Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Homeschoolers invited to preview War Horse!

If you live in or near select large cities, you may be able to preview the upcoming movie War Horse!   It's being shown in select cities next week on Dec. 8.  Click here to see if there's a showing near you.  It's rated PG-13 because of violence (it is WWI!), so use your own judgment concerning your children's sensitivity to horses dying and war, etc.

If you can't make it to a screening, it does premier on CHRISTmas Day in theaters everywhere!

Also, watch the Homeschool Movie Club website for free, downloadable curriculum that is currently being written by the author of Apologia's Marine Biology!

School so far....

We're still plugging away at school.



History

We recently started Mystery of History Volume 2.  We're doing OK so far on our read aloud/video/audio list. 

The girls watched Paul, The Emissary (a tad much for them).   We finished Beric the Briton, the Jim Weiss audio that we  listen to in the car whenever we're out and about.   We have read Forbidden Gates, the story of Stephen the first martyr.   And we finished Twice Freed, the story of Philemon and Onesimus.

We are now on Pearl Maiden for our read aloud.  I read on a blog that it was pretty violent, so did some pre-reading and found it to be no worse than Beric the Briton or Twice Freed.  All three talk frankly of Christian persecution, gladiators, and the arena.  For our car audio, we have started   For the Temple (also by Jim Weiss).  Both Pearl Maiden and For the Temple deal with the destruction of the Temple in AD70.


Science

This week we watched the second part of the Mankind section of Biology 101, so we've been studying anatomy and physiology.  Really this series is very basic and has been a good review for us.  We like the many cool facts he throws in.  LOVE the fact that it's literal-6-day-creation based!

The girls continue to do their co-op science as well.  DD14 is half way through Unit 4 of Mike Snavely's Creation or Evolution (which I'm teaching at co-op).  Truly I thought the kids would enjoy the lecture videos more than our working through their workbooks, but the workbooks generate great discussions!   DD11 continues the Science 4 Real Kids Biology with her co-op class.  Occasionally, you'll hear her practice some of the vocabulary words, like  rough endoplasmic reticulum!  What a mouth full!


Grammar

We continue our Fix-It, which we do once per week.   The girls are getting better at catching errors!  We did Week 11 this week.  They are enjoying the modernized tale of The Frog Prince.

We throw in Winston Grammar now and again, mainly for review though I admit DD11 never really "got" the parts of speech before.   She's doing a bit better since starting Winston Grammar.  We did Worksheet 11 this week.


Literature

We're sailing along with Lightning LiteratureTom Sawyer is complete, as is the first section on poetry.  This week we also finished Alice in Wonderland.   I printed out Fortunately For You's Reading Records to go along with their Lightning Lit workbook pages for Alice.   We'll be moving on to The Bride of Yellow Sky, then take a break from literature until after the New Year.



Foreign Languages

DD14 continues with Getting Stated with Latin, though she's beginning to struggle with remembering all the words and forms now that so many have been introduced.  She's on lesson 63.  She doesn't want to do any other foreign language, except maybe Greek (at least Greek roots and prefixes/suffixes).  She sees no point in learning any other.  When she's done with the Getting Started book, I'm wondering if I should look into Visual Latin or The Latin Road to English Grammar????

DD11 continues with her Spanish, using DiscoverSpanish.com and occasionally, OnlineFreeSpanish.com.  She loves Spanish.  I think she particularly likes seeing how much I remember from my high school classes, oh way back when!  This week I also started her on Mango,which we can access for free through our local public library.  She is thinking about majoring in Spanish when she goes to college. I'm still debating if I should get Rosetta Stone or Tell Me More for her.



Math

DD14 continues with VideoText Algebra and Life of Fred Beginning Algebra.  Both are fairly short, so she's been able to do a lesson in each every day.  Some days she struggles, some days she doesn't.  She recently started the second module of VideoText.  She's on lesson 52 of LOF (using the Companion book).

DD11 is, at the moment, only doing Life of Fred: Fractions.  She's really struggling with it, despite the fact that we made it 2/3 through the Math-U-See Epsilon book last year.  I keep wanting to start Epsilon back up, but I had hoped LOF would be a good refresher for her.   I'm not sure when to start Epsilon again!   She has also been working through the Challenging Word Problems Book 2.  I like how it shows to break the problems down......now if I could just get her to actually do it like they do.  Sigh.  She's half way through the book.



