Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Apologia General Science 1.1

Apologia General Science 1.1

We love reading Apologia, but don't do 90% of the experiments.  So, this year I am going to post pictures of our experiments as a ploy to motivate myself to actually do 90%...even the ones that are 'so-so'. 

DENSITY IN NATURE:
Supplies: Vegetable Oil, Water, Maple or Corn Syrup, a grape (I only had a chunk of green tomato and that worked as well.), a piece of cork, an ice cube, a small rock, a glass to do the experiment in - I used a smaller canning jar.




Take your clear glass and fill it 1/4 (or so)of the way with vegetable oil, then put the same amount of water in the glass, then the same amount of syrup in.  This will give you three distinct "layers."






Then drop in your cork

See cork float (less dense)

Then drop in your rock (we used a pebble), then your grape (we didn't have a grape, but did still have some green tomatoes in our garden, so we used that and it worked fine.

The syrup on the bottom of the glass had the pebble.  The water in the middle layer had the tomato/grape floating.  The oil on top had the ice floating there.

This experiment shows the proof of the existence of atoms, which the ancient scientist Democritus figured out.  Democritus was born 460 BC!

http://www.ph.surrey.ac.uk/partphys/chapter1/EarlyHistory.html


This photo was taken after the ingredients settled down better--you could see the layers much better then.


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Sunday, October 25, 2015

Middle Ages, People to Ponder

Middle Ages, 
People to Ponder

I've been updating my book list/youtube/DVD list for Core G/Ancients today--here is the link:

http://fleurdelisacademy.blogspot.com/search?q=ancients+book+list


Here are some of the people I want to make sure we cover in the upcoming months:

Alaric the Visigoth

Attila the Hun

Augustine of Hippo

Gaiseric the Vandal

Theodoric the Ostrogoth

Patrick of Ireland

Clovis

Justinian the Great

Benedict and Gregory

Mohammed

Charles Martel

Charlemagne

Harun-al-Rashid

Rollo the Viking

Alfred the Great

Canute the Great

El Cid

Edward the Confessor

William the Conqueror

Gregory VII & Henry IV

Fredrick Barbarossa

Henry the Second

Louis the Ninth

St. Francis & St. Dominic

Robert Bruce

Marco Polo

Edward the Black Prince

William Tell

Tamerlane

Henry V

Joan of Arc

Gutenberg

Warwick the Kingmaker


Smedley

Smedley

1998-2015
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Saturday, October 24, 2015

Making Butter in Your Kitchen--Oct. 2015

Making Butter in Your Kitchen--Oct. 2015

Heavy Whipping Cream--it cost about $4.50

Last Friday, Oct. 16th, we had some homemade butter at Heidi's Farmstand, and it was SO good we asked "Luanne" how she made it.  It sounded so easy, and tasted so delicious, we decided to give it a try.  We picked up a container of Heavy Whipping Cream and brought it home:


We poured it in our Kitchen Aid mixer and stuck it on 'high,' and kept an eye on it and checking it.  The fluid got foamy and big for a long time, then it got chunks in it, then the chunks got bigger.  The chunks were yellow, whereas the fluid was white.  After a few minutes of big chunks, we stopped and drained out the white/watery fluid--see below what that fluid looked like:



Here is what the fluid looked like--there was a lot of this fluid left over after the big yellow chunks formed.  We didn't know how else we could use this fluid, so poured it off.

Then we put the big chunks in a container and Dd scrapped it back and forth; trying to get any more liquid out of the butter.

You can see Dd scrapping the butter back and forth


We bought a few loafs of pumpernickel bread from Heidi's and enjoyed our fresh, homemade butter!  We got a LOT of butter from that one bottle of whipping cream!

This was super easy, fun, and we are enjoying it on everything!  




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Core G Week 15 Early Middle Ages Oct. 19-23rd, 2015 Western World After the Fall of Rome

 Core G 
Week 15
Early Middle Ages
Oct. 19-23rd, 2015
Focus: Julius Caesar
53rd week on Core G
It is time to take down my hummingbird feeders- I haven't seen any hummingbirds in a few weeks now.  We are still trying to eat as many meals as we can outside on our deck.  The leaves have been such a treat this year!
This Week is our 53rd week on this Core:
Western World After the Fall of Rome 

This week was probably our best week academically that we've had in a long time.  We finally were not so exhausted after our activities so we could do a bit of our lessons Wed. and Thurs. afternoon.  It felt like we were really organized and focused, for once!  I think part of it was that I did a really good job of figuring out what to add to our basic spine to make it a little more in-depth.  


