Newport Aquarium

Camden and I went behind the scenes at the Newport Aquarium. We learned about how they run the aquarium and care for the animals. My mom toured the aquarium with Levi while we were on our tour. Then we all walked along Smale Riverfront Park in Cincinnati. 

We watched them catch a tiger shark to get its weight. It was quite the operation.

 

Camden's Homeschool 8th grade

 Here is what Camden will be up to first semester of 8th grade.

Language Arts - Fix-It Grammar (we enjoyed this in 6th and are back at it with a new level) and Wordly Wise 8 (vocabulary). He'll be taking a live writing class (Writer's Workshop) on Mondays with follow up meetings during the week. I'm looking forward to getting an outsiders opinion on his writing since I graded all of his writing the last two years. Additionally, he's continuing with literature studies with his grandma with books pulled mainly from his history and geography/cultures curricula. These will be done M-F.

Science - he'll be taking an asynchronous online general science class. We'll also continue with our unit studies from The Good and The Beautiful since we've really enjoyed them and Levi can participate. He does general science W/Fr and unit studies Tu/Th.

Social Studies/History - continuing with the next level of Bookshark (Level I) focusing on US History. Adding in a new curriculum from Guest Hollow called Geography and Cultures. It pulls from a variety of books, websites, and videos which is a fun format. We do history together M/W and Geography will all be done on Fridays.

Math - this was a big struggle to decide on. I ended up deciding to redo Algebra 1 to ensure mastery. Camden claims he doesn't like math (but runs statistics for fun?) so I chose a curriculum that people rave about that helps kids like math called Denison. This will be M-Th. We'll also keep with IXL for practice on Fridays.

Spanish - although Camden did either DuoLingo or Rosetta Stone the last two years, I feel like he knows very, very little Spanish. This year, I'm going to try working with him more to make sure he's on track so he can hopefully pass out of Spanish 1 next year. We are using Easy Peasy Homeschool Spanish 1 and will adjust if needed M-Th.

Boy Scouts - we are continuing to work through Boy Scouts with his goal set for Eagle Scout in a couple years hopefully. 

Other - He is signed up to take another baking class called "Let's Make Dinner" this semester. He's also interested in learning Excel and possibly some note taking strategies. He also keeps up with Simply Piano. 

We make adjustments as we go to address things that aren't working well, but this is the plan until the new year!

Camden's Homeschool 7th grade (year 2)

After a good year homeschooling for sixth grade, we've decided to continue with seventh grade! This year begins with me feeling more confident in the process and that he's learning plenty while having lots of extra time to do what he wants. We've made some mostly minor tweaks based on some things that didn't work as smoothly.  We'll make tweaks as we go.

Camden's 7th grade Schedule

Math - Mr. D's Algebra 1 (independent with my help/review on harder lessons) M-Th. Will evaluate as the year goes if we need to slow down and take our time as this an advanced math for 7th.

LA - continuing The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts Level 7 (he's allowed to skip the writing and reading portions and focus on the art/geography/grammar). Reading through booklist Grandma came up with. (independent with me reviewing all lessons and correcting. Sentence dictation with me) M-Th

Writing - Institute of Excellence in Writing Level 2B (second part of a two year curriculum). (independent with me editing each assignment at the end of the week and discussing changes and reviewing final draft) M-F

Science - The Good and The Beautiful Science Unit Studies (one at a time - Space, Kingdoms & Classifications, Chemistry, and Amphibians/Reptiles). Khan Academy Middle School Science (starting with physics). (unit studies are with me, Khan Academy is independent) M/W 

History - Bookshark World History Year 2 of 2 (with me) Tu/Th

Typing - continuing Typsey (independent) M-F

Spanish - continuing Rosetta Stone through the library then we'll see from there (independent) loop schedule with Music M-F

Music - continuing piano with Simply Piano and music theory workbooks (independent and music theory with me) loop schedule with Spanish M-F

Electives - virtual/asynchronous STEM class with Tech Trep, Humanities class with Tech Trep, continuing working through Boy Scouts with a variety of merit badges. Hoping to add in some career exploration, unit studies, life skills, and cooking as able (currently in a "fancy sugar cookie decorating" class).

Morning work/basket - journal, short self-help/life skills type readings (starting with "How to be a Person"), religious reading, handwriting, geography/grammar flash cards, various workbooks (starting with Mind Benders which has been a hit!) M-F

PE - flag football in the fall, soccer in the spring. Possibly restarting karate in the winter as a family.

mom work - various workbooks, books, religious studies that are best done with me. We'll do these things on Tuesday/Thursday when Levi is in preschool. 

daily Mom check off - a new thing we're doing to ensure he's finished everything and go over anything that might need reviewed. This is before he can "be done" with school each day.

Camden's homeschool year

Camden and I completed our first year homeschooling! If you ask me, I think it was great. We were able to spend a lot of time together and learned a lot. Camden was able to sleep in and work and a more relaxed pace while still getting a lot of learning done. I know there are some clubs/activities through his school that he's missed out on but I feel the benefits and flexibilities of homeschool have been so good. We plan to do it again next year for seventh grade. He is actually enrolled in a local charter school that offers resources, field trips, teacher support, and financial support but all of his learning is from home with curriculum I've chosen. Here is a list of what Camden worked on this year.

Favorite parts of homeschooling:
Mom - time together
Camden - finishing work quickly

Least Favorite parts of homeschooling:
Mom - finding time to do everything well without rushing
Camden - math, it was much harder

Favorite subject this year:

Mom - history

Camden - history

Goal/change for next year:

Mom - working on scheduling instruction at better times like Levi is in preschool

Camden - become faster at math

Math

- Mr. D's Pre-Algebra - completed this year long online-based course. Now is working through a Pre-Algebra workbook to review until the fall.

