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9th Grade Mid-Year Homeschool Curriculum Review

Feb82016
February 8, 2016 by 4 Comments

For those of you who have followed us for a bit, you’ll know that our 9th grader, freshman, 14 year old – call her what you will, started her high school credits early in anticipation of having wiggle room to work and possibly take a few college classes (or concurrent enrollment) in her later high school years. We’ve affectionately dubbed her a ‘freshmore’ since she has earned quite a few high school credits already, and feels a bit further along in her high school journey to call herself a mere freshman. :)

And you all – she is doing AMAZINGLY well. Not that I’m bragging, but I am very proud of her dedication and commitment to the classes she is taking as well as competitive swimming and many additional outside school activities. Laurianna has been working as a mother’s helper two afternoons a week and also began serving on the worship team at church (and is teaching herself guitar). The girl is really, truly a gem of a student and child.

Overall, we’ve been really happy with our homeschool curriculum choices – and I thought you all might like to see what she is enjoying the most as well! You can also see our You can also see our 3rd grade mid-year review, 5th grade mid-year review, and 7th grade mid-year reviews as well.

9th Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices


9th Grade Curriculum Choices

Credits to earn: 7.5

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My one sadness for Laurianna is that her workload hasn’t allowed her as much free reading time. Between her course load and also extra activities (granted, these also include movie nights with friends and working to earn cash), she doesn’t have as much time to read ‘fun’ books for herself. When we were recently snowed in for the weekend, she took that time to put everything aside and devoured a three book series. Other than that, her workload truly isn’t too difficult – just typical.

Algebra 2 – Math is never her favorite subject, but she is happy she switched back to Teaching Textbooks this year for math. It was her decision to try a different curriculum last year (which wasn’t bad), but she definitely prefers the format of Teaching Textbooks.

Notgrass world history project {%{% Homeschool Creations

History – So far, this has been a fun class for her. Each week there is a some type of project for her to work on which she has really enjoyed. A few of them have been more involved for her (mainly because she wanted to do something more detailed than what was required). Overall she is enjoying it.

Biology – Until about 2 weeks ago, we were loving biology (and the lab she does with a friend). Right now she is in a chunk that we aren’t crazy about the layout, but that will hopefully get back to normal soon.

Literature and Composition – This is a class we are working on as a co-op and this year has definitely been fun. There are 2 more teens in the class this year which keeps it hopping, but definitely a fun one! As the teacher of this class it has been great seeing each of the kids grow and really put out some amazing work.

Apologetics – This is another of Laurianna’s favorite classes. Again we are working through this as a co-op (six kids total) and the conversations being generated are at time hilarious and also fun to listen to.

Personal Finance – This is one of Laurianna’s favorite subjects overall, and I’ll admit that I’m really enjoying it as well. The program from Dave Ramsey has been very thorough and generated some great discussion (and eye opening

PE/Swim – Laurianna has been working so hard with swim team. Out of all the kids swimming she has been most dedicated from the beginning, really pushing herself during practices and meets. She is practicing at least 3 times a week, sometimes 4, depending on our schedule.

Spanish 2 – For the first month and a half, this subject was a struggle because we were trying to figure out how to transfer all of her progress from one computer to a different one. Once we managed to get Laurianna’s Spanish program transferred to a different laptop (i.e. not the one her siblings are constantly using for school), lessons picked back up in wonderful time and she is back on track with her year.

 

Does High School Have You Scared?

Embark Conference 2016

If homeschooling high school is worrying you, don’t miss the free middle and high school planning printables and map out your middle and high school years! Might I also suggest the Embark Webinar coming up later this month?

Homeschooling in High School Middle and High School Planning How to Choose Homeschool Curriculum

If you are new to homeschooling and aren’t sure where to begin in choosing homeschool curriculum, please don’t let this post overwhelm you! Here are a few posts that you might find helpful as you discover what is best for your family. Be sure to check out the entire Homeschool Basics series for answers to more frequently asked homeschool questions.

See What the Other Kids Are Up To…

3rd grade homeschool curriculum choices from Homeschool Creations

Take a peek at our  7th grade, 5th grade, and 3rd grade curriculum choices for the year as well! Click on one of the images above to look over their curriculum piles.

