TOS Review: Flea Circus from R and R Games

This is my first year on the TOS Review Crew, so I am especially excited about it!  I was very excited when the Flea Circus Game arrived in my mailbox.  Noodle was even more excited because he LOVES games.

Flea Circus is a game for 2-6 players, ages 6 and up from R and R Games Incorporated and it retails for $15.95

We played three games in a row on the day it arrived.  The first game was our "learning" game to figure out how it all worked.  It's a card game that will fine tune a little person's math skills.

The goal of the game is to win with the most spectator points.  Basically, there is a Flea Circus in town and the spectators are cats and dogs.  Dog spectators are worth 2 points and cat spectators are worth 1 point.  Players should always have 5 cards in their hand, so each time a card is played, another is drawn.  Players play cards with a number value to earn spectators.  If a player plays a card with a 3 on it they can take 1 dog and 2 cats or 3 cats for a total of 3 spectator points.  There are other cards, like a clown card, flea acrobat card, animal catcher card and a free ticket card that also earn the player spectator points.  The free ticket card is a fun card because you can take spectators from other players.  Noodle loves this feature since it means his opponent is losing points!  (Poor kid has no competitive spirit! - Yeah right.)

Besides being fun to play and games not taking too long, I really like the total package.  The size isn't going to take up too much space on the game shelf (it's 4" x 7" x almost 3") and the baggies that all the little rubber cats and dogs came in are reuseable, ziploc style bags which meant I didn't need to use my own to store all the pieces.  Everything fits compactly in to the box so there isn't much wasted space.

Along with the game I received their catalog and it looks like they have several fun, educational games.

If you'd like to read other reviews about Flea Circus you can go to the TOS Crew Blog.

If you'd like to purchase the Flea Circus game you can go to the R and R Games Website and at checkout you can get 20% off any purchase by using the Promo Code: CREW20

Blood Model - 2nd Grade Science

We use a combination of RSO (Real Science Odyssey) and Elemental Science.  We are almost finished with RSO:Life and Biology for the Grammar stage.  Right now we are still studying the Human Body.
One of this week's science projects was making a Blood Model.  This assignment is from RSO:Life and it is detailed in the FREE Try Before You Buy download from Pandia Press.  The goal of the assignment is to learn what makes up our blood and to see what a drop of blood would look like under a high powered microscope.

First we gathered all our supplies: Red Hots, Corn Syrup (Light), Lima Beans, Lentils, a clear glass jar, 4 crayons (tan, blue, yellow and red), 1/2 measuring cup and 1 tablespoon.  I will say we modified and used double the amount of light corn syrup because it just didn't look as awesome with less.

Before making the blood, we learned what the blood is comprised of.  RSO includes a worksheet to color and label the blood parts.

Here is a "drop of blood" magnified - in a jar.

A very cool close up.

The final results.

Weekly Report Week 1 - 8/22 - 8/6

Join the fun and check out other Weekly Reports at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

~What We Are Reading~

Me: Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Bear: Johnny Tremain, The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier and William Carey: Obliged to Go (Christian Heroes: Then & Now)

Noodle: Various Reading Aloud with Mom

Monday:  See all about our first day HERE.

Tuesday - Friday

Bear's Week
Bear has a very full load this year.  He has Bible/World Religions,  Literature and Composition (covers grammar, writing, poetry, literature), US History II (covers history and geography), Biology w/lab, and several electives Philosophy (.5 credit course for a whole year), Logic I, Intro Russian and plus he is still finishing Algebra I before starting Geometry later this year. 

Bible/World Religions: This week he is reading through Matthew and recording thoughts and questions in a journal.  Hippo Campus has a course for World Relgions which includes videos to watch.  He watched the first couple of videos and has been doing the assigned reading.

History/Geography/Church History: This week he has been reading about Napoleon and about happenings when John Adams was President.  TOG suggests starting a Presidential Card Bank, so he started that.  Basically, the cards have information about each President and eventually it will be a great resource to look back in for basic information.  Friday he took his first History test and passed with 100%.  His first A+ on a History test, so he was kind of thrilled.

Biology:  He started Module 1 of Apologia Biology and he did some corresponding reading in the Biology text by Miller/Levine.  No labs this week.

