Learning Notes~Week 11 {2014-2015}

I'm hoping to start journaling our weekly learning notes here on the blog. Since we are 11 weeks into the school year and this is the first time I did a post of this kind, ask questions if you need more information about anything.

All the pictures were taken on Wednesday when we spent half the day out at the family farm. We did school and the boys picked up walnuts (they were $6 short in buying a new video game and they made $24 on the walnuts). 

We set up school by the lake. We normally take books to read but we had some book work to do and decided to take a table with us.

Week 11 is the last week in term 1 before our end of term 1 examination. Next week will be exams, continue in math, and catch up in any subject that I feel we should be farther ahead in. 

Caleb (13 yo-8th grade)
We are still working to fit it all into the day with Caleb. This is partly my fault for not having a schedule written in stone (or printed out and in front of him) and encouraging him to use a timer. This boys will enjoy a subject and then instead of spending thirty minutes as schedule, I find him still working on it an hour later (Not really doing the assignment but making up stuff to do in addition to the assignment. Which I can see as a good thing but we are trying to keep him on task and save extra stuff for his free time). We are working on this! Caleb used Friday as a make-up day since he was sick the previous week and had fallen behind in a few subjects.

History is moving steadily along and Caleb continued reading Hittite Warrior and American Gun this week (ancient history and American history). In geography he started on states which should be review for him. I'm hoping he learns the postal abbreviations this time through. He used Visits to North America (Simply Charlotte Mason) and Sheppard's Software.

Caleb thought this was the perfect place to read Hittite Warrior.

In religion, Caleb finished Ablaze: Stories of Daring Teen Saints last week. I didn't get much in narrations out of him from this book and I'm looking forward to the exam next week to see what I can get out of him. ; ) Since he finished it earlier than expected, he didn't have any saint readings this week and instead read in Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism #2.

Caleb continued reading Exploring the World of Physics and watching related video on The Happy Scientist. He learned about wave motion and light. The physic book is challenging for Caleb and his narrations are so-so or nonexistent. We cut his readings in half but he is still struggling. This is on my to-do list to fix. Any ideas? Maybe a different topic in science? Perhaps this is too hard? Do we need to do some work to get him ready for high school level science? I have a lot of questions!

Caleb is progressing nicely in his new math book. We switched to Saxon 8/7 (from Math-U-See Zeta) almost a month ago. He is liking this math program much better and our lessons are much smoother. He completed lessons 12-15 this week and test 2. There is a lot of review in these early lessons but they are a must for Caleb since we have some gaps due to the different scope and sequence of MUS. Caleb has also been using ALEKS and it looks like that didn't do that this week as assigned. ??? I need to see what happened!

I'm still struggling to get our language rich year up and running smoothly. This will be on my to-do list for the second term. 

Caleb finished his keyboarding book that we started last year. I'm glad this goal is checked off the list and that Tyler can start the book now. I will be encouraging Caleb to type written narrations and other writing assignments to improve his typing. He did this book completely on his own so I really don't know how he has done. I plan to add this to exams next week. 

Caleb completed Writing With Skill Level 1 week 4 this week. He was struggling just a little and I didn't give in and had him continue doing this on his own and he did just fine. Just being near him with the manual in my hand (to answer any questions) was key. I noticed he also does better to read the assignment out loud (no matter if I'm listening or not). This was a subject that he got side tracked and took way too much time.

Caleb also worked in his Fix It program, All About Spelling, and continued in The Lord of the Rings.

The boys went across the lake to pick up walnuts while I sat by the lake and read. Perfect! Can you see them? I'm zoomed in perfect good but still not close enough. I didn't see any reason to leave my spot.  ; )

Tyler (10 yo-5th grade)
Tyler is a fast worker which is good and bad. Sometimes he doesn't pay attention because he is more about speed. I also catch him reading only five minutes when he is suppose to read fifteen minutes. I need to work on these with him. 

Tyler is reading about ancient history and has been reading the Usborne Ancient History Encyclopedia on his own (I don't ask for narration from this book since it's not a living book). We moved The Story of the World 1 out of Morning Basket and Tyler reads this alone now. That went well this week (first week). We had to return The Cat of Bubastes CDs back to the library so I started to read this out loud. I had planned to take all year to read it but we are well over halfway through the book since we found it on CDs at the library. I will probably only read it once a week to Tyler. It's a difficult book for reading aloud!

I believe this is a Michaelmas Daisy (Aster as they are called here). I was wanting to find some of these for St. Michael's feast day and I found these on the path to the lake. I took a zoomed out picture so I would remember where to look next year!

In science, Tyler is continuing his weather study, reading The kid's Book of Weather Forecasting. Tyler is liking this book but it has "experiments" which are build your own weather devices which are not working out so well. I think he will have this finished in the next month. I added in watching some weather videos at The Happy Scientist. I also read to him a section in the Health 5 book from Seton. We have completed Chapter two which was all about teeth.

