Jan. 21-27th 2012 Sonlight Core E Week 15

Jan. 21-27th 2012 Sonlight

Core E

Week 15

We had TWO field trips scheduled this week with the bigger homeschool group we belong to--HBHE.  The first was on Monday - we went to the Brownsburg Police Training Facility.  I *thought* it was a self-defense class; but that was at 10am.  The description sounded like we could either come to the 10am or 11am class.  I picked the 11am class b/c it appeared there would be more girls, and older students at the later class.  Come to find out the self-defense class was at 10am and a different class was being held at 11am.  We arrived for:
"Sgt. Peter Fleck of the Brownsburg Police Department will introduce students to the role of a Crime Scene Investigator with hands on learning.  This will include finger printing and solving a crime! 
Note to Parents:  Please be aware that this is an actual training facility and may have a fake body and fake blood.  Please make sure  your child understands this is not real!!"

We had a good time figuring out who the imagined murderer was.  But, I was very disappointed that Dd didn't get a self-defense class like I was HOPING for.  I guess I will try to go over these things myself.  She has already read a whole book on the subject; and *thinks* she know ALL there is to know about self defense....and that scares me the most!


On Tuesday, my Dh took our Dd to the second field trip--to the Target Chip Ganassi Racing Tour: "A tour of the fabrication/machine shop, composite shop, paint room, electronics shop, and main garage."  The racers are Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon; on this team.  Dario is married to Ashley Judd.  Anyway--the tour was pretty interesting if you were interested in looking at the cars and seeing how they use computers to plan how they will make all the things they need to build parts for the car.  They special make all the things for the cars themselves...there is no sourcing out for parts...they hand make everything!

We also went to the library this week and picked up a few used books.  Dd also had Upwards Basketball practice, and a game on Saturday (1-26-13).  The Wolverines lost this game by 4 points; it could have easily gone either way.  If a few of Dd's baskets would have gone in, then we would have won.  We had won against this team a few weeks ago.  This time they were hitting all the shots they tried for; and we missed a lot that should have gone in.  Both teams scored over 50 points; so it was a high scoring game.  Dd took a big 'charge' and handled getting hit hard like a champ.  She also had a 'jump ball', holding on to the ball against a young man that the biggest kid on the floor.  I was most proud of her for that.

Our lessons:

Bible:
Dd's aloud: Daniel
Mom's aloud: 2 Chronicles---loving getting to know this history better!!
Apologia's: Who Is My Neighbor: pg 77-102

History:
Sounding Forth the Trumpet
Landmark History of the American People, Vol. 2

Audio:
The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder -audio by Cherry Jones
Disc 4, 5, and 6 listened to this week

Other audio selections for this week: Debussy, All Nations Shall Worhip-Scripture Songs from the Harrow Family, the CD from First Language Lessons to review our grammar terms, and Dd has officially been on a month long series of the Beatles (during her free time/baking time)

Read Aloud's:
  (finished GWC)

The Groundbreaking, Chance-Taking Life of George Washington Carver and Science and Invention in America (Cheryl Harness Histories) by Cheryl Harness

Oxford Illustrated Book of American Children's Poems--we are assigned a few poems to read each week.

Reader:
Little Town on The Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

 

Liberty Street by Candice F. Ransom and Eric Velasquez

 

Seeing the Elephant: A Story of the Civil War by Pat Hughes and Ken Stark

 

You Wouldn't Want to Be a Nurse During the American Civil War!: A Job That's Not for the Squeamish by Kathryn Senior, David Salariya and Mark Bergin

Language Arts:
*IEW: Mini-books: Elephants
Mon. Draft for Paragraph 1
Tues. Draft for Paragraph 2
Wed. Typed up both paragraphs and edited
Fri. Fixed the final revisions-completed

*First Language Lessons:4: Lessons 25, 26,27, 28, 29,30
*First Language Lessons:3: Dictionary Skills: 1, 2,3,4, pages 301-307
(I skipped the last bit of the oral skills at the end of FLL 3 to fit in on slow days while we did FLL 4)

*AAS 4: Step 4: lessons and passed test
*AAS 4: Step 5: lessons and passed test
*AAS 4: Step 6: lessons started

*Memorizing "Adverbial Clauses" from IEW: M, T, W, TH, F

*VHS: WRITING FOR CHILDREN by Schlessinger Media

 

*Writing for Children : STORY WRITING

Math:
Math U See: 8F, 9B, 9C, 9D,9E, 9F
Teaching Textbooks 5: lesson 19
Skip Counting Family: 8 family : 3x per day

Art:
How Great Thou Art 1: 2 days this week
Lesson 9, 10, 12, 13
Tissue Paper Sunflower

Baking:
Wed: Dd made Blueberry Muffins from scratch--all by herself, found the receipe in an AG cookbook and did every single thing alone--especially the clean up!
Fri: Dd repeated Wed's Blueberry Muffins!!  She really liked them a lot!  Perfectly cooked, and delicious!

