Weekly Wrap-up: Week 17 - Focus, Focus, Focus!

It's been one of those weeks where *I*  just wanted to break from school and housework, and just read and crochet and stay warm in cozy PJs. What's a homeschool mom to do? I prodded on, knowing that we're aiming for wrapping up the year by the end of April and taking too many breaks won't get us there. The kids did great despite *my* lack of focus. Unfortunately, I didn't feel like taking photos either, so this post doesn't have many. The kids are off to spend some time with their Dad this weekend; a perfect time for THIS mom to reboot.

CORE WORK

CATI

• English Grammar 101: Section 5 Modifiers - Adjectives and Adverbs (100%), Section 6 - Prepositions
• Writing - Martin Luther King, Jr. 5 Paragraph Essay
• Vocab Test Grade 9 List 1 (89%)
• Laddie (Stratton Potter)
• Khan Academy Pre-Algebra - 83% Completed

SAM

• Grammar and Writing Handbook: Unit 2 - Commas, Unit 3 - Verbs 
• Grammar Smart Junior: Nouns
• Writing - Descriptive Writing 5 Essay Paragragh
• Grammar Ninja - Level 2
• Cursive Copywork - James 1:19
• Rascal (North)
• Khan Academy Math 4 - 45% Completed
• Saxon 65 - Lesson 4 (Equal To/Less Than/ Greater Than), Lesson 5 (Naming Whole Numbers), Lesson 6 (Addition Algorithm), Lesson 7 (Ordinal Numbers)

Sam's struggling a bit with the Grammar and Writing Handbook, so I found Grammar Smart Junior at the library and we're reviewing some concepts before moving on.

A slower, simpler way to review grammar with Sam.

ASTRONOMY

Sam continued on with Lesson 8: Rocks, studying meteors and asteroids and creating a model of the solar system.

• Notebook Page/Project Page
• Comets, Comas, and Orbits
• Halley's, Hale-Bopp and Shoemaker - Levy Comets
• Kuiper Belt, Oort Cloud and Asteroid Belt
• Meteorites, Meteoroids and Meteors
• Asteroids

GENERAL SCIENCE

Cati started Module 7: The Fossil Record this week. She made a fossil cast and model of the carbonization process as well as an experiment of mineral evaporation. 

• How Fossils are Formed
• Features of Fossil Records
• Petrifaction 
• Carbonate Residues and Impressions

Cate used Plaster of Paris to make a fossil model...with her colorful flair.

U.S. HISTORY and GEOGRAPHY

I read aloud to Sam from History of Us: The First Americans Prehistory-1600 (Hakim). We covered chapters 13-15.

• Vikings or Norseman
• Archaeology, Anthropology, Historians, and Zoology to Determine History
• Early Maps
• Johannes Gutenberg and the Printing Press
• Renaissance Period
• Improvements in the Compass and Cartography for Sea Navigation
• Henry the Navigator
• Christopher Columbus
• Ptolemy

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 4-8.

• Double Bass
• Harp
• Woodwinds

ENRICHMENT

Cati

• Concert Band
• CNN Student News
• Walked miles
• Photography
• Baked Homemade Samoas Cookies

Cate made Girl Scout Samoas Copy Cat Cookies. They were delish!

Sam

• CNN Student News

DAYS COMPLETED: CATE - 109 | SAM - 104

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!

Weekly Wrap-up: Week 22 - Hello March! Bring Spring!

 ON THIN ICE

Over the weekend, Tom and his kids came over to visit for the day. We took most of the kids - Jake said, "Ah, no!" - ice skating for the first time this winter season. We've got this awesome place nearby that freezes water about 3 inches thick inside a barn, offering FREE skates AND FREE rink time with FREE cocoa. Perfect for family fun afternoons! I can barely walk without stumbling, so I watched from the safety of the sidelines (in the "warming room" with a wood stove). Someone had to take photos, right? 

CREATIVE RELAXATION

After a couple of weeks' break, I started new crochet projects. It REALLY is true that crocheting (or knitting) is good for mental health. (See article here.) Worry just goes away with each stitch! And I've had some worry. Between furnace repairs and gurgling toilets, I've had some financial and emotional stress.

I made some cute spring-y bookmarks, using this pattern for a stem and this one for a flower, and then worked on tulle pot scrubbers. Nothing like a good scrubber! We've been giving one of these a work-out this week...

