Sunday, April 16, 2017

SL Core H Week 14 A April 8-16th, 2017 (spring break, Easter, b-day party sleep-over)




Sonlight Core H Week 14A
April 8-16th, 2017
(Mostly spring break & birthday and Easter)


Hello, Friends!
Someone celebrated a birthday!  Here she is opening her birthday gifts:

Dh woke up at 3 am to make Dd her birthday lamb cake.  In his family, they always make the birthday girl (or boy) a cake with their old cast iron lamb mold.  It turned out great!

She received a Joann Fabrics gift card from my mom--yay!







She got books, 2 bibles, bible tabs, gummie bears, and socks!



This was NOT a normal, academic week.  The weather was mostly nice and Dd had a birthday party to plan and host.  I decided this was a perfect excuse to get my spring cleaning done around the house, and boy was our house in need of help!  Dd’s birthday party was a ‘dress up like your favorite Marvel character’ party.


Dd made two handkerchiefs with "PC" for Peggy Carter.


  She decided to be Peggy Carter; which meant we had to go shopping for her outfit.  Peggy Carter was Captain America’s girlfriend if you happened to see the movie.  We went to a few thrift stores looking for some 1950’s type clothes and found a perfect skirt.  She had a lot of fun planning this party, and getting dressed up like Peggy! 



 It sure if different planning a teenage party, not focusing on games but more on food.  We did a lot of grocery shopping.


Church Membership:
On Sunday (April 9th) in our church bulletin, it was listed that we have been approved for membership at our church, though we already feel part of the family.


Before


After

Zeus update:
On Monday,  (April 10th) our neighbor, Dave, the owner of the bull terrier (Lucy) that had attacked our Buff Orpington rooster, Zeus, walked over to our house for an update on his condition.   I was very impressed that our neighbor came up to see how our boy was doing, that showed real character.  Speaking of Zeus- he has been ever so slowly improving.  Each day that goes by raises a point in favor of him making a full recovery.  The worst part was that each day I could see more and more of the damage to his skin.  As the dog ripped out feathers he also ripped off the top layer of skin, which is now turning into scabs.  I’ve been using Bag Balm and Neosporin to keep his skin moist and flexible for healing.  I also gave him warm baths in my tub, emptying a whole new container of salt into the warm water to help keep out infection.  As each bath went by he got a bit more feisty about permitting such behavior willingly!  He had a really bad smell, I think his feathers sitting on top of the wounded skin made the offensive smell.  In desperation, I took scissors and cut off the feathers that were sticking to his wounds so those wounds could get proper air and healing, which improved his smell quite a lot.  The poor rooster looks shameful missing so many feathers, but at least he is healing and hopefully will be able to grow new feathers eventually.


Music Lessons:
Even though we were off of our normal lessons, Dd still had her violin lesson, Strings Group, Beginning Band, Intermediate band, and private music lesson with Mrs. March.

Look how long they are now!  I put in a handful of spinach and they gobbled it right up!
I don't think they will fit in a Cool Whip bowl any longer! 

Nature:
On Thursday morning, looking out my library window I saw a young doe!  A few hours later, while doing dishes, looking out my window, I saw a wild turkey by my birdfeeder!  This week was full of animal activity and daffodils blooming all around.  Such a gorgeous week!


Home Economics: Cooking & Cleaning:
Dd and I spent endless hours cleaning, tidying, and doing food prep for her party.  Dd made cheesecake cupcakes, lemon filling cupcakes, lunchmeat/cheese wraps…  We bought croissants and Nutella for the breakfast after the sleep over.  For the lunch- pizza, for the dinner, hot dogs grilled over the campfire, followed by S’mores, followed by ice cream later!  The girls watched some movies and stayed up late.  They played basketball and enjoyed the campfire.  It was a nice small group of friends.


Some of our activities qualify for ‘academics’ this week:


Bible:
As a family, we looked up and read Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, and Psalm Sunday in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  And Matthew 10.  Dd received two new bibles for her birthday gift-plus 3 sets of bible tabs to organize her bibles.  She has been reading in her new “NIV Bible For Teen Girls by Zonderkidz” that she wanted from Christianbook.

