A good test day

The devotion was about today being the anniversary of the first postage stamp. Did you know that at the beginning of the postage stamp era the receiver would have to pay the postage? The receiver would often refuse the letter. It got to where the sender and receiver would send secret messages on the envelopes. The United States came up with our stamp in 1847. It only cost $0.05 back then. Then, the devotion transitioned into the stamp of the Holy Spirit, being our guarantee. It says we be belong to God and will receive all the benefits. (And for free!)

We finished up the book of Genesis today. Only 65 more to go. Seems so long, but if we pace ourselves we can absorb more. We read chapters 49-50 today. Chapter 49 was Jacob’s blessings to all his boys before he died. Some seemed more like a curse than a blessing. But before Jacob died he instructed them to bury him in Canaan with his first wife Leah, his grandfather and his wife, and his father and mother. Chapter 50 was about hem traveling to Canaan with a parade of Egyptians officials to carry out Jacob’s final instructions. The very last part of Genesis was where Joseph’s brother were worried about Joseph getting revenge on them for what they did years ago. He assured them he intended no harm. He would take care of them. (Joseph is a symbolism of Jesus. Thanks Jesus for forgiving us…) Then, Joseph dies after having his brothers swear to take his bones back when God comes for them.

Today we did an algebra review. After the review JD took the goal 5 quiz consisting of 13 questions. I don’t know exactly what his problem was but he was REALLY delayed in answering each question and claimed not to know how to find the missing pattern link on some of the problems. I tried my best to encourage him by telling him, “You were all over this when we learned together. You were always the one that discovered the pattern first.” This didn’t help. So I assisted him for one of the questions, emphasized a clue on the next, and got up an left him for the third question to see if he was depending on me. By the end of the quiz I realized he didn’t want to write down the information to “keep track of the information.” He still did well on the quiz.

Today we finished up the Reading EOG during the language arts and email/snail mail time periods. There were 24 comprehension questions and JD only missed 2 questions. So when I total Tuesday’s quiz with today’s quiz he made a 93% on the practice EOG. I only hope the state assessment I ordered will be very similar. If they have editing, punctuation, parts of speech, and so on I don’t know how JD will do. It’s been baby steps this semester and I have worked on editing, punctuation and the parts of speech but JD misses a lot of those details I see clearly.

We tried to have a somewhat easy school day today because of the algebra EOG and the reading EOG. So for science today I allowed JD to continue to watch a Discovery program that explained the process of bringing down a huge structure with explosives. He watched them bring down a 40 story apartment building, an old shipping port building with four cranes, and four huge smoke towers. JD learned that there are only three women explosive managers in the world. I tried to Google that for verification but I was unable to find anything. (You can’t believe everything you see on TV.)

Civics was the last topic of the day. Today he learned about the exchange of goods and services. More specifically, trading goods for goods or goods for services. I love that they are still using the lemonade stand for examples. They said, “If you have lemons and no sugar, but the stand next to you has sugar but no lemons you can barter or trade for the items you need.” They talked about fair trading and trading with other countries as well. We crammed two lessons into one so that he can finish the civics lessons before school ends. He took the chapter quiz and got a 100%.

Wired day

The devotion today was about it being “Cinco de Mayo.” On this day the outnumbered, untrained, and poorly equipped Mexican people defeated a much stronger and more powerful French army. That’s why they celebrate the 5th of May. Ezra, from the bible, spent several hours reading God’s word to the people. That’s when the people wept when they realized how they had strayed from obeying God. But Ezra reminded them, “Don’t be sad! Now is the time to celebrate.” This was because they heard God’s words and had understood them. Some people thing That God is all about do and don’ts. But that’s not true. He doesn’t want to stop us from having fun…he wants us to be JOYFUL.

