Math Resource

See Inside Math: Internet Referenced by Peter Tallant


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
My new favorite math resource! Every major math concept is taught simply. This book is busy, but it's so detailed that you can take a short section and work out problems on a wipe board with your kids.

Family Scripture Study: 2 Nephi 4
Weekly Family Scripture Memorization: 3 Nephi 17:6
Theology: Gospel Principles chapter 2 "Our Heavenly Family."
Goals/Life Skills: We had a family meeting where we reviewed our goals from last week and we set goals for this week.
Music: Olivia, Jared, Luke and I had our weekly piano lesson.
Peterson's Word of the Day: HAUGHTY: (adjective) Scornfully proud. The haughty princes believed their royal blood made them genetically superior to others.
PE: Proper sit ups and push ups drill work. Alex's years in the military came through.
Chores/Animal Care

Caleb: Read his scriptures, learned about foxes and dogs, wrote a blog post about them, walked on the tread mill, watched several science videos on Brain Pop, worked on cleaning his room, and played ping pong.

Luke: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, worked on creative writing, read in The Ranger's Apprentice, did multiplication drill work, read about World War 2, and walked/ran on the treadmill.

Jared: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, watched a science video, took a Saxon math test, did multiplication and division drill work, did a Math Detective lesson, did a Daily Grams (grammar) lesson, read in Peter and the Shadow Thieves, walked on the treadmill, and played Lego's.

Olivia: Read her scriptures, wrote in her journal, read 1/2 of 55 Fathers (about the signing of the Constitution-for her Key of Liberty class), read in Pride and Prejudice, practiced her vocal solo for when she sings to the governor at the end of the month, practiced the piano, and wrote a paper on "good laws." She logged 5 scholar hours today. These hours were specifically directed on scholar level pursuits. Core activities, fun activities, and stewardship's do not count. She has a goal this week to do 5 hours a day.

Deanna: Read my scriptures, wrote in my journal, read a conference talk, read in Approaching Zion, practiced the piano, and played ping pong.

Alex: Read his scriptures, read in the church manual, started Dale Carnegie's Public Speaking book, went to work, played ping pong, and listening to Alex Rider #2.

Family Home Evening:
Song: We'll Bring the World His Truth
Talent: Jared did a piano solo.
Testimonies: Alex, Deanna, Olivia and Luke
Strength of Youth: Agency
Article of Faith: 13th Article of Faith
Proclamation to the World on the Family: 2nd paragraph
Character: Uncommon Courtesy-We put others needs before our own.
Lesson: Deanna-Building Zion
Activity: Played In a Pickle.
Treat: Lemon Squares (Caleb)

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.

Pen Pal Letters arrive!

Family Scripture Study: 1 Nephi 19
Weekly Family Scripture Memorization: Moroni 10:34 (Jared's turn to pick for the week).
Goal Setting: Each family member reported on their goals from last week and set new goals for this week. This is really going well especially for our goal oriented children (Jared).
Economics: In an effort to do our part to stimulate the economy (and do 4-H horse projects this year) we bought a horse trailer today.
Financial/Money Management: Alex presented a real life investment situation to the kids. They had to do all the math problems in it. Then we all talked about it and decided if was a good deal, and based on Rich Dad, Poor Dad principles we decided to do it.
Music: We had piano lessons today. We are really pushing the music theory.
Pen pals: The boy's pen pal letters came today. They were beyond ecstatic! They have been checking the mail for a couple of days in anxious anticipation. They've read, and reread them and won't let them out of their sight. Pen pals are fun! Our pen pals are from Texas where it is warm and we are jealous!
PE: Played outside and made snow forts for over two hours.
Chores/Animal Care


Note: The kids have really enjoyed doing their math problems on a wipe board. I recently ordered some lap size ones, but they haven't arrived yet. It reminds of slate work in Little House in the Prairie.

Caleb: Read his scriptures, learned about contractions, played a Happy Phonics game with me (about contractions), worked on addition problems, learned about octopus, asked for a piano lesson from me and I gave him one (hoot, hoot! our plan is working), listened to Farmer Boy on tape for an hour, and played ping pong.

Luke: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, worked on a creative writing story, wrote four blog posts, reviewed sentence structure, pronoun usage, spelling, learned about mummies and the Valley of Kings (structure time not content), listened to Farmer Boy on tape for an hour, read for an hour in Ranger's Apprentice, and double digit addition practice.

Jared: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, practiced double/triple digit multiplication problems, wrote a blog post, did a dictionary search of words I picked out then he read to me a definition, read in Peter and the Shadow Thieves, and listened to Harriet the Spy on tape for a reward.

Olivia: Read her scriptures, practiced the piano, read for two hours in The Screwtape Letters, made banana muffins, listened to Harriet the Spy for fun for 30 minutes, and wrote a blog post. (I'm forgetting some things????) Today we also had her, for a math problem, take our check book for the month and then categorize our income and expenditures into categories. She then had to hand-add them up and check her work with a calculator. She then will make an Excel sheet at some point. Also at the end of the month she will check our percentages in each category to see if we spent the correct amount for that category. This is a "real life" problem to teach her money management skills.

