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Tapestry of Grace Year 3 (Classic) Week 7--
Sunday, June 8, 2008
(This is the second attempt to post this blog entry as HSB ate the first one. )
This week's focus (week 7) was not only on Jefferson's Presidency but on Lewis and Clark. Here are some of the things my kiddo did for her study of Lewis and Clark.
(1.) Read Scott O'Dell's Streams to the River, River to the Sea (the Corps of Discovery journey from Pocahontas' point of view.) For this book she filled our the Student Activity Pages including quick drawings of characters. Here are a few she did:
(2.) Listened to the 18+ hour audio book of Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose. (She did this over weeks 6 and 7.)
(3.) From this listening and the other readings for the week about Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, and the Louisiana Purchase she wrote a three-paragraph essay. Here's what I typed up when I sent the essay to the grandparents...
She wrote this in steps:
- First, a simple cluster diagram (found on the Writing Aids disk) to decide on her topic sentence for each paragraph
- Topics for the 3 paragraphs were "before the journey", "who they saw", "problems along the way."
- Next, was an advanced cluster diagram (also found on the Writing Aids disk) to write up notes for her supporting sentences for that topic sentence
- Three days were given to write the rough draft of her three paragraphs, working on one each day.
- Her editing & proofreading of the rough draft, was next, followed by my *minimal* input on editing it for clarity.
- I proofread it and she was ready to make the final draft. She requested to type it up, which I agreed to.
- One copy has been put into this term’s history notebook, while a second copy has been gathered together with the other papers in the writing process, stapled and tucked away in the draw that holds yearly work samples.
- She’s VERY, VERY proud of her paper and thinks the typed version “looks very important.”
- *Please note, there may be a couple of factual discrepancies, I’m not certain, since I didn’t read the same books she did… but that wasn’t a concern of mine.
 I’m very pleased with her word usage. I thought it “so [DD] ” with some of the wit in the paper. Her personality really comes through in it, I think.
Here's her little essay...
Facts About the Lewis and Clark Expedition
Thomas Jefferson asked Captain William Clark to lead an expedition to see exactly how big the Louisiana Purchase was. He also wanted to see if the soil was good for farming and to become friends with the Indians. Clark agreed. Just planning and gathering the supplies for this important journey took over a year! Clark got permission from Jefferson to look at current soldiers for his crew. But before he looked for a crew he asked Meriwether Lewis to be his co-captain, and Lewis agreed. Lewis and Clark went to different armies. They looked for strong, healthy men with talents or jobs that were useful. Then they gathered and collected supplies. Capt. Clark got $3,000 of portable soup. Capt. Lewis got plenty of dried meat. Clark invented lead cans that you could put gun powder in. When the cans were empty they could be melted down to make bullets. Thomas Jefferson invented a collapsible steel boat just for the expedition. It cost more than $1,000 to make and took three months to build.
The first Indians they met were the Sioux. The Sioux were kind of nice but when they learned that they couldn’t have a few guns in trade trouble arose. The Indians said they couldn’t go down the river unless they were given ammunition. Lewis and Clark threatened to fire, luckily they didn’t. After two long hours a deal was struck. Clark offered 15 pairs of moccasins sewn with blue and red beads. Then they met the Mandan tribe, who were very friendly. A French man named Charboneau was hired and his Shoshone wife, Sacajawea, was hired as a guide and translator. After many months of hardship they neared the mountains. Living there was a Shoshone tribe. The tribe was Sacajawea’s people! The chief was her brother. Maybe that helped the explorers get the horses they needed to cross the mountains. They saw many things in those mountains Sacajawea loved so much, such as the prairie dog and coyotes. They saw new plants as well. One of which was the prickly pear (Sacajawea showed them how to eat it). Capt. Clark and Capt. Lewis wrote about all of these and many more in their journals.