Tyler was the first to switch to Saxon math and I put him in 5/4 which has been easy for him. I used the test to see where we needed to start and I started him around lesson 20. He completed lesson 38-40, test 7, and did half of Investigation 4 this week. Tyler does well in math and it took this program to show that. He is happier with this program too and doesn't mind doing math.

Tyler started The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe about two weeks ago and he is enjoying it. Also, in language arts, Tyler is working steadily in All About Spelling, Fix It, and copywork. He wasn't getting anywhere with his handwriting with copywork so I slowed him down and I overlook it too. This has helped in his writing and I even noticed while doing dictation today that I'm seeing an improvement there too. Better handwriting is a big goal for us this year!

The boys were too tired to do some nature study on a path I've been waiting all summer to explore. I did have to go check out the dead tree that fell over in last week's storm.

 Next week is exam week and I have to get that all ready this weekend! I may be up late!

St. Michael's Day At Our House {2014}

This feast day is Tyler's namesake and of course St. Michael is one of his favorite Saints. Our church is named after St. Michael too. 

I was trying to think of something fun to do for the day and decided that the boys should shoot their bows at the devil. So, Scott drew a simple picture and Caleb decided to color it (we no longer have black markers). We hung it out on the archery target in the backyard and the boys do their duty and won the battle against the devil. The cat wasn't a fan of the devil and thought about tearing into him too.

Once Zebra was convinced that he wasn't allowed to tear up the picture nor use the bow, the boys got underway. I wonder what the neighbors thought!

 

Nature Study {Early Fall 2014}

We were able to get out and play around a little last week. We hit our usual spot on Tuesday afternoon for some nature study. It was a little hot! I wish we had gone out in the morning instead. That weather didn't last as we had rain the rest of the week and now it's cold!

The boys started off with some fishing. Tyler caught the most.

I brought out our Morning Basket and did some reading after fishing. 

We took a quick little walk down to the "lodge" and used a recently mowed path that went down the lake dam. Surprisingly it was filled with some nature. We saw a animal trail and Caleb followed it and it led to the overflow pipe from the lake. This trail was being used to get water. I'm including the picture I took of it but I guess it's one of those "you had to be there" things as it doesn't show well in the picture but it was a clearly marked path in real life. ; ) While examining that path we saw a wooly bear worm and we have been seeing a lot of those lately. 

 

The boys and I split after that and they went to go check out a dry creek bed and I took the main path back to the lake to do some reading. I think they only made it to the hay bales and climbed around on those.

On the way back, I discovered a path, that I love to use, had been mowed! It was almost waist tall during the summer and we hadn't been on it since early spring. It was just too hot to explore it though and I'm hoping to go back this week. It is along a fence with forest on the other side. We always discovered fascinating things on this path and I love seeing our favorite discoveries during different seasons.

I enjoyed about 30 minutes alone time for reading before the boys made it back to the lake. It was peaceful yet hard to stay focused on reading with all the sounds of nature around you.

We heard lots of birds (but saw hardly any) and mostly the sound of walnuts dropping. There was a tree across the lake that would drop several every time the wind blew. It sounded like gun shots. Caleb is excited to go back and start picking them up. 

A big fish caught our attention for a long time as it was splashing about. I've never seen fishing lines go out so fast but it was too far away and not interested in small grasshoppers.

The trees are thinking about changing and we are hoping to see how they held up to the storms we had on Wednesday and Thursday. I'm hoping to spend a whole day out at the family farm next week! It's fun but sometimes the sounds of nature make doing math difficult.

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real {September 11, 2014}

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Every Thursday, at Like Mother, Like Daughter!

I've not been able to do much with the blog lately. Scouts, school, cross country, church fall festival duties, and just the normal stuff has been filling my time. Maybe I'll get around to some posts soon??

Here is what has been going on around here the past week in a random {pretty, happy, funny, real}.

Remember this project (take #7)? It is done and it was taken out for a test drive last Saturday. One of the new tires isn't holding air, so that needs to be fixed and a helmet needs to be bought. Saturday's test drive was slow and a straight line!

While at the family farm we did a little fishing. I actually had to put a jackets on in the evening.

Boys trying to find crickets to fish with.

Not much movement out there!

I finally caught a Bluegill. Tyler caught several though!

On Monday we headed back out to the farm for some nature study. Just a short hike and finished up our Morning Basket reading too. Tons of grasshoppers and many frogs were found. Also, a spider was found and I admired the White snakeroot that we found along the trail to the lake. My Missouri Wildflowers by Edgar Denison (fifth edition) says this flower killed Abraham Lincoln's mother! "This plant is the cause of 'milk-sickness'; it is poisonous to cattle and killed many early settlers who drank poisoned milk . . . "

Tuesday was the first cross country meet. Caleb had a tough race (maybe we didn't feed him enough that day, nerves, or maybe the rain) but still finished 13 out of 154 and Tyler surprised us with 84th (I missed him coming through the finish line because I didn't expect him so early). (I blurred out the faces at the starting line since I didn't ask permission from the parents to post a picture of their kids on my blog.)