Deanna: Read scriptures, wrote in journal, practiced the piano (heavy emphasis on theory also), finished (finally!) Othello by William Shakespeare, worked on my English class by reading an extensive essay about Historical Criticism (not a favorite topic or class right now-BYU 314), and played ping pong.

Alex: Read his scriptures, reading in the church handbook, worked on our investments, spent several hours working for the Republican District Committee where he serves as vice chair, went to work, played ping pong, and he's listening to The Ranger's Apprentice.

Family Home Evening:
Songs: We'll Bring the World His Truth and The Spirit of God
Testimony Bearing: Alex, Deanna, Olivia, Jared and Luke
Character: 21 Rules of This House- #3 We do not lie.
Strength of Youth: First Presidency Message (restarted again)
Proclamation to the World on the Family: 1st paragraph (restarted again)
Article of Faith: 11th
Lesson: Gifts of the Spirit by Alex from Gospel Principles
Activity: Sorry!
Refreshments: Homemade Tapioca Pudding (by Olivia) and fresh curds

Foiled!

Today I woke up with a smile on my face. There was not one single thing that we had to leave the house for and nothing going on that I had to do! We were going to get a lot of reading and studying in. Yeah!

The morning started out well. The kids were slow in doing their chores for some reason. It took a while to get them herded into reality. No stress though, we had the whole day. At 11:30 I got a call and my friend said, "I'm just checking, you are coming to scholar school today right?" Huh? I guess they'd changed it from Thursdays to Tuesdays. They had been talking about it and I'd said that Tuesday's would be fine if they changed. So I guess they did. We were free though so we left 45 minutes later, our afternoon blown. Then at the last minute I got a call that I needed to watch my 10 year cousin for the rest of the night-no problem! He's great and I am happy to help.

The kids did have a fun day though. Jared was a little stressed initially because he was only able to get about half of the things done on his list. But that is what real life is like so he was okay. Here's the low down. (Of what I can remember of course).

Family Scripture Study: 1 Nephi 17 (half the chapter)
Weekly Scripture Memorization: 1 Timothy 4:12
Chores/Animal Care
Pray/Pledge/Motto
Music: We sang The Lord Need Valiant Servants, The Valiant Song, Holding Hands Around the World, and My Savior Loves Me (or whatever that new song is called.
Fantasy Read-a-loud: We started and read two chapters in Percy Jackson and the Olympians. They love it! I'm doing a lot of editing. I really do not like the way teenagers talk to each other in books like this. I think my kids are to young to sort it out just yet. But the story line will be fun. I'm glad I've previewed this already.
Social/Logic: While Olivia was at scholar school the boys played at some homeschooling house. They played Risk and Stratego and ran around in the mud outside for a long time. They had great fun and didn't want to leave.

Caleb: Read his scriptures, read to his public school teacher over the phone, played Yahtzee, played Rush Hour, Jr., and worked on some core phase problems.

Luke: Luke got to start a blog today! He was very excited. He has already written two blog posts. One of the posts is a journal entry about what he did for today. It's fun to see what he remembers and what he sees as important.

Here's it is cut from his blog: I did lots of things today. Here are some of the things I did. First of all I said my prayers and read my scriptures. Second, I sketched in my sketch book with all these mythical creatures. For example, The Flon Lizard that has the power to turn itself invisible and attack their enemies from behind. The bat rat that can fly into space and still live and they have huge bat like wings. They can grow up to be as large as today's elephants! Third, I played the piano in twenty minutes. Next, I made lunch because I'm "Lunch Specialist," so then I made lunch. Then my family went to Dietrich and played with the Harris family and played Stratego and Risk, a game of armies that was cool. Then we came home and were just playing around with Tanner who had come over when his mom and dad were gone.

He also learned about two and triple digit adding and subtracting. He also learned how to carry to the next column. He thought this was very cool. He practiced a bunch of problems on the wipe board. He also got to apply his skills when he played Yahtzee. He also played Rush Hour, Jr. He getting really good at it.

Jared: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, wrote and typed a blog, learned how to log into blogger and some other computer skills, read in Peter and the Starcatchers and the Shadow Thieves, he played Quarter Mile Math and was quizzed on subtracting fractions, he played lots of extra Risk and Stratego-these are great logic geography games, played Rush Hour, Jr., he worked on the multiplication table and pretty well has it down, and he also is working on doing the division table. He handled the change in his day well. He was discouraged about the other things he didn't get down, but there is always tomorrow.

Olivia: Read her scriptures, made breakfast, practiced the piano, worked on her loom, making a knitted scarf and ironed on some decals that went with it, Rush Hour, Jr., Stratego, Risk, attended scholar class, studied more about horse pedigrees, and read in The Screwtape Letters.

Deanna: Read my scriptures, wrote in my journal, read a conference talk, word of the day, practiced the piano, spent the time with some home schooling mommies, and read The Landing of the Pilgrims.

Alex: Read his scriptures, read in the handbook, word of the day, went to Boise for a long day of appointments, and he listened to a book with short stories from famous American authors. It was a long day for him. He's down to only two of these a month now though.

