Lisa's Logbook - February 28

Outside: Overcast. Lots of snow on the ground.

Sounds: Christian radio playing. James plunking away on the computer and talking to his friend on the phone.

Home: Talking with David about paint colors as he plans to paint his bedroom

Projects: planning a party for my teenage daughter's birthday!

Pondering: being the mom of two teenagers!

Teaching: working on a unit study for The Lightning Thief

Gratitude: thankful that today is the LAST day of February! Come on, Spring!

Recipes: Sausage Quiche and One-Bowl Brownies were hits this past week.

Duds: Jeans, black tank, red long sleeved shirt (with Christmas design), grey Pistons hoodie.

Reads: Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier (author of Girl with a Pearl Earring). Next up? Wuthering Heights.

Vids: Cities of the Underworld, State of Play, I Hate Valentine's Day, Post Grad, Moon, Veggie Tales Pistachio, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (see mini-reviews at Mirkwood)

Hopes: that a new battery will "fix" my van since it doesn't want to start anymore and Bob can't find anything else wrong with it.

Love: the new Veggie Tales, Pistachio: Little Boy That Woodn't!

Plans: Start production for my new job, Spanish, Essay class, Unit study on The Lightning Thief (begins Tuesday), celebrating Emily turning THIRTEEN!

Pic:

Suzy and her very good friend, at co-op.

Christmas Cookies Again

From Christmas Cookies

Friday was the traditional sugar cookie decorating. I bought refrigerated cooky dough instead of making my own. A little easier and not really any more expensive.

The girls did most of it. James helped a little and David not at all.

From Christmas Cookies

I've added a couple photos to the blog, but watch the slideshow for pix and comments. If you can't see it, try clicking HERE to go to Picasa to see the photos.

And I don't know how many of these cookies will last until Christmas. I let them eat some for dessert.

General Science Experiment

After a rough start, Emily (age 12) is doing better with her Apologia General Science. She found out she can do most of the experiments on her own and that writing her experiment journal isn't as terrifying as she imagined.

She asked for pictures to be taken of this experiment and posted on my blog. :-) So you can share in her joy.

Emily's Curriculum - 7th grade

MATH - Math is Emily's most challenging subject. She should have Math-U-See Delta completed by fall, so she'll be doing Epsilon during her 7th grade year. That puts her a couple years "behind" but I'll be more than satisfied if she masters the math at her own pace. I worked with a number of adult GED students who had real math phobias created by their elementary or junior high math curriculum. I really think Emily deals with dyscalculia, which is a math form of dyslexia.

LANGUAGE ARTS - Emily will do SICC-B for composition along with David. She'll continue with Spelling Power. For her literature, I'll choose selections I want her to read. She'll answer questions on some of the selections and journal about the others.

SCIENCE - Emily will be doing Apologia General Science. Hopefully this will coordinate with co-op classes!

SOCIAL STUDIES - We'll continue with Mystery of History 2 and hopefully move into volume 3 before the year is out. We'll be resuming our chronological study somewhere around the year 1000.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION & HEALTH - Our toughest subject to work on for the older children since they stopped participating in soccer. I want Emily to find something active to participate in - gymnastics, dance, something! Hopefully she'll be able to do PE at co-op too.

VISUAL, PERFORMING & APPLIED ARTS - I hope she'll be able to continue Choir at co-op next year, as well as do art class with Mr. West. Other than that, we'll continue with our home art projects and crafts.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE - Probably none, but maybe I'll get brave and start doing Spanish again.

Eruption!

[NOTE - Michele asked where David was during this activity. He is doing a different history text this year, so he usually doesn't participate with the other kids on their history. If it strikes his fancy, he may do the activity. He's usually in the room listening to me read the MOH lesson aloud, so he does get the info. But, his Sonlight U.S. history keeps him plenty occupied!]

As part of our Mystery of History 2 studies, today we erupted volcanoes in the backyard. We were studying Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius. The kids buried bottles containing baking soda, red food coloring, and dish soap. Then they poured in vinegar and WOW! An eruption!!!

I found a cool website to enhance our learning.

Pompeii: Unraveling Ancient Mysteries (Harcourt)

Also, just a warning - lots of extremely inappropriate pictures were painted on walls in Pompeii. If you just google image-search "Pompeii", you'll probably want to preview the results. A word to the wise!

Art Class

Art class happens once a month with Mr. West of Christian Art for Kids. He teaches the students step by step how to create a specific drawing, using skills that are transferable to drawing in general.

He calls the whole class up to his table to demonstrate the steps and techniques, then the kids go back and do it themselves. He also shows the steps on a whiteboard. After each child has completed the step, he brings it up to Mr. West for inspection. Usually he gives some very short encouraging statement to each child each time they come up. Lots of positive reinforcement and no one falls through the cracks.

I think the best parts of the class, however, are when Mr. West shares his stories and personal testimonies. He always guides the kids (and parents) to look to the Lord and always has a word of praise or encouragement!

David is on his third year with Mr. West, if I recall correctly. Emily is on her second year, and today was James's first class.

Their finished drawings from today (completed entirely in class) are below. Can you guess whose is whose?