And we always watch our BrainPop, and BrainPop, Jr. in the mornings--- I always forget to type it up here or in my IG, that we do watch it every day; but we do! and I love it! I am the one that reminds us to do it; I think Dd would let it go; but I like it too much to let it drop!  I learn so much from that little show each day!

Jan. 14th-18th 2012 Sonlight Core E Week 14 A"LOW"

Jan. 14th-18th 2012  Sonlight Core E Week 14 A "LOW"

Another fairly productive week for us; with few distractions.  These productive weeks seem few and far between now that we have joined homeschool groups.  I am so happy that we have found people that are sharing the same lifestyle and that is nice---all except for the amount of lessons and reading we get done!  I do think the friendships are just as valuable as the info we find in books.  I just have to keep telling myself that when the co-op starts back up in a few weeks.  Trying to find the balance is the hard part.

We are really enjoying Upwards Basketball again this year.  Even the temperatures are very cold; rarely a day goes by that Dd doesn't want to go outside and practice in our driveway.  She is decidedly more confident this year than last.  It is very good to see her playing so well.  They lost their second game on 1-12; but won their game on 1-19.  She was 3 for 5 on her shooting yesterday and passed the out a few times when she could have tried for a shot; but rather passed to a person in better position.  She did foul accidentally; which we will have to work on this week.

Bible:
Veritas Press: Genesis Through Joshua: Bible Card 7 & 8
This is a very detail oriented, time consuming bible program.  We had around 10-20 worksheets this week to do with the reading.  The books (beside the bible) that go along with the bible cards are:
 

David C. Cook Journey through the Bible by V. Gilbert Beers

 

The Greenleaf Guide To Old Testament History by Rob G. Shearer and Cyndy A. Shearer

History:
Story of the USA, Bk 3
Landmark

Language Arts:
*Greek/Latin Flashcards - 3 days
*First Language Lessons- Review lesson 21, 22, 23, 24 - 4 days
*All About Spelling: Step 3, processed & passed.  Also took test on Step 2 again-and passed again.  Step 2: ch-tch  Step 3: dge 
*IEW-lesson 12 started-watched disc 3 again, worked on new mini-books 'Elephants', outline started; now we need the sentences -3 days
*Memorizing the Adverbial Clauses: When, While, Where, As, Since, If, Although- 5 days

Audio:
 
The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
(we haven't made a lot of progress this week)


Read Aloud's:
 

The Great Wheel by Robert Lawson and Richard Peck

The Great Wheel by Robert Lawson---we finished this week and what a fun book this was!  We really enjoyed it.  Set in the late 1880's.

The Groundbreaking, Chance-Taking Life of George Washington Carver and Science and Invention in America (Cheryl Harness Histories) by Cheryl Harness (still reading)

  While reading the Harness book on George Washington Carver (GWC) she brings up the harsh, bitter, blizzard winter of 1888 and The Long Winter by Laura Ingles Wilder (which is our current audio) and also brings up the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, IL - which is what the book The Great Wheel is based on!!!  GWC book also discussed Sitting Bull; so what do you know--we added in a book on him too! The Harness book tied together all the books and audio's we are reading/hearing in a nice neat package!  I love it when that happens, and it rarely happens!

 A Picture Book of Sitting Bull by David A. Adler

A Picture Book of Sitting Bull (Picture Book Biography) by David A. Adler and Samuel Byrd

Reader:
 
Old Yeller---Dd finished


 
Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

 

Up by Jim LaMarche

 

The Yellow House: Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin Side by Side by Susan Goldman Rubin and Jos. A. Smith

Math:
Math U See:
8A, 8B, 8C, 8D, 8E, 9A
Teaching Textbooks-lesson 18
Skip-Counting 7 family- 4 days

Activities:
Archery: 3 days
Basketball in driveway 5 days & practice at church on Thursday night & games on Saturday mornings.
Knitting
Piano
K'nex--made a flag pole and made 2 paper flags to go up and down on it.


Well, we never did get to Rosetta Stone this week--the headphones didn't work; so we will try again next week.