BREAKFAST SERVED
To save a bit of time in the AM when I'm rushing out the door with Jake to get him to school and so we can get right to homeschooling, I made up 20 breakfast sandwiches. Each English muffin as a fried egg, slice of American cheese and a piece of ham or sausage patty. I bagged them up and plopped them into a bowl in the fridge. They can be reheated in 30 seconds in the microwave and paired with an apple, orange or banana. Breakfast served!

ANOTHER WEEK
Cati continued to take and pass her Saxon Grammar and Writing and Algebra 1/2 tests, moving ahead without doing the lessons those tests cover. She moved ahead 5 lessons in Grammar and 16 lessons in Math. She'll finish her Language Arts and Math earlier than scheduled. It's super exciting for her! And will give her time to devote to her Maine Studies which she's been dragging her feet on...

But moving ahead in Grammar doesn't mean she moved ahead in WRITING, so she spent most of the week catching up there. She started a blog a few months ago. I'm having her do her writing work there. Not so much to share, but to save time on printing as our printer is frustratingly finicky.

Sam finished George's Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl and gave me an oral summary. Out of curiosity I had him chose his next book from our library and he went with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Usually I chose his books as he won't "get around to it". Reading isn't his thing, but I hope someday he'll learn to enjoy it (or at least be confident in reading for knowledge).

He's still learning from the World of Science. This week his focus was on electricity and magnetism: electrical networks and energy, what happens inside an electrical wire and the body, chemical electricity (like in car batteries, small battery cells and pacemakers), electrical currents, and how we use electricity daily. He gives me oral summaries. (I'm slowly getting over MY need for written evaluation for HIS need to share verbally.)

Photo Source

WEATHER-WISE

Look! Look! We're warming up! And only snow SHOWERS!

As always, special thanks to the these bloggers:

Don't forget to read my other blog posts this week:
Follow Friday Four Fill in Fun: Week 202

Six Word Saturday: Summary in Six Sentences with Six Words
Wednesday Hodgepodge: MARCHing On...

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

Weekly Wrap-up: Week 10 - Trying to Focus

EVERYDAY LIFE
I decided to learn to crochet. I enjoy learning something new, especially a handicraft. I found tutorials to help teach me the basics. (Visit the Crochet Guru here.) Her videos include left-handed instructions. Woot! It's a bit challenging to do things the "left way" with right-hand tutorials. This week I made a dishcloth. Next up? A simple beanie hat...I hope.

I needed to find some way to use up 10 pounds of strawberries from the freezer. I found on Pinterest a recipe for making strawberry jam in a BREAD MACHINE here. (I never did notice the "jam" cycle button before...) The results? Awesome lower-sugar strawberry freezer jam!

We got sticking snow; snow that doesn't melt on contact with the ground. Not a lot, but enough to let me know that we need to finish up our winter prep (i.e. putting the outdoor furniture, lawn mower and grill away). It's on our To Do List today.

MENU
• Baked Chicken Tenders, Teriyaki Rice & Peas • Pepperoni and Cheese Pizza • Vegetable Beef Stew & Rolls • Baked Pork Chops, Mac n Cheese & Apples • Taco Salad • Cereal, Skim Milk & Fruit •

HOMESCHOOL HAPPENINGS
It was hard for us to focus on our schooling this week. Not that it wasn't productive, but it was a struggle for ALL of us to get started and hit most of our subjects every day. Some weeks are like that, right? I think we were thrown off by a super busy (but fun weekend) and Jake being home from public school Monday and Tuesday (due to teacher's workshop and Veteran's Day).

Sam spent a lot of time redesigning his popsicle stick boat filled with expanding foam, even painting it. (I drew the line at HOUSE paint though...) It floats, but it's wobbly so he continues to make modifications, testing buoyancy in the bathtub.

