Showing posts with label Accomplishments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Accomplishments. Show all posts

Friday, March 4, 2016

Weekly Wrap-up: Week 21 & 22 - Brief Peek Ahead

With some topsy-turvy news last Thursday, we decided to take that day and Friday off as Stress Relief Days. Isn't it awesome that we can do that? We were ready to get back to schooling this week with renewed focused!

CONGRATULATIONS TO CATE ON HER ACCEPTANCE TO STEAM (Science/Technology/Engineering/Art/Mathematics) HIGH SCHOOL NEXT YEAR! 

We've known for a couple of weeks now, but I thought I would finally share with you all. Next year will be the first time EVER that I will only have one student homeschooling. We will miss Cate, but she will be experiencing new adventures in learning! (Jake also attends the same school.)

CORE WORK

CATI
SAM
  • English Grammar 101: Section 1 - Nouns - Lesson 3 (50%/87%), Lesson 4 (65%/65%)
  • Writing: 5 Paragraph Essay - Finished Rough Draft, Edited, Final
  • Cursive Copywork: Genesis 1:1, Psalms 4:8
  • The Tale of Despereaux (DiCamillo), Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School (Kinney)
  • Saxon 65 - Lesson 19 (Division Factors), Lesson 20 (Ways to Write Division), Test 3 (90%), Lesson 21 (Equal Parts Problems), Lesson 22 (Division with Remainders), Lesson 23 (Halves, Quarters, Tenths), Lesson 24 (Dollars and Parentheses) and Lesson 25 (Whole Number Factors)
  • Timed Addition Facts - Starting Time/Correct 9:00:17/99, Current Best Time/Correct 4:47:11/100
  • Timed Subtraction Facts - Starting Time/Correct 6:48:80/100, Current Best Time/Correct 
  • CNN Student News

His handwriting has gotten oh-so-better this year. It's not perfect, and sometimes he mixes cursive letters with printed ones, but it's legible and not huge. But the biggest accomplishment? He doesn't dread writing quite as badly!


I also started Sam on math review at Prodigy (LINK). It's a free on-line math game that encourages kids to review math concepts. (NOTE: The game is based on wizards and magic, so if you are uncomfortable with that then this resource wouldn't work for you.) My plan is to use it as a 10 minute or so review AFTER he completes his Saxon math lesson and timed facts test 2-3 times a week or when he needs a break from "the usual" text work. 

(He also has Khan Academy Math 4 where he has completed 45%.)


He also spent some time designing and building a "wheel loader" with front end suspension (as the wheels stay on the ground no matter the "terrain") out of Legos.



ASTRONOMY
Sam and I finished Chapter 10: Saturn this week.
  • Notebook and Project Page
  • "Saturn: Crash Course Astronomy #18" (You Tube)
  • Saturn's Tilt, Seasons, Gas Make-up, Rotation, Rings
  • Cassini Mission
  • Scientist Biography: Christian Huygens
  • Make a Centaur Rocket Project

GENERAL SCIENCE
Cati finished Module 10: Classifying Life this week with a 100% on her test.
  • Experiment: Factors that Affect Bacterial Growth
  • Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Cells
  • Pathogens
  • Decomposers
  • 5 Kingdom System: Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae and Animalia

U.S. HISTORY and GEOGRAPHY
Sam and I read chapters 22-28 in  History of Us: The First Americans Prehistory-1600 (Hakim) these last 2 weeks.
  • Hernando Cortez and the Spanish Conquistadors
  • Aztecs, Quetzalcoatl and Moctezuma
  • Rebus, Pictographic Writing, and Codices
  • Mesoamerica: Olmecs, Zapotecs, Mitla, and Mayans
  • Maize
  • Esteban and Fray Marcos Search for Cibola
  • Coronado, De Soto and Cabrillo
  • Onate, Santa Fe and Missionaries

MUSIC HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY and CULTURES
Cati studies Music History with Easy Peasy Homeschool, and finished Year 3 Geography and Cultures last week, and started Year 4 Modern Music this week. Since the lessons are quick, she completes one week per day, sometimes more. This week she completed weeks 23-36 then 1-6.
  • Jazz and Concert Band Practice
  • Percussion, Brass and String Instruments
  • San Francisco Orchestra Historical Music
  • Listen to Identify Instruments Played in an Orchestra
  • Play and Compose Music
  • Hans Pfitzner
  • Das Christ-Elflein
  • Tchaikovsky and "The Nutcracker"

She went to Jazz and Concert band practices this week, and had her Jazz competition last Thursday. Later in March her jazz group will travel to play in the state competition!

DAYS COMPLETED: CATE - 130 | SAM - 121

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

 photo 337a3ef2-b881-48f4-8a2c-9c69e457cb5b_zps8b6152cf.pngHomegrown LearnersWeird Unsocialized HomeschoolersChaotic Bliss Homeschooling

Happy Homeschooling!

