Week of May 28

We started the week with a Memorial Day/Birthday party for my dad at our home.  The kids enjoyed running around with their cousins, while the women chatted and prepared food, and the men took turns holding the umbrella, grilling, and keeping an eye out for funnel clouds.  None spotted, luckily. 
I made this strawberry pie for my dad, which was a huge hit.  We make quite a few strawberry pies throughout the summer, along with jam as our strawberry plants expand every year. 

Our school books are finding some tough competition in the climbing tree and tire swing.  As the weather warms, we are cutting some subjects short to get outside and play. 

While the kidlets run and play, I keep busy hoeing and weeding my gardens.  My wonderful husband tilled a second garden for me which is already full of yummy vegetables.  We have a couple dozen kale plants, tomatoes, peppers, onions, pie pumpkins, cantaloupe and watermelon.  Our smaller garden is sprouting carrots, peas, lettuce, spinach and broccoli.  Check out our favorite recipe for kale here.  Yum!  In another month or two, our berries will start to ripen and we will have (in addition to our plethora of strawberries) raspberries, mulberries, black raspberries, blackberries, cherries and hopefully some blueberries from our new bush. 

We attended a memorial service yesterday for a relative of my husbands who had passed away.  He was 91 years old, and was born, farmed, raised his family, and died all within a 3 mile radius.  His oldest son gave a touching tribute to his dad including this little gem:

"Farms today are about making money, they are businesses.  When I was growing up a farm meant taking care of your family- providing food and being together, working along side each other."

I love this quote.  I am sure not all modern day farms are about making money, but I do agree that times are a 'changin.  I love that we can give our kids a flavor of 'living off the land' and working together to eat fresh and healthy foods we have grown. 

This is what we learned this week:

Math: J-Straco is working with fractions, converting improper fractions and Farm Boy has been working on area, perimeter and volume.

Grammar:  Only one grammar lesson this week, as we are almost to the end of the book.  We reviewed capitalization.

Spelling:  The boys completed the week's lesson in their workbooks. Farm Boy kept up with the Scripps National Spelling Bee.  He and I took this qualifying test to see if we could enter.  I won't tell you our scores- but I can guarantee you won't see our names in next year's Bee!  On the plus side, Farm Boy has been balking about taking Greek in the fall, so I was able to point out that a lot of the Spelling Bee words had Greek origins.

Latin:  We have been working with future tense verbs, and have been walking around the house chanting, "bo, bis, bit, bimus, bitis, bunt". 

Science:  Our gardening has been our science for the week.  The boys have been helping their dad test corn seed to find the germination rate.  Also, we spotted a hummingbird outside at the bird feeding station, so we did some research on what they like to eat.  We found a recipe for hummingbird food and made a batch to hang out in our hummingbird feeder.

History:  We have been reading about Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, and the first and second triumvirates of Rome.  Books we used for our research include: Famous Men of Rome, Augustus Caesar's World by Foster, The Life of Julius Casear by Dr. Nicholas Saunders, and Cleopatra by Diane Stanley.

Reading:  J-Straco finished 'Hugo Cabret' and started 'Wonderstruck', also by Brian Selznick.
Farm Boy is reading 'Farmer Boy' by Laura Ingalls Wilder. 

Bible:  We didn't do anything in our 'Names of God' book this week.  However, the boys do a nightly 'men's bible study' with their dad before bed each night.  We heard a shocking statistic on the radio- People who read the bible less than 4 times a week, exhibit behavior identical to athiests. That is a huge motivating factor for us to keep up with our bible studies!
*disclaimer: we have nothing against athiests, we know some very nice non-believers and enjoy spending time with them.  However, as Christians we feel it is our responsibility to be an example to those around us, by spreading the word of God, and living a life so that others can see Christ in us.

The Princess has been busy at the school table as well.  She does a page or two from her Rod & Staff preschool book each day, and is working through the phonogram cards.  She has about half of the phonograms memorized.  I also showed her a cursive writing app on my iPad, and she practiced making cursive, lowercase letters 'a', 'b', and 'c'.  I ordered another set of cuisenaire rods and some base ten blocks and have been trying to get her familiar with those so we can start Miquon Math in the fall. 