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Filed Under: 9th Grade, Curriculum Choices, Weekly Wrap Up 4 Comments

7th Grade Mid-Year Homeschool Curriculum Review

Feb42016
February 4, 2016 by 2 Comments

This year has seen McKenna move to mostly independent work during her homeschool time. There are several areas that we review at the start (and end) of each week together, but truly the year has been going SO well overall for her. Overall, we’ve been really happy with our homeschool curriculum choices, but we have tweaked a few things (but not many with her) – and I thought you all might like to see what she is enjoying the most as well!

7th Grade Curriculum Choices

7th Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices 2015



7th-grade-homeschool-reading-list-2015-Homeschool-Creations.png

One of the best helps this year has been using a Student Planner. McKenna absolutely loves it and it has been a perfect fit for her! :) That alone makes putting it together completely worth it! Here’s a look at each of the classes that she is taking and how they are going for her.

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Writing – WriteShop II is one of McKenna’s favorite subjects to work through. Her writing continues to grow and grow, and it’s has been fun to see her implement it in different areas of her schoolwork as well as one of her co-op classes. She is taking a journalism class this spring, and even in watching her write articles she is working through the different steps the program teaches. It’s a little scary thinking that next year she will be working on a lit credit for high school though!

Bible – While McKenna is enjoying her Route 66 from Positive Action, we recently started Grapevine’s New Testament Overview. Her Route 66 has been primarily on her Kindle and I wish in a way that we had a physical book because of the review and questions in the book (i.e. less for me to print and just have her work on).

Science – This may not be her favorite subject, but she is plugging along in the program (mainly because she enjoys other subjects more).

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Math – Pre-Algebra is going as well as can be expected for algebra. :) Teaching Textbooks does make it more enjoyable on many levels though.

Grammar – McKenna loves Growing with Grammar and has a passion for diagramming. I love this child. We haven’t been using Easy Grammar Ultimate Series Grade 8 at all – wasn’t needed.

Reading – As much as she wasn’t excited about some of the book choices on her reading list, she has really gotten into the bulk of the books (and secretly enjoyed them). But I won’t tell.

Spelling – This has been on an ‘as needed’ and we haven’t been regular each week.

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History – The comic strip templates have truly been one of the best additions to our history time. McKenna’s illustrations are always hilarious and she definitely remembers the lessons!

What We’ve Added or Finished

Swimming – We had considered adding swim team to the kids’ schedules and finally decided on the 8 month course for all the kids. Rick has been helping coach (to help defray costs), and McKenna has excelled in her swimming and improved so much over the last few months. The kids practice 3 times a week right now (compared to 4 times in the fall) and we are done with meets for the year (phew).

Vocabulary – McKenna has worked through the entire Word Up Vocabulary program (and we really hope they make more levels). This was probably one of her favorite subjects last semester – enough so that she is seriously considering Visual Latin for a class next year (and high school credit).

You can see our detailed curriculum posts for each child by clicking on the images below. You can also see our 3rd grade mid-year review and 5th grade mid-year reviews.

3rd grade homeschool curriculum choices from Homeschool Creations
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Filed Under: 7th Grade, Curriculum Choices, Weekly Wrap Up 2 Comments

5th Grade Mid-Year Homeschool Curriculum Review

Feb12016
February 1, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Last week I shared our 3rd Grade Mid-Year Review, and today I’d love to share what our 5th grader has been up to. Pretty much everything we had in our initial homeschool curriculum choices has been wonderful, but we have tweaked (or held off) on a few things – and I thought you all might like to see what Zachary is enjoying the most as well!


One of the main focuses for Zachary this year was helping him become more independent in his learning – and also more focused. That means less of mom needing to remind and constantly nag, threaten, cajole, or want to hide in the closet and more of “Hey mom! My work is done and you didn’t say a thing!”

We may still be working on that last one, but most days are a step in the right direction. Hallelujah.

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5th Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices

Here’s a look at the overall plan for our 5th grade year…

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Zachary is most loving history, Christian Kids Explore Chemistry and the various EEME projects (especially Project Amp). One of the biggest helps for him this year has been his weekly assignment sheets. They have been huge in keeping him on target and making him more accountable for his schoolwork – and what is (or needs to be) finished. The special STEM projects are also incentive to get his overall school work done. It may seem mean, but unless his assigned work is completed, he isn’t allowed to work on any other projects. Typically this has been amazing motivation for him to get it all done (and fast).

