Weekly Wrap Up 8-26-16 Curriculum choices

This year I am schooling a 9th grader and a 7th grader!  We are into our 8th year of homeschooling! All the local public school resumed the start of school last week.  Our coop classes do not begin until after labor day so we are still on our summer schedule for another two weeks;)

Firedrake working on her art project this summer

9th Grader (total 7.5 credits)

History:  She will be doing a history class at our coop focusing on early American history (we have already covered that in the past two years) and at home we will be focusing on the later part of history  1920's to modern day.  I create my own history program and will continue to do so for High school.  Doing it this way will allow me to make this a credit for American History for the year.

Literature:  Will be done at coop and will be focusing on American Literature.  The coop using Hewit and Packard Lighting as it base.  There is plenty of writing, grammar and reading in this class so I will not be adding any thing extra.

Spanish level 2:  Will also be done at coop

Japanese intro/level 1:  we have hired a private tutor as this is an interest my daughter has.  We will be counting this as an elective this year.

Math:  Algebra 1 using Math U see -- we have used this program from the beginning but I have heard it gets more difficult to follow in the higher levels so we shall see if it continues to work for us. I will admit this is the point where Math sort of kicks my butt and I freeze up.  So here is hoping I can relearn it enough to help my child, otherwise my husband will have to pitch in here as well.

Science:  Biology level 2 and we are using EO Wilson free online books from apple iBooks and we design our own curriculum. using these books.  My husband will continue to teach this subject this year! We have research these books and feel confident that they met a high standard and can be used for Bio 1 and Bio 2 -- we used the first three books last year and counted that as Bio 1, this year we will complete the last four books and count it as Bio 2.

Art:  Drawing 2 to be taken at coop this year

Music:  Continuing with private Piano tutor this year

PE:  Fencing club daughter wants to learn Saber fencing

MarioFan sitting at his brand new desk in his bedroom!  I am encouraging him to work more independently this year.

7th Grader

History: I provide our own resources for history and we will continue to work on history from 1920's onto the modern era.  I use books, videos, movies and text books to make this curriculum

Spanish:  Advance intermediate class taken at coop.

Math:  Math U see Zeta

Science:  I create my own science program.  This year my son ask for more science experiments so I will be pulling out every science kit I have on the shelf (and never used) and we will be completing many experiments and working on creating a science class of our own.   I will probably have him keep a science journal of our experiments but I am still working out the details. I also have several science field trips planned.  We will also be learning about simple machines using a K'nex kit I purchased last year.

Art:  done at coop

Music:  Private Piano lesson continuing

PE:  MarioFan attends different sport activities at a local club weekly

Computer skills:  We are continuing Kid Coder an online Homeschool computer class

Minecraft Classes:  we are doing several Minecraft courses throughout the year that are fun but also educational often focusing on geography, history, or science.

English includes the following:
Reading:  Lots of books to improve comprehension, vocabulary etc will be chosen this year, some related to our history lesson, others will just be books for fun. We will also be doing a mini book club with a friend while at coop in-between classes.  Never done this before so we shall see how it works out.

Grammar:  We are using Growing with Grammar and are on Book 7 this year

Writing:  We are continuing to use IEW and will begin their continuation course

Spelling:   All about Spelling book 6 this year

Geography:  We are working on map reading skills, and looking at various countries around the world.  I completely missed the mark last year on this so I am hoping I do a little better organizing something this year.  I am still working on a plan for this topic:)

This is our basic school plan for the year!  I am not one to have everything written down in a daily planner, I usually use this outline and just kind of wing it.  But we always seem to reach our basic goals and there is always one or two subjects I wished I covered a little better.   As for our weekly schedule the kids will be attending coop 2X a week.  We tend to take time off when we need it and just keep plowing forward, some days lots get done, others we only get the bare minimum done.  That is the beauty of Homeschooling in my mind:) Usually at the end of  January  I do a post recounting what has been accomplished and what we need to improve on:)

 Have a great homeschool year!!!!

weekly wrap up 8-19-16 Corpse Flower

This week I rush the family off to the botanical gardens to see the flower Amorphophallus titanium more commonly known as the corpse flower.  The botanical garden in the city has five of these plants and the last time one bloomed was 20014.  Whenever it blooms there is a huge announcement and a rush to see the plant.  For some reason I missed it two years ago so this year I had my husband put an app on his phone to notify us when it was due to bloom this year!!

We found out that it was to bloom quite by accident as we took some out of town guest to the gardens for an evening out!  

To find out more about this incredible flower go to this website  

This is the flower about a week before it bloomed!  We were told when it blooms it is purple in color and truly smells like rotting meat!
My husband was less than thrilled about the prospect of seeing it in bloom but the kids and I were fascinated by it:)

 On Saturday my husband and I snuck away for a late lunch in the city, the whole time I kept checking to see if Izzy bloomed hoping it would while we where in the city!

