Civics and US Government Final

I made a final test for Civics and US Government, and Caitlin received a 91 on that test.  She was very pleased with that grade.  She received a 0.5 credit for each class.

I have made her Oceanography final, and she will take that next week.

I still have to average her grade for Sign Language.

That leaves just Math, and Language Arts, her two least favorite classes.  She is in the harder parts of Algebra 1b, so I will have her do it over the Summer, just an hour a day a few days a week, because she will be taking the PERT probably in August, and I want her to do as well as she can.

I have already started thinking about next year, actually, I am a little late on this.  I will be posting videos and books for a World History/Geography class.  I am not sure yet if I will have her do this her Junior or Senior year.  I am leaning more towards Senior year.

I will post other items once I decide for sure what she will be doing in her Junior year.

I picked New Zealand to start with because I was curious about New Zealand.  The book below, may, or may not be the one I choose to use.

Travel on Tuesday: Virtual Tour of The Statue of Liberty

Hello, again!  This Summer we are going to NY to visit family and we decided to spend a night in NYC on the way up to our cabin.  There are 4 of us and with the limited time, I hope we can all agree as to what things to see and do.  If we decide not to visit the Statue of Liberty, Caitlin and I will view the video below.  It is a walking virtual tour of the Statue of Liberty.  There is no talking at least not in the first few minutes, except for people in the background.  There are so many cool places to visit in the USA, not to mention the rest of the world.  I could do a blog post every day just on this topic.

Visit my other blog Health Buddy Melissa. 

If you have not heard yet Microsoft is no longer servicing Windows 7.  I have a dinosaur PC, ten years or more old, and of course, it has Windows 7 on it.  I looked at buying Windows 10 but it was almost as expensive as a new laptop.  So, I am working on getting 10 years worth of data and images off the dinosaur PC, so it can be moved to the grave.  This could take a while, lol.

Cherry Blossom Trees, Yellow Warbler and Geography

It was a long weekend of work, and then Monday was a busy blur. On Monday we grocery shop, then we did Art class. Monday evening was our 4H meeting. So, you can see, I didn't have time to blog. Caitlin is doing Ancient Chines Art this week, for History class. One of the assignments you could do was to paint a Cherry Blossom Tree. I love Cherry Blossom Trees. But, they will not grow here in the warmth and humidity of Florida. Since we have been painting birds for weeks, I decided on the Yellow Warbler to add to the Cherry Blossom Tree. You can see the results below. DJ did not put his in a tree, and since it was not his History assignment, I let it slide. He will be doing more art work this week for Medieval Times. I try to do a matching candle jar for each painting. I had run out of jars, so not all of them got one. This one did and I really can not wait to see it lit up with a candle. My kids hate painting on glass, so I don't force that issue.

We are supposed to go to Run Club today, but it looks like rain will make that impossible. I posted the other day the popsicle stick game for learning Geography and the States. I have decided to make virtual tours for each state, to go with it. This is a long process, and I only have two states done. Since we won't be starting until after the Christmas break, I have plenty of time to finish it. It will be saved to my Pinterest board, and I will share the link when it is completed.

Çastle Sketch, Bones and A Freebie

I forgot to share the Homeschool Freebie yesterday.  It was a good one too.  Hopefully they will repeat it.  If  you sign up at their website you can get notified of the freebie of the day.   Today's freebie is also a good one.  3 ebooks on learning to draw.  I took the nature one, and the one with the owl on the cover.  Because we paint, and my son prefers to draw, these are perfect for us.  Hop over to homeschool freebie of the day, and grab yours. 

Yesterday, DJ finished is castle sketch.  He took the virtual tour of Raglan Castle, then had to draw a sketch of it.  Today, he will continue learning about Knights, and how to become a Knight.  There is a whole, long, drawn out process you know.  Because he is older, I have to find more complicated projects for him to do, for each lesson.  He is not into Arts and Crafts anymore, at least not the ones his sister likes.  He will probably be doing a blog post on the process of becoming a knight, so watch for that to go up.

Caitlin has been studying different functions of the body, for Science.  Yesterday, she put together a boney skeleton, that is missing a foot, as you can see in the picture.  She asked if it was ok if it was a one footed skeleton?  LOL, I guess it doesn't much matter. You can find lots of free skeleton pages with a simple Bing search.  Today she is finishing up the Circulatory system, and visiting the Ocean on The Magic School Bus.  If you have Netflix, you can watch it right on there.  I love Netflix.  We use it all the time in our Homeschool Adventures.

Take A Virtual Tour Of A Christmas Tree Farm, and Call Santa

I have two awesome websites, to share that I have found. For Social Studies, all this month, we are studying various Christmas activities. Today we will be going on a virtual field trip to a Christmas tree farm http://www.christmastrees.on.ca/

There are many different activities, on this website, including the virtual tour. It is a great way for your child to learn how the Christmas tree is grown. There is real tree facts, and holiday helpers, just to name a few. Check it out, your kids will love it.

My husband found this cool website, http://www.callsanta.org/index.php
We tried it last night, with my son, and it works great. He was so excited to think he actually talked to Santa. It is free, and your kids will love it too.

Lesson Plan for 12/3/08:

Our reading book was changed to Sunset of Sabertooth, as DJ could not find the other one.

Reading: Read chapter 3 of Sunset of Sabertooth
Writing: Write a want ad, for a reindeer
Social Studies: Virtual Tour of a Christmas tree farm
Spelling: Lesson 11 write each spelling word and circle the consonants
Vocabulary: Lesson 11 Write a synonym for each vocabulary word
Language Arts: Contractions, phonics review
Math: Addition, multiplication, division
Spanish: Food and utensils, part two

Lesson Plan for 12/4/08:

Writing: Write a letter to Santa, online, at www.northpole.com
Reading: Read chapter 4 of Sunset of Sabertooth
Health: The dairy group
Spelling: Lesson 11 put your spelling words in alphabetical order
Vocabulary: Lesson 11 write each vocabulary word, and meaning 2x each
Langauge Arts: Verbs, phonics review
Math: Addition, multiplication, division
PE: 30 minutes
Spanish: Food and utensils part two

Have a great Wednesday, everyone.

Long Leaf Pine Forest Virtual Tour/Field Trip

Take a field trip, to a Pine Forest, without even leaving your home. As I have stated previously, I spend lots of time, looking for interesting, and cool things to enhance mine and your homeschooling experience. Check out this free site and take a virtual tour of the Long Leaf Pine Forest. This could be integrated into a science lesson plan, about Forest's. Go to http://www.auburn.edu/academic/forestry_wildlife/longleafalliance/ecosystem/virtualtour/tour.htm There is a slideshow option, or automated tour. Be sure to check out the links at the bottom, they take you to info about the various plant and animal life that live in the forest.