Weekly Wrap-up: Week 20 - The One Before Winter Break...Maybe

We rediscovered Rummikub this past week. Cate joined Tom and I for some games filled with laughter and "mock" boasting. We'll have to try another game this week as I did not win most of the games. :: wink :: We did have a 4th player join us for a few minutes...

CORE WORK

CATI

• English Grammar 101: Section 7 - Conjunctions and Interjections (85%), Section 8 - Verbals and Phrases
• My Life in a Post: blog
• Vocab Test: List 4 (92%), List 5 (100%), List 6
• Laddie (Stratton Potter)
• Khan Academy: Pre-Algebra (87% Completed)
• CNN Student News

SAM

• English Grammar 101: Lesson 1 - Lesson 2 - Common and Proper Nouns (87%)
• Writing: 5 Paragraph Essay - Finished Rough Draft and Started Editing
• Cursive Copywork:
• The Tale of Despereaux (DiCamillo)
• Saxon 65 - Lesson 15 (Multiplication Table), Test 2 (85%), Lesson 16 (Types of Lines), Lesson 17 (Multiplication By One Digit), Lesson 18 (Double Digit Multiplication)
• CNN Student News

ASTRONOMY

It was all about Jupiter this week as we studied Lesson 9 in Apologia. (Only 5 more lessons to go!)

• Notebook Page/Project Page
• Spacecraft Galileo
• Project: Make a Hurricane Tube
• Project: Rockets Away 

GENERAL SCIENCE

Cati finished Module 8: Uniformitarianism and Castastrophism with a 100% on her exam.

• Vocab: Index Fossils, Geological Column, Evolution
• Experiment: Simulation of Using Index Fossils

U.S. HISTORY and GEOGRAPHY

Sam and I read History of Us: The First Americans Prehistory-1600 (Hakim) this week, chapters 20-21, and finished watching the Magellan documentaries on You Tube.

• "Ferdinand Magellan Voyages of Discovery - Circumnavigation Part 3/4 (BBC)"
• "Ferdinand Magellan Voyages of Discovery - Circumnavigation Part 4/4 (BBC)"
• Amerigo Vespucci
• Martin Waldseemuller - First Map with America
• Roman Catholicism and Protestantism in Europe

MUSIC HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY and CULTURES

Cati studies Music History with Easy Peasy Homeschool, and continued on with Year 3 Geography and Cultures. Since the lessons are quick, she completes one week per day, sometimes more. This week she completed weeks 20-22.

• Percussion Instruments
• Identifying Orchestra Instruments
• Jazz and Concert Band Practice

She went to Jazz and Concert band practices this week, preparing for the Jazz competition coming up in a few weeks.

DAYS COMPLETED: CATE - 118 | SAM - 113

As always, special thanks to these bloggers for their weekly homeschool blog link-ups. Click the buttons to see what other homeschoolers are doing!

Happy Homeschooling!

Weekly Wrap-up: Week 13 - Winter Break

EVERYDAY LIFE
We tried really, really hard to focus this week, but how could we? The week before Christmas with family, presents, good food. The week before knowing we've got 2 whole weeks off. Not that we JUST didn't have 2 weeks off for Thanksgiving...

But I could focus on my CROCHETING. (I need a smiley face icon, huh?) I created a cover for my 2015 Bullet Journal/Planner. I love the colors, but I'm not crazy about the cover itself as it's already pilling and collects hair, fur and lint like velcro. :: sigh:: I may just remove it and decorate the Moleskine notebook cover instead with scrapbook stuff. In the meantime, I'm trying to make some fingerless gloves for Cati. (Pattern here.)

PEOPLE & PLACES
❄ Jazz & Concert Band Practices (Cati) ❄ Christmas Band Concerts (Cati) ❄ Bible Study (Me) ❄

FROM THE KITCHEN
❄Chop Suey with Cucumber Slices & Carrot Sticks ❄ Biscuit, Egg and Cheese Sandwiches & Clementines ❄ Baked Chicken, Rice & Peas ❄ Meatball Subs ❄ Clean Out Fridge Night ❄

HOMESCHOOL HAPPENINGS
Determined to get in a full productive week of learning, Sam and I had some long, long afternoons. Cati finished her core work most mornings before Sam and I rolled out of bed. Isn't it interesting how unique we are? Sam and I are "night owls" who prefer a late morning start, but Cati is an early to bed, early to rise person. We're fortunate to have a schedule to works best for all of us.