Finding God In Lord of the Rings by Jim Ware and Kurt Bruner
Three chapters, pg’s 1-16
I’m not sure about this book yet, I’m still evaluating.



Church and Sunday School on April 9th and Easter on April 16th
Olympians- Dd volunteers for 1:30 hours
Church party on April 15th



Audio:
Dd and I had been looking on Chelle’s blog for book choices, and decided to start: The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle using Audible, so we could work while we were listening this week.  It has over 20 hours of audio, so we will be listening for a while.  It has been very, very good!  Thanks to Chelle for her recommendation!


We've been listening to this off and on too



Chelle, when I put out my Pooh flag, for spring, I thought of you!

History Readers:
I was hoping Dd would be reading her Reader, The Broken Blade this week, but she didn’t read any of it.  She did read a chapter of her next Reader: In Search of Honor


 She did find time to read some of her fun books a few evenings this week:
The Courtship of Princess Leia by Dave Wolverton
Prudence by Gail Carriger (birthday gift from a friend)
We planted a lot of bulbs in the fall, and here is our first daffodil of the season.  By the end of the week we had 3 of them and one hyacinth!  


DVD’s:
John Adams – Miniseries by HBO
Doctor Strange- Marvel Movie with Benedict Cumberbatch (b-day party)

We finally went out and bought Dd a new rim for her basketball playing, but we didn't get it up in time for her party.

Physical Exercise-Basketball:
After the other girls left Dd got to spend some 1:1 time with L, the very first friend she met in Michigan.  They have been friends for over 2 years now.  I will have to share the story of how we met her mom on a special post.  Lately they have been exchanging favorite books they own to each other.


Playing Basketball:
2x this week: 1:30 minutes, plus helped us put a new metal ring on the old backboard/stand.


Art:
Water coloring and Drawing: 9 hours this week





Hopefully, next week will be fairly back to normal, though the week after a break is always super tough on us, so perhaps we will just get back into the swing with low expectations.

Garden Prep:
I dug up 20 buckets of hummus from out in our woods, put in wheelbarrow for easier climb up our hill, and we are getting closer to planting our 2017 garden.



Agnes in the plants in the sunroom!~


I finally finished the crochet blanket I had been working on this winter.  I put a packet of seeds on it to show the scale.






Chicken Update- The two Bantams and two Isa Brown tractor:


Here is what cute little Hades looked like at the start.

"Hummer", aka "Hummingbird" has grown so much!  We are wondering if she might be a boy, it looks like she is getting a comb (that part above her eyes, on the top of her head).




Hades has gotten prettier as she grows!
Here is Hades her first week with us to compare to how big she is now!





The two Isa Brown's: Agatha and Mrs. Marple




The Amber Links and Tetra Brown tractor:






The ducks won't leave the side of the chickens; which is totally different behavior than chickens have.  A chicken would have happily pecked all around the grass and wandered around, but not these ducks.  They followed the tractors and were only happy when they could see their pack. I was surprised.





Here is an early picture of an Amber Link, back on March 28th! My, they have grown fast!




Zeus in his section of the tractor, enjoying the sunshine:
I put up a cardboard "wall" to keep Zeus alone.  Yesterday, Hades, found her way under the wall and was inside Zeus's area--and they got along fine.  I expected Zeus to want to peck at the little ones.






Green Grass!  Our summer umbrella is out and we've been eating outside!

...........................


Friday, April 14, 2017

Sonlight Core H Week 13 April 3-7, 2017 (The week Zeus attacked)

Sonlight Core H - Year 2/2 of World History
Week 13 
April 3-7, 2017 
(The week Zeus attacked)


I'm showing the pretty end, the view from the back isn't good.  

Hello, Friends!
Another visit to the dentist, taxes, music, lessons, power out, bulbs, and my rooster, Zeus, attacked, Girls Night, all in one week.

This week I've been trying to analyze how our Sonlight core is working, and trying to determine how I can improve it.  Thankful to Chelle, for helping me accept that my Dd should be able to drop a SL book, here and there, if it isn't up to her standards.  I have to say, that is one (of my many) downfalls--expecting my daughter to read and finish all the books in each core, plus the one's I've added!  I can see now that Dd has passed the target range for Core H; which is intended for grades 7-9.  Dd is in grade 9, but is not stretched by this level.  I guess I assumed she was like me, and was happy reading from any book, regardless of ability.  

