Core G
Week 14 "B"
Middle Ages
Sept. 28-Oct 2, 2015
50th week on this Core
 |
| We've been going on more walks in our woods. LOTS of mushrooms are out right now. |
Hello Friends, We just got back from Indiana; a quick visit. This has been a fairly good week. We had our third week of band, choir, and co-op classes.
Dd is really figuring out how to play her alto sax and has started playing songs from ear--I think she figured out how to play a LOTR (Lord of the Rings) song by herself. It is really great seeing her finally get the opportunity to be in music classes. The head band teacher, Wendy March, went around to each student in class and had them play for her, and she told Dd that she played well! Dd was excited about that. The band (alto sax) and the choir classes have been such a big hit, and I am so glad to see Dd thriving with it. We are trying to find an alto sax to buy (instead of paying rent each month).
The co-op classes in general have not been such a success. Although I am loving being a 'helper' in the KinderKids classes, Dd is not really in such a wonderful situation. We are super thankful that Dd got to drop one class (the public speaking class) and be a helper in the nursery instead. It feels like most of the adults and older students are already very well established with each other and are not use to welcoming new people with open arms, therefore that makes our co-op day a bit difficult. The woman I am helping is extremely kind and ever so nice; I sure did get blessed in that assignment. But, Dd still hasn't found a comfort zone yet, and perhaps that isn't in the cards...which is fine. I am thinking we will finish out this co-op session, and then perhaps not do the Thursday classes again. We definitely want to keep doing the band and choir, and that might be enough running around in snow for me!
 |
| Camping in our old house |
Our Indiana home---Friday night we drove down, finally pulling in our driveway at 11:30 pm. We had planned to mow, but it rained most of our drive down, then most of the morning and early afternoon. So, we decided we weren't going to mow after all. The "L" family invited Dd to come over at 12:00 pm. She had a BLAST, BLAST, BLAST with her dear friends. The eldest daughter plays the violin and she tuned Dd's new violin for her (and showed Dd how to do it). They all played Capture the Flag too. I was invited to come over at 4:30 pm, to have a cup of tea and a little catching up. My dear friend sent me home with a baby Fig Tree, that her tree had grown. I rode all the way back to Michigan with the Fig tree between my feet! It was so extremely great to see a good friend and chat for a little while. It is such a gift to have a friend! And one that helps and encourages me in Christian ways. She also gifted me some new tea! yay! I get to try some new flavors! So thankful for Christian fellowship!!
 |
Looking at some vultures and crows from our backyard.
|
Dh and I had dug up some plants from our yard in Indiana to grow here in Michigan---1 asparagus, 2-3 cone flowers, 2-3 Black-Eyed Susan's, 2-3 Ferns from our farm in southern Indiana that we transplanted up there, 2 Daisy's, 1-2 Blackberry's, 4-5 little strawberry's...I think that is it, but the back of our van looked like a mess of green! We especially tried to take some of the plants that we had brought there from our farm in very southern Indiana...that were Dh's grandmother's plants. Giz and Grampy promised to bring a section or two of her Peony's for us to plant here---those are Dh's very favorite plants and he will be so happy to enjoy them here.
 |
View from our backyard, looking right... the ducks are migrating!
|
The family that had put in a bid are still working on getting a loan. I actually have not heard much this week from my realtor, so I emailed to ask what the status was and this was her reply:
"I spoke with the lender today and she informed me that they should have everything they need from the buyers by next week and they don't see anything stopping the loan closing. Prayerfully we should hear from the title company very soon about closing."
So, we are still praying and still waiting! Keep up the prayers, we aren't done yet! Dh had called the title company on Friday and they knew nothing but were going to call around and see, then call Dh back next week.
Our academics this week went okay, except it seems like Dd has forgotten some math after taking the summer off for our move. This was the first time ever that she went so long on break, and we are clearly seeing the bad effects of it. We are watching Khan Academy, our MUS tutorial dvd, and another site-Math is Fun-: https://www.mathsisfun.com/index.htm
Dd seems to like the Math Is Fun more than Khan Academy. For some reason she doesn't like Khan, but I sure do! We are really going to have to spend a lot of time on math for a while to get that subject back up to where it needs to be, and that means some of our other, less important subjects will have to suffer a bit. But, at least we know where we are currently struggling and can focus on it and get it back up with extra attention paid to it.
We stayed up and saw the Blood Moon--that was pretty cool.
Nature: I saw the Barred Owl fly past me, bats, and most especially the Sandhill Cranes have been migrating. We've heard them flying over all week!
Our Michigan home:
Dh worked on the basement "recreation room" some this week, with was great. Normally he has been too tired to work any after his job, but this Tuesday he got a few hours to Kilz, stuff insulation, and make some progress.
