Daily Schedule for 8/28/08

Olivia working on her clay pot for art.

Jared working on his Snap Circuits, Jr set. This was a big hit.

Both

Pray/Pledge
Theology: Read Elder Holland Conference address entitled, "The Only True God and Jesus Christ Whom He Has Sent." Oct. 2007 http://www.lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-775-15,00.html

Bible History: Moses dies
Biography/American History: "Roanoke: The Lost Colony, An Unsolved Mystery From History" by Jane Yolen and Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple

Geography: Globe work of American colonies and Bible map of the exodus and wanderings of Israel from Bible History
Read-a-loud: 2 chapters of A Wrinkle in Time, FINISHED!

Jared
Music: Practiced his piano lesson
Science: Learned about electricity from his new Snap Circuits, Jr set, (see pix) he has played with it for over an hour (still counting)
Math: Lesson 8
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Handwriting/Phonics: 5 pages of Explode the Code
Creative Writing: Told me orally what he thought of A Wrinkle in Time and I typed it into Good Reads. (Creative expression through art or writing is the most "painful" thing he does...he is extremely left brained).
PE: Fun Physical Fitness CD, about 20 minutes

Olivia

Art: Spent over an hour working with clay to make a bowl
Math: Lesson 8

Spelling: 1 spell drill
Language Arts: Verbs and more verbs (my most "painful" subject)
Creative Writing: Wrote a book report on Good Reads about A Wrinkle in Time and blogging
Typing: Typed her book report
Free Reading: Over 1 hour reading Work and the Glory

We had to go get Hank from the vet's this morning. He was happy to leave. Overnight was way to long for him! He has to have the wrap on for two weeks. The kids are in charge of his medicine...

Daily Schedule for 8/27/08

Both
Pray/Pledge
Theology: Preach My Gospel, The Restoration of the Gospel, Lesson 1, part 6
Bible History: Moses last words to his people
Biography/American History: America's Providential History and A Child's Story of America about William Bradford, John Smith, Miles Standish and John Winthrop
Geography: There's a Map on My Lap: All About Maps by Tish Rabe
Read-a-loud: 2 chapters of A Wrinkle in Time
Video: 30 min video about Jamestown for kids
Pet Care: We went to the vets for a field trip and watched Hank have his ear lanced, very cool! The vet and the vet tech were very kind and explained everything that they were doing. They had to put Hank under, put a tube down his throat, lance and clean him, suture him and bandage him to name a few things. And they were talked through the whole thing. Some may think it's morbid, but if they want to be doctors and vets they better suck it up now! Besides, I just think it's cool...

Jared
Music: Practiced his piano lesson
Math: Lesson 7
Math Drill: Subtraction Wrap-ups 10's, 1's
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Handwriting: A Reason for Writing Lesson, wrote out a Bible verse
Free Reading: 45 minutes of Geronimo Stilton

Olivia
Music: Voice Lesson practice and Recorder practice
Math: Lesson 7
Math Drill: Multiplication Wrap-up's 10's and 9's
Spelling: 2 spell drills
Language Arts: Verbs Abeka Language B
Free Reading: 1+ hour of Work and the Glory
Life Skills: Sheppard's Pie

Daily Schedule for 8/26/08

How Olivia does her math everyday...


Jared rolling on the floor doing a Math Wrap-up...


Doing their magic crystal pet (a dog) experiment...


Both
Pray/Pledge
Children's Magazine: The Children's Friend, 1 story and 1 poem
Religion: Preach My Gospel, The Dispensation of Jesus Christ and The Great Apostasy (Lesson 1, part 5 and 6)
Bible History: Balak and Baalam
Biography/American History: Pocahontas by D'Aulaire
Geography: Virgina
Read-a-loud: 2 chapters of A Wrinkle in Time
Science Experiment: Growing a crystal pet

Jared
Music: Practiced the piano
Art: Made a construction paper replica of his Crystal Tree from yesterday
Math: Lesson 6
Math Drill: Multiplication Wrap-up's 5, orally did 11's. Played an add/sub game.
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Handwriting/Phonics: 5 pages of Explode the Code
Creative Writing: Gave an oral book report for the Magic Tree House #2 that I typed into Good Reads
Free Reading: 30 minutes of Nim's Island
Life Skills: Made Macaroni and Cheese
Game: Totally Tut, a rather hard add/sub game. I lost. The number sequences that I did get Jared actually helped me!

Olivia
Music: Her voice lesson ended up being cancelled by her teacher
Math: Lesson 6
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Typing: Did the final draft of her letter to Luke and typed a recipe into her recipe blog
Free Reading: 45 minutes of Work and the Glory
Life Skills: Banana Bread and Kristen's Chicken Enchiladas
Olivia took a two hour nap this morning after our morning Mom School. Since I think she was 3 the last time she took a nap (not really, but it doesn't happen very often) I let her sleep...

