A good day until language arts

I’m happy to see there was another wandering home school mom who stumbled onto our blog. Yes Time4Learning is a wonderful site! It works well for those visual-spatial learners. It also greatly assists my son and others who were diagnosed ADD or ADHD. (Ok, now I sound like I'm doing a commercial for them.)

The devotion today was based on having a firm foundation like Psalm 111:10 says. It started out talking about the leaning Tower of Pisa. It took 199 years to build. By the time the first three (out of eight) stories were built it already started leaning. They unfortunately built it on unstable foundation. The same type of thing happens everyday all around the world. People go to school, devour books, pass exams, earn degrees, and graduate with honors. Yet in spite of all their learning and knowledge, they still do all kinds of stupid things. They make poor choices and mess up their lives BIG time. They have built their lives on faulty foundation too. Because “reverence for the lord is the foundation of true wisdom. The rewards of wisdom come to all who obey him.”

Today’s math lesson was something we only heard about this year and never used. It is called a Box and Whisker graph. The problem I have with these type of math lessons is what will JD or anyone for that matter use this for? It is similar to a line graph, but it’s divided into 4 equal parts of 25%’s. Once we learned this it asked us to find the median (middle number) the median of the lower set of numbers. And finally the median of the upper set of numbers. (Blah, blah, blah. Whatever!) JD scored a 100% on the quiz.

Today I did not have a twinge of a migraine so I braved the dreaded written/typed language arts lesson with JD. It was a struggle for both of us. I struggled with not yelling and typing it myself. JD struggled with finding the keyboard attached to the computer right in front of him. (Smile) I remembered about JD’s new colony map when I was reading Fox News this morning. A privately funded trip is expected to go to Mars in the next 20 years. Or so says a special edition of the Journal of Cosmology. It prompted 400 readers to volunteer as colonists. The catch is it’s a one way trip! (Um let me think about that for a minute, um NO WAY!) I read the two page article to JD and then showed him his map from 7 &8 December. I prompted him to type out a paragraph about the start of his colony. I asked questions like: name, how it started, how he selected people, qualifications, education level, age, number of males and females, would they be allowed to return home, and how they would be supplied. I asked for complete sentences and only got short answers. Therefore, the paragraph never cultivated. But the lesson made him reasonably think. After all if you have equal numbers of males and females the men will tire easily after all that building. And bringing too many kids won’t benefit anyone.

We continued yesterday’s lesson on Hebrew civilizations and the history of Judaism for social studies. It had a lot of information that we already knew about. It talked about the Mosaic Law being long and detailed. Then, it touched on the ten commandments and how they are used by monotheistic religions like Islam, Christianity, and Judaism as ethical and moral code of conduct for the western world. The lesson also told us of the major holidays for the Jewish people. We did learn the terms monotheistic (believe in one God) and polytheistic (believe in more than one God, or many Gods.) There was a chapter quiz at the end of the lesson and my little theologian scored a solid 100%.

We only touched on seeds for science today. We used Time4Learning on this too. Trees, flowers, vegetables, and grasses are all seed plants. They all produce seeds of some form or another. They also have some shared characteristics. They have the presence of a vascular system, true leaves, stems, and roots, produce seeds, and are complex sporophyte; dependant. We learned about bryophytes and the fern group. We will continue this lesson tomorrow since it was a complex lesson and requires more time to digest.

JD’s last task of the day was to read for 30 minutes. He read his book called Hoot.

A snowy school day

We received snow all day, but only an inch or so stuck around. It was a Faith Christian Academy school day though. This will catch us back up from the snow days we had in Tennessee. (Don’t worry, I let JD play outside today, and the school day was fairly easy and short.)

Today’s devotion was written like a game show. There were two teenagers who were allowed to open one door. The red door had two free tickets to a concert but they wouldn’t have enough money to bring their friends. Behind the blue door was a night with mom and dad watching a rerun of Matlock. Of course they both chose the red door to the concert. They later found out that in order to pick the red door they had to agree to “borrow” money from mom’s purse. The devotion never said which door the kids chose then. But it did say Moses was faced with a similar situation. He could turn his back on God and stay in the lap of luxury or he hang out with a bunch of complainers in the desert. Moses of course chose the longer lasting rewards of obeying God instead of the immediate gratification of sin.

