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Science Fair and more - 2008
Saturday, April 5, 2008

(Yes, it's been a LONG time since  I blogged, but let's just forget that and move on, lest I feel guilty.     )

So this past Thursday evening our homeschool co-op put on a Science & Entrepreneurial Fair and Art & Writing Exhibit. It was a great success, much like the Literature Fair we participated in last fall. (Another Literature Fair post is right here, too.)

As with the Literature Fair, this event was for all ages (kingergarten through adult) ... whomever wanted to participate. I took sign-ups for about three weeks (via email and a sign-up sheet at our weekly co-op.) There were about 23 participants and many attendees.

My daughter (10.75 years old) participated and was eager to do so. We've been doing a mini-chemistry study that I'd put together and one of the experiments was perfect for the Science Fair. Plus, in co-op she'd been attending art class and creative writing class, so had work in each of those exhibits.


Here are two pictures of my DD with her display. (Click to enlarge)


She did a NAKED EGG experiment and continued this with further additional activities. You can get the entire lesson plan PDF  right here, or a smaller version of it here too (and scroll down to "What Else Can I Try?" and click on the "Here's How" link to get to the extension activity.)  Additionally, LaPaz Farm Home Learning homeschool blog also has an entry on this topic. For us, this started out  with reading about Calcium in It's Elementary! followed by the experiment in the VanCleave's Chemistry for Every Kid  book. With a little bit of Googling I was able to dig up the extension for Naked Eggs.

Here are various photos from the event. (Faces blurred for privacy.) I tried to get a photo of all the science displays but may have missed some. Sorry to those participants I may have missed! At each participant's project space was a comment sheet for passersby to leave a friendly comment. That is always fun to read at the end of the night when we get home! My daughter really loves reading what people thought of her work. CLICK TO ENLARGE photos of the PROJECT BOARDS. 

Right hand side of gymnasium.
(And a glimpse of a project board I forgot, Handmade Cleansers!)

Left hand side of gymnasium.
(And a glimpse of the display of various Knex models and paper plate 3-D models a girl had constructed.)

Bubbles

Magnets

Depression

Whales

Constellations

Heredity

Robots


Rockets

Sea shells

Tornados


DNA


Magnets (2)

"Eggs"periments


And here are some photos of those doing the "entrepreneurial thing."

SHRINKY DINK JEWELRY


JEWELRY & SCARVES


CARAMEL CORN, T-SHIRT PAINTING, and a GAME



Here's the table for the exhibit for the creative writing class.

Across the top of the table was the "very, very long sentence" the kids created on the last day of classes.



And here is one segment of hallway that was used for the art classes exhibit.

Four pieces per student were displayed (each was labeled with the artist's name.)
Pieces were arranged by focus of study.


Chairs were set up around the walls of the gymnasium for people to sit and chit-chat if desired. The whole event lasted 90 minutes with 30 minutes allotted prior to that for set-up. Even with the rainy weather we had a good turn-out. This was our daughter's first time participating in a science fair and I'm sure she'll be doing this again in the future!



~
MEMOS (4) ~ DROP ME A LINE! ~ Permanent Link


Water Park Fun in the Winter
Wednesday, April 2, 2008

**Now that winter is officially over here (ahem) I guess it is time to share a few photos of our February trip to a little water park in Wisconsin.**


This outing took place at the Country Springs Hotel, Water Park, & Conference Center. It was a bit longer drive than I like to attend field trips, but since it was the dead of winter I figured we could use a little "warm weather fun."  Since we went in the morning through early afternoon there weren't a whole lot of people there. (A perk of homeschooling!) This hotel's water park didn't come close to Hawai'ian Waters on Oahu, but what really could!? LOL 

As it was, we both enjoyed ourselves. I went down the slides a few times with DD. She went down pretty much all day, when she wasn't swimming in the "pool" or splashing and climbing around on the equipment. My favorite part was relaxing in the hot tub (until it was invaded by other folks and their swimming kiddos) and sitting around the table talking to other homeschool moms.