Literature and Composition:  Since this was the first week, he started a new Grammar/Comp notebook.  We reviewed the steps of the writing process, did some grammar review, started a new Vocabulary (Vocabulary from Classical Roots - C) which I really like so far.  Also, he started reading Johnny Tremain.  For Poetry this week he read and did analysis questions for The Panther, Storm Ending, Dust of Snow, The Crow and Cavalry Crossing a Ford. 

Logic:  This semester we are going through The Art of Argument.  Excellent so far and I am REALLY excited about this course for Bear considering his passion for believing something that is so full of propaganda and fallacies (Evolution).  I am praying as we work through this course and he becomes familiar with the types of fallacies that he will begin to recognize them as he reads and views materials.

Philosophy:  Tapestry of Grace has a component at the Rhetoric level, the Pageant of Philosophy.  This school year we are continuing to read through the TOG readings, background information on the philosophers we are covering, as well as having discussions about the topics.  Additionally, in light of our current situation, I have decided to add reading and lectures by William Lane Craig, who I just discovered this week at the suggestion of a friend. 

Noodle's Week
Bible: Memory Verse Psalm 33:3.  I am using A Reason For Handwriting for all the memory verses this year.  We are still working through him reading aloud from his Beginner's Bible.

Math:  He started Abeka Arithmetic 2.  So far, it is way too easy because it is reviewing material from Book 1.  We even skipped ahead to lesson 13. 

Language Arts: Continued with Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading, Explode the Code Book 4 and CLE Language Arts. 

History:  Read about the French Revolution and we are reading through The Revolutionary John Adams.  We were supposed to make a Quill Pen but we didn't get to it.   Hopefully we will do that on Monday.

Geogrpahy:  He started a cumulative map project that we will continue to work on through the school year.  We Googled pictures of lots of different land forms: peninsula, bay, island, delta, plateau, mountain range, river mouth etc.  We will be doing a salt dough map next week too, hopefully.

Science:  Noodle did a a lab where he had to track his pulse rate during different activities.

Also, he made a blood model. This is what a drop of blood would look like under a microscope.  More on this project will be in a separate post.

Latin:  He loves Song School Latin! I am so excited!  He totally took to it and loves it. He knows salve, valve, discupli and magistra!  The songs are actually kind of catchy so far.  He completed Chapter 1.

See you next week!

When a Child Stops Believing

This was our first week of our new school year.  All in all it went pretty well, with the exception of  my 15 year old declaring he no longer believes in God.  I'll start there.  My initial reaction was anger.  Now, I just feel crushed and broken hearted.  My chest hurts and I need to take time outs in my room or the bathroom, to go cry and then compose myself.  I suppose if there is anything in this situation I can be thankful for it's that this is happening now, while my son is still under my care and authority and not while he is off at his first year of college.  I have not lost hope and I am praying for him and praying for people to cross his path, people that he is inspired by and has respect for and that can help him navigate through this.  I know my son isn't the first teen to go through this and I take comfort in knowing other people went this direction only to come full circle back to believing.
I feel responsible, as his parent, that somehow my own lack of being a Godly example has contributed to this.  He says it is science that convinced him, but I know he looks at my husband and me and sees hypocrites.  We don't even have a home church right now because we can't find one we like!  So many Christians today are seen as hateful and judgemental so who wants to be associated with that?  So many claim to be Christians today that it just doesn't mean what it used to. A dear friend of mine told me Christians leave a bad taste in her mouth and she prefers the description, "Followers of Christ" because it is a more accurate description of what Christians should be.  I know that I can't fully blame myself - but there are things I should have done better as a Christian parent.  Things as simple as saying Grace at the dinner table.  Praising God out loud in front of my kids.  Praying with them more often.  Letting them see me in the Word.  I have no consistency with any of those things.  I am not the "picture perfect" Christian.  Sadly, I don't think my actions show that I am a "Follower of Christ."  So, can I really be so shocked when my son says religion is ridiculous and not appealing?  Somehow he has the impression that the existence of God should = no problems and no unhappiness.  He asks the same thing millions of atheists have asked, and that is, if God is a loving God why all the suffering?  Why create sinners? Why if He is all knowing, did he create such imperfect people?  Why allow evil?  Why allow children to die?  He doesn't believe the Bible represents truth - it is just a bunch of stories.

