our little schoolhouse

Monday

Rainy and cold. Delicious, cozy, tea-sipping weather. We finished our tree project and I filled Gardens and book orders all evening so no writing was done. Hopefully tonight...

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Noah:  Read chapter 12 in Trig and worked on midterm project question for accounting. Then Spanish and Editor in Chief on the computer. Worked a bit on his computer programming later in the day.

Anna:  Reading Detective, nature study leaf collecting, pressing and arranging, Math U See. Currently reading A Swiftly Tilting Planet and crocheting a sweater for herself.

Caleb:  CHC Language, read The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales, Math U See.

Collin:  CHC Spelling, read to me, Math U See.

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Supper: Big 'ole pot of dirty rice with steamed carrots & baked beans.

 

Tuesday

Absolutely perfect autumn weather.  We were blessed by the easterly track of hurricane Ida and almost zero rain. Yeah.

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Noah:  Reading Enemy Brothers for history, science videos, Muse reading, football-with-brothers in the yard and Mad Libs.

Anna:  More Mad Libs, Editor in Chief, Cranky Colonials and Once upon a Time Saints. She also learned a bit of football coaching for the brothers' games.

Caleb:  Reading ? (I'll have to ask him), Mad Libs, football.

Collin:  CHC spelling, read to me, football.

Plenty of read alouds and crafts with fall-ish themes happening lately.  Love, love, love this time of year.

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Our beloved Swamp Maple as viewed from the back porch. 

Wednesday, etc.

Wow.  I have so dropped the school notes ball here. My excuse, is autumn (and also Lilly, who walks everywhere now and is into everything.). The weather has been beautiful... when it's not raining, that is. Highs have been in the low 70's (and sometimes even high 60's!) I gave up on the boring school day routine, and went with what we are affectionately calling "Fall School".

Rain, rain & more rain.

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Noah: Along with a bit of his regular high school stuff, has been spending much of his "school time" using some of those cool MIT videos like "Intro to Computer Science" and actually going through the steps to start learning the beginnings of programming.This is SO up his alley.

Anna, Caleb, Collin & Rose: Again, some of their "real school" stuff last week and on Monday, but we dove straight into "Fall School" yesterday and today. I started off telling them that their first assignment for the day (Tuesday) was to play a game of Wildcraft! . Then, drawing lots of inspiration from Nature's Playground, I sent them into their boots and out into the mud to make nature bracelets. I followed with Lilly on my back and challenged them to see how many different trees, flowers, weeds and herbs they could collect (onto their duct tape bracelets) and correctly identify.

Nature Bracelets

Their next task, was to make bark boats (from a fallen tree) and float them in the ever-present puddles while I made yet another batch of this fabulous gingerbread. As they were playing in the puddles, the kids discovered a whole population of tiny freshwater snails to collect and observe as well as a good deal of mud. :)

Collin's Boat

Much Lego building, science video watching, herb tea making and kitchen using is still going on. Oh, and I think there just may be a bit of learning happening, also. ;)

Caleb & 10 month old Lilly.

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Suppers lately: Spaghetti, taco soup, chicken enchiladas, pancakes w/ sausages, cream of broccoli soup, gingerbread (?!)

 

Monday

Spectacular autumn weather! The sky is that fabulous, deep October blue and the high today was a lovely 72 degrees.  The kids spent a nice chunk of time outside shooting (the oldest 2 have a compound bow and arrows for sport / target shooting and Collin has a kid's compound bow) and playing football. Currently baking the cookies Caleb requested for his feast day today (St. Isaac Jogues), and the whole house smells heavenly. I. LOVE. FALL.

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Noah: * Watched another of the MIT videos for Biology
 * Reading Detective
 * Trig
 * Accounting

Anna: * Reading Detective
 * Writing on her book that she has been working on
 * Read a few Muse  articles for science - these always produce fascinating discussions.
 * Math U See

Caleb: * Reading
 * chc language
 * Math U See

Collin: * Reading (to me)
 * chc spelling
 * Math U See

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Supper: Spaghetti with green beans

  

Tuesday, Wednesday & umm... Thursday

Hot today, but expecting a front tomorrow!! Cannot wait. Planning to put the finishing touches on the playhouse re-do today after school. Pictures soon!

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Noah: * Religion - read about Bishop Fulton Sheen
 * Biology - watched part 3 on genetics from "Intro to Biology" with MIT
 * Accounting - completed trial balance / year end project
 * Spanish - Rosetta Stone
 * Reading Detective
 * History - Typed up final draft of report

Anna: * Reading, Geography (Netherlands), Science, Poetry, Math U See, Reading Detective, Editor in Chief 

Caleb: * Reading, Geography (Mexico), Science, Poetry, Math U See, Language, Spelling

Collin: * Reading, Science, Math U See, Spelling

Today, the kids are also making a stop motion movie involving Lego and hopefully a minimum of arguing. 

