Fun HOT day!

Today was another beautiful day. It was hot here though. JD and his friend played on the trampoline with the garden hose. Even after all the outdoor activites we had I still stayed outside after school and replanted some trees and bushes into our front yard. (Something about increasing our property value.)

Today is National Honesty Day! That’s what our devotion said anyway. There was a guy once that measured out some tea for a woman. The next morning he realized he had a 4 ounce weight on the scale. He made things right and delivered her “missing” tea. That man…was “Honest Abe.” God also values honest. If God delights in honesty shouldn’t we? (Another tidbit about Cheryl…I HATE dishonesty more than anything else.)

The bible reading was from Genesis, chapters 38-40. Chapter 38 snuck up on me with Judah and Tamar. Where Judah’s son Er married Tamar, but he was wicked so God took his life. Next in line to have children with Tamar was his brother Onan. But Onan refused to have children with her so God took his life as well. Next in line was the third son. But he was too young so Judah promised when he was of age they would marry. Time went on and Judah had not sent Shelah to marry Tamar. Tamar tricked Judah into sleeping with her and she became pregnant. Tamar had Judah’s twins! Chapter 39 was about Joseph living in Potiphar’s house and being in charge of all his affairs. Potiphar’s wife tried to get Joseph to sleep with her and when he refused she told a lie about him that sent Joseph straight to jail. Even in jail God was with Joseph. Chapter 40 was when Joseph was put in charge in the prison. While in prison Potiphar’s cup bearer and baker were sent to jail too. Joseph interpreted their two dreams. What do you know they came true. The cup bearer lived and the baker died.

We finished up the Final math lesson today. It was all about stem and leaf plots. It had him find the range, mean, median, and modes again today. He does so well with these lessons. He scored a 90% on the quiz. JD has a final math grade of 95.3%. That‘s an “A!”

Today’s keyboarding lesson was from level 3, stage 8. It ret aught him the letters “B” and “N.” I was showering while he did his lesson so I don’t know if he was looking or not. I told him to do his best without looking.

We used the edit/rewrite lesson to finish typing the alphabet alliteration poem. It turned out pretty crazy and cool all at the same time. I will working on more poem types in the future. I just wanted to get him warmed up and getting use to nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

We did our last two lessons of the day on the road. JD read the last health lesson in the car on our way to a field trip. The lesson was on goals again. They talked about finding things that he was interested in. Then it discussed the two types of goals. They are short and long term goals. It ended with JD looking to the future. So JD’s final health grade was an outstanding 100%. There were no quizzes to grade so I graded it strictly on lesson participation.

We took off before health to get my North Carolina tags for the Ford. Then we went to the park to meet our co-op group called FAITH. I haven’t had much luck getting to know anyone. There is a play date set for the last Friday of each month at one of the local parks. Today we went there and there were only two other moms with younger children there. Turns out they were dissatisfied with Overhills Elementary School too. After a short visit with the swing set and the two other moms JD and I took off to pick our own strawberries. It’s not far from the house. JD asked why we just didn’t buy the buckets already picked and I said because we wouldn’t have made this memory together. We really did have a good time picking them. We had a contest to see who could find the biggest one and the ugliest one. We also had fun watching the migrant worker picking the same amount of strawberries as she ate.

Of the fifteen four letter spelling words JD got…all fifteen correct! They were tough silent lettered words but he pulled off another 100%. So much for never getting an “A” on a test (in public school.) Three more spelling tests left.

I can see the light at the end of 5th grade and Elementary School. Yippie!

Another beautiful and good day

Today is National Zipper Day! Or so says JD’s devotion book. It was a particularly difficult devotion to get through today because JD was so talkative. And by talkative I mean interrupting. (Nothing new there though.) I have him take his pill the first thing in the morning so it will take effect by math time. Which mean devotions and bible time are full of interruptions. The devotion talked about the invention of the zipper and how we use it so frequently. Then, it transitioned into when someone might say “ Zip it up!“ if they want us to be quiet or keep a secret. This is where JD got real talkative and I had the chance to say “zip it up.” The devotion said, “people can seem intelligent just by being quiet verses asking silly nonsense question.” JD said, “Well they might be inquisitive.” (Good one son.) Next, the devotion said, “Quietly listening when others speak also shows respect.” (Still interrupting.) The devotion ended with, “No one likes being interrupted” and the bible verse Proverbs 17:28.

