A homeschooler in math class!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Teatime Tuesday Poetry
Stars
By Sara Teasdale
Alone in the night
On a dark hill
With pines around me
Spicy and still,
And a heaven full of stars
Over my head,
White and topaz
And misty red;
Myriads with beating
Hearts of fire
That aeons
Cannot vex or tire;
Up the dome of heaven
Like a great hill,
I watch them marching
Stately and still,
And I know that I
Am honored to be
Witness
Of so much majesty.
We discussed the imagery in the first two stanzas. Imagery is when an author appeals to one or more senses.
Then, we looked at the third stanza and I asked what had the beating hearts. We discussed the personification, a figure of speech where human qualities or abilities are given to inanimate objects or abstract notions, of stars.
In the fourth stanza we discussed the paradox of stars that march and are still. A paradox is a statement that seems to contradict itself, but on closer inspection, does not. Stars are still in that they continue to occupy the place in space and yet because the earth turns on its axis they appear to march across the night sky.
After discussing literary terms, we briefly discussed how this poem can mean different things. On the surface, this poem is about stargazing and well suited for reading aloud to young children. However, a mature person may see the night as dark as dark periods in a person’s life and the stars as hope, reassurance, or divine guidance.
By Sara Teasdale
Alone in the night
On a dark hill
With pines around me
Spicy and still,
And a heaven full of stars
Over my head,
White and topaz
And misty red;
Myriads with beating
Hearts of fire
That aeons
Cannot vex or tire;
Up the dome of heaven
Like a great hill,
I watch them marching
Stately and still,
And I know that I
Am honored to be
Witness
Of so much majesty.
We discussed the imagery in the first two stanzas. Imagery is when an author appeals to one or more senses.
Then, we looked at the third stanza and I asked what had the beating hearts. We discussed the personification, a figure of speech where human qualities or abilities are given to inanimate objects or abstract notions, of stars.
In the fourth stanza we discussed the paradox of stars that march and are still. A paradox is a statement that seems to contradict itself, but on closer inspection, does not. Stars are still in that they continue to occupy the place in space and yet because the earth turns on its axis they appear to march across the night sky.
After discussing literary terms, we briefly discussed how this poem can mean different things. On the surface, this poem is about stargazing and well suited for reading aloud to young children. However, a mature person may see the night as dark as dark periods in a person’s life and the stars as hope, reassurance, or divine guidance.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Friday- Homeschool Week in Review for Duncan
As some of you may have noticed, Kumon was conspicuously missing from last week’s week in review. Well, Duncan is taking the month off. A little girl who has been in Kumon with him for over two and a half year is taking the month off, so I made a split second decision to give him a break, too. I am still working there three half days a week and he will return in February.
Language Arts
Duncan continued his study of Christina Rossetti. He participated in Teatime Tuesday Poetry where we talked about onomatopoeia and read Chickadee by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
He read Los Ojos del Tejedor- The Eyes of the Weaver by Cristina Ortega from Calvert Grade 3 Discoveries in Reading. We didn’t do any beautiful Chimayo weaving, but Duncan did weave a potholder!
He loved making this. There were enough loops to make two potholders. However, while making the second one he messed up a loop. Then, he became very upset that he wouldn’t have enough loops to finish. Needless to say, I went online and ordered more loops, but now he must wait until they arrive to finish the second.
I read aloud pp. 37-39 from Milo Winter’s Aesop for Children, King Lear from Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by Nesbit, and chapter 2 Excalibur from Merlin and the Making of a King retold by Margaret Hodges.
Duncan played some in his beginning cursive book, did Wordly Wise Book 2 Lesson 10, completed Easy Grammar 3 pp.65-68, Plaid Phonics C pp.73-77, and continued copying his poem that teaches the names of the Presidents through Wilson.
Math
He completed Key to Fractions Book 4 pp.9-13 and Saxon 65 lessons 53-56.
Science
This week Duncan read Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science: Earthquakes. We also read about earthquakes in Lyrical Earth Science and Geology Crafts for Kids. Unfortunately, we were able to read about and see on the news the destruction caused by the earthquake Haiti.
“An earthquake is the sudden shaking of the earth caused by slipping of the crust.” Lyrical Earth Science
This was the sentence we repeated this week.
He also watched some science videos from the library: Magic School Bus Gets Eaten (food chains), Magic School Bus Inside the Haunted House (sound), and Magic School Bus Ready, Set, Dough (kitchen chemistry).
Duncan played with a Gearbotics robot kit this week. These aren’t absolutely wonderful, so I’m not going to rave about them. Once assembled, they tend to fall apart when the robot moves. Anyway, we own it and he likes it.
History and Geography
Duncan again played with The Seven Continents of the World Jigsaw Book.
We continued studying Vikings and finished The Real Vikings by Melvin and Gilda Berger.
