Sonlight Core H Week 6A Jan.2-8, 2017

Sonlight Core H 

Week 6A 

Jan.2-8, 2017

Dd's watercolor Star Wars

Hello Friends!

We were still on Christmas break from our band classes, but the churchs' Olympians group started back this week.  It has been beyond cold, but it looks like Michigan was one of the better states to be in, with the east coast getting a blizzard and so much snow!  And their road crews ill-prepared for cleaning it all up!  

A very sweet young lady at our church, who is the same age as Dd, plays the violin in her school orchestra, and had agreed to come over on Thursday to listen to Dd play and give some critique.  Hailey, is her name, and she is just the kindest, most bubbly teenager I've met in a long time. Rewarding her efforts, we popped in a pizza to compensate her for her help as she shared some pointers for improvement. Because Dd had been asking for a pizza for a week straight, it was a good two for one!  Hailey has a VERY nice violin, the tone was SO much better than ours!   After playing their violins, discussions, and pizza we went to the church for the "Strings Group."  Hailey has been in this musical group for months already, but Dd hadn't felt brave enough to try it yet, so, as a team we all went together!  There were two guitars, one that also played the harmonica, the ukulele, and our two teenagers both played their guitars.  I guess playing the guitar is similar to the violin?!  Dd has a ways to go on learning the guitar, but this group will be a free group that will also provide her with the opportunity to get to know some of the people in our church better.  

Grilling in the snow!  So, Dd decides barbecue chicken, grilled fresh green beans, and carrots sounded perfect for dinner on Friday, in the super frigid temps we had here in Michigan!  It took us almost 20 minutes to get the charcoal going, it was so cold!  The meal turned out great, and I was glad that I never say 'no' to Dd making meals!!!  I'm sure some people might make plans for meals, and not just wing it like I do, so often!  Dd has a natural talent for cooking just about anything!  I'm happy with celery and peanut butter!

I'm walking out through the snow to take the chickens a special treat!

Chickens: They are doing very well cooped up inside, although I really worried they might fight among themselves, it appears I was wrong!!!  I am trying to keep their interests up with fun meals with our left-overs.  If I cook meat in a 9x13 pan, after I remove the meat, I will use that juice and fat to add to rice or oats and then feed it to them.  They are thriving!  Zeus, the only rooster, has had a few flair ups with Dh and Dd.  I keep feeding him out of my hand, holding him, and generally trying hard to keep him as tame as I can.  We will 'let him go' if he gets mean....we just don't need a rooster, though appreciate the potential baby chickens if we ever were to decide to increase our numbers.  I'll keep trying to work against his nature and hope for the best.

Our lessons update:

Sonlight really jumps through history so fast, and leaves out so much, that we have been adding in BiblioPlan history Companion textbooks to fill in all those precious details.  But, we have been behind for too long, and I decided to stop going forward until I can get us caught up again, though I know we will only fall behind again shortly!  I do feel like the BiblioPlan is worth all the extra work and hours of reading, though it makes scheduling tricky.

Church:

After over a year at our church, we are seriously considering becoming members.  It is so hard to sign on to a specific church that isn't exactly what you are use to, and with considerable differences to weigh.  Overall we feel like this is a lovely church, and I've about weighed out the problems I have with allowing the grace needed for all human interactions.  Really, what kind of relationships would we have if we didn't give grace freely and receive grace freely?  So thankful the Lord gives me abundant grace for all the trillions of mistakes I make, think and do!  Grace seems to be the balm that remedies my concerns over joining this church.  I do have specific 'fears' that could possibly never come to fruition that pop up in my mind---like how I am very different than many people in our congregation and do see the world very differently--politically and just in a general tolerance level.  I guess all my summers in New Hampshire filled me with a deep code of  "Live and Let Live" and be generous with grace! that helps a lot too!!!  I'll keep you posted on when we actually commit, because we really do consider this a serious thing.  

