Weeks Two & Three

What a busy couple of weeks! I figured I might as well combine the weeks! I postponed updating until the girls had time to finish their history project and that didn't happen until the end of this week so we'll just kill two birds with one stone!

In truth, our weeks were not that different. Week 2 was truncated because of Labor Day. We managed to get all our work done but it was squeezed into 3 days instead of 4. It wasn't until Friday that I realized that I had skipped science for 2 of the 3 days...oops! No wonder we'd had been able to get it all done!


History:
Hannah and Grace moved on to study the Ice Age. This is not a topic I've studied at all. Granted it is important to keep in perspective when studying this subject that most of what we know is theory and there are more than one theory. We studied the book Life In the Great Ice Age.

  

It is the story of a boy named Jabeth who is supposed to be a descendant of Noah. It follows the Tower of Babel and theorizes what life would have been like for those tribes that separated at the tower and went their separate ways. The idea behind the ice is that the flood would have caused just a dramatic climate change that the earth would have experienced the opposite of a greenhouse effect, freezing the earth instead. The book explores this idea. 

The girls made rainbows in week 2 to remember God's promise to us:

 

 

 Sean wanted to make a rainbow too--his turned out more abstract!

And then in week 3 they recreated cave art after reading about a mammoth hunt:

 Elaina studied Columbus in week 2, and then followed him up with the study of a few Spanish explorers in Week 3. We quickly decided that those Spanish guys were not the nicest as we read about how they came looking for gold and effectively killed off the indigenous people. 

 Handprint Nina, Pinta, and the Santa Maria. She loved doing this.

 Exploring the New World!

Science: As I mentioned we missed a bit of science. This week we did much better. We are still studying pollination but will be moving on next week. We studied how things like hummingbirds, butterflies, moths, and bats aid in pollination. I had no idea that so many animals and insects were involved in the process! And each were created for a different type of plant. 

Gym: We started ice skating during week 3. It was in the 80's outside so that made it very difficult to go into a frozen ice rink! But the girls were so happy to be back on the ice and really had a good time. We also attended our Fall Fitness during week 2, but we played hookie during week 3 because it had rained all night before. And in Fall Fitness much of the time is spent in the grass, wet and muddy or not.

Week 3 was probably the most busy our weeks would get. We have a few things that are scheduled on bi-week or monthly times. This week they all landed on the same week. This will happen periodically but thankfully not often. 

Monday the older girls had a class at the Wildlife Sanctuary. A friend of ours set this up for older kids. The youngers will go do something with Mommy! Hannah and Grace enjoyed a "behind the scenes" tour of the Sanctuary. They will do this once a month for 8 months. They're  very excited and looking forward to it!

Tuesday we had a field trip to Apple Valley Orchard. 

Honestly, we were a little disappointed in this field trip. Now we've experienced some awesome field trips to Orchards and that probably does raise the bar a bit. But they greeted us with a myriad of rules (many, such as no kids in the salesroom, are obviously meant for school groups but we were told we had to abide by them anyway even though if we had come back an hour later, on our own, we could have brought our children into the salesroom with us). After the rules, they sent us on our way to give ourselves a self-guided tour and pick a few apples from the orchard. Again, on our own. I'm not really sure how that constitutes as a "tour" in any way, shape, or form but we enjoyed the time together and that is what is important. And next time we'll take our business to an orchard that really does well with field trips, like Little Farmer.

Thursday is going to be our busy day every week. This is the day we began ice skating. Immediately following that we have art class. Several families have pooled together to hire an art teacher and she teaches our older children some of the finer points of art while we teach our preschoolers. And then, every-other-week, we'll hurry home to eat so that Eric can take the girls to their STEM meeting. That was this week. They built little robots and made a hovercraft from a CD and a balloon.

And then, if we had not skipped, we would have had Fall Fitness on Friday. Phew. On a typical week we'll just have Thursdays full (and Fridays for a while yet). And of course an occassional field trip.

This week we also went to Old World Wisconsin on Saturday with my brother Calvin and his fiance Remi. Eric and Hannah were unable to join us (Eric had to work and Hannah was under the weather) but we still had a good time. Though part of my heart got left behind at home and that always steals some of the joy.

 Next week promises to be a little slower paced! We are looking forward to that.

Back To Work

Week One:
The first week is always a little bit of madness. That's just a given going into it. I compare it a little toward having a newborn baby--the first time you go through it you've never experienced being so needed (or sleep deprived) before and it is a bit of a shock to the system. When your second baby comes along you know what to expect and somehow it just doesn't seem as bad, even if it is. That was my experience anyway. So I know beforehand that the first week of school will be rough and having that knowledge keeps me from becoming too discouraged by the end of it!

We are changing this up considerably this year. Just with a change in curriculum. So the girls had to adjust to some different tasks. I made up a grid for each of them this year so they can keep track of their assignments easier. They are having a hard time reading it so far, but I think that once they are familiar with it they will really appreciate it. Last year Hannah got behind in her grammar because she didn't do the right amount of pages and then pent the rest of the year catching up! So this way she can be sure to stay on track.

History:
Hannah and Grace are studying the beginning of history this week. We started reading Grandpa's Box. 

So far it has been interesting. The premise is simple. The grandpa appeals to his grandson's interest in all things war history to retell the story of the Bible through the eyes of Spiritual Warfare. Good vs. Evil, God vs. Satan. It was a different way of seeing it and the kids seemed to enjoy that. We ended at Noah's Ark for the week.

