Weekly Wrap-up: Week 16 - Celebrating the 100th

We're celebrating our 100th day of homeschooling today! Cate actually reached 100 days on Monday, but Friday just seemed like a better day to celebrate when Sam reached it too. (And by Friday we all like a slower, simpler day of homeschool.) At this pace our year could wrap up by mid-April!

CORE WORK

CATI

• English Grammar 101: Section 5 Modifiers - Adjectives and Adverbs
• Writing - How to Stay Motivated and Focused 5 Paragraph Essay
• Vocab Test List 14 (92%) -15 (96%)
• The Swiss Family Robinson (Wyss), Laddie (Straton Potter)
• Khan Academy Pre-Algebra - 80% Completed

SAM

• Grammar and Writing Handbook: Unit 2 - Possessive Nouns
• Writing - My Favorite Outdoor Places Perfect Paragraph
• Grammar Ninja - Level 2
• Cursive Copywork - Ephesians 4:32
• The Borrowers (Norton), Rascal (North)
• Khan Academy Math 4 - 45% Completed
• Saxon 65 - Lesson 1 (Number Sequencing), Lesson 2 (Odds/Evens), Lesson 3 (Place Value with Money)

Sometimes changes must be made. Sam hasn't moved forward on Khan Academy, reviewing the same concepts without mastery, in 6 weeks. Even a 2 week break did not "reset" his learning. "Blocks" happen for everyone, but especially for kids with unique learning challenges. For now, he will continue on with Saxon 65, watching DIVE lessons and completing daily problem sets.

We also read some math literature on angles and cones.

VAN SCHOOL
Several times a week, Sam and I do some of his studies in the van while waiting for Cati at band practice. It's not an optimal time to focus, but a perfect time for read alouds and review.

With Sam's learning challenges, he often has trouble recalling basic information that we've reviewed over and over for many years. This can be frustrating for both of us, yet necessary to learn and understand. This week I pulled out his month flashcards as he wasn't able to tell me the 12 months, in or out of order.

• Month Flashcards
• Grammar and Writing - Commas Review
• Rascal
• History of Us - Woodland Indians, Treaty of Peace

ASTRONOMY

Sam finished up Mars with making a salt dough model of Olympus Mons, and creating a volcanic eruption with baking soda, vinegar and food coloring. Then we started Chapter 8: Rocks.

• Chemical Reaction to Model Volcanic Eruption
• Introduction to the Solar System: Crash Course Astronomy #9
• Meteors: Crash Course Astronomy #23
• Asteroids: Crash Course Astronomy #20

GENERAL SCIENCE

Cati finished Module 6: Foundations of Geology in Apologia General Science this week, learning about rocks and minerals, sedimentation, and physical weathering. Unfortunately, due to it being winter, some of her experiments will be postponed until the spring when we can obtain dirt from outside. She received a 100% on her exam.

U.S. HISTORY and GEOGRAPHY
I read aloud to Sam from History of Us: The First Americans Prehistory-1600 (Hakim). We covered chapters 10-12.

• The Black Legend, Native Americans, and Spaniards: Crash Course US History #1
• Mound Builders (Adenas)
• Algonquian and Iroquois
• 6 Nations Treaty of Peace

And he continued to review US geography with Sheppardsoftware. 50 out of 50 states consistently placed correctly at Level 3!

MUSIC HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY and CULTURES
Cati finished early American music history with Easy Peasy Homeschool, and that started Geography and Cultures. Since the lessons are quick, she completes one week per day, sometimes more. This week she completed weeks 35-36 and 1-3.

• Composed Original Music with Beatlab
• Reviewed Instruments of an Orchestra
• Violin, Viola and Cello

ENRICHMENT

Cati

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

Sam

• Cub  Scouts
• CNN Student News

DAYS COMPLETED: CATE - 103 | SAM - 100

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 15 - Back to Basics

So, where were we? Ah, yes, week 15.  Almost a half year completed. A tad more really since we did summer studies. We will celebrate our 100th day next week! But what happened this week?

