Weekly Wrap-up: One Step at a Time

Cabin Fever. :sigh:

With winter lingering on, I couldn't wait to get outside anymore. I downloaded this awesome app for my Smartphone called Runkeeper. It uses GPS to map where and distance, and includes pace and an estimation of how many calories burned. I logged in 6.08 miles of walking the last 1 1/2 weeks. Considering I had to deal with an achy leg due to neurological testing, icy roads, and messy weather, I'm happy with that. I even dragged the kids and dogs along! Seeing those miles add up is a great incentive!

Have you read The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin? Awesome!

School Snippets

• Jake is building a steam-powered 'power plant' that will run a Lego train, gave a presentation in Social Studies, and is studying Mars for another oral and computer presentation
• Cati and Sam studied Quinten Massys and Raphael in Art Fraud Detectives: Spot the Differences, Solve the Crime!
• Both went swimming (in a heated pool)
• Cati played clarinet in a band concert
• Cati read The Fellowship of the Ring, and Sam read The Magic Finger and started Flat Stanley (again)
• Cati wrote terse verses for poetry and worked on her collection of inspirational sayings 
• Sam spend HOURS building and redesigning a Lego boat, then added a Technics motor and made it RC, and tested it in the bathtub for speed and maneuverability 
• Sam worked on time (minutes), fact families, place value, and word problems  

Cati and I finished our 2nd knitted scarves. What do you think?

She started another scarf, peach and cream striped this time, and I'm going to make some dishclothes. I'm using this You Tube video tutorial for the dishclothes. Again, for beginners.

I've joined a decluttering challenge called "40 Bags in 40 Days" here. She has some useful printables if you're up for some simplifying. I'm not sure I'll get to 40 bags as I've been doing this for a year, but there's always stuff that can go, right? TBC (Total Bag Count): 3

Instead of buying pre-packaged bars for my oldest son's school snacks, I made Jordan Marsh Muffins this week. You can find the recipe here at Cooks.com. I made blueberry, raspberry and strawberry muffins from berries we or my Mom picked last season and froze, and omitted the sprinkle of sugar on top. Perfect for snacking!

Photo Credit

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

 

A Closer Look: How We Do Science

It can be challenge to juggle 2 levels of science. With Cati in 6th and Sam in 3rd, they're just far enough apart in academic levels that combining them simply doesn't work well. Cati complains it's too slow, Sam gets frustrated that it's too fast, and I wonder how I"m going to meet the learning needs of both my kids.

But I lucked out this year and found LIFE SCIENCE for BOTH kids.

Cati is using Prentice Hall's Life Science, Amazon new starting at $19.00; a middle school level 833 page textbook traditionally taught in public schools. 

 

And Sam is using Mr. Q's Life Science, free; an on-line elementary level curriculum.

But how we do science is through NOTEBOOKING. For more information about notebooking, click over to this link from So You Think You're a Homeschooler? website.

Both Cati and Sam have color-coordinated - Yes! That again! I'm obsessed! LOL - composition notebooks for science. Composition notebooks hold together much better than the spiral bound one-subjects. 

First, I photocopy or print out the table of contents for their curriculum and glue them into the first page or two of their notebooks. Having the table of contents readily available helps to plan studies, but also works as a QUICK GLANCE record of the topics covered over the course of the year. As each chapter is completed, it's highlighted. We don't always get through every chapter each year.

I also glue in an envelop in the back of the notebooks to place little odds and ends. This year, Sam's small Mr. Q chapter-by-chapter vocab cards get tucked inside for matching games.

As the kids read their chapters, they take notes and photocopy or replicate charts, graphs or labelled drawings in their notebooks. Cati is mostly works independently, but we're still working on careful reading, taking notes and picking out the most important information in each chapter. For Sam, we read the chapters together, then summarize the information together on a whiteboard which he copies into his notebook.

The amount of notes and details depends on who's taking them. Here is Sam's (left) and Cati's (right) photocopied microscope notes:

Cati also takes self-tests on the Prentice Hall website here to gauge her level of comprehension and learning. 

Fortunately, as both are studying similar concepts we've been able to complete labs together. Those are photocopied out of the Prentice Hall book, glued into each notebook. Both complete any required graphs and information following the lab, but Cati continues on with the comprehension questions at the end of each one.

So far using different levels of Life Science combined with notebooking as made for a smooth Science year!

How do you juggle different levels of Science in your homeschool?

A Peak at Our Week: The One Bursting with Bushels of Apples

In My Life This Week
The kids and I spent time with Grandpa and Nannie Lobster, Cousin Noodle, and the island crew for our annual FAMILY APPLE PICKING WEEKEND. 

Wight's Orchard, near Bucksport, sells McIntosh, Delicious and Cortland apples by the bushel rather than the pound. Getting LOADS of apples is very inexpensive! (Shhh! Don't tell anyone about our favorite orchard! It's crowded enough! LOL) The apples were perfect this year - BIG and SWEET!

