First week of new school year

Well we started school this week.  It was a little stressful for the first few days, but things got running smoother by the end of the week. Of course I didn't get around to taking our first day of school pictures until the 4th day.

N. is doing HOD's Revival to Revolution Guide this year that includes a classical music study and a 50 state study as well as 2 Bible studies.  The set up of the guide is familiar to him so that helps.  He was a little distraught over the fact he had to do his history written narration on day 1 instead of day 4 and that he had to wait until day 2 to start his history project.

The big hit has been the science which is using Exploration Education's Physical Science program.  He does his lesson on the computer and then fills out his log book and builds something in order to perform the projects.  This week he built an electric racer.  This box is marked as Independent, but he does need my steady hands to use the glue gun and to hold the tiny pieces. 

What I liked about it is that in his off time he was looking up Discovery Streaming Videos on force to watch due to what he had studied in science this week.

For mapping this year I was concerned about all the labels he would have to put on his map.  The ladies on the HOD discussion board helped me brainstorm a solution.  I put a number by each city, river, lake etc name on the teachers map and then he puts that number on the student map.  I made him say the name outloud of what he was labeling.  He then glued the teachers map to the back of his student map so it acted as a key.

His history project this week was using oil pastels to make a Woodland Indian head dress.  He also looked at a map to see all the names of the different tribes on the East Coast.  He was a little rusty in the following the directions department this week on several things and this was one of them.  He ended up having to redo a small part of it.

We are reading Amos Fortune: Free Man for storytime.  I have chosen to still read aloud to him the storytime book.  We both enjoy that time together.  The questions in the guide this year follow Bloom's Taxonomy and they are definitely a higher level of thinking.  At this point I am guiding him some with these if he can't come up with a reasonable answer on his own. 

His cursive is also a little rusty, but overall he did a neat job with his notebook pages this week.

In Math he started Chalk Dust Pre-Algebra.  I have broken it up into daily chunks that are more manageable than what Chalk Dust recommends.  He likes the videos, but seems to have some space cadet moments when working the problems.  I think it is a case of 13 year old boy brain.  Hopefully next week will be better.

Overall he has had a pretty good first week, and from past experience I know each week will get better.

S. has had a challenging week in that her dual enrollment online classes have had some issues.  My plan ahead daughter didn't like the fact that the syllabus wasn't posted until the first day of classes.  This did prove to be an issue because the book that the bookstore had us buy for one of her classes was not the book listed in the syllabus.  The syllabus was correct so now we are waiting on the right book to come.  She is doing a great job of taking on the responsiblity of the college classes as well as doing the few "mommy" classes she has.  She oredered herself a new desk chair since she is spending more time up in her room doing school this year so she can concentrate.  Here she is putting it together.

I must say even though the school year adds extra work for me I like having the structure back in to our days and I really love teaching my kids.

Getting Ready for the New School Year

I realized today that we start school in 3 1/2 weeks!  I have spent the summer getting things ready for N. and S.'s school year. 

For S. this year is a little different.  I only have to schedule 3 subjects for her since the rest she will be taking online as a dual enrollment student at Cedarville University.  She has taken the initiative to get all of that setup and has her syllabi printed out.  I am in charge of purchasing books and doing the lessons plans for the classes she is taking that are mom directed. 

For N. the process is a little more involved.  This year he will continue with HOD Revival to Revolution.  I am really looking forward to this year.  Since coming home he hasn't done an in depth study of American History.  I have pre-read all the history spines as well as the science books and I think he is going to really enjoy them.  I think it is vitally important that he learn about the Constitution and the founding of this country. He will study history up to the reconstruction after the Civil War.   He also will learn about Church History starting with Jonathan Edwards.

In Science he will do an Inverntor Study as well as Exploration Educations Physical Science.  I have his notebooks ready to go. This includes printing all the maps from Map Trek that he will do this year.

He also will do a 50 state study using "50 States Under God".  I have marked with tabs where the important appendices are that he will need to complete the pages for each state.

I bought a rolling plastic cabinet to store all of our craft supplies and even went so far as to label them.  We will see how long the organization lasts :).

As you can see the bookshelf is still messy.  I've learned to live with it.

