Test FAIL!

Yesterday (Fri/Dec31)was to be a milestone day! Ki was to take his very first PANERA TEST!
Being the Quasi-Unschoolers that we are, we really don't do/take tests. But when the boys get about high school they have tests with their chosen Sciences. This is Ki's first Science with Testing. It is Chemistry. They all wanted Chemistry, though I think Ki is changing his mind as he is seeing MORE math and less "blowing things up with chemicals"
I had to change the Chemistry Lessons for Ki. The program we are using is Apologia and is a High School book. Ki is just not ready for the math. So I start the lesson with terms, experiments, videos, and notes with all 3 boys. Then Ki goes off to his desk in his room and has file folders with worksheets. He does what he wants from those while I teach Chemistry Math to his brothers.
Before this, when he sat with the whole time, he had meltdowns. Melting into a puddle of limp noodles and tears. But this new way works well. His brothers are actually bored with the 1st half of class (so far... because it is chapter 1- wait until we get a few chapters into it!)- so the math keeps them into it.Ki actually likes worksheets and does well with them. I don't use worksheets to teach, but they are good for review and Ki is the type of kid that needs plenty of review.
I wanted to just BE DONE with chapter 2 before we start J-Term. For some reason (holiday rush? Skit rehearsals? Brian's Surgery? my birthday?) we never got to the last section of Ch1 or the test. So we finished those this week.
SO, we gather calculators, notecards with formulas, pencils, papers, etc... Ki searches HIGH & LOW for his notebook all morning and finally finds it....
We get to Panera. The Bagels, cookies, hot drinks are all ordered. We sit down.I open my Orange Folder that contained the tests.They were not there. They must have slipped out at the house or something. All that work to get everything ready, everyone out the door, waited in line, had a cashier that had to go through the order 4 times and then still mess up my Peppermint Hot Cocoa (but I got it free)... ALL TO NOT HAVE THE TESTS!

He had his notebook though, so I took a picture of him and am pretending it is Ki taking his FIRST Panera Science Test!
On the drive home, Gavin (17) ask what kinds of questions are on the test. he asks because Chapter was was the BASICS which he already knew.I'm driving. driving takes up 98% of my brain function, so I rattle off something that I thought I remembered.
"Something about a farmer finding a chunk of gold. They tell you the mass and volume and ask you to find the density."Gavin:"Gold has a density of 19.3 grams/cm³."Connor: " .. and Uranium is 19.1!"
Me: (sighing in my head):" Well, they give the volume and you have to find the mass- or the other way."
Gavin: "O.K. - - - And diamonds have a density of 3.5" (I think that is what he said it was)
While taking the test, Ki calls me over. It goes something like this:
Ki: "mom, gold has a density of 19.3, right?"Me: "yes, why?" (the test gives the density of gold for this problem)Ki:"Well, it has 2 items that look like god and I need to find the density to determine which really is gold. I got 19.327. Would that be gold still or something else because it's not 19.3?"
Ki refuses to use cm³ or cc. He crosses them out on his tests and writes in "mL"

Well, all the tests are now done. I guess I should go grade them.
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I have never been interested in Reading Through the Bible in a Year. Not in the 30+ years of being a Christian. It just never struck me as something I should do. Brian got me a new Bible for my birthday. It is a chronological Bible. It actually goes pretty much 'in regular order' until Psalms. But then it's all over the place. Verses out of 3-5 different books per page sometimes.

I was getting ready to start reading it today (Sat Jan1) and I decided to try reading thought from start to end; and hopefully in a year. So, we'll see how that goes. According to my math, if I read 4 pages a day that'll leave a buffer for missed days. click for My Reading Log

Gavin found a $20 while looking for the Wisemen in the laundry room. I knew I should have done laundry today. (The Wisemen brought Chocolate covered gingerbread men today!)



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INTO THE LION'S DEN.

I am in a Womens Bible Study. We are studying the book of Daniel. I decided that on Wednesday I'd do a Book of Daniel Class with my boys.

I think they enjoyed it. The didn't complain once about having to take notes and write things. Ki is my biggest complainer if that activity, though, and he loves Church and Bible History.

I read chapter 1. We went over the big names. I read the actual name instead of the pronoun when the Bible used the pronoun & used the name when it just said "the king" or "The chief eunuch". Ki really liked the name ASHPENAZ!