Mom School
Pray/Pledge
Music:We sang 5 primary songs
Bible: "Elisa and the 3 Miracles" from The Old Testament Reader.
Family Scripture Study: 1 John 1
Weekly Family Scripture Memorization: Galatians 5:13
Friend Article
Idaho History: Read about the Gold in Idaho and finished the missionary section from A Rendezvous with Idaho History.
World History: We read several pages from Usborne's World History book and read about the Mummies, The Indus Valley and Europe.
Literature: We read several poems.
Science: We read about seals and monkeys from The Natural World Illustrated Science Encyclopedia by Usborne. We also read a chapter from Science: A Closer Look by Macmillan/McGraw-Hill.
Literature: We read 2 1/2 chapters in Mrs. Frisby.
Chores: House chores and animal care
PE: Went on a family walk.

Olivia
Religion: Read a chapter in the Bible.
Writing: Wrote in her journal.
Math: Did a Saxon 7/6 lesson.
Language Arts: Did a Daily Grams lesson.
American History: Working on memorizing The Declaration of Independence.
Music: Practiced the piano
Reading: Read Enna Burning by Shannon Hale for half an hour.
Scholar: She worked on several assignments for her scholar class.
Life Skills: Sausage and Egg Casserole and laundry
Book on Tape: Started Lord of the Rings.

Jared
Religion: Read in the Book of Mormon.
Geography: Did an Evan-Moor lesson.
Math: Did a Saxon 6/5 lesson.
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages of Explode the Code
Creative Writing: Did a Let's Write lesson.
Grammar: Did a Daily Grams lesson.
Book on Tape:Finished The Fellowship of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Music: Practiced his piano lesson
Spelling: Practiced his new spelling words.
Reading: Read a story in his McGuffy Reader to me.
Computer/Language Arts: Read online at Raz-kids.com

Luke
Religion: Read in the Book of Mormon.
Geography: Did an Evan-Moor lesson.
Math: Did one Saxon 3 lesson.
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages of Explode the Code
Grammar: Did a Daily Grams lesson.
Book on Tape: Started Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Creative Writing: Did a Let's Write lesson and he wrote on his story for several hours.
Music: Practiced his piano lesson
Reading: Free reading of various things for over an hour.
Reading: Read a story in his McGuffy Reader to me.

Caleb
Reading: Read several stories in his McGuffy Reader to me. Read a story to me. Read to his public school teacher over the phone.
Religion: Read some verses to me in the Book of Mormon.
Geography: Did a lesson from Evan-Moor.
Math: Did one Saxon Math 2 lesson.
Spelling: Practiced his spelling words for the week.
Phonics/Handwriting: 2 pages of Explode the Code
Computer/Language Arts: Read online at Raz-kids.com and also played on starfall.com.

To Show Parent Core/Love of Learner/Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna: Scriptures, journal, word of the day, and went to primary in-service.
Alex: Scriptures, word of the day, went to work, went to primary in-service, listening to Becoming Spiritually Minded and he's still tiling....

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

May 14, 2009 (Thursday)

Mom School
Pray/Pledge
Song: How Firm a Foundation
Theology: "Missionary Work" from Our Heritage
Church History: Translating the Book of Mormon
Weekly Scripture Memorization: 1 Nephi 3:&
Friend Article
Biography/American History: Read 2 chapters in Little House in the Big Woods.
Science Literature: Read a chapter from The Wind in the Door.
Memorization: Planets of the universe
Music: Rhythm poem
Geography: Lines of Longitude from Young Students Learning Library: World Atlas
Science: The Respiratory System from Usborne's Book of Knowledge.
PE: Baseball cancelled again because of weather. So they jumped a lot on the trampoline between rain showers.
Chores

Olivia
Religion: Read a chapter in the Book of Mormon.
Music: Practiced the piano.
Math: Lesson 140 and FINISHED HER SAXON 6/5 book. Happy day, dance a jig.
Writing: Journal entry on her blog.
Vocabulary: Peterson's Word of the Day- Placate
Free Reading: Read for over three hours in Leven Thumps: The Gateway to Foo.
Life Skills: Did her laundry. I'm not sure why since I was more than happy to do it since I was doing everyone else's but she wanted to do it. It really didn't hurt my feelings!
PE: Went on a walk with Caleb.

Jared
Religion: Read a chapter in the Book of Mormon. Read a chapter in The Doctrine and Covenants Reader.
Music: Practiced his recital piece.
Jared had a rough day. But he's doing better now....

Luke
Religion: Read a couple of chapters in the Book of Mormon.
Math: Did a couple of Saxon Math 2 lessons.
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages of Explode the Code
Writing: Did a work book page from Let's Write.
Creative Writing: Finished his book! It ended up being 8 typed pages.
Free Reading: Started reading Tigers at Twilight at Magic Tree House book.
Reading: Read 3 lessons in the McGuffy Second Reader.

Caleb
Religion: Read a couple of verses in The Book of Mormon.
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: Did 3 pages in Explode the Code.
Reading: Read a McGuffy Primer lesson to me and read a phonics reader to me.
PE: Went on a walk with Olivia.