The first thing I did for math was go back through Friday’s lesson because the internet went down just as we finished the lesson. So rather than have JD go all the way back through it with me I completed it and brought us to the quiz. Then, JD took the quiz from Friday and scored an 80%. The math lesson today was all about stem and leaf plots. It reviewed for JD how one is designed and the proper labels for the graph. Then, it walked him through finding the mode, mean, median, and range. It was an easy lesson and he scored a 100% on the quiz.

The language arts lesson taught JD all about figures of speech. He learned about: similes, metaphors, analogies, idioms, and hyperboles. Until today I had heard of all of them except hyperboles. Who makes that stuff up? When you say I died laughing, that’s a hyperbole. Or if you say you’re hopping mad; you’ve just used another hyperbole. (Are you guys learning new things each day, like I am?)

JD read Hoot for thirty minutes today. It has 292 pages and JD is on page 74.

We went a little out of order today and did social studies last. We did Time4Learning today. I was surprised it had religious references. I don’t know why I was surprised though, after all we were studying early Hebrew civilizations and the history of Judaism. It taught us about the Torah (the first five books of the bible.) I love that JD is a child brought up in a Christian home. He was able to completely understand as it told us how God made a covenant with Abraham and about Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt after 400 years of slavery. We will continue that lesson tomorrow.

My housecleaning client called me today saying she didn't need me today.  Ft Bragg closed because of the snow and she felt compelled to clean herself.  So I with all that stored up and unused energy I baked cookies after dinner.

A frustrating internet day

The devotion was about two knights. One was dressed as a knight should be. The only metal the other knight wore was the metal braces on his teeth. He also had a backwards ball and sunglasses to protect his head and eyes from the sun. He also wore a t-shirt, shorts, socks, and shoes to complete his attire. The devotion then asked which knight would you rather be…the one that’s in restrictive clothing and armor or the one that’s free. God’s commands work like a suit of armor. They are designed to protect us from the “fiery arrows aimed by Satan” (Ephesians 6:16.) God’s commands are not designed to “cramp” our style or spoil our fun; they’re intended-like a suit of armor-to protect us from the strategies and tricks of Satan. (Eph 6:11) 

For math today we learned about how to conduct a survey. JD now knows a good sample should include 10 percent of the people he has. He also learned that there are biased questions and unbiased questions to ask. Honestly I had to write biased is “bad” and unbiased is “good” because I kept getting confused. We got ALL the way through the lesson and the computer (in the words of Suri…got S.T.U.C.K!) Then, the internet and cable went down for the count. So we were unable to do the lesson quiz.

That pretty much confirmed my thoughts of making it a short school day. Lately JD and I have been using Time4Learning for language arts so that crashed the language arts lesson for today.

JD begged to watch the DVD: America the Story of Us so we did. We learned facts about the Civil War. We also learned about the “Minnie ball” bullet and the carnage it produced. The DVD also told us about Robert E. Lee’s and Abraham Lincoln’s positions in the war efforts. We learned that the North lost the battle of Manassas in Virginia. It also talked about the North’s two secret weapons of the rail road and the telegraph. We learned about the battle of Antietam and Clara Barton. JD perked up when her name was mention because of a Tree House book we read about her. The last thing we learned about was about Gen. William Sherman and his March to the Sea. (We love this DVD set.) JD of course watches it while I dictate notes for later review.

It was a tiring and frustrating short day because of the computer so once JD read his book called Hoot for thirty minutes I called it a day.

A better day today

It was a much better day today than yesterday. (Whew!)

