More History...Math....Guitar....Horse Show....Eye Appts

 What a week.... we started out the week with Lydia competing in four classes at the All-American Quarter Horse show in Columbus.  This was a great learning experience.  She placed 10th in one class, and as a Finalist in two of the classes.  One class she did not receive anything, since her horse spooked during the competition.  She kept him under control, but it counted against her.

Caty and I did a little karaoke at one of the vendor areas.  Feel bad for the Chris Stapleton song we butchered.  But our hearts were in the right place.  She had stage fright, which is why I am up with her.  The gentleman running this booth gave her sunglasses to make her feel the part...lol

On Monday we were supposed to have trail riding with our Scout troop at a local metro park, but unfortunately one of the horses got sick.  Trailriding was cancelled, but we still met for lunch of smores and hot dogs over a fire.  It was cold, but the girls had fun.

Caty had an online class Monday afternoon on Outschool.  It was a Nature class about Fall.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but was very happy with it.  She enjoyed it, so I centered a bunch of our science/school work around Fall this week.  Next week we are going out of town on a Fall nature adventure in mid-Michigan.  So the timing is perfect.

I also used the Amanda Bennett Download N Go Autumn Study.  I have discovered using Youtube to watch many of the stories on the Suggested Reading List.  Saves me a trip to the library....lol.  Plus I have been so behind, that I haven't had time to even order the books.  I'm just grateful that we now have very forgiving libraries in our area since I have been forgetting to renew books too...big eyeroll here!

Math has been interesting this week.  Caty, not a big writer, is working on carryover and borrowing up to 4 columns.  She can handle it, and is doing well, but HATES that she can't just do the math in her head all the time...lol  So I pulled out the whiteboards, and she seemed better with it.

Lydia is working her way through her review...she's doing really well.  We may be able to start her back up again by December at more of her grade level.  We'll wait and see.

But there were a few math lessons done on the Ball....lol

Lydia is super excited to get the opportunity to try her hand at guitar again.  She started online lessons with Guitar 360 Method.  Watch for her review next month.  

In Geography this week we started studying the Greater Antilles islands.  This week we covered Haiti, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.   I'm using printables from Enchanted Learning.  They have some great printable sheets with Flags, maps and even flag quizzes.

For our meal, we made a Haitian pork dish we saw in a video and mixed it with the Cuban beans we made from this recipe.  We left out the rice, since beans have so many carbs.  Joe said it was really good.  Caty loved the pork, but doesn't like beans...lol

Lydia had 2 art classes online this week.  It just timed that way, since I had to reschedule one for her.  The first was one of her favorite artists, Van Gogh and her favorite work, Starry Night.

The other class was about MC Escher.  

Caty had a reveal for her castle that she built in Minecraft for History class.  She did so well!!  She was actually paying attention!!

In History, we listened to several chapters in our Story of the World Volume 2 while traveling.  We learned about early explorers into the New World and also African Kingdoms.  We listened to a Who Was book about William Shakespeare also.  The girls do not enjoy the same history learning style that I do.  So we are covering this area quickly.  We watched two more movies about this time period, A Knight's Tale and also Secret of the Kells.  We also watched a few documentaries I recorded from the Smithsonian and Discovery Channel on the Mayan and Aztec Empires....also covered in our history reading this week.

Lydia had another of her online Zoology classes, which she did NOT enjoy.  We were expecting something different from this class.  It's almost like an entire Biology class...not just how to become a Zoologist.  She already knew she would need to study animals very indepth to do a job like this.  And the material is covered in a very dry way.  I'm making her listen, and fortunately there's no out-of-class work for her to worry about.

We didn't have Science club this week.  We are on a two-week break.  But we still talked a little more about DNA.  The girls used pipe cleaners and pony beads to build DNA models and we discussed each part in more detail.




We are working hard on our daily Bible reading.  We are making ourselves accountable with each other.  We have a daily scripture we read and discuss.  We also made sure that we finished our study for Sunday done.  I found a great mom on Etsy that makes up easy to use study sheets for kids to use along with our Watchtower study.  I am using these to work on our grammar and sentence writing also.  

I worked on a low-carb chocolate cupcake for Caty for Chocolate Cupcake Day....It's going to be a work in progress.  I have the texture down, but the sweetener is what I need to work on now.  But she said they were better with the sugar-free chocolate frosting.

We had dentist appointments and eye appointments this week as we work our way through annual and semi-annual visit schedules.

Since Caty has been diagnosed Type 2, her eye appointments are even more important.  But she also has a condition in her eye called Kerocontosis.  Which is a misshapen eye/cornea.  She actually does not need her regular glasses anymore, but just reading glasses.  We go to an excellent optometrist that checks not just vision, but does a full eye health screening.  Caty even got to see the inside of her eye, and he sent her home with photos of her eyes to take to her endocrinologist next month.  It was a great visit.  Joe and Lydia had checks also.  Lydia will be in glasses for reading, but at a stronger script than Caty.  Joe is getting contacts.

