Fleur de Lis Homeschool Blog

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Core F Week 12 Jan 6-10, 2014

Core F
Week 12
Jan 6-10, 2014

*I'm adding new pictures to the next post, so look below this post to see the new pictures.

We had our 2nd ball game on Saturday; here are a few pictures from the game.

Her basketball team is through a Christian organization--"Upwards" they do soccer, football, and cheerleading too. The games are all at churches. They incorporate bible study, prayer, and playing in a Christian manner as part of the program.

We had our 2nd ball game on Saturday; here are a few pictures from the game.

Another weird week! It seems like the past 9 months have been one 'off' week after another 'off' week. This week we had a taste of what it must be like to live in Canada or some place a lot more northern than Indiana. We had 2 1/2 days that were BELOW zero! and the windchill was something like -35 to -45 degrees. The news said we only got 11 inches; but it sure did seem more than that. The governor and mayor declared one highway closed, and told everyone to stay home unless it was an emergency. They opened shelters for people who lost their electricity; which was something like 30,000 Hoosiers. But, how in the world did people GET to these shelters? The roads were covered with snow; and we didn't get any snow plowers for days to enter our neighborhood. Dh got to stay home Monday and Tuesday with us! It is too bad it was so cold - because it really was beautiful to see all that snow!

Dh "HAD" to stay home Mon. and Tues. due to the weather, so we didn't do our normal lessons on those days--just bible, math, and some reading. Our LA, Science, and the like only got done Wed., Thurs., and Fri. It was great having Dh home extra!!! It sure is nice having him around more!

Besides this awesome weather; which canceled Dd's basketball practice, we did get our lessons done. Here is what we worked on this week.

Jan 4th Dd had her first basketball game and she played really well, even though she was a bit nervous. Half the team has played with each each other last year, and 3 players have played together for the past 3 years straight (Dd is one of those) - so they know each other very well and actually have TEAMWORK, which is rare for this age bracket and for the beginning of the season. It usually takes a few games for teamwork to take shape; but these kids already have it; which is a bit of an advantage. They won, and Dd scored 6 points and took more shots than that. She wasn't afraid to try for shots, and some sank! Go Seminoles!

Bible: EXODUS

Bible: Veritas Bible: Genesis Through Joshua

Veritas Press Card 20: Completed

"The Exodus" Exodus 13-15

Journey Through The Bible pg.64-65

The Greenleaf Guide to the Old Testement 44,45,48

VP worksheets

(We had just one thing left to finish this up on Monday, so most of this work was done last week.)

VP Card: 21:Completed

"10 Commandments"

Bible Exodus 19 & 20

Believer's Bible Commentary Exodus 19 & 20

Journey Through the Bible pg 66-69

VP worksheets

VP Card: 22: In Process

Aaron and the Golden Calf

Exodus 32

Bible Exodus 32

Believer's Bible Commentary Ex. 32

Greenleaf: 46

VP worksheets

Science:

Exploring Creation with Zoology 2: Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day (Young Explorer Series) (Young Explorer... by Jeannie Fulbright

Apologia:Zoology 2:Swimming Creatures
pg. 30-34,
Focus: WHALES
Dd worked in her notebook drawing a porpoise, dolphin,narwhal, and sperm whale plus her notes. I had a few books on whales that we looked at too. I won't list those--just some from our shelves, nothing special.

The Usborne Complete Book of the Microscope: Internet-Linked by Kirsteen Rogers

SL Science E-The Usborne Complete Book of the Microscope book and coresponding workbook pages (this week she did 2 pages)

Composer of the Week:
Francois Couperin
Couperin is a Baroque composer, and we have been focusing on what a “Baroque” artist means. We’ve covered that a few times now. She seemed to remember a lot of the details that make up what typical Baroque styling’s. We looked at paintings, furniture, and of course---Couperin!

