Learning Log of April 2015

Here we go again, it's almost June and only now I am finally posting the Learning Log for April. Here are the news...

Minecrafting was becoming a point of conflict in our house. While I wanted to get rid of it completely, it just did not seem reasonable since the kids really benefit from all the building and learning skills they glean from it. I had to figure out a way that it wouldn't be such an addiction but a tool in our school day. So we began incorporating their building time into our hands-on school. After a history lesson, the kids have 30 minutes to build something related to the lesson. If they cooperated during school, they get extra playing time during free time. So far, it's working out without any of the fights and meltdowns of before. 

Read aloud Books

 * We are still reading through the Bible with the kids. Reading Exodus with the kids in a really slow pace. It's hit and miss. :(
* During the day I began doing a devotional with the kids: Jesus Calling 365 Devotions for kids.

* Part-Time Princess. Girl by Day. Princess by Night by Deborah Underwood
* Grandma's Attic Story- reading a chapter at a time to the younger girls.
* Not much reading aloud: lots of work outside and computer time.

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!).


* DD12  listened to The Spiderwick Chronicles vol 1-5 on audiobook; Bless This Mouse by Lois Lowry; Jonathan Park episodes, The Swiss Family Robinson
* DD9 is listening to Story Nory - Rikki Tikki Tavi and Sparkle Stories.
* DD7 is listening to Jonathan Park episodes
* DD4 is listening to Story Nory

Gardening season is here.

DD5 independent reading list:

Still tackling reading with DD5. She's doing  ClicknKids Phonics program on the computer. This is a software that you download to your computer and your kids have daily lessons. There are 2 programs a phonics and a spelling one. I used this software with my 3 oldest to remedy spelling and to help DD7 learn to read. As with all software, after a few lessons my kids get bored either because the program is too repetitive or they have already mastered the skills they need to proceed on their own. Not one of my kids finished either programs.

DD5 has finished about 7 lessons and covered short vowel sounds for A and O as well as sight words. We also incorporating printable lessons from BOB books free worksheets created by a diverse group of homeschooling moms. One of my favorites is Walking By the Way. I used these with DD7 when she was beginning to read. I am also using phonics books from Abeka and other books I find at the library.

She is also using the Starfall website.

* 1001 Things to Spot on Vacation - Usborne book
* The Usborne Big Book of Thinks to Spot

DD7 independent reading list: 

 She is also reading aloud  Read with me Bible to us all during lunch time. Also Calvin and Hobbes books are a favorite before bedtime.

* Calvin and Hobbes comics

* Daisy Dawson and the Big Freeze by Steve Voake
* Mercy Watson to the Rescue by Kate DiCamillo
* Sofia Martinez - The Marigold Mess by Jacqueline Jules

* Wonder Woman - An Origin Story by Sazaklis and Vecchio
* Green Lantern -  An Origin Story by Manning and Vecchio
* Batman - An Origin Story by Sazaklis and Vecchio
* Superman - An Origin Story by Manning and Vecchio
 
* Clobbered by Clayface! by Fisch Burchett Davis - Batman The Brave and the Bold series
* That Holiday Feeling by Fisch Burchett Davis - Batman The Brave and the Bold series
* Bottle of the Planets by Fisch Burchett Davis - Batman The Brave and the Bold series
* Manhandled by Manhunters! by Fisch Burchett Davis - Batman The Brave and the Bold series

* Service Dogs by Jessica Rudolph
* Therapy Dogs by Joyce Markovics
* Search-and-rescue Dogs by Jessica Rudolph
* Sled Dogs by Joyce Markovics
* Guide Dogs by Jessica Rudolph
* Explore the Ocean by Kay Jackson - Fact Finders

* Billie B. Brown - The Bad Butterfly by Sally Rippin
* Billie B. Brown - The Big Sister by Sally Rippin
* Billie B. Brown - The Birthday Mix-Up by Sally Rippin
* Billie B. Brown - The Soccer Star by Sally Rippin

