Morning Snapshots

A few photos of schoolwork this morning.

Ramona doing Spanish

A bit of Hermoine's Grammar

Hermoine's Classification Lab for Science

A page of Ramona's Logic

Used Book Sale

My sister and I try to hit every Library book sale we can.  It's something we love to do together and we spend a couple of hours picking through the selection together and trying to find great copies of the titles we want.   We went to one of the smaller area sales this morning and this is what I walked away with:

That would be 47 books for $18.25!

I have the following rules for book sales simply because it's so easy to let myself get out of control:   

• I only pick up books in good shape.   No torn covers, falling out pages or marked up books.
• I go with lists of things we want.   I don't buy books I know we won't read.
• I always allow myself to "upgrade" a book.  For example, this morning I bought copies of Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice for .75 cents a piece.  They are nice hardbacks with gold leafing and I bought them because I knew they would look great on shelves.   The copies I had of these books before will be donated to our library so they can raise money at their next book sale. 

Yellowstone and Grand Teton

For the first week of public school in our area we went on vacation.   There are several things I enjoy about doing something special for the traditional first day of school.   First, the girls thought it was funny that they were standing outside packing the car for a trip to Yellowstone at the same time the buses were going by on our street.  They didn't figure in that they had already been back to doing school for a few weeks, they just enjoyed the irony of vacationing the first week some of their friends were heading back to school.

Second, even though we were in two different major National Parks, we were there at the end of the tourist season.  There was very little traffic, and about 1/4 the crowds compared to the five other times I have visited Yellowstone.     

Third, our cabin was discounted half price because of the week we chose to go.  If we had went the week prior, it would have been full price.  Our cabin in Grand Teton was the same price as usual.  

I've been to Yellowstone several times, but this was the first time for everyone else in the family.   I enjoyed this trip more than any of the others I've been on, though.   Watching the girls discover all that Yellowstone has to offer and enjoying themselves so much that they had a hard time choosing what was their favorite site and animal was a joy for me.   

   

Besides enjoying the hot springs, mud pots, geysers, wildlife and overall beauty of Yellowstone, our girls participated in the Junior Ranger Programs.  They were able to attend Ranger programs with less than 10 kids in them with no waiting.  Hermoine's requirements were harder than Ramona's because they are based on age level.  But, they both earned two great patches for their Scout Uniforms.   Of course, you don't need to be a Scout to do these programs and once you've completed the requirements you can choose between the patch or a pin-on badge.  This is the packet for Grand Teton and this is the one for Yellowstone.

 

Book Recommendations

 Some recent reads that are well worth the time.   Recommended ages are my opinions only and are based on subject matter and vocabulary.

Number the Stars

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Ages 10+  This is a story of a girl, her family, and how they try to get her Jewish friend into hiding during the Holocaust.  This book really touched my 11 year old and sparked some great discussion.   When I read this about a year ago, I immediately added it to her literature pile.  It took awhile for her to choose it, but I knew when she did that it would be a powerful reading experience for her.  I wasn't wrong. 

The Star of Kazan

 The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson

Ages 7+  The rags to riches story of an orphan, a kidnapping, a miserable boarding school, stolen jewels, and the power of family.   We did this as a read-aloud during the summer and loved it.   We've read a handful of books by Ibbotson and they have all impressed me.

The Long Winter

The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Ages 6+  The story of the Ingalls family during a long hard winter in the town of DeSmet, South Dakota.  This was my series growing up.   The books that I read so much that the covers were held on with tape.   The Long Winter was my second favorite book of all the Little House books, and still is.   When I became a parent, I read and re-read this series aloud to both of my girls.   My 11 year old enjoyed them, but my 9 year old loves them.   She's listened to me read them, listened to them on audio and is now working through the series for literature.    You can never go wrong with any of the Little House books!

And, just for fun:

How to Train Your Dragon

How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell

Ages 5+   The story of Hiccup, the viking, and his dragon.   According to my girls, the books are nothing like the movie.   My 9 year old started reading these and talked about them so much that my 11 year old, and their 10 year old cousin, got hooked on the series.   These would appeal to any child with a sense of humor, particularly boys.   My 9 year old is anxiously awaiting the 8th installment, due out in November. 

Story of the World

Story of the World Vol 2 Audio Book

Oh, how we love The Story of the World.   So much so, that we are working our way through the four volume set for the second time.   This year our focus is on Vol. 2 which consists of the Middle Ages from the fall of Rome to the beginning of the Renaissance.   

There are so many things we like about Story of the World:

• It moves in chronological order, from the earliest nomads to the Cold War in four volumes.  
• It is told in story format and is never dry. The chapters are short and sweet, yet convey a lot of information.   You then decide how much you want to add on from the Activity Guide.
• The Activity Guides for each are awesome.   Mapwork, games, recipes, coloring pages, corresponding encyclopedia pages, and about 20 suggested titles of additional reading books in non-fiction, fiction, picture book and chapter book form for each chapter.   
• Each volume is now available in CD or MP3 format, which is fantastic.  I wish these were available the first time we worked through this curriculum.   The girls adore the narrator, Jim Weiss, and I get to assign them plenty of extra reading from the Activity Guide and Encyclopedia without them thinking they are getting too much history reading.

