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Homeschool Journal Dot Net

Mostly just the fun stuff!

We’ve had a lot of fun..and some learning around here! Be prepared for picture overload..again!
Declan and Ziah have been working on Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel and doing a lapbook from HOAC that goes with it.

Even though Noah is no longer homeschooled a good amount of his work comes home with him ( I didn’t miss this for certain):

We decided to melt down some old broken crayons last week:

Brock and Caleb came over to play and they did some big ole muffin tin ones. Here’s Brock and Taejan arranging the crayon bits:

Coloring fun:

Ziah helped Daddy fix the leaking shower…well it’s almost fixed..turns out we need a whole new shower/tub unit..Bath Fitter is coming next week!

Isn’t that hole in my wall pretty? Hey at least I get to repaint and redecorate!

Fun Boxes for the week!

While Daddy was working on the plumbing ,Taejan and I put together a new bookcase:

We got […]

Original post by justakrazymom

I am normal, Hannah can count, Maisy isn’t the smartest dog in the world (but you already knew that!)

OK, so we had a pretty good school day. Grace was reading her phonics book, Bethany wasn’t crying about division, and Joel was doing math. Now I have teacher books for every course, but I hate that in higher math they don’t show how they got the answer. It’s not enough if I know what the answer should be, if Joel gets it wrong I have to determine how to do the problem and then work it through with him to figure out where he went wrong. So sometimes I have to work backwards and figure it out, like today. It said draw 2 supplementary angles, the measure of one angle is 58 degrees greater than the measure of the other angle. So I knew they added up to 180 degrees, but you have to say x(x+58) = 180, solve, then plug in the number. But still, it would be […]

Original post by liese4

Picture Overload!

Lots of pictures of our past week or so!
Taejan using the rice bowl and Declan doing word families.

Taejan working on a beading craft

Ziah and Declan doing the same craft:

Some silly masks we got in the mail!

Night school.. learning about Ancient Egypt!

Taejan practicing his scissor skills!

We had Brock over to play for a few hours one day..and of course it was sword time!

Camping anyone?

Making our paper chain to count down the days until Christmas!

and here it is!

finger paint fun!

Math time!

Taejan working with Daddy on his letters!

Enjoying the air pillows that came in our latest Oriental Trading order!

Silly Noah….Tiara’s are for girls!

Fun box..fun!

Helping Mommy make eggs!

and working on his Kumon book!

Original post by justakrazymom

A Glimpse Into Cameron’s Brain

Today in school Cameron learned about antonyms. I gave him some words and he was supposed to tell me the opposite. Two of his answers gave me pause, but then I realized that while they may not be what most people would say, they certainly are not incorrect.
According to Cameron, the antonym of SOFT is LOUD and the antonym of BACK is GONE.

Original post by Heather @ CamianAcademy

Math U See, Cuneiform,paper making and fun boxes!

We’ve had a great productive week around here!
Miss Jadziah has started formal math.. She’s is on page 3 of Lesson 2 in Math U See Primer and LOVING it!

Also the Fun Boxes are still a huge hit around here.. I made up new ones for them Tuesday:
Taejan’s:

Ziah’s:

Declan’s:

here they are enjoying them!

In History we’ve been learning about the first writings..so the kids did Cuneiform with clay:

Then we made paper:( this kit is another one of my Target clearance finds I go tit about 4 months ago for $3)

The the kids did their seatwork for History:

Declan wrote his name using the cuneiform alphabet:

Taejan has been loving his Kumon books:

Oh and since Trick or Treat the kids have been trading candy and I think they finally each have what they like only..of course they have so durn much it will take them 2 years to eat it since they can only have 2 […]

Original post by justakrazymom

Newton’s laws

I knew that science book I picked up at the library would come in handy (Gizmos and Gadgets by Jill Hauser.) We made this today to study Newton’s 1st law of motion. To make inertia zoom ball you get 2 bottles (soda, water, quart, liter, etc.) and cut them in half. Attach the 2 ends together and tape. Pull two 12 ft. lengths of string through the neck of one bottle and out the other neck of the other bottle. We didn’t have 6 pack plastic holders so I taped together 4 rings from the bottle ends and then tied the string onto them.

Now stand with the string tight and pull your hands apart to send the bottle flying to your partner, like this (click on the pic to see the video.)

From newton

This is Newton’s 1st law of motion; without force like a push or a pull an […]

Original post by liese4

Can school be fun for a 14 year old?

