Oct 15-21, 2012 SL Core E-- week 8 LOW

Oct 15-21, 2012 SL Core E-- week 8 LOW

In process--adding pictures now; text later

Double Rainbow!!!  View out our back upstairs windows--beautiful!

We are still enjoying the fruits of our labor from our garden--that was one big turnip in that bowl!  We just dug these up on Sat.  Our carrots, lettuce, etc. are still growing! 

Sat. night at 9pm the swallowtail that made her chrysalis in the paper filter hatched.  The odd thing was this was a dark brown chrysalis; not a green chrysalis.  So much for me figuring out the difference between the brown and green chrysalises!!  Sorry this photo isn't the best; I was going to take another pix of it on Sun., but Dd released it before I got a new photo.

Dh took off Thur. & Fri. so we didn't get as much done as I had thought we would.  Dh taking off was a surprise to me--a happy surprise!  On Sunday, as a final flourish for his last day off--Dh and Dd went to a Colts football game together.  Dh rec'd free tickets in the 'suite' section.  They had free food and drinks.  They could have rec'd a free massage, but they weren't up for that!  (I would have!)  I'll post pix of their Colts vs Browns game in a separate post--we won by the way.  Also, you all might remember we went to see the Indiana Fever (our Woman's Pro Basketball team) play a few weeks ago.  You might like to know they just won the whole championship over the weekend too!!!!  They ROCK!  We will be going to see more games next year.

Language Arts:
AAS: Step 27-Contractions
A Reason For Handwriting- 2 lessons this week

Science:
SL Science 3: Finished up on Week 29, and started Week 30

Math:
Skip Counting: 7 family 3 days, 12 family 1 day
MUS: Delta: 25C, 25D, 25E, 25F, 26A, 26B, 26C
LOF:Edgewood: Lessons 17,18,19--Finished book!

Piano:
Everyday!  And lots during the day.  She has been composing her own songs and remembers them exactly and can replicate them exactly each day.  I can't believe she can remember exactly how 'her' songs go---but she does.  She also won her $5.00 prize for getting My Country Tis Of Thee and Away In A Manger successfully passed by Giz last week.

Sewing- She has sewed a new purse--for her "Hippie" Halloween costume.  I will post a pix of it soon.  She worked on it for a few days.


Activities for the week:
Monday-lessons and Dd took me to the dentist!
Tuesday-Swim and Gym (they are really working on mastering their strokes and still putting the butterfly stroke together--also flip-turns are in process)
Wednesday-Lessons
Thursday-co-op: Gym, Nature in Art, and Geography (India this week), afterwards we spent the afternoon at Krannart Park with other hs'ers -enjoying being outside.
Friday-just math & reading for lessons--piano, and cooking with Pappa!  Dd always cooks with Pappa on his days off.  This weekend they really had a good time outside using the grill.

Add-Ins:
 Person of Focus: Davy Crockett

A Picture Book of Davy Crockett (Picture Book Biographies) (Picture Book Biography) by David A. Adler, John Wallner and Alexandra Wallner

Davy Crockett (Famous Figures of the American Frontier) by Daniel E. Harmon 

 

 American Frontier: Davy Crockett at the Alamo - Book #4 (Disney's American Frontier, Book 4) by Justine Korman

Robin Hood (Graphic Revolve) by Aaron Shepard, Anne L. Watson and Jennifer Tanner --Dd loves these books are re-reads them periodically.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Graphic Revolve) by Twain, Mark, Strickland and Daniel--Dd loves these books are re-reads them periodically.

Yo, Millard Fillmore! (And All Those Other Presidents You Don't Know) [Paperback] by Will Cleveland/Mark Alvarez  (still reading)  This book is a pretty visual way to learn the order of the American presidents.  It is one of those books you need to re-read a few times to get the whole system down.

The Mystery Off Glen Road (Trixie Belden #5) by Julie Campbell

  (still reading- Summer 2012 Sonlight had a Trixie Belden on their "Summer Reading" list and so I got Dd the book -Book One of this series- and she is still enjoying this series.  She doesn't have as much free time right now to read them as quickly as she was; but she really likes them.  The author wrote them back in the 1940's-1950's.

