Snowflake Bentley

I finished up a unit study this week about Snowflake Bentley with Abigail and Sara. It was so much fun! We mostly followed the lapbook study found here at HomeschoolShare. Abigail and Sara really enjoyed looking at snowflakes with the magnifying glass. We filled a large glass with snow, measured the amount of snow in inches and then they guessed how much water the snow would make once it melted. 5 inches of snow yielded only 1 1/2 inches of water! The girls made six-sided snowflakes by learning to fold squares of paper from Papersnowflakes.com.


We enjoyed learning about Wilson Bentley and his love of snow crystals. We were amazed at the clarity his images held of each snow crystal. They are so beautiful!!

Enjoy this nice little video about Snowflake Bentley!

My Diamante Poem

For one of my school samples I had to write a diamante poem. So here it is.

Autumn

colorful, chilly,

Thanksgiving, changing, harvesting,

They both have different colors

growing, hatching, planting,

animals, flowers,

Spring

Marie

Weekly Review #1

This week has been rather unconventional for us. Sara, Abby, and Debbie have had a half week of school mostly because of various scheduling conflicts. Tuesday and Wednesday mornings I took Marie in to the library for the statewide Analytical Writing Test required of all 5th graders. She was extremely nervous before the testing began. The fear of the unknown, I think. After the first day though she was pretty happy about the whole process and didn't mind having to go back for one more day of testing. It also helped that her writing prompt was "Tell about something awesome that has happened in your life." I had given her a similar prompt a couple of months ago so she 'recycled' what she wrote - about finally getting a little brother.

Here's what we did get accomplished this week.

Debbie:
Language Arts -
Practiced her 'A' family words - at, an, ad, am, etc.
Sight words - the, like, was
She is left-handed and still struggles with writing on paper but loves to practice her letters by drawing in rice. We place rice in a pan just until the bottom is covered and she'll practice her letters for a long time. She has made quite an improvement with her letter writing and correct positioning of her paper since we started using Handwriting Without Tears.
Math -
Did several worksheets from LearningPage.
Rolled two dice and added the numbers together. This has been a favorite game this week.
Science -
We learned about our skin, how it stretches and contracts, why we sweat, and how our 'touch' sensors work.

Abigail:
Language Arts -
Read the stories of "David and Goliath," "Best Friends" and "King David" from The Beginner's Bible.
Handwriting Without Tears - beginning cursive!
Learned how to substitute pronouns for common or proper nouns.
Spelling Rule - When two consonants are between two vowels the words is almost always divided between the two consonants - vc/cv. Words - under, problem, number, basket, winter, escape, magnet, bandit, sister, picnic.
Math -
Counting money - pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters
Two digit addition
Rolling three dice and adding the numbers
Science - learned about skin
History - Minoans on the island of Crete. The people of the Indus Valley.

To see how our skin stretches and contracts we drew caterpillars next to our elbows. We made them 'crawl' by bending and unbending our arms.


Sara:
Language Arts -
Read five chapters in "Riding the Pony Express."
Synonyms - using them in writing
Quotations in conversational writing
Learning about Topic sentences
Sequential Spelling
Handwriting Without Tears - cursive
Math -
Multiplication tables - 1, 2, 5, 10
Roll two dice and multiply the numbers. They had so much fun with this I will start keeping dice in my purse so they will have something to do when we have to wait - at the doctor's office, in line at the store, etc.
Counting money
Science - Skin
History - Minoans on the island of Crete. The people of the Indus Valley.

Marie:
Language Arts - regular and irregular verbs, "Rip Van Winkle",
Math - tree diagrams for probability
Science - Weather: fronts, forecasts, climate change
Music - folk music of New England, Piano - "Love One Another" simplified hymnbook
No history or science because of her two test days.

Eve:
Math - Proportions
History - Greece
Language Arts - reviewing past, present and future tense of verbs, writing a personal narrative, "Vocabulary From Clsssical Roots"
Science - asexual reproduction, sexual reproduction, Life cycles
Literature - 'Lord of the Rings'
Music - Hymn 142 "Sweet Hour of Prayer", played this at Mutual to accompany the youth during opening exercises!
Art - Beauty meets Function: Chinese, Luristan, Italian and Viking artists created beautiful and functional gear for horses.