Brayden had a cavity filled.  Now we are waiting on his oral surgeon appointment to get here so that we can see when his teeth can be pulled that still haven't come out.  They are getting in the way, so now it needs to be done.

Hope everyone had a great week!!

Fire Safety Week, Art Class, Cell/DNA replication, and More...

Welcome to my "play it by ear" made up as we went week....lol.  I knew that we needed a relaxed week.  I needed a relaxed week.  So I experimented.  I had somewhat of a mental plan of what I knew we NEEDED to cover.  And we went with that.  We had a few travel around things scheduled.  So I printed math practice sheets to work on skills they are working on in their Teaching Textbooks.  I even pulled out the Lego blocks that I keep aside just for math.  Caty is working on double digit addition/subtraction with carryover/borrowing.  These really helped Joey in that area.

With Lydia, she worked on more lessons in her Teaching Textbooks and we also played this game a few times.

I'm experimenting with the scrubby yarn and cotton yarn to make dish clothes.  They do not take too long to make, I just need to keep experimenting with the right size.

Caty really loves a local respite center that offers camps and nights out.  She has been to several of their events.  Well this week was a Give Back event.  The group made dinner for a local homeless shelter.  Caty and I volunteered to make desserts.  So Tuesday morning we made 60 servings of desserts - brownies and rice krispie treats.  She really enjoyed getting to go and visit the shelter and serving chili and corn bread.

Caty is really into wolves right now.  So some of her required reading with her new wolf stuffie from Columbus Zoo.  (We also had a discussion about marsupials at the zoo.)

Lydia had her first online Zoology class.  I'm really hoping this gets better.  We love the art teacher we have been using, but I almost fell asleep listening to this zoology course!

It's Fire Safety Week!!  A local homeschool group set up a fire truck being a nearby library branch.  It was great.  The girls were able to speak with the fireman and climb all over the truck and push/pull whatever buttons and levers they wanted to.

While watching videos, the girls worked on some fall projects that I picked up at Michaels, just for fun.

At the library, we checked out a bunch of books that the girls added to their required reading list this week.  (You are going to see lots of pictures like this....the girls are reading chapter books also, but I'm finding more short reads for them to devour up.  Sometimes there's a theme, like this week.  Sometimes I just see a stack at the library and add them to their bags.)

That night the girls had an art class at a local art studio.  They did night time trees.  Lydia really enjoyed this.

Swim practice is underway and it is wearing out the girls...which is good.  Caty is getting great exercise with each practice.

Lydia has Quarter Horse Congress this weekend...so she had two practice sessions to work on her classes.

In Science we worked on Cell Reproduction.  One of our experiments was watching yeast grow.

Then we looked at it under the microscope and watched it also.

They also did paper DNA replication models.

We watched the Ameoba Sisters several times to really grasp this subject.  I really like these videos. They are cute, but informational.  We are using these a lot!

Lydia's Outschool Art class this week was on drawing/coloring a piece of art from Victor Vasarely.  I really like this teacher.  Her classes are reasonable and she works very well online!!  Lydia project, almost finished.  She wants to shade some of the white areas yet.

I did History a bit different this week.  We used the audio book for Story of the World V2 A LOT!!  We would listen and discuss the chapters in the van.  I matched up audio books about Joan of Arc and Marco Polo and even Ghengis Khan (the Who Was series) that we listened to also.  When at home, we watched videos about this time period.  Their job was to build a castle with LEGOs.  Caty did not like this, and is working on a castle in Minecraft.  I'll post pictures when she is done.  She's creating a dungeon system also.  But Lydia did enjoy the building.

In Geography club this week, we visited Costa Rica.  The seafood soup was not a hit.  Neither of the girls liked it.  But they at least tried it.

Caty worked on a Pumpkin Snickerdoodle recipe that was converted to no-extra sugar.  When baking she messed up the butter measurement, so Joe said they were a bit dry.    But she said she loved them.  We'll be posting the recipe next week.  I'm working on that post for her.

More required reading in their pile....I LOVE Jan Brett books.  We are going to do a bit more with these two stories, and more Jan Brett books.  At the end of November we are getting the opportunity meet Jan Brett!!  It's going to be so fun!  They also read in Medieval Tales by Mary Pope Osborne.

Not bad for an "unscheduled" week.  I will catch up with my "scheduling".  In the meantime, it's going to be a couple more weeks of "unscheduled" activities with Outschool classes thrown in.  Next week we will be looking more at Fall/Autumn science, and more History on the Go with math thrown in...lol.  I really want to relax more in a few subjects, but improve skills that are lagging in other subjects like writing.  Writing is a HUGE subject area, and lots of tears are involved.  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated ....  I have a few ideas that I will be working with to incorporate writing more.

I hope everyone had a great week....See everyone next Friday!  Linking up with other moms at:

Homeschool Coffee Break

Homeschool Review Crew