Wednesday, February 13, 2008

I must admit I'm getting bored typing up our routine every day. Since it has been pretty consistent for a while, I'm just going to type our schedule here and leave it be for a while. Hence the name change to Shadybrook's School Notes (instead of Daily Journal). Instead of daily notes, I'll keep a record of schedule changes, interesting materials we use, notable experiences, progress and other such information.


Monday - Thursday

Daily Items

Morning Read Aloud

Bible

Math

Read Aloud practice

Writing

Reading

Drawing



Mon & Tues - History and Science

Wednesday - Shakespeare, Picture Study and Biography

Thursday - Nature Study, Nature Reading



Friday

Devotional

Missionary Story

Math Activity or Game

Current Events Reading

Grammar and Spelling

Geography

Composer Biography

Art Project



We also squeeze in historical and literary films, history tapes and Dad is working his way through Secrets of the Universe with the boys.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Morning Read Aloud - The Home Ranch

Bible

Math

Writing - Written narration of The Boy Who Cried Wolf by the boys. I chose this very familiar Aesop's Fable because it was so well known. I knew the boys would not be able to complain that they forgot the story. After reading it aloud, I sent them to write the story in their own words. We plan to continue practicing written narration this way with short stories until they get more proficient at it. Annalise continued with copywork.

Reading - Everyone reads his own book. Abel finished Ben and Me. He's glad he will get to choose his next book.

History - This Country of Ours ch. 52 and Longfellow's Paul Revere's Ride.

Science - finished lesson 11 in Zoology 2.

Film: Watched Johnny Tremain again!

Monday, February 11, 2008

Morning Read Aloud - The Home Ranch (Ralph Moody's Little Britches series)


Bible


Math - regular programs. Annalise finished her Miquon Orange book today!


Read Aloud Practice - Elson Reader 4


History - This Country of Ours ch. 51 and a little from A History of Us for more details on the Boston Massacre.

Writing/Drawing- notebook page from history reading

Reading - individual titles

Science - first 1/2 of Lesson 11 in our Zoology 2 book.

Friday, February 8, 2008

Devotional: Boyhood and Beyond



Geography: 2 ch. of Tales from Persia and 2 ch. of By Truck to the North; looked up Vancouver, British Columbia on the map and the Artic Circle



Math Activity: Yahtzee



Grammar and Spelling: Spelling rule and examples (i before c...) and Luke worked on The Grammar Ace



Music: chapter 1 of Ludwig Beethoven and The Chiming Tower Bells and listened to our Essential Beethoven CD.



Art Project: painted with watercolors

Thursday, Februrary 7, 2008

Bible

Math

Science/Writing/Art: nature study journals and I read aloud from Wild Animals I Have Known

History: listened to history tape - side 2 on Patrick Henry and we finished Chimney Sweep's Ransom

Reading: Abel is still trying to finish a biography and Luke has started a book of choice, Annalise finished True Life Treasure Hunts

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

**Late start due to severe storms this morning. We were up at 7am watching the radar on tv and watching for tornados.



Bible



Math



History - listened to history tape on Patrick Henry and I read 5 ch. from Chimney Sweep's Ransom



Writing - boys tried a written narration about the history tape and Annalise did copywork



Drawing - Draw Squad



Read Aloud practice - from Elson Reader 4

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Bible


Math


History - boys read 1 section of George Washington's World and I read aloud from Chimney Sweep's Ransom

Writing - finished copying Psalm 4


Reading - Abel is still working on finishing Ben and Me, Luke is starting Rasco and the Rats of Nimh, Annalise is reading Stories of Great Americans

Drawing - Draw Squad for boys and Annalise used Draw Write Now


Science -Went on a Nature hike to enjoy the beautiful near 70 degree temperatures!

Monday, February 4, 2008

Bible - read and discussed Psalm 4 also Romans 12:1.

Copywork- Psalm 4

History - 1 ch. of Trial & Triumph and 2 ch. of The Chimney Sweep's Ransom (both about John Wesley); the boys read aloud 1 section from George Washington's World

Math - regular programs

Drawing - Draw Squad

Reading - biographies

Science - Dad read ch. 4 of Secrets of the Universe to boys

Extra - Priscilla read from Blue Willow (they almost finished it but I insisted Annalise go to bed at 10pm!)

