August '09 - Week 4

Devotional - "Let Him Ask of God" daily inspirational readings.

Government - "The 5,000 Year Leap" by Cleon Skousen - Part I - Discussion on the Articles of Confederation and how it was inadequately balanced.

Math - Individual Math-U-See books

History - Story of the World, Vol. 2 - "Medieval Monasteries" - Famous Men of the Middle Ages - "Alaric the Visigoth" - Stories of Beowulf Told to Children - "How the Fire Dragon Warred with the Goth Folk", "How Beowulf Overcame the Dragon", "Beowulf's Last Rest" - We are also keeping a Book of Centuries (see Mom Notes below).

Science - Magnetics Kit - "Chemistry for Every Kid" - Learning about how magnetism is a force of nature.

Latin - We began Latin two years ago and pretty much let it go after awhile, but we are getting more serious about it as our foreign language for high school. - Latina Christiana I - Lessons 1-3.

Family Projects - Reading: "On the Banks of Plum Creek" - We had a lot of yard work and cleaning of camping equipment to do. I am so much cleaner with the camping gear than when our stuff is used by the Boy Scouts. We had a LOT to clean! I took the kids to the Retreat last week only to find all of our stuff was so filthy that we attracted a lot of bees.

Fieldtrip - We attended our first outing with the local homeschool support group. There were tons of young adults, which was very exciting for our youth. I can see that there will be lots of youth for them to get to know that have common educational lives.

Individual Phases and Studies

Marlayna (Project Scholar) - Projects: Guitar practice. - Reading: "Ugly", "Zel", "Bound", "Boy Proof" - Mind Benders A4-B1

Christian (Love of Learner) - Projects: Guitar practice. - Reading: "Wizard Heir"

Mom (Ready to be a Mentored Scholar - but, still looking for a Mentor) - Reading: "Utopia" by Thomas More, "The Edge of Recall" by Kristen Heitzmann, and "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine - Math: Math-U-See Algebra - Reviewing what I have forgotten. Apparently I can't remember how to divide fractions either...

Mom Notes: We created a Book of Centuries last year, but actually put very little into it. I decided to put more effort into this in hopes of making a binder of reminders of all the history we have studies and where it fits in a time line fashion. For more information, see this site about the Book of Centuries.

Family Project - Tire Swings!

This week we decided on a couple of family projects. We wanted more things to do in the back yard and we have an enormous Chinese Elm tree that we thought might make a great place to hang a couple of swings. We decided tire swings might be the most economical that would also hold the weight of my growing teens and any other children that grace our home.

We took a trip to Discount Tire and asked for some free tires, which they were very happy to give to us. Next, we found some websites that gave instruction about building two types of swings. We made a list of the hardware we need and took off to Home Depot one day after school hours were over. We couldn't manage all the hardware needed to make the horizontal tire swing, but we did get the vertical tire swing up.

Way to go Engineer Knot Maker Chris! He tied all the knots. All Marly and I did was help lift and hold the tire.

August '09 - Week 3

Devotional - "Let Him Ask of God" daily inspirational readings.

Government - "The 5,000 Year Leap" by Cleon Skousen - Part I - We are still spending time on learning the differences between Ruler's Law, People's Law, and Anarchy. We have been learning how these different types of law come about and how they are used, putting it into both ancient and modern terms.

Math - Individual Math-U-See books

History - Story of the World, Vol. 2 - "Augustine Comes to England" - Learning about how the Pope begins sending people to teach the "heathen Anglo-Saxons".

Science - "Concepts and Challenges in Physical Science" and "Chemistry for Every Kid" - We learned more about force and did experiments showing how Gravity is a force. One of their favorites was turning celery red in "Rising Water".

Family Projects - Splitting firewood, building chicken laying boxes, and building tire swings. The chicken "condo" laying boxes are finished just in time. Our hens have begun laying beautiful brown eggs. Our rooster is quite a bully.

Individual Phases and Studies

Marlayna (Project Scholar) - Projects: Chickens and Rabbits, Chain Mail making. - Reading: "The Adventure's of Sherlock Holmes", "Touching Spirit Bear", and "The Riddle" - Math: Math-U-See "Epsilon" Fractions - Mind Benders A4-B1

Christian (Love of Learner) - Projects: Chickens and Rabbits, Chain Mail making, Building a Rope Bridge, making rubber-band guns our his Erector set and made Pinewood derby cars for a race on Wednesday at Mutual. - Reading: "Book of Mormon Stories"

Mom (Ready to be a Mentored Scholar - but, still looking for a Mentor) - Projects: Ongoing outdoor projects and prepared for a lesson on "The 8 Keys of Great Teaching" I taught at the HIP Retreat this week. - Reading: Finished "Little Men" and started "Utopia" - Math: Math-U-See Algebra - Reviewing what I have forgotten.

Mom Notes: We left Thursday for the HIP Retreat, which is a Leadership Education based homeschool support group. The Retreat was fabulous with many inspiring speakers. We were able to connect with old friends and make new acquaintances.

August '09 - Week 2

Devotional - "Let Him Ask of God" daily inspirational readings.