We also got back on our BiblioPlan Companion, which always helps me feel like we are really digging deeper into understanding our material.  I really like that book!  In both the BiblioPlan Companion and Peril and Peace, we read about some gory details of the persecution of the early Christians by the Romans (think Nero).  Can't thank Chelle enough for introducing me to BP.

In addition to adding BP back into our schedule, I also brought back Dd's writing program, Writing With Skill.  Dd had been working on a few different short stories of her own and I didn't want to step on that just yet.

My mini-update of 'life' things---the house did sell!  The closing was last Friday.  By Tuesday we had the house loan off our account, and that felt like a big load taken off our shoulders!  Now we only have ONE mortgage to pay in November!  How nice that will be!  

We invited a family from our homeschool co-op over to our house for pizza and apple crisp on Thursday.  It was really a lot of fun.  I got to serve them tea, and tell them about my friend, Heather--and how she taught me hospitality!!!!!  Dd and the 2 kids played, hiked, and had a great visit together!  I know Heather will be pleasantly surprised that I am trying to be more up for inviting families over to our house!  Now I know HOW to be a good host--thanks to her!

Saturday night I took Dd to a SQUARE DANCING party!  It was a great time for everyone.  The 100 kids (grades 7-12) danced, then went on a long hay ride through corn fields, then had hot cocoa, S'mores and donuts around the camp fires (they had 3 fires going).  It was a really special night--I'll probably do a separate post for it and put in some photo's.

Friday, Oct. 23rd at 5 pm, Dh and I took Smedley into the vets office to be put to rest.  I am beyond grieved.  My Smedley has been at my side, day and night, for 17 years.  That is one of the good, or bad things about homeschooling---your pets are beside you ALL day!  We form such uniquely strong bonds with our pets.  I am so thankful for the many years of love shared between Smedley and myself.  I can honestly say he loved me as much as I loved him.  I already miss his loving eyes smiling at me, and his constant purrrrr of appreciation.


Our lessons this week:

Bible:
Veritas Press: Chronicles Through Malachi
Card 94: in process
Nehemiah Rebuilds the Walls of Jerusalem
Nehemiah 2:11; 4:23; 6:15-19
c. 444 BC

(As you can tell, we use to be united with bible and history, but that brief moment has passed.)

Product Details

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

Mar 31, 1995
by MacDonald, W.(Author) ; MacDonald, William(Author);
This week we completed:
Bible reading: Nehemiah 9-13
Believer's Bible Commentary: Neh. 9-13 
The Greenleaf Guide to the Old Testament:
 **finished this book!  it took us THREE YEARS!**

Lesson 179: Israel Repents
Lesson 180: Purifying Israel (again!)

Psalm of the Week:
Psalm 48

Psalm 48[a]

A song. A psalm of the Sons of Korah.

Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise,


    in the city of our God, his holy mountain.
Beautiful in its loftiness,


    the joy of the whole earth,

like the heights of Zaphon[b] is Mount Zion,

    the city of the Great King.

God is in her citadels;

    he has shown himself to be her fortress.
When the kings joined forces,


    when they advanced together,

they saw her and were astounded;

    they fled in terror.

Trembling seized them there,

    pain like that of a woman in labor.

You destroyed them like ships of Tarshish

    shattered by an east wind.
As we have heard,


    so we have seen

in the city of the Lord Almighty,

    in the city of our God:

God makes her secure

    forever.[c]
Within your temple, O God,


    we meditate on your unfailing love.
10 
Like your name, O God,

    your praise reaches to the ends of the earth;

    your right hand is filled with righteousness.
11 
Mount Zion rejoices,

    the villages of Judah are glad

    because of your judgments.
12 
Walk about Zion, go around her,


    count her towers,
13 
consider well her ramparts,

    view her citadels,

that you may tell of them

    to the next generation.
14 
For this God is our God for ever and ever;


    he will be our guide even to the end.