Music:

Believe it or not, this was not a big music week!  Dd put in some time with her violin, and an hour and a half with her guitar, but her poor saxophones only saw about 30 minutes of action!  Over the holidays the kids are fairly allowed to play as much or as little as they want; but with an encouragement to do try and play, which apparently fell on deaf ears this year!!!  Dd has thoroughly taken the full dose of vacation from her piano and sax's!  I do think she did some piano, but not like she should have!  I tried to remind a bit here and there, but, really, this is her thing and I try not to treat music like I do our math, science, history, or reading subjects.  She can succeed or fail musically and I try to not get too bossy about it, but, it is hard for me to let it go and watch her loaf!  

Our lessons this week:

Bible:

Sorry to add another story in the middle of our academic section, but after finishing the Veritas Press bible curriculum I am floundering a little bit.  We have been trying out a college bible study book called The Harmony of the Bible, but it just seems to be bible reading and not comprehension like was wanting.  So, at the end of the week I brought out the Bob Jones high school bible books I bought used (but still expensive), to try.  We are starting with That I May Know Him, Selected Studies on Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Mark.  Next week I'll assign Dd to also do the private bible reading section by herself so she can start that, at week 6.  I'll give this second option a few weeks to see how it does and evaluate.

Harmony of the Bible:

His Ministry Launched, His Person, Proclamation, and Baptism:

All read with Bible and Believer's Bible Commentary:

Matthew 3: 1-12 

Mark 1:1

Mark 3: 1-2

Mark 1:2-6

Mark 3:3-6

 That I May Know Him, Selected Studies on Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Mark, Bob Jones:

pg 1-8

Church/Volunteering:
Dd attended church and Sunday School
Dd and I volunteer to co-run the Wed. night Olympian's games 


Study Skills:

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Study Skills by Randall S. Hansen and Katharine Hansen

This week read pages 30-47, then skimmed through the rest of the text.  Though I tried really hard to make this text work, it really is not for a freshman in high school.  They talk a LOT about what to do when your in college and how to work with your professors.  We decided to put this book back on the shelf for now.

Writing:

IEW SWI-B, Lesson 12

Dd did a fantastic job doing a report!!  Yay!  Writing is something she likes to do on her own, and not 'IEW' types of writing, generally.  But, she was assigned to write a report, on HER CHOICE!  She picked Princess Leia Organa, think Star Wars.  She did a really good job, not just enough to get it done, but even typed it up on her typewritter!

I contacted IEW to find out what we should order next, as we are almost done with this book, and they said to do SWI-B Continuation, not SWI-C, like I thought I should order?!  We did SWI-A a few years ago, and thought we would skip through like that, but apparently we were to be doing the 'continuation' at the end of each one?!! oops!

Thank you card (for Christmas): one card done

Letter to friend: one this week.

This is the hill I have to pull down our huge trash can each week!  Every other week I have two to bring down, and don't forget the even harder task of pulling those big bulky things back up the super-steep hill...in the snow...in the freezing weather!  Sophie comes with me to sniff the deer trails.  

History:

BiblioPlan Companion Early Modern History Vol.1:

Ch.1: The Spanish Empire in the New World

and 

Ch. 2: The Scottish Reformation, the Dutch Revolt

(I think I wrote five pages of notes on all this history!  So much I didn't know!!!)

George Washington's World by Genevieve Foster

pg's ix-34

Dd has been looking forward to dropping Kingfisher for this book for months!  I gave her the choice between those two options (of course I owned the Kingfisher, and not the Foster books already!) and she didn't hesitate on this preference.  We really loved Foster's August Caesar's World in Core G.  Foster does a great job of telling history in story form that is so easy to understand and with great details that aid in remembering.

DVD: John Adams 

with Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney, based from David McCullough's book of the same title (which is fantastic read, btw! highly recommend!)

Uncle Jeff gave Dd this DVD set collection that recently came out.  There are some amorous moments that we fast forwarded through, not sure how detailed they were--I didn't stop to find out and didn't have the time to watch three discs before sharing with her.  So far it has been good.  Dd loves America war books and movies.  We had watched the fist disc last week, and this week we watched Part 3 & 4, on Disc Two.