* The Playground Problem by Sally Rippin - Hey Jack! series (Jack is a friend of Billie, so sometimes she shows up on his books and sometimes he shows up on her books. Really cool!)
* The Crazy Cousins by Sally Rippin - Hey Jack! series
* The Best Party Ever by Sally Rippin - Hey Jack! series
* The Circus Lesson by Sally Rippin - Hey Jack! series

Read Aloud to her sibling(s):
* Golden Eagles by Melissa Hill
* Bird - DK Eye Know
* Red Foxes by Nicole Orr - Backyard Jungle Safari
* Children of the Earth and Sky - Five stories about Native American children by Stephen Krensky - we read this together as part of a History lesson and DD7 created a Native American house in Minecraft.
* Explore the Tropical Rain Forest by Linda Tagliaferro - FactFinders
* Billie B. Brown - The Extra-Special Helper by Sally Rippin

* Khan Academy Math- 3rd grade math;
* Singapore Math 2B - mental math;
* Also perusing Xtramath.org to get speed and accuracy in her operations;
* Working on memorizing her multiplication tables.
* Reading chapter books and completing a workbook on phonics, spelling, grammar, reading comprehension, etc.
* Reading to her siblings or to me out loud as well as quietly to herself. 
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 -DS9 reads a few strips at night before falling sleep.

* The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe - Calico Illustrated Classics - adapted by jan Fields
 
* That Holiday Feeling by Fisch Burchett Davis - Batman The Brave and the Bold series
* Wonder Woman - An Origin Story by Sazaklis and Vecchio
* Green Lantern -  An Origin Story by Manning and Vecchio
* Batman - An Origin Story by Sazaklis and Vecchio
* Superman - An Origin Story by Manning and Vecchio
 
* Clobbered by Clayface! by Fisch Burchett Davis - Batman The Brave and the Bold series
* That Holiday Feeling by Fisch Burchett Davis - Batman The Brave and the Bold series
* Bottle of the Planets by Fisch Burchett Davis - Batman The Brave and the Bold series
* Manhandled by Manhunters! by Fisch Burchett Davis - Batman The Brave and the Bold series

* US Marines True Stories - Tales of Bravery by Adam Miller
* Firefighters to the Rescue by Meish Goldish
* Hotshots by Meish Goldish
* Aviation Firefighters by Nancy White
* Smokejumpers by Meish Goldish
* The World's Wackiest History by Christopher Forest - Library of Weird
* Dogs on Duty by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent - Soldiers' Best Friends on the Battlefield and Beyond
* Native American Heroes by Ann McGovern
* And Then What Happened, Paul Revere? by Jean Fritz
* Nelson Mandela by Barbara Kramer -  National Geographic Kids

Read Aloud to his sibling(s):
* George Washington by Caroline Crosson Gilpin by National Geographic Kids

Academic Work:
* Doing 6th grade Math on Khan Academy.
* Also doing Life of Fred - Fractions;
* Learning Coding with Khan Academy;
* Began learning Java Script with Code Academy;

* He stopped with Science Detective from The Critical Thinking Co. for now.
* Using Usbore Internet-Linked science and history books. He reads a topic and researches it online. I am letting him pick his own subjects and interests. 
* Used Neok12.com to watch videos on Greece History and Engineering. He also build some Greek structures on Minecraft.

