MOD 2- Apologia BIOLOGY w/Nature Study for Highschool + younger sibling supplements

MODULE 2: Kingdom Monera(bacteria)

Books:These resources came from the Handbook of Nature Study Blog.   

Biography of Louis Pasteur (High School) -found DVD at library

Microbe Hunters, chapter 2 Spallanzani & chapter 3 Pasteur (High School)

A Golden Guide to Pond Life (High School)
*Field Trip to Pond - Journal pages for things observed in real life
*Start a pond study to complement the study of microscopic organisms-protozoa

additional books/resources:
Bacteria by Discovery Channel School Science(High School)
Pond Water Zoo by Peter Loewer (High School) or younger
Bacteria, archaebacteria, and the prokaryotic- DVD (High School)

Supplemental books for younger siblings:

In This Bedroom by Nancy Harris -good for older kids also
In This Bathroom by Nancy Harris -good for older kids also

Crinkleroot's Book of Animal Tracking

Field Trips: bug hunting, animal watching, bird tracking, shore walking

Beaver Pond, moose pond by Jim Arnosky

We have also really enjoyed the Homeschooler's Resources Blog MOD 2, it has been a nice addition to everything.  This mom has put a lot of work into her blog and her resources and we truly appreciate that. 

We are also using vocabulary bookmarks from donnayoung.org, they are available for each Module.  There are so many great resources available for Apologia. 

Module 1- Apologia BIOLOGY w/Nature Study for Highschool + younger sibling supplements

I am finally getting around to getting this posted.  Here is what we used for Module 1.  We are using Apologia Biology with Handbook of Nature Study.  We are going more with a Charlotte Mason Approach and using some supplemental things in order to reach each of my learners, who learn differently.  I have added some additional resource books for younger siblings.

MODULE 1: The Study of Life 

Books:These resources came from the Handbook of Nature Study Blog.   

Biography of Carl Linnaeus: Father of Classification (High School)

Microbe Hunters, chapter 1 Leeuwenhoek (High School)

Double Helix: Structure of DNA (High School)

Supplemental books for younger siblings:

Greg's Microscope

Amateur Naturalist: Explorations and Investigations

Crinkleroot's Nature Almanac

One Small Square: Backyard---Great book!

How to Be a Nature Detective---Neat book!

We have also really enjoyed the Homeschooler's Resources Blog MOD 1, it has been a nice addition to everything.  This mom has put a lot of work into her blog and her resources and we truly appreciate that.  My son told me earlier today that this blog has been really helpful in fully grasping the concepts that are being taught. 

We are also using vocabulary bookmarks from donnayoung.org, they are available for each Module.  There are so many great resources available for Apologia.    

High School Biology w/ Nature Study + resources for younger siblings

Well, over the last few months I believe that we are finally ready to embark on our biology full force.  I have been working to come up with a plan that could involve everyone without being too much for my youngest two children.

What I have come up with should be keeping with Charlotte Mason methods. We are using Apologia Biology 2nd Edition.  We are including the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock for our nature additions to the biology.  We will also be using a great deal of living books.   

I am using ideas for including nature study from Handbook of Nature Study Blogspot.  We are also using the Biology CD-Rom which has animations, videos, pronunciations and much, much more.  I have also discovered another blog, called Homeschooler's Resources that has each module with links and lots of extras.  Here is another great resource blog that is from a Co-op using Apologia Biology, which lists things according to each module.   

I will be posting each module separately with resources for younger children also.  I found a great resource that outlines what younger kids should be learning in science.  I like the way that it is presented on this website:  grades K-5 and grades 4-6.  Here is cool website for kids for biology resources called Biology4kids.com.

Our Weekly Schedule....

I have created a more general schedule for our homeschooling week.  After two weeks of having everything in it's own time slot.  I have decided to go with a more general form.  This is my initial schedule for ALL.  I will be creating individual sheets that are laminated for each of the kiddos.  This way they can mark off things as they go.  They really like the feeling of checking things off.

We did have a minor snag with Spanish, which is why it doesn't yet have a time on the schedule.  We discovered that with other things running on the kids computer, there isn't enough memory.  We tried purchasing it in the stores, but we didn't have any luck.  We have ordered it and it should be here in the next week or so.  I guess I should have tried to load the software a long time ago.  Oops!  

