Now Is The Best Time

Our 30th and 31st weeks: April 4-15

2011-04-15T13:12:00.000-04:00

I was soooo busy last weekend with Older Sister's musical performances (she was fab as Ursula in Bye Bye Birdie!) that I just couldn't find time to post a weekly update. I didn't even read other blogs...

Spring has sprung and attention spans have suffered! Daisy spent some of her birthday money on Lego Harry Potter for the wii and miraculously, her attention and motivation returned. School started earlier and went quicker this week than in past weeks so that she would have time to play. I wish every day would be like the last few days!

On the teacher side, I'm very excited to take part in the Royal Fireworks Press/Peacehill Press mini-convention in Valley Forge PA in June! This replacement for the canceled Northeast Great Homeschool Convention will be more relevant to me, as this will truly be an education-focused event rather than a "homeschooling as a lifestyle" convention. Michael Clay Thompson and Susan Wise Bauer are two fascinating writers and speakers and I can't wait to hear them in person and peruse their curricula.

I'm most looking forward to getting to know WTM board members with whom I'll be staying in dorms and eating communally---so much nicer than separate hotels and a gigantic convention center. Sure, I'm sad about missing the book fondling opportunities at the vendor hall but our proposed "curriculum show-and-tell" will fill that slot nicely :)

I finally did something I had been meaning to do since the fall! I posted a "look inside" review of Daisy's vocabulary program, Vocabulary Workshop from Sadlier-Oxford publishing. You can view the separate blog post right here.

Math
Topics covered during these weeks include:

multiplication and division of exponents
negative exponents, multiplication/division of negative exponents
zero as an exponent
scientific notation (as a review)
addition/subtraction of fractions containing monomials

We didn't do any "fun" math at all. Next week I'll pull out Zaccaro's Challenge Math and have Daisy choose a new chapter to start.

Science
Volcanoes!

read and discussed the second half of Chapter 12 in CPO Earth Science
watched Bill Nye Volcanoes
watched National Geographic Volcano: Nature's Inferno. Daisy did not enjoy this dvd. I had to skip over the parts about volcanologists killed in the field :(
took the Ch. 12 assessment orally
started bulding a volcano

It was a family project.

ready for plaster of paris strips

Who decided to do this on a windy day??

And of course, the weather turned cold and rainy which drastically slowed the drying process.

Minerals and rocks!

completed Investigation 13A: Mineral Identification (no pictures)
read and discussed section 13.1, Composition of Rocks
watched Bill Nye "Rocks and Soil"
painted the volcano (happening right now so no picture yet)
completed Investigation 13B: Igneous Rocks

History
Chapter 7 (Part 4) of Human Odyssey Vol. 1 "Of Land and Loyalty"

discussed the feudal system, chivalry, castles, life in the city vs country vs castle
watched David Macaulay's Castle dvd
read from Kathryn Hinds's wonderful medieval history collection, The City, The Country and The Castle (from Marshall Cavendish publishing; out of print). There is a fourth book in the series, The Church, which our library system doesn't have.

We enjoyed the reproductions of medieval paintings, tapestries and other art works throughout the books.

When we study the Renaissance next fall, we will use the Marshall Cavendish series also authored by Kathryn Hinds.

Chapter 8 "An Age of Faith: The Church in Western Europe"

discussed the hierarchy of the church in those days
watched David Macaulay's Cathedral (fascinating!)
looked at cathedral pictures online...discussed future vacation plans...
read Chapter 6 in The European World
discussed The Crusades
discussed pilgrimages

Grammar
covered progressive and perfect tenses, adverbs of various sorts, adverb phrases and clauses

Vocabulary
units 11 and 12 in Vocabulary Workshop A

Literature
We waited in vain for El Cid by Geraldine McCaughrean to be sent to our library branch. Daisy read My Guardian Angel by Sophie Weil (about an 11th century Jewish girl in France during the First Crusade) and The Road to Damietta by Scott O'Dell (about the life of St. Francis of Assisi). She enjoyed the first but only tolerated the second book.

French
We are working our way through Chapter 5 of So You Really Want to Learn French 1 (Galore Park), covering

the verb aller
means of transportation
days of the week
school subjects
adjectives
masculine and feminine endings for adjectives
colors and their endings

Daisy wrote her first translation without my help! It was a twelve line dialogue between students discussing favorite classes on different days of the week.

I plan on posting a similar "look inside" for SYRWTLF as I did with Vocabulary Workshop, so stay tuned :)

Other stuff
Last week we were crazed with Older Sister's musical rehearsal schedule. Luckily Daisy had spring break for ballet or I would have been driving all.the.time. The weather has been very spring-like, either beautiful and warm or rainy and cool. We've been enjoying the flowering trees, the return to green grass and the multitude of birds. Later sunsets mean later dinners which mean later bedtimes for Daisy---almost like summer. We need Easter break!

The best of the weeks: playing with rocks, discussing castles, flying through French

The worst of the weeks: rain ruining outdoor plans, tears over math when forced to (gasp) actually expend effort

Looking forward to: Easter break! Older Sister will be at home all next week and the first few days after Easter, Older Brother will be at home starting next Wednesday but all of the following week. Both siblings will be studying hard for upcoming AP exams. While they work, Daisy will do light schooling during those times---most likely a bit of math and French each day with history and science scheduled in blocks. We will definitely take off from Holy Thursday through Easter Sunday! We attend all Triduum services in the evenings at church, which forces us to eat earlier than usual during a holiday break and stay up a bit later.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Vocabulary Workshop: A Look Inside

2011-04-14T18:57:00.000-04:00

Daisy has been using Sadlier-Oxford's Vocabulary Workshop this school year. After reading and participating in a few threads discussing vocabulary curriculum choices on the WTM boards, I thought I'd blog about the books, the format, and how we are using Vocabulary Workshop.

My older kids have/had used the upper levels of Vocabulary Workshop as part of their high school English studies. I liked the straight-forward format and especially liked the growth in the kids' everyday vocabularies so when it came time to choose a vocab book for Daisy, I immediately decided on Vocabulary Workshop.

Vocabulary Workshop books are separated into two segments:

Color Levels for Grades 2-5 (purple, green, orange, blue) 2011 edition 2006 edition
Levels A-H for Grades 6-12+ here

Each book in the series has corresponding online content. For Color Levels, the content consists of games such as hangman, concentration, word scramble and crossword puzzles plus printable word cards and graphic organizers. Games are also available for Levels A-H plus (for A-F) " iWords^TM Interactive Audio Program includes definitions, pronunciations, and examples of usage for all 300 words per Level." The newer 2011 Color Level edition online content will also feature the iWords Interactive Audio according to the website. To preview the online components for Color Levels 2006 edition and Levels A-H just select the level desired and "student".

In addition to viewing the online samples (see this level A ordering page scrolling to the bottom) I used the online components to select which level in which to place Daisy. She easily unscrambled all the words and completed the puzzles for Blue Level (grade 5) but hit a number of unknown words for the first several units in Level A (grade 6).

As I do not have a copy of the Color Levels, the rest of this entry will be based on the Level A-H books.

The eight books follow the same format with 15 units of 20 vocabulary words, review for every three units, four cumulative reviews (units 1-6, 1-9, 1-12 and 1-15), followed by a final mastery test.

Each unit begins by introducting the words with pronunciation guides, part(s) of speech, illustrative sentences, and lists of synonyms and antonyms:

followed by a Completing the Sentence activity

synonyms and antonyms

a Choosing the Right Word activity

and Vocabulary in Context with a reading passage

The review sections for each group of three units have their own structure. All questions are multiple choice. First is a reading section with 10-12 multiple choice questions

then Grammar in Context (Level A covers sentences vs sentence fragments, subject-verb agreement, adjectives vs adverbs, pronoun-antecedent agreement, and misplaced modifiers)

completing passages with two words from the units

choosing the right meaning

more antonyms

word families

word associations

and a section based on word roots (Level A covers de-, re-, -log, -logue, co-, col-, com-, con-, cor- and pre-)

The cumulative review sections cover more analogies, choosing the right meaning for a passage, two-word completions, and "enriching your vocabulary" with previously-unseen words.

The final mastery test consists of (for Level A) 25 multiple-choice select the meaning of a word within a phrase, 15 choosing pairs of antonyms, 15 fill-in-the-blank to best complete the sentence, 10 matching generally unfavorable words with descriptive sentences, 10 matching generally favorable words, and 25 multiple-choice choosing the word/expression that best completes the meaning of a sentence.

How do we use Vocabulary Workshop?

I asign one unit per full week of school (weeks with holidays are skipped, unless a shorter cumulative review is next). Daisy knows that she needs to have all the sections in each unit finished by Friday. She tends to do two sections on three days each week. She likes to split them up as Definitions + Vocabulary in Context, Antonyms + Choosing the Right Word, and Completing the Sentence + Synonyms.

On Friday I orally quiz her on the words including spellings.

I grade the review and cumulative review portions.

Does one needed the Teacher's Edition?

If you are comfortable with vocabulary, you should be fine without the TE. I've read my older daughter's Level G and haven't yet found a question I couldn't answer.

How will we use Vocabulary Workshop in the future?

Next year, Daisy's 6th grade year, she will start with Level B which should be finished sometime in January. She will then move into Level C which may or may not be finished during the school year. If not, she'll continue in her 7th grade year. If so, she'll move into Level D, and so on.

How does one purchase Vocabulary Workshop?

I purchased my books directly from Sadlier-Oxford. The $7.95 shipping rate for orders under $60 is high when ordering just one level. I combined multiple levels in one order to decrease my per-book shipping costs. If you are lucky, you can find used copies on Amazon or other reselling sites.

Our 29th week: March 28-April 1 with Investigation 12A:Earthquakes

2011-04-01T12:38:00.000-04:00

Happy April Fool's Day! We had snow this morning...most definitely not a funny joke.

Last week I mentioned that having a "regular" week with no unusual events was such a pleasure. This week has been the opposite with an extremely irregular schedule! Daisy had ITBS testing through a homeschool academy Monday through Wednesday which with travel time took up most of the days. Tonight and tomorrow are ballet "Persephone" performances so she's had rehearsal from 5-9pm this week.

History and science are the only school subjects touched this week:

History
Vikings were the topic o' the week---the geography of the region, ships, raiders and traders, Eric the Red, Leif the Lucky, exploration, everyday village life of women and children. Resources used this week were Human Odyssey Chapter 6 (of part 4), Oxford's The European World 400-1450 (the first bit of chapter 4), and DK/Eyewitness Viking.

For literature, Daisy read The Edge on the Sword by Rebecca Tingle (seen here on Amazon). This book is based on the life of Aethelflead (imagine the smushed together ae please), the daughter of King Alfred of Wessex who successfully fought off the invading Vikings during the late 800s. Highly recommended by Daisy!

Science
All earthquakes this week :) We read and discussed, in detail, section 12.1 of CPO Earth Science, researched North American faults online, and watched a National Geographic dvd on tsunamis and a Nova dvd on earthquakes. I don't recommend either dvd as the material was quite dated with lots of graphic news footage of disasters. Daisy almost cried several times :( The dvds from last week were much more interesting, engaging, and educational.

Only one lab was done this week, Investigation 12A: Earthquakes. Overall, this lab did not require much adaptation but I do wish I had gathered and pre-assembled some of the supplies to save time. We went through four rubberbands before I found one that was both short enough for the "stress gauge" and new enough that it didn't lengthen during the procedure. You will need a very small rubberband, preferably one that is brand new. The gauge was made from a 2cm wide strip of a 3x5 index card. We needed to have at least 7cm after the rubberband. As the index card itself was only 12.5cm long you can see how a small rubberband and small paperclips are necessary!

You will need a very small hardcover book for the lab as written. These strips of sandpaper are only 5.5" wide. The sandpaper base and the sandpaper book cover represent two adjacent tectonic plates with the space between the two representing the fault. Earthquakes are simulated by pulling the string connected to the rubberband stress gauge. The timing, duration, and intensity of earthquakes were studied.

You can read the lab procedure on this CPO pdf . Scroll down to pages 8-14.

The following pictures are from the last portion of the lab, simulating earthquake intensity. Sugarcubes were stacked in increasing amounts to determine the effect of the earthquake.

After the lab was completed, Daisy experimented with various sugarcube structures to see which was the most stable. Below is a short video with her most stable creation:

Another fun science week for us!

Best of the week: After all the scholarship offers were in, The Boy chose which university to attend!!!!!!!!! His Eagle project is moving forward!!!!!!!!! I forsee less stressful days in the future :)

Worst of the week: The nasty cold weather tied with the extra driving this week. Yuck.

And looking ahead to next week: Daisy and I will be back on a normal schedule, thank goodness. We'll move back to Europe in history, study volcanoes in science, and do a bunch of other stuff that I can't remember without looking at my planning book LOL

With warmer (and hopefully drier) weather in the forecast, I plan on gardening during my free time----dividing and moving perennials, trading perennials with my sister, cleaning out the veggie beds, and perhaps planting some lettuce!

Tech week for Older Sister means altered dinner and driving schedules, but I'm looking forward to watching the "Bye Bye Birdie" performances on the weekend. Our new Kodak PlaySport video camera arrived yesterday. I'll have plenty of time to become accustomed to the features before recording the show.

I think next week is going to be fun :) Have a great weekend everyone!

Our 27th and 28th weeks! March 14-25, 2011

2011-03-25T13:32:00.000-04:00

Yes, two weeks in one :) I took an internet break last weekend because the weather was gorgeous plus I had a pile of really good library books. Once Monday came around, I didn't feel like posting a super-late weekly report to the thread on WTM.

We've hit a really nice groove during the past weeks. School is going very smoothly with lots of learning and laughing. There haven't been any outside-the-house activities or weather-related high school delays/cancellations to confuddle our schedule. Yippee for normalcy!