He is using Chalkdust PreAlgebra for math.  This is a totally new program for him.  It will be interesting to see how he does with using DVD's to teach him math.

I have my Drawn Into the Heart of Reading Books selected.  He will start with a book in the Mystery Genre.  It is the 3rd book in the Viking Quest Series.  He loves this series so I figured it was a great book to start the year with.

He will also do a Classical Music study this year.  He will eventually make a huge lapbook that will cover all the composers he studies and information he researches about them.  It also will include all the instruments of the Orchestra and a study of the different time periods of music.  There is a lot of cutting required.  I knew that if he spent his time cutting out all the pieces he would not have enough endurance in his hands to do anything else, so I cut out many of the smaller pieces.  He can now focus on assembling the project and the actual information contained in the study.

This year looks to be a fun and challenging year and I have to say I am excited to see what God has to teach all of us this year.

Summer

Hard to believe we are almost 1 month into our summer break.  I thought I would do a post about what summer looks like here.  As far as school stuff we go pretty light.  I do encourage N. to do 1/2 hour of reading a day, he is in the library reading program so that is good incentive.  S. is reading some on her own.

For S. the big thing I have her doing is working on more ACT prep books so she can retake it in the fall.  Her score was very good, but I think she can bring her English up a little bit. 

For N. he rotates off on different days working on a typing program, doing math using Khan Academy, some handwriting practice and watching Discovery Streaming videos of his choice.  He is also working on a 500 word essay that he has to write in order to get his karate black belt.  He is doing this fairly independently, something I never thought he would do.

As far as fun things we did this for vacation and had so much fun.

N. and I are volunteering at the animal shelter and S. is working hard at her job at Chik fil a.  They also both volunteered at VBS at church and are doing other mission type work days with the youth group and of course the highlight of summer is church camp. 

We will start school back on Aug. 20th but until then they are enjoying every minute of summer while I busily plan for next school year.

Update for 5/13/2012

Well this week N. finished up RTR.  It has been a fantastic year.  I have seen growth in his reading abilities and in his writing abilities.  It has been a fascinating time period to study.   I love that he learned so much about church history.  I haven't updated in a few weeks so here are some pictures from the past 2 weeks.

He made a bag like the Lenape Indians used.  He realized that he missed one detail of the directions and went back and corrected it.  He has done this a few times and I love that it teaches him to pay closer attention without me really having to say much.

Here is his flap book that took a few weeks.  It has key verses to understanding salvation.

One of his favorite things each week has been to write his research postcard.  He writes to a dog out at the animal shelter we volunteer at.  He always picks his favorite and adds a line at the end about hoping they get adopted.  He says he wants to continue to do this during the summer.  One area that has also really improved is how careful he is now with his timeline.

The final history project was making Amish Sugar Cookies.  He is becoming quite the cook thanks to HOD.

For his last science experiment he made a glider and had to experiment with how much weight to add to the nose and also making sure the wings were rounded on top.  This demonstrated Bernouilli's Principle. This experiment was a huge hit.

 Finally here is the official "so sad I am done with this guide" picture.

It is always sad to end a guide, but I have already read over half of the books for Revival to Revolution, which is the next guide, and it also is fantastic.  He does still have to finish up 5 lessons in math and take his annual testing required by the state, but then it is on to summer.

Update for the week of 4/23/2012

You can tell it is near the end of the year as I am falling behind in posting on my blog.  The month of April has flown by.  We have 3 weeks left of RTR and then a few days of testing and finishing up math. He continues to just plug along.  He was starting to get a complaining attitude about math, but some of the things in Boyhood and Beyond really spoke to him and now he is focusing on having a positive attitude.

In Bible Study he finished the actual book part of his Philippians study.  He was sad to finish it.  When we went to convention and he looked at next years things the first thing he went to was the Hebrews book he will be doing and was so glad to see it was in the same series as the book he has down this year.  He and I also finished Boyhood and Beyond.  I can't recommend this book highly enough.  It is a wonderful book for teaching our boys what it means to be a Godly men.

For his Independent history he drew a musketeer using Draw and Write through History.  You can tell by his death grip on the colored pencil that it isn't easy for him to do, but he loves it.