Just a weird bit of information about me...I like unusual trivia questions and answers. And one question and answer I'll never forget is the letters on most zipper. So without looking at the picture of zippers or a zipper within your reach...what are the three letters on most zippers? The answer...at the bottom of today's blog...

The bible reading was from Genesis chapters 35-37. Chapter 35 was about Jacob returning to Bethel and the death’s of both Rachel and Isaac. Chapter 36 was about the descendants of Esau, the original peoples of Edom, and the rulers of Edom. My tongue is still twisted from all those names. I’m so glad we have names like Bob and Sue. JD was extremely bored while I stumbled repeatedly on those names trying to act like I knew the pronunciation. Chapter 37 felt more like English since the story was familiar to me. It was about Joseph’s dreams, his spiffy new jacket, and finally the unfortunate episode where he was sold into slavery.

The math lesson today was probably as easy as it gets. It was all about “mean.” That is adding a string of numbers together for the total sum and dividing it by the number of string of numbers. Example: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. The sum is 21. Divided by 6 = 3.5. Easy peasy. The quiz was over in no time at all and he scored a 100%. Go J.D.!

We took the civics lesson outside today. I laid a sheet out in the shade of the trees and we learned all about productivity. It also talked about people who specialize in certain tasks will be more efficient at their work. It again hit on the terms division of labor and interdependence on goods and services. There was a chapter quiz on two lessons today too. He did really well and scored a 90%.

We used the email/snail mail lesson time to finish the cursive writing story from yesterday. JD only completed writing half of the story yesterday. It was a story called “The things that drive me bonkers.” His cursive is actually easier to read than his manuscript printing. The letters are all the same size and there are spaces between the words. There might be hope yet…

The second to the last comprehension lesson has been accomplished in the language arts department. I think he’s growing impatient with those type of lessons because I know he comprehends those passages, but his scores are not reflecting it. I think he’s just anxious to get through the lessons. Today the passage had to do with compare and contrast and he scored an 80% on the quiz.

We also had the science lesson outside today too. It was actually a fun lesson. It was all about timelines. So the lesson asked JD to do his own timeline. He has had such an uneventfully little life there wasn’t much to put on the time line. I pulled out some of the old Hyder Herald newsletters from his toddler hood to put on the time line. It was fun to read those tales to him in the shade of the outside lawn.

The answer...YKK. What does YKK stand for? Glad you asked because I googled it for you. Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha (Again with the names?) the name of the Japanese company that was started in 1934 and opened its first office in 1960 in New York City.

A good day

The devotion today talked about a day at the beach. (Oh I want to go to the beach…) Anyway it also talked about building sand castles and forts. The problem with them is they don’t last long. The wind and the waves wipe them out. Jesus made an important point when discussing the type of foundation to build on. Matthew 7:26-27 says, “But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." (I still want to go to the beach!)

Today’s bible reading was Genesis chapters 32-34. Chapter 32 was when Jacob was on his way back to his homeland. He send many gifts ahead for Esau. One night Jacob was all alone in his camp when he wrestled a man. They wrestled all night and the man finally broke Jacob’s hip. The man blessed Jacob and said, “From now on you will be called Israel because you have fought with God and with men and have won.” In chapter 33 Jacob and Esau made peace. Esau completely forgave Jacob. Then, in chapter 34 Jacob and Leah’s daughter Dinah was seized and raped by a local prince named Shechem. BIG mistake! But he also fell in love with her and wanted to marry her. There was some discussion about being circumcised in order to allow that to happen. All the men of thee town were circumcised. Dinah’s brothers tricked the men and while they were recovering Jacob’s son’s went into town and slaughtered all the men. Then they took all their animals and looted their houses. Jacob yelled at Simeon and Levi saying, “You have ruined me!” And that’s where we left off.

