Last two weeks of September

We got so busy that I didn't have a chance to write a wrap-up for last week so I'm going to put both weeks here. We decided at the last minute to go to Tennessee to see my cousin and her family while they were visiting there. We hadn't seen them in over a year so it was nice to catch up and the kids had a great time with their little cousin.

History

 

 

Our first SOTW chapter was about China. We read that other countries wanted to trade with them, but their emperor Chi'en-lung didn't think they needed anything from others and made the other countries follow lots of restrictions. Then we learned that the British started sending opium to China and continued doing so even after the emperor ordered them to stop.

The next week we read about Napoleon Bonaparte, his battles, and how he came to be the ruler of France.

We also learned about the Louisana Purchase.

 

 

 

 

Science

 

 

The girls have been working on chapter 2 in Zoology 2, learning about whales. They did experiments about echolocation and to see why ocean water doesn't freeze as quickly as other water. They made paper bag whales (directions found here) and a toothed whale for their ocean boxes.

 

 

Caleigh's whale                           Colin's whale

Molly's whale

Whale books we read

 

 

Colin has been doing module 2 of Apologia General Science about scientific inquiry. He did some experiments to see how weight affects the speed at which objects fall. He started working on the study guide questions to prepare for his test this coming week.

 

 

 

 

 

Art

 

 



We did a lesson in Artistic Pursuits about seeing lines. The kids drew a model of an animal following the curves of the lines they saw while looking at the object. 

 

 

 

Colin's moose

Molly's giraffe

Caleigh's sea lion

 

Field Trips

 

 

We ended up doing quite a bit of traveling over the last 2 weeks. We went to Richmond, VA for Colin's hockey games. While we were there, we got to visit Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown Settlement, and Yorktown Victory Center. The kids liked Jamestown the best and loved checking out the ships there.

 

Last week when we went to Tennessee, we took the kids hiking on some trails in the Smoky Mountains.



We're having a GIRL!!

Last week, we all went to have my ultrasound to see the baby. The kids were so excited. The girls have had a ton of questions and were thrilled that they would see the baby and hear the heartbeat. We found out that we're having a girl! I think the kids were very surprised because they've all seemed sure it was a boy. It took them a little time to get used to, but I think they are good with a girl now.

I think having a girl when we already have two older girls is going to get expensive. We went shopping over the weekend and the girls wanted to get the baby all kinds of clothes. I can see they are all about cute and not practical. I think it will be like they have a doll to dress up. They're so excited about picking all the baby stuff. We got rid of everything years ago so I guess they'll have a lot of chances to choose stuff. They're also working on names.

 

Our Week: 9/10-9/14

I'm still surprised with how well we've all adjusted back to school. We're still not starting as early as I would like, but it's getting earlier. Everyone got used to sleeping in later while I was dealing with the tiredness and sickness of pregnancy. I'm still dealing with some sickness, but it's mostly just nausea and has gotten much better. 
The weather was great this week and I wish we had gotten out to enjoy it more. Looks like next week is going to be nice too so I really want to try to get us all outside more.

History

 

 

We ended up getting in a lot of history this week.

We started by reading more about Catherine the Great and learning how she became the empress of Russia. Then we read about the steam engine being used in Britain and how that increased the demand for coal. We also read about Eli Whitney's cotton gin and how he made standardization popular by making interchangeable parts for guns.

 

We finished the week by reviewing a little about the Jamestown settlement, the Battle of Yorktown, and what life was like in Williamsburg during Colonial times to prepare for a trip next week to visit those places.



We made our own cotton gin to help them understand how it worked.

 

Science



We finished the first chapter of Zoology 1.
The girls did a couple of experiments.

The first used a balloon and soda bottle to demonstrate how lungs react when a person dives into the deep ocean.

 

 

The second experiment was to find out if hot or cold water is heavier. This one was a little difficult
 for the girls to see. You were supposed to color the cold and hot water different colors. When the water came out of the cup into the bowl, they should have been able to see where it went, but it was really hard to see. It worked a little better when we tried leaving the water in the bowl clear and only coloring the water in the cup.

 

For General Science, Colin did an experiment that showed two chemical reactions occurring.

 

The girls were very excited when they saw the balloon suddenly blow up.