Rounding the Home Stretch

The last month has seen me busily scurrying to choose our curriculum for next school year.  I think I have it pretty well nailed down, and have ordered 99% of what we will need.  We will 'stay the course' for the most part- using the next level of what we are currently using.  A few exceptions are:
History:  We will be on the Middle Ages cycle and have decided to try Veritas Press online course.  I let the boys try a sample on their website and they both loved it.  We will also be doing our read aloud literature largely based on this history cycle.  As it stands, our read alouds will be; King Arthur (Once and Future King?) Pilgrims Progress, The Hobbit, some of Martin Luther's works, and whatever else I decide to throw in.
The last few months I have been assigning the boys some reading from 'Famous Men of Greece and Rome', which I really like, so we'll probably continue their assigned reading of 'Famous Men of the Middle Ages'. 
Spelling: J-Straco has recently started a new curriculum called 'Logic of English'.  I really like this because it is phonogram based and The Princess can join us learning the phonogram and spelling rules, and play the games along with us.
Greek:  I have not committed to starting Greek next year, but I am leaning in that direction.  I purchased Elementary Koine Greek which looks pretty slow moving and painless. 
Writing: I have been debating whether or not the boys will be ready for Susan Wise Bauer's next writing curriculum, Writing With Skill, and have decided to hold off one more year due to the comments I hear from people currently using it.  I don't think the boys will be able to work independently for 45 minutes a day on writing.  Instead we'll use IEW's Narnia based writing.  This looks so good, I'm excited to start!
Latin:   We will finish Lively Latin toward the end of the summer, and I have a few options I am trying to work through.  First, we could work through LL again, to really solidify the conjugations and vocab, or move on to another curriculum.  If we move on I need to decide between Latin Prep or Henle Latin.  I have both already and am leaning toward Latin Prep.  We'll see.....
Bible:  Still undecided.  I really love the Names of God book we are currently using, and am contemplating working through it again in greater depth.  Of course, our History will cover the Reformation, so we'll have a lot of Bible History there, and The Principal is looking for a new bible study to do with the boys.

Now that i have an idea where we are going, I can schedule the rest of our current year so we end up without any gaps.  Our goal is to hit the books hard through May and the first week in June, then take a couple weeks off before commencing summer school. 

Since i have been so neglectful of my blog the past month, here is our last month or so in pictures.

The Princess turned 4!

She developed a renewed interest in her Rod &Staff Workbooks.  She does her workbook every day now, when the boys are doing their work. 

The kiddos performed in our church Variety Show.  They played and sang 'The Cartoon Song' by Chris Rice.  The were a huge hit!

 

Farm Boy turned 10!

 

Project from our Bible Study, "God's Names" by Sally Michael

We were talking about how God is our Strong Tower.

J-Straco decided to test out some of Archimedes' laws dealing with water buoyancy and displacement

He weighed a few objects, then put then in a full bowl of water and measured the water which was displaced.  The weight of the two was equal!

They also made a 6 foot long Archimedes Screw which really worked!

 

We read about Alexander the Great and later the Library at Alexandria. The boys made scrolls like what would have been found there.  They really enjoyed reading from them.  

 

Farm Boy during his oral spelling test. 

Week of April 9

We were on Spring Break last week, and spent this week easing back into our routine.  The boys had a sleepover Sunday night, and between that and our home school gym class and piano lessons, nothing got done on Monday.  Even though we didn't have a full week, I think we'll be ready to hit next week full-force. Here is what we did this week:

Math:  J-Straco has been working on graphing and Farm Boy has been working on multiplying/dividing fractions.

Latin:  We only cracked open our Latin book one day, and spent the other days with our flash cards trying to cement our latest batch of vocabulary words. 

Grammar:  Worked with prepositions and objects of the preposition. Did some parsing on the patio door with window markers.

History:  We read and discussed Alexander the Great- how he was a student of Aristotle, sought revenge on Persia, and conquered much of the 'known' world.  He named the city of Alexandria (Egypt) after himself. 

Lit:  Famous Men of Greece, chapters on Phillip and Alexander

Science: We are still working through a unit on nutrition and talked about healthy and unhealthy fats and how calories are measured.

Other:  We watched 'The Safe Side: Stranger Safety and discussed it. It is a VERY good movie which gives very usable advice without being too scary.

Reading:  The boys finished their audio book: 'Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal.  J-Straco started listening to a new audio book: Sign of the Beaver.  He started reading The Invention of Hugo Cabret this week, and is really enjoying it. Farm Boy is reading: The Worm Book For Beginners:  A Vermiculture Starter.  Grandma took him shopping for his birthday and he chose a portable worm farm.  We have been looking at larger worm compost bins and researching vermiculture. 
J-Straco has also been reading his herb books.  His favorite is: A Kids Herb Book.  I bought him a new herb book which arrived this week: Walking the World in Wonder: A Children's Herbal.  He planted a wide variety of herbs this week, and is planning which 'concoctions' he wants to make. 
He collected dandelion leaves last week and dried and ground them.  He made a dandelion sun tea. I would like to find a local herbalist to mentor him. 

Music:  The boys are really moving ahead with their violin lessons.  We are lucky to have found an amazing teacher who was also home schooled as a child.  Farm Boy, being so strongly left-brained, 'doesn't see the point' of violin lessons, as it takes away from his piano practice time.  I don't think he'll hang in there very long.  He really enjoys his piano though.  J-Straco is still rocking his guitar.  The boys have a concert tonight they will perform in.  J-Straco will play guitar, Farm Boy will sing, and the Princess is going to play the maracas.  Sounds like it will be a fun time!