We started a new lesson block in math today. It is the first of three lessons on statistics. So we learned terms like: mean, median, mode, and range. We also learned different types of plot graphs like: line, stem and leaf, and table. The lesson was not at all difficult to learn it was terribly difficult to answer the questions. We knew the process and the terms it was the fact that the lesson offered four answers so we had to solve each question four times in order to find the answer. VERY time consuming. It took almost 1 ½ hours to do both the lesson and quiz.

The word bank words today were: perpetual, plausible, and piquant. It kind of kills two birds with one stone. I pick words I have difficulty with so that we both learn to expand our vocabularies.

We went online today to the Mad Libs story maker and typed in the necessary words to make a silly story. He loves those stories. I picked the shortest story for him to copy in cursive. This set the brakes on. The attitude changed and it was pretty much down hill from there. I was moving around the house doing things and I had to have him call out what letters he was writing. I heard “B… e… something… n…” Wait! “something?” Do you know what letter you are writing? No. I thought public school did that. (Another set back…ugh.) I guess I need to have him practice cursive more often…after I teach him all the letters, again.

We did not do music or history today because 1.) we got a late start 2.) math took too long 3.) I had errands to run this afternoon. So it was mostly a good day just long.

Frustrating computer day

It was a very frustrating computer day. The internet kept going down on us and we would have to sign back in to complete lessons or completely start over again. But we made it through most of our lessons before I called it a day. The only lesson I completely dropped was the email/snail mail lesson because I didn’t want to deal with the added headaches. I did find an interesting website to teach JD story writing. Remember Mad Libs magazine? Well, it’s online. All he has to do is type in nouns, adjectives, colors and such and it creates funny stories. He LOVES it.

The devotion today was called “National Volunteer Week.” On Saturday my family of three will be spending the whole day at Wal-Mart handing out free hotdogs and witnessing to passerby‘s. Our church has signed up 80 people to take part in “Operation In As Much.” We’ll be dispatched all over Spring Lake doing various things. Back to the devotion…Christians shouldn’t need anyone to remind them to help others. Jesus said that people would be able to identify his followers by their love for one another.

The bible reading was still in Genesis. We covered chapters 30 and 31. Chapter 30 finally had Rachel’s maid and Rachel herself producing children for Jacob. Then, Jacob asked Laban (Rachel’s dad) to leave to go back to his own country. There was some discussion between Laban and Jacob about wages and the final proposition was Jacob could keep the speckled goats and black sheep. Then, Jacob assisted his flock to increase and get stronger while Laban’s flock did not. It was time for Jacob and his family to flee from Laban. Rachel stole her father’s idols, but God was with Jacob nonetheless. Laban followed Jacob and caught up with him seven days later. God warned Laban to leave Jacob alone. Laban was merely upset that he didn’t get to say goodbye to his daughters and grandchildren. Then, Laban set out to find his stolen idols. He did not find them, because they were hidden under Rachel. After some more discussion Laban and Jacob made a treaty with the lines drawn. They agreed not to cross the line.

The math lesson today was about comparing and translating data to a graph or from a graph. Basically, the same thing we’ve been doing for a couple of days. The quiz was tough because we had to start over again and we thought the data was the exact same. It was not and he only scored a 70%, but hey that’s passing and we were both okay with that. I know he knows what he needs to know about all five types of graphs.

We studied about the southwestern and the Pacific northwestern regions today in social studies. Nothing too interesting about the lesson other than there are small arguments as to where the boundary lines are for the southwestern region. We mapped the states mentioned on a blank United States map. JD also received three new states to look up facts on. Those states are: Arkansas, Georgia, and Illinois.

For the language arts lesson I had JD complete the “Inferencing” lesson. It was the second quiz in the lesson. There were two passages he had to read and five total questions to answer. I was outside mowing the lawn while he did this lesson. He scored an 80%.

Because of all the ups and downs with the internet today all I had JD do for science was check on his nail experiment and chart the data on his observation sheet.

So all and all it was a good day for us and I was glad to finally get off the internet for a while.

Happy Birthday to our #1 follower!

Happy birthday to Lyndell! Today was a pretty good day. I hope that’s a great present for you. Love ya!

