HS Journal
Jan 25th, 2008 by Alicia
We’ve been busy the last couple of days. Some of what the kids have been up to….
Math: Victoria did many pages in an algebra workbook. She has decided she loves algebra and geometry. Anna did an online math game. Jack asked me to get him a “learning book about math” from the library so I got several for us to read together. He’s such a goof! He’s also been doing addition for fun from various workbooks and such he’s found around the house.
Reading: Daddy and Anna finished reading the Sadie Rose series for now. The latest book was too full of unpleasant behavior from another character and they weren’t enjoying it, so they’ve moved on to the Betsy-Tacy series again. Daddy is doing volunteer work for the Betsy-Tacy Society online and is putting up a ton of Lovelace’s old stories up on their web page. Victoria is in love with “The Daring Book for Girls” and wants a copy. She’s started a new chapter book series about dogs. Anna is reading a pirate series. Jack is having us read a billion picture books to him. He’s also getting very good at reading short words. Alex loves my new novel and thinks it is quite tasty. 
Vocabulary: I told the kids their choices of HS Challenges the other day and one of them was to find two words in the dictionary that were new to them, write them out and draw pictures to illustrate their meanings. I got out a big children’s dictionary and started going through it calling out words. Victoria knew them all! We had to really search to find one that she didn’t know. I finally asked her if she knew what “quirt” meant and she said a measurement of liquid. I told her that was “quart” and that she’d have to look up quirt (a riding crop). The other that stumped her was “delapidated” (run down, falling apart).
Social Studies: We’ve started researching Scotland together and will have Burns Night tonight with (shudder) haggis, tatties and neeps. I’ll just be having the tatties and neeps, thank you! I think those are potatoes and turnips. Haggis is stuff like sheep lungs with oats! It was peasant food made up of scraps, basically. Burns night is named after the poet Robert Burns, who is probably best known here in the states for writing “Auld Lang Syne.” It is a tradition here for us to read silly poems, eat Scottish food and so on on Burns Night. Daryl’s good friend Polly lives in Scotland and she gives us lots of info about life in her corner of the world.
Art: The kids have been making billions of Valentines. Next up is glue, glitter and other messy techniques. We do different methods on different days to minimize the mess and keep it fresh.
PE: We had homeschool ice skating yesterday and all 3 kids skated. Anna is really getting fast and Jack does very well for a boy his age. Victoria bangs herself up and bloodies her feet like nobody’s business, but then always wants to keep going anyway. We have got to figure out a way to make the skates not form such blisters. She wore two layers of socks yesterday and the results were still brutal. She is such a tough kid! Last night she had blood running down her foot, poor thing. We’ve tried tighter skates, looser skates, better socks, bandaids on the blisters… I think I need to do a goodsearch today and try to find better answers. The kids have also been playing some indoor movement games with me and playing a tiny bit outside in the blustery cold! Last weekend they had a ball swimming at the hotel for Anna’s birthday.
I’m being summoned downstairs so that’s enough of that! Today’s plans– a little math, messy valentines, group cleaning, Burns Night, exercise together and whatever comes up!