Math

celebrated Pi Day by doing various "Einstein" level circle problems from Zaccaro's Challenge Math
conquered multiplying/dividing inequalities in equations
solved multi-step inequalities
worked on GCF, equivalent fractions and LCM for monomial expressions

Science

watched Bill Nye Birds from the bird watching unit (that library request took a loooong time to come in)
As part of Chapter 10: Inside Earth in CPO Earth Science, Daisy created a scale model of the earth's interior on adding machine tape

investigated buoyancy and mountains (floating of the earth's crust on the mantle--Investigation 10B)

watched Bill Nye Earthquake (that request came in too quickly lol)
and studied wave motion through metal and plastic slinkies.
Then we moved on to Chapter 11: Plate Tectonics. Studying this chapter was fantastic fun! Truly!
Daisy investigated Plate Tectonics (11A) using a bathymetric map, which shows underwater topographic details. She connected mid-ocean ridges, rises and deep ocean trenches to approximate the location of the main tectonic plates. Adding earthquake and volcano locations by plotting longitude and latitude helped to refine the tectonic plates. Finally she colored in the actual plate locations after consulting her textbook.

Fascinated by the information on Pangea and continental drift (section 11.1), we viewed an online animation of continental movement
watched the fascinating History Channel production of How the Earth Was Made, which covered the formation of the earth 4.5 billion years ago through the retreat of the last ice sheets 10,000 years ago

explored evidence for plate tectonics (Investigation 11B)

discussed sea-floor spreading

watched all four hours of National Geographic's Amazing Planet, which covered earthquakes and volcanoes, underwater features such as subduction zones, and destructive forces like water/wind erosion and glaciers

explored the different types of plate boundaries
and read Dance of the Continents by Roy Gallant. Whew!

History

Daisy studied the medieval African kingdoms of Ghana and Mali. She read the chapter in Human Odyssey, chapters 9 and 10 in Oxford Press's African and Middle Eastern World, and parts of The Royal Kindoms of Ghana, Mali and Songhay by Pat McKissack.
I had spent the previous week compiling a list of medieval historical fiction featuring female protagonists. Last week Daisy caught up on the reading for the preceeding chapter of Human Odyssey by reading Shadow Spinner by Susan Fletcher (the Shahrezad story), Seven Daughters and Seven Sons by Barbara Cohen (Arabia), and Anna of Byzantium by Tracy Barrett (fictionalized account of Anna Commena, a 12th century Byzantine princess). Daisy enjoyed the first two very much but found the third to be quite sad. She said she wouldn't read it again.

This week began our study of Europe in the Middle Ages with barbarians, the monks and preservation of knowledge, Charlemagne and early Ireland. Daisy read the relevant chapter in Human Odyssey, chapters 1 and 2 of The European World, Beowulf as retold by Rosemary Sutcliff, Charlemagne and the Early Middle Ages by Miriam Greenblatt, and the March 2009 issue of Dig magazine on early Ireland.

Vocabulary
unit 10 in Sadlier-Oxford Vocabulary Workshop A

Grammar
worksheets and online games to review grammar and punctuation

Literature

see history, above
Daisy read her way through The Hobbit and all Lord of the Rings books.

Best of the week(s): no contest, science rules once again!

Worst of the week(s): the horrible cold poor Daisy has been dealing with :(

Coming up next week: Daisy will be taking the Iowa standarized tests through a local homeschool academy Monday-Wednesday mornings. We will only be doing science (duh) and history next week for school. On top of that, next week is tech week for the ballet's production of Persephone so Daisy will be busy from 5-9pm each day! The Boy will learn the remaining college decisions by this time next week and will switch to "which do I choose?" mode. He also has work days scheduled for his Eagle project---at last!!

Wordless Wednesday: I love our library

2011-03-23T07:56:00.000-04:00

(Please excuse the poor cellphone picture.)

Girl vs Lower Mantle

2011-03-16T12:10:00.000-04:00

After creating a scale model of the earth's interior (1mm:1km), Daisy measured herself against the different sections. The lower mantle won!

Planning for next year (6th grade)

2011-03-15T21:03:00.000-04:00

It's hard to believe I have to plan already for our second homeschooling year. It seems like I just finished planning for this year! Some subject are all planned, one subject is purchased, but others are still uncertain.

First the planned:

Math

Art of Problem Solving Introductory Algebra (website), most likely only the chapters that correspond to traditional Algebra 1 (I think to around chapter 15 or 16)
finishing up Ed Zaccaro's Challenge Math (though we might finish this year)
continuing with competition math books such as Math Olympiad Contest Problems Vol. 2 and Competition Math for Middle School
continuing with Patty Paper Geometry
Math Olympiad with the homeschool group
I will investigate the possiblity of MathCounts.

Science

Continuing with CPO Science, Daisy will use CPO Life Science.
I'll teach her botany from my class resources.
Science Olympaid (division B) with the homeschool group

History

K12's The Human Odyssey Vol. 2: Our Modern World 1400-1914 (purchased!)
Oxford University Press series The Medieval and Early Modern World (library)
other library resources including but not limited to Calliope magazine issues, biographies, documentaries on DVD, and historical fiction

French

We will finish So You Really Want to Learn French Book 1 from Galore Park (we're learning French together).
We will start Book 2.
I will try to track down some French language stories/books not written for an early elementary audience...

And the uncertain:

English/Language Arts

vocabulary: Sadlier-Oxford Vocabulary Workshop B and perhaps Vocabulary Workshop C
grammar: ????? continue with Voyages in English/Exercises in English ?????
writing: in search of a formal writing program. Will check all sources in person at the Northeast Homeschool Convention in June.

The Non-Academic

ballet
flute---I need to find an ensemble that we can afford and that doesn't meet on Saturdays (ballet conflict).
art---all local art classes for homeschoolers are scheduled for mornings, which I keep sacred for schoolwork (unless it's my monthly coffee with my friends haha). I think I might get Artistic Pursuits for next year.

College news for The Boy

2011-03-12T19:28:00.000-05:00

The life of a high school senior applying to college is rush, rush, rush, followed by wait, wait, wait. The waiting has ended this weekend with two acceptances in the mail: William and Mary as a Monroe Scholar and American University with a Presidential Scholarship of $20,000. Congratulations to Jamie! Hard work does indeed pay off.

Back to waiting----for the aid letter from our state school and news from two other universities...

Our 26th week! March 7-11

2011-03-12T19:19:00.000-05:00

We can almost pretend that it's spring :) The grass is greening, there is a red haze in the woods from the swelling maple buds, robins visit our yard during the day, and the witch hazel around the corner is in bloom!

School went well this week, despite having to adjust our schedule for my monthly coffee with friends (Daddy wasn't available to teach so Daisy took her books and work to her little cousin's house for a few hours) and the very last Math Olympiad test of the year.

I finally typed up the Human Odyssey Vol. 1 and The World in Ancient Times / The Medieval and Early Modern World schedule we've been using this year. It's found in a separate page here on the blog---check the top bar for the link. I'm going to add the supplemental resources we've used as well, but those probably won't be added until later this coming week.

The school work wasn't very photogenic this week. My apologies!

Math
Daisy has finally hit the first roadblock of her life in math----solving inequalities using multiplication and division. The concept of having to flipflop the inequality sign was apparently mindblowing. We will spend Monday on additional problems until she totally gets the concept.

She did some ratio and proportion problems from her competition math books on Wednesday and Thursday. Math Olympiad ended with cookies brought by other kids. She informed me that next year she would be providing the treat one month. I was asked by the Math Olympiad coordinator to assume leadership next year but I had to decline. I cannot in good conscience sign the Statement of Faith required by all in leadership and told her so. Oh well.

Science
We finished Chapter 9 (Earth and Time) and moved into Chapter 10 (Inside Earth) this week. On Monday, we learned about using tree ring data to date trees, and to understand climate, ecology, and past civilizations. Daisy completed the chapter activity on relative and absolute dating. Tuesday was the Chapter 9 assessment. Wednesday was a full science day: Investigation 10A using balls, fruit and a boiled age to create models of the earth; Bill Nye "Earth's Crust" dvd; and investigating Mount St. Helens pre- and post-1980 eruption. Thursday Daisy read and discussed the first section in Chapter 10 (Sensing Earth's Interior), learning about p-waves, s-waves and seismology. Then Friday we woke to the news of the earthquake in Japan and resulting tsunami---------that became science for the day.

History
The week Daisy completed the study of the medieval Islamic world with the expansion of the empire to the year 1000(ish). She learned about Islamic scholarship, mathematics, medicine, art and mosques.

Books used this week include The African and Middle Eastern World 600-1500, Avicenna (Ibn Sina) Muslim Physician and Philosopher of the Eleventh Century by Aisha Khan, and Mosque by David Macaulay.

I spent many hours this week researching fiction books for the medieval period. Daisy prefers to read books with strong female protagonists, which complicated the search somewhat. With the aid of wonderful posters on the logic stage subforum of the Well-Trained Mind forums, I've come up with a great list for the rest of the year. Having an extensive library system to draw from is such a gift!

The rest of the schoolwork was really boring and I don't feel like writing about it lol.

Much free time was spent again perusing Steven Caney's Ultimate Building Book. I think we'll have to add a copy to our home library.

Daisy is away camping with her Girl Scout troop this weekend. They're working on "camp skills" like cooking in coals, in a box oven, and on sticks! Daisy and Daddy packed all her gear into the smallest backpack. Here she is trying it on:

Best of the week: science. It was a nice hands-on-y week.

Worst of the week: I'm still not feeling 100% healthy. Stupid cough.

Looking forward to: Pi Day on Monday, learning about medieval Africa, visiting the library multiple times to pick up all the items requested this week, and planting pansies!

Week of Feb 28-March 4 OR What we've been doing for the past months!

2011-03-04T21:58:00.000-05:00

It is so nice to be back blogging! I've missed this activity and missed reading about what my homeschooling friends have been doing :)

What happened here?

Teenagers played in leaves.

We hosted Thanksgiving, as usual.

Daisy spent hours creating gnomes and Gnomeville out of fabric scraps, beads and other goodies.

Nutcracker (no pictures--on the phone still, oops)

We held the traditional cookie decorating with the cousins.

Followed by the traditional Christmas morning top-of-the-steps photo. Guess who had to be woken?

Followed by the traditional gigantic brunch, present-opening and dinner at Grandpa's. (I'm in the red, btw)

Daisy's dearest friend and her twin visited from Georgia for several days of silliness around Daisy's 11th birthday.

And then it started to snow. And the teens were off school. A lot.

Older Sister turned 16 and we hosted a Mystery in the Library party for which the guests all dressed as characters from classic books. I highly recommend Merri Mysteries!

And it snowed some more. Yes, teens home from school.

And I was sick from early January until last week.

But what happened with homeschooling?

Math
--Challenge Math chapters on Area and Algebra
--from a pre-algebra text: powers and exponents, simplifying equations, solving multistep equations
--a few bits from Patty Paper Geometry
--contest math problems
--Math Olympiad competitions in December, January and February

History
Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome were the focus of our study from Thanksgiving through February. This week we began our studies of the medieval world with the Byzantine Empire (Constantine and Justinian/Theodora) and the rise of Islam (the geography of the time, life of Muhammed and the basic tenets of Islam).

Ancient Greece sources used:
--K12's Human Odyssey Vol. 1 part 2 chapters 8-9, part 3 chapters 1-4
--Oxford Press The Ancient Greek World almost every chapter, I think
--Calliope magazine Oct 07 issue "Ancient Olympics"
--Calliope magazine May 06 issue "Persia Rise and Fall"
--Calliope magazine Jan 10 issue "Parthenon"
--Dig magazine March 08 issue "Alexander the Great"
--Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliffe (as literature)
--The Wanderings of Odysseus by Rosemary Sutcliffe (as literature)

Ancient Rome sources used:
--Human Odyssey Vol. 1 part 3 chapters 5-10
--The Ancient Roman World chapters 1-8,10,11,13,15,18
--Calliope magazine Dec 07 "Heroes of Ancient Rome"
--Calliope magazine Nov 05 "Rome's Master Builders"
--Calliope magazine Sept 05 "Buried by Vesuvius"
--Rome in Spectacular Cross-section by Stephen Biesty

And this week we used
--Human Odyssey Vol. 1 part 3 conclusion, part 4 introduction and chapters 1 and 2
--Oxford Press The European World 400-1450 chapters 1 and 3
--Oxford Press The African and Middle Eastern World 600-1500 chapters 1 and 2

Literature
After reading about poor Odysseus, Daisy switched over to mythology in preparation for the National Mythology Exam (which she took on February 23). She primarily studied Greek mythology using D'aulaires' Book of Greek Myths and some internet resources, plus a study guide by the Mythology exam people. As a fifth grader, she was only required to take the main portion of the exam and the Ancient Beginnings subtest. She had decided early on to take the Norse subtest as well, so she studied from the D'aulaires' Book of Norse Myths.

Vocabulary
Sadlier-Oxford Vocabulary Workshop Level A units 1-9. This series is/has been used by my teens, though only Levels F-H. I'm hoping there's a good correlation between the S-O vocab and The Boy's pretty darn good ;) SAT critical reading score that will carry over to his sisters!

Grammar
Jeepers, I can't remember. We haven't done "official" grammar since before I was sick. Whoops.

Poetry
Michael Clay Thompson's Building Poems sections on stanza, simile and metaphor

Writing
After NaNoWriMo in November, she hasn't done any writing outside of history and science classes. I think November took a lot of her and I don't know if she'll do NaNoWriMo next fall.

French
We're through Chapter 4 in Galore Park's So You Really Want to Learn French 1. We haven't done any new French since mid-January though, as I was coughing way too much even to speak English for sustained periods of time. We'll resume next week.

So what could be left????? That's right, it's

Science!!!!!!

When last we left you, Daisy was studying Chapter 7: Oceans in CPO Earth Science. She then moved into Chapter 8: Mapping Earth, for which we did Investigation 8A Topographic Maps (a picture FAIL, sorry) and skipped 8B as it required a group activity and some specific-to-CPO ocean depth diagrams I didn't feel like reproducing the week before Christmas. Duh.