Wer had Ethiopian food!  It was delicious:)

We drove home disappointed that Izzy was still not blooming by the time we left the city.  Then at 8:30 that evening we finally got a message that the flower was blooming!  We packed up the car and drove into the city, rushing to see Izzy before the crowds.  The gardens had promised to remain open until 1 am once the flower bloomed since it blooms for a very short time.

There were docents there giving information about the flower and yes we could even get a slight whiff of the corps smell.Sorry about the quality of the photo 

I left disappointed because the flower was not in complete bloom that didn't happened until much later that evening.  This flower only blooms for 12 to 24 hours before closing.  I had every intention of going back to the city in the morning but my car broke down:( and we weren't able to go back.  I will  just have to wait until the next one blooms!

on a positive note my orchids bloomed this week as well:)  I love orchids.

Weekly Wrap UP 8-12-16--Out of town guests!

It has been a very busy week as we had out of town visitors this week!  Not much school was done but we enjoyed spending time with our friends!  

We all took my daughter to the 'new to us' anime store we recently heard about and we were schooled by Firedrake on the difference between anime and manga.  She found many things she wanted to buy but in the end just decided to make a Christmas list in order to save her allowance money, lol.  Our friends did however buy her a anime figurine to put in her room, which she was thrilled about!  My husband said we had already bought her a new book bag at the mini comic con last week so we weren't buying anything new today!

We took our friend to the botanical gardens for a the evening where they were playing music and we explored the gardens. It was soon HOT that evening.

I loved that the water lilies were in bloom and so pretty!

I found out the Corpse flower at the botanical garden is going to bloom sometime next week!  I have never seen one in bloom so I have put the gardens app on my phone which will notify me when the flower blooms and I will be driving down to see it and smell it:).  I am told it has a horrible odor.  The gardens will remain open until midnight once the flower blooms.  My husband is not so eager to smell the flower convinced he will gag the entire time. Hopefully I will have pictures up next week.  I am pretty excited to see one in bloom.

We took MarioFan to the Science center and saw the new IMAX movie planet earth 

He never gets tired building the arch there:)

We took our friends to a middle eastern restaurant and just enjoyed our many conversations and  company 

We took a trip to the zoo, another extremely HOT day

Firedrake started her Japanese tutoring session this week.  She was so excited and told us all about it at dinner that night.  The first meeting was at the book store but we will be meeting at a local library once a week from now on.  This was the two of them chatting and getting to knew one another.  The tutor is young, very friendly and very dynamic with lots of enthusiasm for the Japanese language and culture so I am expecting great things to come of this. :)

weekly wrap up 8/5/16

We have had out of town company arrive mid week so minimal school work got done.  Instead we spent time with our friends sight seeing. I will probably post those next week.

This past weekend my daughter attended a mini comic con at the city public library and according to my husband she was totally in the zone:)

Firedrake found out there is a comic con store at a local mall and we are probably going to take her there soon.  She met the person who owns the shop and he is a fellow homeschool graduate and they spent time talking about our coop and both agreed the literature teacher is their favorite:) 

My husband caved and bought her a $35 book bag!  He is such a softy:) 

My usual tightwad daughter actually spent her own allowance money on some pictures and even came home with one for her brother!  

We found out the big comic con convention will be in the area in April and Firedrake is already making her case for why we should take her.  She has also decided on her costume and we will be working on putting it together over the next several months.  Luckily the one she choose doesn't look to hard:)  or too skimpy, whew!

MarioFan had his weekly get together with his friend and due to the heat wave we are under we took the boys to an indoor game place. Where the boys ate too much and played what seemed like every game there:)

Last week I attempted to do a sewing project but realized my sewing machines were need of a check up.  Lucky I found someone who did a quick cleaning of both machines and got one working for only $25.  The other machine still does not work so I need to decide if I want to pay $ to fix it or just get rid of it.  Knowing me I will put it in closet to avoid making a decision until our next move when I will finally get rid of it:).

Anyway I worked on recovering the sofa pillows while my husband and daughter were away at Comic con.  After I finished I realized I didn't take a before picture:(

This is the only picture I found of the sofa and pillows

The pillows were completely shredded.  This sofa is the first one I bought when I moved out of my parents house over 25 years ago.  Other than the pillows it is still in good shape.

The finished pillows.  I went with a completely different style for us this time around.  I really like how it turned out.  Gives the room a new feel:)

The only homeschool thing I accomplished this week is I finally found a Japanese tutor for Firedrake who is determined to learn Japanese.  I am still requiring her to continue with her Spanish lessons but we will add Japanese this year and see how she does.  We start in a week, Firedrake is super excited.

The rest of the week we spent with our guest and sight seeing the area.  Might have some pictures of that next week.