 Lunch was pricey but that is to be expected at places that "hold you hostage" at meal time and don't allow you to bring your own. LOL Heck, I even splurged and got DD a little cup of Dippin' Dots towards the end of the stay at the water park.

Here are just a few photos from that day...

This photos shows a good overview of the majority of the room of the water park.
Here DD is stepping on a "fountain hole" making other holes
shoot out water higher.


Here she is making her way across on the "monkey bars." By the end of the day she'd
mastered the use of the floating (and VERY wiggly) boxes.


Floating under a little waterfall in the "lazy" river.


After enjoying the day we showered, dried off, changed and headed on home. We sure slept well that night!



~
MEMOS (1) ~ DROP ME A LINE! ~ Permanent Link


Meeting the Lincolns
Tuesday, April 1, 2008

**This field trip took place at the end of February, but I'm just now getting around to blogging about it.**


Having "seen" and thoroughly enjoyed the reenactment of Harriet Tubman last fall at the annual Trail of History,

I knew we didn't want to miss Mr. and Mrs. Abraham Lincoln's visit to our area! The performance was at the Wauconda Discovery Museum. This was the first time we'd been there, too!

The reenactors are a married couple that share their love and passion of this marvelous man and his wife with school-aged children. This performance was no exception. A couple bus loads of students (grades 3-4 or so) pulled up and we as captivated (for the most part, LOL) as we were to watch and listen to what each Lincoln had to say.


Abe walked in to the venue and there was no missing
his stove pipe hat and height! His voice matched exactly what I thought
Abraham Lincoln might actually sound like.



Here they are together. Mrs. Lincoln's dress was beautiful, yet not overly decorative,
exactly what you'd expect for the time period. Their costuming was on pointe!


And yes, as demonstrated right before us
his beard is real.

 
After the performance, DD and I (and most of the other homeschoolers that were there)  enjoyed a leisurely browse through the museum's exhibits.



~
MEMOS (0) ~ DROP ME A LINE! ~ Permanent Link


Tapestry of Grace and Homeschool Tracker Plus
Saturday, March 8, 2008


The topic of using HST+ has come  up on one of my TOG lists, as well as the HST list. As such, and in order to archive my "reply" I'm blogging it here. (This will really only make sense, or matter, to those currently using TOG as well as using HST+, or at the VERY least, considering them both. )


Here's how I use HST+ to plan our TOG---

 

**Note-- I only work with one age level, so this would be repeated per age level (whether all at once, for a family that has multiple kids/ages, or like me, who would "do it up again" at the higher level when we cycle back around and hit it again in future years/higher level)

 

 

(My example is TOG3 Classic, as that is what we're currently using, and it's a bit different/neater/easier than the way I did it for TOG2. Unless something drastic changes, I'll be using THIS methodology from now on, as it REALLY works for me.)

 

ONLY SHOWING THAT WHICH DEALS WITH TOG STUFF (not other  school areas)

 In the MAINTENANCE SCREEN--

Subject: LANGUAGE ARTS

Course: TOG LITERATURE

Course: TOG VOCABULARY

 

Subject: SOCIAL STUDIES

Course: TOG GEOGRAPHY

Course: TOG WORLDVIEW

 

Subject: ART

Course: TOG FINE ARTS

 

Subject: ELECTIVES

Course: HANDICRAFT

**but this is NOT just for TOG handicrafts, and includes ALL handicrafts that she does, but I do put TOG ones in here too

 

**This stuff below, this is what I call "history"... I don't currently have it set up as Subject: History Course: TOG Unit Xwhatever... but MIGHT change that eventually

 

Subject: TOG3U1- 1800's Napoleon's World

Subject: TOG3U2- 1800's Birth of the Modern

Subject: TOG3U3- 1800's Nations Uniting

Subject: TOG3U4- 1800's The Guilded Age

*Note-- Again, I don't have courses for these, only work with the subject, and by high school transcript time, I wouldn't be using the TOGxUx header stuff, it is just for my clarity now, but I'd remove it for transcript purposes in the future.

