Isabella's 1st Birthday

Today was Isabella's birthday.  I can't believe it's been one year already.  I felt very priviledged to be a part of her birthday.  Sarah decided to go pink.  So we had pink little smokie buns, pink rice Krispy treat lolly pops, pink fruit cups, pink cupcakes, and pink punch.  Enjoy the pictures.

A good day

It was a good school day. We got all of our classes accomplished. (Yeah)

It’s so coincidental…I’m reading a Monday through Friday Women’s devotion book, JD’s a Monday through Friday devotion book, and my bible daily. It seems like everything is lining up. If I’m studying about Hagar or Lot’s I’ve already read the bible reading that corresponds with the study. Just last night I asked Jeff about the first two commandments and today “Do not make any idols of any kind" comes up in JD’s devotion book. God works in mysterious ways. He must really want me to get it this time. So anyway…JD’s devotion had two boys talking to one another about why we can’t make a carving or painting of what we think God might look like. Since we don’t know what God looks like we might distort our worship with him with out paintings and statues. Then one boy asked the other, “How about I make a statue of a goat and say it looks like you.” “Oh yeah right, me a goat…”

In the AWANA book today JD completed Challenge 2:6. He memorized Acts 16:29-31 about the Philippians jailer who asked “What must I do to be saved?” Now JD knows the bible is true because it changes peoples lives.

The math lesson today was all working with the metric system and finding an even proportion for a fraction or word problem written like a fraction. It started out looking pretty intimating but we made it through the lesson and onto the quiz. I must tell you we were quite surprised that together we scored a 100% on the quiz. (High five’s were in order.)

Today for language arts JD learned some more Greek and Latin root words. The lesson really only focused on “pos” which means putting or making and “act” which means do. The lesson was very engaging for JD. He scored a 100% on the quiz.

For science today we used Time4Learning again. The lesson was about plant vocabulary. I don‘t want to bore you with all the words. JD took the chapter quiz and scored a 80%. Earlier in the day I burned some boxes that were trash. That prompted JD to ask for a bonfire. After our family night dinner I built the promised bonfire. While we were out there I noticed the stars were very bright. I thought I recognized Orion’s belt, but I couldn’t be sure. That’s when it hit me. Sarah’s phone has a star/constellation application on it. I asked her if we could borrow it to look at the stars. All I had to do was point the phone at the constellation and it was Orion’s belt. The application told us planet names, constellation names, the north pole, and the south pole. (I have to get up with technology. It’s time to go Wi-Fi at Faith Christian Academy.)

JD and I did some more exploring for our spring vacation today. We looked at Cork Ireland and the Ring of Kerry for social studies today. It’s suppose to have a spectacular view but we didn’t see anything in our research.

JD read his book Hoot for thirty minutes. He started in the car and finished while we were waiting for our family night pizza.

Thursday, 20 January, 2011
A good day

I accidentally posted this blog at 12:20am Friday. Thursday was a good day and we got all of the subjects except reading completed before I cleaned my client's house.    

The devotion started out talking about the Mona Lisa. While we have all seen the Mona Lisa and her “smile.” But we haven’t seen the original, unless of course you’ve been to the Louvre Museum in Paris. That painting is an original. It’s one of a kind. God is also unique. He’s one of a kind. God’s first commandment was, “To have no other God’s before me.” There is only one Mona Lisa in the world, but there are many paintings. There is only one God in the universe, and there is none other. We’ll never be satisfied worshiping someone-or something-else.

For social studies today I read an email I got detailing the similarities between presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. Then, we watched Kennedy’s inaugural address. Next, we watched the video of Kennedy’s assassination. We also watched Lee Harvey Oswald getting assassinated. I know one grandmother who is not going to like the fact that I showed the reality of death and justice to her grandchild, but it’s history.

In the AWANA book JD learned the bible is true because it was written over a period of 1,500 years and yet it all fits together. He memorized Romans 16:26 and 2 Peter 1:21 to back up this new fact about the truth of the bible. He also learned that the events prophesied really happened. He memorized Jeremiah 28:9 and 18:22.

