Thursday, January 7, 2016

Reading list for the month of December

Sophie:
Nancy Drew: The Hidden Staircase
Nancy Drew Notebooks: The Crazy Carnival Case
Nancy Drew Notebooks: The Sandcastle Mystery by Lemony Snicket
The Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
The Series of Unfortunate Events: The Ersatz Elevator  by Lemony Snicket
American Girl Magazines

Christian:
The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom
Star Wars: Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Hostile Hospital by Lemony Snicket
Star Wars: Queen of the Empire by Paul Davis and Hollace Davis
Star Wars Jedi Apprentice: The Dark Rival by Jude Watson

Tracey:
Quantum Faith by Annette Capps
By Heart: A Mother's Story of Children and Learning at Home By Kathleen Melin
Switch on Your Brain :The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking and Health by Dr.Caroline Leaf
Plain Faith: A True Story Of Tragedy, Loss and Leaving the Amish by Irene Eash

Read Together:
Lincoln a Photobiography
Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank Gilbreth, Jr and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

Monday, January 4, 2016

Fun learning

Today was our first day back to homeschooling after two weeks off for Christmas vacation.
The first thing we did was read the Bible together. Christian, Sophie and I are following the same Bible reading plan, but we usually read separately.  Today Sophie asked if we could read Luke chapter 4 together. She had us each take turns reading different translations. It was a wonderful start!

Next, I had Sophie choose between 3 science picture books I had picked up at the library. She Chose "Why Can't You Unscramble and Egg, and other not such dumb questions about matter" by Vicki Cobb.  She loves science and was very interested. We had a good discussion about atoms, molecules and elements. She played me a song from the "Brain Beats" album that teaches the element names and symbols.

Then I made a list of things that I wanted to do, and I let her choose from the list. Sophie wrote "Agenda" at the top. Here is the list:

Mathplayround.com
Yatzee
Embroidery
Life of Fred (fun math book)
Read together "Behind Rebel Lines" (about a woman spy during the Civil War)
Silent Reading  Nancy Drew "The Hidden Staircase"
Scrabble game
Start a family newspaper (she later added this to the list)

Sophie spent a lot of time playing on mathplayground.com. She played a few math games, then she found a geography state capital game. She was excited to play it because she learned the state capitals last year on her own with this Brain Beats song.  We read 3 chapters of "Behind Rebel Lines", then Christian and I did an experiment and read from "Exploring Creation with Physical Science". Sophie looked at a newspaper to get ideas, then started working on her own family newspaper. She didn't want me to see what she was working on because she wants me to be surprised! Later Sophie and I played Yatzee while Christian edited a movie he is making.

It turned out to be a great day!