June 6, 2015

Productivity?  What's that?   Yeah, school's out for summer.

edit - The BIG news?  13yo is finished with swimming lessons until the fall.  She started out as a non-swimmer and finished up as a level 6.  So proud of her!

CNN Student News ended yesterday.  Boo hoo!  See you in August, Carl Azuz.

Latin - We finished lesson 15 and the 2nd Punic war.  : )

Math - 59-62 multiplying and dividing with decimals.

The Hobbit - finished chapters 15 & 16.  Reading chapter 17.  Dain has arrived.

Insects - 30 Helpful and Harmful Insects

A History of US, Volume 2:  Making Thirteen Colonies

• Virginia's Capital
• Pretend Some More
• South Carolina: Riches, Rice, Slaves
• North Carolina: Dissenters and Pirates
• Royal Colonies and a No Blood Revolution

Famous Men of Greece - 25 Epaminondas & Pelopidas, Review 5

Animal Encyclopedia 

• Senses
• Behavior
• Invertebrates
• Kangaroos, Opposums

May 29, 2015

We aren't finished, but I'm done.  Somehow I totally lost my oomph over the Memorial Day weekend.

I plan to do math daily over the summer.
I hope to do bird and tree studies.
Anything else that occurs will be a miracle.

Latin - So close to the end of lesson 15 in Lively Latin 1.   We are diagramming attributive adjectives and predicate adjectives.  Scippo has landed in Africa.

Math - decimal fractions

Spelling - LOE high frequency words list #5

Literature - The Hobbit - working on chapter 15.

Insects - 28 & 29 Bees

Geography - Finland

American History - A History of US: Making Thirteen Colonies
Benjamin Franklin
Maryland's Form of Toleration
Carry Me Back to Ole Virginny
The Good Life

Famous Men of Greece - Xenophon

May 15, 2015

We were productive while at the community college; not so much the other days.  Thursday 17yo was a passenger in a car that was rear-ended.  I spent the afternoon trying to determine if she needed to see a doctor and then taking her to the doctor.

Here's a more interesting write-up:

Today we followed Bilbo into the Lonely Mountain, made our first brief visit to Sweden, scaled the walls of New Carthage with Cornelius Scipio, watched the Spartan Lysander lay siege to Athens, cringed when Charles II was beheaded and then Cromwell was exhumed and beheaded too, met a new religious leader - Zoroaster, and learned about the external structure of trees. Math, grammar, and spelling were thrown in for good measure.

And this is why my brain feels like it has had a whisk taken to it.

Love learning! Just hope it doesn't fall out of my head overnight... or in the next few seconds.

Latin
Working in Lesson 15 - adjectives.  The 2nd Punic War with Cornelius Scipio in Spain.

Math
40-45  Common Fractions

English
The END!  We have finished Rod & Staff 6.  Who knows if she will retain the information, but we are done!

Spelling
continuing LOE high frequency world list level 4

Literature - The Hobbit
Ch. 10 workbook
Ch. 11

Science
Insects
22 Butterflies II
23 Unit IV Review
24 Wasps

Trees
2 The Root System
3 The External Structure of a Stem

Geography
Review Europe I, Norway, Sweden

American History
Memoria Press
20. The Beginning of New York
21. William Penn

A History of US
West to Jersey
Cromwell and Charles
William the Wise

World History
The People of Ancient Persia (Mills)

Classical Studies
Famous Men of Greece
Review 4
Alcibiades
Lysander

May 8, 2015

Well, it was nice while it lasted.   Normal life has descended upon me again.  In other words, we couldn't seem to get in gear this week.  It is true that I had a cold but it should NOT have slowed us down that much.  I might not have felt great, but I was putting in the same hours.  How could we have accomplished so little?

13yo started another session of swimming lessons this week.  We've been going twice a week since September.  We are both ready for a break (summer).

