10/25/10

Getting Political

I know I have a few family members who don't appreciate it when I get political.  But there isn't an option any more.  Our country is broken, and the last chance to fix it is only a few short days away.  Freedom is a gift that was endowed to this country by our forefathers who poured out their lifeblood to ensure it for their children.  It is a gift that is endowed by God to all who believe in His Son, Jesus, as their Savior.  In that sense, it can never be taken away.  However, I, for one, cannot conceive of the country that has been formed in the last decade from the country that God established 234 years ago.  And I refuse to take it any more.  For anyone who reads this, I beg you to get educated on the issues (if you aren't already).  Do not trust in any one source.  Check and double check everything you read, for the deceiver of men has taken over most of the media in this country, save for some radio and internet. 

For those of you not aware of it, there is rampant voter fraud in this country.  In my home state alone, there were 17,000 more votes counted on election day 2008 than there were registered voters.  There were also at least 346+ convicted felons who were not legal to vote, but whose votes were counted in that election anyway.  These were the ones confirmed before the deadline to destroy the ballots was reached.  There is also an ongoing investigation between the states of MN and WI to address many people who voted in both states.  After a much publicized and illogical recounting of votes, Al "Stuart Smalley" Franken was declared the Senator.  In our state, there is not a law requiring a photo id to be shown at the polls.  Some states have a law like that, others do not.  I am asking anyone reading this to please show up at the polls on Tuesday, November 2nd with a photo id in your hand and make sure that the election judges match your photo with you and your records.  Make sure that several others in line see that you are doing it, so that they will do the same.

No matter how this election turns out, our country is in trouble and it will require the sacrifice of many in order to save the republic for our children.  Those who will probably have to make the biggest sacrifice are those who have already sacrificed the most - those from the greatest generation and their children.  As home schoolers, we are able to teach our children the values and principles on which our country was founded: honesty, reverence, hope, thrift, humility, charity, sincerity, moderation, hard work, courage, personal responsibility, and gratitude.  Those values and principles are lost in the public schools today - brainwashed away in the political correctness and progressive bile that fills the teachers unions and Department of "De" Education.  I am grateful that I am but a foreigner to this world, and that my citizenship does not require a vote, or a tax, or a "legal healthcare plan" - but a bathing in the righteousness of my Savior and King, who took my sins to the cross so many years ago.  Let us take the fight to our knees for the wisdom, and to the polls for honor.

10/21/10

TOG Year 4 Week 10

Our one week off flew by.  And I don't know that we got anything I wanted to get done accomplished.  We did get pictures taken of Princess E and Princess M.  I did read the Tracie Peterson book (it was awesome) and also the new Karen Kingsbury book Unlocked (which was awesome as well) - so I was productive in that respect.  But now we've finished Week 10, so it's time for another update.

Princess E - 6th Grade - Dialectic
Latin for Children Primer A: Lesson 18
Math-U-See Delta: Test 24 - begin lesson 25.
IEW: We didn't get one of these in this week.  More on why later.
Foundations 1:  Work on suffix -ER.
MCT Language Arts:  Lesson three - We also worked some more on 4 level analysis.  We will be starting the Practice Island book next week.  My plan is to assign these individually, but go through them together during our group time.
Spelling: We did not get a spelling bee in this week.
Science:  We did not get a science lesson in this week
TOG Yr4 Wk10: Timeline; SAPs; AQ/TQs; Reading - Gladys Aylward, Idiot's Guide, Our Town.

Princess S - 4th Grade - UG
Growing With Grammar 4: Chapter 2.9 to 2.11
Math-U-See Gamma: Work on lesson 24.  For some reason, Princess S thinks that it's easier to think when she does her problems on the whiteboard.  But then, she erases her work, and I have nothing to look at to see where her mistakes are being made.  So I'll be printing out some worksheets for more practice, because she's just getting too many wrong.
IEW, Spelling and Science: same as above
TOG Yr4 Wk10: Quizlet vocab; important people; SAPs; Reading - War, Peace and All That Jazz, Gladys Aylward, .  Alexander Fleming, Mary Poppins.

Princess L - K - LG
Winter Promise Advanced K: Handwriting practice; Explode the Code - pgs 48-54; Reading - Wet Legs; word family -et and -ed.
Math-U-See Primer: Continue work on lesson 23.  I've decided not to push the tally marks.  We'll be reviewing them again in Alpha, so I'll just wait to tackle it until then.
Awana Sparks verses: She earned the first green jewel and second red jewel. 

