Friday Wrap-Up ~ Almost Time for Our December Break!

I can't believe December is right around the corner! The kids are looking forward to taking most of the month off from school. We will only be doing Tuesday school with our homeschool friend. I must admit, I am looking forward to it, too. We have been going strong almost every day since the beginning of August.

In our little corner of the world, the wildfires are still raging, and there is still no to little rain in sight. The air quality is keeping us indoors ALL of the time. We are getting a bit restless. Thank goodness for dance. The kids get lots of their energy out at classes and rehearsals. I, however, miss my walks. We are keeping busy indoors.

Science ~ We wrapped up several experiments this week. The first was our mummy experiment that we started back at the end of October. We carved designs into apples and covered the apples in a combination of baking soda, salt and powdered bleach. We started a control apple in a zip lock bag by itself. Then we waited the better part of a month. On opening day, we were pleasantly surprised.

Our mummy apples were preserved but spongy. The flesh was completely white. Our control apple was rotten in places and covered in mold on one side. 

We also completed our red cabbage pH indicator strips and used them. We boiled red cabbage and cut up coffee filters into strips. We then dyed our strips with the cabbage liquid and set them to dry. We also made our control liquids. We made a control base with ammonia and distilled water and a control acid with vinegar and distilled water. After a few days we conducted our experiments.  We dipped our strips into diluted milk, bleach, coffee, wine vinegar, tea and lemon. The strips changed colors. We determined by the color change whether or not the item was a base or acid. The activity worked out great.

Art~ The kids are busy making Christmas gifts in art with Miss Laura. I can't wait to see what they produce. Elijah made a very detailed Shrinky Dink. He drew the Celtic knot free hand. I am so amazed by his attention to detail. It would make a lovely piece of jewelry. It is about the size of a half dollar.

Grandma also conducted another one of her awesome art classes for my kids and their twin friends who are also homeschooled. We learned all about book illustrations. The kids looked through many picture books from their childhoods and shared memories of their favorite picture books. They realized that the illustrations in picture books are very important. We picked Shel Silverstein for an in-depth study. Then they learned about Shel Silverstein's life and looked through several of his books to find poems they liked. They each chose a poem that he had not illustrated. We photocopied the poems and they pasted it onto the page and illustrated it. 

Dean with one of his favorite childhood books, The Story of Ferdinand

We are trying to find a good stopping point for the rest of our subjects. We will be continuing art, science and geography in December. I am sure there will be lots of music, too. Next week, we are really going to have to read lots more of Hitty Her First Hundred Years in order to complete it. We also are a bit farther behind in math than I would like to be before break. However, we are not likely to get too much farther ahead, since it is also tech week for the Nutcracker and the Mouse King. C'est la vie!

Blessings, Dawn

Wildfires, Emotions and Nutcracker Prep

It has been a rough week around here. The more than 30 wildfires that are all around us are really making it hard to breathe. Our oldest son must stay inside all of the time because he has asthma. Many people are having lung issues and the local hospital is very busy with sufferers. We desperately need rain.



On the homefront, this has been a week when relationships and health took precedence over school. We are working hard to keep everyone physically and emotionally healthy. It is an uphill battle for some.

We are in full force with rehearsals for The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. The kids are at the dance studio six days a week. This year Dean is a street sweeper, a guard, a party guest and a Spanish doll. Anne is a street sweeper, a guard, a cat and an elastic doll. Anne has wanted to be an elastic doll since she was a little girl so this is a dream come true.

What we did for school ~

• 15+ hours of dance classes and rehearsals for both kids
• Learned a new hamstring stretch program for Dean (flexibility is a real struggle because of his cerebral palsy)
• Made red cabbage indicator strips for our chemistry class
• Did two chapters in chemistry
• Completed three math lessons for each child
• Read daily
• Read aloud two chapters in our family read-aloud, Hitty: Her First Hundred Years
• Completed two more lessons from Cover Story for English
• Anne hand sewed a flower pillow.
• Dean is working on a Shrinky Dink of a Celtic knot that he drew himself.
• Wrote in their journals daily.
• Watched several documentaries to understand more about how firefighters fight wildfires
• Practiced three hours of piano (Anne) and for ukulele (Dean).
• Wrote a 250 word report on Benjamin Franklin
• Watched CNN Student News daily

We also went to the opening of the movie, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. We loved it. I hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving. We are planning a very quiet and light Thanksgiving this year. 

