My Weekly Wrap-Up & Give-A-Way

In My Life This Week:
    My week began so sweet. I sent my husband an email & asked him on a date to our back porch. He replied back with an acceptance so we slipped out before the children awakened & shared a hot cup of coffee with my favorite liquid creamer, white chocolate mocha, mmm. The week got even sweeter by Wednesday night. Before we went to bed my husband told me he had bought me a gift. "Hmm" my mind was thinking, "I wonder what this is for?" Turns out it was just an I love you and was thinking of you gift. (Wasn't expecting that this close to Christmas, especially since my birthday was only two weeks ago.)
    We have had another couple confiding in us that are having problems in their marriage so my husband & I was talking that they just need to keep the love burning. So while talking about them we started talking about falling in love all over again. That's why my hubby got me my gift. He's so sweet. The road has been rocky at times, but I love him more today than I did 13 1/2 years ago.

Here's a pic of my gift

    I cried when he gave me the cross. The first thing he ever bought me was a sun catcher cross with the words "Love is patient, Love is kind," the cross he gave me this week had those same words with a few more added. 13 years later & he's still got the same thoughts on his mind, me & our love. I'm so blessed.

In Our Schooling This Week:
    I'll just give a quick over view instead of a long report.

  *Math: Saxon 8/7 lessons

  *Literature: Began Robinson Crusoe

  *English: They are liking Robinson Crusoe so much they wanted to write their own story about being on an island by themselves, so that's what we did.

  *History: Read a library book titled Imperial Romans by Jill Hughes.

  *Science: Apologia: Physical Science Modlule 4 & researched the chemical reactions in our Amish Friendship bread starter bag that we are going to be baking next week.
    Our experiment taught us a lot about the energy, pressure, & gases that were in our bag. We learned that temperature & sugar plays an important part in how much our bag reacts. Here's a couple of pics of our bag.

You can see all the gas bubbles forming & coming together in these pictures.

I'm reading This Week:
    I'm actually reading two books at the present moment I am reading a Grace Livingston Hill book titled Crimson Mountain. I read it on my own free time for my pleasure.

    The second book I am reading is A Hope Beyond by Judith Pella & Tracie Peterson from the Ribbons of Steel Series. My hubby and I are reading this at night when we lay down. It is an audio. My husband & I enjoy reading great books together, even if I do slip in a Christian Romance from time to time. Our most favorite ones to read together are history, especially during the Pioneer days.


Give Away:
    I am having another give away on my blog. This one involves a Christmas book, Hot chocolate, & more. Drop over to this link & leave a comment if you are interested in entering. The winner will be selected on November 28, 2011.
I think that about sums up our week. Hope you all have had a great one.
    I'm linking up with Weird Unsocialized & Homeschool Mother's Journal to share our week. For more great weeks in other's homeschools this week, check out these links to see what others are doing.

Educating From Library Books To Encyclopedias To Erupting Volcanos & Even A Blog Give Away

In My Life This Week:
    My scales are going in the wrong direction. I'm not sure if it's the week I don't pay much mind to the scales because of mother nature or if I've been enjoying too much food. Regardless of the case, it aggravated me that the scales went in the wrong direction after I counted calories & carbs, 20 carbs or less each day & less than 1600 calories per day, with excercising. Can you believe that? Uhh!!!!

Uhh!!!

Me trying to thin down

I'm Grateful This Week For:
    the relationships I have with my children. I know we only have that closeness due to all the time we spend together. Here's a link to a post with a pic of the card my DD left on my desk for me.
I have special tea parties with my children (individually) to build our relationship. My DD sends me little notes & cards from time to time laying a few building blocks to the relationship. I'm grateful that we are both working on the building.

I've Been Inspired By:
    two tapes that I checked out from our local library this week. They are by Inge P. Cannon. I have not heard of her before this week. It appears that she has lots of books/audio tapes that I am interested in reading/listening to. The two that I listened to this week are: Schooling or Educating: Which Are You Doing? & Eliminating Crucial Gaps While Individualizing Education. She never mentions Charlotte Mason, but her teachings could very well pass for CM methods. These tapes were a great encouragement this week to remind me (again) that we don't have to move at the pace of the public school system. We can remain in our subjects/topics for as long as we desire.