In math today we found ourselves calculating and measuring metrics. Once we remembered whether to multiple or divide (move the decimal right or left) we were okay. JD scored a 90% on the quiz. I notice the other day that there were 272 math lessons this year. We have attended over 80 days thus far. That means we have to double up on some lessons in order to get through the math programs this year. So I tried to squeeze in second lesson, but quickly closed it because I did not want to do the lesson called Proportional Reasoning and Indirect Measurement. The first screen talked about using fractions and I didn’t want to touch those today.

JD did language arts on Time4Learning today. It was about plots, characters, and settings. I allowed him to do it independently today while I folded the laundry. I could here the lesson asking him questions like should pirates be in a desert setting? It sounded very engaging. And it kept him entertained for the whole lesson.

I had JD watch BrainPop videos on seed plants, photosynthesis, and plant growth to reemphasize what we learned over the last couple of days.

Since JD did not read for thirty minutes yesterday I had him read for one hour today. He read his book Hoot while I cleaned my client’s house.

Long but fun day

Today was a long but fun day. The math and social studies lessons were long but we managed to find some fun in math today.

The devotion today talked about Dr Watson and Sherlock Holmes making deductions in order to solve a mystery. Then, the devotion transitioned into kids being able to see what parents value by the rules they set. For example if I teach my child to say please and thank you it means I value manners; “clean your room please” means I value cleanliness; problem. The same thing is true of God’s commands and what they reveal about His character.

Today in the AWANA book JD had to recall four reasons how we can know the bible is true and recite four bible verses to back it up. Next, we looked up 7 bible verse to see which person listed had the listed occupation. JD learned that the bible is true because 40+ chosen people were selected to record God’s words and yet the information all fits together. JD commented that those people ought to be really busy. Then, JD memorized Luke 1:1-2, 4. (A very long selection.) I told JD of my research on the Bible Bee and he doesn’t seem to think he would want to do it. I went on to tell him that his natural ability to recall bible verses is amazing. (I’ll keep working on him.)

Today in math we had to draw pictures and use logic to figure out complex word problems. We definitely had to work together on this lesson. JD read the clues and I made the picture or charts. The lesson took a lot longer than expected but we had fun doing it so I didn’t mind the minutes falling off the clock. We obviously were not paying attention during the quiz because we only scored a 70%. We read two questions incorrectly and suffered the consequences. (Oh well.)

Another fun lesson was science. I never imagined I’d ever say that! It started with the quiz we forgot to do one seed plants from yesterday. He scored a 90%. Then, choose to learn about photosynthesis. It was a fairly short lesson packed with lots of information about where our energy in green food comes from. The lesson told JD about the “food factory” process where the plant takes in and puts out chemicals. We learned that plants make glucose, starches, fats, and proteins. Luckily for all of us, plants food factories dump their “waste products” into the environment. So when you breathe in air you’re actually inhaling a plant’s waste materials. This garnered gagging and coughing sounds from my pupil. Apparently we didn’t absorb all the information in this particular lesson because together we only scored a 60% on the chapter quiz. We went back and reviewed what we missed or simply had to guess at.

The social studies lesson was also a fun lesson. We went more in depth about our future trip to Ireland and Scotland. Over the weekend I took the travel magazines and dissected them for only Ireland and Scotland tour bus information. Today we worked on Ireland. We printed a map and I started naming cities. It was JD’s job to mark the city and draw a line from Dublin to the location and mark the distance between the two. We looked at images of the things the bus tour would take us to. Ireland is famous for many things but what we found out today is Belfast is where the Titanic was built. Kilkenny is the Medieval city. Waterford Crystal company is based in Waterford. We stopped our research near Cork. We found out that the “famous” Blarney stone was set in 1446. So that makes it 565 years old. It is kissed by 300,000 people annually. As much as I hate math I did the math on this. That means it’s possible that 169,500,000 people may have kissed that stone. Also, it’s possible the stone had a biblical background. After a search on it there are conflicting legends. One legend reports that it is the very stone Moses stuck for water. Another legend says it’s the stone used as a pillow by Jacob. The next legend says it’s the stone Jonathan hit behind when David’s father Saul was after him. In any case…I have to kiss the stone no matter how long the line is. (I’ll just have to scrub my lips with sandpaper after I do.)