And finally the local homeschool group went on a field trip to the newspaper office. It was so interesting! The presses were rolling while we were there. There were six presses total the first being the blue ink, then the red, then yellow, and the final three were black ink presses. The press is so old parts are no longer made for it. It's also not digital so when the final layout for the newspaper is complete it is 'stamped' onto plastic sheets that are then placed on the rollers which in turn pick up the ink and transfer it to the newsprint. The first photo is of the red ink press. The second is where all the pages some together, are cut, and then folded.

The Wild Mustangs of Nevada

A couple of months ago I had to write a research paper on whatever topic I wanted. I chose to do it on The Wild Mustangs of Nevada. Here is what I wrote.

Which animal has run free in Nevada for 150 years and there are only a few left today?

Horses have run wild in Nevada for the past 150 years. Some horses were runaway horses from emigrant trains that were passing through. Then when the Spanish were taking their horses east to market some of them escaped and went wild. They mixed breeds with other horses and made different breeds. Other horses came from men that were looking for gold and lost their horses.

Wild horses traveled in herds with a stallion as the leader. While the mares in a herd rested and ate the stallion would go to high ground and watch for danger. If someone or something was following them the stallion could sense it. When the stallion rested the oldest mare known as the lead mare would stand guard.

There are many different names for a herd of horses they are band, bunch, drove, manada (in southwest mostly). Horses often stay in one particular area called a home range.

There are many different names for different kinds of horses. A mother horse is called a Dam. A baby horse is called a Foal. If that baby horse is a girl it is called a Filly, and if it's a boy the horse is called a Colt. A father horse is called a sire, and a plain boy horse after he is a year old is called a Stallion. And a girl horse over the age of one is called a Mare.

Mares breed in the spring. When it's time for a mare to foal she goes off by herself where it's shady and cool to have her baby. This is the only time the stallion lets her go off on own. The mare is pregnant for eleven months before she has her foal.

The horses are very different in southern Nevada than they are in northern Nevada. The reason for this is because the food in northern Nevada is more nutritious than the food in southern Nevada. Northern Nevada gets more moisture than southern Nevada so there is more food and water in northern Nevada. So the horses in northern Nevada are larger than the ones in southern Nevada.

Over one hundred years ago there were about two million wild horses in America. Now there are fewer than 50,000. The best we can do to help them is to just leave them alone, the way they want to be.

Books I'm Reading

In literature I have been reading a book called "The Hobbit". It is the prelude to "The Lord of the Rings." It is pretty good.

The other book I have just finished is called "Rifles for Watie". It is about a young soldier in the Civil War, his adventures, and stuff like that. It is one of my favorite "real" books in the whole world. Now that I have read it, I'm into the Civil War books. I am starting to read "The Red Badge of Courage", and my mom said that I can go to the library and see what books they have there. I can't wait! The library is my favorite place, 'cause I love to read. Actually, the library, and the book store are my favorites!

Do you have any recommendations for good Civil War era books to read?

What happens when you don't pay attention

In literature I've been learning about expressive poems, or poems that create moods. In my literature school book it said to read an expressive poem. I thought it said to write one. So I wrote this big long poem that's really dumb. Then I was reading the next assignment, and realized that I really didn't need to write it at all! It's an awful feeling, realizing that you have done more school than you needed to. I hate pretty much any school, and doing more than I need to (especially in literature) is just not the way I do it. Since then I have double checked what I need to do in school!

Warning: If you are any kind of a nice person at all you will stop reading right here. My mom is making me post my poem, even though I don't want to.

Walking, just walking
I'll never stop
not even after the sun is up.

Walking, just walking
I'm tired now,
but I can't stop now
I won't.

I see a river up ahead
I have to reach it soon.
A place where no fear or hurt can penetrate
I'll get there by nightfall at this rate.

But I can't go farther
I can't, I can't!
But I must
I must, I must!

Up ahead is rest, is shelter
but I'm tired
too tired.

I need to not feel.
I won't, I won't.

I have to keep walking,
walking, walking.
I look nowhere
but straight ahead.

It seems like forever
that I'll have to walk.

I can't stop
I have to keep walking,
walking,
walking.

