school? What School?

I felt the need for a schoolish-type entry.
The J-term entries and the Fun Science entries are, well, fun. Entertaining. Great Blog-Fodder.
But it seems that often our educational experiences of the day just aren't as exciting as those cool posts like about Autopsies or Smoke Bombs or even just awesome plans & schedules.
I sometimes fell not much school happens. But I guess that isn't true. or maybe it is. A lot of learning, fun, research, and freedom to find their passions & goals happens. But maybe not lot of 'school' happens; not a lot that looks like typical-school, anyway.
So, here are some things that are going on at our house:
KI -

• Ki has not been too interested in Life Of Fred (for math). It is a great math book, written as a story. I think Ki is just taking a break from it. Though I not require certain things to be done at certain times for math, nor the completion of something that's not working for them at the moment, math. of some sort, is required. Ki is doing some Aleks Quicktables online daily. It's a TimesTablePractice. I have been looking over KHAN Academy lately and had the boys try it out. It has a great math area; videos and exercises, tracking of progress and earning of badges. It was not assigned to do the math, I just asked them to register and try it. Ki went through a couple sections and earned a few badges. (check out the Khan Academy- it is really good and free)
• Ki has decided he wants to read Lord of the Ring books, finally. Brian has a rule of 'read it before watching it'. Ki's very eager to watch it, but has not been ready to read it. A few weeks ago he asked for the LOTR books from the top shelf so he can read them. He's also reading books from The Series of Unfortunate Events and a Warriors series. Plus he reads his Bible daily. He's more consistent at it than I am.
• He likes to watch Doctor Who on Netflix or NCIS online. (we still do not have a working television)
• Ki loves acting and cooking. they are his passions. He is in a play. He has practice twice a week. This is his 4th or 5th acting session since we've been here. Sometimes he reads skits or watches acting 'lessons' on YouTube. He was a Junior Chef at the local cooking school, but they moved. Now he just has fun planning meals or treats to make for us. I sent a video to him yesterday. It's from Molecular Gastronomy. It is awesome! He lloved what they did and wants to give it a try. I'll be ordering the Molecular Gastronomy kit for us to make creative culinary confections. Seriously- Watch This!

CONNOR-

• Connor's been plugging away at his ALEKS math. I assign a certain numbers of topics to be done each week. Sometimes he gets stuck, so I tell him to have his dad help him. Next thing I know he's figured it out on his own. He also tried the KHAN Academy. I think we'll switch from Aleks to Khan when C & G are done with their current ALEKS. Probably in 2 weeks I guess.
• He's been using Gavin's Bamboo Pen Tablet to do some drawing.







• He's looking up stuff online and reading his books (and from Proverbs).
• He's enjoying acting and is the play with Ki.

GAVIN-

• I don't know what he is reading.
• He is spending a lot of time with his Bamboo Pen Tablet- working on his sketching. He's looking into getting 2 online illustrator programs. He & Connor are thinking about making a mini-animation video.

• He's doing his Aleks Math and has earned a few KHAN Badges.
• He likes to read current events and tell us about it.

ME- I send the boys an email with what I want them to work on through out the week. I also write a few things on our Dry Erase Board- but not this week. This week I just sent the email and some links.

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Truth Is....

My Imaginary Friend, Julianna, over at SURVIVING BOYS does this entry sometimes.Truth Is... Thursday
So, I thought I would do my own. But you should really go read hers.
after you read mine, of course
TRUTH IS.....I like that my boys make smoke bombs in the morning.
TRUTH IS....as much as I love that Ki and Connor are enjoying theater and Ki has found a niche; I will be glad when this play is over.
TRUTH IS...I secretly hope to stay in California and not go back to Ohio.
TRUTH IS...that last one isn't a secret. I think everyone knows it by now.
TRUTH IS...I love playing games and was so glad to interrupt school today because my LOONEY LAB GAMES order arrived in the mail today!! I could play games all day every day.
TRUTH IS...aside from family, gaming is the only plus I see going back to Ohio. And new friends. But gaming is really up there on the list.
TRUTH IS...As much as I love homeschooling/unschooling, I'm slightly nervous about college. Hoping I did a good enough job teaching them how to learn.
TRUTH IS...I am really bad at this 'truth is' game.


