New School Year-Our First Week In Review

We added in more school subjects this week, and officially declared Monkey Island Academy open for the 2013-2014 school year. 

We started our week out with the obligatory and traditional school cones, filled with cocoas, treats, music and art supplies. 

We also took advantage of a beautiful sunny afternoon to go on a short hike and do some apple tasting at one of our local orchards.

This week Ben began his history studies with History Odyssey Modern Times level 2.  He's reading Around the World in 80 Days and doing map work and research into places traveled.  He likes the story thus far.

No formal science at home for Ben this year.  We are concentrating on math instead.  He is however perpetually involved in an electronics project and so I can't exactly say he isn't doing any scientific or technical thinking on a daily basis!  Currently he is programing an amateur radio antenna tuner interface with his Arduino microcontroller. 

Ben is also taking another class at the local high school this year, Principles of Engineering, and thus far is enjoying it.

No formal science for Will this year, either.  He'll just be reading through Joy Hakim's The Story of Science: Newton at the Center.  He began that this week and gives it a thumbs up.

In the language arts department: Will and Charlie are both using Spelling Power again this year, and this week we just did the placement tests.  I hope to start Writing With Skill with William in the coming weeks as well.  Charlie is learning cursive with Zaner Bloser, and has started Writing with Ease for copy work and narration. 

In science, Charlie is continuing with Real Science Odyssey: Earth and Space.  This week he read about planet Earth (You may have heard of it) from an Usborne Encyclopedia and created a tabletop biosphere to represent the perfect conditions for life we have here on Earth.  He planted a small plant in his biosphere as well as adding some grass seeds which we will monitor for growth over the coming days.

We also managed to get a little water color art done to brighten up our walls.  In future weeks I will be getting Will started with Artistic pursuits, and I will be choosing projects for Charlie from Deep Space Sparkle.

But the biggest hit thus far in our home school day is listening to the unabridged audio of Lord of the Rings, and holding discussions afterward with the help of Literary Lessons from Lord of the Rings.  The latter part of this week as been quite dreary and rainy, and it has been wonderful to just hang out and listen to this great story while snuggled in on the couch!

That's all for the first official week.  I'll be adding in more subjects as the weeks progress.

Breaking My Silence

Imported from my now defunct book blog: 

Sheesh. I haven't posted here in a month. It's been pretty quiet, huh? Unless you count all the cricket chirping. And the sounds of paint drying. What gives?

Well. It's not that I haven't been reading. I could have/should have been updating a lot of things here, both my reading and that of the boys, but I had some kind of book-lister's block, I think. The longer I put it off, the more I shied away. Pretty soon I felt awkward coming to my own blog. Like it was going to judge me. Like a sadly neglected friend you are afraid to call because you simply have no excuse this time. Except it's just a blog. And thus has no phone.....

Anywho....I'm going to try to get back to posting here because I know I'll like being able to look back on our year of reading, and I'll need the little reminders of plot and substance because these days I seem to be getting forgetful.

Soooooo.... what's the big motivation to post at this point? Well, I'll tell you. I read a message on one of the home school boards about a new Lemony Snicket book/CD combo called The Composer is dead. I simply could not ignore this!

From a review at Amazon:

This irreverent picture book is built somewhat along the lines of Who Killed Cock Robin?, but imbued with Snicket’s charmingly snide wit. The Composer is dead (“This is called decomposing”) and the Inspector is called in to uncover the murderer—or murderers. The sections of the orchestra are personified as the Inspector interrogates the Violins and Woodwinds and Trumpets and even the Conductor. Each has an alibi, though by the end it becomes clear that they are all complicit in the butchering of countless dead composers.

I must add it to my next book order and treat the the kids to a lesson in orchestral instruments. We've done Prokofiev's Peter and The Wolf, we've done Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals, we've even done Benjamin Britten's Young Person's Guide. I think a little bit of Snickett is just the thing we need to add some humor to our music studies. And speaking of humor, may I make a joke at the expense of a woodwind?

Q: What is a burning oboe good for?

A: Setting a bassoon on fire.

(H/T Jay)

Take a gander at this interview/performance...you'll want to rush out and buy it, I bet!