Saturday, May 28, 2011

Week 36 - School's OUT!!!

We finished!  Onward to summer projects!

My son had his last algebra class on Monday and she didn't give them any homework, so we spent the rest of the week finishing up chapter 4 in Russian Math 6.  We're going to start working through the VideoText programming I already own over the course of the summer to help keep skills from getting rusty.  The books came in for Algebra II, next year, so we're set for that.



His last Spanish class was on Tuesday and they'll have the annual fiesta/pool party next Tuesday.  He finished up his workbook and, thankfully, his outside teacher is going to use the grammar textbook in class next year so she can correct any problems we had with it this year.

We finished up religion studies by watching "The Power and the Glory," a biblical archaeology program.  He will continue his prayers for those in other countries over the summer.  He is looking at growing flowers this summer to utilize in our church and to take to shut-ins, etc.

Regarding geography, we continued with the states and presidents flashcards.

Vocab review was completed; that book will be continued next year (Vocabulary for the College Bound). 

Grammar work was completed for the year and revisions were done on all but the last section.  Those revisions will be done at the beginning of next year, by way of review.  I split the work in Easy Grammar Plus between this year and next.  I'm trying to remediate this child who seems to be at least somewhat dysgraphic.  I also bought Easy Grammar's new Ultimate series book for eighth grade and will add in a page of that daily next year.

Latin Primer III was completed through lesson 52, test 7.  The book will be finished next year and he'll move into Latin Grammar I.  We continued review of Greek.  I may incorporate continued review of that next year, if he wants to and time permits....

The Latin program I use has been revised and I hear it is simpler to use now:

Latin Primer:

http://www.canonpress.org/store/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=62

But it looks to me like Latin Grammar has not been revised, or at least not yet, so you might ask about plans for that:

Latin Grammar I: Student


http://www.canonpress.org/store/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=64

I have a middle school chemistry book that I picked up at a library sale which my son had started earlier, completing the introduction and chapter one.  I had him complete chapters 2-4 this week, along with activity logs, chapter questions, and most of the experiments.  I wanted him to use this for review and reinforcement, but was reminded once again of why I just don't like texts.  The experiments regarding physical vs. chemical changes were flawed, and in looking online I saw numerous other teachers asking questions about the same experiments....  But these did at least give me some good ideas for experiment/discussion next year when I'm going to be teaching physical sciences to he and a friend. 

One thing we did that I absolutely love was put a raw egg in vinegar.  As I'm sure everyone knows, the shell will be dissolved after about 24 hours.  The inner membrane, however, becomes almost a plastic consistency and the egg looks like it's hard-boiled.  The only real difference is that there's a lot of air inside and the egg is squishy, like a water-filled ball.  In fact, I'm guessing that if left a little longer it might explode! (Note to self: place these in a closed container, LOL....)  When punctured, the raw insides do rather explode out of the egg, leaving a leathery skin....  Much more impressive than the results with just a hard-boiled egg....

Changes in Matter - 9780022742829

We finished our history studies with the topic of the California Gold Rush.  Some of the books we'd been reading about the Mexican-American War, Compromise of 1850, etc. already had touched on this topic.  My son read the last chapter in SOTW and did the mapwork associated with that.

I read aloud to finish up books already started and also added in reading from: 

The Gold Rush, Liza Ketchum (great photographs in this book and lots of books from this time period, as photography was beginning to come into vogue); Hurry Freedom: African Americans in Gold Rush California, Jerry Stanley; Gold Rush! The Young Prospector's Guide to Striking it Rich, James Klein.
The Gold Rush Cover     Gold Rush!: The Young Prospector's Guide to Striking It Rich (For the Junior Rockhound)

I read in its entirety California: the Rush for Gold, Linda Wade

His reading, encompassing topics from the past several weeks, included:

Joshua's Westward Journal, Joan Anderson; Susanna of the Alamo, John Jakes (a true story); Gold Fever, Verla Kay (very simple, but written in rhyme and we've been studying poetry); Striking it Rich, Stephen Krensky (also simple); Nat. Geo's Gold Fever!  Tales from the California Gold Rush, Rosalyn Schanzer; If You Lived with the Cherokee, Peter and Connie Roop; Quit Pulling my Leg! A Story of Davy Crockett, Robert Quackenbush; Davy Crockett, Frontier Hero, J. T. Moriarty; and The Life of a Miner, Bobbie Kalman.