In Our Homeschooling This Week:
    we accomplished three math lessons in Saxon 8/7. My children are enjoying their lessons right now. The lessons have had geometry & prime & composit numbers. Their words are, "This is easy. We like this." My son has decided this week that he wants him some drafting tools.
We have not yet returned back to our Exploring Creation with Physical Science through Apologia yet. Hopefully that will be next week. We chose another library book this week. It is:

Exploring The Sky By Day by Terence Dickinson

    This book is easing us in to the different types of clouds & the water cycle. Our next Module in our Physical Science is going to be on water so I just eased this book in to introduce them to the water cycle a bit more in debth than what we have studied in the past. I like to ease in a library book for a review from time to time.
    We place two different bowls of water outside for an experiment, one in the shade & one in the sun. We are checking the temp. of the water each day & measuring the debth to see the warmth & how much it is evaporating. This is to reinforce our Module that was bringing out humidity. We've been testing to see if there was already enough of moisture in the air already or not. We've also checked the sky for clouds to see if we could identify them.
    We are still reading Little Pilgrim's Progress for Literature. We should have this finished up by next week. My son said this has become one of his most favorite books.
History has been a pretty relaxed week. We finished reading our book about Pompeii & pulled down the encyclopedia for further reading. After that Sarah & Matthew drew maps of Italy for some geography skills. Here are the pics of their maps.

Sarah's map of Italy

Matthew's map of Italy

    We've done this in the past, but my children thought it only right that we do another volcano experiment since Pompeii was buried by Vesuvius erupting. Here are some pics of them recreating Mount Vesuvius's eruption burying Pompeii again.

This is the Lab Tray

They are filling the 2 litter bottles with their mixtures

Matthew's volcano erupting and destroying Pompeii.

Sarah's volcano erupting. We used to big of a bottle and not enough mixture to have a more powerful eruption. So now we are planning to do it again for the third time to get it right.

    For English/Grammar this week they wrote narrations on what they have learned about Pompeii. Here are their essays.

Sarah's Essay on Pompeii

Matthew's Essay on Pompeii

    Other than getting in a drawing lesson today, I think this about Wraps up our week.
I am linking up with Kris over at the Weekly Wrap Up & with Sue for the Homeschool Mother's Journal. If you'd like to read more about other's weeks, drop over to one of these blogs & check out the others that linked up also.

On another note, I am having a give away on my blog. Click here to check it out.

Late Weekly Wrap-Up

     I've missed a few Weekly Wrap-Ups so this weeks will be a little longer.
Our Week starts with Apologia's Exploring Creation With Physical Science, Module 2-The Study of Air.

This is the list of materials for Experiment 2.1 Evaporation and Temperature; A small glass, 2 cotton balls, tap water, a bulb thermometer and a small piece of plastic such as sandwich bag or a piece of trash bag, etc...

Sarah reads the instructions before we start.

Put about 1/4 water in a small glass as soon as you turn the faucet on so the water will be as close to room temperature as possible. Now drop 2 cotton balls in the water.

Lay the bulb thermometer on the plastic bag with the bulb touching the plastic bag. Next squeeze the excess water out of the cotton balls and lay them on the bulb of the thermometer, covering it completely.

Be sure to note the temperature (ours was 78 degrees F).

Wait 10 minutes, then recheck the temperature and note the change (ours dropped to 72 degress F).

Matthew reads about what happened and how it happened.

We learned that as the water evaporated out of the cotton balls, the temperature cooled.

This is our Module 2.3 experiment which is about Oxygen & Fire

Our material list for experiment 2.3; 1 liter bottle, 1 pack of yeast, hydrogen peroxide, matches, small candle, thick jar or glass, balloon, 1Cup measuring cup and 1tsp measuring spoon.

First we lit the candle and put the jar over it.

In just a few seconds the flame consumed all of the oxygen in the jar and the flame went out.

Matthew reads the instructions as Sarah does the mixing.

Matthew uses a funnel & measuring cup to pour in the Hydrogen Peroxide in the bottle. Then Sarah uses a measuring spoon for the yeast & pours it in the bottle.

Matthew holds the bottle while Sarah quickly puts the balloon over the openning of the bottle.

Now shake the mixture up. The hydrogen peroxide and yeast mix reacts quickly making oxygen bubbles and actually gets hot to the touch. It's really neat to watch the balloon fill up with air.

Look at the all the bubbles that filled the bottle, wow!

Sarah lets air (oxygen) out of the balloon slowly to feed the little flame while Matthew holds the glass up.