CORE WORK

CATI

• English Grammar 101: Section 5 Modifiers - Adjectives and Adverbs, Quiz 95%
• Writing - How to Wake up with Energy 5 Paragraph Essay
• Vocab Test List 12-14
• The Swiss Family Robinson (Wyss)
• Khan Academy Pre-Algebra - 78% Completed

SAM

• Grammar and Writing Handbook: Unit 2 - Possessive Nouns
• Writing - New Year's Perfect Paragraph
• Grammar Ninja - Level 2
• Cursive Copywork - 1 Corinthians 13:13
• The Borrowers (Norton)
• Khan Academy Math 4 - 46% Completed

Waiting in the van for Cate to finish band practice is a perfect time for Sam to do copywork, grammar, reading, Mad Libs, A History of US, and this week some literature-based math. I read aloud Fun with Roman Numerals (Adler) and we played Roman Numerals War.

ASTRONOMY
Mars was our focus this week in Apologia Astronomy. Sam completed his notebooking page while I read aloud from the text, and he built models of the Sojourner rover and Olympus Mons.

• Notebooking and Project Pages
• Mars' Atmosphere, Environment, Gravity, Moons, and Orbit
• "Mars: Crash Course Astronomy #15"
• Balloon Rover
• Salt Dough Volcano Model

GENERAL SCIENCE
Cati started Module 6: Foundations of Geology in Apologia General Science this week. She conducted an experiments on the difference between rocks and minerals, separation of sedimentation, and physical weathering.

• Vocabulary: Catastrophism, Mineral, Uniformitarianism, Weathering, Humus
• Soil, Rocks and Minerals
• Types of Rock
• Mineral Classification

U.S. HISTORY
I read aloud to Sam from History of Us: The First Americans Prehistory-1600 (Hakim). We covered chapters 5-9.

• Anasazi
• Inuit
• Northwest Native Americans
• Potlaches
• 15th Century Land and Animals
• Plains Indians

Sam also played U.S. Geography: Level 3 Expert on Sheppardsoftware, scoring 48 out of 50 states.

MUSIC HISTORY
Cati is studying early American music history with Easy Peasy Homeschool. Since the lessons are quick, she completes one week per day, sometimes more. This week she completed weeks 27-34.

• Slave Spirituals
• Songs of the Confederacy
• Mendelssohn
• Strauss
• Major and Minor Scales, Notes, Steps and Accidentals
• Composed Music with Beatlab

ENRICHMENT

Cati

• Jazz and Concert Band
• CNN Student News
• Baked Blueberry Oatmeal Cookies, Homemade Cheese Pizza, Spaghetti
• Planned and Shopped for Meals with a Budget 

Sam

• CNN Student News
• Cooked Egg, Sausage and Cheese Breakfast Sandwiches, Homemade Meatballs with Cheesy Centers
• Planned and Shopped for Meals with a Budget

DAYS COMPLETED: CATE - 99 | SAM - 94

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!

Another Week Closer to Another Year Completed: April 21 - 27

April's almost over?! Really?! Wow! Has it flown by for you too?

White Pine went camping with the Boy Scouts this weekend. He packed up his LL Bean backpack with the essentials - socks, a change of clothing, a pillow, first aid kit, bug spray, sun screen...and a GALLON of Gatorade and enough Beef Jerky to smell up the whole kit'n kaboodle! He has SUCH a GREAT time camping with his buddies! And I'm glad he can share his STINKY jerky somewhere ELSE! ((wink))

Balsam Fir has become SURVIVIORMAN! Have you seen the show on Netlfix or Discovery Channel? A man named Les gets "lost" in different environments for 7 days, living off the land and recording his experience. Well, Balsam Fir thinks this is the COOLEST and walks around wearing a backpack and a bandana hat just like Les, pretending to be lost in the woods. And yes, we've gone over the finer points of the show: how Les is trained, has a plan and people coming back for him, that PREVENTION of getting in these situations is ALWAYS BEST, that eating "wild edibles" should not be done, and no, "marking his territory" around the yard is not acceptable to keep wild animals away. ((wink)) I think it's cute though! And why not learn survival information?

Guess what?! We've lived here for just over 6 years now and enjoyed the woods, lakes and mountains, but would you believe that we never knew there was a 16 mile trail system just 5 miles away? ((sigh)) Anyway, we headed out for a 3 hour hike to the river on Thursday.