DVD: Unbroken, written by Joel Coen

our library had this DVD, it is on WWII and POW camps.

After a near-fatal plane crash in WWII, Olympian Louis Zamperini spends a harrowing 47 days in a raft with two fellow crewmen before he's caught by the Japanese navy and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp.

Watercolor Dd completed this week

Art:

big art week! she is really having a lot of fun drawing and doing watercolors...at least 10 hours this week.  

Geography:

BP Advanced Maps:

Week 34: The Spanish Armada

Week 1: The 7 Continents (plus a lot of little stuff too)

Week 2: Scotland and the Netherlands

Math: 

Math U See: Geometry

5 A-E

Poetry:

Painless Poetry by Francis McPake

pg 67-74

The frustrating part of Dd reading THIS book is that she continually tells me she doesn't like this material, but refuses to switch to a new poetry book or poet until she completes this entire book?!

I guess we are not going to recommend this book, though I've liked it well enough.

Latin/Word Roots:

Word Roots by The Critical Thinking Company

pg 57-60

Agnes, yet again curled up in a blanket trying desperately to get warm...poor kitty! She is always cold!

Science: 

Apologia: Physical Science: 
Module 3: The Atmosphere

Text: 55-73

Student Notebook: pg 35-41

(hoping to do the experiments in week two of this module)

FUN READING:

Uncle Jeff gave Dd these two books she has been reading this week:

1. Undaunted Courage 

Undaunted Courage: The Pioneering First Mission to Explore America's Wild Frontier

by Stephen E. Ambrose

Goodreads summary:

 4.22  ·   Rating Details ·  34,600 Ratings  ·  1,835 Reviews

'This was much more than a bunch of guys out on an exploring and collecting expedition. This was a military expedition into hostile territory'. In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson selected his personal secretary, Captain Meriwether Lewis, to lead a pioneering voyage across the Great Plains and into the Rockies. It was completely uncharted territory; a wild, vast land ruled by the Indians. Charismatic and brave, Lewis was the perfect choice and he experienced the savage North American continent before any other white man. UNDAUNTED COURAGE is the tale of a hero, but it is also a tragedy. Lewis may have received a hero's welcome on his return to Washington in 1806, but his discoveries did not match the president's fantasies of sweeping, fertile plains ripe for the taking. Feeling the expedition had been a failure, Lewis took to drink and piled up debts. Full of colourful characters - Jefferson, the president obsessed with conquering the west; William Clark, the rugged frontiersman; Sacagawea, the Indian girl who accompanied the expedition; Drouillard, the French-Indian hunter - this is one of the great adventure stories of all time and it shot to the top of the US bestseller charts. Drama, suspense, danger and diplomacy combine with romance and personal tragedy making UNDAUNTED COURAGE an outstanding work of scholarship and a thrilling adventure. 

2. Signing Their Lives Away 
by Denise Kiernan

by Denise Kiernan (Goodreads Author), Joseph D'Agnese (Goodreads Author)

 3.84  ·   Rating Details ·  547 Ratings  ·  137 Reviews

In the summer of 1776, fifty-six men risked their lives and livelihood to defy King George III and sign the Declaration of Independence—yet how many of them do we actually remember? Signing Their Lives Away introduces readers to the eclectic group of statesmen, soldiers, slaveholders, and scoundrels who signed this historic document—and the many strange fates that awaited them. Some prospered and rose to the highest levels of United States government, while others had their homes and farms seized by British soldiers. Signer George Wythe was poisoned by his nephew; Button Gwinnett was killed in a duel; Robert Morris went to prison; Thomas Lynch was lost at sea; and of course Sam Adams achieved fame as a patriot/brewer. Complete with portraits of the signers as well as a facsimile of the Declaration of Independence, Signing Their Lives Away provides an entertaining and enlightening narrative for history buffs of all ages.

Happy Trails to You! Until We Meet Again.....

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