Through August 10, 2012 (week 3 & 4)

This post should get us caught up to date with posting. Whew. This is our weekly journal of our learning experiences. So much happens everyday and its so easy to forget so much of what we do, that this is our attempt to keep up with it for Sarah. Sorta like her own personal scrapbook of her school years.

I'm combining these two weeks. Sarah does her daily Bible reading daily before we start our school day. Sometimes she works on memory work alone and sometimes we work on it together. She continues with pre-algebra.

These past two weeks in biology we have the kingdom Monera. We watched You Tube videos about bacteria. We learned about aerobic and anaerobic organisms. To label a bacteria cell and the functions of the structures. We also learned that there are good and bad bacteria. We collected water from the bottom of Buddy's pond and added it to four containers that had different food sources (white rice, hay, soil, and a cooked egg yolk), we then allowed them to sit for several days. Sarah used droppers and prepared slides from each specimen to observe under the microscope. She was able to identify a couple of different organisms from photos. She was quite excited.

Sarah has started learning the elements from the periodic table. We watched videos to learn a little about them. This will be an ongoing process. She completed a report on Robert Priestly. She also completed studying the skeleton and made her skeleton today.
Her use of colors was quite interesting.

We done a little reading on South Carolina this past week and she finished her pages for her notebook. In American history we studied Columbus, Vespucci, and Cabot. I have found that I have to supplement activities to keep Sarah's interest. She is definitely a hands on learner. It does no good to recite facts if they have no meaning to you. So we must find ways to make them real for her. It seems to be helping.

Spanish continues to go great, she is starting to use a few phrases. Grammar and Spelling went well these two weeks. Sarah continues to read quite a bit. That is the plus side of having used literature based studies for several years. She reads a lot about whatever she is studying at the time.

Yea! we finished art study on Picasso. Sarah finally completed a drawing using his style of painting. Now on to someone else.

Well that is a look at our weeks. Hope everyone else had a great week also.

Week Two

Train up a child in the way in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

This is the hope that I cling to. So many days we are made to doubt the decisions we make where our children are concerned, and so many nights I cry out to my God for guidance and patience. I love this little girl who is longer a little girl but an amazing
young woman struggling to make her own way in this would. I'm grateful everyday for the daily moments that I've been able to share with her along this journey. Through all
the daily struggles and triumphs we have been blessed to share them together, what a
gift.

This week in Biology we continued to learn to classify organisms. We completed our
first experiment using the microscope, first viewing thread. Then we collected cheek
cells and prepared slides to view. Our first experience with methylene blue stain(messy).  Sarah really likes looking through the microscope. Yea, for excitement in a school subject.

Teaching textbooks for Pre Alg is coming along well. She is scoring 90's on her lessons. I'm satisfied with that.

Sarah has completed the Brain pop movies and quizzes for DNA, RNA, Mitosis,
heredity, and genetics. She continues to keep a food journal and jump on her trampoline in the afternoons.

She is progressing in Spanish. This week we studied different styles of South Carolina
houses. Reading about Robert Mills. She also watched videos of the shag and the
Charleston.

We read about Marco Polo and Prince Henry and mapped their travels. We have
continued to study Picasso, MRSA and not to forget grammar, spelling and lots
of literature. Sarah worked Wednesday morning at the wholesale. No animal auctions this week. Although she did help clean and disinfect all the chicken pens and coops.

Well on to another week. A few pictures of this week.

June 30, 2012 Sarah's 15th Birthday Party

Sarah opening gifts.

Opening gifts



Birthday Cake

Sarah's prized gift, cowboy boots.

Katie and JL cooking

First Week of Ninth Grade

The start of a whole new chapter in this exciting journey we travel. We have decided to start school early this year since our schedule is a little unconventional. Our goal is to be half way through by Thanksgiving. Our first week, we started by reading the Bible each morning and also Proverbs daily. Sarah will learn memory verses weekly. Our beginning study is on worldliness and learning what it is and how it affects us every day.

This week we reviewed multiplication by practicing daily, worksheets, and playing card games to review. Laughter makes learning much easier.

On to Biology. We are using Apologia's Exploring Creation with Biology this year. We discussed lab safety, expectations for daily reading, answering the on your own
questions and vocabulary. We learned the parts of the mircoscope and how to use it.
Quiz on the microscope. Off to a good start. Learning about the classification system.

This year we are also doing a middle school chemistry  to build a foundation for next year. We are having fun reading about the different states of matter, starting to learn some of the chemicals in everday items we use. Brain pop is coming in handy here also. We also learned about Lavoisier this week.

Sarah wanted to learn about the body systems, so this week we studied cells. She read a magazine by Kids Discover about cells, watched Brain Pop movies and took tests on
cells, cell structures, cell specialiazation, cellular respiration, and cancer. She ended the week by labeling a cell.

We started Rosetta Stone Spanish this week. She is enjoying this very much. You
must use the microphone and it keeps beeping until you can pronounce the words
properly.

American History seemed a little boring to both of us. This week was about Leif Erikson. She also read Walk the Worlds Rim. Not sure if its the curriculium or what, I guess we will see.

Language Arts started with capitalizations rules, spelling and vocabulary. We are doing extra spelling and vocabulary this year, gearing up for SATs.

We tried to spend some time studing Picasso. We read about his background
and looked at some of his work. Sarah found his work to be "weird". So much for art
appreciation from a teenager. We will keep trying.

We studied MRSA this week. What is is, where it is found, how it is treated, etc.

This week Sarah also went to the animal sale on Tuesday night, worked her regular job on Wednesday and kept up her chores with the animals.

We also had a wonderful family celebration with our family on Friday night. What a full and busy week.