9th Grade Science for the girl!

Biology and Chemistry looks like a good fit. We will go between the two:
Biology: Zoology colouring book, Exploring the Way Life Works (see online syllabi for ideas), Biology Colouring Book, Units on 5 Kingdoms from Apologia book, Froguts for the lab work as well as our Microscope (need slides to create some new slides), some of the lab activities from Quirks and Quarks (blog)

Chemistry: Zumdahl text, Khan lectures, the Joy of Chemistry, The Elements, The Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments with the Homschooler's Kit!

Obviously this will take much more than a year... but I know she will like the change!

Also.... botany studies with art!

Chemistry Links...

Great Lectures:

Khan academy

Oxford -has a great link to online labs as well

middle school chemistry for C.

Possible enrichment for Hannah down the road at the U of M

Chart for 40s chemistry from the Manitoba Government (don't look at the rest of document- unless you want a thorough course in educationalease!)

I have ordered the Zumdahl book and will order the Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments!! I think I will use these last two, along with the text on my shelf, to cover the 11th grade Chem. with H. this year, which will leave time for more Biology and some Botany and Astronomy (our Natural History Studies with C. and Ar. and Aa.)

Ar. will do a combined Natural History, Marine Biology and Chem. experiment year!!

On another note.,,,

To Eyre- shawl pattern here

H.'s reads last year..

Some of the reads from the last part of the year:
Adam Bede
Tess of the D'Ubervilles
Jane Eyre
Bullfinch's Age of Chivalry (the Mabinogean part)
The Two Towers (yeah Hannah)
The Return of the King(Way to go!!)

Neat book..

Writing in English- out of print but free online! A nice change and great models!!

Read Alouds at Present....

Great Expectations- done (what a marathon- but it was worth it!)
Julius Ceaser- done
Around the World in 80 Days
Simirrillion- H, A, and I
The Silver Chair- Papa to boys
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader- done
Trumpet of the Swan- Aa. and I
Jane Eyre- (still) H. and I
An Island Story- the boys and I

Wed. April 14th, 2010

Let's see...
All:
Prayers and Acts of the Apostles
2 Chapters of Around the World in 80 Days
Artist Study- Lawren Harris- Beaver Swamp (oldest three wrote out their narrations)

A:
Algebra- 1/2 of new lesson
Read: Blessed John, Caesar's Gallic Wars, Microbe Hunters (?)
Biology: studied more Cnidaria and made a page on P. Man of War
Writing: Description exercise in Writing in English (did a good job!)
Pennywhistle: off to tea and tunes tonight

H:
Algebra- 1/2 of new lesson
Read: The Fellowship of the Ring, spiritual reading
Writing: art narration
Rest of the day at play practice for Twelfth Night

C:
Math- next lesson
Read: Harry Potter, 2 chapters of The Last Battle
Writing: art narration
2 chapters An Island Story on audio at lunch
LOTS of outside play with water fight etc.

A:
Math- couple of lessons
Read: Explode the code
Writing: a wee bit of copywork
2 chapters An Island Story on audio at lunch
Ditto C. with the play!

Lunch:
Baked beans, carrots, and toast
Dinner:
hmmmm (way to nice outside- prob. whip up a red lentil soup and serve it with bread).

Last night we had a nice long Simmirillion read- that book goes down like honey- it is so hard to stop reading. Papa is reading the Silver Chair to the littles at night when he can fanangle the last Harry Potter book out of C's grip.

Boys are on the Wii and A is off to his music night (H. is off at ballet all night).

That's a wrap!!

Up Next...

For C. and Aa.
~keep on in Child's History of the World and read last 6 lives in Plutarch for Children: Greek Lives
~ then keep on in Child's History or begin Famous Men of Rome- but honestly I think I need a break from this book. I have read it through twice out loud to my kids and as good as it is I must admit that when I near the end of the book I don't ever want to hear about another famous man of Rome!). Maybe we will just read in the Hillyer book or maybe in the Story of Rome by Macgregor that Ar. loved or perhaps we will read in Hillyer and C. can read the Story of Rome later to himself.
~when we get to Rome I will read Ceaser's Gallic Wars (kids) to all the kids- I have wanted this book for years and finally found a reasonable copy.
~C. is reading Otto of the Silver Hand, but when he is done I might give the Children's Aeniad or In Search of a Homeland. I personally like the first one better but I think he will enjoy the pictures in the second one.
~H. is plugging away in Dicken's History of England and getting more into Ivanhoe
~Ar. is approaching Alexander the Great (he will read the Plutarch life for him I think). After this I will have to rethink the Rome part of his year as the Greek part will take us over half. My thoughts (off the top of my head) are...
~ the Aeniad (he really wants to read this)
~Ceaser's Gallic Wars (kids version with the family)
~Julius Ceaser- Shakepeare (being read now)
~readings from A Short History of the World by Robert's with notetaking
~not sure after that...