We learned some words. Eschatology and eunuch. eschatology if from 'eschatos' (late) and 'ology'(the study of). and the word eunuch means 'bed keeper'. "eune" means 'bed' and 'ekhein' means to keep.

We went back to the Tower in Babel and how that land became Babylonia. gos sent the Israelites out of that land, then they were captured and brought back to that land.

The drew maps and looked up Bible Verses. I gave them a list of Bible Verses and told them I'd pay them $1 for each one they memorized.

They have a list of names for spelling test next week. I promised treats for correctly spelled words.

I don't normally bribe them for learning, but it's fun from time to time.

This morning I wanted to boys to start with their science so I could have them doing something while I got caught up on my plans. Ki wanted to research acting and got upset when I assigned science. He's really great and coming up with school stuff to do on his own, but really needs to handle it a little better when he's assigned 1 thing when he's planned in his head to do something else.

Gavin did his last Physics Test. Connor did an experiment in Science. Ki read a bit then chose an animal to study next week. I'm having him research an endangered animal. I think he chose Lemur.

Ki and Connor had their Thespian Class and I worked on their Daniel Study. (it was taught after Thespian Class). Their Class Projects day is Oct 15 and they will be auditioning for the Christmas Musical/Play.

goddess of love & beauty

Ki is working on a Game for his Mythology LapBook. It's a Astronomy/Mythology Matching Game.

It's like Memory Match, but one card will have the name of a planet or moon and the MATCH will be what Roman god it is.

For Example he has a card that says DEIMOS (moon) and the matching card is "SON of the god of war (Mars)" and another that says VENUS (planet)--and he made this in fancy letters, too... the MATCH is, of course, goddess of love & beauty. He has 9 matches done and 6 more to make.

These are cut in circles out of card stock, round like a moon or planet.

He will highlight a constellation in his lapbook, cut out of a star shape, of course. He is using my Creative Memories Cutting things. It's good for his manual dexterity and fine motor skills. I think I will call it Occupational Therapy for Dyspraxia.

The Pantheon Lego Model isn't going well. We may have to find a different medium for this project.

I noticed today that though I have made sure Ki is doing scripture work with his MayTerm Study, I have not had the older 2 doing it with their Astronomy. So tomorrow they will get to use my Strong's Concordance to look up some Bible Passages.

ʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚ

KNITTING SCENE :

My gloves are done. I have already thought of a better design I want to try...

Yes, I know, I could just LOOK UP patterns online or at RAVELRY, but what's the fun in that? I am figuring out on my own what works for fingerless gloves and what doesn't. I like reinventing the wheel, I guess.

In June I will be working on my DNA scarf. For this I will be following a pattern, to the letter!

And I will be teaching Ki to knit a hat "In the Round" in June.

ʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚʚ

SCHOOL THOUGHTS:

Tuesdays are Independent Work days. I go to Bible Study in the morning and The Boys do their morning chores and morning school all on their very own.

G&C have been doing their Morning MayTerm class all on their own the whole month. (Astronomy). I wrote out things for them to research and projects/reports for them to work on for the month, but they are doing everything on their own.

K really needs one on one, constant supervision to get anything of reasonable substance accomplished. On Tuesdays I try to give him a list of things he can do himself, based on what we have been doing together. Usually it is working on his lapbook and reading online links I have found for him. I give him a decent amount to do, expect 1/4 of it to get done, so when he actually gets half of his work done, I'm good with it.

Today when I came home they were all researching how to draw Anime Style and practicing that. Ki had finished his reading book, too. (Number 3 in the Series of Unfortunate Events).

MYTHOLOGY lesson plans

MYTHOLOGY : ROMAN : these are ideas/notes for me. Ki will be getting a basic Syllabus for the class- more simplified and concise than this. along with this, we will get books from the Library and probably watch something via Netflix that goes with the Class.

(Ki's May-term Schedule, probably: HomeRoom 8:30-9. Mythology 9-9:40 (session A) & 10-10:40 (session B). Creative Writing 10:50-11:30 ~~ LUNCH ~~ Sketching/Drawing 12:45-1:15 (A) 1:25-2:15 Science or Math or Reading 2:15-2:45.—ALL times are very approximate and not written in stone- a guide to keep us on track)

WEEK ONE: Roman gods. Their names and stories. Roman Worship Practices.