PE - Kezzi took the boys to play tennis

Friday, February 1, 2008

Devotions: Boyhood and Beyond

Geography: 2 ch. from Tales from Persia and we finished 52 Days By Camel

Math Activity: a sheet from What's Next? (discovering patterns)

Current Events reading: God's World newspapers

Composer Biography: we finished The Merry Little Peasant: Joseph Haydn

Over the Weekend -
Movie: Johnny Tremain
Finished Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Bible

Math - regular programs


History - boys read 1 section of George Washington's World

Reading - biographies - still working through Ocean of Truth (Luke), Ben and Me (Abel) and Annalise is currently reading Meet George Washington after finishing Meet Benjamin Franklin.

Science/Drawing/Writing - Nature Journals: we used our Kamana One program and worked with the section on plants and listened to the accompanying CD on plants.

I'm considering getting Kamana Two for all of us to do together next year, using it as our main science program and then adding in other books from our shelves on various subjects. For Hope, I would count it as a high school credit in Ecology. It seems like it might provide a good amount of field work, which is what I'm looking for. We have so much of the natural world all around us, it seems a shame to learn so much about it only from books.


Listened to Voyage of the Dawn Treader in the car on the way and back from visiting some friends who live an hour away.

And some things I keep forgetting to record ~

Science - Ford is reading Secrets of the Universe to the boys some evenings, including tonight.

Also Annalise has some reading that I keep forgetting to record. Every day she alternates between Stories of Great Americans and Nature Reader 1. Priscilla is reading to her from Blue Willow some evenings.

I try to keep track of it all but some things get by me.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Bible

Math - regular programs

History - The boys read 1 section of George Washington's World

English - Dictation from Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Annalise - copywork; Mad Libs done with the whole family at lunch with uproarious laughter.

Read Aloud Practice - Elson Reader 4 - Abel's turn

Drawing - Draw Squad for the boys, Annalise is just drawing from other various books

Shakespeare - started reading aloud the story of Hamlet from Shakespeare Stories

Picture Study - Watson and the Shark by Copley

Reading - biographies

Listened to Voyage of the Dawn Treader (I think they are up to chapter 12 now)

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Bible


Math in regular programs

Writing - written narrations for boys, Annalise copywork


History - boys read a section in George Washington's World and I read aloud a chapter in Trial and Triumph (on George Whitefield)


Practice reading aloud from Elson Fourth Reader - Luke's turn today


Drawing- the boys worked from Draw Squad


Reading - everyone read their biographies. We are experiencing a Tin Tin craze around here. The boys have read the two Tin Tin books that we had and have requested more. I put in a order to amazon for two volumes (3 stories each). Anytime they read during their free time, I get excited.



Science - we finished Module 10 today. They all enjoyed the little exercise about the "blind spot" in our sight. Annalise told Kezzi she did a "science experience" today.


They all (including Kezzi and Hope) listened to Voyage of the Dawn Treader tonight. Everyone is enjoying this and they all race downstairs when it's time to start the cd.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Back to normal today... (you can see pictures of our new schoolroom/library on our regular blog shadybrookacres.blogspot.com )


Bible - topical study on Unkind Speech from For Instruction in Righteousness

Math in regular programs


Writing - copied poems

History - boys read a section in George Washington's World and I read aloud a chapter in Trial and Triumph (on Jonathan Edwards)

Practice reading aloud from Elson Fourth Reader - Abel's turn today

Drawing- the boys worked from Draw Squad and Annalise used Draw-Write-Now.

Logic - a chapter all together from The Thinking Toolbox

Reading - everyone read their biographies

Science - after lunch we read six pages in our Zoology 2 book (I'm getting tired dragging this out so I want to try to read a little every day until we finish.)

Our Morning Read Aloud is Voyage of the Dawn Treader and they are actually listening to it on a CD in the evenings.

January 21 - 25

We are taking the beginning of this week off of our regular schedule for some major house renovations and remodeling. Then our computer will be inaccessible on the last couple days of this week. We will try and update later...