Cati's Accomplishments

Capitalization of Greetings & Transitive and Intransitive Verbs
Multiplying/Dividing Mixed Fractions, Algebraic Equations, Perimeter, Decimals, Roots & Order of Operations with Exponents
Types of Fossils, Radioactive Dating, Geologic Time Scale & Earth's Eras
CNN Student News

Phys. Ed. Walking

Sam's Accomplishments

MobyMax: Describe Events in Stories/Dramas, ID Supporting Details in Paragraphs, Quotations, Suffixes, Prefixes and Word Roots, and Vocabulary Building & Grade Spelling Weeks 35-37

Multiplication Facts, Word Problems, Fractions, Time, Square Roots & Regrouping
Inside a Volcano, Types of Eruptions & Volcanic Landforms

CNN Student News

Phys. Ed. Walking/Jogging, Biking (in the Snow)

READING & VIEWING
❄ Star Wars (Cati) ❄ Stuart Little (White) (Sam) ❄ Ben and Me (Lawson) (Sam) ❄

❄ "Different Types of Volcanoes" (You Tube) ❄ "Volcano Eruptions Song" (You Tube) ❄ "What is a Volcano?" (You Tube) ❄

PONDERINGS

With all the celebrating coming up, I'm not sure I'll be getting to more blogging until 2015! So, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

As always, special thanks to these weekly link-ups:

Don't forget to check out my other blog posts this week!
Tuesday Coffee Chat: Christmas Traditions
Wednesday Hodgepodge: Randomness

A Peak at Our Week: Session 4 Week 4 - Winter Lingers

In My Life This Week
Winter lingers. ::sigh:: We were hit with another snowstorm all day Tuesday, leaving us shoveling out on Wednesday. I'm not sure the ONE shovel we have left this season is going to hold out much longer. ::wink:: Here I was hoping to tackle some SPRING CLEANING this week. Do you "spring clean"?

Yes, that is a photo from a previous storm. After 3 months of snow, it all kinda looks the same. Trust me.

I had SURPRISING news from the garage: the van DOES NOT need a tire rod! When I got a new tire last month I was told a tire rod was loose, but my mechanic said, "I can't find anything wrong". He said I should come back after POT HOLE SEASON for an alignment though. For those of you in Maine, you know what that means! ::wink:: 

Homeschool High School
Wednesday marked our 1/2 way point this session so White Pine and I sat down to check his progress. Meeting educational goals through accountability has been a great step in learnng time management for him. He makes this WHOLE PROCESS easy for me though.

Excellence in Literature II: Literature and Composition: 1 unit left
English 101 (Grammar): Not Started
Saxon Algebra: 15 lessons left
Prentice Hall Biology: 1 chapter left
Biology Coloring: 11 pages left
Around the World in 180 Days: FINISHED
Computer Science 101 (Coursera): on schedule
Introduction to Physics: How Things Work (Coursera): on schedule

I suppose all this doesn't make sense, but what it DOES mean is he's in good shape to meet this session's goals EARLY. Oh, English Grammar? He ALWAYS waits until the last week to do it because he completes it in a couple of hours. (I probably should have him drop it, but I figure a final year of Grammar will "cement" concepts.)

White Pine did a pretty cool experiment identifying parts of a flower and looking at them under a microscope. He had "help" from a FURRY lab partner! ::grin::

Homeschool Elementary
Ah, a shaky week with Balsam Fir. ::sigh:: Some days go smoothly and others, well, they go. Inbetween the whining and sensory meltdowns, he did get SOMETHING done, but it was a challenge.

He also decided that he's D-O-N-E with his Writer's Notebook. But I had a back-up plan for when this happened: Handwriting Worksheets from ESL Writing Wizard. These 10 page FREE handwriting workbooks focus on a specific topic, such as My Body, Airships and the Water Cycle, AND you can choose Zaner-Bloser or D'Nealian print or cursive. It's not creative writing, but it'll keep him writing...for now.

Do you have a catchy tune to learn the continents? the world's oceans?

