Week 3-Up against the wall, hands behind your back...

Today I was greeted via email from my dear friend, Kim, with a post that convicted me to my knees. Why do I homeschool? Have I turned success and accomplishment into our God? Is my need to look good as a mom/teacher more important than my relationship with my kids?? Oh my my....big questions. Honestly, I can't answer all of the above with absolute certainty. That scares me.  If you would like a good scare or at least a great topic for debate, read the following article. (btw- that's not me...)

http://www.joshharris.com/2011/09/homeschool_blindspots.php

Week 3- Lots of cool things this week!

LATIN
As the kids and I did the work for this week, we spent a lot of time trying to wrap our heads around the Latin. We came up with a hopscotch game where your feet hop to the matching words. Hailey put it to a song (that I couldn't repeat if life depended on it) that worked great, any ole song would have worked just as well.    We also wrote out the latin from all three weeks on the driveway then I'd call out a Latin word, they'd have to run to the corresponding English word. Worked pretty well. I may try to do same with my Latin flash cards I made. (index cards).

REVIEW
For review we drew 4 lines on the drive way. Line 1=easy question and closest to the goal. Get the question, make the shot, get double points. (ie:2)  Line 2= semi easy.....same scenario (up to 4 pts)  etc etc.  Kids really liked it. I am going to try it this week in class with a beach ball and a laundry basket. We'll see how nuts it gets.

GEOGRAPHY
We are still loving Mach Nacho states and capitals off of YouTube, however, kids are not really associating the capital name with the state. SO, in addition to drilling locations on the map, I'm randomly asking them capitals of states. That on the spot quiz seems to have them a little more focused when they sing the song. We are also doing geography puzzle races.

SCIENCE
For the muscles, we came up with a dance:  Skeletal muscle=stand like a scarecrow with arms dangling and head to side, Smooth=strike a pose like you are soooooo smooth and cool, then use hands to make heart over your heart for Cardiac.  We will investigate fingerprinting this week too.

IEW/EEL
Working on IEW this week really caused me to step back. The first poem about killed us all, so I asked them to do the second poem alone, without any help. They did just fine. Granted they did not meet all the criteria, but I did learn that they can write without my constant oversight. Humbling really...how dare they grow up so well!

OH OH!!   We found SpellingCity.com and someone has put all the C3 EEL spelling and vocab words on the site. (http://www.spellingcity.com/CCChaska/)

I also found a section of homonyms that you could print out "flashcards" without being a member. So we printed out minicards all the way through highschool level. Hopefully, that will really avoid some spelling sins we are all guilty of committing.  http://www.spellingcity.com/view-spelling-list.html?listId=3820028
We use another program, but for a while, we are going to try this. Kids want to take "tests" to get "grades" they can tell their non-homeschooled friends. It is so important they do not feel "weird" by being homeschooled. They get that they are getting a superior education, but they've shared with me that they feel odd man out when everyone is talking about their homework or tests each week. Homework you want? You got it!

HISTORY

We found a timeline online of the colonies. Really enlightening as it provided a short synopsis and we were able to see and understand the series of events much clearer. We followed with watching the corresponding episodes of LIBERTY KIDS on YouTube. Brandon liked it (he's the history buff) so well that he watched for an hour or more!!  It appeared to be pretty factual, so we are now going to incorporate that into our reading/watching of history.     Liberty`s Kids: #01 "The Boston Tea Party" (1/2) - YouTube

http://www.history-timelines.org.uk/american-timelines/index.htm

Well, hope this was somewhat helpful or inspiring. Hugs to all! Happy schoolin.

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