Classic Poetry: An Illustrated Collection by Michael Rosen and Paul Howard

Poet of the week:
William Shakespeare
We finished the SL (Sonlight) book of poetry that we were suppose to spread of for the next 8 months; but I didn’t want to waste this opportunity (6th grade). We read what SL wanted us to--and appreciated those poems, and now are moving on to poetry that I find more engrossing and enriching. I have bought a LOT of poetry books, but decided to start us with this one because it has a sampling of all the best classical poets, and has them listed in my favorite way…Chronologically!! I don’t know why I love things listed chronologically; but I do! So, we started this week with William Shakespeare--from back in the 1500’s. The book we are using is called: Classic Poetry An Illustrated Collection by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Paul Howard. The 3 poems that we read, and re-read and discussed were: “All the World’s A Stage”, “Be Not A Feared” (Dd’s favorite), and “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow”.

Language Arts and Thank you cards:
We finally got our Thank You cards out this week. Dd had 7 cards to mail out: my mom sent her 3 little needlepoint samplers, Uncle Jeff gave her 2 Civil War books, Uncle Greg gave her a Star Wars shirt ,light saber pen, and SW keychain, Uncle Lee gave her some chocolates and a calendar, Aunt Ruth gave her a subscription to Cricket magazine, Judy Pugh gave her a sock puppet, and Giz & Grampy gave her a rubber band loom (which I also gave her! But Giz’s was bigger and better!!!) She has gone totally crazy making those rubber bracelets!!! She makes them, then takes them apart and remakes a new one out of the old one with newer, better designs. She is having a lot of fun with that!

Christie-We did go with the Daily Grams 7- like you suggested we go with…not sure if I told you that. I still haven’t done enough of it to know what my opinion is…

Daily Grams: Day 2-5

All About Spelling 5:
Step 23 (in process) plus review of sion, tion,
We are doing the review they tell us to do on Day 1; plus our GOAL is to do a big review one time per week on her “repeat offender” words; which are the word from each step that she had trouble with in the past. I also include words that she did fine with from the past; I just flip back through our book and go over last week, or the week be fore’s list. I try to really keep all the words from the whole book in circulation in her brain throughout a month or two. I have to admit December was not a good month for this; but I hope to get back to our routine.

IEW: Fix-It: Week 26: completed
I definitely think this program is excellent!

Audio’s:
We didn’t hear any of our van audio this week-as we didn’t drive anywhere! But, I’ll keep it posted so we know it is in our brain---Captain’s Courageous by Rudyard Kipling.

The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1) by Rick Riordan

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan--this was listened to by Dd alone on a Playaway.

(I listened to the Hunger Games alone, on a Playaway and decided Dd can wait a little longer before she hears it…all that kissing was a bit much…and manipulation…that is going to require some mature mental discussion and processing.)

Dd took a week off The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan--I’m not sure why.

The Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rolling by Playaway--listened to alone by Dd. I’d read this to Dd before, so I am okay with her listening to the audio alone.

Readers: besides the SL book, Dd's focus has been on Greek & Roman Mythology.

Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Yelchin

Breaking Stalins Nose by Eugene Yelchin--Completed

Then Dd has been picking and reading specific stories and sections she is interested in from the following books, listed below as she has been really interested in Greek and Roman myths:

Tales of the Greek Heroes (Puffin Classics) by Roger Lancelyn Green and Rick Riordan

Tales of the Greek Heroes by Roger Lancely Green

Ancient Rome (TALES OF THE DEAD) by Stewart Ross and Inklink

DK Tales of the Dead-Ancient Rome by Stewart Ross

Greek Myths by Jacqueline Morley and Giovanni Caselli

The Greek Myths by Jacqueline Morley

Read Alouds:

Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan

Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan--unadapted, original version.

