Friday- Homeschool Week in Review for Duncan

Master Duncan has decided that he wants to go to school. We passed a local public school twice this week as they were letting out.

Why does he want to go to school you ask? I inquired. His reply was to ask another question.

“What do they do in first grade math? Are they only doing 6x3?”

I replied, “I don’t think they do multiplication in a first grade traditional classroom?”

“Whoa, so they do like 6+3?”

“I think so,” I reluctantly admitted.

“Cool, then I definitely want to go there.”

He decided that the work would be easier, so he wants to go the public school. The child is in first grade and has decided he wants to be a slacker. He is also under the mistaken impression that he will be finished faster and get to come home and play. Christian tried to correct Duncan’s idea of how a classroom functions, but I don’t think the little man got it.

Now, I am not a homeschool-is-the-only-way kind of gal. I would certainly listen to a request to attend a traditional classroom that was based on a logical argument, but this is ridiculous.

Anyway, it is snowing like crazy which is unusual for middle Tennessee. He has a friend over and they have played in the snow and played Wii.


However, he is being a grump. He has said that he is bored. The first time I let it slide, but now he has said it again. He is currently cleaning baseboards while his friend plays Wii. Arrgh!

Language Arts
Duncan continued his study of Christina Rossetti. He finished memorizing his second poem and next week we will start on a third. We also read Rossetti poems other than those he is memorizing.

I read aloud pp. 42-43 from Milo Winter’s Aesop for Children. For read-aloud Thursday we read Madeline.

Duncan read chapters 1-4 of Sword in the Tree.

Duncan played some in his beginning cursive book, did Wordly Wise Book 2 Lesson 12 and Plaid Phonics C pp.84-90.

Math
Duncan completed Key to Fractions Book 4 pp.22-26 and Saxon 65 lessons 62-63. Duncan didn’t go to the math tutor, but he finished MEP 3A pp. 7-8.

Science
This week Duncan learned about mountains. He read Let’s-Read-And-Find-Out Science How Mountains Are Made.

We learned the highest peaks on each of the continents.

I read aloud chapters 3 and 4 from The Story Book of Science.

He also watched some science videos from the library: Magic School Bus Human Body, Magic School Bus Kicks up a Storm (weather), and Bill Nye the Science Guy: Gravity.

History and Geography
Duncan again played with The Seven Continents of the World Jigsaw Book. We focused on the countries of Europe.

We studied the Battle of Hastings. We read p.218 in the Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History and SOTW2 pp.136-139.

We learned that in 1066 William the Conqueror defeated King Harold of England at the Battle of Hastings.

Arts
Duncan practiced violin about 20 minutes a day and had a lesson Monday afternoon.

We began looking at the sculptures Donatello and listening to Gregorian chants.

This week we talked about primary colors and Duncan painted a beach ball rolling into the ocean using only primary colors.


We read Madeline this week and her friends brought her flowers to the hospital, so Duncan finger painted an impressionist version of a flower garden and sponge painted some additional flowers.

Friday- Homeschool Week in Review for Grayson

Well, in addition to Duncan deciding he wants to go to school, Grayson is making me crazy spending way to much time playing online games!

Religious Studies
Grayson continued reading through The 100 Most Important Events in Christian History and Christian History Made Easy.

Language Arts
Grayson continued with The Lord of the Rings.

This week in Bullfinch’s Mythology King Arthur and His Knights Grayson finished chapters 8 and 9.

He continued using his online Grammar program.

Grayson finished Breaking Dawn. He also read a couple of Mouse Guard graphic novels- Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 and Mouse Guard: Winter 1152.

He also completed pp.13-18 in Jump-In.

Algebra 2
On Tuesday he went to the math tutor and spent the rest of the week doing Teaching Textbooks Lessons. Since Tuesday, he has reviewed 91 which they will wrap up next week and has begun working on 92-94 that are due next Tuesday.

Human Anatomy
This week for in Human Anatomy Grayson completed Body by Design Chapter 16 and watched 2 videos from the How Stuff Works Website. He also watched a lecture from The Teaching Company’s- Understanding the Human Body. This wraps up Grayson’s study of human anatomy. Although he will be watching the TC videos for the rest of the year, next week he begins forensics!

Physics
Grayson finished Conceptual Physics Chapter 20 and watched the fourth lecture from The Teaching Company’s Physics in Your Life.

History
This week in TRISMS EOC Grayson finished studying the Byzantine Empire. He a worksheet, some mapping, and an extra person of interest questionnaire on a Suleiman the Magnificent.