Then there is the science side and all the questions there.  Such as..... How does a virgin give birth?  How did the Ark hold and sustain all the animals? How did siblings mate to populate the world with out deformities, etc?  How come we share DNA with so many other creatures?  It just goes on and on.

He shared with me that he didn't "come out" so to speak, earlier because he was afraid the parents of his friends wouldn't let them be friends anymore.  That breaks my heart.  Non-believers should never be afraid of that.  In fact, that is one reason so many Christians are seen as hateful, that at a time when love and patience is desperately needed, they offer abandonment instead.  As if non-believing is contagious.  I can confidently say that showing christian love and honoring the Great Commission doesn't = cutting off a relationship.  Many non-believers think Christians are jerks for this very kind of thing and I can't say I blame them.  My son needs Christian friends and people that love him, to get him through this.  I feel in our close circle that no one will abandon him, but I am not so sure about the circle at large.

I honestly don't feel equipped to deal with this.  My friend shared with me that God has my son in my family for a reason, that he could have been part of an atheist family, but he isn't and that I should hold on to that.  She also pointed out that this isn't the end of the road for my son and that I can't lose hope, but I can't help feeling that this is a matter of life and death, considering that I believe what I believe.  All I really know how to do right now is talk about this and PRAY.  Your prayers for my son's heart and mind are so welcome, appreciated and needed.  If you have gone through something like this and can share some hope with me, I could use it right now.

This was going to be my Weekly Accomplishments post, but I just can't launch in to the things we did this week in the same post that I spill my guts on this heart heavy issue. 

A Day In the Life - First Day 2011/2012

To participate in the Not Back to Homeschool Blog Hop for this week's "Day In the Life" theme, I have documented our first day of the new school year.  We started Monday the 22nd, but I have since purchased a new laptop and there is a learning curve in addition to not having ANY of my stuff transferred yet. 


I slept in until 7:07.  I didn't mean to.  I woke up to MY coffee mug being missing.  I thought I made clear to everyone in this house, that my coffee mug was just that, MINE.  No one is permitted to touch or use it.  I know it sounds crazy, but an old friend gave it to me as a gift.  It is huge, pink and from Starbucks.  I would be sad without it.  Coffee wouldn't be the same.  After grilling everyone who was awake and getting no where, I sent Bear up to Super Duper's room to look for it. Sure enough, it was in there with something chocolate crusted in it!!!!!  I cleaned it out and proceed to enjoy my coffee while checking email.  When Super Duper came down to leave for work I firmly reminded him of my rule.  He had the nerve to laugh!!! Do you believe it? 

Bear was in his seat ready to start before I even poured my coffee.  He started the day off reading Matthew Chapter 1.  For part of his christian studies this year I am having him keep a notebook where he can record thoughts about what he read and any questions that come to him.  I am actually in crisis with him in regards to his faith, so prayer there would be much appreciated. He has decided since everything can be explained naturally, ie, "evolution," that he sees no reason for God.  It is really distressing for me and all I can do is pray through it and try to guide him.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't angry, because I am.  I am working through it with God.  Anyway, for Matthew 1, the question he wrote in his notebook:  How can a virgin give birth?  My answer will be unacceptable to him, because it isn't explained scientifically.  So, if anyone out there has something constructive to share in regards to his question, that would be great.

Next, he watched the introductory video for one of his electives, World Religions.  We are doing the Hippo Campus online class.  I found the text at Amazon for about $6 including shipping.  It is World Religions in America: An Introduction (3rd edition).  Basically, a quick and painless intro. 

After the World Religions video, he moved on to his next elective, Church History 1800's.  He read the first Chapter of William Carey: Obliged to Go. 

For History, we use Tapestry of Grace. One of the alternate resources is Heritage of Freedom, by Abeka Books.  We only use it to read from, we don't use it as a textbook course.  After doing a little reading he started on his Geography, which was two fold today. He began a Cumulative Map Project that he will continue to work on through out the school year.  He also labled a map with all the major landforms of the Eastern United States.

