weekly wrap up 8/31/18 Curriculum change already and Guitar stain glass lamp

Well this is the earliest I have ever changed a curriculum but after much talk and deliberation we decided to begin Biology 1 instead of geoscience for MarioFan this year.  My husband and I went back and forth with this decision all summer!  On my curriculum post we decided geoscience but now after several more weeks of debating we switched back to biology.  Since school is starting next week (full schedule). We are now committed, I hope:). My husband and I will be teaching this subject together using the free book from apple iBooks and it will include labs.  As we did with my daughter we will be splitting these 7 books into 2 years concentrating on books 1-4 books this year and books 4-7 next year.

We will be including labs for this using some from the book and some I will do from other resources.  Testing will occur in this course!

I have also decided on which outschool class to enroll MarioFan in for programming.  Since he wants to pursue both electronics and computers we have enrolled him in an Arduino class!

He is looking forward to this 16 week class and our Arduino kit came in on time!  

I have been working on a new stain glass project on and off all summer and finally got it finished!

I took an old junior guitar and made a stain glass frame and placed it on top of the guitar.  I have seen these on some of my stain glass sites and wanted to try it.  I love how it came out!  My husband wanted a psychedelic feel to the guitar, what I hoped I accomplished.

My husband cut the top off the guitar and we added LED lights on the inside.

we glue the clips down inside the guitar to keep the lights in place

I silconed the glass top onto the guitar frame.  So far it is holding up just fine but I really want to find some type of clip that I can add to the sides to make sure the glass front never falls off. 

 I am pretty pleased with how it turned out and it was not as hard as I thought but not sure I want to do another any time soon as it is very time consuming.  But my husband is hinting at a drum light next!  We might have a whole wall of musical instruments stain glass lights :).  Next I am working on a glass garden stake and a glass lantern.  I will post when they are finished!

weekly wrap up 8/24/18-- Summer Camps, Piano and first day of High School!

We have been busy doing a few summer camps before full time school resumes for MarioFan.

We did a one day camp for Archery.  It was a brutally hot day that day and I forgot my camera:(. Luckily my friend was able to get a few pictures before her phone battery died.

 Next MarioFan did a week at Robotics camp at a library in the city.  It was a free camp and we were put on the waiting list but got called in the night before so I had to quickly rearrange my schedule so he could attend.

MarioFan was paired up with a partner and they spent each day working on a challenge.  The first day they built their project and tested that it could go in a straight line for 10 feet.  After some tweaking they got it to work fairly quickly:)

Concentrating hard to program the next obstacle

ON the last day he was able to program his robot to go around a square making the 90 degree turns.  

He was quite proud of himself!  

I will definitely have to find a few more classes like this for him to try out as it was right up his interest alley:)

This week FireDrake started her first day as a Junior at the local High School.  MarioFan will begin his full schedule, except for coop classes next week!  The summer sure has flown by, sigh.

I finally captured the kids playing their piano pieces at the MAMA a few weeks ago.  Both earned superior piano solo awards



Firedrakes first piece is called sea voyage



Fire drakes second piece is called Jazzy locomotive




MarioFan's first performance piece is called Chanson by Faber



MarioFan's second piece is called Elephant Stomp

That is our crazy week in a nutshell:).

Weekly Wrap Up 8/17/18 -- Laser project, MAMA awards and MauHouse

We are wrapping up our final Stem project this week.  Building a geometric laser projector from Kiwi Krate.  MarioFan has been enjoying these projects.

I have to say I have been very impressed with the quality of the items. And no I am not being paid to say that!!!

He was excited to see a new term that he didn't know!  Potentiometers which are used to vary the amount of resistance using in a circuit!

 He takes a couple of days to assemble the project, this is really based more on time allotted then anything else as we have so much to accomplish in our school day!

Always happy when he gets it to work!  MarioFan is doing much better following directions and I didn't have to help at all this time, even when he had to problem solve why something wasn't working.  I need to find some more of these kits:)

This year the Mid-America Music Association was hosted in the city.  Both kids participated and earned Superior piano solo performance.

We had to be there bright and early which is never fun when you are a teenager and doesn't like to be up til 10 am!

Parents weren't allowed in to see how the kids performed so I did whatever other parent did when their kids were at the door.  I stood next to the door and listened as the kids played!

Firedrakes selections --  Hopefully I will get the kids to play the pieces again for me and I can record them and post no the blog

Kids were happy to do well in their categories!

I will post their music on a later date when I can get them to lay it for me at home and I remember to record it!!!!

Since we had to wait about four hours before the results and it was to far to drive home we took the kids to a Cat Cafe that we have been meaning to visit for over a year now!

My husband is allergic to cats but loves cats (more than dogs) went with us

Do to the crowds you are only allowed one hour in the Cat room

Some of the cats are adoptable and some are permeant residents

My husband and Firedrake fell in love with this Cat named Sheena.  Seriously my husband was looking up how to adopt her before we left!!!  Luckily they have a 5 day wait and home visit requirement so by the time he drove home he came back to his senses much to the chagrin of the kids!  Both of whom want a Cat to go with all the other animals in the house!

