Learning Log of November 2014

November was a busy month. We did a lot of crafts, some Christmas decorations and sent out Christmas boxes for Operation Christmas Child. We also had guests for Thanksgiving which was so wonderful. It's so rare for us to have any of my relatives from my side of the family during the holidays here and it was such a treat to have a cousin and family come visit. The kids also enjoyed the outdoor good weather as long as possible before the winter hit. 

Read aloud Books

* Hannah's Bookmobile Christmas by Sally Derby
* Spying Out the Land - Joshua's Spies in Jericho retold by Julie Voudrie
* No Room for Sarah by Ann Greenleaf - the cutest book ever and so perfect for my kids that have tons of stuffed animals. :)
* Tyrannosaurus Tex by Betty G. Birney
* Hand Rhymes by Marc Brown
* Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin
* Squanto's Journey - The Story of the First Thanksgiving by Joseph Bruchac - What would the Thanksgiving story be like without Squanto?
* The Man Who made Time Travel by Kathryn Lasky - Talk about persistence, perseverance, never giving up task... John Harrison was a man with a purpose and would not rest until he got it done!
* Why Would Anyone Cut a Tree Down? by Roberta Burzynski
* Molly's Pilgrim by Barbara Cohen

Audio Books

* My kids, one time or another have the files below in their mp5s to which they listen to every night at their choosing: Fairy tales and classic stories , worship music, Story Hour files, The Piano Guys, Jonathan Park and The Brinkman Adventures, The Chronicles of Narnia and Story Nory (lots and lots of FREE audio goodness: Bible stories, Classics, educational stories even ones for non-English speakers wanting to improve their English. We love this website!).

* DD11 is listening to Cat of Bubastes 
* DD9 is also listening to Cat of Bubastes
* DD7 is listening to Jonathan Park episodes on her mp3.
* DD4 is listening to Story Nory - Aesop Fables

DD7 independent reading list: 

Continuing this month, DD7 is reading by leaps and bounds. Below her list of reading 100 books. She is also reading aloud  Read with me Bible to us all during lunch time.

91) The Magic School Bus in the Bat Cave
92) The Popcorn Book by Tomie de Paola
93) An Epic Doodle - Stickman Odyssey - book 1 by Christopher Ford
94) The Wrath of Zozimos - Stickman Oyssey - book 2 by Christopher Ford
95) Many Nations - An Alphabet of Native Americans by Josef Burchac
96) A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon
97) Yoko Writes Her Name by Rosemary Wells
98) Oscar and the Bat - A Book about Sound by Geoff Waring
99) Corduroy by Don Freeman
100) Henry and Mudge and the Happy Cat by Cynthia Rylant
101) Little Critter's These are My Pets by Mercer Mayer
102) Oscar and the Snail - A book about things we use by Geoff Waring
103) Gabby Douglas by Sarah Tieck
104)  Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester

Read Aloud to her sibling(s):
* Ballet Sisters - The Duckling and the Swan by Jan Ormerod
* Fancy Nancy - Poet Extraordinaire! By Jane O'Connor
 

Listening and following along books on Storyline Online.  DD4 sits in and watches with her sister. :)

Academically, I am using Singapore Math 2A/2B books to teach DD7 math. We are covering multiplication right now. She is doing copy work as well as reading to her siblings or to me out loud as well as quietly to herself. Now and again she will fill out worksheets on language arts and math. Science and History is covered by our reading alouds, documentaries, audio books or videos.

DS9 independent reading list:  

* DS9 is reading the Action Bible on his own.

* Calvin and Hobbes - Will he ever stop reading these comics??

* The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain - he listened to the audio book for the Book Club.

* The Lunch Lady and the League of Librarians by Jarret J. Krosoczka - book 2
* Lunch Lady and the Bake Sale Bandit by Jarret J. Krosoczka - book 5
* Lunch Lady and the Field Trip Fiasco by Jarret J. Krosoczka - book 6
* Lunch Lady and the Mutant Mathletes by Jarret J. Krosoczka - book 7

* Don't Bug on me! by Gillian McHale
* Runny Babbit - A Billy Book by Shel Silverstein

* United Tweets of America - 50 state birds, Their Stories and Glories by Hudson Talbott
* Davy Crockett - retold by Felicity Trotman and Shirley Greenway
* Who Was Harry Houdini? by Tui T. Sutherland

Read Aloud to his sibling(s):