Family (in the evening):
Prayer/Song: I Lived in Heaven
Family Scriptures: John 20 & 21

To Show Parent Core/Love of Learner/Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna: Scriptures, journal, conference talk, word of the day, helped at a funeral, practiced my recital piece and practiced some other things, finished reading the chapter and answered the questions for my BYU Hist 220 class, and read (started, read, finished) The Choice by Nicolas Sparks.
Alex: Scriptures, word of the day, went to a conference all day (left early and came home late), and he's listening to Master and Commander.

May 8, 2009 (Friday)

Mom School
Pray and The National Anthem
Song: Grandmother and Beautiful Savior
Theology: The Church in Kirkland section from Our Heritage.
Church History: Joseph gets the plates
Friend Article
Biography/American History: Read a chapter in Little House in the Big Woods.
Literature: Read As You Like It by Shakespeare (abridged). We are going to watch a production of it tomorrow night.
Memorization: 12 apostles
Music: Rhythm Poem about making good choices
Science: "The Circulatory System" from Usborne's Book of Knowledge.
Chores

Olivia
Religion: Read a chapter in the Book of Mormon.
Music: Lots of singing
Math: Did a Saxon 6/5 Math lesson.
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Language Arts: Types of nouns from Easy Grammar.
Vocabulary: Peterson's Word of the Day- Soporific
Vocabulary/Language Usage: Classical roots language lesson.
Writing: Did an Editor-in-Chief editing lesson.
PE: Trampoline jumping
Life Skills: Cheese cake

Jared
Religion: Read a chapter in the Doctrine and Covenants Reader.
Music: Practiced his piano lesson.
Math: Did a Saxon 5/4 Math lesson.
Math Drill: Multiplication practice
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Writing: Did a cursive writing
Creative Play: Lego's
PE: Trampoline jumping

Luke
Religion: Read several chapters in the Book of Mormon.
Geography: Did a geography lesson.
Math: Did two Saxon Math lessons.
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages of Explode of the Code
Reading: Read three McGuffy Second Reader lessons.
Reading/Computers: Played Jumpstart First Grade.
Creative Play: Legos
PE: Trampoline jumping

Caleb
Religion: Read two verses in the Book of Mormon.
Math: Telling Time
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 2 pages of Explode the Code
Reading: Read a phonics reader and a McGuffy Primer lesson to me.
Reading/Computers: Played Jumpstart First Grade.
Creative Play: Lego's
PE: Jumping on the Trampoline

To Show Parent Core/Love of Learner/Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna: Scriptures, journal, word of the day, made food for a funeral, served at a funeral in the afternoon and started reading Oedipus of Colonus by Sophocles.
Alex: Scriptures, word of the day, had a meeting with the Bishop, went to work, he's listening to Freakonomics and he is still reading in his massive pile of church manuals.

02/18/09 (Wed): Scouts

Mom School
Pray/Pledge
Theology: Chapter 15 from Gospel Principles - The Lord's Covenant People
Bible History: Day of Pentecost and Saul's Conversion
Friend Article
Biography/American History: 3 chapters from Abigail Adams: Girl of Colonial Days by Jean Brown Wagoner
Literature: Read an abridged Macbeth in Stories from Shakespeare by Usborne
Greek Myths: The Gift of Fire and Pandora's Box from Usborne Greek Myths
Tall Tales: "Stormalong" from American Tall Tales by Adrien Stoutenburg
Memorization: First 26 states of the USA
Family History: Finished the biography of Almon Fullmer.
Music Theory: Rhythms from Usborne Internet-Linked Music Theory for Beginners
Science: Cells from The Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia
Health: Review Chapter 2 from Eat Well and Keep Moving by Lillian Cheung
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.
Service: Made dinner for a family.

Olivia
Religion: 1 chapter from the Book of Mormon
Music: Practiced her vocal solo for next week.
Economics: Helped Alex pick out a stock and a covered call and bought it on line with him.
Science: Read a lesson in her science book about classifying animals.
Math: Lesson 102 (Saxon 6/5)
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Language Arts: Prepositions
Testing: Practiced for the state tests with a computer program on our new computer that the state gave us.
Writing: Did a lesson on Editing from Editor-in-Chief.
Research: More fish tanks... (don't ask)...
Vocabulary/Language Arts: Did a lesson from Classical Vocabulary Root Words
Vocabulary: Peterson's Word of the Day- PRESCIENCE
Literature: Read in Jane Eyre and read and abridged version of Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, A Midsummer's Night Dream and As You Like It. This is from Stories From Shakespeare by Usborne.
PE: Ran/Walked on the Treadmill.
Social: Had Activity Days.

Jared
Religion: Read a chapter from his New Testament Reader.
Music: Practiced his piano lesson.
Science: Listened to some science videos on Brain Pop.
Math: Workbook lesson from Singapore Math 3B.
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages from Explode the Code
Free Reading: Read Eragon for over two hours.
Creative Play: Lego's
PE: Ran/Walked on the treadmill.
Social: Went to scouts.

