What We Are Doing
Every night we wonder what the Cool Homeschooler for the next day will post and every morning we can't wait to check 7 Cool Homeschoolers for the new video. All of the girls have done something a little different, their own unique personalities shine through. This week the theme was "A Day in the Life of..." it could be the day in the life of their dog, themselves, a fictional character or their hardworking, awesome, loving mom. Piper created a character "Queen Blanket", a queen who wears blankets and goes to balls. Bella did A Day in the Life of her American Girl doll. Allie made a video of life through the eyes of her gerbils and goldfish. Grace and Lilah took us on a day when Grace has her internship and Lilah does sewing with a friend. Keilee showed us what A Day in the Life of the Wicked Witch of the West is like. I can't wait to see Abby and Molly's day today and Hannah's today tomorrow. Next week the topic is freestyle, I can't wait to see what the girls will come up with!
What We Are Creating
- Sugar and fat molecules (Candy Chemistry)
- Gummy candy - the girls read about Organic Chemistry and the properties of sugar and gelatin in their Candy Chemistry kit and then followed the recipe for gummy candy
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| left to right: fatty acid molecule, sugar molecule, reading from our science book |
- One line drawings
- Portraits of our parents--though mine turned into a self-portrait, Piper made Jason and I look like aliens and Allie made me a ninja. Crazy kids.
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| We did these one line drawings where we could not lift our pen off the paper. it was fun. we tried a lot of things. we learned about Georgia O'Keefe, Jackson Pollock, and a few other American painters. We were supposed to draw portraits of our parents. Mine turned into a self-portrait because I couldn't draw my mom's hair; Piper's turned into aliens and Allie made me a ninja. Who knows? Crazy kids. |
What We Are Reading
- Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges (Allie read this on her own last week and suggested that Piper and I read it; Piper and I are reading it as a read aloud)
- Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice (Allie)
- Ida B. Wells: Mother of the Civil Rights Movement (Piper)
- Arcadia by Lauren Groff (Jason)
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| Lincoln was amazing. I was crushing. Lincoln is a powerful President for me. He makes me proud to be an American. We started watching the DVDs from the series "The Men Who Made America". Allie read more biographies from the Civil Rights Movement. not bad for taking a break from our history curriculum, eh? |
What We Are Watching
- Andy Warhol: A Documentary (American Masters, PBS)
- Great Women Artists: Mary Cassatt
- Lincoln
- The Men Who Built America
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| I love Mary Cassatt. I love that most of her subjects are her family or mothers and children. there is such love and tenderness in all of her work. We read about her this week and we watched a documentary about her. |
Favorite Apps & Websites
- 7 COOL Homeschoolers - we look so forward to these videos every day!
- Sugar, Sugar
- Minecraft
- Club Penguin
- Temple Run
Math
We have decided to work on Math U See this week. Allie only has a few chapters left of Zeta and then she will be ready for Pre-Algebra. I have been spending many nights staying up late (hence why I am not reading a book right now) researching math curriculum. Allie could stay with Math U See, and there is a good chance that she will, but I want to research other options and make sure that as we get into more advanced math, Math U See is still the best option for her.
Spanish & Latin
I set goals at the beginning of each week and the girls discipline themselves to meet those goals by Friday afternoon. I am very happy with their retention in both of these subjects.
Writing
The girls are both working on stories right now. I see them working and I don't make any additional requests. The one issue we have is that if they share with me and I say something about an error, they get upset and say they are not going to write anymore. I don't know how to make sure they follow the rules of grammar and make good strong word choices...any suggestions would be appreciated.
Homemaking
I was going to take a picture of all the bags piled in my garage, but I didn't and it's late now and I don't feel like going out there, so take my word for it: there are a lot of bags out there. More than 40 bags. The Veterans are coming in two weeks to get them all. yay!
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| Last weekend Jason came to WholeFoods with us and I took a picture of our Prius in the Whole Foods parking lot, which is only really funny if you have seen the video. We started getting our gardens ready. We don't get a lot of sun in our backyard, but we are able to grow greens and radishes and carrots. We grow herbs inside and sprout beans. We talk about moving to this house we keep looking at on realtor.com that has more land and more sun, where we could have chickens and a big garden, but there are other things we would sacrifice and so the conversations are more dreams than something we will probably ever do. |
Parenting
Allie and I saw a homeopath that was recommended by a church friend, who is also our dog groomer, for our dog allergies. We have started using homeopathic allergy drops under our tongue several times a day to try to have our bodies get used to the allergen so that our bodies don't see the allergen as something foreign that it needs to produce mucous to fight, but rather recognizes the allergen as something that is not harmful. Our church friend/dog groomer knows several people first hand for whom this worked. We got a wonderful crash course in immunology from this homeopath! |
| Have you played Sugar, Sugar? It's addictive! Allie and i started homeopathic drops for our dog allergies. We are hopeful. The girls continue to do yoga a few times a week; they are getting less giggly and are more flexible. Piper was very excited to be able to do crow pose the other day! |
One last thing:
Happy Birthday to my beautiful Grandma!