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One thing that is so exciting to see is Zachary’s desire for reading increase. In addition to the books he is reading for fun (yay!!), he is willingly pulling other books off the shelf to read for school. A little over a year ago this wasn’t the case, so it brings such joy to my heart.

Our combination of Mystery of History and Story of the World has been great. Zachary really loves the comic strip illustrations for taking/drawing notes and cracks me up with his drawing. Although we are cycling back to an era of history we have covered before, we are covering some new material and refreshing what we learned before (which is always good!).

The vocabulary cards are another favorite as well. Zachary and McKenna are remembering so much and Zachary specifically enjoys the picture reminders. He’s usually first to jump in with an answer and remind me when we don’t review the cards.

What We’re Adding (or already have)

  • Bible – We have been using Big Truths for Young Hearts to start our week and will begin Grapevine’s New Testament Overview this week.
  • Times Tales – To help out with the upper times tables, both boys worked through Times Tales (we used the download version)
  • PE – The kids decided to participate in swim team for the year. Zachary has practices 3-4 times a week, depending on our schedule, and he has really enjoyed swimming. Within the first few weeks he was bumped up to a harder level, which has been very good for him on so many levels.
  • Boy Scouts – While this isn’t necessarily school related, in a round about way, it is. Zachary was eligible to join earlier, but we held off until he was showing a little more responsibility in areas at home and school. He has been over-the-moon excited to begin, and we are thrilled too, since our church has a Scout troop that is amazing with wonderful godly leaders from our church.

What We’ve Put Aside & Postponed

  • Geography: Although I had grand plans with this for the year, we are focusing on what we are learning through history and not working on a specific program. Waiting until next year on this one.

What Mom Needs to Focus More On

Read-alouds – Much of our read-aloud time was spent with audiobooks in the car, but was also hard since one child was here and another was there and no one wanted to miss out on anything. We’ve decided instead to push along in a book and later tell the missing sibling what happened when they were gone. That way we can cover more ground together. Having the kids DOING something (like building with LEGOs or drawing) has been a huge help.

Being Calm – If there is one of my children that can push my buttons quickly, it would be this one (and another one). Sometimes it’s very hard to be firm and know when to let something go. There has been a fine balance of figuring out when to let boy wonder be accountable (because he seems to think he knows best) and also pushing to ensure the necessary is completed. And stay calm in the process.

That’s about it for our 5th grade mid-year curriculum review! How is your year going so far?

Take a peek at our 3rd grade, 5th grade, 7th grade, and  9th grade curriculum choices for the year as well! Click on one of the images below to look over their curriculum piles.

 

3rd grade homeschool curriculum choices from Homeschool Creations

 

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Filed Under: 5th Grade, Curriculum Choices, Uncategorized, Weekly Wrap Up Leave a Comment

3rd Grade Mid-Year Homeschool Curriculum Review

Jan282016
January 28, 2016 by 3 Comments

We’re at the halfway point in our homeschool time, and even a few day beyond. Even though it’s technically a little closer to the middle of January, our Christmas break provided more of a chance to sit down and look at how each child is progressing and see if there are any changes we needed to make to what we are using.

Overall, we’ve been really happy with our homeschool curriculum choices, but we have tweaked a few things – and I thought you all might like to see what the kids are enjoying the most as well! Over the next week or so, I’ll be sharing a post on each of the kids (it seemed easier than grouping it all into one post!).

3rd Grade Mid-Year Curriculum Review

Overall our 3rd grade curriculum choices have been a great fit. We have added and/or delayed a few subject areas. Kaleb’s favorite subjects are definitely science, grammar (he loves Daily Grams), and anything art related. He strongly dislikes diagramming though (my heart breaks). While history hasn’t been his favorite, adding in comic strip illustrations to help his take notes and remember the lessons has made a difference the last two months.