Or, should school be fun for a 14 year old? I just said today on our HS group’s chat board that sometimes it isn’t easy making school ‘fun’ as kids get older. I mean c’mon, sometimes learning is boring and there is stuff you think you don’t need to know, but probably should know and maybe it’s boring. I’m not a miracle worker; some stuff is just going to be boring.
So, after regular schoolwork today we broke out our bag of marshmallows and went outside to do some fun stuff. How can I make modeling chemical reactions fun?

I had Joel balance a few equations on the sidewalk and then he had to model them with marshmallows and balance them. (It’s NH3 + CuO = N2 + Cu + H2O, balanced it’s 2NH3 + 3CuO = N2 + 3 Cu + 3 H2O.)

I think the marshmallows worked better than […]

Original post by liese4

Mid Week Update!

I haven’t posted pictures of what we’ve been up too in a few so while I have 5 minutes I thought I would!
Let’s see.. well the kids “Fun Boxes” as they call them have become a huge hit around here. They can only have them after breakfast once they are dressed and only for about 30 minutes so they aren’t getting tired of them at all.. I also change them over about every 4  days and the kids have begun swapping things sometimes..LOL

This is them Monday getting their fresh “new” boxes!Yeah Declan didn’t get dressed yet but that’s ok..this time!

And playing the various games that are in their boxes:

Declan and Ziah have taken to doing History at night now.. this works well as some nights Taejan is already in bed. We are loving Story of the World vol 1 with History Odyessy! Even when Taejan is awake it’s easy to […]

Original post by justakrazymom

The other part of our day

We went to the park by us and helped a friend who missed our bridging ceremony to bridge to the next GS level.

R started off on the brownie side with Grace, crossed the bridge and got her junior vest from Bethany.

Hmmm….maybe we should use this park next year, decorate the bridge and have it on a Saturday so Dad’s can come. The only problem would be lighting the candles, I’m sure they’d never stay lit in the wind. While there I finished my furry yarn hat, here’s Bethany modeling it.

None of the girls liked it though, so later I gave it to a friend. It’s very 50’s. I think they’d sell like hotcakes at the headless chicken festival. We stayed until the weather got colder and then went home to get Joel. BTW, here is my hat made from the wool that I spun on my drop […]

Original post by liese4

Fun school kinda day!

Today we deemed the day FUN SCHOOL day… so we, of course, had lots of fun!!
Declan and I put up the new World map to go along with our Geography and Social Studies study.

Then I introduced the kids to their new caddy’s.. to say they loved them would be an understatement!( I added a Geo board to Declan’s last night)

Then Declan and I did the 3 R’s

then we broke out  our new favorite rainy day game..Cranium Hullabaloo DVD Animal Adventure game!

A little craft time.. the kids made Stuffed monster friends.. they were given to us by Robin ( came from Oriental Trading). Taejan’s only had one piece of fleece so it was not round..but he didn’t care!

Ziah and Taejan opted to not use the faces, where Taejan decided to use it ALL!

We hurried up outside before it started to rain:

We came in as the rain started and it was time […]

Original post by justakrazymom

Brains!

In anticipation of our brain dissection later today we made a brain hat and found out useful info. about the hemispheres of the brain. The orange is the occipital lobe (controls sight), the purple is the parietal lobe (motor control, sensory info.), the yellow is the frontal lobe (complex thinking.)

I didn’t realize the packing foam would shrink when we painted them, darn eco-friendly people must have made them out of cornstarch. I guess I should have used markers.
LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses logic
detail oriented
facts rule
words and language
present and past
math and science
can comprehend
knowing
acknowledges
order/pattern perception
knows object name
reality based
forms strategies
practical
safe
RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses feeling
“big picture” oriented
imagination rules
symbols and images
present and future
philosophy & religion
can “get it” (i.e. meaning)
believes
appreciates
spatial perception
knows object function
fantasy based
presents possibilities
impetuous
risk taking
This video is really interesting. It’s a guy who used to have seizures and they cut the nerves between the brain’s hemispheres. Now if an object comes up […]

Original post by liese4

Happy Monday!

