Voyager News - October Edition

~ ~ ~ SET SAIL FOR A LIFETIME OF LEARNING ~ ~ ~

Here we are already at the end of another month! 

Wow, does time fly so fast! 

October has been pretty busy.

 

This month we wrapped up Weaver Ch. 8, 

days 19 - 22.

We then started Ch. 9,

Life applications of Jesus,

and we have done days 1 - 8.

 

Bible lessons have been taken from Matthew and Luke.

Lots of good discussions! 

 

In Weaver science Ch. 8 we finished up by learning about non seed plants - algae and moss.

In Ch. 9 science we have been learning about Mountains - what makes a mountain, elevation/altitude, plant and animal life (especially eagles) on mountains, tree/snow lines and precipitation/the water cycle.

 

Sis has had a few supplement assignments so far.

For Social Studies it's been maps.

Hunny has had some lessons in map making around home,  

and has learned the names/locations of 7 states where family members live and how they relate geographically to our state.

Hunny had so much fun designing a map of her room, 

that she went on to map a map of the house! lol.

The older girls have worked on some geography and map skills at their level as well,

but that's been mostly review.

 

Weaver has had two health lessons thus far,

protecting our bodies and the use of sunscreen.

For Language Arts, they've had a story assignment,

where they had to write a story involving a river.

I left things wide open as to how to write it and got wonderful results.

Sis wrote a beautiful story in poem format and Bug wrote and illustrated a very nice short story.

They've also had a Bible word search.

We've done a bit of review work in Weaver's Wisdom Words,

and since Hunny is ALWAYS wanting to help me in the kitchen, I've pulled out a home ec book and we are going to try and do that once a week.

So far, both lessons have been review of things she knows - 

nutrition and how to use a veggie peeler. 

~ Read Alouds ~

Little House in the Big Woods - 

from Chapter 8 on - finished.

Farmer Boy - Chapters 1 - 6

My Side of the Mountain - Chapters 1 - 5

(those chapters aren't numbered, 

but I went through and numbered them myself 

for ease of record keeping)

In Photography, 

we have studied George Eastman, Dr. Emerson, 

Margaret Bourke White, and Joe Rosenthal.

We have learned about how digital cameras work, the computers inside cameras, color, and focus.

They have had numerous assignments and have been playing with different settings on their cameras and trying out a variety of tips and suggestions. 

Chemistry has slowed a bit as we've spent extra time studying quantum mechanics.

But we've played tons of games of Bingo, and a variety of other games to help comprehend quantum mechanics,

and have done lots of quizzing each other on it.

We are all done with our Latin review and will now be spending a good week on each chapter.

It's been great hearing Latin chants again through the house. 

Sis and I are still plodding along in The Wedding Dress.

The lifestyle differences are such a big discussion.

I have made up a alphabet song for Hebrew,

and I can sing it! 

By memory!

lol. 

Sis still thinks I'm nuts, but it is helping.

We had one homestead work day,

where we worked all day around here

instead of doing 'regular' school.

Basement wall/holes into it, goat shed, cleaning, and yard stuff.

We went on one weekend field trip - 

to the local Alpaca Farm.

Had a great time!

 

We have also been able to check out multiple wooly worms 

and a few praying mantis.

We've had 20 school days this month.

(total - 36)

COUNTRY GIRL

Voyager News - September Edition

~ ~ ~ SET SAIL FOR A LIFETIME OF LEARNING ~ ~ ~ 

We started out our school year with our local homeschool groups Kick Off event.

A fun event that takes place at an area park, 

Kick Off is a laid back picnic event. 

Families eat, play and catch up with each other, 

while meeting new friends.

We began back to school needing to finish the chapter we quit in the middle of. (not my intent to end there, but it happened)

So we are in Weaver Chapter 8 - 

The Parables of Jesus.

We do Weaver about 3 days a week.

This month we've done days 12 through 18.

Most of our Bible lessons have been taken from Matthew and Luke.

We've had some pretty good discussions about the meanings of these parables. 

I love discussing with my kids!

In Weaver science we've reviewed photosynthesis, and gone in depth into flowers and seeds,

even dissecting a seed pod.

Sis of course has extra supplement work to do digging even deeper into some topics. 

She has done an amazing job! 

Going above and beyond what was even assigned to her. 

This chapter also includes Money Management.

Really stressing how EVERYTHING is God's, on loan to us...

How we should be helping others,

giving to them...

and being faithful in the little things given to us before we will be entrusted with more.

Wow. 

There is really alot to learn here! 

~ Read Alouds ~

 From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - finished the final 2 chapters.

Little House in the Big Woods - have read Chapters 1 - 7.

In photography we have been learning about its early history.

We've been memorizing quotes that go along with the lessons - 

todays was "A picture is worth a thousand words",

and they've been learning words that relate to the art.

