A Different Kind of Day

Today I needed a change. We had been in the house most of the week and I was getting cabin fever. So I decided to take school on the road. We all got up and out the door early and went to morning mass at St. Margarets. Grandma met us there and then she took Emily and Amber to her house. Emily took her school work with her and Grandma helped her get it done. Christopher got some alone time with mom which we both love. After going to the gym for a quick workout we went to Olive Garden for lunch. That was a nice treat. Then we stopped at Target so he could spend his Target gift cards he got for his birthday. The last stop was Starbucks. We both got a Grande Chai Tea and settled down to do school work there. Christopher worked on his math lesson learning adding and subtracting fractions. It was pretty easy for him. Then we did a Latin hangman and crossword puzzle together. We also corrected his rough draft paper he is writing about some frogs and Zeus. We are studying Ancient Greece right now so it all ties in. Then he took his dreaded Verb test. Grandma brought the girls home shortly after me and Christopher got home and we ended our fun adventures with the girls riding there bikes around the block a few times enjoying the nice fall weather. So overall it was a great day!

Rough Day!

Well, today was a pretty rough day. All the kids and I where slow in getting out of bed. And we were really slow in getting school work started. So most of the day they were goofing off, fighting, complaining, etc. And not getting much of there school work done. Amber is pretty happy if she can play on the computer while we are doing school work. But if I don't let her she is causing all sorts of problems and interuptions. They were so bad I even took away there video game privileges for the day.

We did get some work done. We started Unit 7 of Connecting with History which is on the Divided Kingdom 930 -722 B.C. It covers the time of division between Israel and Judah as well as Ancient Greece. They also did a lesson from Unit 3 in writing in which they had to develop an outline from an Aesops Fable, The Frogs Who Desired a King. Tomorrow they will be writing there story using there outline. They also worked on Latin, cursive and math. Didn't have time for science but will try to fit that in tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow goes better. I will try to change my attitude for the better and maybe that will help.

Confused

Today was an interesting day. My mother in-law came over at 9:00 am so that I could go out and run errands and get a test done on my gall bladder. So I made a long list of things for the kids to get done. They did spelling, math, Latin, memorization, grammar, cursive and reading. It is amazing how quickly and without complaints they got there work done. I was gone pretty much all day but school still got done. When I am here it seems so much harder to get things done with complaining, whining and lack of motivation. So why are they so good about getting there work done when I am not home? Hmmmmmmmm? I will have to think about that one for awhile.

COLUMBUS DAY ACTIVITIES

Today is Columbus Day so we did some fun activities. First we read a story about Christopher Columbus. I had found this really nice pop up book about his journey to America. Yes, it is a pop up book and no it is not for small children. It actually gives a lot of information but in a very fun way. The book is titled, "The Voyage of Columbus In His Own Words" Auther Stacie Strong. I also found some other information online about him that I did not know. That he was a very devout Catholic and one of his main reasons for the journey was to evangelize. Also that he prayed every day with his crew. That is something that you would never learn in school!

Next they had to draw a map of the world identifying all the continents and the equator. Then they put in the route that Christopher Columbus traveled in 1492.

Today we did't do any book work. On the first Friday of the month we attend mass with our Catholic homeschooling group. It was nice to see so many homeschoolers at mass together. Then all the kids eight and up went to art class. The have a wonderful art teacher. His name is Don West and God has truly given him a gift. He starts out by given them a copy of what there picture will look like. Then he takes them step by step through the process of completing the picture. He also tells wonderful stories and encourages them in there Christian faith. He is definitely a blessing to the homeschool community.

The pictures that the kids come home with are amazing. We have started a binder and save
them all because they are so good. These pictures are what they did today. It is called Breakthrough.

I never thought that I would start a blog. A few of my friends have them and I have been reading them. Then I thought how nice it would be to have a record of our homeschooling. So I have jumped on the blogging band wagon. So here goes!

We are studing sharks and rays from the Zoology book Swimming Creatures from Apologia. It is a great book and we are having lots of fun with it! We learned how sharks have the Ampulae of Lorenzini which detects electrical signals given off by other fish. This is one way that sharks are able to locate their prey. Today we did an experiment to see whether these electrical signals travel better in fresh water or salt water. First they filled out a scientific speculation sheet where they had to come up with there hypothesis. Christopher's hypothesis was that electricity would travel better in fresh water and Emily's was that electricity would travel better in salt water.

For the experiment we took a large battery and hooked up a piece of wire to the negative and postive connections. One of those wires was connected to a light bulb holder. Another wire was connected to the other side of the light bulb holder. Than a nail was taped to the other end of this wire. Another nail was also taped to the end of the wire connected to the battery.

Then they tested it to see if it was hooked up right. They took each nail and touched them together. The light bulb lit up so they new they did it right. They were pretty excited that it really worked. Then they got a glass of water and dipped the nails in the water (not touching) and the light bulb did not come on. Then they dipped the nails in salt water and the light bulb came on. So their conclusion was that electricity travels well in salt water but not at all in fresh water.