Mourning Cloak 3

We missed seeing the butterflies emerge, just like I thought we would. But we did see get to see them up close in the jar and then let them free outside. We didn't touch them for fear of hurting their wings. Here are the photos I was able to get. Two butterflies in the jar. THe jar is dirty from fingerprints but you get the idea.This was the only good picture of the butterflies with wings spread. As soon as we took the plastic wrap off the top, one butterfly flew away. The other one was stuck under the twigs. As soon as Abby pulled those out this butterfly started flapping its's wings hard trying to get out. It was all very exciting!

Mourning Cloak 2

Yesterday when we went to town we could tell that the caterpillars were going to their next phase because one began attaching itself to the side of the jar with a fine web and the other was doing this weird dance as it hung from the small twig. Fours hours later on our return home we found these chrysalises!

Now the wait begins for the butterflies to emerge. And for those inquiring minds that wanted to know about the caterpillar droppings we have for your viewing pleasure. . .caterpillar poop!
The tree branches on which we searched for the caterpillars hang over a white gray cement pad so it was easy to see all the droppings that were so kindly put there by the offending leaf eaters. And now ya know!

Mourning Cloak

Yesterday Sara and Debbie were picking leaves off of our trees trying to find ones that had bug bites in them. On closer inspection we found one tree had quite a few leaves eaten off. I pointed out to the girls that there was a lot of caterpillar manure on the ground below the trees. This lead to a scavenger hunt to see if we could find the culprits.Meet the larva of the Nymphalis antiopa or Mourning Cloak Butterfly.You can see what a Mourning Cloak looks like here. We captured two caterpillars by clipping the twigs they were on and sticking them in jars. We are going to feed, water, and observe them hopefully all the way through the chrysalis stage. We can't wait to see them emerge as butterflies!

K12 for 2007-2008

We've received official word from K12 about Eve's and Marie's school schedule for the 2007-2008 school year. I was very apprehensive when they took the placement tests. Nevada law doesn't require homeschoolers to take standardized tests so I've never had that as a gauge to look at their progress. Would they do okay? Have I taught them as I should? Would they test at the correct grade level for their age? The waiting is over. I can breathe a huge sigh of relief. I'm fairly pleased about what classes they'll be taking and what grades they've been put in.

Marie -
Literature 5
Language Skills 5
Spelling 5
Math 5
American History Before 1865
American Art A
Science 5
Exploring Music

Eve -
Literature 7
Language Skills 7
Pre-Algebra A
World History A
World Art A
Life Science
Music Concepts B

I guess I feel that it's more of a verification on my efforts in schooling them. Here's to the next school year!

USA Study Guide

Hey, all you homeschoolers! Are you like me and love a good sale, especially when it's on something you've been wanting to do or try? Well, you've got to check out the wonderful sale on the state study notebooking pages that HomeschoolEstore is having right now. I don't know how long the sale will last though. So if this interests you you'd better mosey on over and take a look. The packet includes all 50 individual state study notebooking pages, United States of America notebooking set, Washington D.C. set, State Flowers, Birds, Flags, and Seals set, 13 colonies pages, and more. I'm salivating right now. Can you tell?

We love notebooking and lapbooks. The girls seem to learn the material more thoroughly when they get to be a little more creative with projects. And the final results are great for showing to grandparents and using as a review. I'm going to use this with Sara and Abby who have yet to study the United States.

Decisions, Decisions

In typical homeschooler fashion I am already excited about the next school year while we are still finishing up the current one. We made the decision to home school because it was the best of the options available to us: public school (which wasn't very good) or home school. Now after six years a new option has become available.

Nevada has approved K12 to start the Nevada Virtual Academy (NVVA) for 4th-8th grades this year. We've looked over the curriculum and are going for it. Eve and Marie begin in the fall. I am ecstatic to say the least. With seven children it is becoming harder and more time consuming to gather all the supplies and materials, write out curriculum, check all their work, and keep Mom sane and the kids happy. This will take a big portion of the load off of me while still giving me the pleasure of having my girls at home. And it is truly a pleasure to have them all here.