Daily Schedule for 8/25/08

Here's a picture of our recent science experiments. We have Sea Monkeys hatching on the left and today we started growing a crystal tree.

Both
Pray/Pledge
Religion: Preach My Gospel, "The Lord call prophets in every dispensation" (Lesson 1 part 4)
Bible History: The Wandering Begins
Biography/American History: Great Discoverers; John and Sebastian Cabot, Balboa, Ponce de Leon and Hernando de Soto (A Child's Story of America, chapter 2)
Geography: Globe work of early discoverers from above and Bible History locations
Read-a-loud: 2 chapters of A Wrinkle in Time
Science: Magic Crystal Experiment (we learned about capillary flow and evaporation)
Game: Sudoku Challenge
Life Skills: Basic Dinning Etiquette (we are going on an overnight field trip this weekend and we will be eating at a couple of nice restaurants)

Jared
Music: Practice piano lesson
Math: Lesson 5
Math Drill: Sudoku game, included was counting up to 40 with keeping score. Watched a 30 min. Multiplication video
Spelling: 2 Spell Drills
Handwriting: A Reason for Writing penmanship lesson, wrote out a Bible scripture
Creative Writing: Oral book report that I typed on Good Reads
Free Reading: 1 hour of Magic Tree House #2 The Knight at Dawn
Life Skills: Vacuuming
PE: Walked to the School and back
Pet Care: Took turns walking the dog to the school and back

Olivia
Music: Piano practice, Recorder practice and Voice Lesson practice
Math: Lesson 5
Math Drill: Sudoku game
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Language Arts: Abeka lesson on state of being verbs
Creative Writing: Wrote a letter to give to Luke for his baptism, produced the final draft of her hamster report for her binder and did some blogging.
Typing: Typed the letter to give to Luke for his baptism
Free Reading: 1 hour, Work and the Glory
PE: Walked to the school and back
Pet Care: Taking care of Hank with his ear infection. Took turns walking Hank to the school and back.

Youth Temple Celebration

On Saturday night Alex took the kids (I was backstage) to the Youth Temple Celebration. They were able to watch lots of cultural dances and hear songs from the choir. They were even able to be there in person to hear the prophet speak! They were spell bound through the whole night and behaved themselves very well! Fortunately it ended up not being very hot.

The program consisted off vignettes and dances covering such times as pioneer, miners, big band era with jitterbug, Spanish dancers, girls in pink poodle skirts and even a potato rap. It was such a fun night and a great cultural experience for them.

Daily Schedule 8/22/08

Today we had a half day (both at public school and home) because of a funeral in the afternoon....

Both
Bible History: Israelites go to Caanan/Spies
Geography: pg. 1-10
Game: Money, Money (about making change with money)

Jared
Music: Piano practice and Recorder practice
Science: Hamster report
Math: Lesson 4
Math Drill: Multiplication wrap-ups 3's & 10's & Money, Money game
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Handwriting/Phonics: Expolde the Code, 5 pages
Creative Writing: Wrote a paper on hamsters
Typing: Typed a paper on hamsters
Free Reading: 1 hour, Magic Tree House
PE: walked to the school and back

Olivia
Music: Recorder practice
Science: Hamster Report
Art: 1 hour Digital Scrapbooking
Math: Lesson 4
Math Drill: Money, Money game
Spelling: 2 spell drills
Creative Writing: Wrote a hamster report
Typing: Typed a hamster report
Free Reading: 1 hour Work and the Glory
PE: Walked to the School and Back

Olivia's Hamster Report

My Hamster Report
By Olivia Sutter

Hamsters are unique. They are small, but mighty chewers. They can climb surprisingly well, and are cute and soft. I have logged about the way I want to take feed, and care for my hamster.

I want to feed my hamster, hamster mix with an occasional bite of fruit or two.
I will also give my hamster fresh water to drink. I know that, that will help it live longer and be healthier. I won’t let my cat or dog get her.
I will name it Heidi probably, because I bought my cage from a person named Heidi. I am very exited to have a hamster because I will have personal responsibility to take care of it. I won’t get a dwarf hamster because, my cage isn’t big enough. I can’t wait…

