Update for week of 5/16/2011

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

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

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

   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

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

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

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.