Pictures from Week 7!

We did get some school work done this past week (more on that in another post), but we took a trip up the Keweenaw Peninsula, in the UP of Michigan, and here are some of our pictures from that pretty fall trip:

Cliffs containing some of the first copper mined in the peninsula.

Eagle River Falls (we're not sure why they have the middle section of this dammed....)  Oh, figured it out:  http://keweenawfreeguide.com/eagle-river-falls-dam/

Eagle Harbor Lighthouse in the rain.

Superior with a big fall storm moving in....

Laurium Manor Inn (B&B) - 13,000 square feet of unique and interesting history with wonderful art neuvo interiors....

Rock climbing!

The beginning of color in the inland valleys.

Mountain climbing to get four bars....

Tumultuous waves coming in the day after the storm, which had 60 mph winds.

Dapple Gray Inn (B&B), where we stayed in Copper Harbor (fabulous antiques!)

Copper Harbor Lighthouse - sorta blurred because the swells were still pretty significant trying to get out there on Saturday, after Thursday's storm....

We had fun, even though the guys didn't get to do a Friday fishing trip they had hoped for.  I hope we can go back in summer some time so that we can go out to Isle Royale.

Regena

School Work for Week 6 - 2011

We are into a routine for most of our work now, although we're going to interrupt that next week to accompany my husband when he goes to a conference in Milwaukee.  After that's over, we're going to head up to the Keweenaw Peninsula for a few days before we come home.  I hope the leaves are pretty up there because it doesn't look like we're going to have much color this year down here....

~My son began reading through Bible Prophecy for Blockheads this week.  It's a book I bought for my older son when he was about this same age because he was interested in prophecy at that time.  It's interesting to me that we started this at the same time that our minister began a sermon series on prophecy.  I'm sorry that we're going to miss the last two of those sermons while we're gone, but he's going to provide me with his notes so that I can still get the gist of what I'll be missing....



~We are finally moving forward again in Logic, after completing our review of what we did last year.  It feels good to be making progress in it again.  I'm not sure why I hate thinking of doing it, because when we do get into it, I really don't mind it at all.  I didn't like the lay-out of the revised version of Introductory Logic at all last year, but I think I've finally overcome the changes I didn't like (by ignoring them)....

~In literature this week, the library finally supplied the Chesterton book I've been waiting on for weeks:



He has read several of those stories and has now begun reading Little Lord Fauntleroy, Burnett:

~In history, he's about 60% of the way through Volume 7 of History of US, finishing Across Five Aprils, and has begun Civil War Ends, Corinne Naden.  He's reading through quite a few chapters in Story of the World right now, too, as we take a peek at what's occurring in the rest of the world during the post-Civil War period in the U.S.  (Chapters 1-4 and 6-9 thus far....)

~They're beginning budgeting and check book balancing in his outside Home Ec class.

~He's continuing well with his outside science classes and had another experiment to conduct at home on his own this past week (regarding displacement of water).  In our class at home, the boys are looking at wheels and axles right now, along with gears.  They experimented with creating wheeled vehicles in class and are also doing projects at home each week (using K'nex kits on simple machines and gears).  I held off on starting pulleys until next time, when they can devote more of the class time to it.

~I've been trying to get together a small group to do a few lessons in painting with acrylics.  We're working with our local Michael's store which has just hired a retired high school teacher (a lovely lady) to be their art director.  I'm hopeful that we're going to get those going for October/November.

~We're scurrying to get packed, send the cat off for boarding, go attend family weekend at my older son's college, make the soccer game for the younger one, and still get out of the house early for our trip - I hope the weather holds up there!

Regena 

Start of the Second Month! (Week 5, 2011)

We finished watching the last of our United Learning videos on world religions this week (last two weeks were Buddhism and Hinduism) and he took his last test over this series.  We'll be moving on to new material next week.  I also pulled out his prayer journal last week and got him back into that habit for the year.

My son and his math teacher got confused about when we're going to be on our trip and she gave him two weeks worth of math work to do!  So, we only worked in VideoText on Monday and today I let him work more on the extra things she gave him.