Here is a funny story about a hamster…

Katie Greenie woke up to the sound of the ocean outside her home. her twelve children were still in bed and were sound asleep snuggling together.
She went out of her home and started going on her morning walk, past the “big tree” and past the beach house until, she came to the dock.
The fishermen were bringing home the morning catch. If she could hurry she could get her children up and fed, and get some fish before the fishermen were gone. It was a good idea because, as she thought she realized that today was, food hunting day.
She hurried home to her children. As she came home she called, “Up Veronica, up Willy, up Martha, up Tomas, up Deanna up Joyce, up Abigail, up Heidi, up Taylor, up Brandon, Hallie and Hannah.” Then she screamed as she went into the bedroom “WAKE UP.” Then there was some action, a lot of action. Everyone jumped up, ran to the breakfast table and gulped the food down as fast as they could, then ran to exactly five feet away from her and halted! Then they evened themselves out the eight girls on the left and the four boys on the right.
“What do you have to tell us mother?” asked Willy, the oldest of the children.
Katie replied “I have seen the fisherman bringing home their morning catch. If we hurry we can get there before they take it all to the market.”
“So let’s___? I can’t here you,” she said. “So let’s, GO!” all her children said.
So away they went. They went past the “big tree, past the beach house and to the dock. The fisherman were still there. “Hurray!” her children cried. While the sailors were arguing about what market to take the fish to they slipped into the boat. Katie and her family got five medium sized fish.
The end

Jared's hamster paper

This is a paper that Jared typed today...

A hamster in the wild does not have fun. Oh, how I will watch it run. Oh, how I will watch her run in her ball. Her name will be Erica. I want a white one. I will giver my hamster a block of wood. I will feed it hamster food. I will exercise it all night. I will let it sleep all day. A hamster in a cage has fun. THE END

Daily Schedule for 8/21/08

Both:
Pray/Pledge
Religion: 4 Articles out of the Children's Friend
Bible History: Leaving Mt. Sinai and the Quail
Biography/American History: Finished Columbus
Geography: Globe work from a talk by Pres. Uctdorf and Columbus...East and West Germany, Russia, Spain, Portugal, Canary Islands, Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, San Salvador, Guadeloupe, South American Coast, Central America Coast and China
Science: Bill Nye the Science Guy video on Space
Read-a-loud: 2 chapters of A Wrinkle in Time

Jared:
Music: Piano practice
Math: Lesson 3
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Handwriting: A Reason for Writing Lesson, wrote out a Bible scripture
Creative Writing: Did an oral report that I typed into Good Reads about his Magic Tree House, Day of the Dinosaurs book
Free Reading: 1 hour, Magic Tree House, Night on the Titanic
Life Skills: Scrambled eggs
PE: Walked/Ran 1 hour on the treadmill (yes, he really did)

Olivia:
Music: Voice Lesson practice and Recorder practice
Math: Lesson 3
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Language Arts: 2 pages of compound verbs
Creative Writing: Wrote a book report of Sing Down the Moon
Free Reading: 2 + hours, finished Sing Down the Moon & started Work and the Glory #1
Life Skills: Macaroni Salad and zucchini bread

Daily Schedule for 8/20/08

Both
Pray/Pledge
Religion: Preach My Gospel Lesson 1: God Blesses Families
Bible History: The Golden Calf
Biography/American History: Columbus by by D'Aulaire
Geography: Globe work from Columbus. Italy, Mediterranean Sea, Spain, Portugal, Atlantic and Pacific Ocean, England, Iceland, China, India and the East Indies
Read-a-loud: A Wrinkle in Time, 1 chapter
Game: Rack-O
Science: Day 2 of the Sea Monkey's experiment and 30 min video: Classification of Living Things
P.E.: 1 mile Nature Walk in the desert

Jared
Music: Piano lesson practice & Recorder practice
Math: Lesson 2
Math Drill: Multiplication Wrap-ups 1,2, & 10's
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Handwriting/Phonics: Explode the Code Book 2, 5 pages
Creative Writing: Gave an oral report on the Mammal video he watched yesterday
Free Reading: 30 minutes Magic Tree House #1
Life Skills: Cleaning a bathroom, driving a 4-wheeler (we do live in rural ID) & hot sandwiches
PE: Fun Physical Fitness CD, about 20 minutes

Olivia
Family History: Indexing
Music: Voice lesson practice and Recorder practice
Math: Lesson 2
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Creative Writing: Gave an oral report on what she learned about hamsters yesterday
Research: more on hamsters
Free Reading: 45 min of Sing Down the Moon
Life Skills: Dusting & riding the 4-wheeler

Daily Schedule for 8/19/08

Jared:

Pray/Pledge
Religion: Preach My Gospel, Lesson 1: God is our Loving Father in Heaven
Bible History: The Ark of the Covenant
Music: Piano practice
Biography/American History: Leif the Lucky by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire
Read-a-loud: A Wrinkle in Time 1 chapter
Geography: Globe work regarding countries from Biography. Norway, Iceland, Scotland, Greenland and Newfoundland
Science: Started a Sea Monkeys kit and watched an Eyewitness 30min video on Mammals
Math: Lesson 1
Math Drill: Played Timing it Right (game about telling time) Suduko puzzle
Spelling: 2 spell drills
Handwriting: Lesson from A Reason for Handwritting, wrote a Bible verse out
Creative Writing: Oral book report that I typed into Good Reads for Leif the Lucky
Free Reading: Read out loud 4 chapters of Magic Tree House #1
Life Skills: Made canned soup (we have to start somewhere)
PE: Rode his bike to get the mail

