Aspiring Oaks Academy

Week of February 20

2012-03-01T11:59:00.000-06:00

We decided we could use a late winter break from our normal curriculum, so we worked on some individual research projects. Farm Boy chose to study Maui, and J-Straco chose Nepal. We visited the library and the boys found books on their topics. They typed up mini essays on various aspects of their subject complete with maps and pictures. They mounted everything on a large poster board and gave presentations to their grandparents. Farm-Boy's report was more of a 'vacation' presentation, detailing things to do while on Maui. He is hoping that will convince his mom and dad to take him there for a vacation in the near future! J-Straco's was more serious, and covered the history, government and economic situation in Nepal. He also studied Mt. Everest, as it is one of his goals to climb it someday. We started an amazing book, "Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal" by Conor Grennan. I read the first two chapters to the boys and they LOVED it. We currently have 2 read-alouds going, and one audio book, so I think we'll have to wait a few weeks to fit this one into the schedule.

The boys also finished their lapbooks on Ancient Greece. I'm happy to say they were a success! When we tried lapbooking last year, the boys were far from enthusiastic. Hopefully we'll be able to throw in some more now that they almost enjoy them.
We also completed another lesson in our Anatomy book which was about cells. We love this book from Jeannie Fulbright! It is full of fascinating facts about the human body, and give all the glory to God.

Weekly Review- Feb. 13-17

2012-02-20T20:35:00.001-06:00

This week we had a lot of hands-on activities and a Valentine's Day Party in addition to our 'normal' routine. We did an in-depth study of ancient Greece, since the boys are into everything Greek at the moment. They started lapbooks which look like they will be amazing when completed-hopefully by the end of next week. We watched a really neat movie on our big screen complete with popcorn:

I meant to show the boys our Greek episode of Drive-Thru History, but we just couldn't fit that in this week. Hopefully next week!

The boys also made the Greek Islands of ancient times out of Clay.

As usual, attire is optional

The four islands surround Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea, (in the middle of a hurricane- no less!), and Zeus is looking over his domain as the Greek god of thunder and sky.

We started our new science unit on the human body, using 'Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology'. We read about the history of anatomy and talked about the ancient Egyptians, Hebrews and Greeks and their ideas about the human body. We also learned about Hippocrates and his four humors. The boys performed an experiment and mummified an apple after reviewing how the ancient Egyptians mummified their dead.

Before

The apple on the right still has the remains of the baking powder/salt mixture it sat in for a week. The apple on the left was the 'control' apple, and was clearly rotten. The mummified apple on the right was much better preserved and had a 'spongey' feel to it.

We had a Valentine's Day Party on Tuesday with our home school co-op. The kids all enjoyed a valentine exchange, crafts, cookie decorating, snacks and games. All three won a prize during the cakewalk.

You can see J-Straco in the blue shirt on the left, and the Princess wearing her tutu in the middle. Farm Boy was behind everyone picking out his prize cupcake. The boys were 2 out of only 4 boys at the party. At this age, they didn't like those odds, although in a few years I think that may change.

We made a home-made heart shaped pizza for lunch- Yummy!

Then, Grandma surprised us by bringing over the supplies to decorate our own cupcakes. Everyone enjoyed that!

The Princess kept very busy this week as well. She has a wide assortment of pre-school curriculum, none of which I require. Once in a while she will join us at the table and work on a page from her Rod & Staff preschool curriculum, or Handwriting Without Tears manipulatives. However, this week she found some fun activities to fill her mornings.

One day she made a zoo out of blocks and filled it with her little animals.

She insisted I make a sign for the alligator pen which read, "No eating the little animals!"

They must have been very smart, literate alligators, because we didn't have any trouble with them.

Another day, she found a dead fly and built a little house for him complete with bookshelves filled with books (small pieces of paper). Apparently, her 'pet' enjoyed being read to before he was tucked into bed.

Toward the end of the week we enjoyed identifying and counting birds for the Backyard Bird Count.

Daddy took the kids to buy a couple new bird feeders, as our old ones had broken, and we thought we needed something more official than a plastic bowl filled with bird food.

Two of our visitors- a Cardinal and Downy Woodpecker

Here is a list of birds we saw, according to Farm Boy:

Downy Woodpeckers, male and female

Red-Bellied Woodpeckers, male

Cardinals, male and female

American Tree Sparrows

Dark Eyed Juncos, male and female

Black-Capped Chickadees

Blue Jay, male

Homeschool on Steroids

2012-02-10T14:15:00.000-06:00

We have been so busy the last two weeks- busy with our school work, and busy with life.

J-Straco had his first musical performance at an open-mic night at a local cafe. He played a contemporary Christian song, 'Free To Be Me' by Francesca Battistelli.
The majority of the performers were also students of J-Straco's guitar teacher, and between the ages of 7 and 16. It was a very non-threatening environment for him to try out an audience. He had a huge cheering section consisting of both grandmas, an aunt, two uncles, and many cousins. He did GREAT!

The Princess with her cousin and Ima

The Princess with another cousin, and favorite babysitter.

Farm Boy with his best cousin-buddy

We also took a field-trip to the local children's museum. All three kiddos (and mom and dad!) had fun exploring the exhibits.

Daddy and Farm Boy try the human-powered hamster wheel

Both Boys spend a lot of time making 'spag-marsh' creations.

The Princess like the ice rink on the roof. She practiced ice-skating.

J-Straco loved looking at pine cones, feathers and rocks under a microscope in the roof-top club house. Everyone enjoyed a special presentation on 'Amphibians of Wisconsin', complete with an opportunity to see and touch different amphibians. The Princess now wants a salamander for her birthday.

We also worked on some valentines, in preparation of our upcoming co-op's Valentine's Day Party.

School work, you ask? Yes, we manged to fit some of that into our schedule as well, although not as much as normal due to the fact that daddy was in Canada this week and I was in 'surival mode'.

I have just received our new science curriculum:

and:

Because I haven't coordinated the curricula, we watched a couple videos for our science this week.

We watched:

and:

The boys created more 'spag-marsh' (hard spaghetti noodles and mini-marshmallows) creations, trying to replicate some of the structures in the videos.

In addition to the above, we also did:

Math: Farm Boy is cruising through Math Mammoth 4b, and has been working on division.

J-Straco tried out some Pre-Algebra from Dolciani's text, but decided he'd rather finish his Math Mammoth 5. He is now working on dividing decimals and converting fractions to decimals.

Grammar: We learned how to diagram adjectives, and learned about possessive nouns and pronouns used as adjectives. We did some parsing to help identify the differences.

Writing: I had the boys do 'Winning With Writing' for the last two weeks, and to be honest, I don't think I like it. I'll need to re-evaluate my goals for their writing, and see what else may work better.

Latin: We have been reading 'Horatius at the Bridge' and chose a portion to memorize. This tied in well with our history studies of the government of Rome. We also started using Minimus Latin as a fun supplement one day a week. The boys created Birthday Cards in Latin, which turned out really cute. We also started another new curriculum:

I plan to use this a few times a week to work on our pronunciation. The boys really enjoyed the TPR (total physical response) aspect.

History: We read about the first Olympic games in Greece and the beginning of Rome.

Greek: I have decided to make Greek a required course for J-Straco this semester. He did it last year as an elective, but let it fall off after a few months. It is now back on his schedule on a regular basis. We have been listening to the Greek Alphabet song all week, and Farm Boy has picked up on the letters and sounds. My next goal is to entice Farm Boy to tackle Greek as well.

