Wednesday, May 25, 2016

SL Core G Week 27 (BiblioPlan Wk 16) Middle Ages May 16-22nd, 2016

SL Core G Week 27 
(BiblioPlan Wk 16) 
Middle Ages 
May 16-22nd, 2016

Hello Friends!  A whole week of mostly spring weather!  We got a lot of things done, in our education and around our new home.  We were invited to go plant shopping with a church friend, Doris, the woman that had invited us over for lunch a few weeks back.  So, in one week's time we bought our plants, bought dirt and peat moss, brought in at least 22 buckets of humus from out in the woods (manually), and got 75% of our garden planted.  I still have two raised beds that I haven't planted in because they are still breaking down the compost inside them, but should be ready fairly soon.

What is growing in our garden so far? LOTS of celery, two lettuce types, kale, leeks, garlic, tomatoes, three kinds of peppers, marigold flowers around the plants to prevent buggies, broccoli, lima beans, kohlrobi, and lots of herbs...Dd has a lot of seedlings started, that we need to plant into the garden---lettuces, pea's, herbs....

Dh bought and mixed the sixteen bags of dirt he bought for us into the beds, and that was his contribution to the garden this year (and we both made the raised bed frames together last week).  He has been sticking to working on the chicken coop, with Dd and I rotating on helping him.  Dd helped me plant the young plants we had picked out with Doris.  Dd also filled the pretty two hanging planters I had bought at Aldi's, with some of the flowers she picked out.  She had been really looking forward to designing those baskets.

This week Dd planted the three lavender plants I bought at Costco.  The cashier there had been joking about who was going to plant them, and that put a bee in her bonnet!   She has still been adding more containers to start other seeds, and she is doing well with her efforts.

This has been a good music week for her.  She had her private lesson (alto sax) with Mrs. March, and had her National Emblem song memorized for the most part, but needs to clean up a few sticky area's before she can be passed.  She played a lot of piano again this week, and is doing well with that.

Chicken coop
One night this week Dh and Dd got one wall put up, and then on Saturday Dh and I got the last wall up!  So now, all four walls are up.  This week Dd helped Dh most nights, working on the coop. We put in the ceiling insulation, plastic, and started on the final vinyl cover, one of three boards in, two to go.  Dh got the electrical wires for the three lights and one ceiling fan in.  Dd put the ceiling fan all together, now we just need to test it.  Lots of progress going on in there.  We used up all the insulation we had bought for the coop, and will need to buy more, same with the vinyl ceiling boards--need one more piece.  All-in-all, it is coming along, but we still need to cut a window into the wall, and a small chicken 'door' into another wall.  It is a bit scary cutting into exterior walls!  

Our Lessons:

Bible:
The Beautitudes
Matt 5

Product Details

Believer's Bible Commentary   [BELIEVERS BIBLE COMMENTARY -SS] [Hardcover]

Mar 31, 1995
by MacDonald, W.(Author) ; MacDonald, William(Author); Farstad, Arthur L.(Editor)
Bible and Believer's Bible Commentary--the BBC has pages of material on this...it is taking a while.



DC Cook Journey Through the Bible
Journey Through the Bible: pg 250



Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations
Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations
Do Hard Things by Harris, pg. 153-155



Music:
Sax  and Piano
Sax - 5 hours this week
Piano - 2 hours this week
Private lesson with Mrs. March- sax
This week Dd has been practicing really hard, memorizing the National Anthem, that she has to pass to be in the Marching Band.

Language Arts:

Writing-Various assignments

Easy Grammar Plus Workbook
Easy Grammar, Plus
pg's 289, 293, 


Science:



Introduction to Genes & DNA
Usborne Intro to Genes & DNA
pg 26-62: Completed


Apologia General Science Student Notebook:
pg's 151, 155, 316


Math:

Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1 Kit, Version 2.0
Dd redid some lessons she didn't get a great score on, -
28, 32, 35 x 2, 31


Foreign Language:


Rosetta Stone French Version 3 Levels 1-5 With Audio Companion
Rosetta Stone French 
10 minutes Mon-Fri



Sign Language: Tue & Thurs

Product Details 


by Tom Humphries and Carol Padden







Word Roots Level 1
pg 24-28
Word Up DVD 
Lesson 6-10



Drawing:
Dd has been drawing 45 minutes per day



History:
SL Timeline and Mapping: Week 26: completed

The Rus besiege Constantinople, Vladimir, Ivan the Great, Queen Elizabeth, Ottoman Turks settle in Asia Minor, Ottoman Turks settle on edge of Byzantine Empire, Shakespeare writes Hamlet, Bubonic Plague begins in Central Asia, Black Death kills one-third of Europe's population.....