DD12 independent reading list

Non-Fiction:
* "We Have conquered Pain" the Discovery of Anesthesia by Dennis Brindell Fradin
* Dragons and Fantasy by Kythera of Anevern - Drawing made Easy
* Wildlife Rehabilitators to the Rescue by Meish Goldish
 * Brave Hearts by Meish Goldish
* Gorilla Doctors - Saving Endangered Great Apes by Pamela S. Turner
* The Ultimate Puppy edited by Terry Ryan and Theresa Shipp
* The Story of The Salem Witch Trials by Zachary Kent 

Biographies:
* Markus Persson Notch  Creator of Minecraft  by Tamra Orr
* Lives of Extraordinary Women - Rulers, Rebels (and What the Neighbors Thought) by Kathleen Krull
* Cleopatra - Powerful Leader or Ruthless Pharaoh? by Peggy Caravantes -Perspectives on History

DC Comics:
* Clobbered by Clayface! by Fisch Burchett Davis - Batman The Brave and the Bold series
* That Holiday Feeling by Fisch Burchett Davis - Batman The Brave and the Bold series
* Bottle of the Planets by Fisch Burchett Davis - Batman The Brave and the Bold series
* Manhandled by Manhunters! by Fisch Burchett Davis - Batman The Brave and the Bold series

* Wonder Woman - An Origin Story by Sazaklis and Vecchio
* Green Lantern -  An Origin Story by Manning and Vecchio
* Batman - An Origin Story by Sazaklis and Vecchio
* Superman - An Origin Story by Manning and Vecchio

Classics:
* Swiss Family Robinson by 

Fantasy books:

* The Emperor of Nihon-Ja - book 10 - Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan

* The Lost Stories - book 11 - Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan
* The Royal Ranger - book 12 - Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan - last one of the series! :(

* The Candlestone by Bryan Davis - Dragon in our Midst series - book 2

* Pockets by Jenifer Armstrong

Historical Fiction:

*

Animal books: 
* The Grand Escape - The Cat Pack by Phillis Reynolds Naylor
* Polo's Mother - The Cat Pack by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

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

* The Dragonet Prophecy by Tui T. Sutherland - Wings of Fire series - book1
* The Lost Heir by Tui T. Sutherland - Wings of Fire series - book 2
* The Hidden Kingdom by Tui T. Sutherland - Wings of Fire series - book 3
* The Brightest Night by Tui T. Sutherland - Wings of Fire series - book 5

* The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White

Read Aloud to her sibling(s):


Academic Work:

* Doing Pre-Algebra on Khan Academy 70% completed; she is taking a break from Khan Academy and working on Life of Fred book.
* Working through the Life of Fred: Pre-Algebra with Biology book;

* Learning Coding with Khan Academy;

* Working through Exploring Creation with Biology from Apologia. Finished module 5 and took test. Worked on module 6, reviewed and took test on first week of May.
* Began US History Detective Book 1 from Critical Thinking co. - she's doing a lesson a day. 

Activities at Home

* Trying to keep quiet time everyday. This time is for reading or doing an activity on their own. Time for thinking, resting and learning to entertain oneself. It's also QUIET time for Mom. Time for me to recharge.

* Computer play time has increased to an hour this month. We are actually incorporating MInecraft into our school.

* Spring Cleaning. Cleaning outside, garage. Gardening.

* Our first grilling of the year: hamburgers to celebrate the men of my life!!

* Strawberry Selling Project. We took a walk around our street on a Saturday morning and sold most of our strawberry plants and met most of the neighbors. The kids enjoyed the adventure. WE are now enjoying harvesting our own strawberries.

* Helping neighbor with raised beds and exchanging seeds and plants.

* We had friends come to visit and stay for supper.

* Opening the pool. Lots of playing outside. Walks in the afternoon as a family.

* Keeping with the 2015 in 2015 challenge.

 Field Trips/ Activities Outside Home

* Homeschooling Meeting. The theme was Nature. DD12 shared about Artic foxes; DS9 talked about strawberries, DD7 explained biomes in Minecraft and DD5 talked about different animals.  Afterwards we had playtime and fellowship at a friend's house.


