Geometry

Family Scripture Study: 2 Nephi 1
Weekly Family Scripture Memorization: Moroni 10:34
Greek/Read-A-Loud: We read several chapters in Percy Jackson and The Lightening Thief and finished it.
Greek/Movie: We watched Hercules (Disney) together and we pointed out all the Gods and situations we recognized. I'm not a huge fan of cartoons and my kids rarely get to watch them. So this was a treat!
Math: We received our new Lakeshore Geometry Activity Kit Grades 4-6 in the mail today. It is very cool. We talked about all sorts of Geometry concepts. They have very neat manipulates. We worked especially on graphing with positive and negative numbers. The kids are still playing with the kit right now. Here's the link, it says it's discontinued, but at least you can get an idea of what it is. Maybe you can find it on ebay.
Spelling: I quizzed the boys on spelling words from the book Dr. Fry's 1000 Instant Words: The Most Common Words for Teaching Reading, Writing and Spelling by Edward Fry, Ph.D. They wrote their answers down on wipe boards and then revealed their answers. They thought it was fun.
Club: We had cub scout pack meeting tonight. Jared earned some more awards.
PE: Playing in the snow and fort building.
Chores/Animal Care

Caleb: Read his scriptures, learned about sharks, wrote a blog post about sharks, and 30 min of Wii Sports.

Luke: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, spent a lot of time working on his creative writing story, did some silent reading in various books, and played Wii sports for 30 min.

Jared: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, and made a skills list for cooking. Did a dictionary search and located the words coconut, hydrogen, Neptune, rain forest and coat of arms. These were just random words I picked and then he told me about them. We added some dates to our times line, worked on scout requirements, did 30 min of Wii fit, and listened to a book on tape for a reward. He has misplaced his chapter book and so didn't read it today.

Olivia: Read her scriptures, wrote in her journal, practiced the piano, worked on math skills, and read in Pride and Prejudice.

Deanna: Read my scriptures, wrote in my journal, read a conference talk, practiced the piano, worked on cub scout things, played ping pong and reread Prometheus Bound for my mentor meeting this weekend.

Alex: Read his scriptures, read in the church handbook, did cub scout things (Unit Commissioner), listening to Ranger's Apprentice, played ping pong, and went to work.

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

12/23/08

Mom School
Pray and Pledge
Theology: Preach My Gospel, Chapter 6, section 1
Bible History: Jesus heals people and call his apostles
Biography/American History: 8 chapters from Guns for General Washington
Fairy Tales/Fables: Thumbelina by Susan Jeffers. We also read the story of Theseus and the Minotaur.
Memorization: Books of the Old and New Testament, Book of The Book of Mormon, The Presidents of the USA and The Planets of our Solar System.
Family History: Biography of Samuel Ward my gggrandfater
Music: Singing some of the memorization songs.
World History: Chapter 13 from Story of the World vol. 2
Geography: France
Science: 1 chapter from Kingfisher Voyages Oceans. We also learned about astronomy, the moon, Apollo missions, Telescopes, Galileo and Copernicus.
PE: Hours of outside snow fort building
Reading: We take turns reading all of the above material everyday.
Science/Pet Care: Jared and Olivia each have a hamster that they are responsible for. They also take turns caring for our dog, cat and sea monkeys.

Olivia
Math: Lesson 76
Handwriting/Writing: Wrote in her journal
Creative Writing: Wrote a Christmas poem
Life Skills: Pumpkin Pie
Computers/Typing/Writing: Wrote a blog post.
Reading: Scriptures and The Work and the Glory #3, finished.

Jared
Reading: Read in The Old Testament Stories Reader

Luke
Creative Writing/Computers/Typing/Spelling: Worked on his story for at least an hour.
Writing/Drawing: Drew some pictures and wrote in a notebook.
Free Reading: Read in various books

To Show Parent Core/Love of Learner/Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna: Cooked food for Christmas Eve Dinner, Read for 3+ hours
Alex:Worked as a Temple Ordinance Worker, Went to work, and listened to a memoir about Ronald Reagan.

