Wednesday, March 17, 2010

A Fun Science Article

The March 2010 Reader's Digest
has an interesting article titled
Mad Science, The craziest discoveries,
inventions, and experiments ever!


This is written in a fun style by
Andy Simmons.

I just threw it into one of our very
full days as a quick way to get some
science and discussions going as we
were on the go. It worked.
They brought some of these things up
to Warren later.
Funny.

I edited a couple of the inventions...
but that is just me.
Sensitive.
You may not find the need to do so.

Becky K.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

A Few Thought Provoking Blog Posts

www.art.com

I occasionally read a blog written by a pastor's wife who home educated her own children - who are now all grown. She writes encouraging posts about the home, and family life and I found two today regarding the The Importance of Homeschooling and Personal Reasons to Homeschool. Both of these posts were reinforcements to me to remember why I have chosen to home educate my children.

Monday, March 8, 2010

A Book List

Some of you have asked for more
specifics on the books we have
used in our Homeschool...

I reviewed some of my notes from
years past and have a partial list
for you....

History:
The Thieves of Ostia
The Secrets of Vesuvius
The Assassins of Rome


The Broken Song
Fire in the Hills


The Earth Dragon Awakes

Anastasia
The Journal of Douglas Allen Deeds
Isabel, Jewel of Castilla


Mary Slessor

The Hittite Warrior

Cooper Kids – Just for Fun...
Secret of the Desert Stone
Trapped at the Bottom of the Sea
Door in the Dragon’s Throat
Escape from the Island of Aquarius
The Tombs of Anak


Sutter’s Cross

Many of the books on this list were from a school
year where we worked more in Unit Study.
I had the kids make a geography map book
about each place we studied. They enjoyed
documenting the many places and I loved making
the history, english, science and literature
connections.
I would place many of these at the 5th - 9th
grade level. Of course, you should always
preview the books and judge for yourselves.

Enjoy!

Monday, March 1, 2010

Where are You in Your School Year?

We are hard at work completing our
goals. I just thought I would share
what those are for the time being.

Literature:
The Time Machine - Reading and discussion in coordination with a Class all three are taking at our Co-op.

Mikey is finishing a sci-fi trilogy for his independent reading and has
subscribed to a couple of Horticulture Magazines.
He constantly reads online about dirtbike interests.

Chelsea is an avid reader and writes a bunch too.
She has a pen pal this year to whom she emails long,
long epistles at the same time they play geography
games online. Choosing a location and letting the
other try to figure it out by asking questions.

Jonathan reads online very frequently about music.
He loves contemporary Christian Music and is very
well versed in the various groups and their new
releases.
I do want to find one more novel or non-fiction for
him to read before the end of the school year...
not necessary but I would just like to have that
one last thing completed.

US History - Using mostly BJU's The American Republic.
The kids are also taking a Political Science Class at Co-op.

Vocabulary - Vocabulous!, an online resource, and is also covered in the Time Machine Book Study.

Body By Design - An awesome, if somewhat complex, look at the human body.
The boys took a Health and Body class at Co-op last semester.

Math - sigh...our weakness. However, we are attempting to do a real life look at math in our daily world. They are paying bills, budgeting and managing both real and pretend money.

Jonathan- Writing a novel. He is currently painting his cover illustration with watercolors.

Mikey - Making a Terrarium. He is designing, purchasing supplies and will make at least one of these as his Spring Horticulture project.

Chelsea - Continuing her love of baking. Cakes, cookies, pastries. Since we are more than saturated with sweets at the moment her project for today is to make Red Lobster's Cheddar Biscuits to go with dinner tonight.

Other classes and interests...drama class for Chelsea at Co-op, Jonathan and Mikey are in a Leadership Class. We bowl weekly, Chelsea and Mikey rollerblade weekly, I count the Bible from Church as well as what we do here. Pastor Mike is very good with World and Bible History. He teaches this intensely during our Sunday School Times. There is rocketry, Risk, Chess, Ultimate Frisbee...we have a very busy world as a classroom. And that is just the way we like it.

I am out of time for this post...but this is a snapshot of where we sit at the beginning of March 2010. Much to do....Much has been completed.

Have a very happy Homeschool Day!

Becky K.

A Vocabulary Web Site



This morning Chelsea could
not locate her vocabulary book.

I moved it when I was working
on the living room for my posts
on the decor makeover.

Before I located the existing
book I hopped online to see
what I might find for Chelsea
to go ahead and do some vocab
today.

This is fun.
She liked it.
I let her use an online dictionary
and it went quickly but the words were
mostly new to her.

Vocabulous!

Online Dictionary

Have a great day!

Why the photo of the shoes?
I don't know.
It was there....
~Smile~

Becky K.