Truman's Aunt Farm--a FIAR book

We just  finished up our row of Truman's Aunt Farm.  This was a lighthearted fun book.

The book is about Truman who is told by his Aunt Fran that she will be sending him an ant farm for his birthday present....only he gets many aunts....not ants!     He feeds and cares for them, watches them work and play and finally finds home for them. In the end, he and his Aunt Fran share a special day together.

 We took the time to learn about the insect ants (and others too)  Liam and Delaney learned what characteristics make an insect --exoskeleton, three body parts, six legs.

They watched  Magic School Bus and Bill Nye the Science Guy videos from YouTube. We read other books and learned about the different kind of ants there are.

 I was given this ant hill contraption from a friend (which is what inspired me to start our year with this book).  The coupon for ants from the company was missing.  After a website search I decided I didn't want to spend the extra money to buy a new coupon...and then buy the ants,  we just gathered some ants from our garden.  

Of course we explored homonyms.

 and made an Ant farm cake (actually brownies topped with frosting and cracker crumbs for 'dirt'. Chocolate chips were used to make the ants.

They really enjoyed writing  letters to their aunts....but since I was out of stamps I helped them send the letters  by email.  They've really enjoyed getting responses back.  Everyone loves mail...email is no exception.

 
We played around with the art style that  G Brian Karas used when he did the illustrations for the book.  Circular swirlies for cheeks, large bodies with itty bitty feet and hands.  We pulled out our new watercolor pencils.  They were fun to work with.

Our School Plans and Schedules

School's begun and we're on our way for a super year....here's what everyone will be studying this year.

Liam's still learning to listen and obey...I guess that's a learning phase we are always in really.  We start our year with some Sonlight fun using the 4/5 pack, but soon learn that this really isn't the right program for us.  We then move to the Five in a Row method of learning and we love it!! Mostly we just have fun 'educational' games and activities for him to explore.  He's becoming quite the Lego lover, just like his big brother!

Delaney-- this year, she too, will be using the Five in a Row plan to learn new interesting topics.  For math she's using Teaching Textbooks.  So far, she loves it....I just hope it has staying power considering the amount of money I spent for it, it better!  For writing we're using Writing with Ease using sentences from our FIAR books.  Grammar studies will be done using Easy Grammar or First Language Lessons, which ever book we desire to use for the day.  She's starting Writer's Workshop with Ms. Beryl again this year.  Of course she loves that.  She loves Beryl's nurturing and gentle manner, plus playtime  with Janet.  It's a win-win situation.  We hope to keep up with Happy Phonics  with Christine and Janet, but time may not be so giving, if not, we'll pull out  the book we've used in the past Ordinary Parents Guide to Reading and continue with it.

 

Having fun at the park...most defiantly an essential part of our education plan!

Connor--  This is his first year of high school....transcript time.  Oh joy! (okay not really for me, but an essential aspect to keep up with as a home schooling mom!)  I think he's really getting close to be consider in scholar phase, but I still see many traits of Transition.

Math--He loves Life of Fred  this year he plans to complete Advance Algebra and Geometry.  He will also use A'Beka or Bob Jones curriculum too.

Science--  He has set a goal of completing two Exploring Creation/ Apologia books this year.  I really think this may be more than he can chew, but I'll support him with this goal and help him adjust it as needed later. So far he's doing great.

Grammar-- Line Upon Line , this is a book that I picked up at my first home school conference  but wasn't able to teach from because I didn't understand all the concept.  Thanks to CC's Essentials classes, I've got greater confidence and we're using it again....never mind the fact that this is all review for Connor anyway.  He did wonderfully with CC and knows most of it.  It's mostly a refresher course for him. 

 Physical Fitness--  He plans to run a 5K with me, continue running to train for a 10K in the spring.  He will  also weight train with his Dad.  I have also had him read some various books on health, along with deep study of the Word of Wisdom.

Literature-- Reading books for book group and joining in discussions and then writing about the novels.

History/ Writing--   He began a new online program this year.  The class is called "The Key of Liberty" and it's presented by the Leadership Education Academy or Leadership Education Mentoring Institute  (LEMI).  It uses TJEd principles and incorporates lots of discussion, simulations, and colloquiums (not sure what they are but we're going to learn more about it! :).

We will also be joining our history group with the Mattson's and Brame's again this year.

He will also continue piano lessons with Sister Zander.

I believe one of his greatest challenges will be keeping himself organized.  I was inspired to use this idea by a class from this past year's home school conference ...we'll see if it works.  He made a chart and puts a sticky note for each thing he needs to daily accomplish.  When it's done, he throws it away.  It's very visual, which is something he needs.

Brianne's work is to be cute....that and have fun playing with her speech therapist, Dodie.

 Cailin--  If she were in public school she would be considered a seventh grader....for me, I consider her in the Transition period between Love of Learning and Scholar phase.

Science--  She had the choice to do science projects based on the FIAR books Delaney and I were doing or she could start Apologia's Exploring Creation with General Science.  She chose the General Science book.
Math--She will be using Teaching Textbook's Pre-Algebra  Again, I hope this curriculum will work, because I'm just about out of options to try.
History--  I've read many great reviews of Joy Hakim's The Story of US. So, I got it for our study of American history.  It took her a couple of weeks to get into them, but she's found that she loves reading them.  Joy has a great conversationalist style and it's not textbook boring, quite the opposite. The chapters are short and interesting.  Of course, she'll be involved with Monday's history group too.
English/Grammar--  She will be joining Connor and Ryan using the Line Upon Line  book.
Literature--  Same as Connor only she'll also read some history based novels.  Her first one is Mary Jemison, Indian Captive.
Writing--  This year I'm letting her delve deep into creating her novels.  She's read a book about a girl and her episodes of publishing a book she has written by Clement.  She's gained a few interesting things from it.  She's now outlining her stories instead of just writing from the hip.  Plus, I believe she's working to create definitive character traits for each character, really planning who they are and what they are like.  I'm also having her write papers about the history novels she's reading.
She's continuing piano and flute lessons.