12/04/08: Spelling anyone?

Mom School
Pray/Pledge
Theology: Core Phase-D&C 88:118-126
American History Literature: 3 chapters from Johnny Tremain by Ester Forbes
Literature: 1 chapter from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by CS Lewis
Read-a-loud: 1 chapter from Little Britches by Ralph Moody
Memorization: Presidents of the USA: Jared and I know all of them, Olivia is almost there and Luke just is starting and is on the first 8. Books of the New Testament and Books of the Book of Mormon
Family History: Biography of Helen Hancock by Harris Hancock (my ggrandmother)
Science Biography: Chapter 2 of Thomas Edison: His Life and Ideas by Laurie Winn Carlson
World History: Chapter 8 of Story of the World vol. 2 by Susan Wise Bauer
Science: Planet Earth and the Moon
Life Skills: Family Councils to brainstorm
Reading: We take turns reading all of the above material everyday.
Science/Pet Care: Jared and Olivia each have a hamster that they are responsible for. They also take turns caring for our dog, cat and sea monkeys.


Olivia
Music: Practiced her voice lesson.
Free Reading/Science: Read Chapter 1 of a High School Biology Book. She repeated back to me to me what she had learned. She said she just was interested in learning some Biology. Okay.
Art: 1 hour coloring/drawing/paper boxes...
Math: Lesson 62
Language Arts: Parts of Speech: 1 Mad Libs
Life Skills: Aunt Joyce's famous Buttermilk Syrup
Computers/Typing: American Girls Website-games and quiz's

Jared
Music: Practiced his piano lesson
Art/Science: Drew out "blueprints" for several "inventions" he hopes to create when he is older.
Math: Lesson 58
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Reading: 30 minutes of reading from The Book of Mormon Reader and the McGuffy 3rd Reader
Life Skills: Swedish pancakes
Book on Tape/Science: Re-listened to the 2 hour dramatized version of Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne

Luke
Math: 3 lessons from Saxon 2
Spelling: 10 spelling drills!!!
Handwriting/Phonics: 5 pages from Explode the Code
Logic: 1 hour of Lego's and played with the connector blocks
Reading: The Book of Mormon Reader
PE: Karate


Caleb
Went to Public School
Reading
Spelling
Karate


Family:
PE: Star Wars Jedi Training. This involves some serious physical exertion.
Went to the town library.
Mark 14


To Show Parent Core/Love of Learner/Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna: Read 2 hours in The Naked Communist (I LOVE this book), 1 spell drill, (alas no piano today besides Oliva's voice practice), chores, went to the Relief Society Christmas Party,
Alex: Went to Work (long day to Boise), finished Ender's Game, working on Sackett's Land by Louis L'Amour, studied for his college final

Dr. Aardsma's Spelling Drills

I've had numerous search hits to my site about Dr. Aardsma's Spell Drill in the short time I've had my homeschooling blog. So I thought I'd do a specific post on them.

I love them! For our family it's a great alternate medium to break up repetitious book work. They are a "computer game."

Here's how it works: You enter your name, grade and desired spelling list. (Abeka, Bob Jones, etc. It has about 7 lists). Once you've signed in it stores your name, "grade", spelling list and how you do each time. If you are in 4th grade you will receive 20 questions. The narrator gives you the word, then he repeats it in a sentence. You have two chances to spell it correctly. After that it will then show you the correct spelling and then you have to try to do it again until you get it correct. After several times of correctly spelling the same word from various spell drills that word is dropped. Each time you do a spell drill new words are added. But if you are a 4th grader you only ever get 20 words per session.

I enjoy it because the child is not endlessly quizzed on words they know and new words are given as they progress. Therefore, they can go through as quickly as they are able. They love the challenge to get a word they haven't been getting right. And like I mentioned early it just breaks the learning up into different mediums. A bonus for elementary children!

There is nothing flashy about this program. It rather boring appearance wise. It's simple and straight to the point. This is not an arcade game at all.

I hope this helps. Please ask questions in the comment box if you have them and I'll be happy to answer them!