Books and Movies from August

I love to read.  Reading is definitely one of the great pleasures in my life.  My definition of an absolutely decadent day would be to spend the entire day in bed, just reading.  I'm still waiting for that decadent day to come.  Having said all of that, sometimes I find that I'm just reading too many books at once.  I'm always reading at least a few books at once, but right now, I've managed to start reading quite a stack!

Right now, I'm reading 8 books! 

• Fatally Frosted by Jessica Beck - I'm reading this one for no other reason than pure pleasure.  Fatally Frosted is the second book in the Donut Shop Mystery series.  This will probably be the first book finished of the eight I'm currently reading.  Truly, I'm always the most motivated to read my "pure pleasure" book.
• From Bondage to Freedom: A Tale of the Times of Mohammed by Emma Leslie - I'm reading this one as part of my duties for The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew. 
• Already Gone: Why Your Kids Will Quit Church and What You Can Do To Stop It by Ken Hamm & Britt Beemer - My dear friend loaned this book to me and I'm trying to finish it so that I can return it to her.  I am more than halfway through the book and have found much of it quite upsetting.  Therefore, I only read a chapter at a time and go back to a "pure pleasure" book to lift my spirits.
• The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw - I am reading this book to my boys as our current history read-aloud.  I am definitely enjoying it more than them.
• The Phantom and the Fisherman by Terry Deary - I am reading this book so that my youngest child and I can talk about it when he reads it for his next assigned book.  I really like these "Read-It! Historical Tales Chapter Books."  They are perfect for my 9 year old son and link to our history studies well. 
• The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan - I'm reading this book alongside my middle son.  He's way ahead of me now and keeps urging me to get caught up.  I do like this one but it's definitely more on the action-packed side and light on the character development side.  Mason really likes it.
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain - I'm almost done with this one.  Amber just started reading it for her Literary Analysis course.  Honestly, I haven't really enjoyed it very much but I am glad that I've finally (almost) read it.
• Time Management from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern - I am almost always reading a nonfiction book about organizing, time management, or homeschooling.  I like this one quite a bit.  So far, the one piece of advice that has stuck with me the most is that you have to plan what you want to do and WHEN you are going to do it.  I'm good with the what, not so good with the when.

So, that's what I'm currently reading.  I actually finished a few books in August, bringing my yearly total to 36!  I'm well on my way to meeting my local library's 50 Book Challenge goal again this year.  Note that three of the four books that I finished in August were pure pleasure books.  The other one was our read-aloud for history.

• Kiss of the Highlander by Karen Marie Moning (4 stars)
• Gilgamesh the Hero by Geraldine McCaughrean (3 stars)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling (audio book - 5 stars)
• The Dark Highlander by Karen Marie Moning (4 stars)

Movies in August

I watched quite a few movies in August and found quite a few of them disappointing.  By far, my favorite movie of the month was Mrs. Brown - highly recommended.

• The Sixth Sense (5)
• Penelope (4)
• The Proposal (2)
• The Green Zone (2)
• Mistress of Spices (2)
• Extraordinary Measures (3)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (5)
• Blades of Glory (4)
• Remember Me (3)
• Mrs. Brown (5)
• A Room With a View (5).

So, did you read anything fabulous or see any great movies in August?

Week in Review - Ski Hats, Chemical Reactions, and Picasso

We started our school week with a much-enjoyed three day week-end.  Amber's good friend had a birthday bowling party so we tweaked our week a bit so that she could attend.  The party was about 40 minutes away from our house so the boys and I went to the library and out for pizza while Amber was at the party.  Afterwards, we ran some much needed errands to the fabric store and the grocery. 

Amber needed fabric for her sewing course.  We so enjoyed looking at all of the wonderful fabrics and picking out fabrics for her ski hat and pillow projects.  This week, Amber completed her ski hat and a ski hat for her little brother.  She is working on completing a ski hat for her other brother and two pillows. 

In history this week, we left the Ice Age behind and moved on in history to Ancient Mesopotamia.  We watched two great videos:

• Ancient Mesopotamia from Schlessinger Media
• Mesopotamia:  Return to Eden, Time Life's Lost Civilizations.

We started working on our Ancient Mesopotamia lapbooks from Hands of a Child and completed all of the scheduled readings for the week in Winter Promise's Quest for the Ancient World curriculum that we are following this year.  I also gathered the perfect boxes for model ziggurats which I plan to have my boys build next week.

