up the grocery list, shopped and then cut up a lot of the fruit. He even got up at 5:30 so he could get to church by 6:30 am. One of the leaders even sent him an e-mail checking in with him. N. was so excited to be treated in a more "grown up fashion".

His history project this week was a grid of a monastery. He enjoyed this project as usual. He is wearing headphones in the first picture because his sister was doing an art project and was loud and disrupting his concentration.

He also did a map of the Byzantine Empire. He likes doing the maps this year because he said he can do them and not struggle with the writing.

In storytime we are still reading "The Mystery of the Silver Coins". What a fantastic book. I have trouble stopping each day without reading on.

World Geography Charlotte Mason style

2011-09-17T16:20:00.000-07:00

My dd came home last year as a 10th grader. She was very used to textbooks and so that is what we did. She had a good year, but she would watch N. doing his projects and commented that she would like at least one subject where she could do something other than textbooks. She had already done World History and American History so we decided that this year she would do World Geography. She didn't get much of this in school since it isn't on any achievement tests. We are using the free plans from Harmony Art Mom's blog. I tweaked them a little bit to add in "Operation World" and "Windows on the World" to give a mission focus. She is loving doing the notebooking, art projects and cooking. This week she made Irish Stew for dinner. Not only did we do World Geography, but also Home Economics, because peeling potatoes and carrots is not something she has really ever done. I think she loves having this class in the middle of things like Physics and Algebra 2 and English Lit.. It definitely breaks up the day.

She is reading about the different World Religions and then doing a notebook page.

Here is her sketch of Big Ben

Here is her very creative Coat of Arms

Notebooking page for Ireland

Weekly update for 11/12/11

2011-09-17T16:08:00.000-07:00

This week was interesting. It started off with N. having a reaction to Claritin. I had never given it to him before and 1 1/2 hours after giving it to him he became a totally different child. He became argumentative, refused to do his work and became very mean, which is totally not his personality. I was totally confused as to what was going on until I googled Claritin behavior side effects and found out that was I was seeing was actually not that unusual. After that was out of his system the rest of the week went very smooth. He was back to being my hard working kid.

In science we continue with the AIG book and he has had fun doing the small experiments like making fog in a bottle and sucking the air out of a bottle to look at air pressure. He made the different types of clouds out of cotton balls.

He also did a written narration for science this week about the dust bowl, and did a pretty good job on it.

In math he continues to plug along with CLE 600 and seems to have remembered most of the things he forgot over the summer. He continues to read Gentle Ben in DITHOR, he seems to have good reading comprehension for this book. I have him doing Megawords to help with his ability to decode longer words. I have realized that he sometimes mispronounces words and I think that might interfere with his comprehension. He decided on an easy Megawords sheet to show me how neatly he could write. He said he can't write like this all the time because his hand cramps.

His history project this week was a board game he made called Race to Rome. I like that as we play it the different tribe names are reinforced.

In Storytime we are reading "The Mystery of the Silver Coins". This is the second book in the Viking Quest series and N. loves it! He loves doing his oral narration 1x a week with this book and likes to move around and act it out while he narrates.

He continues to make gains in his independence and really only needs help now with the I boxes if it is something to do with his fine motor skills.

Weekly update for 9/5/2011

2011-09-10T07:15:00.000-07:00

This was a very good school week. We finished week 3 or RTR and N. has really found his groove. He is finishing in the 4 1/2 to 5 hour time frame now and is becoming more independent daily. In history reading he is finishing up "Peril and Peace" and that is being scattered between days of reading "The Story of the Middle Ages" and "Famous Men of the Middle Ages". He has wanted to read everything by himself on some days, but I still end up helping him figure out what the main points of the story were. He is growing in leaps and bounds with his written narrations and his postcards for research. He really is wanting to write more complex sentences and that is something new.

His history project was one I was not sure how much he would be able to do. He was to make a parchment that had a bible verse in Greek and then the translation below it. I figured he could do the cursive verse on the bottom, but I didn't see how with his dysgraphia he could do the Greek and not get frustrated. I told him we would be flexible and I could help as much as he needed. I wrote the first line to give him a model and I put lines on the paper as a guide and then to my amazement he wrote all of the rest! He really enjoyed it and I think he did a great job.

He and I are really enjoying "Boyhood and Beyond" and I already see him trying to put the things he is learning in there in practice. This week was his first week in the Wed. night Youth Group at church. He was so excited to go. There is a group of about 5 boys that have all just moved up. They met in a small group for prayer with the Youth Pastor and the Youth Pastor said that he was so encouraged because the first prayer that this group of boys prayed that night was "Lord help us to be godly men." The boy who prayed that was N. I got tears in my eyes when I read that on our Youth Pastor's facebook. I know those ideas are partly coming from our reading and discussion with "Boyhood and Beyond".

He continues to read "Gentle Ben" for DITHOR and we are talking about perspective and how books are written from a certain perspective. He has enjoyed taking different scenes and writing them from a different characters perspective than the original.

We started our co-op this Friday and because HOD is a 4 day program this allows us to be in the co-op without getting behind. He is taking an art class, a science experiments class and a drama class that is Intro to Shakespeare. Should be a fun year.

Weekly update week of 8/29/11

2011-09-04T14:28:00.000-07:00

This week started out kind of rough, but ended on a very good note. N. was getting frustrated with his history reading in "Peril and Peace". The readings are long with lots of names and he was having trouble following the story. Midway in the week I started partnering in the reading with him. I will read around 3 pages so that he has a good idea of the story and then he finishes it up. This has really helped him figure out what is going on in the story and to retain more of the information. God has shown me through some good advice on the HOD board and through just speaking to my heart that it is ok to make this modification for him. It doesn't lessen his accomplishments in any way and it will help him get the maximum benefit from the program as well as then he is able to give more energy to other subjects.
His history project this week was a stained glass cross that he did with chalk. He worked really hard on this and really gave it his best effort.

In storytime we finished up reading "Forbidden Gates." This was another wonderful selection from HOD. N. loved it and did very well with all the follow up activities.
In Science we continued with AIG's Wind and Weather book. He enjoys the little demonstration type activities in it.
He continues to love Looking at Pictures. I am amazed at how many details he can remember from the paintings we are studying. This box rotates with a Poetry box as well as reading Boyhood and Beyond which is a fantastic book. This week we talked about honesty and being a man of integrity.
In DITHOR reading he is reading "Gentle Ben" and he loves it. I am glad to be back to DITHOR. He is really enjoying the book and the activities that go with it.
The big gains this week have been in his writing. He is doing very well with IEW's Medieval writing lessons. The style of instruction is really clicking with him. He wrote a nice paragraph based on a source document and did it all on his own. I am also seeing what he is learning there carry over to other writing assignments like his research post card and his written narrations.

He is really enjoying school again this year and for that I am very grateful.

Weekly update week of 8/22/11

2011-08-26T16:40:00.000-07:00

We started our new school year on Tuesday. We started with the official first day of school pics.

N. has grown so much this year. He is almost as tall as S. and she isn't happy about it.
N. jumped right in to RTR. We have taken each box a little slower than usual so I can make sure he sees what is different this year and also I can make sure he knows what is expected of him. He always starts his day with his bible quiet time. He is studying Philippians this year and memorizing Philippians 1. I think he is going to like the bible study book he is doing. He and I are reading Boyhood and Beyond together and he learned this week to see God in His creation. Tomorrow he wants to go to a park to spend some time really observing all the wonderful things God has made. I see a maturity in his bible discussions that I didn't see last year.
One day a week he is doing a picture study using the book "Looking at pictures". He really enjoyed studying a painting and then trying to see how much of it we could each remember. For my visual learner this was right up his alley and much easier for him then narrating after he reads.
In Science we switched things up a little since he had already done the Apologia Astronomy book so he is doing Answers in Genesis Wind and Weather book. He enjoyed the 2 small experiments we did this week. He did a great written narration about Joseph Priestly.
In History he is reading "Peril and Peace" and learned about Paul, Polycarp, Justin the Martyr and Constantine. He enjoys this book, but oral and written narration from it are a little tough for him at this point. I think all the hard names confuse him. With a little help he did do a nice written narration.
His history project this week was a Roman Arch with a background. This is where I am seeing the biggest gains. He paid close attention to the quality of his work and really took his time each day with this. Here it is with the background almost done and before he painted the arch.

When we finished the week N. said he thought it was a good first week and a few nights when his Dad would ask him what his favorite part of the day was he said "I can't pick, I like it all."

The End of Summer

2011-08-20T15:33:00.000-07:00

I can't believe summer is almost over. We are starting school next week. On Monday I will meet with each kid and talk about goals and expectations for the summer and give them an overview of their curriculum. On Tuesday we will dive right in.

It has been a wonderful summer. S. and N. went to church camp and had a wonderful time and came back with new spiritual things to focus on. S. has been working 15-20 hours a week. N. went on a local mission week and had a fantastic time and even let his true goofy self show by break dancing at a concert in the park. The adults and teens on the trip got a real kick out of seeing this side of the boy they thought was shy and quiet.

We just got back from a vacation in PA. Went to the Pittsburgh zoo, Hershey Chocolate World, Gettysburg and Amish Country. We stayed at a farm bed and breakfast and had a fantastic time. N. is now convinced he wants to be a farmer. He was up and talking to the sheep by 6:45 each morning and would stay out in the barnyard until dark.

S. had been more unsure about staying on a farm because she said she was afraid of chickens and didn't like goats. She ended up loving collecting the eggs and even attempted to milk a goat. Her favorite thing was the sunset ATV ride that the owner of the farm took us on.

It was a fantastic end to summer and I think we are now ready to dig in to a new, and hopefully wonderful school year. I have been scheduling things in homeschool tracker all summer. Sarah is taking a pretty tough load of classes. Noah is moving on to the next Heart of Dakota guide entitled Resurrection to Reformation. It will include longer reading and more challenging, thought provoking activities. I am looking forward to seeing his progress this year.