Focus: MONGOLIA

I Rode a Horse of Milk White Jade by Diane Wilson

Praying through the 100 Gateway Cities of the 10/40 Window by YWAM Publishing

Praying Through 100 Gateway Cities

The Case for Christmas: A Journalist Investigates the Identity of the Child in the Manger by Lee Strobel

The Case for Christmas by Lee Strobel (read nightly by Pappa)

Best-Loved Folktales of the World (The Anchor folktale library) by Joanna Cole

Best-Loved Folktales by Joanne Cole

Our Library has this one little squirrel that is always so cute--Dd wanted me to take a picture of him for us.

Math:
Math U See: Zeta: 13 A, B, C, D, E

Zeta Decimals and Percents Instruction Manual Math-U-See by Steve Demme

Core F stuff: We are in Russia, but I focused on Mongolia this week. I added in these books, but we didn’t read the whole book; but the sections on Mongolia and Tibet. But, Dd did look through all Material World--she really likes this book; and we’ve referenced it quite often over the last 3-4 years.

How People Live by DK and Dena Freeman

How People Live

Material World: A Global Family Portrait by Peter Menzel,

Material World

Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel

Hungry Planet

EHN/World Book pages--Dd finished the maps this week…and yes, we are behind on the rest of the pages; but we have a LOW (left-overs week) scheduled next week, so we can spend 30-60 minutes per day trying to get these pages caught up.

Dd took this photo of our 15 year old cat "Smedley".

.

Monday, January 6, 2014

Updated Winter Pictures Jan. 2014

Updated Winter Pictures Jan. 2014

Dd built a big snow fort!

Inside the fort~

You all seriously would not believe how many birds we fed this week...you would have to have seen them to believe them...we had birds, birds, birds...constantly!

Check out the birds underneath the feeder---they are on a piece of STRING!

Dd took these pictures...aren't they beautiful..

Dd took these pictures...aren't they beautiful..

Dd took a bunch of pictures of....birds feet! She really thought bird feet were very interesting this week! I thought this was a nice perspective and change of pace from the normal picture of a bird.

This is our dog, Sophie...being cute out in the snow!

The birch trees around our backyard were lined with birds who wait there turn for rotation into our feeders...sometimes there would 20-30 birds or more in each tree.

This view is of our ponds...you can't even really see that it is a pond...

The back fields were full of geese...getting snowed on!

A Rainbow!!

Friday, January 3, 2014

Core F Week 11 Dec. 30--Jan. 3, 2014

In Process of typing up---1-3-14

Core F

Week 11

Dec. 30--Jan. 3, 2014

Back in the saddle again! We had 3 days worth of lessons; and they were not very 'motivated' days....but, we got back in our library again! We stopped doing "Week 10" of Core F (after 3 weeks of it!!!) and officially moved on to Week 11! I think the 2 extra weeks were mainly focused on audio's and craft projects; this "school" definitely has an art's program! We are in RUSSIA now, and will be for 2 more weeks.

After over a month of Monday night basketball practices, Saturday January 4th was Dd's first game. They won their game; and she scored 6 points. She was pretty nervous with this being her first game of the season. She always reminds me of our Great Dane/Black Lab---our dog is about 94 pounds and pretty lanky and she *thinks* she is a teeny, tiny "lap" dog. Our dog, Sophie, always wants to curl up and get in your lap. Well, Dd is also like that---here she is; a foot taller than almost everyone out there and if she would only raise her arms up, she could get a lot more rebounds...but she THINKS she is too short to get it!!! I bring my knitting to the game and try not too watch too much! I brought my camera to the game to take photo's to share here---but Dd had put the battery on the charger and didn't tell me! So, the camera I lugged around had no battery! Maybe next week!

Dh had Tuesday and Wednesday off for New Years holiday, so Dd got to have some extended home economics lessons with him in the kitchen. He asked for, and received, a new Kitchen Aid Pasta maker---so they got right on making whole wheat linguine noodles, and then drying them on his new drying rack! Then we had a wonderful batch of chicken noodle soup with kidney beans. They also made 2 other soups together (split pea and barley & venison). I was really glad they had so much fun together; and so was my belly!