 

Art

 

This week's lesson from Artistic Pursuits was about form. We read about what form is, looked at a picture to discuss if it had form, and then made animals with form.

 



Molly's cow

Caleigh's dragon

Colin's dog

 

 

Other News

 

 

We drove two hours to go to an apple orchard Sunday. It was a beautiful day and we all had a good time. The kids picked 40 lbs of apples. We had a picnic lunch there, petted and fed some animals, and bought lots of goodies. The only bad thing was that we had car trouble right after leaving there. Luckily, we made it home, but the car wasn't going any farther. We had to have it towed and ended up getting a new transmission, which caused some rearranging earlier in the week with only one car.
 

 

Colin had hockey practice Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings. We drove to Richmond, VA today for his first games of the season tomorrow and Sunday. We're planning to get in some history field trips while we're here.





Our 2nd Week

Our second week of school went well. We've almost worked up to doing our full load.

Three Rs

 



Everyone has finished reviewing and moved on to new stuff.

Molly finished learning all the single phonograms and is ready to start Spell to Write and Read. She also started cursive this week.

Nothing else too exciting. Colin and Caleigh are just progressing with their usual things.

 

History

 

 

We did 1 1/2 chapters in Story of the World this week. First we read about the French Revolution. Then we started learning about Catherine the Great of Russia.

 

 

 

 

 

Science

 

 

Just as I expected would happen, Colin has insisted on listening in to the girls' science even though he still has to do his own. We started on the first chapter of Zoology 2, learning about aquatic animals, currents, and tides.

They did an experiment to create a miniature gyre to learn more about surface currents.

 

In Aplogia General Science, Colin did two experiments.

The first was putting different things in a glass to learn about density.

 

 

Then he did an experiment with cold water, hot water, and food coloring to learn about atomic motion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Art

 

 

We did a lesson in Artistic Pursuits, where we talked about seeing shapes and studied Diego Rivera's Flower Day looking at shapes. Then the kids made paper cutout collages. 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

Other Stuff

 



 

Colin had his first week with three hockey practices. He'd only been having 2, but will have 3 the rest of the year. 

 

The kids got to go to the doctor with me and see the baby on the ultrasound. I think it made it more real for them to see the baby and hear the heartbeat. The girls have asked how much longer until the baby is born a million times since then. It's going to be a long 4 months.

 

We met some new people at a park day nearby. The kids had a good time meeting new people and playing. Hopefully, we'll be able to go to another one soon. Since we've moved, most of the kids' friends are about 45 minutes away so it would be nice to have some friends closer too. 



First Day of School 2012

Our first day of school was last week, but this is the first chance I've had to post about it.

We started the day with chocolate chip pancakes. Each kid got the number of their grade. Those 4s and 2s aren't easy to make.

 

We also had some special cupcakes for the first day.

 

Of course, we had to take first day of school pictures.



Colin- 7th grade

 

Caleigh- 4th grade

 

Molly- 2nd grade

 

Our First Week Back to School

I am so happy about our first week back to school. After the longest break we've ever taken, I definitely expected the worst. Sometimes the kids seem to have a hard time getting back into things and act like they've forgotten all their math skills after just a long weekend. They've done great though. No whining or complaining and they seem to be ready to pick right back up where we left off. I think maybe they were ready for a little more structure to our days.

Monday was the first day for public schools in our area so we had a "Not Back to School" celebration with our homeschool friends. We've been doing this for the last several years. We usually go to lunch and then bowling, but this year we went to Chuck E. Cheeses after lunch. The kids seemed to like that better and it worked well with all ages. It was great hanging out with everyone and seeing some friends we haven't seen in a while.

 

On Tuesday, we officially started our school year. The kids did an all about me page and a first day of school interview to start.

 

For the last four years, I've made the kids a special back to school cake. We've had a box of crayons, a sheet of notebook paper, and the earth (you can see them under the cake tab at the top of this page). Pregnancy sickness has made it hard for me to be in the kitchen so this year I was looking for something easy. This cupcakes were really easy. I bought chocolate covered cookies for chalkboards and the little white candies (chalk) are from the candies you buy by the pound at the grocery store.