* Lego Club

* Story Hour for DD5 and DD7.
* Game Day

 Websites/ Links we found and used/ Apps

* BrainPop - videos on Hybrid cars, blogs, google, Game up

* Xtramath - FREE website to get speed and accuracy on all 4 operations (math facts)

* SheppardSoftware -

* Khan Academy -

* Code Academy - DD12 is learning Java Script here for FREE. I joined her because everyone needs to learn how to program. :)

* Starfall - great website for learning to read. DD5 is using this one.

* ClicknKids - a program that teaches phonics and spelling. DD5 is using it to learn to read.

* Dance Mat Typing - a free resource that teaches kids how to type.

* Iamflix.com - watched American History series;

* Neok12 website - Ancient Greece videos;

* Tyler DeWitt channel on YouTube - great lessons on Math and Chemistry.

* D-Maps - Great website with maps of all kinds. I used this to print out a map of the 13 colonies for DD12 History lesson.
 * The Rangers Apprentice Website. 

TV shows/ Videos/ Movies/ YouTube

homegrown strawberry

*  Studio C - Family friendly, clean sketch comedy tv shows produced by BYUtv. Super fun on YouTube for FREE. We have spent hours watching these videos as a family.


* Big Hero 6 - the bomb!!!
* The Hobbit - The Battle of the Five Armies

* Torchlighters videos on Amy Charmichael and St. Augustine on IamFlix.com
* American History series on IamFlix.com - episodes on A Century of Flight;

* The Story of Us episodes on Netflix

* Fed Up: A fantastic documentary about the SAD diet and how corporations and government are deceiving the people with regulations, labels and programs. A must see!! We watched as a family and it was a great starting point for discussions about health and nutrition. Available on Netflix.

* The Big Picture
* Dogs with Jobs - Netflix series about working dogs - episodes of season 1
* Inspector Gadge episodes

* Brain Games episodes

* Mirror Mirror

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

* The Notes - Ronald Reagan edited by Douglas Brinkley - Ronald Reagan's Private Collection of Stories and Wisdom

* The Natural Vegan Kitchen by Christine Waltermyer

* Orphan Train by Christina Bakerkline

* Ultrametabolism by Mark Hyman, MD

* Positive Parenting Solutions


*VB6 - Eat Vegan before 6:00 by Mark Bittman

* The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen by Peer Berley

Blessings,

Tereza

Garden Update II

I am still working on the Learning Log of August. We did so much that I am still including photos.

In the meantime, I thought you might be interested in seeing what my garden is looking like.

On the left is the harvest of last week. Our second batch of green beans of our second crop, cherry tomatoes, okra (you forget to pick them just one day then the next day they are gigantic!), my wonderful eggplants and some banana peppers.

Here is what the raised beds look like. Behind this one with the eggplant, brocolli and okra,

I have another one with greens, banana peppers, cherry tomato going everywhere and more eggplants. 

Did I tell you I looooove eggplant???

Here is the raised bed with my 

greens and peppers.

Here is my cherry tomato plant that I started from seed.

It's going everywhere and 

it has crawled onto the ground.

Today I pruned it badly!!

it's all contained now inside a tomato cage.

I am hoping that it will bring more tomatoes before

fall gets here. It's Alabama so it might happen!

Here is today's harvest.

All those green cherry tomatoes 

came from the pruning of the 

wild tomato plant.

I will be making some green salsa of some sort. :)

And to make me even happier,

more eggplants!!!

How has your garden been doing?

I am really happy with my gardening experience.

I want to do it again next spring.

In fact, I am not stopping. I am planting some fall crops like greens, brocolli and lettuces.

Oh, and beets too!!

To your left fresh green beans 

from my garden!!

Just a little olive oil, salt and garlic. Sautee until they turn a darker green, probably 10 minutes and serve.

My kids who thought didn't like green beans have been eating their serving and licking fingers!!

Victory!! :)

What have you been planting??

Blessings,

Tereza

Garden Update I

See Garden Update II  here...

This year we have planted a garden. This is my first garden. My DH always helped his Grandpa with his gardening, so he is the one with the experience.