Bible: We do a couple lessons a week in God's Names, by Sally Michael. So far we have learned; Elohim-strong Creator, Jehovah Yahweh-self-existent & unchanging, and El Shaddai-God Almighty.

Philosophy: Some of our recent topics of discussion were: Should you be rewarded for your efforts in school, Should you let little things bother you, and Is it your duty to give to charity. We were introduced to great thinkers like Confucius, Marcus Aurelius, and Moses Maimonides.

Reading/Lit: We are still reading The Children's Homer, and The Lost Hero, and listening to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The boys also read books on the Olympics.

I have been reading Climbing Parnassus, and The Great Tradition: Classic Readings on What It Means to Be an Educated Human Being, and listening to The Modern Scholar: The History of Ancient Israel: From the Patriarchs Through the Romans on my I-Pod.

We are so excited that Daddy is on his way home, and we hope to get back to normal next week.

Phys. Ed.

2012-01-30T21:17:00.001-06:00

Physical Education today was an hour of sledding! I am so thankful that we homeschool, and can set our own schedule. We are not limited to 15 minutes of recess, but instead have the freedom to re-arrange our school schedule for what is most important-- enjoying time spent together in the midst of God's creation.

Did I mention how everyone is so tired and peaceful after a day of sledding, they will sit for 2 hours while I read to them? Gotta love that!

Group Shot!

The Princess and her cousin, Tank Jr. whizzing down the hill. Hold on to your cat! We had to take turns catching them at the bottom, or they would shoot off into the woods. J-Straco and The Princess outlasted everyone, trying out many different locations. After recess, everyone reconvened inside and deforsted over a steamy mug of Hot Cocoa. Click here for our favorite Hot Cocoa recipe.

Weekly Review

2012-01-27T15:38:00.005-06:00

We had a very busy week here at Aspiring Oaks. This week I added a couple new books into our schedule, and am trying to finish my schedule for a new 'morning meeting' I'd like to implement next week. I envision our morning meeting to be a relaxing time in the morning where we can enjoy waking up and stretching our brains together in anticipation of our bookwork. I'd like to cover Bible Study, Philosophy, current events- besides doing our History and Latin flash-cards and some of our supplemental Latin, Math, and History curriculum. Oh, and our read-aloud. Hopefully I can keep it under 45 minutes, but next week will be our trial so we'll know then.

New this week:

And:

We have also subscribed to God's World News magazine (a Christmas Present for the boys), and have been reading about current events. I love how it tells what is going on in the world, but with a Christian bent.

Here is what we accomplished this week:

Math:

J-Straco- started Dolciana Pre-Algebra. It starts out slow, but he skipped ahead and found a lesson he liked on Fibonacci Numbers and did that one day. He also did some work on simplifiying numerical expressions, and solving for the unknown.

Farm Boy- worked on converting minutes to hours, days, weeks and years. He really enjoyed finding out how many hours old he was. He also started long division.

Grammar: Diagramming and recognizing subject and object pronouns, and identifying whether the pronoun was a subject pronoun, direct object, object of the preposition, or predicate pronoun.

Spelling: Work in spelling books. Here is Farm Boy's weekly spelling test:

He is such a natural speller- all I do is give him a spelling test at the end of the week to make sure he knows his words. Believe it or not, he has really nice handwriting, however, unless I specifically say, "use LOWERCASE letters", he'll write all in caps. <SIGH>

Latin: Learned new vocabulary words and worked on the second declension-neuter endings, and the irregular form of 'to be'.

Philosophy: Our new book, pictured above. I love the format of this book! For example, we looked at Plato's definition of justice and talked about how we would react in the following situation: You borrow a weapon from a friend, but while you have the weapon your friend becomes mentally unstable. What is the just thing to do? Give it back anyway, refuse to give it back, get professional help for your friends, etc. We also talked about what a true friend is, using Aristotle's definition of friendship. We had some really interesting discussions.

History: Read about Elijah, The Phoenicians, and the Divided Kingdom of Israel. One of the suggested activities for the week was to make a salt map of the Upper and Lower Kingdoms of Israel.

The boys talked me into making a brownie map instead, that way, we could eat it when they were done.

The bottom 'map' shows the Mediterannean Sea in blue frosting, in the upper left corner. The brown frosting is the Southern Kingdom of Israel (capitol-Jerusalem) and the green frosting is the Northern Kingdom. (capitol- Samaria)

We learned that Solomon's son, Rehoboam was not a good successor, and threatened his people- see 1 Kings 12:14 for what he said to them. Ten of the twleve tribes of Israel rebelled and chose Jeroboam (Rehoboam's half brother) as their leader. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained under the rule of Rehoboam, and 'Judah' is the name from which 'Jew' comes. Interesting, huh?

Computer: The boys tried out Alice programming. They enjoyed customizing their own programs. Farm Boy spent a lot of time making a virtual world with a figure skater that skated around and did tricks.

Other: J-Straco worked on his Greek more this week. Both boys did keyboarding, and drawing as well.

Music: Piano, Guitar and Violin. J-Straco is getting ready for an open-mic night at a coffee shop nearby. He will play a song he composed on his guitar.

Both boys are working on proper hand positioning and open string bowing.

Physical Education: Our Homeschool gym class started back this week, after a Holiday break. Both boys were very excited to get back at it. They played basketball this week.

Also, this week saw a lot more snow play!

Four monkeys in a tree- my three plus an extra monkey cousin.

Beautiful winter weather- no winds and highs in the upper 30s.

Until next week.....

Learning Explosion

2012-01-25T12:42:00.000-06:00

At the beginning of the school week, we have a clean work surface (a.k.a. the dining room table). By Wednesday of this week, we find ourselves in the midst of a learning tornado. Books, workbooks, dry-erase boards, pencils, markers, rubber stamps, educational games are EVERYWHERE. It is one of those days I'm tempted to call school off on account of messiness! However, they are having a wonderful time learning today. There is an air of discovery and creativity that is not always present during our lessons. Clean up time will have to wait, and in the meantime I'll focus on taking some deep, cleansing breaths.

P.S. The living room is MUCH worse. : ) We're going for a new record-- how many books can fit on the coffee table before it collapses under the weight of a large Amazon order and a trip to the library yesterday.

Weekly Review

2012-01-20T19:49:00.000-06:00

This week saw an attempt to bring better organization and the encouragement of self-motivation into our weekly routine.
Prior to our first day of school this week, I printed out a blank weekly schedule for each boy. I then filled in the schedule with daily assignments and presented them with the instructions that they may do their work in whatever order they preferred, so long as it was all finished by 3:00. J-Straco grabbed his list and darted to the school table and was quickly absorbed in his work. Farm-Boy, on the other hand, had a melt down EVERY DAY this week when confronted with the schedule. Initially he alternated between crying jags and demanding I tell him what to do, but then he fell into a pattern of doing whatever his brother was doing. All in all, it went better than I expected. I sweetened the deal a bit by placing a chocolate chip in each box of their schedule, and when they completed that subject they got to eat the chocolate chip.
I really like how the schedule lays everything out in black and white, giving the boys a sense that they were doing their school work for the purpose of furthering their education, and not because "mom said so". I tried to institute individual schedules for them last year, but they didn't have the maturity or self-motivation to make a go of it.
Did I mention how much freedom it gives me? Previously, if one of them completed something while I was out of the room, they quickly got off task and would end up in the playroom or living room. Now, with J-Straco taking the lead, they move very quickly through their schedules. I sometimes fail to notice how quickly J-Straco is growing up and maturing.

Math: Farm Boy has been working on multi-digit multiplication and J-Straco has been multiplying and dividing decimals.