Luke
Religion: Read a chapter in his Book of Mormon Reader.
Music: Practiced his piano lesson.
Geography: Did a geography lesson from Evan-Moor-about continents.
Science: Listened to some science videos on Brain Pop.
Math: Did a lesson from Saxon Math 2.
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages from Explode the Code
Creative Writing: Did a creative writing lesson from Just Write Book 1.
Free Reading: Read a chapter from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.
Creative Play: Lego's
Social: Went to Scouts.

Caleb
Geography: Did a geography lesson on Globes.
Math: Did a Right Start math lesson and practiced his number writing. He also practiced what he learned on the abacus yesterday.
Phonics/Handwriting: 8 pages of Explode the Code and finished a book.
Reading: Practiced his sight words.
Science/Social Studies/Computer: Listened to some videos on Brain Pop.
Creative Play: Lego's

Family in the evening:
PE: Practiced wrestling and did sit ups.

To Show Parent Core/Love of Learner/Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna: Scriptures, word of the day, went to a book club, led cub scouts, walked for 40 min, and studied for my midterm.
Alex: Scriptures, read a chapter in How To Win a Local Election, word of the day, went to work, listened to Dracula by Bram Stoker and read through several financial books for two hours.

02/16/09 (Mon): What a great day!

Mom School
Pray, Pledge and Song
Theology: Chapter 13 from Gospel Principles: The Priesthood

Bible History: The Second Coming
Friend Article
Biography/American History: 1 chapter from Abigail Adams: Girl of Colonial Days by Jean Brown Wagoner
Fables: Pecos Bill from American Tall Tales by Adrien Stoutenburg
Memorization: First 26 States of the USA.
Family History: Jane Griffiths (ggggrandmother from Martin/Wille Handcart Company)
Music: Alto, Treble and Bass Clefs from the Usborne Internet-Linked Music Theory For Beginners
Geography: Practiced the 7 continents. Map scales and key legends from Maps and Mapping by Kingfisher.
Science: Birds from the Kinfisher Science Encyclopedia.
Science Experiment: Day 1 about bean sprouting from our new Delta Science Kit.

Health: Food Pyramid and review of healthy lifestyles from Eat Well and Keep Moving by Lillian Cheung

Art: Painted some wood boards
Game: Played Linkity and Take Your Pick. These games focus on decision making, logic, and associations to name a few things.
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
Religion: 1 chapter from The Book of Mormon.
Music: Practiced her voice lesson. She was asked to sing another solo. She's actually singing for the Governor next week!!!
Science: Read through the science experiments for our four new Delta Science Kits. She thinks they are very cool! (and so do I!) And she read a lesson in a science textbook about plants.
Art: Painted on a canvas with oil paints.
Math: Lesson 100
Game: We played Flip together, which is a spelling game with Scrabble tiles.
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Language Arts: Prepositional Phrases
Creative Writing: Worked on an essay on the My Access! website. She utilized a dictionary several times also.
Vocabulary: Peterson's Word of the Day- DORMANT
Business: Delivered all the Usborne books today with me.

Jared
Religion: Read a chapter from the New Testament Reader. (The Angel comes to Joseph).
Music: Practiced his piano lesson.
Math: Did a Singapore lesson: mental math addition and story problems
Spelling: Our spell drill our temporarily out of service (expect for Olivia) because of our switch of computers. We don't know why they won't work!!
Phonics/Handwriting: 7 pages of Explode the Code-finished a book.

Science: Read in a Magnet book and played with magnets.
Free Reading: Read 3 chapters from Eragon.
Logic/Creative Play: Finished his 650 piece Star Wars ship again.

Luke
Music: Practiced his piano lesson.

Religion: Read in his Book of Mormon Reader.
Math: Saxon Math Lesson. Used an abacus.
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages from Explode the Code.
Creative Writing: Working on a Star Wars story. Using a dictionary also.
Free Reading: Read 1/2 chapter from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis.

Creative Play: Lego's

Caleb

Caleb lost his first tooth today!

Scriptures: Read/looked at a scripture picture book.
Book on Tape: Listened to a book on tape about Pirates.
Math: 5 lessons from Right Start Math. We used an abacus, tally sticks, and tile cubes. He wrote out some of the numbers.

Logic: Played chess and Turtle Mania (visual perception and matching)

Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages of Explode the Code
Reading: Sight words drill
Free Reading: Read several of his new books from Usborne.

Phonics/Computers: Played Explode the Code online for 30 min.
Creative Play: Legos

PE: 30 min of Wii Sports

Family (in the evening):
Family Home Evening: Mortal Life

Watched a church video about the Plan of Salvation-a 3 act play.

Played: Turtle Mania and Linkety again

To Show Parent Core/Love of Learner/Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna: Scriptures, journal, word of the day, walked for 20 min, wrote several blog posts and studied for my midterm.
Alex: Scriptures, Read a chapter from Leadership 101 by Maxwell, read in the Ensign, word of the day, went to work, and played Wii Sports with Caleb.