After Christmas break, we focused totally on her Science Olympiad events. It was such a luxury to have the time during the day for studying and practicing as last year we had to do everything in the evenings and on the weekends :) We spent between 30 minutes and 2 hours each school day from January 3 until the competition on February 12, reading library books (at one point we had 40 books checked out...), visting websites, watching DVDs, and experimenting in the kitchen.

Daisy participated on the local homeschool group's team. They actually sent one team of fourth graders and two teams of fifth graders! There were 52 teams total participating in this Division A Science Olympiad. Her events this year were Chemistry Crime Scene, Food Science, Ocean Life and Estimation.

For Chemistry Crime Scene, she had to identify seven mystery white powders (baking soda, cornstarch, sugar, salt, plaster of paris, sand, limestone) and two combinations of two powders using three liquid reagants (water, vinegar, iodine) and a hand lens. Then she had to match fingerprints left "at the crime scene" and determine through chromotography what marker had been used to write a note. This was the most enjoyable event to help with!

A chromotography afternoon:

The Food Science event was in a test format, with stations for each question. The topics covered ranged from digestion to healthy eating to specific vitamins and minerals. Having rocked Fruits & Vegetables as a fourth grader last year (first place) proved to be a great help.

Ocean Life was another test format but as a powerpoint. There was a mix-up with the start of the event as the supervising teacher was ill that morning. All that could be found were the actual powerpoint and the answer key but no questions. Yikes! The substitute actually made up questions as the powerpoint progressed. Daisy wasn't really happy about that.

Estimation was the hardest to study for, in fact she only did a few hours total. Another powerpoint test format, Daisy and her partner had to answer questions like "how many people, hand-in-hand with arms outstretched, would reach from the earth to the moon?"

The result:

second in Chemistry Crime Scene and fourth in Food Science!

Yippee!

Next year Daisy will participate in Division B for middle schools (grades 6-8) on the state level. The homeschool group usually does very very well in Division B, with their A team often moving on to Nationals. Could you imagine?!

The day after Science Olympiad I read in the newspaper about the Great Backyard Bird Count -----science for that week! Armed with a checklist of birds likely to be seen in our area during February, a pile of field guides from the library, binoculars and a new feeder in the front yard, we practiced identifying birds prior to the count days. Alas, we only spotted four different species during our 15 minute period on the Monday (Presidents' Day). Perhaps the birds knew that the last snowstorm of the year would arrive just a few hours later?!

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Another snow day. No pictures this time of my beautiful Cercis canadensis 'Forest Pansy' (aka red bud) coated in snow. I was so tired of it by February 22nd.

We continued with more birding the rest of last week. I found a fascinating new library book Global Birding: Traveling the World in Search of Birds with amazing photos of fantastic birds.

Next school year, I think I'll have Daisy keep a notebook of birds she sees. Ornithology is often a Science Olympiad event ;)

Back to CPO Earth Science this week for Chapter 9: Earth and Time. We conducted Investigation 9A Sedimentary Rocks and Relative Dating (soil-sand mix in the container):

The second picture didn't turn out so well, but there was another sand layer and a second soil layer on top of the first, below all the water.

Investigation 9B: Time and Tree Rings wasn't a photogenic lab, sorry. It was fun, though! We didn't have a microscopic tree cross-section slide nor a nicely cut cross-section of wood, so we just used google images for that part.

So what's up for next week? Solving inequalities, the last Math Olympiad competition of the year, the spread of Islam, medieval Islamic mathematics, sciences, and arts, a return to grammar and French, and moving on to Chapter 10: Sensing Earth's Interior with a Bill Nye dvd and Investigation 10A: All Cracked Up (modeling the earth with familiar items).

Have a great weekend!

Wordless Wednesday--March 2, 2011

2011-03-02T17:20:00.000-05:00

Our eleventh and twelfth weeks in review: November 8-19

2010-11-19T12:50:00.000-05:00

Two weeks for you to peruse this time :) I missed posting last Friday's wrap up as Mike's up-to-that-point-uncomplicated knee surgery recovery became complicated with a blood clot in his calf! We spent all day Friday in various waiting rooms and various offices. I hope to never experience that again.

On to the fun!

Math
We mixed up the math during the past two weeks. Daisy spent several days with Challenge Math for the Elementary and Middle School Student, working through various sections on problem solving with venn diagrams, charts, and other methods. She also reviewed the addition and subtraction of negative integers, order of operations, and the associate property. I found some worksheets on http://www.math-drills.com/ that she really enjoyed---she asked for me to print more one day! Weirdo.

We missed our Patty Paper Geometry day last week due to the clot. Yesterday she worked through the Guided Investigations for chapter 1----intersection of two lines, finding the shortest distance between a point and a line, vertical angles, adjacent angles, and linear pairs---and completed one of the exercise sets. Next week on our geometry day she'll complete the other four exercise sets. I took a picture to show exactly what is produced in an investigation. Since the first chapter is really basic, the picture isn't that exciting LOL The left paper is finding the shortest distance from a point to a line (Daisy drew on the folded paper with a sharpie) and the right is discovering that opposite angles are equal.

Finally, last Thursday was the first homeschool competition day for MOEMS (Math Olympiad for Elementary and Middle School). Daisy was a bit nervous heading in, hoping she'd be able to answer one out of the five problems correctly (only 50% are able to answer the first one! The percentages decrease with each successive problem.) She answered the first three correctly and would have gotten the last one correct had she not made a silly addition error. Yippee! One other kid of the 20 or so there also answered three correctly.

Science
Last week we covered Chapter 6: Weather and Climate in CPO Earth Science. In addition to the usual reading and discussion of each section, Daisy watched two Bill Nye DVDs, Wind and Storm. We totally skipped Investigation 6B as it relied completely on a set of radar image plates only available as part of CPO's lab package. I didn't have enough time nor energy nor motivation to replicate the plates.

This week we finished Chapter 6 with reading of the Chapter Connection (hurricane scientists) and completion of the Chapter Assessment. Daisy had a busy science day on Tuesday----we did the first lab for Chapter 7: Oceans (you can see the separate post for our not-so-much-of-an-adaption of Investigation 7A) then met with the other Elementary Science Olympiad homeschool team members (grades 4 and 5) for the first time. She handed in her event choices and should learn today which events she'll be doing and with whom, in the case of partner events. This week she also covered the first section in Chapter 7 and watched a very hilarious Bill Nye Oceanography dvd. This afternoon we'll do Investigation 7B: Wave Speed using our adapted "GeoBox." If I can get good pictures, I'll make a separate blog post for that lab.

History
Last week Daisy studied ancient China with the addition of a few resources to the reading from Human Odyssey:

This week we've done a quick comparative run-through of world religions with foundations during ancient times, Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism. She read relevant chapters from Human Odyssey (unit 2, chapters 3-7) and associated chapters from the Oxford Press series The World in Ancient Times

From the K12 Student Pages for the History Odyssey textbook, Daisy filled out a chart comparing religions and philosophies for Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism. She will add the information for Christianity and Islam once she gets to those chapters. The various categories include founder of the religion/philosophy, date of founding, principal beliefs, principal sacred texts, geographic regions where the religion/philosophy predominates today, and current number of followers.

English/Language Arts
NaNoWriMo continues! Older Sister estimates Daisy has written about 2000 words. She's writing longhand in her notebook and Older Sister is typing it up in chunks. I hope she makes 3000 words by the end of the month :)

French
We finally finished Chapter 3 in Galore Park's So You Really Want to Learn French 1 (aka French Prep). Now we can converse about all kinds of food and all sorts of rooms in a house LOL

Other fun stuff
This week's Earth Explorers class at the local state park was historical, the everyday lives of boys and girls during World War II, held at a local historic estate. There were lots of girls this time, including two from the previous classes Daisy had attended :)

Girl Scouts met on Tuesday for a fun meeting. The girls made apple pies for their families, as they did this time last year. We put Daisy's pie in the freezer to be baked for Thanksgiving.

She's been crafting up a storm lately. You may have seen her fingerknitting obsession or her interesting take on Thanksgiving turkeys. She also decided to do some of the activities in the Klutz sewing book. This was completed, from cutting out the pattern to finishing with floss, without any help from me (except for knotting the thread occasionally):

Isn't that the cutest little mouse?

Ballet continues with a ramping up of Nutcracker rehearsals. Oy.

I attended a homeschooling "teacher in-service" night this week, with workshops on topics ranging from early elementary language arts to the college process. I didn't really learn anything new, just looking on the few hours as a networking possibility.

The best of the week(s): the ability to adapt Daisy's schooling to a destroyed schedule. Even on the absolute worst days, we've done history and math and she's read and read and read. And <drumroll please> Older Brother finally submitted a college application!!!!!!!! He swears the rest will be submitted by the end of Thanksgiving weekend. I sure hope so as I don't think I could take this stress much longer...

The worst of the week(s): Mike's complicated recovery, duh, followed by sleep deprivation in both of us and a mysterious rash on Older Sister's face. Just back from the allergist now---possiblity an eczema flare or something viral. I would like to go a few days without a trip to a doctor or to the pharmacy!

Looking ahead to next week: Thanksgiving! We're hosting as usual. Daisy keeps adding desserts to my meal plan---if she had her way, we'd have 4 different types of pumpkin pie, her apple pie, a cheesecake tbd, a spice cake and cookies. For 13 people!

I hope you all have an enjoyable weekend, leading to a fabulous holiday :)

Not-much-adapting of the Global Winds and Ocean Currents lab (Investigation 7A)

2010-11-17T15:37:00.000-05:00

Almost all the supplies for Investigation 7A are household supplies, so not much adapting was needed.

We used 4 clear plastic cups, 2 foam cups, 2 pipettes (called for 1 eyedropper and 1 pipette), salt, 1 tsp measuring spoon, smidge of cardboard, a pencil, staples and food coloring (the paste-type as that's what we own)-------in addition to hot and cold water, of course LOL

Salinity-dependent layering:
Daisy first made some green salt water.

We created a pouring stick by pushing the tip of a pencil through a small cardboard circle. The cardboard was held under the liquid in the cup while plain cool water was poured down the pencil, so that no uncolored water splashed into the colored water. I couldn't get a picture of this process as I was the pourer. After the water was poured in, we could see two distinct layers simulating two ocean layers separated by salinity.

Then Daisy took a piece of foam cup and added staples, one by one, to it. It took many, many stapes for the piece to eventually sink to the boundary between the two layers. I didn't get a picture because my silly camera ate the batteries. By the time I had changed them, Daisy had fished the foam piece out to add more staples so that it sank all the way to the bottom of the cup.

Temperature-dependent layering:
Using the pouring stick technique, Daisy combined cool blue water and hot red water to simulate ocean layers separated by their temperatures.

Creating an underwater waterfall:
Daisy began with cool water in a clear cup. Hot, salty red water was mixed up in another cup. She carefully filled a pipette and squeezed a layer of red water onto the surface of the cool water.

The red layer began to form tiny "waterfalls" within the clear water as the red layer cooled. At first, the hot red layer was less dense than the cooler clear water but became more dense as it cooled.

Observing underwater springs:
We needed really salty water for this demonstration!

Daisy used a pipette to carefully release same-temperature blue water at the bottom of the cup. The blue water traveled upward within the cup, simulating an underwater spring. The blue water, being less salty than the clear water, was less dense and created a upper layer in the cup.

After 15 minutes or so, the layers of the underwater waterfall demonstration (red, third from left) had pretty much disappeared but all others remained long enough to show off to Older Brother after school.

To quote Bill Nye, "Science rules!"

Wordless Wednesday----that poor turkey!

2010-11-17T10:30:00.000-05:00

Yes, he is being strangled... I assume that's why the turkey in the center is giving thanks!

Wordless Wednesday: A New Hobby

2010-11-10T16:03:00.000-05:00

Finger knitting, courtesy of the latest American Girl magazine.

Our tenth week: November 1-5

2010-11-05T14:32:00.000-04:00

Good gravy, ten weeks?!?!

This has been a week of good (Halloween fun) and bad (the one year anniversary of my mother's death). Right now I'm writing this in a sleep-deprived fog after waking at 4:30am to drop my husband off at the hospital for a knee reconstruction. The next few weeks will be a little challenging to us both, I expect! For now he's doped up on the couch after successful surgery :)

I ended last week with uncut fabric on the dining room table (Friday afternoon)

and miraculously was done before the neighborhood Halloween party at 4pm Sunday, despite the almost debilitating neck/shoulder pain I woke with Saturday morning.

Mike went to the party and trick-or-treating with Daisy dressed as The Mouse himself. Daisy doesn't yet care how he's dressed----the teens on the other hand...

I stayed at home to hand out the candy and nurse my neck and shoulder. Older Sister went trick-or-treating with friends one neighborhood away and Older Brother went out with a friend across town. The weather was clear and dry, perfect for costumes and jack-o'lanterns. This year's offerings featured FrankenPumpkin, a cat who swallowed a mouse, and a classic face.

Mike really enjoys creating fantastic creatures each year.

Of course, we had to admire the haul!

But alas, the fun was all over the next morning when it was back to school...

Math
We covered a mix of topics this week starting with unit conversions (single and multiple steps as in converting gallons to milliliters), then moved on to a variety of worksheets solving for x in the forms ax=b and a/x=b and then ax+b=c etc. Daisy has internalized the steps yet I insist on seeing her work, as I know when she reaches more complicated equations it will be very easy to forget a sign or miswrite a coefficient.

One day was spent on contest-type problems in

which she is enjoying immensely, more so than the MOEMS (Elementary Math Olympiad) materials, mainly old tests, that we've been using. I think the amusing cartoon characters interspersed through the problems and solutions really help!

We officially started Patty Paper Geometry after just messing around with the patty paper. A box of 1000 sheets is a lot of patty paper LOL

The first section introduced/reviewed various terms and techniques

(Sorry about the poor quality of the pictures!)