Now, that I have figured out how to upload documents and make them look normal.  I will be able to do this more often.  Enjoy!
Weekly HomeSchool Schedule 2010  

It wasn't real complicated, after I figured out that it likes PDF format best and only portrait view of the document.  My original is in landscape view and in Microsoft Excel.  I will try to upload the individual ones after they are completed also.

Back to school!

Well, after over a week of constant nagging and asking when we are going to start.  I decided it was time to buckle down and get my schedule finalized.  We started school on Monday.

 

The kids are so motivated this year...it is simply amazing.  I decided to get more organized this year and I made each of the kids their own laminated schedule to mark things off as they are completed.  It is a weekly schedule, but I believe it will serve a good purpose.  It is pretty general with just the subjects.  This way it will work with whatever I plug into it.  I have an overall plan of each subject and what we need to do each month in order to stay on task.  With four kiddos....I really need to have a plan!  

We are starting something different this school year, then we have done in the past.  We are trying out the Charlotte Mason methods of homeschooling.  So far, I really love it!  I believe the kids do too.  We are doing many things together and enjoying our time with each other.  We will also be starting our nature studies on Fridays.  We are planning to combine Apologia Biology with nature studies to encompass our love of God's creation.  We are all looking forward to the things we will learn from our nature studies and nature sketching.  We actually had an experience with a grasshopper on Monday, but that will be included in a later blog.  We will also be including many labs, which the older two will be participating in.     

With only one computer and a few different things that need to utilize the computer....some things have been placed later in the day than we would like them.  Unfortunately, only one person can use the computer at a time.  I believe this will give the older three an opportunity to find other times during the day, when they can do these things.  The schedule is laid out with a basic plan in mind, which is to keep a good flow to everything that we are doing.  So far, we haven't veered too far off that path.  I am not the best scheduler, but I believe that some type of schedule is important for my children to know what I am expecting.  I wish they made a program that you could hook up to your head and it would automatically print up what you are thinking, because I would make great use of it.  Sitting down and planning, is just a big chunk of time that I would prefer not to give up.  Oh well!  It is done at least for this quarter.  We may revamp it come October, when my eldest will be taking Driver's Ed at the High School.  For now, we will work with it until it fits the needs of our family. 

I am way behind on my blogging....I have a ton of things that I would like to add with pictures, but time just hasn't allowed that.  We discovered a few days ago, that the kids computer still had two hard drives.  We never took the old drive out, when we put the new bigger drive in.  The computer seemed to be pretty confused as to which one to use.  This was slowing down everything.  I have spent the last two evenings moving everything we wanted to keep to the new hard drive.  We removed the old drive and the computer is up and running.  The kids are going to be using a cool program for Spanish on the computer called Rosetta Stone.  I would like the computer to be working at top speed, so they don't have difficulties with the program.  The computer is all cleaned up, so hopefully I will be able to get it loaded tomorrow.  Thanks for stopping by!  Blessings!

 

The girls and their July birthdays....

July is the girl's month.  Both of the girls have birthdays in July.  Sydney's birthday is the 8th and Audrianna's was yesterday.  I made two new cakes this month that I haven't ever made before.  So, it was definitely an exciting month.  Who doesn't love cake?? 

On Sydney's 15th birthday, I made an Angel Food cake from scratch.  It turned out very yummy, but not very pretty.  Here is Sydney with her angel food cake. 

  
Here is the recipe that we used for the angel food cake.  It came from my Better Homes & Garden's cookbook.  The only thing that we adjusted is that we make our own powdered sugar.  Powdered sugar that you buy contains cornstarch, and with corn allergies in our family.  We make homemade powdered sugar, which is very simple.  
 

These pictures were taken in the afternoon of Sydney's birthday, when had a photo shoot to capture her at a new age.  She was excited, which is always helpful.  

My beautiful Sydney on her 15th birthday!  

Overwhelmed with Organization

Have you ever wonder how others are so organized?  I wonder this all the time.  Every time I think that I am organized, I discover that I am not.  So, how do you organize your house?  I have always tried to give everything in my house its own home.  I know that it is a system that has worked really well for my family and in my life.  You see, in my mind everything is so disorganized and sometimes it takes me getting it organized to find the true purpose for everything. 