There were many problems on the Lewis and Clark expedition. The first one was when they had to paddle through rapids. The boat hit a rock and flipped over. Half of the provisions were lost along with half of the gun powder. This was a grave loss. Another boat problem was when they tried to sail the steel boat. Although it looked light, the minute they put it in the water (without supplies) it sank. Clark loved to draw animals especially bears. Once he got to learn the hard way how fast a hungry bear could run and how fast a man can climb a tree! Mosquitoes were yet another problem. They were small but they were annoying and some carried a deadly disease called malaria. Many times at the Mandan camp it was far below zero. Blankets and fires were very welcome in two degree weather. Capt. Lewis once wrote that if you weren’t careful you could get frost bitten in less than five minutes!
Completed May 11, 2008
(4.) She did a few sketches of things Lewis and Clark found on their journey. This particular assignment was one she didn't give her 100% effort to, and as such was marked down a bit for it. I think, perhaps, I had grand visions of what this page would look like and didn't take the time to really explain it to kiddo. I didn't mark her down for that, mind you, but that it was very clear she was not doing her best work.
She was much more general in her terms than I would have liked. Perhaps the next time we cycle around to TOG3 again, at a higher level of learning, she'll have more desire and better art skills to get the final product more like she wants it. As it is now, this page didn't even get finished. I see she didn't complete coloring in the items.
(5.) She did a small map to show the expanding U.S.
(6.) as well as a transparency map overlay (over the TOG Y3-W7 map) to show the states that Lewis and Clark went through during their journey. This map looks really neat in person! The Sharpie colors on the transparency really pop!
(7.) And, finally, she opted to make Native American costumes for her American Girl doll and friend. This started as her just making a pair of moccasins (from felt) for one doll but bloomed into full paper bag costumes, another pair of moccasins and decorating her A.G. horse, Penny, up in tribal wear, too!
 Here's one doll in costume
said she'd try to get the other doll and horse back into
costume this week for more photos... maybe. LOL
All in all, and as I mentioned at the ICHE 2008 Homeschool Conference this weekend while manning the Tapestry of Grace booth... she LIVED Lewis and Clark for nearly two full weeks. By the end of this section of study she was VERY well versed in the reason Jefferson felt the need to send the Corps on the journey, how the Corps managed and what their discoveries meant to Americans. It's a VERY good thing that it will be another 3 years until we cycle back around to study them again! LOL
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Tapestry of Grace year 3 week 5--
Sunday, June 8, 2008
I recently realized I hadn't shared much of our time spent so far in Tapestry of Grace Year 3 (Classic.) So, with our daughter's notebook at hand, I thought I'd share a few things.
(1.) I had split up the reading of the book The Industrial Revolution (SeeThrough History) over the course of two weeks. Each day's reading she was to write a few sentences about one thing she read. Once all the notes were taken and the readings were completed, she rewrote onto notebook paper so it could be kept easily in her notebook. This isn't a "normal paper" in that it doesn't flow from thesis to wrapped up final thought. Instead, it is just a compiling of her notes from the book. The following writing spans 6.5 pages of HWT cursive notebook paper.
NOTES ABOUT THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
On farms, much of the work was done by hand as well as human and animal muscle power. Many families had lots of laborers to work their fields. Sometimes the children didn't go to school because they were needed to plant and harvest. The day's work was long and hard.
Before using manure in field soil people had to wait a whole year before they could plant the crops which were very important to their lifestyles. The Dutch were the first to put manure on their crops. Even though no one knew what manure (animal poo) did for their crops, it was the idea that spread for crops. Now the people could have wheat and other things like it every year. The manure made it possible for the people to have things such as turnips and other garden vegetables while fields were resting from larger crops. Regular usage of the fields allowed people to raise more crops to sell, therefore making more money.
The spindle could make only one thread, but in 1730, John Kay made the Flying Shuttle that could make eight threads at one time! The flying shuttle allowed work to go much faster. The flying shuttle was the first invention for the cloth industry which helped speed up the cloth making process. Previously, the weaver had to use two hands for teh spindle but only one with the Flying Shuttle.