Friday, February 12, 2016

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


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.

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!

 photo 337a3ef2-b881-48f4-8a2c-9c69e457cb5b_zps8b6152cf.pngHomegrown LearnersWeird Unsocialized HomeschoolersChaotic Bliss Homeschooling

Happy Homeschooling!

Friday, February 5, 2016

Weekly Wrap-up: Week 19 - The One with a Sick Bug and Snow Returns

Poor Cate started the week with ill with fever, in bed. She's a trooper though. She was determined to get in at least a half day of school on Monday and Tuesday. (Her goal is to finish up her year by mid-April.) Fortunately, whatever Cate, Jake and I had, it skipped over Sam. For now. 

And then the snow arrived. The predicted few inches are off by quite a bit. It continues to snow heavily this afternoon. A perfect day for PJs, movies, baking, reading, and shoveling.


CORE WORK

CATI

SAM

  • English Grammar 101: Lesson 1 - Nouns (88%)
  • Writing: 5 Paragraph Essay - Opening and 2nd Paragraph
  • The Tale of Despereaux (DiCamillo)
  • Saxon 65 - Lesson 11 (Multiple Step Addition Word Problems), Lesson 12 (Number Lines/Tally Marks), Lesson 13 (Multiplying Repeated Addition), Lesson 14 (Missing Numbers in Subtraction)
  • CNN Student News


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

GENERAL SCIENCE
Cati started Module 8: Uniformitarianism and Castastrophism, a continued look into these two concepts from last module.
  • Vocab: Index Fossils, Geological Column, Evolution
  • Experiment: Simulation of Using Index Fossils


U.S. HISTORY and GEOGRAPHY
Sam and I didn't read History of Us: The First Americans Prehistory-1600 (Hakim) this week, but instead watched some documentaries on You Tube to reinforce last week's chapters.

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 13-19.
  • Brass and Percussion Instruments
  • Concert Band Practice

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

DAYS COMPLETED: CATE - 115 | SAM - 110

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

 photo 337a3ef2-b881-48f4-8a2c-9c69e457cb5b_zps8b6152cf.pngHomegrown LearnersWeird Unsocialized HomeschoolersChaotic Bliss Homeschooling

Happy Homeschooling!

Friday, January 29, 2016

Weekly Wrap-up: Week 18 - The One with Pet Pics (Because I Forgot Homeschool Ones)

Oops! I didn't take a single photo of homeschool this week, so how about some pet pics instead?



CORE WORK

CATI
  • English Grammar 101: Section 6 - Prepositions (99%), Section 7 - Conjunctions and Interjections
  • Writing - Started a Blog (Visit her here)
  • Vocab Test List 2 (95%), List 3 (85%)
  • Laddie (Stratton Potter)
  • Khan Academy Pre-Algebra - 85% Completed

SAM
  • Grammar and Writing Handbook: Unit 2 - Commas, Unit 3 - Verbs 
  • Grammar Smart Junior: Nouns,  Pronouns
  • English Grammar 101: Lesson 1 - Nouns (58%)
  • Writing - Descriptive Writing 5 Essay Paragraph
  • Grammar Ninja - Level 2 
  • Rascal (North)
  • Saxon 65 - Lesson 8 (Subtraction Facts), Lesson 9 (Subtraction Algorithm), Lesson 10 (Missing Addends), Test 1 (100%)

More changes for Sam and his curriculum. Math is moving ahead again with the change from Khan to Saxon, but we needed a change in Grammar as well. So, he started English Grammar 101 (online). He also started learning to write a 5 paragraph essay since he's finding "perfect paragraphs" boring. 



ASTRONOMY
Sam finished Lesson 8: Rocks, studying meteors and asteroids and creating a model of the solar system.
  • Notebook Page/Project Page
  • Asteroid Belt
  • Solar System Model

GENERAL SCIENCE
Cati finished Module 7: The Fossil Record this week with a 90% on her exam.
  • How Fossils are Formed
  • Features of Fossil Records
  • Petrifaction 
  • Carbonate Residues and Impressions

U.S. HISTORY and GEOGRAPHY
I read aloud to Sam from History of Us: The First Americans Prehistory-1600 (Hakim). We covered chapters 16-19.
  • Christopher Columbus
  • Beginning of American Slavery
  • Navigation
  • Latitude and Longitude
  • Taino
  • Cartography
  • Abraham Zacuto and Astronomical Charts
  • Giovanni Caboto
  • Vasco Nunez de Balboa
  • Ferdinand Magellan 

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 9-12.
  • Woodwind and Brass Instruments

ENRICHMENT

Cati
  • Jazz and Concert Band
  • CNN Student News
  • Walked miles

Sam
  • CNN Student News


DAYS COMPLETED: CATE - 114 | SAM - 108

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

 photo 337a3ef2-b881-48f4-8a2c-9c69e457cb5b_zps8b6152cf.pngHomegrown LearnersWeird Unsocialized HomeschoolersChaotic Bliss Homeschooling

Happy Homeschooling!

