Computer Coding Information

Interested in Computer Coding?

There is a website called:

code.org
http://www.code.org/

it is a free website that teaches how to code for free.  I've done it, Dh has done, and Dd had done it---so, it really is family friendly and it is FREE.  Click on the box: " Students: Learn in Minutes "

youtube has a 5 minute(below) and a 9 minute video(at youtube) about code.org that is really interesting:

What most schools don't teach


I might have linked it above. The youtube video is about code.org is called "What most schools don't teach".  For those of you interested in coding those are the two things I've found out about...maybe of interest to you?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKIu9yen5nc&feature=player_embedded

March 18-22nd 2013 SL Core E, week 20 -LOW-

March 18-22nd 2013 

SL Core E, 

Week 20 -LOW-

Here is my classroom for Nature In Art

Dd got glasses!

 We had a very busy week scheduled this week---we had our LAST LHE Co-op classes (on Thursday) and Swim & Gym (on Tuesday).  Plus, we went by the A.'s house to pick up Dd's basketball award which was a new basketball!!  Dd was so super excited to get a new basketball!!  We have a old basketball that we got at a yard sale and she has been wanting a new one for years!!!  The Lord new exactly what she wanted!

Besides the activities that we had planned for this week, we also had some major meltdowns this week.  I don't know the details of how or why; but Dd really had a HARD time dealing with her hormones.  It is hard to see a kid who never cries, to be crying over the littlest things.  On Wednesday I offered her a nap and to my surprise not only did she accept the offer, but she proceeded to sleep for over 2 hours!  So, our lessons mainly took place on Monday and Friday since we had activities on Tuesday and Thursday.  Wednesday I spent most of the day prepping for my last class for Nature in Art; which was on Animals in Nature. 

Our lessons this week:

Bible:

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

Pages: 132-163

 
Language Arts:

Rosetta Stone: 60 minutes

First Language Lessons: 4:

Lesson 52, 53

WWE 3: Week 5 day 1 & 2

Fix-It: Week 7

AAS: 4: Step 13 completed and passed

Step 14 started

  Audio's:

By the Great Horn Spoon by Sid Fleishman--we finished on Monday.  Such a really great audio!! I highly recommend it to all ages; all families.  We really enjoyed that one.  Now we have moved onto a new audio-  On Friday we started our new audio:

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Unabridged edition by Taylor, Mildred D. published by Listening Library (Audio) Audio...

Math: 
 Math U See:

15 A,B,C,D,E,F

7 Family this week: 7,14,21,28,35,42,49,56,63,70,77,84
for fun on Friday, Dd wrote her 7 family in Roman Numerals!

Science: 
Apologia Zoology 1: Dd made a suet feeder and bird drawings (below)

 Add-in Reader Aloud:

Into the West: From Reconstruction to the Final Days of the American Frontier by James M. McPherson 

pages: 32-73

Add-in Readers:

The Last Safe House: A Story of the Underground Railroad by Barbara Greenwood and Heather Collins

Dd finished this book. 

 

  Online:

 HISTORY: "Have Fun With History.com" we watched two history video's online: 1) Clara Barton (14 min.) 2) The Monitor and the Merrimac (2 min.)

BrainPop, and BrainPop, Jr. 

 

ART: Dd did some wonderful new bird drawings that I already posted on the previous post.

 PIANO: Dd got back to her piano this week.  It was especially  nice since she hadn't played for over a week.

SEWING: Made 3 scarves and 2 pillows (and broke the sewing machine!)

 

 

 

 

IEW:

Paragraph on Ants from Lesson 13

 

                                Ant Colonies

Ants who live together in groups called colonies work with each other.  There are about 2,000 to 10,000 ants in a colony.  No ant lives alone, because God created them to live communally.  Some ants can do more than one job, but some can do only one.  If you see a solitary ant you should know it works and dwells in a colony.  

Test Prep, Grade 5 (Spectrum) by Dale Foreman, Alan Cohen, Jerome Kaplan and Ruth Mitchell

 (we did a few pages on Monday)

Gym/Exercising:

I'm trying to make exercising more of a "subject" for us to make happen now that Upwards Basketball is over.

Wed. Dd did a Leslie Sansone dvd workout with me--1 mile--if I had to give a grade for her effort; I'm afraid she would have gotten a D-.  She was that pitiful! But, she was standing, and her feet were moving...barely!

Thursday & Friday Dd played basketball in the driveway for about an hour each time.  So, she did get a good workout those days!