During week 1- Session A will be reading Myth/Stories (to Ki- he loves listening to stories). Session 2 will be activites: Lapbook, Note Taking, LEGOs, Making a Video/Puppet Show, etc.

http://rome.mrdonn.org/gods.html Watch the Power Point Story of CHOAS- compare to God's story of creation in Genesis 1.( Read Gen. Creation Account), asic skeleton outline of ideas and links so far collected.nd Uranus- who were like God- they created everything in the beginn

• http://rome.mrdonn.org/romulusandremus.html
  
• http://oldweb.uwp.edu/academic/english/canary/romans.html
  
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia
  
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_(mythology)
  
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(mythology)
  
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_temple
  
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheon,_Rome
  
• Start lapbook (section ideas/prompts)
  
  • SECTION: compare myths with the Bible
    
  • SECTION: Roman gods in Astronomy
    
  • SECTION: Etymology: Roman/Greek word we see in Mythology and today
    
  • SECTION: a game? Think back to the Cinco de Mayo Lapbook Games
    
• http://rome.mrdonn.org/theatre.html Choose a story to retell, make puppets, rehearse, video
  
• LEGO: choose one of the temples to build (and build it)
  
• START A WORD LIST- Common Greek Word roots in Mythology. (like PANTHEON- we know PAN and THEO…..)
  

WEEK TWO: More Romans gods and their stories. Early Church, New Testament.

• Acts 16:16ff ; the temple to the unknown god, god Dionysus- a person named after that god at the end?
  
• http://books.google.com/books?id=YGmKaXiUDiYC&pg=PA105&lpg=PA105&dq=roman+gods+in+the+new+testament&source=bl&ots=9Xwh_DdA3r&sig=ajm1LxSOwFP8Kq54ZmKyouwy7jE&hl=en&ei=2lDXS-6kEpKkswPjvIyFAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CCUQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=roman%20gods%20in%20the%20new%20testament&f=false
  
• ----- >> esp chapter 5 of the above
• http://www.gotquestions.org/origin-Catholic-church.html MITHRAS (god/religion in rome)
  
• thought-12 Titans (12 disciples) the titans were descendants of Gaia and Uranus- who were like God- they created everything in the beginning.
  
• Bible Verse Memory
• Have Ki use the Strong's Bible Concordance to look up things. (*need to get some ideas/words for this part: "idols"-in N.T. "Diana" "Jupiter" "Mercurius" ........)
• reading more myths, learning more names, etc.

WEEK THREE:

Session A: Roman gods in Space (includes Lapbook/Notes Work)

• Planets, moons, etc
  
• Constellations (Taurus- the bull killed by Mithras)
  
• Make a constellation for a roman god or creature
  
• TITAN is a moon (Saturn) and a rocket
  
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaur_(minor_planet)
  
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2060_Chiron
  
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galilean_moons
  

Session B: Roman Creatures/Monsters (includes Lapbook/Notes Work)

http://www.gods-heros-myth.com/godpages/giants.html

http://onespiritx.tripod.com/gods24.htm

• Google pictures, descriptions & stories for creatures
  
• Faun (male) fauna (female)- fauna a word being 'all creatures, as in 'the flora and fauna'
  
• Panoptes. The all-seeing creature.. camera lenses, pan=optic: also cyclOPS
  
• TAURUS-bull-Mithras(god)- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tauroctony
  
• Hippocampus- a fish/horse (like a seahorse).AND an area of the brain. Look at pics of both to compare.
  
  • Creature
    
    • http://www.hp-lexicon.org/images/cs/hcamp-cs.gif
      
    • http://www.elfwood.com/art/d/a/danaesmith/hippocampus.jpg
      
    • http://www.waterworxbali.com/Images/Photos/Large/hippocampus-histrix.jpg
      
  • Brain
    
    • http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Hippocampus_(brain).jpg
      
    • http://www.macalester.edu/psychology/whathap/UBNRP/ltp04/hippocampus.jpg
      
    • http://faculty.washington.edu/rhevner/hippocampus.jpg
      
    • http://scienceblogs.com/purepedantry/upload/2007/04/hippocampus-2.gif
      
• Make a couple out of clay or by drawing
  
• Make up your own creature. Write a little story for him, draw a picture. Maybe make a movie of your Creature and his Story- like in Week 1.
  