Today we read chapters 46-48 in the book of Genesis. Chapter 46 was when Jacob and his entire family traveled and moved to Egypt. God spoke to Jacob one night. He said (paraphrased), “Go to Egypt. I will be with you. I will increase your descendants. I will also bring you back again. But you will die in Egypt.” Then, it listed all of Jacob’s descendants. (Tough names again.) In chapter 47 Jacob and his family met the Pharaoh. Then, Joseph assigned his family the best land to settle in. During this time the people of Egypt were coming to the Pharaoh of for grain. First they gave him all their money. Then, their livestock. Next, their land and themselves to be slaves for the Pharaoh. Chapter 47 was when Jacob died. But before he did he blessed his grandsons. But he gave the blessing to the second child. Jacob said, “Manasseh will become a great people, but his younger brother will become even greater.”

JD kept interrupting me during the devotion and the bible reading today. It was nearing time for math and he was still wired. I asked him if he took his pill when I asked him to. He said, “No, there wasn’t a pill in the Wednesday area.” I looked at the pill container and saw there was one in Saturday’s area. I got a little mad and said, “Then take the one for Saturday. I just forgot to fill the container back up again.” So for most of the morning Jeff and I emailing back and forth about how wired he was. One of Jeff’s emails cracked me up. He wrote, “Whoo Hoo! Dig your spurs in and hang on for the ride.” (And some LOUD and DIZZY ride it was for the time it lasted.)

Because I need JD to focus during the math review I decided to go a bit out of order today. So we did the word bank lesson next. The new words were: somber, succinct, and swanky. He found the definition and wrote his sentences independently. We also typed up all the other work bank words for the semester and it turns out he now knows 45 new adjectives that he didn’t know in January.

For the journal lesson today we went to a web site that has “Wacky Web Tales” and typed a short story about a rabbit. This is where they ask for nouns, adjectives, colors, exclamations and such. I copied the story and pasted it to a cursive writing web page so JD could re-write the story in cursive. He saw this and said, “No copy and paste!” You would have thought I told him we were giving Tater Tot away. The moans and groans coming from him make me think of those war movies where they’re laying in the field after being shot. (Practice, practice, practice.)

We did the history lesson next. It was all about Thomas Jefferson. He was the third president. He served two terms in office. He thought of himself more as a philosopher than a politician. He is best know for writing the Declaration of Independence and establishing the University of Virginia.

I didn’t have any set lesson for music so JD just practiced the music he already knew on the organ. He did have me search extensively for Beethoven’s 5th symphony movement one. It happens to be his ring tone on his phone. I love that he loves classical music. We play classical music when he’s writing because it calms him down enough to actually write.

Today for math we did a review on whole numbers. Things like: decimals, adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, estimating, rounding, customary and metric measurement (including length, weight, capacity, and temperatures), roman and Greek numbers, place values, greatest common factors, least common factors, and finally time. We did the practice test for this goal and he only missed 1 out of 14 questions. I had to assist him on three questions. We did not even cover fractions and six of the questions were about fractions. (He got all of them correct.)

I had JD finish his cursive writing story after school ended. Then all he had to do was finish his social studies from yesterday. He did this right after the cursive story. I didn’t even have to tell him to do it. Yeah…independently!

A good day

(This is a science picture)

The devotion today was about “being on the lookout.” It’s National Weather Observer’s Day. Imagine what the world would be like today if we didn’t have weather forecasters. We’ve become so dependant on the weather channel or new reports for our forecast to be prepared. There was another time way back when Jesus urged his followers to be vigilant. To be on constant watch for Jesus to come back. Now the question is will we be prepared? It means to be caught by Jesus doing God‘s will and working faithfully.