Fun Stuff--not "lesson's" related: 

Dd's fun book this week:

Fawn and the Mysterious Trickster (Disney Fairies) (A Stepping Stone Book(TM)) by Laura Driscoll 

 

Dd's fun audio this week:

Disney Fairies Collection #3: Rani in the Mermaid Lagoon, Fira and the Full Moon by Lisa Papademetriou, Gail Herman, Debra Wiseman and Quincy Tyler

 

movie of the week: (for the 4th time)

 

Pride & Prejudice Starring Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, Talulah Riley, et al.

March Photo's Dd's Creations

March Photo's Dd's Creations

Dh spent time with me teaching me how to compress my photo's so I can start to add photo's back into my blog....I was missing adding the photo's that add so much more than just words.  I'm just too visual to have a word only blog!  So, here are this weeks photo's--and I remembered how to do the process "all by myself!"

 Captain America Shield--made of foam board, aluminum, tape, and paint.  Dd just makes stuff, and usually a big mess that goes with it.  I think she did a great job.  She did it all by herself.  I had to google -images- what Captain America's shield looked like and then off she went!  We watched the movie over the weekend (obviously).

Nature Study Drawings...we've started our Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the Earth (Apologia) and are studying BIRDS!!! Yay!  Dd has been making bird feeders (seed and suet-from scratch).  Here are some of her recent bird drawings:

 

Our HBHE hs group had an Easter Craft that we signed up for---and this is the project they made.  The grass seed has just started sprouting.  It should look great by Easter! See the empty tomb? It is a small terracotta pot that is half way buried in the gravel that represents Jesus's tomb, and the rock in front is symbolizing the big rock that was the rock that had sealed his tomb. Dd sprays the sprouts/seeds each day.

Dd's Easter planter

 Maybe this one is a better picture?

 
Here is Dd and I last year at a park having a nice time.  It was a great day!  Just thought I would put a picture in here that wasn't of us in our pj's since the last post we were in them!  But, hey--it was Christmas after all!

.

belated photo's

A friend taught me how to make these pretty little birds.  Every year I buy Dh a new pair of birds to add to our Christmas tree, and this year the pair were home made!  I was just as excited as he was about that!!  I think I found a new tradition for us!

Dd ASKED me to make her a scarf, from me to her.  Then she added a beautiful, multi-colored tassel to the ends, which really added a lot to it.  I need a new picture to show how pretty she made it look.  I was flattered she even wanted a home made scarf!

I got socks for Christmas! I also rec'd 2 pairs of jeans, and 2 new tops!  Oh, see the yellow ribbon on my robe?  Dd gave me a award for EFFORT!  How funny!!

Dd got the little girl on the left, as an addition to her family---it is the AG doll from 1812 -Caroline Abbott.  The little girl on the right, a 'Just Like Me' doll received new eye glasses and a new (to us) dress (she was already apart of our family for years now, her name is Elizabeth). 

March 11-15th, 2013 Core E Week 20

March 11-15th, 2013 Core E Week 20

We had a busy week with 3 scheduled activities.  It was week 5 of 6 classes with our LHE co-op on Thursday's.  Our Swim & Gym started back up on Tuesday's.  Dd was accepted into their Junior Lifeguarding program!!!  And she had a "Easter Craft" with our bigger hs group: HBHE on Tuesday morning before Swim & Gym.  So, we our Tue. and Thur. was very full!  Friday I had planned to take Dd to the Children's Museum; but I had been having migraines on Wed., and Thurs., and Fri. had started off poorly.  Dd offered (without me saying anything) to stay home since I clearly didn't feel well!!!  That just amazed me.  I was really going to take her anyway and hope for the best; but she saw I wasn't doing well and happily/willingly let it go.  That was such a mature thing for a 10 year old to do.

Monthly Magazine Subscriptions~ I don't post the magazines Dd gets each month and reads each month; and probably should mention them more often as she loves them so.  Starting as a baby, she has rec'd some sort of magazine subscription.  Nat' Geo has a baby issue that comes in a 'board book' format that was great for us.
The magazines she currently reads are:
Ranger Rick, 
Cobblestone (use to be Ask, then Cricket, now we are trying Cobblestone b/c it is on American History and we are studying American History right now),
Jack & Jill, 
National Geographic Kids (probably her favorite)

Our lessons this week:

Bible:
Our bible focus this week was on Hosea Chapters 1-7

Geography:
South America
Dd diagrammed a map of S.America

SL's Read Aloud:
American Tall Tales: River Roarer/Mike Fink
Oxford Illustrated Book of American Children's Poems

Add-in Readers:

Into the West: From Reconstruction to the Final Days of the American Frontier by James M. McPherson

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-10–Although this book's title and cover art suggest that its sole focus is the post-Civil War movement into the West, McPherson discusses events that happened during the conflict as well as after. The book is divided into 39 chapters, most consisting of a single-page essay about a topic, paired with an attractive, full-page period illustration or photo, some of which are in color. Each page of text also has a related Quick Facts sidebar. Many early sections discuss the upheavals and difficulties of Reconstruction, including the debate over presidential versus congressional reconstruction, the Ku Klux Klan, and the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. Later chapters cover the Homestead Act, cattle drives, outlaws, and the forced removal of Native American tribes. McPherson writes objectively and well, and students will find the heavily illustrated format attractive.