Grammar: Contractions and Subject Pronouns

Writing: We started a new curriculum, 'Winning With Writing'. It is starting off very slowly, but no complaints from the boys. They worked on topic sentences and supporting sentences in a paragraph.

Spelling: Work in their respective workbooks.

Latin: They worked on second-declension endings.

History: We learned about Samuel, King Saul, David and Solomon.

Science: We're in between curricula so nothing formal this week.

Reading: Hittite Warrior and The Lost Hero, Martin Luther King Jr. books, Pyramid by Macaulay

Music: The boys started Violin lessons this week. We met their new teacher and really like her. Their first 45 min. lesson was on the parts of the bow and proper hand position on the bow.

We also had a lot of outside time, playing in the snow. Everyone enjoyed making snow forts and tunnels. The Princess decided to teach her chicken how to go through a tunnel.

A Week in Review

2012-01-13T16:33:00.001-06:00

Another full week at Aspiring Oaks Academy! We had our first big snowfall of the season yesterday, about 5 inches. We had to delay school so all three kiddos could go out and have a romp in the snow.

Math: J-Straco is still working with decimals, Farm Boy is working on multiplication. We're still loving Math Mammoth.

Grammar: The boys worked on diagramming direct objects and predicate nouns.

Latin: We have been doing a lot of review of our vocab words, including a fun game in which I hang our vocab flash-cards on the dry erase board, Latin side out. When I call the English equivalent, the boys shoot the correct card with their nerf guns. They get 1/2 point for hitting the correct word, and another 1/2 point for correct pronunciation. They had so much fun doing this, I think we'll expand the game to our geography studies.

History: We slowed things down a little to go further in depth with Ramses II. We watched a PBS special on Ramses II and watched our Great Courses DVD on Ramses II as well. We read the poem 'Ozymandias' by Shelley since the poem was about the statue of Ramses the Great.
We are still reading Hittite Warrior which is tying everything together so nicely.

Music: Both boys are working on transposing music. J-Straco on his guitar chords and Farm Boy on his piano music

We will start a new writing curriculum next week. I love the ideas in BraveWriter, but really feel the need for a structured curriculum. We will start Winning With Writing 5 next week. I think this will be a good transition since they have finished WWE but are not quite ready for WWS.

We are reading 'The Lost Hero' by Rick Riordan as a family read-aloud in the evenings. We all snuggle on the couch and take turns reading a page.

We listened to 'Pericles' from our audiobook Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare.

We have also been enjoying one of the boys new Christmas Presents. The board game 'Word on the Street'. I thought I'd crush them since I'm the reigning scrabble champ of the household, but the boys' imaginations proved unbeatable. For example, "A cause of death" was one question they picked. Their answer??? 'Intestinal Bleeding'!!

The Princess spent a lot of time outside while we had such warm temps at the beginning of the week. She loves to putter around the chicken coop and play with the chickens. She claims that she is going to be a farmer when she grows up, and that I am welcome to come over and help her milk the cows!
She was also very busy with her Activity Boxes from the library. This week she chose the wild animal box.
She has been very interested in the passage of time; days, weeks, and months. I printed a calendar for her and we talked about days of the week and months of the year.

Our Greatest Obstacle This Week:

Hangin' With My Peeps!

2012-01-12T14:24:00.000-06:00

Weekly Review

2012-01-08T15:39:00.002-06:00

We eased back into school this week, following a week long break over the Holidays. We took Monday off, as Daddy was still off that day. Everyone enjoyed our Holiday break, (especially the teacher!) but we knew we needed to get back into our routine.
We all did a lot of reading this week. J-Straco and Farm Boy have been enjoying Encyclopedia Brown and Choose Your Own Adventure Books. We are still reading Hittite Warrior for our read-aloud, and enjoyed many Greek Myths from the D'Aulaires Greek Myth book. We will be starting Black Ships Before Troy in the next week or two and read the first chapter to wet our appetites.
Also, we have been listening to the 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians' audiobooks. The boys are excited to finish the last book because I bought them the first book of the next series, which is a spin-off of the Percy Jackson books.

Due to the fact we were easing back in to our coursework, we stuck with the basics, or what I consider to be the core of our studies; Math, Latin, History/Literature, and Spelling. Music practice and reading are, of course, daily events.

Here is what we did this week:
Math: J-Straco has been getting down and dirty with decimals, and Farm Boy has been solving for the unknown.
Latin: The boys worked on Subject-Verb agreement through declining and conjugating.
Spelling: Work in their respective workbooks
History: We studied Samson, Gideon, and Ruth and Naomi. We also watched more of our Great Courses DVD: Great Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt. I HIGHLY recommend this series, and although it is a college level course, Professor Bob Brier does a remarkable job sharing his passion for ancient Egypt.
Computer Programming: The boys worked on a program which asks you to guess a number the computer has generated. Also, The Principal is starting to show the boys how to create Power Point presentations for our church service.

The Princess is recovering from a para-influenza virus. She was sick over Christmas but perked up towards New Years. She has been enjoying her books from the library, and her Playmobil and Lego toys.

Wordless Wednesday- Merry Christmas!

2011-12-28T17:43:00.000-06:00

Pumpkin

2011-12-28T17:34:00.000-06:00

Pumpkin, the homeschooled cat, has been at it again.

A little light reading.

Relaxing in a bin of art supplies.

Comforting Princess Sassy-Pants when she was sick.

You are an odd cat, Pumpkin, but we love you!

2011-12-21T11:27:00.000-06:00

Wordless Wednesday

Week of December 12

2011-12-16T10:28:00.002-06:00

We are wrapping up another week, surrounded by twinkling lights and the smell of evergreen. Despite the excitement of what is to come, everyone is working hard.

Math: J-Straco has been working on solving for the unknown. Farm Boy has been working on a review of multi-digit addition and subtraction, and will move into multi-digit multiplication. I have been skipping around a lot with him, as he is so 'mathy' and has yet to be challenged by fourth grade math.

Grammar: We have not completed much grammar this week. We took one day to cover a review of nouns and verbs, which is all I felt necessary- as we have a lot of grammar in our Latin curriculum.

Latin: Still declining and conjugating. We had a new list of vocabulary words to memorize. I downloaded them onto my I-Pod so we can listen to them when in the van.

Spelling: Both boys are still working through their respective workbooks. J-Straco has only a few lessons left in his book. Fortunately, I have the next 4 books already on my bookshelf.

Science: The boys are trying to grow algae. So far, no luck. I think we need run out to Grandma's house and see if we can find some pond water that is not frozen. Our well water doesn't seem to be cutting it.

Programming: They learned how to write a small program which prompts you to enter your name. It then replies, "Nice to meet you, __________"

Keyboarding: J-Straco is doing very well, as this is his second year doing the Dance Mat Typing. Farm Boy just started last week and is working on the home row.

History/Bible: We finally finished Tirzah! We all REALLY enjoyed the book, and read coordinating chapters from The Egermeier Story Bible. We finished the chapters on The Ark of the Covenant, and Joshua, Jericho and Rahab. What an amazing story! We dove deep and all learned so much about the Exodus. Next we move on to Nefertiti, Amenhotep, and Tutankhamen.

Writing: The boys have been free-writing in their notebooks. I feel so free since we have moved away from a 'traditional' writing curriculum and started using ideas from BraveWriter. J-Straco has a long, involved story involving an army of snowmen who protect Santa's Workshop. His goal is to finish and re-write by Christmas so he can give it to Ima (grandma) as a Christmas gift. I'll post it here when he finishes. It is truly a wonderfully creative story.

