Well I've been missing a few weeks. A lot going on around here. We are looking to move so I've been preoccupied with that while trying to keep up my homeschool schedule. For the last two weeks we've done primarily Math and Grammar with Science and History twindling down to about once a week. Eeek! I have got to catch up. Monday started our 3 day class with Stebbing "How Great Thou Art." There were over 80 homeschool kids signed up for this class locally. I was looking forward to it because we hardly do any Art around here. I just don't know how to fit it all in. I purchased one DVD on Drawing to continue the basics we learned during the class and some of his paints. I think everyone had a great time.




Come January I plan to turn over a new leaf - new home, new homeschooling space, more time (as I will be scaling back my work outside of the home) so that I can do so much more with our studies.
Hope you had a productive week. Join the weekly wrap up by visiting the weird, unsocialized homeschoolers blog and sign up and see what other homeschooling families have been doing this week.

We are wrapping up our study of Botany this week. We visited the US Botanical Garden in WDC. It was a really good trip. Kids enjoyed moving from room to room - Hawaii, the Desert, Orchid Room, Endangered plants room. The Garden has such a wonderful ambience. We had a little time before we needed to be back home before rush hour so we walked over to the National Gallery of Art. We aren't cultured enough to enjoy all the art but we thoroughly enjoyed the gift gallery. I was able to pick up Renaissance Art Cards to play "go fish" and a activity book on Arcimboldo - an artist whose works were made of fruits and vegetables. What a great segue from Botany to Art. I found this book at the library and finished it on Monday. The author mentions visiting the Gallery of Art and purchasing some great items for art appreciation for her homeschool. It gave me some really great ideas for homeschooling as it chronicles a mother's homeschooling year with her 5th grade daughter. Unlike a lot of homeschooling books I've read, the book reads like a novel instead of a "how to" book. But I should have expected that since the author is a college literature professor. Makes for some good reading especially for a newbie like me.

Tuesday we worked on Botany collages - finding pictures of people using plants in our world aesthetically, culturally, religiously, etc.



Wednesday & Thursday are a blur with the exception of buying supplies for our human body science unit on Thursday, and going to the library. But today we shopped for our Christmas box for Samaritan's Purse. We will have to do some work on Saturday to catch all of the things that fell through the cracks during the week.

Hope you had a productive week. Join the weekly wrap up by visiting the weird, unsocialized homeschoolers blog and sign up and see what other homeschooling families have been doing this week.

Week 11 and 3 weeks behind in TOG Y2. I just can't get it all in but we are progressing nicely through the lessons. This week's focus was Marco Polo and exploration of the far East. The only thing the girls knew was the pool game Marco Polo which we couldn't figure out the correlation. I'm a little nervous taking on the next 9 weeks of Middle Age History without the TOG unit guideline but SOTW and the Kingfisher Encyclopedia will have to day until I can order MFW Exploration through 1850.

I'm also venturing into a Human Body Unit by using Alpha Omega LifePacs that I used with DD13 last year coupled with library resources and worksheets from EnchantedLearning.com. Now I see why people come up with their own curriculum. It so hard to use the shelf curriculum exactly the way it was intended depending on your goals. I looked at Apologia's Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy but just couldn't justify the cost as I know I'm not going to use the text for a complete year.

Here is how the week wrapped up:

History - I set up a hands-on activity from the SOTW Activity Book where we traveled on the Silk Route to trade goods in China from Europe. I made signs for the Gobi Desert and the Taklahaman Desert with pit stops equipped with snacks and water. We navigated the Yellow River (the steps from the basement to the main level) using a broom as an oar before reaching Kublai Khan's palace where we traded for gold, silk, and exotic plants. See, Kublai Khan is a Redskins fan??



It was fun and I know it solidified geography into the minds of my girls. Even though DD13 isn't formally studying history with us she joined us on this activity. I really need to break away from the book work and do this activities more often. They are really good for reinforcement.

Classical Conversations - we all went to the public library for DD13 to meet with her group for a study session. DD11, DD9 and I did our schoolwork at one of the tables in the library and then perused the shelves for new books. When we left the library DD13 left with a stack of historical fiction. She was turned on by a fellow student in her group and now she wants to read everything in that genre. In that moment I saw the benefit of her being involved in this group. Positive peer pressure!

Veteran's Day - we took the day off.

Math Lessons/Test, SOTW - The Ottoman Empire seizes Constantinople and updating our timeline. Playtime on the hill in the back of our house. I remember when the girls first discovered the hill they would run up and down the sides playing and yelling in delight. Now they dig in the ground pulling up roots and shouting "I found a fern"! Oh the joys of homeschooling.


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Well as usual Monday was our most productive day. We covered Genghis Kahn, did mapwork and updated our history timeline with SOTW. Math lessons done and worksheets completed for Language Arts. Tuesday - two worksheets done and some math done but we had a wonderful visit with family who were in town so that's a good reason not to get a lot done. But the highlight of our week was our visit to George Washington's Mt. Vernon. We aren't studying early American History but I couldn't refuse the reduced rate for homeschool day. Just like last year when we visited Monticello I forgot the camera! I took pictures with my cell phone but I don't know where the data cord is to transfer the pictures from the phone to the computer. So I'll have to visit the Verizon store to pick up a new cord then I can post the pictures here on tomorrow. Please visit late tomorrow if you've never seen Mt. Vernon, I think I got some pretty good shots.

