SL Week 22 "A"-LOW (Nov 8-12, 2011)

Week 45 of Core 3 /  Core D.  This wasn't a spectacularly productive week for us: because we had a lot of LIFE to do-hospital visits, doctor visits, garden harvest, haircut, library, and the Children's Museum (planetarium-Egypt visit-Frog exhibit-Treasures of the Earth exhibit, carousel trips x 6....  We had a very, very difficult Monday.  Mon we also went to the dermatologist to have a bump on Dd's eyebrow looked at. Giz went to the hospital Tues.  The doc was ready to cut in out then and there.  We will give it some time and pray on it for a little while.  We visited Giz at the hospital on Thurs.  We had Aqua Athlete's on Tues.; I messed up and arrived an hour early so we got to have a Nature Walk on the trail around the complex.  We had an excellent field trip with LHE to the Children's Museum on Thur. and we went to a book sale on Friday...and two visits to the library too!

As for our lessons-
We are reading The Story of Eli Whitney.
Our bible reading is on Acts. 
Lamplighter Theatre- Teddy's Buttons
BrainPop-everyday (although, I forget to mention it most of the time on here)
MUS-Lesson 22 A-F and some test pages
English From the Roots Up-first 10 words
AAS-Step 7 & reviewed Step 6 and Step 2
Life of Fred: Ch. 5 & 6


I read to Dd:
Because I Love You by Max Lucado and Mitchell Heinze

Dd's Reading:(not her fun reading; just her 'history' reading.)
Revolutionary War On Wednesday (Magic Tree House 22, paper) by Mary Pope Osborne and Sal Murdocca

Night of the Ninjas (Magic Tree House, No. 5) by Mary Pope Osborne and Sal Murdocca

Betsy Ross and the Silver Thimble (Ready-to-Read. Level 2) by Stephanie Greene and Diana Magnuson

Sam the Minuteman (I Can Read Book 3) by Nathaniel Benchley and Arnold Lobel

The Boston Coffee Party by Doreen Rappaport and Emily Arnold McCully


Playaway:

Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson and Greg Call

Audio-completed this week:
Seekers #2: Great Bear Lake by Erin Hunter




Our Garden Produce Pictures:

Gave Dd a haircut on Tue.:






Photo's from our Children's Museum Field Trip with LHE:

Dd with the Transformer: "Bumblebee"

On the "airplane" landing in Egypt--great exhibit!

In the Egypt exhibit

Frog Exhibit: Dissecting Frog Slide Show

at the new FROGS exhibit

Playing Checkers

SL Core D Week 22 (Oct. 31-Nov. 4th, 2011)

Here we are on our 44th week doing Core 3 or Core "D" if you have adjusted to the new name of the same core.  We had M-T-W here at home; and did our Th-F at the farm in Mitchell.  We built tree stands in the woods for Dh's deer hunting.  We thought we would try to do our lessons on "vacation" to see if it would take some of the 'transition' out of our life.  (I'm typing this after the fact; so I can report that it didn't work.  On Monday 11-7 when we tried to start back up our lessons at home it proved to be an all day crying, highly emotional day.  Dd just does not do transitions well.  Mondays are always hard; but if we have done any traveling it seems to be much, much worse.)

This week we studied Acts for my reading of the bible and Dd read from 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles for her reading.

Our main reading for the week was : Carry On, Mr. Bowditch--which we finished.  We really enjoyed this book a lot.  Then we started The Story of Eli Whitney.

Dd's extra books that we added-in were:
George Washington and the General's Dog (Step-Into-Reading, Step 3) by Frank Murphy and Richard Walz

George the Drummer Boy (I Can Read Book 3) by Nathaniel Benchley and Don Bolognese

Paul Revere and the Bell Ringers (Ready-to-Read. Level 2) by Jonah Winter and Bert Dodson

Our poetry this week was Edgar Allen Poe. 
Math-MUS-Gamma
Life of Fred-Ch. 4
IEW-Rough Draft: Oysters
Handwriting: Cursive
Board Game: Money Bags
FLL- cd reviewed the poems and songs from 1 & 2
AAS- Step 7 (reviewed each day) 

11-5 (Sat) we had Upwards Basketball Evaluations and worked for the rest of the day in our garden.  We dug up our turnips, parsnips, carrots, chard greens...hard work but fun!   