Update for week of 5/16/2011

2011-05-21T16:46:00.000-07:00

I can't call this a weekly update since my last update was over a month ago. This last month has just flown by. We celebrated my dd's birthday as well as getting a new dog, but through it all we kept schooling and having so much fun. So here are a few pictures from the last few weeks.
Noah has come so far in the effort he puts forth for his Science questions each week. I have really emphasized with him that he needs to give it his best effort and he really has for at least the past month or so.

Here he made these yummy treats where he wrapped a crescent roll around a marshmallow and then when it baked "the tomb was empty". He loved this.

You can probably tell we are animal lovers at our house. Although sometimes they get a little too involved in school.

This is our new dog Lacey that we adopted from the shelter where N. and I volunteer. She is a great dog. We adopted a smaller dog so that N. can walk her. Some dogs are afraid of his shaky hands, but not Lacey, so he is going to train her this summer.

Here are the kids painting their last watercolor painting of the year. They are sad that they don't get to paint next year. It was a great bonding time for them. I love how Noah's turned out.

On our last day of doing CTC. Noah was sad to see it come to an end. What a great testimonial to the curriculum that he actually was disappointed it was over. Although he is really looking forward to RTR next year. He is already planning on buying Kingdom Lego sets and wants to do some books like Robin Hood as read alouds this summer so he can be ready to understand that time period.
I had him pose for our annual hold up the guide picture. I took it and then he put it face down in his lap and gave a pouty face to show how he really felt.

Curriculum for next year

2011-04-21T13:30:00.000-07:00

This time of year is fun because you are finishing up the school year and also a little stressful because I am finalizing curriculum for next year. I think I have the majority of it set.
N. is the easy one. After 2 wonderful years of HOD we see absolutely no reason to change. In fact I am really not changing anything with him. If it isn't broke why fix it. He will move into the HOD Resurrection to Reformation guide, or RTR for short. I have already purchased all the books and I am pre-reading the history books that he will read on his own. All I can say is Wow! Who knew history could be so exciting. It sure wasn't when I was in school. The history spines are "Perils and Peace" and "Monks and Mystics" which tell church history and show how intricately that is tied in with the secular history of the time. Then he also will read "Famous Men of the Middle Ages" and "Mystery of History Volume 3". I think he is going to love these books. For Science we will focus on Earth Science of which he has had very little of. He will also do a Picture study and study some of the great artists of the time and he will study Philippians for his bible study time. He has already looked at everything and is very excited. He will continue with CLE math and also Rod and Staff English.

S. has been the one that has taken all the planning. I have spent countless hours pouring over things for her. I think it is now finalized though.
Science will be Apologia Physics. We are going to do this at home instead of co-op with Daddy being the teacher as needed for this.
Math: She will use Lial's Intermediate Algebra. This comes highly recommended and as she has looked at it she really likes the teaching style.
History: This year she wants to study World Geography and Cultures. She is admittedly very weak in this area since it isn't something that is on the test, public school didn't focus on it much. We are taking the plans on Harmony Art Mom's site and have tweaked them to include a Mission component also. The spine for this will be Trail Guide to World Geography with other books added in.
English: British Literature and Composition from Smarr Publishers. This should be a very challenging course.
French 3: Tell Me More French
Bible: A study of the New Testament using "The most important thing you will ever study"
Child Development: 1/2 credit using "The Developing Child" and other resources that I have.

Now I will spend the summer putting lesson plans into Homeschool Tracker.

Weekly update for the week of 4/4/11

2011-04-12T12:25:00.000-07:00

What a great week we had. I feel like so many things clicked for N. this week. That is what I love about HOD is that the skills build on each other and what had once seemed like a challenge suddenly becomes something they can do with ease.

His History Project this week was a Mezuzah case. He decided that since next year many of his projects will require cooking that he should become more independent with this aspect of his school. He gathered all the materials and then mixed the dough up by himself. He then rolled it and shaped it. We needed to add some flour because the dough kept sticking to our rolling pin. He ended up with some of the flour sticking on him, but he was very proud of his end product.

In his history reading he continues to read from John and wrote a very nice written narration this week about John washing the disciples feet. He continues to slowly improve in his written narration skills. The best thing is that he has confidence now that he can do it.

In storytime we finished "Traveling the Way". This book is now his new favorite from the year followed by "The Boy from the Pyramids". Actually though there wasn't a single storytime book that he didn't like. His oral narrations for this book were fantastic.even to the point of retelling me what happened on a day that I had missed and his dad had read it to him.

The painting this week was a snowy scene to go with the poem "The Runaway".

In Science he continues with "Exploring the World of Medicine". He has gotten over the hump with this book also. He now looks at 1 or 2 questions before he reads and then reads only 1-2 pages until he finds the answers and then he continues this way until he answers around 7 of the questions. I have let him decide the number of questions he answers because he has been very good about pushing himself to do a little more each day.

In Write with the Best he finished a letter to his Grandparents. I love the gentle approach of this writing curriculum. Writing is still the area he needs the most work on, but he continues to show improvement and he doesn't hate to write like he did before.

Hard to believe that our year will soon be over. We have all the things for next year and he is very excited about all the books he gets to read and projects he gets to do.

Weekly update for week of 3/21/11

2011-03-26T18:09:00.000-07:00

I seem to have this every other week thing now as a habit. Problem is this week I forgot to take pictures so all of the pics are from last week.
One of the things I love about HOD is the bible quiet time. I love how it is teaching N. to make this an important part of each day. He loves reading from the Illustrated Family Bible. For my visual learner it sure helps to cement things he reads in his bible.

He also has been memorizing Philippians 2. This week was a review week and I loved sitting and listening to him sing the verses as his way of remembering them.

In Science he is now reading Exploring the History of Medicine by John Hudson Tiner. This has been a somewhat challenging book for him. He has to answer questions every day after he reads. This has on occasion brought him to tears. He still can struggle with his reading comprehension if it is something that is totally unfamiliar to him, which the subject matter in this book is. I am using it though to have him practice the skills of skimming back through several pages of text to find the answers. This past Friday he did much better with this and was proud of how few he missed. His science experiment last week was looking to see how fast bacteria multiplied.

This week he is doing an experiment with germs growing on apples. Will have to see in a few days how that one turns out.

His history project last week was to make a paper doll dressed in the clothes of a Roman Soldier. He really enjoyed this and worked diligently on getting each piece the way he wanted it.

His attention to detail with projects like this is improving. This week he made a wheel with the names and information about the 12 apostles.

For storytime we continue to read "Traveling the Way". I think this may be his favorite book this year. What I love is after I read he will sit quietly and then say "I am thinking about how David must feel... ". This is a big step for him to start putting himself in the position of the book character and really trying to make those connections.

For his history reading he is now reading the book of John. He is enjoying reading John all the way through which is something he has never done before.

Next week I will go to the local homeschool convention and will get to talk to Carrie the author of HOD and her sister Julie. Last year that was the highlight of the convention for me. I love the fact that I can ask them specific questions about how to make things work for N. and talk through any concerns I have. I know we will be using the next guide RTR, but not totally sure how each aspect will work for him. I look forward to getting their input.

Weekly update for the week of 3/8/2011

2011-03-12T16:11:00.000-08:00

Once again it has been 2 weeks since I updated my blog. Hard to believe we are heading into the homestretch of the year. Overall this has been a very good year. I am continuing to learn how to draw the best out of N. as well as how S. prefers to learn.

The highlight for N. last week was his history project of making different types of catapults. He worked so long on this I finally had to make him stop so he could finish the rest of his school. When school was done he went back to designing catapults. (Please overlook the mismatched pj's. He usually doesn't get dressed until after lunch, that just works best for him).

Last week he and S. worked on painting a night sky. I didn't get any pictures of him painting, but here is S. working on hers.

We have started a new storytime book called "Travelling the Way" and N. just loves it. The first day we read it he had do to a detailed oral narration. I was amazed how many details he included. I was really able to see how this skill is improving. He is also getting better at making it more like a story verses just summarizing it.
His written narrations the past two weeks have also shown improvement. He still isn't one to use lots of flowery words during his written narration, but he does blend some of his words and some of the authors. You also can see the things he thought were important in what he narrates.

The highlight of this week was the Roman feast. N. was so excited to do this. He worked hard on making his Roman custard.

He then used his special safety guard from Pampered Chef that allows even a kid with tremoring hands to cut up vegetables safely and proudly displayed his handiwork. He didn't have a robe to wear so he wrapped a blanket around his shoulders.

Then he served the meal and washed his sister's hands in between courses. She would have preferred he use warm water.

I really enjoy seeing my 2 dc having fun together. This year has been a good one for improving their relationship and letting them see each other in all situations. This week was a pretty stressful week since our sweet dog Bailey was nearing the end of his battle with bone cancer. N. handled it by taking good care of him and S. handled it by coming down one day after lunch dressed as "Super Sarah". N. laughed all afternoon. It was good for all of us.

Weekly update for the week of 2/21/11

2011-02-27T14:00:00.000-08:00

Once again I let 2 weeks go by without blogging. Things have just been so busy around here. Thankfully even in the crazy times our school still seems to go pretty smooth.

N. has been reading "Galen and the Gateway to Medicine" for his science and has enjoyed it more than I thought he would. He likes that Archimedes was mentioned and he was telling me how they tied together. He also told me all about the original Hippocratic oath.

He continues to do well with Rod and Staff Grammar. I really wish that we would have started with it from the beginning. We still do most of it orally with a worksheet or just one exercise done in written form. He is almost finished with his fable in Write with the Best and I must say I love it. I have let him dictate it to me so that he can really put down all he wants to. He will then edit and type his final copy himself. He wanted the moral to be that you can't judge a book by it's cover (something near and dear to his heart). Since he loves dogs he made it about a lost Chihuahua, a boastful St. Bernard and a very humble Beagle. It is very cute.

For his independent history this week he drew Hannibal's Elephant. This was, as always, one of his favorite parts of the week.

We are reading the book City by David McCauley for Storytime and he loves this book! He is now working on a Lego model of the Roman streets complete with stepping stones and drainage pipes. He also talks about maybe becoming an Architect when he grows up. I love that he gets so excited about what he is learning.

