homeschool highlights

It's been a while since the last update. Mostly because we've had a lot of interruptions to the schedule. We've spread two weeks worth of work out over three weeks. Of course, one of the advantages of "officially" schooling year-round this time is that we've got the leeway to do that without having to make up a lot of work on weekends.

So what has Annie been up to since the last update?

*Her English class is still going well, and she's still enjoying it a great deal.

*She's learning a lot of great new vocabulary. We love our "klatches" and the vocabulary game. A huge thank you to everyone who plays! And she's donated several thousand grains of rice.

*We've read and discussed a plethora of dark and eerie stories, including among many others, "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs and "Jerusalem's Lot" by Stephen King.

*Real world math has had Annie working with living expenses and budgeting, and algebra has seen her working mostly with inequalities.

*We're still traveling through time in the history of western science, and have met people such as Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, William Gilbert, Galileo, Rene Descartes, Pierre Gassendi, Christiaan Huygens, Robert Boyle, Francis Bacon, Marcello Malpighi, Giovanni Borelli, and Edward Tyson.

*The Civil War is still our focus in U.S. History...Annie can't seem to get enough! Grant and Lee have finally met, battled intensely, and are now outside Petersburg. And we learned about battlefield medicine. Yikes.

*She's completed the first two packets for the quarter in DBQ, and written essays on political parties in the blossoming nation of the U.S. and on the differences between the North and South leading up to the Civil War.

*We're continuing to explore Africa, looking at the physical and human geography of the continent. We're about to start looking at some of the history and some of the current day issues. And by the way, thank you Jean, for sending us the e-mail about your dad's experiences. We actually haven't read it yet, but are looking forward to getting to it when we start exploring current day Africa.

*Still focusing on elections in U.S. Government. Along with learning about the candidates, their positions on the issues, and the elections process in general, Annie participated in a on-line mock election for school age kids.

*Music consists mostly of fluting. But Annie did also watch a video, Music and Culture, which featured the musical traditions of some Polynesian, African, and Native American cultures.


*She's still taking an art class on Thursday evenings. Since last post, she's completed a watercolor painting and a painting using acrylics. We're also looking briefly into the lives of selected artists, so far looking at Da Vinci and Michelangelo.



*We're still learning about HIV/AIDS in health education, doing some demonstrations of how most viruses are spread as compared to how HIV is spread, and learning about risky behaviors. We've also read and discussed articles on the importance of sleep, autism, and vandalism.

*At Camp Arrowhead, Annie took classes on fire-building, outdoor cooking, and outdoor survival skills.

*As far as phys ed goes, Annie is also still enjoying swimming lessons on Wednesday evenings. She also continues to jog with Rich on a semi-regular basis, and has been hiking twice. And of course, bike riding never gets old.

homeschool happenings--weeks(ish) 3 and 4

We've been plugging along at a pretty steady pace, sort of have a rhythm going for our weeks. Definitely takes a bit longer to get through some things with the boys around 24/7, but Annie and I both love having them here. The boys each do about an hour's worth of "lessons" each day as well. During that time I get a glimpse of how incredibly hard, and yet how incredibly satisfying and wonderful it would be to homeschool all three of them. But for now, we're playing that one by ear.

So, what has Miss Annie been up to the last two weeks?

Vocabulary: Two more rounds of "using that vocab" with lots of incredible sentences to judge, and more importantly, learn from. We're now half-way through this game, and it's quite a tight race. As usual, Annie also wrote sentences using her words each week, as well as wrote a story each week using at least 12 assigned words. And kicked butt on both vocabulary tests. Our weekly vocab klatches continue to be fun, and even Gray has joined in! And finally, Annie has "donated" another 6,000 grains of rice.

Literature: Lots and lots and lots of poetry reading. We reviewed persona poems, catalog poems, and free verse. A couple favorites that made Annie's anthology: "The Owl and the Pussycat" by Edward Lear and "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe.

Math: Evaluating algebraic equations. Mathematical modeling. Intersections and unions of sets. Subsets of real numbers. More on number lines and absolute value. An intro into using a scientific calculator.

More puzzles.

Science: Making pitfall traps. Lecture on what makes insects different from other arthropods, why insects are so successful, how insects are helpful, major orders of insects and their characteristics, mouth parts of insects, complete and incomplete metamorphosis. Examining differences between bee and grasshopper life cycles. Two episodes of Bug Attack. Continued work on insect defenses database.

































Social Studies: Watched more of Ken Burn's The Civil War. (Along with more highlights discussion, note-taking, and quote collecting.) More reading in companion book (The Civil War by Geoffrey C. Ward). Learned a bit about Civil War photography. Currently reading a book about Matthew Brady (Matthew Brady: His Life and Photographs by George Sullivan). Learned a bit about Civil War spies. Did some activities using a cipher square.