NVVA is considered a public school so we will get all the supplies and curriculum materials, including a computer, sent for our use, for free. Yay! We'll finally be benefiting from some of our tax dollars. The Nevada State Legislature has allotted an average $5,122 in per-pupil support for 2008. That's up from $4,696 this year. It will go up to $5,323 in 2009. Can you believe that? I want to know exactly how the school district is using that money. I can guarantee if I got just $1,000 of that per child to homeschool I'd do a much better job than the school district could do. K12 will be making a killing off of each student. To buy their curriculum costs a little over $1,000. Wonder where the other $4,000 is going to? Oh, well. I'm just happy because I do like what I see about their curriculum. Heck, I already teach from over half the stuff they'll be using. The one thing they don't teach, but I will still continue to do with Eve and Marie, is English from the Roots Up.

I've decided to try Sonlight Curriculum with the younger girls this fall. It is literature based which I love. I had so much fun browsing their catalog and trying to decide what to get. Our order came on Wednesday. It was like Christmas! The girls (and Mom) got more and more excited as we pulled out all the books.They want to start now. But we still have to finish up this year's work. Though I might start next month because, truth be told, I can't wait either!I bought the Core 1+2 package with 3rd grade readers for Sara and then added 2nd grade readers for Abby. Debbie is just starting to learn to read but will be doing most of the other stuff with us.

I am excited but a little apprehensive. I'm more of a classical home schooler (mix of The Well-Trained Mind, Charlotte Mason, and Thomas Jefferson Education) so this coming school year will be a big change from what I typically am used to.

Oh, What Do You Do in the Summertime?

Ahhh, the lazy days of summer are here. Except you wouldn't know it if you went by the weather we've been having around here. This was the scene out my living room window yesterday morning. (I was sitting on the couch when I took the picture.)
That is snow on the mountains. In June. But indoors we are warm, having fun with our Cool Summer Days. Over the last several years I've developed quite a list of activities to keep the kiddos learning, creating, playing, laughing, HAPPY! Here is my list divided into categories:

Crafts:
Make homemade stickers
Paint with watercolors (I let them use my real watercolor paint)
Use potatoes carved with simple designs as stamps to make our own wrapping paper
Stamp birthday cards for family and friends, file them to send throughout the year
Make Christmas decorations or ornaments
Create scrapbook pages
Make home made pinatas
Break your pinata
Make playdough
'Stained Glass Windows' - Cover the sticky side of contact paper with several colors of tissue paper, make sure to leave about an inch edge all the way around so it will stick to the window
Make your own chalk
Make candles
Make papercrafts. This site has loads of fun printables to make and do!

Cooking:
Bake a cake, decorate it, and sing "Happy Unbirthday to Us!"
Make popsicles
Bake mini loaves of bread, make butter to spread on them
Bake up different batches of muffins to freeze for snacks
Make homemade bagels
Decorate sugar cookies
Bake cupcakes and deliver to friends
Choose different cookies recipes to bake and freeze for snacks
Make Ice cream in a bag
Make tiny treats

Field Trips:
Go swimming
Pick raspberries
Go to the museum
Ride a horse
Go out for ice cream
Trip to the dollar store
Go to the movies
Attend a concert

Education:
Learn a new Primary Song
Check out a book from the library on paper airplanes. Make all different kinds and have competitions.
Make 'Slime'
Make a list of what you want to learn about this year (Homeschool)
Buy school supplies
Catch butterflies, compare them, learn the life cycle of a butterfly
Plant a garden
Learn about different types of poetry (haiku, limerick, acrostic) and write your own
Design a quilt
Sew your quilt
Read books all day or listen to books on tape

Patriotic:
Make patriotic bracelets
Paint T-shirts for the 4th of July (search FamilyFun)
Make patriotic hats
Attend a parade
Do patriotic activity pages (wordsearches, crossword puzzles, coloring pages) Do an internet search to find more than you can ever do!

