Day 12—Setting Goals and Prioritizing

This post is part of a series showing the realness of homeschooling---the ugly, frustrating, and wonderfulness of it all. 

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This week we had days that we worked our tails off and days where we relaxed a bit.   But even during the slow days, I made sure we focused on our goals for the week.

• Covering the Constitutional Convention
• Practice communicating with math teacher
• Spelling everyday
• Expressing specific ideas in writing
• Get excited about logic

We didn’t get to all the history reading I had hoped for because I added extra reading.   At the last minute I decided we needed to cover Shays’s Rebellion in more depth than I had planned.   So the end of the week came and we hadn’t covered everything planned.   Pinterest came to the rescue with this video:

It worked out wonderfully as the basics were covered and the girls got to practice taking notes.   I see more of Hughes’ History in our future.

E-R had been a bit shy about sending emails to her math teacher with homework and questions, so we worked on that this week.  She’s now caught up with turning in homework and feels more comfortable asking questions.   First test on Monday.

We worked on spelling everyday this week.   Spelling is a struggle for both girls, so we need to work on it on a regular basis to see improvement.

E-R has a tendency to write in general terms.   This week I kept pushing her to be more specific.   We’ll continue working on this for the next few weeks, but I think she’s getting the idea---Be Specific!

All I have to say about our logic goal is we’re working on it.  

We didn’t check off every box, but with our goals in mind I was able to prioritize our time, and we’re ready to move on next week.  

Week in Review

This post is part of a series showing the realness of homeschooling---the ugly, frustrating, and wonderfulness of it all. 

this post is linked up to weird unsocialized homeschoolers weekly link-up.  

This week I wanted to dive into school with our new schedule.   Unfortunately, I-E wasn’t feeling up to snuff, so we took things much slower than planned.   We still managed to complete quite a lot. 

We started logic using Art of the Argument.   We are still working on the introductory chapter, and I’m still trying to explain to the girls why we are studying logic.    I’m more excited about it than my students.  

.  So my goal for next week---inspire!   Get the girls excited about logic.

Second new thing this week—algebra.  Thank goodness for Derek Owens and his online courses!   Math is not my thing.   Left to their own devices both girls have worked most days for longer than the required one hour.    Great start!

Writing also introduced a new idea this week.   Instead of working on specific projects, time is our new writing master.   Without any specific assignments, both girls were excited to free write on Monday and Tuesday.    Wednesday history assignment brought a narrative covering the Revolutionary War’s battles.  With writing time set aside each day, we had time to work on it while also moving on with our reading during history time.  

Goal for next week—get onto our schedule so we can fit everything in.  

Week 24

This week was a get-back-on-track week!   Only three more weeks until spring break! So I put together a list of lessons that have to get done before then, and we’ve been moving through it.  
In history we moved into our study of the Age of Exploration.  



In The Almanac of World History, we read about the Spanish Conquest of the New World.  I-E and E-R took notes which next week will be organized into an outline, so a report can be written. 



Both girls read and summarized chapters 1-3 of Around the World in a Hundred Years.



In The Usborne Book of Explorers we read about Ibn Battuta and created a map chronicling his journeys through Africa and the Middle East. 



The girls were able to draw their maps from memory—thanks to Mapping the World by Art!  I love it when what was learned comes in handy!

History Portfolios had a map to complete that covered the Major Trade Routes C 1000-1400.



Mapping the World by Art has conveniently prepared us for our studies of The Age of Explorations by introducing John Cabot, Vasco da Gama, and Amerigo Vespucci.   This week though we moved to China and learned about Zheng He.   If you aren’t up on what kind of naval power the Chinese had between 1300 and 1500, you may want to check out this video: 

which compares one of Columbus’ ships with China's ships during the Mongol’s  reign.  Pretty amazing stuff!   I-E and E-R worked on drawing Southeast Asia which was explored by Zheng He. 

English this week brought further study of pronouns.   We continued with personal pronouns and added demonstrative pronouns.  Rod and Staff’s writing this week covered organizing your notes.  I didn’t think we really needed this lesson, but turns out we did!    So something else added to our list of writing skills.  Next week we will study this skill with our history notes.
  
We started two read aloud books (at booksshouldbefree.com )—Our Island Story and The Three Musketeers
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Math brought our Pi Day Celebration.   And our Singapore math lined up perfectly as we studied Area of a Circle.
  
We had a full and busy week—just what we needed!

Week 22 and 23

These last few weeks have been hard.    A family friend died in a tragic way a few weeks ago, and a family member made some choices that have affected and hurt many around him.   I have been working through the circumstances as best as I can, but it has been exhausting emotionally and mentally.  
Life continued on as usual though and needed to be enjoyed.  So here are pictures of us doing just that:     
  

Week 21

We had a short week because of our President Day’s holiday.

Tuesday we reviewed geography and then worked on art for the rest of the day.   Art has recently gone by the wayside, so I decided it would be a great way to kick off our week.    Our Molas projects turned out quite well. 

E-R’s Molas

My Molas

and

I-E’s Molas

 
On Wednesday we started the last book in the Singapore Primary math series.   (I’m going to miss Singapore—It has served us well). And in true Singapore style, it started off with an awesome exploration exercise.

First, measure the perimeter of  a circular object. 

Then trace that same perimeter on a piece of paper.

Cut out the tracing.

Fold in half.

Measure the fold line. 

Repeat with various sized circular objects.

While keeping track of perimeters and fold lines.

After measuring and comparing the perimeters and fold lines, E-R and I-E determined the perimeters were about 3 times as long as the fold lines thus discovering pi.  Our new vocabulary radius, diameter, circumference, and pi. 

Thursday we focused on the Hapsburg Family enjoying this awesome website.  E-R also had her engineering lego class.  This week the focus was on center of gravity.







Friday was a short day.  After Shakespeare class, we took the afternoon off to get ready for A-M’s 16th birthday party.  

We celebrated on Saturday with some fancy food and fancy dresses.