The factories needed more coal for the steam engines running the machinery and for making iron. More and more coal mines were opened. Humphrey Davy made the first safety lamp with a contained flame so there were less explosions in the mines. Children as young as five spent hours in the mines opening small doors to let the coal carts travel on through the mine. Mining was dirty, dangerous, and the pay was low. Many of the workers suffered from lung disease because of the coal dust.
People found uses for tar and coal gases which they usually discarded. Tar could be made into dyes, explosives, and chemical fertilizer. Coal gas was heated to make coke. The gas was also used for lighting houses and street lamps. Charles Macintosh mixed tar and rubber, making the famous waterproof overcoat also known as a Macintosh.
Canals were a big thing in their time. People who owned canals made a lot of money. Canal boats were almost the fastest way of transportation. Coal became cheaper by 50% once canals were utilized for its water transportation. By 1800, there were almost 4,000 miles of canals, changing America's transportation routes.
Houses for workers were small, cold, and crowded. There were often five or more people in a bed! Childen rarely saw the sun and they only could play in long, narrow alleys. The people that lived in these houses usually had to pay high rents. Some factory owners tried to give mill workers better conditions by building chapels, schools, hospitals, and public baths.
The waste from the factories contaminated drinking water and caused many illnesses. In 1842, New York was the first city to have sewers. Soon after, many other cities followed New York and made sewers, too. The cleaner water caused big changes. The amount of people getting diseases was going down. Workers in the factories were getting better meals. Workers didn't work so long and hiring children under nine was illegal.
The poorer people started to riot. The reason they rioted was because of the low wages and the scarce food. These people would destroy machinery and try to burn down factories. In 1841, a sewing factory was destroyed by these rioters.
The use of electricity helped people communicate better the telegraph communicated by tapping a metal bar with electrical current. Alexander Graham Bell invented the "talking telegraph," the telephone. There was even a wire from New York to England along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean!
(2.) Spinning Jenny Poster
Here's a picture of the poster kiddo made for the Industrial Revolution invention she chose, the Spinning Jenny. (i've also typed up what she wrote about it.)
The title is Truths of the Spinning Jenny and the poster answers the 5W's.
- When? The Spinning Jenny was invented circa 1764 by a man named James Hargreaves in Stanhill, England.
- What? The Spinning Jenny let people spin thread twice as fast as many home-weavers. But made many of the people, who got most of their money from spinning, out of business.
- Who? James Hargreaves was born in 1720 in a town called Oswaldtwistle near Blackbrun Greys. He never was taught was to read or write. He died in 1778.
- What? The Spinning Jenny allowed one person to do the work of 8 or more who were on spindles.
- Why? It was invented so more threads could be made, and it was also a lot faster.
Now, this poster of hers may not seem all that wonderful, but in truth this was the first PROJECT assignment where she was left to her own devices and time management. I merely explained the assignment, gave her the 2 page article about the Spinning Jenny, some graphics to pick from, and gave her a due date (2 weeks out.) She, on her own time, not assigned school time, had to read the article, decide what she wanted to capture on her poster, how the poster would look, and get it done on time. Previous experience along these lines were a geography display board a few years ago, a literature fair board, and most recently a science fair board-- all of which I had varying amounts of hands on alongside her. This poster she did on her own. There were a few spelling errors/oversights, but for the overall final grading of this, those weren't counted. She was very proud of her poster and it has hung in our living room for the last, oh 6+ weeks or so. Only today have I taken it down. I've taken a photo of it to add to her notebook and the poster will be rolled up and saved if she chooses to. Otherwise, it can be put in the trash since we have a photo. (3.) Weaving Project
Last year I'd bought a wooden loom from a local thrift store. It finally came into use with our study of the Industrial Revolution. Kiddo opted to make a rug for her American Girl Dolls' area of her bedroom. I gave her a brief lesson on using the loom (she was already quite familiar with how to weave in general) and away she went. Except for that initial start-up lesson I didn't schedule her weaving time into her school day, but rather would inquire about its progress from time to time. It didn't take but a few days for her to complete it. She was quite pleased with how it turned out.
