I drive my daughter to her afternoon classes at public school and often the dog wants to go along. This is how she likes to sit and look out the window when Firedrake is in the car!
The dog is not spoiled or anything:)
We have finished our Literature program for the year but still found we have a 6 more weeks of school left so we are adding a new book and a new topic of discussion!
We chose the book Holes as our next reading assignment
After searching on the web and finding tons of free resources we decided to talk to the boys about Literary conflicts that can be found in books. I particularly like Ereading site. Tons of additional worksheets or examples on various topics for Literature. This book will lend itself perfectly to learning about this topic as there are several different kinds of conflicts in this book. The boys assignment while reading this book is to identify them all :)
we are concentrating on 6 different types of story conflicts.
I found an inexpensive activity on Teacher pay teacher which the boys did
They sorted over 50 (25 each) movie or book conflicts into different categories.
Then using the book Holes were reviewed Character sketches we discussed a couple of weeks ago. We should be finishing the book next week and then we will watch the movie!
Firedrake was inducted into the National Honor Society at her high school this week! We are so proud of her and her many accomplishments this year returning part time to public school.
My husband and I arrived early so we could get front row seats:)!
Firedrake lightening the candle and saying her pledge!
There looked to be over 100 kids entering the NHS this year. Firedrake loved that the guest speaker called them NERDS! She wears that term like a badge of honor:)!!!
A very proud Dad (and Mom)!
That is our busy week in a nutshell. We are wrapping up so many subjects that we can begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel for this school year!
For art we have being studying Gustav Klimt. He lived a rather interesting life. I am not as familiar with this artist or his work. We use the Meet the Masters art program as a spine for our lesson
some additional resources we used to examine Klimt's life and art
Looking at the Meet the Masters information
This project was to recreate Klimt's Tree of Life art work.
Boys completed work
Next project was to try recreate some of Gustav Klimt's other work such as the Kiss
Boys used their own pictures and then added drawing techniques and origami paper to emphasize color.
completed projects
MarioFan has been working on a research paper for literature class and decided to do one on Pompeii so I can document for two subjects, YAY! (some may wonder how I am going to do this so I will explain. I will document all the reading and watching off videos as history but the actual writing and editing as English)
We also watched video on the subject--MarioFan's Thesis statement -- Did the people of pompeii have enough notice to evacuate prior to the eruption and if so why didn't they?
For our World History we have moved on to the Roman era and this is just a few books we will be looking over in addition to our text book.
For Science we are working on Evolution and MarioFan is putting together a poster of Evolution of different things we have studied so far this year, ie big bang, land mass, evolution of life and human evolution.
We decided what we wanted to include on our poster and downloaded pictures
assembled the poster
labeling the poster
finished poster which is now hanging up in our school room
Currently we are learning about Human evolution and reading lots of books and watching lots of videos on this topic. I expect it will take us to the end of the year. Since I went to school there has been so much more found and documented that I am finding I have to do a lot of research to make sure I have the most up to date information.
Lastly a Date Night with my husband
Every year we attend the Blues vs CAPS game and for the last 3 years the CAPS have won!!!!
Hockey is my husband's favorite sport:)
OMGoodness, my wonderful husband surprised my daughter and I with tickets to see Hamilton! I had been trying to win tickets though the $10 lottery the theater was running, but it was a long shot. My husband just happen to click on ticket masters one day and 2 seats were mysteriously available (the play has been sold out for months) and at a reasonable rate (still more than I would have paid but my husband bought them anyway).
We went out to dinner prior to the play
Firedrake purchased a Hamilton t-shirt:) from the concessions
We had amazing seat only 10 rows back from the stage!!!! We got so lucky with these tickets
The show was fantastic the singing, the dancing, the lighting, music it was everything we had hoped for
My daughter has been obsessed with the Hamilton sound track for months and both she and MarioFan have most of the lyrics memorized! She has studied Hamilton and many of the names mentioned in the play all on her own. I have downloaded the book and it is on my list to read.
To say my husband was our superhero that evening is an understatement!!! Every time I glanced over at Firedrake during the show she was smiling from ear to ear! It is a memory we will both cherish for a long time.
Also this week was the kids spring piano recital. Both kids performed 2 songs at their Piano recital.
Firedrake playing Darkness falls by composer Phillip Wesley
Firedrake playing Unbridled Spirit by composer Phillip Wesley. Unfortunately our camera video did not take during the recital so we had her redo the performance at home:)
MarioFan struggled a bit with his two pieces but it is a lesson learned that practice really is important!
MarioFan playing Hey Jude by the Beatles
MarioFan playing Chanson by Faber
I ordered my first curriculum choice for next school year for MarioFan! Firedrake is trying to decide if she wants to return to Public school full time. So I am holding off ordering curriculum for her at the moment.
We are starting to find find we are finishing up some of our curriculum so are school work is actually starting to get a bit lighter, but for some reason my schedule is still busy running the kids to all their activities.
Kind of funny having Easter on the April Fools day. All day the weather reports kept reporting that it was going to snow in our area. We woke up to a beautiful sunny day but as the day progressed we got this....
rain mixed with sleet
and then lots of sleet, the weather reported snow was coming but that missed us completely
I am so ready for spring to arrive in our area!!!
My kids are 13 and 16 and I have slowly removing some of the holiday traditions we have done in the past, because I feel they are too old, but some traditions the kids just won't let go.
We didn't get around to this activity until Easter morning. Everyone insists on Devil eggs on Easter;)
I no longer have easter egg hunts but still do the Easter baskets for the kids. MarioFan really loved the easter egg hunt so he talked me into making a scavenger hunt for his Easter basket. I really dreaded it to be honest as I am not great at making riddles or clues. I kept hoping he would forget but it was not to happen so on Saturday night I was on the computer frantically looking for ideas for how to make a scavenger hunt. Guess what there are tons of already free clues available! What a huge sigh of relief, I downloaded a few and cut out the ones I liked and had the whole thing done in about 20 minutes. MarioFan was so excited that he was up at 7:30 to begin the activity, while the rest of us just wanted to sleep:)
I had them work as a team to read the clues and find the eggs
Some eggs were easy to find ....
but others were a bit harder so I resorted to "you are getting hot/cold" verbal clues. lol
They were very pleased:" with the game and and their baskets
I have a feeling that this will be requested again next year!!!
This week our coop is on spring break, but I still had the kids do schoolwork since my husband and I went away a couple of weeks ago and the kids had off school then.
MarioFan and I are working on Human evolution and I ordered this book for us to review in addition to our science text.
MarioFan was assigned this Fiction book to read in his spare time and to write a book report on it.
We have finished reading All creatures great and small and are on the very last topic for our Literature class -- How to write a research paper!
Teacher notes for teaching the boys how to write a research paper which we did in class
working on an sample activity on breaking down a large topic into a more reasonable topic to research . We are giving the boys 2 weeks to put together a 2-3 page research paper:)
Firedrake is now reading this book for her sci fi class in school. My husband can't wait for her to finish so he can show her the movie and watch the latest movie with Harrison Ford.
That is our week in a nutshell...staying busy as always!