02/11/09: Paint

Today we were kicked out of our house so it could be painted. So went to town and did other things....

• Picked out and ordered carpet.
• Bought a new upright freezer.
• Practiced 30 Spanish words on the children's menu at a Mexican restaurant. Good thing Alex knows how to speak Spanish, because I was messing up the pronunciations.
• Listened to Story of the World vol. 2 for two hours. (To town and back).
• I was pulled over for the first time in my entire life. (See family blog post).
• Went to scouts.
• Had cousins over after scouts for a couple of hours. The painter had left. (She's really a family friend. I shouldn't refer to her as the "painter").
• Alex and I put the Mud Room and the Kitchen back together. (Almost, except the food storage).
• Olivia rode the horse with Alex.
• I read 1/2 chapter out of The Iliad by Homer.
• The boys bought new Lego's in town with their saved up money. They've spent all evening working on them. Jared's was a 650 piece one and Luke's was a 450 piece one.
• Oh, and yesterday Olivia measured the house with Alex and he had her figure out the square feet so we knew how much carpet to order.

02/09/09: Babysitting

Mom School
Pray, Pledge and Song
Theology: Chapter 10 of Gospel Principles
Bible History: The Resurrected Christ Appears to Mary
Friend Article
Biography/American History: 1 chapter of John Quincy Adams: Our Sixth President by Gerry and Janet Souter
Literature:
Memorization: First 26 states of the USA.
Family History: Read a autobiography of Anna Christensen Fullmer, my great, great grandmother.
Geography: Denmark (Where Anna Fullmer was from).
Science: Fish from The Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia
Health: Read and discussed the first chapter of Eat Well and Keep Moving by Cheung. (food pyramid and healthy living)
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.
Service: Babysat today.

Olivia
Religion: Read a chapter in the Book of Mormon.
Music: Played Music Ace 2 for a while.
Science: Read first 1/2 of a chapter from her new science book. Worked on science vocabulary.
Math: Lesson 97
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Language Arts: Prepositional phrases.
Vocabulary: Peterson's Word of the Day- VIVACIOUS
Free Reading: Read Young Puzzle Adventures by Usborne and read Jane Eyre for 10 min.
Life Skills: Babysitting and Key-lime Pie
Computers: We have a new computer and Olivia as loaded all our old programs onto the new one. She is definitely my tech support when Alex is gone.

Jared
Religion: Read a chapter in The Old Testament Reader.
Music: Practiced his piano lesson and had a piano lesson.
Math: Lesson 87
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages of Explode the Code.
Free Reading: Read 3 chapters of Eragon.
Creative Play: Lego's

Luke
Music: Practiced his piano lesson.
Math: 1 Saxon Math 2 lesson. He used an abacus for the first time and that was great!
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages of Explode the Code
Creative Writing/Typing: Worked on another story for an hour.
Creative Play: Lot's of Lego's
Writing: Prepared the lesson for FHE.

Caleb
Music: Played Music Ace.
Math: 1 workbook page, used the abacus for the first time. This worked great! We ordered Right Start Math for him. Wow there's a lot of stuff! I still haven't figured it out. Hopefully I can figure out how to teach him his first grade math soon with this new program. It's supposedly the top of the line. This program should help Right Brained Caleb.
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 3 pages of Explode the Code
Creative Play: Played with his 5 year old cousin between his school choices.

Family (in the evening):
Family Home Evening: Pre-mortal existence/veil
We played Uno Spin.

To Show Parent Core/Love of Learner/Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna: Scriptures, journal, word of the day, chased a 2 year old all day, did laundry, read 30 min in biography of Helen Keller and worked on my Usborne order. Today was one of those days that I don't feel like I accomplished anything, but I never sat down. Sigh... Yesterday I did give a talk and play the piano for a musical number...
Alex: Scriptures, word of the day, went to work and listened to Dracula.

01/12/09: Dickens

Mom School
Pray, Pledge and Song
Theology: Preach My Gospel, Chapter 6: Patience
Bible History: Peter walks on the water
Biography/American History: 2 chapters from The Secret Soldier: The Story of Deborah Sampson by Ann McGovern
Literature: 5 poems from A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
Fairy Tales/Fables: Pied Piper of Hamlien
Family History: The biography of Wilmer Cadmus Green and Emma Hollingworth Green my gggradparents.
Music: Ah, Music! by Aliki
Science: Earthquakes by Franklyn M. Branley and Rocks and Minerals from The Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia
Math: 1 chapter from The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure by Hans Magnus Enzensberger
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.
Service:

Olivia
Religion: 1 chapter from the Book of Mormon
Music: Practiced her voice lesson
Creative Writing: Wrote a poem about music.
Art: Wrote her poem in fancy writing and made it into a pretty page.
Math: Lesson 82
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Language Arts: Prepositions
Free Reading: 1 hour of Jane Eyre
Life Skills: Homemade bread

Jared
Religion Reading: 1 chapter from The Old Testament Reader
Music: Practiced his piano lesson.
Math: Lesson 74
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Handwriting: Cursive X's
Free Reading: Read 3 chapters from Eragon
Creative Play: Lego's for 2 hours

Luke
Religion: Read a chapter from the Book of Mormon Reader
Music: Practiced his piano lesson
Computer/Music: Worked on Lesson 4 on Music Ace
Math: 1 Saxon Math 2 lesson
Math Game: Played Money, Money! with me. A money game.
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages from Explode the Code
Free Reading: Read for 30 min in Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
Creative Play: Played with Lego's for about 2 hours.