Bible

We have unfortunately let our PictureSmart Bible slide right now.  We've just been so busy (or sick) and it seems to be the one we slide....though the girls do ask for it!  At least they do their PBS mail order Bible studies.   We also have started our Advent readings.  We are currently reading Tabitha's Travels  from the Jotham's Journey series.  When we're done with it this year, we will have been through the trilogy TWICE!   Six years and the girls STILL love and always beg for me to read it!  New this year to our Advent traditions is our Cradle to the Cross Wreath for Advent and Lent.  These are made by Caleb Voskamp and are soooo beautiful!




Miscellaneous 

The girls have both been active in their 4-H group, having more meetings than usual this time of year.  We did a fundraiser in October, and then we had another fundraiser this week!  The October fundraiser went well.  This week's didn't go as well.  While we did not have as many people attend as we had hoped, we did make $350.  We were able to purchase a personalized horse halter for each club member. The kids will also have a pizza party and be going ice skating for their CHRISTmas party this year.


The girls have also been involved with their Youth Group each week, studying the Bible and building relationships through fun and games. 












Friday, November 18, 2011

Grab 'em while you can....Ryann Watters: 2 hardcovers for only $10...for a limited time!




I know we've talked about these before, but if you missed out or your kids are older now, you might want to grab this deal while you can!!! My girls, my mom, and I all enjoyed the two books and look forward to the third!


If you want to read some of the books before you buy, head over to the Ryann Watters download page and read a couple chapters.


(BTW, they are going to made into movies. They started filming last year, but have since re-cast most of the lead roles (with some more well-known kids!) and have increased their budget! They are scheduled to start re-filming in April 2012. Woo hoo!)


ONLY WITH THE SPECIAL CODE until the Inventory runs out!


If you are looking for a great Christmas gift for friends, relatives or even a donation to your church or school library, you can’t beat $10 for two hardcover books… signed by the author and color bookmarkers. That’s 74% off the retail price of $37.98.


To make way for the paperback editions we are selling out the remaining hardback inventory at this special price for Christmas. Go to www.ryannwatters.com through the “Shop” stone and click on the 2 book Christmas Special. Then enter this code on the third page in the “Coupon” block: christmas2011


Saturday, November 12, 2011

Cool clouds!

We ran to town one day a couple weeks ago and had to go back to get our camera!  I have never seen clouds such as these!  It was as if God was shaking a huge gray blanket and had stopped in mid ripple.   By the time we got the camera, the clouds weren't quite as amazing, but we took pictures anyway.  Truly, the camera did NOT do those clouds justice at all!






Eppie has arrived!

My sister-in-law bought a pregnant cow last summer, and few weeks ago the cow gave birth.  Unfortunately, we were not there in time to witness the actual birth, but we dropped our schoolwork as soon as we heard and raced over......just in time to see the calf all dark and wet and being licked (and licked, and licked, and licked.....) by Mama.  The calf was named Eppie.  (Yes, from Silas Marner if you recognize the name.)





Toby is really Tabby!



Well, it turns out that the kitty we rescued way back when is actually a girl!  So she is now Tabby.  Or Toby still, when we forget.  Toby Girl when we remember to add Girl to the end of it.  But we are trying to remember to call her Tabby.

She has turned out to be the nicest kitty.  The girls can do ANYthing with her!   She will sleep on her back in their arms.  They can carry her upside down.  They can even dress her up.  She takes it all in good stride.  Except being on a leash...she's fine if she's doing the leading but won't budge if you pull on her.



 


 The Cat in the Hat!

Friday, November 4, 2011

Out of the mouths of babes.....

My friend Rebecca has a list of things she's heard her kids say.  (Go down her right column to read them....so funny!)

Well, today in the car, this is what I heard....

Older daughter says  "__Sister's name__, can I smell your shoes?"

Younger daughter hands over the muck boots and older daughter takes a whiff.
"They don't smell as good as Daddy's!"

I thought I was going to die laughing! 

(You have to know that we had just gotten back in the car from the Tractor Supply Company, where younger daughter just got new muck boots.   And, you have to know that Daddy also recently got a pair Muck boots, a different brand.   So, as horse-crazy as my older daughter is, she was not trying sniff the barn smells off of well-worn boots!)




Tuesday, November 1, 2011