The people we've studied thus far -

Niepce, Daguerre and Fox Talbot and how they have influenced photography with their inventions.

They have done a few sketching and photography assignments,

as we learn about their equipment, and some lighting basics.

Now chemistry has been a HUGE hit!

After learning about the history of chemistry and exactly who can be a scientist, we've had fun assignments, games and labs.

They absolutely LOVE element bingo and beg to play it daily.

It's REALLY helping them to learn their periodic table.

The labs are FUN and very hands on!

We begun the year reviewing Latin.

Sis and I picked up where we ended in Lit - which is with reading The Wedding Dress by Marian Wells.

The story is set in a Mormon community so we've had lots of very good discussions. 

While we haven't made it real far in Hebrew we (meaning ***I***) have been trying to learn the alphabet.

We have gone on one field trip thus far,

to our local Civil War Muster.

We've had 16 school days this month.

COUNTRY GIRL

Curriculum Lineup 2011

It's that time of year again.

Time to share what we will be using this year in school.

(to see 2010 curriculum click here)

As y'all know, we use the Weaver Curriculum.

We will be picking up  Vol. 5 where we left off in June.

We love Weaver!

I use the Supplement with Sis for upper level learning on the same topics that the Volume covers.

The Day by Day is a daily planner with suggestions for what to teach each day.

I am not a slave to the DBD, I use it as a guide.

We should finish Volume 5 mid year.

At that time, I want to go through 

Genesis One.

To do this, we need a chemistry set.

And since we are studying Chemistry,

AND since the school Sis plans on attending suggests Chemistry is needed,

(Sis plans on attending a local 'beauty' school and getting a cosmetology license)

we will also be doing a year long Chemistry curriculum this year.

It's a new name to me, but I found it searching and it looks fun, yes you read that right, it looks FUN.

This will be a first for us.

Adding an extra full time science course.

Prayers appreciated. :)

(Bug will be doing it too as she is very 'sciencey',

so I will be gearing her remaining school years more heavily in the sciences.)

Math needs to be added to Weaver.

We will again be using Switched on Schoolhouse for the older two girls.

And Hunny will still be using AOP Lifepacs.

(which I still didn't photograph!)

Sis and Hunny went through alot of "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" last year.

This year I plan on focusing more with Hunny in this area.

I will let Sis continue with the lessons from the book, 

but I hope to spend time specifically working on reading a few times a week with Hunny. 

I am also planning more time with Bug and her reading issues.

Actually her reading is progressing quite nicely, but her spelling....

(Bug, while not officially dx'd has many dyslexia symptoms that we are working on)

Sis will be continuing the lit program from last year.

She will also be doing more writing this year.

We will be continuing in Hebrew.

Which is what I personally am struggling with.

The symbols confuse me and to assist my brother in teaching her, I need to know what is going on.

So I *hope* to make progress for her in this area.

We will also be continuing Latin.

We need to finish up Level A

then hopefully move on to Level B.

Bug has talked for years about wanting to learn Ancient Egyptian.

I found this

for her!

It'll be a mostly for fun thing, but will be a step towards her goal.

(and If anyone knows of a curriculum for learning this, 

please comment!!)

And of course,

I still have these for grade guidelines.

So that is our curriculum run down.

We will have extra curriculars too.

Bug and Hunny will be playing soccer this fall.

I hope to take part in gym class and karate.

We are still active in 4H.

We stay busy and learn alot every year.

COUNTRY GIRL

Home Sweet School - checking in

Here we are 

~ half way through our year ~ already! 

We school year round. 

The kids get bored when they have to much free time and 

"Idle hands are the devil's workshop". :) 

This also frees us up for spontaneous days off and allows space for sick days too. 

We start our year after fair, this year it was August 23. 

We have "together school" and "individuals". 

Together school includes:

 We are in Weaver Volume 5, chapter 6. 

Hunny has finished Interlock so all the girls are together. Yay! 

We do Weaver as often as we can, somewhere between 3 and 5 days a week. 

It's so much fun to learn together. 

To practice test taking, I've started giving chapter tests. 

I haven't felt the need to in the past since we talk so much about the chapter, I know they understand the material, but I want to increase test skills and confidence.   

Latin for Children by Classical Academic Press. 

Loving this! 

We have the bundle (plus extra workbooks). 

We typically start a chapter on Monday by watching the dvd and then reviewing the new chants.

Sometimes we watch the grammar lesson then, others we catch it later.

Homework is to start on the worksheets.

This then becomes "individual" for some of the week while we (I am doing it too) work on worksheets in the book and activities in the activity book. 

I try to touch base mid week and rewatch the chants and sometimes the lesson. 

Quiz work is due on Friday and we'll go over it, either that day or catch it on Monday.

Individual work includes:

We aren't using a spelling curriculum this year, just words from our chapter or words they tend to ask about, or for Sis ~ a high school word list I found online. 

