Week 2 in Review

A pretty no-nonsense week around here, continuing with the usual subjects of math, language arts, science and history.

The older boys took their first vocab quiz for Lord of the Rings chapters 1-3, and did well.   We've been alternating days of listening to a chapter, and then using the next day for discussion and vocabulary review at lunch time.  This has worked well so far, and everyone is enjoying it all.  

 I added in World Religions for the older boys this week, too. I plan on getting to this subject a few times a month, when we can slip it in.  We started with a lesson on Creation Myths that can be found at World History for Us All, Big Era 1, Landscape Unit 1.1 Scroll to the bottom for a link to the lesson, or, a direct link to the PDF lesson is here.  We had some interesting discussions on this topic.

Ben is continuing to work on his amateur radio antenna tuner project, as well as reading Around the World in 80 days.  

Charlie and I finished up reading Ribsy together, and enjoyed it very much.  A simple, sweet story.  Now we're on to Knight's Castle by Edward Eager.  Meatier vocabulary and writing, and quite humorous so far!

Charlie's biosphere project from last week is working out nicely; plants are growing and thriving.  

This week for Charlie's science, we read about Mars, and next week we'll do a lab to make rust, the substance that gives Mars its orange-red color.

I choose an art project from That Artist Woman for Charlie that  used thinned acrylic paint in warm colors, and featured a leafless tree created by blowing paint along the page for fun branching effects.  

Will and I did the first 2 lessons from Unit 1 of Artistic Pursuits grades 6-8 book 1; learning to use space.  We did some quick sketches of an elephant chasing his attendant, at full size and then half-size.  The idea of the lesson was to become comfortable with fitting your subject into a given space.

Will's sketch

my sketch

Well, that's the highlights for this week.  I'm glad it's Friday!  Looking forward to a relaxing weekend!

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.

First North Americans-Ben and Will's Studies

Continuing from an earlier post, I want to document the older boys' history studies from this year.  During the first weeks of our school year, Ben and Will spent time reading about Native Americans, with a focus on local tribes.

 Our organizing spines for history this year were Joy Hakim's A History of US, which was mostly for Will and Charlie, and K12's American Odyssey, for much of Ben's reading.

After reading topics from the texts, the boys dug into various sources for in-depth information.  Will began by choosing articles of interest from Cobblestone Magazine's Ojibwe of the Great Lakes issue.  The area in which we live is one of the traditional homeland areas for the Ojibwe, or Anishinabe Indians.   He combined this reading with info from  Life in an Anishinabe Camp.

Ben also started off with some magazine articles from one of our long-time go-to publications, Learning Through History magazine.  

To tie his learning in with local history, Ben read from An Account of the Battle of St. Croix Falls, by Rosemarie Vezina Braatz.  

From the introduction:

The Battle of St. Croix Falls dealt the decisive blow to the Fox Indians, who thereafter gave up the fight against the encroaching Chippewas (Ojibwe, Anishinabe)...and it reduced the strength and prestige of the Sioux in this river valley, so that they retreated to the open country to the west.  So great was this slaughter, that for years afterward, the Indians referred to this battleground as "The Valley of the Bones."

The wooded crags on the Dalles of the St. Croix, where this battle was fought, is right in the back yard of our favorite state park.  As we walk the trail there, it is chilling to think of the story of this fight.

 

 During this time our read alouds were Children of the Longhouse by Joseph Bruhac, and several Native American stories from Keepers of the Night, also by Bruhac and Michael J. Caduto. 

Next up, Will's wigwam project.

Hamvention

Ben's presentation went off without a hitch last weekend! Will, Charlie and I found out about a live stream of the event in the few seconds before the start of the forum, so we were able to watch it, too!

It was a full house for the forum...about 350 people, and there was a great group of youth speakers, with a variety of interesting topics, including a 10 year old talking about radios and components he has built and tested.  Ten years old!  It was awesome to see the enthusiasm and confidence in these kids!

The whole trip was a great experience for Ben, and he met a bunch of like-minded kids who were able to talk intelligently about all the technical, science-y things he loves! 

Ben with youth forum mod Carole Perry(back row, right), and his fellow presenters.

 Ben and Steve pose for a picture just after Ben's satellite presentation at the Radio Club of America's youth forum. Ben received the personalized Icom knapsack he's holding and other gifts, including a new handheld radio for his contribution to the forum. 

Radio Road Trip

If you happen to be in the neighborhood of Dayton, Ohio this weekend, Ben will be speaking in the Youth Forum at the Amateur Radio Convention on Saturday!  His topic is Getting Started With Amateur Radio Satellites. He'll  be talking about his experiences  facilitating contact between The International Space Station and Farnsworth Aerospace Magnet last spring, 

Crew N9XH operating at Farnsworth. photo credit Rick W9WS

 as well as how to send and receive messages and images from various amateur radio satellites.