Today- Tuesday January 25th

Today I was feeling a bit better and M. was working closer to home so we drove him to work, got some groceries and hit the fish store. H. has been working hard on her marine bio. and I have been promising her a trip to look at the sponges and fish and for the kids to grab some more fish for the tank.

A:
~work on narrative essay from the Illiad (a few hours again!- looks great). We worked on the polishing together this afternoon
~Henle Latin (he did this on his own- probably 4 sentences of translation in Unit 3)
~Algebra
~Ancient History and Lit: listened to the Illiad (he has read all the other books this year and we found a great reading of this at the library so he decided to do this one as an audio book, not his usual medium for books!)
~Science- did so much yesterday. We are swamped in all the functions of the parts of animal and plant cells that I told him to skip it today
~Spiritual Reading: Gospel of John with commentary
~Music practice

H:
~field trip at the fish store!
~Algebra
~Spiritual Reading- Gospel of Luke
~Lit: The Two Towers (almost done!!! Way to go!!!)
~Science- a great review of thermohaline circulation. We finally got it I think! Made a great blown up map of the global conveyer belt for her science fair project
~making a great soup as we speak

C:
~field trip at the fish store!
~Timez It
~a chapter of The Order of the Phoenix
~30 minutes violin practice

Aa:
~Explode the Code- consonant blends
~read lots of Russian Folk Tales to him over the last couple of days while I have been sick (my they are gruesome!!)... but no books to him today yet. Right now he is hooked into the retro cartoons as we got cable for the Olympics
~violin practice

Me:
~kept up the laundry mountain
~mopped the floors
~morning prayers
~good lunch of chicken soup and grilled cheese with Papa home for lunch
~off for my knee exercises and some Crime and Punishment

Until next time...

Monday January 11th, 2010

All: (while playing Lego- a patience testing ordeal but Aaron was a little put out today)
Church History- 2 pages
The Mother Tongue- review of 1st 4 parts of speech and adverbs review and exercise
Julius Ceaser- Act 1 scene 2 (a long one!)
Great Expectations- 1 chapter
The Jungle Book- finished the chapter
Golden Bible- Joshua
Bede's Ecclesiastical History- 2 chapters

Aaron:
Read in the Beg. Bible and did a bunch of Explode the Code. He wrote out some Orthodox copywork with 3 perfect words! He practiced his name in cursive and basically poured over the new lego mag.- this should be a quarterly holiday because my boys can't focus at all on that day!

Caleb:
Read Otto of the Silver Hand- 1 chapter
Violin- 4 pieces with listening
Math- next exercise
Writing- copywork from Paedia classics
Spelling- day 1 copywork

Hannah:
Read the Two Towers- 45 minutes in bed
Read the Gospel of Luke- 1 chapter
Writing- Orthodox copywork and narration of St. Photina
Math- next lesson and #4
Latin- vocab. drill
Science- read in Seaside Naturalist
(off to ballet now)

Ariel:
Spiritual Reading
Read the Illiad
Writing- Orthodox copywork from quote from St. Seraphim of Sarov in cursive
Science: spent the morning on unit 6 day 1 (hard stuff) in Biology
Latin-vocab. drill
Library job
Hopefully some good music practice in there!! (30-45 min. whistle)

Dinner: mac and cheese and carrot sticks (Ar. will put it on the table and serve but I will make it tonight~)
Lunch: fresh bread and poached eggs/cream cheese and jam

Me: 2 loads of laundry folded and hung and washed.

Good day (with a very late start!)

Today- October 13th, 2009

MT: Prayers and Golden Bible

chores: laundry H, vacuum Ar., sweep C. , Aa???

Ar: Algebra
Latin (oral and review plus some new stuff)
Lots and lots of science studying then we did the test orally- 18 out of 21!!
Read Herodotus (wrong chapters first-ouch- than the right ones) and Moby Dick

H: Algebra
Latin- ditto what Ar. did
Diagramming- first stanza of the Highwayman
Read 45 minutes of the Two Towers
Painted

C: Math
Entire week of Latin
Lots of Painting
Read comics and The Trumpet of the Swan

Aa: Math sheet
Read some poems
Lots of Lego
Traced the capitals in Italics B
Practiced his violin

During Lunch: Macbeth
After Lunch: (to three youngers)
The Story of the World 1- 1 chapter
Some poetry
Worked on the Ode to Mr. Toad with two little boys
Read many Greek Myths from the D"Aulaire book
The Childrens Homer
More painting....