  
  

  
  

WEEK FOUR: UNPLANNED this will be for making up/catching up, review, display of Lapbook, maybe a Quiz, etc. I'll have things to add to WEEK FOUR as we progress ans I see where this takes us.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

2010_4_26

I oft wonder if I can write something VERY interesting here to get the attention of readers- to lure them in with my awesome writing style and topic. Today’s Post is on Discipline & Kids, Homeschool, eating, and my garden. Some places show the first few sentences of a blog link, so you have to be pretty witty to attract new readers..LOL. Or not. I’m more interest in the ‘social experiment aspect’ of ‘utilizing the teaser paragraph’ than actually getting new readers.

After a not-so-good night of sleep, I made myself a protein shake with fruit. These seem to help with my headaches, energy-level, and dizzy spells. Then I made waffles for the boys, w/ turkey bacon. G&C played chess & checkers while I was making breakfast. I read “You Decide- the amendments” to them while they ate. Then I went over their work for today, both school and housework.

Due to the fact that I have a lot of school planning to do this week, the boys will have a lot of Independent School this week.

Today, they are Reading Story of the World together.

G&C have their SAT questions of the Day. I told them to do 3 (so they’ll do the weekend ones plus today’s), ALEKS math- master 2 topics, read the book of Judges chapter 1- then I’ll have them write up all the attacks and what wounds were inflicted throughout the chapter and draw a picture. Swords & dismemberment- all good things in the eyes of a boy.

Although the boys weren’t as far along as I had hoped when I got back from my outing, they had been working fairly steadily it seemed. I am happy with progress at their own personal rates.

Gavin lost ‘free-time computer’ today because he forgot to do his morning work, which is just take a shower and out away clean dishes-( of which there were only about 7 of on the counter). He does, however, have the chance to earn some computer time tonight (The boys like to play multiplayer computer games with their dad before bed) by doing an extra great job of getting his work done and not needing reminders, prompts, etc and having a good attitude. If I were to just take all computer away with no chance of anything, he’d ne grumpy, moody, pouty, lazy, etc- not getting anything done. But if I offer a chance to earn back something, and then he actually does try and is in a good mood. There is hope; there is something for him to look forward to. This morning he just forgot’ his intent was not to ‘be bad, disobey willingly’, so I am fine with offering opportunities to earn back lost privileges. If he was intentionally disobedient, it’d probably be a different story. I think there is a difference worth noting in ‘Childhood forgetfulness’ and “willful disobedience” and I think that treating the first as if it is the 2^nd only frustrates and provokes our kids, which the Bible actually says not to do- provoke our children. I see a lot of parents today punish childhood immaturity (like forgetfulness and lack of attention) instead of disciplining (which means to guide back to the right path basically- not PUNISH) and this results in elevated temper tantrums and willful disobedience. OK- enough of my SoapBox Preaching…..

My Upside Down Hanging tomato plant keeps falling. The twine isn’t string enough. I’ll have Brian fix it for me. (he did)

Something is eating my potato plants. My ‘regular in the ground’ tomatoes are getting flowers. Sugar Snap Peas are looking happy and a few carrots are almost ready to be eaten. Some of m squash have sprouted in the back and I have transplanted the Strawberry-Invading Squash Plant”. I look forward to feeding Gavin a lot of food from the garden this summer. My grocery bill was over $200 last time I went. Maybe not buying veggies for a few months will help- a teeny bit. Those Bell Pepper plants need to start growing!!

We had a surprise Birthday Party for Brian. His Bday was last month, but he was out of town. I h as migraine and meds problems for a few weeks, but am better now, so we planned a Bday Party- we decided Sunday Night and Connor wasn’t in the room, because he was surprised when I came home with wrapping presents and gifts for them to wrap. Sunday I noticed Brian had the wrong Bday listed on facebook and it was saying his Bday was Apr 26. So I thought it’d be a good day to do his Make-Up Party. Being last minute, I bought premade brownie bites from the local store’s bakery, I bought all the gifts (a bunch of fun things –like a key chain clippie size Nerf Gun –which about took out Ki’s eye - some on clearance at target- like mesh desk/drawer organizers and the wrapping papers. They boys wrapped everything individually and we put them ALL in a BIG Gift bag. We wanted to roast a turkey, but the local store didn’t have whole turkey. I bought those precooked turkey breast pieces and heated them. Not bad. We had rolls, corn on the cob, green beans, and a HUGE bowl of mashed potatoes. We played a couple games of Pass The Pigs.