Hope everyone is having a fine Monday! Thus far we certainly are…it’s library day so Eric took all 3 wee ones there, to the Post office, the park and walmart.. and mommy got some much needed stuff done!
Since Noah is now back in public school I’ve been shifting the Academy around to reflect the fact we have all wee ones learning here now..fist step was creating these little caddy’s for the kids:

There is one for each with a variety of items depending on their age and likes. These are for them to use pretty much whenever they want and especailly to keep them happy while they may be done with their current lesson but I may be working with another kiddo. I plan to rotate out the items in here as needed and I also have a small envelope on the side where the kids can store the reward coupons […]

Original post by justakrazymom

Super science Friday

Today we’re making our own still. Not to make spirits, but to separate ingredients and see what makes up liquids. Also Grace was learning about solid, liquid and gas. To make the distiller:
-Wrap aluminum foil around a broom handle and tape the seams shut with duct tape, you might even want to tape around the whole thing (although we didn’t.)
-You can use 1 roll length wise, we used two, but it doesn’t have to be that long.
-Take off that section and save it. Now do that again, but when you take it off cut it into 2 pieces and bend them (these will attach to both ends of the main tube.
-Measure out 200ml of liquid (we did cranberry juice, diet soda and orange soda.)
-Put 200ml of the liquid (one at a time please) into a pan.
-Cover the pan with 4 squares of foil and cut a hole in the center […]

Original post by liese4

Apple Day

Today was “Apple Day” at our friend Amy’s house. We missed it last year so we were glad we got to go this year.. an added perk is the weather was just amazing for mid October!
Amy has a great backyard complete with a hiking trail and mountain stream.. the kids love it there!

Amy has a cider press so we got to bring apples and make cider..of course only Taejan had any interest..the other 2 were too busy playing with their friends ( they are so anti-social and shy..lol)

There were lots of Apple activities and snacks too..the kids loved it!

The kids also got an upclose and personal look at a duck( can’t remember what kind it is)..Cal(Amy’s oldest) and his Dad went hunting ( Cal tagged along I should say) and they come home with this!

Thanks again Amy for the great morning! Oh I also found out that the dad of […]

Original post by justakrazymom

The week thus far..

We’ve had a great week so far..the best in a long time. The stress is all but gone that had been lingering over the house..it is so much more pleasant being mom now..lol
Noah still hasn’t started school..but he does tomorrow.. he’s all signed up and ready..just has to show up for 7:20 tomorrow.. yawn.. I am not ready for that part..cus if he has to get up at 6 so do I and I can bet ya the little ones will be up too..oh well though right?
So on to the fun stuff around here!
Monday was a cold rainy icky kinda day, so the kids played some board games:

and Taejan was NOT feeling well at all..must bee from the weekend full of different parties! He was so “sick” he fell asleep in Eric’s arms… he hasn’t done that in forever!

Once he was put to bed Ziah and Declan made rain sticks […]

Original post by justakrazymom

Call me silly

I love algebra. I remember that I didn’t like it when I was an 8th grader though. I really have to find out how algebra relates to real world flying problems so Joel can get interested. I know it relates, but how? Joel was working on equations with multiplication and division today, easy stuff. Next step is to add back in plus and minus and have the equations do all 4 (+,-,X,/) at the same time, fun! He’s also writing a memoir about his plane trip to Pueblo. I have a feeling it would go much faster if he just dictated it, he hates writing, but I know on essay questions they want to see what is going on in your head as you write.
Bethany is struggling with 3 and 4 digit multiplication with 1 and 2 numbers on the bottom. We figured out that all you need to […]

Original post by liese4

A busy few weeks!

We’ve been pretty busy around here.. so busy I actually have very few pictures to share from the last week +!
Here’s some from a quick trip to the park.. The kids wanted to cardboard slide down the hill.. it didn’t work too great though:

So they took the cardboard to the real slides..and man did Declan FLY!

Taejan too!

Ziah preferred just playing:

Here’s some proof we actually do school:
Ziah practicing her name on her new small whiteboard:

Both Declan and Ziah doing some work:

Wednesday we headed to the local Airport to watch the WWII Bombers land.. Taejan especially was enthralled!

in between landing’s we hung out with Owen,Lila ,Daisy and Robin.

Taejan loved it..he was so dang cute the whole time!!

Original post by justakrazymom

Let’s see

Tuesday after school we went ice skating and used up the last of our free passes. I had 2 left over so a friend came with her 2 boys and met us there. I must have had better skates this time because although I still used the walker to hold onto, I could let go and not fall down immediately (but, I presume, I would have eventually fallen down so it never left me for too long.) Hannah had fun just waltzing around the ice with her walker, Joel was eavesdropping behind a boy who was being taught Hockey moves and picked up some new foot work. Bethany was whizzing around the ice too. I heard a rumor that we are supposed to be getting an outdoor ice rink by us when they build the new Target, which would be nice. What would be even nicer is if they let […]