Church:
We have been attending a wonderful local church for one year and five months now.  We tried to sign up for membership before we went to Italy (in January), but we have had to wait for a monthly board meeting to attend, in which we could share our testimony before we could officially be up for membership.  I have to say, this procedure is very different than what we experienced in Indiana.  Well, after delays, and meetings that didn't have enough of the members present, etc. we finally put in for membership this week.  I had mixed feelings about being required to share my testimony, but after some thought, I figured I appreciated the fact that our church wants to get to know us better as we become members.  We could have answered it in one sentence, but Dd, Dh and I all shared a little detail about our journey finding the Lord.  It turned out being a very nice meeting and I appreciate how much this church treats us like a member of the family--which I like very much!

Dh and I have been working up our gardens, and putting in our old compost and some 'used' straw.

Flooding:
The Grand River is way over the normal borders and a lot of flooding has occurred here.  Luckily we live on a hill on a small mountain range and we don't have to worry about our home flooding.  It is odd to see places underwater that normally are woods or grass.  

Spring:
The bulbs we planted in the fall are starting to show in the dirt, we may soon have some spring flowers.  We saw lots of daffodils driving around!  I love spring and all the pretty flowers that come with it!

Migraines:
I had a bad go of migraines this week.

Zeus Attacked: (Friday)
Our rooster, Zeus, protected our hens from attack and took the full brunt of an attack from a neighbor's dog--a bull terrier.  Our hens started making such a fuss we could hear them inside our house.  Dd ran out first, and then I got there second and ran toward the action.  Inside our chicken run, pinned in a corner was poor Zeus and the dog.  I was yelling like a mad woman and got the dog away from Zeus, and Zeus took off at the opportunity.  I had to open a gate to get the dog out, as he had jumped into the run.  It took two hours to get all the hens back into our coop.  They did NOT want anything to do with our coop!  It was a lot of work trying to convince them the dog was no longer in there!  All the hens and Zeus had found shelter under some evergreen bushes.  I had to cut branches and crawl under the bush to retrieve Zeus, who was wounded and in shock.


I put up a cardboard wall, in a chicken tractor, in our garage, for Zeus to have a little solitary spot where he could heal without getting pecked at by the other chickens.  Poor Zeus didn't move much and was totally out of it Friday and Saturday.  I didn't even try to clean him up on Friday.  Saturday I started giving him salt water baths in my tub and brought out the Neosporin and Bag Balm ointment.  The dog had torn out all his tail feathers and all the feathers around his back end and lower back.  The skin had lost the top epidermis, but not showing any deep damage.  The worst part is the puncture hole above his anus hole--so it looks like he has two holes back there.  I'm sure that is too much information to share, but that is what is wrong.  He has bruising and his butt is all swollen and injured.  I'm going to do all I can to help him recover.

Saturday, neighbor conversation:
Saturday, I walked down to our neighbor's house - luckily the husband was working outside and I didn't have to go to the door.  I prayed and thought out how best to discuss this without ruining our potential good relationship.  I thanked him for the welcome basket they had given us last year and then proceeded to ask if he knew what happened yesterday, and he had no idea anything had happened!  I told him about the whole thing, and he looked regretful.  He told me that his dogs are usually in their fenced in back yard, but one had escaped and that was how she got to us.  The meeting went well, and I was so thankful for that!  He offered to pay me for Zeus if he died.  I had to share how I'd hatched Zeus from an incubator and hand raised him for the past year, holding him almost daily to ensure a friendly rooster, which was a lot of time, effort, and heart.  

Agnes always finds the most interesting places to nap!

Girl's Night:
After getting Zeus settled in his new mini-hospital we had to rush to Girl's Night.  The group of young ladies had fun playing games together this month.


Youth Program (Sunday Night):
Dd has started going to the Youth Program on Sunday nights.  This week they watched: God's Not Dead Yet II.  She has seen this movie twice now, but still hasn't seen the first one!


Our Academic Lessons for the week:

Bible:
We finished our devotional: Walking With Frodo by Sarah Arthur.  I have already ordered the other book in this series, Walking With Bilbo.  I've passed along Walking With Frodo to another homeschool family that loves LOTR and would enjoy this devotional.  