Image of Earth received  by Ben from ARISSat-1

Ben is one of  6 young speakers invited to Dayton this year by Carole Perry, moderator of the forum, and he is so excited for this honor!  I am, of course, petrified for him.  I hope all goes off without a hitch despite my unending anxiety, and that he has a great time sharing his interest with others!  I can't wait to see the photos!

Cigar Box Guitar

During our prolonged winter season this year, Ben kept himself occupied with various electronics, programming, and building projects.  One of my favorites was his Cigar Box Guitar.

A friend of a friend owns a smokeshop and was kind enough to send a couple boxes Ben's way.  He choose a larger, light wood design for this project and is saving a dark wood version for another time.  One of his first tasks was to make a stencil for cutting the f-holes.  I only mention this because we think saying "f-hole stencil" is really, really funny.  We are weird that way.

 

f-holes. Sans stencil.

Open gear tuners came from Stew Mac. 

Just three strings, and it sounds pretty good for a wooden box. Both Ben and Steve pick it up often and play it with a glass slide.  As Ben describes it, " It has a real bass-y, blues-y old dobro sound. Rustic and rough, but in a good way."  He's really happy with it, and it was a cool project for him to complete, especially since he was unsure of himself when he started. 

Biology Lab: Flowers

With all the winter weather getting us down lately, it was nice to start a biology unit on plants and flowers recently. Ben continues to work from the Miller-Levine (dragonfly) Biology text, while Will is reading from The Encyclopedia of Nature.  Charlie continues to love REAL Science Odyssey Life.

 I stopped at the florist the other day and brought home a couple stems of lillies to brighten our dining room table, and to be our victims for a dissection lab.

They don't suspect a thing!

The Horror!

Here's a totally fake-y photo of my darling home schooled children, happily enjoying the hell out of looking at the reproductive structures of a flower.

While the older boys did some drawing and labeling of flower parts, Charlie colored in a diagram from his science program (RSO).

And then came the looking through the microscope at the pollen.  

 And here's what we saw...

120x

400x

I love looking at things under the microscope, and spend far longer than the boys, just sitting there and gazing at...stuff.  I find it fascinating.  Looking forward to any signs of actual spring here, so maybe I can collect more things to look at!

High School Years Wisdom From A Homeschooling Guru

I have long been a fan of Susan Wise Bauer.  I have enjoyed using her history and language arts books on and off through the years, and have also benefited from listening to her various audio lectures.  

Today I watched the latest in her homeschooling  Q&A series, in which she keeps it real while discussing high school, burnout, gap years and more. The things that come out of her mouth always seem so sensible and obvious; why is it that I never think of these things myself?  Perhaps it is that pesky hindsight is 20/20 thing, and one day I too will be a font of wisdom such as she?   One can only hope. Thanks for sharing, SWB!  You're such a Smartie!

Robot Is A Star

 Remember Ben's robot that I blogged about a while back?  

Remember me?

Well, he recently submitted a write-up about it to the folks at Raspberry Pi, the makers of the micro-computer of the same name which runs his robot, and they chose him to be a guest blogger!  

Check it out here: Repurposing A Roomba

Ben was really excited to learn they had published his project, and he's getting some nice feedback in the com box as well.  That's mah boy! 

Things That Make You Go Hmmm

Ben has been doing more work with the microscope in his biology labs recently.  He hasn't exactly been thrilled by comparing hair follicles in various wet mount solutions, or by cross sections of a carrot, but there was one slide that really got his attention last week; life in a drop of water.

We collected some standing water from a bucket lid outdoors, a bit of frozen pond water, and some from a third source as well.  Ben prepared a well slide for each water source.

In the standing water we found... nothing.  

Defrosted pond ice? Nada, nichts, null.  

But the third source was filled with tiny, fast-moving paramecium!!  Completely fascinating!  

Wondering what that life-filled 3rd source was?  

A drop of water from a flower vase in our living room!

  

  Here they are zipping around at scanning power:

Paramecium in vase water- 3.5x

 They moved around so quickly though, that it was hard to get a good look at one close up. That is, until Ben made a slide with a drop of glycerol (glycerin) added to it.  This made them immobile, so we could get a better look.  And yes, I did feel just a little bad about doing that.  I kinda became attached to the little guys.  All in the name of science though! Click on these photos to really see some fun detail!

Paramecium in vase water with glycerol- 3.5x

Paramecium in vase water with glycerol-40x

Just look at those single-celled beauties!

