August 31, 2009 (Monday)

We started today! Our schedules were changed... The kids were really excited!

Mom School
Family Scriptures w/ dad: Acts 24
Pray/Pledge
Music: Do What is Right, The Books of the Old Testament and My Eternal Family... We also practiced our Rhythm poem.
Church History: Read 33 pages from Illustrated Stories from Church History vol. 1
Friend Article
Social Studies: Read a chapter from Houghton Mifflin Social Studies: States and Regions. We talked about Geography. What is it?
Literature: "As You Like It" from More Tales from Shakespeare by Marcia Williams and read several poems and discussed them from Poems For Memorization by Rod and Staff Publishers.
Read-a-loud: Read one chapter from Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo.
Science: Read one chapter from Science: A Closer Look by Macmillan/McGraw-Hill. We discussed the Scientific Method and had a really good discussion.
Art: The kids cut out snowflakes and decorated them with glitter. They also used some sculpting clay and made a variety of things. They will air dry them and then in a couple of days they will paint them.
Pet Care: 2 hamsters, 2 dogs, 1 cat,
Chores

Olivia
Religion: Read a chapter in Genesis.
Music: She has a nasty head cold so she didn't practice her voice.
World History: Read 1/2 book about Ancient Civilizations.
Science: Read a chapter in a text book about Plant Reproduction.
Math: Did a Saxon 7/6 math lesson.
Language Arts: Daily Grams lesson
Vocabulary: Peterson's Word of the Day-Portend
Vocabulary/Language Usage: Did a Classical Root Words lesson.
Free Reading: Read Work and the Glory #4 for 3 hours.
Life Skills: Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Jared
Religion: Read 3 chapters from the Doctrine and Covenants Reader.
Music: Practiced his recital piece.
Geography: Did a lesson from Evan-Moor.
Math: Did a Saxon 6/5 lesson.
Math Drill: Did a add facts drill from Saxon 6/5.
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages in Explode the Code
Grammar: Daily Grams lesson
Creative Writing: Did a lesson from Let's Write 1 on brainstorming.
Free Reading: Read for 30 minutes with a variety of books.
Book on Tape: Listened to Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane for two hours and finished it and started on Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods.
PE: 30 min of Wii Fit.

Luke
Religion: Read 2 Nephi 1
Geography: Did a Evan-Moor lesson.
Art: Drew and colored a picture.
Math: Did a Saxon Math 3 Lesson.
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages of Explode the Code
Grammar: Daily Grams lesson
Handwriting: Cursive Lesson from A Reason For Writing- vowels
Creative Writing: Did a lesson from Let's Write 1-sequencing.
Free Reading: Read for 30 minutes in a variety of books.
PE: Did 30 min of Wii Sports.

Caleb
Religion: Read a couple of versus in The Book of Mormon to me.
Geography: Did a Evan-Moor geography lesson.
Art: Coloring
Math: Did a Saxon Math 2 lesson.
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 2 pages from Explode the Code.
Language Arts: Sight Words practice
Writing: Cursive Writing-the alphabet
Reading: Read 1/2 of Hop on Pop to me.

Family Home Evening:
Prayer/Songs
Testimonies-Discussion about experiences from trip especially in Palmyra.
Priesthood Blessings by dad for the new school year
Activity: Visiting a family in our town who are "sick and afflicted."

To Show Parent Core/Love of Learner/Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna: Scriptures, journal, spell drill, word of the day, laundry and other household chores, catching up with messages from being gone for two weeks, 1 hour of family history research, practiced the piano for the recital, went visiting teaching, and practiced some Greek (we took two months off our scholar studies and I can tell a difference in my Greek-I have forgotten a lot. Time to crack down on it again!)
Alex: Scriptures, word of the day, went to work, and listening to a Rich Dad, Poor Dad book on CD.

Curriculum for 2009--10

Here's a basic run down of our curriculum for the 2009-10 school year:

• Math: Saxon Math
• Phonics/Grammar: Daily Grams and Explode the Code
• Spelling: Dr. Aardsma's Spelling Drills
• Reading: McGuffy Readers & library readers. They've each selected several books they plan on reading.
• History: A Rendezvous with Idaho History, Story of the World vol 1 and 2, and library research into Early Eastern Civilizations (Olivia).
• Scholar: Olivia will take a weekly scholar class where she will continue reading English and American classics.
• Geography: Evan-Moor Geography workbooks
• Science: Library books and Delta Science kits.
• PE: Working on the farm and basketball in the winter
• Music: Piano lessons
• Clubs: Boys scouts, 4-H (they are starting this year round this year) and Primary Activity Days for Girls

Getting Ready for School

This is always a fun time of year. Organizing yourself to get back in the learning/school gear. Here's what I've done:

1. Gone through and organized all our home school materials.
2. Made a learning plan for each child.
3. Talked with each child and reviewed our plan for the school year. We decided what we wanted to accomplish in mom school this year. We've discussed their individual goals and what they are going to accomplish.
4. I've ordered all their new books for home school this year and they've all arrived.
5. Now we're all ready! We aren't actually going to start until after Labor Day this year though.

Catching up

I certainly haven't done a good job of finishing up our summer with home school posts!

We've done lots of manual labor on our new 82 acre farm. We've pulled weeds, raked leaves, pruned trees, shoveled manure, reinforced the play house, and cleaned sheds out among other things. The kids have swam in the ditch a lot. There are several big ones to choose from. We've also had lots of late night fires at our newly made fire pit. It's been a great experience and they've all worked hard.

The boys have listened to several books on tape. Olivia's been reading quite a bit on her own. I've been studying for my final in American History through BYU. Alex went to Utah with his dad and some friends and climbed King's Peak, the tallest mountain in Utah.

We went to a local ice cave and learned all about volcanoes, lava tubes and ice. The kids enjoyed that.

We've also had lots of doctor and dentist appoints to get current for the new year. Luke was excited to have his last tube in his ear pulled out. Caleb and I now have our asthma and allergies better under control. I can take a deep breath again!

We've really made the most of this summer. We've had just enough activities to stay busy, but we still had lots of down time.