While I did not get as far in my boy's science curriculum as I had planned, the boys did enjoy a hands-on lesson about chemical reactions.  We are using Real Science 4 Kids Chemistry and we're currently working through a chapter on chemical reactions.  We exploded a sandwich bag using a vinegar, water, and baking soda combination.  My youngest, Duncan, was so thrilled to get his volcano out that he made at Vacation Bible Camp.  He was so eager to mix the baking soda and vinegar in his little cup to make it ooze out all over his volcano.  Lastly, the boys used salt and vinegar to clean pennies.  I am planning some more fun, easy chemical reaction experiments for next week.  The boys LOVED this hands-on science lesson!

In my daughter's Biology class this week, we looked at the water samples we took from a local pond under our microscope.  While we didn't see any living little creatures in three of the samples, we were both very excited to see little living creatures in one of the samples.  I was chuckling to myself listening to my daughter talk to the microscopic organism, telling it not to try to hide behind the tiny piece of dirt on the slide.  Very cool lab.  I'm so beginning to wish I had purchased the add-on camera for the miscroscope!

This week was one of those weeks where we had a lot of living interfere with getting all of my plans completed.  We simply ran out of time some days to get everything accomplished that I wanted to get done.  My husband, boys, mother-in-law, and her boyfriend went to the county fair late this afternoon so we weren't able to have our weekly art lesson.  Of course, with my artsy Mason, art study was pursued this week on his own.

Mason checked a book of Picasso's paintings out of the library and decided he wanted to try to recreate one of Picasso's paintings.  I think he did a really great job!  I was particularly impressed with Mason's use of color. 

In the category of "homeschool mom enrichment," I attended a wonderful presentation one evening this week about homeschooling through high school in my state.  I'm so glad I took the time to attend.  I learned so much and received a fabulous binder full of information that I know will be helpful in the years ahead.

Lastly, I finally couldn't stand my long hair any longer (you can see a picture of me with my long hair in my School Pictures post) and I had it all chopped off until it is just tuckable behind my ears - my favorite hairstyle.  It's SO much easier to deal with on busy mornings, and really, when aren't my mornings busy?

That was our Week in Review!  If you want to read about what other homeschoolers were doing this week, check out the Weekly Wrap Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Ski Hats Completed!

Amber is taking a sewing course this year which I purchased on impulse at the Midwest Homeschool Convention.  Often, my impulse purchases should not have been made but I'm so glad I purchased the Sew and Learn program.  Since my daughter is now a teenager, I wanted to start adding some formal "home economics" courses to her schedule.  The hands-on and practical nature of the sewing course is a perfect complement to her more rigorous, academic courses this year. 

Amber just finished Module 2 and her first sewing project - a ski hat.  She really enjoyed making this project, even though her first attempt was met with some difficulty.  I had never worked with fleece before so I didn't make sure that she cut out the hat so that the stretch in the fleece went from side to side, therefore making it easy to put the hat on.  So, the first hat was too small and I couldn't figure out why.  Amber quickly figured out that the fleece didn't stretch the right way.  Smart girl.  Luckily, she has a younger brother who was eager to get his own ski hat!

Amber was so proud of her finished hat.  She tweaked the pattern a bit, adding more fringes at the top.  She feels this will be the perfect hat to wear to and from swim team this winter.  I think it's adorable and she did a great job with the sewing!

Amber's other brother, Mason, really wants his own ski hat too so Amber is going to stitch one up for him.  He picked out a fleece fabric over the week-end.  With some of the left-over fleece fabric (and some from my stash of fabric), Amber may sew a few more ski hats for Christmas presents for friends.  I think they are just adorable!

Study Aids for Biology

My daughter is taking Apologia Biology this year.  She is currently studying for the Module 2 test on Kingdom Monera.  For the test, she needs to memorize the "Partial Classification of Kingdom Monera" table.  At first, she thought memorizing the table would be almost impossible.  I encouraged her to focus on memorizing the four different Phylums first and their characteristics.

I was so pleased when she showed me the index cards that she had made to help her prepare for the test.  Using an excellent study strategy, she made memorable connections between the Phylum names and the characteristics of the Phylum.  Her index cards were excellent and I found that I easily memorized the information after looking at her pictures and explanations.
                                    

"Bacteria in Phylum Gracilicutes say "No Gracias" to Mr. Gram's dye-job stain, which they don't retain."  Phylum Gracilicutes - Gram-negative bacteria

  "Bacteria in Phylum Firmicutes have strong and firm muscles and a positive attitude!" 