In science he continues to read "Planet Earth" by John Hudson Tiner.  Last year when he did a Tiner book he really struggled with finding the answers to the questions in the back.  This year it has come much easier, which is encouraging for me to see.  He did an experiment about pendulums and was fascinated with how that worked.  I really see the science sparking his deeper thinking and often asking "What if...". 

In DITHOR he finished the first part of "Little Pilgrim's Progress".  He has loved this book.  In fact he is going to read the second part in the 3 weeks of school we have left since we are done with DITHOR for this year.  He made a Lit Box for his project.  He made a castle for the Celestial City and inside it put objects that were significant in the story.  He also made a story board with the characters and he dictated a summary of the story to me.

In storytime we finished up "The Story of Blaise Pascal".  This story started a little slow, and I wasn't sure how well he was following it because he was struggling a bit with the oral narrations.  By the end however, he was really in to it and said that he liked it.

I had a friend ask him this week if he was ready for the school year to be done.  He got a very funny look on his face and said "No, not at all."  I love that.  I love that he loves school even though it doesn't come easy for him.   

Cows, college and other things

I don't update on S. very often, but here goes.  She is really enjoying her Junior year.  She has enjoyed her subjects this year for the most part.  Algebra 2 has been known to make her crazy, but math will always be her least favorite subject.  We did 2 college visits, both private Christian colleges.  The one that is her first pick has online dual enrollment classes.  She just finished applying for that program.  She would love to be able to take 2 classes each semester and get some of her general education credits done.  She should find out in a few weeks if she is accepted.  She also took the ACT for the first time on Saturday.  She was very stressed, but knows that she can take it again.  She also just keeps holding on to the knowledge that God is in control of her future and she posted on facebook on Friday  "I know that I will get the score God wants me to get and will go to the college where he wants me to go." This is such a change from where she was a few years ago.

One fun thing for her has been getting to be the Chick-fil-a cow at work on kids nights.  I guess she has done a good job because she was asked to be one of the Chick-fil-a cows in the opening day parade for our cities major league baseball team.  This was a great experience for her.

Co-op is now over.  She enjoyed this years co-op and made some strong Christian friends.  She also learned to play the guitar.  This is serving as a nice stress reliever for her.

We had a wonderful Easter with just us and I love that this picture of my 2 kiddos.

Now it is time for the homestretch of her Junior year.  Hard to believe that next time this year she will be graduating.  I can't think about that too much or I get very emotional.  I am so thankful to have these past 2 years of homeschooling her to get to know her better and to watch from a front row seat as she becomes the young lady God wants her to be.

Update week of 4/2/12

This week we are actually on spring break which gives me time to catch up on this blog. It seems like the weeks are just flying by and it is so hard to believe that we only have 6 weeks left of school. 

In the past 2 weeks we finished up listening to The Legend of Squanto for storytime.  He also read about Squanto in MOH 3 and watched a NEST video on Discovery Streaming about William Bradford that talked about Squanto.  Each version was slightly different and we discussed how sometimes it is good to read from several sources and compare because facts can get altered over time.  We have just started reading "A Piece of the Mountain: the story of Blaise Pascal.  N. loves books about scientists so I am sure this one will also be a hit. 

In Science he continues to read the story of Isaac Newton.  He has had a good time with his science experiments.  Although they are simple they have really sparked an interest in Newton's laws.  He has even been making up experiments on his own to show Newtons Laws.  I love that. Here are pictures of the experiments that his guide had him do.  First he looked at how gravity influences the orbit of the earth.

Then he did 3 experiments that demonstrated each law of motion.

His history project for the week was to make a paper mache shaker like the Algonquin Indians would use. I have usually avoided paper mache, but he was so excited to do this.  It was messy, but he really enjoyed making it.

 He is really excited to start learning more American History.  Since we started HOD at Preparing he didn't get the 2 years of American History in Beyond and Bigger.  In fact he thought that Pocahontas wasn't real.  I asked him why he would think that and he said it was because Disney made a movie about her and they don't make movies about real people.  I had to laugh, but then we talked about who Pocahontas really was.

In Grammar he is learning more capitalization rules.  These are mostly review which is nice after learning many new things in the last chapter. 

He is learning to write a response to a writing prompt in IEW.  This has been really good for him.  It is making him think through things on his own and back his thoughts up with examples. 

All in all a great last few weeks.