And one afternoon, Daisy organized her Halloween candy by type, then created a color-coded table and bar chart for the candy. No one will be able to snitch anything from that bag!

Science
I still haven't posted all the labs we've been doing. I hope to get to that this weekend.

This week Daisy finished Chapter 5: Earth's Environment in CPO Earth Science-----specific heat of land vs water (including Investigation 5B), the Chapter Connection on crazy hurricane hunters, an activity demonstrating Bernoulli's Principle with cheeseballs and bendy straws, concluding with the Chapter Assessment, done orally still.

History
Ancient China was the main topic this week. She read from K12's Human Odyssey, from Oxford Press The Ancient Chinese World (chapters 1-5) and from the April 2008 Dig issue on China's Hidden Caves. Daisy filled out a map detailing the area around the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers and discussed modern-day geography of the ancient civilizations studied thus far---Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus Valley and the Yellow and Yangtze Valleys. With that, she finished Unit 1 of Human Odyssey!

Today (Friday) while at my sister's house during Mike's surgery, she began reading about Confucius and Confucianism in both Human Odyssey and The Ancient Chinese World (Chapter 10)
English/Language Arts
On hiatus for the month of November while Daisy works on her NaNoWriMo story! She's writing it in longhand in a spiral notebook and patient Older Sister is typing it all up for her. So far, so good!

French
Never learn French words for foods and eating before lunch. A growling tummy is very distracting. We've started Chapter 3 in Galore Park French Prep (So You Really Want to...) which so far has introduced eating breakfast and a bunch of regular ER verbs. We're been doing a page or two each day and reviewing every fourth or so day. Fridays are now Flashcard Fridays when we go over vocabulary, writing flashcards for the new words of that week. Daisy has asked for quizzes/tests so I'm going to purchase the Galore Park assessment CD through an online bookseller next week. She was able to practice speaking French with my sister today :)

Other Fun Stuff
At Girl Scouts on Tuesday night, the girls made a Thanksgiving craft and started making ornaments for a local nursing home. They'll be working with the nursing home as part of their Bronze Award this year. Daisy's Earth Explorers class at the local state park was rescheduled due to rain. It's kind of difficult to teach map reading and orienteering in a downpour.

The Best of the Week: Halloween! Chocolate! Fall foods like butternut squash!

The Worst of the Week: getting through the anniversary of my mother's death :(

Looking forward to next week: It will be interesting while Mike recuperates from his knee surgery to repair his meniscus and reconstruct his ACL. I hope he's cleared to drive before Thanksgiving! Older Brother's very last regular season high school marching band performance will be next Friday, at the end-of-season major rivalry game versus Older Sister's school. I hope I don't cry and embarrass him at the Senior Ceremony LOL

I'd like to publicly thank everyone who visited the blog and commented this week. Your thoughts truly helped during this difficult time. Thank you all so much!

Wordless Wednesday---Missing Mom

2010-11-03T10:35:00.000-04:00

Monica

August 6, 1942-November 3, 2009

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T20:23:00.000-04:00

The ritual sorting of the candy...

Our ninth week in review: October 25-29

2010-10-29T08:33:00.004-04:00

Report cards anyone? LOL

Another great week of school for Daisy! However, the weather is messing with her seasonal allergies (frost last Friday, pouring rain, unseasonably warm temperatures--up to near 80--for a few days, with a high of only 60 today) so she's ending a great week by feeling cruddy :(

On Monday we enjoyed our long-anticipated field trip to The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. We visited the traveling Cleopatra exhibit (see my report with oodles of fascinating pictures right here) then spent a few hours exploring the other exhibits. Please excuse the cellphone pictures. I managed to forget that I had the proper camera in my bag---only flashless cellphone pictures had been allowed in the Cleopatra exhibit.

Most of our time was spent in Sir Isaac's Loft "where art and physics collide." Among other activities, Daisy compared the energy needed to lift herself with the help of a few pulleys vs many pulleys:

She explored pendulum motion by viewing patterns created with sand (I swear this exact pendulum display was at The Franklin Institute in the 1970s):

She set up gigantic domino relays--check out the stairs they had!

We then moved to the bioscience exhibit, home of the giant walk-through heart. Daisy does not enjoy the heart experience (just a smidge claustrophobic!) so we skipped it as usual. Instead she explored the Health and Wellness section and the Blood section, learning exactly how much blood is in her body based on her mass:

After a foray through Electricity (I miss the old electricity exhibit with all of Ben's equipment, sniff sniff), we returned to Changing Earth to see what we had missed before our Cleopatra ticket time. Daisy spent a long time selecting times in history to see how coastlines and sea levels have changed. The little Statue of Liberty model was either submerged or exposed with the sea level changes.

Daisy was struck by how the coastline of the United States would change should the ice of Antarctica and Greenland melt. Yikes, that's a lot of water!

Unfortunately, we had to leave after Changing Earth. Our 5 hour validated parking time was at the limit and rush hour would be starting soon. No time for the planetarium, Franklin Air Show and Flight Simulator, for the Train Factory and for a visit to KidScience. We'll see those next time!

For "regular" school this week we covered

Math
Pre-algebra review this week covered word problems involving ratios, rates, unit rates, and proportions.

I had tried to find patty paper locally but the kitchen store was out of stock for two weeks so I finally ordered a box from Key Curriculum Press, the publisher of Patty Paper Geometry. Their price including shipping was considerably less than other online sellers and shipping was incredibly fast (2 days from NYC). The proper paper will be much easier to use than the differently-sized origami paper we had been using.

Today (Friday) we'll do some competition math assuming Daisy's sinus headache doesn't reappear by math time.

Science
We started chapter 5: Atmosphere in CPO Earth Science, finished the ground water and wells project (homeschool FAIL--separate post), watched Bill Nye Atmosphere, and built our own barometer (Investigation 5A). Topics included the composition of Earth's atmosphere as compared to nearby planets and the layers of the atmosphere.

Last week I managed to upload all the pictures for a bunch of science posts yet neglected to add any text, so the posts still sit in draft mode. I will get them posted today.

History
It was a history-filled week with Cleopatra, regular history and the state park Earth Explorers program which focused on local history this week, specifically local agriculture. The kids pressed their own apple cider! This week only two other kids, one boy and one girl, were there for the oldest group time (9-15yr). They were both around Daisy's age and got along very well, if the amount of chatter and laughter at pick-up time is any indication :)

We've moved from Egypt to the ancient Indus valley. The Human Odyssey devotes a whopping five pages to the topic, so I added the first ten chapters of The Ancient South Asian World and the Jan 2008 issue of Calliope: Spark Along the Indus 2600-1750 BC. I adapted a mapping activity from the K12 Student Pages (p 118-119 for those playing at home).

Next week we'll start ancient Chinese civilizations. The Human Odyssey also devotes only a few pages to this topic, thus she'll be reading from The Ancient Chinese World in addition to some other library resources.

We've stopped making a timeline. Daisy felt like it was busywork, essentially duplicating the very good timelines between each section in The Human Odyssey.

English/Language Arts
Daisy's gearing up for the start of NaNoWriMo on Monday! She finished adjectives in grammar with adjective phrases and a chapter test. No more grammar until December.

She worked more on the NaNoWriMo workbook and spent many hours writing on the computer.

I usually don't keep track of Daisy's free reading, but this week's book list is notable. She (re)read The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King!

French
We finished Chapter 2 in SYRWTL French (Galore Park French Prep 1). Now we can discourse on important topics like what school supplies are in our school room and who is in our class LOL Today (Friday) Daisy is going to make flashcards for all vocabulary up to this point.

Other Fun Stuff
It's been a slower week for outside events, just the usual ballet classes and Saturday Nutcracker rehearsals.

The Sunday Halloween parade downtown and trick-or-treating down Main Street were so much fun. Mike wore the Nutcracker head at the ballet studio's table while Older Sister handed out the candy and coloring pages. The weather was perfect, too. I forgot the camera.

Older Sister has Arsenic and Old Lace performances tonight, tomorrow night and Sunday afternoon. No rest for the drama weary---A Christmas Carol rehearsals begin on Monday afternoon!

Older Brother spent much time and effort this week honing his college list and writing his applications. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

The Best of the Week: the day spent at The Franklin Institute!

The Worst of the Week: my mood :( I've been very short and snappish with the entire family as next week is the anniversary of my mother's death. Last Halloween I spent the day holding her hand as she slipped in and out of consciousness. I really wish we could just skip to mid-November.

Looking ahead to next week: It will be a tough week emotionally. On top of that, Mike is having knee surgery next Friday to repair his ACL and to fix other issues related to surgery two decades ago. For fun, Daisy has a Girl Scout meeting on Tuesday.

Sorry to end on a down note. I hope you all had a great week and will enjoy a very fun weekend!

Wordless Wednesday: Cleopatra at The Franklin Institute

2010-10-26T22:13:00.000-04:00

Read a complete picture-intensive review of our fantastic field trip right here!

Cleopatra exhibit at The Franklin Institute

2010-10-26T22:05:00.000-04:00

On Monday, we completed our Ancient Egyptian studies by visiting the traveling Cleopatra exhibit at The Franklin Institute. I had missed being a chaperone to the King Tut exhibit while it was there in 2007 so I was happy to finally have the opportunity to view ancient Egyptian artifacts.

The tickets are timed-entry. We arrived at The Franklin Institute at 10:30am and were given 11am tickets for the exhibit. If you are familiar with FI, the traveling exhibit space is one floor up from the ticketing level, off the atrium, above the gift shop. Some special exhibits in the space are open to the atrium but this one is not, presumably to protect the artifacts from light and to preserve the slightly mysterious feel (background music, lighting) in the exhibition galleries.

We each were given a wand-style player for the audio tour (included in price). A group in line behind us complained that they weren't headsets, but I definitely preferred the wand to a headset. It was much easier for Daisy to listen to the audio commentary this way than through a headset.

We waited almost half an hour after our entry time. Ahead of us was a large group of middle-school students. With their chaperones, they were separated into three different groups to be let into the exhibition. Our group consisted of Daisy and me, a mom and a 10/11yo boy, a mom and two teens and a lot of senior citizens!

We first entered a small theatre for a four-minute film. Here's the description from the exhibition website :

Introduction Theater

Leaving the theatre, we walked through a hallway which appeared to be over water, representing the underwater ruins of ancient Alexandria, lost after an earthquake and tsunami "centuries ago." Underneath the clear floor were various artifacts from the 5th century BC such as

The first exhibition gallery featured

Canopus

Another submerged city discovered near Alexandria, Canopus had a dual personality. It was a religious center as well as a decadent playground for Alexandrians, comparable to modern-day Las Vegas. This gallery focuses on the city's identity as a site of religious pilgrimage. Artifacts include representations of Osiris, god of the Afterlife, and ritual implements used on the boat procession from Canopus to Heracleion that was held annually in his honor. This gallery also contains artifacts that illustrate the indulgent side of Canopus.

These artifacts were used in temple rituals

A stone (diorite) head of an unknown Pharoh from the Saite Dynasty (26th Dynasty, 664-525 BC)

We saw real hieroglypics, right in front of us!

A representation of the city of Canopus, based on underwater archeological evidence

Items that would have been used in rituals---the handle-like item is what remains from a musical instrument. Bells would have been attached at the top.

Statues of Osiris

I was fascinated by the bronze situla, a pot about 18 inches tall and 12 or so inches in diameter. Near the bottom left side of the handle (at the 10 o'clock position) you can barely make out a Greek inscription. The situla is dated from the Ptolemaic Period (332-30 BC).

At various locations in each gallery were audio hotspots. If you stood on the indicated section, you would hear the audio to go along with video playing on a nearby screen. People not standing on the hot spot would not hear the audio, but would instead hear their own audio tour narration.

We spent so much time in the first gallery that four more groups emptied out of the theatre before we moved on!

The next gallery was

Heracleion

The most dominant artifacts in this gallery space are two 16-foot tall colossal figures of a Ptolemaic king and queen from the Temple of Amon at Heracleion. Each new pharaoh, including Cleopatra, was crowned in the ancient city of Heracleion. This gallery highlights the city's role as the place Cleopatra and all of Egypt's rulers were invested with the power to rule the empire and its strategic position on the Mediterranean coast, where various war objects on view illustrate how it provided Egypt's main line of defense against foreign invasion.

A picture with Daisy showing the size of the statues!

On the rear size of the collosi was a gigantic chart of
Daisy explained the relationships between those listed on the bottom two lines---Cleopatra VII's siblings and children---to me and to some older adults. I was very impressed at the details she remembered from her readings. Thanks go to the Oxford Press The Ancient Egyptian World and the Cleopatra VII Royal Diaries book :)

A smallish (12-15" in length) Greek sphinx confused some little girls as they were expecting it to be part lion.

Daisy found the various gold coins on display to be quite interesting
The level of detail was amazing!

Alexandria

Visitors journey into the ancient city of Alexandria, where Cleopatra's palace once stood. Featured objects reflect everyday life in Ptolemaic Egypt. Key pieces in this room include a statue of the High Priest of Isis and a sphinx with a head that represents Cleopatra's father, both from her private temple at her palace. Also on view is the massive stone head of Caesarion, Cleopatra's son.

Displayed in the Alexandria gallery were beautiful gold jewelry and trinkets. These were an example of Egyptian "tryphe" or ostentatious extravagance which was in great contrast to Roman's austerity.

The Beauty and Power of Cleopatra

Here, visitors gaze upon a larger-than-life headless sculpture of a female body, dressed as the goddess Isis that represents a queen from the Ptolemaic period. They also see the only known example of what scientists believe to be Cleopatra's own handwriting on an original papyrus document.

What did Cleopatra look like? No contemporary portraits survive, though there are official portraits of her on coins. These are believed to be conventional images of royalty, not true-to-life images. On coins, she was not at all attractive!