BiblioPlan Companion, a Text for Medieval History
Ch. 16: India: Completed


BiblioPlan Advanced Medieval Maps
Week 15 & 16


The Magna Charta

The Magna Charta
BEAUTIFUL FEET BOOKS / TRADE PAPERBACK
Magna Charta:
pg 17-101
The Samurai's Tale:
Dd read the first few chapters, but isn't liking this book, she is reading another samurai book that she is liking more.




Story of the World Middle Ages
Audio




Fun:

A Star Wars Audio--I forget which one... 

Product Details
Hawksmaid by Kathryn Lasky
Robin Hood type story--we've read it before.


Product Details
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Garden and Chicken Coop May 16-22nd, 2016

Garden and Chicken Coop  
May 16-22nd, 2016

Hello Friends!  We were able to fill our new raised beds.  Dh bought 16 bags of topsoil and a huge bag of peat moss.   Then I luckily found a spot out in our woods where a huge tree had decomposed.  I first brought down two tall paint buckets at a time with the humus, but then I was wearing myself out for little return.  I then thought of using the wheel barrel, filling it with four buckets of humus, and then pushing the wheel barrel up from the woods.  The only problem is that our woods are down hill to get there, and then steep up hill to get back!  What a good way to avoid having to do workouts!!!  I still have another raised bed to fill, plus Dh bought more lumber to put up another one or two beds for us to use for seeds.

This garden has a bit of everything---Dd helped Dh and me this week on our projects.   


 We've put in marigolds around the veggies to help slow down any buggies

Dh checking out my planting after all his coop work.



The coop is coming along:

He still has a lot of space in this room--

Dh is looking forward to having this front part of the barn clear of chicken coop stuff so he can get back to working on his truck---it has a little leak.  But, we still have a ways to go on construction.

All the walls are up!



Dd brought in a few chickens to check out their future coop


Dd put the ceiling fan together



Dh putting in the electrical lines, and this is where the switches for the lights will be-




After the wiring, the insulation, then the plastic...

This was one of the hardest bits, holding up the plastic, trying to match up our holes for the electrical boxes (for the future lights and ceiling fan), and keep out any warping of the board...fun.





While the coop is being built, the chicks are enjoying being in the chicken tractors outside during the day, and hauled back into the garage at night.  Funnily enough, now that the chickens are outside, the barred owls are around a lot more often!  I wonder if they have high ambitions?!


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Sunday, May 15, 2016

SL Core G Week 26 "D" Middle Ages BiblioPlan Wk 14 May 9-15, 2016

Sonlight Core G Week 26 "D" 
Middle Ages 
BiblioPlan Wk 14 
May 9-15, 2016
Snow! on May 15th!  

Hello Friends!
Curriculum, you know you may wonder why it takes us so long to get through our Sonlight and BiblioPlan material--we do two programs together, woven together (our attempt to!) and that takes a bit of time!  I always felt like we were rushing through our material and gave myself permission to slow down to the pace that I felt we were able to absorb the main points.  I should be very clear, that I don't think everyone should go slow, but that everyone should go their own speed and not feel pressured to let their curriculum dictate your pace!  Each family should go their however best fills their needs (and not the other way around!).  

*Skip to the "Our Lessons This Week" if you want to miss our details and blessings from the week.*

Still too cold to open the windows and get back to our painting and completing the "Rec Room."  Maybe in another week....hoping!  Today (and yesterday) we had sleet and snow!  Can you believe it?!!  What odd weather Michigan has!  It is weird to have our heat still going as we approach June!

Snow! on May 15th!

Libraries (2), Music, Yard Sales...& Blessings:
Monday we drove down to the downtown library again this week, and found a bunch of great audio's on sale!  What a blessing!!  Tuesday Dd had her private lesson with her teacher, and is close to passing her memorization test to gain entry into the Northern Lights Homeschool Band.  They already have 202 musicians signed up for this year's band! We also went to our local library.  Our friend, Michele Z. took us to Pickerel Lake on Wednesday.  I posted an entire post about this wonderful park.  We were blessed at some new clothing at yard sales on Friday and Saturday-- I really lucked out finding TWO ladies who were selling their gently used clothing, in my size!!!  The only other time I have ever got that many new shirts was when I graduated from college and my Aunt Ruth took me shopping for 'work attire.'  I thought that was going to be my life's only shopping spree---but this week I was really fortunate!  I probably got twenty new tops!  I have to say, I really felt in my heart that this was a real blessing directly from the Lord!  I was saying, 'Praise the Lord' for the next 24 hours!  Do you ever have those times that you really feel like something was clearly a blessing from God?  I do...and this was very much the case.  I really want to share how the Lord has been blessing me.  You may or may not know how difficult these past 9 years have been, but they really did pave a well-worn path between me and the Lord.