Spanish
Grayson spent about 45 minutes each day working on SOS Spanish.

Arts
Grayson began listening to Gregorian chants and looking at the works of Donatello. As part of TRISMS EOC, he looked online at information and in books at the mosaics of the Hagia Sophia. He also watched lecture 22 from The Teaching Company’s Great Artists of the Italian Renaissance.

Life Skills
Grayson continued moseying his way through Ourselves by Charlotte Mason. He did some ACT English practice questions.

Friday Homeschool Update- Christian

Another homeschool week with the big guy.

Christian sent an e-mail to Berea requesting a tour of the Biology department and inquiring how his community college credits will be applied.

Christian did Spanish 2 for his tutorial.

He went to the math tutor and continued preparing for the Pre-calculus CLEP exam.

He also continued working on his half credit in economics.

Christian also does quite a bit of reading and writing independently.

He is such a big teddy bear and I have no idea when that happened. Yesterday, he looked like this-

Christian (2 1/2 yo) found the cowboy gear I was trying to pack on moving day.

Today I looked over and the hat was bigger... and so was he.

Read-Aloud Thursday

Today we read Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans again. Paris holds a special significance for our family. Three and a half years ago we went to Europe. It is the only time that I have met my in-laws and so the only time Duncan has seen his paternal grandparents in person. Duncan barely remembers the trip, but we have great pictures in Paris in front of many of the same landmarks beautifully illustrated in Madeline. So, we read Madeline and looked at pictures of his Aziz, what Duncan calls his grandmother, holding a little sleeping Duncan at the base of the Eiffel Tower and other good memories.

Hey, Mom, isn't that the bridge Madeline climbed on?

Wordless Wednesday- Grayson Flies

His dad is tossing him in the air and is just to the right out of the shot. Grayson really wasn't very high. It just looks that way, because I was flat on my back on the ground. The photo was taken with an old point-and-shoot camera back in 1995.

Friday- Homeschool Week in Review for Duncan

Here is Duncan's week!

Language Arts
Duncan continued his study of Christina Rossetti. He participated in Teatime Tuesday Poetry where we talked about imagery, personification, and paradox in Stars by Sara Teasdale.

I read aloud pp. 40-41 from Milo Winter’s Aesop for Children, How the Whale Got His Throat from Just So Stories, and chapter 3, the final chapter, in 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 11, completed Easy Grammar 3 pp.69-73, Plaid Phonics C pp.78-83, and continued copying his poem that teaches the names of the Presidents through Wilson.

Math
Duncan completed Key to Fractions Book 4 pp.14-21 and Saxon 65 lessons 57-61. With the math tutor on Tuesday he began MEP 3! Because it is such a different approach, I started him where I was sure that he already had mastered the computation being taught and could just focus on how MEP approaches the concept. He finished MEP 3A pp. 1-6 and loved it!

Science
This week Duncan learned about volcanoes. We read about volcanoes in Lyrical Earth Science and Geology Crafts for Kids. Then, of course, we made a baking soda and vinegar volcano.

Some parts of a volcano- cone, crater, vent, magma, and lava. This is what Duncan repeated this week during science. It is primarily from an illustration in Lyrical Earth Science.

He also watched some science videos from the library: Magic School Bus Spins a Web (hunting habits of spiders), Magic School Bus Play Ball (forces and motion), and Magic School Bus Butterflies.

History and Geography
Duncan again played with The Seven Continents of the World Jigsaw Book. We focused on the countries of South America.

We studied King Alfred the Great. We read pp.214-215 in the Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History and SOTW2 pp.129-136

We learned that although Alfred is the only English monarch to be known as "the Great". In addition to defeating the Danes and protecting his people, he was a codifier of law, a promoter of education and a supporter of the arts.

Foreign Language
Duncan used Rosetta Stone Farsi twice this week for about 10 minutes each time.

Once he listened to Buenas Noches, Luna (Good Night, Moon) on audio while he looked at the book. I pulled out the old Spanish for Children from Passport Books and Duncan listened to the section on numbers and followed along in the book.

Arts
Duncan practiced violin about 20 minutes a day and had a lesson Tuesday morning.

We finished looking at Masaccio and listening to the music of Hildegard von Bingen.

This week Duncan did an abstract drawing from directions in Drawing with Children. This is fun and easy for children who can hold a ruler. It always turns out cool. He also drew a bird from the directions in drawing with Children, but he disliked this. The whole time he kept saying that he couldn’t draw, so he was irritated and thus sloppy while he colored it. I guess I need to go back to Ed Emberley’s books for a while.