I have never been a meal planner until the last year or so.  We sometimes would schedule two weeks worth of meals, but never on a consistent basis.  I know that getting my household organized is the key to making everything successful.  I just seem to be having a real issue trying to figure out how to accomplish this task.

I am thinking that I need to make a list of our frequently used meals and place it in the front of our Feingold Style Recipes cookbook that I made.  We are constantly trying new meals, but we have some that we make over and over, because we love them so much.  I really love my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook that I got for Christmas.  We have found so many recipes that we can adjust according to our special diet-Feingold.  I have found some different links for menu planners and I have heard great things about Flylady.  I am really looking forward to exploring these avenues more.  I have also heard others talk of freezing meals for a month.  I think this is great, but I am not sure how or when I would do this.  I think that I would like to try some of these ideas, but getting them started....seems to be the issue.   


I have also been trying to figure out how I will plan out our curriculum in a schedule.  I will admit, schedules scare me to death.  It isn't that I don't like them, because I do need some structure.  The problem is that I feel like I could never stick to a schedule and then I feel like I failed.  So, how do you give your children the structure that they need to make good habits, yet give yourself the freedom to not feel tied to the schedule.  I am just not sure how to complete this.  I have purchased 95% of what we will be using for our curriculum for homeschooling this year.  We are going to be taking a totally different approach this year and going towards the Charlotte Mason methods.  My children love to read and some of the children don't learn well in the traditional ways taught in the school system.  In order to give all of my children an education that fits well with each of them, I have decided that Charlotte Mason seems to fit what we are looking for.  A lot of CM is based on reading.  Reading in my house is not a chore or a task, but a love....for all!  We have begun and will continue reading books that are considered "living books".  We are trying to weed out all of our books which contain "twaddle".  According to Charlotte Mason, books that are living books fill children with the idea of how good writing should be.  I have really enjoyed getting to know what the Charlotte Mason philosophy is.  One resource that greatly helped me was The Charlotte Mason All Day Seminar.  The great books that I read, which also helped to give me a starting view of this approach were A Charlotte Mason Education & A Charlotte Mason Companion.  Both of these books were great resources for someone starting out with this new method.  I know that the Simply Charlotte Mason website has an online planner, but I haven't tried that yet.  I need to figure something out quickly, because time doesn't seem to be on my side lately.  I am good at organizing, but this seems to be getting the best of me.  How do I schedule all of the stuff for 4 kids and make it all work together?  I know that I can do this.....just not quite sure how...right at the moment!       


I have been very fortunate to find many of my books on Ebay at a huge discounted cost.  I am always out for a bargain.  I have also been able to utilize Ebay as a great place to sell many of my old books and homeschooling things.  This is another area that I need to get organized.  I seem to have so many things that I want to list and yet, my time seems so scattered to do this.

What about all the books that I have to read?  I have a ton of books that I have started and that I want to read, but I am just not sure where to fit in the time to get this done.


These are all the things that I can think of right now that need to be organized, but I am just not sure where to start and how to get everything situated.  Have you ever felt this overwhelmed?  Well, I guess the pressure of having a child in High School is enough to make you feel a little panicky!  If anyone has any suggestions of how to get all of these things organized, I would love to hear them! 





                     

Camping Adventure

We went on our first camping trip of the season and we went to Ramsey State Park.  We went with the Highland Hope Christian Campers.  We had an amazing time!  We are hoping to be able to do some more camping before the summer is over. 

The kids had fun fishing and hiking and just being outdoors.  There was a small body of water.  I'm not sure I would consider it a lake, but it was definitely water.  We saw a redheaded woodpecker all over the place in our campground.  

 We did go on a few trails, but it was pretty warm this past weekend.  The highs for the weekend were in the 90s, but with the heat index it was well above 100 and very humid.  We had a great time, even though the camper we rented had a problem with the airconditioner.  We spent most of the weekend without, except Saturday afternoon and evening.  We really enjoyed the time with friends and the time enjoying God's creation.  

We went on a few trails and spent some time down by the water, but the most fun was being with great friends. 

Taking care of the homefront....