Caleb
Math: 1 math page from a workbook
Math Game: Played the Money, Money! game with Luke and I.
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 3 pages from Explode the Code
Phonics: Played a phonics game out of Happy Phonics with me.
Free Reading: Read 2 phonics readers and a couple pages from Fox in Socks
Reading: Read to him for an hour from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson (the illustrated classic one)
Creative Play: Played with Lego's for about an hour.

Family (in the evening):
Family Home Evening: Sacrament Meeting and the Sacrament by Elder Oaks
Game: Stars Wars Trivial Prusuit
We visited two families. One couple are shut-in's and the other couple is facing several struggles.

To Show Parent Core/Love of Learner/Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna: Scriptures, journal, conference talks, piano (I have a piano solo on Sunday), spell drill, read and finished The Shakespeare Stealer by Gary Blackwood, read 6 chapters in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (it's long overdue that I read a Dickens book) and read Richest Man in Babylon out loud with Alex.
Alex: Scriptures, read a lesson in Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, read some out of a Maxwell leadership book, read out of a book he's working on How to Win a Local Election, went to work, and listened to Plague Ship by Clive Cussler.

Saxon Math

We have only used Saxon 2 (2nd grade), 5/4, and 6/5. But we have 7/6, Algebra 1/2, and Algebra 2. We haven't used any other math programs so we can't compare. In our family we refer to Saxon math or curriculum math as "Newtonian math." Which just simply is a branch of math or the language of math.

As far as Saxon math goes it just works. We don't love it and we don't hate it. The kids are always willing and choose to do math everyday so it can't be to bad. We have continued to use it because it is what our kids were using in the public school. Saxon is very thorough. Almost to much so. It is highly repetitive. A good deal of the book is a review of the previous year's book. If your child is very math intelligent this may be to repetitious.

It is also all inclusive meaning that besides add/sub/mult/div the child also works on basic geometry, algebra, telling time, and measurement. I don't remember doing algebraic equations in elementary but these books are heavy into it by the 4th grade.

I think the reason they are so repetitive is that they are designed for public school. Last March when we pulled Olivia out of public school she was on lesson 47 out 142. While Olivia finished the book with me (we had to do a lot of Math) her fellow 4th graders did not. A couple of weeks ago the kids were talking to their friends. At the time Jared and Olivia were just starting the lessons in the 50's, but their friends were on lesson 20. Hmm... Now you know why they are so repetitive, the schools never get through them...

Okay, way of subject. We like them. We have them. If we could get our hands on Singapore (another famous math program) with out spending a lot of money we would probably switch. But free Math text books are good for now. (We had received them from previous homeschoolers).

Grade: B

11/24/08: FHE

Mom School
Pray/Pledge
Theology: Preach My Gospel, Chapter 4: Recognizing the Spirit
Bible History: Ezekiel
Friend Article
American History Literature: 1 chapter of Johnny Tremain by Ester Forbes
American History: Food and Recipes of the Revolutionary War by George Erdosh
Literature: Falling Up by Shel Shilverstein
Character: 3 stories from A Story To Tell by Deseret Book
Read-a-loud: 2 chapters from The Hardy Boys #3
World History: Chapter 3 from Story of the World vol.3
Geography: Countries within the former USSR
Science: The Magic School Bus: Inside Ralphie
Government: Principles of Communism
Memorization: All the Presidents of the USA
Math: The Hershey's Milk Chocolate Fractions Book by Jerry Pallotta
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
Math: Lesson 57
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Language Arts: Proper Nouns
Cultural Arts: Watched the musical Annie, she's been singing a lot of songs out of the Annie songbook.


Jared
Music: Had piano lessons
Science: Watched 2 science videos from Magic School Bus
Math: Lesson 55
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages of Explode the Code
Prepared a FHE lesson
Book on Tape: 2 hours and finished Eragon

Luke
Reading
Writing/Typing a story


Caleb
Reading
Coloring

Family (in the evening):
Tonight some of our cousins came over for FHE.
Family Home Evening: Gratitude (Jared's lesson)

Olivia's activity was to play "Gratitude Soccer." (From the "orange" FHE book).





To Show Parent Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna
Housework
Piano Practicing
Spell Drill
1 hour free reading
Good Read Reviews
Visited someone...