* Dancing Cloud - The Navajo Boy by Mary Marsh  and Conrad Buff
* The Cow That Went Oink by Bernard Most
* Oscar and the Cricket - A book about moving and rolling by Geoff Waring
* Oscar and the Frog - A book about growing by Geoff Waring

Academic Work:
* Mathematical Reasoning - Level E - grade 4;
* Watching videos on Algebra; doing 5th grade level math on Khan Academy ;
* Learning Coding with Khan Academy;
* Working through Stories of Adventure and Survival by Globe Fearson - it covers reading comprehension, vocabulary and thinking critically.;
* Doing Science Detective from The Critical Thinking Co.
* Dictation and Spelling 3 times a week. I just use the vocabulary he's read or seen the previous days;
* Listening to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain for Book Club

DD11 independent reading list

* The Key to the Indian by Lynne Reid Banks

* The Lunch Lady and the League of Librarians by Jarret J. Krosoczka - book 2
* Lunch Lady and the Bake Sale Bandit by Jarret J. Krosoczka - book 5
* Lunch Lady and the Field Trip Fiasco by Jarret J. Krosoczka - book 6
* Lunch Lady and the Mutant Mathletes by Jarret J. Krosoczka - book 7

* Journey Under the Sea by R.A. Montgomery - Choose Your Own Adventure
* Space and Beyond by R.A. Montgomery - Choose Your Own Adventure


* Hidden Worlds of Wildlife - A National Geographic Society book
* United Tweets of America - 50 state birds, Their Stories and Glories by Hudson Talbott

* Who Was Harry Houdini? by Tui T. Sutherland
* Handel Who Knew What He Liked by M.T. Anderson

* Brothers at Arms - Treasure and Treachery in the Amazon by John J. Horn

* Beautiful Landscapes by Diane WRight
* Flowers and Botanicals by Diane Cardaci

On the Kindle:

* The Brainy Bunch
* Ask Jackie: Homesteading
* Ask Jackie: Gardening
* Ask Jackie: Animals
* The Story of the Candy Rabbit by Laura Lee Hope

** Take one or two or three (i.e. reading these yet again!)

* Don't Bug on me! by Gillian McHale

* Wings of Fire series - The Hidden Kingdom by Tui T. Sutherland - Book #3
* Wings of Fire series - The Dark Secret by Tui T. Sutherland - Book #4
* Wings of Fire series - The Brightest Night by Tui T. Sutherland - Book #5
 

Read Aloud to her sibling(s):

* Dancing Cloud - The Navajo Boy by Mary Marsh  and Conrad Buff
* Thanksgiving at Our House by Wendy Watson
* The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant


Academic Work:
* Mathematical Reasoning - Level F - grade 5;
* Watching videos on Algebra; doing Pre-Algebra on Khan Academy;
* Began Algebra I Saxon book;
* Learning Coding with Khan Academy;
* Doing Science Detective from The Critical Thinking Co.; watching videos on Biology on YouTube
* Dictation and Spelling 3 times a week. I just use the words/ vocabulary we have seen the previous days and were spelled incorrectly.
* Read/ listened to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain for Book Club and completed the Study Guide.

Activities at Home

* We are doing quiet time everyday. That varies from 30 to 60 minutes a day depending on how busy we are. During quiet time, the children are supposed to be reading on their own or playing quietly by themselves (for DD4 that is not reading yet). No interaction between the children should be happening. Sometimes I spend this time with DD4 doing her "school" work or just reading / cuddling with her.

* I have also decreased computer/ game time to 30 minutes a day. I have noticed the children are doing so much better in terms of behavior and learning without so much Minecraft stimultation.

* Canned more of our jalapeno peppers, just before the first frost. I used this recipe to make escabeche of carrots, onions and jalapenos. I also canned some more homemade hot sauce.


* We had our first frost on November 02nd. It was sad to go to the garden and find peppers and eggplants burned and dead.We did get a Thai pepper, tomato plant and a jalapeno plant in the green house. I am hoping they do well and produce some yumminess for us during the winter.

* I came up with a job list for each child that earns them money. I basically came up with a list of job/ chores/ responsibilities that they should be doing as normal routine but they have been slacking on. I am paying them money for each "job" done without any reminding. My idea is to motivate them enough that the jobs will become second nature to each child. Of course the list varies according to child. I have also assigned one child for each meal to help with before and after prep/ clean up. It's working wonders. :)

Last harvest before the frost. :(

* Plants are in the green house. Getting plants transplanted to pots to go into the green house.