  Hmmmm. Makes me wonder what other microscopic life is secretly hanging out in my home...

I, Robot

This is Ben's latest robotics  project, Tiger Eye.   

Tiger Eye is built from a discarded Roomba Robotic Vacuum and outfitted with a web-camera, a Raspberry Pi micro-computer, and a custom-designed voltage-regulating circuit board.

Atop

Behind

Beneath

It is controlled with a Wii remote and special software that Ben wrote, which enables Tiger Eye and a laptop computer to communicate.  

Tiger Eye also takes stealth photos.  Ben emailed this one to me as I was catching some shots for this post.  It's fun having this robot roll up behind you when there is no one else in sight.  Well, fun, but also a little unnerving!

Stand Back! We're Doing Science!

Finally! I have started biology for both the older boys. 

This year Ben will be using the Miller-Levine biology text along with the Kolbe Academy lesson plans to keep us on track.  There are some extra helps/activities at Biology Corner correlated to Miller Levine as well.

Labs however, will come from The Illustrated Guide to Home Biology Experiments.  This is a fantastic resource for labs, and the author even correlates labs to chapters of the most popular biology texts.  Score!

William will be working on the Elemental Science Biology for the Logic stage curriculum.  I'm not going to try to hard to match up the boys' lesson topics, but hope to fold Will in if there is a particularly interesting lab that Ben is working on.

Today though, to get the ball rolling, we spent a long, enjoyable time learning how to use our microscope. 

This page at Biology Corner was particularly helpful in making sure we hit the highlights, as was this PDF worksheet.

The boys learned the parts of the microscope and their functions, how to make a wet mount slide, and how to stain a specimen.   

Everyone also enjoyed looking at specimens of their own cheek cells.

The boys really enjoyed this, and even I learned a thing or two. We're definitely looking forward to using the microscope for more investigations and labs throughout the year.

Week 2: Ch-Ch-Changes

Slowly, slowly.  That's how we're getting our start. 

Although I felt like I had things pulled together and ready for the start of the school year, as the day approached, doubts set in.  I wasn't feeling comfortable with many of the choices I had made, and became paralyzed with indecision about what to do.  Not good.  Clearly I needed to make some changes here in the 11th hour, and I figured it was better to do it now, rather than in the middle of the school year. 

But, we also needed to get the ball rolling, that much I knew.  Question was, just how fast did it need to roll right away?  I decided we would start out with a couple subjects, and slowly add things in as I figured it all out (again).  Two weeks later...So far, so good.

So what are we doing?  

The choices I made for Charlie will remain mostly unchanged.  I guess because I've been through 2nd grade a couple times I have a more solid idea of how I'd like to proceed.  Daily lessons from Horizons Math, First Language Lessons, my home-made cursive notebook, read-alouds, and R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey are keeping Charlie happy and engaged.  Thumbs up, by the way, on the science curriculum.  It has been enjoyable, easy to implement, and has led us a little deeper into some investigations than we normally would have gone.   Couldn't ask for more.  We'll add in history, spelling and some fine arts in the coming weeks.  We will most likely not use Writing With Ease and instead rely on history narrations to serve the same purpose.

William has been doing daily lessons with Teaching textbooks, Junior Analytical Grammar, copywork, and reading Tom Sawyer.  Next week we'll get into Excavating English, and after that we'll add science and history.  I decided I couldn't wait for the February release of the R.E.A.L Science Odyssey-Biology, so chose to go with Elemental Science instead.  We're waiting for that to arrive.  I have history figured out for Will too, but that's a whole nother post!

Ben. High School. Ugh.  First of all, he is greatly enjoying his engineering class at the local B&M school.  The teacher is nice, and the material is interesting.  Aside from that, he is using Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1 with great success, and learning to write a literary essay with Teaching the Essay from Analytical Grammar. Oh, and he's also programing an Arduino to be an oscilloscope.

I've decided to drop spelling and grammar review for Ben this year as he honestly doesn't need it.  I'm also working on revamping science and history for him, and within a hair's breadth of deciding on a German foreign language curriculum.  

There's a lot up in the air right now, but I'm feeling surprisingly calm about it all.  Stay tuned for some fine-tuning, and the big "what I decided on for history" reveal.

Slowly, slowly.

And Now For Something Completely Different

Never knowingly be serious-rule 27*. -The Doctor

Ben will be taking Introduction to Engineering Design at the local high school this year.  This will be a 1 credit elective on his transcript, and he has the chance to earn college credit if he does well in the course, and on the final.  I think he'll really enjoy it.