The lighting in the display case made for a very difficult no flash cell phone picture, but I just had to capture the ancient writing. Of all things, this document granted tax exemption from sales of imported wine!

Search for the Tomb of Cleopatra and Marc Antony

Entering this gallery, visitors are transported to the temple complex at Taposiris Magna, about 30 miles west of Alexandria. Here, Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt, is leading a search for the tomb of Cleopatra and Marc Antony. The gallery introduces artifacts recovered from this ongoing search, including an alabaster head believed to represent Cleopatra.

We viewed religious objects, masks, coins showing Cleopatra and jewelry that had belonged to worshippers at the temple complex. Daisy found it amusing that Dr. Zahi Hawass was featured in this gallery as he had appeared in several National Geographic DVDs used in our Egyptian studies.

The Legend

The final gallery is devoted to images of Cleopatra through the years in art and popular culture. Artists have tried to capture the essence of Cleopatra in a multitude of art forms throughout history, from paintings to films. But so far, the real last queen of Egypt has eluded everyone.

It was interesting to view the various portrayals of Cleopatra through the years. To the Romans, she was a wanton seductress. She was always pictured in medieval portraits with snakes, symbolizing Satan. Renaissance artists showed a pleasure-seeking Cleopatra who ultimately committed suicide with an asp. During the 1800s, her exotic sexuality was the focus. Cleopatra was a ruthless aristocrat yet a tragic beauty who was driven to suicide. By the movie age which coincided with the fight for women's suffrage, Cleopatra was shown as an emancipated modern woman, most possibly the closet portrayal to actual reality.

In conclusion, this special exhibit at The Franklin Institute was well-worth the admission price ($26.50 weekdays for adults, $19.50 for kids 2-11---I had a small value coupon) and the parking garage fee (validated for up to 5 hours $12). The visit was the perfect capstone to a month spent reading about and discussing ancient Egypt.

The exhibit will remain at The Franklin Institute through January 2, 2011. Additional information, including ticket pricing and hours, may be found here.
A four-minute movie opens the exhibition. Visitors are introduced to the parallel stories of Dr. Zahi Hawass and Franck Goddio, who are leading searches for Cleopatra VII from the sands of Egypt to the depths of the Mediterranean Sea.

As soon as the movie ends, visitors encounter a statue of a Ptolemaic queen, perhaps Cleopatra. Visitors also begin their audio tour, provided to every guest as part of the exhibition experience and narrated by the "voice of Cleopatra," who leads visitors through her life and times.

Our eighth week in review: October 18-22

2010-10-22T12:01:00.000-04:00

First of all, the plumbing repair was quick and relatively inexpensive in the grand scheme of repairs. The threads, yes threads, of one pipe leading to the shower head came off inside the pipe! Who knew? So we have a working shower again in the master bath. The ceiling repair and associated ceiling painting in the kitchen, family room, and entry hall are another matter...

I can't believe we're up to eight weeks already! Good gravy, another week and we'd be ready for report cards!

Math
Ding dong, percents are dead LOL Much more interesting math is at hand----ratios, proportions, you name it! We'll start with Patty Paper Geometry next week.

Science
It was a hands-on kind of week. In addition to taking the Chapter 4 assessment in CPO Earth Science, Daisy completed the writing portion of Investigation 4A (Weather Cycle--see separate post forthcoming), had a blast with Investigation 4B (relative humidity--see separate post also forthcoming), enjoyed her first class at the local state park, and is working on a ground water and wells demo/project (will also be a separate post but it's not yet done).

Here is an in-action shot of a portion of Investigation 4B---Daisy laughed so hard while spinning our homemade sling psychrometer!

History
We have finished Egypt! This week included Ramses II, who Daisy called "the vain pharoh" due to the large number of his statues spread all over Egypt,

a mapping activity from the K12 student pages comparing the range and spread of the Old Kingdom, Intermediate Period, New Kingdom and modern day,

completing the Egypt portion of a Comparing Cultures chart from the K12 student pages,

reading the post-Ramses chapters in The Ancient Egyptian World (chapters 20, 22, and 23),

leading up to Cleopatra

The books pictured are (left to right) Cleopatra: Egypt's Last and Greatest Queen , a DK Discovery book (old cover) and Cleopatra VII: Daughter of the Nile (Royal Diaries) which she had already read many times. I love our library system.

On Monday, we will explore the traveling Cleopatra exhibit at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia! I was going to buy tickets ahead to secure our time slot but they want a freaking $4+ "fee" for each ticket! No way---we'll just take whatever time slot is available once we arrive. We'll explore the rest of the museum as well, so that will be school Monday :)

English/Language Arts
Grammar: more adjectives (comparative and superlative, little vs few, demonstrative, interrogative and indefinite)

Writing: She continued in the NaNoWriMo workbook plus wrote a new short story and a very long letter to a friend who moved to Atlanta last year.

Literature: In the past three days, Daisy has read an unabridged Little Women and The Adventures of Robin Hood, one from her sister's collection and one from her brother's collection. We reviewed the types of meter from Building Poems and analyzed the meter in various poems.

French
Woot, verbs! Avoir and etre (imagine the accent), so now we can ask where things are and who has them LOL Using the Galore Park French I (French Prep) in combination with Older Sister's French 1 books works well.

Other fun stuff

Nutcracker rehearsals have started in addition to the weekly three classes. Yesterday Daisy enjoyed a hayride/botany class as part of the Earth Explorers program through the closest state park. She met a homeschooled 10yo girl :) Hopefully that girl (and others) will participate in other classes Daisy has chosen.

The best of the week: I was able to attend an ice cream social for newbie homeschoolers through the local homeschool group! I talked informally with several great women before a panel discussion led by seasoned homeschooling moms. I also met someone else new to homeschooling with an 11 yo girl---hopefully our girls will be able to meet at an ice-skating activity next Friday. Not only do I have a great online support group through the WTM forums, but I am now gaining an IRL group. Life is good :)

The worst of the week: all unrelated to homeschooling----the plumbing issue, brake work today on the little car, a broken-in-two-parts teen's cell phone, an overwhelmed senior who has been exploding due to frustration and stress. But all shall pass. Eventually!

And looking ahead to next week: which actually starts tonight with a trip to a corn maze in Strasburg PA with Older Sister's Girl Scout troop and families (flashlights! bonfire! smores!), a 50th birthday party for a friend tomorrow (adults only!!!!), on Sunday the town's annual Halloween parade (ds's marching band will perform) and subsequent trick-or-treating down Main Street, our field trip to The Franklin Institute Monday...I'm tired just thinking about all the fun things to do!

I hope you all had a great week and will have a super weekend :)

Wordless Wednesday---my kitchen ceiling, sigh

2010-10-20T10:54:00.000-04:00

The reason why the plumber's truck is in the driveway:

Our seventh week in review: October 11-18

2010-10-15T09:59:00.000-04:00

This week has been an unusual mishmash of full, accomplished-feeling days with unsettled half-days.

Tuesday morning was my monthly coffee with long-time friends, when we meet sans kids (except for infants) and talk about everything under the sun. Mike wasn't able to work from home that morning as he had to meet with clients, so Daisy went down the street to play with her youngest cousin for a few hours. She began work on her NaNoWriMo workbook while there. We only "did" school for two hours that afternoon as we also prepped for hosting Girl Scouts that evening.

Wednesday was PSAT day. Older Sister took it this year as practice, so we had to get her to school by 8am as usual and then pick her up at 11:30. Way to mess up the day! No organized schooling was accomplished after 11am.

Math
Word problem torture continued, with more percent of and percent off and rate problems. I am so mean. But Friday we did do some MOEMS contest problems! Patty Paper Geometry has been ordered.

Science
Stupid supply order hasn't yet arrived today (Friday---ordered last Wednesday----it's on the UPS truck in town somewhere), so that threw off my entire schedule for the week. We spent this week covering the water cycle (Chapter 4, CPO Earth Science), watching a fab Bill Nye dvd on Monday, reading and discussing section 4.2 and the chapter connection on caves. We obsessed over Investigation 4A, the slowest ever water cycle simulation. A combination of not enough sun and cool house temperatures teamed to produce v.e.r.y.s.l.o.w. evaporation and condensation of water in our salt and fresh water GeoBoxes. Possibly unexciting pictures to follow.

History
Another fun week of Egypt! We studied Hatshepsut, a female pharoh

Amenhotep aka Akhenaten and the family including Nefertiti

and his boy Tutankhaten/Tutankhamen

The resources pictured above were used in conjunction with K12's Human Odyssey Vol. 1 (chapters 8 and 9) and Oxford Press's The Ancient Egyptian World (chapters 11, 13, 14, 15, and 16). That DK Tut book is fabulous, btw. Daisy has been reading bits and pieces to me for the past hour.

We also revisited the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology's website at http://www.penn.museum/ to explore their collections online. Daisy thought it was so cool to see the artifacts pictured in her books on their website. We'll be visiting them in person hopefully before Thanksgiving! I also need to book our timed tickets to see the touring Cleopatra exhibit at the Franklin Institute (see http://www.fi.edu/ )

Language Arts
In Voyages in English 6 (2006 edition), we covered the use of sensory language in writing, simile and metaphor, and misused words (lie/lay, sit/set, your/you're etc). We moved into adjectives in grammar---descriptive adjectives, definite and indefinite articles (yawn), numerical adjectives (ditto), adjectives as subject complements and comparative and superlative adjectives.

Daisy began reading The Golden Goblet Thursday and should be finished today. She is not enjoying the storyline nor the writing style but is slogging through. She would prefer a female protagonist.

We started meter in Building Poems and spent an afternoon trying to fit normal speech into iambic pentameter. Seriously.

As I mentioned at the top, work has begun on the NaNoWriMo workbook. She is a braver person than I. The thought of creative writing makes me twitch.

French
Sigh. This is hard! Reading in French is coming much easier to both of us than speaking it. Older Sister laughs at our accents and attempts to help us correct them. I expect we'll improve with practice. Right? This week we continued talking about items in a classroom and the verb avoir. I'm having the dickens of a time trying to remember genders of nouns as I keep getting them mixed up with German genders...

Other fun stuff
At Girl Scouts this week, the girls started and completed the Earth Explorers badge. We have the perfect backyard for that badge, the reason I volunteered to host and plan, with a creek at the bottom and 30' or so of native plants/trees before the grassy part. They used that portion of the yard for activity 1 (Be an Ecologist) and activity 8 (learn how to ID 5 native plants). We discussed how the space had changed from the past and how it might change in the future (activity 2: Traveling Through Time). For activity 4 (Reading the Ringes) Mike cut slices from a small fallen tree as we didn't have a stump nearby. Once back inside we discussed adaptation of plants and animals in extreme climates (activity 7). Finally, the girls played a food web/food chain game I made using index cards (activity 5).

For exercise, Daisy had a in-studio ballet performance on Sunday and her usual three classes. The Nutcracker cast was posted this week and rehearsals begin on Saturday. Production week will be a little hairy as it is also tech week for Older Sister's high school production of A Christmas Carol!

She and Older Sister played flute together. Daisy also started making Halloween crafty decorations for this year. We picked up some pumpkins ($1 and $2 each!) on the way home from the RenFaire last week, and Mike and Daisy have been making their plans for carving.
Best of the week: definitely the history discussions we have as Daisy does her reading (including the one we're having now!) I probably should have her writing more, though I'm afraid that would slow down her thoughts as she makes connections and draws conclusions.

Worst of the week: stupid PSAT day in the middle of the week! In frustrating college news, Older Brother spent his day off school (seniors are off on PSAT day) with Mike visiting Johns Hopkins and American University. No change expressed in college preferences as of yet. No headway made on the Common Application. Mike will be bottling his latest homebrew this weekend...

Looking ahead to next week: We'll do Investigation 4B and a Ground Water and Wells activity (done as a lab), plus probably Investigation 5A whatever that might be. It looks like we'll be wrapping up Egypt, unless more Cleopatra resources on request come in at the library.

By the way, I posted the pictures from last Friday's field trip to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire yesterday :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire field trip

2010-10-14T19:40:00.000-04:00

Last week we visited the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire on their Elementary School Day. The activities were geared to the 3rd-6th grade crowd yet there were kids in attendance of all ages from public schools, private schools and homeschools. Mike said the crowd was much lighter than during the Middle School Days he had attended with Older Brother and Older Sister two and four years ago. This was our first event with the local homeschooling group and won't be our last.

After Daisy was grossed out by the sword swallower, we watched the pottery demonstration. It was fascinating to watch him throw a pot without looking at his own hands! At the same time, there was a craftsman handcarving a wooden spoon. Had the wooden spoons been for sale, I would have purchased one immediately.

We walked through all of the shopping areas, checking out the handiwork and the wide assortment of "made in" items. Despite stopping at every single stall and booth, Daisy resisted the call to spend her money. She instead chose to have some fun at the games.

First she tried her hand at the crossbow:

Then she tried the regular bow. This was a much stronger bow than Older Brother's old one and took much effort to shoot:

Finally, she climbed the two Jacob's Ladders. The easy side was quite easy and she clambered up that ladder. Next she tried the more difficult side. I was sure she'd tip over onto the hay below:

but she rang the bell! Huzzah!

After the games, we wandered through the food stalls as Mike enjoyed a pickle-on-a-stick:

Daisy ate chicken nuggets and curly fries <rolling eyes> and Mike had a bratwurst basket. I was going to get a chicken cheesesteak after we watched the human chess game and visited some more stalls. We were on a mission from Older Sister to find a good mask for her. The Homecoming Dance at her school is themed "masquerade" this year. She and I were planning on trying to make a mask... I was thrilled we found a great black with gold mask instead! Daisy tried a few one while I agonized over the choices for Older Sister:

There wasn't enough time to get my lunch before grabbing seats for the final jousting event. We had pretty good seats near the middle of the arena

where we were able to watch the Queen address the two knights

and their "seconds"

Great excitement!

