Photography Challenge: Sky

So, I am a little late posting these, lol.  Next week's topic is grass.  I still have not wrapped my head around how I am going to make grass look interesting, but I am up for the challenge.  Caitlin is still  not feeling this all that much.  I am hoping she will get more into it.  The night sky image is mine, and she took the daytime image.  I love to watch the clouds, and at night the moon.  There is just something mysterious about it to me. 

Photography Challenge: Flowers

This is a new series I have gotten Caitlin and myself doing.  It is not meant to make either of us a master photographer, but rather to get her interested in the outdoors.  So, on our walks, we both get a new thing to try to photograph.  This week was pretty easy, flowers, and next week is clouds.  The challenge does get a bit more challenging after that. 

We have finished up our 3rd semester of the 9th grade, and she is doing really well.  Aleks is working wonders for her Math.  I have started testing her on Language Arts, and I am pleased and satisfied at how well she is doing.  French is a work in progress, but I found a cool podcast for French next year.  I am already listening, and learning.  Science, and History, well I don't think she will ever love those.  Right now we are watching the Hatfields and McCoys on Netflix.  I know I went backwards but it is such a great series, and so much conversation can come out of it.  We will start WW2 after, and yes there is a ton of discussion topics for that as well. 

Do You Love Change?

I generally am not all that fond of change.  Unless it is the kind I can put in a jar and save for something fun.  However, change is an integral part of life, and we are yet again making changes. 

I will be moving from day shift to evening shift, at my 2 day a week job.  This will just be better for homeschooling, at least until I am certain my daughter will be an independent learner.  My son did not master that until he was a Senior.  He had been helping me, with his sister, but is college work has just been too much to add helping teach her.  I actually might like 2nd shift more.  I am more used to it, and getting up at 3 30 am to be there by 6 isn't so great. 

We have fallen behind on History and Science, because of the issue stated above.  On the days I would work, Caitlin would do Math, and pretty much not anything else.  We have completed quite a lot of Language Arts, so for the rest of the year, I will do once a week testing for Language Arts, and that is it for that subject.  That way we can use that hour to catch up on History and Science.  I am not sure if I mentioned this previously, but we have switched to Oceanography on Easy Peasy Homeschool, and it is amazing for us. 

We continue to work our way through American History.  Since a lot of the Middle School Years were spent on Revolutionary times, I am stressing more of modern times.  We are currently on WW1, and I am spending a bit of time here, and WW2.  We will get to Vietnam and Korean War, also.  I don't ever even remember learning about the Korean War.  If we get to 911 and all that, that would be great too.  

No Internet and A Red Shouldered Hawk

This morning I woke up to no internet service. The whole area was out. So, I was going to go to the library, but they were out too. Grr. McDonald's has free Wifi, but it stinks, and I would feel obligated to buy something. Since I didn't want to do that, and almost all of our school is online in one way or another, I decided to do some different educating. We went for a 2 mile walk, usually we do a mile. Then we cleaned the garage, cleared out a bunch of junk, and did some yard work. But, I love it when a Science topic drops right in my lap. While doing yard work a Hawk appeared, in a yard where no one is living. It sat there for a while, and then we saw it swoop into another yard and grab something to eat. While we couldn't see what it was, I am assuming it was a lizard because of where it picked it up. Anyway, it let us get close enough to get a pretty good picture, before it flew away. After we did some research and found out it is a Red Shouldered Hawk. This will be a research and writing topic for the near future.

What Science can you find right in your own neighborhood?