 Introduction to Engineering Design (IED) is a Project Lead the Way class, designed for 9th or 10th grade students. The major focus of IED is the design process and its application. Through hands-on projects, students apply engineering standards and document their work. Students use industry standard 3D modeling software to help them design solutions to solve proposed problems, document their work using an engineer’s notebook, and communicate solutions to peers and members of the professional community.

 Today was his first day, which wasn't very exciting.  Though he certainly looked ready for excitement this morning.   The teacher took attendance, went over the rules*, and handed out student planners.  I went for a quick hike at a nearby park while he was in class and after I picked him up, we went for iced coffees.  With whipped cream on top.

 

 One day down, 179 to go!

 

Ready for High School...Maybe

Getting closer to nailing down Ben's courses for his Freshman year of high school.  Here is what I have figured out so far...

Math-Teaching Textbooks Algebra I. Ben worked on a few lessons this summer, until he finally succumbed to the lure of the beach... 

Language Arts-

Ben is a natural speller so I don't know that he needs to continue with Spelling Power on a regular basis, but I will use it for periodic testing to see how he is progressing.

There are are couple lessons left over from season three of Analytical Grammar that I would like Ben to complete.  We'll do that at the start of the year and get it out of the way.  I have been very pleased with this program, and would like to use the American Authors review curriculum this year to keep grammar and diagramming fresh in his mind.

To tie literature in with our Early Modern history studies, I will have Ben use Excellence in Literature, American Literature, from Janice Campbell.  I'm really happy with the research aspect of her curriculum and hope Ben enjoys this delving-in as well.  His selections will be: Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin, Rip Van Winkle and Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, The Last of the Mohicans by James Fennimore Cooper, and either The Scarlet Letter or The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel hawthorn.

Writing was hard for me to figure out this year, but I've decided to begin with Teaching the Essay from Analytic Grammar.  I've been happy with her grammar program, and her style of teaching so I'm hoping this will be a clear, concise course both for me to teach and for Ben to learn from, damn it.  (Sorry.  Didn't want to end my sentence with a preposition. ) I also have Epi Kardia's Essay Style's for High School on  my shelf which we can continue with either after Teaching the Essay, or next year.

Poetry will be covered at tea time along with Will and Charlie.  

Ben can revisit poems that are familiar to him as Charlie learns them for the first time; I plan to use one of our favorite series of books to highlight Robert Frost or Lewis Carroll, along with seasonal selections from Poetry Speaks to Children and Favorite Poems Old and New.   Also during the course of the year, we'll read some meatier selections from Anne Bradstreet, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Poe, and Longfellow, and tie them in with our American history studies.  I'll use The Harp and the Laurel Wreath for guidance in analyzing some of these poems, but as always, poetry at tea time will be mainly for enjoyment.

Science this year will be Biology.  I would love to have Pandia Press release their Biology Level 2 curriculum to use this school year.  Not only could I use it for Will, but I believe it would make a good foundation for a high school course.  I would add the text Exploring the Life Works and some additional labs if necessary.  Now, I haven't seen any samples of this curriculum, so right now it is a complete fantasy in my head, but I have high hopes.  If it doesn't work out, I would follow the biology course laid out on the Quarks and Quirks blog.  

ETA: Just found out that the release date for the Pandia Press Biology course will be February 14th, 2013.  Later than I hoped, but maybe I can still make it work???

History, as always, is a bear.  It will be Early Modern with a heavy focus on American history.  I'd like to use American Odyssey for Ben's core readings-(no. I did not pay full-price for it!)  Art and music appreciation will be woven into this fabled curriculum.  We'll look at many primary documents. The rest is still fuzzy.  

Government will come from iCivics and The Complete Idiot's Guide to American Government.  Perfect to get the job done!

PE -Membership to the local YMCA, 50 mile bike trip in the fall with scouts.

Health-Review nutrition and substance abuse topics, and cover anatomy and sexual health in biology.

Foreign Language- Right now Klingon seems like a viable choice.  Or maybe Mango for Libraries German? 

Now, I also really, really want to do Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings this year, but I haven't figured out how on middle earth to fit it in.  Suggestions?

Introduction to Engineering Design-This is a Project Lead the Way class offered at the local high school. we haven't quite decided about this elective option yet.  We'll meet with the teacher next week to get more details.

• Introduction to Engineering Design (IED)
  • Designed for 9th or 10th grade students, the major focus of IED is the design process and its application. Through hands-on projects, students apply engineering standards and document their work. Students use industry standard 3D modeling software to help them design solutions to solve proposed problems, document their work using an engineer’s notebook, and communicate solutions to peers and members of the professional community.

Our school district is very home school friendly, and I  think he will enjoy being in this class.  There is also the potential to earn college credit with this course. It all sounds good, but is it necessary?  I'll let ya know if we figure it out!