Joshua's Westward Journal

        

    If You Lived with the Cherokee      Quit Pulling My Leg!: A Story of Davy Crockett by Robert Quackenbush

    The Life of a Miner (Life in the Old West)

For literature, we wrapped up our poetry studies for the year, reading from:  John Clare, Sara Coleridge, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Edgar Allen Poe, Edward Lear, Cecil Francis Alexander, Emily Dickinson, Christina Rossetti, and Lewis Carol.  We'll read more on some of these authors when we pick up next year....

We didn't have time to pick up a lengthy novel this week, but I looked back to the time period of the Opium Trade and read "The Man with the Twisted Lip" (Sherlock Holmes).  I would have typically picked up some Jack London short stories, but he's going to be ready Call of the Wild in lit/writing class next year and will read some of the short stories then, so I left it....

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Yesterday, we traveled to Cincinnati Museum Center to see the Cleopatra exhibit.  It was very well done, I thought!  They've found some beautiful artifacts in excavating the port of Alexandria, and now Dr. Hawass thinks they may be on the trail of Cleopatra's actual tomb!  I find water archaeology very interesting....  This exhibit did what many good ones are doing today to keep the attention of more people, they combined written info; tons of pictures and videos, some with audio; with hand-held supplemental audio info that you could control.  Very interesting....

http://www.fi.edu/cleopatra/



We also visited the Freedom Center while there and spent a great deal of time viewing their exhibitions on slavery and abolition, both historical U.S. and modern world.  They have waaaay too much written info to take in (including info on Indian removals); I wish they would institute use of audio guides, too, to help digest more of their info.  They do provide quite a few video experiences and short films which add a lot to the experience.  They have also instituted use of an iPod or some such hand-held device, and it does offer numerous info bites you can listen to as you move through the exhibits, but it includes its own video, which is rather distracting from all the exhibits already on display - I'd rather just see them do video....

http://freedomcenter.org/

So that's a wrap on our school year!  I've begun clearing the school room and getting ready for next year.  My son has his Fiesta this week and a physical science lab on Friday.  He's finishing up a couple of books, but he's basically foot loose and fancy free this next week.  Our pool opens for summer this weekend, but I'm guessing the water is freezing; the official hours start June 3....

Regena

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Eighth Grade Poetry Study....

I still own a book that I used for literature in college that I really liked at the time.  It contains a lot of poetry and the author uses a very engaging, conversational style throughout the book.  I notice in looking at this book that it appears to still get some use and later editions of it have added in writing to the other components, so it might be useful on several fronts.  It is:

Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, X. J. Kennedy 

Newer editions, as I mentioned, often contain writing in the title, as well, and the second author: Gioia.  Mine is from the late 70's, and is the fourth edition....

Here's one newer edition: 

http://www.amazon.com/Literature-Introduction-Fiction-Poetry-Drama/dp/0321428498

I plan on using this next year, as a sort of "spine," along with reading from poets of the time periods we'll be studying. 

Here are some websites I've found that include lesson plans, etc. to help with our poetry studies next year:

http://www.homeschoollearning.com/tlc/pdf/gr06_lit_wk17b.pdf

http://www.leasttern.com/Poetry/lessons.htm

http://www.leasttern.com/Poetry/MSpoetry.html

http://quizlet.com/104630/poetry-terms-8th-grade-flash-cards/

Regena

Monday, May 23, 2011

Eighth Grade Writing Prompts and Rubrics....

I'm looking over info regarding eighth grade writing and finding that because testing for this grade level involves persuasive or expository writing, most teachers are emphasizing this style of writing as opposed to narratives.  Here are some links I've found that include writing prompts, as well as some rubrics and examples of student work - both acceptable and unacceptable:

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/grade_level_help/writing_using_prompts_language_arts_eighth_8th_grade.htm

http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/ci_testing.aspx?PageReq=CITestingWA8

http://writingfix.com/classroom_tools/nevada_writing_exam.htm#8th

http://mset.rst2.edu/portfolios/c/caufield_d/toolsdev/final_project/t1f_eighth.htm

http://mset.rst2.edu/portfolios/c/caufield_d/toolsdev/final_project/t5_worksheets.htm (same site - good ideas and examples)

http://tn.gov/education/assessment/writing_grade_8.shtml

Regena

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Week 35 - Almost Finished!

Algebra work related to my son's outside class continued this week, as well as geometry work at home.  We have one section of geometry to finish next week, as well as his last algebra class.  The physical science lab he's doing over the summer is going to contain quite a bit if math work, so that should help him keep in practice.  I'm sure his teacher will provide some summer work for him, too.  I just ordered the Algebra books for next year....

