SL Week 27 "A" LOW (week 55 on Core 3/D) Jan 16-19, 2012

We made our final Hands & Hearts project this week: Lavender Satchel

First we cut the muslin; then the calico.  Then she sewed the muslin bag and added in the lavender. Then she sewed the calico bag and put the muslin sans lavender inside it and closed it up...done!

Here is the pretty green calico outside bag.

The finished product!

Dd made a Dog Travois out of the "More Than Moccasins" Activity Guide:
More Than Moccasins: A Kid's Activity Guide to Traditional North American Indian Life (A Kid's Guide series) by Laurie Carlson

A "Dog Travois" for her Webkin dog.  Our real great dane/black lap Sophie was petrified of the big one Dd tried to make her wear....too funny!

Dd made antlers for her Webkin deer:

There is a circle base that holds the antlers on to it's head.

Notice the sword--this is a Narnian deer!

We had a nice nature hike at Arbuckle Park on Monday (Jan 16, 2012) and our dog Sophie had a great time getting muddy (Dd was actually MORE muddy than the dog!) .  The weather was so extremely nice we had to spend some time outside taking in the rare January warmth.  Then Dd had Basketball Practice in the evening.  

Each day Dd did some sort of exercise-walk, treadmill, exercize video, basketball in drive-way, shoveling snow on Thursday, and a basketball game on Saturday (they won).


This week our musical composer focus is on:  Schubert.
We listened to Schubert's Symphony No. 9 on Tues., Wed., Thurs., & Fri. 

Geography Songs: Greenland, Scandanavia, U.S., and major landmarks like  Holland's Windmills, The Great Wall of China, Taj Mahal, and the Matterhorn. 

Science (SL Science 3)  workbook pages: 53,54,55,56, and 65

Math: Math U See 3 days, and TT 1 day

Language Arts:
WWE: week 14 day 3&4  Week 15 day 1 & 2
FLL: Lessons 20, 21, and 22
Writing: IEW : Peter The Great (video, kwo, rough draft and final draft completed)
Writing: Thank you letter to the Jones family
Dearly, Nearly, Insincerely: What Is an Adverb? (Words Are Categorical) by Brian P. Cleary and Brian Gable

Read Aloud: House of Love by Elizabeth Cheney (Lamplighter book)

Dd's Reader: 1) Childhood of Famous Americans: Laura Ingles Wilder (finished)
2)"A Little House Chapter Book-Laura's Pa-Laura #12"

Dvd: The Magic School Bus: Busasaurus
VHS: Lewis & Clark - The Journey of the Corps of Discovery Starring Hal Holbrook, Adam Arkin, Murphy Guyer and Sam Waterston

SL Core D- Week 27 (54th on the core) Jan. 9-14, 2012

We had a full week of lessons; a basketball practice; a basketball game, church, basketball in the driveway one day, some walks around our neighborhood.  The weather was great the first few days of the week so we took advantage of it and tried to get out some before the snow came on Wed.  Dd also enjoyed making fruit smoothies.

This week we did another of the Hands & Hearts History kits; specifically the Candle Making Kit:

Lessons:
Bible was SL (Judges & Daniel) and Who Is God?
Who Is God? (And Can I Really Know Him?) -- Biblical Worldview of God and Truth (What We Believe, Volume 1) by John Hay and David Webb

Language:
Rosetta Stone: Dd started back with 2 lessons this week

Praise and WorshipSongs CD: "Leaning on The Everlasting Arms" & "All things Bright and Beautiful"

Math: 4 lessons MUS and 1 lesson Teaching Textbook

Language Arts:
All About Spelling: Lesson 10 finished with review for lesson 5 &6
Writing With Ease: Week 14 day 1&2
English From The Roots Up-1 thru 19

Science (SL) We worked Week 11 & 12

Geography: The Middle East focus with Geography Songs.  I drew a huge map on the dry-erase board for dd to fill in.

Composer Focus: BACH
Audio: "Mr. Bach comes to call" (listened to this disc twice, in it's entirety, during the week )
Audio:"Bach's Goldberg Variations" (this is a book and cd)
Books: Great Composers by Piero Ventura, Focus on Composers by Teacher Created Material, Lives of the Musicians by Kathleen Krull.

Brain Pop-Supreme Court & Jack London (I forgot the other titles)

SL stuff:
*American Indian Prayer Guide-Paiute & Ute
*Sing the Word
*A Child's Intro to Poetry: Robert Louis Stevenson

Since we had finished our Read-Aloud I added in: The House of Love by Elizabeth Cheney
This is a "Lamplighter Book" and it is fantastic.

