SL Core H Week 25 'A' Aug. 27-Sept.2, 2017 Sewing and Canning Week

SL Core H ("H" is Year 2 of 2 of World History)

Week 25 'A'

Aug. 27-Sept.2, 2017

Sewing and Canning Week

Hello, Friends!

This wasn't one of our most academic weeks, but Dd sure did give the Home Economics part of our schooling a great go!  We went to JoAnn Fabric's and bought some fluffy bunting--this was for the cat's new "bed," though it was inspired off a seashell design.  I hope I can get access to my photo's to share a picture of it.  Agnes had chewed through the cord that downloaded the pictures, so I ordered and received a replacement cord.  Now the downloaded pictures won't give me access to turn them into a document, with few pixels so I can put them in my posts.  I'm trying to figure these new problems out, but still having technical difficulties!  I also bought her some soft flannel-like material that has "Star Wars" printed all over it, that she made into a pleated ruffled skirt.  She also picked out some pretty floral scrap material that she turned into two purses (one with a velcro closure and the other one with a zipper closure), and a cat toy with catnip inside the stuffing.   She spent the whole week at the sewing machine having a great time!

Doctor Appointments:

For the second week in a row, we had to fit in doctor appointments.  Luckily, this is the last dermatology appointment, for Dd, for a good while as her acne treatments are coming to their conclusion!  It was a 4-5 month process getting through the Accutane treatment, but it seems that Dd responded so well to the medication!  The end couldn't come at a better time, starting next week band classes begin, which is our official end of summer and start of the official school year though not much will change for a few weeks while I am still balancing my garden chores.  I'm hoping to start back our IEW writing lessons very soon.

I found a Swallowtail Butterfly under this Kale plant early one morning this week!

Giz and Grampy:

They had to cancel their trip here as Giz was put in the hospital on Thursday.  She certainly has had a rough go this past year.  We'll have to wait and see how and when our next visit happens.  

Doesn't it look so much like fall now?!  I've seen orange and red leaves already!

Strings Group:

Another fun Strings Group this week.  Dd had fun playing the ukulele!

Doctor Who:

Well, Les Miserables has taken a backseat to Doctor Who...it is official.  Dd has checked out every book and cookbook on Doctor Who and then made a batch of Jammy Dodgers this weekend--which are a shortbread cookie sandwich with a sugary-jammy filling in the middle.

Fall Cleaning:

I've been trying to clean as much as I can in our garage, doing chores now in the relative warmth that will be ever too cold to do in a month or two.  Michigan doesn't seem to have much of a fall season, unlike Indiana that has a solid three months of cool, but sunny days.  I honestly love Indiana in the fall, that is the best season for that state, but Michigan tends to be cloudier and colder than most other states in the fall.  Even Maine seems to have a much more sunny fall than we do, though their temps drop right down like we do.  So, I am really working over time trying to get chores done now, even if it doesn't feel like time.  This weekend Dh and I started working on closing down our pool---which we haven't swum in for at least 6 weeks!  What a waste of money!  It is so hard to get our pool warm enough to swim in!

Chickens & Ducks:

I'm still foraging around for as many greens and weeds as I can each day---usually about three times per day, to keep their diet as healthy as I can.  The grain we buy at Tractor Supply is 'okay' but I know real "free range" poultry would be eating pretty much all green.  Many of the chicken owners I've met up here do not feed their chickens until winter, but I can't see that happening with me!  I love our fluffy chickens and love feeding them with the best things I can find.

Still NO eggs from Merry, our female Peking Duck?!?!

Zeus, our Buff Orpington rooster has actually been better lately!  He isn't trying to start a fight with the humans in his life this week!  So glad!  I was getting worried about his future!

Garden: Canning

All the broccoli and cabbage that had been attacked by those nasty green worms (and some other mixed color broccoli worm) has recovered and started growing new healthy leaves!  So glad nature has a way to move past infestations!  We started canning up a storm this week!  We canned the bag of beets given to us at a yard sale, two big batches of pickles--cucumbers given to us by a church friend that we thanked by giving them eggs in exchange, tomato paste--really thick as we cooked it down well, tomatoe sauce--not cooked down as much, Veg Melody--these quarts are a mix of zuccini, tomato, garlic, and onions--ready to be added to many-a-dish.  We still have a lot of zuccini to turn into a veg melody, I"m thinking I may put it through a good blender and add to some of our spaghetti sauces so Dd will be getting the nutrients without knowing she is consuming her dreaded zuccini!  Ha!  Isn't it funny which veg's our children decide not to like!?!