 

Oh, one thing that did just come to mind, I do it so that, say for instance the week's assignment is to  Read 2 chapters a day of whatever book.... then on Friday write out a narration for the book she read. Well, all week long that would have been either a TOG Literature assignment OR an assignment for one of the Unit plans (shown above) if it were a history/history in depth reading. But come Friday when she's writing a narration for that reading, I would put it under Subject: LANGUAGE ARTS Course: COMPOSITION

 

 


 Here's what the LESSON PLAN screen looks like on my computer:

(click to enlarge)

 

 --sequence number fields are week/day... thus week 7, day 3 is Seq. #73, week 12 day 2 is Seq# 122

 --group field is where I actually type (for my own ease of use)  "wk 1 day 1" or "wk 10 day 3" (without the quotation marks)

 

** in the LP screen, I sort by SEQUENCE NUMBER so each DAY is its own "block" and each week of blocks progress sequentially. VERY easy and handy to view it and submit from  with this method**

 

 -- topic field: this populates the Scope & Sequence report, so I ONLY list things that are NEW or specifically there for REVIEW, instead of filling this field in for EVERY line item. That would be MAJOR overkill on the S&S report. Instead, by just doing it with new/review stuff (using it VERY judiciously) it makes for a more succinct S&S report. 

 

I do my topics as follows, according to the line item assignment, again, trying to avoid overkill and duplicates--

                                  I type  "Lit: Oliver Twist"  (no quotes, of course)

                                          "Lit: Swiss Family Robinson"

                                          "World Geo: World Map Review"

                                          " World Geo: Mountain Ranges & Deserts"

                                          "John Adams"

                                          "Lewis & Clark Expedition"

                                          "Review: Music of Beethoven"

                                          "Handicraft: Spinning Wool by hand"

                                          "Robert Fulton & steamboat"

                                          "Composer: Brahms"

                                          "French Conspiracy"

                                          "Jefferson's Minister to France"

                                          "Lit: Five Little Peppers Abroad"

                                          "Industrial Revolution"

                                          "Project: Invention from Ind. Rev. Poster"

And so on. Again, things are only listed once.  (I tried to give a variety for examples here)

 

So, as you can see, in the LP screen ALL the assignment pieces for TOG are in a "block" (by sequence number) ... everything. From my reading the SAP introduction on the first day of the new week, to her reading assignments, to my read alouds, to map work, vocab, etc. I use the directions field as needed (like listing the day's vocabulary words, for instance), I personally don't use the notes field very much really.

 

This year (started in January) when I was writing up a plan for each week, I used a spiral notebook and literally hand wrote out each week, each day worth of assignments. This helped IMMENSLY when I then went to the HST+ program and literally just did data entry and input it all into the Lesson Plan. *IF* there was a book I didn't currently own or have from the library, I still was able to schedule it but just put a "______" in the place where a chapter or page assignment for reading would have been.  

 

So when I submit (for instance just one day, say week 3 day 2... Seq#32)... there might be oh, 7 things just for TOG alone that get submitted to the assignment screen.

 

Then, at the assignment screen, which also has all the other subjects (math, spelling, etc etc) listed there, I use the ORDER field and assign  a number to every assignment line so the assignment report or daily task list report lists the assignments for the day in the order that I want them done in. (I opt to NOT use "time" in our use of HST+ but that is an option instead.)


We like to shake up the day and have my daughter do some individual work for a bit, then come to me to do something (like spelling) then do more work on her own, then back to me for a read aloud perhaps,  etc. I leave the HST+ assignment screen up on my computer all day so I know what she's doing at almost any given time, can call upstairs to her to have her bring down her math, grammar, a writing assignment or whatever to be graded, etc. I go upstairs to the school/scrapbooking room throughout the day either to just pop my head in and check on her, to take her something, to teach her something, help with something, etc. She doesn't sit upstairs all day either, she's welcome to read/work downstairs as desired (and outside when weather permits) but she likes the focus she can get from being upstairs.

