Weekly Report...Week 1

If this week is any indication of how the year is going to go, it's going to be rough. Enough said.

Tapestry of Grace Year 1 Ancients (Both)
History
We are very excited to be on our second rotation of the Ancients. We're going to dig a little deeper now that the boys are a little older. This week we looked at Egyptian daily life and as we did, we kept Moses in mind. This was the world he grew up in. We also discussed the importance of the Nile River. We remembered fondly a project we did 4 years ago as we worked through SOTW and decided to do it again. We made amodel of the Nile and flooded it just as it does once a year. We are patiently waiting for our "crops" to grow. The boys also completed two notebooking pages.
Geography
Labeled maps of the World, Ancient Africa, and Ancient Egypt.

Literature
Magnus (UG) He is reading his way through Maia of Thebes and completing the Student Activity Page. Thane (LG) He read Bill and Pete Go Down the Nile. He gave the book "2 thumbs up"!

Science (Both)
We haven't started this subject yet. I'm thinking we'll wait until after our 3 week break in September.

Math (Both)
We're finishing up Teaching Textbook 3 and started learning division with Math Mammoth Light Blue series. We signed up for ALEKS trial, but it isn't going to work. It doesn't verbally give the question and Thane really needs that. It's too much for him to have to work through reading the question while keeping it in his mind and then trying to work through the problem. So, we'll continue with TT. They both like it anyways.

Languae Arts (Magnus)

Writing...not starting until Sept.

Spelling...not starting until Sept.

Grammar...Rod and Staff is a new curricula for us. I decided to start him in the 4th grade level mainly because I had it on hand. This week was about subjects and predicates.

Language Arts (Thane)

Writing...not starting until Sept.

Spelling...not starting until Sept.

Grammar...Thane is in the 3rd grade book of Rod & Staff. We finished FLL last year. He worked on dictionary skills as well as recognizing complete sentences.

Reading...We discussed "setting" and "character" as we read through Clara and the Bookwagon.

2011-2012 Curriculum Line Up

I'm about to begin my 6th year homeschooling. 6 years! Magnus is in 5th grade and Thane in 3rd. Crazy. Here's the plan:

Subjects the Boys are Doing Together

Tapestry of Grace Year 1 Ancients This will cover History, Bible, Geography, Literature, and Arts & Crafts. Thane will start the year in Lower Grammar but move to Upper Grammar. Magnus will start in Upper Grammar and quickly move into the Dialectic level. We are so excited to be returning to the Ancients.

Science We're going to give Apologia Zoology 3 a try. I didn't purchase the notebooking pages available from the publisher, but chose to use the FREE ones Jeannie Fulbright provides on her blog.

Math
The combination of Teaching Textbooks and Math Mammoth worked well for us last year. We're going to continue using them.

Magnus 5th Grade

Writing

We'll be using a combination of IEW Ancient History Theme Based Writing and Story Starters by Karen Andreola.

Grammar
We're going to try something new this year but also continue working through MCT Language Arts (Town Level). We both really LOVE MCT's program but I felt Magnus needed a bit more help with mechanics. He's going to be working through Rod & Staff too. It may be over-kill, but I can always drop one if I need to.

Spelling
He'll be moving ahead with IEW's Phonetic Zoo.

Other Stuff
Building Thinking Skills
Typing Instruction for Kids

Activities
Brazilian Jui-Jitzu Drama with the local theater company

Thane 3rd Grade

Writing
IEW came out with a new writing program geared towards younger kids. I plan to use IEW writing products with him just as I have with Magnus, but I don't think he is ready for the SWI Level A. The PAL Writing course is going to be a gentle introduction to the Style and Structure IEW teaches. We'll be skipping part 1 and heavily modifying part 2, but we'll use part 3 as written.

Grammar
We made it through Levels 1 & 2 of First Language Lessons. It was a great introduction to grammar. This year we are going to use Rod & Staff but do most of the lessons orally.

Spelling
Still working our way through the levels of All About Spelling. He likes the program and is able to recall the phonetic rules while his is reading.

Reading
Sam's reading has improved by leaps and bounds! I am so proud of the strides he has made. I want to continue having him read aloud to me every day, so I thought we'd try the Sonlight Readers.

Phonics
He'll continue working through ETC Online this year.

Other Stuff
Building Thinking Skills
Typing Instructor for Kids

Activities
Brazilian Jui-Jitzu

Life Happens...

In the past 8 months, life happened. I didn't blog about it. I lived it.

Note to self: Don't regret not having a record of our homeschool year. There is always next year.

October 2010...
We had the most AWESOME Halloween party ever! We recreated Dracula's mansion in our Little, Tiny, Baby, Pretend House. The atmosphere was spooky yet elegant.

Our friends came dressed as characters from novels...'cause we're nerdy like that.