Psalm of the Week: Psalm 24
Bible Verse in Cursive completed
Bible reading: Matthew chapters 8 & 9

Started a new devotional:
Finding God in LOTR by Kurt Bruner
(We've just read the 8 page introduction so far, so I can't say how we will like this yet.)


Math:
Dd had missed too many questions on Lesson 14 to continue forward.  We rewatched lessons 6 & 7 for review, and redid all the questions she got wrong on Lesson 14.

Poetry:
The Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (I've always liked the poems in this book)
pg's 12-31


Readers:
The Kidnapped Prince by: Anne Cameron: COMPLETED
Dd didn't really enjoy this book very much.  I should have let her drop it after the fifth chapter, but I asked her to complete the whole thing.

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
Dd was liking this book but decided to drop it and focus on the SL books

George Washington's World by Foster
Pg 256-276
Dd enjoys reading history through these Foster books instead of the shorter (and less detailed) Kingfisher encyclopedia's that SL had switched in--we have both a new Core H and an old Core H IG's and the new core has Kingfisher and old core has the Foster books in their place.  After reading George Washington's World she will read Abraham Lincoln's World!

The Broken Blade by William Durbin
Dd is liking this book!  So glad, she had been on a row of uninteresting SL books.  

Story of the World: Early Modern History by Susan Wise Bauer
Chapter 32: Lewis and Clark
33: The End of Napoleon, Waterloo, 
34: Freedom in South America
35: Mexican Independence
36: The Slave Trade Ends


Language Arts:
Word Roots: pg 299-315




Art:
Lesson on sketching from a Degas painting

Sewing:
This week Dd is trying to prepare for a party she is having next week.  The idea is for her friends to come as a Marvel character.  She is dressing up like Peggy Carter and has been working on her handkerchief and embroidering "PC" on it.  She worked on these for a few hours this week, and then ironed them too.

Letting the older hens come in and visit with our younger poultry.

Fun Reading:
G.I. Brides: The Wartime Girls Who Crossed the Atlantic for Love by Duncan Barrett
Goodreads review: an absorbing tale of romance and resilience—the true story of four British women who crossed the Atlantic for love, coming to America at the end of World War II to make a new life with the American servicemen they married.

Physical Education:
Treadmill 1x, evening independent workouts x3

Home Economics:
Dd made taco's from scratch, made Baggett tuna sandwiches,


Music Lessons:
Beginning Band (Tenor Sax) 1:30 hours
Intermediate Band (Alto Sax) 1:30 hours
Sax and Piano lesson with Mrs. March: 45 minutes
Violin: spring break for teacher
Strings Group (ukulele): 1:15 hours

Music practice: rough estimate:
ukulele: 45 minutes
piano: 1 hour
violin: 1:10 hours
tenor sax: 1:00 hour
alto sax: 2:30 hour

........

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Sonlight Core H Week 12 March 26-April 1, 2017 (World History Year 2/2 1600-1700's)

Sonlight Core H Week 12 
March 26-April 1, 2017
(World History Year 2/2 1600-1700's) 
A picture for Christie!  I'm so glad you enjoyed seeing this orchid finally re-bloom!  For you, friend!
Hello, Friends! 

March 30th- even the little Bantams are jumping out of the brooder box, so I had to stop everything and put the second chicken tractor in the garage for the 2 Bantams and 2 ducks.  It was a LOT of work but I got them moved out of our sunroom and into the garage.


What a dreadfully busy week:
Square Dance, Band Classes, Music Lessons, Dentist appointment, Strings Group, Church and Sunday School, and Olympians (Awana-like group).  
We simply had too much going on for one week, but things will be winding down soon.  The Olympians (church program similar to Awana) will be ending on May 24, so only seven nights left.  Beginning Band, Intermediate Band, and piano lessons will all end in three weeks! Three weeks!  So things will lighten up soon.  I guess I should mention one thing we are going to add next month (May), since Dd doesn't have any band or piano in May we figured this would be the perfect month to do Driver's Education, which meets three days a week, for four weeks.  I am really glad Dd is going to have a seriously tough class, with lots of information she has to memorize, with a different teacher than me!  I think Dd could use some perspective from having other teachers.  On Monday, Dd went with me to the dentist, and last Monday she went with us to Dh's doctor appointment.  Monday's are usually a very big lessons day, and losing those two Mondays, back to back, has made the rest of the week harder for her than normal.
Merry, our smaller duck