He loved the volcano!


Abstract Exercise


Bird

Friday- Homeschool Week in Review for Grayson

Poor Grayson- he will be doing schoolwork tomorrow on Saturday. Since I went to Christian’s tutorial Monday morning and had to be at work at 3:30 Monday afternoon, we decided that his week would need to run from Tuesday to Saturday. However, Saturday will primarily be discussion and science, so it’s not too bad.

Religious Studies
Grayson continued reading through The 100 Most Important Events in Christian History and Christian History Made Easy.

Language Arts
Grayson continued with The Lord of the Rings.

This week in Bullfinch’s Mythology King Arthur and His Knights Grayson finished chapters 6, 7, and is reading 8.

He continued studying clauses in his online Grammar program.

Grayson finished Eclipse and is quickly finishing Breaking Dawn.

Algebra 2
On Tuesday he went to the math tutor and spent the rest of the week doing Teaching Textbooks Lessons 87-89. He needs to finish 90 and 91 by Tuesday afternoon.

Human Anatomy
This week for in Human Anatomy Grayson completed Body by Design Chapter 15 and watched 2 videos from the How Stuff Works Website. He also watched a lecture from The Teaching Company’s- Understanding the Human Body.

Physics
Grayson began Conceptual Physics Chapter 20 and watched the third lecture from The Teaching Company’s Physics in Your Life. He will be looking at more physics tomorrow.

History
This week in TRISMS EOC Grayson began studying the early Byzantium. He completed some vocabulary, a worksheet about the Byzantine civilization, and the vocabulary quiz.

In TRISMS EOC’s language arts component Grayson researched Corpus Juris Civilis (Justinian’s code) and wrote a tribute to Justinian for inscription on the base of a statue. He also researched Constantine and filled out a questionnaire about him.

Spanish
Grayson spent about 45 minutes each day working on SOS Spanish.

Arts
Grayson wrapped up our final week of 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 and in books at the Hagia Sophia. He also watched lectures 20 and 21 from The Teaching Company’s Great Artists of the Italian Renaissance.

Life Skills
Grayson continued moseying his way through Ourselves by Charlotte Mason. He did some ACT English practice questions.

16yo homeschooler attending a science lecture!

Friday Homeschool Update- Christian

What did the big guy do this week?

He filled out his intent to enroll form and sent it in with his deposit to Berea College!

I went with him to his tutorial Monday morning and picked up yearbook and graduation information. By this coming Monday, we need 7-10 pictures and a letter from the parent (mommy homework) for the yearbook. Argh! This is what happens when you are out of the loop.

Christian did Spanish 2 for his tutorial.

He went to the math tutor and continued preparing for the Pre-calculus CLEP exam. With the tutor he began working through the practice exam in the booklet that we downloaded from collegeboard.com. Between this Wednesday and next Wednesday he will be looking through chapters 10 and 11 in The Complete Idiot's Guide to Precalculus.

He also continued working on his half credit in economics.

Read-Aloud Thursday

Today we read Tico and the Golden Wings by Leo Lionni. Of course, the illustrations are fabulous Lionni drawings, but the story is also fabulous. Although this is another book that feels sort of like an Aesop fable, from it you can draw much more than one pithy little aphorism. The themes in Tico emcompass kindness, desire, giving, and individuality. Whoa, that's a lot for a little picture book and Lionni manages to cover all this without that didactic feeling that makes children roll their eyes!

Wordless Wednesday

A homeschooler in math class!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Wordless Wednesday: Mid to Late 1800's Graveyard

Yes, the "tree stump" on the left is actually a grave marker!

Teatime Tuesday Poetry

Onomatopoeia is when a word name imitates or suggests the sound associated with it. Frankly, I just like to say onomatopoeia. Isn’t it a fun word? onomatopoeia, onomatopoeia, onomatopoeia! he-he-he! Oh, wait he-he-he is an example of onomatopoeia, because it means laughter and imitates the sound of the laughter.

Can you find onomatopoeia in this poem?

Chickadee
by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Then piped a tiny voice hard by,
Gay and polite, a cheerful cry,
"Chick-a-dee-dee!" a saucy note
Out of sound heart and merry throat
As if it said, "Good day, good sir!
Fine afternoon, old passenger!
Happy to meet you in these places
Where January brings few faces."

