Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Cincinnati Art Museum
Today, Johannah, Liam, Caitrin and I visited the Cincinnati Art Museum on a rainy day. Loved our time.
We love the Chihuly chandalier in the entryway of the museum.
Our Cincinnati Van Gogh.
Liam, exhausted in front of the Underground Railroad.
We love the Chihuly chandalier in the entryway of the museum.
Our Cincinnati Van Gogh.
Liam, exhausted in front of the Underground Railroad.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Birding with Liam
Went birding with Liam today in Sharon Woods.
Here's our list of birds we spotted:
Red Tailed Hawk (in flight!)
2 nuthatches
dozens of sparrows
1 titmouse
7 cardinals
5 chickadees
10 male mallards
1 morning dove
4 robins
a flock of Canada geese overhead in a V
1 goose who took off into flight right in front of us!
3 downy woodpeckers
AND 1 unidentified bird that hitched its way up a tree trunk and disappeared into a little hole in the tree right before my very eyes! I am going to try to find that one in my birding book.
We had a glorious time! I've got wet jeans up to my ankles but a warm heart. Liam and I must have exchanged a dozen hugs; he was quick to ask if we could do this every Sat. I'm inclined to say yes!
Nature walking: good for the soul.
Friday, January 05, 2007
2007 and we're off!!
We started Watership Down today and did some murderous maths. WD is going to be a wonderful book. I've enjoyed the books we've read this year. This one, though, already feels special.
Caitrin and Liam hadn't ever made teddy bear bread when Eva Christensen posted a photo of the older kids when little posing with their teddy bears. We had such fun doing it together!
Jacob is working through the HHS book and is on the third exercise. Today he worked on paragraphs about Harry Potter and did a great job.
Caitrin and Liam hadn't ever made teddy bear bread when Eva Christensen posted a photo of the older kids when little posing with their teddy bears. We had such fun doing it together!
Jacob is working through the HHS book and is on the third exercise. Today he worked on paragraphs about Harry Potter and did a great job.
Saturday, November 25, 2006
November and what we've been up to
Liam: Lacrosse, Junior Zoologists
Liam also read: "Call of the Wild," has worked through the first two Keys 2 books in fractions, has done weekly reverse dictation and daily copywork or handwriting. We watched the X Men movies and I am reading the "House at Pooh Corner" aloud to the kids. We finished "Holes."
Junior zoologists met for 8 sessions and included extensive teaching about conservation and animals worldwide. Liam signed up at bushmeat.org to advocate for the bushmeat crisis in Africa. He's become keenly aware of recylcing too. Bird watching just started up again for us too.
We've played games (he's a World of Warcraft afficianado online) such as Settlers, Quiddler, Rummy 500, and Old Maid.
Took several trips to the park with Rocky as well for nature walks.
Caitrin: sewing class, Chinese with Rosetta Stone, Greek book 2, drawing, violin lessons, knitting, drawing fashion, fall soccer, nature journaling and drama at co-op.
Caitrin is also working through Miquon Math, handwriting, copywork, French dictation, reading magazines and books such as the American Girls of Many Lands novels and American Girl magazine. She's sewing projects on her own such as a blanket and repairing clothes. She is completing projects in her weekly class as well. We have done a few experiments such as growing crystals.
Jacob: saxophone lessons and preparation for Honor Band auditions, private tutoring in Algebra I with Ing-Wan, biology at co-op, Spanish 1 at Lakota Freshman, photography at co-op.
He is also signed up for soccer in the spring. He is studying western civ. at home and we are using "Sophie's World" as a spine along with the Young Person's Guide to Philosophy. He has completed several short bios of Greek philosophers. He is doing my Kidswrite Intermediate class with me and is on project two. He continues to do copywork and some dictation. His reading includes To Kill a Mockingbird, and the short stories on the Slingshot Companion list.
We've taken field trips to the zoo, to the Newport Aquarium and to see "The Diary of Anne Frank" at Lakota West High School. Jacob performed in his band concert and we all attended.
Good fall.
Liam also read: "Call of the Wild," has worked through the first two Keys 2 books in fractions, has done weekly reverse dictation and daily copywork or handwriting. We watched the X Men movies and I am reading the "House at Pooh Corner" aloud to the kids. We finished "Holes."
Junior zoologists met for 8 sessions and included extensive teaching about conservation and animals worldwide. Liam signed up at bushmeat.org to advocate for the bushmeat crisis in Africa. He's become keenly aware of recylcing too. Bird watching just started up again for us too.
We've played games (he's a World of Warcraft afficianado online) such as Settlers, Quiddler, Rummy 500, and Old Maid.
Took several trips to the park with Rocky as well for nature walks.