We were kind of all over the map with SOTW: Middle Ages this week: Byzantine Empire (Europe/Africa), Gupta Dynasty (India), Yamato Empire (Japan), and finally the Maori (New Zealand), but now we're heading back to Europe and learning about the Franks,Visigoths and the Vikings. We made paper viking ships (from the SOTW activity guide). I'm wondering when the gallant knights arrive...

Science remains unstructured. I'm not sure where we're going with it for the rest of the year, but we're still learning. Sugar Maple is keeping a Science Notebook and learning about areas SHE chooses - the water cycle, Astronomy, rainbows, fire, states of matter - and Balsam Fir is working his way through our Lakeshore file folder games. I'm hoping that spring will arrive at some point and we can do more nature studies.

Places We Went, People We Saw

♥ Basketball (SM) ♥ Girl Scout Cookie Booth (SM) ♥  STEM School Meeting (WP) ♥ Museum of Science (BF) ♥ St. Patrick's Dinner with Friends (SB/WP/SM) ♥ Scouts (BF) ♥ Garage (SB) ♥ Lacrosse (WP) ♥ Clarinet/Band (SM) ♥

Something to Share

Sugar Maple found a free, fun app for her little tablet that has different MOUTHS that talk as you make noise. Giggle Time!

Thanks for stopping by! I'm linking up to these AWESOME blog hops. Check them out!

A Peak at Our Week: Session 3 Week 6 - The Calm Before the Storm

In My Life This Week / Things I Worked On
✔ Organize Session 3 Papers in Portfolios
✔ Declutter the Downstairs
✔ Walk Every Other Day With Rosie
✔ Clean Up and Organize the Garage  

My Favorite Thing This Week
Our garage has been SERIOUSLY buggin' me. ::sigh:: With a HUGE (embarrassing) pile of trash filling up one side, and outdoor toys thrown every-which-way, and Balsam Fir getting into and not putting back our tools, and old hay scattered across the concrete, I couldn't even get the van into it! On Saturday we ALL worked together and got it cleaned up...and Mama is happier!

Homeschool High School
SOMEONE has worked diligently this session! With only 1 week to go before our vacation break, White Pine doesn't have much work to do before meeting this session's goals. His big focus this week was finishing up Biology textbook and lab work, his Cather approach paper, and doubling up some Algebra and Biology Coloring pages. Next week? A few more math lessons and coloring! I suspect he'll enjoy a few extra days of sleeping in! ::wink::

He also started playing Ultimate Frisbee. Something totally new for him and us! 

Accomplishments
Vorpal Blade, Cather Approach Paper, Square Roots, Decimals, Additive Property of Inequality, Domain, Radical Expressions, Weighted Average, Complex Fractions, Trinomials, Probability, Pyramids/Cones, Bio Ch 20-21: Fungi/Protista, Mold Lab, Frisbee

Homeschool Elementary
Balsam Fir (finally) located a Nerf gun with foam darts from the garage, and I could (finally) make a Shooting Range Word Wall for him. I saw this idea at Life With my Giggly Girls a while back, although I can't find the exact post right now...Anyway, I wrote words that he struggles with (from his reading) onto index cards and then taped them onto closet doors. If he remembers them or can sound them out correctly, he gets to try shooting a dart at it. He thought it was my coolest idea in a while! ::wink::

I was going to wait until NEXT WEEK to start Story of the World Volume 2: Middle Ages, but the saplings didn't want to wait. How could I not start it, right?

And I took them ice skating for the first time this season. I don't enjoy ice skating so I read in the warming room around a wood stove, watching THEM through a viewing window. They had a wonderful time despite the slips-and-trips and want to go back. Fortunately it's a FREE rink (in a BARN) and has skates available. Nice!

SM Accomplishments
Creative Story (3000 words), Spelling Days ,Vitamins/Minerals, Digestive System, Fractions/Decimals, Fall of the Roman Empire

BF Accomplishments
Lionel in the Spring, Flat Stanley, Sight Word Flashcards, Writer's Notebook, Word Builder, Dollar/Coin (Count/Exchange/Change), Skeleton, Fall of the Roman Empire

Books, Books, Books!

We're reading about the "far land of Spare Oom...around the bright city of War Drobe" in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Have you read The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis to your kids? I'd most definitely recommend it! Both Sugar Maple and Balsam Fir give it two thumbs up! 