Algebra and Trigonometry: Structure and Method Book 2 (Hardcover... Cover Art

He finished up his questions for section one of the BJU physical science lab book this week and we read through the labs for sections 2 and 3.  They worked through those in his lab class and he'll finish up those questions this week.  We won't meet again until June for this lab.

He finished up his copywork this week, as well as his grammar work for the year.  Next week he has a comprehensive review to complete in grammar.  We finished reviewing and correcting all his vocab work for the year.  He continued with Latin, Spanish and review of Greek.

I've been using a set of cards and accompanying tape at home to practice making sentences in Spanish (working on his accent/pronunciation).  We've also been using some sets of National Geographic flash cards to review the states and first 15 Presidents.

National Geographic United States Flash CardsLinguafun! Language Learning Card Games: Spanish


His outside Spanish class is going to use Barron's Spanish Now! next year, along with their grammar practice book that we've been using some at home this year.

SPANISH NOW! LEVEL 1













He's continuing with the series of videos on the Bible from Films for the Humanities and Sciences.  He watched "Thine is the Kingdom" this week.

He had his last piano lesson until his summer lessons start.  He will do a series of 6 lessons over the course of the summer and they will emphasize jazz work.  I'm still waiting for his music to come in for the piano camp he's also doing.  I hope it comes soon!

He read the chapter from SOTW on New Zealand and the Treaty of Waitangi this week.  He outlined one section of that and we caught up on map work, etc. from the activity guide so that we only have next week's work to complete to finish out the year.

I read about New Zealand's history from New Zealand, Ronda Armitage and National Geographic Countries of the World, New Zealand, Barbara Jackson.  I also read more on Australia's history during the 19th century, for purposes of comparison and contrast, from National Geographic Countries of the World, Australia, Kate Turner.

National Geographic Countries of the World: New ZealandNational Geographic Countries of the World: Australia


My son read Children of the World: New Zealand, Akinobu Yanigi,  Take a Trip to New Zealand, Geoff Burns, and The Cousteau Society, An Adventure in New Zealand.

I am continuing to focus mostly, however, on America during the 19th century.  I finished up reading various books we'd already started and talked more about the idea of manifest destiny and the westward expansion using the book Exploration of North America, Shirley Greenway.  I read about the Compromise of 1850 using a Cobblestone publication of the same name.  I read The Dred Scott Case, Slavery and Citizenship, D. J. Herda.  And I read about the Mexican-American War using Hispanic America, Texas, and the Mexican War, Christopher Collier.

Exploration of North America (Great Explorers Series)  


The Dred Scott Case: Slavery and Citizenship (Landmark Supreme Court Cases)large image


Books from this time period that my son finished this week:

Escape to Freedom, Barbara Simons; The Cherokees, Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve; Davy Crockett, Elaine Alphin; Make Way for Sam Houston, Jean Fritz.

Escape to Freedom    The Cherokees (A First American Book)      Make Way for Sam Houston


We attended an art exhibit in town on Friday.  It focuses on patterns in art and was very interesting!  There were many examples of radial symmetry in the exhibit and the children got to make their own artwork using radial or other forms of symmetry after they were finished talking about the exhibit.  We also got to work with making fractal patterns using pattern blocks....



We moved our older son home from college on Wednesday - and he finally made it home for good today (Saturday), LOL.  I have summer projects calling to me once we finish up next week!  (Can't wait!)

Regena

Monday, May 16, 2011

School Work for Week 34....

Isn't it amazing how the last few weeks drag by?  It seems to take them forever to end....  I thought that perhaps this year would be different, since my son started some new classes in the late spring - a thing we've never done before - but they have still seemed to drag on....

My son continued with his algebra class, which runs through the end of the month.  We're finishing up the chapter in geometry in Russian Math 6 at home.  That's the last I will do with him this year.  I may use work from the rest of the chapters in that book as summer math practice, if his algebra teacher doesn't give him any to do, or I may use it as drill work next year. 

He is going to begin Algebra II work with his tutor next year and I'm also planning on using the VideoText materials I already own as drill work for him at home to give him extra practice in Algebra I level work so that he doesn't get rusty.  That's if we have time for all that!  It may take him longer to complete his homework for Algebra II and he may not have much time for other work....

We're wrapping up vocabulary and Greek review; completing work in Easy Grammar; and he's continuing watching some tapes about Biblical archaeology.  He watched Chronicles and Kings this week.  Latin continues, per usual.  Spanish will wrap up at the end of the month and then they'll get together for a fiesta and pool party which we do every year.  There are more kids involved this year so if everyone comes it should be fun!