 

Happy Halloween

Dd went as Queen Kristina:

SL Core D Week 21 "A"-LOW (Oct 24-28, 2011)

Our Read Aloud is Carry On, Mr. Bowditch.  There are two terms that I really have appreciated in this book:
1)"Lose an anchor to windward"-
*this means that an anchor holds a ship in place; and when one loses an anchor one drifts from important things.  This analogy is used to describe people and how we can lose an anchor to windward.
2)"Sail by the ash breeze"-
*this means when you get ahead by your own efforts, or your own get up and go.  This is also an analogy to describe the main character, Nat.   Nat has had to sail by the breeze (so far) all his life.

We have  been enjoying The Life of Fred-Apples.  Dd asked if this was "math" and I said no, it was logic.  That is true, right?!

Did I mention we are doing this about once a week and it is fun for dd:
Typing Instructor For Kids Platinum (Windows/Mac) by Individual Software
This week for bible, we are using:
Sword Fighting by Karyn Henley
(I love the swords we make and the concepts behind it; but I am ready for something more meaty soon.)

IEW-This week we are working on "Oysters".  Monday we made it through 3/4 of the KWO (Key Word Outline) and Wednesday we made it through 1/3 of the rough draft.  This program is difficult for dd.  I am hoping it will get easier as we progress.

Dd's Reader:

The Winter of Red Snow: The Revolutionary War Diary of Abigail Jane Stewart, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, 1777 (Dear America) by Kristiana Gregory

AAS-Step 6
WWE-Week 10
FLL- Lesson 14 (we did lesson 14 on Mon and again on Wed b/c it was such a good lesson on Adjectives I thought we could remember it better if we did it twice.)
Teaching Textbooks 4- Lessons 54, 55, 56
Story of the USA 2 chapter 4
Skip-Counting Songs (MUS) 8 Family


Activities:
Monday-dentist (no cavaties!)
Tuesday-Aqua Athlete's
Wed-Lessons
Thursday-LHE Co-op
Friday-Lessons

Audio:
finishing:
The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 3) by Rick Riordan

Playaway:
Anne of Green Gables 

craft:

Lauri Toys Peel and Stick by Numbers Pets by Patch Products

*this is not the exact one she is doing; but you get the idea. 

vhs:  

Dear America the Winter of Red Snow (Unknown Binding)

*this vhs movie (from our library) is based on the reader dd is reading; we've watched this movie 3 times now! 

SL Week 21--week 42 of Core 3/D Oct 17-21th, 2011

Monday: Lessons then a Field Trip "Art on the Farm"
Should have taken photo's!!!  Dd had an art lesson then she got to play (or hopefully draw) some animals.  They had a rabbit, chickens, roosters, ducks, and a pony.  Dd got to spend an hour riding the pony bareback and had the best time.

Tuesday-Lessons then Aqua Athlete's.
Wednesday-Lessons
Thursday-LHE Co-op Classes (Gym, Games, Speech), then lessons.
Friday-Lessons and then the YMCA for swimming- Dd invited a good friend along


This week we did Teaching Textbooks and MUS Test booklet pages.
Enjoying: Sing the Word: Great in Counsel and Mighty in Deed
The Landmark History of the American People, Vol. 1
The Story of the USA, Book 2
American Adventures 1
Bible: Acts
The Discover's Bible for Young Readers-- 1 Kings
American Indian Prayer Guide-Osage
IEW
 AAS-week 5
WWE- Week 9
FLL-Lesson 14
Skip-counting Songs from MUS -8 family
A Child's Poetry-Elizabeth Barrett Browning
We are reading "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" for Sonlight; along with some history books.
(We've finished the the scheduled reader:Om-Kas-toe & Martha Washington so we added in:
We added in: Dd's new Reader is:
The Winter of Red Snow: The Revolutionary War Diary of Abigail Jane Stewart, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, 1777 (Dear America) by Kristiana Gregory
We added in:
The Constitution (True Books: Government) by Patricia Ryon Quiri
as we focused on understanding the 3 branches of the American Government in detail.
 Timez Attack, Star Wars Monopoly for fun at night...
For fun we finished reading Book Two of Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters and we are listening to Book Three: The Titan's Curse which lead to reading some Greek Myths:
Orchard Book of Greek Myths by Geraldine McCaughrean
 
vhs: 
The Best of Schoolhouse Rock! - 30th Anniversary Edition [VHS] Dd is listening to the Playaway: Anne of Green Gables (for the umpteenth time)

SL week 20 "A" or LOW--week 41 on Core 3/D Oct 10- 14th, 2011

Turkey Run State Park

The Punchbowl

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My favorite picture of the day!