I inadvertently found a really good bible story against lying--and shared it with Dd this week.  We haven't heard this story in a few years, so I thought I'd refresh it....not that Dd was lying, it is just a good story to keep in mind. Acts 5:
Ananias and Sapphira

Acts 5New International Version (NIV)

Ananias and Sapphira

Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.
Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”
When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.
About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?”
“Yes,” she said, “that is the price.”
Peter said to her, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord?Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”
10 At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband.11 Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.

Music:
We went to Band and Choir on Wednesday; and our hs co-op on Thursday.
Alto Sax practice each day.
Choir practice each day.
A bit of piano, but  not every day.


Co-op homework:
Each week she has had homework in her Literary Analysis class.  She is really enjoying this class, and learning a lot!  Great! This week she wrote a paragraph on Riki Tiki Tavi.


Cooking/Kitchen:
Dd decided to make her own butter after tasting the homemade butter at the event we went to last Friday--Heidi's Farmstand..aka..Michigan History Days.  So we bought some heavy whipping cream and put it in the Kitchen Aide for a good while, then Dd scrapped it out and poured out the 'water' that was left behind.  We've been (I've been) eating on it all week.  We went back to Heidi's to buy a few more loafs of pumpernickel to go with the butter.



Math:
Math U See: Algebra I
3D, 3E, and assessed Dd still wasn't getting 95%, we decided to not move on to lesson 4, but to do lesson 3 over again.  
3A, 3B, 3C
She is doing much better with this lesson compared to last week, I am very glad that we are able to stop, assess, evaluate, and decide to not move forward until we are really good on a lesson.  This is one of the greatest things about homeschooling.

Skip-Counting:
last week was the six family and this week was the seven family--written two times each day (10 times by the end of the week):
7,14,21,28,35,42,49,56,63,70,77,84,91,98


History:

Julius Caesar | William Shakespeare
www.audible.com
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare: completed
on Audible


Product Details

Stories From Shakespeare

Mar 1, 1995
by Geraldine McCaughrean and Antony Maitland
Stories From Shakespeare by Geraldine McCaughrean
pg 47: This gave us an abbreviated idea of the story Julius Caesar--to help us as we listened to the audio...

Peril and Peace:Vol 1: Chronicles of the Ancient Church
(We read most of this a few years ago, but are reading it again b/c it fits into where we are in our history--and it is a good book, good info, and written in such an easy to understand way!
By Mindy and Brandon Withrow




BiblioPlan Companion: Medieval History, Vol. 1 (of 2):
Medieval and Church History From the Fall of Rome to the Renaissance:

Chapter 1: The Western World After the Fall of Rome:
:Completed



History Reader: 



The Silver Branch by Rosemary Sutcliff
This week she re-read chapters 10-14
Dd is re-reading this book to get ready for upcoming questions on it.


Mapping:



BiblioPlan (BP)'s Hands-On Maps for Advanced Medieval History
Week 1: The Seven Continents
Language Arts:



All About Spelling 7:
Step 8: passed




Easy Grammar, Plus:
pg 223-229



IEW Fix-It (Sir Gwaiin and the Green Knight)
Week 7: completed




Complete Writer: Writing With Skill Level One Student Workbook






This week we finally restarted our writing lessons:
Writing With Skill
Week 18 done


Geography:
Seterra: US States
http://online.seterra.net/en/vgp/3003
I even do the games on this site; they are just a lot of fun!  And it is educational.


Science:
History of Medicine by John Hudson Tiner
Ch. 6-10 and quiz's 


www.khanacademy.org
Khan Academy: (Study on the Heart)
*Flow Through the Heart
*Heart Flash Cards 1
*Two Circulations in the Body
*The Heart Is A Double Pump
*Lub Dub




Fun Books:

Product Details

Tales from the End Cottage (Puffin Books)

Jan 30, 1970
Tales From The End Cottage by Eileen Bell
Heather "L" had let us borrow this book of hers, and this week Dd has been reading and enjoying it.  



Product Details

Magic Tree House #49: Stallion by Starlight (A Stepping Stone Book(TM))

Dec 23, 2014
by Mary Pope Osborne and Sal Murdocca
Magic Tree House #49: Stallion by Starlight 
by Mary Pope Osborne


Product Details

Insurgent (Divergent Series)

Jan 20, 2015
Insurgent by Veronica Roth


Product Details
The Two Princess of Bamarre by Gail Corson Levine

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