I got another 5-10 boxes unpacked, worked on getting my summer clothes boxed up and my winter clothes out and semi-unpacked. My difficulty is that we had walk-in closet that was bigger than most people's kitchen, and now we are in a smaller closet, about 1/4 the size of what we had! It is really challenging trying to figure out where to put our clothes. We can't fit our dressers in our bedroom, so that isn't helping much either! I asked Dh what he was liking about our new home, and he said that he liked how "Quirky" it is....yup, it is "quirky" and half the size of our old home. We can't fit in many of our pieces of furniture, and they are still out in the garage with LOTS of boxes. I just don't know what we will do! But, it is quaint and quirky alright! I also painted one wall in the kitchen yellow. Dd had her heart set on a yellow kitchen.
Our lessons:
Bible: The Book of Nehemiah
Veritas Press: Card 93
THOMAS NELSON / 2015 / HARDCOVER
Bible and Believer's Bible Commentary:
read Nehemiah 1,2,3,4, and 5
What the Bible Is All About:
177-179
The Greenleaf Guide to the Old Testament History:
Lesson 174: Nehemiah hears of Jerusalem's Distress
Lesson 175: The Jews build with one hand on the Weapons
Lesson 176: The Rich repent o Oppressing the Poor
The note I wrote in my bible to wrap my head around this is: Zerabbabel led the first group of exiles back to Jerusalem in 538-537 BC (see Ezra 2), and supervised the building/renovation of the temple. Then, 80 years later (458 BC) later, Ezra brought second group of Jews, bringing sweeping reforms through his ministry of God's Word. But, things degenerated. Then, 13 years later (445 BC) after Ezra's expedition Nehemiah was moved towards the conditions in Jerusalem. King Artaxerxes (next in line after King Xerxes-who was married to Esther) financed his journey and supplies. The wall around Jerusalem was rebuild in an amazingly short amount of time--52 days!
Veritas Press Workbook: Chronicles Through Malachi
pg's 226-233
Psalm of the Week:
Psalm 87,
with bible and Believer's Bible Commentary
Psalm 87King James Version (KJV)
87 His foundation is in the holy mountains.
2 The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
3 Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Selah.
4 I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man was born there.
5 And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: and the highest himself shall establish her.
6 The Lord shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there. Selah.
7 As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there: all my springs are in thee.
Math U See Algebra I Test Booklet
Paperback
Math U See:
Algebra I
1 A,B,C,D,E and test 1
we watched a lot of Khan and Mathisfun site, and the episode in Pre-Algebra MUS, on Greatest Common Factors.
Friday we reviewed the six family, and will start that back up again next week. It helps with the math tree's we've been doing.
Fun Read Aloud:
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien: Completed
Ah, we had SO much fun hearing this again! I had *planned* to start A Single Shard this week, but it took longer to read The Hobbit than I had anticipated.
Language Arts:
Our Easy Grammar, Plus has had stuff on Present Perfect, Past Perfect, Future Perfect...and things that we both didn't know, so we went to youtube for our help on Grammar questions.
Spelling:
All About Spelling 7:
Step 6 completed and passed
IEW Sir Gawain and the Green Knight:
Week 5 completed
Abverb refreshers on Mon & Tues
Easy Grammar, Plus:
pg's: 217- 221
History: SOTW
Story of the World: Middle Ages, Ch. 1
Activity Pages and Map for Ch. 1
Test for Ch. 1
History SL Reader:
The Silver Branch by Rosemary Sutcliff
in process
Kingfisher History Encyclopedia:
pg 82, 90-95
The Kingdom Strikes Back
pg. 10-14
Fun:
Leonardo da Vinci Renaissance Treasure Chest
 |
| Dd likes taking pictures of her food; here are two pictures of food she took this week. |
Busy Hands:
Baked Fish, Cous Cous, cooking, knitting, reading:
 |
| All prepared by Dd. She makes these yummy "sushi" rolls, with cooked Tilapia and rice wrapped in Seaweed. The brussel sprouts were exceptionally good this time too. |
Fun books:
The Maze Runner: completed last week, so we
checked out the movie from the library, and she was very disappointed how it was not like the book.
Paper Towns
Paper Towns by John Green: completed
Red Queen
The Red Queen: completed
Divergent (Divergent Series)
Divergent: just started
DVD's:
Case For Christ, Lee Strobel, this was interesting, not amazing or anything, but interesting.
Despicable Me 2--I have to admit my Dh and Dd just love those silly minions! Dh is wearing his silly minion pants right now!
Lord of the Rings Trilogy--Dd found the *Extended Versions* of these movies at a yard sale a few weeks ago, and we have been watching bits and pieces as we go.
 |
| Here is one of the drawings she finished up last week. |
....