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Today I'm picking more mint to dry for winter teas along with trying to plan a little ecosystem lesson for the younger kids to go with a bit of terrarium making. Cooking a big pot of dirty rice for supper but hoping for gumbo weather soon.

 

herbs for teas

  

Monday

High of 79 and rainy. Wet, wet & wet.

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Noah: * Trig - Chapter 9 workbook problems.
 * Biology - Watched  parts 1 & 2 of the three part "Genetics" from MIT's Open Courseware video lectures, Introduction to Biology.
 * Reading Detective
 * Spanish - Rosetta Stone

Anna: * Reading Detective
 * Nature Study - more tree study with Caleb & Collin (Also, we played Wildcraft for the first time this past weekend and found it quite fun and very educational! Even Collin (7yrs) seemed to learn a lot.)
 * Math U See

Caleb: * Reading (He's coming down w/ the cold the others had. Time for tea!)
 * Nature Study (See Anna's)

Collin: * Spelling - chc
 * Reading - read to me
 * Nature Study (See Anna's)
 * Math U See

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Picked some lemon balm to dry for tea today, finished cleaning utility room & baked some more of that yummy Tilapia along with some homemade bread. Reading Real Food while nursing Lilly and listening to In Defense of Food while cleaning. What a duo.

Wednesday & Thursday

High of only 70, as I type this... on Saturday. Yippee skippee. Autumn like weather at last!

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Anna, Rose and Collin were feeling considerably better after a few teas and forced naps. Wednesday and Thursday were spent doing quite a bit of Biology. The younger kids used this great little book to learn to identify the different types of trees in our yard using the seeds, leaves and bark. (I wanted to get this in before the deciduous trees loose their leaves.) The kids also did leaf rubbings and labeled the different leaves.

Noah's biology book was mentioning vaccines, which led to some interesting discussions between him and I on the different sides of the vaccine topic.  We talked about the current debate on the safety of the new H1N1 vaccine along with other issues. I think he now understands how important it is to do your own research and hear both sides of the latest research on an issue before believing everything you hear.

Noah also did the rough draft of his book report on Johnny Tremain for History and made another "walkalong glider". Everyone did Geography, read-alouds, and poetry.  It's Limericks for October, and they are plentiful. :) I'll post some of them here soon...

To top off a surprisingly productive week, our order of a few more Schleich animals to add to our growing collection came in!

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Suppers: Local Tilapia and Fried Rice

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Monday & Tuesday

Hot and wet.  October??

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Noah: * Biology - read module 8
 * Accounting - read chapter 7
 * Trig - read chapter 10
 * Reading Detective
 * Spanish
 * History - finished Johnny Tremain
 * Science - lots of Mythbusters 

Anna: * Sick w/ cold and fever. Laying low and reading a lot and Mythbusters.

Caleb: * Language - chc workbook
 * Spelling - chc
 * Reading
 * Math U See

Collin: * Sick w/ sore throat. Watching Mythbusters and still well enough to make significant trouble for his siblings... as usual. :)

Rose: * Has a cold

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Supper: Big ole pot of mush soup with homemade bread.

 

 

 

a week of unschooling

High of only 77 today with a cool North breeze blowing. Simply beautiful. Yeah!!

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Noah did his regular Biology (read mod 7), Accounting (read ch. 6), Trig (read ch. 9) on Monday. 

I decided that this was the week to finish the playhouse project that has languished all summer long, so the kids will (and Anna did yesterday) be babysitting for me while I work and also helping to paint and work on the little house. 

We have a terrific series of videos lined up on Netflix for watching together (in the afternoons). We started off with "Absolute Zero" from Nova which led to some fantastic discussion.  Next up is Supertwister and Storm Chasers.

We'll sprinkle in some read alouds, a picnic (Wednesday) and probably keep up with the Math in the evenings. We'll read the latest Muse magazine articles, do current crafty projects, kid produced theatricals etc, and just live this week a little more outside the box than usual.

 

tea bowl

 

Wednesday

It's 81 with a slight occasional drizzle. We took off this afternoon and went up to the Gotreaux's for some of their wonderful tilapia. Such sweet people. :)

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Noah: * Biology- study guide mod 6
 * Accounting- workbook ch.7
 * Geography- Iceland
 * Spanish- Rosetta Stone

Anna: * Nature Study- more on trees
 * Geography- Greece
 * Reading Detective
 * Math U See
 * Painting with acrylics

Caleb: * Geography- Iceland
 * Language- chc workbook
 * Spelling- chc
 * Math U See

Collin: * Reading
 * Spelling- chc workbook
 * Math U See
 * Painting more with his watercolors with Rosie

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Had leftover dirty rice (Why does it always seem that I am typing the same things for supper? We really have a lot more variety than it seems from here.) for supper. I am now off to start sewing on the skirt that I cut out yesterday while listening to my current audiobook. Yippee!