I couldn't get pictures of the swordplay that followed the jousting as all the kids in front of us stood to watch it. We were able to watch it, though.

After all the excitement, we went in search of my chicken cheesesteak. Alas, that shop was closed! I consoled myself with The Most Amazing Caramel Apple ever, dipped in caramel and rolled in teeny chocolate chips and chopped peanuts, for only $1.00. Calories well spent, imho.

I think we'll return to the RenFaire next year! Mike wants to go in costume...

Wordless Wednesday----Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire shopping

2010-10-13T10:38:00.000-04:00

While on a hunt for a mask for Older Sister, Daisy tried on a few!

Our sixth week in review: 10/4-10/8

2010-10-07T22:53:00.000-04:00

Another four day week for us because today (Friday) is our big field trip to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire! <insert happy dancing> We are all set to enjoy the shows, demonstrations, food and the gorgeous weather----pictures will be up over the weekend :)

It was a pretty good week with only one FAIL...

Math
Chugging along with percents. I've been making her do problems backwards and forwards, solving using either using decimals or fractions. Daisy became much quicker by the end of the week at deciding which method to use. There is a light at the end of the percent tunnel ;) No fun math this week due to the Faire.

Science
If you're a good blog reader, you'll have noticed that I've been putting up separate posts for labs we've been doing (that's ok, go check now...) This week we continued with Chapter 3 (Physical Science Connections) in CPO Earth Science:

(Monday) Section 3.3 Density and Buoyance, see separate Density Column demo blog post

(Tuesday) Physics Connection about the science behind hot air balloons plus the chapter activity (modeling radiation of heat energy from the Sun to the Earth). The pictures didn't turn out well for the activity, alas.

(Wednesday) Daisy took the Chapter 3 assessment (aka test) orally. So far, no problems at all with retention. I love CPO.

(Thursday) We began Chapter 4: Water and the Water Cycle by reading and discussing 4.1 Water on Earth's Surface and started Investigation 4A: The Water Cycle. This lab requires 4 days of observations so she'll be checking the set-up through the weekend. As a preview:

(And yes, that is a telescope in the corner of the home office.)

History
This week we covered the 1st and 2nd intermediate periods (Ancient Egyptian World chapters 8 and 10), hieroglypics (AEW chapter 4, Dig magazine March 2010 issue, Write Like an Egyptian through the UPenn Museum), the Rosetta Stone (The Riddle of the Rosetta Stone), and daily life of regular Egyptians (AEW chapters 9, 12, 17, 19, 23). Some additional books were used for visual reference.

We also made Egyptian flatbread from Great Ancient Egypt Projects You Can Build Yourself, which was our FAIL of the week. Blech! They would have been greatly improved by more oil or salt. Or sugar and egg!

Grammar
Finished up pronouns with indefinite pronouns and the always-fun double negatives. Daisy took the test to end the week.

Literature
As shown above, she read The Riddle of the Rosetta Stone for history.

We moved further into poetry, studying alliteration, assonance and consonance using

We had a lot of fun reading the selections from both books aloud, identifying the various sounds and doing the exercises in Figuratively Speaking. I have to dig out all of our poetry books from the attic, basement, and various kids' bookcases.

French

What have I gotten myself into? One day we listened to the audio selection 10 times and still could not understand how to say one thing as the speaking was moving waaaaay too quickly. Older Sister rescued us when she was home! I like how this text is arranged, with a dialogue (also on CD), with vocab and grammar information, followed by a few exercises.

We're reviewing the previous day's lesson and audio selection each day before moving onto the new information. Daisy's having a good time and so far I haven't confused German pronounciation too much with the French... Next week she's going to start writing some exercises. I've also decided to purchase the CD containing additional exercises and tests, to make sure she (and I) are really understanding the French. My eventual goal is for Daisy to comfortably pass out of French 1 as a high school freshman.

Other
We spent a long time reading the PA RenFaire website! We'll be attending the special elementary school day (geared for grades 3-6)---here's the information about the day.

Best of the Week: fun with poetry!

Worst of the Week: that awful flatbread. Yuck. The activity book is fabulous, btw, but probably geared to slightly younger than Daisy.

Looking ahead to next week: a ballet performance on Sunday (a special in-studio event tied with a fundraiser at a schmancy restaurant downtown), Girl Scouts at our house Tuesday night (I've got to get those badge activities planned out....), a shortened day on Wednesday (Older Sister will be finished at 11:30 after taking the PSAT), finishing up one lab, doing another AND an activity from one of the skill & practice sheets that I'm turning into a lab-------watch for separate blog posts! Whew!

And will Older Brother get an application or two submitted.....?????? Will I have hair left????? Will there be homebrew left in the basement????? Stay tuned!

Thrifty Thursday---coupon plans and a free rain barrel!

2010-10-07T10:49:00.000-04:00

In an attempt to regain at least a part of my pre-homeschooling life, I'm going to post a "my frugal life" update each Thursday. Why Thursday? Well, that's when the grocery chains update the online ads for the next cycle, which begin on Fridays, AND the day the local free paper is available. Some weeks the local paper is a great source for coupons!

I just checked the online coupon previews and the Smart Source for this Sunday doesn't contain anything that would make me go check the newspaper boxes downtown. The ads for Pathmark and SuperFresh are equally disappointing. The turkey promo doesn't start until next week, bummer. ShopRite isn't starting until 10/17!

Acme's ad isn't up yet but online chatter shows a ConAgra buy $25/get $10 oyno. I have 3 gallons of Wesson canola oil and about 40 boxes of Swiss Miss hot cocoa (yum, mocha!) for the kids from last winter's ConAgra fest---------I rolled those cats all week long, spending maybe $5 total out-of-pocket including non-ConAgra items (veg, fruit, dairy). That was a fun week! But this time, nothing is jumping out at me. The sale prices on items we'd use (Wesson, Pillsbury flour, Pam spray) seem high, and without good coupons the price spread between the regular shelf price and the sale-price-after-coupons isn't large enough to work out to free items. But I've been wrong before, so I'll reserve judgement until reports come back tomorrow from early Acme shoppers.

Last night I was one of 25 lucky city residents to receive a free 55gal rain barrel! A few weeks ago, an email was sent from the city advertising a free storm water management seminar through the county extension service. The first 25 residents to register would receive a free rain barrel, with others receiving info on how to make one themselves. I called within 45 minutes of the email being sent and was 24 of 25!! I'm so happy I decided to look at email that day during lunch as I've been wanting a rain barrel for YEARS. I'd love to have several in the back, one by the hops and herbs and two connected in series by the veggie garden, just for starters.

Check out this beauty:

We'll put it up on cinder blocks and use the bottom outlet for a hose. The midsection outlet will be used eventually to connect this barrel to another. We'll chose one of the top outlets for an overflow hose to direct excess water away from the house. The top of the barrel is a fixed lid with three screened holes---no insects to worry about.

There's only about 4 weeks left for this rain barrel season....but we'll be well-equipped for next spring!

Wordless Wednesday: A hands-on day in two pictures

2010-10-06T08:49:00.000-04:00

First, a recreation of Zoser's angled (abandoned) pyramid in chocolate chip cookie, complete with chambers and shafts:

Second, getting our geek on (radiant heat demo):

Density Column (Chapter 3, section 3)

2010-10-04T15:16:00.000-04:00

The teacher's guide for CPO Earth Science is a wealth of information for the parent-as-teacher. Each chapter section lists activites to motivate the student(s), explore, explain, extend and assess the topic at hand. In section 3.3, the extension activity is to create a density column.

Given several liquids, the student is to predict which liquid will be the most dense and which will be the least dense. When the liquids are poured into a graduated cylinder or other container, they will order themselves from least dense (top) to the most dense (bottom).

Daisy chose these household liquids: fake pancake syrup (don't judge--Costco was out of the real stuff), dark Karo corn syrup, lemon juice, canola oil, and water. She predicted the liquids would order as oil, water, lemon juice, syrup and Karo.

We used a large test tube to form the column. It and other goodies were found in a box of supplies Older Brother had used to practice for a Science Olympiad event over the years. Unfortunately, no graduated cylinder appeared so we pulled out the trusty medicine cup.

She carefully poured approximately 15 ml of each liquid into the test tube in order of lightest color to darkest color. Here the Karo is making its way down the test tube:

We let everything settle while we ate lunch and ran to the grocery store.

An hour later:

Not bad! Daisy had thought that the lemon juice would be separate from water. I had her read the label---water, lemon juice concentrate...---"Oh! The water and the lemon juice mixed together!" You can see the lemon solids suspended in the center of the test tube. If the test tube was to sit undisturbed overnight, the solids would probably settle into a more defined layer instead of a blob.

Do some science!

Adapting the density cube lab (Investigation 3B: Density)

2010-10-03T16:47:00.000-04:00

Investigation 3B: Density----"Why do some objects float in water, while others sink?"

Materials to be adapted:
displacement tank
density cubes (steel, wood, aluminum, copper, PVC)
100ml graduated cylinder

A displacement tank is a large plastic beaker with a spigot on the side. When an object is placed into the full tank, water will flow out the side to be collected in a beaker. The water is then measured in a graduated cylinder to determine the amount displaced by the object------volume displaced=volume of the object.

I did not want to try to rig up a displacement tank so I decided we'd just measure displacement by the use of a graduated cylinder------measure the water level in the graduated cylinder, place the object in the cylinder, measure the new water level to determine the volume of water displaced by the object.

Unfortunately we didn't have a graduated cylinder. Ooops. I used an old medicine dosing cup with milliliter markings to make a juice glass into a temporary graduated cylinder:

Rough measurements to be sure but the purpose of the lab was to introduce the concept of density.

Density cubes were to be used during the first portion of the lab. The cubes are of the same size but are made of different materials. Students then do not focus on size/shape of the objects, but rather on the behavior of the various materials. As much as I would have loved to use density cubes (see the Nasco catalog here), I couldn't justify the expense for a single lab. We then turned to regular-shaped objects found in the house-----a Jenga block, a magnet, a die, and a cube of brass Lab Assistant cut from a larger bar. The regular (either cubic or rectangular prism) shapes would enable Daisy to easily determine the corresponding volumes by length x width x height. I couldn't find a bar magnet, so I substituted the circular one and held a quick review of the volume of a cylinder.

For the first section with regular-shaped objects, she was to predict whether each object would sink or float. Then she found the mass of each on our balance (food scale, thankyouverymuch), used a ruler to determine the volumes, calculated the density, and then plopped each into our "graduated cylinder" to see if it would sink or float. She actually thought the die would be neutrally buoyant--would neither sink nor float--and was disappointed that it did sink.

The next portion involved determining the density of irregular objects.

You can view the data table below. The volume of each was determined by the displacement method.

Carefully placing objects into the graduated cylinder:

It was a bit tricky removing some objects from the bottom of the graduated cylinder!

Thanks for reading about another fun, hands-on lab with CPO Earth Science!

Adapting the convection lab (Investigation 3A: Convection in Earth's Atmosphere

2010-10-01T17:48:00.000-04:00

Of all the labs for CPO Earth Science, 3A: Convection in Earth's Atmosphere was the most daunting to contemplate using a homemade system. The text calls for a "GeoBox" with a special fitted lid that contains two chimneys. Meet my GeoBox-----an old Rubbermaid box (the size larger than a shoebox), an even older cardboard document box lid that had gone through several moves, and two clear plastic cups left from a party. The other necessary supplies were a tealight candle and a cone of incense, plus a long lighter or fireplace matches and a heat-proof holder for the incense. We live in a university town with a ready supply of incense LOL:

The ever-resourceful Mike cut out the bottoms of the plastic cups using a Dremel attachment:

Then I inserted the cups into holes cut into the cut-down cardboard lid. Unfortunately, I inserted them upside down compared to the official GeoBox chimneys, but it still worked just fine.

I attached the lid assembly to the plastic box with packing tape. The lid wasn't perfectly flat so this helped to create a better seal for the eventual smoke.

As you can see, we needed help from our lab assistant (who was working from home) to keep the lid pushed down. The smoke wanted to escape out the edges instead of through the left chimney.

We smartened up and used index card packs to hold down the lid. I had a hard time photographing the smoke. If you look carefully at the left chimney, you can see a column of smoke exiting there. What you cannot see is the smoke re-entering the GeoBox through the right chimney. The smoke moves from the smoldering incense (cough, cough) toward the candle's warmth, rises as it warms and becomes less dense (exiting), then cools, becomes more dense and sinks back into the box through the right chimney. The smoke enables one to observe the convection currents in action.

Did you enjoy our geeking-out?

Our fifth week in review: 9/27-10/1

2010-10-01T09:46:00.001-04:00

A four day week for us! Older Sister had Monday off, so Daisy did too. I did some reading, planning and researching and then made four lasagnas, one for dinner and three for the freezer. See my Thrifty Thursday post for more about the "real me" if you're so inclined. We've finished up our Friday work early today by starting way earlier than usual (I'm on the second pot of coffee, yawn) because someone is itching to go to the Grand Opening of the new Lego Store today---talk about motivation LOL

Math
Yep, review and extension. Percents were the focus this week, with the usual moaning about too many word problems... Since we just had a four day week, there was no fun Friday math topic. Next week we'll do some more MOEMS problems on Friday.

Science!
Check out this lovely post for pictures of last week's stream table experiment!

(Tuesday) Watched Bill Nye Energy, then read and discussed section 3.1 Types of Energy (potential, kinetic, heat energy, energy flow and heat loss).

(Wednesday) Prelab demonstration with a lava lamp, followed by Investigation 3A: Convection in Earth's Atmosphere. When I first looked into the CPO Earth Science text, I thought I'd have to skip this lab. How would I recreate their "GeoBox" with a lid containing two chimneys? But I did it! Pictures and information will be in a separate post, so as to concentrate the geeky science fun. The lab was a success. Daisy thought it was lots of fun though she said she enjoyed the stream table much more.