Physical Science Lab started this week and we read through all the chapter one sections of the BJU lab book in preparation for that.  Those books are a bit of overkill, I think, LOL!  There are questions after every section in the text, then more (a page or two) at the end of each chapter.  Then there are also questions with each section in the lab manual, which don't include the actual info to be filled in for the investigations!  Oy!  It's enough to drive the love of science right out of a kid if they're asked to do it all.

Right now, we are only reading through the lab manual and he is answering those questions at home after his lab if the work doesn't get done as part of his lab.  And that's really quite a bit of work, since they're covering multiple sections in each meeting.  They did labs 1.1 - 1.4 this week as an intro to get them ready for more involved work.

I honestly don't know if I'm going to use the BJU text with him next year.  I have to get my CPO physical science book back out and look over it first.  And I've been looking at online things, as well, that seem more appealing to me.  A friend of his has asked to do science with us at our house once a week, so I'm thinking about what I'm going to pull together for them to work on.  I know that I'm going to use Science in a Nutshell kits as well as some others I have, but for the reading material to get them prepared for class each week, I'm just not sure yet.  I'm thinking of using Rader's Physics 4 Kids website, but the MSNucleus website also has some good math/measuring investigations related to physical science, so I may do a mish-mash of things, per usual....

In history and literature, we continue to finish up reading from our last several topics related to the 19th century. 

Regarding Africa during that period (and the country as a whole, for geography purposes), he finished up reading:

Ashanti to Zulu, African Traditions, Margaret Musgrove;  A True Book: South Africa, Ann Heinrichs; and South Africa, A Question and Answer Book, Kremena Spengler.

   South Africa (True Books: Countries)


Regarding slavery in America, he finished:  If You Lived When There was Slavery in America, Pamela Johnson.




Regarding the Cherokee (who we've been reading about in relation to the Indian Removals), he read:  Ahyoka and the Talking Leaves, Peter and Connie Roop.  I really like their books.  In fact, we just found their Louisiana Purchase book in his bedroom which he'd read earlier.  We're not generally too bad about losing books (but I tend to make him keep them out of his bedroom, LOL)!

 


He also read another Bruchac book:  The First Strawberries, A Cherokee Story



Our actual history topic for the week was supposed to be about Mexico and America during the Mexican-American War, the Alamo, etc.  I only got some basic material covered with regard to this subject, however, because he had standardized testing two days and we just didn't have much time around that.  At least it only took him two days, however.  They had three scheduled, but I'm thankful he finished so that we didn't have to trek across town for a third day.

He read the chapter in SOTW about Mexican/American relations and outlined one portion of it.  He also read:  Davy Crockett, Defender of the Alamo, William Sanford, and The Battle of the Alamo, Matt Doeden, which is a graphic "novel", if you can call a hardback comic book that, LOL!

large book cover 


We are supposed to be reading more about Australia and Oceania in history/geography this next week, but I'm still going to be playing catch up!

We went home for my grandmother's 103 birthday last week and that was nice.  The weather was too cool for me to plant the flowerbed I intended to put in for her, but I took them plenty of flowers to make a nice bed.  I hope that the weather has warmed up enough now for them to get those planted....  Hmmmm, I was going to post pictures, but since the Blogger update, they won't post any more.  Wonder what's up with that....

Oh well, we're getting quite a bit of gardening done this spring.  I've planted more edibles than usual and have also reinforced my flower beds with new blooms.  Maybe I'll be able to post some pics someday soon if they get this thing working properly again....

We got new bedroom furniture delivered for the boys on Saturday!  We've been waiting for it for almost a year.  We got disgusted with what was out in the stores and how poorly made it was and decided to go find our own Amish or Mennonite farmers/craftsmen who would make furniture for us.  If you're patient, they certainly do good work!  This furniture is something they can have their whole lives and pass down to their children.

Now I've got to find towels made in America, or from someone who hasn't changed their manufacturing process so that the towels begin to unravel with the first wash.  Have you looked at towels lately?  If you pinch a loop and pull very lightly, the whole thing will begin to unravel like a berber carpet!  What's up with that?  Towels didn't use to be made that way!  I was beginning to think I was crazier than normal, but I came home and checked my old towels and they don't do that.  I've been looking for more than two months now....

Regena

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Week 33 School Work....