They have spelling tests on Wednesday, weird day I know, but with our schedule it works for us. :) 

Hunny has started Alpha Omega's lifepacs for math. 

She was so very excited to begin this, however it requires MUCH patience from me as she is VERY slow. Not because she is struggling but because she insists on perfection and dissects everything (I'm sure that isn't the correct way to explain it). Like the number four will remind her of something and she has to thoroughly explain and question that before she can move on.

She is doing great though, I'm very happy with her progress although we need to work more on subtraction since she doesn't like it.

The other two are using Switched On Schoolhouse also by Alpha Omega. 

This took a little bit to get used to for Sis but Bug jumped right into it. 

Sis does NOT like math, but Bug loves it. 

Sis does well but lacks confidence in what she does. She easily gets A's on the work but when it comes to tests or quizzes she freezes up and will often get a C. 

Bug is getting all A's and B's. 

Bug is still using Weaver's Penmanship to Praise, as her handwritting needs some improvement. :) 

Sis has been struggling in Hebrew.

It's difficult to learn when the teacher is so far away. :)

 (my brother is teaching this)

And then there were computer issues...

So, it is getting restarted, and I am going to attempt to learn it as well so I can help her. 

I had wanted us to read the first three chapters last week, but since that didn't happen it's now this weeks goal. 

For literature, Sis is using Learning to love Literature.

This has some pretty heavy reading in it! 

We are almost done with non-fiction.

They participate with other homeschoolers in karate and gym class, and do wii fit at home for P.E.

Then there are those things that happen all the time.

Life skills, child care, animal husbandry, community service, etc.

4H gives us amazing opportunities as well.

How's your school year going? 

Curriculum line up 2010

I thought I'd share what we are using, so you can see how we are learning. :) 

We learn using a unit study method that is Bible based - meaning we cover our Bible studies and everything else lines up with the Bible lessons we are learning. It's published through Alpha Omega - called Weaver. We started this curriculum back in 2002 when I suddenly had two kids to homeschool but had only saved enough money to buy materials for Sis. After pouring over catalogs and searching online, God led me to Weaver. I've been VERY happy with it. This year we are in Volume 5.

The Volume contains the material we are to learn, the Day by Day is the planner that tells what we are to learn each day, and the Supplement gives more in depth material and research topics for older kids, which Sis needs. 

Hunny is wrapping up Weaver's Preschool & Kindergarten curriculum called Interlock. It's a fun study of Creation. She was slow starting out - not ready to sit still for long so we aren't quite finished, but we'll finish it before Christmas. Interlock is currently done three days a week. She also sits in on our volume activities and does many of them with us. 

Interlock works very much like the Weaver volumes do in that it is a Bible based unit study.

Math needs to be added. We have used Alpha Omegas lifepacs since 2002. Hunny will be starting them as soon as she has finished Interlock or I feel she is ready. For some reason I didn't get a picture of them. New this year for the older ones is Switched On Schoolhouse. This is a computer program, we are only using it for math. 

Sis is voluntarily using the "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" book with Hunny. She pulled it off the shelf and asked if she could, so why not? Hunny is doing great. :) Bug will just be reading LOTS of books this year. Sis will be starting high school literature using Weavers Learning to love literature and Reading Between the Lines.  I hope to start this with her today!

In asking what foreign language she wanted to tackle, Sis decided she wanted to learn Hebrew. My brother has studied it in college and he is her 'professor' in this area. He has put together the syllabus and assigns and grades her work. Since he is out of state, they email and facebook alot and will be having weekly phone conferences. He was home for a bit this summer and she had some intensive Hebrew "camp" time. lol It's a pretty hefty course but she will earn her foreign language credits when she finishes. 

All of us are learning Latin. :) I've heard so many wonderful things about adding Latin so we are! It's called Latin for Children and this year we are in Primer A. Bug is VERY excited about this (and so am I!). 

Of course, it seems like the second most asked question (after the famous socialization one!) is How do I know if they are learning what they need for each grade level?!

Sigh. I have these nifty guide books I use from Weaver. One is for elementary grades called Skills evaluation and then On Eagles Wings for upper grades. 

We hope to participate regularly in Karate and Gym Class this year. I also purchased a wii and the wii fit program so that we can be active daily regardless of the weather. :) 

There are lots of other things we use through the year. Weavers Wisdom Words, various websites and books. This year will be challenging in that we are losing our library services, but I'm sure we will survive. I need to look into the University library and see if we can use it. It's amazing how God provides just what we need for each unit we are on. Sometimes it's a neat video, or a field trip opportunity, sometimes even a church service. :) Then there are things like auto-shop, that Good Ole Boy and Sis are working on here & there. Every year is busy and we stay involved in the community through church, Girl scouts, 4H, sports  and the ranch.