- Dave Ramsey Middle School personal finance online class - not finished

Language Arts

- Institute of Excellence in Writing - Level 2, Year 1 - completed this program where he'd write a specific type of paper each week (sometimes a few pages long) using techniques learned in the video lessons each week.

-Fix It! Grammar - one year of this program where you fix a sentence or two each day and identify grammar elements

- Spelling 6th grade - completed this 30 week workbook

- reading some assigned and most self chosen literature 

- started The Good and The Beautiful Language Arts Level 7 to see if it would be a good fit for next year

Science

- Bookshark Human Anatomy - finished this year long program

- additional science documentaries on Fridays

- for semester two, he started a weekly middle school math course offered by his school

History

- we work together using Bookshark History Level G - World History year 1 of 2 (ancient history through Middle Ages). This is literature based but Camden had trouble getting into some of the books so we omitted them and switched to other literature. We're reading Story of the World together. 

- US Constitution and Government course from The Good and the Beautiful - we've worked through this together and it is an amazing course and very interactive

- Khan Academy World History - started this 2nd semester

- geography and social studies workbooks

Spanish 

- started with DuoLingo and while he enjoyed it, he didn't seem to retain anything

- 2nd semester he started Rosetta Stone (first unit is free through the library) and he appears to be learning more

Typing 

- Typsey curriculum 

Art 

- first semester was an in person art class at the Westfield library

- second semester - online watercolor and acrylic painting class

PE

- flag football in the fall, soccer in the spring

Music

- started learning saxophone in case he decided to go back to public school and join the band like most of his friends were doing, but he couldn't get into it so we dropped it. Now he just casually plays piano which is self taught on an Ipad app.

Morning Work 

- Cam reads Bible stories, writes in a journal, practices handwriting and we do spelling/grammar during this time each day

We also added random items in on Fridays (his "fun day") as applicable. We did a unit study on Walt Disney before our Disney trip, a Great Courses series on Washington DC, a religion series, and a human body docuseries. 

Monet exhibit at the Art Museum after we studied Monet

Human body exhibit in Chicago

he typically does a lot of his work right here and this is what his set up looks like

White House and Capitol models that went with the Constitution study

field trips to the Children's Museum...even joining Levi in the toddler area

art class

he and I went on a cave tour in a boat

lunch date

I was finishing up something in the kitchen and told Levi I'd be up to help him get ready for nap. When I came up, I saw Cam reading to Levi in the bunk beds. Even though having Levi around has interrupted our days a bit, it has been sweet to see oldest and youngest brother bond.

last day of school (virtual learning)

The end of this school year feels very odd. We've been learning at home since early March, so it's a bit anticlimactic. No smoke bombs at the end of the driveway as they get off the bus. We didn't realize when the kids got off the bus for the final time in March that we'd never be on that bus or bus stop again (since we moved).  I feel especially sorry for Savannah who is missing some of the fun Kindergarten activities (they usually do a "Kindy 500" where the kids make cars out of boxes and parade around the school). The teachers also prepare the kids for first grade by touring the classroom and talking about what to expect...both things that would have really helped her transition. Such a bummer!

Every year I also get a bit anxious about how summer will go with everyone being home and without our normal routine. We had a family meeting to discuss things we could do and things that we'll have to pass on this year (like vacations, having friends over, going to indoor places, etc). We're hoping that there are still some fun things we can do to make this summer fun. We're also awaiting information on how the next school year is going to look. So many unknowns! 

Some photos of the last few weeks of e-learning:

Their specials teachers (especially art and music) came up with some great projects and activities:

Didn't take long for Camden to figure out Zoom - shirt on top, Pjs on bottom

picture for a slideshow for Savannah's teacher

Camden watched a video for his science class on "Cain's Arcade" (a 9-year-old who made a cardboard box arcade that went viral). He made several games himself

Last day of 3rd grade!

Last day of Kindergarten!

Jonas' sweet teachers stopped by to give him bubbles and to say goodbye. He was pretty chatty and I think excited to see them again.

Mexico Day

We had an all-inclusive trip to Mexico (Cancun region) planned for this spring break. It was hard for all of us to accept we weren't going to get to go. I decided to have a "Mexico Day" quarantine style.

I was able to get some second hand decorations for our kitchen and living room.  The kids and I learned about Mexico by watching some videos and reading some books. I printed out little packets for them to work on.

For dinner, we ordered Qdoba Mexican food and I made virgin margaritas which was a big hit.  We ended the night with Coco (super cute movie if you haven't seen it) and some Mexican music.

That night Chris let Cam and Savy stay up to play a new board game which was interrupted by the loudest storm with crazy wind and hail. The sirens didn't go off, but it sounded so crazy we grabbed the little boys and all went to the basement. Savannah was crying and super scared, but Jonas (who for some reason was not at all freaked out) patted her on the head and tried to tell her it was fine (Cheer up, girl!"). I asked Jonas if he was scared in his room before we came to get him and he said "No, I just thought there was animals in the ceiling."

our flight to Mexico. I had less anxiety on this flight than normal flights

we found this cute Senor 

margaritas!

holy hail

(Not) Fun Fact - this is the third pandemic where I had international travel planned:

I traveled to China (Hong Kong area) during the tail end of SARS in 2003. When I got home I had to monitor for symptoms for a couple weeks.

Chris and I (and our friends) traveled to Mexico during the absolute worst week of H1N1 swine flu in 2008. I packed an entire medical kit complete with Tamiflu just in case. I also was told not to return to work for a week. Check out my blog post from that time.

Unfortunately, this pandemic is pretty dramatic and we aren't leaving our house...so Mexico is out.