He has moved on to the next phase as far as written narrations. Starting last week he no longer has questions in the guide that he is supposed to answer to guide his narration. Last week he pretty much had a meltdown when he realized that and was convinced he couldn't do it. I guided him in figuring out what he wanted to write about and what questions he would answer if there were questions. It was rough, but I knew it was part of a learning curve for him and he still lacks so much confidence when it comes to writing. This week was so much better. He decided to write about Hannibal's army and he decided that before he read, so he paid close attention to those details as he read and even stated things out loud as he went. I have learned this is how he retains best so I let him do this. He then went to the computer and typed away without complaint. He used the book for spelling and to make sure he got some details like numbers write, but overall did a nice job of narrating what he learned. I was proud of him.

The very sad part of our week was that we found out our 11 year old Greyhound, Bailey has bone cancer in his leg. N. is very close to Bailey as Bailey is his audience for poetry readings and history projects. N. has been making sure that Bailey is kept comfortable by bringing his favorite dog bed in by the school room.

Weekly update for 2/7/11

2011-02-12T11:43:00.000-08:00

Life has been very busy so I haven't had much time to blog, but I did want to at least post the last 2 weeks in pictures so you can see what fun things we have been doing.
Last week started off with an ice storm so S. had to go out and slide down the drive way on her stomach. N. was more cautious with his exploration of the lack of friction.

N. has drawn Alexander the Great's horse Bucephalus and the Lighthouse of Alexandria for his independent history.

Last weeks history project was an indoor Olympics since N. was learning about Olympia Greece. Of course S. couldn't sit around and not join in the fun.

History project this week was making his own papyrus so that he could draw a map of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. He declared this the "messiest project" ever. I have to say I found watered down glue droplets everywhere, but hey he had fun.

He is about to finish up his current science book. I didn't think he would like the book on plants as much as he liked the bird book, but he says he liked them both equally. We have had some discussions on making sure to say focused while reading. He tends to have trouble recalling the information in the middle of a chapter.

The paintings last week were of sunsets and turned out beautiful.

Then here are 2 last pictures to show the extreme difference in my dc's personalities. I am so glad that S. is home this year and that she can join us in some of the projects. N. loves having her do things with us also.

Weekly update for the week of 1/24/2011

2011-01-31T13:06:00.000-08:00

I am a little late getting this done this week. This week he was studying Greece and therefore everything revolved around Greece. For his Independent History Box he drew and then colored the Parthenon. This was a huge hit. This is such a big deal for him. He should hate sketching and drawing because of how much effort it takes and how his hand cramps, but in the middle of drawing using the instructions from Draw and Write Through History he says "Have I ever told you how much I love this book?".

For his History project this week he made a Greek Column. He chose which style to draw and he picked the most complicated one. His sister had to get into the act so she made one also.

His Science experiment this week was making a Plant Part Meal. He enjoyed going thru the fridge and picking out the different things that were different parts of plants like carrots for the roots, apples for fruit, etc.

Archimedes and the Door of Science remains a huge hit for our read aloud during story time. He likes telling his dad things he learned in this book.

One interesting thing I am seeing with him is that last year I remember posting I was worried how he didn't seem to retain some of the history we read. I was reassured by Carrie and Julie that he was establishing hooks to hang information on in later years. Well sure enough as we study things this year he will out of the blue bring up something related that he studied last year. In fact making connections with his reading is something I am seeing him do more and more.

We did make one minor change to the curriculum and that was we stopped doing Genesis Finding our Roots. N. was struggling some with understanding this book and he is now going through a class at church which requires homework and that was adding to his day. Since this was bible study work he had to do, I decided to substitute it in instead of the Genesis book.

Books 6 and 7

2011-01-25T11:57:00.000-08:00

I am better at reading them than I am at blogging about them. Book 6 was Stars Collide by Janice Thompson.
This book is a fun, lighthearted, entertaining book. The characters are interesting, likable and sometimes quirky. It was a great book to read just to relax after a crazy day. It is a Christian Romance book that takes place in Hollywood, which seems like an unlikely premise, but it works.

The 7th book I read was "An Unlikely Blessing" by Judy Baer. This book was also a very enjoyable read. The book is about a Pastor who takes his first church in a small town in North Dakota. The characters in this book are ones you want to know more of. This book reminds me of the Mitford series by Jan Karon. The book leaves you with many things up in the air so I am hoping that a sequel is in the works because I find myself wanting to know the answer to several unanswered questions.

Weekly update for the week of 1/17/2011

2011-01-23T15:28:00.000-08:00

Another good week. I feel like N. has really found his groove and is really enjoying his days (other than the rare frustration with math). This week he had lots of drawing and was back with the painting so that made him very happy.

He and S. both did paintings again this week for poetry.

In Science he started reading "Plant Life in Field and Garden". He did an experimet looking at how plants get nutrients. He did a good job of doing the experiment by himself. He put one stalk of celery in sugar water and one in plain water. Today he tasted the leaves and discovered that the ones in sugar water were sweet, especially the stems of the leaves.

In Storytime we continue to read "Archimedes and the Door of Science". This book is a big hit. He enjoyed telling his Dad all about how an Archimedean screw works.

In History he drew a Greek Soldier using the directions in Draw and Write Through History". Again I was impressed by how careful he was to follow all the step by step directions for drawing. This is a huge improvement over last year.

For his history project he made a scytale message and then acted out Phidippedes run from Athens to Sparta. He ran a mile and then we told him that he would have to run 150 of those for it to equal the run from Athens to Sparta.

After the thread on the HOD board about oral narrations we worked on capturing the authors voice when he narrates. He does better if he acts it out. Written narrations are still very much a work in progress, but he is showing improvement with oral narrations.

5 of 52

2011-01-17T07:27:00.000-08:00

My 5th book of this year is Dancing with Max by Emily Colson who happens to be the daughter of Chuck Colson. It is the story of life with her severely autistic son Max. It is a beautiful book full of real life pain, hurt , joy and the ever presence of God. As a physical therapist that treated children with Autism and the parent of a child with special needs I found this book to be a wonderful read. It challenged me to embrace my child where he is, but also to be willing to be open to where God might take him. Emily doesn't sugar coat things and she is very honest with the fact that parenting Max mostly as a single parent has been a real challenge, but she also sees the gift that is Max. Chuck Colson writes the forward and the afterward and gives some good insight also into how God has empowered Emily to be a fantastic mom to Max. If you have a child with special needs in your life and even if you don't I think you will find this book encouraging.

Weekly update for the week of 1/10/2011

2011-01-15T15:41:00.000-08:00

N. had another good week this week. He is really coming into his own as far as the independent boxes go. He even did his science experiment independently this week. Usually I have to help him just due to the fact that his hand tremor can make things difficult to do, but I see that he really wants to be able to do things on his own so I am trying to sit back and wait and only help if he asks for it. What's a few spills if it means he feels more independent.

Science has been the favorite subject around here. He has become an avid bird watcher thanks to the book "Birds of the Air". He worked very hard on his bird notebooking page this week and drew a purple finch.

We have several bird feeders right out the window and he loved watching them this week as the birds stocked up before snow fell. He loves cardinals so made sure to tell me every time he saw one so that I could get a good picture.

For his science experiment he made 2 feathers out of paper and then coated one in shortening. He was pretty amazed that the one with shortening floated. He was very careful to follow the directions exactly.

He had to memorize a poem and he chose the shortest one called "Dust of Snow". I don't think he chose it because it was short, I think he picked it because it talked about a bird. He dressed up as a crow to present it as his dad and proceeded to "fly" across the room and land on his snowy tree (the couch).

He did some mapping work of Greece for his history project and he started a new book called "Ancient Greece" in his read about history box. He struggled more with his written narration this week, but I think because it was a new book with a new writing style. I also realized that I haven't done a very good job of getting across to him that he isn't summarizing as much as he should be retelling what he read. So we are going to focus on that more and see how it goes.

We also started a new storytime book called "Archimedes and the Door to Science". I was afraid that he would have trouble paying attention to this book, but it is written in a style that seems to draw him in.

He finished his project for Drawn into the Heart of Reading and made a puppet of Sheriff J.D. Saddlesoap.

4 of 52

2011-01-14T14:56:00.000-08:00

My fourth book to read this year was "An Old Fashioned Girl" by Louisa May Alcott. I downloaded it for free from www.manybooks.net for my e-reader. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I think I like this book better than Little Women. The simplicity of it is charming. It is the story of Polly, a country girl who is gentle and kind and not enamored with material things. She goes to stay with her cousins in the city. Her cousins are the complete opposites and well on their way to becoming brats. However Polly's appearance in their lives helps prevent this from happening. I am a huge fan of L.M. Montgomery and in some ways this book reminded me of her books.

I continue to read "In His Steps" along with my daughter. This book is different than I thought it would be, but I do find myself anxious to read the next chapter.

3 of 52

2011-01-11T05:08:00.000-08:00

I finished my 3rd book for the year. "Without a Word: How a Boy's Unspoken Love Changed Everything" is by Jill Kelly, the wife of Hall of Fame football player Jim Kelly. It is the story of their son Hunter and his life. Hunter was diagnosed with Krabbe's Leukodystrophy shortly after birth. It is a progressive, fatal disease. I was very interested in reading this story because when I was a physical therapist I worked with a little girl with a different form of leukodystrophy. The Kelly's had gone public with their son's diagnosis at the time I was treating this little girl and her mom was so encouraged by the fact that someone important was working on a cure.

This book is a very real look at what living with a chronically ill child is like, but she doesn't focus on the negatives. She focuses on all the gifts they received from having Hunter in their lives. The biggest was the through Hunter Jill became a Christian and eventually so did Jim. It is a story of hope and redemption as much as it is a story of loss of a child. Much of it is Jill's journal entries which allow the reader to truly see into her heart. This makes it a very real book that deals with real issues. This book truly allows you to see how God worked things for good out of horrible circumstances.

Weekly update for the week of 1/3/2011

2011-01-08T11:26:00.000-08:00

We jumped back in to school this week. Well the kids jumped, I might have crawled a little bit. They were eager to get back and did well. N. continued on with CTC as if he hadn't taken 2 weeks off.