Original post by liese4

Prep for Science Experiments

A couple months ago I noticed that we were very inclined to skip science experiments (just watch them on the Discover and Do DVD and not actually do them) because we didn’t have the little odds and ends gathered that we needed. It’s not that the odds and ends weren’t in the house. They were. It was just a matter of them not being in one place at the time we needed them.
So I decided to use one half of the top drawer of our filing cabinet as a place to organize what we needed for the science experiments. We use Sonlight Science 1 and the experiments happen every 5th day of each week.
First I labelled 36 hanging file folders with Week X (1-36). Then I went through the experiments and determined what I would need for each week and made a list and spent […]

Original post by Heather @ CamianAcademy

A composition by Ani

Today’s writing assignment for Ani was to write a story about a coin. She had the option of telling the story from the point of view of the coin. She chose to do that and to make the story in the form of a journal entry. Here is what she wrote:
History: A mom has a quarter. She needs to buy food for her family. Here is the quarter’s story.*
Hi! I am a quarter in a mom’s purse. I am on my way to the store. Her family is very hungry and she needs to buy food. Okay. So we’re at the store. Oh! She’s buying bread, cheese, and milk. It all costs a quarter. I hope she uses me. Wheeee! She is using me. I’m so excited! The end.

*She gave the history […]

Original post by Heather @ CamianAcademy

School Pictures

We did a little photo shoot at my parents’ house on Saturday. They have lots of space and great places to take pictures. I think we’ll do this every year for school pictures.
Ani - Third Grade

Cameron - First Grade

Original post by Heather @ CamianAcademy

So long Summer!

Well since today was one of the most beautiful days and it happened to be the last day of official summer we loaded up the wee ones ( Noah was off with his grandparents) and drove  to Hancock Shaker Village. We haven’t been in about a year ( maybe longer?). I love this place, we ended up spending almost 4 hours and yet we really didn’t see it all. We saw some things we haven’t in years and didn’t go into some things we’ve seen many times!
Here’s the munchkin’s at the entrance:

They love the wide open  spaces and freedom here:

We have never done the nature trail here, so we decided since it was the perfect day afterall we would and not having to deal with strollers anymore made it more appealing!
Here’s the view from the lookout on the trail:

On the trail:

In the discovery room.. That’s a Bee Hive Eric is […]

Original post by justakrazymom

Our Week…

We had a fairly normal week, schooling,dance,karate,acrobatics..but not soccer.. Miss Ziah just hates it, says it’s boring, so we dropped it.
Ah..schooling..let’s see..we did all the normal stuff, and I want to share Declan’s newest love..Draw,Write,Now. We have 3 of the books and intend to buy them all as we need them. They are the perfect fit for him! I even bought the journal’s for him so all his work is together! Right now he’s studying Native American’s, so we are using that book.. here’s a sample of his”lesson”:

Noah did all the usual bookwork..and then he learned how to install replacement windows! Last Saturday Robin and Tom and the kids came over and Tom and Eric put in 2 windows (Declan’s room) then we bought 2 more and Noah and Eric did those ( our room).. 4 down..9 to go!

He’s also been spending almost every Friday with my mom, making things, […]

Original post by justakrazymom

Our Week…

We had a fairly normal week, schooling,dance,karate,acrobatics..but not soccer.. Miss Ziah just hates it, says it’s boring, so we dropped it.
Ah..schooling..let’s see..we did all the normal stuff, and I want to share Declan’s newest love..Draw,Write,Now. We have 3 of the books and intend to buy them all as we need them. They are the perfect fit for him! I even bought the journal’s for him so all his work is together! Right now he’s studying Native American’s, so we are using that book.. here’s a sample of his”lesson”:

Noah did all the usual bookwork..and then he learned how to install replacement windows! Last Saturday Robin and Tom and the kids came over and Tom and Eric put in 2 windows (Declan’s room) then we bought 2 more and Noah and Eric did those ( our room).. 4 down..9 to go!

He’s also been spending almost every Friday with my mom, making things, […]

Original post by justakrazymom

Art co-op

I had 2 co-ops today, primary art and intermediate art. I decided to put them both on the same day, but I forgot to make a little more time between the 1st and 2nd class, so we didn’t have time to go eat. I don’t know what I was thinking.
Anyway I had 11 kids in the primary art. We painted a simple color wheel while we read the story ‘Mouse Paint’.

If you’ve never seen that book, go get it. It’s cute and teaches the simple principle of creating a new color by mixing 2 colors together. The mice fall into paint (red, yellow and blue) and then dance in the puddles of paint making orange, green and purple.

After we made the color wheels we did free paint.

I had some art out to look at and the kids painted oceans, rainbows, and more.

They all had a good […]

Original post by liese4

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