Collin was Count Dracula and I was Mina Harker:

December 2010...
Collin and I got dressed up, left the boys with a sitter, and headed out for a night on the town. 3 minutes after leaving our house, plans changed. We were cruising along in the middle lane of the 5 lane interstate when the car ahead of us ran over a mattress and spun out of control. Yes, A MATTRESS!!!! We weren't able to avoid the mattress and ran over it too. Collin was able to stop before hitting the cars ahead of us, but the car behind us wasn't. We got rear-ended by a car going 55-60 mph. He then bounced off us, hit a car to the right of us, causing that car to hit us. The recoil from the whiplash caused us to break our seats. We were able to get out of the car and wait for the emergency vehicles. All-in-all, there were 7-9 cars involved in 3 separate accidents caused my some moron who didn't take the time to secure his load.


Collin and I were able to ride in the same ambulance to the hospital, but then we were in separate rooms for 3 hours while they checked us out. Thankfully, whiplash was the only injury we received (although I have been having a heck of a time with it and my right arm going numb). After we got off the phone with our parents, Collin looked at me and said, "Still wanna go on our date?" What a man! He arranged for a taxi to pick us up at the hospital and take us downtown. We got take-out, watched MST3000, and iced out necks together. True love!

January 2011...
"It's a Jeep thing. You wouldn't understand."
The Cherokee was our only car. The insurance totaled it and gave us a nice check to purchase another car. Another JEEP! We got a Wrangler...red...again! This is our family's 6th jeep. Collin knows these babies inside and out.

(Mother's Day camping trip 2011)

We had the pleasure of taking it to the Mendocino National Forest for some off-roading.


Also in January, Magnus turned 10! Double digits! 10!


February 2011...
We hosted a fun party celebrating the Oscars.
I turned a year older and didn't freak out about almost being 40.

March 2011...
Collin and I celebrated 13 years of weddedness!

(My brother's wedding June 2010)

We were also able to find a GREAT deal on a tent trailer! Its 32 yrs. old and in fantastic shape. Camping just got a lot easier.


April 2011...
Girl's weekend in Las Vegas!! (Yes, my husband is awesome!)

Lisa (L) was my roommate through college and Jean (R) I have known since 1987 and also attended the same college. They are wonderful friends.

May 2011...so far...

Mother's Day camping trip at Henry Cowell State Park. It's in the Santa Cruz mountains among the redwoods and 10 minutes from the beach. Perfect location.





We also celebrated Thane's 8th birthday!


Life coming up...
A trip to Washington at the end of the month to visit family and attend the wedding of our cousin.
Mid June into July we're going to visit family in Iowa.
July-September you'll find us at the pool lying under palm trees. :o)

Rest and Relaxation part 3

On May 18, 1980, a five you old Collin stepped outside to what he thought was falling snow. However, it wasn't. It was ash. Ash that was ejected from the earth as Mount St. Helen's erupted over 100 miles away.

In the weeks leading up to our trip, the boys and I learned much about volcanoes. It was pretty cool to be able to end our studies with a visit to the Mount St. Helen's National Volcanic Monument.

This is the new lava dome that is building.

This is one of Collin's and mine favorite hikes. It's amazingly beautiful.

A herd of elk.

Collin and the boys 2010

Collin, Magnus, and Me 2002

Rest and Relaxation part 2

If you missed the pictures from the Oregon Coast part of our trip, you can see them here. The next part of our trip took us further north to WA. I love WA. I love the greeness of it. I love the greyness of it. I love the Taco Timeness of it. I also happen to love some of the people that live there.

We went on a ferry ride with some of those people. I love ferry rides.

Isn't Mt. Rainier just majestic? This was the only time it came out while we were there. I never tire looking at it. I love it.

And, of course, we turned Collin's parent's living room into a battlefield...

Hey, Grandma! You're over the line!

My boys love Nerf guns battles. I'm learning to love Nerf gun battles.

Next up...the side trip we took on the way back home.

Rest and Relaxation

After Collin's summer job (finally) ended, we took a much needed family trip. We needed some time together. We headed north to go camping at William Tugman State Park. It's situated on Eel Lake, just a few miles from the Ocean and dunes, on the central coast of Oregon. It was beautiful!

Seeing as the Oregon coast's weather is unpredictable this time of year and pretty chilly over night, we opted to stay in a Yurt instead of pitching our tent. Let me just say that I may never tent camp again. Collin put it best by saying, "This is nicer than some hotels we have stayed in". He was right. It had a bunk bed and a couch that pulled out into a double bed, a table and chairs, a locking door, electricity, and HEAT! Home sweet home.

We hiked around Eel lake...

Played in the sand at the ocean...

...and the sand dunes...

We also hiked a portion of the Oregon Coast Trail and found this great beach...

...and climbed on the rocks...

...explored tide pools (my favorite thing to do)...

...and watched the sun set...

We also found loads of these guys...

...and caught a glimpse of this guy...

It was a GREAT camping trip. Next up...our visit with family in Washington.