Jan 7th-13th 2012 Week 14 of SL's Core E

Jan 7th-13th 2012  

Week 14 of SL's Core E: 

Part 2 of American History

It seems I am just running behind right now!  I still don't have our pictures from Christmas in this blog yet!  Some day soon I will get caught up!  Promise!

This week we actually got some things DONE!  Finally!  No field trips or days off!

Bible:
Starting Strong
Dd's aloud bible: Acts
My aloud bible: 2 Chronicles
Who Is My Neighbor? (pg's70-76) plus, Mark 6:30-42

History:
Sounding Forth the Trumpet

Read Alouds:
The Great Wheel by Robert Lawson

The Groundbreaking, Chance-Taking Life of George Washington Carver and Science and Invention in America (Cheryl Harness Histories) by Cheryl Harness

 

Reader:
Sing Down the Mountain (finished) by Scott O'Dell
(started) Old Yeller

Math:
Math U See: Epsilon: 16F, 17 A,B, C,D, E, 18A
Teaching Textbooks: lesson 17
Skip-Counting (written 3 times per day): The 4 Family

Language Arts:
*AAS 4:
Lesson 1 reviewed again and test passed
Lesson 2, all week, passed test
Thank you letters--6 of them, for Christmas presents
*First Language Lessons: level 4
Lesson 16, 17, 18, 19, 20
*IEW: watched parent dvd, all of disc 3 on Monday; Tuesday watched student disc 3 plus did the books, Wed. did more work on the paragraph- rough draft; Friday -finished up/typed up on the computer and finalized!!! Yay!  Dd got a prize for her work!

Extra Readers:
Disney Fairies: Vidia and the Fairy Crown by Laura Driscoll
Disney Fairies: Beck and the Great Berry Battle

VHS: Magic School Bus: "Gets Planted" and "Busasaurus" 

Audio: The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder (disc 3)
  Activities:Chores, Knitting, Piano...
Basketball practice with the Wolverines on Thursday night; and game on Saturday (lost; but did great on defense, 2 points, rebounds, and got the "Most Christ-like" star.  Last week we won; she got 10 points, and the Offense star.
Thursday Dd had her friend come over for a fun day inside--(it was raining & cold) watching movies (American Girl: Felicity)

Dec. 31st thru Jan 4th, 2013 Sonlight Core E: Week 13

Dec. 31st thru Jan 4th, 2013  Sonlight Core E: Week 13

 Our Children's Museum puts on a professional play a few times a year.  This holiday season we enjoyed the best performance we have ever seen there (yet!).
 

The stage

 Dd (in the green shirt) and her friend sat right behind us

The actors

We had a very full week!  Dh was home on Monday and Tuesday; but we did some of our lessons anyway!  It was particularly nice to have him do MUS with us over his break.  We are doing fractions, and Steve Demme was teaching us a way of doing the fractions in a way I was never taught.

Besides our normal lessons, we also had a special day with another friend/family in our hs group--going to the Children's Museum.  Our big goal was to see one of their big, professional theater productions which they do a few times a year.  The play they did this time was called: The Magic Snowman. It was definitively the best production we have ever seen at the Children's Museum!!!  We also went to the Planetarium and saw a show on their dome screen called : Season of Lights.  It was about Christmas; throughout time, throughout the world...and they did a great job.  We rode the carousel and went through the museum like usual; but it was sooooo packed that it was difficult.  We usually go when all the masses of kids are in school; but this was during a Christmas break; so the place was jammed.

Our other activities this week: Thursday night was Upwards Basketball practice and the first fame was held on Saturday morning at 9am.  Dd had been so distressed that none of her teammates (all boys but one) were passing her the ball throughout practice.  But, miracles do happen and they passed her the ball during the actual game and she scored 10 points!!! Yay! They won; but it was a very close game.

Our lessons:

Bible:
Starting Strong- "Stuck Like Glue" Chapter 1
DD's bible aloud: 1 & 2 Samuel
my bible aloud: 2 Chronicles
 

Who Is My Neighbor? (And Why Does He Need Me?) -- Biblical Worldview of Servanthood (What We Believe, Volume 3) by John Hay and David Webb

Who is My Neighbor by Apologia--pages 64-66

History:
Landmark
Sounding Forth the Trumpet
The Story of the USA-Bk 3

Read Alouds:

The Groundbreaking, Chance-Taking Life of George Washington Carver and Science and Invention in America (Cheryl Harness Histories) by Cheryl Harness

 