Boutique Week:
Make soap
Make chapstick and lip balm
Have a make-up makeover. Don't forget to take glam shots!
Paint toenails and fingernails.
Make charm bracelets
Make seed bead rings
Sew some cool new PJ pants
Make hair accesories - tie lots of ribbons around hair elastics

Outdoor Activities:
Build a campfire, roast hot dogs and marshmallows
Camp out on the lawn
Blow bubbles. Use different wands. Be creative!
Go for a walk
Try geocaching or letterboxing. These are SO MUCH FUN!!!!
Play water games
Try some new outdoor games (search FamilyFun)
Have a nature scavenger hunt. Write a list for older children. For younger children paint different colors on the bottom of egg cartons (different shades of green, brown, other colors of nature) and see if you can find objects matching those colors. You'd be surprised at what they can find!!
Bike riding
Hiking
Squirt gun fights

Indoor activities (Sabbath appropriate):
Draw pictures and send to the Friend Magazine
Write down everything you are thankful for. Be very specific.
Read pioneer or ancestor stories. Act out your favorite ones.
Try writing your own song
Choose a cousin to write a letter to. Make sure to tell them all the things you admire and like about them!
Make your Christmas wish list (I like to get my Christmas shopping done by November)
Write real letters (not e-mail!) - to grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, or friends
Make your own envelopes out of wrapping paper to send your letters in (Look here for templates)
List 5 nice things about each member of your family
Play board games all day
Think of a good service project to do. Plan it out and carry through with the plan
Make a list of what to give everyone for Christmas
Music Mix CD

I hope this list will get you started on making this a great summer spending time with your children. And please let me know if you can think of more fun activities!

Sugardoodle and The Dollar Stretcher also have HUGE lists of summer activities.

Rolling down the lane

Every other Friday we meet up with the other homeschoolers in our area and go to the bowling alley. I love to watch the littler kids bowl. They are so expressive when they knock a pin down. Here's Debbie watching her ball slowly roll down the lane.

National TV Turn-Off Challenge

Next week, April 23-29, is National TV Turn-Off Week. Are you up to it? What, you say, are you crazy? No, I'm not. Television takes up too much precious time. There are so many other more worthwhile things to do than sit in front of the tube. Yes, even more worthwhile than the 'educational' shows on the Discovery or History channels, and even HGTV or DIY. Like what, you ask? You could:

Play hopscotch, hide & seek, or freeze-tag

Learn about the native trees and flowers in your area

Start a Journal or Diary

Make a Scrapbook or Photo Album

Cook a Meal with Family or Friends

Go to the Library or a Local Bookstore

Start a garden

Write a Letter

Take a Walk, a Swim, or a Bicycle Ride

READ to your children

Learn about your family history

The list is endless really. We plan on doing most of the above and more. We'll let you know how we did and what we did.

If you'd like to do the TV Turn-Off Week Blog Challenge head on over to Unplug your kids and read more (or click on the link in my side bar) and sign up.

Don't forget to have fun!!!!

Easter School

This week starts our 'off' month of school. But instead of really getting the month off I decided we'd do fun unit studies instead because we took so much time off when Ira was born. This week we are focusing on Easter, religious and non-religious.

Yesterday we discussed the word Easter ( its roots and meanings), did some word searches, and a mapping exercise. The girls divided up into two teams and they each had to hide a plastic egg outside, draw a map to it's location, and see if the other team could read their map to find the egg. One team filled their egg up with rocks to sink it to the bottom of the Boxcar's water trough. The other team buried their egg in the chickens' laying mesh. They did an excellent job drawing their maps and Joseph even got in on the act looking for their eggs when he came home for lunch.

Today we did these 'eggs'ellent science experiments (links to this site never seem to work right, either click refresh or place the cursor after the web address and then hit return, the page usually loads after that), and also our traditional Easter week review.

Tomorrow's plan includes math review with jellybeans and poetry writing.

Thursday I plan on discussing the colors of Easter then dying eggs and making a color book. The older girls also have to pretend they are newspaper reporters and write an article about Pontius Pilate's decision to allow Christ to be crucified.

Friday we will watch the Lamb of God video and also make this tomb poster. Grandma W will also be coming either Thursday or Friday to throw an Easter party for the grandkids.

Mission Impossible?

The assignment: You have $100 to plan the family's menu for the next week until Sunday, March 18. That's three square meals a day for 10 days. Here's the grocery ads. Good luck!

Thirty minutes later, Eve and Marie hand me their menu and grocery list. I look it over and only have to do a little rearranging. I don't want to eat taco salad and 7-layer Mexican dip in consecutive days, they're too much alike.

Today we went grocery shopping. The total grocery bill was $93.56! That included our 10 gallons of milk for the week. I think they aced the assignment.

