Weekly Wrap UP 8/30/19--Date night, cat surgery and the Flying Spider gym

My husband has been learning to play the guitar for over a year and is getting pretty good.  He practices nearly every night and loves to watch guitar players online to try to learn new songs and techniques that he can incorporate into his practice.

I love this pic of the dog adoringly looking at my husband playing his guitar:)

We had a date night and attended Gary Clark Jr concert.

I didn't know a lot of the songs but the guitar playing was amazing!  :)

We adopted an older cat, named Elvis last year.  At his yearly appt and the vet discovered he needed to have 6 teeth removed including his two top canines.  We have been a bit worried about him as he is not gaining weight although he does eat quite a bit.  Per the Vet's recommendation we are changing up his food and hoping to see an improvement in weight gain or we will need to do more blood work to see if there is something else going on.  Firedrake is quite worried as this is her cat and she is very anxious that something more serious is going on.

He come home quite disoriented and struggled to get around.  He hid in his cat tree for a couple of days

seems too be coming out of it and slowly coming around to see the family again.  Hopefully with the new food options he will put on a little weight. 

This week I got some Groupon tickets to the Flying Spider gym which has been on MarioFan list to go to for quite awhile.  So as a way of celebrating the Official start of the new school year we went with a friend.  It is a pretty cool gym and the boys loved it!

MarioFan loves watching Ninja Warriors and Parkour videos and this gym caters to that crowd

of course we always have go over the rules and since Public school  kids are back in school we practically had the place to ourselves that morning

It was harder than it looks on videos:)

then when you are totally exhausted you built a wall with the sponge brick, just because LOL ;). 

Next week coop begins and we are officially back to a full school schedule, in addition to all extra curricular activities have begun.  :)

Weekly Wrap UP 8/23/19--School room clean up

I have been slowly over the last couple of days cleaning out our school room.  I took pictures because it is the cleanest it has been since the beginning of the last years school.  I was able to wean out a few things that the kids have outgrown, although I am still keeping too many things according to my husband;).

This is the school room from my desk and that is the neatest those book cases have been in about two years.  I  gave away nearly 4 large boxes of out grown books.  Scattered above every bookcase in the room are completed projects the kids have done over the many years of homeschooling.  I bought a brand new table cloth for the table which I do every year.  MarioFan and I don't spend every school minute here, we also use the kitchen, living and other areas to work but I do like having a place where all school supplies can go. 

this is a quick view of the other side of the room which is where my desk and MarioFan's computer sits.  MarioFan has yet to clean off his computer desk, but my desk is spotless (it won't be for very long). The bookcase and armoire holds school supplies like glue, pencils, science kits and completed projects from years past.  I have a few science and art kits that we still haven't opened!

This is my book case which holds all the classroom  material I used and the big pile of books next to it is all the curriculum I need to try to sell:) or give away

this next 2 areas are still a work in progress.  The pile under the window represents the last 10 years of home eduction.  This is all the work my kids have completed which includes projects, work books and their written work.  I haven't thrown anything away in 10 years of homeschooling.  The book case hold the many different reading books the kids have read or I want them to read while the bottom two shelves hold science kits and geography kits we have completed in the past

the next window has in front of it all my art and craft supplies and miscellaneous items that honestly I don't know what to do with.  I really need to deep clean this area but I keep putting it off because I just know if I get rid of it I will need it the very next day!

We are doing a little bit of school now, I am slowing adding in a few subjects with the plan to be at full load by the time Co-op begins in 3 weeks.  Firedrake has begun community college classes and working on her time management skills as she is also working part time.

Weekly Wrap UP 8/9/19--Dude perfect show and Stained glass projects

MarioFan is a huge fan of the you tubers DP otherwise knows as Dude Perfect.  Often during lunch break he shows me their latest new video release.  I have to admit I kind of enjoy them as they are funny and entertaining.  For his birthday he got tickets to see their show which was playing for only one night in our city.  He was so excited:)!!!

Picture of their truck-- My husband and daughter aren't as aware of this group so were not really sure of what to expect

Enjoying the show

I got a picture of the show stars-- MarioFan wanted a t-shirt but the lines were out of this world long and there was no way I was going to stand in that line, so I promised him I would buy him a t-shirt online when we got home.

Firedrake thought the show was lively and full of energy and is now a fan.  My husband was lost and not exactly sure what the heck was going on with most of the skits but the audience full of kids did and it was a loud rambunctious crowd!

I have been busy working on a few glass projects in my workshops and am making progress.

I made a dragon sun catcher for my daughters car:)

I used iridescent glass so the wings change colors in the sun

Glass spinners are the in range in all my stain glass groups so I had a go at it.

I now have two hanging from my porch

I have been slowing making progress on my Tiffany lamp.  I have all the pieces cut out just need to foil it...but I got another pattern and just had to do it so I put my lamp aside so I could work on my new Thistle pattern.

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The pieces all cut out:)

I got it finished and just need to hang it up.

I want to hang it in this window above the front door, but need to hire someone with a long ladder to get up there:)

I have been on a bit of a spending spree for my stain glass and have bought a few additional projects to add to my ever growing list of things to make.