Then off to the park, made dinner with Hannah, and games to end it all! Tired just thinking of it!! Did I mention that I woke up at 6 (it is now 1 am nearly, so time to call it a day!!)

Last spring's read aloud list...

• Founders of Russian Monasticism- Mom to all
• The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe- Papa to boys (March)
• The Magician's Nephew- Papa to boys (March)
• The Story of Mankind- mom to olders
• The Princess and the Goblin- mom to all
• Underground to Canada- finished.
• Secret of the Andes-not a go..again (third time trying)
• Charlotte's Web- Mom to Aaron...finished
• Byzantium- Matt to Ariel
• Sense and Sensability- Mom and Hannah
• Asterix, Asterix and Asterix!! Everyone loves Asterix!
• Winnie the Pooh- myself to little boys
• Harry Potter 3- Papa to little boys. Temporarily on hold.

Thursday and Friday (November 13-14th)

Thursday

Homeschool Swimming Lessons
Came home and ate lunch while I read SOTW 2 (last chapter) and As Rich as Croesus.

Then we had friends over for the afternoon to play.

Ballet, Bible Study, etc. and bed.....

Friday

Slow morning after yesterdays busy day! But so nice to be inside with the wind howling outside. C. and Aa. ate breakfast and went outside to play in the snow as I prayed which was so nice.

All:
Prayers and today's Gospel reading
Poem recitations for all
Read The Practical Geologist to all re. Plate Tectonics
Read a page of One Drop of Water (what a neat book)

Ar:
Algebra- Lesson 2 Review (going very well)
EGrammer Plus- next page
Read: The Age of Fable
The Story of Art
Cleaned Room and changed sheets
Still need the whistle and Latin!

H:
Algebra- Rest of Set 2 (She is loving the graphing)
Spelling
Read: The Turning
Cleaned Room and changed sheets
A few scales on the piano
Latin: new vocab. review, chants of flumen etc., oral translation lesson

C:
Math- out loud (too busy building Bionacles to stop!)
Writing- Italics
Traced and labeled a bunch of rocks from the rock book
Chores and Violin still to come....(as well as the Hobbit on his own reading time)

Aa:
Designed some really cool Bionacles
Life!


I will read to them over lunch from East of the Sun and West of the Moon. H. and I are going to have a read of the Borrowed House this afternoon- this is an awesome and gripping book. We are almost halfway done in two reads (and I have the perk of owning it so I can flatten the spine (don't tell my husband- it would be sacrilige in his books!) and knit at the same time.)

Knitting group on here tonight and then preparing for Aa.s birthday. Does anyone know how to create Popeye with icing??

So, for the sake of my brain....

chores for little boys
instrument practice
quiet reading for little boys
Latin for Ar. (after lunch when the little boys are cleaning their room) with me
read aloud with H. when the others are in quiet time

That seems to wind up a nice serendipitous day here (although on paper or screen it doesn't look quite as mellow as it has been to live first hand.)
.
Thoughts brewing in my head from this post: Too Little, Too Much. My initial thoughts love the idea of lots of good living books and not much of the assigned types of writing- hey, I like that. It's what happens very naturally around here. It's another reason to leave the heaps of educational baggage at the door!

Today- November 8th 2008

After a couple week wonderful break with the grandparents!!

An early start (yeah for the winter time change.)

All:
Prayers and Gospel
SOTW 3- Shakepeare
The Taming of the Shrew (from Lamb's)
The Wheel on the School
East of the Sun and West of the Moon (after lunch)

Ariel
Algebra- Set2
Writing- New exercise with thesaurus
Reading- Age of Fable, Story of Art, various other reading
Music- Whistle

Hannah
Algebra- new lesson and set 1
Writing- ditto what Ar. did
Reading- the Turning
Baked cookies for a dear friend who lost her dad this morning.
Lots of knitting of mittens.

Caleb
Math U See- next page
Math It- double it and times it
Reading- The Hobbit and Mad Libs
Lots of lego, creative play with Aaron and snow play

Aaron
Math with mom!
Reading lesson- my creation
Italics book A
Read- the Foot Book

Lots and lots of great outdoor time, first thing after breakfast and again after quiet time. Quiet time was great today and the early morning and hence early start was heavenly!