Blessings, Dawn

Tending the Home Fires

What a week! This was a stressful week for my household and our country. My son has had a very difficult week at dance. He has been dealing with a bully, and I had to finally intervene on his behalf. The dance studio dealt with it quickly, but the damage is done; and I have work to do on the home front to strengthen my son's self-esteem. Also, my children watched this very bitter election very carefully. This was the first major election that they were really old enough to understand, and it was a rough one to watch. They really thought that, once the election was over, life would go back to normal. I always feared that it wouldn't and it won't. This election really dredged up the anger, fear, hatred and division that is running deep in our country right now. There is much work to do to bring peace, respect, kindness, understanding and cohesiveness to our country. My children have witnessed first hand the hatred that usually doesn't permeate openly our rather open-minded little city. Our friend's adopted children are crying, because classmates told them they are going to be deported back to Africa. We also have seen white supremacy supporters screaming in our city streets. This is all very shocking to my children. 

Here are our shoe boxes for Meals on Wheels and Operation Christmas Child.

What is a mother to do? My children are watching...as always, I start at home. We are a family that believes that everyone is a child of God and has a right to thrive on this planet. Everyone is a gift. We must find the light in each and every person. There are times that finding the light in a person is very difficult, especially when they are spewing hatred. But we must find the light. So we are doubling our efforts to show kindness. We are praying, caring, trying to understand and living our lives gently. We are asking, "What would Jesus do?" The Prince of Peace would not be spewing hatred.

We attended the soft opening of our new science museum.

As this week has passed, I have reminded my children that they are responsible for their actions and words, that they can always spread light in the darkness. So we step through our days lightly, basking in the love we find and praying for those who are struggling to feel and show love.

Blessings, Dawn

The Week of Homemade Erupting Volcanoes

We are having so much fun in science this year. I am really happy that it is clicking for everyone and that we have found a schedule that I can stick to. Getting enough science done to satisfy my children has been a challenge in recent years. This year, we have a friend over to do science with us for two to three hours. Then the kids are assigned open-ended homework (such as a paper) to do before the next class. They can spend a little or a lot of time on the homework paper/project depending on their interest in the topic. They seem to be satisfied, finally!

Our most recent science project was making and erupting volcanoes. We began with a box as our landscape. I cut a hole in the bottom of the box that the Snapple or a similar bottle could move through. Then we covered the bottle with a plastic bag (to be removed later), so the volcano structure would not stick to it during assembly.

We then used cardboard strips to build the frame.

Next, we used lots of Plaster of Paris and paper towels to create the shape of our volcano. We used paper towels because they gave a smooth surface to paint on later.

Once their volcanoes were dry, we painted them with acrylic paint.

The day finally arrived to erupt our volcanoes. I made up a lab sheet so the kids could record their observations. We used this website for our first eight trials. I really liked how they learned more about having a control group in experimenting and that they got to see how to make their eruptions bigger through the trials.

We then moved on to the hydrogen peroxide and yeast eruptions. You can find instructions here. These were much more exciting than the vinegar and baking soda eruptions. 

Lastly, we moved outside to do Mentos and Coke eruptions, because there is always time for more messes! 

Ah, science! We had a blast!

Blessings, Dawn

Homeschooling a Special Needs Teen ~ November Goals

We have had to change our homeschool approach several times in the last year for our son. He used to love unit studies and lots of hands-on projects. As the years have gone by and the workload has become more intense, he has struggled and become more and more disinterested in school. This year I took a very child-led approach in the beginning. This break helped him to reconnect with his former love of learning. But I am aware that much of the way he used to learn is not having the level of retention that he needs. Therefore, we are trying some new learning approaches. 