He read Old Yeller this week.  He's continuing with Sounder for his outside lit class.  Since he just finished Call of the Wild, I'm going to get him to do a compare/contrast paper on the three as soon as he's finished with Sounder. 



I just got a notice today that the book by Chesterton of Father Brown stories has finally arrived at the library (I needed it two weeks ago!).  I've looked in book stores all over town and failed to find a copy of any of his short stories - I guess they're not that popular any more....  When my son finishes some of those, he'll be comparing and contrasting Chesterton's work with that of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes - which he's already read)....

Our same routine continues for geography and language arts, as well as Latin.  His outside Spanish class finally got started this week.  They are using Barron's Spanish NOW! as their primary text for the year....

http://www.barronseduc.com/0764129333.html


One of the students in class just bought the book (seventh edition) and found one with a 4 CD set to go along with it - I'm not sure yet what these include, but am anxious to find out!





He's going to participate in a Halloween weekend concert at a nearby piano store, so he's beginning to work on pieces for that.... 

I totally jumped the gun on theatre company!  I thought he had done so well in his summer camps and with his monologue for try-outs that they would surely take him (and they are supposedly desperately in need of money for the last several years, too).  Instead, it turns out that they evidently did not select about 25 kids who tried out. 

While I'm not sure why they couldn't add another section if there were enough kids interested in participating (and PAYING for that), not to mention all the service hours they get out of this (15 per semester, per person), I'm just as glad not to have to make the trip down there and hang out somewhere waiting on him weekly.... 

I'm just praying that this doesn't throw him into a funk that turns into another anxiety crisis like the one we had to go through for six months last school year - so far, so good....

In history this week, we began transitioning into the time period surrounding reconstruction after the Civil War.  We're also covering the westward expansion that went on during this time period to some extent.

We're watching Birth of a Nation and laughing over - err, discussing it - seriously.  It is a serious matter.  We just keep getting surprised by little snippets of what were obviously considered great acting at the time for silent film stars.  We understand that they felt the need to overemphasize gestures, but it can still be quite surprising, LOL (and I've watched this before)....



He has read about a third of the way through volume 7 of History of US, and continues taking the quizzes as he finishes up chapters covered by those.  He read Cobblestone's Building a Nation: Picking up the Pieces.  Our library now has some new versions of these that are like books!

            

He's also continuing with Across Five Aprils:

(This is the version of it he's actually reading - couldn't find it last time I posted....)

In science, he continues with his outside weekly chemistry lab and physical science lab.  He seems to be doing fine in both.  He had a take-home experiment for physical science again last week and I'm enjoying watching him complete those on his own.

At home, I'm continuing with our small class and getting ready to wrap-up our intro to simple machines.  We'll be moving more into work with pulleys and then gears in the coming weeks.  I've got to start trying to schedule a trip to a clock maker!

He read from some very old books of mine this past week, including The Lever and The Pulley, Hal Hellman:


http://www.amazon.com/Lever-Pulley-Harold-Hellman/dp/0871310724

I'm going to be using this kit, in part, as we study pulleys:



http://rainbowresource.com/product/sku/045210/19f53784716a15ef90e0a4ab

Getting ready to do my intro to simple machines last week....

Here's a spinning top that my son invented after experimenting with different types of tops (from the K'nex Simple Machines kit - they're both building from this and the Gears kit right now....)

It spun beautifully!  For some reason, my live shot looks like it's standing still, but it's not!

They also tried out variations of paper planes this week, looking at how the wedge shape helps improve aerodynamics....

My homemade tongs.  We talked about a variety of different types, including chopsticks - and got into quite a discussion on the mechanics of chopsticks, LOL....

And in Home Ec, he sewed his sampler onto the front of what will be his pillow.  (They sewed the pillow sides together in class and stuffed them.  He'll finish stitching the open side together this next week at home.) 

He has a soccer game on Sunday - they won their first two games and seem to be playing really well together as a team, so it looks like it will be a good season for them!

Regena