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We are wrapping up the Seeds chapter in Exploring God's Creation through Botany. We ventured outside in search of Monocots and Dicots. We didn't have to walk far to find so many interesting things growing in our neighbors' front yard. A green pepper and other flowers we have yet to classify. Next in Botany - Fruits.

Also this week we completed the 3 week diaroma project on Feudalism. I was so proud of the results. It was so easy to get excited about it in the beginning and then let the project drag on. But I was determined to get it finished and I'm so glad we did. Do you see the knight standing guard on the tower?

Speaking of Feudalism from our study of the middle ages using TOG, I've decided not to purchase any other units from TOG and just follow the lesson plans from SOTW CDs and the Activity Book supplementing with books from the library to complete our second 9 weeks of History studies. After that I am excited to finish up the 3rd and 4th 9 weeks using My Father's World Year 4 - Exploration to 1850. That should take us through the year and then some.
The reason I decided to switch was to save time on lesson planning. TOG is such a smorgasboard that it is too time consuming to put together. I had trouble making all that information comprehensive to ensure my kids were learning and progressing through the information week after week. "Learning and progressing" leads me to my next point - I issued Homeschool Report Cards today. Today officially marks the end of the first 9 weeks so I tallied grades and did my official final grade for each subject. I picked the "homeschool report card" up from the homeschool conference I attended last summer. The 8th grade report card I downloaded from the web and customized it to fit my needs. I can't find the site now but if anyone is interested I'll be happy to email the document.



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Visit Forever, For Always No Matter as well to see what other homeschoolers are doing.

It seems like I am always looking for new resources and wanting to incorporate so much material that I don't have time to do. Sometimes the monotony of our routine sends me looking for new things to add to our studies. Day in and day out Math lesson, History reading, CDs and activities, library visit, Science reading and notebooking, Writing Lessons, etc.
I can't afford to always buy new things to add some spice to our day but if I don't switch it up I get extremely demotivated. I haven't read much about this from other moms but I can't imagine I'm alone. So I'm looking to add Art & Music Appreciation to coincide with our Middle Ages history lessons. Barb over at Harmony Art Mom seems to have the perfect affordable curriculum.

Here is how it all wrapped up this week.

DD13 - Progressing with Challenge A program through Classical Conversations. Nature study research topic this week was on Arachnids. Daily lessons in Latin and Math, and Geography focus this week, South America. Catechism memorization from two texts, Don't Check Your Brains at the Door and It Couldn't Just Happen.

DD11 & DD9 - Finishing up Feudalism in our SOTW and TOG History Lessons. We are still working on dioramas of the classes. I reviewed the First Knight with Sean Connery on last night as it was recommended on a movie list to correspond to this point in History we are studying. I think my kids would think the movie is boring so I'm going to try one other Knight movie before deciding to pull the plug on these movies altogether. Only one IEW lesson completed this week, daily math and only one Science lesson. I'm not sure why I'm not meeting my scheduled Science lessons each week. We are suppose to do two per week. I'm getting a little weary of Botany, it's a great curriculum its just that I think we've all had enough of plants. I'm skipping the flowers and pollination section as they've had a lot of this in public school so we will be moving on to the chapter on Fruits. I may have to buy another Apologia text because we will be finished with this book I believe before January.

Other happenings this week - State park visit with friends for PE, piano lessons (DD9 every Tuesday), Missionettes (every Wednesday night), Library visit (once each week).


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Wow I can barely remember this week. It went by so fast. We went to the Shenandoah Valley over the weekend so I didn't get any planning done for homeschool. But it was a nice getaway. We visited my alma mater - James Madison University. DD9 says that's where she wants to go to college.


Here is how it all wrapped up:

Classical Conversations Challenge A - Four Math Lessons Done. Latin exercises and Vocabulary work. She didn't do too well on her Latin quiz. I'm powerless to help as I know nothing about Latin. She does well at learning the vocabulary but gets the different verb(declensions) and noun endings (conjucations) mixed up. I guess I need to set up something with the tutor to see how I can assist. This is the last week on Central America in World Geography - map work nd country capitals. Memory/Mastery work of 1-14 of 50 Catechism questions. IEW Bible Based lessons paper this week on Jesus' words from the Gospels. Dress-Ups and writing tools worked on this week include sentence openers, and topic/clincher sentences. Science nature topic - mollusks. Her research was on Squid. Gleaned from work done with sisters in History - reviewed Fall of Rome through Alfred the Great.


Here is what the rest of the gang did this week:

DD11 - daily exercises in Wordly Wise 6, 4 math lessons complete from Saxon 6/5, 1 IEW SWI A exercise done; writing tools introduced - "who/which" clause and "-ly" words. We really should have done more but didn't work it in. Finished up chapter on Seeds in Exploring Creation with Botany. However, 12 day experiment in process in recording data on seeds growing through germination. Finished 1 of 4 shoebox diorama on Feudalism and review History lessons to date (Fall of Rome through Alfred the Great).

DD9 - same as above with the exception of math lessons from Math U See.

We've also been slowly working on a lapbook (my first attempt at one) on the Fruit of the Spirit.


Even though we do homeschool PE every Friday at a nearby park sometimes I need to really let them loose in the backyard to make some of their own fun. They surprisingly find ways to make that outdoor fun educational as I learned on yesterday.


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