Cati
Infinitives as Subjects, Phrases & Clauses. Wattpad Creative Writing
Rate Word Problems, Equivalent & Addition-Subtraction Rules for Equations, Rectangular Coordinations
Erosion & Deposition: Weathering, Run-off, Moving Water, Glaciers, Waves & Wind
Early Crete, the Minoans, the Mycenaeans, the Dorians, Greek Dark Ages
Walking

Sam
Sara Teasdale Poetry, Wrote  Biography Poem, Grade Spelling Weeks 26-33, Story Settings, Main Topics in Stories, Adverbs, Quotation Marks

"Some Went Away" Word Problems, Fraction Pictures, Repeated Addition for Multiplication & the Multiplication Table
Earthquakes: Measuring Seismic Waves, Damage Caused By, Protecting Against

Early Crete, the Minoans, the Mycenaeans, the Dorians, Greek Dark Ages
Biking

READING and VIEWING
• Lilly's Ghost (Drake Harris) (Me) • The Hobbit (Tolkien) (Cati) • The Story of Davy Crockett, Frontier Hero (Retan) (Sam) • Sea of Ice: The Wreck of the Endurance (Kulling) (Sam) • Stuart Little (White) (Sam) •

PEOPLE and PLACES
 • Pie and Game Night with the S__'s (Me) • Thomas & Kids Visit (All) • Jazz & Concert Band Practice (Cati) • Cub Scouts (Sam) •

A FAVORITE SOMETHING

Happy Homeschooling!

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

Don't forget to check out my other blog posts this week!
Memory  Monday: Our Pet Family
Tuesday Coffee Chat: Let It Go
Wednesday Hodgepodge: Veteran's Day

And check out these FREE on-line resources for YOUR homeschool!
Around the World Country Stamps for Geography
Circulatory System Notebook Pages

Weekly Wrap-up: It's arrived!

EVERYDAY LIFE

Spring arrived this week! Ah-maz-ing! With warmer days, the snow melted fast creating a new 'pond' right where our driveway used to be...and I found out that Sam's rubber boots no longer fit by the dripping wet, winter boots lined up in the foyer. (What 9-year-old can resist a big ol' puddle to wade in.) But I'll take it! There's nothing quite like opening windows, even briefly, to let fresh air flow through the house after being shut up for months.

Even 'the girls' got to stretch those wings. Olive and Opal, the ducks, went swimming in the frigid brook, and Ony, Speckles, Musty, Sassy, Lil' Rhodie, Rhodie, Ava, Nutmeg, Butterfly, and Amber found the only patch of visible brown grass to scratch up. They rewarded us with finally laying eggs again.

But oh my! the road is a muddy mess. I'm going to need an alignment!

Total Bag Count: 14

MENU
✿ Hamburgers & Pasta and Veggie Salad ✿
✿ Scrambled Eggs, Hickory Smoked Bacon, Fresh Pineapple & Biscuits ✿
✿ Spaghetti with Ground Chicken Meat Sauce & Steamed Green Beans✿
✿ Marinated Beef Strips with Broccoli & Baked Fries ✿
✿ Boston Cream Pie Ice Box Cake ✿

SCHOOL SNIPPETS
Sam does "van school" while Cati is at Jazz and Concert Band and her clarinet lessons. I keep most of his work in a binder, slipping Easy Grammar inside and his current reading book. (I keep pencils and a hand sharpener in the van.) Do you ever do school-on-the-road?

Cati wrote Name Poems and Word Patterns poems this week. She's getting close to finishing up her study of basic 'formula' poetry. (I'd share the unit with you, but it's something I have from my student teaching in 1998 and it was OLD then.) She's also only 12 lessons away from finishing up Saxon 76.

In U.S. History we watched NROC on WWI and Woodrow Wilson, and FDR and The New Deal. We skipped art study this week and spent more time outside...and began to 'spring clean'.

At STEM school, Jake switched his Physics research topic from 4D to antimatter, continued to build a steam-powered power plant, focusing on the turbines, commuted projectiles for Math to get a ball into a basket without practicing, and "learned the things he hasn't" in Astronomy. (I'm not sure what that means!)

BOOKS
Mom- Seeing A Large Cat by Elizabeth Peters
Cati - The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
Sam - Invisible Stanley by Jeff Brown 

PEOPLE & PLACES
✿ Jazz and Concert Band & Clarinet Lesson (Cati) ✿
✿ Cub Scouts (Sam & Jake) ✿
✿ Wayback Wednesday at Movie Theatre: Back to the Future (All) ✿
✿ Boy Scout Camping (Jake) ✿

FAVORITES

I got a chuckle out of this Lego Pain Scale from Facebook. Those of you with Lego enthusiatists will understand all too well.

ON THE 'NET

How to Have a Perfectly Clean House
50 Best Unschooling/Self-directed Learning Posts in 2013

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