Friday, January 18, 2008

Devotions: Boyhood and Beyond

Current Events: everyone read from their God's World papers

Geography: 52 Days By Camel - 2 chapters

Math Game: Smath

Music: We read the picture book The Farewell Symphony and listened to Haydn's symphony online here: http://www.nastrings.org/2008/01/03/haydn-farewell-symphony-listening-exercise/
Grammar/Spelling: Luke did a page in The Grammar Ace & the boys copied another spelling rule in notebooks with examples. Annalise did some copywork.

Read Aloud Practice: Abel's turn to read from Elson Reader 4

Art Project: the Winter Trees project in Usborne's Art Treasury along with a picture study of A Winter Scene with Skaters Near a Castle by Hendrick Avercamp on the pages (pgs. 16 - 17)right before the Winter Trees painting project. This painting was not as easy as it looked. We learned the course watercolor paper we used at first was not the way to go. So we tried again on cardstock and that seemed better. It didn't work out as well as the example but we had fun anyway.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Bible: Today we did this together and I read aloud the book of Esther in preparation for a movie later.

Math: regular programs

Reading: biographies

Science/Art: Nature Journals

Nature Reading: Wild Animals I Have Known - the rest of the chapter on Raggylug

Writing: Dictation from Wild Animals I Have Known (boys)

Read Aloud Practice: Elson Reader 4. We started this today and plan to have the boys take turns reading aloud in order to practice this skill. These are short readings and they will alternate days.

History: I read a little from our Morning Read Aloud - Guns of Thunder; we watched One Night With the King (about Esther).

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Sorry I'm so late posting this week's school work. Ford took my laptop out-of-town on a business trip.

Bible

Morning Read Aloud: Guns of Thunder

Math: regular programs

Writing: Freewrite on the ski trip

Reading

Drawing with Draw Squad

History: movie on Oliver Cromwell (Cromwell). This is a little before our current history studies but I wanted the boys to remember what was happening in England that encouraged so many Cavaliers to come to America.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Day off to travel home from SKI VACATION and to unpack & cook for church gathering.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Day off school to SKI!!!!

Friday, Janurary 11, 2008

Morning Read Aloud: We finished The Sherwood Ring.


Devotional: Boyhood and Beyond

Geography: The kids worked on The Global Puzzle and I read from Tales From Persia. Looked up Iran in the atlas and on Google Earth. I finished reading Paddle-to-the-Sea to Annalise.

Current Events: Everyone read their God's World newspapers.

Grammar and Spelling: New spelling rule copied in notebooks. Luke did a lesson in The Grammar Ace and Abel and Annalise did some MadLibs.

Math Games: We played Yahtzee and Spectrangle. Annalise and I played a game of War.

We dropped a couple of subjects today in order to do some clothes shopping for these ever-growing boys! :)

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Morning Read Aloud: The Sherwood Ring

Bible

Math: regular programs.

I bought Annalise the next level (B) of RightStart Math and started that with her today, skimming over the first few lessons to find a place where she would be learning something. I plan to alternate this with Miquon. She's almost finished with the Orange book and will be heading into the Red one soon. She loved math when we were using RightStart and since that's been waning, I thought I'd pick back up with that. It's very teacher intensive and math is not my favorite subject but this is my last chance to try and encourage a kid to like math. :)

Nature Literature: Wild Animals I Have Known - 1/2 of chapter 3, Raggylug: The Story of a Cottontail Rabbit

Writing: The boys did a written narration of above reading and Annalise illustrated a scene from the story a wrote a few sentences about it.

Reading: We skipped personal reading time in favor of more of the Morning Read Aloud.
*Annalise read again from Sword in the Tree and Nature Reader #1.
**And a small miracle - Abel has been reading some during his free time (my boys never read for pleasure because they'd rather be outside no matter the weather). Kezzi started reading Dragon Rider to him and then dropped the ball, so Abel's been reading it on his own. Yeah!


Science/Drawing: Nature Journaling - We all drew the red-bellied woodpecker that's been visiting our bird bath, which has been doubling as an extra bird feeder because the kids have been dumping sunflower seeds in it.

Wednesday, Janurary 9, 2008

This morning I posted a list of everything I wanted to do today for school on the white board. Abel asked if we could do things in a different order than we usually do so I let the boys take turns choosing which thing we would do next and crossed them off as we did them.