Caitrin: sewing class, Chinese with Rosetta Stone, Greek book 2, drawing, violin lessons, knitting, drawing fashion, fall soccer, nature journaling and drama at co-op.
Caitrin is also working through Miquon Math, handwriting, copywork, French dictation, reading magazines and books such as the American Girls of Many Lands novels and American Girl magazine. She's sewing projects on her own such as a blanket and repairing clothes. She is completing projects in her weekly class as well. We have done a few experiments such as growing crystals.
Jacob: saxophone lessons and preparation for Honor Band auditions, private tutoring in Algebra I with Ing-Wan, biology at co-op, Spanish 1 at Lakota Freshman, photography at co-op.
He is also signed up for soccer in the spring. He is studying western civ. at home and we are using "Sophie's World" as a spine along with the Young Person's Guide to Philosophy. He has completed several short bios of Greek philosophers. He is doing my Kidswrite Intermediate class with me and is on project two. He continues to do copywork and some dictation. His reading includes To Kill a Mockingbird, and the short stories on the Slingshot Companion list.
We've taken field trips to the zoo, to the Newport Aquarium and to see "The Diary of Anne Frank" at Lakota West High School. Jacob performed in his band concert and we all attended.
Good fall.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Four weeks of blissful homeschool
We've had an incredible start to homeschool this year. I should be entering things daily so I don't forget them.
Still, here's a run down on all we've accomplished and enjoyed.
Numerous teatimes which have led us to complete several books: Ella Enchanted, Holes, and The Master Puppeteer.
Currently, we're reading The House at Pooh Corner. I get such a kick out of Milne's writing. He has a great sense of humor and the kids are enjoying it.
We've done some reverse dictation, copywork, handwriting and letter writing. Liam and Caitrin sent two thank you notes a piece to grandparents and both of them addressed the envelopes and wrote the notes themselves.
Liam has a magazine subscription to ZooBooks that he reads cover to cover the day it arrives. So far, he's regaled me with detailed narrations of tigers and sea lions and elephants. In addition, he's a member of the Zoo's Juniro Zoologist program which began last night. He talked to me about what he learned from the moment he got in the car until we arrived at home.
Some of what he shared had to do with conservation and how to protect endangered animals like the Blue Macaw. Apparently in Trinidad, conservationistspaid the poachers to not poach macaws and as a result, they've rescued them from the endangered list.
We took Liam and Caitrin to see a play at Xavier which was a performace of Caribbean dance and poetry by Derek Walcott (Nobel Prize winner). Though it was over their heads, I was so pleased with the way both of them have found connections to what they watched in spite of not really loving it.
Liam spent the day at the zoo with my mom on Monday. He is also reading Jack London's "Call of the Wild" that Jon bought for him.
Liam is also studying fractions using the Key to series and is doing extremely well with it. We began the year with Jacob's Mathematics but decided it was too abstract and not useful. Ing-Wan pointed us in the direction of Key To again and I must say, I don't know why I depart from it. It's excellent. We'll just continue with decimals, percents and pre-algebra and geometry. Liam is a natural with math and I'm happy he's working on it.
Caitrin is studying Chinese on Rosetta Stone and is in Book Two of Biblical Greek. She whizzed through Greek level one which was all about learning the alphabet. She's starting to add vocabulary now which is so much fun.
She's got a subscription to American Girl magazine which she reads the day it arrives and is slowly working on Leyla from the Girls of Many Lands collection as well as Little House in the Big Woods. We've had some wonderful conversations about history because she is so curious about the placement of the characters in their right context.
Johannah is playing the role of Miep in The Diary of Anne Frank and that's led us into listening to and reading about Anne Frank. I watched the documentary with Johannah the other night and Liam and Jacob both watched part of it with us.
We've been to the zoo, we've taken a couple of nature hikes with the dog including making center pieces out of natural items.
Lots of games: Quiddler, Apples to Apples, Rummy 500, Spinergy.
Caitrin is sewing up a storm - taking a sewing course from Trish each week on Tuesdays. Liam is starting up with lacrosse again on Monday. Caitrin is in the middle of soccer season. Jacob is going to classes each day at LFS. He has a concert coming up. He is also still taking his weeky private sax lesson. And it looks like Caitrin will be playing violin again! We found a teacher who will come to the house.
We all still watch a lot of TV now that the reality season has returned as well as the NFL and college football. :)
We're doing some fun writing exercises too and I hope to add to them this next month. Jacob is working through my high school writing book. He's just completed the musical language exercise.
Phew. Enough for now.
Still, here's a run down on all we've accomplished and enjoyed.
Numerous teatimes which have led us to complete several books: Ella Enchanted, Holes, and The Master Puppeteer.
Currently, we're reading The House at Pooh Corner. I get such a kick out of Milne's writing. He has a great sense of humor and the kids are enjoying it.