When I think of onomatopoeia, cartoons always come to mind. Actually, the image that comes to mind is Roy Lichtenstein’s two panel work Whaam! My boys play an online video game where a player’s name is an example. His name is lasersgoPEWPEW!

Friday- Homeschool Week in Review for Duncan

Language Arts
Duncan participated in Teatime Tuesday Poetry where we read A Calendar by Sara Coleridge. He also began memorizing Christina Rossetti. We are starting with this one:

There’s snow on the fields,
And cold in the cottage,
While I sit in the chimney nook
Supping hot pottage.

My clothes are soft and warm,
Fold upon fold,
But I’m so sorry for the poor
Out in the cold.

He read In Good Hands: Behind the Scenes at a Center for Orphaned and Injured Birds by Stephan R. Swinburne from Calvert Grade 3 Discoveries in Reading.

I read aloud pp. 34-36 from Milo Winter’s Aesop for Children, East of the Sun and West of the Moon from Andrew Lang’s Blue Fairy Book, The Beginning of Armadillos from Just So Stories, and chapter 1 The Sword and the Stone from Merlin and the Making of a King retold by Margaret Hodges.

Duncan built a simple castle from the Klutz Card Castle Kit.


Our Thursday read-aloud book was Owl Moon. Together we did this great painting of a great horned owl in flight. The background is real easy- Duncan just painted blue and a little purple crayola paint with a giant brush. I painted the owl’s body and the wings are Duncan’s handprints.


Duncan played a little in his beginning cursive book, did Wordly Wise Book 2 Lesson 9, completed Easy Grammar 3 pp.60-64, Plaid Phonics C pp.67-72, and began copying a poem that teaches the names of the Presidents through Wilson.

Math
He completed Key to Fractions Book 4 pp.1-8 and Saxon 65 lessons 48-52.

Science
In science we learned about plate tectonics. He memorized the seven major plates as listed in Living Memory. We read about Alfred Wegener, continental drift and plate tectonics in Lyrical Earth Science and DK Eyewitness Earth.

Duncan also watched a bunch of science videos fromthe library: Magic School Bus Catches a Wave which includes three episodes (Wet All Over, Rocks and Rolls, and Ups and Downs), The Magic School Bus Gets Planted, and Eyewitness Bird.

Through Duncan's reader- In Good Hands, our Thursday read-aloud Owl Moon, our owl art project, Eyewitness Bird, and a library book- Owls by Tom Warhol, we have talked quite a bit about birds particularly raptors and specifically owls!

History and Geography
Duncan again played with The Seven Continents of the World Jigsaw Book.

We began studying about Vikings. We looked at Vikings in The Usborne Internet-Linked History Encyclopedia and chapter 14 of SOTW2. We also read chapters 1-4 from The Real Vikings by Gilda Berger.

Duncan did a Viking word search that I found online and we assembled the Viking boat from the SOTW2 activity guide. Honestly, this was a mommy project, uggh! Duncan did the head and tail. I did the boat and all the assembly.


Arts
Duncan went to a violin lesson on Tuesday and practiced about 30 minutes on Thursday and today. We ran out of time on Monday before I left for work and Wednesday I totally flaked.

We began looking at Masaccio in The Annotated Mona Lisa and Sister Wendy’s Story of Painting.

We began listening to the music of Hildegard von Bingen. She was a nun in the middle ages. We tried to imagine Giotto listening to this type of music while he painted the crucifixion.

Since we had snow yesterday and we already had the paints out for our owl painting Duncan painted some snow pictures.

This one is Prussian blue water color brushed onto wet water color paper then while still wet sprinkled with Kosher salt. This is so simple that it is fun to do even with preschoolers.


The salt crystals absorb some of the paint. After the paint is dry brush off the salt and it looks sort of like little snow flakes falling.


This is a splatter painting mimicking Frost by Howard Hodgkin except Duncan's is more of a blizzard. First, Duncan slapped on Prussian blue water color every which way. Then, after the water color dried he splattered on white acrylic paint. Next, he did a blue acrylic border. Finally, on the right side after smearing the blue acrylic back and forth he dipped the still blue tip into some white and smeared it along the edge.

Friday- Homeschool Week in Review for Grayson

Someone on a homeschool forum asked about how a Charlotte Mason week looks, so here is how Grayson's Charlotte Mason inspired schooling looks in action. This work is not completed by subject, but rather broken down into 14 workboxes of books. In other words, although here I have listed all of his language arts work together, it is actually scattered throughout his day.