We learned that although many Norsemen did go i Viking to raid and to loot, many others took to the sea as merchants and explorers.
Foreign Language
Duncan used Rosetta Stone Farsi three times this week for about 10 minutes each time.
Twice he listened to Buenas Noches, Luna (Good Night, Moon) on audio while he looked at the book.
Arts
Duncan practiced violin about 20 minutes a day, but he didn’t have a lesson this week. He just started at end of the summer/ beginning of this school year. His instructor is a fiddle player who uses some traditional, some Suzuki, and some fiddle material. We end up going to see her maybe three times each month, so nothing super serious- just fun.
We just started using Essential Elements Violin Book 1. This week he did a line each day from page 7. After he finished that, he played in order-
Lightly Row (Suzuki)
Go Tell Aunt Rhody (Suzuki)
Allegro (Suzuki)
Mary Had a Little Lamb (for fun)
Old Joe Clark (fiddle)
May Song (Suzuki)
Long, Long Ago (Suzuki)
We listen to the song on the Suzuki CD before he plays it.
We continued looking at Masaccio. This week we looked in Sister Wendy’s 1000 Masterpieces.
We continued listening to the music of Hildegard von Bingen.
This week Duncan played with tissue paper. All you do is cut up squares of tissue paper and apply them to paper with liquid starch on a large paint brush. These were difficult to photograph, because Duncan put on so much liquid starch that the paper didn’t lay flat once it dried. So, lesson learned. If you just hand off a cup of liquid starch and squares of tissue paper, use a cardboard backing.
Then, we also used the tissue paper and some crayon shavings to make wax paper stained glass. These are pretty. If you hold them in front of a window, the light comes right through the tissue paper like stained glass. The child arranges the tissue paper and crayon shavings on a piece of wax paper that is sitting on an old towel. You place another piece of wax paper on top of it, throw an old t-shirt over the wax paper, and iron the two wax sheets together. Remember- the crayon shavings melt and spread. These are fun and kids seem to like them.
You can use Ed Emberley’s Drawing Book of Animals to cut out basic shapes and assemble them as animals. This is Duncan’s fox. One of his eyes melted and spread too much, but I love the wildflowers. (The tissue paper pieces are brighter colors than they appear in the photos.)
I named this one Fiesta, but upon looking at it more closely I see a smiley face. The two purple dots are the eyes; the big green blob coming from the right is the nose; the little purple dots in a curving row are the mouth.
I know it is well after Christmas, but we made a tree anyway. I thought it was a good idea that would get rid of the rest of the crayon shavings.
Language Arts
Duncan continued his study of Christina Rossetti. He participated in Teatime Tuesday Poetry where we talked about onomatopoeia and read Chickadee by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
He read Los Ojos del Tejedor- The Eyes of the Weaver by Cristina Ortega from Calvert Grade 3 Discoveries in Reading. We didn’t do any beautiful Chimayo weaving, but Duncan did weave a potholder!
He loved making this. There were enough loops to make two potholders. However, while making the second one he messed up a loop. Then, he became very upset that he wouldn’t have enough loops to finish. Needless to say, I went online and ordered more loops, but now he must wait until they arrive to finish the second.
I read aloud pp. 37-39 from Milo Winter’s Aesop for Children, King Lear from Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by Nesbit, and chapter 2 Excalibur from Merlin and the Making of a King retold by Margaret Hodges.
Duncan played some in his beginning cursive book, did Wordly Wise Book 2 Lesson 10, completed Easy Grammar 3 pp.65-68, Plaid Phonics C pp.73-77, and continued copying his poem that teaches the names of the Presidents through Wilson.
Math
He completed Key to Fractions Book 4 pp.9-13 and Saxon 65 lessons 53-56.
Science
This week Duncan read Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science: Earthquakes. We also read about earthquakes in Lyrical Earth Science and Geology Crafts for Kids. Unfortunately, we were able to read about and see on the news the destruction caused by the earthquake Haiti.
“An earthquake is the sudden shaking of the earth caused by slipping of the crust.” Lyrical Earth Science
This was the sentence we repeated this week.
He also watched some science videos from the library: Magic School Bus Gets Eaten (food chains), Magic School Bus Inside the Haunted House (sound), and Magic School Bus Ready, Set, Dough (kitchen chemistry).
Duncan played with a Gearbotics robot kit this week. These aren’t absolutely wonderful, so I’m not going to rave about them. Once assembled, they tend to fall apart when the robot moves. Anyway, we own it and he likes it.
History and Geography
Duncan again played with The Seven Continents of the World Jigsaw Book.
We continued studying Vikings and finished The Real Vikings by Melvin and Gilda Berger.
We learned that although many Norsemen did go i Viking to raid and to loot, many others took to the sea as merchants and explorers.
Foreign Language
Duncan used Rosetta Stone Farsi three times this week for about 10 minutes each time.