(Thursday) Read and discussed section 3.2 Heat (heat, temperature, convection,conduction, radiation). I used one of the skill and practice sheets available on the website linked above for more practice on the types of heat transfer.

(Friday) Can you take another lab? Investigation 3B: Density, baby! The lab called for density cubes (equal sized cubes of steel, wood, copper, aluminum and PVC----I found something similar in the Nasco catalog) but my resourceful lab assistant (my husband) helped me create our own density cubes. I didn't have a graduated cylinder but I marked a drinking glass in 25ml increments using an old medicine cup to measure. Again, this lab will be featured in its own blog post. Stay tuned! Oh, and we also watched Bill Nye Buoyancy.

History
We've shifted focus from Sumer to Ancient Egypt. Now Daisy doesn't just want to be an archeologist but an Egyptologist!

This week focused on the very early period (or Ancient Ancient Egypt as we called it) of the pharohs and pyramids. Reading came from the first part of Human Odyssey chapter 8, The Ancient Egyptian World chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7, and three Dig magazines ( Jan 2008 Egypt's Great Sphinx , Jan 2010 Ancient Egypt's Saqqara Secrets and Sept 2008 Valley of the Kings). We also watched a 90min dvd National Geographic's Into the Great Pyramid . I couldn't get the dvd version of David Macaulay's Pyramid soon enough from the library, so I substituted this one. Daisy loved it! I thought some of the made-for-a-TV-show bits were on the cheesy side but overall it was a very informative show. The information she read during the week came alive through seeing it on video. Sometimes still pictures don't transmit well the drama of history.

Next week we'll explore hieroglypics, the Rosetta Stone, and daily life of everyday Egyptians.

Grammar
Pronouns: possessive pronouns and adjectives. pronouns in contractions, demonstrative pronouns and interrogative pronouns. Nothing new for her this week---her grammar background is solid.

Writing
We finished up the second week of the Writing with Skill beta test. Time to get our thoughts organized and send in our feedback.

Literature
Michael Clay Thompson's Building Poems, just the very beginning talking about sounds and rhyme, plus the rhyme activities from Figuratively Speaking.

French
French was one of the subjects Daisy asked to learn when we decided to homeschool. We began our studies with So You Really Want to Learn French and the first half of chapter 1. I am very grateful for the accompanying CD since I don't speak French! Now we can both say our names and ask others what their names are. Next week we'll be able to talk about where we live and count, too----at least, that's the plan. We've been practicing on Older Sister who is breezing through French 2 at highschool.

Other stuff
Girl Scouts, finally! The troop is down to five members but all want to be there, a nice change from last year. Focus this year is on the Bronze Award process, so this week they completed the second part in their required Journey. We visited the only Platinum LEED certified building in our state, which happens to be the science lodge at the local Girl Scout camp! The girls toured the building and created an energy audit of it. They were fascinated by the green roof, the water storage, and the choose-your-strength-of-flush toilets. Of course LOL

Daisy had planned on attending a geology class at the local state park but it was planned on the day of the East Coast Deluge (Thursday), so she decided to skip figuring it wouldn't be as fun if it had to be indoors. I agree.

The best of the week: the labs, of course. What did you think I would say?! Actually, reading about Egypt is fascinating and has caused me to search out more adult books for my own. Our library table is groaning...

The worst of the week: the writing, sigh. If we weren't beta testing, I would have dumped it last week. She is past learning how to outline, which I didn't know until we started the section of WWS. I expect the later parts of WWS will be more useful for us.

Looking ahead to next week: our very first homeschooling field trip! We're going to join a group of 3rd-9th graders for a trip to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire------and Daddy is going to take the day off, too! It's a special day designed for 3rd-6th graders, not just homeschoolers, so the antics will be age-appropriate. I can't wait. It's been years since we've been to a RenFaire---Older Brother, the high school senior, was a baby then!

Have a great weekend :)

Adapting the stream table lab (Investigation 2B: Modeling a River)

2010-09-30T21:11:00.000-04:00

CPO Earth Science labs are called Investigations---or "student record sheets" in the right column on this page . Open the document for Unit 1 and find Investigation 2B if you'd like to follow along.

As much as I would like to own a fancy, schmancy dedicated stream table, it was time to be realistic and adapt somewhat household supplies to do the same job.

I started with a $1.87 white plastic deep paint tray liner from a Big Box Hardware Store. Dh cut a hole in the deeper end and inserted a plastic spigot. The spigot came from a foodgrade bucket he uses for homebrewing, but one can purchase individual spigots at the BBHS (or a homebrewing shop, if one is so inclined).

The plastic was quite thin, so I backed it with four or so plastic lids from Costco party trays (I knew I was holding onto them for a reason!), tapped securely down with packing tape. Here's a side view of the high tech set-up :

When the "stream table" was placed on the folding chair, it needed to be angled just a smidge more, so I placed the lid to a small cooler under the non-spigot-ed end. The upper bucket is another foodgrade brewing bucket with a plastic spigot and the lower bucket is just a regular one. It was there to catch water overflow from the stream table, as needed. We used just regular play sand and tap water.

The first step was to observe what happened when the water entered the stream table system. Apparently the tray wasn't perfectly level, because the neophyte stream headed to the right almost immediately. Daisy was thrilled to discover that two channels developed, creating a sandbar in between.

She chose the vary the postition of the entering water for the remainder of the experiment (she could have chosen another variable such as the amount of sand in the tray, the angle of the tray, etc). Starting from the right, you will notice that another mini sandbar developed:

(We had to use a regular kitchen funnel to guide the water from the upper bucket. It was really windy and the stream of water was blowing around too much.) From the center postion, you can see the pronounced lean of the "stream table" but hey, it's all cool and geeky:

And lastly, from the left position.

After all observations were recorded and her hypothesis (The path of the water will change direction when the postition of the entering water is changed.) was checked to see if it was correct (yep), it was time for some Stream Table Fun. Note the interesting river system she created before flooding it all out:

Try it at home!

Coming up as soon as I can upload the pictures-----Investigation 3A: Convection in Earth's Atmosphere and my adapted GeoBox!

Thrifty Thursday

2010-09-30T10:22:00.000-04:00

Avert your eyes if you don't want to read a non-homeschooling post! I thought it was about time the real Karen, not the homeschooling Karen, made an appearance ;)

This week in frugality:
*I used up the remaining $3.00 off meat/chicken catalina coupons from the semi-annual Old El Paso deal (buy 6 items get the $3.00 off coupon-----I had coupons for $.50/1 OEP rice packets which were on sale for $.75 in a Betty Crocker promotion, resulting in $.25 overage for each packet purchased AND the meat cats for every 6. I started with a "few"---100!!). My best score was 7+lb of ground beef for $0.18 out-of-pocket! The beef was priced at $1.99/lb but each package was marked down by $2.00. I stood there for a while, protecting my stash, while doing the math to figure out the lowest out-of-pocket total. Yep, geeky like that too.
*I made a quadruple batch of lasagna, one to eat and three for the freezer. Sorrento mozzarella was $1.67 per 16oz package at SuperFresh, limit 3. Sorrento ricotta at ShopRite was at my buy-lots price of $2.99 for 3lb container. I bought the max of 4 and will return to ShopRite tomorrow for 4 more. I adjusted the usual recipe to split 3 lbs of mozzarella and 6lb of ricotta over the 4 9x13 pans of lasagna. Couple that with the practically free ground beef, tomato products from last winter's sales, and 2 boxes of ShopRite brand noodles, and we have 4 dinners plus 4 lunches for $14!
*More very inexpensive ground beef (again, those $3.00 cats sure helped---I started with 15 hehehe) became 4lb of Italian meatballs (cooked prior to freezing) tweaking FishMama's meatball/meatloaf recipe (blog is LifeAsMOM). I also made 4lb of BBQ meatballs using Pioneer Woman's recipe, baking one meal's worth with the sauce and freezing the others uncooked/unsauced.

We hardly ever eat ground beef as ground turkey had been less expensive by far. Now both sale prices are the same. Bleh. Since I drain the fat from ground meat after cooking, the type of meat doesn't really matter for health purposes. Ground beef does make a better meatball and meatloaf than ground turkey.

All that food is sure going to taste good when I just have to pull it from the freezer during this fall and winter...

I just read the ad previews for this next grocery store sale cycle. Nothing exciting again this week. I hope turkey time starts soon! I still have one turkey in the freezer from last year (scored 3 free ones) which I plan on cooking this weekend or next week. I've been collecting rainchecks to combine with coupons and saving all the free coupons that come in the mail to add to my turkey totals at whichever stores participate this year. Last year frees didn't count at ShopRite, which was a major disappointment, so I shifted much shopping to Acme. It would be nice to get 3 turkeys again this year, one for Thanksgiving dinner, one for late winter and one for whenever we need the cooked meat.

It's pouring today in the mid-Atlantic so my usual Thursday routine of checking the local free paper for coupon inserts has been disrupted. I hope to get out this afternoon before picking up Older Sister at highschool. Once I know what coupons I'll be able to snag for free, I can plan out next week's shopping trips and potentially order coupons from a clipping service, if there are any really "hot" coupons!

Wordless Wednesday: Fun with Stream Table!

2010-09-29T11:30:00.000-04:00

"Look Mom, it's forming two channels with a sandbar!"

Our fourth week in review: 9/20-9/24!

2010-09-24T22:44:00.000-04:00

I cannot believe that it's been four weeks already! Depending on my mood and how things are going, it feels like either four years or four days LOL

Two really fun labs (scroll down) this week (well, fun for us geeks here...) and an end to Sumerian civilization:

Math
More of the same: review, reinforcement and extension of pre-algebra topics. This week featured conversions between fractions and decimals incl. repeating decimals, fun with scientific notation, different types of graphs (actually covered in science) and a really neat picture book about Roman numerals, stumbled across in the library. Following an activity in the book using different coins labeled as various Roman numerals, we challenged each other to write increasingly complex numbers.

History
This week Daisy learned about the evolution of Sumerian writing (Human Odyssey chapter 5, Ancient Near Eastern World chapters 4 and 14), and wrote her name using the Ugaritic alphabet (dating to the 14th century BC), found in the October 2006 edition of Calliope.

Her "tablet" was much smaller than we had planned. An Epic Fail while making a salt clay recipe resulted in a need to use the very last little rectangle of Sculpy clay in the house.

The legal and court systems, the rule of King Sargon, the code of Hammurabi and the rise of Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar were also studied. The second craft-type project was to replicate two of the animal figures found in the gorgeous mosaic arches of the gates to Babylon. She followed the directions in Hands-on Ancient People,Vol.1 and created

Some liberties were taken with the paint colors, historically speaking ;), but she added more details.

To finish off the Sumerian unit, she began to fill out a chart "Comparing Cultures" from the student pages which go with the Human Odyssey text. The chart when full will compare Sumer, Egypt, Indus Valley, and China in terms of geography, economy, religion/philosophy, knowledge/arts, technology, government/law, society and history.

Grammar
Ah, pronouns. Agreement with antecedents, intensive, reflexive, subject, subject complement, object. Nothing new for her yet in this section (continued next week).

Writing
First week of beta-testing SWB's new curriculum, Writing with Skill. Daisy isn't enjoying herself because she doesn't really like the mechanics of writing. She's able to write without thinking too much about it, though I believe she needs to practice the techniques and methods of writing. I didn't know she was already skilled at outlining. Oops.

Literature
Gilgamesh! Specifically this version of Gilgamesh found through our fantastic library. Daisy found it to be an enjoyable if easy read, following up with a really good discussion.

Science (the best for last!)

(Monday) We continued with Chapter 2, The Science Toolbox. Investigation 2A (aka lab) involved SI units---estimating and measuring different masses (equal measures of sand, salt, flour and water), estimating and measuring distance and area (since I couldn't find a single meter stick or metric measuring tape in the house, we used items like a post-it pad, box of pencils and a book), and estimating and measuring temperature of liquids.

(Tuesday) section 2.3 systems and models, with discussion of independent/dependent/control variables and a Daisy-designed experimental procedure to see whether salt or fresh water would freeze sooner.

(Wednesday) section 2.4--graphs of various types (bar, pie, line) with additional practice drawing line graphs

(Thursday) Investigation 2B: Modeling a river! I will put this lab into a separate blog post tomorrow :) Since we don't own a fancy stream table, I modified the lab to use an extra large paint tray liner. Lots of pictures will be included!

(Friday) Wrapped up chapter 2 with a reading about hydrogeologists (each chapter finishes with a feature on modern-day scientists and their research) and the chapter assessment, done orally as with the first chapter. For subsequent chapters, I will have her write out the answers.

Best of the week: Why didn't I start homeschooling her sooner??? History and science are SO enjoyable!

Worst of the week: the moaning about following a writing curriculum. Sheesh! You'd think this child had never had a writing assignment in her life (not true---they did a lot of writing in 3rd and 4th grades at the school). Next week she'll do similar assignments to this week, as I've already prepared her.

New for next week: We're going to start with Michael Clay Thompson's Building Poems with the poetry section from Figuratively Speaking as a supplement, probably once a week. Today the new-to-us French books and CD arrived, so I hope to add 10-15 minutes of French, to start, each day. We'll learn together and then practice on Older Sister when she gets home from school. Next week will also be her first Earth Explorers class (9-15yrs) through the local state park------Geology: Rock ID and Collection. I am in hope of a quiet 1.5hr to either sit outside ALONE or to sit in the car and listen to NPR ALONE. Unfortunately, I think I will probably be schlepping to the high school to pick up Older Sister, take her home, and return to the park. Oh well!

Thanks for sticking with me during this oh-so-long weekly wrap-up! Please stop back to see our "stream table" in action :)

Wordless Wednesday----Oktoberfest 2010

2010-09-22T13:29:00.000-04:00

Yes, that's a double helping of potato salad and a pretzel on her plate. No brat in sight!