We finished Christian Studies II this week.  I flipped through the workbook and realized that I had forgotten almost everything.  And if I did?  I imagine 13yo doesn't remember much either.  It looks like it is time for a "slow but steady" long-term review.

Lesson 14 in Lively Latin Big Book 1 has been completed and we'll start lesson 15 next week.

Only one more chapter in English 6.  I'm wondering how much has been retained.  I keep telling myself that exposure will help her when her brain is ready.

The loser this week? Ancient History.  There never seemed to be enough time.  We did do a little with The Hobbit, but it suffered also.

I let 13yo go to a sleepover Thursday night, so Friday was a complete bust.  Her brain wasn't functioning at all.

Latin 
English derivatives and more 2nd Punic War (Cannae)

Math
Distance, rate, and time word problems, line graphs, prime factors, greatest common factors, lowest common multiples.

English 
Misplaced phrases and clauses, courtesy in conversation, interjections, parts of speech review.

Spelling

Literature
The Hobbit Ch. 9
Ch. 10 - read only

Science - insects
19 Moths 1
20 Moths II
21 Butterflies I

Trees - 1 Systems

Birds - 1 Feathers

Geography
UK, Ireland

American History
A History of US
The Pueblos Win - At Least for Now
What's a Colony?
Silver Nails and Big Tub

World History
Nothing :/

Classical Studies
Famous Men of Greece
Cimon
Pericles

Christian Studies II
Psalms of Joy
Jonah; Vision of Days to Come

May 1, 2015

Another amazing week.  : )

Current Events - CNN Student News

Latin
Vocabulary H - adjectives
2nd Punic War - Hannibal Outwits Fabius (The Fabian Policy, cattle with burning fagots on horns)

Math
Lessons 27-32.  Capacity, area, time, time zones, mental conversions of English units, d=r x t.

English Grammar
115 - 119  Prepositions, Using Prepositions Correctly, Making an Introduction, Coordinating Conjunctions, Subordinating Conjunctions

Spelling

Literature
The Hobbit
Ch. 6 - Out of the Frying Pan into the Fire
Ch. 7 - Queer Lodgings
Ch. 8 - Flies and Spiders

Science - Insects
15 Coleoptera I  (Beetles)
16 Coleoptera II
17 Coleopter III
18 Unit III Review (Diptera - flies, Coleoptera - beetles)

Geography
Netherlands, Belgium

American History
A History of Us: Making Thirteen Colonies
Statues on the Common (Mary Dyer, 1660)
Of Witches and Dinosaurs (Salem Witch Trials, 1692)
Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Maine (1636)
King Philip's War (1675-1678)

The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic
19 King Philip's War

World History
The Book of the Ancient World (Dorothy Mills)
21 The Land of the Hittites; The Hittite People and Their Cities
22 The Hittites and Their Neighbors
Review 4

Small blurbs about Hittites from our various history encyclopedias.

History Year by Year
2500 - 2000 BCE
The First Writing
2000 - 1500 BCE
The Metal Ages
1500 - 1000 BCE

Classical Studies
Famous Men of Greece
17 Themistocles
18 Aristides the Just

Christian Studies
23 Return to Jerusalem

April 25, 2015

The most productive week I think we've ever had!

We've been starting with CNN Student News first thing in the morning to help our brains wake up.  Neither one of us is a morning person.

Latin
2nd Punic War - battles at Ticinus, Trebia, and Trasimene.
Practice using the future tense of sum (to be).

Math
Lessons 20-23, 25-26 Solving division problems mentally, picture graphs, reading problems: picking out the correct operation, chapter review, linear measures, units of weight.

English Grammar
110-114  Adverb clauses; diagramming adverb clauses; simple, compound, and complex sentences; chapter review

Spelling
List four words are getting more challenging.  A few mistakes here and there.

Literature
Using Memoria Press literature guide for The Hobbit.  Finished lessons for Ch. 4 and Ch.5.  Read pgs. 79-110.