3rd grade homeschool curriculum choices from Homeschool Creations



Kaleb is one of our most dedicated learners (i.e. not one to complain about his work other than possibly reading). He is typically working on school work before it’s even time to start the day and it isn’t uncommon to find out that he’s finished his math and handwriting – always a nice start to the day! He is also the boy that wants to do as much as he can 1:1 with me, so this year we are pushing him a little bit in working on math via the computer (last year we used Teaching Textbooks, but I did all the lectures with him because he said the computer was too hard – it wasn’t, he just wanted to be with me more).

On the other hand – he is my baby and I want to enjoy every last minute of this 1:1 time that we have together (shhhh – don’t tell him).

3rd Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices

Here’s a look at our overall plan for the 3rd grade year…

Our cursive handwriting has really been fun too (although there are complaints some days). I haven’t figured out a way to share the printables yet, but each week we review a verse from the Bible and practice letters and words based on those verses from our Seeds Family Worship albums. It’s been a great way to review verses we’ve learned via song and further cement them in our hearts (for me too!).

The youngest three and I are working on history together and combining Mystery of History and Story of the World has been great. With comic strip illustrations, he is remembering the bulk of what we are learning. Through history we are looking at past and modern geography (I’ll admit that I’m learning a thing or two!).

The vocabulary cards aren’t Kaleb’s favorite, but he is remembering quite a bit, although he is slower to grasp the words than Zachary and McKenna. He tolerates them, but gets frustrated easily since the older two want to give the answers quickly. They have been a fun way to start the morning though.

What We’re Adding (or already have)

  • Life of Fred Readers – We added these in about a month after we started school and they have been a HUGE hit. You can read my Life of Fred beginning readers review for more information, but Kaleb LOVES them. We are using our 3rd grade reading list for additional book choices too.
  • A few unit studies from Ivy Kids. So far we’ve used A House for Hermit Crab and are in the midst of Make Way for Duckling – absolutely loving them.
  • Big Truths for Young Hearts has been our Bible time, until we start Grapevine in February.
  • Times Tales – To help out with the upper times tables, both boys worked through Times Tales (we used the download version)
  • PE – The kids decided to participate in swim team for the year. Kaleb has practices 3-4 times a week, depending on our schedule and he has really enjoyed swimming (and is improving quickly).
  • Weekly LEGO, Keva Brain Builder, or Little Bits projects – Kaleb is typically finished with his school day a little earlier than the rest of the kids and he LOVES challenges and projects like these. While this has been on our initial list, we haven’t worked them in yet, but I am planning out a weekly project for him to do
  • Kaleb has LOVED his Rock Hound’s backpack and has already added that into his school time. He is constantly looking for rocks to learn more about and I love that it has inspired something in him. While this isn’t a daily subject, it has definitely been a great addition to his learning.

What We’ve Put Aside & Postponed

  • Writing – We absolutely love WriteShop but are focusing on Kaleb’s reading for now. He does have writing prompts and copywork through his handwriting and history, so we have shelved it for the time being. If we are at a point where we can add in lessons, we definitely will.
  • Geography: Although I had grand plans with this for the year, we are focusing on what we are learning through history and not working on a specific program. Waiting until next year on this one.

What Mom Needs to Focus More On

Looping subjects – Occasionally there are areas that I tend to push aside (or they just get pushed aside) because we have other things happening or something interrupts and we get sidetracked. Spelling and learning games are two of those areas (as well as read-alouds – see below. With these two, as well as science projects, we’re going to put onto a loop schedule where we rotate what comes next. Rather than having an assigned day of the week for each subject, they are going on a rotation schedule a few days each week and work on the next in line. That way if we miss a day, it’s really not a big deal because we can work on it the next day and no area gets lonely.

Reading with Kaleb – I also need to focus more on reading alone with just Kaleb – my reading TO him, other than our read-aloud time. He is a ‘get it done’ boy and focuses in on making sure everything is done properly (cough) and doesn’t always take a lot of time to relax and enjoy – and that is so important too.

Read-alouds – Much of our read-aloud time was spent with audiobooks in the car, but was also hard since one child was here and another was there and no one wanted to miss out on anything. We’ve decided instead to push along in a book and later tell the missing sibling what happened when they were gone. That way we can cover more ground together. Having the kids DOING something (like building with LEGOs or drawing) has been a huge help.

That’s about it for our 3rd grade mid-year curriculum review! How is your year going so far?

