Important Records

 Talk about stress, it has taken me over two months to finish this 47 page document. I had to dig through paperwork of past grades. Here all along I thought I was keeping good records. Boy was I wrong. It is extremely important to update your high school transcript yearly. I had help from The Home scholar website. 

Brian thinks this is a waste of time, but I hope not. I want her to be recognized for her hard work and the classes she has taken. 

Perhaps, I should be recognized for my hard work. I hope the colleges like it.

First Day of 4th Grade

Jarrett started 4th grade on August 29th. He also gets up at 5am on Mondays to get to class by 8:45. It is amazing that he never complains about getting up so early. I know he is very excited to be in the Essentials class for the first time.

Jarrett is in his 5th year of Classical Conversations. He has Foundations class from 9am-noon. During these hours he goes over memory work for history, timeline, science, math, Latin, geography, English, do a science experiment, fine arts, and hopefully play some review games. There is an emphasizes on memorization of facts to train the brain to retain information. I will give you an example of this weeks memorization.

Timeline: Age Ancient Empires, Creation and the Fall, The Flood and the Tower of Babel, Mesopotamia and Sumer, Egyptians, Indus River Valley Civilization, Minoans and Mycenaeans

History Sentence: Tell me about Charlemagne. In 800 AD, during the medieval period, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Holy Roman Emperor of Europe.

Geography: Continents/Oceans Continents: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica    Oceans: Indian, Arctic, Atlantic, Pacific

English: 8 Part of Speech  noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, conjunction, interjection, preposition, adjective

Latin: 1st Conjugation Endings Present Tense    Singular: o~(I) s~(you)~t~(he,she,it)   Plural: mus~(we) tis~(you) nt~(they)

Math: Skip count the 1s and 2s  skip count the 2s up to number 24

Science: What are seven types of biomes? Grasslands, deserts, scrublands, tundra, deciduous forests, coniferous forests, and tropical rain forests

These are the hands on classes:

Science Experiments: from VanCleave Science book usually 2 experiments are done

Fine Arts: Drawing basic shapes-----OiLS

Lunch/Recess from noon-1pm

He attends Essentials class from 1-3pm on Mondays. He will learn English grammar, writing, and play math games.

He will learn different material each week for 24 weeks. He only attends class once a week and then I go over everything he learned Tuesday-Friday.

Here are the subjects he will study at home this year:

• Math-Math U See (Delta & Epsilon) 
• Grammar- Essentials of the English Language (Classical Conversations), Our Mother Tongue and Junior Analytical Grammar in the summer
•  Writing- IEW History Based Writing Lessons and Teaching Structure and Style 
•  Handwriting-from Classical Conversations
  
•  Spelling- Spelling Plus (spelling rules)
  
•  History- Veritas Press self-paced online program (New Testament, Greece, and Rome)
• Reading- various books
• Presentations- a different topic each week (Classical Conversations)
• Vocabulary- from Classical Roots
• Memory Work- Classical Conversations 

My goal is to read more history books aloud this year. I enjoy reading to my children, but sometimes it is hard to fit it in. 

The Nina & Pinta

We went on a field trip to the Mississippi River, where the Nina and Pinta were docked. These are replicas of 2 of the 3 ships that sailed in Columbus's 1492 first exploration voyage. 

This is the Pinta.

This is the Pinta.

This is the Nina.

 Two thousand tons of these stones were put in the bottom of the Nina & Pinta. This is want helps keeps them afloat. 

This is were the crew members slept. The Nina had 24 crew members and 26 on the Pinta. The livestock was kept down below.

Carissa Turns 18

Monday was the day. It was eighteen years ago that she came into the world. I remember how her father was so beyond excited to hold her. He bonded with her right away. He has always been a hands on dad. I am so thankful that my daughter has a father that I never had.

She received many gifts for her birthday. Each one of her younger brothers bought really nice gifts for her, which they paid for with their own money. She received a pair of 14 k gold/crystal earrings, an Anne Klein watch, Taylor Swift perfume, and a pink dress. Mom and dad paid for her Swedish massage and other items.

The cake we took to the church potluck. She had a cheesecake on her actual birthday, so she had two birthday cakes.

Happy 18th birthday to our daughter. May the Lord always be in your heart and may you always follow His steps.

Having Fun

Very funny Jarrett. He looked so funny running around the house looking like this. He is not making fun of anyone. He is just having fun bouncing off people and objects.