 I was SO excited when I found this book (Into the West) in my bookshelves!!  It is exactly what I was looking for.  I felt like SL had sort of jumped through the 50 years that were after the Civil War to the beginning of the WW's.  Then I found this book; along with the others that I have been adding in too, that are helping to fill in that gap.  Like McPherson's other book that we have been reading (Fields of Fury), it is a lot of book and is very time consuming.  But, we are laying down the foundation of understanding the history of our country.

Fields of Fury: The American Civil War by James M. McPherson

 We have been reading this book bit by bit over the past few months.  This week we read a lot of the last pages that we hadn't got to yet.

Immigrant Children (Picture the American Past) by Sylvia Whitman (Jan 2000)

 

Children of the Settlement Houses (Picture the American Past) by Caroline Arnold

 

Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio

 

Dd's SL Reader:

George Washington Carver: Man's Slave Becomes God's Scientist (Sower Series) by David Collins, Robert F. Burkett and Joe Van Severen

George Washington Carver
(finished)

Civil War Sub: The Mystery of the Hunley: The Mystery of the Hunley [CIVIL WAR SUB THE MYST OF THE]

 

 

Rapunzel's Revenge by Dean Hale, Shannon Hale and Nathan Hale (

 

 

Language Arts:

Typing Instructor (Platinum): 40-60 minutes this week

WWE (writing with ease) 3: Week 4 completed

Fix-It (IEW program): Week 6

FLL (first language lessons): Lessons 47,48,49,50,51

AAS (all about spelling) 4:  Step 12 completed

Watched  this VHS we own:

 

Grammar for Children: SENTENCES (2003)

 

Math: 
 Math U See:

14 A,B,C,D,E,F

8 Family this week

Science: 
Apologia Zoology 1:

 

I can truly, truly say we are LOVING this book!!!  We tried to start it back a few years ago and the first chapter was so technical that it about killed my Dd's wanting to ever hear this book again.  I loved learning about the different phylum and the Animal Kingdom...but she glazed over!  After the first 'techy' chapter, it gets into all the great details about birds.  While I was reading on Friday, Dd drew a wonderful House Finch.  We were sitting beside our back windows looking at our feeders and watching the birds while we did our lessons.  Why didn't we think to move there sooner???  Anyway, it was a beautiful drawing!  She also made 2 new feeders (seed feeders).  We have to buy lard and raisens and then she can make a suet feeder.  She also diagrammed a bird drawing for her nature journal.  This week we read: pages 30-39.  

We did a little in our preparation for our upcoming Iowa test.  

We did about 10-12 test sheets from a Spectrum test booklet, a few pages from each section/category.  We need to work on it more as she really needs some practice.

Cooking:
Tuesday Dd made dinner!  She cooked Tilapia fish that was beyond amazing.  Her two side dishes were baked potatoes that were perfectly done, and seasoned peas.  She used some of the fish sauce she made to season the peas.  She did seriously better than I could have done.  The fish was perfection!  Thursday night she made spaghetti for dinner.

Every night Dh reads to Dd and it is usually books from our earlier years.  I was lucky enough to get to pick the book this week.  I don't mention these books usually; but I just had to mention them this week b/c I just love these books----Cynthia Rylant has some great series-- one in Henry and Mudge, and the other is Mr. Putter and Tabby. 

The Henry and Mudge Collection: First Book, Puddle Trouble, Yellow Moon, Sparkle Days, Long Weekend, by Cynthia Rylant

Mr. Putter & Tabby 19 Book Collection (Mr. Putty & Tabby: Bake the Cake, Fly the Plane, Pick the Pears, Pour the... by Cynthia Rylant

 

 If you haven't read them, you should! Oh, and Mr. Poppleton too! 

Poppleton by Cynthia Rylant and Mark Teague

 He isn't as great, imo. But, still very, very good! But, anyway--that is who we have been reading/hearing at bedtime this week.