I found these neat wooden frames that I intend to find the perfect stained glass pattern to incorporate into them.  I also bought some wooden planks that I intend to transform with glass...Lots of ideas are brewing in my head now to find time to make them come to life:)

I also bought four bird kits and they will be put in the high windows in our school room,:)

I got four of them cut out and will be working on getting them assembles next weekend

I plan on putting this one in the window in our school room 

another set of birds

Cardinals are one of my favorite birds 

Lastly I am going to try to make a glass pattern out of this picture, a new challenge for me.  I do have someone in a glass group who is mentoring me in how to do this.  He makes lots of these types  of projects and since my husband is a guitar player he wanted me to attempt a Jimi Hendrix window for his office:)

My husband choose Jimi at Woodstock for the pattern 

This is my first rough draft but I still have some work to do.  The face I am using is the pattern from my mentor as that was a bit hard for me but the rest is all me:). My husband would love me to get this done by Oct as a gift to him for our 20th wedding anniversary :). 

I also made a dragonfly sun catcher and hung it in my car window.

I love watching it dance around as I am driving along.

We have slowly started to resume school with the goal to be at full speed by the time Co-op classes begin the first week of September:).

Weekly wrap up 8/9/19 -- Curriculum Choices for 10th and 12th grade

2019-2020 Curriculum Choices 

I have finally gotten our fall plans figured out for this upcoming year.  I have been printing things out like crazy and setting up my new notebooks.  I am also trying to reorganize my school room and get rid of things that we no longer need.

I am down to just one child who is full time homeschooled.  MarioFan is going into 10th grade and will go to Co-op once a week.  Firedrake is dual enrolled in the local community college (she only needs 4 classes) for her Senior year in High school.  She will only be doing piano and Japanese both are with a private tutors at home.  So here is the breakdown for our school year.

MarioFan 10th Grade -- 7 credits total

English -- 1 credit which includes the following:

grammar-- We are going to use Easy Grammar 10th grade

We are trying this for the first year this year and will see how MarioFan likes it 

vocabulary--Worldly Wise 10th grade
still waiting for this book to come in

American Lightning Literature and Composition

Biology II with lab -- 1 credit
We are doing the second half of E.O. Wilson's Life on Earth which is free on iBooks.  My husband has already created a syllabus and questions for each chapter along with tests.  He will be teaching this class while I will be creating some labs to go with the chapters.

We did books 1, 2 and 3 last year and called it biology I.  We plan to complete books 4, 5, 6 and  part of 7 this year for biology II.

American History  -- 1 credit
I am going to use a mixture of US history Crash course curriculum and other resources as needed.  History is one area where I do not follow a traditional school program.  I do not test in this area as I believe knowing The Who, What, and Why of history, from all sides and point of views, is far more important than memorizing dates.

I printed out the teacher guide and only the student worksheets and placed them all in a binder

I will be choosing which additional research and projects we will do as we go along.

Math -- 1 credit
Geometry -- Teaching Textbooks

I have an older version which someone gave to me.  I may need to get the upgrade one as MarioFan does like to have access to the solutions on the same CD's.  We will see how this works out for us this year

Robotics and Python programing -- 1 credit
42 Electronics continues with more advance electronics and introducing Python programming.  We hope to complete book B, C and D this year in order to earn a full credit

Packet C is being released this month and Packet D is supposed to be released by December.

MarioFan enjoyed book A last year which concentrated a little more on electronics and a intro to coding

the next few books continues with electronics and a lot more python coding

Music History -- .5 credit Co-op class
We are doing this with a friend and we plan to use two Great courses to help design the class.

We will be also be attending a few musical performances this year though our coop and the symphony school performances which are held every year.

 I will also be introducing Bucket drumming to the boys as both boys play the piano, we thought they might enjoy learning a little drumming but without the expense of buying a drum kit!  I am looking at a couple of sites to see which one we will subscribe too.  Here are two of the sites I am looking at possibly trying this year.
https://bucketdrumming.net/join/
https://www.bucketdrumming101.com/hey-beginning-bucket-drummers

I have already bought the bucket and the drum sticks, just need to research it a bit more before school starts.:) Best of all the entire kit was under $10!!  Although the subscription to above programs will cost a bit.

I am kind of excited about trying this, hoping the two boys will enjoy it too:)

Piano/theory -- .5 credit private tutor weekly along with additional piano performance throughout the year.

Spanish 2 -- 1 credit Co-op class

Kung Fu -- .5 credit Co-op class


Firedrake 12th grade -- total of 5.5 credits

First semester college classes chosen are, she will be attending college on Tuesday and Thursdays and will be working a minimum of 15-20 a week.  We are excited to find out that Firedrake has already earned 6 college credits in her Junior year of high school.

Intermediate Algebra This is the one area we are slightly behind in in our homeschool program so she needs to complete this course before she can move on to College Algebra next semester.  I am told this is really high school level Algebra II just not called that at the college.  Unfortunately this class credits will not transfer to college of her choice but it is the price we pay for falling behind in this area:(

English Composition II-- since she scored so high on the ACT she was able to skip English Comp I class

Piano -- private tutor weekly

Japanese -- private tutor weekly

The goal for the Second semester is to take College Algebra and possibly sociology

If all goes to plan Firedrake will be graduating in May with a total of approx 28 credits (with 15 being of college credit, whoo hoo)  and we hope to have her attend the Homeschool High School graduation in May!

That is our school schedule for the 2019-2020 calendar year.  I always post a mid term update on how we are progressing around January:)