Every year after apple picking and getting winter squash and pumpkins, we all descend upon the local CHINESE RESTAURANT for lunch. The horde of us can overwhelm a restaurant, but they've always been welcoming. 

But then the CRUD descended on us: coughing, sneezing, congestion, aches, and pains. :sigh: With Jake going to public school this year and being exposed to copious amounts of germs, I have a feeling we're going to be sniffling a lot this season. 

What We're Cooking
Apples, apples, apples! No surprises there, huh? :wink: We made crockpot applesauce. I don't really have a recipe for it. I fill the crock with peeled, sliced apples, add in about 1/2 cup of water with lemon juice, a half "palm"of dark brown sugar, and a big ol' dash of ground cinnamon. Cook on high until the apples practically mush themselves, but a potato masher will do the job quickly, then spoon into glass canning jars, wipe the tops and pop on the lids. The 'sauce is so warm that the jars seal without a water bath!

High School Happenings
A project to test acceleration of an object. Discovered the ratio of chocolate chips to cookie in Keebler and Hannaford brand chocolate chip cookies. (Keebler had more chip for cookie FYI.) Learned more Chinese phrases. Watched game shows on You Tube to discuss strategies. Peer reviews of portfolio blogs.

Homeschool Happenings

One of our favorite family traditions is to read Johnny Appleseed: the Story of a Legend by Will Moses  each Autumn. We love the folk-artsy illustrations and fun, informative story about John Chapman. The kids know the story, by heart, but they never want to miss a reading this time of year.

Guess what? I'm THE coolest homeschooling mom ever. Why? Sam mentioned that there are BIOMES in Minecraft! Since he's studying biomes in Life Science, and Cati listens in on his science too, I challenged them to build a shelter using resources found in the biome as well as create food sources. This week they worked on forests, building a log cabin with a fire place (because it can get damp and chilly) and apple trees. (I'm hoping to figure out the video feature on Cati's camera for them to describe their biome home to you. Wish me luck! :wink:)

I made the decision to drop Easy Grammar for Sam at this time. He's never had formal grammar lessons before so starting up at Grade 3 has been a frustrating challenge for both of us. I AM continuing Daily Grammar with him, turning each day into repetitive mini lessons. He's learned quite a bit of grammar already this way...without the struggle.

This week's Life Sci experiments where on Diffusion and Leaf Pigmentation with mixed results.

Highlights
☼ Easy/Daily Grammar: Prepositions/Days 10-13
☼ The Throne of Fire (C) & The Knight at Dawn (S)
☼ Poetry Unit - Haikus (C)
☼ Spelling Power Lists 7-19 (C) & 6-8 (S)
☼ Saxon Test 4, Lesson 25-26 (C) & Math-U-See 9D-X (S)
☼ Cell Processes and Genetics (C), Biomes (S) & Diffusion and Pigmentation Labs
☼ NROC U.S. History Lessons 13-15

People and Places
☼ Apple Picking (All) ☼ Scouts (All) ☼ Fire Station (S) ☼ Jazz and Concert Band (C) ☼ Library (C/S) ☼ Scout Camping and Kayaking (J) ☼

Something to Share

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How to : A Travel Lego Box

It's a good thing that my kids like building and creating with Legos because we have about 300 pounds of those FOOT OUCHIES. With our trip coming up SUPER SOON, I wanted to be able to bring some for Sam, and fill some of those HOURS on the plane. 

I considered bringing one of our Lego Simple Machines kits. They're educational, but expensive. If one of those parts got lost enroute, replacing it would be a frustration (especially since I can't FIND the kits on-line anymore).

So, I improvised.

I found a see-through green 8 inch x 4 inch x 1 inch plastic box with 5 sections and an attached, latching lid. The PERFECT SIZE to slip into a backpack! It used to hold fishing lures from a kid's fishing pole kit we got YEARS ago. It's been bouncing around the house every since, used for holding beads, hair pretties, and STUFF.

Searching through the Lego totes, I found flat pieces in gray, green and blue. I used these pieces to make a road and parking area (gray), grassy places (green) and a lake (blue) on top of the lid. Hot Glue worked awesome to attach the pieces! I did have to cut (with kitchen scissors) on long green piece to fit 2 sections.

FYI: Make sure the glue does not spread out beyond the edges of each piece as you want them to fit SNUGLY next to one another.

I then searched for a "car chassis", a Lego piece with wheels, and specialized pieces that I thought Sam would like to build a vehicle. I included levers, windows, a wheel and boat rudder (and he could make a boat for the water too), red and clear single "bump" Legos (for headlights), antennas, and 2 Mini-Figures, and then threw in a number of varies sized bricks. All these I fit inside the box. And for now they're organized!

FYI: Don't forget a Mini-Figure or two for more imaginative play.

Voila! A Travel Lego Box with things we had lying around the house. And if a piece goes missing? No biggie! (No laughing at my QUICK build to try out the box's top! LOL And yes, that red-and-yellow THING in the lake IS a sailboat...)