The devotion had a boy crab talking to his dad about wanting free of his shell. It was based off of John 8:32 which says, “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” The father told the son, “Every crab has felt that at one time or another. Soon you will shed your shell and when that happens you will be more vulnerable than at any other time in your life. Until your new shell hardens you’ll have to be much more careful and watchful than usual. You’ll be less free without this shell, not more free.” At the bottom of the devotion it likened John 8:31-32 to a math problem. Obeying Jesus’ teaching + knowing the truth = FREEDOM

The math lesson went further into detail about the terms mean, mode, and median. Then, it called the lesson measures of central tendency. We have to figure out if by adding a number to our string of numbers if the mean, mode, or median number would increase or decrease. The lesson was as easy as yesterday’s lesson. (Thank goodness.)

Today in language arts we learned ten words and their Latin origins. We learned about: omni (all), annus (annual), vita (life), dict (to say, speak, or declare), and magnus (large). JD says he wants to learn Latin since it’s a “dead” language and that’s what the Roman’s used. (My little historian - smile.)

I intended to sit with JD and watch and take notes on the DVD America: The Story of Us but I ran out of time before my part time cleaning job. Not only that our break became extended when JD found a wooden squirrel feeder in our garage that required some assembly. JD built the feeder and hung it outside. I took that opportunity to clean the backyard for the dogs. So we did not do a social studies or science lesson.

JD read his book called Hoot while I cleaned my client’s house.

An unfocused day

I can’t even keep up with the number of times I tried to refocus JD today. It started out with JD getting mad at one of the grandbabies. And it never fizzled out. From that point on it was finding everything else to concern himself with, other than the lessons at hand.

The devotion was called Recipe for Right. It was about a boy that wanted to make his mom a cake. The cake called for a cup of water. The little sister wanted to use her doll cup to measure that water. The boy tried to explain that they needed to use the standard cup to measure the water into, but the girl insisted on using her doll cup. A lot of people try to measure whether its right or wrong by how they feel or what others might say. The truth is the only standard of measurement for right and wrong is God. Deuteronomy says, “He is a faithful God who does no wrong.” So whatever is not like God is wrong and whatever is like God is right.

Before we started the math lesson I had to have JD take an attitude change break. He came back better but no completely changed. The lesson reviewed the terms and definitions of the following words: range, mean, mode, and median. Then we had to display the use of this information in order to provide the answers. It was an easy lesson that was over almost as soon as it started.

We did Time4Learning again today in language arts. Today JD learned about acronyms. He learned they are different from abbreviations in that they do not have periods. There were some words I didn’t know were acronyms, and they are: sonar, radar, scuba, and laser. Sonar (Sound Navigation Ranging), radar (Radio detecting and Ranging), scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatuses), and laser (Light Amplified by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.) This lesson taught JD that acronyms are so commonly used in English today that just like me we think words like those above are words and not acronyms.

JD noticed I didn‘t stick to the “schedule” by listing what we had already accomplished. He apparently came to the conclusion that we must be doing a half day. He even asked, “Is today a half day?” I said, “No” I just went out of order.

For science today we did a worksheet from the science workbook where we had to match the “glacier word“ with the definition. The words were: cirque, drumlin, end moraine, esker, arêtes, flord, kettle, plucking, rock flour, tarn, and till. Then, we went to BrainPop and watched three videos. They were about: glaciers, the north pole, and the south pole.

JD continued reading his book called Hoot. I set the removable tab on the clock and laid down so my migraine would diminish. Therefore we did not a social studies lesson during the daytime. Instead, I had JD watch CSPAN with Jeff and me. They had full coverage of the 112th congress. Claiming power beneath the Capitol dome, Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives in November. We watched as nearly all of the 435 representatives called out their nominations for the new House Speaker. Of course Republican John Boehner of Ohio won, replacing Democrat Nancy Pelosi. Then, we listened to Boehner’s speech.

Once Jeff’s replacement cell phone arrived I ran it down to Verizon to have them transfer the “contacts” information.

A productive day

Today was a productive day. Our school day ended quickly and I even managed to run two errands. As an additional treat JD and I ate pizza for dinner on Fort Bragg and I treated myself to a Starbucks coffee. (Can you say "WIRED!")