My DH built us three boxes of 8' x 4'. We are growing green beans, zucchini, crooked neck squashes, cucumbers, kale, mustard greens, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, okra, green onions, jalapeno peppers and green peppers.

You can see the beginning HERE.

Besides the raised beds, I have a few pots with crooked neck squashes, my strawberry pot, and three tomato plants in pots. I also planted herbs in pots. We have basil, cilantro, parsley and romaine lettuce in pots. Mint is also recommended to plant in pots since it is a weed and it will take over your garden.

I have another raised bed that already existed that we planted collard greens and our sunflowers. I  have transplanted a couple of zucchini plants to it too.

Behind the house we got a luffa squash, zucchinis and cantaloupes planted.

To the left some of our harvest: cucumbers, green beans, zucchinis and crooked neck squashes.

These squashes are so tender and sweet that I just slice them like you would cucumber and make a raw salad out of them. So good. Add a little balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and chopped cilantro and you got yourself a refreshing Summer salad.

Our first Sunflower!!

We planted 8 but 2 died. We got six left that are growing every minute. These are mammoth ones!!!

Isn't it gorgeous??

For my breakfast of champions, I am alternating kale and collard greens. Next to the kale, we have mustard greens. These are wonderful sauteed with a bit of garlic and olive oil. I don't cook it to death like most Southerners, just enough to have it wilt and turn a dark green. Then I turn the heat off and serve it with brown rice and beans. Any kind of beans will do.

They are wonderful too the next day inside of quesadillas or grilled sandwiches.

These are my first eggplants. I shared on my Learning Log of May how we learned how to hand pollinate. My eggplants were producing purple flowers but they were wilting and falling off and no eggplant would develop.

So I went on line and found out that without pollination no eggplant would grow. We discovered the uniqueness of the eggplant flower and how to hand pollinate in order to get the fruit. You can find out more on hand pollination HERE.

Tonight I will be roasting these!!

Cherry Tomato in a pot, my herbs in the back and another crooked neck squash in a pot.

My sunflowers and collard greens. I have harvested the collard greens 4 times already and they just keep producing. They are due for another harvest.

As a first time gardener, I thought it would require so much work. Not so!! I like to check on it every day. It's calming and relaxing routine. I usually check on it at the end of the day.

I water every 2 or 3 days as it needs. I pray for rain (now I understand the fascination with the weather channel!!) and I check for pests. It's amazing how much you can get just for a couple of handfuls of seeds. it's been truly a wonderful learning season for all of us.

The children are enjoying planting, harvesting, cooking and eating the vegetables. We are spending less money at the grocery store for sure.

Oh, no ripe tomatoes yet!! We got big green ones so I think we should be seeing red one soon!! I will keep you updated!!

do you have a garden?? What is your favorite thing to grow? Have a question for me? Ask away.

Blessings,
Tereza

Garden Update II Here...

My First Garden

One of my dreams for the longest time, has been to plant a garden. I always thought that it would take so much time and that it would be so hard. I am realizing that there is nothing too hard or that takes too much of one's time when you really want to do it.

Left to right: Basil, Mint and Oregano.

Tomato plant. I got about 9 tomato plants total!

My own strawberry pot!!

Growing from seeds: cherry tomatoes and banana peppers!

Collards and Sunflowers!!!

Raised beds built by my wonderful handy husband!!

Mesclum and a red bell pepper plant.

More mesclum.

I would like to announce that these photos are at least a month old. We have harvested our first sweet strawberry. The kale, mustard, squash, green beans, okra and brocolli have sprouted and are growing. My cucumber, zucchini and eggplant are doing marvelously.

Today we planted cantaloupes and another type of squash. I also planted a cherry tomato plant and a jalapeno pepper.

I am so excited and I can't wait to show you more pictures of all this goodness!!

Do you have a garden? Any advice for a first timer??

Blessings, :)

Tereza