First Day of 7th Grade/Challenge A

This boy got up at five in the morning on Monday to endure the two and a half hour drive to get to class. He has to be at his first class by eight twenty-five. He was so excited to start 7th grade. He is taking a big step up from 6th grade. There is more required of him now that he is in 7th grade. I did my best to prepare him for the expectations of 7th grade. I think he will do just fine because he enjoys learning. He said that Math, Latin, and Geography will be his favorite subjects. I wonder if he will feel the same at the end of the year.

A picture of the white board during science. Tutor teaching how to write a research paper.

Shane is in Classical Conversations Challenge A. This will be his first year in the Challenge program (with one of the best tutors around, Mrs. Phillips). The Challenge program will dictate the bulk of his studies during the week. 
Here is a list subjects he will be studying this year.

• Latin Alive! for Latin [We are substituting this program for the CC recommendation of Henle.]
• Math-Saxon [Pre-Algebra & Algebra 1]
• Science- research natural science, biology, and draw body systems. A research paper due every week.
• Literature & Composition- (read 10 books & write a paper on each one) will use The Lost Tools of Writing
• Geography- drawing the whole world (countries, capitals, land forms, 150 geography terms, and all by memory)
• The Fallacy Detective and It Couldn’t Just Happen for Rhetoric (science catechism questions, note taking, class discussion, and apologetic paper)
• History- Veritas Press self pace online program.(Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation)
• Vocabulary-Word Build online program
• Archery Lessons
• Piano Lessons
• 

A Boy's Friend

Who says a dog has to be a boy's best friend? Take a look at these pictures. Here is a cat that love his boy. Let me tell you, this cat really does love Jarrett. He is always around him. I know this boy would not mind sharing his bed with his cat but no cats allowed inside. Mama is allergic to cat dander and fur.

Stripes decided to take a nap on Jarrett's homework.

More Summer Fun

Bumper car fun.

Brian bowling

Here are some pictures from about 3 weeks ago. They were taken by my cellphone, so they are not the best quality. I did not take my new camera with me. I received a new camera as a birthday present. I will have to show you it sometime.

Anyway, back to the pictures. We took Maria and the kids for one last fling of fun before she went back to Spain.

Summer is gone now. Shane officially starts 7th grade on Monday. Carissa and Nathan will start classes this week too. Jarrett officially starts 4th grade on August 29th. Time is going by too fast.

Summer Fun

 Here is Jarrett enjoying one of our local pools. We need to go back. We paid $3 a person to swim from 5-8pm. We went on a Saturday and there was not a crowd of people.

We have been busy this summer. We have been doing extra things, since we had an exchange student staying with us. 

 We just had to have some shaved ice this summer. Maria really liked the lemon lime flavor. I had the watermelon. Everyone else had the tiger blood.  This was Maria's first time having shaved ice. 

 

 Bowling is great way to have fun and get out of the heat. 

 Time to hit the pizza buffet. This is a family favorite.

Of course, you just gotta make your own homemade pizza. Carissa made the dough and it tasted so good. 

 Jarrett got a two pair of new glasses. So he is on is 4th and 5th pair within the past 9 months. His prescription changed, so he could not use his 1st and 2nd pair anymore. His 3rd pair was destroyed by a 5 year old boy. Insurance paid for most of the 3rd pair. 

Slumber parties, playing games, fireworks, watermelon, birthday celebrations, swimming, smores and making chocolate covered popcorn are part of summer time in our home. 

Summer time will soon be over. Shane starts 7th grade on August 15th.

Carissa is in Minnesota until next Thursday. She has been there since Monday. I talked with her today and she said that she went to the Mall of the World yesterday. She said that it is 4 stories. That is a lot of walking! 

Archery

Carissa asked to start archery lessons, so I signed her up in June. I actually signed up the three boys too. They all enjoy it. Nathan and Carissa are doing well with it that the instructor mentioned they should be in the tournament this winter.

Shane and Jarrett have asked to buy their own arrows and bows to shoot at home.

Our exchange student even got a chance to shoot. Yes, we are hosting an exchange student from Spain for a month. Teenagers are basically the same in the U.S. and Spain, except for a few things. In Spain it is legal to drink alcohol at 18. Teenagers have way more freedom there. They go to disco's and stay out all hours of the night and this is normal and accepted. Teenagers take public transportation everywhere. There is a small amount of parent supervision. They eat dinner at around 8 or 9pm. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day and it is eaten around 2pm. Most families have only 1 child because of the cost of living there. 

Maria (exchange student) said only the rich people in Spain learn archery.