Looking Towards 2014-2015 School Year {YIKES!}

The 2013/2014 School Year still has over 2 months left and then there is about 2 more months before we really get rolling with the next year {2014/2015}. But maybe it's not too early to get started. Or too early to already have it all planned...?

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Most of the planning was super easy. Fox's 10th grade {gasp!} will be almost identical to Lee's 10th grade, but will follow even closer the schedule at AO. I'm switching a few of the books as well. I followed the schedule for the devotion The Christian Life by Sinclair Ferguson for Lee but will switch it for The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life by Hannah Whitall Smith for Fox. Also, Lee didn't read History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia by Samuel Johnson, but I think Fox will appreciate it more than the one I'd selected for Lee. 

Here are other subs/omissions:

Subbing: 

• Washington: The Indispensable Man by Flexner for Founding Father - Rediscovering George Washington by Richard Brookhiser OR Life of Washington by David Ramsay
• Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose for Walking the Bible by Bruce Feiler

Omitting: 

• The English Constitution by Walter Bagehot
• Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis {he's already read it}
• Simond's Literature - Increase and Cotton Mather from Chapter 1 & 2
• Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift
• John Adams and the American Revolution by Catherine Drinker Bowen 
• Letters to His Son by Lord Chesterfield, selections 
• Land of Little Rain by Mary Austin OR 
• Natural History of Selbourne by Gilbert White OR The Life of the Fly by J. Henri Fabre 
• The God Who is There by Francis Schaeffer
• The Story of Painting by H.W. Janson (sections)
  
• Miracle at Philadelphia by Catherine Drinker Bowen
• The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence 
• Faust, Book I by Johann Wolfgang Goethe 
• The Problem of Pain by CS Lewis 
• Postmodern Times by Gene Edward Veith, Jr. 
• Reflections on the French Revolution by Edmund Burke

For science he will use various resources for biology, one being Ellen McHenry's Cells curriculum, and a biology coloring book*. I still need to find some living books to add in for his science. I have a board on Pinterest with science links so I'll be looking in there. But mostly, I'll be looking at the "Alternatives to Apologia" on the AO forum. I am considering CK12 Biology texts*, partially because they are free. Oh, yes, and I am adding in William Harvey and the Discovery of the Circulation of the Blood by Thomas Henry Huxley that was scheduled in the last term of Y8 for this year {I purposefully took it out of his schedule this year}. It'll be in Term 1. And he will still have nature study but I'm not sure I will schedule any books for this because he really doesn't seem to like any of them so far. It could simply be a case of poor disposition...ahem.

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Some other things will be 'added' in, such as Science Matters by Hazen and Trefil, which we are all reading together at Round Table. It won't last the entire year though. And The Attributes of God by Pink, also a Round Table read. I really want to get Plutarch back into the week. And we do composer study/music appreciation, artist study/art appreciation and drawing, and How to Read a Book for logic. But I think that is about it for Fox's planning. Oh yes, he chose Napoleon for Term 3 biography so I am still looking for a book for that. It's between A Life of Napoleon by Stendhal* or The Story of Napoleon by H.E. Marshall. The second is by far more interesting and an easier read but geared toward younger readers {but it's free online!}. 

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For Lee's senior year I combined AO's Y11Lite and Y12 to come up with a schedule. And since I made it myself, although utilizing AO's curriculum, I feel okay about sharing the link to the document I made of her full year schedule. {If any AOers have a look and feel it's wrong to share, let me know.} Since it's her senior year and I'm fairly sure she will have or want to have a job, I've left it 'light' for the year. Term 2 looks like it has more but that's mostly historical readings that aren't that long; there are just a few of them. 

You should be able to click on it to see it larger in a new window.

So, Lee's scheduling is done. I am pre-reading a book called Poemcrazy* to see if I'll add it to the schedule but as I'm going through it and thinking ahead at what her year might be like, I think it will go on the optional free reads. I don't honestly care for the book. To me, poetry is an art form. But when I read a poem, I want it to make sense. I don't need to necessarily understand what the poet is saying exactly but it should be sensible. It's much like abstract art. I border on loathing abstract art; the same with poetry that is simply made up words, or words just crammed together just because. Call me a hater if you want but I don't care for jabberwocky. But I realize that we are all different. Lee does well with poetry; I do not. She may appreciate the book more than I. 

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And I just bought three more books for next year {Napoleon, The Lives of a Cell*, and A World in a Drop of Water*}. I love planning and don't like it at all. When I'm doing my planning I buy a lot of books. Then sometimes the books don't work out and I still buy more books. I don't sell my books any where near as often...I am done for now with planning! I think I have it all figured out. 

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Until next week that is *wink*.