 

 

Anyway, sorry to get off on a tangent. LOL

As for TOG and HST, I know that when we rotate back around and come back to TOG3 (for instance) I'll have a basic structure already laid out in this Lesson Plan. Though we'll be at a higher learning level at that time, I'll easily be able to copy this LP to a new LP (for the higher level) and delete the PLC field (assignment) and directions, etc. ... stuff that is going to be different for the older student, and plug in new stuff, tweak the framework as needed and have a new, working, up to date, ready to go lesson plan in a jiffy.

 

Is this any different than working from the TOG binders? Well, no, not really. It *IS* me/us working from the binders. Laying things out like this in a day to day/week by week fashion is allowing me to get the most from TOG that fits our needs/family, stay organized, be prepared. I used to write it all out by hand on paper (I made way too many different types of planners/schedules for just this thing) but if we missed a day that was supposed to be a school day, well plans went out the window and had to be rewritten, etc. Now, with my TOG plans (as well as all other school work) into HST+, if a day is missed (or a hunk of days, etc) I can reschedule them with a few clicks of the mouse... if we get ahead in something, no problem. If we get behind in something, no problem... it is all adjusted quickly and easily.

 

Sorry this got so long. Guess that's what happens when I speak of two things I really love about our homeschooling... TAPESTRY OF GRACE and HOMESCHOOL TRACKER PLUS.

 




~
MEMOS (2) ~ DROP ME A LINE! ~ Permanent Link


Paper Gone Electric
Wednesday, February 27, 2008

As friends, family and frequent visitors to my blog can attest, I am a list maker. Short lists, long lists, check boxes, doodles, shopping lists, book lists, lists, lists, lists... it's just me. I just like pen/pencil to paper. I like the look and the feel and even the task of writing those lists.

Since starting our homeschool journey back at preschool-level I made schedules, journal pages and lists galore. It worked fine. Really it did. EXCEPT ...

I'm also a planner.

This caused a bit of an issue, me wanting to plan things out by hand, on paper, yet stay flexible enough to live life, let life happen, and to enjoy homeschooling. Eventually I realized to NOT date my planned days until we were DOING that day and to use lots of post-it notes.

Oh, I dabbled in a couple different homeschool computer based tracking programs but they were either too difficult to ever feel like I "got it" or just plain didn't do what *I* needed it to do.

....Until one day last Spring, in some AIM conversation with my good pal, Kay, she informed me that Homeschool Tracker finally had upgraded far enough that she thought I might want to give it a whirl. She sent me some PDFs of some reports and such she'd made up for her own use, just for me to see what it can do, and I was hooked. I bought the full HST Plus version and haven't looked back!

I truly love it. It was a reasonable price and does what I want/need for it to do. It is fairly simple to learn, has a FABULOUS email loop with wonderful list members that will help you, and all program updates are free.

Someone on the HST email list recently asked why she [stop keeping her records on paper and] should upgrade from the (free) Basic Edition to the (paid) PLUS edition. Katie, the program owner, replied with a fabulous answer. I emailed Katie to see if I could quote her here, and she agreed. Here is her answer in it's entirety.

Only you can decide for sure whether [Homeschool Tracker] Plus is worth it to you. If you're actively using the Basic edition that you downloaded a few months ago, you'll find the Plus to be easier and packed with all the features you might wish that Basic had.

 Homeschool Tracker is the competitively priced with similar products on the market. It is less expensive than just about any other homeschool record-keeping program currently available, and in addition, once you've paid for it, you never pay again - no charge for support or updates (which are frequent and feature-packed - unlike other products available).

 

If you prefer pencil and paper and/or don't enjoy working on your computer, then it may not be the right fit for you. However, we contend that computerized record keeping is more efficient in the long run. It makes it easier to: make changes to your schedule; reuse information as needed through the years; create assignment lists for your children; create reports for any organization who requires them; etc.

