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 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 6 - Gone Campin' and Fishin'...and Learnin'

So, how was your Independence Day weekend?

Tom and I took the kids camping. We had glorious weekend weather, perfect for swimming in the lake, having campfires in the evenings and sleeping in a tent. (OK, it was a little cool to sleep in a tent. I should have packed the thicker sleeping bags and a few more blankets.) Our campground even let off it's own fireworks, which were quite good! 

And I only have about 20 bug bites on my legs. That bug spray worked...

Despite the 'quitoes, I love camping. There's something awesome about spending days outside, walking around talking to other campers, playing horseshoes, swimming and fishing, reading and crocheting, eating at a picnic table and sitting around a campfire, falling asleep with the sounds of owls and loons. Not all the kids shared in my enthusiasm though, and despite some fun, memorable times we ended our camping trip a day early.

But that gave Tom and I a day to drop our little boat into a small, quiet lake to fish. We only saw 2 kayaks and 1 canoe the whole 5 hours we were rowing around. (No motors on this lake.) The fish were jumping out of the water! A great catch day! I even caught one. Finally. But my favorite part of the day was seeing a Mama and Daddy Canada Geese with their goslings swim by. So sweet!

Our Summer Studies are going well! The kids haven't complained about doing some Language Arts and Math yet. I know that it can be hard. It's summer vacation after all. But it's also important to get a little extra work done is areas they're struggling with. And there's ice cream when they get 12 days completed...

According to Khan Academy, Cate has already mastered 18% of her Pre-Algebra course. She struggled with Saxon Algebra 1/2 last year. I'm hoping that Khan's different learning approach will help her to "master" those areas she just didn't get from Saxon. And Debussy seems to help the learning process...

Sam never did finish the entire Saxon 54 last year, but he's working on Khan Math 4 this summer. He's already mastered 13%, good, steady progress.

I didn't think that I would like Khan, but I do! I love the Progress Report! It shows me quickly what they have worked on, what they know and what they're struggling in, and it'll make a PERFECT chart to include in her end-of-year portfolio for assessment.

Summer School Day Counter

Cate - 7 days | Sam - 6 1/2 days

I joined a Facebook Bible Journaling group a month or so ago. I was inspired by the creativity of all the beautiful artwork and lettering that I decided to try journaling myself. Some choose do to the journaling right inside their bibles, but I decided to stick to a small hard-cover notebook for mine. I'm not an artist. I'm creative and enjoy handicrafts and photography, but drawing and painting has never been my thing. I'm quite happy with my first attempt though!

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

"When one teaches, two learn." - Robert Heinlein