Friday, February 28, 2014

February 28, 2014

Faith in God - 11yo is still using the treadmill and polishing her articles of faith, but I consider her to be done with her FIG award.  She will continue to use the treadmill in preparation for the pioneer trek this summer.  She has memorized the articles of faith much better than I could have expected in such a short time.

Sayings:
Half a loaf of bread is better than none.
Haste makes waste.
Laugh and the the world laughs with you; cry and you cry alone.
Lightning never strikes twice in the same place.
Live and let live.

Latin - Mucius the Left-Handed, 8.3 The Case of the Predicate Nominative, 8.4 The Linking Verb at the End of the Sentence.
Math 5 - (103/170) comparing decimals, picture graphs, bar graphs, introduction to ratios
English 5 - (14/119) introduction to paragraphs; compound subjects, predicates, and sentences.
Spelling - finished review lesson 10.

Geography - Iran.  Memoria Press lesson and Exploring Countries: Iran.
World History - reading The Egyptology Handbook.

American History - A History of US: The First Americans.  Cortes and the defeat of the Aztecs, Ponce de Leon, Pizarro and the Incas, small pox and Native Americans, Esteban and Cabeza de Vaca.  It is getting harder to keep track of all the explorers and conquistadors!
Classical Studies - We've been using the Roman history included in Lively Latin since much of it seems to come from Famous Men of Rome, but I felt like we weren't learning it as well as we should.  I brought out the Memoria Press study guides and started from the beginning  - lesson 1 Romulus.
Christian Studies II - Invasion of Canaan, Fall of Jericho
Science - 36 Posture and Exercise, 37 First Aid, 38 review lesson.  I learned one important thing this week.  11yo will never work in the medical field!  She was very disturbed by the first aid lesson.  I'm pretty sure it had to do with her open leg wound this past August.

Thursday, February 27, 2014

February

February is one of those months homeschool teachers dread.  On the message board I frequent, there are more "I quit!" threads in February than any other month.  We joke about it.  We support and encourage each other.  And, we hope that it won't happen to us this year.

I almost made it through February.  Almost.

Yesterday I had a royal melt down.  11yo's "master of avoidance" tactics finally sent me over the edge.  Seriously, child.  Let's get school done so we can both move on to some other activity!

Today was better though the math lesson was even longer than usual.  I tried to be patient and 11yo tried not to do anything to set me off again.  During one particular part of the lesson she was having a hard time focusing.  She knew she was drifting into La-La Land.  I was proud of her for not only recognizing it was happening but for pushing her way through the fog.  She was determined and it paid off!  Her speed increased and she answered more confidently.

I hope this is my one-and-only meltdown this spring.

Friday, February 21, 2014

February 21, 2014

Faith in God - still using the treadmill and memorizing the articles of faith.
great - 1,2,3,4, and 6
needs a little work - 5, 7, 8, 9, 10
more work - 11, 12, 13

Sayings -
Bury the hatchet.
Can't hold a candle to
Don't count your chickens before they hatch.
Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
Etc.
Go to pot

Math 5 - (95/170) Adding three fractions, distance = rate*time, decimal places to the thousandth.
Spelling - Finished lesson 9 finally!  Spelling words from the high frequency word lists to find words she need to work on.  Getting 94% correct.
English 5 - (9/119) Review of subjects, predicates, diagramming sentence skeletons, four types of sentences.
Latin - (8.1, 8.2)  Predicates and predicate nominatives.

World History - Finished the Magic Tree House research guide for mummies and pyramids.  Started The Egyptology Handbook.
American History - Magellan, Amerigo Vespucci, beliefs and ideas (religion, Spanish inquisition, slavery, Native American creation stories).
Christian Studies - 25 Moses' Last Words; Death of Moses
Science 5 - 33 Skeletal Muscles, 34 Muscles in Organs, 35 Nervous System

Friday, February 14, 2014

February 14, 2014

Another week down.

A big portion of our school time was spent working towards the Faith in God award.

Faith in God - the pedigree chart and the family group record sheets were much more time consuming than I could have imagined.  Phew!  So glad she finally completed them.  She only has two activities left in the booklet.  When they are finished she will be left with exercising on the treadmill and memorizing the Articles of Faith.

Math - (87/170) more two-digit divisors (the harder ones ending in 6, 7, or 8) and multiplying with zeros in the tens' place.
English - Started the next level today - R&S English 5.  Skipped the first lesson which was written for classroom students.  Did the second lesson and several worksheets reviewing action verbs, state of being verbs, subjects, predicates, and complete sentences.
Latin - (7/16) We read an abridged version of the poem "Horatius" and worked on translating Latin sentences using words from vocabulary D.