Day #2 of Exam Week for Term 1

My dh had to get up an hour earlier for work so I slept in until 7:50 am. Yep, that’s how that works. Wake me at the right time or don’t expect me to be up until…well, when I wake up. Or something like that.

It’s two hours later now –I’ve had a couple cups of coffee and the kids have had their breakfast of honey nut o’s. Fox has done work on a few of his questions. Lee however is stalling this morning for some reason. She woke up before Fox and I thought she would get going sooner. Is it Thursday? Because that is her usual ‘slack’ day. Nope, it’s Tuesday. Although, if today is #2 of a 3-day week, then it would be a ‘Thursday’. Huh, imagine that!

Anyway. That is where we are at the moment. More to come later.

Finally both have worked on their exams. I’m going to be honest here- but I’ll try to keep it nice. I’m extremely frustrated with the lack of independence (?) in both of my kids. When I wrote the questions for the exam- barring the math- I wrote them with the purpose of wanting them to tell me what’s in their head. They both seem to think there is something particular, some exact detail or scene, that I am looking for and if they can’t figure it out, they panic. And based on just the few math problems for at least one kid, we are going to have to go b.a.c.k. in math. None of the processes or formulas could be recalled- I did try to give hints and a little help (is that bad?) but in the end I’m thinking that is just adding to the dependence.

And one more thing- the lack of details –not from the accounts they are relaying but the details in the sentences themselves –is driving me absolutely batty! I have an 8th and 10th grader but get an answer that someone could guess a 4th grader (or lower) wrote. The sentence(s) are such as: If you looked in it you would die. If you looked in what? Why? What are the surrounding circumstances? Of course I do know that written ‘narrations’ are harder than oral narrations- these exams are primarily written narrations. I need to look at the answers as areas where we need to work on not so much as failings. It’s not as easy to grade as a multiple choice test that’s for sure!

I would love to blame this on the public schools but I don’t think that’d really be accurate. Awhile ago, reading Charlotte Mason’s volume 3, about Masterly Inactivity, she talks about the parent who fairly over-explains things. I have a tendency to do that. A lot actually. I think I’ve gotten better over the last year but the ‘damage’ may well have been done!

Anyway, it is 12:30 pm now and Lee is working on her chores. Fox finished his exam portion for the day, choosing to take turns doing chores and answering questions like yesterday.

I was on the AO forums earlier and the question of grading the exams came up. There is talk of creating a rubric specific to the exams. I’m excited to hear that. I’ve really never been good with rubrics, though.

Exam Term 1, Y9

This exam is almost exactly what can be found at AO’s free curriculum website but I edited it some to better fit our circumstances. I added questions to Bible, about The Roar on the Other Side, English Grammar we are using Traditional English Sentence Style so questions reflect that, a question pertaining to Peter the Great, few different places for Geography and a blank map to fill-in. I omitted writing/penmanship and dictation, a thing or two from Literature, and since we aren’t as far in Ourselves, changed that question. The science questions I just have no idea about so they are general. I also changed the Foreign Language and decided to simply go with work that she’s doing in that particular language. The math I left as is but I will definitely need to change that next time, although I do like that they are more applicable questions than like most math tests.