I asked him the week what his favorite parts of the day were and he said Science and the history project. He is definitely my hands-on learner. In Science he is still reading "Birds of the Air". This week on the day he was to do his oral narration for this book I had him take what he used to call "stop and jot" notes. He wrote just a few phrases down on sticky notes. The difference in his interacting with the text and his ability to narrate was huge. I know it is not true Charlotte Mason style, but whatever his learning glitch is that messes with his reading comprehension this sure helps, so I let him do it. It also seemed to help with his retention later in the day as he was telling me something about birds he had read. For his science experiment he was a small seed eating bird grabbing raisins off the ground. I timed him for 15 seconds to see how many he got and then his sister was a hawk and she circled him in her best hawk imitation and then tagged him to show she ate him and we compared how many seed he caught. This was a big hit. I did end up modifying it and just letting him use his fingers.

He finished reading "More Tales from Dust River Gulch" this week for DITHOR. He will work on a project for this book next week.

For his history reading he read about Cyrus and Darius the Great. He also read about Daniel and the Lions Den which was of course a big hit.

In Storytime we continued reading Esther. Since that is one of my favorite books in the bible it has meant we have had some good discussions. For his history project he made a Grager and also Hamentashen. He loved when we read out of Esther and he shook his Grager every time he heard the word Hamen. We talked about the festival of Purim to go along with this.

Next week he starts a new main History book as well as a new storytime book. I love how just as winter is setting in and sometimes boredom can hit we get to start all new books.

2nd of 52

2011-01-07T04:45:00.000-08:00

I knew when I started this that I wouldn't actually stick to the 1 book a week idea. I know some weeks I will read more than one and some weeks I won't finish one so my goal is to just to have read 52 books at the end of year. I finished a second book this week and if falls into the lighter reading category. I do enjoy reading Christian fiction and have several authors such as Karen Kingsbury that I love. The book I read this week is by Tracie Peterson and is called "Embers of Love". It is the first in a series called Striking a Match. It is a lighter read, but one I enjoyed. It takes place in East Texas in 1885. The main character stands up to her domineering mother and refuses to marry someone she doesn't love. She goes with her best friend back to a small town in East Texas. There she encounters a way of life that is totally foreign to her, but one she ends up embracing. This book also deals with some of the prejudices that were present at the time. I look forward to reading additional books in this series as they are released.

1st of 52

2011-01-05T04:46:00.000-08:00

I finished my first book of the year. I decided to start the year off with a book that Carrie the author of the Heart of Dakota curriculum recommended. It is called "Stepping Heavenward". The description on google books sums up the book very well: "How dreadfully old I am getting! Sixteen!" So begins 'Stepping Heavenward' by Elizabeth Prentiss, the journal-like account of a nineteenth century girl who learns, on the path to womanhood, that true happiness can be found in giving oneself for others. "This book is a treasure of both Godly and womanly wisdom told with disarming candor and humility, yet revealing a deep heart's desire to know God," says noted Christian speaker Elisabeth Elliot. "I do not hesitate to recommend it to men, who need to understand the wives they live with, and to any woman who wants to walk with God."
I really enjoyed this book and strongly recommend it. I downloaded it for free for my e-reader at www.manybooks.net

I am also reading "In His Steps" along with S. She is doing it for her Literature class and we enjoy reading the books at the same time so we can discuss them.

52 books in 52 weeks challenge

2010-12-26T14:17:00.000-08:00

I have decided I am going to participate in the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge.
I am not sure how this will go, but I am going to give it a shot. I will try and blog about the books I read. I will give you fair warning though, I tend to like an eclectic mix of books. I like books by Christian Fiction authors, biographies, children's books and classics, with the occasional non-fiction book about animals thrown in for good measure.

Weekly update for the week of 12/13/2010

2010-12-18T06:01:00.001-08:00

This was our last week before taking a 2 week break and what a fantastic week it was. I was amazed at all the fun things we did this week in CTC.

In Science N. is absolutely loving "Birds of the Air". In fact he gets a little distracted during school looking out the window and identifying different birds. He decided this week to start painting and drawing some birds on his own after school was done. This is huge for him. Here is a Cardinal he painted and I just love it.

He also did a great job on his notebooking page this week.

He finished his last weeks science experiment this week. He put eggs in Vinegar 3 days and it dissolved the shells. He knew this would happen since he had done it before. We talked about the fact that the egg also became swollen due to water passing through the membrane. Then he put the eggs in corn starch for 3 days. He then saw how the water passed back out through the membrane.

For his science experiment this week he and his sister tried catching "flys" (cheerios) with different types of beaks. It was pretty funny to watch.

In History he finished his picture of the Hanging gardens of Babylon. He took 2 days to color it and I was proud of the effort he put into it.

History project was a cookie replica of the statue in Nebuchadnezzars dream. This project was a hit with the entire family. He then used the cookie to talk about the different kingdoms each color represented and how God gave this dream way before some of the kingdoms ever existed.

We finished reading Jonah in storytime and are now reading Esther. Also moved from learning about the Assyrians to reading about Babylon and the Medes and Persians.

Their poetry painting this week was a snowy scene, which was appropriate since we had 2 snow storms this week.

N. said on Friday-what a fun week! He was right. Perfect week to end on before Christmas.

Weekly update for the week of 12/6/2010

2010-12-12T13:40:00.000-08:00

This week seemed to fly by. N. continued in CTC and started some new books so that is always fun. In Science he started "Birds of the Air". He really, really likes this book. I wasn't sure what he would think since it doesn't have a lot of colorful pictures. He reads his pages and then does a good job orally narrating or answering questions about the reading. We have several bird feeders that he can see from our dining room/school room window and he is having a great time identifying the birds he sees. We found an app for his Ipod that has various birds and bird sounds on it. They are realistic enough to get the cats excited when he turns it on. We have a dear friend who loves birds and just moved to Kansas so he is going through and finding birds that she has that we don't.
In Geography of the Bible lands he just started learning about Egypt. He learned about the Sinai peninsula this week.
In storytime we finished God King and are now reading through the book of Jonah. He loves this book of the bible. In his independent history reading he continues to read about the Assyrians. For his history project we made a prayer box. I say we because he just couldn't figure out how to fold it and honestly either could I. This is the first history project that I almost gave up on, but finally we figured it out. Once it was made he did enjoy learning about A.C.T.S. prayer and spending some quiet time praying using the A.C.T.S. pattern. Also for history this week he started the Draw and Write through history. He did one of these last year and he enjoyed it, but there was no way with his shaky hands that he could draw the pictures, instead he would trace them. This weeks assignment was to draw the Hanging gardens of Babylon. He determined that with his mechanical pencil he could follow the directions and do it. I know beyond a shadow of a fact that God honored his determination, because he drew something that is far beyond anything he has ever been able to draw before. I had to walk out of the room and shed some tears.

One other fun thing we did this week that tied in with our studies was to go to a "Night in Bethlehem" that a local church was doing. They have their entire church decorated as a Jewish marketplace. You put on biblical clothing when you enter and then the market place had things like the pottery shop, the stone mason, the metal shop, hebrew school etc where they had activities for the kids. Of course the Roman guards and the tax collectors are there also. The shepherds then came into the city to tell what the angels told them and we followed them out to hear the angel choir and then to the nativity scene with live animals. N. loved all of this because it brought all his history from this year to life. I couldn't have planned a better activity for him.

Weekly update for the week of 11/29/2010

2010-12-03T15:15:00.000-08:00

After taking a week off for Thanksgiving we were back at it this week. Overall we had a really good week. We did find out that N. had had a broken arm for a week that the doctors somehow missed on the x-ray. He is still able to do school with it though since it is in a sling and he is able to take it off for school.
The kids didn't complain at all about getting back to work. N. finished week 14 of CTC. In Poetry he read my favorite poem by Robert Frost "A Road Not Taken". He and S. painted their watercolors to go with it. He also performed the poem for his dad.

In Geography he finished studying about Israel, so today we ate Bagels and Cream Cheese and prayed for the Israeli people.

In Science he finished Land Animals of the Sixth Day. He really enjoyed this book, well all but this last chapter. It was on parasites and different types of worms like hookworm and trichinosis etc. He was very grossed out by it all. For our Science experiment we didn't have any live worms so we watched a lab online that showed what a mealworm does when cold water hits it.

In Drawn Into the Heart of Reading he is doing the Humorous Genre and finished Tales of Dust River Gulch today. Next week he will read More Tales from Dust River Gulch.

In History he is studying the Assyrians. It was great how our Storytime reading ties in so well with his history reading and his bible reading. From reading "The God King" he understands how cruel the Assyrians were. So now when he found out that Ninevah was the capitol of Assyria he realized why Jonah didn't want to go to Ninevah. We also talked about how amazing it was that God wanted to show mercy to the Assyrians after all they had done and what that means for how God wants to show mercy to us, even if we mess up.

One big discovery this week was something that is dramatically helping his writing. Normally he uses an adapted pencil that he calls his rocket pencil. This week he decided to use one of his sisters mechanical pencils. He came to me all excited to show me the difference in his writing. I must say it is amazing. The place it is helping the most is in math. He has a terrible time lining his numbers up and reading his writing so he makes calculation mistakes. Well now he doesn't do that.
The first picture is his best writing with his rocket pencil and the second picture is with the mechanical.

His cursive also looks so much better, even though he is writing with a broken arm.

His history project this week was a mosaic. Coloring and drawing will never be his strength, but he enjoyed this project anyway.

Weekly update for the week of 11/15/2010

2010-11-20T05:56:00.000-08:00

This is actually an update for the past 2 weeks. Once again I didn't quite get my update done before the next week was half way over, so I decided to combine them. We have just finished week 13 in CTC. I asked N. this week if he was still enjoying it and he said yes!

In Poetry last week they painted paintings of a night scene that I really like and this week they painted a meadow with flowers and a spider web. Although it is tough to see the spider web.