Dd had also finished her assigned Reader so we added-in her pick:
Meriwether Lewis: Boy Explorer (Childhood of Famous Americans) by Charlotta M. Bebenroth and Al Fiorentino

and once she finished that she started:
Laura Ingalls Wilder: Young Pioneer (Childhood of Famous Americans) by Beatrice Gormley and Meryl Henderson 

Add-In's:
The Girl Who Loved Horses by Paul Goble
The Legend of the Bluebonnet by Tomie dePaola
The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush by Tomie dePaola
The Raft by Jim LaMarch

Dd's fun books (some):
Hardy Boys #2 Identity Theft by Scott Lobdell
Hardy Boys #3 Mad House by Scott Lobdell
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium by Mariah Balaban
Wolverine & XMen Special Edition by Marvel Comics & Scholastic  


The past 2 weeks Dd has been working on her George Washington Paper Dolls:

Geography this week--Middle East:

Library Pix for this week:

Dd reading to Sophie our black lab/great dane mix dog--you can hardly see her!

Dd holding our "English From The Roots Up" flashcards

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SL Week 26 "A" LOW --53rd week on Core 3/D Jan 2-6th 2012

We added in a bunch of new things this week; most will be continued as we go forward.


Music: Praise and Worship Songs cd  -This week we listened to the song: All Things Bright and Beautiful each day (two times) and worked on memorizing this classic hymn.

HANDEL was our focused musical composer.  We listened to Handel's Water Music each day.
Handel, Who Knew What He Liked by M. T. Anderson and Kevin Hawkes

 Great Composers by Piero Ventura

 Focus on Composers by Patty Carratello, John Carratello and Mary Ellen Sterling

Dd enjoyed playing on both the piano and keyboard this week.  She called her friend GG and they played together over the phone in their own homes...neat idea.

Add-In Read Alouds:
 The Bird's Nest (Rare Collector's Series) by Christoph von Schmid and Mark Hamby
We read the short stories in this book: The Diamond Ring, The Mother's Gift, and The Boy Who Would Not Take A Shilling.  (finished this book)

 Who Is God? (And Can I Really Know Him?) -- Biblical Worldview of God and Truth (What We Believe, Volume 1) by John Hay and David Webb
This is a daily bible supplement that we are adding in on top of our SL bible.

 The Complete Book of U.S. History by American Education Publishing
We are using this to review some of the history we covered at the beginning of this core-since it has now been a year since we covered it.  Examples, Indians, Mayan, Incans, Aztec's...  I hope to read a little from it as we go forward for review.

Geography Songs : Continents and Oceans, Western Europe

Language Arts:
All About Spelling: Step 10 from book 3.  Reviewed steps 7,8,& 9.

English From The Roots Up: Daily review of first 12 words


First Language Lessons- Lesson 19

Writing With Ease - Week 13

Explode the Code: pg's 75-77

Math U See: Gamma (Lessons from 26)

Science SL 3- 1/2 Week 10 and 1/2 of week 12
I can't find my Mysteries and Marvels of Nature book, so we are having to skip those questions and move on.

Artistic Pursuits-I forget the lesson number; but the focus was on VALUE drawings.



Dd's Reader: started and finished this week:
The First Four Years (Little House) by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Garth Williams

Dd has started reading the American Girl book series on Rebecca b/c she got Rebecca (1914) doll for Christmas.  This week she finished reading:
Rebecca and the Movies (American Girl) by Jacqueline Greene, Jennifer Hirsch and Robert Hunt


Audio's:
Audio in the van this week:
On the Banks of Plum Creek (Little House, Book 4) by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Garth Williams

Audio in the kitchen:

The Quest Begins: Seekers, Book 1 by Erin Hunter and Julia Fletcher (Jul 8, 2008) - Unabridged

Picture Books for the week:

 The Children of the King by Max Lucado and Toni Goffe

 The Song of the King by Max Lucado and Toni Goffe

 Auntie Claus and the Key to Christmas by Elise Primavera 

Activities:
Monday: day: basketball in our drive-way with Momma & nightime Basketball Practice with team.
Tuesday: Babysat the Greene kids (basketball with Greene's in drive-way)
Wednesday: Basketball with mom & walk/bike ride with mom & dog Sophie
Thursday: Basketball practice with mom in driveway
Saturday: FIRST Basketball Game on the Upward Basketball Team--her first bb game ever!  And they won!  She got a star for "leadership" at the end of the game!