Well, normally yard work is something that Dad takes care of.  But with Dad being gone for most of the summer the older two kiddos are learning how to mow and weed eat for Dad.  Mom would love to be out there doing the job, but having an allergy to grass has never allowed me the opportunity.  So, my neighbor so graciously offered to teach my kiddos how to mow and use the weed eater.  I am not sure how enjoyable they both found the job to be.  The rewards to a job well done are amazing!

Taylor gets pretty worn out mowing, but he does a good job!

 Sydney does a good job with the weed eater!  I only wish that we knew how great it would be for her forearms.  It could have really helped her back when she was playing volleyball.

Hey, maybe they could start their very own lawn service!  Not sure how exciting they would find that, but maybe the possibility does exist.  Until the next time......

Washing Dishes

As a part of our homeschooling journey, the kids are also learning how to participate and help with different parts of taking care of our home.  This was the first or second time that Jaden got to participate in washing the dishes with his big brother, Taylor.  Taylor is our resident dish washer and a really good one at that.  Jaden was very excited to be participating in such a big job!  

 

Knitted Hat

This was Audrianna's first project with her knitting hoop that she got for Christmas.  She decided while we were still in California visiting, that she was going to make Grandpappy a stocking hat.  She did such a great job on her first project.  

Here is a picture of Grandpappy with his hat.  This picture was taken at the rehab center where Grandmother is.  He went to visit her on their 68th Wedding Anniversary.  

Homemade Nativity

Every year at our church, they have a display of all different nativity sets.  I happened to come across this article that I had saved years ago on how to create your own Nativity Set.  So, Audrianna decided that she would like to make this for the display.  It turned out so amazing, that we decided to create a bunch as Christmas gifts, as a family.  It was a fun project to work on together.  Here is a picture of the one that Audrianna made.  We made a few changes to the original pattern to save money. 

 

A homemade game

This year for Christmas, we decided to be very crafty with our gifts.  After searching and searching for something to make for the cousins, we came up with our own twist to the game Sequence.  This game was called Four Score.  There are five free spaces on our game and not just four.  There are markers for three people.  We made these from stickers and the little metal rimmed tags that you can buy at a craft store or office supply store.  The board is actually made from cardboard and posterboard which was decoupaged to the cardboard.  Each square has an individually decoupaged picture that was cut to fit the space.  The cards are actually business cards that are perforated and were printed on both sides to look like normal cards that you would have with a game.  We themed this game for the three brothers that were to be receiving this game.  They all participate and enjoy different sports.  So we tried to include the different sports within the pictures on the board.      

Our little visitor

Back in the Fall, one day Sydney was sitting in the basement reading a good book in the recliner.  Out of the corner of her eye she notices something moving up and down.  As she turned her head to look and see what was going on, she discovered that a baby rabbit had fallen through the grate and was trying desperately to escape.  Daddy came to the rescue and saved the bunny.  We let the bunny go back into the fields around our house.  We have witness many bunnies since we have lived here, but this is the one that we had to save.

I am wondering if anyone can guess whose hand is in the picture with Dad?  If you guess Audrianna, then you are correct.  She is the oldest animal lover in the family.  Followed closely by her younger brother, Jaden.  

Making Breads

One of the first things that Audrianna and Taylor worked on together in the kitchen, were some lovely creatures using The World's Simplest Bread Dough recipe from the FamilyFun's Cookbook.  Here are some pictures of this fun time of learning how to bake and create. 

 Who would have thought that you could actually make snakes and mice from bread??

 

Sydney and Jaden also made us some yummy Banana Bread.  We didn't get a picture until it was nearly gone, but it was delicious!

A New Melody.....

As the end of one school year comes to a close, and the beginning of another is around the corner.  We are excited for all the changes that will be coming to our homeschooling adventure.  We are going to have a 1st grader, 6th grader, 8th grader, and a 9th grader.  We are so proud of all of the accomplishments of each of our children.  We are looking forward to the future learning that will take place inside and outside of our home.

When creating this blog, we decided that we needed a name that would represent what our adventure with our homeschooling life would look like.  The name that we came up with was, "The Heart of Life's Melody".  We are excited to embark on this journey with the start of a new year.  We chose this name because each experience that we share in learning is shared by gaining knowledge, but also by gaining love...and love is beautiful and should represent that of our Father in Heaven.  It is this type of experience that we believe is the Heart of Life's Melody.  We are looking forward to sharing our experiences with you as we learn.