Weekly Wrap UP

     In Our Life This Week: We/the children have had a blast. We had cousins over from Friday until Tuesday evening. The cousins were out of Public school Mon. & Tues. & thought it was time to come spend some time with us. A lot of basketball was played, along with jumping on the the trampoline, to just getting out in nature. All of them enjoyed each other's company.

     We also still have the puppy. My nephew is suppose to pick him up tomorrow. I think we might miss the little fellow.

Here are a few pics of the children having a great time:

     I managed to get to my lesson plans on Wednesday. That means two days will be pushed forward because we only schooled three days this week. Well, I say that two days will get pushed forward, actually, my children have done some of the work off of those two days, just not all of it.

     Our Schooling for the Week: Saxon 8/7, three lessons this week, yea. We also pretended like we went shopping at the store (even though it was just in our pantry/freezer) to reinforce what we were learning in our math book, Unit Price, Rate, & Sales Tax. Here's a couple of pics of our pretend shopping trip.

 

     I gave each child a certain amount of money to purchase their items with. My daughter was surprised when she reached the register and was $ 3.67 short of what she needed to pay for her items.
It was rather funny. She just went to the pantry and began to grab, not figuring. I told her that is why you always figure your bill BEFORE you go to the register. She immediately decided the dogs would not eat this week, or at least not dog food, so she returned the dog food back to the shelf so she would have enough of money. Lesson learned, learning to figure Unit Prices, Rates, & Sales Taxes in our math is something I will need in life.

     Apologia: Exploring Creation With Physical Science: We began Module 7, Factors That Affect Earth's Weather. We began the weather experiment & will be doing our observation of the weather for the next four weeks. Also, we watched some weather videos. I'll put a link to the web site in case any of you need a site that has lots of videos to use for school. It has videos for all subjects.

     History: still reading The Summer of 1787, wondering if we may toss it. Had good reviews given to us on this book, but we just can't seem to get into this book. We are about to be on chapter 6 & still just haven't took a liking to it. Usually, by the time we are this far in a book we are captivated or at least interested enough to talk about it & discuss it. But not much talk has been going on about it. We are finishing up If You Were There When They Signed the Constitution by Elizabeth Levy today.
English/Literature: Yea! we did English this week. The children wrote their book reports on Little Men. We have decided that our next Literature selection will be Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes. This is a book that we wanted to read so we decided that we would read it while we are studying the Constitution so we would be along the same time frame.

     Helpful Home School Tip/Resource: the link where we have been watching videos from, http://www.watchknowlearn.org/ There are a few videos that we have clicked on that would request payment, but many, many, many that we have enjoyed are free. Videos for all subjects. Check it out if you like integrating videos in with your schooling. I'm talking a few thousand videos.

What I'm Reading: rereading Things We Wish We'd Known by Diana Waring.

     My Most Favorite Thing This Week: watching my children battle out a debate in our Science over when the northern hemisphere is at its Aphelion point or Perihelion point. This was my favorite thing because remember my daughter has not been a Science fan until this year. After the debate, I would say she's on the Science wagon now. Even though one of them was wrong, I am proud of both of them because of the way they both were trying to prove their points.

     I think this about wraps up our week. I'm linking up with the HMJ & the Weekly Wrap UP..
If you'd like to read about some more great weeks, drop over to one of them & visit some more great blogs.

Light, But Productive

      This week was a light week for us. The weather has been so nice I haven't been able to bring myself back to the books completely.
     In our English/Grammar this week we worked on writing Narratives. They quickly made a draft/outline of some facts about one of the things we did while we were out camping. After collecting their facts they wrote their Narrative. They only wrote one. We have narrated in the past so I knew they could handle that lesson with not any problem.
     Three lessons were accomplished in our Saxon 8/7 math this week. If I could only get then to pick up on their speed math would be a breeze. They have been acing every lesson.
     We started reading the Little House books at the beginning of the year for our Library read aloud. We are currently reading On The Banks Of Plum Creek. Even my DS is enjoying these books. He loved Farmer Boy. I so can't wait until they get to The Long Winter. That was my favorite when I read the series.
     After finishing up Where the Red Fern Grows, we started reading Pilgrim's Process. We are working our way through it slowly, talking about the journey that is taking place. I want my children to really grasp what is happening to Pilgrim on his journey. I'm trying to point out the encounters to them to make sure that they are paying attention & capturing the meaning of the story. Here's the only pic that we took this week. They were reading & dad snapped the pic.

     A bit of Home EC. skills were put in to practice this week as my DS helped me cook Chili for supper one night and my DD helped me cook a Key-lime pie another. We are squeezing in cooking skills all along our homeschool journey. I told them I'm expecting to have some great cooks when they get older, he he he.

     Other than a coupon trip outing & a bit of house work I think that about sums up our week. If you'd like to read more about other's week hop on over to Kris's blog & check out their Weekly Wrap-Ups. Everyone have a wonderful week!

Test, Camping, Test, Test

Ok, my DC must be giving this camping trip we've got planned a trial run. They are in our back yard tonight with the tent up. I personally would rather have not drug it out and put it up tonight, but after I walked to our back door earlier and eased it open and heard the laughter and talking that was going on, I'm so thankful I did. They're building a relationship for life. I can just hear them now when they are older saying, "Remember when we used to pull the tent out and camp in the back yard, that was the good old days, wasn't it."
As for our schooling, things have been going great. We are pushing our selves this week in hopes of no books next week.
Our Saxon 8/7 math came in and we have thoroughly been enjoying it. Today, my children were telling me that math has been their subjecdt that they hated the most, but after a few lessons in Saxon, Math is our favorite subject. Those words bring melody to my ears. My DD went so far as to say she thinks she is going to really enjoy Algebra. Those are words I thought I would not ever hear.
I'm just now getting to my weekly wrap up from last week so I think I am just going to wait until Friday & cover both weeks in one wrap up.
Well, it looks like time has gone by again so I had better go for now. Happy homeschooling to all of you.

