Where We're At

Just a list of how far we're at, for no particular reason.

History - we started Story of the World Volume 2 in September - we are on chapter 28.

Science - we are doing Apologia Exploring Creation with Astronomy - We are only on Venus

Geography - we are using Trail Guide to World Geography, and have gone way out of order, but have done quite a few weeks of geography.

Grammar - we started First Language Lessons, intending on doing both 1st and 2nd grade in one year; we are almost done with 1st grade.

Reading - We completed Teach Your Child to read in 100 easy lessons.  Aiden is reading very, very, well.  Alysa has worked through some BOB books, and has also completed ETC book 3, and is almost done with book 4. The goal is to also finish book 5.

Math - Aiden is in Singapore 1 A, and things aren't quite working out like I thought, so I'm going to have to spend some time on that.  Alysa is using Math-U-See and is on Beta and has been pretty consistent at working through it and understanding it all; she is on lesson 17, out of 30.

Memorization - They both learned Luke 2:11-12; Aiden learned Isaiah 9:6, Alysa learned Micah 5:2 and 4; they both know the President's song, and Alysa memorized Rain by R.L. Stevenson, and the Tomorrow speech from Macbeth, and they both learned some of the Classical Conversations history sentences.

It feels like we haven't accomplished nearly what I wanted to by now, but looking at it, we've done more than I thought.  Now I'm even more motivated to really get going this year and be more diligent about our schedule.

Getting ready

I am so hit and miss with this blog.  And I keep having kids and keep having to redo things.....I'll have to change the header picture again since we have  5 now, and the baby is already 8 months old and just cut his first teeth!   I want to try, or 'resolve' as the case may be, to blog a lot more regularly on here.  We'll see how that goes!    I am getting ready to start the Time Traveler's Explorers and it looks amazing!   I'm going to intersperse it with SOTW 2, and even Paddle to the Sea, so it's going to be a 3-4 month long thing, assuming I can even stay on schedule.  But we are working on that.  So, hopefully, I'll be able to chronicle what we're doing and how well the TT is working out.  I always see a lot of people asking about it, and I was too, before I bought it, so maybe this will help someone, getting to see it used. 

New World Explorers

New design

There we go.  A new design.  I need to make a couple more entries to bump off my McCain/Palin rally entry....for some reason the text and pictures don't fit now.

Happy New Year!

Just another blank entry to fix the template!

McCain and Palin!!!

ok, details!  First off - these 'reports' about the crowd being hand-picked or whatever is just nonsense.  They sent out an email on Saturday, and it was on the news, and then it was first come, first serve Monday morning at the GOP offices to get tickets.  We got our tickets very fortunately.  I called the GOP office on Saturday and talked to the lady and told her we had reserved tickets but that I had 5 kids and wouldn't be able to get there Mon. morning, would there still be tickets left, and she said to call her back on Monday and she'd let me know.  So I called her back on Monday and she said all the tickets were gone, and I almost started crying.  I told her that I had talked to her on Sat, and she thought there would be plenty of tickets, etc.....and then she says 'I remember talking to you!  I set 2 tickets aside for you this morning'.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   I couldn't believe it!   How nice was she?   She did that for a couple of other people too.  So I went in Mon night and had our tickets!


We got there around 3:30 and there was already a really long line. Turned out we were still towards the front half of the line.  Shortly after we got there, the line was really really long, and we were seated for probably an hour and the line was still entering the building.  It was so much fun seeing all the media.  Being a journalist would be so cool.  We saw Carl Cameron from Fox News near the enterance. He paused and smiled for me.  (I still haven't forgotten your terrible treatment of Fred, Carl!)  

The music and the initial speakers were realllllly loud.  Painfully loud.  It seemed somewhat better when Sarah and John came out.  They stayed in the middle, and talked for 10-15 minutes, and then they started taking questions.  It seemed like it was a lot of questions, but the news said they only took 13.  The event had been billed to run until 10:30, so when they said they were done right before 8, I was a little bummed.  10:30 would have made for very long, probably getting boring by then, but I wonder how that got advertised like that.  They got some good questions and gave some good answers for the most part.  Someone asked all the naysayers on her foreign policy and gave her a chance to rebut that, and I thought her answer was kind of shallow, really.  But I saw the lady who asked the question on the news and she said she liked Sarah's answer, so whatever.  Her answer was basically 'I'm ready on Day 1, I know foreign policy, you can ask me about it'  The lady who asked the question was in front of me and she wanted to ask a follow-up question but didn't get a chance. Someone at some point asked Sarah something about oil and she went off saying it was nonsense that Bush went over to Saudi Arabia asking them to increase their production for us.  It was awesome. 

Sarah was really good.  She looked and sounded exactly like she did on TV.  John McCain sounded even more passionate about things in his answers than I usually hear on TV.  They work really well together.  A lot of the questions were for one or the other, and so after they answered it, the other one would jump in and add something, or the other person would say 'do you want to add anything'.   It really seemed like a partnership.  I know I've read things implying that Sarah will make the VP slot a useless one, but that really doesn't seem to be the case.   They worked really well together.

Here are pictures!


My cool t-shirt I made.



The quote is from Nancy Pelosi in a Ladies Home Journal interview she gave a year or so ago.
Article link




The protesters.


Campaign Carl gives me a smile!




Campaign Carl on-air!




The media!!!  That was so cool.   I love watching the media and journalists.


Sarah!!!


John!!!




I ran over chairs and squeezed my way up when it was over to get pictures and autographs!   I'm almost there!  Sarah, wait!  Wait for me!

Come back Sarah, come back!!!!!


Oh well, hey, I'll take you Todd!!!  I got one autograph.  Thanks First Dude!

Ancient Rome projects

So we are moving moving moving through ancient Rome.  They're memorizing the first 11 emperors of Rome, along with Julius Caesar  being the first dictator.  I'm still trying to come up with some sort of weekly lesson planning.  I think I'm going to try a checklist for dd....I think that might help with the 'when can I be done' whining. 





Building a Roman Road




Salt Maps of Italy, and yes, they know Italy isn't an island, LOL.

Ancient Rome

ooh, we're slowing getting it together.  I'm so pleased with myself.  I actually have 2 weeks scheduled and so far it's been working.  We are in week 2 of 4 weeks of Rome, and then we're going to do a couple of weeks on India and a couple of weeks on China.   I'm using this time for the kids to learn, obviously but also to figure out how to get a schedule going and figure out how to plan,  record our work and keep track of all the information/links, etc.....b/c I really have to start doing better with next year.  2nd grade can't be as laid back as this year was...we're really going to have to keep on in spite of toddlers next year.

So - Ancient Rome

Reading
Story of the World, chapters 27, 28, 34, 35, 36, 38-42
Audio book of 50 famous stories -- The Story of Regulus, Cornelia’s Jewels, Julius Caesar,  Androclus and the Lion
Julius Caesar in the book Bravo, Mr. William Shakespeare! –Williams J822.33

City – Macaulay J 711.4

Rome – Barber J945.63

Look what came from Italy – Harvey J945

The Roman Empire J937.06

The Romans J937

and other roman books from the same areas of the library.

Copywork
Rome was not built in a day.

All roads lead to Rome.

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. – Shakespeare


Geography
mapwork from SOTW activity guide
customized Italy maps
Geosafari
salt map of Italy

Other
PBS DVD's on Ancient Rome
Dover Ancient Rome coloring book
Famous Men of Ancient Rome
Build a roman road
make a timeline
make mini-books - blank templates    country templates