We read chapters 43-45 in the book of Genesis today. Chapter 43 was when Joseph’s brothers returned to Egypt with Benjamin and the “stolen” money from the first purchase of grain. Joseph invited them to his palace. They presented the “stolen” money and new money for a second purchase of grain. They had a feast at Joseph’s palace. Chapter 44 was where Joseph had the palace manager place Joseph’s silver drinking cup in Benjamin’s sack. The 11 brother were on their way back to Canaan when Joseph had them chased down. They found the “stolen” cup in Benjamin’s sack. Judah tried his best to protect Benjamin. He even asked to swap places with Benjamin and to be the palace slave, if Joseph would only let Benjamin go back to his father’s house. In chapter 45 Joseph identified himself to his brothers. All was well with all of them. The Pharaoh invited Joseph’s family to come live in Egypt while there was still a famine. Jacob was of course overjoyed. I was going to stop at chapter 44 but JD chanted, “More bible, more bible!” (I love this time with JD. Kind of almost makes up for the deployments.)

We finished the math EOG today. He did the last 25 questions on the test. He scored a 68% but still without any review from January. I found today that he was a bit distracted. (But he also snuggled up with me doing his test.) I asked if he took his pill and he said, “Yes.” I had to assist him with some easy questions today so I counted those as incorrect. When I put yesterday’s score with today’s score he made a combined score of 70%. The next couple of days we will review and we should be able to pull that score way up. The EOG has five goals. They are 1.) numbers and operations 2.) measurements 3.) geometry 4.) data and statistics 5.) algebra. My friend also gave me five additional quizzes that each focus on one of those five goals. So by the middle of next week we should have that EOG score way up.

The social studies lesson today was on the Rocky Mountain states, the Southeastern states, and the Pacific Coast states. We identified them on an outline map and learned a few facts about them. Next is “River” studies. He also took a chapter quiz that covered two lessons, as usual, and he scored a 90%.

It had been a good day until I said, “Today we’re writing a short letter in cursive.” For the email/snail mail lesson I had him write a short snail mail letter. There’s such a big difference between his print and cursive. I’ll probably just have him concentrate on cursive. Although, the first sentence in his letter today was “I hate cursive.” (Maybe plan “B”. Anyone have a plan “B?”)

On Sunday I talked with my friend who gave me the outdated EOG tests and expressed to her my concerns for JD’s English/Reading skills. Stating, “I’ve spent a lot of time catching JD up on math, but I’ve had to take baby steps in English. We’ve spend most of our time on Reading comprehension.” She said, “Most of the test is comprehension. They took out the grammar part.” (Another God thing? I think so.) So we started our Reading EOG today. There are six passages to read and 44 questions to answer. It is all comprehension. I read three passages to JD and he answered 20 questions and he only missed one question. Yippie! We’ll do the other part of the test on Thursday.

Science was so absolute COOL today. We explored the history of ice cream, the chemistry of ice and salt and exothermic (outside heating) reactions. WHAT? We made homemade ice cream and it tasted great! The recipe for one scoop size of ice cream is: 1 tablespoon sugar, 1/2 cup milk or half & half, 1/4 teaspoon vanilla. Here’s what you do: 1.) Fill a gallon sized zip-lock bag half full of ice cubes, and add a ½ cup of rock salt (coarse salt works too.) Seal the bag. 2.) Put milk, vanilla, and sugar into a sandwich sized zip-lock bag, and seal it. 3.) Place the small bag inside the large bag, and seal the large bag back up. 4.) Shake until the mixture is ice cream, which takes about 5 minutes. Enjoy!

We worked on the garden today. It’s about half plowed and 2/16ths of the way planted. (Do you like the way I used fractions? ) We had to put that weed stopping black plastic stuff down first. We planted our corn, three bean plants, and I think cucumbers. It’s all a blur. But I’ll know what it is for sure in a couple of weeks. I wrote it all down on graph paper but we only planted the strong things and are letting the others rest back in the starter thingy. (Technical huh?)

Short and sweet day

It was a short, sweet day today. It ended at 11:46 AM and we got all seven of the lessons completed.