Week 3: 9/13-9/17

2010-09-17T14:01:00.000-04:00

I was so busy this past weekend that I did NOT get all the planning and prep done for the week that I had intended. Never doing that again! I felt scattered most of the week, sigh.

Math:

Continued review of pre-algebra topics, focusing on manipulation of decimals (word problems) this week. Daisy definitely prefers to do her problems on the whiteboard, just an 12x18 one, instead of on paper. It works for me! Her older sister has taken to doing Alg 2 problems on the whiteboard as well.

Science:

(Monday) Read and discussed the final section of CPO Earth Science Chapter 1.

(Tuesday) Visited a few local state park sites with Daddy (the small zoo and a historic barn turned into a local history and folk art museum) to cross off some of the items needed in the state park scavenger hunt. If we complete 12 or more activities, we'll earn a free state parks parking pass for next year! I was at a monthly coffee with a great group of friends. Some of us have been together for 17 years :)

(Wednesday) Chapter 1 activity/demo on observation of two identical liquids, Chapter 1 assessment (orally), and started the Chapter 1 project which involves observing an object in nature for 10 days. In the afternoon, we attended the open house preview for the year's science classes through the most-local of our state parks (3 miles away!). If she signs up for at least 10 classes in advance (at $5-6 per class), we're eligible for a 10% discount. The schedule sheets are all marked up now! Daisy was a little disappointed in the open house activity as mainly much younger children were participating. Hopefully, the age-separated groups for the science classes will be more to her liking.

(Thursday) Moved onto Chapter 2--measurement. Discussed length, weight and volume in both English and SI units. Measured random stuff because that's fun to do.

(Friday) Section 2.2, time and temperature. Time took only a few minutes (hahaha), but we spent an hour on temperature. I found all the various thermometers in the house (candy, meat, big one for lab), we discussed the differences between F and C, then we worked conversions between F and C on the whiteboard. Math and science together, part of my evil plan. Then we watched Bill Nye Measurement for reinforcement and extension.

History:

Sumer---daily life, religion/gods

We used Human Odyssey chapters 3 and 4, Ancient Near Eastern World chapters 5,9,12,13, and 15, various two-page spreads from Eyewitness Mesopotamia, one reading from Outrageous Women of Ancient Times (Enheduana), and two activities from Hands-on Ancient People vol 1. Right now Daisy is finishing the painting for the Babylonian mosaics from the Gate of Ishtar and the papier mache is drying for a ziggurat (base is a styrofoam cone---the styrofoam blocks were too expensive). We watched Bill Nye Archeology on Monday. Today she read the first literature selection to go with our history studies----The Golden Bull by Marjorie Cowley. I aksed her to read about half, but as you can see

she enjoyed the book and finished before eating lunch.

English:

Grammar studies in Voyages in English 6 centered around nouns, with possessive nouns, nouns showing joint and separate possession, appositives, words used as nouns and verbs and words used as nouns and adjectives. Some concepts were new which was good as Daisy was feeling like everything was just boring review.

For writing, we discussed revising sentences and chosing more exact descriptive words. Next week we'll begin the beta-testing of the new writing curriculum from Susan Wise Bauer. Daisy is motivated to begin because after we work on the first two weeks, she gets to start the activities in the Young Writer's Program workbook for NaNoWriMo!

Reading/literature is so far informal. She reads at least one book daily. We'll work on literary terms and such as soon as the new-to-us Figuratively Speaking arrives.

Other activities:

Back to the usual three-days-a-week ballet schedule, plus rehearsals for an in-studio performance each Saturday. The Girl Scout activity for this Sunday fell through, so they won't meet until next week (I think---better go read that email again!). I do need to figure out what to do about instrumental music. Daisy is going to participate in the National Mythology Exam this winter, so she's checked out a lot of mythology books from the library and enjoys reading those during her free time. I think we might buy the higher level Greek mythology book (listed on the contest bibliography---Grueber?) because she has our copy of d'Aulaires almost committed to memory.

Best of the week: history and science discussions over piles of books at the kitchen table

Worst of the week: having to wait an very long time for library requests! The library system switched to new software, enabling inter-county requests and a much better database search. Unfortunately the implementation and learning curve (poor librarians!) slowed down all the requests I had in the system. It took some items 10 days to be sent from one branch to ours, after the requests were shown as "in transit." Some things haven't even been pulled yet after 2.5 weeks from requesting. Oh well, I'm just going to plan way ahead and request the remaining Egypt resources instead of waiting until half-way through that topic.

Our second week: Sept. 7-Sept 10

2010-09-11T18:44:00.000-04:00

Monday was a day off for the Labor Day holiday, so it was another short week for us!

Math:

Review continued with decimals. Many word problems were worked this week (moan, moan, slump, moan). We're using the Key to Decimals series for this review. I was able to purchase a boat load of various Key to books this summer for a nice used price, and I expect to resell the ones we're not using :) On Friday, we mixed things up a bit by starting math competition prep. She's signed up to participate in the homeschool group's Math Olympiad team ( http://www.moems.org/) beginning in November. I think each Friday's math will consist of various old MOEMS problems. I printed the sample test from the website---she did one problem just by reading it, then did two more during lunch. She also answered September's problem of the month---I wrote her answer down in my planner to check when the answer appears next month :) I plan on purchasing one or more of the MOEM books for practice.

Science:

We started with CPO's Earth Science with Chapter 1: Science is Everywhere. It was the usual "branches of science," observation vs inference, and scientific method of pretty much every middle school science book first chapter. The labs (called Investigations) were more interesting to Daisy! With this textbook, there are 2 labs per chapter. The first this week involved measuring flow rate of water through a bucket with spigot. Dh is a homebrewer so we had ready access to a spigoted bucket:

Topics included measurement of volume, collecting data, calculating mean, and analyzing data.

On Friday, we did Investigation 1B, using the same equipment but varying the water level in the bucket to see if the flow rate changed. She made observations, created a hypothesis, collected data,and analyzed the data to test her hypothesis.

The last section of Chapter 1 will be completed on Monday.

History:

This subject is going to be SO much fun this year! One of Daisy's goals for homeschooling was to have "history" instead of just boring old "social studies." I think she's had more pure history this year already than all of last school year.

We're using K12's Human Odyssey with Oxford Press's History of the Ancient World volumes plus other resources. This week she finished reading Chapter 1 of HO and read all of Chapter 2 "Unearthing Sumer." In Ancient Near Eastern World she read chapters 2 and 3 to correspond with the textbook chapter. We learned that the semi-nearby University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology (http://www.penn.museum/) houses one-third of the treasures of the Sumerian city of Ur unearthed by Sir Leonard Woolley in the 1920s and 1930s. Unfortunately, that particular exhibit www.penn.museum/long-term-exhibits/267-iraq.html is closed until March 2011. Some of the artificats pictured in the Human Odyssey chapter are in the UPenn collection! We'll be making a field trip to that museum as sonn as we can in the late winter. As a consolation to not visiting the exhibit now, we spent an hour or so exploring every page and link on the Iraq's Ancient Past website www.penn.museum/sites/iraq/

On Thursday, I asked her to write a few sentences about the week's reading. She wrote a paragraph about Babylon (only covered briefly in the reading, so she read more) and one about the discovery of the burial pit of Queen Pu-abi of Ur.

English:

Grammar covered nouns as direct objects, indirect objects and the objects of prepositions. We reviewed dictionary entries (how to read etc) and the use of dictionaries to find unfamiliar words.

She decided to participate in the Young Writer's Program of NaNoWriMo http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/ so I'll get her signed up this week and print out the middle school workbook to use for preparing for November.

The writing program we're going to beta-test for Susan Wise Bauer will be coming our way soon :)

I found a used copy of Michael Clay Thompson's Building Poems and a used copy of Figuratively Speaking so those will be added to the mix in the coming weeks.

Other stuff:

Art: Daisy sketched a gazillion things this week and drew a comic strip ala Charlie Brown and Lucy with a football. She chose a craft, recreating a Sumerian mosaic from the gates of Ishtar, from Hands-on Ancient Peoples vol 1 (Yvonne Merrill) and started painting. We ran out of time to finish Friday.

Girl Scouts hasn't started yet. The troop may participate in a local women in aviation event next Sunday.

Ballet started today (Saturday). Yesterday was the grand reopening of the studio (we'd been in temporary space while the building housing the studio was torn down and rebuilt) which is GORGEOUS! There's even a separate green room for the boys! Pictures are on the camera instead of my phone so I'll have to get those uploaded to photobucket to share.

This week, I again kept track of time spent on each subject. I'm trying to get a better idea of how my on-paper plans correspond to actual time spent each day. Math varied from 30-60 minutes, science from 15-90 minutes, history from 30-120 minutes, and English from 5-30 minutes! Whew!

Upcoming next week: two science labs, a trip to the local state park's nature center for a preview of the year's homeschool classes/activities, and coffee with my friends------Daisy and Daddy will do something as yet undetermined Tuesday morning! Will they hike? Will they visit a local museum? Will they take sketch pads and pencils out into the wilderness? Will they play frisbee golf? Stay tuned...

Wordless Wednesday: Before

2010-09-08T14:32:00.002-04:00

(Sorry about the sideways pictures----I can't figure out how to turn them when sent from my phone!)

Wordless Wednesday: After

2010-09-08T14:31:00.001-04:00

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh :)

Our first week! (well, kinda)

2010-09-03T17:05:00.000-04:00

We eased into school this week :) Since we're following the schedule of her older sister, we too had orientation and getting to know the teachers and classes. Math, history and a smidge of grammar were started this week. Next week we'll add literature, vocab., and science.

Math
Daisy took a placement "test" I cobbled together, just to see what her gaps are. She needs to have all fundamentals mastered before she can start true algebra. Turns out she never learned division of fractions (?????) so that was first. I then presented a lot of word problems (but Mommmmmmmmmm) to make sure she was setting up the problems correctly. I'm of the opinion that she hadn't done enough word problems in previous years. So far, so good. Next week, a quickie review of decimals, then percents and then on to more fun topics.

History
(Tuesday) Daisy read the introduction to Human Odyssey and we discussed time (BC/BCE, AD/CE), timelines, lattitude and longitude. I dusted off the old globe Mike's grandmother had given us years ago and she used it while doing some scavenger hunt type activities from the Student Pages and National Geographic's Xpedition site.

(Wednesday) She drew continents onto an orange with a Sharpie, peeled the orange, then flattened the peel as a simulation of creating a map projection. Using the various projections in the atlas section of Human Odyssey and on the Xpedition site, we discussed the pros, cons and uses of the different projections.

(Thursday) Daisy read the first section of Chapter 1, From Hunter-Gatherers to City-Builders, about the Stone Age. We explored the cave paintings of the Lascaux (France) Grotto through this amazing website http://www.culture.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/ spending at least an hour looking at every single drawing and reading through all the textual commentaries. Fascinating!

Next week in history, we'll begin our study of ancient Mesopotamia. The last library requests were picked up this afternoon! In addition to the Human Odyssey text, we'll be using The Ancient Near Eastern World (Oxford Press), DK Eyewitness Mesopotamia, Hands-on Ancient People Vol. 1, and Outrageous Women of Ancient Times. She will read Gilgamesh the Hero (Geraldine McCaughrean) as a literature selection.

Grammar
Nothing very exciting, just the first few lessons in Voyages in English 6 (orally) to get her feet wet.

I have to take more pictures of the index card house to share. It is now fully furnished (index card furniture), decorated (marker and colored pencil wallpaper, post-it carpets), with an entire index card family moved in. They even have a treehouse (index cards, paper towel roll) in the yard!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-09-01T13:19:00.000-04:00

Give a girl a pack of index cards and some tape....

Fifth grade curricula, 2010-2011

2010-08-31T22:23:00.000-04:00

English

Voyages in English 6
Vocabulary Workshop A by Sadlier-Oxford
beta-testing a fifth-grade writing curriculum by Susan Wise Bauer (of The Well-Trained Mind)
NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program??????

Math

filling in any gaps left from years of spiral mathematics.....
having fun with Kiss My Math
Art of Problem Solving's Introduction to Algebra
Math Olympiad with local homeschool group

Science

CPO Earth Science with most of the Investigations (labs) as written, others greatly adapted
Bill Nye DVDs from the library
Earth Explorers weekly program for ages 9-15 through the state park system. Earth Science topics include "Geology: rock ID and collection," "Telling Skies: Cloud Types," "Moon Phases, Craters and Eclipses, oh my!" (before the December eclipse), along with many others.
Science Olympiad with local homeschool group (She participated last year with her school team and placed first and second in two events!)

History

The Human Odyssey: Prehistory Through the Middle Ages (from k12)
Oxford University Press series The World in Ancient Times
a gazillion library and internet resources, so many that I hope we get to use most!

French
We'll be using her older sister's French 1 text and workbook, with (hopefully) some audio components purchased through half.com or amazon. I'm grateful that the high school uses an older edition as it makes finding the ancillary bits much easier and less expensive! We won't be starting French until later this fall. I have to get my courage up to try a new language-------German was a loooooooonnnnnnnnngggggggg time ago!

Other fun stuff:

ballet three times a week, with one performance in October and Nutcracker in December
Junior Girl Scouts, working on the Bronze Award
children's choir at church, assuming there will be one this year
continuing with flute or starting with violin????? I want her to play in an ensemble, not just take lessons. Instrumental music outside of a school is quite expensive...

Welcome to my blog!

2010-08-31T20:31:00.000-04:00

Thanks for dropping by! I hope to use this space to share our journey as we homeschool our youngest daughter, now ten, through the middle school years. She attended a private school from kindergarten through fourth grade, but will now be home for fifth grade and beyond.

We also have two highschoolers, a senior son and a sophomore daughter. They attend rival private schools which can make football season very interesting.... Expect to see much about the high school to college transition!

I will most likely detour into frugality (couponing IS a sport, don't you know), gardening (someday I will finish those Longwood classes) and my love for planning vacations, Disney and otherwise.

Next up, the plans for fifth grade!