 Oxford Ill. Book of Illustrated Poems

Reader (Dd):
 Sing Down the Mountain by Scott O'Dell (started this week)

Art:
How Great Thou Art 1
Lessons: 1-6



Math:
Math U See: Epsilon: 6A,B,C,D,E

Audio:
The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Elsie Dinsmore (finished this audio book this week--6 discs, I think)

Dec. 22nd thru 30th, 2012 : On Holiday

Dec. 22nd thru 30th, 2012 : On Holiday

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We stopped our lessons are geared up for Christmas without any distractions!  I sewed 2 felt birds for Dh's Christmas gift--we always give each other one loving pair of birds to add to our Christmas tree each year, with the year on them to represent each Christmas together.  How wonderful that this years birds were homemade.  I have a very nice friend here in Indiana to thank for showing me how to make these cute birds (thank you, thank you!!).  I had such a good time making them that I also made ONE bird each for: my daughter, Giz, Grampy, and new family member-baby Norah. 

The other gift I made were Pauline's (Dh's Grandmother) "Ranger Cookies"--they are always so good that everyone tells Dh how good *HE* did (He is the Master Chef in our house, and therefor must be the baker behind the cookies) making them.  Since the family always rants about them at reunions, I made 2 batches and them bagged them up in ziplock bags, and them put them in Christmas bags for: D, C, G, J, and G&G.

Dd made 2 wonderful batches of cookies on her own....and then we forgot to bring them to the party!  You won't believe how sad we were to have to eat them ourselves!  She has finally conquered the whole process of baking now.  The only step that had been holding her back was the oven.   I had been putting the pans in and out for her; due to my fear that she would burn herself, but now she has even started doing that all by herself.  She did 3 batches of cookies on her own.

Christmas was a lovely day.  Dd rec'd a new AG doll: Caroline Abbott and her other gift--a really nice bow & arrow set (Dh had just bought 3 bales of hay for our garden; and Dd is borrowing those to use for her target.).

Giz & Grampy drove up from southern Indiana to open presents with us.  They brought their Black Lab (Kate), and our Black Lab/Great Dane (Sophie) had a ball playing with her all day.  They were going to spend the night; but we had already had one "blizzard" and another big snow was heading our way over night, so they headed back home after dinner.

On Dec. 29th was the family Christmas party in southern Indiana.  We packed up our gifts and got in the van.  We had received another 6-8 inches of snow and the world was so amazingly beautiful.  I really needed something to distract me from thinking about all the snow and ice on the roads; and due to 2 major snow storms in one week---we knew what we HAD to do----put in one of our favorite audio's : THE LONG WINTER by Laura Ingles Wilder (based on a truly epic winter in the US in 1888--during the time period we are studying right now with Core E).  We have listened to this audio a few winters in a row; and love it dearly.

The party was actually a lot of fun.  Dd got a Lava Lamp of all things!!!  She loved it; but boy, was that a surprise!  Who would have thought!  Giz handmade Dd a jean throw/quilt out of old jeans from her attic that belonged to Dd's father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and great uncle.  I almost cried!  How truly kind of her.  She made each of the grandchildren one of these mini-sized quilts with jean material from their father (or step-father) and then added in the older generation's jeans too.

After the party was over we headed to the farm to spend the night.  The farm was in all it's glory!!!  If you have ever seen the first Narnia movie--The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe then you can guess how beautiful the farm was.  (Yes, I know that is not the first book in the series; we have read or listened to them all, but it is the first movie that was remade a few years ago, and it was very popular and perhaps you've seen it?!)

We woke up on Sunday; and due to the snow, church was canceled.  So, we piled on our clothes and had a great day of it.  Dh had woke up very early and headed out for his last hunting of the year, and only managed to SHOT a hundred photo's!!!! Ha!!!  Dd and I got dressed and aimed our sights only on the snow!  Dh and Dd sledded up and down the long driveway over and over and over while I hiked through the woods with our dog, Sophie.  It didn't take me long to find deer tracks and I did what I LOVE to do....I followed them!  When we use to live at the farm, this is what I looked forward to every winter--following the deer trails and seeing where they go and how.  The highlight of my trail following was that I found the bedding down spot where 4 deer had been sleeping.  Imagine 4 really big oval crevasses where the snow had been removed, all this snow--except in 4 big spots, in the shape of a big deer!  How fun for me to find where they had been sleeping! (She photo below)

 We had a GREAT day.  We were really, really tempted to spend the night and have another snow day--but Dd was feeling VERY homesick and really wanted to go home.  We ate lunch, watched the Colts play a game with G&G, and then played in the snow until it got dark....then packed back up and headed home.  We didn't get home until about 9pm; which made a very long day!