 Rug is about 9"x6".
I read Samuel Slater's Mill aloud for the week and boy, was I glad I did! It was a truly delightful and enriching book. I'd never heard of Slater previously and reading about his life and the influence his brilliance truly had on the world as a whole was just amazing. I've already sold off the book to another TOG user or I'd have scanned the cover for use here.
(5.) Industrial Revolution Timeline page
We haven't been keeping any sort of timeline book or wall line since early in our days in Hawaii. However, since this era was packed with a lot of inventions and we'd read about many of them, I found images online for some and she made up a timeline page.
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Today's Lessons
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Yesterday we took the day off for some major errands running. Today is back to school!
 Click image for larger (readable) version of today's assignment list.
Notes about today's lessons:
- I opted to have kiddo type up her final draft of the IEW lesson of a donkey story to "kill two birds with one stone" by counting that as keyboarding.
- Our poet study of Coleridge has, in all honesty, been a real drag. Neither of us like his poems. Thankfully we're nearly done with the book. I need to have DD select a new poem for memory work. She quickly memorized the helping verbs (ala Easy Grammar 5) and needs a new piece.
- Botany today is just to get some things "caught up" that for one reason or another never quite got completed recently.
- We've been enjoying using Happyland for our folksongs recently. I ripped the CD to her PDA so she's familiar with all of them and can sing them as desired. However for our study, we sing a song for about 6 weeks (once or twice a week) before moving to a new one.
- Our daily readings of Shakespeare's The Twelfth Night have been going great. She especially gets a kick out of scenes that require us to sing or for me to have to play multiple characters (and use various voices for, mind you) or where I get stuck with a long, drawn out soliloquy --she thinks that is just hilarious!
- I might have found a piano teacher for kiddo! She's been without one since we left Hawaii and has just been "keeping up with what she knows" on her own. (No, I do not play piano.) She'll do bi-weekly lessons over the summer with the lady I found as a "trial run" and if all goes well she'll upgrade to weekly lessons starting in the fall. Kiddo is very much looking forward to this, but until then, she'll just continue to practice on her own here at home.
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April 10- Lesson Journal
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Rainy start this morning included cereal and canteloupe for breakfast (for DD, not me, as I do NOT like canteloupe at all!) After paying some attention to Theo this morning she completed her normal "morning stuff." DD had already started her lessons by the time the "scheduled start" of the day came around, so that was good.
This afternoon is volley ball practice (have to leave about 2:30pm) so I purposely didn't assign any science for the day as I knew she'd want to do more work on the weaving project she started yesterday (ala a Tapestry of Grace handicraft suggestion, using the weaving loom I thrifted last January. Boy, was I glad to have THAT on hand!) and I wanted to give her time to do that before we had to leave for volleyball.
Here is today's assignment sheet:
 Click to enlarge to read.
Notes--
- "Laps" today were just running up/down our stairs since it was raining out.
- The project listed at the bottom of the page is a project from Tapestry of Grace. She picked the Spinning Jenny to do her project on. I printed up some information sheets for her to read through and some images for her to cut/glue as desired. The project is all up to her. We selected a due date of 4/21. I gave her the criteria and she's off and running. She knows I'll help her with a direct question(s) she may have but otherwise won't give my input.
- Today was her first day of memorizing Rudyard Kipling's "IF" poem. We just completed a study of Kipling and I selected this poem to conclude that study. Today she did a straight read through a couple of times then worked on memorizing the first stanza.
- DD was thrilled to get an A+ on her math test.
- This is the first time we're using her PDA as a "book source" for reading. I didn't want to print up the online text of Five Peppers Abroad and knew I had seen in online for the Palm However, since she's running a Pocket PC I had to install MobiReader and get a version for that. It worked and she's been reading from her PDA for this book for a few days now. Usually I assign a page count or chapter, but this time I have to assign "by time" since the PDA pages are merely a few lines of text. LOL It's working just fine for her though, and I think she enjoys the "change."