Twice he listened to Buenas Noches, Luna (Good Night, Moon) on audio while he looked at the book.
Arts
Duncan practiced violin about 20 minutes a day, but he didn’t have a lesson this week. He just started at end of the summer/ beginning of this school year. His instructor is a fiddle player who uses some traditional, some Suzuki, and some fiddle material. We end up going to see her maybe three times each month, so nothing super serious- just fun.
We just started using Essential Elements Violin Book 1. This week he did a line each day from page 7. After he finished that, he played in order-
Lightly Row (Suzuki)
Go Tell Aunt Rhody (Suzuki)
Allegro (Suzuki)
Mary Had a Little Lamb (for fun)
Old Joe Clark (fiddle)
May Song (Suzuki)
Long, Long Ago (Suzuki)
We listen to the song on the Suzuki CD before he plays it.
We continued looking at Masaccio. This week we looked in Sister Wendy’s 1000 Masterpieces.
We continued listening to the music of Hildegard von Bingen.
This week Duncan played with tissue paper. All you do is cut up squares of tissue paper and apply them to paper with liquid starch on a large paint brush. These were difficult to photograph, because Duncan put on so much liquid starch that the paper didn’t lay flat once it dried. So, lesson learned. If you just hand off a cup of liquid starch and squares of tissue paper, use a cardboard backing.
Then, we also used the tissue paper and some crayon shavings to make wax paper stained glass. These are pretty. If you hold them in front of a window, the light comes right through the tissue paper like stained glass. The child arranges the tissue paper and crayon shavings on a piece of wax paper that is sitting on an old towel. You place another piece of wax paper on top of it, throw an old t-shirt over the wax paper, and iron the two wax sheets together. Remember- the crayon shavings melt and spread. These are fun and kids seem to like them.
You can use Ed Emberley’s Drawing Book of Animals to cut out basic shapes and assemble them as animals. This is Duncan’s fox. One of his eyes melted and spread too much, but I love the wildflowers. (The tissue paper pieces are brighter colors than they appear in the photos.)
I named this one Fiesta, but upon looking at it more closely I see a smiley face. The two purple dots are the eyes; the big green blob coming from the right is the nose; the little purple dots in a curving row are the mouth.
I know it is well after Christmas, but we made a tree anyway. I thought it was a good idea that would get rid of the rest of the crayon shavings.
Friday- Homeschool Week in Review for Grayson
Yes, this is Grayson with the workboxes. I asked him to go put up a book so that I could take a photo that had a size reference. This is what my goofy child did.
(For reference, Grayson is about 5’7” if he would bother to stand straight.)
So, the top 12 drawers belong to Grayson and the bottom 12 belong to Duncan. On Grayson’s drawers two have two numbers for a total of 14 things to do. Although they are Velcro, Grayson never removes his numbers. Oh, and the numbers do not represent a schedule. I don’t really care in what order they complete their drawers.
Duncan likes to move his numbers to his completed vine to the right of the boxes.
Alright, we’ve had a bunch of little things to do this week that required leaving the house. This meant that not quite as much was accomplished as last week, but it also meant that Grayson has had plenty of car time that he used to read the Twilight books.
Religious Studies
Grayson continued reading through The 100 Most Important Events in Christian History and Christian History Made Easy.
Language Arts
Grayson continued with Literary Lessons from The Lord of the Rings. Grayson fills in the student pages, but we discuss the information rather than using the writing assignments.
This week in Bullfinch’s Mythology King Arthur and His Knights Grayson finished chapters 4 and 5.
He began studying clauses in his online Grammar program.
Grayson finished Twilight last weekend and New Moon this week. He just began Eclipse on Thursday.
This week Grayson informed me that he just can’t write. In this regard, he is exhausting. Putting thoughts on paper comes naturally to me and my oldest, so perhaps he is intimidated, because both Christian and I actually enjoy writing. Anyway, we are stepping way back and taking a different approach. This week I ordered Apologia’s Jump-In! and we began looking through the free chapter that is on their website.
Algebra 2
On Tuesday he went to the math tutor and spent the rest of the week doing review problems for a quiz that the tutor plans to give him next week.
Human Anatomy
This week for in Human Anatomy Grayson completed Body by Design Chapter 14. We skimmed the DK's The Human Body Book section on reproductive systems. (We already covered most of this section with Abeka’s health last year.) He also watched 2 videos from the How Stuff Works Website and a lecture from The Teaching Company’s- Understanding the Human Body.
Physics
Grayson completed Conceptual Physics Chapter 19 and watched the second lecture from The Teaching Company’s Physics in Your Life.
History
This week in TRISMS EOC Grayson continued studying the early Christians. He completed some vocabulary, a worksheet about the early Christian church prior to the fall of Rome, and the vocabulary quiz. Today he will take a quiz over this week and last week.