SL Core D- Week 26 (Week 52) Dec.26-30th 2011

We are still sick and ambling through as we hope to recover, so we haven't completed very much.  We have added in a few new books to this week and should be using them as we go forward:

Who Is God? (And Can I Really Know Him?) -- Biblical Worldview of God and Truth (What We Believe, Volume 1) by John Hay and David Webb (Textbook Binding - Sep 1, 2009)

What the Bible Is All About Handbook for Kids: Bible Handbook for Kids by Frances Blankenbaker and Henrietta C. Mears (Paperback - Jun 7, 2011)

We have brought back one of our favorites from Core 2--Geography Songs!!!  Back by popular demand!  This week we are studying Continents and Oceans.

Geography Songs by Kathy Troxel

We have started a new Lamplighter book:

 The Bird's Nest (Rare Collector Series) by Christoph von Schmid

*we read the first short story called "The Bird's Nest"

Dd's Reader is:

 Meet Thomas Jefferson (Landmark Books) by Marvin Barrett and Pat Fogarty 

Lots of Piano playing this past month; since we rec'd the new gift of a piano.  This week's favorite is Ode to Joy.

We finished our audio of THe Lion, THe Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

Math--Teaching Textbooks-lesson 48

Some fun books Dd's read this week:

All-Action Classics No. 3: The Odyssey by Homer, Tim Mucci, Ben Caldwell and Emanuel Tenderini


We went to the Children's Museum this week.  We went to see a play specifically; but also saw a lot and had a great time.  These colorful pictures are from the Dale Chihuly's Fireworks of Glass exhibit:

The Lily Theater presented Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz : 

Some crafts from this week: 

Dd loves to make these mosiac pieces--very fun!

Dd's drawing of a mermaid in the sea

Dd got wooden tinker toys for Christmas and made this airplane/helicopter piece

At the Science Lab we did the following project:
DNA Extraction from Wheat Germ  (no pictures from this great experiment)
The DNA in raw wheat germ is enclosed in the nucleus of the cell.  To extract the DNA we must first break open the cellulose cell wall by vigorously shaking a mixture of cells and warm water.  The warm water (between 55 and 60 degrees Celsius) will deactivate an enzyme in the cell that can break down DNA.  After the cell wall is broken down our next barriers are the cell membrane and nuclear membrane.  The warm water will melt the membranes and soap can be added to dissolve the lipid layers.  Once the DNA is free in the mixture, it can be precipitated out by adding a layer of ethanol.  The DNA precipitates out because it is insoluble in ethanol and now the DNA can be spooled onto a wooden stick for collection.  Dd was able to get a very good sample of the DNA into a small beaker that we were allowed to take home.

Then dd worked at the Microscope Table.  She did a great drawing of a Garden Spider from viewing it under the microscope.  

Then we built a DNA Model out of pipe cleaners of various colors and macaroni of various size. 

This is suppose to be a DNA "double helix"- a twisted ladder- The colors of the pipe cleaners represent the chemical "rungs" of the ladder.   


Then we went upstairs to the Science Port - the experiments there revolved around archeology.   We looked at rocks under the stereo microscope; played on the big screen computer to put puzzles back together, Dd made a replica of a Egyptian Mummy (should have taken a pix of that!), and made molds of Chinese Warriors in some cool clay magic and mold forms; and she made this colorful -take home piece:

 

Some of our favorite Christmas books:

An Orange for Frankie--by Patricia Polacco (we own many of her books & love them)
Toot & Puddle: I'll Be Home For Christmas by Holly Hobbie (own many & love)
Over the River and Through the Wood--Lydia Maria Child & David Catrow (we love Catrow)
Santa's Book of Names (David McPhail--we love him -own lots)
The Christmas Crocodile by Bonnie Becker
Berenstain Bears Christmas Tree-Mike & Jane Berenstain
Great Joy-Kate Di Camillo
The Star of Christmas-VeggieTales
If you Give A Moose a Muffin-Laura Numeroff
Snow is My Favorite and my Best-Lauren Child
Auntie Claus by Elise Primavera


Some crafts from this month-

Dd made this cross stitch bookmark for her Pappa

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Dd made the Advent set-up and then made salt dough ornaments to place around the wreath

Here is one of the great things my mom made me for Christmas this year.  It is a blanket to keep me warm.

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SL Core D- Week 25 "A" (Week 51) Dec 19-23rd 2011

This week we had a fairly easy week b/c we were all sick; but had to maintain some lessons for sanity's sake.  Dd just doesn't do well with too many hours of free time and things can get messy.  This week we did BrainPop and BrainPop Jr. everyday--as we always do even if I don't document it.