We planted corn, cucumber and "goblin gourds" in the mini greenhouses to get a jump-start on the growing season. And Balsam Fir is SUPER excited that his peas have started to sprout!

Soak these Soil Cups in Water for a Few Hours

Poke in Seeds

Cover with a Plastic Lid and Voila! Mini Greenhouses!

Breakfast - It's what's for dinner! How can you go wrong with pancakes, right? Well, one of our favorite dinners is applesauce-cinnamon or pumpkin spice pancakes. And it's a "wing it" meal! LOL I put 1/2 a box - Yes! Simple, just-add-water box pancake mix! LOL - in a bowl, and then plop in some natural applesauce or unsweetened pumpkin, spices (like cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger) and a tablespoon? of dark brown sugar and mix. Now, adding the water can be tricky because the apple and pumpkin have some liquid in them. I just "eye ball" the amount of water, stirring, adding more if needed, until I get the right consistency. Ever had peanut butter-and-jelly pancakes? LOL

Pancake Mix, Applesauce and Cinnamon

Pancake Mix, Pumpkin Puree, Dark Brown Sugar, Cinnamon,
Nutmeg, and Ginger

Dinner! Pancakes and Syrup, Scrambled Eggs (from Our Hens'
Eggs of Course), Red Seedless Grapes, and Cantaloupe

Oh, yeah, we did some school work too. ((wink)) Nothing too exciting though, just our regular ol' bookwork. We're DILIGENTLY working through our Language Arts and Mathematics so we can wrap up the school year on May 11th. Can it be done? We'll see! This time of year is hard for us to focus! So many OTHER THINGS seem much more interesting...state parks, wooded trails, gardening, riding bikes and scooters, running through the sprinkler, and...the list goes on. But the date is set: May 19th for PORTFOLIO REVIEWS!

I did start on NEXT YEAR'S curriculum organizing, pulling THIS YEAR'S books off the shelves. I like to put Post-Its on pages with schedules, answer keys, problem sets, etc. to make it easier to find things. The Post-Its are usually gone by mid-year, but by then we know where to find what we need easily. And I started my NEED TO BUY list...composition notebooks, colored pencils, GLUE STICKS, and so on. (Are we the only family that NEVER has enough glue sticks?! LOL) Fortunately, our supply list isn't going to be very long...because the To Buy curriculum list IS! Who's all set for next year?

Weekly Wrap-up: Days 162-166 - T Minus 9 Days!

Over the weekend, we attended J's Spring Court of Honor ceremony for Boy Scouts where he received his Tenderfoot, the first level towards Eagle, and his American Culture and Environmental Science merit badges.

J Receiving his Tenderfoot from Senior Patrol Member

S Trying to Figure Out How to do the Boy Scout Salute

And, after the kids saw my Mom's 2-week-old chicks, we started incubating 4 eggs on Sunday! Check out our EGG-CEPTIONAL study here! (Yeah, I know, but I couldn't help the word-play! LOL)

C with the Chick she Named Willow

S with the Chick he Named S Jr

With warmer days and nights, we worked on the gardens Monday. J is our "Master Gardener" for the veggie bed, and C is our "Master Gardener" for the new flower bed. And S is our "Dirt Digger", which he's VERY happy about! LOL Read my post As Our Garden Grows to see what we did!

S with his Tranplanted Pines

C had her first softball practice on Monday and her first game on Thursday. Her team won 8-7 and she had 2 nice hits!

J's To Complete List

• Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra
• Apologia General Science
• Jumpstart Typing 

C's To Complete List

• All About Spelling Level 2
• Handwriting Without Tears Cursive
• Daily Grams Grade 3
• Saxon Math 54
• Apologia Zoology III

S's To Complete List

• Hooked on Phonics: Learn to Read
• Handwriting Without Tears Letters and Numbers for Me
• Houghton Mifflin Math 1

Activities This Week
Occupational Therapy
Pediatrician Appointment
Dodgeball
Playground
Boy Scouts
Hang Out with Buddies
Softball

I'm linking up to Forever, For Always, No Matter What, Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers, Tiggerific Tuesday, and Hip Homeschool Hop. Share you week by joining up!