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J-TERM DAY 1

MONDAY'S WRAP-UP.J-TERM DAY 1
9:OO- Ki made pancakes. What better way to start our day? Me not having to cook and Yet there are still homemade pancakes to be eaten! He made Whole Wheat Pancakes; they weren't bad. I figured I needed to try one, though I was planning on just having a protein fruit smoothie. Ki told me they were whole wheat and had an extra egg white for protein. I'll have a Fruit Smoothie for lunch.
- I read one of the short stories out of our Jesus Freaks book and sent them off to read until 10:15. being that this is Forensics Month they had to choose a book that was a mystery is some sort. 39 Clues. The Mysterious Benedict Society. Hardy Boys. Mars Diary was added to the list. I want to see if I can find some Encyclopedia brown books at the Library.
10:30 - Forensic Class.

Define Forensic Science: The application of a broad spectrum of sciences to answer questions of interest to a legal system. [OR] Using Science to gather Legal Evidence.

Took Notes from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forensic_science

*Eureka - The archamedes story

*1^st recorded use of forensics, China.

Watching these YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_58XsN6XJWQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMmSCXzmxD4

I sent an email with the Youtube links to the boys so they could watch individually and use earphones. This worked well.

Did Word Scrambles 1 from this Page: http://www.sciencespot.net/Pages/classforscistarters.html this was Connor’s strong area. Gavin’s weakest area.

Did Some Spot The Differences (from the same above link- scroll down further): Gavin was strongest in this area.

Then we did some Fingerprint Stuff. We used a thick graphite art pencil to cover our fingertips, pressed our fingers onto the sticky side of packing tape, put the tape, sticky-side-down, onto blank index cards and labeled them. They covered their entire care with packing tape and used their fingerprint cards as bookmarks.

The Finished Fingerprint Card. Gavin added tape to the bottom as well & uses it as a bookmark.

To Make these Fingerprint cards:

Step One: Make Tape Lifting Tabs. Pull out about 3/4 and inch of tape away from the roll.

Step 2: Fold this piece of tape so the sticky sides adhere to each other. You now have a non-sticky tab to hold.



Step #3 Cut so there is about 1-2 inches of sticky tape. Set, sticky-side-up, into a flat surface


Step #4: either shave graphite off of a regular pencil or use one of those FAT Charcoal Art Pencils to coat your fingertip:




Step #5: place your fingertip onto the sticky side up tape, gently rollback and forth once:



Gavin did 3 fingers at the same time

Step #6 - place your print tape tab onto a blank index card.


We didn’t have time to get to the other things I wanted for Forensic Class today, but we’ll get to them tomorrow and actually talk about fingerprints and identifying fingerprint characteristics.

12: ISH was Lunch Time!!
1:00 2nd half of J-Term.
There is not much to write about C&G's Computer Class. Their dad gives them assignments- actual computer programming. I gave them a list of research, notes, etc, that needs to be some by the end of the month. (CLICK to Read their Comp. Program List) They are to spend about 30-45 minutes on my research and the rest of the time doing the computer programming.
Ki does THEATER on Mon./Wed./Fridays.
Ki started by reading to me out of a book called "Three plays written by Thornton Wilder". It is written in script format. He liked that it is written in script format.
Then we did some online research and note taking. Playwrights vs Screen Writers. Early Playwrights. Homophones (wright/write/right). Looks up some Greek Theater stuff (the Muses & the masks)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playwrighthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muses
Ki drew the Theater Masks (Comedy & Tragedy) in his book.
Then we watched a Youtube Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksVacpkQcGs&feature=BF&list=PL8191D67D4070401A&index=2
Ki then read through different lists of Improv Games and made a list of ideas for Wednesday.http://improvencyclopedia.org/games/index.html
Our 1st day of J-term was over at 2:50.
{DAY 2 OF J-TERM IS LISTED HERE: CLICK}
All I can find for dinner is spaghetti and no one here seems to want spaghetti. I NEED to make me MENU!!! (and go to Trader Joe's)

This Blog Entry is part of the following Hops:



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ROCKET POWER!~

I have an AWESOME video to show you, if my husband can get it uploaded. It is of their Rocket Engine in a 2L Bottle Experiment. I was watching and taking pictures, but didn't get a picture of the rocket in action, ZOOMING at Ki's head with the fire tail twirling. I about wet my pants. Why did I let them talk me into these things??