After Geography we tackled some Government.  He read the Declaration of Independence, answered four questions about it and then we had a brief (less than 10 minutes) discussion/review of his answers.

For English, he did one CLE Grammar lesson.  We started a new Vocabulary program this year after years and years of using Wordly Wise.  I felt it was time for a change, so we began Vocabulary from Classical Roots - C.  I followed the teacher guide to get a feel for how this curiculum is supposed to go.  It went well.  We spent about 15 minutes reviewing the words and he completed the Key Word Master List.  Based on today, I like this new program.

For our TOG Writing Aids assignment, all we did today was review the steps of the writing process and start note sheets for the parts of speech.  Typical review/introductory stuff that comes at the beginning of a school year.

Another program we added this year is The Art of Poetry from Classical Academic Press.  LOVE IT!! I had so much fun going through the book when inputting lesson plans for it in to the Homeschool Tracker.  I am going to buy a second student notebook and save the set for Noodle to use years from now. That's how much I love it.  I had the TM binding cut off and make it spiral bound.  It makes my life easier.  Today's work centered on Images and he entered all of Chapter one's vocabulary in his Art of Poetry Composition Notebook.

The Literature reading for this week and the next few weeks is, The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier.  He read the introduction pages today and completed an Activity Page for it, whose purpose was to learn how to scan for information while making some history connections.

All that was before lunch!  After lunch we tackled our new Logic program,The Art of Argument.  Also, loving this already!  We just read an introduction and answered some intro questions. 

For Science he did some ereading and questions from Apologia Exploring Creation with Biology and he also did some reading from the Miller/Levine Biology text.  For additional science reading, with much eye rolling from him, he is reading The Great Dinosaur Mystery Solved.

He is still working on Algebra I as well.  He finished his by by 2:30.  Not a bad first day.

Noodle had a very productive day as well, but we definitely didn't get to all we had planned because he has a case of getsdistracteditis.  He did his A Reason for Handwriting: Level A: Manuscript Student Workbook and practiced saying the verse for his memory verse this week.  Compose new songs of praise to God. Psalm 33:3 

For Language Arts he completed 2 pages of Explode the Code/Book Four, 1 CLE 105 Lesson, 1 FLL oral lesson, and one lesson from The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading.   We read Rapunzel and then completed a literature sheet.

For math he did a speed drill and one lesson from the Abeka 2 Arithmetic book.  We are skipping some of the inital lessons because they are just too easy and I see it as a waste of time to do it just for the sake of doing it.  He hasn't had any break from math so we really don't need to cover all this review stuff at this time. 

During history time, all we managed to do was read the first have of You Wouldn't Want to Be an Aristocrat in the French Revolution!: A Horrible Time in Paris You'd Rather Avoid.

We never made it to science or geography.

After school - about 2:30 we headed out to shop for new laptops! It was exciting! Bear and I both got new HP's.  His is a standard 3GB, charcoal color.  I however, got an HP Pavillion g series HOT PINK laptop. I love the way it looks, but learning to use it after being on the same system for several years, is trying my patience a tad.  I am totally grateful however that we could buy them, so I will limit my complaining about the learning curve.

Friday I will do our first Weekly Report of the week and hopefully I will have everything figured out by then and be back featuring more photos on the blog!

Study America Saturday #1- The Revolutionary War

Nicole at Journey to Excellence has started a new link up called Study America Saturday.

This summer hasn't been what I had hoped in regards to completing our history studies. We have been doing condensed studies so that next week we can start on TOG Year 3 Unit 1.

Noodle finished watching Disc 1 of Liberty's Kids.




We got a library book, Aaron and the Green Mountain Boys.




That was the extent of Noodle's first grade American History this week.

Bear continued reading from Heritage of Freedom, published by Abeka.  We basically wrapped up our study of the Revolutionary War.
 

Bear read Patrick Henry's famous speech, Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death as well as The Declaration of Independence.  He researched the following famous people: Horatio Gates, Marquis de Lafayette

General Howe, General Burgoyne, General Charles Lee, John Paul Jones, Francis Marion, George Washington, Paul Revere, John Hancock, John Adams, Samuel Adams and Benedict Arnold.  He writes up short summaries of who these people are and what they are famous for. We have been using the World Book Encyclopedia CD-Rom for this, but starting next week we will be using the prepared summaries provided by Tapestry of Grace.  To save time, he will basically copy their summaries in to his own notebook.