Math was TimezAttack, MUS online drill, and Teaching Textbooks Lesson 48.

Dd's Reader-"Add-In":
Look to the Hills: The Diary of Lozette Moreau, a French Slave Girl, New York Colony 1763 (Dear America Series) by Fred McKissack
- Dd really, really enjoyed this book more than any of the other "Dear America" books she has been reading this year.  This one really clicked for her.

Dd's fun book:
Warriors: SkyClan and the Stranger #2: Beyond the Code by Erin Hunter and James L. Barry
Dd reads lots of books on the side; but I don't always get a chance to document them-but I do try!

Add-In's-DVD:
 PBS

War of 1812

 "The War of 1812" is a two-hour documentary looking at this important historic event from several perspectives, the American, Canadian, British and Native America. The program will have some limited but very well done reenactments and major historians, authors and experts. 

The History Channel Presents The Revolution Starring American Revolution, Revolutionary War, et al. (2006)

 They came of age in a new world of intoxicating and innovative ideas about human and civil rights, diverse economic systems, and self-government. In a few short years, these men and women would transform themselves into architects of the future through the building of a new nation unlike any that had ever come before. From the roots of the rebellion and the signing of the Declaration of Independence to victory on the battlefield at Yorktown and the adoption of The United States Constitution, The Revolution tells he remarkable story of this important era in history. Venturing beyond the conventional list of generals and politicians, The History Channel introduces the full range of individuals who helped shape this great conflict, including some of the war's most influential unsung heroes.
Through cinematic recreations, intimate biographical investigations, and provocative political, military, and economic analysis, The Revolution breathes new life into one of the most pivotal periods in American history.

4 discs--very good!

American Heritage Series, Vol. 3: The Ideas that Birthed a Nation, Our Biblical Constitution, Is America a Christian Nation? Starring Artist Not Provided (2009)

 Discover the forgotten and astonishing story of our nation s founding in The American Heritage Series. For centuries, we were taught a providential view of American history that presented our godly heroes and the moral foundation upon which our nation was built. However, in recent years, a new version of history has censored the core values of our past. From separation of church and state to the civil rights movement, from the heroism of our founding fathers to the building of our nation s monuments, this series will inspire every American to reclaim the godly, true story of our nation. Modern history teaches us that our founding fathers were atheists, agnostics, and deists. Disc 3: The Ideas that Birthed a Nation / Our Biblical Constitution takes a closer look into history and tells us a different story. America s founders were united by their deeply held spiritual beliefs, and those beliefs directly impacted the formation of the new nation. Significantly, the Bible was the source of many of the unique ideas and unprecedented principles laid out in our founding documents, but today we are no longer taught these truths about our founding. Instead, we are taught a revisionist history in which religious faith is absent and God s providential hand is ignored. Learn the true story of America s birthright and our founding fathers in The American Heritage Series. Narrator: David Martin Format: DVD, one disc, episode 3 of 10 Run time: approximately 90 minutes Studio: American Heritage

Add-In's-books:
  Star Spangled Banana: And Other Revolutionary Riddles by Charles Keller and R. Baker

 

Dd working on the Salt Dough ornament/Christmas gifts for family

Artistic Pursuits balls made from a balloon, string, glue, and tissue paper in the final step

We gave 3 to Giz and these are the ones left.  Very fun project!

Christmas crafts

SL Week 25 (week 50) Dec.12-16th 2011

Busy week--Upwards Basketball practice; The Children's Museum (Jolly Days with slide), Wed. night with "GG" to their church for a Christmas party; and HBHE "Blast Christmas Party" at library where dd made a Christmas tree ornament (a star out of metal wire).

We read:
Paddle-to-the-Sea (Sandpiper Books) by Holling Clancy Holling


Added In:
 AN Orange for Frankie by Patricia Polacco
 and a long list of Christmas books we own--too many to mention.


DVD:
Our Constitution: A Conversation (Sunnylands Seminars: The Judicial Branch)

 American Heritage Series, Vol. 2: The Faith of Our Founding Fathers, Parts 1 & 2

Audio:
  The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia, Book 1) by C. S. Lewis and Michael York

The Children's Museum--Treasures of the Earth area, The Frog exhibit, the Jolly Days slide,  Sat on Santa's lap and got her pix taken, and lots of time in the Dinosphere. 

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Dd and AG sliding down



The FROG EXHIBIT will only be here for a few more days; so we went there again!