This cat is a resident of the cafe 

Hubs has decided to volunteer at the Open door Sanctuary with the kids -- he has to go through orientation first.  So he can get his cat fix and not adopt a cat.  I have a feeling before the year is out we will have a new pet!

Weekly Wrap UP 8/10/18 -- Summer activities continued

We are keeping busy doing some fun things as well as doing a bit of schooling.

MarioFan worked on his second Kiwi crate.  Assembling a hand crank flash light.

I have been quite impressed with the quality of the items.

MarioFan was able to follow the directions with minimal help from me to assemble the flash light

HE had to problem solve when the light didn't come on but he was able to figure it out

It works!!!  He was pretty proud of himself!

 We had our first Spanish private tutor with Outschooling.  It went very well and I am probably going to continue through the school year along with his coop class!  The more practice he gets the better off he will be in the end with learning an new language!

Firedrake decided to try a Dungeons and Dragons class with out schooling!  She loves it!!! We as a family having been trying to learn the game and began playing it at home.   I have tried to capture a picture playing online but she shuts her bedroom door while online:). 

We are continuing to volunteer weekly for about 1.5 to 2 hours at a local animal shelter.  Our job is to basically social with the cats and/or walk the dogs. Occasionally we help with cleaning, washing dishes and folding laundry.  

Firedrake has found a senior Cat that she just loves and looks for her every time we go:). Harriet is the cat's name and she has a tumor so is unadoptable.  She is so sweet.

We have been going to Six Flags weekly for our FUN day.  We alternate between going for the rides or the water park!

I have been working non stop on getting my lesson planning finished.  I have gathered all the supplies and completed all the art projects MarioFan and his friend are going to be doing for the first semester during coop!  Total of 15 art projects completed so far.  There will be some that are quite challenging but hopefully fun for them to do!  This was a huge weight of my shoulders.  Now I can take my time working on art projects due next semester!

Next week Firedrake returns to High School!  I will slowly start to add more work for MarioFan so we are at full load by the time coop starts in 3 weeks!

Weekly Wrap up 8/3/18--9th grade Curriculum choices selected

We are entering our 9th year of homeschooling!  This year Firedrake has returned to High school for 5 classes.  She will only be working on her Music and Japanese at home for credit.  Even though she is in Public High School she will still be earning a Homeschool diploma due to the rules of our school district.  I am not at all worried about that hurting her chances of getting into college should she decide to go that route.

MarioFan will continue to be homeschool, although we did consider having him try a single class at the local High School but due to our coop schedule decided not to enroll him in any public school classes at this time.  We may consider it in the future.

Firedrake (11th grade) 7 credits

Attending public high school for the the following classes

Geometry

AP Literature

Chemistry

Economics/US government

Drama

At home she will be working with private tutors for 

Japanese

Piano and music theory

MarioFan (9th grade) 7.5 credits

Algebra 1 -- using Teaching textbooks

MarioFan did well with this program last year so we are using it again.  My only complaint is there are not additional practice problems when we do hit a snag in a lesson.  I did have to look around for additional resources for a few lessons when we did pre algebra.  That is something I wish the company would address!

English -- Some is done at coop with another family and some we do at home

Lightening Literature we do this with another family concentrating on literature and various writing techniques  

MarioFan and I will be working on this on our own at home, book two of Fix It grammar from IEW.  I bought this book a couple of years ago and I have heard the program has since changed but I will use the old program since it is on my book shelf:)

We will do Vocabulary at home

ART/Art appreciation -- we do this with another family at coop.  We include art history, information on the artist and then complete one or two art projects that emphasis the particular style of the artist.  Our goal is to complete 16 different artist this year spending a minimum of 2 weeks on each artist.

Spanish 1 --  Coop class not sure what book they will be using for this class.  He will also continue with a private tutor with outschooling weekly.  We are doing this to get in more practice!

World History -- I will be incorporating Crash Course World History online course as well as having him read Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond.  I am creating my own lesson plan for this topic and we will be pulling from a lot of resources as needed.  Testing will not occur in this class as I prefer papers and projects completed to understand the who, what and whys of history.  Dates can always be looked up in my opinion and see no need to memorize them.

Geoscience -- My husband put together an excellent science program last year for daughter that we will repeat with our son using the Glencoe book.  We supplemented with lots videos and documentaries as needed.  Testing will occur in this class 

I know there is a lot of concern about doing this science for high school, however I think understanding the earth is very important

Health -- I am using this book and will be supplementing with videos as needed.  

I am creating my own lesson plans using this book as a spine.

Music -- Continuing with private piano tutor who also works on music theory.

Computer -- We will be trying Outschool this year and using several of their online classes.  

Outschool is a new to me online school with private tutor or small classes that can be done at home.  We took private Spanish tutoring course this summer and enjoyed it so we are going to try one of their classes.  Pricing is not to bad for the classes which is a plus for us.

For Firedrake Public school begins in less than 2 weeks and for MarioFan coop begins in less than 4 weeks!