Princess M - PreTOGger
Practice being a princess, dancing, taking care of her "sick" dolly, watching Little Einsteins, coloring pictures. 

So what was I working on that kept us from doing IEW, Spelling and Science?  I've been working on a game for our co-op meeting next Tuesday.  We are studying the Great Depression.  Not exactly a "fun" subject, and our group seems to need fun or they get a bit wild. So I spent some time combing the internet, but just didn't find what I wanted.  I know how much fun my girls have with our Oregon Trail game, and thought that some kind of role playing game would be fun.  So I got this vision of a game, somewhat like Life, using situations that would have been common during the depression.  I spent two and a half days trying to create the game board, the various draw cards, and the rules.  Now I'm really excited to have them play the game.  I'm thinking that I could perhaps come up with some other cards to change the game to a different time frame.  Here's a sneak peek.  
Life in the Depression 1                                                                   
Life in the Depression 2                                                                   
 Click above to go to my Scribd account if you want to see all the files.

10/13/10

Rest in Peace Peanut

Tonight, Princess S discovered that her beloved hamster, Peanut, had ended her stay with us.  She found her lying on her side in her cage next to her food dish.  Princess S is our animal lover and this is hitting her very hard.  Princess E's hamster, Sweet Pea, seems to be fine.  We cannot see anything that would have caused it, but small rodents, I imagine, are a bit touchy.  We will be holding a "funeral" for her tomorrow morning, but I have a feeling it is going to be a long night.

10/8/10

TOG Year 4 Week 9 - End of Unit One

One quarter of our school year is officially done.  Or at least it will be on Monday morning when Princess E takes her unit test.  We had hoped to get it done today, but due to some issues I've had to deal with one of the other princesses the last few days, I didn't have a chance to sit down with her to teach her how to review for the test.  TOG has a handout giving the Dialectic students tips on studying for it, but I know that alone will not be enough.  And since we're rather busy this weekend, it will be pushed back until Monday.  Also, there is a movie that works with the time frame we are studying - Newsies - that is on our cable On-Demand.  I want to watch it with them to get an idea of how people lived, dressed, etc.  Princess S did take her unit end test and only got one wrong.  I was pleasantly surprised by her results.  I guess she remembered more than she has let on.

Next week we are taking the week off (except for Princess E on Monday) because I have to "celebrate" my birthday.  We have a few fun things planned, including an opportunity for service at the church on Friday when they will join up with their friends and wash and sanitize all the toys and equipment in the nursery.   I plan to use some of my spare time this next week reading the new Tracie Peterson book Embers of Love.

Princess E - 6th Grade - Dialectic
Latin for Children Primer A: Lesson 17
Math-U-See Delta: Work on Lesson 24 - She needs more practice before taking the test so I used the Worksheet Generator to print out some more worksheets.
IEW: We did a second KWO, rough draft and final draft for Lesson 4.
Foundations 1:  Work on suffix -ED.
MCT Language Arts:  The girls had a writing assignment to write a short 10 sentence play.  One character could only speak with action verbs and one could only speak with linking verbs. 
Spelling: We did not get a spelling bee in this week.
Science:  We did lesson 30 this week on the Space Shuttle and learned about Rick Husband, the pilot of the Colombia.
TOG Yr4 Wk9: Timeline; SAPs; AQ/TQs; Reading - Eric Liddell, , Idiot's Guide, The Scopes Trial,  Peter Pan

Princess S - 4th Grade - UG
Growing With Grammar 4: Chapter 2.6 to 2.8
Math-U-See Gamma: Finish lesson 23 and begin lesson 24.  The same issue we had with Princess E began to rear its ugly head.  She refused to line the numbers up and consistently got wrong answers because her numbers were all scattered.  After two days of working on the first worksheet, I think that she finally has decided that the suggestion Mr. Steve has for lining up numbers isn't a bad one.
IEW, Spelling and Science: same as above
TOG Yr4 Wk9: Quizlet vocab; important people; SAPs; Reading - War, Peace and All That Jazz, The 1920s, Eric Liddell. 

Princess L - K - LG
Winter Promise Advanced K: Handwriting practice; Explode the Code - pgs 40-47; Reading - A Bug and Stuck Duck; word family -ump; Concentration games with -ug, -um, -ump.
Math-U-See Primer: We finished lesson 22 and began lesson 23 - using tally marks.  Complete and total melt down.  She cannot seem to grasp the concept of counting by 5s and then switching to count by units.  I'm debating between sitting here another week, and just skipping it.  After all, I think the number of times I use tally marks in a year (maybe twice) means it's a little used skill - especially when you are five.
Awana Sparks verses: She earned the first red jewel and is well on her way to earn her first green one next week.