He mapped the early and major battles of the Revolutionary War.

Next week we will start a unit called "When John Adams Was President" and there will be a focus on Napoleon and the Alien and Sedition Acts, as well as the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights.

TOS Crew Blog Hop

8/19 - 8/31 Check out the TOS Crew Blog Hop!  This is my first year on The Old School House Crew! I am so excited to be a reviewer. I have already received and started to use four products and I look forward to telling you all about them in the coming month or so.

This year the Crew will be doing blog hops.  The first one is HERE.  You don't have to be part of the TOS Crew to participate. If you are a homeschooler and a blogger you can join the fun.

S is for Socialization

S is for Socialization.  Homeschoolers know what I am going to say, so this is for the non-homeschoolers out there that may be reading this.  Socialization and socializing are two different things. 

Socialization is a noun, meaning: a continuing process whereby an individual acquires a personal identity and learns the norms, values, behavior, and social skills appropriate to his or her social position.

Socializing is a verb, meaning:  to make social; make fit for life in companionship with others.

They do both go hand in hand, but they are different.  Socialization happens during the act of socializing in a lot of cases.  I don't know where the ridiculous notion came from that public school is "the" place for socialization to take place.  I can't think of a worse place for it than there!  In our district, at the elementary level, kids get recess once a week, they aren't permitted to speak much during the lunch break, they can't speak in class, P.E. isn't a daily activity and this year in our district there are 48 days of state testing in ONE SEMESTER.  Yes, that is crazy, but another subject entirely.  My point is, when is all this "socialization" supposed to happen? 

Why is it that being isolated in a room six hours a day, with people all the same age (except one), all being taught the same thing and all being expected to act one way - why is that considered "normal?"  Where else in real life does this happen?  Even as adults in the workplace, that may be isolated in a small work room, there are at least varying ages and all the employees have a different function.

From my perspective, here is how public school looks: File in single lines, no talking unless you get called on after raising your hand, stay in your seat, practice daily for a test and for some kids - get tortured by other kids when the adults aren't looking.  It doesn't sound very social to me.

When people ask homeschoolers, "What about socialization?"  we tend to start defending ourselves by listing off all the things our kids do with others.  People are asking because they erroneously think that homeschoolers are weird, anti-social and isolated.  I am sure there are homeschoolers out there that fit that description, but as a former attendee of public school I can attest that there are lots of people fitting that description inside the public school too. 

Socialization is learned at home in the early years and later from peers.  Therein lies the problem for me.  I don't want my children having the norms, values, behavior and social skills that society at large has.  I don't want them to believe they need to call other people names because other people are doing it. I don't want their personal value to be tied up in what name brand clothing or shoes they are wearing.  I don't want them to be afraid of communicating with older people or people different from themselves.

I can assure you that my homeschooled children know not to pick their nose in public.  They know how to share without having subtle "socialist" brainwashing aimed at them on a daily basis.  (Yeah, that is another "s" word entirely!) They know how to respect those in authority.  They know how to wait in line.  They know how to wait their turn.  They know how to work with others.  Amazingly, they learned these things without the assistance of the public school classroom.  They learned it by living life. 

Apologia and Miller Levine Biology Lesson Plans

Since my Bear is a future science major, Zoology to be precise, he spends quite a bit of time studying science.  He will be taking the Biology AP Test in May of 2012, so to prepare for that he will be doing a quite rigorous Biology course.  The course is covering the complete Apologia Biology text and quite a bit of the Miller/Levine Text.  Apologia takes the creation/young earth viewpoint and Miller/Levine is evolutionary/old earth.  We are doing both because I want my son to come to his own conclusions AND clearly the AP Biology test won't be creation/young earth focused. 