Remember I typed about ripping my iris’ out after this year? Well, of the 42 iris’ I had painstakingly grown for years now and I mentioned only one bloomed? It had five flowers set to bloom. I went out and took a picture of one bloom yesterday morning. By last evening the high winds we sustained knocked my one and only iris down. I went out this morning and cut it to put in my kitchen. Bummer it didn‘t get to fully bloom. I'm destined not to have any iris'.

JD and I read two devotions today. Yesterday’s was about the United Nations. It talked about not all the nations agreeing on certain issues. Some say they do but practice something different. Of course the news reveals all the disagreements. Peace will come one day, when Jesus comes back. The bible tells us in the book of Revelation, “A vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language” will stand before God and worship him together. (Oh what a beautiful sight.) The other devotion let us know that it is Hug an Australian Day. Hugs can let someone know you care and you’ll stand with them. Hugs also say, “I like you-you’re ok” and “your welcome! We’re glad you’re here.” Hugs were even mentioned in the bible. 2 Corinthians says, “Greet one another with a Holy embrace.” So go ahead and hug someone today - it doesn’t HAVE to be an Australian.

Our bible reading today was out of Genesis, chapters 28 and 29. Chapter 28 talked about Isaac calling for Jacob before he went to Paddan-Aram (because Esau wanted to harm him.) Isaac warned Jacob not to marry a Canaanite women. Instead go to the instructed place and find a wife there. On Jacob’s travels he stopped to rest and had a dream about a staircase to heaven. He woke up that morning and tilted the rock he used for a pillow. He set up a memorial pillar and called that place Bethel. Then first mention of tithe was used here too. When Jacob finally arrived at his location he found a beautiful woman to marry. He agreed with Rachel's father to work seven years and then she could be his wife. But at the end of seven years the father tricked Jacob and gave the eldest daughter, Leah, first. Then, Jacob agreed again to work another seven years for the younger daughter Rachel. Then, it sadly ended with Leah producing four son’s for Jacob and Rachel zero.

The math lesson today was fairly easy but still complicated. It wanted to know what type of graph we should use for the data provided. There are five graphs we have learned about over the last week, and they were: bar, line, circle, histograph, and venn. He scored a 70% on the quiz. (Four more math lessons left. Yippie!)

The keyboarding lesson went as usual. I was watching him watching me. When I turned away he looked at the keyboard. When I looked away he looked at the computer screen. Every time I told him to stop looking at the keyboard he let out a frustration moan. I told him to do what’s right when no one was looking. Then after the lesson I told him these lessons could greatly benefit him in the near future. He can easy type his papers instead of writing them. I also told him when I caught him looking that instead of being frustrated he should apologize and try harder to learn the keys. He agreed.

Today we had a tornado drill. It was not nearly an entertaining as the fire drill in the past. We learned that we both don’t fit behind the couch and the closet in one of the spare bedrooms best suits us. The only thing I forgot was a flashlight and oh yeah...the dogs.

I started a poetry block today for the journal lesson. Today he started an alphabet alliteration poem. The rules to the poem are: write at least three words for each alphabet letter, each important word in the line begins with the same letter, and the format goes as follows: adjective, noun, verb. For example:
A - acid apples add
B - bad bombs blowup
I love the fact that the poems end up being nonsense poems. It took the pressure off of him. He thought poems had to rhyme.

The art lesson was about “Time.” He learned from art what people, places, toys, and clothes looked like way back in time. I sat with him through most of the lesson. It was kind of cool. They offered an art piece and asked a question about it. They set it up like a games show where one person told a fact about it and one person told a fib. It was JD’s job to identify the fact.

JD has 15 new spelling words this week. They are all four letter words. But most of them have silent sounding consonants.

Question bag...This is a grappling hook. I said graveling hook...oops.

A grappling hook is an anchor with three to five hooks (claws, flukes), attached to a rope; it is thrown, dropped, sunk, projected, or fastened directly by hand to where at least one hook may catch and hold. Generally, grappling hooks are used to temporarily secure one end of a rope. They may also be used to dredge for submerged objects. Historically, grappling hooks were used in naval warfare to catch ship rigging so that it could be boarded.