HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

 

Happy 2013 everyone!  I have been missing from the blog for a couple of months sorry about that.  It has been busy here and I have had some medical issues that have left me with little energy. I am hoping to do much better with the new year.

 

We finished our first semester just in time to take a break at Thanksgiving. We have had a nice long break and I am ready to get back to a school schedule. We are starting back on Jan 7th. I still need to make lesson plans but I have started looking through my planner and getting ready to get back into the swing of things.

 

Kiddo flew through Apologia Swimming Creatures and finished it before break.  So I bought several of Apologia’s middle school science books that were on clearance at CBD.com and I am going to let him work through those and we will do some experiments from the books for the second half of the year. Here is one of the books I bought the companion cds are great and are on clearance also.

Apologia General Science Clearance book

 

Otherwise our curriculum will stay about the same. We will start Story of the World 4 in history and keep on moving through the rest of our curriculum.

 

For New Years we were discussing our book reading goals for the year, instead of resolutions.  Kiddo decided this year he is going to read 20 books, 10 new ones and 10 he has read before (aka LEGO and Horrible Science). He will read more than that but to him 20 sounded like a huge number.  I chose 75 books, I read 62 this year so I am going to challenge myself a little.  My new Kindle Paperwhite should help with that, I love it.

 

Happy New Year! Look forward to posting more and reading more blogs this year.

Wordless Wednesday - Color Run

Had a great time at The Color Run.  This is a non timed 5K for families, walkers, runners etc.  The goal is to get as much color on you as possible.  You wear white shirts and at every 1K you get color thrown on you and at the end of the race there is a color explosion to make sure everyone gets plenty of color.  It was a ton of fun and he can not wait until next year.

The clean up was a mess but everyone did finally get clean. :)

Wordless Wednesday - Science Experiments

Supplies gathered 

Writing out the experiment and conclusions 

Wordless Wednesday - Owl Mail

We are starting Hogwarts Correspondence school for the month of October and this is his Owl post.

Weekly Review–Week 11

We have a had a good but rather short week.  Kiddo broke out in a rash on Tuesday and after trip to the doctor we found out he has atypical chicken pox.  It was a surprise since he has had the vaccine.  He has felt just slightly under the weather so school has been light this week.


It has given me a chance to start looking for a new science for January.  He is almost finished with Swimming creatures of the Fifth Day by Apologia.  He loves the Apologia books he reads and absorbs everything.


The two I am thinking about this week are using the Disney Imagineering DVDs along with extra books from the library etc. to have a topic a week type of science class.  The down side is the DVDs are expensive. Our local library does not carry them.
Disney Imagineering DVD


The other one I have been looking at is a program by NOEO Science. It is a all in one program with the books, experiment materials etc together.  They have three levels for biology, chemistry and physics. 
NOEO Science



I am also thinking of trying to piece one together using the Apologia General Science book I have here, with extra reading and experiments but without the math.  He may be ready for the science but not the math involved.

That about sums up our week.

Have a good weekend!

Wordless Wednesday - Boys and Dirt

Weekly Update

 

I am so behind on weekly reviews. We are starting week 11 this week, we are half way through our first semester. Things are going well, the workbox system is working great for us. It makes lesson plans so much faster for me, I do the weeks plans over the weekend and then file each days lessons in a file folder.  All I have to do each night is refill the workboxes, it is great a huge time saver for me during the week. Kiddo likes the workboxes he gets up in the morning has breakfast and then goes to pick a box to start working on.  It gives him a choice as to which box he starts with and encourages independent study. 

 

Handwriting and times tables are our hard subjects at this time.  He just has not memorized his times tables yet. I am working on plans to make that a priority next week and get it done.  I bought a new handwriting book for us to start and see if I can improve his handwriting some.  He just hates handwriting with a passion, he would rather give you the answers verbally.  He can write neatly I have seen it on occasion. I am hoping the new book helps some and mostly I am just trying to be patience knowing it will come eventually.  If not, thank goodness for computer and typing 

 

He has been reading non stop the past few weeks, weekly trips to the library plus he is reading Harry Potter book 5 and listening to The Red Pyramid at bedtime. He has a love of reading which I am so happy about. He is discovering a interest in biographies and I hope to encourage that. Murderous Math and Horrible Histories are on his Christmas wish list.

 

We will finish science before the new year, I have no clue what to do after that.  We have one Apologia elementary science curriculum left to do.  He loves them and just flies through them.  We have Apologia’s General Science and Physical Science (older versions) he is reading on his own but there is no way he can do the math in those books.  I will have to start researching other science programs for us to try. 

 

He is liking gymnastics and loving piano lessons.  He has asked to go the the symphony. I hope to find a good deal on tickets this fall. 

 

Not a lot to update we are plugging along.

 

Have a great week!