Working With Integers & Writing Compositions

     Today will be just a very short Wrap up of our week. We did a lot, but I have been busy so I don't have many picts this week.
     In math this week, we have continued on with working with integers. We found a couple of wonderful games on Homeschool Math, Integer Football & Integers Jeopardy. We haven't gotten to multiplying & dividing integers until next week, but thanks to these games my children are already beginning to understand the rule for multiplying & dividing them. They have played these games quite a bit this week. Due to playing these games, our math hasn't been all book work this week. Who said math had to be a long drawn out subject? As long as the concepts are being taught and the children are having fun, I say, "Let's play the games, etc."
     As for our english this week, Sarah & Matthew have been working on their Composition they are having to write for their Literature book.

We are reading Where The Red Fern Grows and will be finishing it up next week. I didn't want them to have to write a complete composition all in one day so we are working on it a little bit along as we are doing our reading.
     We are just working on how to write a basic composition. They have to write me an introduction paragraph, three body paragraphs (Each telling about a different event in the book, Charlotte Mason's narration), & a concluding paragraph. After writing their composition they will proof read it & edit it for our grammar.

Here's a pic of them working on their composition.


     This about wraps up our week. If you would like to read how others wrapped up their week, drop on over to Wierd Unsocialized blog and see who all has linked up with Kris sharing their week with us.
Everyone have a wonderful weekend!

Weekly Wrap-Up

 

     Hey everyone! It's time for my weekly wrap up again. This week we have been learning about intergers in Pre-Algebra. It seems that most math is hard until you understand how to use the methods or the order of operations with the formulas. We have learned to pause when necessary to know beyond any doubt, what & how to do our work correctly without GUESSING answers. Hands-on is a great way to understand most anything.

Sarah Grace is using checkers to learn how to work with intergers. Looks like fun.

Sarah's equation is -6 + 8= She placed 6 red checkers on the negative side of zero and 8 black checkers on the positive side of zero. After visually looking at her problem she picked up one black checker at a time until she had all of her red checkers covered, canceling all of her negative numbers. The black checkers that remained on the positive side of zero was her answer.
   We worked many problems like this. If it was two negative numbers we were adding  we placed both negative numbers on the negative side of zero in two different rows. Then we added both rows to see what our negative integer would be. If we subtracted two negative numbers we made our two rows, placing the larger number on top and then stacked our checkers again as we had done earlier. The remaining checkers that did not have another checker stacked on top of it was our negative integer. Enough examples of how we did them. I think you are probably catching on to how we did it. Anyway, we mastered the concept. Hands-on & knowing the Order-of-Operations makes algebra so much easier.

This week in Exploring Creation With Physical Science we are doing experiment 1.3 "Concentration" (the quanitity of a substance within a certain volume of space). Our material list is; a spoon, vinegar, 6 Tums, 3 large clear glasses & measuring cups.

Start by putting vinegar in glass A=1cup, B=1/2cup, C=1/4cup. Drop in 1 Tums (calcium carbonate) tablet each glass. Now observe for about 10 minutes and write in your lab notebooks the results or changes.

Now empty the glasses, wash thoroughly and pour in the same amount of vinegar. Only this time we add water to each glass; A=1cup, B=1&1/2cup, C=1&3/4cup. Stir each glass thoroughly. Then drop in  1 calcium carbonate tablet in each glass and write in your lab notebook your results.

If you look hard you can see the bubbles from the tablet. The tablet tries to neutralize the acid in the vinegar and makes bubbles that are a gas called carbon dioxide. The results should be about the same with each glass as each has a presence of acid.

You can see the bubbles better in this picture. The tablet disappears as it neutralizes the vinegar. When the water was added the glass with the most water and less vinegar the tablet dissolved slower.

Here you can see all 3 glasses with vinegar and Tums disolving. When water is added all 3 glasses are equally 2cups.

     At the end of our journey this week Sarah & Matthew both had dental appointments. Of course we schooled while we were in the waiting room at the Dentist. Then Sarah was called in to see the Dentist first. Matthew, while waiting, did his History pre-test so quick it scared his dad. I made sure he knew how happy I was with him.


     That about does it this week. Go over to Kris's blog and make sure to checkout this weeks featured blog links. I love seeing what other homeschooler's are doing, and making new friends.

Traci

Boy + Dog = Best Friend

     We are in to our second week and things seem to be moving right along. Everyone has been hard at getting an education, including my son's new puppy, given to him by a friend.

     Here's my son and Charlie "Bright Eyes" working on their school work. I suppose it will be ok for Charlie to participate in class until Matthew uses the excuse, "My dog ate it." If that comes up we'll have to let Charlie have P. E. outdoors while we do schooling. I feel like that is fair enough.
     My children are loving their Pre Algebra Step-by-Step by Frank Schaffer Publications, while they are waiting on me to order their Saxon 8/7. We have been working on Integers. They're catching on marvelously.
     I hope our school year continues to go as it is now. If it does, we will have some time for other things because our school days are scheduled out pretty good right now.

Hope all of you are enjoying your new year!