She reads other stuff too--but this is just to give me an idea of what types of things she was reading this week.  She is always picking up books and flipping through them.  She also gets subscriptions to magazines from relatives that she enjoys that I don't post--like: Ranger Rick, Ask, Nat'l Geo. for Kids, or she checks them out from the library--American Girl Magazine.....


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Future art class possibilities....

 Future art class possibilities....

Our LHE group is currently asking us to think about new class ideas...so, here I am thinking out loud again.

collage- bring in fabric material, paper, etc to make collages

artist of the week focus--could give a presentation on a specific artist...then perhaps, I could have the students make a replica of one of that artists' works

charcoal drawing class

self portraits class

color theory class---learning all the shades for each color from a light red to the darkest red, only using black, white and whichever color the student chooses.  Then the could make a painting with those hues.

print making class--with cheap materials like potatoes or Styrofoam trays...string...

pastel drawing

Homeschooling is............

Reading to Butterflies!!!

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Butterflies from early Oct. 2012

This is a collection of pictures from different days at our house.  We would wake up in the morning and find new butterflies waiting for us or come down for lunch and there was a new one!  This is just  a mix-match of different butterflies we had for a little while before we released them. 

To the left of the butterfly is the chrysalis she has just left--do you see the lime green shell???  She has been filling her wings and now Dd is offering her hand for a free lift.  The caterpillars really ranged out to find their special locations to make their transformations.

You can see the limp wings--still not ready to fly

I just love this photo!  Dd just loves to be the one to release the butterflies--and she does a great job at it!

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Praying Mantises- Sept-Oct 2012

I'm playing catch-up with some pix I haven't had time to post yet from late Sept. to early October.  Here are some butterfly pix and some mantis pix that I've been meaning to post.

Praying Mantises

We had 2 "Pet" Praying Mantises this fall.  One was small, young green - the kind I always see around here in Indiana.  The other was a crazy looking one; like none I have ever seen around.  This one was big, aggessive,  and whitish.  We kept them in different cages b/c the big one would very quickly eat the little one.  Finally, I decided it was a perfect day to let these little critters go.  Seriously, not 5 minutes after I had let the little green guy go; and had taken his picture - I went back to take another picture and found that he was being eaten by a much bigger female green praying manitis.  I had put the poor guy right in the vacinity of another bigger predator.  I still feel so bad!!!!!!  The whitish one, quickly decided to avoid the bushes and climbed right up our brick on our house and therefore had no worries.  The big jar below is the whitish mantises cage.

"Praying mantises" or "praying mantes" are both accepted, as is "praying mantids".

This is the very big, whitish, praying mantis we kept for about 6 weeks.  Can you see the huge grasshopper getting eaten by the whitish praying mantis above it???  It was amazing to see that mantis eat things bigger than itself.

Big, Whitish Praying Mantis

Isn't this a great picture of our little green guy??!!  He was so cute!  Cool shadow, too.

This is the Predator that ate our little green guy!  I chased him away from our front yard, to protect the big white mantis.  This guy was NOT our 'pet', but living in our front bushes.  We have lots of praying mantises around our house.

We released the crickets and grasshoppers--many were too quick to get their picture taken!  Dd and I had to go 'Cricket Hunting' often to keep up with the hungry mantises.

9-26-12

9-26-12

This little lady hatched right at bedtime; so we kept her in this little cage over night and then released her in the morning.

See the fields in the background--all clear & harvested

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October Butterflies and Flowers

October Butterflies and Flowers

It may seem like the same 2 butterflies---but these pictures are of at least 6-8 different butterflies! Today is Wednesday, Oct. 17th and in the last 2 days we have had 6-8 butterflies hatch!!!  What fun!!

Many of the sticks in the cage have 2 chrysalises on them.  On the right you see a white, paper funnel---a caterpillar crawled out of the cage and decided that was the place to build his home...so I put the funnel in the tank so I would be able to keep track of it better.

This butterfly has just emerged from his cocoon.  You can see the case below where she is on the stick-about 2 inches down.

I found a new butterfly on these books--- I didn't even know there was a chrysalis on the side of those books! LOL!!! Can you see the chrysalis on the lime green book-about an inch and a half above the carpet??

This is the girl butterfly that was from that book!

Dd picked some of my orange Poppy flowers.  She is making up a pulp to try to make her own paper.  She saved enough flowers to make me a pretty vase---what a nice daughter!  And she hammed it up in front of the camera too!