Mar. 4-8th 2013 Core E Week 19

Mar. 4-8th 2013 Core E Week 19
Maple Syrup Days at McCloud Park

Our lessons this week are still on the light side, as I am still fighting the flu (as is Dh). It has been an exceptionally cold March with snow still being very interactive in our weather pattern; which is unusual.  

We also had two big activities on Thursday and Friday that interferred with our lessons.  Thursday was class 4/6 of our co-op.  Dd has: Gym, Health, and French.  I teach a Nature in Art class--which is a drawing class-pencils.  Friday we drove to McCloud Park for a Maple Syrup demonstration. It turned into an ordeel (I get lost!): I should mention at the beginning I had planned to be there, at the park 36 minutes EARLY so we could look/play at the Nature Center there (which is very cool).   We were the LAST family to arrive--everyone in the trip was literally standing around waiting on us....no pressure.  I would think that maybe getting so lost wouldn't be a huge deal to everybody; but it is one of my weak spots as I have absolutely no sense of direction.  

We drove to pick a friend for Dd, 20-25 minutes to her house.  Then headed to the park.  We had a field trip to see how we get maple syrup.  We have been on this exact field trip before and it is a lot of fun and educational.  So, we head out after picking up friend, G, to the park--a 31 minute drive.  After 31 minutes my Garmin says "You've Arrived!"We literally are in the middle of nothing.  I know we are really close!!  But, I don't have the faintest clue which way to go!!!  So we drive around for 46 minutes lost, stopping people who drive past us going the other way, I pull into a fire station-it looked empty.- asked a man on a street--and we plug in our second, "back-up" Garmin.  

While driving around on these back country roads, one road was pure snow and sluice and I ran over a huge squirrel (which for me is HUGE, as I am a huge animal person), but the girls didn't even notice, so I just kept driving and didn't let them know.  Part of the roads were all mud and gravel and infested with potholes so we were jumping around like popcorn.  Finally after the 46 minutes of being lost we saw the sign and arrived. 

G said her mom was going to be so mad at me--and that upset me, so I kept missing my turns and would have to turn around. (The mom wasn't mad, btw!) It was just a big mess.  So, after the field trip and when we got home-- I hate to admit it; but I went to bed!!!  I just hit overload!

Bible:
We spent the week on Proverbs! Proverbs 1-11 and we read the book of Ruth- which is only 4 chapters long.  It is really different reading Proverbs to Dd as she is older now and can really learn the lessons of Solomon.  It has been a long time for me too.  I have been very glad to get back to this book in the bible!  It has so many applications to daily life.

Sing the Word: The Heaven's Declare(CD): Lamentations 3:22-23

Science:
Apologia Zoology 1: Flying Creatures: Pg 12-30 
Built a Nature Journal

Snap Circuits--did/built various things,like the Happy Birthday song... this is an electricity kit.

Math: Math U See: Epsilon: 12 A,B,C,D,E,F
12 family 4x and we did some halves--what is half of 30, 40, 80, 50.....

Language Arts:
AAS 4: Step 11 completed and a big review from steps 1-5
FLL 4: lessons 44,45,46
Fix-It: Wk 4, 5
WWE 3: Week 3: Day 1,2,3,4

Reader: 

 

George Washington Carver: Man's Slave Becomes God's Scientist (Sower Series) by David Collins, Robert F. Burkett and Joe Van Severen

 

Fun Reader:

 

 *this image is for the sequel, Amazon didn't have our book-but our book looks just like this, Artemesia leaning on the rail of a ship.

Piratica: Being a Daring Tale of a Singular Girl's Adventure Upon the High Seas by Tanith Lee (Jul 6, 2006)

       

   Read Alouds:


 

Gold Fever by Rosalyn Schanzer

 

 

Immigrant Kids by Russell Freedman

 

 

Immigrants: A Library of Congress Book by Martin Sandler

 

 

Inventing the Future: A Photobiography of Thomas Alva Edison (Photobiographies) by Marfe Ferguson Delano

 

Lamplighter: Fire In the Sky by Christoph Von Schmid-Ch. 1 (I hate to mention this b/c I don't think we are going to really start this book right now...but we wanted to see what it was like.)

 

 

AUDIO's:

 

By The Great Horn Spoon! by Sid Fleischman, Willard E. Lape, Jr and the Full Cast Family (Oct 5, 2004) - Unabridged  *Disc 3 completed

 

 

The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, Book 2) by J.R.R. Tolkien and Rob Inglis

 Disc 1 completed

 

Cooking/Baking: Dd made a whole batch of CREPES by herself! Yummy!

 

Computer: Code. org--two times