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Pictures of our visit to Turkey Run State Park

Monday-
Left-overs week-plus Dh is home this week, so we are doing more field trip things than book things this week. Yesterday we spent the whole day and ate dinner at "Turkey Run State Park". We brought our picnic lunches, then hiked all day, then enjoyed a buffet dinner at the Inn. It was a really special and wonderful day. There were LOTS of people there-which is confusing since it was a Monday and school should be in; but there were loads of people and kids on the trails....bummer about seeing people when we were hoping for more quiet hiking.
Tuesday-Aqua Athlete's class & math
Wednesday-around the house & some lessons & woodworking with Pappa-building and finishing a box together & lots of prep work and rehearsals for speech class.
Thursday-LHE co-op.  Dd gave her "Presentation" on Sophie & Great Danes & Black Lab. Retrievers and did a great job! and math
Friday-visitors from church came (the Landrum's) and math
(Math U See-Gamma 19E to 21 B)
Board Games this week: Backgammon, Othello, and Sequence

SL Week 20 --week 40 of Core 3/D Oct 3-7th 2011

G&G had their 50th wedding anniversary celebration this past weekend.  We went down to celebrate with them.

We are on Week 20 of the IG-week 40 on this core so far.  Besides the scheduled IG items we have been adding in:
MUS's Skip-Counting Songs and focus on one family per week and write it, say it, and sing it at least 3 times each day.
FLL-Lesson 13
WWE-Wk 8
AAS-Step 4
MUS 17D-19D
We've already read the assigned Readers(The Bears on Hemlock Mountain and George Washington: Our First Leader), and the Read Aloud (Toliver's Secret) so I am adding in some new books:

The Liberty Tree: The Beginning of the American Revolution (Picture Landmark) by Lucille Recht Penner


Revolutionary John Adams by Cheryl Harness

Where Was Patrick Henry on the 29th of May? by Jean Fritz and Margot Tomes (Dd's Reader-finished)

Liberty or Death: The American Revolution: 1763-1783 (American Story) by Betsy Maestro and Giulio Maestro (Read Aloud-will finish on Friday)

The Dear America: The Winter of Red Snow by Kristiana Gregory (Dd's reader)


VHS/DVD:
American School Publishers: a Miller-Brody Dramatization:  Sarah, Plain and Tall
Magic School Bus: Gets Eaten [VHS]



NOVA: Dogs and More Dogs Starring John Lithgow

Eyewitness - Dog [VHS]

 (Dd has a 'Speech' class report to do on the topic of 'dogs' next week-researching dogs.)

 Monday we had to stop early so I could donate blood; which gave us an opportunity to go to the library ahead of schedule!

On Thursday we too are going to a farm- a dairy farm called Fair Oaks Farms.  My lactose intolerant child should love it; with her special pills!! Here is the website if anyone is curious:
www.fofarms.com/en/home

Fair Oaks Farms attractions (The Adventure Center, Birthing Barn, Tours and Cheese Plant) will remain open! So get on out to Mooville and have some fun before the season ends! Remember Cowtoberfest will be going on all month long in October, so there are more things to see and do at the farm!

Try your hand at connecting the sucking hoses to the artificial cow

Inga - gave us a lecture on the whole process

Hello Ladies!

The Milking Ride-the cows like it so well they don't want to get off after their circle is done!

I have no idea how to describe this bouncing, rubbery, bounce house-minus the house, fun contraption!

The hooves are right there--now wait another hour!

Can you see the little calf in the straw?