 

Molly is at the beginning of a math book so she has started that. Colin and Caleigh have been doing review work. Caleigh is doing 2 review pages each day from the part of her RightStart math book that she had already finished. Colin did the tests in Basic College Math for review before jumping back into his Geometry and starting Pre-Algebra next week.

Molly is doing grammar, reviewing writing capital and lowercase letters, and learning the phonograms before starting Spell to Write and Read.
Caleigh did grammar, Writing with Ease, and reviewed her cursive letters. I had planned to let her review the phonograms, but she only had trouble with a couple of them so I need to get ready and move on to the reference pages and spelling lists with her.
Colin did Daily Grams, logic, some writing, and started reading his science.

In history, we read about James Cook and his explorations. We learned more about Australia and convicts being sent there. We also read about the beginning of political parties, the White House, and the first census in A History of US.


Our read aloud for the week was Pippi Longstocking. I'm hoping to do a better job reading chapter books aloud this year. We read tons of books for history, science, unit studies, etc., but I have a hard time sticking with reading a book that takes us more than a few days. Last year we listened to books in the car, but we won't have as much driving to do now since we've moved.
Here are the kids playing with pattern blocks and tangrams while I read.

 

Our School Room

This is our 3rd year having a school room and it's the 3rd one we've had (maybe we need to stop moving so much). Before having one, we did school in the dining room or kitchen. That worked pretty well for a while, but as we added in the girls and acquired lots more stuff, it became hard to find space for everything.

I love having a school room and would have a very hard time going back to not having one. I know lots of people who have school rooms still end up working all over the house, but we actually do most of our work in this room. I think having a good sized room, a large table where we all fit, and a couch to do our reading makes a big difference. I like that it's separate from the main part of the house because it keeps me from getting distracted by other things (laundry, dishes, etc) I would worry about if I was looking at them the whole time.


Our school room is an upstairs bonus room. After you come in the door, there is an small area and then a step down. That's where this picture was taken.

A little closer to the main part of the room.
My hubby made this table because I couldn't find one as big as I wanted. It has shelves for legs so we can store extra pencils, crayons, colored pencils, etc. I painted a lazy susan and added metal pails (from Target dollar section) for the middle of the table to hold things we use often.

This is taken from the table and is the opposite side of the room. The door is on the left side of the picture.

Right side of room

Left side of room

I'll start to the left as you enter the room and go around. This the only area in the room that doesn't have the angled walls so it's where the bookshelves had to go. Everything on these shelves is divided by subject.

I love this little reading area and the kids were excited to go out and choose beanbags for it. The shelf on the left has picture books and the right one has easy readers and chapter books. On top of the right shelf are file folder games and library books (in the B bookends). I'm planning to get a basket or two to hold more library books.

Next is our little science area. On the left are a container of magnets and a magnet book, a wooden box with treasures the kids have found outside, and some bug containers. On the right are some ocean themed items. The basket has frogs on a log along with science and math workbooks that go with them for Molly to use when she finishes and is waiting for the rest of us.

Art and Writing area
You can see our art work display line coming across the science area and into this. There's a small table for the girls with some journals on it and a roll of paper. Above that are containers with markers, crayons, colored pencils, glue sticks, and decorative scissors.

Gutter shelves to display books that go along with what we're studying or if it's just something I want the kids to notice. The basket in the corner has pattern blocks, tangrams, and books to go with them. This couch gets lots of use for read alouds and often when the kids are reading on their own.

Close up of the cork board that's behind the couch. This is where I put up which artist, music (instruments right now), and state we're studying.

World map, president poster, beginning of our time line, and math box. I don't know if you can see it, but the yellow sign says "look what I made" and has 3 clips for hanging things. I shortened our timeline this year and just included from the late 1500s to now. In history, we've almost made it to the 1800s. The math box has all our RightStart manipulatives divided into the drawers. The box on top has cards for the math games.

This is where I keep the books we use almost daily. Each of us has a cubby and there is one for the girls' science, Colin's science, state study, unit study or holidays, subjects we do together, their lapbook notebooks, and 2 for history. The containers on the bottom hold some of my supplies. The kids each have one under their cubby for whatever they need to put in. The bins on the top hold their art supplies (the good ones that I want them to take care of and be responsible for their own). On the left is the girls' workboxes (5 for each of them). On top of that is SWR phonogram cards. The right side has Colin's workboxes.