Princess M - PreTOGger
Fun and games with big sissies.

10/3/10

TOG Year 4 Week 8

As we close in on the end of our first quarter, I always take some time to evaluate our year so far.  There are some things working well, some things working not so well, some things that need to change, and some things I just have to push through to the other side.  Our schedule has been adjusted once already, and will probably have to be adjusted again at some point in time.  We are to the point in Latin with Princess E where we are going to slow down.  I am adding in the online resources from Classical Academic Press and it will take a minimum of four days for each lesson.  She will have to take a test on day four which will reveal whether she really knows the material or not.  If she doesn't pull at least 85%, she will have to do some additional worksheets and online practice and take a second quiz before going on.  She is also complaining, once again, that she is behind all her friends in math.  I told her that it is up to her to speed up her pace in math.  I require her to do one practice or review page per day.  She has to pass the test at 85% in order to go to the next lesson.  But she can do more than one practice page per day if she wants to.  Finally, I have decided to get tough about completing certain TOG assignments on time.  Our discussion times keep getting pushed back because of her lack of preparation.  It would be different if she is coming to me on a daily (or hourly) basis while reading and says, "Hey Mom, I don't understand what I'm reading.  Would you help me understand this part?"  But she doesn't.  She barrels through and does a half-baked job at her AQ/TQs and has nothing to contribute to discussion except tears and laments of "But I didn't understand it."  I'm all for helping her - but we've reached the point (since I have other children to work with as well) that she must come to me when she doesn't understand.  Since this is an issue we had last year and has been carried over I decided it is time to nip it in the bud.  (Nip it, nip it, nip it, Andy! - Barney Fife)  If she is not ready for discussion by our scheduled time frame on Wednesdays (illness obviously excepted) then she will not be attending Awana that evening.   This would be devastating to her, so my hope is that this is a threat which should not have to be carried out more than once.

Princess E - 6th Grade - Dialectic
Latin for Children Primer A: This week she went back and did corrections on several pages she had gotten behind on.  She also reviewed a few concepts that were not sticking as well as they should.
Math-U-See Delta: Finish Lesson 23 and start Lesson 24
IEW: We worked on Lesson 4.  They watched the video, did a KWO and first draft for their chosen topic.
Foundations 1:  I just realized I haven't been reporting on her vocabulary program.  It is going well, a bit easy for her, but she is starting to look at some of the prefixes and endings of words that she doesn't understand and uses it to give her a better idea of what the word might mean.  So far she has studied the prefixes over-, under-, out-, and the suffixes -s, -er and -est.
MCT Language Arts:  We reviewed Sentence Island up to the point we stopped at (because I was supposed to complete Grammar Island first.) 
Spelling: We did not get a spelling bee in this week.
Science:  We did lesson 29 this week on the Apollo Program.
TOG Yr4 Wk8: Timeline; SAPs; AQ/TQs; Reading - Eric Liddell, , Idiot's Guide, The Making of Modern Africa (excerpts), Joseph Stalin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Peter Pan

Princess S - 4th Grade - UG
Growing With Grammar 4: Chapter 2.3 to 2.5
Math-U-See Gamma: She finished the practice worksheets, but I felt that she still needed some more practice before taking the test.  So I printed some worksheets out from the Math-U-See Worksheet Generator
IEW, Spelling and Science: same as above
TOG Yr4 Wk8: Quizlet vocab; important people; SAPs; Reading - War, Peace and All That Jazz, The 1920s, Eric Liddell.  I was supposed to request her lit book from the library but I accidentally ordered the wrong book.  So I gave her a break from literature this week and for this week and next week she is to read a few chapter books of her choice for fun - no worksheets attached!  Don't say I never give her a treat!

Princess L - K - LG
Winter Promise Advanced K: Handwriting practice; Explode the Code - pgs 33-39; Reading - A Cub and Rub-a-Dub Cub; word family -ug and -um.
Math-U-See Primer: She raced through lesson 22 - counting by 5s.
Awana Sparks verses: She finished the verses for R, K and S and earned her rank patch.  She's quite excited to look like an official Sparky now.

Princess M - PreTOGger
Fun and games with big sissies.

10/2/10

Blog Problems

Just a side note to let you know that I realize there have been problems with comments and clicking on links.  I'm trying several different suggested things to try to fix the problem.  Please bear with me as I work on a few things and there are lots of changes.  Thank you.