Government - "The 5,000 Year Leap" - Part I - We went over the Ruler's Law vs. People's law and the balance of power between Ruler's Law and People's Law. It is very interesting to see how much they love this subject. Maybe it has something to do with becoming aware of problems in the current government and wanting to know why it is that way and how we can change it that has sparked so much interest.

Math - Dice games: "Which Number Wins?" (Probability) - Individual Math-U-See books

History - "Stories of Beowulf Told to Children" - How the Water Witch Warred With the Dane Folk, How Beowulf Overcame the Water Witch, How Beowulf Returned to His Own Land.

English Language - Winston Grammar - Review: Nouns, Pronouns, Verbs, Adverbs, Adjectives, and Articles.

Science - "Concepts and Challenges in Physical Science" and "Chemistry for Every Kid" - Subject: Force. (I am not liking the textbook listed above very much, but it does give some decent explanations...I may be ditching this one as soon as I find what else I should do.) We'll keep "Chemistry for Every Kid". I'm still waiting for the money to buy the BIG chemistry set that we want.

Family Projects - Splitting firewood, building chicken laying boxes, and building tire swings.

Individual Phases and Studies

Marlayna (Project Scholar) - Projects: Chickens and Rabbits, Chain Mail making. - Reading: "Storytellers", "May Bird", "The Adventure's of Sherlock Holmes", "Touching Spirit Bear" - Math: Math-U-See "Epsilon" Fractions - Mind Benders A4-B1

Christian (Love of Learner) - Projects: Chickens and Rabbits, Chain Mail making, Building a Rope Bridge - Reading: "Diamond of Darkhold"

Samantha (Practice Scholar) - Started her Senior year of high school.

Mom (Ready to be a Mentored Scholar - but, still looking for a Mentor) - Projects: Fixing my sewing machine, then when that didn't work, stitching an apron by hand. - Reading: "Little Men" - Math: Math-U-See Algebra - Reviewing what I have forgotten.

Mom Notes: I love the website Living Math. I also found several dice games for practicing addition, multiplication, division, place value, and fractions. See this post for more details. I purchased a large bag of dice from a dollar store...sweet deal!

Math Games Using Dice

Trying to make math more interesting and less methodical is a bit tricky when they become teens. Many of the things I come up with are "dumb". But, here are some that I thought were better than worksheets, even if they seem a little "dumb" to my young adults when we first got started trying them out.

What I like most about these games is that they can be played as a family with adaptations for younger and older children. For example, the Place Value Dice can be made for 1's, 10's and 100's for younger children, adding decimal place values of 10th's 100th's and 1000th's for older children. You can also have younger children playing Place Value Dice while older children play Fraction Dice. It is a great game to have going for all ages...even Moms!

I bought a large bag of colored dice from a dollar store, can't beat a dollar for such a great math manipulative.

Free Games:

• Which Number Wins? - Probability
  
• Dice Fractions
  
• Place Value Dice

Other purchased games using dice that we play:

• Settlers of Cattan (the game we are playing in the picture) - Placement of your settlements along the right spaces based on the probability that they will be rolled is key to winning this game.
• Yahtzee - A great one for counting and adding skills.
  

I'll post more as I come across them. As in most things, I find what I need at the time.

August '09 - Week 1

I love homeschooling! I know you have heard it before, but I just wanted to say it again. Sam was with us the first two days this week and I discussed with her how I wished she had homeschooled. She has ALWAYS insisted that she loves public school, but she finally admitted that it is because of social reasons. HA! I always knew it, but it was nice to hear her say it. She also admitted that she enjoys being with us during our Kid School discussions because she learns "how the world REALLY works".

Devotional - Daily reading of "Let Him Ask of God"

Government - Introduction to "The 5,000 Year Leap" by Cleon Skousen - This lead into a 2 hour discussion of current events, how it relates to the past, and the mistakes of the past that are being repeated. We also got into topics of economics, cycles in history, budgeting and how interest works. Very powerful day.

History - Middle Ages - Still working on making chain mail - Reading: Stories of Beowulf Told to Children and Story of the World, Vol. 2. "Beowulf the Hero"

Science - Chemistry - "Concepts and Challenges of Physical Science" Chapter 1 - Scientific method and basic skills.

Read A-Loud - "The Diamond of Darkhold" and "Little House on the Prairie"

Individual Phases and Studies

• Marlayna (Project Scholar) - Projects: Chickens and Rabbits, Chain Mail making - Reading: "Tricksters Choice"
  
• Christian (Love of Learner) - Projects: Chickens and Rabbits, Chain Mail making - Reading: "Warrior Heir"
  
• Samantha (Practice Scholar) - Reading: "The Hunger Games" - Studying for SAT and ACT tests and preparing for her first week at school starting next week. Can't believe she is a Senior this year!
  
• Mom (Ready to be a Mentored Scholar - but, still looking for a Mentor) - Reading: "Anne of Green Gables"
  

MOM NOTES: We also spent two days gathering firewood, hauling it back to our house, and stacking it up neatly to be split later. It was probably the hardest we have ever worked before! - right up there with moving.