December already...

Well it is December already and we are still going. We are playing catch up on a few assignments and trying to get through another week. I truely feel that Cody is ADHD, and that he may drive me crazy. I will write again tomorrow to catch up.

The week ahead Sept.27- Oct.1

This week we will:

• Get lessons 35-40 done + 2 tests and an investigation in Math
• Get 4 experiments done and take the test on our plants unit
• Finish up our geography unit in social studies
• Finish up our grammar unit and start a new spelling list and unit in English 
• Learn about Chopin and listen to his works
• Start Ceramics class at the college wednesday.
• Continue to learn about the human body in health and try to exercise daily

If all goes well we will both servive another week, just kidding.

I also hope to get my homework done before sunday night this week. If only there were a couple extra hours in each day.

I'll try and let you know how it goes later this week.

Catching up and not killing my son.

I missed last week so basically here's how it went.

Cody and I had a bit of a disagreement. I am boss and school work comes before well everything else. He didn't think so on either case. He lost most of his privileges. He can still watch tv and check his facebook after school but that is it. NO more video games or surfing youtube or movies or family guy or anything else.

Now that he remembers that I am boss things are going smoother.

Last week we got through lesson 34 in math.
We didn't get any science experiments completed, we did record for the seed experiment but we still need to write it up.
We are looking at world culture in history.
We had a break on spelling but had extra grammer. He is reading Peak and seems to enjoy that the kid is relatable.
For art he attempted to creat certain shapes from the peices of a square and circle, he didn't really get it but it was interesting to see how hard it really was.
For music we researched Clint Mansell. He really likes his Requium for a Dream. Clint is still alive and his family history is not so available. We also like to youtube our composer of the week and listen to several peices and write how it makes him feel or how he feels about the piece.
In health/PE we are going over the human body and all its great systems and trying to include physical activity in our day.

I am not a super fan of the unit study as setup in SOS so I am considering switching to Sonlight for atleast history and language arts. I am hoping that the related reading assignments will help with his understanding of the topics.

Looking back I wish I had taken him from school years ago. I hope I can work through this trying time and get my baby back.

The week ahead Sept. 13-19

We have a busy week ahead of us this week. Here are the plans:

For Math we have lessons 21-29 including Test 4

For Science we have 3 experiments: Seeds we started last week will run through this week, Digestive Enzymes should get done Monday or Tuesday, and Celery will be starting on Sunday so we can have it done before our field trip and we are still working on Plants.

For English we have more spelling and adjectives & adverbs with quizzes on both.

For History we are moving on to the Eastern Hemisphere: Africa, Europe and Asia with a quiz.

For Music we will be looking at Mozart.

For Art we have more Lifepac.

And For Health/PE we have a walk and self test.

On a side note, I have 6 chapters myself to cover with all their related assignments and a Case Brief.
I was also invited to a Scholarship Appreciation Dinner at the University in October. I am not sure I will attend, I do appreciate my scholarship greatly but my husband is busy with work that day and I am not sure that I want to go with out him.

Is it really friday again?

So it doesn't seem it should be Friday again already. I feel like we just got started and its the weekend again. I know we did do a lot this week. Somehow it just doesn't seem like it should be Friday though.

This week we had a geography project due, that involved baking and decorating a monster cookie, we are still eating. The cookie turned out well even though we forgot to label with toothpicks. We also made a paper copy and he did a "photo album" of places in North America.

We used candy corn as mountains and lots of icing. The deserts are yellow sugar on white icing.

Today, we also started his next science experiment. I had planned to start yesterday, however we were waiting for supplies to come in, so today they arrived and we got started. We should be good for the next few experiments, supplies wise anyway. The experiment we started today looks at what seeds need to grow, specifically water and light. My kitchen cabinet is again the dark room. Pictures for this new experiment will be posted when something starts happening.

Cody has completed 3 tests in Saxon so far and his test scores keep improving. I am happy to see the improvements and glad to know that he is learning the material. Social Studies and English are a bit more challenging, he seems to do better with these if the questions are read out to him. I think that he is missing things in the online format, and might do better with a book or something. I really like the idea of Apologia's Audio Cd's for their courses.

And sadly, this week, Shark passed away. He was a short lived guest in our house. If we could all take a moment of silence for Shark.

Thank you all for stopping by.

Get back to the Weekly Wrap-up, but please feel free to post first.

Geography due yesterday....Done.

Cody had a project due yesterday. He had four choices and had to pick two. He picked a photo book with pictures from North America and a map of North America. We decided to make a cookie map. This is how the cookie went:

The cookie base

Decorating the cookie was fun we put the colored icing on and spread it with a knife. We used candy corn as mountains and yellow sugar as sand for the deserts.

The only problem with our icing choice was how hard it was to get the icing out of the tube.

I did some of the squeezing so that it would not take all night but he got to spread it out where it belonged.

The cookie didn't turn out just like his paper base, but it is pretty tasty.
Got this great idea from A Day in the Life.

Friday, the end of week one... or is it?

The week or 3 days has flown by. I have had a migraine and classes are going full swing. Cody is making a good effort and dare I say it but I think we are seeing the interest return.

Science has presented me with 5 Experiments it wanted done by the end of the month. In an effort to save my sanity later I set my own due dates and spread them out over the Unit.

Experiment One: Anacharis Photosynthesis is due first. Monday to be exact (my idea). We set up today after going to the Fish store for our Anacharis (Elodea).
The experiment is basically 2 test tubes with 3" sprigs of Anacharis filled with water (as little air as possible) upside down in cup/jars of water. One is stored in the dark, while the other is stored under constant light.
The light one should show signs of photosynthesis:  more air in the tube, tiny air bubles, etc. after 24 hours.

Here is the set up:

Ana wants to learn also.

Two identicle, almost, setups

This is the Light one

and this is the Dark one,
going in the kitchen cabinet.

And this is then about 11 hours later:

The light one has a bunch of little bubbles forming

While the one in the dark has only its original bubble
we couldn't get rid of.

We will finish observing around 1:20 pm tomorrow (saturday), and then there is a report and drawings to do.  The Science Project will move on to my Cousin Amber's house for a demo with her family.

On a side note, a byproduct of visiting the FISH store without cash, Meet Shark:

Turns out you have to spend atleast $5 to use a card... Shark was almost $5 by him/her self. The upside is Shark can be used later during our Experiment: Response.

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