In R & S English he worked on identifying comma splices and run on sentences. He also learned about using a variety of sentences in a paragraph. He wrote a paragraph about an incident this week where he was at the top of a slide on the platform and was dropping leaves on the boy below. He lost his balance and flipped over the railing and landed on the ground on his arm. His arm isn't broken, but he is still having pain and trouble lifting it above his head. We are thankful it wasn't worse. It did make a great story to write a paragraph about.

In Science he learned about spiders and mites and lots of creepy crawly stuff. For his Science experiment he made a web complete with sticky and non sticky yarn and then crawled his fingers across to eye drop his venom (water) on a bug (cap with sugar) to watch the sugar liquefy, and then he sucked it up with the eye dropper like a spider would. Wish I had a picture of his sisters face during this one. As you see from the pictures school is often done in pajamas around here. They start school early so usually clothes don't come on until lunch time.

In Geography we are about done studying Israel. N. and I have learned so much. In Math there continue to be good days and not so good days, but that is mostly due to N. getting tired of writing long problems out. Sometimes he does them on the white board and sometimes I let him dictate the steps to me, but often he just has to work them out on his own and takes breaks when his hands are tired. On Fridays we do Life of Fred fractions and he loves this book.

In history this week he made a map of Israel and the surrounding area. He worked very hard on it. He then quizzed himself by removing the labels and then putting them back in the proper spots.

He read the story of Elijah and the chariot of fire. He didn't have any trouble doing the written narration on this story. We continue to read "The God King" in storytime. This book has been a little tougher for him to follow, so I went back to letting him sketch pictures as I read and this definitely helps him keep track of the events and characters. He gives a much better detailed narration when he does this.

All in all we have had a good 2 weeks and next week we take the whole week off for a Thanksgiving break.

Weekly update for the week of 11/1/2010

2010-11-07T15:37:00.000-08:00

N. had a good week this week. He decided that he was going to switch his entire schedule around and see if that helped his attitude about Math. He has always done the right side of his guide in the morning and then the left side after lunch. Well he decided to do the left side and part of the right in the morning and save Math for after lunch. He thinks it helped his attitude and it probably did. He started learning how to solve and balance equations in Math and about Parallelograms. He loves anything to do with Geometry and did ok with the equations once he understood it. Long division is his nemesis, mostly because with his dysgraphia, writing all that out wears him out.

In Poetry he and S. painted 2 different sky pictures. The second didn't seem to work out, so not sure what we did wrong. In Write with the Best he started a new unit on describing a character. It will be interesting to see how he does with this because it is more abstract than writing he has done before.

In Science he read more about reptiles and amphibians and in his science experiment he learned how frogs are able to breathe through their skin when in mud or under water.

His history project this week was making an ancient Phoenician game called twenty squares. He and S. both made game boards and pieces. The pieces were made out of glue and bread. They were very funny trying to roll up this "dough" because neither one liked the texture.

The fun part came when the game was completed and N. was able to challenge his Dad to a game.

In his Bible time he continues to work on memorizing Philippians 2. He is doing pretty well with this. He definitely knows the songs and then can usually transfer that to saying it.

In everything thing he did this week he tried to use his best handwriting. In school he had used wrist weights to steady his hands. He remembered this and put one on and his cursive did look better, but the weight is heavy so his shoulder got tired. I am looking at ordering a weighted glove for him. It is amazing to watch him mature and try and problem solve for himself how to make things work for him.

We finished reading Jashub's journal so next week we start The God King. I am looking forward to reading this since I have heard good things about it.

Weekly update for the week of 10/25/2010

2010-10-30T08:45:00.001-07:00

We did lots of cool stuff this week. In Poetry they were back to painting watercolor paintings to go along with Robert Frost poems. This week they painted one that had a cool background with a feathered outline of a leaf.

In Science N. read about snakes and lizards. For his experiment this week he colored squares of paper towel different colors and then layered them like a chameleon's skin and dropped water on them to see how it all became one color. He learned that they don't really change color because of the background they are on but that it has to do with amount of light, heat and if they are trying to attract a mate.

In history N. learned about King Saul and David and the Philistines. N. and S. made a sling like David's. It was pretty funny watching them try and hit a target.

We finished reading about Israel in Geography. I learned as much as he did. In storytime we continued reading Jashub's journal.

N. continues to struggle some with reading comprehension when he reads more difficult books like the Story of the Ancient World. I have gotten some ideas from people on the HOD board to try with him and will try those next week. It is a book that uses a lot of older language so I think that is part of the challenge. In DITHOR he is reading Dragons of the Deep and he does a pretty good job with his activities in his workbook that have centered around finding the theme and the Main idea of a passage.

He finished his description of a place for Write with the Best and did a nice job with it. He also wrote a paragraph for Rod and Staff about the responsibilities of dog ownership which he did a nice thorough job on. I continue to see nice improvements in his creative writing.

Weekly update for the week of 10/18/2010

2010-10-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

This week just seemed to fly by. It is hard to believe that October is almost done. In Poetry Noah finished memorizing "Fireflies in the Garden" by Robert Frost and presented it to his dad. He did a great job. Both kids are excited to get back to painting next week. In Language Arts Rod and Staff continues to go well. He continues to work through the dictation passages and I am noticing that it is helping his spelling. Now if he spells something wrong he often will catch it by looking at it.

In Math he moved into multiplying fractions by canceling out numerators and denominators and also how to multiply decimals and make sure that he has the correct placement for the decimal sign. He still seems to like the CLE math and lessons I think are going to be tough for him he does well on. He still says his favorite lessons are the ones that are geometry based. He likes angles and quadrilaterals. Must be like his daddy.

In Science he continued to read about various hoofed animals. He did a science experiment to see why Giraffes have to have high blood pressure. I didn't take pictures because I was being a pair of extra hands, but he sure enjoyed squirting water all over the kitchen as he demonstrated the high blood pressure with a water bottle with a tiny hole in it and a balloon. He was already trying to figure out how he could apply that and build his own water gun.

In Geography we continue to read about Israel. He also looked at a map to see where the 12 tribes of Israel were located. He loved reading about Samson this week in his Bible Quiet time and in History. His history project this week was to make a Philistine helmet. His sister couldn't let that go without making one of her own. She decided that since she is studying American History that hers was a Native American headdress. I loved hearing them laugh and giggle together as they worked. That is something that never happened when she was in school and he was home.

In Storytime we are reading Jashub's journal. Noah is enjoying this book and likes to see how Jashub will interpet the law to make rulings for the people.

I have to admit that I wasn't super excited about studying Ancient History, but with CTC and all the living books and projects it is very interesting and enjoyable.

Weekly update for the week of 10/11/2010

2010-10-16T13:03:00.000-07:00

We had another good week this week. N. has really gotten where he can get his work done fairly quickly. In poetry he is choosing to memorize the poem "Fireflies in the Garden" by Robert Frost. He has been practicing the first half of it this week. The cats love that he uses a flashlight as a prop.
We officially switched to Rod and Staff English 5 this week. I wanted to see how he did with his writing assignment and it was the best writing I think he has ever done. Rod and Staff presented things in a gentle way and he wasn't overwhelmed at all. I also think it was easier because Write with the Best is giving him some confidence in his writing.

We are learning about Israel in Geography. I am learning things I never knew. N. still sometimes tends to "space out" when I am reading out loud the lesson, but if I stop here and there and make comments like "wow that is really cool" then he tends to get drawn back in. He enjoys doing the mapping activities. In "Genesis Finding our Roots" he learned all about the Tree of Life and how it is depicted in art in many cultures.

In Science he learned about horses and had fun with the science experiment where he tapped out the horses gaits with his fingers. He has heard the terms gallop, canter and trot since he was young, but never really knew what those were.

For Storytime we read the book of Ruth. That was a story we did last year and he remembered the characters in it, but not all the details so it was fun to see him anxiously wanting to know if Ruth married Boaz. One of the narration activities was doing an advertisement for the book. He was hesitant at first and then he really got into it and it was hysterical. I wish I would have videotaped it.

In history he learned about Deborah, Gideon and Joshua. He loved that his dad didn't remember anything about Deborah and he was able to tell him about her. His written narration was about Gideon and the Middianites. He still struggles right after he reads to answer the questions without looking. I don't know if it is still the difficulty of the text or what. Once he looks up the answers he seems to understand the story much better. He really liked this story and did a fantastic narration independently. This is huge for him.

His history project was making a model of the Jordan river and re-enacting how the river parted to let the Israelites through when the priests held the ark of the covenant in the water, and then how they took 12 stones and made a memorial. He had fun telling his dad this story.

This week I have once again been reminded of how easy HOD makes it to homeschool, especially since S. and I have decided we don't like her English and are having to totally revamp things. That is very stressful, but I don't have to worry about that with N. at all.

Weekly update for the week of 10/4/2010

2010-10-11T16:27:00.000-07:00

It was a good week this week. We had a fun time with school and I noticed some improvements in some areas. In History N. continued to study Egypt and biblical history that ties in with Egypt. Noah amazed me with some of his insight. Usually he reads and doesn't say much after he reads, but this week he was really starting to makes some connections which is huge for him. He read about Moses and the golden calf and he says "Mom don't you find it kind of amazing that while Moses was up receiving the 10 commandments, the people were down already breaking the first 2 of them." I also have seen growth in this area when we do the Friday activity during storytime where we both find verses from Proverbs that connects to the story we are reading. At first this was hard for him, but now he is really doing a great job with it. He also showed increased independance with his written narration this week. He did it 95 % on his own and I saw him taking things he is using in his writing curriculum and carrying these over. He was careful about his wording and he made sure that everything flowed and stuck to the topic.

His history project this week was Aaron's Breastplate and the 12 stones that symbolized the 12 tribes of Israel. It was pretty cool because S. helped him figure out how to mix the colors of paint to most accurately resemble the stones in his notebook. He worked very hard on his Hebrew writing.

For Science he was learning about various animals in the Rodentia family. His Science experiment was about Anteaters. He and his sister tried to pick up Chocolate Chips with their tongues. S. was actually very good at it and N. and I decided she would make a good Anteater.