The green container to the left has file folders to hold printouts and whatever else for things I've planned that we'll be doing soon. The white drawers hold all different kinds of paper with the printer on top.

Just outside of the room is our craft closet. It's in need of a lot of organization right now. I just wanted to hurry and get the boxes unpacked so I'll be working on it soon.

We also have another closet down the hall outside the playroom for games and puzzles.




Check out this blog hop to see where other people are doing school.

2012-2013 Curriculum

Most of our curriculum this year is just the next level of what we've done before. The biggest change is going to be separate science programs. When my girls started school, I found that it was best for us to all do as much as possible together so that's what we've done. With Colin starting 7th grade this year, I really felt like he needed a more rigorous science and to start moving toward more independence. He's not all that happy about it, but we'll try it and see how it goes. All three kids will continue to do history and art together though.


7th Grade

Math
RightStart Geometry (has about 1/3 to finish)
VideoText Algebra
Basic College Math (for review)
Life of Fred Decimals and Percents (for review)


Language Arts
Writing with Skill
The Creative Writer (Fridays)
KISS Grammar
Daily Grams
Vocabulary from the Roots Up


Science
Apologia General Science


History
Story of the World (chapters 24-42 of volume 3 and start volume 4)
A History of US
       We will stop to go into more depth on the U.S. sections of SOTW.


Geography
State study- we started this last year so we will pick back up where we left off doing a different state every Friday. (Resources shown below)


Art/Music/Foreign Language
Artistic Pursuits
Meet the Masters
Story of the Orchestra
Power Glide Spanish (still trying to decide if we want to do this)

Logic
The Fallacy Detective (needs to finish this)
The Thinking Toolbox


Typing
Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing


PE
Travel hockey with 3 practices a week and games on weekends
Considering track if it will work around his hockey schedule

Most of Colin's 7th grade books

4th Grade

Math
RightStart Math (finish level D, start E)
Challenging Word Problems 4


Language Arts
Spell to Write and Read
First Language Lessons 3
Writing with Ease

Science
Exploring Creation with Zoology 2: Swimming Creatures
Lapbooks: Jellyfish, Coral Reef, Sea stars, Mollusks, Sharks, Manatees, Whales, Dolphins (all from Homeschool Share)
Sunny Seashells (Download N Go unit study)


History
Story of the World (chapters 24-42 of volume 3 and start volume 4)
A History of US

Geography
State study- we started this last year so we will pick back up where we left off doing a different state every Friday. (Resources shown below)

Art/Music/Foreign Language
Artistic Pursuits
Meet the Masters
Story of the Orchestra
Power Glide Spanish (still trying to decide if we want to do this)

Most of Caleigh's 4th grade books

2nd Grade

Math
RightStart Level C

Language Arts
Spell to Write and Read
First Language Lessons (finish 1, start 2)
Writing with Ease
Cursive First


Science
Exploring Creation with Zoology 2: Swimming Creatures
Lapbooks: Jellyfish, Coral Reef, Sea stars, Mollusks, Sharks, Manatees, Whales, Dolphins (all from Homeschool Share)
Sunny Seashells (Download N Go unit study)

History
Story of the World (chapters 24-42 of volume 3 and start volume 4)
A History of US


Geography
State study- we started this last year so we will pick back up where we left off doing a different state every Friday. (Resources shown below)

Art/Music/Foreign Language
Artistic Pursuits
Meet the Masters
Story of the Orchestra
Power Glide Spanish (still trying to decide if we want to do this)

Most of Molly's 2nd grade books

Books for subjects kids will do together

Some of the resources we'll use for learning about the states

We're expecting a new baby in January. I'm not sure how this will impact our school year. The last time we had a newborn my oldest wasn't even 5 years old so school wasn't something we had to worry about. This will be a big change for us. I really want to get things well planned and prepared so that at least my 7th grader can continue on his own for most subjects. I'll probably have review type things for the 4th and 2nd graders to work on. They'll also play RightStart Math games and have a book basket to work through. We have quite a few of the Download N Go unit studies that we haven't gotten around to doing that might also be good for them during those busy first weeks. If nothing else, they'll be learning plenty about babies.