 World History - reading the Magic Tree House research guide  Mummies and Pyramids.  11yo has read it before but I decided to give it one more pass before we give it away.
American History - Balboa.  Death by decapitation.  Blech.
Science - Bones

Thursday, February 13, 2014

R&S 4 English

Rod & Staff English 3 & 4 were the first R&S textbooks I ever bought.  For eight years these books have lived on my shelves.  Today I finished R&S English 4 with my last child.  They have served their purpose and it is time for them to go live with other homeschoolers.

Of course, R&S English 5 is already on the shelf. : )

Friday, February 7, 2014

Snow Storm

It started snowing Thursday morning and is still going strong (Friday afternoon).  It is beautiful!  I'm glad  11yo let me know about it ahead of time so we were able to stock up on food.  Yes, I am the "first snowflake freakout lady."  : )

Listen to First Snowflake Freakout Lady.

About the snow... it means we are having snow days.  These are great for 11yo, but her teacher is having withdrawals.  We have done a little school here and there but with 11yo being the master of avoidance we aren't getting as much accomplished as I had hoped (in the evening).

We finished another book to give to the grandkids.

Faith in God  - an award that 11yo can earn before she turns twelve next month.  We sat down this week and went through her Faith in God booklet to see what she has accomplished.  We are working on it a little every day to tie up the loose ends.

Math - R&S 5 (82/170).  Finishing up a set of lessons on adding and subtracting unlike fractions.  Using Math Reflex daily.
Spelling - still struggling to make it happen ... but we did do a bit this week.  
English grammar - R&S 4 (117/127).  The end is so close I can taste it!  Diagramming prepositional phrases, identifying if a word is being used as a preposition or an adverb, conjunctions, and reviewing the parts of speech.
Latin - a miss this week.  We've worked on using "est" and "sunt" at the beginning of a Latin sentence.  For example:
Taurus est.  It is a bull.
Est taurus.  There is a bull.

Current events - CNN Student News
Sayings - another slide this week.  A few done but not many.

Hmmm....this week really has been a bomb!  It's amazing what a couple of snow days can do.

World History - reading about the Old Kingdom of Egypt.  Mostly mummies and pyramids.
American History - A History of US: The First Americans Chs. 14-17.  Gutenberg's Press and Christopher Columbus.
Science - R&S 5 (30/47).  Using chemicals safely and a chemistry review.




Saturday, February 1, 2014

February 01, 2014

Math - R&S Math 5 (75/170) changing unlike fractions to like fractions so we can add and subtract.  We've added a new online resource to help 11yo with her math fact fluency - Reflex Math.  Definitely worth the subscription price!  We also added Math Minutes, grade 5 for daily review.
Spelling - Trying to restart Logic of English.  We've been reviewing the cards and using the essentials workbook (lesson 9 ... still).
English grammar - R&S English 4 (110/127).  Learning to find prepositional phrases in sentences and how to determine if they adjective phrases or adverb phrases.  Next up is learning how to diagram them.  This makes me happy.  11yo? Not so much.  Lol!
Latin - We made it through Prima Latina and the accompanying DVD lessons.  We've jumped back into Lively Latin Big Book 1 (7/16).  We've read about Horatius at the Bridge and will be reading the poem "Horatius" this coming week.

Current events - CNN Student News every day!  It's the first thing 11yo requests.
Sayings - currently reading through the sayings in the 4th grade level of core knowledge. ex: "As the crow flies," "beauty is only skin deep," "the bigger they are, the harder they fall," etc.
Classical Studies - for now we are only using the Roman history included in Lively Latin (mostly from Famous Men of Rome).  Thinking about postponing Famous Men of the Middle Ages until we are studying the middle ages in world history.
Christian Studies - one lesson (death of Moses) and a review lesson and we will finish Christian Studies 1. :)
Geography - Iraq
World History - Combining three Usborne books to read our way through ancient history.  We've been reading about the predynastic period of Egypt.
American/State History - We added R&S's grade 5 Homelands of North America for more lessons about Native American tribal regions.  We are now back in A History of US: The First Americans.  We recently read about the Viking explorers and will be learning about Christopher Columbus soon.
Science - R&S Science 5 (29/48).  Chemistry

It is hard to find a balance.  So much time is being spent on history (one of 11yo's favorite subjects)  and math (not her favorite) that I am struggling to find time for subjects we need to do and want to do.  Oh, and did I mention that 11yo is the master of avoidance?