Religious Studies
For a half a credit in Christian history Grayson is taking the year to slowly read through The 100 Most Important Events in Christian History and Christian History Made Easy. He is about halfway through both books.

Language Arts
Grayson is using Literary Lessons from The Lord of the Rings. He is into book2, but this week I went back and did the first two unit studies with him. The first unit study is about Tolkien’s life and the second is about linguistics. We just read through and discussed the information.

Grayson is also reading Bullfinch’s Mythology King Arthur and His Knights. This week he started story 4- Arthur. He will be reading King Arthur and His Knights all semester.

He is doing a free online English Grammar program.

This week he also began Twilight and is about half finished.

Algebra 2
Grayson didn’t do math on Monday, because he goes to the math tutor on Tuesday and had no work left to finish. On Tuesday he went to the math tutor and Wednesday through Friday he completed lessons 84-86 in TT Algebra 2.

Human Anatomy
This week for in Human Anatomy Grayson completed Body by Design Chapter 13 and DK's The Human Body Book pp.170-199. He also watched 4 videos from the How Stuff Works Website and lecture 14 from The Teaching Company’s Understanding the Human Body.

Physics
Grayson completed Conceptual Physics Chapter 18 and watched the first lecture from The Teaching Company’s Physics in Your Life.

History
This week in TRISMS EOC Grayson studied the Celts and the early Christians. He completed the vocabulary, completed a civilization questionnaire on the Celts, did map work, and today did the vocabulary quiz.

TRISMS EOC has a language arts component that I count as part of history. This week Grayson read a brief explanation about Celtic oral literary tradition. Then, he read an excerpt from The Colloquy of Two Sages- the portion about the genealogy of memory. He read a children’s book on St.Patrick and did further research online to write a human interest news paragraph about him. He watched an online History Channel video on Boudicca and did further research to write a short research report. Today he has read information online about St. Augustine of Hippo. He will also be reading the excerpt from Confessions describing Augustine’s conversion and reading Acts 9:1-9 describing Paul’s conversion. Then, he will be completing some short answer questions about Augustine. He will also be comparing the conversions of Augustine and Paul.

Spanish
There isn’t much to say. Grayson is using SOS Spanish and I stay out of it.

Arts
Grayson has listened to the music of Hildegard von Bingen and looked at the works of Masaccio. As part of TRISMS EOC, he looked online at images of The Good Shepherd from the Catacombs. He also watched lecture 17 from The Teaching Company’s Great Artists of the Italian Renaissance.

Life Skills
This is credit that I put on Christian’s transcript this year and likewise will put on Grayson’s his senior year. It consists of the usual things like learning to boil eggs and change a tire, but it also consists of books read that encourage personal growth. For example Christian read The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens and The Teenage Liberation Handbook.

Currently, Grayson is moseying his way through Ourselves by Charlotte Mason and doing some ACT prep.

Friday Homeschool Update- Christian

What do homeschooled seniors do in their final semester after they have already been accepted to college?

Well, Christian attends a tutorial for Spanish 2, so nothing will change there. This week and the beginning of next week he is spending the rest of his time finishing up his required, by his umbrella school, religious studies course. He is doing a New Testament survey.

We have a few things that are up in the air, but I will attempt to chronicle that as we figure it out.

Read-Aloud Thursday

In Owl Moon by Jane Yolen a young child goes out "owling" with his father. It is a lovely story and the pictures are outstanding in their interpretation.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy New Year!

Tuesday Teatime Poetry

Good Grief, I'm cold! Come in and enjoy some muffins while you read this rhyming couplet month poem.


A Calendar
by Sara Coleridge

January brings the snow,
Makes our feet and fingers glow.

February brings the rain,
Thaws the frozen lake again.

March brings breezes, loud and shrill,
To stir the dancing daffodil.

April brings the primrose sweet,
Scatters daisies at our feet.

May brings flocks of pretty lambs
Skipping by their fleecy dams.

June brings tulips, lilies, roses,
Fills the childrens hands with posies.

Hot July brings cooling showers,
Apricots and gillyflowers.

August brings the sheaves of corn,
Then the harvest home is borne.

Warm Septemper brings the fruit;
Sportsmen then begin to shoot.

Fresh October brings the pheasant;
Then to gather nuts is pleasant.

Dull November brings the blast;
Then the leaves are whirling fast.

Chill December brings the sleet,
Blazing fire, and Christmas treat.