Take a peek at our 3rd grade, 5th grade, 7th grade, and  9th grade curriculum choices for the year as well! Click on one of the images below to look over their curriculum piles.

3rd grade homeschool curriculum choices from Homeschool Creations

 

 

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Filed Under: 3rd Grade, Curriculum Choices, Kaleb, Weekly Wrap Up 3 Comments

Homeschool Happenings – 8 Weeks

Oct272015
October 27, 2015 by 4 Comments

Our homeschool time is moving along. There have been a few bumps the last few weeks (we’ll talk about that later in the post), but for the most part, it’s been going along well. All of our subjects are in full swing, we have a fairly good routine down, and the weather is just plain beautiful. That last part may not have anything to do with school, but it makes life fun, right?

Vocabulary

 

Best vocabulary lesson EVER! All of a sudden McKenna started cracking up while working on vocabulary today – she is using WordUp from @compassclsrm – and then we all had to watch this and are laughing our heads off. This program has been so much fun! Here’s the program we’re using: http://hscreations.net/WordUpVocabulary (affiliate)#homeschool #hscreations

Posted by Homeschool Creations on Monday, 12 October 2015

McKenna has been enjoying her Word Up vocabulary lessons from Compass Classroom (aff link). We’ll usually hear her cracking up and don’t have a clue what she is laughing about since she wears headphones while working on her lesson, but she pulled out the headphones one afternoon to show us the above clip. We all laughed so much – and it may make me happy to see a reference to that movie included (and that my kids get it!).

The kids and I have also been working through some new vocabulary cards together (Marie’s Words). Every day we are reviewing a few words together and seeing how many they can recall. The cards offer a unique approach – a visual of the vocabulary word on the front of the card along with the definition and use in a sentence on the back of the card. So far we haven’t made it through many of the ‘A’ words, but they really enjoy it before our history time.

History

Our history time has been going much more smoothly as well with the comic strip templates already printed off. Each of the kids has their favorite grid layout, and I have them ready to go each week. We’ve been working our way through early world history, still going between Story of the World (aff link) and Mystery of History (aff link). I promise a post is coming about that – along with a million other things I just need to sit down and do!

stonehenge history project

One of our lessons recently was about Stonehenge, and I fortunately remembered that we had a miniature Stonehenge kit (aff link) on our shelves. The boys worked on building it together while we finished up the lesson and then we watched a billion YouTube videos so they could get a visual on how big the stones were.

Learning Cursive

cursive handwriting

Another one of my goals over our vacation week was to work on some cursive handwriting pages for Kaleb and Zachary based on our favorite Seeds Family Worship songs. He is LOVING them and while cursive is new for him, he is diving into it with much happiness.

The Joy of Book Reports

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Zachary has been working really hard on his reading this year. It’s been great seeing how one of his least favorite subjects has grown into something he actually enjoys now. Granted he isn’t too thrilled about the book reports that he is writing, and we do have a little work to do on how to properly summarize a book, but it is progress, and that alone is worth so much!

Chemistry Atoms

3D lithium atom model project

Zachary has been LOVING his Christian Kids Explore Chemistry program (aff link) from Bright Ideas Press. His last unit had a 3D hands-on project for creating a model of a lithium atom. There was a lot of paint splatter, but it turned out great and gave us a good discussion point on the whole ‘following directions’ when he initially felt you could put it together however you wanted to. One of those ‘aha’ moments, and now something that he is proud of having on his desk as something he did.

7th grade reading

McKenna has been busy reading through The Hobbit (aff link) and one thing that has really helped her keep the names straight (I have a hard time with that too) is having a movie reference guide next to her. When a new character is introduced or she needs to remember who someone is, she opens up the book and looks up info on them. See our full 7th grade reading list here.

roots watercolor Home Art Studio

Kaleb has been busy creating art projects to fill picture frames in the classroom. His latest painting was the roots watercolor from Home Art Studio. He wanted to badly to use some watercolor pencils for it (but couldn’t). It turned out great though and was promptly framed!