Phylum Firmicutes - Gram-positive bacteria

"Bacteria in Phylum Tenericutes are very tender because they have nothing to protect them, like a wall."

Phylum Tenericutes - Bacteria lacking a cell wall

"Bacteria from Phylum Mendosicutes come from Mendonisia and are exotic belly dancers."

Phylum Mendosicutes - Bacteria with exotic cell walls

I adore the little bacteria drawings!  Who says high school biology can't be fun?  Obviously not the belly-dancing bacteria!

Week in Review - The Ice Age, Some Socialization, and Aboriginal Themed Art (Week 3)

I truly can't believe that we just finished our THIRD week of school!  The weeks have truly been flying by with good busy-ness.  Overall, all aspects of this school year are getting off to a smooth and productive start. 

I am planning to tweak our schedule quite a bit next week to address a number of different issues but I am not discouraged by the changes that need to be made.  When I set up a schedule, I expected that I would need to tweak it after we lived the schedule for a while.  I am planning to flip our day and do history first thing in the morning with everybody.  We'll see how the new schedule works for us next week.

The children accomplished quite a bit in their studies this week - much more than can be adequately covered in one post, so, as usual, I will focus on the highlights.

One of my favorite aspects of being a homeschooling mother is when I see my children take something they learned during our school time, and continue to learn more about the topic on their own.  Last week, our art lesson focused on Australian Aboriginal art, more specifically, an x-ray picture.  My very artsy son, Mason, asked to see other examples of Aboriginal art so I brought up scads of images for him on the internet.  Inspired, he created two Aboriginal-themed art projects on his own.  I particularly LOVE this one and am thinking of purchasing an inexpensive frame for it. 

I adore this fish picture as well, which is similar to the picture he did for the original art lesson, but with tons of color!

I have been incredibly impressed with the progress of both of my boys in the Ancient History Writing Course we are doing together from IEW.  I LOVE this course and it fits perfectly with our history studies this year.  For the past three weeks, we have been working on:

• quality adjectives
• strong verbs
• -ly adverbs
• poetry writing
• key word outlines
• writing a paragraph from a key word outline.

Most inspiring to my mother's heart is my youngest child eagerly wanting to read his finished writing projects to his dad over lunch (the meal of the day that we often eat together).  Duncan is SO proud of his writing.  Mason has been writing in his spare time on his own.  He has been writing scary short stories and has been enjoying just writing for the pleasure of it.

Having said all of that, the writing course is time-consuming.  We work together for about 30-45 minutes a day during the first part of the week.  Then, they work more independently on Thursday and Friday to finish their writing project for the week.  I am very hopeful, though, that this course will be a significant benefit to their writing skills.

Since Amber's schedule is quite academic this year with Biology, Algebra I, and Literary Analysis, I'm so glad I decided to add in a sewing course.  It makes a great break to her day - I'm going to try to fit the class in more than twice a week in my revised schedule.  She is almost finished with her first project, a ski hat.  I purchased enough material to make two, so one of her friends will be getting one as well.  Mason wants her to make one for him, too!

We finished our extra week on the Ice Age this week and will be getting back to the course plans for Quest for the Ancient World next week.  We watched another episode of Prehistoric Predators from National Geographic about an Ice Age bear.  We also finished our Ice Age lapbooks.  And I mean, completely finished, as the children all put the finished mini-books in the base themselves. I plan to review the material in the lapbook next week with a Jeopardy style game.

Lastly, we did the first part in a two-part art lesson this week.  The children are working on paintings that depict a crowd and a sporting event.  This week, they focused on painting the crowd and adding details to the faces.  Next week, they will add a sporting event for the crowd to watch.  Duncan is going to paint a bowling game, Amber is going to paint a swim meet, and Mason is undecided.

Mason, ever the creative one, wanted to add his own creative creatures to the first row, so all the people in his crowd are not actually people.  Amber always points out to him that if he went to a traditional school, he would have to follow the instructions for the art lesson closely.  Those comments always inspire me to say, "Go ahead, Mason, add your own twist to the art project."  I mean, really, isn't that one of the reasons that I decided to homeschool?

Lastly, we even got out and had some socialization this week.  We met dear friends for bowling late Tuesday afternoon.  We had a great time even if we were a bit rushed at the end to get Amber to swim team.