SL Week 19 "A" LOW --39th week on Core 3/D Sept 26-30

American Revolution/Constitution/Colonial Period/George Washington

Here are the books we've added in this week:

George Washington by Cheryl Harness

Sybil's Night Ride by Karen B. Winnick

They Called Her Molly Pitcher by Anne Rockwell and Cynthia von Buhler

If You Lived In Colonial Times by Ann Mcgovern and June Otani

A More Perfect Union: The Story of Our Constitution by Betsy Maestro and Giulio Maestro 

The Scarlet Stockings Spy (Tales of Young Americans) by Trinka Hakes Noble and Robert Papp

 audio: 
continued from last week:

The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson & The Olypians, Bk. 2) by Rick Riordan

Playaway:

The City of Ember (Books of Ember) by Jeanne DuPrau

VHS: Eyewitness: Dogs

(Dd is preparing for her speech on "Dogs" for her speech class) 

We have done Artistic Pursuits this week and have enjoyed the lessons. Our first lesson was doing a painting that had a "Impressionistic" style and subject.  Dd chose an apple as her subject.  She is painting in gouache; which I have never tried.  Her second assignment was a color wheel with gouache again.

We are still working on the first lessons in IEW "A".  We've done the Key Word Outline and Rough Draft for Sea Snakes and Desert Tarantula.  We will do the KWO on Pillbugs and have dd choose which of the three stories she wants to pick to do a "Final Draft".  She did the rough draft of Desert Tarantula on her own; I was her spelling dictionary and that was all I had to do.  That is truly an improvement for her abilities.

at the IMA: Indiana Museum of Art

We went to the IMA: Indiana Museum of Art this week; as a field trip with HBHE.  We toured the "100 Acres" sculpture park with a nice guided tour guide who was very similar to Aunt Charlotte.  Then Dd and I had stayed after to play and chat with a fellow hs family that did the tour with us.  Dd had a great time playing with their 3 children.  Then they left and we had our picnic.  Then we went to the IMA building and had a great time looking at all 4 floors worth of art work.

Thursday we had our LHE co-op classes; which were good.  Then we went to Krannert Park and had another picnic and played/chatted with fellow hs'ers.  Then we went with a family to a grocery store in downtown Indy.  This grocery store is like a "Big Lots" for groceries.  We got some organic foods for a great price.


Added in: Dd finished her reader: 
A Pioneer Sampler: The Daily Life of a Pioneer Family in 1840 by Barbara Greenwood

Math:MUS and TT
Bible: Sword Fighting
Science: SL week 8
WWE-Wk 7
FLL-Lesson 12

Skip-Counting Songs-(MUS) 7 Family
FLL Audio Disc


This weekend we drive down to Mitchell to celebrate G&G's 50 year wedding anniversary.  We will be having a family picnic at a shelter house in Spring Mill Park on Sat.  On Sun we will all meet at G&G's church and enjoy a service all together.  

Sonlight Core D Week 19 - (week 38 on Core 3/D) Sept 19-23 2011

Hello, Friends!

Monday was Dh and my 13th years of marriage anniversary, so our lessons were off for the day.  We had Dh home on Friday and Monday; so he had a 4 day weekend.  We still did our lessons on Friday while he did some of his things.

We are reading The Landmark History of the American People, The Story of the USA-Book 2 for our history this week.  We had already read and finished If You Were There...Constitution.  We are really enjoying our Read Aloud: Toliver's Secret-(finished now).  I thought it was going to be about a boy; when it is really about a 10 year old girl who learns how to become brave.  This is especially great b/c my dd really has not mastered 'brave' quite yet!  This is a great story for her to have read to her.

Dd finished reading these books: 

for fun:

Amy's Story: Portraits of Little Women by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (The Adventures of Tintin: Original Classic) by Herge

for our lessons added in:

A Head Full of Notions (Creative Minds Biography) by Andy Russell Bowen and Lisa Harvey

which was a Winter Promise/American story add-in.  She is onto reading:

When Washington Crossed the Delaware: A Wintertime Story for Young Patriots by Lynne Cheney and Peter Fiore

Toliver's Secret by Esther Wood Brady 

We've already read our assigned readers (The Cabin Faced West  and George Washington: Our Leader so we added in:

Dd current "Reader":

A Pioneer Sampler: The Daily Life of a Pioneer Family in 1840 by Barbara Greenwood

The funny thing with her reading A Pioneer Sampler is that I was showing her some options on what she can read next as her 'reader' and she said she had hidden a book in her reading nook and wanted to know if she could read this book.  I thought it was going to be a Narnia or Star Wars or the like type of book; but she pulled out A Pioneer Sampler!!  This is a book I thought would be too much for her and that I would read to her.  She said she had been reading it on her own and how much she is really liking it and started telling me all about it!