Canning future:

The upcoming week we need to focus on lots more tomato and potato canning.  We have a lot of hills of potato, zuchinni, tomato, chard, and kale to turn into winter meals.  To be completely honest, I'm not the pro at canning; my Dh is!  He is, once again, teaching me how to can.  I really want to get all the in's and out's down so I can do it on my own!  There is so much to learn about what you have to pressure cook vs a water bath that I am still an apprentice!  But, I'm getting there!  Perhaps this season will be the time that I really get it all down and can do canning on my own--I hope!

Crocheting: Hunting Woolen Poncho

I actually, FINALLY finished the camo-poncho that I have been working on for Dh's hunting poncho.  I was hoping to give it to him for Father's Day!  Instead, he got it in September!  He did think of a good idea after I thought I was done---crocheting in a muffler on the inside of the poncho!  The other good thing is that I had used up all the wool blend yarn I had bought and went back to JoAnn this week to buy more and found a lovely alpaca wool to use instead.  So, his muffler will be extra soft and warm!  Yay!  The back of the poncho is fairly short--just past his waist, and the front he wanted really long--it lands on his ankles or feet in the front and wraps all around him, the two rectangles aren't sewn closed on the sides, but left open and easy for him.  I'll try to get a photo soon, though it doesn't look very pretty, it is a dark super-super thick poncho.  I bought really thick chunky yarn and then had four lines going at all times, so the poncho is thicker than most rugs!  He will be warm! perhaps hot!

Academic Progress:

Bible:

Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman, The Disciples Rejoin Jesus, Many Samaritans Believe, Jesus Heals an Official's Son

John 4: 1-54

Jesus Begins to Preach, The Faith of the Centurion, Jesus Announces teh Good News

Matthew 4:12-17, 8: 5-13

Mark 1: 14-15

Jesus Rejected at Nazareth, The Faith of the Centurion

Luke 4:14-15, 7: 1-10

We spent one day reading from a book on Paul, but not sure about it.  

SL's bible:

Daring To Live Life On The Edge: ch 3

Dd's bible reading: Acts 1, 2, and 5

Math:

Khan Academy: 5x this week, progressing well.

History:

BiblioPlan Early Modern Companion:

Ch. 9 Church and State in New England, the Peace of Westphalia (so much information in this chapter!)

I've been planting lettuce and kale in the empty spots and the sprouts are coming up really fast.  I'm hoping to keep out the chickens so I can have another round of greens this fall.

Abraham Lincoln's World by Foster:

307-324

SL's Reader:

Angel on the Square by Gloria Whelan: COMPLETED

GoodReads Review:

In the fall of 1914, safe behind palace walls, Katya Ivanova sees St. Petersburg as a magical place.The daughter of a lady-in-waiting to the Empress, Katya spends all her time with the Grand Duchesses; the royal family feels like her own. But outside the palace, a terrible war is sweeping through Europe, and Russia is beginning to crumble under the weight of a growing revolution. Now, as Katya's once-certain future begins to dissolve, she must seek to understand what is happening to her beloved country and, for the first time in her life, take charge of her own destiny.

RA: Add-In, Not SL

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: IN PROCESS

We are thoroughly enjoying this book!  Glad Dd asked for us to read it together!  

Foreign Language:

DuoLingo: German: 4x this week

Science:

Apologia Physical Science: Module 10:

Newton's Law: Week 1 of 2 completed

FUN Book:

Three by Ted Dekker

(This book is for her Girl's Club book club)

Sewing:

Star Wars Ruffled Skirt

Cat Bed:
This was a really big project.  We bought the batting and fluff and material for Dd's design.  Then she put it all together!  Agnes seems to like it!

2 bags/purse:

Velcro Purse:






Zipper Purse:

1 cube cat toy with catnip

This picture was taken before Dd put the catnip inside and sewed it closed.

Cooking:

George Foremen Grill!!