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Oct. 8-13, 2012 Core E - Wk 8 Civil War

Oct. 8-13, 2012 Core E - Wk 8 Civil War

Dd did a drawing like this one; but spilled her tea on it--so she had to do a second one (this one).  Our LHE hs group is having a competition.  They wanted a lighthouse, an anchor, and a sand dollar.

Well, on 10-4 thru 10-10 I had a migraine everyday.  I was in bed or laying down last Fri., Sat., and Sun. to help get over the worst of it.  By Mon. I had the strength to do lessons during my good hours (with Maxalt).

Here's a look at what we worked on this week:

Bible:
Mark & Matthew
Psalm 103:
 
 Sing the Word: The Heavens Declare - CD
(*Heather L. ** the "Sing the Word: The Heavens Declare" CD is what I was telling you about last week.)
12 songs based on verses from both the New and Old Testaments. In Bible package only for Levels 4 and D+E.
CD features 12 songs based on verses from both the New and Old Testaments.
Performed by the Harrow Family. Helps students memorize assigned verses.
  1. Psalm 103
2. His Compassions Fail Not
3. The Name of the Lord
4. The True Vine
5. Go and Make Disciples
6. Was I Not Joking?
7. Slow to Anger
8. Faith Is
9. Run the Race
10. Bring the Tithe
11. I am Persuaded
12. Psalm 19

 I think this is our fifth Sing The Word CD that we have done repeatedly with our Sonlight curriculum so far; and we really, really like this product. You might research them and see what you think.   It has been 5 years since I did the research myself; all I remember now is that I was very impressed...how vague can I be?!

Lincoln : A Photobiography by Russell Freedman

History/Geography:
Lincoln: A Photobiography--Ch. 6 to finished.  I don't know why; but I never looked forward to reading this book.  I think b/c the chapters were so long and too good to stop in the middle.  But, the material was very good and I did like the book.  I have no idea why it didn't get a five stars type of feeling from me; but it didn't--maybe a four stars book.  I'm sure many would disagree with me; but it just was missing something to me.  It did have really fantastic photo's and the content was excellent; just no big bells and whistles.  I did have a chocked throat during the whole last chapter...but made it through without crying.

These books I've moved to Dd doing on her own b/c I am not really into them.  I really loved the poetry book in Core D; but this one hasn't connected with me.  So, Dd is reading it aloud to me so maybe it will grow on me.
*Oxford Illustrated Book of Poems-check
*American Tall Tales-check

Read-Alouds:
No RA this week; we finished last week.

Reader:
Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs--Dd finished this week


Dd added & finished this add-in Reader too:

Meet Caroline: An American Girl by Kathleen Ernst, Robert Papp and Lisa Papp

Music:

Piano-Giz is trying to get Dd to learn: Away in a Manager and My Country Tis of Thee on the piano.  She has been practicing like crazy...if she passes her 'test' I think she gets a little money.

Math:
MUS:Delta: 24E, 24 F, 25 A, 25 B
Skip Counting Family -12's 3 times written and said aloud three times this week.
LOF:Edgewood: Lesson 14, 15, 16

Language Arts:
AAS: Lesson 26 (Mon,Tues,Wed-tested and passed)
AAS previous test retests:Mon-18-20, Wed-21-23
FLL: Lesson 8, 9, and 10
Typing Instructor: Tues (50 min-made it to the "castle"), Wed (30 min)
Write the definition of a Pronoun (Mon, Tue, Wed) repeatedly
Spellingcity.com-since we are really close to finishing AAS 3, I have been going over all the previous tests and having Dd do them again and noting which words she hasn't retained.  Then I am taking those words and letting her work on those on Spellingcity.com.

DVD: Ansel Adams-we've only watched 1/2 so far; but it is really good.  I'm not sure Dd is getting all of it.  It would be better for kids 12 and older.
 

American Experience: Ansel Adams Starring Barbara Feldon, Josh Hamilton, David Ogden Stiers, et al.

 

Our activities for the week:
Monday-lessons
Tuesday-Swim and Gym
Wednesday-lessons
Thursday-LHE Co-op: Gym/Picture Day, Nature In Art, and Geography
Friday-lessons