Time to Catch Up

Things have been so utterly crazy in my life. I can't begin to think about catching up the blog as far as academics. From the 2nd week of March through mid April, the kids and I went out of town 3 times to help care for my grandmother and mother. My grandmother is bed-ridden with a brain tumor, mini-strokes, and seizures. She is at home with helpers coming in and my parents living there. My mother lost her sight in both eyes and had to have surgery on one of them. She is having a slow recovery, but should regain her sight in one eye. They will deal with the other later.

We did manage to get school work done, but it has been more of the essentials than any fluff. Co-op lasted through the first part of April. I was able to plan all my trips around that so we could be there since I am the director.

We had some fun times, too. Hannah turned 13, and we went to a resort with an indoor water park for her birthday. We felt like 13 was a time to do something really special. We went to visit Darin's family for his spring break. I'll post pictures later.

Week of March 1st

This week has been a little crazy. We did attend co-op on Monday, but the rest of the week was not our norm. My mother, who has been taking care of my grandmother for about 6 months, lost most of her sight in the past two weeks. She is diabetic and has an auto-immune disorder that can attack organs. She needed to have some procedures done on her eyes, so I went to be there and help her and my grandmother.

I dropped the kids off with my sister and went to my grandmother's house. The kids did actually get some schoolwork done while at her house (a little history, language arts, and math), but they mostly had fun with their aunt. Hannah is attending a discipleship retreat at our church. She'll have lots of bible study sessions. I'll do some more work with David this weekend, so they will get some school days out of this week, but not a full one.

My mother has fluid in her eyes that is seeping in from outside her eye. The diabetes has weakened the membranes or muscles around her eye allowing it to happen. While I was there her vision did improve slightly so we hope her body is absorbing the fluid. The doctors can see enough into one to know she has some bleeding going on, but could not see in the other at all.

Being available for family is such a blessing of homeschooling. I'm so glad that I could be there to help, and I know I could not if I were working and the kids in school.

Week of Feb 22nd

Monday means co-op, so we started our week there. Both always enjoy their classes and time with other kids. We studied the virtue "work" in Bible, reading about the rebuilding of the wall and lots of scriptures about work and not being lazy. Both the kids had library books about Beethoven and did notebook pages from their reading. We attended a homeschool gathering at an indoor play business. That day had 4 hours of PE! As far as our other work, both continued on in their LA, math, history, and sciences.

Week of Feb 15th

This week was a week off of school because their Daddy had the week off as well. We were going to have co-op, but had to cancel because of so much sickness. The kids really missed that. Hannah had her last writing class this week. She is really going to miss it. The instructor is considering offering a Vocabulary class next year as SAT prep.

We did get to go visit some family this week, but had some bad news about expensive repairs needing to be done to our heat pump. Ah...that is the joys of home ownership!

Week of Feb 8th

Wow, it's been busy. I haven't had time to update this in quite a while, so here goes. The week started off with co-op as usual. In Bible we continued studying about being generous and giving. In music we are still studying Beethoven. We read "Beethoven Lives Upstairs" and watched the movie of the same title. We are continuing our Poetry reading day.

Hannah had an interesting writing assignment from her outside class. She had to develop a "criminal justice system" for an imaginary country. She was to determine what punishments should be in place for major crimes. She also finished the book, "The Hound of the Baskervilles" for her book club. She continued in her grammar, math, and did labs in science, as well as 2 more lessons. In history she read about the early years of agricultural and industrial revolution in Europe as well as the Seven Years' War.

David began new Light Units in his math and language arts. He LOVES his speed drills in math. He is racing with himself to see how much time he can leave on the clock. He read about the Seven Years' War in history, as well as beginning some social studies topics in government and economics. He is working in his critical thinking books and seems to enjoy those.

Week of Feb 1st

We started the week with Co-Op. Hannah loved her Bill of Rights class. She is very interested in politics, so she enjoyed debates they had over court cases. In Bible we learned about being generous. The kids learned Luke 6:38. In music, we are learning about Beethoven. In art we looked at paintings by Valesquez because Hannah is reading "I, Juan de Pareja".

We had a poetry reading while we drank hot chocolate. I had read about someone making it a tea time, but David does not like tea. It went over so well. We have memorized some poetry this year, but they have never had a real appreciation for it. Both wanted turns reading some of the poems. It is a new tradition we will be continuing.

In history we read about the slave trade triangle. Although we are not to the time period of it's end, we watched the movie, "Amazing Grace", a personal favorite of mine. We also read "Amistad Rising" by Veronica Chambers. It was very good.

The both began studies in chemistry, so we discussed atoms, molecules, etc. They enjoyed making their own like these.
We thought this one looked more like a skier than a molecule.


Both had work to do in grammar, math, literature, and critical thinking. Hannah is reading "The Hound of the Baskervilles" for her novel club. She also went to her writing class that started back this week. David was very excited this week to do well on his speed drills and make A's on his tests in math and language arts.

Week of Jan 25th

I can't believe a month of 2010 is gone! We started our week with the first day of our Co-Op. We will be meeting for 10 weeks; however, David did not get to go the first day due to a fever and cold. The kids really enjoy these classes, so it was disappointing for him. Hannah has a Bill of Rights class, studying the bills and discussing Supreme Court cases. She has an art class, and a natural spa class, in which all the girls are making their own lip balm, bath salts, lotions, etc. David has Five In A Row class, Traditional Games, Spanish Songs and Stories, Math Games, Show and Tell, and Science for Boys (chemistry and physics).

We learned about mercy and compassion in Bible, memorizing Matt. 5:7 from the Beatitudes. We watched the Three Musketeers movie since they had read about France and the Sun King. They did notebooking pages about Handel.

Hannah finished up her chapters in Grammar and Math. She did a review of the entire Physics section of her science and will begin Chemistry next.

David was so excited because he finished a speed drill with 40 seconds remaining. He had 28 addition facts to do in 2 minutes. I covered with him at home what he would have had in science at the co-op. He learned about matter, mass, and solids, liquids, and gases.