Life of Fred Readers

Our bookshelves became a little fuller this week too – the rest of the Life of Fred beginning readers arrived from Educents (use coupon code HSC10 to save an additional 10% on ANY products!!). Today Kaleb pulled out a stack of books and we sat and read for 45 minutes together. This is SO BIG for him it just makes me abundantly happy! We are reading and re-reading the books together, and truthfully it just doesn’t get old at all.

house for hermit crab Ivy Kid kit

One thing we are looking forward to in the upcoming weeks – a few literature kits from Ivy Kids showed up on our doorstep this last week! Kaleb and Zachary are going to work on them together and I’m excited to dig into some fun literature packs with them.

Life as a Mom

Our week off didn’t go quite as I anticipated, but it did mean I was able to get a few things caught up, including wrapping up some grading that I misplaced at the end of last year. I had all but one subject wrapped up for Laurianna and put a pile of papers somewhere….and it turned up in the oddest place. One of my main goals was to get a grading system in place for her and also add in all her course descriptions into our Middle and High School Planning Pages. Coming up with the ‘right’ terminology can be tricky, but it’s done now and this year’s is almost completely caught up as well.  Phew.

This last week has honestly been rather difficult, especially with one of the kids. There is a delicate balance between letting kids work independently and being able to trust/believe that all things are getting accomplished without being the hovering parent. There have been a few tears and frustrating words spilled over the last few days as we’ve dealt with some issues – and you know, it’s just tough. I get it. I am far from perfect and my kids aren’t either. There are bad attitudes (on both sides). We’ve had to put some boundaries in place – again that fine line of letting them learn the hard way, but I’m glad that our kids can learn to fail in a safe place and know there is grace when needed, but also guidance to help them get back on track. Parenting isn’t for wimps, y’all. Add homeschooling to that and OY! But I wouldn’t trade it. For real.

So – that said, how are YOU doing? I’d love to hear what your favorite part of homeschooling has been the last few weeks. And if you want a mom to pray for you (because I know we all have struggles) feel free to email me or leave a comment. I’d be honored to pray for you.

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Filed Under: Weekly Wrap Up 4 Comments

The Past 3 Weeks of Homeschool = 5+ Weeks Down!

Sep302015
September 30, 2015 by 6 Comments

It’s hard to believe, but we are already getting close to finishing our first six weeks. Not because I’m looking at the calendar, mind you. A friend had to remind me of that!

The last few weeks since I share our first two weeks of homeschool update – well, we’ve been busy! In addition to our regular homeschool time, starting up with both of our co-ops, and swim team practice most weeknights, we also took a trip to Florida for the Family Forward event at Universal Studios.

Needless to say, there is a lot to share with you all, so I’ll try to highlight all the best stuff from the last (almost) four weeks. I’ve been trying to post on Instagram as often as I can, but I have a love/hate relationship with having my phone in the schoolroom. Trying NOT to get sucked in and distracted by different apps can be so very hard, but it is also fun to share what is happening as it happens.

LOTS of Family Time in Florida

Universal Family Forward 2015-120

We were at Universal  from Thursday through Monday and had an absolute blast. It was partly a conference, but the kids were so excited because they were able to be with me the entire time. Workshops were geared toward the kids, we enjoyed some special perks (like a nighttime visit to Hogsmeade with a dessert smorgasboard), a special VIP tour, and we rode practically every roller coaster at both parks (again and again). I’ll admit I have a hard time with the 3D rides though. Our favorite ride was definitely the Hulk, and we spent more time in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade than anywhere else – they were both absolutely amazing. Between butterbeer (a cream soda and butterscotch flavored drink) and the candy shops, we were on a sugar high much of the weekend!

A highlight was watching the kids jump right in and make NEW friends quickly. We spent our last day at the park with two other families – the adults chatting while the kids ran around and rode their favorite rides. Just wonderful.

Extracting DNA

Universal Family Forward 2015-65

Rick and Kaleb had fun working on a DNA science project while we were in Florida as well. Kaleb helped separate a strawberry’s DNA. It was funny because the actual DNA clump looked a whole lot like something that might come out of your nose.

Another Electronic Project

 

 

Finished the switch panel from @projecteeme – here’s a quick peek at how it works. Depending on which number is flipped on the switch panel, Zachary can make different numbers light up. This project used the base from our Project Genius activity last month. #projecteeme #Homeschool #hsscience #science

Posted by Homeschool Creations on Tuesday, 15 September 2015

 

Zachary has been having a BLAST building with EEME. His most recent project was a switch panel (we’ll be sharing more on it next week), but above is  a quick peek at what he did.

