A good day

It was a good day except for the time we spend in math. Today is “National Poetry Day” or so says the devotion today. The devotion referred us to wonderful book of poetry called Psalm. Psalm 127:3 says, “Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.” (I knew that…and I love that I was blessed with my son.)

The math lesson today re-taught us how to add and subtract decimals. It was simple enough; just line up the decimals points and add or subtract. It was not the “fun” type of lesson that JD likes so his attitude was poor when he pulled up his chair. It continued throughout the lesson. I reminded him that he has complete control over his attitude, but it did not change. He breezed through the lesson and went on to the quiz. JD scored a 100% on the quiz.

Today in social studies we did another review on Central and South America. We reviewed the countries, capitals, landforms, and bodies of water. I used the same webpage as I did last week. We worked together on all four quizzes. We had to take the capitals quiz 5 times to get a 100%, twice for the countries, once for both the landforms and bodies of water. We had fun working together.

We learned about the endocrine system today in science. We learned about all those different glands and their functions. We worked together on workbook pages 82 (labeling the glands) and page 83 (drawing lines from the written function of the glands to the picture.) Then we took the quiz. We scored a 70% the first time and retook it for a score of 100%. Monday will be the dreaded reproductive system. (Put me on your prayer chain - smile)

I had errands to do today so I had JD wait to do his 30 minutes of reading until the end of the day. He finished the book called Lights Out at Camp What-a-Nut. We did not do a book report on it today. We will accomplish this on Monday.

I had JD do his language arts lesson on the road. He did two pages out of his workbook. Page 75 was about language and its usage. An example: Mr. Berg will teach/learn us about camping. (There really are people out there that don’t recognize the difference.) Page 77 was also about word usage. This time he had to rewrite the sentences with the correct usage.

On a productivity roll

Today was yet another productive day. I’m definitely on a roll. The devotion today was called “National Be Bald and Be Free Day.” The bible talks about people’s hair length and Jesus talks about hair too. He was talking to a crowd and his closet followers. He said, (paraphrased)…the hairs on our heads are numbered, but don’t worry about things because we are more valuable to God than a flock of sparrows. (Luke 12:7).

The math lesson today was about estimating and rounding decimals. The lesson itself was fairly simple and we would have gotten through it much faster had it not locked up on us toward the end. I sent JD on a break and went back through the lesson myself to get us back to where we were before it locked up. When I finally got to the point where it locked up, it locked up again. I finally just closed the lesson and had JD do the quiz. He scored a 90%.

For social studies today we watch the DVD America: The Story of Us. We started learning about when America was becoming divided. We learned about and I took notes on the industrial revolution. More specifically the Erie Canal and the cotton gin. It started to tell us about the issue of slavery and how the south used slave for the new “white gold.” (cotton) (We absolutely love this DVD.)

Today in science we learned about the respiratory system. We learned the three main parts were the trachea, the diaphragm, and the lungs. We did three pages in his workbook. Page 60 (labeling the parts of the respiratory system), page 61 (labeling a close up of the respiratory system), and page 62 (a respiratory system crossword puzzle.) Then, we did a review on various different systems, parts of the body, skeletal system, and muscular system. (Workbook pages: 42, 43, 50, and 52.)

I had my cleaning job today so I took along the language arts lesson. First I had JD read his book for 30 minutes and then I had him do two pages from his language arts workbook. He reviewed making and breaking up contractions and irregular verbs. He still complains about the amount of writing but I still have him do it. His handwriting is getting better though.

Football practice was a bit messy because we got some rain today. JD was doing some hard hitting.

Productive day

Today was a good productive day. We breezed right through each lesson. I even told JD how proud I was that we were so far ahead.

The devotion today was about the “cornerstone” of buildings and such. The cornerstone is the most important of all the bricks, after all it is what gives the structure the strength to hold all the others bricks up. Some people might build their life on money, possessions, or worldly success, but we need to remember that none of those will work as a sufficient cornerstone. Christ should be our cornerstone as referred to in the bible. (Acts 4, Eph 2, 1 Pet 2.) Otherwise, like a poorly constructed building, everything will crumble. It is my earnest prayer that each of you reading this has accepted Christ as your savior so I can share my cornerstone with you.

JD reading his Odyssey book for 30 minutes and then we moved onto math. I needed an easy lesson today and easy it was. It was about comparing and ordering decimals. Decimals have gotten easier for both of us. We just look at it like it’s money. Today they asked which number was bigger. If we line up the decimal points on each number it’s easy to see which “pot of money” is bigger.

Today in science we back tracked a bit and looked at the gall bladder, liver, pancreas. Once we learned about them we moved onto the heart and the circulatory system. We learned the heart had four chambers and labeled all the parts of the heart. We also learned the difference between a vein and an artery and their functions. Then, we worked together to accomplish several workbook pages. We did page 55 (answered questions), 56 (labeling the heart), 57 (drawing the flow of the blood), 58 (labeling the heart), and 59 (crossword puzzle).

I was looking at the cash I earned this weekend for pet sitting when I noticed one of the dollar bills had “Track this bill…go to Wheres George.com. So we entered the $1.00 bill‘s serial number and saw that it only had two entries on the site and one was ours. That’s weird for a bill printed in 2006.