Jammy Dodgers: a Doctor Who cookie

Art:

Lots of Drawing and Painting again this week

Painting Rocks

Watercolors: black cat, then an orange cat

Dd bought this mirror at a thrift store for one dollar, it wasn't a pretty frame, so she painted it and then decorated it with paper flowers she made and some nature bits.

Black Photo Album project:

Dd found an old black photo album book- blank- at Goodwill back in Indiana.  She is putting in some of her favorite photo's and writing or drawing things next to the photo, to personalize her book.  It is really coming along nicely with her white gel pen on the black construction paper album.

Close-up of her paper flowers

Fall Is Here!
.........

Year 2017-2018 Grade 10 Plans

The New School Year 2017-2018 : Grade 10: Plans
Dd is 15 years old, to be 16 in the spring, hs'd from day 1

In Process

September is here, which makes me want to share our upcoming school year plans.  It is always fun to see at the end of the year which plans stuck and which plans fell by the wayside.  We are over scheduled, but I do feel like, at this point, I can let things go without feeling like it will be a big deal.  

For 10th grade we will continue with Sonlight (SL), we've followed Sonlight since Kindergarten and it works for us, especially because I tweak it to fit our pace by adding as many weeks as needed to complete one of SL's weeks.  SL has 36 weeks in each of their cores, but I go: Week 1 "A," Week 1 "B," Week 1 "C"....until we've completed all their tasks and the one's I've put in too.  I think Core G was our record for stretching out a 36-week program to around 72 weeks!!!  I added so much in! Core H is intended for 12-14-year-olds, 7-9th graders, so we are on the end of the spectrum that this core was designed for, and I'm not going to add much at this point, trying to get to the finish line but not in a hurry.

We are on Week 25 of 36, of Core H, as I type this.  Core H is part two or year two of a two year program on World History.  Next will be Core 100, which is on American History in detail.  Here is a link to Sonlight's website for a short description of "Core H."
https://www.sonlight.com/HC5.html

BiblioPlan Companion:
http://www.biblioplan.net/p/welcome-to-biblioplan.html
We will continue to add this in as we can.  It just really is a wonderful program, though a bit dry.  I love how it incorporates church history and geography and cultural bits in with all the history.  It does that forever to make it through a chapter, and there is SO much information that I know we don't memorize---it would be impossible!  Regardless, it is a great program.  We are reading Early Modern Companion and will move into the next set after this.

History Readers and Read Alouds:

Sonlight schedules a heavy load of both R's and RA's for each core.  I will continue to add some of my personal choice materials too.  Like I did this summer when we read Great Expectations and are now currently reading Les Miserables, though not in SL's line-up.  There are quite a few other significant books that I want Dd to read during high school that isn't in SL's cores, but I will squeeze into our schedule.

Continue BiblioPlan and Foster's Abraham Lincoln's World History Readers to finish up Core H.  I've linked to GoodReads website for book information:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104297.Abraham_Lincoln_s_World?from_search=true
Dd loved George Washington's World and is loving Abraham Lincoln's World by Foster instead of the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia that SL assigned.  I'm happy with our exchange and think Dd will retain more information with our switches.

Math:

We have struggled with math since 8th grade, so this year I am paying for Dd to take a homeschool co-op class in Grand Rapids.  The  group is called: Grace HS Academy and they actually meet in the same building (the "Home School Building") that our band and orchestra classes occur in.  I've signed her up for Geometry.  We had tried to do Algebra with Math-U-See, go, back up, go, back up, go, back up for about a year, then I bought another brand new Algebra program from Teaching Textbooks, and we tried that for 6 months until Dd kept getting stuck.  Then we re-started our Math U See Algebra again, from the first lessons, and she kept getting stuck.  So, I decided to go ahead and try Geometry b/c when I was in high school I remember how hard Algebra was, but when I got into Geometry it seemed so much easier for me.  I figured that might be the same with Dd.  So she got to Lesson 15 without too much trouble but got stuck with lesson 16, so I had her back up and start the program over again, starting with lesson 1.  I worked with her and we got back to lesson 16 and found the workbook was asking us to find the surface area of shapes that he didn't cover in the video.  Even though I looked online, I was still having trouble explaining this to her and thought I'd think about the Grace math classes.  Dd's two dear friends both have taken their math classes there and I've only heard good things about the teacher.  So, I've signed her up!  Her two friends are also in the same class, and I think there are only six students altogether so they will be getting lots of help.  I hope it goes well, b/c I hate that we will have to drive to Grand Rapids not once per week, like last year, but THREE times per week!  Yikes!  I prefer homeschooling when we are actually at home!  But, I have bought Math U See Algebra, Math U See Geometry, Teaching Textbooks Algebra, and using Khan Academy math throughout and she still hasn't finished a whole program in over two years.  It is time that I try having her learn math outside of our home programs.  I had to buy a whole new program for next year's math: Saxon Geometry.  I've heard so many of our friends using Saxon--like the "L" family in Indy, that is their curriculum for math, and many say it just works.  I think it will be costing us almost a thousand dollars to pay for all the failed programs and this new one through Grace; perhaps more!  I don't even want to add it all up together--I might cry!  So, math will be out of the home this year!

