homeschool--history

Week D18.


The topic is 1805, Lewis and Clark reach the Pacific.


This site has some good information: http://www.lewis-clark.org/


The JE section of your library may have the book, Seaman's Journal by Patricia Reeder Eubank, about the Newfounland dog that went on the journey. The J section also has a couple of chapter books about the journey from the dog's point of view.

I also found two good photo books: Lewis & Clark; An American Journey, by Daniel B. Thorp, and Lewis & Clark; The Journey of the Corps of Discovery by Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns.

another year older

More snow on Monday.

Tuesday was the cub scout pinewood derby. Only one of the boys is the right age, and he made his sleek black car months ago and has been anxiously waiting for this day. His two younger brothers wanted to compete as well (unofficially), so one used a derby car from days gone by, and the youngest talked his oldest brother into making the car. With his usual dry sense of humor, big brother decided to stick with the chunky block of wood and used a ball point pen to turn it into a bus. After all the racing was done, guess which one beat every other car there? The chunky bus, of course!

Friday baseball. So funny to watch the boys this age. One of our boys was always the last one off the field, he hit well but then would look around like, now what?

Saturday--sunshine, finally!!! Dug up daffodils from around our dilapidated old barn for the neighbor, went on a field trip to the neighbor's pond to check out frogs.

Sunday-happy birthday to me! This is my 17th bday with hubby (he was boyfriend for 2 of those), so I know to remind him well in advance. This year, I put a big note on his monthly planner. Still, he waited until the last second and bday present ended up being an IOU. That's okay, he brought me breakfast in bed, that's always worth brownie points.

homeschool--science

We're in week D17.

The unit topic is amphibians.

The best way to learn a science topic is 1) get a pile of interesting looking books about the topic from the J section of the library, and 2) do some hands on activities involving the topic.

Videos and worksheets are a good supplement. Here are some links:

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/amphibians/label/froglifecycle/label.shtml

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrcMNxvzknc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YHyCMMVemY&feature=related

Mother Nature Doesn't Believe in Global Warming

Where'd all this April snow come from?

Two Ships Passing

Another weekend where my husband and I didn't see much of each other.

Friday I was at the library all afternoon, participating in the open house as a local author. I had a lot of fun. Met my husband afterwards at the ballgame of the teen that is living with us. We watched an inning, went out for a burger and fries (don't do that very often, mmmm, good), then parted ways. I had to rush home and get the kids for their baseball practice, he had to stay and take some boys to boy scout camp after the game.


My boys did well at practice, but it was COLD.

Saturday we woke up to snow! We stopped by Opening Day for baseball to get the boys' uniforms, then headed out of town, another three hour drive that actually took much longer. While I was on the road, my husband called from scout camp. His truck had broken down, and he had tracked down the part he needed. Luckily I was five minutes away from the parts place, so I was able to swing right in without having to turn around and back track.

Twenty minutes later he had the part, I had collected my oldest son from camp, and hubby and I said good-bye yet again.

We made it to my brothers', where his oldest was getting baptized (in our religion kids have the choice after they reach age eight). My parents and all three brothers were there, my sis was the only one missing.

I had planned a quick down and back day trip, but after the kids all went swimming at the motel and we ate dinner, it was pretty late. So they convinced me to stay and a sis-in-law loaned me pjs.

Sunday the kids and I got up early and hustled on the long trip back to town, my hubby jumped in with us there, and we went thirty minutes past town to where our nephew on hubby's side was getting confirmed. We made it exactly as the service was starting. (Pretty impressive for someone--me--who is ALWAYS late).

We got to relax this afternoon finally. Watched August Rush, pretty good movie.

Sports, sports, sports

The kids are keeping me running this spring with three sons plus the teen that is living with us all in baseball and coaching my daughter in soccer.

Here's the team, that's my co-coach and his wife (our team manager) on the right.

Everyday is Halloween

This rocker's glory days are over (way, way over).

That's where my tape went.

An earth-first hiker.

homeschool--cultural geography

This is week D16

The unit topic is Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran

This is an interesting hot spot of the world, a little belt of countries nestled between India and Iraq.

Pakistan was actually split off of India for religious reasons; since Hindu is the main religion of India, Muslims wanted their own country so they would have a fair voice in things.
http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/places/countries/country_pakistan.html

As we all know, Afghanistan has been in the spotlight for their connection with the Taliban.
http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/places/countries/country_afghanistan.html

And Iran, seat of the ancient Persian Empire, shows up regularly in the news.
http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/places/countries/country_iran.html

Butterball

Danny thought Butterball the hamster might want to be Batball.

That's better than Butterface, which is what we sometimes call her, after Mark's favorite joke--about the guy who nicknames his girlfriend Butterface because he liked everything about her, but 'er face.

Week in Review

It was spring break this past week, my goal was to get taxes done. Well, at least I'm closer.



Thursday the sun actually came out, so while the big kids rode motorcycles, I looked around for a bicycle for Danny--the rule is he has to be good at the bicycle before he can ride a motorcycle. But after five kids the bike situation is pretty rotten. Time for a couple new ones around here. So we played soccer keep-away instead. Leland and Xavier, two kids that we have over often, came and enjoyed the sunshine with us.

Leland had to try out the motorcylce for himself.



Friday it snowed again, which was good, baseball was cancelled. So it was a good goof off evening. Matthew and Michael did their hair.



My daughter had a friend over, she introduced us to the Evolution of Dance video http://youtube.com/watch?v=dMH0bHeiRNg

April 2, 2008

It was a busy day in the kitchen, first supervising my oldest two as they each made an entree for a cook-off at the church (their enchiladas got second place and round steak got third), then making dinner for the rest of us, and finally, helping the youngest two make cookies in some rare one-on-two time while the older ones were gone.