Science - Insects
13 Diptera I - house fly, bluebottle, horse fly
14 Diptera II - mosquito, crane fly

Geography
Austria, Germany, review

American History
A History of US: Making Thirteen Colonies
Puritans, Puritans, and More Puritans
Of Towns and Schools and Sermons
Roger Williams
Woman, Hold Your Tongue (Anne Hutchinson)

The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic
17 The Beginning of Boston (1630)
18 Roger Williams (Providence, 1636)

World History
Mills 12 The Gods of Ancient Babylon
Mills Review 2
Encyclopedia of the Ancient World - Neo-Babylonian Empire
History of the World (DK) - Nebuchadnezzar II, Babylonian Captivity, Falls to Persia (Cyrus the Great)
History Year by Year (DK/Smithsonian) - pgs. 20-27  3000-2500 BCE, Battle Standard of Ur, Gods and Temples

Classical Studies
Famous Men of Greece
15 Miltiades, the Hero of Marathon
Review 3
16 Leonidas at Thermopylae

Christian Studies
22 Daniel and the Lion's Den; Prophets of the Exile

April 19, 2015

Doing school two days a week (Monday/Wednesday) at the community college has turned out to be a good thing.  I'm still not thrilled about it, but it has helped us stay more focused and accomplish more.  We find a spot where there is decent Wi-Fi reception and camp out in a cafeteria style booth for the next 4+ hours.  It is hard on my old body to sit that long, so I take trips to the bathroom to keep the knees in working order.

13yo is still taking swimming lessons two afternoons a week  (Tuesday/Thursday).  We are going to do one more session then take the summer off.  I didn't have a goal in mind when we started in September.  She is in the level 6 class at the moment.  As much as we would both like to be finished, I think she needs to make it to at least level 7.

Current Events - We slacked off for awhile.  Picked up CNN Student News recently.

Latin (Lively Latin I) - Finished lesson 13 (ablative of place where and the 1st Punic War).  Working on lesson 14 (imperfect and future tenses of sum, esse, fui, futurum (to be) and the 2nd Punic War/Hannibal).  It will take a couple more weeks to finish lesson 14.

Math - R&S Math 7  1-19.  So far it has mainly been review of the four basic operations using larger numbers.  We are doing a math lesson M-Sat with hopes of getting through most of Math 7 before autumn.  We'll see.

English Grammar - R&S English 6 109/132.  Skipping the poetry lessons.  We are definitely in new territory - adjectives and adverbs.   This is the part of the book where we usually petered out, so we don't have a strong base to help us with the new material.  We've been learning about prepositional phrases and clauses which act as modifiers, and we've been learning how to differentiate between adjectives and adverbs.  About 20 lessons remaining.

Spelling - using Logic of English high frequency word list level 4.  I call out ten words each day to see what she already knows.  She has picked up spelling naturally.

Science - Insects
9 - Orthoptera and Dictyoptera II (grasshoppers and crickets)
10 - Hemiptera I (water measurer and water boatman)
11 - Hemiptera II (spittle bug/frog hopper, aphid, and cicada)
12 - Unit II Review

Geography
Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Switzerland

American History - Trying to sync A History of US and MP's The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic.  We backed up and reread "Indians vs. Colonists," "Massacre in Virginia, Poverty in England," "The Mayflower: Saints and Strangers," and "Pilgrims, Indians and Puritans" in A History of US volume 2.