The girls had to research what a Coat of Arms was. Then they made their own Shield of Faith:

Elaina is doing American History. So she began studying Vikings and Leif Erickson this week.  We read through a couple picture books and she really resonated with them. Much, much better than last year. She was excited to hear the story and seemed to remember much more than before. So fingers crossed we have some actual retention this year. End of the week she made Viking Bread!

 

Science: This week the kids studied pollination. In particular how bees help pollinate flowers. In particular we studied orchids and how unusual they are and the different ways they attract bees. The girls got to create their own kind of flower, one that appeared to be an animal.

We are also joining a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) group this year. Eric is going to help out with that. Hoping the kids will get to make a few fun projects and also learn some valuable things through that. We won't have our first actual class for a couple weeks, but this week they had a planning session to discuss.

Reading: Hannah is working on reading The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander and Grace is reading Mr. Popper's Penguins. We are doing something different his year in that when they complete their book I made up a book of "Book Project" ideas. So instead of just writing a report they will do some sort of creative project. I'm looking forward to what they come up with.

Bible:
Hannah and Grace are working through the book The Dig For Kids. They'll be studying the book of Luke for the first part of the year at least.

Elaina is reading through the Jesus Storybook with me. This week it actually lined up very well with what Hannah and Grace was studying so she was able to contribute to their discussions. As with history she remained engaged and really enjoyed listening.

Gym: For the next few weeks at least we are doing Fall Fitness. This is basically parent-led homeschool gym. We gather together at a park. The kids do a couple laps, warm-up, and then split up into different age groups to play various games. Hannah and Grace played Capture the Flag where Elaina's group played Sharks and Minnows. They like to do this and other than feeling like 2 hours of gym is just too much gym for this gym-hating Mama, it is a good part of our week. Next week we will also add in ice skating!

That about sums up the first week! I thought it went pretty well for the first week. By the end it really felt like the girls were learning what was expected of them. We''ll see how the upcoming week goes being that it is a shortened one!

Beginning Of A New Year

It has actually been an entire year (more than) since I've written a thing. Too much life has gone by to sum it all up in one post so we'll just continue on from here. What are the chances of me keeping up with this if I try again? Probably not very good, but nevertheless it is worth it to make an attempt. I do love the idea of chronicling our journey.

This year has the potential to be a great year! Hannah is now in 5th grade, Grace 3rd, Elaina 1st, and Sean is just going along for the ride. This year we will try to get him involved, but for now he has just been practicing tracing lines, getting him ready to write his letters! 

Last year we did a side-bar year and tried out a new curriculum Winter Promise American Story 2 which covered the Civil War-Modern Times.  I liked a lot of this curriculum but ultimately it was only intended to be a one-year filler. We really wanted a curriculum that was fairly open-and-go, scheduled a 4-day week, and easily combined grades. That really narrows it down and we eliminated our original plan of doing Heart of Dakota's Bigger Hearts For His Glory because of the 4-day week issue (it scheduled 5 days). I really didn't want to give that up.

So for Hannah and Grace this year, we have returned to Heart of Dakota. This year they are doing Preparing Hearts for His Glory which is the first HOD guide that plans a 4 day week (woohoo!). This year they'll be doing an overview of World History beginning at Creation and ending somewhere near WWII. 

 

We have some awesome "storytime" titles that we'll be reading through. In addition to this each girl has a set of independent reading books that are age-appropriate and correlate with the history that we are studying. 

They are using Teaching Textbooks again this year for math. This has been a great blessing for me and both girls seem to like it as much as they ever like math. 

 

For the first year ever, Language Arts was not a struggle for me to choose. Last year we tried Winter Promise LA because we were doing their full program. Even though this year we aren't doing the history portion, I was a fan of their LA so that was a no-brainer for me. This year we purchased the e-books and though that involved more work for me (printing and printing...) it means that I will never have to buy those guides again. For future years I will just have to print them again! But it saves a lot of money in the end.

 

Within Winter Promise LA, they use Spellwell spelling. We were using this anyway so it was nice to be able to just continue doing so. It is a very simple program and the kids don't mind doing it at all.

Science we are actually continuing from last year. All three girls join in for this subject as Apologia is for K-6. We began Apologia Botany last year after we had completed Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day. So we decided to split Botany between two years. Later this year we will pick up with Chemistry & Physics. 

 

Elaina was a bit trickier for me this year. Last year she had zero attention span for history once we'd made it through reading and math. I struggled for most of the year to get her to recall anything we'd studied with very little success. So I knew I had to come up with something different for her this year. While I was browsing at our Homeschool Curriculum Sale, I came across a used copy of Truthquest. Truthquest is unique in that it isn't a complete curriculum but more or less a book filled with topics and outlines complete with recommended reading lists. What drew me to this was the idea of using mainly picture books for her as the likelihood of holding her attention throughout a picture book was far greater than reading out of a text.

Ultimately I used very few books actually listed in Truthquest, mainly because our library did not carry them, but I did use it as a foundation for my planning. In addition to this I planned weekly activities for her and tried to find applicable coloring pages and movies. I'm hoping it will be a gentle but informational year for her! 

For Math I am still using Modern Curriculum Press. It does the job and so we stick with it. 

 

Elaina is still struggling with reading so we are being fairly informal with it at this point. We are just reviewing and basically saturating ourselves in phonics. I am hoping that when she has a better grasp on things we'll move on and continue with First Start reading. When that happens we'll also begin handwriting and Thinking Skills. At this point, I am trying to save her attention for the main subjects!

That about sums up our plans for this year! We'll see if I can keep this up to date.