He started a new book for DITHOR reading this week. It is for the non-fiction genre and it is called Dragons from the Deep. He is enjoying, but needs to work a little bit on remembering what he read.

Both kids once again really enjoyed doing the watercolor paintings. In fact S. is very upset that for the next 2 weeks there isn't a painting since N. will be memorizing a Robert Frost poem.

We finished reading "The Boy of the Pyramids" for storytime. Noah really enjoyed that book and again I saw him making predictions and connections that he doesn't usually make.
He continues to enjoy his Bible Quiet time and is working on memorizing Philippians 2.

In Grammar we continued our trial of Rod and Staff 5 and it is going very well. I want to see how he handles a writing lesson in there before I decide to completely switch over, but so far I am impressed with his retention and how much he seems to enjoy it.

Weekly update for weeks of 9/20 and 9/27

2010-10-01T18:17:00.000-07:00

I didn't have my act together to post last week so I am posting a review of 2 weeks. It has been a good 2 weeks. Things are flowing smoothly now and I am starting to see some growth in some areas. In Science N. continues to read from the Exploring Creation with Land Animals of the 6th day. He loves this book. Last week he made air dry clay and put our 2 cats foot prints in it and then also one of the dogs. They weren't sure what they thought of it, but N. liked to see the difference in the 2 cats footprints since one is a big boy and one a dainty girl.

He continues to do well with CLE math, but I haven't been completely sold on CLE Language Arts. The looks of Rod and Staff had always intimidated him, but I asked him to give it a trial and see what he thought of it. We have done 2 lessons so far and he says he really likes it. We do most of it orally and I like that since I can make sure he is getting the concepts. I keep the writing down so his hands don't fatigue and I let him do things like write on the white board which seems easier for him. We are going to continue another week and see what we think. I have a feeling we will stick with it.

Last week he finished his first paragraph for Write with the Best. It was supposed to be a descriptive paragraph about an object and he chose our big cat Rudi. He still gets a lot of mental blocks when it comes to writing, but I thought he did a pretty good job with this one.
"My cat Rudi thinks he is king of the world. He sits on the cat post like a panther looking over his kingdom. He gets mad when everyone ignores him. He then randomly chomps the first person he sees. However, if you pet the furry beast he will purr loudly. My large tuxedo king can make you do almost anything."

Both kids continue to enjoy the painting. In fact I know it is S's favorite part of the week. Here is N's paintings from last week and this week.

Here is S's painting from this week.

In History we continue to learn about Egypt along with stories about Moses. For storytime we are reading "Boy of the Pyramids". Noah loves this book and is probably giving his best narrations ever. His narrations about his readings in History of the Ancient World are improving. I have taken Carrie, the curriculum authors suggestions and before he starts to read I write just the main people and places and tell him which is a person and which is a place and that seems to help him not get bogged down when he reads. He also is highlighting and that seems to help him.
He enjoyed working on his history project this week.

He continues to work hard on his notebooking pages. He likes to write in pen because it is darker and his hands don't get as tired, the down side is that his tremor shows up more in his writing. I continue to let him dictate some, type some and write some depending on how much space is available for him to write.

The highlight of this week was working on his Drawn Into the Heart of Reading Project for his book "Buffalo Bill". He dressed up and answered questions his dad would ask him about Buffalo Bill. We don't exactly have cowboy outfits around here so he had to improvise with an Indiana Jones hat and a marshmallow gun. It was pretty funny.

The other big news of the week is he started trombone lessons. He wanted to practice at 6am, thankfully his daddy stopped him.

Weekly update for the week of 9/13/2010 for N.

2010-09-19T14:16:00.000-07:00

This was our 4th week of CTC and things really started to come together. N. became much more comfortable with the routine of CTC and started doing most of the independent boxes on his own. He still needs some help with the Science experiment. This week's science experiment was the one minor glitch in our week. He has been learning about the relationship between prey and predator. The experiment was a simple one, but for some reason it took much longer to do than usual. Our deer kept multiplying and I kept having to cut out more until we had over 60 deer. Not sure if we did something wrong or not, but eventually he was able to see that as the deer increased the cougars increased and then as the cougars increased the deer decreased.

The rest of the week was wonderful. Both kids enjoyed doing the watercolor painting this week and I think they turned out great.

The big highlight was the History Project. First Noah made a headband for his shepherd head covering and then we had our Hebrew meal for lunch. It was so much fun.

Noah is doing a good job in his history notebook. Sometimes his writing is neater than others, depending on how tired he is, but I feel like he is putting forth his best effort.
He loves the Bible Quiet time. He likes to do it last thing to close out his day on a good note. He is having a good time with the CD that has Philippians 2 set to music.

I was worried about Write with the Best and that it might overwhelm him, but I really like the way it breaks things into small chunks. He wrote his first paragraph this week describing an object. He chose to describe Rudi our cat. He needed some encouragement and some guidance to fit all his descriptive adjectives and adverbs into good sentences, but I can tell this will be something he will grow in this year.

We have been using CLE language arts and he likes it, but I am still not sure he is retaining. We are going to try a week trial of Rod and Staff 5 once it gets here and see how it goes. We will do most of it orally and I am not sure how his retention will be that way, but I want to try it.

We continue reading The Golden Bull and this has been an enjoyable book for both of us. I think it gives a very good view of the Pagan religion in Ur in the time of Abraham.

Weekly update for the week of 8/30/2010

2010-09-05T16:53:00.000-07:00

Our second week was a week of continuing to try and find our groove. Schooling 2 can get a little hectic at times, but both kids have been very patient if they need to wait for me to finish up with one. S is fairly independent with her work so that helps.

N. did Week 2 of Creation to Christ. We finished up our storytime book of "Dinosaurs in Eden" and we are now reading "The Golden Bull". N. is enjoying this book so far. He still likes listening to the Diana Waring audio CD's. He did a pretty good job this week with filling in his prophesies about Jesus chart. I love this part of the curriculum. I think it is so good for him to see how the prophecies were fulfilled.

His written narration this week was on a chapter from "The History of the Ancient World" called "the first war". Daddy was schooling him on this day and I guess N. had a tough time answering the questions before he started his narration. My dh wasn't sure what to do so he reread it to N. outloud and then had him do the narration. N. did better then, but still struggled some. I do worry that his comprehension with this book isn't what it should be. I think I am going to have him do some mini-narrations each day as he reads this book just so I know if he is getting it or not.

He started an Animal Track book in Science and of course loved that he read about dogs. With 3 of them here he had plenty of examples to study. His science experiment he also did with Daddy and with S and he thought it was funny that even though they knew he used lemon jello they still guessed it was strawberry when it had red food coloring in it.

He made a cylindrical seal and tablet with cuneiform writing on it for his history project. He and S. made up the dough for it.

He and S also both did watercolor painting this week for the poetry box. I can tell that S. likes some of the hands on things and since she has mostly textbooks I go ahead and let her do some of the things with N.

Overall it was a pretty good week. I am still trying to figure out how much to push N. It is so hard to find that balance between pushing him and asking him to do things he just can't physically do.

First Week

2010-08-28T08:01:00.000-07:00

We have officially completed our first week of school and it went very well. We started off the week by going to the Creation Museum. N. is studying Ancient History this year so I figured it would give my visual learner another peg to hang his knowledge on as we go through the year. He enjoyed all the exhibits, but the Noah's ark exhibit was his favorite.

N. was very excited to get back to a HOD program. He loves all the activities and books that are in the programs. I was concerned about the more advanced reading that would be required of him in CTC, but he seems to be doing ok with it at this point. I think it helps that the main spine "The History of the Ancient World" has a lot of biblical history in it at this point so it is stories he is familiar with. He loves listening to the Diana Waring "What in the World" CD. He thinks she is funny and that is always a good thing for him.

For Drawn into the Heart of Reading he started the book "Buffalo Bill". He likes adventure stories and decided he would like to spend a day with Bill hunting and canoeing. We picked up where we left off with our vocabulary and language arts books and he is doing well.

In Science he started reading the "Land Animals of the Sixth Day" book and of course my animal loving kid loves this. The experiment this week was on how camouflage helps the prey from being eaten by the predator. He filled up a laundry basket with crumpled sheets of paper the same colors as 3 of the colors in skittles. He then dumped the skittles in the basket and had 2 minutes to find them. They kept sinking to the bottom so his hypothesis wasn't quite correct, but he had so much fun doing it. His older sister S decided she couldn't miss out on the fun so she did her own version of searching. She decided to start throwing all the colored paper out of the basket. When I told her she couldn't do that she said "it's deforestation". That cracked me up. N. seems to really enjoy having her home with him this year even though they are often working in different rooms.

For Poetry this year he will be painting a different watercolor painting each week to go along with a Robert Frost Poem. This will be a challenge for him due to his hand coordination, but he loved doing it this week. He wanted to do the poem copywork in manuscript instead of typing it and found it was tougher than he thought to fit it all on the 3x5 card. Next week he may just type it. I found a really nice portfolio at Michaels that I plan to use to store all his paintings.

We started the book "Genesis Finding our Roots" that we do for Bible Study together. I think it will be a good book to give him a solid foundation for what he believes. We also started the book "A Child's Geography Vol II -The Holy Lands". We started learning about Turkey. He is having some trouble answering questions after we have read, but I think this will improve as he gets back in the habit of oral narration and listening for details.

For Storytime we are reading "The Dinosaurs of Eden" and he loves it. There are different types of oral narration exercises this year and he is still getting used to those, but again I know this is an area that we just need to keep working one.

This year his program, CTC, comes with beautiful notebooking pages. They have boxes he needs to write in and I was worried it would be too difficult for him, but he did great this week. We do a combination of him writing right in the box if what he is writing is short, dictation to me if the writing is really long, typing his written narration, and writing on a bigger piece of paper and folding it. He kept a good attitude through it all and can see that he will have a great notebook to look at it when the year is over.

All in all it was a great first week. It is a little tricky for me figuring out how to juggle time with N. and S. , but we are already starting to figure out a routine.