JD and I continued his colony story today in language arts. Today I prompted him with more questions. I asked things like: why he wants a new colony of people, why 2,000 people want to leave America to follow him, how his government will be different from America, and what each of the three islands will be used for.

I left JD to read for thirty minutes on his own. I asked if I needed to remind him to read and he said, “No.” I did remind him twice since school ended and in between the two animated movies he’s watched but he did not read today. I’ll just have him read for 1 hour tomorrow.

Another good day

Yesterday was Martin Luther King day so we followed the public school calendar and did not have school either. To sum our day up I would say it was a good-long-fun-productive-frustrating-bonding kind of day. You’ll see why in the following paragraphs.

The devotion today was all about “Rules, rules, rules!” Most of the rules parents set in motion are for our protection. Likewise, God did not give us the Ten Commandments because he was having a bad day or because he liked the way they sounded. He didn’t make them up to throw his weight around or even to be a party pooper. He did it because he wanted to protect us and provide for us. He knows the surest, safest path to pleasure and fulfillment, and his commands are intended to help us get there. Moses in essence said to obey all the laws and to fear God for our own prosperity and well being.

JD read the beginning chapter in the book of Luke for an AWANA assignment in his book. He read the foretold stories of both John the Baptist and Jesus. Next he completed Challenge 1:6 proving God’s word is historically correct. He memorized two verses strung together (1 John 1:1-2.) Because he does so well memorizing bible verses I have looked into joining a Bible Bee for him. Yes, they really do have these. I still need to do further research on this matter.

The math lesson today was making tables to organize data in word problems. Honestly, I could save a lot of money dying my hair if I had less self control during math. I could just rip it all out and wear a hat for the rest of my life. Here’s one of the math word problems - I’m thinking of a number between 20 and 40. The first digit is less than the second digit. The number is divisible by 2, but not divisible by 5. When you add the two digits together the sum equals seven. What number and I thinking of. Okay computer program…I have one for you. If I drink one glass of wine, one can of beer divided into two glasses, and a margarita while figuring out your $tupid question, will I ever care what number you’re thinking of? JD did very well with this lesson, but he still would not develop his own table to organize the information. He scored a 90% on the lesson quiz.

The math lesson must have frustrated me so much that I decided I needed a break. Would I? Could I?…find a “better time” to run a fire drill? I learned somewhat from the last fire drill. I took my slippers off this time. My feet were cold outside but I don’t need physical therapy from my gymnastics this time. I warned Daniel’s family about three minutes before I called “Exercise, exercise, Fire drill, fire drill!” We all (6 people and 3 dogs without leashes) did a great job taking it seriously and getting out of the house to the assembly point. Not one of the three adults carried a cell phone out. Amazing! We decided the best thing to do was to go door to door at our neighbors houses to call 911.

I combined the language arts and social studies lessons together. We worked on JD’s colony paper. It was a very talkative time for us. I asked many questions to get JD to tell me about his citizens, their qualifications and occupations, and total population. At one point I took out 20 pennies to represent his population. Each penny represented 100 citizens. We talked out how he would divide them by male/female, young adult, adult, and seniors, and occupations while starting to build and live on his new found treasure. It was a lot of fun and I think it helped him understand reasonableness. Is it reasonable to have an 80 year old man in construction? Can a four year old help farm?

For science today JD and I completed our lesson on seed plants from 11 January. He’s quite proficient now when asked about both angiosperms and gymnosperms. He knows how new plants start; by wind dispersal, falling, being carried away by human and animals. We learned what it takes for a new plant to start growing like sufficient room, water, and oxygen. He also learned about the different parts of a seed and embryo. We even pulled out the microscope again to look at the embryo of a kidney bean.

I cut JD’s reading time down to 20 minutes today because he read so much in the bible during the AWANA book time. He’s of course still reading Hoot.