Wednesday and Thursday (Oct. 8-9)

Wednesday
Today was going to be a day out this afternoon so I sort of planned accordingly (HA!)

I think in the morning the children all covered their Math and reading. The older two worked on their Latin (I made them some worksheets from Henly- easier for them to be self motivated then) and H. did some copywork from the Lady of Shallot.

The middle two went to knitting class then off to the optomotrist and violin. A. stayed at home and read the Age of Fable and pulled off a great narration on the computer! Much LOTR video game for him at this point.

Thursday:
Swimming in the am then friends over in the pm. A. still did math later around dinner time and the three oldest read LOTS today.

Friday:
Was going to be another friend day but friends were ill so H. just went to a friends. She did copywork and reading first, as well as cleaned her room.

A. cleaned his room and vacuumed, did a heap of math, and is copying out his current poem 'If' by Kipling. He is still going to do some reading for me today.

C. did some Math, reading, and is going to copy our his poem on the computer as soon as I vamoos from here. He also read me a whole Norse Myth- that kid is a great reader!

A. did some reading and I read him some Frog and Toad up in his room.

C and A and I made some killer double chocolate cookies and I baked cinnamon buns and bread!! We are all WIRED!!

Language (Grammar) and Writing Plan

Love how Valerie has organised a multi-level plan here....
I would follow this, using Warriner's for some help in the teaching of the paragraphs and sentences department, and using my EGPlus for some grammar practical stuff for Ar.

Our Books and such at the moment...

Poetry: Emily Dickinson and each a poem to memorise
Shakespeare: the Tempest
Art: Millet
Nature Study/ Art: Fabre's Insects (Eomar), Geology (All)
Literature: Taran Wanderer
Winnie the Pooh
East of the Sun and West of the Moon
History Read aloud: I, Juan de Pareja
Michaelangelo (Stanley)

History Plans

Right now we are at the Rennaisance. We will continue to do this together and add in some great picture books. I will also tie in some Canadian History and the Little History of the World for the older two.

Eventually (later this year or next) we will move onto the Modern Era where we will branch of out of our 'group'. Ar will read from Sonlight 7 and 300 (adding in necessary Canadian History), and we will do some read alouds together and Ar. will listen to SOTW CDs and the Little History of the World and narrate etc. Small ones at this point??

Edited to add: I like how Valerie uses topic weeks (such as how Tapestry of Grace does it) to organise her studies. This would be helpful for us, but we would definitely not stick all that info into a week (it would just be a good way for my mind to look at it- a skeletal plan of sorts.)

Tuesday October 7th, 2008

Chores:
Ariel-swept main floor and garbages
Hannah-laundry
Aaron-sink
Caleb-white floors

Morning Time
Prayer- the Trisagion Prayers
Each child chose a poem and we read them out: Hannah- the Lady of Shallot (again!)
Ariel (can't remember), Caleb- Cornish Magic, Aaron- The Rain
Geography- we went over countries vs. cities, Canadian provinces and capitals then Caleb moved onto Geosafari. The older two and I reviewed continents and major bodies of water.
New Art Print- Millet (the Haystacks). We just discussed it today.
Geology- online (went well!). Interactive rock cycle and description of metamorphic rocks.
Bible- continuing on in Genesis...

Pippin
-Alphaphonics
-poem
-read some Calvin and Hobbes buddy reading

Merry
-violin right after breakfast (up to 15 minutes on the new big violin!)
-Math lesson 14F Gamma
-ETC page
-English from the Roots up- 5 cards and he made his own

Arwen
-read the Turning (her assigned reading) in bed
-Algebra lesson 6 finished (only one wrong!)
-Latin- finished ex. 47

Eomer
-read Journey to the Centre of the Earth (finished)
Story of Art
-Latin- finished ex. 47
-writing- continued on LOTR retelling

At this point we still need to do spelling with two olders, math with Eo., writing with Ar., and M. needs to do his reading.

Lunch: cheese melts and apples
Dinner: roast potatoes and quiche and coleslaw
Tonight: ballet and whistle

The Return of the King

We are enjoying this book so much....again.

Right now the men of the Mark have just encamped by the Paths of the Dead.

Forms

At this point I think we would do well with some goals for next year and in that vein I have begun some focused planning and much too much of the unfocused type (the type that fills up headspace but gets you nowhere).

Willa has one form here which I really like the flow of. So much so that I think I will plug in my own things under her headings. For me forms have to be appealing to look at and visually work with my brain. This one does.

Next step: filling it in.