 

That was our Week in Review!  Amber and I will be heading out to a pond tomorrow morning to collect water samples for Biology.  The homeschooling fun never ends!  To see what other homeschoolers have been doing this week, check out the Weekly Wrap Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

School Pictures

For the 2010-2011 school year, I have a class of three (as usual).  My youngest, Duncan, is technically in 4th grade this year.  My middle child, Mason, is technically in 6th grade this year.  My oldest child, Amber, is technically in 8th grade this year.  I say technically because, as any experienced homeschooler knows, grade levels don't mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of learning.  For example, Mason is "below" grade level in grammar but way above his years in artistic ability.  Duncan is "above" grade level in math but is most comfortable reading chapter books "below" grade level.  Amber is taking several high school courses this year but is "below" grade level in spelling.  All of my children have great strengths and some weaknesses.  I am so blessed that they can be home with me where I can actively work to focus on their strengths while also working to overcome their weaknesses, at their own pace.

This is actually our third week of the 2010-2011 school year so these are not "first day of school" photos.  After my kids were dressed this morning, I dragged them out to the school room for a quick photo shoot.  Thankfully, they indulged me without too much groaning.

So, here we go, To Be Busy At Home's 2010-2011 class of students!

My oldest child is Amber.  She is 13 and in 8th grade this year.  She has started quite a bit of high school work this year including Algebra 1, Biology, and Literary Analysis.  Amber enjoys learning and is an excellent writer.  She loves to read and talk about books.  We enjoy listening to books on tape together in the car.   

She is absolutely passionate about swimming.  For the fall, her practice schedule has her in the water 12 hours a week with an additional 1.5 hours of dry-land exercises.  She is about 1/2 of a second away from a Junior National cut in the 50 Freestyle and that is her driving goal right now.  When she's not doing schoolwork or swimming, she enjoys texting her friends, watching movies, reading, and doing craft or art projects.  Even though she is a teenager now, we are still extremely close.  I am beyond blessed to have a smart, beautiful, talented, and funny daughter like Amber.

My middle child is Mason.  He is 11 and is in 6th grade this year (he turns 12 in October).  Of all of my children, he is the most like my husband.  He loves to make people laugh, is kind to everybody, and is always willing to help my husband with yardwork and other projects.  Schoolwork does not always come easily to Mason but he has progressed well in all of his subjects over the years and is doing well in all of his subjects.  He is amazingly talented in art, particularly clay sculpting.  There is rarely a day that goes by when Mason does not spend at least an hour making clay figures.  Sometimes his creations take my breath away - he is amazing with clay.  He also draws quite well and has a great eye for color. 

Mason's talents are not limited to art, though.  He swims competitively as well and has recently earned A times in two events, the 50 Free and the 100 Fly.  Mason's fall practice schedule has him in the water 10 hours a week with an additional 1.5 hours of dry land exercises.  As well, Mason will be participating in a bowling league this fall.

Mason enjoys clay sculpting, playing with his brother, listening to his iPod Touch, and watching silly videos on You Tube.  He also really enjoys going to Youth Group each week at church.  In addition to seeing his friends, he enjoys the monthly trip they make to a local nursing home to play games with the residents.  Every day I am thankful that Mason and his sweet spirit are in my life. 

Lastly, is my youngest child, Duncan.  Duncan just turned 9 in June and is in 4th grade this year.  Duncan is in that in-between time now - he's not really a "little" kid anymore and he's not a "big kid" like his brother and sister.  Duncan loves playing with his brother, playing games with anybody in his family, video games, building with Legos or blocks, and sculpting with clay.  Duncan is also on a USA swim team and his fall schedule has him practicing 6 hours a week.  Duncan is getting very close to B times in a few events!  Duncan will also be on a bowling league with his brother this fall.

Duncan is a good student who works diligently at his own pace to finish his school assignments.  He enjoys hands-on projects and art projects.  He excels in math and is very good with numbers.  I can't imagine my life without my adorable Duncan with his hugs and love.

Lastly, the school pictures wouldn't be complete without the teacher, school nurse, office worker, lunch lady, bus driver, and curriculum planner.  So, here is my complete staff of school personnel for the 2010-2011 school year.  

 
   

Week in Review - The Molecules and The Microscope (Week 2)

Overall, this was another smooth and productive week for us, although I didn't get quite as far in our history studies or my daughter's sewing class as I had planned.  We took a long lunch with my husband at one of my favorite restaurants, Cracker Barrel, on Wednesday and nobody felt like doing our afternoon history studies when we got back home (including me).  But, the opportunity to have a lovely lunch with my whole family at one of my favorite restaurants doesn't come up every day so I consider it a good trade-off!  As well, we rushed out the door after art on Friday afternoon to make it to Kohl's to purchase some clothes for the kids before evening swim team so I didn't get to my planned sewing lesson with Amber.  But, again, I had a great coupon and there was a good sale and I like the children to wear clothes.  So, another good trade-off as far as I am concerned!