Language Arts:  I bought 'The Logic of English' curriculum with the intention of using it for both the Princess and some remediation of J-Straco.  We have been going through the phonogram sounds using the nice flashcards included, and the Princess is doing amazing.  She knows all three sounds of 'A', 'B', two sounds of 'C' and 'D'.  I made a salt box and she has been practicing making her cursive letters in the salt.  I'm trying to find a good cursive app on my iPad for her.  Anyone know of a good one?

Even though we had a light week, I think we got a lot accomplished! We will hit the books hard for another 6 weeks or so, and then I need to figure out our summer school plans.

Week of March 12

Where, oh where has the time gone?  I can't believe it is almost spring!  We have been so busy this winter, with school, gym class and music lessons.  We have been in constant motion- always 'on task'.  Now that the weather is warming, we are finding enjoyment in taking things a little slower so as to enjoy the approach of spring here in Wisconsin. We have spent many hours a day outside, running, climbing and playing.  The boys have been on a hiking kick, and have gone on many 'expeditions' into the woods and over the fields.  They took their sister along on one hike which she enjoyed immensely.  They are starting to discover how much fun she is, and including her in a lot more of their play.
She turned 4 last week, and is growing up so quickly! 

Fun at the park:

More park fun with cousins and friends.

The Princess enjoyed a birthday breakfast with Mom & Dad, brothers, Ima, Bompa, cousin & friend.

The boys and I have  been busy doing some volunteer work.  We sorted and hung clothes at  our Community Clothes Closet, and put together art activity bags for patients at the local Children's Hospital . 

I re-read "The Latin-Centered Curriculum' by Andrew Campbell and have taken a lot of his advice to heart.  He advises doing 'Multum non Multa' or 'not many things, but much'.  In other words, deeper study of fewer subjects.  Instead of vocab, grammar, spelling, writing, and Latin, one could get by with a strong study of Latin, thus omitting vocab and grammar.  Spelling and writing can be done through copy work, dictation and narration along with literature studies.  I have been trying to implement some of this this week.  We have been doing a lot more literature, and since our literature is taken from our history studies, we decided to forgo our history curriculum this week.  I love how this has really allowed us to enjoy some great books  by reading together, and reading separately and having some great discussions.  Why do I constantly feel the need to re-adjust our curriculum?  It seems the more I read, the more my philosophy of teaching and learning changes. Or maybe, I just want to try EVERYTHING, because WE CAN!  It does keep the boys from getting bored, or falling into the idea that there are only a few ways to learn......

  Here is a quick recap of what we have done this week:

Math: J-Straco has been multiplying and dividing decimals and changing fractions to decimals, and Farm Boy has been perfecting his long-division. 

Latin: More practice declining 2nd declension, neuter nouns, and using the irregular forms of sum (to be).

Grammar: We worked on abbreviations and proper use of commas. 

Lit/History:  We have jumped into the world of Ancient Rome, while lingering a bit on Ancient Greece because, well, we just love Ancient Greece!  The boys assigned reading is a chapter a day from Famous Men of Rome by Haaren.



We are all really enjoying this book. I have not heard one complaint when I tell the boys to go and read their chapter, and that is saying a lot!

We have been supplementing (not that it needs supplementing!) with The Children's Plutarch, just because it gives us another view.

We are also doing a more in-depth study of 'Horatius at the Bridge' along with the study guide from Memoria Press.  The boys really enjoyed when we read this poem in their Latin book, so we thought we'd go through it again and try to memorize more verses.

We are also very blessed to have an amazing library close by.  They have teaching kits for various subjects, one of which is 'Ancient Rome'!  We checked out the box this week and have been busy reading through many, many books on Ancient Rome.  There is also an audio book recorded by Jim Weiss, a Haba block kit of the Coliseum of Rome, and a Lego Minotaur game.  J-Straco was busy this morning putting the Coliseum together. 

We decided we need some little gladiator figures, so we will take a trip to the Learning Shop this weekend to find some. What good is a coliseum without a gladiator fight???

We also watched another segment of 'Drive-Through History', one about the Apostle Paul's Missionary journey around Greece and the Middle East.

A Gladiator and his cat.

Science:  We will finish the chapter on muscles this week, and do some notebooking. 

Music: Music lessons are going well.  The boys are preparing for a duet they will perform at our church Variety Show next weekend.  J-Straco will play 'The Cartoon Song' by Chris Rice on his guitar, and Farm Boy will sing.

We also doing some voice lessons using the book Singing Lessons for Little Singers by Gregory Blankenbehler. 

It can be found here.  This is a great book which takes you through proper posture, breathing, and finding your low voice and high voice.  All things recommended to me by a close relative who was a music teacher for many years.  The boys really enjoyed the lessons on posture and breathing.  It is presented in a fun way- for example, lay on your back and put a book on your tummy.  Watch it rising and falling to practice deep breathing. 
The Princess has enjoyed many art projects this week, mainly painting.  She has also been busy with her Beatrix Potter books, and her new BIKE!

My project for the weekend is to re-arrange the school room.  We are becoming over-run with books and supplies, and the school room must be tamed!

Week of February 20

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

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

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.