We continued with our regular routine this week and caught up with the geometry work in Russian Math 6 that we got behind on last week.  My son continues to watch some videos related to different religions and watched Walking with Buddha this week.  Most of these are from Films for the Humanities and Sciences.  I'm not sure whether they are widely available, or not....  We used to have a large book warehouse in our city that would periodically have big sales that included a lot of educational materials (for $1, $2, etc.!)  I got a lot of things there over the years....

He completed a chapter on organic chemistry from Tiner.  That's all we got done for science this week.  He finished up his spring chemistry lab last week and starts a physical science lab with the same lady next week.  Yipee!

He finished up some readings related to Africa this week and I did some more read-alouds related to the late period of slavery in America using these books:

South Africa, Lucia Raatma; Abiyoyo, Pete Seeger; Over the Green Hills, Rachel Isadora:

South Africa NEW by Lucia Raatma   

I read:  Two Tickets to Freedom, The True Story of Ellen and William Craft, Fugitive Slaves, Florence Freedman:

Two Tickets to Freedom: The True Story of Ellen and William Craft, Fugitive Slaves

I also read about Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vesey, rebel abolitionists, Cinque and the Amistad, and John Brown's Raid from Rebels Against Slavery, American Slave Revolts, Patricia and Fredrick McKissack:



We're going to be visiting the Freedom Center in Cincinnati within the next couple of weeks....
He read a couple of chapters in Story of the World this week, one regarding the Trail of Tears and Nat Turner's rebellion; the other regarding China.  Because we'd already covered much about the Opium Wars period in China earlier, we did not focus very heavily on it at this time.  In addition  to our standard books we use as "spines," I also read:

The Trail of Tears, Dennis Fradin and read part of chapter two from Plains Indian Wars, Sherry Marker, regarding the time period from the Louisiana Purchase through the Indian removals of the 1830's.  I read "The Holdouts" from the March issue of Smithsonian, regarding the Cherokee, Andrew Jackson, and the Trail of Tears.  We began reading more on Jackson from Old Hickory: Andrew Jackson and the American People, Albert Marrin.

Buy The Trail Of Tears    

Regarding Nat Turner, I read:

Nat Turner, Rebel Slave, Ann-Marie Hendrickson

He read:

Yonder Mountain, Robert Bushyhead; Hiawatha, Susan Jeffers, illustrator; Brother Eagle, Sister Sky, Chief Seattle (Susan Jeffers, Illus.); The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush, Tomie dePaola; Coyote and the Grasshoppers, Gloria Dominic (Pomo Legend); The Trees Stand Shining, Hettie Jones, Ed. (Poetry); Thirteen Moons on Turtle's Back, Joseph Bruchac and Jonathan London; Soft Rain, Cornelia Cornelissen.

Yonder Mountain: A Cherokee Legend (Aesop Accolades (Awards))
Cover Image  Brother Eagle, Sister Sky Cover    
Coyote and the Grasshoppers: a Pomo Legend (Native American Legends)                                                                                                                           
      Soft Rain by Cornelia Cornelissen: NOOK Book Cover

Regarding the SOTW chapter on China, I read from Cultures of the World: Hong Kong, Falaq Kagda and Magdalene Koh, regarding takeover of that area by Britain during the Opium Wars time period.  This was one topic we had not explored in past.

Cultures of the World #15: Hong Kong Hong Kong Cover

We continued our poetry study, using Michael Clay Thompson's Poetry, Plato, and the Problem of Beauty to talk about use of Trochee by Blake.  We discussed the poetry of Robert Burns and William Wordsworth, as well, using some online analysis for discussion purposes, as well as just reading some of their works for fun.

We attended an Impressionist exhibit at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville.

Image © Brooklyn Museum; Used with permission

Robert Spencer - PA Impressionist -- Robert Spencer - White Tenement 1913 - Original Size -30x36 Painting


(I just used this for my blog recently and then got to see it in person!)



And many, many more!

We also attended his last homeschool workshop for the year at Frazier History Museum.  It was a presentation entitled "Brother Against Brother" and looked at the Civil War (for Kentuckians, in particular).  We'll be kicking off next year with a longer study of the period around the Civil War....

Piano continues and is going well.  They are going to play jazz over the summer. 

They finally got to play a soccer game today (of all days - Mother's Day).  They've been rained out for most of the season.  Hope we get finished before summer activities begin!

Next week will be primarily taken up with preparing for testing and his taking the Stanford Achievement Test, so I'm not sure how much other work we'll get accomplished!

Regena
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