The devotion today was called “Tax Freedom Day.” What’s that saying...There are only two certainties in life…death and taxes. Taxes have been around since bible times. We all ready discussed the time Jesus where Jesus answered a question about taxes with this answer (paraphrased), “give to Rome what Rome is due, but give to God what he is owed.” We can actually pay with our faithfulness, our obedience, and our love. What about with our abilities and talents? Sure. Just as we are expected to pay our taxes, we are also expected to “pay” God what is owed to Him. (Okay, now why is this Tax Freedom Day?”) Tax Freedom Day happens around the 99th day of the new year. (I think the devotion book is a bit off.) Americans will work well over three months of the year—from January 1 to April 9—before they have earned enough money to pay the year's tax obligations at the federal, state and local levels. (Whatever! Tax, tax, tax, away!)

Today in bible we read Genesis 41-42. Chapter 41 was about Pharaoh’s dreams of the fat and skinny cows and the healthy and withered wheat. Joseph was taken from prison to interpret these dreams and then put second in charge of Egypt right under the Pharaoh himself. The dreams came true. There were seven good years of crops and seven years of drought. Chapter 42 was when Joseph’s brother came to Egypt to buy food as their father instructed. Joseph’s brothers didn’t recognize him. But Joseph recognized the. One was left in prison while the others had to go back and get Benjamin to prove they were not spies. What a great symbolism of Jesus and his people.

There are multiple reasons we became a home school family. One of them was the fact that I had four fifth grade teachers as church friends. (Could this have been a God thing? I believe so.) My friends all pitched in and gave me books and one even scrounged up an old End Of Grade (EOG) test from the year prior. Of course it is out dated and was not going to be used this year. That is what JD and I did today for math since we finished up all the math lessons on Friday. We only did half of the test today. So out of 25 questions he only missed 7. That’s a 73%. That’s not too shabby. Considering we went straight into the EOG without reviewing the material that we learned way back in January. I did the practice EOG test so I could figure out what he needed review on instead of reviewing it all.

We combined keyboarding with journal again today. Today I had him write a “color poem.” I asked for some descriptive details for each sentence, but other than that this is what he came up with. (The bold font it what I prompted him with.) Blue is the color of my eyes. Blue is in the cloudy sky. Blue is cool but not cold. Blue is fast like a shark. Blue smells like violets in the Spring. Blue tastes like fresh picked blueberries. Blue sounds like a crying baby. Blue looks like fluffy cotton candy. Blue feels like a warm blueberry muffin. Blue makes me feel sad. Blue is sweet like chocolate Easter bunnies. We also played hide and seek tag again today in order to get it typed up quicker. Let me tell you…back in the late winter season of 2007 I broke my right pinkie toe. Today I heard that little pinkie toe say, “Wee, wee, wee, all the way home.” I was scrunched up under a scrap of carpet in the spare bedroom. It was an excellent hiding place and I didn’t want to give it away. But when the big bad wolf moved out of earshot me and my piggy’s I moved to a more comfortable spot where I could move and breath. This confused JD when he re-looked and found me in my new spot. But it made for another fun lesson. (I’d like to see public school try that, Hah ha.)

For art today I offered him a chance to make a Mother’s Day card or a project or both. So I pulled out some random shaped and colored foam pieces and an old white 4x4” tile from the church bathroom renovation project. (They were just going to throw them out anyway. So I scooped them up for a future craft project. **Any ideas?) JD designed a beautiful coaster for me with a message on it that only he and I truly understand. (“I dub u.” It comes from his little guy days when he was just learning to speak. He handed me a purple and yellow flower from our backyard in Oklahoma, and said, “I dub oo.”) JD finished his project and started to bring it to me, but I told him to save it for Mother’s Day. He said, “But I wanted you to have a pre-Mother’s Day gift.” (Sorry Jeff, I tried to help you out.) But after he finished that he set out to make something else that he quickly wrapped up. (Guess I’ll have to wait on that one.) *Smile

I gave JD 15 new spelling words today. They are all four letter words with more silent letters.

Did I mention we all started a garden in our garage? With those little seed starters. Well we did and now it's time to plant. So well be bust for the next couple of days digging up our yard to get it ready for the new crops. I have not had much success with gardens in the past but maybe this year will be a like the seven years of healthy crops. (Smile)

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.