The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic
9 - French and Spanish Quarrels
10 - Around the World (Drake)
11 - Sir Walter Raleigh
12 - The Jamestown Men
13 - The House of Burgesses
14 - Henry Hudson
15 - The Mayflower
16 - Plymouth Rock

World History - We've been combining encyclopedias and Dorothy Mill's The Book of the Ancient World (Memoria Press)
8 - The Land of Mesopotamia
9 - The Story of Assyria
10 - Cuneiform Writing; The Story of Babylonia
11 - Life in Ancient Babylon

Classical Studies - Still combining Famous Men of Rome with history in Lively Latin I.  Currently studying the 2nd Punic war.
Famous Men of Greece -  Agamemnon, Achilles, Odysseus, Lycurgus, Draco and Solon, Pisistratus

Christian Studies II
19 - Josiah; Fall of Jerusalem; Jeremiah
20 - Jerusalem Destroyed; Songs of the Captives; Daniel
21 - Statue of Gold; Writing on the Wall

March 21, 2015 Saturday

We are finished with R&S Math 6.  I can't even begin to express how relieved I feel at the moment.  As soon as we finished the last planned lesson and I copied the review lessons, I bagged up the books (student and two teacher manuals) and sent them to a friend's house.  It seemed like I couldn't get them out of the house fast enough.  Having them gone meant spring break had officially started.

Where to next?  We'll be starting R&S Math 7 once spring break is over.

I've had a really hard time with school this spring.  Mainly I think it has to do with being a perimenopausal woman.  I can't say I'm depressed or that I feel bad, but I can't see to find the oomph to stay motivated on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, things are about to get a bit more frustrating.  Oldest at home chose to take a college class that would require her to drive a car rather than use public transportation.  [I'm going to insert here that I was adamantly against this from the beginning]  And, she can't drive without a license.  She just finished her driver's ed class but didn't realize that scheduling a driver's test would be so ... what do I even want to say here ... she is learning what it is like to deal with the government.  She couldn't get an appointment for a month.  So, it looks like I might need to ride with her during the first 1/2 of the term and I'll be dragging 13yo with us, so we can work on school.   I feel tired already.

February 27, 2015

Found an older blog post, so some of what I have written here is repeated.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wow! Where has the time gone?  It's been a mixed bag.  Some days we've been productive and some we haven't.  The most progress has been made in the "check list" subjects - math, grammar, and Latin.

Latin - we finally finished lesson 12!  Since 12yo already knows how to diagram basic sentences, this has been a low key lesson.  Lots of history though - Manlius Torquatus, Appius Claudius (road builder - Appian Way), and Pyhrric victory.

Math - we've covered a lot of ground with math in the past month.  We finished chapters about working with percents, working with money, and figuring perimeter and area.  Only one more chapter in the book - circles, angles, and volume.  There is a final review chapter which we'll be using as periodic review when we start the next math book.

English Grammar - plodding along.  65-81 Pronouns - possessive, demonstrative, indefinite, interrogative,  and relative.  Now we are working on capitalization and punctuation.

Science - Insects
5 - Unit Review
6 - Odonata I (dragonflies)
7 - Odonata II (damselflies)
8  - Orthoptera I (grasshoppers)

Astronomy
Unit 1 Review
reading through Astronomy (Basher)

Geography
Algeria
Morocco
Introduction to Europe/Mediterranean Europe

American History
MP's The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic
4 Columbus and the Queen
5 Land, Land!
6 Home Again
7 How America Got Its Name
8 The Fountain of Youth

World History
Great Courses - The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World
1 - Taking on the Other Side of History
2 - Paleolithic
3 - Mesopotamia

Classical Studies
Famous Men of Greece - Deucalion, Cadmus, Perseus, Hercules, Jason and the Golden Fleece, and Theseus

Christian Studies II
15 Elijah and the Priests of Baal; Still Small Voice
16 Naboth's Vineyard; Parting of Elijah and Elisha
17 Anointing of Jehu; Crowning of Joash
18 Death of Elisha; Warnings of the Prophets

January 23, 2015

* Feb. 27, 2015.  Just found this today. *

Monday was a holiday - Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Latin
Lively Latin - still working through lesson eleven.  Practiced conjugating the future tense, worked with English derivatives, Gallic invasion of Rome in 390 BC.

Math
112-118 Percents

Grammar
65-68 Pronouns: Possessive, Demonstrative, Indefinite, Interrogative. Business letters.