We are doing good in all our areas; nothing major has changed from last week-just moving further along in our Science, Math, LA, Poetry, Sing the Word: Great in Counsel and Mighty in Deed, etc. etc.

I ordered another Artistic Pursuits book:

Artistic Pursuits K-3 Book Three (Artistic Pursuits: K-3 Book Three, Impressionism to the Modern Period) by Brenda Ellis

which focuses on modern painting and sculpture.  And I ordered the gouache and supplies that goes with this book.  I am so excited to start diving into this; as is Dd.  But, I want to read the book first before we get started.  We had already started the next book, that is suppose to come after finishing this book; but we can just put it aside until after this book.  My dear friend had given me the future book and it looked so good I went ahead and backed up a step so we wouldn't miss anything.  I am really liking how simply they teach art to children in a step-by-step process. 

We are also 'harvesting' some of our garden this week.  We have brought in turnip greens, potatoes, onions, and lots of ripe tomatoes!   

We had our co-op classes on Thursday which were fun.  We went to Krannert Park afterwards to enjoy our picnic lunches with fellow hs'ers.   Then we finished up by going to the library. 

Hairy, Scary, Ordinary: What Is an Adjective? (Words Are Categorical) by Brian P. Cleary

Dd has started a new "Playaway" (audio book):

The City of Ember (Books of Ember) by Jeanne DuPrau

and since we finished the audio: Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief we have ILL (inter-library loaned) the sequel:

The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 2) by Rick Riordan

**don't tell Dd; but I've read ahead and am on book 3! 

This week we are reading:

Toliver's Secret 

A Child's Introduction to Poetry: William Blake

FLL-Lesson 11  - plus review of poems and terms from Book 1 & 2

WWE-Week 6

Skip Counting Songs by MUS--7 family

Bible-Acts

Discover's Bible-2 Samuel

Science-Week 8 (partial)

Indian Prayer Guide

Life of Fred-Chapter 1 (new)

SL Core D Week 18 "B" Sept 12-16th 2011

This is our 37th week on Core 3 and we are doing fine!  We have done 2 "left-over weeks" in a row.  We had a lot going on and I wanted to extend this historic period and not rush through the Revolutionary War time period.  There is too much to read and comprehend before I want to proceed.   This week we also started a new process - Dd having her own printed out schedule for each day's list of things we are to do and have her (and her clip-board) check off each item and keep us on our time schedule.  This has worked out well so far.

On Monday we had an exciting field trip to "Bar B and M" Horse Farm; where Dd got to ride a wonderful horse named "Paris".  There was a great tour of all the stalls with the many different kinds of horses.  It was really a lovely event with smiles all around.  The children each had the opportunity to feed a horse an apple too.  I really wish I had remembered my camera....

On Thursday our LHE co-op classes began again; which is a huge deal for dd.  She literally counted down the months, weeks, and days until her classes started back up.  She has 3 classes that last 45 minutes each, which are : Gym, Games, and Speech.  Then after the classes are over at 11:45 we go to a neighboring park and eat our packed lunches with many of the children from LHE.

We are currently on lessons 14 and 15 with MUS Gamma.  We do Times Attack website about 1x week.    We are enjoying listening to Steve Demme's Skip Counting Songs-right now we are working on the 7 family.

We are on lesson 10 with FLL (First Language Lessons-3).  We started IEW-Excellence in Writing Lesson 1 in the "A" program.  All About Spelling -level 3- and we've added in "Spellingcity.com" which is really neat and I like it a lot.  And Writing With Ease is going well too....Language Arts is covered.

We have been working on having Dd do one chore per day that is about 30 minutes of work.  She is doing well at this and enjoys having her own work to do to help out.

The books we have been reading this week are:
Om-Kas-Toe: Blackfoot Twin Captures Elkdog by Kenneth Thomasma as a Read Aloud


. . . If You Were There When They Signed the Constitution by Elizabeth Levy and Joan Holub


as an add-in there was:
They Called Her Molly Pitcher by Anne Rockwell and Cynthia von Buhler