Summers almost over

2010-08-08T14:00:00.000-07:00

Summer is almost over. Hard to believe how fast it has gone. We will officially start school on August 24th. We will have a "new student" in our school this year. S who is in 10th grade will be joining us. She felt that leaving ps to come home was exactly what God wanted her to do. It has been a challenge picking curriculum and doing lesson plans for her, but I think we are ready to go. You can see the curriculum we have chosen in the sidebar.

I never thought I would homeschool even one, much less 2, but I know it is what God has called us to do so I am excited to see what he does with it all.

Weekly update for the week of 4/26/10

2010-05-02T15:43:00.000-07:00

We had another good week of school. Hard to believe the year is almost over. N continues to enjoy our days.

In history this week he learned about Napoleon and Simon Bolivar. He knew of Napoleon because one of his favorite movies is "Night of the Museum 2". His written narration this week was on Handel. We had studied him in our composer study so this was a pretty easy narration for him. In his independent history reading he is reading "Mozart the Wonder Boy" and is listening to a CD that goes along with this book. He touched his Momma's heart when we were listening to this and he asked me to dance with him. We danced a very clumsy waltz around the room.

His history project was making the French Revolution flag. He was proud of his work when he was done.

He continues to improve on his ability to research topics and needs less help with this now than he did before. He makes vocabulary cards each week and usually does very well with this. This week however he got a little lazy with his definitions and so all his sentences started with "Look there is a ...". We talked about putting forth his best effort and comparing those sentences to ones he had done earlier in the year and he agreed he could do better, so he redid them.

In science he finished up his book on Pasteur and microbes and is now reading "Albert Einstein". He did an experiment last week of putting plain bread, a piece of bread with plain water on it and a piece of bread with sugar water on it all in seperate bags and put them in a dark, warm place. We were supposed to then check them in a week. We pulled the bags out expecting to see mold and we saw nothing. Our best guess is the preservatives in the bread kept it from molding.

His poem this week was called "Historical Associations" and he was sad since it is the last new poem of the year. He wrote his own poem based on this poem and did a nice job with it.

In Math he was very excited to finish up the 400 level of CLE math and started the 500 level. We had done the 400 level this year since CLE was advanced compared to what he did in ps.
Math is definitely one of his strengths.

Co-op ended this week and then they had a homeschool expo. N was in a drama class so they performed some plays for the expo. He was Prince Charming in a short version of "Sleeping Beauty". I think he made a very handsome prince.

Weekly update for the week of 4/19/10

2010-04-24T12:34:00.000-07:00

I told my dh this week that it was hard to believe that it is almost the end of April and we are still going strong and really not dealing with much burn out at all. I know that is due to how great this curriculum is.

In history this week he continued to read about Peter the Great. He enjoyed this book and making a notebook page that had some of the things that interested Peter the Great.

We also read about the 7 year war and how that war impacted the colonies. On Friday we read about King George III and the American Revolution. N wrote his written narration on this reading. We have watched all of "The Liberty Kids" DVD's in the past year so he enjoyed reading more about this. One of his favorite characters in those DVD's was Lafayette so he was happy that he was mentioned.

In Science he finished reading about Leonardo Da Vinci and started a book about Pasteur. His science experiment was to take 3 sealed bags, one with plain bread, one with bread with 20 drops of water and one with bread with 20 drops of sugar water and put them in a warm dark place and check them in a week. He wanted to know why it says to not open the bags. I told him he would find out why when he looks next week.

His researched etching this week and then did one of his own. I was very proud of both the sketch he drew to model the etching after, and the actual etching itself. It is our Greyhound Bailey.

His Poetry assignment this week was to write 4 paragraphs about his "Treasures". As always the highlight of the week was reading this for his dad.

Weekly update for the week of 4/12/10

2010-04-16T15:46:00.000-07:00

After taking last week off we were rested and ready to dive back in. This week we continued our tour of history with the Elizabethan time period. N has been drawing pictures while I read of key points in the readings and it is amazing how that improves his oral narration. He is just such a visual kid. I think it helps him listen better also. His one comment though as we did CHOW and "The Wonderful Winter" was that there sure were a lot of people loosing their heads back then. Our storytime reading has been "The Wonderful Winter" and he has amazed me with how willing he is to sit and listen to this. Once day the reading was 25 pages long. I thought for sure he would loose interest, but he didn't. He was able or tell me all the important details. At the beginning of the year there is no way he could have done that.

My DH was home today and was around as we read Child's History of the World. He was amazed at the improvement in N's ability to answer the questions or find the answers if he couldn't remember. When N went in and did his written narration by himself, he was very impressed. He had helped with written narrations earlier in the year and couldn't believe he was at the point of doing a nice 5 sentence narration with assistance only for final editing.

In Science he has continued to study Leonardo Da Vinci. He was fascinated with the backwards writing that Da Vinci did in his notebooks. His experiment was looking at the difference between voluntary and involuntary muscles. He learned that voluntary muscles get very tired.

He does his Geography all by himself now unless he just can't find something on the globe.

The history project this week was making a Renaissance necklace. I think I had the wrong type of toothpaste for the fast drying clay. I ended up with a gooey mess, so we bought air dry clay.

He continues to do well with his math and language arts. He has decided he loves anything to do with symmetry and congruent shapes. He definitely takes after his dad in that.

Weekly update for the week of 3/29/10

2010-04-04T12:29:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe we finished week 29 of Preparing this week. This year has gone so fast. This week in storytime we continued reading some stories from "Hero Tales". I think it has been good for N to read about those that made big sacrifices for Jesus. We haven't read many of this type of story before so after a few of them he has asked me if it was a true story. He loves seeing how God works things for His good, even things that seem bad at the time. At the end of the week started reading "The Wonderful Winter". He is already drawn in by the fact that Robert is running away to save the dog.

For Drawn Into the Heart of Reading he did a project based on "A Mouse called Wolf". He made a character puppet and then retold the book to my dh.

His Poetry assignment was reading "Keepsake Mill" by Robert Louis Stevenson and then he had to come up with something that also wouldn't change through the years. He came up with an outline about the creek by our house and orally told me a story about the things he has done with his dad at that creek at different times in his life and ended it with talking about how someday he will take his son to that same creek.

In History he learned about the Spice Route and made a chart of spices from India and mapped the route. He also learned about Michelangelo and the beginning of the Renaissance time period. He finished reading Pedro's Journal and started reading "William Shakespeare and the Globe". He knows his sister has read Shakespeare in high school, so he likes the fact he is studying something she also studied.

In Science he is reading "Who Was Leonardo Da Vinci?" He made a notebooking page about Da Vinci. Often for his notebook pages if he has written cursive I will let him type the other copy work that is needed for the page.

Next week we will take a spring break and hopefully enjoy some nice weather.

Weekly update for the week of 3/15/10

2010-03-23T16:41:00.000-07:00

This has been a crazy week due to a family emergency, but thanks to how easy HOD is to implement school went off without a hitch. We finished up week 27 in Preparing Hearts for His Glory.
In storytime we finished reading "Door in the Wall". The language in this book was tough for him to understand at first, but he really grew in his listening skills and I am sure it helped his vocabulary skills. He loved this book. He could really relate to Robin and loved that even with Robin's crooked legs he was able to save the castle.
In Science he finished "One Small Square: Coral Reef" and started on "Columbus". He did an experiment with his dad where they looked at the density of salt water. It was tough to see the results at first because someone (me) had put the red food coloring away where no one could find it and they tried using green, yellow and blue. Once they found the red it worked great.

He researched stained glass windows and then made his own. I was really proud of him for the time he spent coloring his window. We have been talking about giving everything his best effort and he really did on this project.

He loved his written narration topic this week. He was to write about the invention of the compass. He is enjoying history more and more, but science and inventions are still his first love. He even said "this narration was fun!".

He also learned about Marco Polo and when we mentioned it in the car his big sister who is in Advanced Social Studies in ps said "Marco Polo was a real person?". He then told her all about him.

The one other thing that made our week crazy is our church started our performances of "Living Cross". It is something our entire family participates in. We start rehearsals in January and give 10 performances. N loves being in it. It is all about Jesus's ministry, his death and his resurrection. This year it means so much more to N because he understands so many things he didn't before. He knows why the Pharisees are so "mean" and why the people go from waving palm branches to yelling for his crucifixion. All year as we have done story time or other books and he has to make a connection he almost always connects it to Living Cross.

So once again I am thankful for such a wonderful year and a wonderful curriculum.

Weekly update for the week of 3/8/10

2010-03-13T17:02:00.000-08:00

This week N continued to study the Middle Ages. He learned about the Crusades and loved the story of the three kings that went on the third crusade. He sometimes has trouble remembering names, but for some reason he can easily remember what happened to all three of those kings. I think part of it is that our music minister, and very good friend is named Richard. So he thought it was very funny that when King Richard was kidnapped they found him by singing a song all around the countryside and when they passed under the tower he was in, he sang it back to them. He said that is just what would happen with Pastor Richard.

His history project this week was a relic box. He made the box and then was supposed to put a "relic" in it. It was to be something that was important to him. He warmed my heart when he drew a picture of our family and put that in there because he said that was the most important thing in the world to him. He then dictated to me what he wanted his note to say.

His poem this week was "Young Night Thought" by Robert Louis Stevenson. His writing assignment was to write his own version of this poem telling about what he thinks about at night before he falls asleep. He is a huge lover of Australian animals. So his poem was about seeing Australian Animals marching by. It was very cute!

In Science he continued learning about the Coral Reef and for his science experiment he learned how Coral Colonies are formed. He enjoyed making the Coral multiply.

He also learned about Gothic Cathedrals this week and wrote a written narration of what he had learned. He was funny because he didn't want to say the words flying buttresses because he thought he would get in trouble. We looked at pictures of different Gothic Cathedrals and even found an aerial view that showed how they were built in the shape of a cross.

In Math he learned about averages and continued to work with adding and subtracting fractions. In Language Arts he learned more about adjectives and how to identify them and is starting to learn about how to take good notes.

