'17/18 Week 3

Harvey flooded some spaces on our property.

      Our third week had a sad undertone all because of the struggles and challenges and heartaches Harvey brought to the coastal gulf areas. We followed the news all week and prayed for everyone there. 

      The waters rose a lot where we live as well. After the worst winds and rain was over, the kids and I went for a walk to see the damage. Thankfully, it was not bad and the floodwaters started to recede rather swiftly. It was so encouraging to see the grass sprout up and flowers bloom in the fields again. 
     
      One of my favorite parts from past school week was reading to Andrew and Saara the last chapters of Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw. We all love our read-aloud times, even Dad has tuned in a few times. The adventures the main character went through toward the end of the book grew pretty dangerous, and all this intensity was written on my kids' faces as they listened completely captivated by the story. These are the unforgettable moments when the written word comes alive and the story is no longer just a sting of sentences, but a living, breathing part of your imagination. I am thankful for the many great books included in our curriculum this year. They make fantastic reads not only for the kids, but grown-ups too. Love it!
   

I arrived too early one time. 

Taekwondo. They are learning more kicks.

The creek overflowed, but did not threaten us.

It is hard to believe that Saara and I walked on the creek bottom under the bridge just a couple of weeks ago. Thankfully, the waters did not rise over the bridge this time.

Science. A simple experiment demonstrating how chromatography (separating a mixture) works.

Spreading colors show what's in them.

Receding floodwaters. The level is still high, but the creek is no longer over its banks.

Some beauty that sprang up after the storms.

We found a number of floating ant colonies.

Science. Yes, it is time for Andrew to get better acquainted with the periodic table.

Saara continuing her studies of electricity.

As our internet is up and running again, we were able to hold our Spanish class again.

We found this guy waiting for us on our driveway. We had to remove him.

Saara learned about hay rick ornaments that people used to put on top of the hay stacks long ago. We did not have any hay at hand, so Saara and I used a split twig figurine kit to make similar ornaments. And although they are from a different era and differ in size, even from a different material, we had fun making them and learning something new at the same time.

Sweet end to the school week at a friend's fun pool birthday party.

'17/18 Week 2

     The second school week started with a solar eclipse and ended with a hurricane. I have not quite figured out what to think of it. I do know, however, it was a challenging week outside the academic realm. 
     The solar eclipse event at the library did not happen for us because as soon as we had arrived, we, and dozens of others, were told the event was out of the free viewing glasses. There was not much point in standing around in the heat. We came home instead. The children were not too disappointed because we still managed to see the Moon eclipse the Sun through a pin-hole viewer. 
     A much bigger disappointment hit the kids when the plumbers who came to work on our drainage lines took much longer than expected. The kids had to miss their taekwondo class. It was a shame, but they enjoyed the next class so much more. 
     This week, we had to postpone our Spanish class as well. Our internet stopped working for three days. And as we are using an online curriculum, all we could do was to review the old material. The good thing about homeschooling - we can pick right up where we left off next time. 
   Despite all these obstacles, the children had an excellent week. They are enjoying their new reading books, and even the writing tasks and LA assignments seem to please them a lot more this year than before. And, of course, both of them are loving their science classes that have plenty of experiments to offer. So, all-in-all, week two was a good one.

Watching the solar eclipse through a pin-hole viewer

A bright spot this week was a fun family celebration night at our church.

Both kids and their friends are learning more and more stances, blocks, and kicks in their taekwondo class.

The frozen yogurt shop is right on our way home from taekwondo. We had to make the detour.

Science. More lessons about bridges. Saara learned a couple of ways how to strengthen a bridge so it would not collapse.

She learned different ways how to support the bridge.

The best design was similar to the bridge right by our home.

LA. Looking for homonyms.

Science. Andrew learned about the physical and chemical properties of substances. Salt gives out small sparks when it comes in contact with flames.

Thankfully, sparks did not fly when Saara was trying to find different ways to light up the light bulb.

Andrew learning about mixtures and solutions. Here we are using one of the separation methods - distillation. 

For Andrew the best part of separating the sugar from water was the caramel that formed on the bottom of the pan. And once again the kids ate their school work.

Harvey the Hurricane did not scare this little guy who used his tail as an umbrella and made his way to the bird feeder for his usual breakfast.

Harvey coming down in sheets.

'17/18 Week 1

     I cannot believe our first week of school is already over! It was rather intense, as I expected. This year, both children have to do a lot more individual work, and they will spend less instructional time with me. The first five days showed that they are ready to tackle a number of assignments on their own. Moreover, they are wanting to do it on their own. 
     I also found it very encouraging when the children woke up much earlier than they did during the summer and started their studies early. We developed a sort of a pattern - in the morning, we spend time together and I work with them on their lessons or reading and writing assignments, and the afternoon is there for the kids to work on their own. We all seem to like this arrangement. It will help tremendously once the multitude of after-school activities begin. 
     This semester, Andrew has decided to try karate, Saara will try it too, but in addition, she will also be involved in volleyball and continue her ballet class. Both kids will still be part of their choirs and hand bell groups, and the piano class. It obviously will be a whirlwind of a school year. 

Evaluation tryouts fro volleyball.

An afternoon surprise. We have not seen deer close to our house in a long time.

First taekwondo class.

Science. Saara had a lesson about bridges. We took a short walk to the bridge by our property and studied how it was build and what keeps it up.

The creek is dry now, but it has risen and flown over the bridge a time or two. Sticks and driftwood caught in the underbelly of the bridge from those floods.

The abutment.

More science. Saara's first TOPS experiments with electric flow.

Andrew's science focuses on chemistry. He had so much fun doing experiments with the red cabbage water. 

Needless to say, the unused cabbage was eaten by the 'scientist'.

Andrew is ready to add an array of things into the cabbage water.

We started off with a very dark, almost black liquid.

Andrew took notes of everything. Some of his predictions were correct, some surprised his a lot.

Adding vinegar turned the dark water into purple.

Adding cream of tartar and soap flakes turned it creamy purple.

Adding bleach turned it pink.

Adding baking soda turned the water back dark purple, made it foam out of control. The foam turned green on us.

Acids and bases turning the cabbage water into so many colors.

The kids' first Spanish lesson.