Art: We are still using online drawing lessons. Our recent projects include a koala and a fish. Farm Boy is really surprising me with his drawing talent. Santa may bring him a new art kit.
We also were inspired one day, to make a flurry of paper snowflakes. We laminated them and will hang them in the entryway.

Music: We have been studying the work of Vivaldi using the fabulous resources created by Dawn Keckly, a fellow WTM boardie. The boys loved reading I, Vivaldi, and Orphan Singer. We also checked out a fun computer game from the library: Alice in Vivaldi's Four Seasons. It includes games like finding the instruments of the orchestra by sound, and identifying the movements from The Four Seasons. I downloaded this MP3 album, Seasons' Greetings from Vivaldi which is another fun listen while in the van.
The boys were so inspired by this study that they have decided to learn the Violin. We went and rented two violins last night, and will start lessons in January. J-Straco picked up his violin and figured out how to play "Twinkle, Twinkle" in about 5 minutes flat.
We also recorded The New York City Ballet's The Nutcracker. We watched the first act, and The Princess went in her room and put on every tutu she owns (6), all at the same time and proceeded to twirl around the room. Farm Boy and The Princess loved it, J-Straco wasn't quite as impressed. I ordered a book for us to read on The Nutcracker, before we watch the rest. Hopefully The Princess will be old enough next year that we can go see a live performance.

Both boys have been practicing Christmas songs on their instruments. J-Straco's guitar teacher is amazed by how quickly J-Straco can do his pentatonic scale. He is almost down to 3 seconds, and his teacher said he's only ever had 3 students who could do it in 3 seconds.
Farm Boy flew through his new Christmas Music book, and we frequently hear "Jingle Bells" or "We 3 Kings" throughout the day.
After the Holidays, we will be gearing up for our Church Talent show which is in March. We need to pick a song and figure out who will play what instrument and who will sing. We so look forward to our family performance, the novices that we are.

In addition, all three kids have been working on their lines for the church Christmas Pageant. The boys are narrators, and Princess is a baby chick. I can't wait to see it, from helping with the practices it looks to be absolutely precious!

Weekly Summary

2011-12-02T18:42:00.000-06:00

This has been an exciting week for me as a teacher. My kiddos seemed to have matured greatly overnight and put forth more effort than I thought possible of them. I have been on a math kick -reading a lot of books and articles about how math is taught in other (higher scoring) countries. Based on my research, I decided to mix things up a little. Two days a week we now do a math lesson from Dr. Wright's Kitchen Table Math, and the boys work cooperatively on a lesson from MEP. I have now demanded of them: team work, communication, and the ability of one to argue/justify their answer to the other. They did amazing! The other days they are working in their Math Mammoth books.

J- Straco's Math- Solving for the unknown

In Latin we worked on conjugating verbs:

We have been discussing the Exodus in History-

Here is a map the boys completed of The 12 Tribes of Israel

The boys started online art lessons which they LOVE!

The Princess had a busy week with the arrival of her new Rod & Staff Preschool curriculum.

We also printed off a Nativity Activity Packet from 1plus1equals1.com.

Rod & Staff Work:

Here are the Nativity Printables:

The point of this activity is to arrange the nativities from smallest to largest. The Princess completed this quickly and said, "That's not very exciting". We made a game out of it by numbering the nativities and when she closed her eyes I would remove one. She would have to tell me what number was missing. She LOVED this game.

"Number 2 is missing"

To make it more challenging we mixed up the nativities making it harder for her to figure out which was missing.

Here is a pattern activity:

Dust Bath

2011-11-30T10:52:00.000-06:00

A Few in Review

2011-11-11T13:29:00.002-06:00

This week was to be our first full week back since returning home from vacation. Unfortunately, Farm Boy got sick Monday night, and the Princess and I have had a touch of it as well this week. Despite our overall feelings of crumminess, we managed to get a full week in. How? It must be that Scandinavian blood coursing through my veins. That, or looking at the calendar upon returning home, I realized we are a few weeks behind where I wanted to be at this point in the year. Sigh. I must remember those famous words spoken by a wise woman (my mom), "How can you be behind, dear, it's YOUR school."
This is true, but each year that passes, more air is exposed to my 'lumps of clay', making them less flexible and malleable. Is it every mom who feels increasing pressure as her students grow closer to Junior High, and High School? I'm hoping they will soon show me signs of what their greatest passions and interests are, so I can guide them down a path to a related career. Yet, there is time.....

Here is what happened at Aspiring Oaks Academy over the past month:

Math: Both boys are working through Math Mammoth. J-Straco is currently working on multi-digit division. Farm Boy has been doing some graphing this week. I think I am going to have him skip a few chapters, since thus far, there has been no challenge for him. We will be adding MEP once I remember to buy printer paper and print off the lessons.
The Princess has recently discovered our unifix cubes, and enjoys making towers and patterns.

Grammar: Both boys have been diagramming the four kinds of sentences, and doing an amazing job! I thought that the understood 'you' in a command might prove a little complicated, but they had no trouble with it. They are expert diagrammers, and J-Straco proably won't admit it, but I do believe diagramming sentences is his favorite part of school.

Reading: Both Boys have been reading a lot of Greek Myths. Their favorite is this book by Ingri and Edgar D'Aulaire. We listened to a couple of the Percy Jackson audio books on our way to and from Florida. J-Straco's current read is: It's So Amazing!: A Book about Eggs, Sp*rm, Birth, Babies, and Families. Farm Boy has been reading Blood and Guts. The Princess has been obsessed with The Poky Little Puppy. (I'm about ready to hide that book!) We had to scan, print and laminate her favorite pages from the book so she can retell the story on her magnet board.
Our current read-aloud is Tirzah, which fits in nicely with our history unit on The Exodus.

Below is J-Straco reading his book to The Princess. He was explaining the purpose of an umbilical cord. It was such a cute moment because both boys were present when The Princess was born, (at home) and Farm Boy cut her unbilical cord.

This is what I overheard today after J-Straco finished his reading time:
To Princess: "Remember when you were in mommy's tummy? You kicked her and hiccuped."
To Farm Boy: "Remember when you were a sp*rm? Remember Fred? Poor old Fred, he really wanted to become a human."
Should I be worried, or proud???
(* inserted to keep unsavory traffic from my blog)

We have also been gifted with some amazing old books my dad found in storage. They were the school books used by my great-uncle and great-grandma. The boys love "The Three Golden Apples" book from Hawthorne, since it is a story from Greek Mythology. They have been doing their read-aloud-to-mom from these books.

I have been reading, Learning Gap: Why Our Schools Are Failing and What We Can Learn from Japanese and Chinese Education, Nurture Shock, New Thinking About Children, and the Principal and I have been fighting over this book on my Kindle: Outliers: The Story of Success.
I highly recommend all three books.

Spelling: Both boys are working through their workbooks. I need to give J-Straco another placement test, because since he has perfected his lowercase letters, I know he will be able to skip ahead. On a related note, he graduated from Vision Therapy, a month ahead of schedule. His therapist was very pleased with his progress. He goes back for a re-check next week, then if things still look good (and his eyes are not over-converging again) we will go down to once a year vision checks. He was rewared with MANY new Lego sets while we were at LegoLand.

Writing: Finding a writing curriculum has been my biggest challenge this year. The boys have finished WWE, but are still not ready for WWS. I've downloaded and been reading "The Writer's Jungle" and decided to use that as our curriculum this year. What a wealth of information! They boys surprised me by really getting into our 'free writing'. I was also very pleasantly surprised at their editing skills. This may work!