"Books too easy":
Dd was stretched too thin this week, and her attitude was a bit frazzled.  For the past few weeks, Dd hasn't been liking her Sonlight books.  She says they are written for younger students and wants better books.  I'm just not sure what to make of that, but I do see that she is overwhelmed with too much going on this week and that effects how she sees her lessons. Yes, we are on the high end of the grade level for this core, which is designed for grades 7-9, and we are nearing the end of her 9th-grade year.  I'm trying to figure out how to proceed now.  Honestly, this has never happened to us before as she has always like the SL books.  I had been stretching out our cores, and adding in BiblioPlan, but I am weeks behind in the BP when lined up with our core. 
Pippen, our bigger duck



 I think I am just going to keep moving forward and try to finish our core in normal speed, one week at a time, with minimal stretching.  I plan on following up Core H with Core 100, and hope those books will match up better with her.  Another option is that I could add-in a few books from Core 200 or 300 or British Literature, that would satisfy her desire for more advanced books.  I'm thinking about our possible options....surprised by Dd's recent feelings about her books!  Thoughts and prayers appreciated (Chelle, Heather, or Christie feel free to send me a note if you have any idea's!).

The wing feathers are starting to come in--such an interesting stage.

Teeth:
One of my teeth went wonky and I couldn't eat or drink without setting off a major nerve shock of pain.  After I ate my eggs on Saturday morning it started, and that was my last meal until Monday.  I never thought I could fast before, but it actually was very easy to not eat all weekend when the outcome of eating was going to be pain!  Long story, but it all turns out in the end.


Chickens/Ducks:
All poultry in the garage, and doing really well!  Things are going really well with the new critters! 
The ducks are growing super-fast!  I'm bringing them in for a swim in my bathtub.


 The ducks are getting so huge it isn't funny!  I'm still bringing them in to my bathtub for baths.  My bathtub has never been cleaner since it is getting a thorough scrubbing after each of their baths, so it is enjoying all the attention!  I didn't mention that a few weeks ago, one of my older chickens didn't come back after foraging.  There was not one feather left behind!  Whatever 'it' was, it took her and left our property, maybe a raccoon or fox?  I kept waiting, day after day, thinking she might find her way home, but I have finally accepted she isn't coming back.  That is the one bad part of letting our chickens out of their coop, they can get taken.  I'm making sure I round them up by 5:30 pm so the chances of a critter taking them goes down since most things come out to hunt at dusk.



Square Dance:
Friday night we took Dd's church buddy, Hailee, to the homeschool square dance!  We took her the last time too.  The girls had so much fun!  The square dances are just good, clean fun!
Usually, there are five young ladies in the Strings Group, this evening we only had four of the youth.  The woman in the purple vest has only been playing her ukelele for the past few months, she switched to a Baritone ukulele b/c it is bigger and easier to play.

Strings Group:
Our church's Strings Group practiced on Thursday for the upcoming performance.  There is a "Singspiration" scheduled for Sunday night.  Dd has really figured out the ukulele.  Our group leader, Sarah, offered to let me borrow her banjo ukulele this week, and for Dd to teach me how to play it. 



 But, for now I am just going to be singing with Martha while all the band members play.  We have a regular banjo, a few guitars, and a variety of ukulele's.  Our band has a Tenor Ukulele, a Concert Ukulele, a Bass Ukulele, and whatever it is that Dd's has!
A guitar lesson, before we start, in the front pew.  It is great how much mentoring happens each night.

Our lessons for the week:
(another week where we didn't get all our assignments fit in!)

I chop up some lettuce, or any green, for the ducks to eat while they swim and play.  My yellow bathtub makes for harder picture-taking.


Bible:
Walking With Frodo by Sarah Arthur
pg's 123-148
I love how the book has 5-8 bible verses to look up in our bible each day that correspond with the days' lesson.  We only have a few more lessons left, and I am going to miss this book!