For social studies today we watched the DVD America: The Story of Us. We briefly learned about the Alamo, the 1848-1855 Gold Rush, the 1818 milk sickness, the Trail of Tears, and the use of the Mississippi River. Today I only took two pages of notes. I felt like there were important details missing so I drug JD to the computer to learn a few more facts about each thing we learned about today.

I had JD work in his English workbook today. He had to write the plural form of singular nouns and vice versa. He completed pages 31 and 33.

Another fine school day

Today was another fine school day.  A little hard to get focused during math and a small attitude during writing in language arts but a good day overall.  

See Language Arts lesson



The devotion today was about rain. Isn’t it funny how we want rain sometimes and other we don’t want even a drop to ruin our plans. Well rain is one thing we have absolutely no control over. So about all we can do is pray and talk to God about how we feel when we need it, plan or adjust our attitudes and schedules when it comes despite our pleas, and keep Plan B in place…that is to keep the umbrella handy.



After the devotion JD read for the usual 30 minutes today. After that we did the “not so easy” math lesson. I could have thrown the computer out the window today. It wasn't the computer's fault though. It was the Time4Learning math lesson. It talked about, but did not re-teach us how to convert fractions to decimals. I had to go to another internet resource to figure that step out. JD didn't understand the quiz questions and he didn't tell me. I asked, "Am I the only one who doesn't understand this?" He said, "No I don't understand either." We repeated the lesson in case we missed something. But we didn't. AND we forgot how to do it from last year. I finally figured it out. Just in case you too have forgotten 1/2 can be changed to a decimal by taking “1 divided by 2” on a calculator and that equals 1.5. We also learned the terms: terminating, non-terminating, and repeating decimals.



Today in science we learned about the central nervous system and the immune system. They have some great videos on kidshealth.org. We learned the central nervous system has three main parts (brain, spinal cord, and nerves.) Then we learned about the parts of the brain and how it works. The video for the immune system was directed from a military point of view. This helped JD see how we fight off bacteria, fungus, viruses, and parasites. I also had him complete page 74, 75, and 79 in his workbook. Two pages were only labeling and one was a crossword puzzle.



The social studies lesson today was the DVD America: The Story of Us. We learned about the westward expansion. We learned about the Cumberland Gap, Daniel Boone, the Shawnee, the Louisiana Purchase, Louis and Clark, Jedediah Smith (the fur trader), the Oregon Trail, and finally the Donner Party. The Donner Party was pretty gross. I don’t know what I would have done if I were snowed in and starving, but I hope I would not turn to cannibalism.



Jeff sent us some cool pictures made entirely out of food. You can look at some of them by just Goggling “Carl Warner pictures and looking at “images.” I used that email Jeff sent as the inspiration for the language arts lesson. I asked JD if you could make one of those pictures made out of food what would your look like. He would use apples for building, watermelons for boats, and Jell-o for water. Some of the details would be windows made of sugar, benches made from peppers, and clouds made of cotton candy. Then I had him draw a corresponding picture. He was upset that I dictated the story and had him rewrite it so the writing is somewhat hard to read and the picture is small and not detailed very well.

It's the 150th post!

I finally finished the post for Friday, 8 Oct.  Sorry so late...

Today was a good day. I really hoped public school was out today but they were not. I’ve been wanting to go hiking at Raven Rock National Park for sometime now, but we just haven’t gotten out there. The weather was beautiful today and it would have been the perfect day, but unfortunately we had school. (Bummer.)

The devotion today was about the George Washington “I cannot tell a lie” saying. This was apparently invented to create a better image of Mr. George Washington for the public eye. The bible warns of other people being fooled by what they say too. This caused the Galatians to follow different ways that pretended to be God’s ways, when in fact it was not God’s way.

JD gladly volunteered to read for 30 minutes for his next lesson. He’s enjoying “Light’s Out at Camp What-a-Nut.

The math lesson was another easy one. It taught JD about decimal place value. I’m not sure what was going on with JD this morning, but he was unfocused. I really think his weight has a minimal effect on his current dose of medication for hyperactivity. So the word of the hour was “Focus!” The lesson took longer than expected but he got through it fairly easily. He took the quiz and scored an 80%. He recognized his errors and pressed on.

We did a short language arts study today. I had him practice capitalizing and punctuating sentences. Then, I had him capitalize proper nouns and proper adjectives. He did well with this. As a matter of fact he did so well on the first page that I shortened the second page. Actually, JD came out of the house to find me and made this statement, “I’m not trying to be bossy or anything, but this is a lot of sentences.” It was at that point that I checked the previous sentences to make sure he understood the lesson and I rewarded him with only correcting the even numbered sentences for the second page. (smile)

Since today was Columbus Day it only seemed fitting to do a short social studies lesson on Christopher Columbus. JD knew all the pertinent facts so this made for an easy lesson. Little unknown facts about Christopher Columbus.

• His real name was Chrisoffa Coromba, which was later translated into English as Christopher Columbus.
• Columbus never actually set foot on the American soil; instead, he first landed on a deserted island in Bahamas.
• He was an opium addict which was not an uncommon trend in Spain with even King and Queen engaged in its consumption.
• No painter ever captured Columbus on their canvas. Paintings depicting Columbus are a work of fiction.