Literature
The Hobbit - chapter four.

Science
Astronomy - Zodiac, Scorpio

Insect - 4 What Is Metamorphosis?  Unit 1 Review

Geography
Tunisia

American History
Memoria Press The Story of the Thirteen Colonies and the Great Republic
1 Our Country So Long Ago
2 The Northmen In America
3 Prince Henry the Navigator

World History
Calliope/Mesopotamia - "The Babylonian Story of Creation" "The Great Flood" "Inanna" "Fun With Words" "War in the First Cities" "Digging Up History" "Ask Calliope" "From Mesopotamia to Iraq"
Ancient Civilization: Building Skills by Exploring Maps - Ancient Assyria
SOTW Ancients 16 The Return of the Assyrians, 17 Babylon Takes Over Again

January 16, 2015

Much better week!

12yo moved up in swimming lessons to level 5. :)

Current Events
Dropped the ball on Newsademic, but we did watch CNN Student News religiously.

Latin
Lively Latin - More Camillus, cont'd conjugating future tense verbs

Math
103-108  Converting between English and Metric measures, distance = rate X time, scales of miles, reading a blueprint

Grammar
61-64  Nominative and objective case pronouns, friendly letters, and more practice using pronouns correctly (when to use nominative or objective case)

Literature
The Hobbit - read chapter three (arriving at Rivendell), corresponding workbook pages

Science
The Book of Astronomy - Solar System (115), Constellations: Hercules, The Summer Sky

The Book of Insects - (1-3) What is an insect?, Phylum and Class, Orders

Geography
Libya

American History
6-11 Jamestown.  Starving time, Pocahontas dies, tobacco, first African Americans, House of Burgesses, Indians vs. Colonists

World History
Story of the World - Phoenicians, Assyrians
History Detective - 7 Hittites and Phoenicians, 10 Assyrians and Chaldeans
Usborne Encyclopedia - Trading and Conquering, Newcomers and New States
Calliope - "Assyrian Expansion," "The Great Restorer" (Nebuchadnezzar II), "The Hand of Hammurabi"

Classical Studies
Famous Men of Greece - (1-2) The Gods of Greece

Christian Studies
14 Wisdom of Solomon, The Temple, Queen of Sheba

January 9, 2015

Anxiety?  I've felt overwhelmed this week, and I seem to be shutting down.  One of my girls has a joined a team at the high school which means after school games and practices.  Another has added a driver's ed course.  And 12yo restarted swimming lessons this week.  And that's just part of the picture.

Really hoping I can overcome my anxiety this coming week, so I'm not so paralyzed.

This week has been a "at least do something" kind of week.

Current Events - CNN Student News has been the most consistent thing this week, and we started the newest edition of Newsademic Thursday evening.

Math & Grammar - we did one lesson in each subject.  Eek.

Latin - We have jumped back into Lively Latin Big Book 1.   Love it!  Love the videos.  Love the book.
We are in lesson 11 which will hopefully be a bit of a review.  We've already learned about the future tense and Camillus.

American History - we backed up to the beginning of A History of US Volume 2.  It's been fun to read.
The origins of Western Civilization (Middle East, Greece, Rome) and the founding of Jamestown in 1607.

World History - bouncing all over the place on the timeline.  I definitely don't have a good chronological grasp when it comes to ancient history.
K12's The Human Odyssey - Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon
Calliope magazine - Mesopotamia: The Land of Firsts - Sumer, Ur, Cuneiform, Gilgamesh, Early Farming, Akkadians/Sargon ...
Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of the Ancient World - (we have read these pages too many times!) The First Empires, The Rise of Babylon, Allies and Enemies.

Core Knowledge - Christianity (grade 1)

Science - During the holidays I made an order to Memoria Press and one of the items I bought was The Book of Astronomy set.  We are enjoying an introduction to night skies through constellations.
The Summer Triangle - Lyra/Lyre, Aquila/Eagle, and Cygnus/Swan.