Bible Verse in Cursive

Church, Sunday School, Olympians (volunteer for 1.5 hours)

Dd enjoying watercoloring


Music Classes:
Beginning Band: Tenor 1:30 hours
Intermediate Band: Alto 1:30 hours
Piano lesson with Mrs. March: 30 minutes
Violin lesson with Christie: 30 minutes
Strings Group: 1:15 hours

Music Practices: (rough guess as she often forgets to document)
Piano: 30 minutes
Alto Sax: (she had a challenge this week- about 3:30 hours
Tenor Sax: 15 minutes? that doesn't seem right
Ukulele: 30 minutes or so



Math: 
Math U See: Geometry
14 A-E




Science:
 Apologia: Physical Science



First Quarterly Test: half done
Text: 105-116
Student Notebook: 60-69



Fun Science:
Dd made a projector out of a shoe box and two magnifying glasses and my cell phone.  Fun project.

Another watercolor, on the wrong paper, but Dd likes using the wrong sketchbook!


History:

Story of the World Early Modern History: 
Ch. 30: Freedom in the Caribbean
Ch. 31: A Different Kind of Rebellion

BiblioPlan Early Modern History:
Ch. 11: Bacon's Rebellion; King Phillips War

BiblioPlan Advanced Maps:
Map 12: The Middle Colonies
Map 13: China

(Reader) George Washington's World by Foster
pg's 231-255
(Dd was so tired of reading Kingfisher's History Encyclopedia and asked to read the Foster history books that use to be used in the older Sonlight Core H, and she really enjoys the Foster's writing.  She is almost done with George Washington's World, and then she will start Abraham Lincoln's World next.  She really loved Augustus Caesar's World, which we read in Core G.  The stories in these history books are very engaging and offer so many great details about the times, people, and places we are studying.  They make history reading fun.)



(Reader) The Kidnapped Prince: The Life of Olaudah Equiano by Ann Cameron
Dd is complaining about this book, unfortunately.  She thinks it was written for younger students.  She is dragging this book on too long, for such a simple-easy reader.



(Reader)The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emma Orczy
Dd was curious about this book that focuses on the reign of terror following the French Revolution.  She read three chapters this week, and thought of reading it instead of the book that Sonlight wants her to read; In Search of Honor.  After discussion at the end of the week, we decided to push ahead with the books Sonlight picked and not add this book it now, though she was liking it.

(Read Aloud) The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope
*We are enjoying this book very much!*



Poetry:
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: COMPLETED
We finished this book this week!
Chaucer
Milton
Killed at the Ford



Language Arts:
Word Roots:
pg 74-77

Easy Grammar:
pg 299-303



Fun Reading:
Finishing School Series by Gail Carringer
Book Three: Curtsies & Conspiracies: COMPLETED
Book Four: Waistcoats & Weaponry: COMPLETED
(Dd is really  into this series, and of course they are really big, long books.  Luckily, she only has one book left and then she promises to focus better on her Sonlight books.  She said this series has great vocabulary and fantasic writing.  I'm glad she is liking it so much, but am anxious for her to return her focus on our lessons!

From School Library Journal:



Physical Exercise:
Trying to get ready for Band Camp coming up.  Dd is doing push-ups, crunches, etc each night to prepare.




Art: Drawing:

3 hours this week



Home Economics:
Fish Chowder: AMAZING!  She makes the best soups!!



Cherry/Raspberry Cheesecake!
Dd did spring chores outside on Saturday--cleaning the gardens and yard.  
Plus, her normal chores-chicken care, ducks bath, dishes, etc.

Well, it was a hard week academically.  For the first time, Dd isn't enjoying our core very much, and I am going to have to figure out how to improve this, if I can.  It is hard to tell what is fact or if she is just tired.  We are due a week off, but the weather has been raining and I want to wait and take our time off when we can actually go do something; like visit Lake Michigan again.  



Next 'year' she will be dropping her Tenor Sax and only playing her Alto Sax in Band and *hopefully will pass her audition to gain entry into Intermediate Orchestra playing her violin.  I'm sure she will still want to continue her piano lessons with Mrs. March and playing the ukulele or guitar in the church's Strings Group.  Not having the Tenor anymore should be helpful at decreasing her load.
...........