Homeschool Week in Review 10/17-10/21

Well it was an interesting homeschool week, as it almost always is. I am continually learning about my children, and the strengths and weaknesses that they have. I feel truly blessed to be able to assist them in their teenage years. We have two major changes we are making, both for my oldest child. He was doing the Digital Media course through FLVS. However, we simply could not get the program we had to use to work. He spent hours, and still it was so slow and laggy that he fell behind on all his other classes. Due to that, we requested a withdrawal from the class. He had an A in that class, so felt rather discouraged. However, we will be replacing that class with a learning to read music class, for 1/2 credit, then after that a drawing class for 1/2 credit. He seemed pleased with these options. I am behind on grading, nothing new there, lol. We did not get in a Chemistry lab this week, other than discussion based, no hands on, but we did get in an Art project, related to our History studies. We have been learning about Africa. We did a map activity, and now today we all did an Art project. I printed the kids favorite native animals out, as they wanted to use colored pencils. Mine is hand drawn and then painted with paint pens, and Sharpies. The idea with African Art is that it is bold, and somewhat wild if you will. I picked a bear, yes there was a native bear in Africa. The Atlas Bear, which is now believed to be extinct. DJ picked the Ethiopian Wolf, and Caitlin picked a Leopard. You can read about the Atlas Bear, here, and the Ethiopian Wolf here.

 
Oct 17, 2016

DJ:
LA:  60 minutes
Chemistry:  60 minutes
History:  60 minutes
Geometry:  60 minutes
Digital Media:  60 minutes
Psych1:  60 minutes

Caitlin-  full day

All other days through the 21st the same as above, except for before mentioned issues with Digital Media.  DJ made up lessons at night.  Wed is our standard half day, when we walk with friends, 60 minutes Youth Band practice, plus FLVS for DJ.

Cold, Cold and more Cold!

Ugh, I hate the cold!  We are still on Winter Break, and I get so much done during this time.  After all the holidays, and activities are over, I can clean the house, declutter and organize stuff.  I got all of the school papers corrected and ready for review with the kids.  DJ has almost completed, A Separate Peace.  He does not care for it all that much, but I am finding it quite interesting.  I actually think I read it in high school, but that was a very long time ago.  After he finishes it, he will have some review work, and then watch the movie which might help bring it all together for him.

Next week, we are doing half days of school all week.  We were supposed to be off, but I have decided on half days instead.  Caitlin will be reviewing her papers that were graded today, and writing her next friendly letter, to her friend Samantha.  DJ will finish reading, A Separate Peace, and he needs to start working on his 4H Demonstration.  He will be doing a practice run at our next Earth Kids meeting on the 17th.  County Events is on Feb 1st,  We are taking his good friend to Bush Gardens with us, on Jan 20th, for his friend's Christmas gift.  Caitlin and I will do the Safari while the boys are riding the rollercoasters.


We have one warmish day tomorrow and Sunday, then bitter cold again next week.  We are supposed to hike on Tues, but I hate exercising in the cold.  My old muscles just don't like it and I hate pain.  So, we will have to wait and see how the other moms feel about it.

NIV Living Bible and End of First Quarter Homeschool

Do you like to win things? I love to win things, though it does not happen very often. I won this beautiful NIV Kid's Living Bible, on Zonderkidz on Facebook. As a side note, I did not win because I agreed to do a blog post. After I learned I won, I offered to share the Bible here on my blog. You can visit their Facebook page, and win something too. They are giving away books very often. This will actually be a gift for my 9 yr old for Christmas. It is too young for my 13 yr old, so I am still hunting for a beautiful boy's Bible. For many years, I didn't teach from a Biblical perspective, and I still don't as far as basic subjects. But we joined a local church this past year, that has a wonderful children's program, and they have now shown more interest, so we have added Bible lessons to our school work. We have been using CK12.com for Math and Science online textbook. Today, he used Quizlet for the first time, to review and test himself. This is a website that is great to study with and use for test practice.

We are in our tenth week of school, end of the first quarter, and we are testing all week. Caitlin is basically just doing Math and Writing challenges, but DJ is testing all week on material he has learned in the first nine weeks. Below are the websites I am using to test him. I also made a writing and special History final exam. I will share those later.

http://reviewgamezone.com/game-list.php?id=27&name=Wind,%20Air%20Pressure%20and%20Atmosphere
http://www.softschools.com/quizzes/language_arts/
http://quizlet.com/4379075/middle-ages-quiz-1-flash-cards/#
http://quizlet.com/27682644/english-first-quarter-exam-eighth-grade-flash-cards/