Alex
Went to work
Worked on his class
Ender's Game

11/17/08:Volcano

Moms School
Pray/Pledge
Theology: Preach My Gospel, Chapter 4: Light of Christ and True to the Faith: Light of Christ
Bible History: Daniel in Captivity
Friend Article
American History Literature: 4 chapters from Johnny Tremain by Ester Forbes
Character: 1 story from A Story to Tell by Deseret Book
Read-a-loud: 2 chapters from The Hardy Boys #3
Memorization: First 25 presidents of the USA
Family History: Biography of Bryant Campbell my paternal ggrandfather
Math Biography: Omar Khayyam (solution of cubic equations through geometry) from Mathematicians are People, Too by Wilbert and Luetta Reimer
Science: Erupted our volcanoes and watched a Magic School Bus Science video (human body)
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
Writing/Religion: Prepared the FHE Lesson
Music: Practiced her voice lesson
Art: Spent about 2 hours scrap booking and using foam stickers making cards and papers
Math: Lesson 54
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Language Arts: Past Tense Verbs
Free Reading: 30 minutes
Life Skills: Spaghetti Sauce, Bread sticks and Cinnamon sticks

Jared

Music: Practiced his piano lesson
Science: Watched 2 more Magic School Bus Videos (color/light reflection and outer space)

Science Experiment: Did some experiments for 1 hour watching how light and color reflected off of things
Math: Lesson 52
Math Drill: Multiplication Wrap-ups: 6's and 7's and he played a Multiplication game
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages from Explode the Code
Computers/Typing: Made a flyer offering his "detective services"
Life Skills?: Spent an hour making a sign that he put up in our driveway alerting "people that they had found the right house that offers detective services"

Luke

Spelling

Worked on his story

Card Making

Watched the volcanoes

Caleb

Spelling

Coloring

Card Making

Watched the volcanoes

Family (in the evening):

Family Home Evening: Elder Cook's Talk

To Show Parent Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna
Piano

Spell Drill

Worked on the Young Women lesson schedule for next year (model: fulfilling calling)

Read for 3 hours and finished The Lonesome Gods by Louis L'Amour

Good Reads book review

Alex

Went to Work

Spell Drill

He's been working on an Allan Greenspan audio book for the last 2 weeks

1 hour personal reading, various things

Mom's School
Pray/Pledge
Theology: Preach My Gospel, Lesson 4: Obey the Laws of the Land
Bible History: Naaman the leper
Friend Article
Biography/American History: 3 chapters in Paul Revere: Boston Patriot
Literature: The Lady of Shalott by Alfred Lord Tennyson (We went over this one last time).
Fairy Tales/Fables: 2 stories from A Story to Tell: The Classic Book of Virtues for Children by Deseret Book

Language Arts: Interjections and Adverbs, What Your 4th Grader Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. pgs. 66-67

Math: Geometry: Lines and Angles, What Your 4th Grader Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch, Jr pgs. 253-258
Memorization: First 11 presidents of the USA
Science Experiment: We made a rubber bouncy ball from a chemistry experiment set.

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

Life Skills: Olivia went to grandma's house to help with babysitting several children for several hours. They said she has was a big help. She'll get more practice because new baby niece ended up not coming but should come next Monday!

Olivia helping with Carter and Cameron.

Jared

Book on Tape: Listened to The Swiftly Turing Planet by Madeleine L'Engle for two hours

To Show Parent Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna

Read His Excellency George Washington by Joseph Ellis for 2 hours

Piano

Went to a Stake Auxiliary Training Meeting for my Young Women's calling

Alex
Taught Seminary

Went to work (long day to Boise-got home really late)

Listening to Mojave Dessert by Louis L'Amour

Prepared a seminary lesson

Daily Schedule for 10/06/08

Both
Pray/Pledge
Theology: Preach My Gospel, Lesson 4: Obedience and we used True to the Faith: Obedience
Bible History: David becomes King

Scripture Reading: Matthew 17
Friend Article: We read 3 articles
Biography/American History: 3 chapters in The Young George Washington
Read-a-loud: Read 1 chapter in Prince Caspian and 3 chapters in Fablehaven
Family History: Finished the last 2/3 of my father's autobiography

Math: Read The Coin Counting Book by Rozanne Lanczak Williams
PE: Went on a scooter/bike ride
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.
Family Home Evening: Tonight was Family Home Evening and we talked about Zion and making that our most important goal. This was based on Elder Christofferson's talk from General Conference 10/08

Jared
Music: Practiced the piano and had his piano lesson
Science: Watched an Eyewitness Video: Skeleton (human body)
Math: Lesson 28
Math Drill: 2 Multiplication fact/drill pages from a workbook-5's
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Handwriting: Cursive U's

Book on Tape: He listened to a Geronino Stillton book on tape for 1 hour while he played with his army/catapults.

Reading: Read 30 minutes in his McGuffy 2nd Reader to me
Life Skills: Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Olivia
Music: She practiced her voice lesson. And then she practiced her violin, recorder and saxophone. She said it was a "music day."
Science: She did watch part of the above science video, but not all of it.
Math: Lesson 28
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Language Arts: Types of sentences
Creative Writing: Blogging
Computers: Blogging, Good Reads, Selecting Music for her Blog, etc.
Typing: Computer time
Free Reading: 45 minutes of Work and the Glory #2
Life Skills: Sloppy Joes

Luke and Caleb: Practiced their spelling words from school and each read for 30 min. They were there for Fablehaven and the scriptures.

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.