Ryan--  I just can't believe that this is his last year home schooling.  He's a SENIOR!!  We've gone over his transcript and he's only lacking five classes. Most of them are electives.  Since he's complete his math requirements last year I'm considering his math class this year as an elective.
Elective/Math-- He will begin Calculus with a Variable of One at New River Community College.  He started it last year but on the first day of class he realized that he didn't have enough trigonometry to tackle it.  Now he's completed a trig course with Aleks online program so we're trying this one again.  He needs this class for a degree he wishes to complete at Radford University.
Elective/ Cooking-- Each week he will pick an item that he wants to learn how to make...and then we will make it together the first time.  The second time he will on his own. I will then ask him to make it for a meal sometime.
Elective/ Personal and Social Relationships--  I have planned for him to read The Unwritten Rules of Social Relations by Temple Grandin and Sean Barrow.  Then we'll go through the Preparing for Life book I learned about at this past year's home school conference.
Elective/ Constitutional Studies--  He and Barry will go through The Making of America together.
The only class that he need that won't be consider an elective is and English/Literature/Grammar class.  For this class he'll join us for book group  (which he detests doing!!), read other books of his choosing and then write about them.  I'll also have him join in grammar time with Connor and Cailin.

The Great Gray Bridge and the Little Red Lighthouse--FIAR

We have been rowwing through the book "The Great Gray Bridge and the Little Red Lighthouse" by Marjorie Swift for the past few weeks.  Actually this 'Five in a Row' book has become more like a 'Five Week' row book.     

During this book we looked at the purpose and history of lighthouses.  While on our beach vacation we visited a real, working lighthouse.  The Oak Harbor lighthouse located a the mouth of the Cape Fear River and Atlantic Ocean.  We read many other books about female heroines who kept lighthouse light burning during difficult times and storms.  (ie. Keep the Lights Burning Abby)

We also watch you tube videos/on line tours of the real Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge (Washington Bridge), which spans the Hudson River in New York City.

Lighthouse is a compound word so we explored other compound words.  Delaney had fun seeing how two different word could combine to make a new word, like jelly and fish...to make jellyfish.

In the book the bridge and the lighthouse took on person like traits...they show feelings, talked, and expressed emotion, just as a human would.  When a non human object takes on person like qualities this is called personification and is used quite liberally in our literature and entertainment.  ie. Veggie tales, Thomas the Tank Engine etc.  Both Delaney and Liam caught on to this concept.  Liam especially loved to shout out personified objects when he noticed them....like Pixar's movie 'Cars' with Lightening McQueen and others.

Someone had lots of fun....namely the principal of our homeschool, with this cantalope.  I think Cailin named him Bob....but then everything right now in her life is named Bob!

We drew our own personified copies of the Little Red Lighthouse.  They had fun giving it different emotions.

This book is set in New York City so we decided to find an NY style food to eat.  As there are so many different cultures converging and living in NY, there really isn't one food type.  However, NY is known to have fantastic Italian food....some that rival that of Italy itself.  We made New York style pizza.  Which is really just over large slices so that you can fold it in half like this while you eat it!  Mmmmm, perfect for our Friday night, pizza night dinner!

The Ingles Farm ....circa 1747

Labor Day...and we were off for our first field trip.  This farm, the Ingles Farm of 1747 in Radford was open and free to visit for the day.  They had exhibits to observe and it gave us the opportunity to go back in time for a while.

 A year or so after establishing their homestead here the Ingles family were attacked by Shawnee Indians.  Mary Draper Ingles, pregnant,  along with two of her children and another woman were taken away captive.  Years later she escaped from them and found her way home.  The movie "Follow the River" depicts her journeys and trials.

This was an apple cider press. What a fun way to see physics at work. Mr. Ingles, the tour guide above, is the 5th generation grandchild of the original family.  He still owns of the farm.  He explained how it worked, maybe I'll get Connor to put it into words later.   They were quite prosperous with their apple cider and orchards.

Showing how the wool would look after it was washed.

They then would 'card' the wool.  This was to get all the fibers in one direction.  From their they would spin it into a thread or yarn.

This may not be so easy after all....

Liam also found that this was much harder than it looked...big sister Cailin had to help him get the brushes apart.

The house was soooo small.  Mr. Ingles was quoted to have said that they had a small  family of five kids.  Seven people lived in this itty bitty home.

Inside the house listening to the story of Mary Draper Ingles and life of the frontier.

Brianne got very stir crazy sitting in the home.  She just wanted to be up and on her feet....after all she can use them well now and she wants to walk everywhere.  We went outside and found this ram.  She was interested in it, but couldn't figure out how to get closer.

House from another view.

Here they show us how the homesteaders got flax from the field grasses.  They would cut the grasses let them dry till the outside shells were brittle then use this contraption to break the shell away from the fibers inside.  After they cleaned the fiber they then pounded and pulled them through a forked thing-a-bob it was ready to be spun into threads.

Ryan chatting away with his friend Jess

Taking a bit of time to relax and enjoy the grounds....and play with Brianne.

Hearing all about the militia men...their equipment and what life was like for them.

Inside the home.

They got to play with some toys of the day.

Delaney and Jagger trying to figure out how to play with the whirl-a gig.

Cailin found a duck like toy which had four ducks "eating' food.
They also had some examples of different dolls from this time period.  I hope to make one or two of our own.