- She'd finished up listening to Oliver Twist as an audio book a few days ago but we just got around to the TOG discussion questions today. This was a Dialectic level assignment in TOG but since our DD was already familiar with the storyline (having read an abridged version a few years back and seen the movie a few times) I thought she could handle the unabridged audio book. She said she didn't mind it but thought it was "a bit drawn out in places, kind of rambling on" (LOL) She also said she thinks kids a bit older than her would like it and should give it a try. She gave wonderful answers to the TOG discussion questions (wish I'd thought to record them!) It's nice having a handful of "starter questions" that then continue nicely into a socratic discussion. I really enjoyed listening to her thoughts and insight of the plot and characters. It was neat to see how she'd internalized the plight of Oliver and all that he went through.
Well, I suppose that wraps up today's lessons. I need to call up to DD (who is weaving and listening to THE WOODBEGOODS on her PDA via Audible) to remind her to get her volleyball stuff on. The kitchen smells delicious: chili and cornbread is done, fresh veggies are cut. I need to call DH to ask him to pick up some more milk on his way home. We'll be stopping by the library on our way home from Volleyball as we have six things on hold that have come in! (HOW EXCITING!!)
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Today's Electrifying Chemistry
Monday, February 18, 2008
No day of rest holiday for the homeschool family that likes to take days off for family outings, vacations, and other fun things. We homeschool year-round to keep a schedule based on our LIVES, not one dictated by the calendar or local schools. Though DH was off from work today, DD and I still had a regular day of homeschooling, albeit it a *bit* lighter load, because I'm such a wonderful mom. 
Today's assignments were as follows:
DD wanted to go outside (in the blustery cold weather, mind you) to play with the neighbor girls, so... like I said earlier, because I'm such a wonderful mother I let her postpone her piano practice until after dinner. Autobiography composition is for her writing class at the homeschool co-op. Having it on the daily assignment sheet is just a reminder (per her request) for her to work on it off/on throughout the week.
DD was very happy to finally start in her new grammar book. I can't remember if I mentioned it here or not, but she'd asked to "do grammar" again this year (instead of the year off from it that I'd planned) so I purchased Easy Grammar 5 for her. She took the pre-test last week (to compare with the post-test at the end of the book) and was eager to get started to the real assignments.
Even more exciting than that, however, was today's chemistry experiment. Learning about water molecules she did an experiment to separate the oxygen and hydrogen atoms. Even though I am such a wonderful mother, I wasn't quite prepared for today's experiment. We needed a 9volt battery. Thankfully DH was home for the holiday and offered to run up to the NEX mini-mart and buy one (plus milk and bread, thank you, honey!) So in no time she was set and ready to get everything set up and try it out. Here are photos I took...
 Click to enlarge. If you look VERY, VERY closely at the pencil led at the left-hand side
of the glass, you can see tiny bubbles. The other piece of pencil lead has them too, but those
are streaming rapidly instead of slow and steady as the left-hand ones are.
(EFIX: 1/13s at f/5.6, ISO 800, 28mm)
 Click to enlarge. This is a close up of the electrolysis in action. Again the pencil
lead at the top of the glass has bubbles steaming fast (and incredibly tiny) so it is nearly
impossible to make them out in this photo, but trust us, they're there.
(EFIX: 1/60s at f/5.6, ISO 400, 55mm)
 This is how the whole experiment
was set up. The pink tray (you've seen it in use before and
will certainly see it in action again) is our multi-purpose,
multi-mess-containing tray--used for art, science,nature, etc.
Please excuse the paint splatters, we just ignore them.
The glass is actually a votive candle cup. I didn't have any babyfood
jars on hand but this served the purpose nicely!
(EFIX: 1/6s at f/5.6, ISO 800, 22mm, cropped)
 Just a final shot.
(EFIX: 1/60s at f/4, ISO 100, 28mm, flash)
DD just loved this experiment and deemed it "very cool!" She called DH downstairs to see it in action while she explained it all to him. Afterwards she went upstairs to the schoolroom to document the experiment into her chemistry notebook.