Morning Read Aloud: The Sherwood Ring - this is getting fun.

Bible

Art: Watercolor for the Artistically Undiscovered. I bought one of these for each of the boys and myself. Annalise painted along with us on blank watercolor paper. Today we finished the first couple pages, which were just exploratory. I thought these books might appeal to the boys because you paint directly in the books and the paints are also attached. One of they boys was enthusiastic and the other, who complains about almost everything but shall remain nameless, was not happy about having to follow the directions of "just paint without thinking".

History: George Washington's World pgs. 81 - 85 and This Country of Ours ch. 49

Writing: copied poem of choice

Math: The boys worked in their math books. Annalise helped me bake scones for tea time and we talked about fractions as we measured ingredients and cut the scones into eighths.

Reading: biographies

Tea Time with Shakespeare reading: I read The Winter's Tale in Tales From Shakespeare. We had homemade cream-of-chicken soup and scones with some of the Pecan Honey Jelly that we bought in Gatlinburg last weekend. Yum!

Annalise also read from The Sword In the Tree and Nature Reader#1. I also read to her from Paddle to the Sea.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Morning Read Aloud: The Sherwood Ring



Bible



Math: regular programs - Key To Fractions, MUS and Miquon



English: Spelling Rule and cursive practice



Reading: biographies as mentioned before...



Science/Drawing: finished module 9 in our Zoology 2 book and made notebook pages about shells. We had a bag of shells from our beach trips which we dumped all over the table and found some of the shells that we had been reading about.



Spent the rest of the morning tidying up and getting ready for a visit from some new friends.



I read a couple of chapters of Abigail Adams to Annalise before bed.

Monday, January 7, 2008

Morning Read Aloud - The Sherwood Ring

Bible

Math - regular programs

Dictation with boys from Boyhood and Beyond

History - ch. 48 in This Country of Ours
(Hope finished reading Betsy Ross (CFA) to Annalise this weekend and started Abigail Adams)

Reading - everyone in their own biographies from American Revolution. Annalise, the reading maniac, also read some of Sword in the Tree and something from her Nature Reader (1). She's constantly acquiring stacks of books she says she wants to read. I wonder where she gets that from? Hopefully, she'll be better than I am about actually getting them read.

Draw Squad drawing

Brief Picture Study of Copley's Paul Revere. We hung this portrait on the refrigerator and talked a little about Paul Revere's ride. We plan to read biographies on him soon.

January 4, 2008

Bible/Devotions: a chapter from Boyhood and Beyond

Geography: a chapter from Tales of Persia and one from 52 Days By Camel. We also got the atlas out and found Fez, Morocco and the Sahara and Timbuktu.

History/Reading: Everyone spent some time reading their chosen biography of a person from the American Revolution. Luke is reading a Landmark book The Swamp Fox of the Revolution, Abel is reading Ben and Me, and Annalise is reading Meet Benjamin Franklin.

English: Abel and Annalise did some MadLibs and Luke did a page in The Grammar Ace. We reviewed yesterday's spelling rule. Annalise also copied a poem in her copy book and illustrated it.

Drawing: everyone practiced drawing

Math: Yahtzee again.

January 3, 2008

Bible

Morning Read Aloud: The Sherwood Ring

Math -

Everyone worked a little in their own books - Math U See, Key to...and Miquon

and then we played Yahtzee all together.

English

We played Scrabble.

I taught a spelling rule on the whiteboard and the boys copied it in their notebooks with examples (Annalise just copied some of the examples) and they all practiced some cursive letters. *We've done a lot of copywork and dictation this year so far. This next semester I plan to focus more on spelling rules and improving cursive with the boys.

Everyone read on their own: Luke is reading An Ocean of Truth, Abel finished the last Spiderwick Chronicle and Annalise is reading The Sword in the Tree.

Science

We read about four pages in our Zoology 2 book.

Handicrafts

Abel, Annalise and I made the fleece hats from our Hearts and Trees winter craft kits.

Extra: I read Annalise a couple of sections in Betsy Ross (Childhood of Famous Americans series) and Priscilla read to her at bedtime from Blue Willow.