Date Night:
Dd went to a birthday party/over-night party with seven girl friends on Friday, and Dh and I got to have a real date night!  I took the opportunity, after Dd was dropped off, to spend two hours at the Christian book store finding a new bible.  Dh gave me money for my birthday recently, especially to buy my own choice bible.  Years back he and his mother had given me two bibles, but they didn't have my name engraved on them, and I wanted a bible that I picked out myself.  When the woman engraved my name, she kinda messed up, and my name doesn't look right.  She made a practice run, and then a real run over-top of it, and the ink was wobbly.  From a far it probably looks okay; but it was a bit of a bummer.  I might go back--but I'm not sure if I should make a deal of it, or if I should just let it go.  So, in one week I got to go hiking with Dd and my new friend, Michele (and her son)---then fabulous yard sales that provided me with so many new tops (a new dress-up dress for next years Christmas party, and new dress shoes to go with it), a new bible, AND Dh and I got to go out for sushi date!  Dinner--just the two of us!  That is a lot of blessing in one week!  Thanking the Lord!

Chickens:
We have all been spending a few hours here and there working on the chicken coop!  Saturday, Dh and Dd got a new wall built for it!  It is really coming along!!  The chickens are doing really well.  Saturday, Dd and I went and bought some bales of straw.  The chickens were very untrusting of it at first, but soon found they LOVED it!  They are so funny!  Our garage has a door to our fenced in back yard, and I've started taking the birds out and leaving the door open so they can get back in, if they want.  Well, it is so funny---they will enjoy being outside for a little while, but not too long.  I left them for about 40 minutes and then went to check on them, and all twenty of them had come back in the garage and wanted back inside their chicken tractor homes!!!!!!



Balancing lessons and home:
I got another five boxes mostly unpacked this week.  I am having such a hard time trying to cook, clean, get lessons done, and everything else. Do you all have that issue too?  When there are more chores, it does get harder.  But, glad I don't let any amount of work get in the way of accepting invitations to parks!   

Dd did all the plastic on the insulation on this section too

Chicken coop:
We put in the studs, floor bases, insulation, plastic, then plywood.  The square hole is where their 'shoot' or door out to their run will soon be!
This new wall was put up by Dd and Dh supervising.  They worked together for about five-six hours on Saturday.

Our Lessons This Week:

Bible: 
Veritas Press Gospels
Card 114: Completed
12 Apostles Appointed
(reading of the apostles being chosen in Matthew 10: 1-4, Mark 3: 13-19, and Luke 6: 12-16.  It is so interesting comparing the same stories in varying gospels.)  

Card 115: In Process
The Beatitudes
Matthew 5

Zeus is no longer the head-fred of our coop; "Michael Buble" is now the top Rooster!  and he is doing little attempts at crowing.  If we have to 'let one of the rooster's "go," it will be Michael.  Zeus is a much nicer Rooster and not so competitive.  This picture is of Michael Buble---btw, I did NOT name him!  A friend of Dd did, it is some inside joke.
The handsome young rooster in the center is Zeus

History:

BiblioPlan Companion for Medieval History
Chapter15: Companion


Magna Charta by James Daugherty:
In Process


Story of the World: Volume 2: The Middle Ages
Ch. 11-27
(audio--listen while driving)

Sonlight Mapping and Timeline
Week 26 completed


Science: 
Apologia: General Science: Module 9
Text done, Student Notebook done, Test done
*but, there is still one experiment I want to do with earthworms.*

Added In: The Usborne Intro. to Genes & DNA
pg's 4-25

Hike, at Pickerel Park: 2 hours
We saw masses of frogs, birds, water bugs, dragon flies, beaver dams (2), Snapping Turtle, Paint Box Turtle...all sorts of nature.  We saw a Eastern Towhee there, then came home and an Indigo Bunting was on my feeder!  Also, Red-Winged Blackbirds have been coming to my feeders this week; which is new.


Language Arts:

Writing--I had Dd write a few paragraphs on two topics, she picked one topic, War of the Roses, and secondly, on the 5th Criterion (science).

Easy Grammar, Plus
corrected pages 285, 281, 277
new: 277, 279, 283, 287

Word Roots: Level 1
pg's 20-23


Foreign Languages:
Rosetta Stone: French (10 minutes each day)

Sign Language: 
passed lessons 1-4, taught 5 & 6, almost memorized.


Math: 
Teaching Textbooks: Algebra I
Test, 33-36 

Music:
Alto Sax: 40 min. each day, plus 30 min. lesson with her teacher
Piano: 2 hours this week
Violin: 30 min. this week

Home Economics:
*wrapping Addy's gifts
*writing Thank You card to Lexi
*Dd made me a Moo-less Pie (tofu, honey, and choc. chips) for my birthday cake this year (no crust)
*Dd sewed a cool dress out of one old "dress-up" dress and some cool fabric we had.  I'll try to get a photo next week.


*5-6 hours of working with Dh on the chicken coop, what is extra nice about working with my husband, is has her do most of the work--the cutting, sawing, drilling...
*caring for the chickens (she did better this week!)
*chores--dishes, laundry, cat litter.... 

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