Bible/Devotional
1. Name four doctrines of the Christian faith, and explain two in detail.
2. Tell what you know about the circumstances of Samson’s birth.
3. Describe the theft of the ark and what resulted.
4. Relate one of Paul’s letters to the Corinthians or the beginning of his letter to the Galatians.
Composition/Literature
1. Write a letter home as if you were Gulliver, describing Lilliput.
2. Describe the part you found most humorous in Isaac Bickerstaff, Coverley, or Tale of a Tub.
3. What was your favorite Stepping Stone from The Roar on the Other Side? Describe it and why did you enjoy it?
English Grammar
1. What is a prepositional phrase? Give an example in a sentence; underline the prepositional phrase.
2. Name other ‘phrases’ and give examples. Or, in the sentence below show the clauses by double underlining the conjunction.
•    I proceed to a third rule for the unity of sentences; this is to keep clear of all parentheses in the middle of them.
3. Parse (Question? Haven’t quite figured out the wording to this one…maybe I’ll just leave it) 
•    Among the many people making up the great household there was a little girl of seven named Esther Johnson. She was a delicate little girl with large eyes and black hair. She and Swift soon grew to be friends, and he spent his happiest hours teaching her to read and write. It is pleasant to think of the gloomy, untrained genius throwing off his gloom and bending all his talents to the task of teaching and amusing this little delicate child of seven.
History
1. Give an account of General James Olgethorpe or Cotton Mather.
2. Tell what you know about the leading up to/beginning of the Salem Witch Trials.
3. What do you know about Peter the Great or Catherine the Great?
4. Give a sketch of George Washington.
5. What do you know about The Great Awakening?
6. Name four of Benjamin Franklin's ideas and inventions. Describe two of them.
Geography
1. Describe the Matterhorn. Point out its location on a map.
2. Describe a trip to the pyramids or the Taj Mahal.
3. What do you know about Gibraltar, the "Pillar of Hercules"? Locate it on a map.
4. Fill in the blank map of the United States.
Science and Nutrition
1. Write notes, with drawings, on the studies you have made this term (science).
2. What do you know of the brain and its functions? (nutrition)
Citizenship/Government (Plutarch)
1. Explain how Pericles handled criticism and complaints.
2. "And, spite of pride in erring reason's spite,/One truth is clear, whatever is, is right." Explain Pope's argument in your own words.
3. What do you know of Love’s Lords in Waiting? Choose at least four to talk more about.
4. Define four of the following: liberal, conservative, left, right, democrat, republican, moderate, socialist, libertarian, communist.
Arithmetic/Geometry
1. Demonstrate the distributive property: 9(2a + b + 4) = ____
2. Julie has a jar of beads. She used half of them to make a bracelet. Later she bought more, tripling the number of beads in the jar. Now there are 33 beads in the jar. How many beads did Julie start with?
3. A triangle has three angles labeled x, y, and z. The ratio of x to y is 1:13. The ratio of y to z is 13:1. What is the value of each of the angles, x, y, and z?
4. A store is advertising a 35 percent discount on an item they marked up 5 percent from the factory price of $350. The sales tax is 8.25 percent. What does the item cost?
5. A train leaves the station at 2:00 pm at 40 mph. Another train headed in the opposite direction leaves the same station at 4:00 pm at 60 mph. To the nearest mile, how far are the two trains from each other at 6:00 pm?
6. Solve for x: 68 = 4(2x + 3)
Foreign Language
1. Write the Latin prayer you chose.
2. (Latin) Do Quiz Lesson 30.
3. Sign at least 10 words.
4. (Greek) Complete page 29 & 30 in your workbook.   
Music
Play a short piece on your trumpet.
Picture Study
Describe a picture from this term's picture study.
Art
Turn in some of your best art work.
Recitation
Recite the Bible verses from this term.
Music Appreciation
Tell about your favorite piece of music from this term.
Singing
Sing “Victory in Jesus” or another hymn of your choice.
Turn in your commonplace book and all current events pages

Feedback:
What did you think of this Term 1 exam? What do you think would help you next time?

Homeschool Mother’s Journal- 1 Month Update!

I was going to call this the two-week wrap-up but it’s really been a month {possibly a bit more} since my last entry. And this is possibly in the totally incorrect order! I’m going by memory. I’ll have to check it when I put it online and link up.

In my our life this week month…July had our first ‘week’ of back-to-school {July 9-13}. It was supposed to be 2 weeks of school with 2 weeks off but didn’t work out that way. The second week fizzled and then ds and dh went on a week long trip {that was planned}. That was quite uninteresting for dd and I. Personally I stayed up way too late and slept in way too long.

Right after they got back, then dh and I went to Boston, MA, for a work related…thing {also planned}. I spent most of the time at the hotel but I did get a book finished and notes for the review I wrote when I returned home. I’d planned to write a post about our trip but I’ll explain later why I didn’t. I did take 208 photos though. Some I shared in a short post.

While we were gone to Boston, the kids attended the GLYC12 in Cleveland, OH, with pastor and his kids. The kids (and pastor) said it was great preaching and also there was lots of fun to be had.

When dh and I returned from Boston, something that’d been on my mind for awhile came to a head. We’ve instituted a strict limit on our technology for the month of August. That includes everything. Dh and I have to use our computers and the internet for our work  but otherwise we don’t use it for anything else. Phones don’t count in this because we must have those but we don’t have fancy phones –they can send/receive calls and texts. I get up early to check my email and write my blog posts before the kids are up. The kids and I also use the computer for school related things. It’s been…difficult. Not impossible. I actually wrote this on paper prior to typing it up so I’d lessen my “screen time”.

And to wrap up how my life has been this month- my dh is actually out of town once again. This has been the time for traveling. I can’t wait to be back to normal!

In our homeschool this month…How to do two weeks of school in 1 month! It was originally planned to be 2 weeks of school, 2 weeks off for traveling, then 4 weeks back to school. Well, we’ve managed the first week only and now when it should be week #3, we are only finishing #2. It’s just been difficult to get school done. As a matter of fact, we are going to be having school on Saturday because we’ve not gotten every thing done for the week. At this rate, we’ll not finish school before the next school year starts!

