No lessons today - it is Saturday! The kids went to visit their friends. This is a picture I took of them (with those friends) at a local swimming hole in July.  ¶ 5:24 PM  

  Today Keith gave a lesson about criminal law for social studies. They studied about crimes against persons and property. They are using a college textbook: Street Law, A Course in Practical Law. I think it is great that he is teaching them about the law. That's something that's left out of highschool education too much. I'm glad my kids know what the crimes and consequences are. They also are getting information on how to protect themselves and their property from those who might hurt them.

For science he read to the kids about different types of energy: geothermal, fossil fuel, hydro-electric, wind generated energy, nuclear energy, bioconversion, and solar energy. They are reading from a Silver-Burdett science textbook.

Math for my daughter was addition again. This time she did much better only missing 2 out of 10 problems. Each problem was three numbers, three digits each. On Monday she will get harder problems. Aaron is still doing well with his division and reading lessons. After math my daughter worked on her grammar book for a while. It was all very pleasant. After lessons Aaron went downtown with friends that came to visit him (Allen and Blackhawk) and my daughter stayed home to train her dogs most of the day.

There were some problems with a deal Aaron made on bikes a month ago. It is a very complicated situation and I don't have all the facts so I can't explain it. Aaron seemed happy when he came home. He said that the local deputy gave him a bike helmet and will be watching for a bike that is missing.
  ¶ 9:42 PM  

  Today was a good homeschool day, for the most part. We started by watching Extreme Planet on the National Geographic channel together. It was about tsunamis, and it is good we saw it since we have considered someday moving to Crescent City, or north of there on the Oregon coast. Both areas were featured on the show. Apparently a tsunami claimed lives in Crescent City in 1964. My daughter remembered that when we visited there on July 4 we saw street signs that showed a tsunami evacuation route. Now we are up to date on what causes these huge waves, what people who live on the coast can do to survive, and what is being done to try to warn people and save lives before they strike.

After that show, we spent half an hour on math. My daughter didn't do well and I'll be doing a lot of review with her in the weeks to come. I gave her seven difficult addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems. She missed all the problems except subtraction so we are doing addition review tomorrow. This was involving adding five numbers up to 4 digits each. Tomorrow we will start over by adding three numbers of up to three digits each, and work up to the harder problems.

Aaron did just fine with his division, and is making good progress. He spent some time reading to Keith and I assigned four spelling words to each child for the week.
  ¶ 11:14 PM  

  Goodcharacter.Com - a wonderful website with free teaching resources for kids of all ages. I was looking for information about trustworthiness when I came across this today.

  ¶ 12:51 PM  

  I found the information about the book: Making Children Mind without Losing Yours. This is a great book!! It has one good review at the website and I remember it as being one of the best parenting books I've read (and I have read a lot of them)...

  ¶ 10:21 PM  

  Here's a good Political Cartoon Archive that gives a good perspective of what's going on in America these days. My oldest son, Joshua, used to keep a collection of political cartoons when he was a child. They are a fascinating way to learn about and discuss current events with children.

  ¶ 6:21 PM  

  One of my favorite authors is John Taylor Gatto. An online mailing list study group has been formed to discuss his new book, The Underground History of American Education. I don't have a copy of this book yet and am not sure if I want to buy it, but the website gives the first few chapters of the book and so I'll be reading them and the mailing list to decide if I want to do that. I loved Gatto's earlier book, Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling ...but am not sure I want to expend money and time to read the thicker, more complex book right now.  ¶ 12:35 AM  

  Today my daughter and I drove into Yreka and did some shopping. We got her eyeglasses while we were there. She was not happy about that, but I think that after she realizes how much better she can see with them, she'll be grateful to have them. I told her we might be able to get her some contacts when she's a teenager.

While I was in Yreka I looked for another math workbook for Aaron and couldn't find one. It is a very small city, with no school supply stores that I know of. I settled for two very nice new blank notebooks for the kids - they can work their math problems in there. I can always order something for him from the internet.

Aaron stayed home with Keith and played a Sim City CD-Rom most of the day. Now he is cleaning his room so he can use our new vacuum cleaner, which I bought in Yreka today.
  ¶ 9:17 PM  

  My daughter has been websurfing tonight. She recommends this website:

How To Love Your Dog


  ¶ 9:25 PM  

  My daughter just wrote two poems!!

MIRI
Miri is black as night,
and never gets out of sight.
She has sharp teeth,
but she is very sweet.
She loves to jog.
She is quite a dog.
She is so smart.
She can run like a dart.
She is my dog!

Bear the Wuff
There is a dog named Bear.
He will stare and stare.
He may grrrrrr,
But he has soft fur.
Bear can run.
He is fun.
I love him,
I love him,
So much!

  ¶ 5:00 PM  

 
Well, Keith didn't do any of the teaching today other than to get Aaron started on his math workbook. I read a chapter out of The Bronze Bow and the kids liked it so much they didn't want me to quit.




It is about a young man/boy living in Israel just before the coming of Jesus. So far we all think the book is awesome. The descriptions and characterizations are well written. My daughter is still confused by long division but we're making progress in clarifying this. We will have a social studies lesson later today. Right now the kids have gone to visit friends. My daughter took her wolf-dog, Bear, with her.

She studies nature. She put a water droplet on a nasturtium leaf and in the sunlight it looked like a jewel, or a crystal. Try it! She is constantly experimenting with and examining the plant life around here.

Aaron likes this bike. He traded a motorcycle (sans motor) to Blackhawk and got two bikes in return. This is one of them.. he had to do some repairs but it is all working now.

  ¶ 3:18 PM  

  The kids got up early today. They are outside having bike races together. I can call that physical education for the day. I'm not sure what Keith plans for school today - he's out paying bills. I'm going to be doing long division with my daughter all week long and Aaron will be working on a pre-test section of his workbook. I need to make time to read to them from our literature selection - The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare.
  ¶ 11:26 AM