As my son has grown into his teen years, he has really started to come into his own. However, the older he gets, the more I see some learning challenges that could potentially affect his future. Here are some of his personality traits.

• He is very bright. 
• He doesn't feel confident about his learning abilities.
• He is obedient (if he truly understands what you expect from him). 
• He NEEDS very clear visual directions. 
• He is an extreme visual learner with a need for carefully picked hands-on projects that pull the lesson together.
• He becomes fixated on learning certain things, and it is hard to keep him focused on the regular assignments.
• He loves music and art and is creative in those areas.
• He is very particular about words ~ they must be clear, used properly and be used few and far between (so instead use visual communication).
• He is a concrete, black-and-white thinker, who struggles with gray areas (especially in social skills and how he feels others should meet his high standards of behavior).
• He says what he thinks, even when it isn't nice (which is a poor social skill). 
• His body, which is affected by cerebral palsy, gets in the way of his creativity and takes a lot of energy away from his day.

To try to find the best educational fit for him, I am trying to plan month-by-month what we will do. Of course, as always, I will try to meet his desires and encourage his love of learning, while establishing the basics as a strong foundation for his future. November is one of the most challenging months of the year for our family. It is when The Nutcracker and the Mouse King takes over our lives. Listed below are our goals for November and how I hope to implement them.

• Math three times a week (if we are able to do more...great... but three times is a must).
• He will read four times a week for personal reading time.
• He will also read one  historical chapter book or biography and give some kind of a presentation on what he knows.
• Science with our friend weekly (two to three hours).
• Art ~ with Miss Laura weekly, with Grandma once, ArtAchieve and independently.
• Write two 500 word essays ~ due dates ~ November 10 and November 23.
• Start Cover Story with our homeschool friend two times a week.
• For family read-aloud time, we will read Hitty Her First Hundred Years.
• CNN Student News daily.
• Practice musical instruments daily.
• Read to him the book, Manners Made Easy for Teens.
• Dance classes, extra weekend rehearsals, Tech Week for The Nutcracker and the Mouse King will total up to an estimated 40+ hours for the month (not including the four shows in December).

It seems like I may be missing something, and I am sure there will be educational opportunities that present themselves along the way, but this is the main plan. Most importantly, my goal is to provide a rich environment filled with love and peace. 

Blessings, Dawn

Middlebury Interactive Languages Review

My son decided that he would like to start learning a foreign language this year. We decided that Spanish would make the most sense with his current career desires.We were offered Middlebury Interactive Languages for review. We received one full semester of this online interactive program. We chose Spanish Middle School Year 1. Middlebury Interactive Languages offers German, French, Spanish and Chinese. All of these courses are online and need an Internet connection to work.  This program retails for $119 per semester without teacher support.We reviewed semester 1 without teacher support. If you would like teacher support, the cost is $294. The student will be able to speak lots of common Spanish words, carry on a simple conversation and understand grammar patterns. They currently offer Spanish from elementary through high school. The course is self paced, but it is meant to be used three to four times a week.  I feel that foreign language is one of the hardest courses to find a good fit for homeschoolers. Learning languages is much easier in a group setting, and it can be especially hard if the teacher doesn't know the language. In our family, I have only a rudimentary knowledge of Spanish, but my husband is semi-fluent. My son had very little exposure to Spanish before this program. He only knew a few words.  How my son felt ~ He liked that the program had lots of variety. There are multiple games, presentation styles and videos. The curriculum concentrates on helping the student be able to read, listen, speak and write in Spanish. This is an immersion program and the "teacher" speaks in Spanish from the very beginning. My son found the program engaging. He also found the website very easy to move around. He liked the cultural information that he learned throughout the course. However, he felt like all of the information "was coming very fast and hard to understand". He was a bit intimidated by the format and intensity of the program. On one hand, he liked that it wasn't at all babyish, but he thought that it wasn't for his grade level. He asked me several times why I had gotten a program that was for adults. 