Dictionary Skill Learning

Growing with grammar learning how to use a dictionary {%{% Homeschool Creations

One of the things Kaleb has been working on during his grammar time is finding things in the dictionary, either by saying if a word will be on a page between two key words, or looking up the correct spelling of a word when given three choices. I have to say it’s nice using a good old-fashioned dictionary.

Learning How the Earth Rotates

seeing how the sun lights the earth {%{% Homeschool Creations

During our science time, we’ve been talking about the rotation of the earth. We pulled out our desk lamp and the globe to show how day and night work based on the earth’s rotation. Spinning it repeatedly is just a bonus.

Group Subjects…Finally

learning history together in homeschool {%{% Homeschool Creations

We waited a few weeks and eased into our group subjects last. History and Bible were the last two that were added in. It’s a little strange not having Laurianna at the table with us this year though (sniff). While we work together on our group subjects (vocabulary, history, and Bible), she is working on her own schoolwork.

History Galore

Meshing homeschool history together {%{% Homeschool Creations

This year we are combining two programs together (Mystery of History 1 and Story of the World 1) using Biblioplan Ancients Family Guide. Several of you have asked how we are doing that – and I promise I will share soon! We did this some last year and are really enjoying this approach so far. We love both programs and each offers a different style, so it makes it more fun.

Hands-on History

Notgrass world history project {%{% Homeschool Creations

Laurianna is 100% in love with Exploring World History from Notgrass. The hands-on projects are something she is having so much fun with (and she is learning a lot history-wise as well). Above she is working on a project from unit 5 and painting a picture of how the Israelites felt after receiving the Law. She chose to make the Hebrew word for ‘joy’ and is making her paper look like parchment.

Chalk Pastels

pumpkin pastel art from Home Art Studio project {%{% Homeschool Creations

Kaleb is getting back into his art projects now too with Home Art Studio. The walls of our classroom are needing some color as well! His project prompted the rest of us to work on some art as well – I love that!

A Messy Desk is the Sign of…

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Typically my computer stays out of the classroom, but lately there have been a few things that needed to be transferred to Kindles for the girls or re-printed because I managed to miss something. But the above was enough to about drive me crazy. A messy desk makes me just want to stop everything and fix it and pushes me to distraction.

Mind you, after taking a picture, I had to take five minutes and just clean it off.

A Little Spielgaben Fun

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Our Spielgaben set is typically used by Kaleb for hands on math or to work on some fun projects, but McKenna is one that I find often like this – designing something fun with the manipulatives. Just makes me smile. Her final creation was so detailed!

Enjoying Co-op

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We are back in the swing of co-op now and our kids (especially McKenna and Zachary) are so excited about their two classes. This year we carved out space for a middle school group and they are working on Mad Scientists Club and a judicial class. Both have been a blast so far.

Egg-speriments

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To go along with the story, The Big Egg, they read this week from Mad Scientists’ Club, the kids tried some fun experiments with eggs. Using just half shells, they put them down to see how much weight four half shells would support.

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The managed to get three books on, but when they added the hefty Mad Scientists’ Club book, the cracking started. We have a few more experiments going on at home too that we’ll have to share with you all – we’re just having too much fun trying different things.

Fun with Life of Fred Readers

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Earlier this week I shared our thoughts on the Life of Fred beginning readers that Kaleb has been using along with his reading program. If you haven’t seen the post, don’t miss it (there’s a giveaway and an additional 10% off coupon!!). Kaleb is a hesitant reader, but every day he pulls out several of these to read to me. And the laughter begins. It has been so wonderful hearing his giggles and to see the LIFE being infused into this little boy all due to the pages of a few readers. (The readers are so silly and fun!!)

That’s the abbreviated version of the last four weeks. How is your homeschool time going?

Our family attended Family Forward at a discounted rate as a part of a family social media conference. All opinions expressed in this post are solely mine. I was not compensated for my time or post.

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Filed Under: 3rd Grade, 5th Grade, 7th Grade, 9th Grade, Weekly Wrap Up 6 Comments