The devotion today led us to Proverbs 14:12 where it said, “There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death.” It asked JD how he made his decision if something was right or wrong. It offered the choices of: a coin toss, considering whether something “felt” right, or considering if the majority of people did it. The truth is right and wrong are determined by God, who is the original, the universal, the absolute standard for everything that is good and right. It went on to tell him lying is wrong because God is true. Stealing is wrong because God is just. Hatred is wrong because God is love.

JD read for more than 30 minutes again today. He loves that Hoot book. (As a matter of fact I went looking for it at 10:40 pm tonight while typing this blog and he’s in bed reading it. I guess it just takes a “good” book to get him to LOVE reading. I can remember those nights during his kindergarten and 1st grade years trying to get him to read without tears streaming down his face.

The math lesson was fun today. It was coordinated graphing. The lesson will have a coordinate grid and give two points. It was JD’s job to find the correct point of the “ordered pair.” He did really well on this last year and remembered most of it this year. The first # goes right or left from the 0 point depending on if it’s a positive or negative # and the second # goes up or down also dependant on if it’s a positive or negative #. He scored a 100% on the quiz.

JD used the Time4Learning website for language arts today. This lesson was also fun. We learned 14 foreign words that are also used in the English language. JD learned what language they all originated from and their meanings. The words were: adieu, faux, al fresco, incognito, a la carte, et cetera, incommunicado, bon voyage, smorgasbord, gesundheit, touché, tour de force, toupee, and hors d’ oeuvres. (It’s ok…no one is looking right now. You can look them up for the correct pronunciation and meaning…I did.) JD has used the word adieu all day. There was a Chapter quiz at the end of the lesson and he scored a (drum roll please…) 100%. My boy is so talented with accents and foreign languages.

The science lesson was structured to be fun. I started it out with a scale model of a glacier. I put bars of soap at the far end of a tin pan. Then we covered 2/3rds of the pan with sand and pebbles. Next we scraped ice cubes across the sand and watched them deposit the sand on the bars of soap. This displayed the erosion made by glaciers. Then we checked out a website called pbskids.org/dragonflytv for additional glacier research. And that was the end of the school day.

I ran by Verizon to get Jeff’s phone fixed but they were unable to fix it and I had to do an insurance claim on it. Then, we ran by the church to talk with the new Children/Youth Minister. The last stop was the travel agency. We did not do a social studies lesson today because my intent was to go to the travel agency to get brochures on Scotland and Ireland. But by the time we got there it was closed. So we made our last stop the Pizza treat and coffee. And that was our day.

A good half day

Today was only a half day.  It was terribly hard to get the staff member and student of the Faith Christian Academy Lions out of bed after the two week vacation, but we finally got up.  I wanted to ease JD back into school so I only had him perform a half day. 

JD and I started a new 1 year devotional book.  It’s called Youth Devotions by Josh McDowell.  It will have different themes for all 12 months.  January’s theme is the Ten Commandments.  Today JD learned about “right” and “wrong.”  We read the suggested passages of Judges 17:1-6 where it said, “In those days Israel had no king, so the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.”  It was written like a TV interview and engaged JD for the few minutes we read it and talked about it. 

JD read for more than 30 minutes today.  He started a new book that he received for Christmas.  It’s called Hoot by Carl Hiaasen.  It’s about a young boy named Roy Eberhardt moves to Florida where he takes on the burden of helping to save the burrowing owls by stopping the planned construction on the piece of land where they live. Not only does he do so, but he makes friends, helps those friends exposes the dishonesty of the companies involved and their disregard for the environment. Through this, he becomes a mature young man. There’s also a movie about it that I will rent when JD finishes the book.  What a treat it will be for JD to see that books are much better than movies. 

Thank goodness today is the last day of charting lessons in math.  Today JD learned about double bar and line graphs. Again, he asked, “Why do we have to learn this?  I already know it.”  (I didn’t have a good answer for his question other than, “Because it’s the next lesson in a line of lessons.  Let’s just press though it.  He scored a 90% on the quiz because he misread a question. 

I forgot to bring the language arts lesson with me when I left for my cleaning job so JD had a really good and easy school day, not to mention I did too.