We went to the farm---SNOW!

We have a very OLD cemetery on our property at the farm.  This little angle looked so pretty in the snow.  We have people that fought in the Civil War.

This picture above is one of the blinds we built!  Now it is filled in with snow!

The whole woods looked like this....so amazing!

This picture gives you a very good idea of the actual amount of snow that we had received.

Here is one of the four deer beds that I found when I followed the deer tracks around our woods.  They picked a lovely spot--this was a blind that we had built 2-3 years ago under a group of cedar trees!





...

December 17th thru 21st, 2012 Core E Week 12 "A" LOW

December 17th thru 21st, 2012 Core E Week 12 "A" LOW

This was quite a light week for us.  I wanted to keep going as much as we could on math; as we are in the beginning stages of understanding fractions and I didn't want to loose ground.  We did a LOT of artsy types of things too!

I forgot to mention on earlier "December Posts" that we own a lot of Christmas picture books; and I usually store all of them in the same bookshelf.  I brought all of them down that I could find and put them up against the wall beside the Christmas tree for Dd to read on her own.  Each morning she would come downstairs and pick a pile of these books and go to the sofa to read for an hour or so.  She loves them as much as I do!  We read some at night; before bed together as a family too.

Activities:
Sewing, Clay--Dd made Pappa an assortment of Christmas gifts made out of clay, baking--LOTS of baking (we gave cookies to family members in gift bags at Christmas), and basketball practice with her Upwards Basketball team - the Wolverines!

Bible:
Samuel read by Dd
2 Chronicles read by me




Math:
Teaching Textbooks: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, Quiz 2
Math U See: Test Page from Delta Test Book



Audio:
 

Elsie Dinsmore: Book One in the Original Elsie Classics by Martha Finley and Anna Fields

Computer:
 Math Missions--3-4 times this week

Science:
SL: Science 3: Week 36  ***FINISHED THIS!!!!****
It took us over a year and a half; but we finished!!!!

A great PIANO week!
The fun thing that Dd did this week was that she had a list of Christmas songs--just the words--and she sat at her piano and plunked away at the keys until she found all the right notes to each song, then she wrote down the notes as she went.  She figured out quite a few different songs that way.  I was pretty impressed by her process.

December 10th thru 14th, 2012 Core E Week 12

December 10th thru 14th, 2012 

Core E Week 12

This was a week of some lessons, and some prep for Christmas.  Dh had a few days off so we could do some things that we normally don't have time to do.  For one, instead of getting a Christmas gift that is great (like a new camera, which is what I *wanted*; but not *needed*) we decided to drive to the outlet place where I can find jeans for $11.00!!!  I *needed* a new pair of jeans, a new dress-up shirt (not another yard sale t-shirt), and get ready and listen b/c I am going to whisper this item: "new bra's" (way past due!!!)  So, all of us got a few very much needed items and then we took them home and wrapped them up for our Christmas gifts.  I won't mention it wasn't fair that I wrapped my own gifts; b/c I was so thrilled that I really didn't mind one bit!  The camera can keep on tempting me with it's zoom in lens and long range lens-- I can live with my old camera.

The other fun activity we did this week was with our small hs group (LHE).  We met at a bowling alley and the kids had a great time bowling together!  We mom's got to chat.  Larkin had a really great time.

We had a "Craft Day" on Friday (and also during bits of the other days of the week too; but ALL Friday was crafts and no lessons at all.).  We listened to Elsie Dinsmore while crafting away!

Let's see, for our lessons:

Bible:
Mark aloud from Dd
1 Chronicles & 2 Chronicles aloud from me

 Bible/Christmas Prep: read nightly at bedtime.

Jotham's Journey: A Storybook for Advent by Arnold Ytreeide

History:
Landmark History of the American People, Vol. 2
The Story of the USA, Book 3
Sounding Forth the Trumpet

Read Aloud:
Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink

Reader:
Shades of Gray by Carolyn Reeder

Science: SL: 3
Week 35--worked on throughout week and finished Wk 35

Math:
Math U See: Epsilon: 4f, 5A, 5B,
Teaching Textbooks (TT): 6, 7, 8
Life of Fred: Farming: Chapters 2 & 3

Audio:
 

Elsie Dinsmore: Book One in the Original Elsie Classics by Martha Finley and Anna Fields