How we do it

Everyone I know does The Story of the World a bit differently to fit their needs.  We do History twice a week on Thursday and Friday.   On Thursday the girls listen to the first section of whatever chapter we are doing.   While they listen they color or do mapwork.    My girls love to color while they listen and sometimes end up listening to both sections of the chapter the first day.   Hermoine then reads several pages in the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia that go with that days lesson.   Ramona often reads with her or picks up a picture book from the library I have ready for her.    

Kingfisher History Encyclopedia

On Friday they listen to the next section for the chapter if they didn't do it on Thursday.   Hermoine then writes a 1-2 page essay on the chapter.  Her coloring page, mapwork, and essay go into a three ring binder and at the end of the year she has a great History notebook, again in chronological order.

Fridays,  Ramona perhaps reads another book, then gives me a short narration of 2-5 sentences.   It's recommended that I write these down for her and they go in the notebook.   I've never done that , except the first year with Hermoine.  Ramona will start later this year with half page essays of 2-5 sentences on her own to prepare her to do full page essays next year.

We also often use that weeks lesson to find something on Netflix for our family documentary nights. 

Both of my girls thoroughly enjoy history and have a much better grasp on the major events of Ancient and Medieval History than I have ever had thanks to The Story of the World.    And that makes me very, very happy.

~Week 2 ~

I have a goal to post at least once a week this school year, so let's see how I do.   So far, I'm two for two.  

Nick and the girls were off for three days of archery hunting as soon as Hermoine finished with her Girl Scout FIRST LEGO League meeting tonight.    They couldn't wait to get up to the mountains.   I had plans to post pictures of schoolwork, but they took the camera with them.   I'll just give some brief updates instead.  

School is always much easier for us when we have little else going on.  Things are going to get hectic in the next few weeks when all of their activities are in full swing again. 

As for school this week, all went well.   No tears, no tantrums, no fussing at bedtime or in the mornings.   The only out of house activities we had were Hermoine's Lego team and Book Club.    For Book Club we met at a local splash pad and had a great time with friends.

Hermoine's math moved on from Pre-Algebra to some basic Geometry.   Her Language Arts is going smoothly, her literature selection is currently Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.  Art History was about mosaics and she started a project making her own mosaic that will cover four lessons.  History covered the beginnings of Australia and New Zealand, her music lesson was all on Handel, and her Science was all on Biological Classifications.   That was right up her alley, let me tell you, the girl started learning Latin three years ago simply because all the books on plants she checked out of the library had so much Latin in them due to the classifications.   She's been moving quite quickly through both of her Latin programs after stagnating last week.   I think taking the entire summer off of Latin made her forget quite a bit, but she picked it up after repeating several lessons.

Ramona's math is still in first-of-the-year review mode and so is going quickly each morning.  Spelling, Grammar, and Essay Writing all going well.  I'm buckling down a bit more on her handwriting and she's not loving me for that.  (She tends to put capital letters in the middle of a word, a very bad habit.)   She's reading The Long Winter for Literature and is almost finished with it.    She's loving her Logic, this is her first year doing it for a subject and she wants to do it every day despite the fact that it's only scheduled three times a week.  Her music is fun, but silly, not much learning going on there.   History was the same as her sister.   Her Art was about perspective and she did several sketches of stuffed animals from different views.    Her Science was all about food chains and webs.   She made a little ecosystem complete with crickets, etc.  She's moving along in Spanish at a snail's pace, but that's the way she likes it. 

First Week -- Done

 We started school last Saturday because the girls want to go camping with their grandparents tomorrow morning.  So, this morning we finished our first full week of the school year.  It was also the first full week with the new K12 components in our curriculum.    I was really nervous about the amount of stuff we have scheduled and adding K12 into that seemed a bit extreme.   But, I am pleasantly surprised by how well it went and how much the girls enjoy it.    We finished about an hour to an hour and a half later than we are used to each day, but the girls aren't complaining.   Yet.  

  Both girls are doing Life Sciences through K12, but on different levels.   It's only week 1, but it's all material we have already covered.  Of course, review is fantastic and I've noticed from looking ahead that Hermoine's in particular gets a bit more difficult.    Ramona's on the other hand...   Her first week was all about producers, consumers and decomposes.   Her project for the week was an experiment where she had to put several objects, such as aluminum foil, paper, egg shells, apple skins, and plastic, in a bottle with soil and then predict which ones will decompose and which ones won't.    

Ramona's 1st K12 Science project

   This is a great activity.  My only complaint is that our family is very green and we have composted for two years now. So, our girls are well versed in what will decompose and what won't.  They know exactly what to put in the compost and what not to.  Ramona's response was, "Plastic and aluminum?  That's not going to decompose."  But, she did do the project and she had fun doing it.

  Review is always good.  And as long as she's enjoying it then I'm happy. If I could change one thing then I would have there be more new-to-her material in her Science program.