Fractions and Square Roots

Homeschooling this summer has been really rocky.  Our toilet was leaking and so we have ended up remodeling the whole thing.  It started with just moving the toilet out of the closet and getting a smaller vanity but we found tile on clearance and so the whole bathroom has been in shambles for about a month.

Our biggest goals for this summer were to prepare my oldest daughter for algebra and the literary analysis class.  She needed to work on negatives, exponents, roots, and order of operations.  Also, she needed to learn to write not only a paragraph but a five paragraph paper.

Negative numbers, exponents and root work is going well.  We will start working with order of operations today and I think she will be fine for algebra.  As for writing, I am still working with her on paragraphs.  The teacher recommended Jensens' Format Writing.  I liked Writing Strands better.  We still have two weeks before her class starts so she should have paragraphs down by then and we will just have to work on the rest as the class goes on.  She does have Call of the Wild read and is working on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. 

As for my youngest, we are getting started on fractions.  She is doing well in math as long as she has her fact sheets for addition/subtraction and multiplication/division.  If she doesn't hit a big wall with fraction work, I think that she will be on track to start algebra by her 9th grade year which is on track for the majority of students.  And you know 10th grade is OK too.  She can still do geometry and algebra II before graduating.

The other big thing that she has been working on is learning Hieroglyphics.  She picked up a book at a thrift store on them and has been studying the unilateral signs and is getting started on the bilateral signs.  She really enjoys this and is driving the project herself.  I just help her with the pronunciation guide.  I'm starting to wonder if this will be the foreign language she puts on her college applications.

Other than the interruptions, I think they are making a lot of progress this summer.

Comic Books & Manga

Learning to read has been a struggle for both of my children.  Part of this process was finding something that they liked to read.  So many things out there for kids to read they considered "stupid" or "boring."  I found that cartoon, manga, graphic novels and comic books helped made reading fun and it helped all the skills to click so that they became fluent readers.

For my oldest the "Baby Mouse" books were what really got her into reading.  They are cute, fun stories that appeal to girls who are not into being all "girly."  My youngest daughter had everything click for her as she read bind-ups of old X-Men comics.  She really liked Storm and reading all about her adventures. 

Now they both collect comics which are kept in plastic bags with boards and we have a database file to keep track of which ones they own.  So they are learning how to keep things nice, organized and inventoried.

Many people think comics are not worthy of their child's reading time.  But many comics have large difficult words in the text, life lessons to learn, and explore science and imagination.  Many have links to mythology or classic literature.  My daughter loves many Marvel characters and Thor has opened up the world of Norse mythology and culture. 

Spiderman, Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic all love working with science and/or engineering.  The world of comics is full of doctors, teachers, moms, and all sorts of highly educated people who struggle not only against super adversaries but with life as well. 

Not everyone is comfortable with their kids reading these sorts of things but they are the gateway to books. 

Getting Back into the Rhythm of Homeschooling

We had our first full week of gearing up for the new school year and curriculum.  It's been going OK.  My oldest is practicing concepts that she was introduced to last year but needs some mastery of before starting Algebra.  This week she worked on exponents.

My youngest started working on learning Hieroglyphics.  She is the main person driving this study and I am helping her out when needed.  They both started their history studies and it wasn't too bad.

I have high hopes for the new year.

Skedtrack Part II

Skedtrack
I spent some time last month and as our curriculum arrived putting in the lessons for the year.  I had things start on Monday, July 9 and printed out the week's work for each child.  At the end of the school day, I log-in and check off what is finished.  If I wanted to I could do this at the end of the week and just punch in the dates for when lessons were done.

The thing that I really liked about the online public school was the computerized lesson plans and calendar.  Skedtrack almost recreates this for us.  I think it will be easier to keep on track as the computer will adjust the lesson for the dates.

Things about Skedtrack:

You enter the school term/year.
You can have different students with their own schedules.
You enter in what the subjects are and the books/curriculum used.
You enter in the lessons.
You enter in what days the classes take place and when the start date is.
Then you can print out a day or a weeks worth of work and check things off as they are finished.

I have high hopes for this program this year.

Nerd Wars and Tour de Fleece

My second submission for Nerd Wars this round was a spinning project.  I chain or navajo plied the alpaca yarn into this:

I decided that the scientific challenge of "Hide and Seek" would be a good one for this.  After all it is brown, the color of dirt and mud.  Many animals are various shades of brown to blend into the dirt background.  I linked it to "A Game of Thrones" through Arya who uses dirt and mud to hide herself in the city as an urchin or street child. 

I loved spinning this yarn.  Alpaca is my favorite fiber and spinning it from a cloud was fun.

School Supply Shopping List

It is time to think about shopping for school supplies.  The stuff is hitting the stores and going on sale.  I guess local schools start the new year on August 6th.

Shopping List
2 backpacks for co-op
2 lunchboxes for co-op
2 new bags for junk they want to take to playgroup
2 sets of 50 Supertips Crayola markers
2 sets of colored pencils
green folder
pencils
2 small pencil boxes for co-op
2 pencil sharpeners for co-op
20 notebooks
5 red folders
5 purple folders

I may also get my older daughter the set of manga drawing markers that they have at Target.  She loves to draw cartoons and I would like to give her the tools she needs for her craft.

More Tour de Fleece

It has been a busy time lately.  The neighbor across the street backed into my husband car, we almost had a fire with a lamp, and I have been working in this heat making pies and selling them at the farmer's market.  But I have had time to spin in the mornings.  It really helps center me and has gotten to the point where it is a very relaxing activity.

I've been working on my alpaca cloud.  I had about 8 ounces in there and have gotten it on two bobbins.  I am thinking that I will Navajo ply each one since I have spun them very thin.  Pictures:

Bobbin #2 is a very pretty brown with a bit of veggie matter in there.  You know those alpacas can be so naughty running about getting all tangled up in the weeds.

Bobbin #1.

Day 5--Tour de Fleece

Alpaca cloud

Need I say more?  Alpaca is my favorite fiber and I loved spinning it from a cloud.  I have at least 8 ounces and spun up a bobbin full.

Day 4--Tour de Fleece

For day 4 of tour de fleece, I finished off my Nerd Wars "cover me" project and chain plied my pastel striped yarn.

It took me about 90 minutes to navajo/chain ply this.  I watched a documentary called "Happy Grammar" while I did it.  I think that it went really well and I don't have as many "bumps" in this one as the first one.  By the way happy grammar was about a tribe that had no words for colors or numbers and no present or past tense.  I love linguistics.

And my Nerd Wars project for round 2 of tournament 5:

The yarn before finishing, the fiber with the book cover and the yarn on the bobbin with the book.  We were to match our project to a book cover from another "nerd world."  I chose the Warriors book because it went with the yarn.  They are both my older daughter's.  The nerd world they would belong to would be team shady cells for manga, anime and comics since it is a graphic novel or team one more page because it is from a series of books.  To tie it into my team, the Dothraki are a warrior people in A Game of Thrones.

Tour de Fleece Day 3/Nerd Wars

My third day of Tour de Fleece was spinning for the Nerd Wars intellectual challenge of "cover me."  In this challenge your project needs to match the book cover of another team.  So I am spinning some pretty purple, black, and cream with a dash of pink portuguese merino.  This stuff is very stretchy.

I love how all the colors sort of heather together.