The highlights of our week definitely center around science.  The boys and I are enjoying our Chemistry studies with our Real Science 4 Kids curriculum!  This week we studied molecules and my boys completed a fabulous hands-on project with a Molecule Kit.  Using the kit, they made 16 different molecules and labelled them.  I am currently working on attaching an eye screw to each molecule so that I can hang them up in our school room.  I figure that molecule models hanging from the ceiling should make us all more intelligent just by osmosis!  You can read all about our adventures with the Molecule Kit here. 

 

My daughter and I did her first hands-on Biology lab this week.  The focus of the lab was on learning to use the microscope, making slides, and viewing cheek cells.  Although my daughter was quite interested, I was definitely the more excited of the two of us when we actually got to see some of her cheek cells under the microscope.  I feel she is quite lucky to have such an enthusiastic lab partner!  I'm thinking, though, that she is probably quite glad that she doesn't have to do the dissection labs with me this year.  She'll be doing those with a homeschooling friend who is taking the same Biology course this year.

In history this week, I have already taken a slight rabbit trail from the Quest for the Ancient World curriculum that we're using this year.  Our focus this week was the Ice Age and I decided that I wanted us to spend a bit more time on the Ice Age than just one week.  To supplement the information in our history curriculum, I purchased the Ice Age Project Pack from Hands of a Child and we're working our way through the lapbook.  We also watched one episode of Prehistoric Predators from National Geographic on the Saber toothed Tiger.  We all found the program quite interesting.

We deviated from our regular art curriculum this week to complete a project based on the art of the ancient Australian people.  To guide our project, we used a segment from the DVD, World Art which I like quite a bit.   

The art project was fairly simple.  Following the instruction on the DVD, the children first made a border around their paper.  Then, they sketched an Australian animal of their choice.  Finally, they filled in a backbone and other designs on their animals.  The only materials needed for this project were white colored pencils and dark red paper.  I think their projects turned out very well!

So, that was our Week in Review for our second week of school.  If you'd like to read about what other homeschoolers were doing this week, check out the Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. 

Making Molecules

My 4th and 6th grade boys are currently working through Real Science 4 Kid's Chemistry Level 1 book.  Although Chemistry is a bit of a stretch out of my comfort zone, my boys and I are having a good time learning together.  I am finding that Chemistry is FAR more interesting than I dimly remember from high school!

This week we are learning about how atoms join together to form molecules.  Since we had experienced success with our Solar System Kits last school year during our Astronomy unit study, I picked up a Molecule Kit during my shopping for our new school year.

In the Molecule Kit that I purchased, the "atoms" were not painted.  So, our first step was to paint the atoms according to the chart on the side of the box.  Squishing the paint around the styrofoam balls in plastic storage bags worked very well for painting the styrofoam.  The directions indicated that only acrylic paint should be used but we found that Biocolor paint worked very well. 

Painting the styrofoam balls was an enjoyable activity and helped to break-up our academic day with a hands-on activity.  After each ball was painted, we stuck a toothpick into the ball and then stuck the toothpick (and ball) into a floral brick to dry.  Below you can see 36 hydrogen atoms, 3 nitrogen atoms, 11 carbon atoms, 7 oxygen atoms, 1 sodium atom, 6 chlorine atoms, and 1 magnesium atom all drying in our floral bricks.

We have science class Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  Since we completed all the painting on Monday, we were able to construct the molecules on Wednesday.  My goal was to get half of the molecules finished on Wednesday and half done on Friday but my boys really jumped into the project and were pretty excited about putting together the molecules.  The back of the Molecule Kit box had very clear directions for making 16 different molecules.  Several times, I had to slow the boys down a bit so they could stop and listen to the information included about each molecule.  The boys recognized many of the molecules like oxygen, water, and propane.

After the flurry of activity surrounding the making of the molecules, I got out little squares of cardstock and asked my boys to label each of the molecules by putting the symbol for the molecule on the front of the square and writing the name of the molecule on the back of the square.

Now that all the molecules are constructed and labelled, I plan to hang them up in our schoolroom from the ceiling.  I was very pleased with this hands-on project.  My teacher's manual suggested making molecules with marshmallows (which would have been quite fun and educational) but I wanted to make something a bit more lasting with my boys.