    Friday, January 16, 2015

    Weekly Wrap-up: Week 15 - Searching for the Elusive FULL School Week

    EVERYDAY LIFE
    I don't know if I have shared or not, but Cati has asthma. Over the last 2 months her asthma as been QUITE a challenge. She ended up in the GP's office on Friday, needing another nebulizer treatment, her 3rd in 2 months. Her lungs were struggling. We now have a Plan of Action for getting this under control, and she is feeling so much better. No longer can we hear her breathing from a room away!

    On Saturday the kids spent time with their Dad, so I spent time with Tom, my fiance. I made a chicken tetrazzini (RECIPE) for dinner, for the first time, with tossed salad, and chocolate peanut butter bark (RECIPE) for dessert. Yum! We watched NFL football, and sometimes even the cooking shows *I* liked when we had cable here at the house. A relaxing weekend!

    Photo Credit

    But the household cleaning - laundry! - didn't get finished until Monday.

    We spent some of our "free time" organizing and purging more unused items. Our entertainment area was in serious need of a thorough dusting and organize. We removed the old speakers and stereo system (with cassette players), keeping just the small flat screen, the (unused) Roku, TV antennas, a DVD player, and XBox.

    And I went through the kids' school drawers, throwing away all flashcards (from curriculum I no longer have) and plain ol' trash. I removed non-school items to be put where they belong (such as the bubble bath in Cati's drawer) and manipulatives that are for younger learners.

    PEOPLE & PLACES
    ❄ Pinewood Derby Clinic (Sam) ❄ Library (Cati, Sam & I) ❄ Concert Band Practice (Cati) ❄ Cub & Boy Scouts (Sam & Jake) ❄ Bible Study & Fellowship (Me) ❄

    HOMESCHOOL HAPPENINGS
    My plan was to complete 5 days of school this week, but you know what they say about "best laid plans". Cati had a follow-up GP visit Friday morning.

    To ease our "van schooling" during band practices, Sam and I have been playing the Multiplication Game (FOUND HERE) using grid paper, 2 different colored highlighters and 0-9 dice. It's a super easy way to learn multiplication facts AND pack along with us! But you know what else? He's also learning about area and perimeter at the same time!

    Cati finished up her Earth Science for this quarter early, so it's been a perfect time for her to work on her Maine Studies project, a tri-fold board filled with facts and images. (Maine Studies are required by law.) If only the printer worked better...


    Cati
    English - Indirect Objects, Abbreviations Proofreading, Coordinating Conjunctions, & Compound Subjects & Predicates, Wattpad, Created a Blogger Blog
    Pre-Algebra - Exponential Expressions & Radicals, Fractional Equations, Surface Area, Scientific Notation, & Decimals
    Earth Science - Water Cycle, Surface Water & Watersheds, Underground Water, & Wetlands
    Maine Studies - Facts of, Famous People, Assembling Tri-Fold Board
    Ancient History - Ancient Greece, Spartans, Athenians, Persia, Marathon
    Current Events - CNN Student News
    Fine Arts - Band
    Phys. Ed. - Walking

    Sam
    Language Arts - Spelling Weeks 5-10, Grammar Ninja, Commas & Quotations, Main Ideas, Recounting Information, Reading Comprehension
    Math - Square Numbers, Elapsed Time, Number Words, Expanded Form, Rounding to Nearest 10, Fractions, Multiplication Doubles, Square Roots, Money, Area/Perimeter & Regrouping Multiple Addends
    Earth Science - Soil Formation & Composition, Types of Soil
    Physics - Constructed & Tested a Catapult
    Ancient History - Ancient Greece, Spartans, Athenians, Persia, Marathon
    Current Events - CNN Student News
    Fine Arts - 
    Phys. Ed. - Walking

    READING & VIEWING
    ❄ Divergent (Roth) (Me) ❄ Percy Jackson series (Riordan) (Cati) ❄ The Hunger Games (Collins) (Cati) ❄ Ben and Me (Lawson) (Sam) ❄ Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck (Kinney) (Sam) 

    "Geography and Early Greece" (You Tube)

    PONDERINGS

    As always, special thanks to these weekly link-ups:
     photo 337a3ef2-b881-48f4-8a2c-9c69e457cb5b_zps8b6152cf.pngHomegrown LearnersWeird Unsocialized HomeschoolersMy Joy-Filled LifeHip Homeschool Moms

    Don't forget to check out my other blog posts this week!
    Six Word Saturday: Brrrr!
    Tuesday Coffee Chat: Words
    Wednesday Hodgepodge: Words