What I thought ~ First, I feel that it is only fair to state that my son has several learning challenges. He is 14 and straddling subjects in 8th and 9th grade this year. He is very bright but needs lots of external support and very clear-cut directions. My son is an extreme visual learner with a strong need for hands-on activities. He struggles with auditory processing disorder. To say that any foreign language is going to be hard for him to master is an understatement. It doesn't matter how it is presented; it is going to be hard. So even though my review of this product would say that it did not really work for my son, I haven't found any foreign language program that clicks with his special needs. 

So all of that aside, I thought the program was well presented. I agreed with him that it seemed very adult like and actually thought I should use it for myself to freshen up my Spanish. I liked the variety and ease of use. I appreciated all of the printouts. I strongly appreciated that throughout the course the speakers were easy to understand. Their accents were not overly strong, and I could clearly repeat the words. Our microphone turned out to be a bit wonky with the program and did not consistently work. This was more likely our fault than that of the company. However, since my husband can speak all of the words easily, he was able to correct our pronunciations.  We liked the program overall.  To see what others on the homeschool review crew had to say, click on the banner below.  Blessings, Dawn

A Productive, Project-Based Homeschool Week

One of the things I love about homeschooling is the variety to our days. No two days or weeks are alike. We do have certain routines that happen daily and a flow to our weeks that are mostly dictated by dance classes, but we are not locked into a schedule that, over time, becomes drudgery.

Some weeks, we spend a great deal of time on "seat work", other weeks are defined by field trips or a multitude of projects. This week was the latter. We began our week with Robotics Club. This club grew out of a Lego Club that we have belonged to for years. Then our little group of homeschoolers purchased an EV3 to share, so the four teens in our group are using books and videos to learn about it. Each month they alter the EV3 and then program it to do something new. This is a self-taught adventure for them. There is a nice combination of creativity and tech savvy between the teens and they keep coming up with new creations. Anne continues to enjoy Lego Club with the younger kids, because she isn't interested in the more intense learning environment of the Robotics Club.

We also had an especially exciting time with our science this week. We had our friend S over again, and we built model volcanoes. The kids said it was just as much art as science this week. It took them a good 2.5 hours to build and paint their volcanoes. Next week, we will be doing seven to eight different kinds of eruptions. It is going to be exciting! We have decided to stick with our original plan of making this year's science course be a physical science course, so we will be transitioning from chemistry to geology around Christmas.

We went on a fantastic field trip to see a performance of Twelfth Night. The performers did a wonderful job, and the all student audience was kept on the edge of their seats. There is no better way to study Shakespeare than actually attending a performance. It was the way it was intended to be experienced. We read a short synopsis before attending. 

Wow, my phone doesn't take very good pictures!

One of the kids' dance classes was held outside in a city park. The director of our dance studio feels it is important for the students to learn how to choreograph, improvise, and perform on the spot in front of strangers, so she occasionally takes the older ones outside and lets them create a piece and then perform it for whomever is passing by. 

Quick list of our learning this week:

• 2 hours of math
• Robotics Club
• 3 hours of science, including making volcanoes
• 3 hours of review items (mostly language arts and history)
• Art with Miss Laura
• ArtAchieve lesson 5 (dragonfly) with Grandma
• Reading daily
• CNN Student News daily
• 10 hours of dance for Anne, 6.5 hours of dance for Dean
• Twelfth Night live performance
• 3 hours of music ~ Anne started using two hands on the piano
• The Presidential Debate

A photo "just because" ~ isn't this vulture neat? We passed him eating a rabbit on the road. He showed off his wing span for us.

We also accomplished as a family ~

• Two of the three of us who are eligible to vote, voted in our state's Early Voting. It was a long line for the first time in my voting life. We (kids included) listened to many interesting conversations in line. 
• Dean and Anne got their flu shots.
• Dean went to therapy.
• We went through the winter clothing storage closet. Everyone has a winter jacket, although Dean's is barely adequate. Consequently, I am still on the hunt for something more suitable for him. Bring on the snow!

Last, but not least ~ If you are at all interested in reviewing homeschool products, go to this post and apply. We have really enjoyed being on the Homeschool Reivew Crew this year. It has been a great learning experience for all of us.

Blessings, Dawn