Surviving Week One of the 2009-2010 School Year

We have managed to conquer our first week of school for three of the girls this week. I would say we have definitely accomplished a lot! This is a condensed list of all the learning that has taken place in our home this week:

• 25 math lessons: place value to billions, inequalities
• 17 literature lessons: “Chanticleer and the Fox”, “It Could Always Be Worse,” “Chura and Marwe”, “The Tiger’s Whisker”, “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening”, “The Story of Scarface”; “Beowulf”
• 15 language arts lessons: vocabulary, spelling, parts of speech, kinds of sentences, conjunctions and interjections, prepositions
• 13 social studies lessons: Geography, American History after 1865, American Government
• 10 science lessons: ecosystems, producers, consumers, decomposers, physical systems, measurement and the international system
• 10 Spanish lessons: greetings, Spanish alphabet, Spanish comparisons
• 4 art lessons: kinds of art, an artist’s role

That’s an amazing 94 lessons in just one week! We even survived it all with no tears or temper tantrums. I was very impressed with how cooperative and excited Jordann and Whitney were to begin their school year. I am hoping that it will still be smooth sailing as I begin my semester on Monday.

A New School Year Begins

It's hard to believe that summer is coming to a close and that we have just begun a new year of school for the girls. We are continuing our journey with home education and will be maneuvering through 4th grade, 8th grade and 12th grade. Let the fun begin!

I had to take some photos of the girls on their first day of school. I was even able to capture a few without them rolling their eyes!

I will be returning to school next week and forging ahead in my quest to finish my teaching certification, while Megan will begin her second year at college late in September, pursuing a secondary teaching certification in History.

We are all looking forward to learning new concepts and ideas, as well as getting back to a more structured schedule for the fall. I hope we all still feel that way after the first day of school is completed!

A Solemn Summer

Our family has spent the summer coping with the declining health of my father and his diagnosis of end stage renal failure. There have been many peaks and valleys over the last couple of months, but his condition seems to be stabilizing. We are reflecting about the impact he has had on all of our lives and cherishing the time we have left with him.

We are striving to return to as much normalcy as possible for the remainder of the summer and make educational plans for myself and the girls.

Automobile Lapbook

This week I've been working on the automobile lapbook.

I have learned about the transmission, the clutch, the engine, the crankshaft, and the first car made.

Carl Benz was the first person to invent a car. It wasn't safe and it could sometimes knock an arm off the driver when the driver was trying to start it.

Henry Ford later invented a much safer car - The Model T Ford. This car was also affordable, but other cars that were invented were mostly for wealthier people.

After learning about old automobiles and the inventors, the older automobiles are really cool. It's really neat to learn about how the cars changed throughout the years.

I look forward to learning more about cars. Although, I don't have to do a lapbook to learn about cars, all I have to do is listen to Dad!

This is the fourth lapbook I have finished. I am currently working on the Renaissance lapbook and it is really exciting!

Middle Ages Lapbook

This week I worked on a lapbook for summer. It was supposed to keep me busy for a couple of weeks, but it ended up taking two days. This is my third lapbook I have completed.

Out of my astronomy, heart, and this one, this one is my favorite one. 

I learned about the medicine they used, which is basically none. If you got sick then it was because you were very sinful. It was God's punishment. 

Hats of the middle ages were very interesting. Some were not even hats, they were just cloth that covered your head. 

When boys became knights, it started at the age of seven and goes throughout their childhood. Through the whole thing they are training knights. They go to a knight's house and do things for him so they can learn what it is like to be a knight. 

I got to learn more about Leif the Lucky and Eric the Red. I forgot that Leif the Lucky was Eric's son. When I read that it reminded me of reading a book about Leif. 

For my next lapbook, I'd like to learn more about the history of different wars the United States was involved in.

Pizza Science

Whitney is just learning to be creative in the kitchen.  She always wants to cook with Mom, but never with the help of her sisters.  (I think there might be just a bit of sibling rivalry going on there!)  She decided that she wanted to help make pizza dough even after I explained how messy it can get.  She cannot stand to have any glue on her fingers when we do paper projects, so I wasn't sure how well she was going to handle the stickiness of pizza dough.  She started out very industrious.

Then she wanted to really know how the dough felt and what she could do with it.  She didn't really care that the purpose was to knead the dough rather than pull it all apart and dissect it.  She was quite fascinated with what happens to water and flour when you mix them together.

I finally persuaded her to add more flour so that we would actually have a finished product that we could eat!

And in the end, she was threatening everyone to stay out of "her" kitchen so that she could make it all by herself!  Surprisingly enough, it was pretty good.  

The Dog Days of Summer

Although the puppy looks cute, I think he really is a demon!  This is our second summer with a very active Siberian Husky.  This morning he demonstrated his ability to turn on the water (all by himself) in the back yard and dig a nice, muddy hole....all this occurred prior to breakfast!

So far this summer he has managed to dig multiple holes in the yard, lift off the irrigation covers and chew them, prune all the bushes to a 1" height, and chew through the wires for the air conditioning unit.  I can hardly wait to see what the rest of the summer brings!