It rained off and on the whole time there and the boys got rained on while running which was tough for Caleb since he wears glasses. There were several rainbows during the meet!

They aren't wet from sweat but from the rain. They are looking forward to their next race.

  

The funny for the week are the pictures I found on the camera of the cat while taking the above pictures off. I think Tyler took them.

"No, you are mistaken if you thought that was me in the shower!"

How was your week?

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real {August 29, 2014}

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Every Thursday, here at Like Mother Like Daughter

{Pretty}

 

I shared this photo in my Mid-August Nature Study post. This is my new favorite nature picture. I love the water and all the different plants and the vivid color in the picture. 

{ Happy }

 

Today was mostly a good day of school. Students seemed pretty happy too.

 

I have "geography games" down to do on Fridays and it has been unplanned. Yet the boys always pick areas that they need to work on or worked on during map work earlier in the week. That makes a teacher mom happy!

 

{Funny}

 

Caleb walked into his bedroom after lunch and found a cat ball. We couldn't stop giggling and took a few pictures and the cat slept through it all. 

 

 

I also found some random pictures on my camera again. I told the boys to be careful doing that or they may see them on the blog. I don't know what is up with the bed picture or who is under the cover.

 

 

 

{Real}

 

One school distraction that is allowed is a weather stop. We love to go outside and watch a weather front pass through. It's more than staring at the radar. This one was from this afternoon.

 

 

Our First Month of School {2014-2015}

We have completed our first month of school and it has gone well. Of course, there were changes.

The biggest changes are always my doing. Usually something in me needs to change, an attitude or a habit. There is a lot of growth to be done as mom and teacher. Those must be done first before we expect our children and students to change.

I'm loving Pam's post at Everyday Snapshots, It's 3:16. How's Your Homeschool Plan Holding Up? Part 1 and Part 2. She gets it and has some wise words.

Our first set back was starting back to school at the end of July. It's always tough and I did expect it. Nothing makes you feel more like a weird homeschooler when you are back at school and everyone else is still on summer break.

Another issue that arose was that I had more planned for Caleb than could actually fit into our schooling hours. I had to cut out and rearrange. It was difficult. We are still working on this. This week I have everything fit into the schedule but our margin is very small. The question is whether we are disciplined enough to handle that. The answer is no at the moment and we are working on that.

I also had to rework our Morning Basket Plans. It was taking too much time and other subjects had greater priority. I also thinking I need to loop it. We are trying that this week. I'm not a looper . . . . I tend to think things are optional when I try to loop them. I'll reevaluate at the end of the week.


I'm happy with almost all of our original plans. I wasn't too impressed with Our Mother Tongue just because I think it needs a workbook with it. Caleb wasn't impressed with Memoria Press's Botany study (Book of Trees). Tyler enjoys all his book.

I'm still working on fitting in all of Caleb's Language Art subjects and I still see myself playing around with the schedule on this. I did or will be changing out some books. Memoria Press Classical Compositions has been replaced with Writing With Skill Level 1.I decided I needed to be less involved in his writing. WWS seems to be the perfect amount of involvement for me. Of course, we have only completed a week of the program (in a week's time I should add) which is far better than one day of lesson one in the MPCC over three weeks.  

 
Tyler, on the other hand, is getting done with school too early. It looks like we do have time for Latin this year.  ; )  Tyler disagrees! Actually I do too. I don't have time to teach it. Right now I'm trying to decided if I should increase Tyler's per subject time or throw in some extra books. 

I do have one BIG change for Tyler and I really hate to talk about it so I'll just whisper it. That would be math. His current program just isn't working for him. I have something different coming our way. That's another post though.

Zebra sleeping through Morning Basket.

 

Our Trip to Kansas

We decided to make a day trip to visit my brother and his family and meet their new baby girl. They live just over the border in Kansas. We went to Kansas to see Dorothy. I just had to say it and I promise I won't say it again (sorry Deanna)!

I had promised the boys a trip to Legoland Discovery Center in Kansas City since it opened a few years ago and we finally turned that promise in on this trip too. We also visited Sea Life since it was in the same building and the ticket prices were cheaper to purchase them together.

Tyler loved Legoland and Caleb was too old for it. I think he enjoyed the 4D movies though and one of the rides. Sea Life was nice, but it was really set up for the preschool age kids. As an adult, I had to do a lot of looking down. We also did lunch at Fritz's (your lunch is delivered by train).

We ended the day visiting with my sister-in-law and passing the baby around for a couple of hours. After my brother got home from work and my nephew (age 3) from school, we went out to dinner at Spin Pizza (Gelato may be my new favorite). We headed back home after that and arrived in the driveway at 10 pm (left the house at 7:30 am).

Here is a ton of pictures from the day. The ones from Sea Life are a little blurry because it was dark and flash wasn't allowed. I also go no pictures of my brother, sister-in-law, and my nephew. Only of the baby! My nephew was really happy to see the boys and I wish I had gotten some pictures of his excitement.  We can't wait to see her again! Oh, and of course the rest of the family!