For history through literature, Annie wrote a book review of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

For the geography portion, Annie watched two episodes of Principles of Geography, "Physical Features of Earth" and "Natural and Man-Made Wonders." Lecture and note taking. Finding and labeling physical features assignment. Quiz. Explored website about the seven wonders of the ancient world.

For the government portion, Annie watched "Standard Deviant School: The Constitution." Lecture and note taking. Read article titled "The Constitution and the Bill of Rights." Quiz.

For the document based questions portion, she began packet two by reading the documents and completing the short answer section. Packet two is about early exploration.

For current events, read and summarized article daily from Ed On-Line website. Read chapter 3 in What If We Do Nothing? Poverty. Worksheet. Writing assignment about obstacles to getting a good education in developing nations.

Music: Still fluting. Has now chosen all 10 of her songs for her informal recital in September. Watched two shows (What Is Music? and Is It Music?) about the elements of music...things like rhythm and melody and harmony.

Art: Finished up nature photography class.

Phys. Ed: Finished up the soccer season with the last two games (and their pizza party!).






















Went hiking twice.

Health: Completed four more pages in Health Science. Two more rounds (noninfectious disease and fitness) of Trivia Showdown against Rich. Two more butt-kickings.

She also completed 3 pages in Get Smart About Drugs. Watched The Truth About Tobacco, and completed related assignment.

Practical Arts: Pet care--feeding, bathing, cleaning up after. Shortcuts in the kitchen. Made deviled eggs.























Library Skills: Completed almanac scavenger hunt. Watched The Animated Almanac and The Animated Encyclopedia. Several encyclopedia worksheets.

And that's it for all the required subjects. In addition, we learned about the Spanish alphabet and pronunciations of the letters. Added about 50 words to our Spanish vocabulary. More computer basics, terminology and such. Completed the first chapter in Critical Thinking. Completed a self-assessment in our study skills unit. Made a concept map.

Homeschool happenings--week(ish)2

Here's what Miss Annie's been up to this past week...

Math: Finally hitting the very beginnings of actual algebra. Lots of terms introduced. Properties of real numbers. That sort of stuff.

Also finished up the first section in real-word math (working with schedules).

Couple more math puzzles.

English: Another round of judging on the vocabulary game. Another aced vocabulary test. Plus her weekly sentences and vocabulary story, of course. And another 3,000 grains of rice donated.

Getting 15 hours of writing class in last week, has left us ahead of schedule there. Annie, of course, still works on stories on her own though. I don't think she could stop writing any more than she could stop reading.

Literature: Still reading poetry. Talked about odes, narrative poems, and sonnets this week. Learned some new terms, like meter and feet and iambs and trochees. Among Annie's favorite poems this week were "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe and "Bad Weather" by Ralph Fletcher.

Science: Annie continued work on her insect defenses database. She watched Eyewitness Insects video. And did a bit more field work...1. another field trip to Mendon Ponds Park for butterfly and dragonfly identification work and 2. building and placing "nests" in hopes of attracting parasitoid wasps.
























Social Studies: We watched more of Ken Burn's The Civil War. (Along with more highlights discussion, note-taking, and quote collecting.) Annie has also begun reading companion book (The Civil War by Geoffrey C. Ward). Annie also read Alexander Stephens Cornerstone speech, and did an associated writing assignment.

For the geography portion, we watched an episode of Principles of Geography titled "Maps and Globes: A Thorough Understanding". Lecture and note taking. Map scale exercise. Latitude and longitude exercise.

For the government portion, Annie took a quiz on the article she'd read last week, did a writing assignment about what it might be like if every state had their own currency, and watched a program titled "A Little Rebellion: Prologue to the U.S. Constitution".

For the document based questions portion, she finished up packet one with an essay based on the provided documents, along with her prior knowledge.

Music: Still fluting away.

Art: Still clicking away. Obsessively. My personal favorite of the week...




Phys Ed: Two more soccer games.



































































Health: Annie completed another two pages in Health Science. She also played another round of Trivia Showdown against Rich. This time it was about infectious diseases, and she got her butt kicked.

She also completed 4 pages in Get Smart About Drugs.

Practical Arts: We discussed healthy menu planning. We came up with a number of strategies for easily making meals healthier.

Library Skills: Annie completed an Atlas Scavenger Hunt and an introductory assignment about almanacs.

And that's it for all the required subjects. In addition, we watched "Understanding How Stuff Works: Computers" and Annie took a short quiz. Some basic terminology discussed.