* We made canjica, a Brazilian dish.

* Enjoying the warm mid days: playing basketball outside, riding bikes, playing indians, digging for treasure in the dirty (what's with dirt and kids?).

* Playing princesses inside. Mom got some princesses dresses on sale after Halloween and the little girls spend the day now dressed up as princesses. :)

* Painting and preparing Christmas Boxes for Operation Christmas Child. This is the second year we are doing this as a family project. Throughout the year we collect small toys, craft supplies, clothes and empty shoe boxes and then we paint and decorate them. We fill them up and deliver them to a collection center to be shipped to Samaritan's Purse. You can see the ones we did last year here.

* DD11 had great ideas for decorating our home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We had some relatives come over for Thanksgiving and she decorated the kitchen with fall leaves. So pretty! We also made garlands for the fireplace in white and red and attached poinsettias to them. DD11 found Pinterest!!!

 Field Trips/ Activities Outside Home

* Homeschooling Meeting. The theme was food. Everyone brought goodies and we got to share and eat most of them. DD11 did a small talk/ comparison between butter and hydrogenated fats. DD7 and DD4 enacted The Duckling Gets a Cookie? by Mo Willems. DD7 was the pigeon and DD4 was the duckling. It was so cute! :)

* Lego Club - the kids made catapults with Legos and launched minifigs around the room.


* Our first Book Club meeting geared toward Middle aged homeschoolers. We read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and worked on the Study Guide put out by Progeny Press.

Egg Drop soup w/ homemade chicken broth.

 Websites/ Links we found and used/ Apps

* Brain Pop Jr - DD7 watched videos on Classifying Animals;

* SheppardSoftware - DD7 and DD4 together are using the science and art section.

* Khan Academy - DD11 and DS9 are using this site to learn Algebra. We watched videos on Number Sets; multiplication as scaling; 

* Quizlet.com - Used this site to study vocabulary words for Singing Down the Moon. Fantastic resource for creating your own vocabulary/ spelling lists or perusing others.

* Membean - the way to learn root words, spelling and vocabulary. Fascinating!

* Neok12 - I found this website reading Generation Cedar's blog and what a find! The website is filled with videos and other resources sorted out by subjects. A great learning tool! Following on my kids' interest on space, we watched Colonizing the Moon,


* Minecraft - we got Orespawn. The kids got their Minecraft time reduced to 30 minutes a day and no more servers. Everything is going so much better. :)

* Easy Peasy Website -  We kind of have put this website to rest this month.

TV shows/ Videos/ Movies/ YouTube

* The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Tom Sawyer - unabridged audiobook on YouTube

* Visual Bible - The Gospel of Matthew - on IamFlix

* Sugar Creek Gang episodes on Iamflix

* AFV on Netflix; National Geographic videos

* Perpetua story - animated Christian heroes on Iamflix

* Videos on Reproduction and Division of Cells: Cell Cycle, Mitosis and Meiosis - Bozeman Science videos, Crash Course on Meiosis and Crash Course on Mitosis  

* More videos on YouTube: Ancient Egypt: After Death (gods and mummification);

Collage and water color craft I did with the children.

 

Books, blogs and other things I am reading...

* The Diary of Sara Nita - Dear America Diaries

* The HomeScholar - getting ready for high school. Have questions about High School? College? You can't go wrong listening to Lee Binz.

* They call me Dad by Cameron - the story how a Scot living in Alabama ends up in Romania and changes his world and the world of orphaned children. You can find out more on Stella's Voice and here you can watch one of the services he presents some of the young ladies that he rescued. 

* Seed Sowers Gospel Planting Adventures - I was listening to the HeduaMedia Channel on YouTube and found Gwen Toliver and the amazing book she wrote. Her personal blog, Tolivers to Texas,  is a great resource; she has lots of curriculum reviews as well as funny posts about raising 9 kids. So worth reading.


* The Turning by Davis Bunn - my first Davis Bunn book and I was really disappointed. You can read my review HERE. Now I am reading The Centurion's Wife. Will see if it's any better. So here is my review of The Centurion's Wife: it was a bit better than The Turning but I can't get hooked on romantic historical fiction anymore. It's just too gooey for my taste. :P

As you can see I am running a bit behind in posting my monthly learning log. Hope to catch up in the next few days. How's winter been treating you and your family??

Blessings,
Tereza