The weather was very busy--snow, snow, snow! But, I am having a hard time deciding exactly what is worth driving out and about for when the roads are covered completely in snow! Friday I did drive over to the next neighborhood for a lovely tea and visit with my friend Heather and Dd got to play with the kids there outside too. Definitely worth the adrenaline from the snowy drive! I had the best scones! I only at one of each of the two types; when I could have eaten the whole plate....willpower won out! She had "clotted cream" to go on top of the scones--- I have no idea what that is exactly; but wow! was that yummy. Then, I had a taste of homemade marshmallow. I didn't even know one could make that at home! Such a lovely visit. I didn't stay too long as the drive home was looming over me; but she suggested a safer way to get home which made the drive much more to my liking---and slower.

Bible:

Veritas Press: Genesis Through Joshua:

Card 20: The Exodus: 13-15 (in process)

Bible: Exodus 13-15

Believer's Bible Commentary: Exodus 13-15

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

Believer's Bible Commentary [BELIEVERS BIBLE COMMENTARY -SS] [Hardcover] by W.(Author) ; MacDonald, William(Author); Farstad, Arthur L.(Editor) MacDonald

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

Pg. 62-63

Math U See: Zeta: 12 A, B,C,D,E

Language Arts:

All About Spelling: 5: Step 22: Passed

Daily Grams: Day 1

Science:

Apologia: Zoology 2: Swimming Creatures:

Whales & Dolphins: Pg. 24-32

Read Aloud's:
Best-Loved Fairy Tales of the World by Joanne Cole
Baba Yada
The Fool of the World & the Flying Ship

I Rode a Horse of Milk White Jade by Diane Wilson

I Rode A Horse of Milk White Jade-Diane Wilson (in process)
This is really a good book so far.

Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan

We are reading Pilgrims Progress very slowly. It is in old English; and that makes it harder to read. It is nice having a book that we already know well, so we don't have to rush to see how the ending will turn out. We have read children's versions 2x before, but this year we are trying our hand at the original version. It actually is quite different than the children's; which I shouldn't be surprised about--but I was!

Audio's:

The Mark of Athena (Heroes of Olympus, Book 3) by Rick Riordan

The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan--I got so into this series that I borrowed Dd's Playaway that had The Lost Olympian (Book One) of this series to hear how this whole thing began to understand the whole thing. The Mark of Athena is the third book in this series; and our library doesn't have the fourth book on disc...so, I'm not sure what we will do. It has been fun listening to the first three books.

Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling

Captain's Courageous by Rudyard Kipling--Like Pilgrim's Progress this will also be a slow and steady type of audio for us, as we have been listening to this is the van and since we aren't traveling much in this awful weather we aren't getting to hear much of it each week...but the story is really good once you adapt yourself to the language. It is definitely written and spoken in a old-timey way.

Eyewitness: Russia (Eyewitness Books) by Kathleen Berton Murrell

Art:

Photography---Dd had lots of fun taking pictures of frozen trees and leaves---etc. outside. She took some really great photo's.

Reader 1:

All the Small Poems and Fourteen More by Valerie Worth and Natalie Babbitt

All The Small Poems and Fourteen More, is **suppose** to be spread out to be read each week and we have been doing that; but I just haven't been happy with it. I own LOTS of poetry books; and many much better than this one and I feel like we are wasting our time on this book. I had Dd work on reading all these poems, and she has finished the book and now we can add our own poetry selections...we are free to pick and choose our own poetry for the rest of Core F. We had been following the rules and reading the assigned poems each week.

Reader 2:

Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Yelchin

The Case for Christmas: A Journalist Investigates the Identity of the Child in the Manger by Lee Strobel

Some of the Fun Readers Dd got for Christmas that she's been reading this week. I like to post some of the fun books Dd is into periodically, just so I can remember what her phases are: