Words with Friends.... and all that jazz...

In this day and age the Internet is inescapable... there is really, honestly no way to get around being a part of it.  I personally love the Internet and everything it puts at my fingertips.. I get to visit, research, create, learn, experience in ways that would be otherwise unavailable to me.  I cant actually imagine living without it...

However, I have done just fine living without my kids navigating it!  As we venture deeper and deeper into the world of the Internet, Facebook, texting, emails, apps, Itunes.... the farther I get from feeling some measure of control over the kids activities.  I mean I don't want to imply that we don't have control--- we have rules, guidelines etc and they are strongly enforced!  I do not feel though that we have complete control... it is too easy to click on the wrong thing or open a spam email and leave yourself open to nothing good!

We have to measure our guidelines against God's Principles and our kids levels of responsibility and trust.  How much can we trust them to be allowed with is determined by their maturity, their past response to other situation, and their character.... 

So as new opportunities come up in their lives: an IPod, an IPhone, email, texting, the Internet... we have to base what is allowed and not allowed on the child.




Used with Permission of author

So this brings me to rules:

*We have the basic rule of no Internet, with the exception of a very few pre- approved websites.
*We have a no laptops in rooms... but this rule has not been established with Ipods and Iphones.
*We have a no buying apps without approval- but have not stopped them from looking at apps.
*We have a no electronics rule from basically 8-4 on school days, but yet we have them using their various electronics FOR school--- so I think this rule gets blurry.
*We have no giving out ANY personal information rule.
*We do not allow numbers for phones to get given out without specific permission.

We have established parameter's for texting and email, for example;
*keep in mind others have things to do
*keep in mind to not say or speak malicious gossip
*remember that tone can not be read in a text or an email
*remember things cant be taken back-- once it's out there it's out there
*do not delete: all texts, emails etc are subject to inspection by parents
*no pictures in bedroom or bathroom (unless it is of a non living object or pet)
*no pictures in swimsuits, nightclothes etc.
*no texting after 9:00 or before 9:00 without specific reason and permission
*basically if you would be embarrassed to show it to your parents--- Don't text it.
*any apps that require location need to have permission



A friend asked (before giving Kate the phone number for her daughter) what Kate's guidelines were so that her daughter would know.. I LOVED it.  It had not occurred to me to do so.. I was making sure they followed general guidelines and were courtesy, but I did not think to ask for specifics from friends parents.. but I will now! 



Isn't growing up fun...

Mystery of History- Vol 1...Week 4

We took our PRE-TEST.

Lesson 10- Stonehenge

We looked at some video and pictures of Stonehenge.

We made Stonehenge out of Lego's.

Lesson 11- Early Egyptians

We mummified each other!

 

 

we watched a video link of Egypt

We watched THE PRINCE OF EGYPT

Lesson 12- Minoan Civilization

We played Leap Frog-- which the Minoans were apparently known for.

We read Theseus and the MINOTAUR.

 

 

We learned about Crete and how Plato could have been writing about the Minoans when he wrote about the lost city of Atlantis...

 

and FOR FUN... we watched

 

Journey 2 the Mysterious Island

 

 

 

" a peck pop of love"  (lol) (warning: there is a some potty humor, and stuff it is definitely PG)

 

and Atlantis: The Lost Empire

 

 

 

(this one was neat because he actually mentions how the civilization is like the Sumerians etc.  so the kids recognized the names of a few ancient civilizations.)  ( warning-- there is a fair amount of mysticism if you can call it that.. the Atlantians get their "power" source from their gods..."

We made our MEMORY CARDS and Review cards

 

 

We mapped in our geography folders.

 



Sunday Sum Up: week 10 2012-2013

{day 64-66}

(updated after counting our days and fixing our calender we are really ending on day 78!   I had been adding 4 day week but we are schooling 5 days- most weeks. So after I took out our sick days and added 5 instead of 4 I ended up at 78 days!  YEAH! 

{real week ending in day 78}



We got two days of school in.. one here and one with just work @ home.  I was glad to be done and have a couple of days off!  It always feels good to NOT have to do!



No pictures.  Again. But we did all the regular stuff got our work DONE!  I leave you with this....

Isn't that the truth!

a love affair with a mason jar...and pie

I have seen tons on Pinterest that I would love to do...

some I don't do because of lack of skills,

some lack of discretionary funds

 and some lack of courage! 

 

 

BUT, tiny mason jar pies... this I can do. 

 

 

 

I saw them on Pinterest and I saw them on Lemonade Makin Mama! 

 I decided to make them for Thanksgiving dinner....

 

and they. were. yummy. and. adorable!

 

 

I bought 4 oz jelly jars. 

and then I simply made cherry cobbler and apple pie recipe

 

 

 

 

Kate and I filled each jar (6 of each recipe)

 

 

and baked.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mystery of History- Vol 1...Week 3

We reviewed our MEMORY cards and PRE- TEST notecards.

We took our PRE-TEST for Week 3

Lesson 7- The Summerians

 

The girls also started working on a small model of the NILE River, Euphrates River, a ziggurat

 

We did the MOH color sheet.

We did a notebooking page on Summarians

a notebooking page on cuneiforms

Lesson 8- Tower of Babel

We did a craft. 

Lesson 9 - Gilgamesh

We read the EPIC of GILGAMESH.


 

We made a venn diagram of the similarities and difference of Gilgamesh/ The Bible. 

We added to our timeline.

We did our mapping work in our geography folders.

We made our MEMORY CARDS.

We took our PRE-TEST again to see what we have learned.

We did week 3 Excercise.. but we earned reward stickers for right answers! Not money!

Keepers of the Faith-- Meeting 5

we worked on our quilts again this week... but really just hand whip stitched up the opening because we took the girls to Tutti Fruiti for yogurt!  Who can resist frozen yogurt with a billion toppings to choose from!

all very intent... must. finish. for. yogurt.

Sunday Sum Up: week 9 2012-2013

{day 64-66}

Well... not as productive as I imagined but it's all good.  We had an awesome school day on Monday-- and I mean awesome! Tuesday, a lot of work was done and that was great... Wednesday was actually a good work day we just had less time so a little less was accomplished... Thursday was a bust with the exception of math and finishing the Joseph movie and Friday was a no go!



Anyway you look at it we got a lot of work done and I suppose that is better than the previous two weeks! Right!

Anyhoo, 

The girls worked on Mystery of History, we learned about the Minoans.. the kids watched some movies on Atlantis for fun.  

We worked on adjectives in English--

Our new memory verse is one of my favorite verses...

We finished up learning about marsupials and jumped liked kangaroos.. (who can jump up to 30 feet) our girls can jump 42-49 inches-- so just at or under 4 feet!

We started the birds section of our science book and learned about how the different kinds of birds are broken down into groups by their distinct differences...

The girls started working on a bird craft!

We also did the story of Jacob and had a great conversation about monogamy, marriage relations, s*x, and how it's different today.... good times!

We worked on Abrahams family tree...

and YES, I have Leah and Rachel switched.... I realized AFTER we finished so we have to go back and change it!  argggg! 

Emily has been working on this horse paint by numbers...

and next week is Thansgiving... but we are hopefully going to get two days of work done!  I will let you know next week how that goes!

Tacky, Tacky....

For Kate's 14th birthday we decided on a mini- golf party, but with a theme of TACKY GOLF CLOTHES!  So much fun!  We hit the thrift stores and found a bunch of very, very tacky clothes!

 

 

A few of her friends dressed up too...

 

 

 

 

 

Sweetheart and Emily...

 

 

 

and My favorite picture of the day....

 

 

 

 

 

It was a great celebration and I think everyone had a lot of fun!

Kate is now the proud owner of an IPhone....

 

 

 

Proud of my beautiful, tall, sweet, loving, Iphone owning daughter!

 

 

Mystery of History- Vol 1...Week 2

We begin by reviewing our Memory Cards and Pre test notecards.

Next we took the PRE-TEST for Week 2



Lesson 4- NOAH AND THE FLOOD

The girls did a question and answer on NOAH.

We used the MOH color sheet.

 

and truthfully we watched EVAN ALMIGHTY (because well you just gotta)
(disclaimer: this movie is rated PG for mild humor)

Lesson 5- The Ice Age

We tried to make our own greenhouse to demonstrate a vapor cloud, but I don't think it did what it was supposed to... we might try again!

 

 

Lesson 6- Dinosaurs

We did a mini lapbook on Dinosaurs (as we are going over dinosaurs in Science, very briefly this week also)

I found all the components at HOMESCHOOL Share

 

 

We made fossil cookies

 

 

 

We did mapping in our Geography notebook.

We also added to our timeline.

We also made our MEMORY CARDS.

We finished up with the PRE- TEST to see what we had learned.

Sunday Sum Up: week 8 2012-2013

{day 60-63}

Well we had another abnormal week... Kaitlin ended up getting sick on Sunday night and we didn't end up doing a full day of school till Thursday!  I did give MF assignments for the rest of the week and Emily did work all week, but Kate and Matt ended up doing a weeks worth of work, minus English and Science, in about 3 days.


Hoping to a have a productive week this next few school days!


I have zero pics besides this:

 

 

I gave Emily the Saxon math placement test. She thought it was to hard and mostly is upset about switching math books as she finds Math U See easy. So there were tears...

Notice the large snot bubble. Charming, eh?


Next set shows when she figured out how to solve the "too hard" question all on her own.

I like the second one better. Although I am a fan of snot bubbles.

On a second note... she got 13 out of 16 on the 5/4 test (missing division- which she hasn't been taught and decimals points. Which I think she could have gotten but she didn't)   She got 9 out of 16 on 6/5 again missing division, decimals and fractions.... SO we are at the same point as we are with MATT--- she could be ahead in math if ONLY she had been introduced to said missing areas.  I think we are going to take the same course as we did with Matt.. work on those things through Christmas and re-take the placement test in Jan and see where we are.  (((sigh)))


Next Sunday Sum:  I am hoping to have pictures of ALL our fabulous learning we had going on all week long!