People We Saw, Places We Went
☃ Cub Scout Pinewood Derby (WP/BF) ☃ Hanging Out with Buddies (WP) ☃ Scouts (WP/BF) ☃ Ultimate Frisbee (WP) ☃ Basketball (SM) ☃ Clarinet/Band (SM) ☃ Library (SM/BF) ☃

Something Silly to Share

As always, thanks for stopping by Our Side of the Mountain. We're glad you came! We're linking up to these awesome blog hops this week. Why not head over, link up, or just read some more homeschooling happenings.

I also shared our Featured Feathered Friend here.

And don't forget this Sunday is our 2nd ever Explorers Blog Hop! We'd love for you to link up your outdoor adventures. Check out last week's hop here. Thank you to all those linked up last week!

A Peak at Our Week: Session 3 Week 5 - And It's February!

In My Life This Week

Did you see on my sidebar? That Explorers button? Yeah, I'm having my very own blog hop! Something nature-y and outdoors-y each week. With the help my of my friend Nicole from Blessed Little Homestead, the button "bugs" were finally fixed (I hope). Have you been doing something out-of-doors? nature studies? with your kids? Link up on Sunday!

My Favorite Thing This Week
Brag time! White Pine was elected as a Patrol Leader for Boy Scouts this year. I'm quite proud of his Boy Scout accomplishments over the years, and it's something that he gets a lot of enjoyment and practical skills out of. Well, the Klondike Derby was on Saturday and he was selected to be SENIOR Patrol Leader for the event! 

Homeschool High School
Sadly, White Pine's SketchUp enrichment class at the new charter high school wrapped up this week. He really enjoyed this class! (Sugar Maple has taken an interest in SketchUp, so he spent some time teaching her to use the program as well.) Now, to cross our fingers that he'll be accepted in April to start in the fall as a full-time student.

Accomplishments
The Country of Pointed Firs, Cather and Orne Jewett Author and Approach Papers, Algebra Test (95%), Exponents, Fungi, Cladograms Lab, Protists, SketchUp

Homeschool Elementary School
Out with Chemistry and in with Health and Science Folder Games! Chemistry fizzled. Not that my saplings didn't learn anything - they have a good understanding of states of matter, elements and the 3 parts of atoms - but it was time to move on.

We headed back to Ancient Rome, learning about Julius Caesar and his climb to Roman consul and power. The saplings, especially Sugar Maple, will remember the date he was killed: March 15, 44. Her birthday is March 15! But the big news is that next week we start Story of the World Volume 2 and the Middle Ages! Which means I better get going on printing out the timeline cards! Yikes! (Interested in timeline cards? Head over to All Things Beautiful's History and Geography Meme here!)

I found this really cool website with FREE video piano lessons for kids, so Sugar Maple and I have been watching the videos and playing on the new keyboard she got for Christmas. We're having a fun time learning together (even if I can't carry a tune)!

Sugar Maple's Accomplishments
Lots of Trixie Belden books, Creative Writing (Computer) (2500 words), Sequential Spelling Days 47-49, Spelling Flash Cards, Fractions, XtraMath (Subtraction), Health (Heart), Ancient Rome (Caesar/Augustus), Clarinet, Piano (Lessons 1-3)

Balsam Fir's Accomplishments
Flat Stanley, Lionel in the Spring, Writer's Notebook (Capitals/Complete Sentences/Spelling), Word Builder, Money (Coins/Paper) (from Education.com), States of Matter, Ancient Rome (Caesar/Augustus)

Books, Books, Books!
We're still reading Minn of the Mississippi...and I can't say as I like Hollings any better, but the kids have enjoyed it. ::wink:: I'm reading aloud Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw to Balsam Fir before bed, sometimes. He's SO into them that he asks me throughout the day to read to him. He's never been one to listen long to books so this is exciting!

Places We Went, People We Saw
☃ Basketball (SM/BF) ☃ Klondike Derby (WP) ☃ D__ and T__ Stayed Over  ☃ Scouts (WP/SM) ☃ Play: Hound of the Baskervilles (Comedy Version) (All) ☃ SketchUp (WP) ☃ A__ Visited ☃ Clarinet (SM) ☃ 

Something To Share

Thanks so much for stopping by Our Side of the Mountain! We're linking up to these blog hops!