Field Trip Friday

Today we were all over Southern Idaho. We went to the library. We went to the Natural History Museum and saw their new display about pre-Columbian fishing in Idaho. We also went to the Hagerman Fossil Beds and saw the Idaho State Fossil, "The Hagerman Horse."

Family Scripture Study: 1 Nephi 10
Family Scripture Memorization: 1 Nephi 4:6
Pray/Pledge/Motto
Music: Lots of Primary song singing
Christian Living: We read almost half of the January Friend.
Math: We discussed the principle of multiplication and practiced the multiplication tables.
Idaho History: We filled out some papers for the home school day on the hill in a couple of weeks. They had to fill out several Idaho State facts. It also included lots of information about the State Capital building. We looked up the answers to these questions on several different websites.
Government: We discussed the purpose of bills and what makes a good bill. We brainstormed for a while. Luke wrote a bill about having a state essay contest that promoted the attributes of Idaho aimed at attracting revue through tourism. Jared wrote a bill petitioning Idaho to create a "State Dog" and that being the boarder collie. Olivia is still working on hers. They will present there bills at the Day on the Hill event. They will debate them and try to get them to "pass" in a mock legislative meeting.
Chores/ Animal Care

Caleb: Played on Raz-kids for a long time and graduated to another level. He worked on a story, which included handwriting.

Luke: Read his scriptures, working on his 3's multiplication tables, worked on his story, made macaroni and cheese for a life skill, he is reading a book about Marie Curie, wrote in Let's Write, practiced the piano, he went to scouts and he played with Lego's.

Jared: He has his multiplication tables memorized, but need to work on speed. He played the Wii for some exercise, he played with Lego's, practiced the piano, and went to scouts.

Olivia: She finished The Real George Washington, worked on her memorization of the Declaration of Independence, she is spending a lot of time on her loom, she made a hand stitched pillow for activity day girls today at church, she practiced the piano, finished her writing assignments for her scholar class tomorrow, wrote a pen pal, wrote an article for the 4-H newsletter-she's the club reporter and she read her scriptures.

Deanna: Scriptures, journal, conference talk, practiced the piano, finished The Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers, worked on some Saxon Math (so fun!-inspire right!), helped at activity day girls, read several chapters in the Bible (reading as a novel for my goal to read the 100 great books, I'm in 1 Samuel) and I started A Good Talk: The Story and Skill of Conversation by Daniel Menaker.

Alex: Scriptures, went to work, listening to something on tape ?, and had a great day!

I'm sure I'm forgetting many things....

September 22, 2009 (Tuesday)- Real live Goats!

Mom School
Pray/Pledge
Song: Give Said the Little Stream, Praise to the Man and Do What is Right
Bible: Abraham from The Old Testament Reader
Family Scripture Study: 2 Corinthians 7
Weekly Scripture Memorization: 2 Nephi 31.:20
Friend Article
Idaho History: Read 1/2 a chapter from A Rendezvous with Idaho History
about Mountains in Idaho.
Read-a-loud: We read two chapters from Leven Thumps and The Gateway to Foo and finished it.
Literature: We read a Shakespeare play.
Science: Read a chapter in Science: A Closer Look by Macmillan/McGraw-Hill.
Greek: We started learning the Greek alphabet and I read them 3 more versus in John to them in Greek.
Fairy Tales: We read the play Sleeping Beauty.
Chores
Lots of Lego's

Olivia
Religion: Read a chapter in Genesis.
Geography: Did an Evan-Moor lesson.
Math: Took a Saxon 7/6 test.
Math Drill: Did a multiplication fact drill.
Language Arts: Did a Daily Grams lesson and 1 lesson from Root Words.
Computer/Science: Played Zoo Vet on the computer.
Spelling: Did a spell drill
Creative Writing: She also did her 30 min writing assignment from her scholar class.
Research: Researched a bunch of things on the computer including Antarctica, Inuit Indians and camouflage.
Science: Did a science lesson her science textbook.
Music: Practiced the piano and went to piano lessons.

Jared
Religion: Read in the Book of Mormon.
Music: Practiced his piano lesson and his piano lesson.
Geography: Did an Evan-Moor lesson.
Math: Did a Saxon 6/5 test.
Math Drill: Did an addition math fact drill.
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages of Explode the Code
Creative Writing: Did a lesson in Let's Write.
Grammar: Did a Daily Grams lesson.
Book on Tape: Listened to Star Wars.

Luke
Religion: Read in the Book of Mormon
Geography: Did an Evan-Moor lesson.
Math: Did a Saxon 3 lesson.
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages of Explode the Code
Grammar: Did a Daily Grams lesson.
Spelling: Did a spell drill.
Creative Writing: Did a writing lesson from Let's Write and he did his 30 min writing assignment for his Scholar Writing class.
Book on Tape: Listened to Star Wars.
Art: Drew several pictures and colored them.

Caleb
Religion: Read a couple of versus in the Book of Mormon to me.
Geography: Did a lesson from Evan-Moor.
Math: Did one Saxon Math 2 lesson.
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 2 pages of Explode the Code
Reading: Read in The Cat and the Hat Comes Back to me. Practiced his sight words by using a highlighter and finding them in The Friend.
Art: Drew several pictures and colored them.