Art:

Although I got my Master's degree in Art, I don't seem to have enough time to really teach Dd art!  I always think we can get to that after we complete our "core" subjects, and we are always behind!  Since Dd is going to Grand Rapids, Grace Academy for math, we will let her take two art classes there to make our drive worth it.  She has always wanted a proper art class, now she'll have two!  The first one is a Painting Studio and the second is a Botany art class--learning about and drawing Michigan's wild plants and flowers.  Plus, she is always doing her art projects and tinkering things at home too.  I always buy lots of material at the thrift store for her to sew, plus I keep lots of art supplies on hand for drawing, painting, building... lots of art to go around for grade 10.

Science:

Dd is trying to finish up Apologia's Physical Science and then we will start Biology!!!  I'm super excited to work with her on that one.  I'm letting her do Physical Science alone, since she says she goes faster without me and most of the info she is learning she has already learned about and so this book is mostly a refresher course for her.  I've been buying the stuff for Biology and can't wait to dig in!

Foreign Language:

DuoLingo German will continue, only now she has asked me to start learning it too.  So, I've got to find a little bit of time to start that, probably after gardening and canning finishes up.

Writing:

I bough the next set with IEW Continuation Course B?  I think?  It was expensive! Yikes!  But, it is suppose to have writing lessons for two years, so that should keep us busy.  We'll start that up pretty soon, once summer chores are wrapped up.

Grand Rapids Community College: English Composition- spring 2018

I'm planning on enrolling Dd in this dual enrollment class in the spring.  GRCC is offering this class at a satellite branch in our local town!  I think this should be a good class to start off college with.

Grammar and Latin:

I want to keep working (albeit slowly) on building with these subjects.  She has been doing well with the Easy Grammar, Plus program and still has 1/2 the book to do for grade 10.  "Word Roots" teaches Latin, and she still has 1/2 of that book to complete too.  Plus, when we start Biology I have a great Latin biology program to do with it---called "Science Roots: Latin and Greek for Biology and Life Science."

Bible:

We will continue to do the Bible assignments through SL as well as our own study of the New Testament.  We spent three years on the Old Testament and I want her to know the NT as well as she learned the OT.

Church:

Dd is very active with our church.  Sunday she has church; then Sunday School in the mornings, then Youth Program at night.  Wednesday night she volunteers to co-lead the Games part of the Olympians program.  Thursday she attends the Strings Group at church, playing the ukulele.

Physical Education:

Wanting to fit more DVD workouts with Dd into our year.  

Khan Academy:

Continue to advance in the math program.

Continue to do the SAT prep program.

Geography:

Advanced Maps with BiblioPlan

SL's mapping with our cores.

Poetry:

The Harp and Laurel Leaf will be our spine for Poetry this year.

Weekly Music classes: 3 of 5 classes on Wednesday's

Piano: Wednesday's

Wednesday's with  Mrs. Wendy: 30 min lesson

Viola/Violin: at Meyer Music: Monday's

30 min lessons with Christie

Intermediate Band with Mrs. Wendy: Wednesday's 

1:30 hour class - Alto Sax

Intermediate Orchestra: Wednesday's

1:30 hour class with Mrs. Sooy - violin

Strings Group at church: Thursday's
Ukulele 1:30 hours

..............