But here’s what’s been done {feel free to skip ahead lol}:
Both:

• Bible- reading {L: Judges 11-15 & 1 Cor 5-8; F: Joshua 23-Judges 4 & Acts 4} and focusing on Genesis 6-9 & 11:1-9 {civil government, intrinsic value, languages, God’s unstoppable plan, unified rebellion}
• Latin {reviewing Unit 3}
• Home Ec {introduction and budgeting- money}
• Ohio Study {general information}
• Plutarch {Pericles- Anne White Study Guide}
• Science {spheres and layers of Earth, plate tectonics}
• Logic {Art of Argument, basically just the introduction}
• Poetry {The Roar on the Other Side, introduction}
• Art/Music {Renoir/Schubert}

Lee: Bible- commentary- Galatians 1; Verse- Ephesians 6:10-11
History- A History of the American People, pp 79-89; Washington, the Indispensible Man, pp 1-22 {learning some things that I definitely didn’t know!}
Literature/Grammar- History of English Literature, chapters LX-LXI; Traditional English Sentence Style, chapter 1
Citizenship- Ourselves, pp 75-83
Math- Geometry review
Government- Are You Liberal, Conservative or Confused?, ch 1-2
Greek- Hey Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek! Level 6, lessons 1-2 vocabulary review

Fox: Bible- Devotion- Mere Chrisianity, Preface; Verse- Psalm 51:1-4
History- The Birth of Britain, pp 3-29; Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, Intro-ch 2
Literature/Grammar- The History of English Literature, ch 1; The Age of Chivalry, ch 1-2; Idylls of the King; Jensen’s lesson 45-46
Math- No-Nonsense Algebra, lessons 1-11 through 1-15; Pearson U1, practice 10-11
German- Mango and Transparent Language {we are trying to decide which is ‘better’- which he prefers}

We actually did school pictures today {Friday}. I edited them on picmonkey. Of course, mine are conveniently missing *wink*.

Where we are going/ who we are seeing…Other than the trips mentioned earlier {ds and dh- WI; dh and I- MA; ds and dd- GLYC12; dh- Northwest}, we’ve gone to the grocery store, library, church, Fox went to Young Marines and Lee went to her babysitting job {in Mentor}. And while I was in Mentor I found a great deal for Lee – a pair of nice pants for $2.99!

What I’m reading…

• Bible- in Ezekiel right now
• Traveler’s Rest by Ann Tatlock
• Mr. Pipes and the British Hymn Makers by Douglas Bond
• Just finished King Alfred’s English by Laurie J. White
• Trying to really get into The Once and Future King by T. H. White
• Still reading {or trying to} books about Vivaldi, Venice, and Baroque time period
• Will need to start again with pre-reading books for kids’ school

What I’m praying for…Cleansed heart; my family- that we continue to grow in Christ and lean towards Him when we are strained; more insight into what I’m ‘supposed’ to be doing; my family in general

What’s working/not working…I want to say less technology isn’t working but actually it is going well. Since curtailing it we’ve all been more physically and mentally active, as well as doing more together.

Thursday just isn’t working. I think on every single calendar I should name Thursday, “Monday #2”. By Thursday our get up and go and done got up and got. Not that it is Thursday’s fault. Our mind set is just against that day. Other than ‘just do it!’ I’ve not figured out how to fix it.

Thoughts I have…I’ve had quite a few review items. You can always see them on the right side bar. I say “I’ve” rather than “we’ve” because for some reason they’ve been quite difficult to integrate into our day. Some I have honestly had to try myself {as if I’m the student} to be able to do my review as thoroughly as I’d like. Some of my reviews aren’t done as well as I think they could have been. I see this as something that may be coming to an end soon- even if only temporarily.

With the internet, my ‘circle’ has definitely widened but at the same time, the wider that circle, the less time I actually have to visit with those in my circle. I find that although I have had access to a plethora of other people {via blogs and other social media}, I didn’t really interact very much. Now that I have limited that access, I find I am missing what I didn’t even really do. I used to, when my circle was smaller. I think I like a smaller circle.

Jeanine, if you read this- I keep meaning to write you an email!

What I’m cooking…I made chicken enchiladas on Tuesday for my dh’s bday dinner. Lee made pancakes on Wednesday and Fox made muffins on Thursday. Saturday I get to make French Toast. We actually planned our entire week’s meals, including snacks.

What I’m working on…I’m not really working on anything but school and daily life. And a few review posts.

Quote I’d like to share…There are actually two-

“In every poem there is some of the substance of God.” St. Augustine

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle

Eventually I hope to link this up with a few places. If/when I do, I’ll make sure to include the buttons/links

ETA: Well it looks like THMJ closes WAY early. So I’m not linked up with that one- which this post takes the most after lol- but I did link up with Mary at Home Grown Learners and Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.