Olivia
Pray/Pledge
Religion: Preach My Gospel, Lesson 1: God is our Loving Father in Heaven
Bible History: The Ark of the Covenant
Music: Recorder practice and voice lesson practice
Biography/American History: Leif the Lucky by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire
Read-a-loud: A Wrinkle in Time 1 chapter
Geography: Globe work regarding countries from Biography. Norway, Iceland, Scotland, Greenland and NewfoundlandScience:
Science: Started a Sea Monkeys kit
Math: Lesson 1
Math Drill: Played Timing it Right (game about telling time)
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Creative Writing: Blogging and Good Reads
Silent Reading: Read 1 hr Sing Down The Moon
Life Skills: Made raisin bread
PE: Walked to get the mail
Language Arts: Lesson on Verbs from Abeka's Language Arts book
Research: 30 min online research about hamsters

Science Experiments

Jared was originally going to attend a Science Camp this year. Because of gas prices I talked him into letting me buy him several science experiments instead. The time came yesterday to finally made good on our agreement. We bought two Lab in a Bag science kits. There are several experiments in each. We bought a Snap Circuits Jr set and Sea Monkey's kit. They also had a Math game (3 games in 1) on the 75% off table so I thought we'd try that. It's suppose to help with multiplication up to 9's, division and rounding. And I also grabbed a Division Wrap Up. So more math drill helps. Olivia is thrilled. (not) She only has one thing in life that she really doesn't care for at all and that is math and especially math drill. Besides that though Jared and Olivia are sooooo excited to start school.

A great book for homeschool culture in the family...

So Much More by Anna Sofia Botkin and Elizabeth Botkin

My review:

Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow! This book is controversial! They directly assaulted Marxism, individualism and socialism in convincing fashion and come out, in my opinion the winner. Not only does it attack Marxism but it openly assaults the general Christian population and says they are way off also.

It sure challenged my beliefs in many things, and for the most part has actually changed how I view things. I find myself challenging things in society in my head now and asking questions. "Who said this is the way it is suppose to be?"

My husband and I have had a lot of conversations about this and we also watched the video that goes along with the book. This is a great book to study with your older children after you have read it. A great book for homeschooling families. I just can't get over it, so much to think about. So many things to ask questions about and challenge.

The only thing I didn't agree with was some of the theology in the book, especially relating to Adam and Eve. At the same time I actually agreed with a whole lot more in theology than I even thought that I would.

If you dare to read this book you'll either come out loving it or absolutely hating it. Many will rebel against the ideas presented, but it will sure make you think...

A life changer...

View'>http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1064820?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.

What TJEd has done for us...

I've known about the Thomas Jefferson Education model for several years now. From day one until today my own personal understanding of its principles has transformed.

My oldest was probably only 5 or 6 when I first started and so they were all very much in core phase still. Which meant I was able to study. It was from that point on that I began to get it and a whole world was opened up to me! I read Little Britches, Lonesome Gods, The Sacketts, Laddie, The Merchant of Venice, and Jane Eyre to name a few. Wow! I began to want to read and learn about everything I could. Since then I haven't stopped reading. Of course every time I read something I realize 10 more books I need to read because my minds been opened that much more! My life was transformed from that moment on.

The more I read the more I began to understand the value of the TJEd principles. I began to understand the value of a good education, what it meant and how it looked. Alex also began that process for himself. From there our family culture became transformed. Learning was an every waking day experience. We had limitless conversations with our children talking about everything and anything from government principles to personal leadership.

I've come to realize that the TJEd principles are not hard to apply. It's about how you live your life and who you are. If you emanate principals of self government, self control and love of learning it all begins to just take on a life of its own.

Today our home has a mom and dad that are just excited to learn about the ancient Roman emperors as the kids. A home where learning is apart of who we are. Where we have talks about civil disobedience and British Imperialism.

Simply put TJEd is a culture and a lifestyle and not a curriculum.

Field Trip to the Zoo

Outside the Penguin Pavilion.

Today we went on a field trip to the zoo with our cousins. We rented "Explorer Backpacks" from the zoo. They ended up being not what we had hoped! The Lewis and Clark Backpack was all right and the Birds of Prey was thumbs down. The kids had been looking forward to using those and so they were disappointed. We did talk about prey and predators for a little bit. We also talked about nocturnal animals. This year the theme at the zoo is "The year of the frog." So there were frogs exhibits everywhere. Now that the kids are older the older 3 can read all the information about the animals and so that's added to their own learning and interest.

On the way there and back the kids read to each other in the car. It was funny how the older kids asked the younger kids every couple of pages what they had just read or they had a specific question for them. They also spend a lot of time on their math facts. They used Wrap Ups and the Math Shark.