 
Some features of Plus that do not exist in Basic:

  • Customizing your grid views - choose columns to display; column order; colors; etc
  • Enhanced copy functions for creating multiple, incremented assignments
  • Lesson Plan feature allowing easy plan-ahead functions
  • Transcripts
  • More reports with more options
  • Enhanced template feature (memorized assignments that repeat)
  • Chores/Appointments
  • Weighted grading options
  • Multiple grading scale options (for different courses or different students)
  • Auto-Attendance features
  • etc

 
There are some introductory and training videos on the website that can give you a preview of the Plus program.

 
But again, only you can truly determine
which tools are best for assisting you with your homeschool.


 

I thought that summed it up VERY well. I put this here on my blog as a way to spread the word about Homeschool Tracker's greatness. No, it isn't going to be for everyone. But as a former paper-scheduler myself, I can honestly say that I've not regretted this purchase at all... ever.


 




~
MEMOS (7) ~ DROP ME A LINE! ~ Permanent Link


Bedtime Conversation
Tuesday, February 26, 2008

I just had an amazing conversation with our daughter tonight, while tucking her into bed.

I asked her, "How do you think your homeschooling day went today?" (no REASON for the question, mind you, just popped out.)

She replied that she thought it was a good day that could have been better. When I asked how/why she said she should have focused more on her math instead of piddling and fidgeting around. That sometimes she just starts looking out the window or at the window ledge (has a few things on it) and gets distracted. Not DOING anything, not THINKING about anything but just distracted. And that just slows her down since her mind stops thinking about numbers for a moment. Then it takes a bit to get back to the math problems.  I commended her on such a "mature observation about herself" and told her I completely understood what she was talking about. She said that would be a thing she tries to work on. (Her own, not prodded by me.)

So then I asked her if that was a "good" homeschooling thing or a "bad" homeschooling thing. She said, "Not really either, just something I thought about why my day took a bit longer than most other days." I nodded.

Next I asked her to tell me something she liked about today, that went well. She said she was happy to only miss one on her (daily) spelling test and that she was glad she did so well on her grammar.

A "bad" thing she said was when she "tried to read The Swiss Family Robinson by herself! We giggled about that, as it was on her assignment sheet as a read aloud by MOM. Which even then, I gave up (as my voice was giving out) and ended up downloading the audio book to my PDA (Thanks Kay, for the troubleshooting!!!!) and now we'll continue just following along in the book and listening to the audio. (I've opted to have her follow along WITH the book since the edition of this story we're using is an EDUCATOR CLASSIC with wonderful margin annotations of definitions, explanations, and illustrations. Just FYI.)

Then she gave me an oral narration of today's reading of Island of the Blue Dolphin which was a very good narration, I must say. She really enjoyed the book and even more so because her HSer friend that lives the next court over said she recently read the book, too!

Anyway, I tucked her into bed and clipped her new book light ($4.79 after the 20% off teacher discount! and the exact size, and look for that matter, of an iPod Shuffle, from Borders Books. We both got one this weekend) to her curtains and it hangs perfectly for reading in bed. I kissed her goodnight (Daddy is on duty tonight and won't be home till later) and gave her 15 minutes of book light reading.

A great ending to the day!







~
MEMOS (5) ~ DROP ME A LINE! ~ Permanent Link


CM Blog Carnival 2/19/08
Tuesday, February 19, 2008


Click image to go to the current carnival!

Grab a cup of tea, a mug o' coffee, or a bottle of water, steal a few minutes, and relax as you read and explore the new edition of the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival. As always, a lovely "catch all" of various topics with a CM flavor!  This week's focus is on

MOTHER CULTURE
  • Refocus Your Perspective
  • Refresh Yourself
  • Rejuvenate Your Mind
  • Reflect your Creativity
  • Revitalize Your Homeschool
  • Renew Your Vision

Thank you to Sonya & Karen, for hostessing this week's carnival!



~
MEMOS (1) ~ DROP ME A LINE! ~ Permanent Link


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