He finished the book "Minstrel in the Tower" and is now reading "Pedro's Journal." For DITHOR he is reading "A Mouse Called Wolf". It is very easy reading for him, but he loves it! He is able to do a better job of analyzing it because it is easy reading for him.

It is hard to believe the school year is 2/3rds of the way done. He and I are going to be very sad when we are done with Preparing Hearts for His Glory. It has blessed us in so many ways.

Weekly update for the week of 3/1/10

2010-03-05T16:37:00.000-08:00

I think N would tell you this was one of his favorite school weeks ever. We are in the middle of studying Medieval times so this weeks history project was a medieval feast. He made trenchers which were the stale bread plates that they used to eat off of. He then planned the menu and then helped make the food and prepare things. He was so excited. We decided we wanted the entire family to enjoy it so we made it our evening meal. The menu consisted of cheese cubes, roast, pears sprinkled with cinnamon, beans and lemon tarts for dessert. He washed everyone's hands before we ate by pouring water from a pitcher. He thought that was so funny, especially when his older sister squealed because the water was cold. He also enjoyed telling jokes in between courses and trying to eat off a knife.

We finished "Raiders From the Sea" this week as our read aloud. He was not happy with the cliff hanger ending. We then started reading "The Door in the Wall". He likes hearing about Robin and how he is learning to do things even though he can't walk. He is reading "Minstrel in the Tower" for his independent history reading. He enjoyed hearing about knights and the steps they take to become knights. He wrote a nice detailed written narration about this process.

In Science he continues to study the Coral Reef and enjoyed his Science experiment learning about how sponges get their food from the water.

In Math he is learning how to compute averages and how to add and subtract time. He is doing well with CLE Language Arts and seems to be retaining it well.

He had fun with his DITHOR activity today where he described a setting by saying where certain things should go and then I tried to sketch the picture he was describing. We talked about how words really do paint a picture and how if you leave out a few words the picture can look very different than you intended.

Overall just another great week.

Weekly update for week of 2-22-10

2010-02-26T16:24:00.000-08:00

This week seemed a little crazier than most since dh was out of town Monday -Thursday. I think N was a little out of sorts because of this. He was a little more emotional than usual, but after some praying and talking things through he did adjust his attitude.

In Preparing we continued on learning about the Dark Ages. One of the history readings was about the founding of Islam. I loved how this was done in the guide. We read the chapter in Child's History of the World and then the guide had us read several verses in the bible that showed things through God's word. N and I had a great discussion about this. We have a Mosque 2 minutes from our house and pass it often, but N has never noticed it. We had a great discussion comparing the two religions. He now understands why some of the girls in Karate keep their heads covered. He also learned about King Ezana who brought Christianity to Ethiopia.

He researched illuminated manuscripts this week and I helped him out by directing him to subheadings and other key words that would help him be more successful with skimming and researching. He felt much more positive this week about his research skills. Coloring has always been tough for him and therefore he doesn't always give it his full effort. We talked about that this week and giving his full effort on his notebooking pages and his projects. He was mad at first and tried to blame his Cerebral Palsy. I did use my physical therapist skills and help him figure out some ways he could move his wrist to be able to color with smaller strokes. He then drew an illuminated manuscript and loved doing it.

He finished Leif the Lucky and made a family tree for Erik the Red.

He performed "The Hayloft" for daddy today and dh was very impressed with his memorization and his intonation and the acting out he did for the poem.

In Science this week he made a Coral Reef out of blocks and did an experiment to see what shape fish mouths could pick up what type of food.

He decided on his own that he wanted to be more independent with Math and Language Arts, so he read the lessons himself and then asked me if he didn't understand anything. This worked out great.

Animal Friends

2010-02-26T10:07:00.001-08:00

I have volunteered at Animal Friends Humane Society for over 5 years. I take all the pictures for petfinder.com . Sarah used to go with me all the time and she still does in the summer. N goes every week with me. We fit it in and make sure we still get all our school done for the day. It is a great way for him to learn to serve others. He has a real heart for the animals and loves to pick a few to spend time with. One week it was a very shy dog named Doc. Doc was very scared, so N quietly sat down and waited for Doc to come to him. Doc crawled into N's lap. It was so neat.

That same week there were 8 week old puppies that climbed into his lap and fell asleep. He would have sat there forever.

This past week there was an unusual guest at the shelter. A baby Pot-bellied pig was found wandering around as a stray. No one came to claim it. Most likely someone realized how much work they were and just dumped it to fend for itself. N was allowed to walk it on a leash and cracked up when the staff fed it cheesecake off a fork.

I love how homeschooling allows him to spend time doing something for others as well as he gets the opportunity to interact with the staff and other volunteers.

Weekly update for week of 2-15-10

2010-02-19T16:00:00.000-08:00

This week started out with a major snowstorm. Co-op was moved to Wednesday so we shuffled things around which was easy to do. This week we continued to learn about the Barbarians who invaded the Roman Empire. We officially entered the Middle Ages in our journey through history. We read about the Franks, and the Vandals and Noah's favorite the Vikings. He made a Viking brooch and wore it the entire afternoon.

We continued reading "Raiders From the Sea" and we are both really enjoying it. It is an excellent book. I have to admit that I had to stop reading today because I was so choked up at the separation of a brother and sister.

In Poetry this is his week to start memorizing a Robert Louis Stevenson poem. He chose "The Hayloft". He has over half of it memorized already and is enjoying acting out climbing on Mount Rusty-Nail, Mount Eagle, Mount Clear and Mount High.

In Science he started reading "One Small Square: Coral Reef". He loves anything to do with animals so this is a big hit. We watched a Imax movie on the Coral Reef that we instantly downloaded from Netflix. For his science experiment he had to figure out what protects coral. To do this he built his own coral polyp. It didn't quite look like coral due to droopy tentacles, but he had fun and enjoyed eating it afterwords.

He finished up his project for Drawn Into the Heart of Reading this week. He made a scrapbook based on "Jed Smith:Trailblazer of the West". In it he wrote a diary entry, a letter to one of the characters, a page with items that would be important to Jed, and a picture of Jed.

Once again just a fun filled week.

Snowy days

2010-02-16T12:36:00.000-08:00

We have had 3 snow storms in 2 weeks. At this point we have over a foot on the ground. The dogs are not happy about this fact. Poor Brina can hardly move in it.

Even Snickers who usually loves the snow is having a tough time running in this stuff.

N has continued to school, but he has enjoyed having Daddy around. Every morning we start with dancing to a Praise song. N recruited Daddy to dance with him, although they look like they are flying.

He has had plenty of time to play in the snow and go sledding though.

Weekly update

2010-02-12T10:41:00.000-08:00

N and I had a good week. We started off Monday at co-op where he is taking a drama class. He loves it. This week they talked about props and developing characters. He had fun with the props. He messed around with a crazy green wig and in a skit they did he was a dog, using a towel to make his ears.

In Preparing this week we read about different Roman Emperors and how they dealt with Christians. We learned about Nero and Constantine. His history project this week was making a golden laurel wreath like a commander or emperor would wear. He loves wearing this.

We finished our Read Aloud book "Fountain of Life" and started a book on the Vikings called "Raiders from the Sea". He loves this book and doesn't want to stop reading each day. He started reading "Leif the Lucky" for his independent history study.

In Science he finished reading "Find the Constellations". He did a great job with his star book and loved learning all about constellations and space. He can't wait until it is warm enough to take his telescope out and find different things.

In Poetry he read the Poem "Block City" by Robert Louis Stevenson. He loved this poem because he could relate to it so well. He loves to build cities and things out of legos and K'nex. He did a creative writing assignment based on this poem and wrote about building a hideout for our cat. We made the switch from "Growing with Grammar" to CLE Language Arts today. I felt like he just wasn't retaining things as well as I wanted him to. I can already tell CLE will be a better fit. He loves their Math program and was very excited today to start the Language Arts program. When he was done he told me how fun it was.

We also worked on our Winter Olympics Unit study and he is very excited that they start tonight. We have a map made with all the countries that are participating labeled and he has a chart ready to record what medals each country wins. He has been re-enacting the torch relay for days now with the torch he made. Of course putting his laurel wreath on his head and running around with his torch made it even more fun.

Curriculum

2010-02-08T17:29:00.000-08:00

The main curriculum we are using this year is put out by Heart of Dakota. It is called "Preparing Hearts for His Glory". I feel God led us to this curriculum, just as he led us to homeschooling. Preparing is a history/ literature based curriculum done in the Charlotte Mason style. It is supplemented with a more textbook approach for Math and English. This year focuses on an overview of World History. It completely intertwines World History with Biblical History and shows how it overlaps and meshes together. It includes a History project every week, independent history study, a history read aloud, geography, research and vocabulary words. In the Language Arts department N is doing a year long study of the poetry of Robert Louis Stevenson. He loves it! He has been using a curriculum called "Growing with Grammar", but we have a different curriculum on order and will see if we like it better. He also does a writing curriculum called "Igniting Your Writing". For Math he is using Christian Light Education and he is doing great and loving it. He also is memorizing Bible verses each week. Science is done from "living books" and includes an experiment each week.

In addition to the above he is also doing a study of the 50 states that he started over the summer and is doing a vocabulary program called "Vocabulary from Classical Roots". With all of this he still has time to fit in fun things like the Unit Study on the Winter Olympics that we are doing now.

He loves being homeschooled and is eager to do school each day. He would start at 7:30 every day, but I usually push him off to around 8. He goes to co-op on Mondays and this semester is taking Drama, Tennis, Sign Language and Work Centers.

That brings you up to date with what we are doing this year so from now on I will post a weekly update and also plan on posting other fun things as they come up.

Trying again

2010-02-08T05:00:00.000-08:00

I tried blogging before and I wasn't very good at keeping up with it. Now that I am homeschooling I am going to try it again and hopefully be more faithful with updating it. I am hoping this can give some insight into our day for family and those just curious about homeschooling.

I have 2 children. My dd is in 9th grade in the public schools. My ds is in 5th grade and came home this year at his request. I have a wonderful dh who is very supportive.

In my next post I will give more details about our curriculum and what we are doing this year.