I'm so excited for January! Yesterday I worked on J-Term planning. It was pretty easy. The older 2 are doing Computer Programming, You can CLICK HERE to read those plans. Brian will be teaching them the actual programming and assigning projects, I just planned a few research things to round it out a bit.
Brian took them out on a Computer Programming Field Trip yesterday. J-Term got a head start, thanks to the Movie Theater. My computer Programming Class went to see TRON.

Ki's Theater Plans are a little more extensive. (click to read). And we will doing an IMPROV DAY on Wednesdays and hope a lot of our homeschool friends will join us!


And, of course, our BIG PLANS are the C.S.I Classes!! I wrote those plans already (CLICK HERE to read our CSI Plans!) But spent some time reviewing them, making a few adjustments, and nailing down some time slots. On Monday we will have a Crime Scene in the front room. Gun Shots, a victim, other clues. Plus we'll make our own fingerprint powder. I can't wait! I'll be taking pictures and maybe even do a SKYPE with some Out-Of-State homeschool friends!

I LOVE J-TERM!

I love our Quasi-Unschooling!

One of the boys friends is at our house for the Day Thursday. "P". He is a really good kid. The 4 of them together will most likely play lots of MTG and doing some Amtgard. His mom works in town (they live in Pismo) and will drop him off on her way to work- 7:15 AM. (yes, I wrote this Wed Night. I figure Wed night in Cali is Thursday in most of the US)
I had planed on driving to see the river/levee. I guess we could all do that still, with "P". I hope to get some good pictures.
We had a big rainbow out back Wed Evening. Brian was getting ready to hop in the van to take the boys to see TRON. The boys were in the van already, then I hear Brian yell for for me as he comes back to grab his trip to get pictures. Here are my pictures. (I need a photo stitching program)


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Plans for Ki’s Theater Class

I published this straight from my WORD Document! How fun! So, Ki is doing Theater & Lightwave. (as I did not think either alone was a 2-3 hour a day class)
Theater will be on M/W/F and Light Wave will be on T/Th.

THEATER CLASS

• PLAYWRIGHTS
  
  • Shakespeare (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare )
    
  • Tennesse Williams (http://www.zeroland.co.nz/theatre.html )
    
  • Choose a 3^rd playright from the list at the above link
    
• WRITING A PLAY
  
  • http://www.playwriting101.com/
    
  • VIDEO How-To
    
    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHmm8qncTp8&feature=related
      
    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcJ-UB67QQ0&feature=channel
      
    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoEDMfP9nRY&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=PL8191D67D4070401A
      
    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnTOxfu2RXw&list=PL8191D67D4070401A&playnext=2
      
  • http://www.ehow.com/how_2045040_write-play.html
    
    • Write a short play or a skit- to be acted or done as a puppet show.
      
    • Make a Story Board
      
  • Play NANO-FICTIONARY & Mad Scientist University.
    
    • make a short story board (comic book) of one of the 'game stories'
      
    • Write a Short Skit using one of the games
      
• IMPROVE WEDNESDAY
  
  • http://improvencyclopedia.org/games/index.html
    
  • http://www.whoseline.net/show/games.html
    
  • Maybe have kids over for an hour on Wednesdays, after lunch. Have Ki lead this hour
    
• YOGA/STRETCHING
  
  • Do Daily-with all kids- market as exercises to strengthen muscles for balance and performing plays
    
  • Start Improv Wed Groups with these stretches!
    
• VOCBULARY
  
  • use Notecards on a ring
    
  • when a new or important word/term is read- write it on a new card
    
• CAREERS
  
  • http://www.collegeboard.com/csearch/majors_careers/profiles/majors/50.0501.html
    
  • Click on Related Careers in the side. And again on the following pages
    
  • Make a List of all possible careers in this field with a brief (1-3 sentence) description
    

THEATER CLASS (pg 2)

MONDAYS

1-1:45 Research/Notes

2-3:00 Writing/Designing

WEDNESDAYS

1-2:00 IMPROV at the Park

2:30-3:15 Writing/Reading

FRIDAYS

1-1:45 Research/Notes

2-2:45 Writing/Designing

3:00 Quiz

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This will be what I email to Ki. I still need to make a Break Down of what exactly do do each of the days. But this is about 80% of the planning work I think.
IMPROV WED will be at a local park and we are inviting all of our homeschool friends to join us!