History/Bible: This is our first year using Mystery of History I, and I cannot reccomend this enough! It merges ancient history with Old Testament History so we can see exactly how Jacob, Joseph, Moses, etc, fit in with Stonehenge, The Great Pyramid, and King Tut. It cements the fact that, yes, the events in the Bible ARE history and did really happen.
Here are some activities we did along side our history lessons:

We visited the Geology Museum during Creation Week.

The kids really enjoyed the exhibits, especially the dinosaurs, minerals and gems, and meteorites.

This was my favorite exhibit. Fossils of Jellyfish found in Wisconsin. Our chapter on The Flood discussed that finding jellyfish fossils in Wisconsin is great proof of a world-wide flood.

Below the boys are making cuineform tablets while studying Sumeria:

Science: They boys have been doing Science with their dad in the evenings. They finished a unit on habitats and are moving on to mold. Fun!

Fine Arts: The boys are both still taking lessons, J-Straco in guitar, and Farm Boy on piano. They are also in the junior choir at church, which they love. We try to attend musical events whenever we can, to expose them to different styles of music. We attended "Seussical; The Musical" last weekend, and will try to catch another play before Christmas.

Seussical was the first play we have taken The Princess to, and she really enjoyed it!

Winter Weather Advisory

2011-11-09T16:01:00.000-06:00

Enjoying the first snow of the season!

A Boy and His Chicken (Farm Boy and Amica)

The Princess and Fluffly

Chickens First Experience With Snow

Field Trip!

2011-10-25T20:55:00.001-05:00

Stop One: Chattanooga Aquarium

Stop 2: Siesta Key, Fla

First Impressions:

Day 2 and 3 at the Siesta Key Beach: Body Surfing, Wave Jumping and Sand Sculpting

Siesta Key-Bay Side- Spotted Dolphins and a Manatee, Deep-Sea Fishing

Stop #3- Venice Beach, Venice, FLA
Swimming and Searching for Shark Teeth

Stop #4, Kissimmee, FLA
Activities at our Resort

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Lego Land, Florida!

Chicken VS. Snake

2011-08-08T21:57:00.001-05:00

Our girls were free ranging out by the woods today, as they often do. Farm Boy took our kitchen compost down to the compost bin and noticed the chickens playing with a very large 'worm'. After closer inspection, he discovered they had a small snake! They took turns picking it up and running away, while the others chased after, wanting a turn a turn of their own with the critter. J-Straco tried to rescue the snake, but it was too late. Chickens-1, Snake-0.

Of course, my first thought was to bring the snake inside for a scientific investigation under the microscope, but when we went back out to retrieve it was nowhere to be found. And that brings us to the question of the day....whatever became of the snake?

Rabbit Trails (Weekly Report)

2011-07-16T16:28:00.000-05:00

Week of July 11, 2011:
J-Straco
Lively Latin- we declined our first noun!
Apples & Pears Spelling- Lesson 19
Math- He worked on filling in blank multiplication tables, as recommended for VSLs in "Upside-Down Brilliance"
Reading- books chosen from the book basket. He has been REALLY into Greek Myths since we saw a traveling theater production of Greek Myths last week. Here is his current favorite book.
Guitar practice

Farm Boy
Lively Latin- declining nouns
Writing With Ease- summary, narration and dictation from Barrie's "Peter Pan".
Math Puzzles such as this from superteacherworksheets.com
Reading- books from book basket. He has been enjoying poetry, especially "Where the Sidewalk Ends".
Piano Practice

I decided to push aside our normal math books for the summer. Both boys will be working on solidifying their multiplication facts through games and fun worksheets such as the above mentioned.

We are still plodding through Early American History. We are really enjoying Adventure Tales of America as our spine. It is a really amazing history 'text' with a lot of comic type illustrations. It is designed to be used by 'left brain and right brain' students. It does get very in depth in may topics, so I'm positive we'll be able to use it again (in 4 years) during our next Early American History rotation. I bought the PDF download, and am seriously considering having it printed and bound.

This week we have been learning more about Benjamin Franklin. Through our text we learned that one of Ben's favorite books as a child was Plutarch's "Lives...". We found this as a free download for my Kindle and have been exploring that here and there. Another of Ben's favorite books as a child was "Essays to Do Good" by Cotton Mather. Benjamin Franklin was so influenced by Cotton Mather that, as an old man, he wrote a letter to Cotton's son declaring his success was largely due to Cotton Mather's ideas. Here is one excerpt from Mather's works that we like:
"A little man may due a great deal of hurt. And then, why may not a little man due a great deal of good! It is possible the wisdom of a poor man may start a proposal, that may save a city, serve a nation!"

Well, now we were curious about this 'Cotton Mather'. We did some web searching on him and found his name related to the Salem Witch Trials. So, of course we had to dig out a book on the Salem Witch Trials and read through that. Farm Boy was very upset that hundreds of people could get swept up in 'Witch Hunts'. It led to some very interesting discussions.

After a week like this, I'm very curious to see where next week will take us!

2011-07-07T16:33:00.001-05:00

"A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul."
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Weekly Report

2011-05-27T11:07:00.000-05:00

Today marks the end of our first week back, with my students now in fourth and fifth grade. I'm so happy with how this week went. The boys are doing a lot more independent work than they did last year, lending to a more relaxed feeling for all. They have their daily schedule and are allowed to do things in any order as long as it all gets checked off before they can be dismissed for the day. They are loving the genetics unit and ask to do science first every day.
This is what the boys are doing:

J-Straco-Fifth Grade
Apples and Pears Spelling- this is a special curriculum from the UK which works well for student with dyslexia, which I suspect he has. I'm really surprised that when tested, he placed at the beginning of book one. This is due to the fact that he cannot write lowercase letters. He has never been able to, physically form them correctly. He also has once a week vision therapy and about 30 minutes of 'homework' each day to reinforce what he does at VT. His vision therapist believes his problems writing and spelling are due to the fact this his eyes over-converge, so he has never formed a good visual memory of the letters.
He is such a good sport and doesn't complain about all the extra work. Despite those challenges, he LOVES reading. I have seen some really positive changes already, in just one month of VT. I'm hoping that with the completion of the VT, we'll also see some improvement in regards to his dyslexia. If not, we'll re-evaluate and go from there.
Lively Latin- Initially I was all set to use Latin For Children, but after a lot of research I heard how it was lacking in translation activities. I was fortunate enough to borrow LFC from a friend, and after looking through I decided those claims were well founded. We discovered Lively Latin, and it is wonderful! I think the boys will make huge gains in Latin this year.
Greek- He chose Greek on his own, I'm not sure why but I suspect it has something to do with the cryptic look of the Greek alphabet. He is finishing Greek Code Crackers, and then will move on to 'Hey Andrew, Teach Me Some Greek'. Seriously, I think he will easily be able to master Greek as his mind works in puzzles and symbols.
Math Mammoth- I am still LOVING this curriculum. It is very similar to Singapore Math, except much more student friendly. I LOVE how it teaches multiple approaches to problem solving, and teaches mental math skills. He astounds me at how well he can figure out problems in his head. He laughs when I have to pull out the calculator to check the problems he was able to solve in his head. He is still having a difficult time mastering the multiplication tables. I'm not sure if this is due to his dyslexia, or his 'whole to parts' learning style as he is so visual-spatial. We'll keep hammering away with the flash cards.
Balance Benders Math- Have I mentioned this child loves puzzles and problem solving? I showed him a sample page from the 'Critical Thinking Co.' catalog and he flipped! He begged me to order the book for him, and when it came in the mail he jumped for joy. He did the first four pages in his head and told me the answers, which were of course right. I've been having him use a page protector over the pages and writing on them with a vis-a-vis marker, or else he'd have the book finished in a week. This way, he can go through it multiple times. Here is one of the pages he did this week:

Genetics- This is the course that I developed for the boys, since I couldn't find an elementary/middle school unit on genetics. This week we learned the parts of an animal cell, and function of each organelle.