Family (in the evening):
*We had dinner with my dad and my brother Paul. (My mom is in the Huntsman center battling Multiple Myeloma. Right now my aunt is with her and my dad is home for the week).
PE: Worked on the land.
*We finally got the goats. Yes, we have animals on our land now. It's crazy! Right now they are mowing down some serious weeds for us. We hope they do not get eaten by the coyotes.

To Show Parent Core/Love of Learner/Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna: Scriptures, journal, practiced the piano, practiced my Greek pronunciation with a CD-ROM that came with our Greek books, played Wii Fit, worked on some scouting things, wrote some Goodreads reviews, worked on my BYU English class and read in Lord of the Rings #2.
Alex: Scriptures, listening to Tears in Darfor, went golfing with my dad, worked on some scouting things 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

03/06/09 (Fri): Strong finish to the week.

Mom School
Pray/Pledge
Song: My Eternal Family
Theology: Chapter 20-Baptism, from Gospel Principles
Book of Mormon Stories: Nephi gets the plates from Laban
Friend Article
Biography/American History: Read 2 chapters from Andrew Jackson: Young Patriot by George Edward Stanley
Fairy Tales: "Bob White and The Farmer Man" from Once Upon a Time Tales Retold by Wallace Wadsworth
Greek Myths: Read the stories of "The Adventures of Perseus," "The Chariot of the Sun," "The Adventures of Odysseus," Theseus and the Minotaur," "Pygmalion and His Wife," and " Eros and Psyche." We finished Usborne's Greek Myths by Heather Amery.
Memorization: The 50 states of the union alphabetically.
Family History: We read a biography of Serena Barton Hancock.
Geography: South Carolina (where Andrew Jackson was born).
Science: We finished chapter 3 from Kingfisher's Science Encyclopedia.
Health: Read chapter 7: Sugar Drinks from Eat Well and Keep Moving by Lilian Cheung.
Science Experiment: We did activity 1 from Animal Observatory of a Delta Science Kit.
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.
Movie: The kids and I watched the movie, "The Seeker," that we had borrowed from the library.

Olivia
Religion: Read a chapter in The Book of Mormon.
Music: Practiced singing for 30 min of various Broadway songs.
Geography: Did a geography lesson about longitude and latitudinal lines.
Math: Lesson 109 in Saxon Math 6/5.
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Language Arts: Verbs
Creative Writing/Typing: Started a story about an Indian in the early 1800's.
Vocabulary: Peterson's Word of the Day- Capricious
Vocabulary/Language Usage: Took a Greek root words test.
Idaho History: Read Ida Visits the Capital by Lori Otter, the book she was awarded for her singing last weekend.
Life Skills: Organized a movie party for the family. We had tickets, treats and a check-in booth.
Business/Computers/Typing: Filled out pretend invoices again.

Jared
Religion: Read a chapter in The New Testament Reader.
Music: Practiced his piano lesson and did a music theory assignment.
Math: Did a lesson in Singapore 3B.
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages from Explode the Code 5.
Free Reading: Read Stars Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith for two hours.
Creative Play: Lego's

Luke
Religion: Read a chapter in his Book of Mormon Reader.
Music: Practiced his piano.
Geography: Map Reading & North, South, East and West
Math: Did a Saxon Math 2 lesson.
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages from Explode the Code 4.
Creative Writing: Did a creative writing lesson-categorizing-from Let's Write 2.
Free Reading: Read a chapter in a Magic School Bus Science book about sharks.
Creative Play: Lego's

Caleb
Geography: Compass and Compass Rose
Math: Right Start Math lesson.
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages from Explode the Code 2.
Writing: Made a list of things in his neighborhood.
Reading: Sight words, read a phonics reader and read 4 lessons out of the McGuffy Primer to me.
Computers/Typing: Played the Dora the Explorer computer game for an hour.

Family (in the evening):
Music: Watched a taped episode of American Idol.
Woodworking: Worked on their pinewood derby cars. The activity girls are also doing cars this year. So three of the kids get to do them. They are excited.

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, researched the Greek books we need for our new Greek course we are starting next week (Alex and I) and worked on a lesson from my BYU Geography class.
Alex: Scriptures, word of the day, went to work, trained someone for 5 hours in the things he learned this past week, listened to The Iliad for 3 hours while driving.

Go Olivia!

Today Olivia sang for at our county's Republican Parties "Lincoln Days." She did great and received a standing ovation! She sang, "God Bless the USA." The Governor, Senator, Congressman, and Lt. Governor were all there. The First Lady presented Olivia with a signed copy of the book she wrote about Idaho History. The book was suppose to be auctioned off, but The First Lady took it off the auction table to give to Olivia because she was so impressed with her! Yeah!

The kids with Governor Otter. Olivia is displaying her new book.

Olivia with the First Lady of Idaho-Lori Otter.

The kids with Senator Crapo. Gee, Caleb's eating. Does he ever stop eating?

01/23/09: Day on the Hill

Today the older three were able to go to the capital and learn more about our government. They loved it! They each presented a bill they had written and then tried to get it to pass. They learned about parliamentary procedure and the way laws are passed. They were able to meet a Idaho Supreme Court Justice and tour the court room and his chambers. They can't wait to go next year.

While Alex took the kids to that Caleb and I swam and than went to my sisters and hung out with her and her children.

Everyone had a fun day!