Final results; The oxygen that was trapped in the balloon makes the little flame get bigger. As we fed the oxygen we had created from the balloon to the flame itgrew larger & brighter. We learned that too little oxygen as well as too much oxygen in the air around us could prove dangerous.

   

We also finished reading Where the Red Fern Grows this week, along with our Compositions. Maybe I'll find time to post those on my blog later.

     Saxon math was still a plus at our house even at the end of the week.

Sarah & Matthew wanted to "precamp" in our backyard to try out the new tent before we go on our camping trip.

Matthew's waving goodbye & goodnight to everybody.

That's it for our latest Wrap-Up. If you want all the Weekly-Wrap-Up's you can get, then go to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschooler's and you'll find plenty!

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

Weekly Wrap Up: Curriculum Choices

     Our first week has been different. We have used Charlotte Mason's way of teaching for 4 years now, but decided to go with more of a structured text book method this year. We will still use many of her ideas and approaches, just by the guide lines of a text book so that my brain isn't having to think so hard putting a curriculum together.
     For my weekly wrap up I'll just give you all a peak at some of the books we have chosen to work from this year.

For Science we have chosen Apologia: Exploring Creation With Physical Science. My children are enjoying the hands on experiments. I feel like this will take us in to a deeper level of Science than what we are used to.

For History we have chosen A Beka: History of the World 7th grade. We like the way they tie history in with the history of the Bible.

     This month in math we are working out of a little work book called Steps in to Pre Algebra by Milestone. Starting in September we will begin in Saxon 8/7 math. This wasn't my first choice for our math program, but the one I wanted was out of our price range. So, we'll settle with Saxon.
     We are still approaching writing for our English so we have several books we are going to work from again this year. I want them to be able to write extremely well so we are using different techniques from several books in hopes of accomplishing a great writer.
     As for our Literature, We are going to use the A Beka 7th grade Literature book called Of People to read some great stories from. Although this book has some great stories in it, there was just not quite enough in it to quench our appetite for a great book so we are adding a great book along side each unit in it to quench our appetite. This month we will be reading Where the Red Fern Grows. Each day after we have read our set amount of pages for the day, my children have begged to read more.
     Our summer became so hectic that we did not get to use our cute little human body kit that I had found so we are working through it for some Health.
     A few years back we had used Bob Jones Spelling and my children want me to purchase BJU Spelling again, so I suppose we'll probably be doing that for our Spelling.
     Dad has a drawing book that he is wanting to give drawing lessons from and I want to add in a Poet, Artist, and Composer. By the time we integrate all of this in our schedule we'll have a loaded wagon. Oh yeah, we are also wanting to work from our American Sign Language program that we have for our Foreign language for this year.
     Along side all these subjects my children still desire a nature study. We were sitting at the table the other day and my son saw a spider outside our window spinning a web around an insect so out the door they went with art supplies in hand to do a drawing. We may have chosen textbooks for the year, but I see Charlotte Mason will continue to work in our homeschool.
Just a few pictures of our week.

Sarah's Nature Study of a Spider wrapping up a bug trapped in it's web.

Matthew's Nature Study of a Spider wrapping up a bug trapped in it's web. Can you find it? Look for the circle in the middle and a little to the right.

 Sarah's detailed skin diagram with labels.

 Matthew's colorful skin diagram with labels.

 One of our Apologia Science experiments this week was on comparing cubit to metric measurements.
What worked for old Noah in his time may not work for the whole modern day world. See what you think.

 We had to cut a string going from our elbow to the tip of the middle finger. Next we run another piece of string from our first knuckle to tip of index finger (first knuckle on the same finger next to the fingernail). Now tape down the long string and make a mark on it for every length of the short string repeating to other end. Count the marks called "finger marks" and that's how long your cubit measuring string is.

 Then we did a comparison of our different length cubit measuring strings. This could be very confusing if you told four different people, each in another state to build you a 10 cubit by 5 cubit wall and they sent them to you so you could assemble a playhouse. How do you suppose the walls would fit together and look?

Notice the various lengths of our strings. Mine was 33.5 fingers or 1cubit. Imagine measuring a table top 5 cubits and 7 fingers. We need a uniform measurement system. This is where the Metric system came about so it could be used world wide. This was a fun experiment from Apologia Science.
     Well that's another wrap-up for this week. Now don't forget to visit Kris at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for her's and many more bloggers weekly wrap-ups.

Traci