After they had a good understanding of the parts of a cell, we made an edible cell out of cake and candy. YUM!

Dance Mat Typing: A fun and FREE keyboarding program (link) from the UK.
Guitar- He is working on a guitar solo, and still trying to get into the 'three second club' for the pentatonic scale. (He is down to about 5 seconds) His teacher is amazing, and really understands J-Straco. He knows when to push him and when to lay off. He is very pleased with this quick progress and has recorded him to show his other students.

Farm Boy- 4th Grade

Building Spelling Skills- from Christian Liberty Press. This works really well for him, as he is the type who likes to read the directions and go off on his own, without mom's help. It gives the spelling rules, and has many opportunities to practice them. There is also a lot of copywork, so I don't have to give him separate copywork anymore.
A Reason for Handwriting-Cursive- this works well for FarmBoy, as he is one who wants to be shown how to do something once and then have at it. He does not require a lot of hand holding or over-teaching.
Each day he works on a few words in cursive, then puts them all together on the last day of the week in a bible verse. He loves to write bible verses, and insists on copying them on a separate paper so he can hang them up around the house. He ditched his lined paper and snuck a plain white piece of paper when I wasn't looking, little stinker.

Farm Boy is also using Math Mammoth and Lively Latin, and working through our Genetics Unit.

He is such an easy kid to homeschool, I sometimes wonder if I'm challenging him enough. He is so methodical and intrinsically motivated, he works through anything I put in front of him without questioning or complaining. He is very strong in all areas, except those requiring creativity. He has NO artistic flair, whatsoever. I was very surprised at how well he took to the piano. His piano teacher is amazed at how well he can coordinate his two hands, keeping the beat with the left hand and playing the melody with the right. I may add back in Writing With Ease for him next semester, as he could use some work on narration, and composing and holding sentences in his head. I think the problem here stems from a maturity issue, though, and these skills will come soon.

Princess, Age 3
I am very hesitant to start her on anything yet, as I believe all learning should be through natural discovery until they are 4. However, she wants to do everything her brothers do, so I have ordered her two workbooks of her own. She will be working in 'Handwriting Without Tears', and 'Get Ready for the Code'. This will be at her choosing, and never forced by me. As she approaches age 4, we will start to pull out the Miquon Math, and Phonics Pathways.

That is plan as I know it, and I wouldn't be a proper homeschool teacher if I didn't add in the phrase, "all curriculum subject to change".

If You Give A Dog A Banana.....

2011-05-26T13:33:00.000-05:00

Actually, Milo discovered bananas when the princess fed him part of hers one day. Once he got a taste, he was obsessed with getting his paws on bananas every chance he got. The Princess has now learned she must eat her bananas up at the bar, where Milo can't reach her. If she eats within Milo's reach, she WILL be tackled for her banana.
After I unpacked the groceries the other day, I mistakenly left the bananas too close to the edge of the counter. When I re-entered the kitchen I saw the bunch of bananas sitting on the kitchen floor. "Hmmm, strange", I thought to myself. As I walked into the living room, this is what I saw. Milo had pulled one banana off the bunch and was peeling it ever so carefully. He removed the banana from the peel and devoured it, leaving the peel on the living room rug. Thanks Milo.

Graduation Day!

2011-05-26T13:20:00.000-05:00

We celebrated the end of our 'official' school year two weeks ago. We decided to go all out, and print up certificates for the boys. I asked The Principle when we should present them to the boys, and he had a brilliant idea to take them out for a special dinner as part of the ceremony. We took their best bud and cousin, T-Man along to Olive Garden with us to make it more special.

I'm Just Sayin'.....

2011-05-20T10:18:00.000-05:00

"If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men." St. Francis of Assisi

Callin' It Quits!

2011-05-20T09:32:00.002-05:00

....On the school year, that is. I printed up some nifty certificates to present to the boys, officially graduating them to the next level. I'm sure they'll be thrilled. Thrilled to have a few weeks off, that is. I officially announced the end of school two weeks ago. We have been in vacation mode; playing with our chicks, touring the Children's Museum, playing outside, and doing a lot of park hopping. We will be starting back to school on Monday with our new, handy-dandy school year schedule. I've decided we're going to try a year round block schedule. We'll school for 8 weeks, then take 2 weeks off. Rinse and repeat. I need to check the calendar to make sure we'll get our 36 weeks completed. I think it'll be good. I'm coming to realize that a straight 36 weeks is a lot. For me and for the boys. Really, think of it like this--if you had a project at work, would you rather fumble through 36 weeks, or break it up into easier to manage 8 week chunks? It's a good theory, no? We'll see what happens. I love the fact that we have so much freedom to try whatever crazy idea pops into my head. If it doesn't work, we just readjust and keep going. <sigh>....I love homeschooling!
This is what the next 8 weeks will look like:

Daily
Spelling, Math, Bible, Latin for all, Greek for J-Straco
Oh, and daily reading of course.

Then, we will be rotating the other subjects every 8 weeks. Rotational subjects will include: History, Science, Music and Art.

Another change is that I have not scheduled a formal grammar program this year. We hit grammar pretty hard last year, and our new Latin curriculum includes a lot of grammar so I think we'll be covered. Who knows, I may throw in a couple sentences to diagram every now and again. I do like diagramming!

Well, that is the plan as it stands. Our first rotational subject is science as the boys both asked for a unit on Genetics. I haven't studied Genetics since my Advanced Biology class in high school, so I have a lot of planning to do this weekend! I forsee some Punnett Squares and DNA extraction.....

A Time of Growth

2011-05-11T14:41:00.000-05:00

I love Spring! It is a time, more than any, when I awake to the chirping birds outside my window and think, "Today is a brand new day, filled with hope and possibilities". We are surrounded by leaves, buds, and verdant green, signs of new life are all around. We are so blessed. Thank you Almighty Creator for the gifts of growth, and awakenings.

My aspiring oaks have been very busy planting, nurturing, and building over the past month. Here is what we have been doing:

The boys planted an enormous amount of veggies, and J-Straco has a couple flats of herbs. He has been very consumed with growing medicinal herbs since reading his new favorite book, "A Kids Herb Book".

We have been reading about the history of the medicinal herbs and found this book, "The Apothecary".

It is a really interesting book, and ties in so well with our histroy study of the colonial period.

Farm Boy turned 9 in April, and wanted only one thing....a dog. We found a shelter in Illinois, about 90 minutes from us that rescued dogs from kill shelters and puppy mills. We were so impressed with them, we drove down one day and came back with Milo.

We were told he was an Australian Cattle Dog. I'm not sure I see that when I look at him, but goodness, he sure acts like it. He is a VERY active 6 month old puppy. The boys take him for many romps a day, through the woods, up and down the driveway, and outside for a good game of fetch. The Prinicpal has been trying to take him running in the morning, but so far Milo hasn't been thrilled with that idea. He likes to herd the children, and the cats. He is doing a really good job keeping the raccoons away from the yard and field, and he'll have chickens to herd in a few weeks. I hope he likes chickens! (not of the nugget variety)

Speaking of chickens.....we ordered 5 Buff Orpington chicks a month ago. The men folk have been busy building the brooder, and now the coop. The coop is a work in progress, but is really shaping up. After much research, we found a picture of a coop we liked and the guys have been drawing up plans and getting construction under way.