Resources:

Apologia Biology 2nd Edition Student Text and Test/Solutions book
Miller/Levine Biology Copyright 2004 ISBN # 0-13-037601-x
Miller/Levine Guided Reading and Study Workbook ISBN # 0-13-115286-6
Miller/Levine Annotated Teacher's Edition for Guided Reading and Study Workbook ISBN # 0-13-115297-1
Writing Papers in the Biological Sciences by Victoria E. McMillan
Barron's AP Biology
Dissection Kit from Home Science Tools

I did not include the reading assignments from the Writing Papers in the Biological Sciences book.  I am doing separate lesson plans for the research paper assignments and that book is included there.  I have not completed those plans yet.  Also, I did not include the AP Test Practice assignments.  Additionally, I have not included any of the additional reading he will do for the books I listed here.  I know it looks like a lot, and it is, but Bear is a voracious reader and devours most things science related.  The additional reading will mostly be his choice and on his time frame, they are not requirements.

My son will spend an hour to an hour and a half per day on Biology.  With AP test practicing and writing one research paper a semester, it could work out to a little longer.  This will be our first foray in to AP testing so I honestly don't know what to expect. I may discover we are a little overkill or it may turn out to be just what Bear needed.  The AP Test score will the proof in the pudding I suppose.

You can download the Lesson Plans that I uploaded to http://www.hslaunch.com/  I have the course planned out to be completed in 154 school days.  Some days there are two assignments to tackle and other days there are three and four.  They are in sequential order 1- 154 and the assignments are in sequential order within the 1- 154 order.  I used Homeschool Tracker to create these plans.  You may share them as long as you link back here to my blog when you are directing people to the lesson plans.

Weekly Accomplishments 8/1 - 8/4

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~What We Are Reading~

Me: The Book Whisperer

Bear: Johnny Tremain, Life

Noodle: Diary of a Wimpy Kid

I am still reading The Book Whisperer - I use the word "still" loosely since I haven't picked it up in days. I am too busy lesson planning and keeping up with regular life stuff, to have time to pick the book up.  I am under pressure (my own) to get the lesson plans done by the 22nd, which is our official start to the 2011-2012 school year.

Noodle is DONE with Abeka Arithmetic 1 and HE is really excited to start on the Arithmetic 2 books. I felt guilty telling him no.  Instead we are playing math games and I am writing down random math problems in his new spiral notebook.  (Who knew a 20 cent spiral notebook could make a kid so happy??)  He is writing random sentences too.  Interestingly enough, I noticed a downside to "copy work."  It gives the teacher (me) a false sense of the child's spelling abilities.  What he wrote on his own without any copying or asking me to spell anything was so horribly wrong, but it was too cute and I didn't have the heart to correct him.  There's plenty of time for that on a "real" school day.  I am saving this little notebook of his because I am sure it will get filled with precious treasures that I will want to look back on or show his own children someday.

Bear only has Algebra and History each day.  I wish he didn't despise studying history so much as it is one of my favorite subjects.  As long as he knows the basics and can write coherent history essays I guess that is all that matters.  Science is his passion so I let him spend a lot of time on that.  He devours non-fiction science topic books on a regular basis so that is a good thing.

In other news, I am going back to school.  Call me crazy.  I am only going part time - 3 classes a semester.  I am majoring in English and I am considering double majoring or minoring in History.  End goal: to retire my husband and teach, once my kids are done with school.  I may consider teaching at a private school that Noodle could attend part time as a high school student or that is flexible enough to allow me to continue homeschooling him through high school. 

I am really hoping that majoring in English will improve my writing and help me cut down on writing errors.  I don't recall much about writing from my public school education or my prior college experience.  Most of what I now know comes from homeschooling the kids and reading great writing.  I love literature, but I hate grammar.  I know lots of grammar, but I want to master it.

Operation Rat Breeding is in full force.  He has over 100 live rats right now.  He will be euthanizing and freezing another bunch as soon as they are the size he wants.  Bear always picks a couple to keep as breeders, if he likes their coloring.  This little guy has his favor so he is keeping him as a breeder.  Isn't he cute?

Speaking of cute, here is Roxy taking a rest in the classroom.  The dogs like to be wherever we are.  Look at her ear, just standing straight up.  She doesn't want to miss anything - hehehe.

See what other homeschoolers acccomplished this week at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers link up.