(Here at our house the five older girls take turns helping to plan and cook the menu for the week. I've decided that the three older ones should also learn to use the grocery ads to help create the menu and try to stick to our weekly food budget. Eve has the remainder of this week and Marie gets next week. That's why they had to work together on the above assignment.)

Great Books

I've been meaning to post about this book and am just now getting around to it. I read "Incident at Hawk's Hill" by Allan Eckert aloud to the girls. It is based on a true story about a six year old boy who wanders off in the Canadian prairie during the summer of 1870. He is lost for two months and is taken care of during that time by a female badger. The descriptions the author gives of animals and their habits and habitats are very detailed. It is amazing how a small boy could survive on raw meat and live like a badger for two months. It is miraculous how his family did not give up their search for him and were able to find him when everyone else had given up hope.The girls and Joseph were hooked after the first page. It is a must read!

Another amazing true book we've read is "Sarah Whitcher's Story" by Elizabeth Yates. Little Sarah gets lost in the New Hampshire woods and is taken care of by a bear. Check these books out and read them to your children. They'll love them!!

Children's books

Athena asked what my favorite children's book is. Here's my answer. I have to many to pick just one! :D So I've picked a couple from each 'level'.



My favorites to read to my 2-5 year olds are one's with repetition like Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Eric Carle's books like Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do See?

For the beginning readers (ages 4-7) I love the good old Golly Sisters and Amelia Bedelia books. They are so much fun to listen too!



At about this age all of my girls have wanted to write their own books too and usually make up their own stories featuring Amelia Bedelia or The Golly Sisters. The girls do a great job and I type them up and make them into little books that the girls illustrate themselves.


And for those independent readers (ages 7-10) I just love the Little House books, The Moffat books by Eleanor Estes, and The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright.



The stories and adventures contained in these books are so appealing to children. And some are so hilarious they must have been taken from personal experience.

One day, maybe I'll get up the nerve to try my hand at writing a children's book or start smaller by writing a story for The Friend. Only time will tell!

Curriculum for the Year

Well, we've been doing school now for two weeks and so far the girls are enjoying the curriculum I have chosen for them this year. Here's a run down of what each girl is using for this first quarter.

Eve (10):
Math - Saxon 76
English - Easy Grammar 56, Daily Grams 6, English from the Roots Up, any creative writing assignments I give her
Social Studies/Geography - Abeka's Old World History & Geography with a good deal of discussion.
Spelling - Better Spelling in 5 Minutes a Day
Science - Science in the Creation Week
Art - Drawing With Children
MindBenders
Typing Instructor
Home Economics
Assigned Reading - Johnny Tremain, My Antonia, Call It Courage, 21 Balloons, A Christmas Carol

Marie (9):
Math - Saxon 54
English - Easy Grammar 56, Daily Grams 5, English From the Roots Up, creative writing assignments
Social Studies - Abeka's The History of Our United States, memorizing the states and capitols and their location on the U.S map.
Spelling - Better Spelling in 5 Minutes a Day
Science - Science in the Creation Week
Art - Drawing With Children
MindBenders
Typing Instructor
Home Economics
Assigned Reading - Treasure Island, Number the Stars, Heidi, A Christmas Carol

Sara (7):
Math - Abeka Arithmetic 2
Spelling/Phonics - VoWac, Abeka's Letters and Sounds 2
Cursive - Handwriting Without Tears
Social Studies - Abeka's Our America
Science - Science in the Creation Week
Art - Drawing With Children
MindBenders
Typing Insturctor
Home Economics
Reading - Happy Hearts, Little House Books

Abby (5):
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
Hooked on Phonics
Abeka Arithmetic 1
Drawing With Children
Science in the Creation Week

Eve and Marie are doing the same spelling, Easy Grammar, and English From the Roots Up. They are also doing Home Economics with Sara and all the girls are doing the same art and science. I just gear each lesson for their differing grade levels. More is required of the older girls. We do math, english, social studies, spelling, typing, and assigned reading every day. Art is done on Mondays, science on Mondays and Thursdays, Home Economics on Tuesdays and Thursdays, English Roots on MWF, and Mindbenders is done on Fridays. For the most part we have been getting everything done before lunch, but occasionally the older girls have some work to do after lunch.
I also have some fun unit studies planned for October and November - Native Americans, Colonial Children, etc.