We were told the girls would arrive today, and were awaiting the call to tell us it was time to pick them up. We waited and waited and the call never came. After hundreds of inquiries of "mom, are the chicks here yet?" I gave in and called them. I spoke with a very somber sounding woman who informed me that 90% of the chicks had died in transit due to the heat the previous day. She took my name and went to check on our chicks. I prayed furiously that our chicks were in the minority that had survived, and sure enough, our prayers were answered. Our chicks had survived the trip! I told the lady we would hurry over and pick them up, and we did. J-Straco held the precious cargo, a peeping box, on the journey home. Farm Boy read the directions on the way and informed me we needed 95 degree water with sugar mixed in for them to drink, and their chick starter spread on the floor of the brooder. Wow! We were amazed watching these little chicks-only a few days old, as they scratched and pecked and ate and ate and ate. We dipped their beaks in the water to show them it was there, and they happily glugged away. They have been very active and friendly all afternoon. They love to be petted and eat from our hands. They seem to show no adverse effects to their perilous journey. We are praying they will remain strong and healthy. Grow chickies, grow!

The princess named her 'Fluffly', and Farm Boy named his chick 'Amicus' (latin for friend)

I suggested 'nugget' and 'cordon bleu', but they didn't see the humor in that.

I'll get more chicken pics later, I have a new camera I'm still trying to get used to.

Three Cheers for Spring!

2011-03-21T20:32:00.001-05:00

We had a beautiful day here in Wisconsin today. The temperature climbed to a balmy 55 degrees, and there was a gentle wind turning the blades of the wind turbine next door.
We took our Spring Break last week, as The Principal had to go out of town for work and we felt like tagging along. The kiddos loved our stay at a waterpark hotel, and no one was ready to head home.
Due to our exciting adventure last week, we decided to ease into the week and enjoyed some fun activities today.
We usually start out the morning with Mom's Read Aloud Hour. The kiddos moaned when I said it was time to jump back in to our historical fiction book. Instead I pulled out our ' Poetry for Young People: Edgar Allan Poe' and we read 'The Raven'. This has long been one of my favorites. I mean, how could you not love such phrases as: 'while I nodded nearly napping...?'
They worked through their usual Latin, Copywork, Dictation, and Math. I've decided to hold off on spelling for the week as we need to re-evaulate Language Arts for J-Straco based on the fact that he is going to need 6 months of vision therapy for his over convergence issues.
For History today we watched the first segment in our new 'Drive Through History' DVD. We cuddled up in the movie room, made popcorn and enjoyed hearing more about early American explorers. The boys loved the format, and no one moved from their chairs for the entire half hour episode. I am trying to incorporate more visual lessons into our history curriculum to reinforce what we are learning.
While The Princess got her beauty sleep, the boys worked on some independant projects. Farm Boy composed a new song to play on the piano, and J-Straco made a goldfish vending machine out of blocks. You pull a 'lever' and goldfish crackers come out the bottom. The Princess thought it was an extremely cool way to have her afternoon snack upon awakening.

We spent a couple hours outside in the afternoon. Farm Boy collected more rocks for his collection, and J-Straco took The Princess for a walk in the woods. Everyone enjoyed riding their bikes, and The Princess learned how to pedal today!! Go Princess Go!

The boys wrapped up the day with the their normal evening routine; music practice, multiplication flash cards with daddy, and Boys' Bible Study with daddy. We are working through Kaye Freeman's bible study books, currently using Choosing Self-Control. I HIGHLY recommend this series, it has been really well received by the boys.
The rest of the week is predicted to be stormy and cool, but we saw the evidence of Spring outside today. A robin hopping across the backyard, the green of our strawberry plants as they start to grow. Everyday brings a chance for a new beginning!
Happy Spring!!

Weekly Report

2011-03-11T23:28:00.002-06:00

Here is what we did this week:

Latin- Completed the chapter on Latin adverbs and worked on memorizing the table blessing in Latin.

Language Arts- Narration and Dictation from WWE book.

Daily Copywork

Narration from History Reading

We read 'Eats, Shoots, and Leaves' by Lynne Truss and discussed the importance of proper punctuation.

We took the week off from Grammar Island, and All About Spelling.

Geography:

They had to show me they could draw the lines of lattitude from memory and label them. They are now working on adding Africa in it's proper place.

History:

We are studying about the English colonization of the United States. Our read-aloud for the week is:

Raleigh's Page by Alan Armstrong.

The boys are really enjoying this book. We started reading this over the weekend, so when we started reading about Sir Walter Raleigh in our SOTW book the boys recognized the names of Raleigh's peers, and remembered a lot about Queen Elizabeth.

Farm Boy got mad at me when I read in SOTW about how Raleigh was imprisoned and eventually beheaded. He said, "Mom, you ruined the book for me!" Ooops, I guess I could have waited on that little fact until we finished 'Raleigh's Page'.

We also downloaded and listened to the chapters on Sir Walter Raleigh from The Awakening of Europe by M.B.Synge.

Math:

Math Mammoth- J-Straco worked on multi-digit multiplication

Farm Boy worked on measuring and adding fractions

Nurturing A Love of Reading

2011-03-11T17:27:00.001-06:00

Lord! when you sell a man a book you don't sell just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue - you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humour and ships at sea by night - there's all heaven and earth in a book, a real book. ~Christopher Morley

Hi, my name is Becky and I am a bibliophile. My obsession with books began when I was very young. My mom says I learned to read when I was three years old. The first book I remember owning was a gift from my Aunt, "The Read-it-Yourself Storybook" copyright 1971.

Isn't it beautiful? My three year old has recently discovered it on the bookshelf, so I have spent many precious hours introducing her to my dear old friends. Stories like; 'Emily's Moo', 'Too Many Bozos', 'Eddie's Moving Day', and 'Tony and His Friends' are all found just beyond the tattered lavender cover.

One of the most exciting and memorable moments in my life was when my mom brought home a large box of books she had purchased for a couple dollars at a garage sale. I carted them up to the attic, which wasn't easy considering we had an unfinished attic with a drop-down chain ladder. I balanced a piece of plywood over the floor joists and spent all my free time reading in front of the window. I suppose it was far from an ideal reading spot, as it was hot in the summer, freezing cold in the winter and had no electric lights. To me though, it could easily become a hot air balloon soaring over the clouds, a bear-filled cave, or a lush, tropical oasis.

I remember fondly my elementary school librarian and how she would read to us every week-the most exciting tales of unusual people and far away places. I still to this day have an indescribable admiration for her.

I remember how my 5th grade teacher had to scramble to find more books for me to read because I read everything on the reading list in the first 2 months of school.

I remember my highschool literature classes where I was introduced to such authors as Edgar Allan Poe, Toni Morrison, George Orwell, Chaucer and Hawthrone.

I remember the college class I took my senior year in high school: Introduction to a Genre: Drama. I became familiar with the plays of Tennessee Williams and Thornton Wilder.

I remember when my wonderful husband bought me a Kindle for my birthday last year. I rarely go from one room to another without it. I have even discovered I can put it in a zip-top plastic bag and read in the bathtub. My favorite time to read is between the hours of 9:00 and 11:00 at night. The house is unusually quiet, blissfully quiet, and there is little chance of being interrupted by a call of, "Mom!"

Today, as I home school my children, I am doing everything in my power to give them the same love of books. Why?