In TRISMS EOC’s language arts component Grayson read selections from Augustine’s City of God and discussed them with me.
Spanish
Grayson spent about 45 minutes each day working on SOS Spanish.
Arts
Grayson continued listening to the music of Hildegard von Bingen and looking at the works of Masaccio. As part of TRISMS EOC, he looked online at information about Old St. Peter’s Basilica. He also watched lectures 18 and 19 from The Teaching Company’s Great Artists of the Italian Renaissance.
Life Skills
Grayson continued moseying his way through Ourselves by Charlotte Mason.
(For reference, Grayson is about 5’7” if he would bother to stand straight.)
So, the top 12 drawers belong to Grayson and the bottom 12 belong to Duncan. On Grayson’s drawers two have two numbers for a total of 14 things to do. Although they are Velcro, Grayson never removes his numbers. Oh, and the numbers do not represent a schedule. I don’t really care in what order they complete their drawers.
Duncan likes to move his numbers to his completed vine to the right of the boxes.
Alright, we’ve had a bunch of little things to do this week that required leaving the house. This meant that not quite as much was accomplished as last week, but it also meant that Grayson has had plenty of car time that he used to read the Twilight books.
Religious Studies
Grayson continued reading through The 100 Most Important Events in Christian History and Christian History Made Easy.
Language Arts
Grayson continued with Literary Lessons from The Lord of the Rings. Grayson fills in the student pages, but we discuss the information rather than using the writing assignments.
This week in Bullfinch’s Mythology King Arthur and His Knights Grayson finished chapters 4 and 5.
He began studying clauses in his online Grammar program.
Grayson finished Twilight last weekend and New Moon this week. He just began Eclipse on Thursday.
This week Grayson informed me that he just can’t write. In this regard, he is exhausting. Putting thoughts on paper comes naturally to me and my oldest, so perhaps he is intimidated, because both Christian and I actually enjoy writing. Anyway, we are stepping way back and taking a different approach. This week I ordered Apologia’s Jump-In! and we began looking through the free chapter that is on their website.
Algebra 2
On Tuesday he went to the math tutor and spent the rest of the week doing review problems for a quiz that the tutor plans to give him next week.
Human Anatomy
This week for in Human Anatomy Grayson completed Body by Design Chapter 14. We skimmed the DK's The Human Body Book section on reproductive systems. (We already covered most of this section with Abeka’s health last year.) He also watched 2 videos from the How Stuff Works Website and a lecture from The Teaching Company’s- Understanding the Human Body.
Physics
Grayson completed Conceptual Physics Chapter 19 and watched the second lecture from The Teaching Company’s Physics in Your Life.
History
This week in TRISMS EOC Grayson continued studying the early Christians. He completed some vocabulary, a worksheet about the early Christian church prior to the fall of Rome, and the vocabulary quiz. Today he will take a quiz over this week and last week.
In TRISMS EOC’s language arts component Grayson read selections from Augustine’s City of God and discussed them with me.
Spanish
Grayson spent about 45 minutes each day working on SOS Spanish.
Arts
Grayson continued listening to the music of Hildegard von Bingen and looking at the works of Masaccio. As part of TRISMS EOC, he looked online at information about Old St. Peter’s Basilica. He also watched lectures 18 and 19 from The Teaching Company’s Great Artists of the Italian Renaissance.
Life Skills
Grayson continued moseying his way through Ourselves by Charlotte Mason.
Friday Homeschool Update- Christian
What is the big guy up to?
Well, Christian did Spanish 2 for his tutorial. He finished up his New Testament survey for half a credit. He went to the math tutor and began preparing for the Pre-calculus CLEP exam.
He also began working on his half credit in economics. The goal is to keep up with Spanish, do a little test prep, and spend the rest of his time for the next few weeks knocking out this required economics credit.
Well, Christian did Spanish 2 for his tutorial. He finished up his New Testament survey for half a credit. He went to the math tutor and began preparing for the Pre-calculus CLEP exam.
He also began working on his half credit in economics. The goal is to keep up with Spanish, do a little test prep, and spend the rest of his time for the next few weeks knocking out this required economics credit.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Read-Aloud Thursday
The read-aloud this week is Sylvester and Magic Pebble by William Steig. We have been reading Aesop this year and the tale of Sylvester has the same feel. If it had a little moral, it would be something like this-
If you give a silly ass a wish, he is sure to make a silly one.
An Aesop fable would have ended right there with the donkey making a silly wish, but William Steig continues on to have the donkey's parents inadvertently correct the situation. The book ends happily with the parents and the little donkey snuggled together on their couch. At this point, the moral could be-
A loving family is a content family that has no need for wishes.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Wordless Wednesday: Mid to Late 1800's Graveyard
Yes, the "tree stump" on the left is actually a grave marker!
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