We've done some reverse dictation, copywork, handwriting and letter writing. Liam and Caitrin sent two thank you notes a piece to grandparents and both of them addressed the envelopes and wrote the notes themselves.
Liam has a magazine subscription to ZooBooks that he reads cover to cover the day it arrives. So far, he's regaled me with detailed narrations of tigers and sea lions and elephants. In addition, he's a member of the Zoo's Juniro Zoologist program which began last night. He talked to me about what he learned from the moment he got in the car until we arrived at home.
Some of what he shared had to do with conservation and how to protect endangered animals like the Blue Macaw. Apparently in Trinidad, conservationistspaid the poachers to not poach macaws and as a result, they've rescued them from the endangered list.
We took Liam and Caitrin to see a play at Xavier which was a performace of Caribbean dance and poetry by Derek Walcott (Nobel Prize winner). Though it was over their heads, I was so pleased with the way both of them have found connections to what they watched in spite of not really loving it.
Liam spent the day at the zoo with my mom on Monday. He is also reading Jack London's "Call of the Wild" that Jon bought for him.
Liam is also studying fractions using the Key to series and is doing extremely well with it. We began the year with Jacob's Mathematics but decided it was too abstract and not useful. Ing-Wan pointed us in the direction of Key To again and I must say, I don't know why I depart from it. It's excellent. We'll just continue with decimals, percents and pre-algebra and geometry. Liam is a natural with math and I'm happy he's working on it.
Caitrin is studying Chinese on Rosetta Stone and is in Book Two of Biblical Greek. She whizzed through Greek level one which was all about learning the alphabet. She's starting to add vocabulary now which is so much fun.
She's got a subscription to American Girl magazine which she reads the day it arrives and is slowly working on Leyla from the Girls of Many Lands collection as well as Little House in the Big Woods. We've had some wonderful conversations about history because she is so curious about the placement of the characters in their right context.
Johannah is playing the role of Miep in The Diary of Anne Frank and that's led us into listening to and reading about Anne Frank. I watched the documentary with Johannah the other night and Liam and Jacob both watched part of it with us.
We've been to the zoo, we've taken a couple of nature hikes with the dog including making center pieces out of natural items.
Lots of games: Quiddler, Apples to Apples, Rummy 500, Spinergy.
Caitrin is sewing up a storm - taking a sewing course from Trish each week on Tuesdays. Liam is starting up with lacrosse again on Monday. Caitrin is in the middle of soccer season. Jacob is going to classes each day at LFS. He has a concert coming up. He is also still taking his weeky private sax lesson. And it looks like Caitrin will be playing violin again! We found a teacher who will come to the house.
We all still watch a lot of TV now that the reality season has returned as well as the NFL and college football. :)
We're doing some fun writing exercises too and I hope to add to them this next month. Jacob is working through my high school writing book. He's just completed the musical language exercise.
Phew. Enough for now.
Monday, August 21, 2006
New School Year: 2005-2006
We started on August 7 and have had a wonderful first couple of weeks already.
Jacob:
Parttime enrolled at Lakota Freshman, taking Spanish 1 and Band.
Weekly Saxophone lessons (third year)
Studying at co-op: biology, algebra 1, and PowerPoint
English: Help for High School Writing (my program) and Online Literature (Slingshot Companion)
Liam:
Jacob's Mathematics daily
Brave Writer Arrow and handwriting book
Weekly freewriting
Junior Zoologists this fall for science
Caitrin:
Handwriting and freewriting
Reading books for herself (right now, Girls of Many Lands novels)
Rosetta Stone Chinese and New Testament Greek
Co-op: nature study, art, P.E. and music and drama
Fall Soccer
Together:
We've read The Master Puppeteer and Ella Enchanted.
We have Tuesday Teatimes with poetry.
We've taken two trips to the zoo, several trips to the YMCA for swimming and have worked on some of the chapters in Murderous Maths.
Jacob:
Parttime enrolled at Lakota Freshman, taking Spanish 1 and Band.
Weekly Saxophone lessons (third year)
Studying at co-op: biology, algebra 1, and PowerPoint
English: Help for High School Writing (my program) and Online Literature (Slingshot Companion)
Liam:
Jacob's Mathematics daily
Brave Writer Arrow and handwriting book
Weekly freewriting
Junior Zoologists this fall for science
Caitrin:
Handwriting and freewriting
Reading books for herself (right now, Girls of Many Lands novels)
Rosetta Stone Chinese and New Testament Greek
Co-op: nature study, art, P.E. and music and drama
Fall Soccer
Together:
We've read The Master Puppeteer and Ella Enchanted.
We have Tuesday Teatimes with poetry.
We've taken two trips to the zoo, several trips to the YMCA for swimming and have worked on some of the chapters in Murderous Maths.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)