Although the experiment instructions stated to "disconnect the battery" when you're done, DD wondered if the electrolysis was causing the water to evaporate since the water molecules were being broken down into oxygen and hydrogen gases. Well, since she has such a wonderful mother I let her keep her battery connected and the electrolysis is still going strong. We'd marked the water line at the start and already, at just about 2.5 hours run-time the water level has gone down... down very LITTLE, but down nonetheless. She'll keep it going as long as the battery lasts or the water is gone, whichever comes first.
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Today's Homeschooling
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Today has been cold and snowy but we've been relatively warm inside. Today's lessons were:
Lunch was some leftover Taco Soup, cheese, apple or orange, and some fresh veggies. Daddy has been home part of the day due to a POLAR BEAR SWIM event on base for the students (he's an instructor.) So it's been nice having him here.
Right now the kiddo is reading out loud to me for the Social Studies/Character Study/ Animal Stories-- The Dance of the San Hill Cranes. Just singing and recorder practice left today. Well, and a few chores of course!LOL
The chemistry study I put together has been going great (so far) though she's just on day two. Experiments are such that they somewhat build on each other. As she's only learning (basics) about atoms right now, the "Do Not Touch" experiment (VanCleave's Chemistry For Every Kid page 10-11) fits nicely as an example of how atoms react to each other. Upon my DD's request I video'd this little experiment.
*Note* There was supposed to be a clear plastic cup over the nickle and toothpick but we found the cup held too much its own charges that interacted with the toothpick. So she opted to remove the cup and just leave the toothpick exposed.
Though hard to depict the balloon is held at a distance from the toothpick. When the balloon is moved the toothpick moves to, actually omving itself off of the nickel. The camera was shaking because I was trying to keep from laughing. It's just a little fun experiment to watch. LOL
The most difficult part of this experiment was getting the toothpick to balance (since we only had round ones, not flat ones the instructions called for.) Sorry for the low-quality video, too. I didn't realize until afterwards that I had the settings on the webcam set too low. I'll try to improve my videography for next time. LOL
It's still snowing outside and we're told it is supposed to only get worse as the day goes on. Folks south of us (Chicago and south of Chicago) are to get the worst of it. We've got a Girl Scout awards ceremony to go to tonight. Hopefully it won't be too bad before then.
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Today's Homeschooling
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
DD's breakfast was made better with reading a new letter from her penpal. (She LOVED the photos, thanks!) Of course she then tried to barter with me... "Mom, I can write [her] back today if you let me not do homeschool lessons." said with an ever-so-cute yet-unpersuasive look on her face. Um, no, I don't think so. LOL
So she's upstairs working on her lessons. I just heard her put her pencil down so I bet she's done with her math test. Here is her lesson sheet for the day**.
**Plus, as I forgot to add them to the table before printing it I wrote in a chapter of PAUL REVERE from the In Their Own Words series and a MEP Math lesson with me.
For "Folk songs" we usually pick out one or two songs each for us to sing together. We use a variety of sources from Wee Sing to An American Anthology to other CDs I have on hand. Our composer study of Richard Wagner is nearly to the end, with us merely (merrily) listening to tracks on the CD a couple times a week. At the end of the study she'll complete a composer notebooking sheet on him.
Lunch is usually served at noon at which time we'll listen to another couple installments of BLACK BEAUTY via iTunes and Librivox.org. We've been working on our watercolor paintings that we'll share soon here at the blog. We have a few more days worth of work yet to do. Not only has it been a project in watercoloring but has been a lesson in patience (for us both) as we only work on it a little bit each day, not doing the whole painting at once. Stay tuned for that upcoming blog entry.
We'll be starting a history read aloud, Johnny Tremain, which I've already personally read a couple of years ago and really loved. This read aloud may turn into her own independent reading, LOL, as she often just wants to take off and read!!! We'll follow this book up with a viewing of the DVD once completed.
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