The stories of childhood leave an indelible impression, and their author always has a niche in the temple of memory from which the image is never cast out to be thrown on the rubbish heap of things that are outgrown and outlived. ~Howard Pyle

The knowledge they glean from books, will help form them into intelligent, pensive, well-spoken men. I want reading to become a habit they will never want to break. While reading is all bout fun and adventure at this stage, they will learn very soon about the joy and satisfaction that come when you find the answer to a question you have been seeking, and answers to questions you didn't even know you had!

A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint.... What I began by reading, I must finish by acting. ~Henry David Thoreau

That is why I want my children to love reading. An easy feat it most certainly is not. My boys are very curious, active boys who love to ride bikes and climb trees. Even in the winter they would rather brave the elements to make snow forts and sled down the snow-covered corn field, before they would choose to sit still and read. I have been reading, researching, and racking my brain to raise them up with a love of the printed page. Here are some of the changes we've made over the years to

make books a bigger focus in our home:

* Absolutely no electronics on school days. This includes television, video games, and computer (unrelated to school).

* For every chapter book they finish, I take them to the bookstore and let them choose any book they would like.

*We keep a book log on the side of the book shelf where they record how many hours per week they read. They can trade in their 'book hours' for 'video-game hours' on non-school days.

*I choose 'living books' with engaging characters and exciting plots.

*I read aloud to them 1-2 hours a day.

*They have the option of staying up 30 minutes past bedtime to read. They have their own booklights which they think are pretty cool!

*I play audio books during quiet moments of the day-mostly breakfast and lunch time, and while they are settling down to sleep at night.

*I let them see ME reading. I read during our quiet reading time along side of them. 99% of the reading I do is on my Kindle, but during quiet reading time I make an effort to pick up an actual book so they can see what I am reading.

*I tell them about the books I am reading and encourage them to do the same. They love to talk about the characters in their books.

*I re-arranged our main living area to make it a more comfortable spot to read and listen to books. I was inspired by Oliver Demille's explanation of their living/reading space in his book "Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning".

The Princess and I love to sit in the rocking chair reading books. Her favorites are: 'Corduroy', 'Goodnight Gorilla', 'Katy No-Pockets', and 'Caps for Sale'. She just may be a bibliophile like her mama. The boys like to read sprawled upside down on the couch, or in a blanket-topped fort under the table. When I am reading aloud to them, they like to build with legos or blocks at the game table. Sometimes they set up rows of little green soldiers in preparation of some important battle. In the summer we enjoy quiet reading time outside in the hammock, on the deck, or on a blanket spread in the field by the woods.

Will my efforts be rewarded? In one way or another, they most

definitely will be. As adults, will they surround themselves with books? Will they spend every free moment reading? Maybe not, BUT.......they will have wonderful memories of countless hours curled up on the couch reading and hearing of brave knights, daring adventurers and stories of self-sacrifice. It will be a part of them. And, they will know where to find it all again.

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. ~Groucho Marx

Happy Birthday Princess!

2011-03-09T09:43:00.000-06:00

A Week in Review

2011-03-04T13:34:00.000-06:00

I broke down and bought a new History curriculum a few weeks ago. Going into this school year, I tried to organize my own study of Early American History, as we are in year 3 of 4 in our history cycle. I have a plethora of books on that time period, and decided to add Time Travelers Lapbooks for some hands-on. We are really enjoying the Time Travelers. There is so much to choose from; making maps, timelines, games, cooking projects. I do modify it slightly by putting completed activities/pages in their History binders instead of a lapbook.
However, at this point in the year we should be closing in on the Revolutionary War and we are still reading about early American explorers. How did that happen?!?
I purchased Easy Classical History because it is basically a schedule which coordinates many different books, most of which I already own. I thought if I had a schedule with nice little boxes to check off, it would help keep me on track. So far, so good. There are no 'extras' with EC, it gives you the schedule of reading along with questions to prompt your child's narration.
The main spine is 'The Story of the World' by Susan Wise Bauer. We LOVE anything by SWB. I listen to her audio lectures often as I've never been fortunate enough to see her in person. She is the author of 'The Well Trained Mind; A Guide to Classical Education at Home', which is definitely the backbone of our homeschool.
Easy Classical History also uses 'A History of US' (a series of 11 books) by Joy Hakim. I really like this series. The two books work really well along side each other.
There is A LOT of reading with this curriculum. If you don't have at least 2 hours a day to devote to all the reading it may not be the best choice for you. To give you an example, this is from last week's schedule:
Read one chapter in 'Story of the World', 3 chapters in 'A History of US', 40 pages from 'Explorers who Got Lost', and all 20 chapters from the book 'Madeleine Takes Command'. Yep, all in one week.
Luckily my guys tolerate it all really well. I sit on the couch and read while they play quietly on the floor or at the table. They usually choose Legos or dominoes, although our new love is Kapla blocks.

J-Straco is my budding architect. Here is a church he built, and a skyscraper below:

Here are a few more pics from the week:

J-Straco's Bananagram board-once a week we push the spelling curriculum aside and play Bananagrams. The boys LOVE this game.

The boys working on their duet, 'Step by Step' by Rich Mullins. J-Straco's guitar teacher is helping the boys get ready to perform this at our church talent show in April.

Farm Boy's Geometry. He is learning about 3D shapes and how many edges, vertices, and faces each has. That kid is a math whiz! It takes me twice as long to check it as it does him to complete it.

J-Straco putting his greek letters in order. Seriously, greek is HARD!

J-Straco's Latin--The boys are memorizing The Sanctus and The Doxology in Latin this month.

Farm Boy's Geography- learning to draw the world map from memory. We are starting with the main lines of lattitude and then will progress to the continents and countries.

Boys playing 'Set'. This is a crazy challenging- but fun game.

Quick Snuggle Break!

The Princess has been enjoying Cuisenaire Rods this week. She likes the fun pre-math activites we found here, created and shared by a sweet homeschooling mama.

Making a Sailboat

I think I'll start Miquon Math with her in another year. It uses the Cuisenaire rods and is a very gentle, discovery based curriculum.

We played around with the C-rods for quite a while. She loved building bridges and houses for her little animals. We also had fun playing a little game. I told her the biggest rod was named Mr. 10. We compared all the other rods to Mr. 10 and discovered he was the biggest. Then, I showed her Mr. 8, and told her he was sad because he wasn't big like Mr. 10. I explained we need to find a friend to help Mr. 8 get bigger like Mr. 10. She tried putting different rods with the 8, until she discovered the 2 next to the eight was as big as 'Mr. 10'. I'm going to leave it at that for the moment, I don't think she's ready for the actual operation.
She has many years ahead of her, now is the time to have fun, explore and make discoveries.

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2011-02-20T09:13:00.000-06:00

Weekly Report

2011-02-11T20:09:00.000-06:00

This week, our smallest acorn was sick with a very high temp. and an overall feeling of crumminess. Amazingly, we did manage to get three days of school in, which thrilled me beyond words since the Princess insisted on sitting in my lap and whining ALL WEEK. On Friday, the mailman brought our new Muggins game, and we played 'Knock Out' and 'Muggins' for many, many hours. I highly recommend any game from Muggins Math. My guys love any game involving strategy, and this will provide a nice change from their nightly Chess game.

Farmboy drawing perpendicular lines, and shapes with right angles.

FarmBoy reading his 'Apologia' science book- researching Jellyfish for a report.

J-Straco practicing his Greek letters and working in his 'Greek Code Crackers' book.

The Princess, between fits of moaning and wailing, enjoyed making valentines. She was tickled pink when I showed her how to mix red and white to get her favorite color.

The boys- all tubbed and scrubbed playing another game of 'Knock-Out' before bed.
Thank God it's Friday!!