Thursday

8:30 practice guitar
9:00 heat transfer quiz
9:15 daily news quiz (great online resource!)
9:30 study spelling and vocab
9:45 Creative writing using sight and distance
10:45 math at school, stay for lunch.

1:00 practice guitar
1:30 Read Devil's Arithmetic
2:00 Research for Picasso biography.  I gave Ruby a stack of books on Picasso and told her to take two pages of notes to get her started on her biography.
2:45 math homework

3:20 get ready for ballet
3:45 - 5:00 ballet.
Ruby will still have reading to do tonight, and more browsing through Picasso stuff for info and ideas for her report.  She has modern dance at 7:15 and about 30 minutes to wait for me afterward while I teach, so hopefully she can use that time to read so we can stay on schedule with all the great books we have waiting for us.

It's been a challenge to fit everything in.  The day goes by really quickly, and 3:45 rolls around too soon, with ballet on Tuesday and Thursday.  Mondays have to be even more compact, because we leave for guitar at 1:45, although the car is a good place to do some studying or discussing.  Fridays are hard because the kids get home at 1:30, so after that, it's hard to focus.  I just save practicing and reading for afternoon that day, since Ruby can do those in her room.

Wednesday

It's Ruby's birthday!  Golda served her breakfast in bed, then family scripture study before she started on her practicing.  She was ready to go at 9, with 30 minutes of guitar done.  She's trying to finish everything by 2 so Scott can take her to lunch.  I drilled her on her spelling and vocabulary list while she did her hair and Xanthe's hair.  As Ruby spelled the words, Xanthe kept throwing letters out there.  "X!  What about X?  Don't forget B!  Bu bu bu B!!!"  Yeah, I don't know how people homeschool a bunch of kids at the same time.  We're trying cutting creative writing down to 3 days a week to fit more in.  Ruby tested herself on the Europe map and looked up definitions for all of her spelling words, then went to math at school.

For the afternoon, she is going to finish her math homework, do half of her reading, look through two books on Picasso and take notes for her biography, and finish her last 30 minutes of practicing.  25, since it's her birthday.  :)  That will give her time to go to lunch with Scott, make her favorite, chicken piccata, for dinner, meet with the Beehive leader (!!) and go to jazz tonight, without having to worry about homework.  Happy birthday, Ruby!!

Tuesday

Ruby started with guitar practicing at 8:30 and was ready for school at 9.  She wrote a brief book report on Number the Stars, and we talked about the book before I left to take Xanthe to piano.  Coco came over and they did some writing.  Ruby's writing is really good.  I like to see the process in her notebook that she and Coco go through to get the finished product.  I'm going to have Ruby post her writing on the blog, to help with keyboarding and for proofreading.

After creative writing, it was math at school.  She got her math homework done there, came home for lunch and got started on a science packet on heat.  She finished that while I taught violin, and copied down her new spelling list.  I gave her a pre-test on the map of Europe and she studied the countries.  As soon as she can get 100% on a test of the countries, we'll start on memorizing the capitals.  hopefully by Monday, since next week is our last week of this unit.  Now she is reading for 30 minutes in the book we started today, The Devil's Arithmetic.  If she stays on the ball, she'll be able to get her last 30 minutes of practicing done before ballet and be free from 5 until 6, when we go to the church to prepare for New Beginnings tonight!  Good job, Ruby!

NUMBER THE STARS

I really enjoyed Number The Stars. I can't believe how much courage all of the characters had! It is hard to imagine myself in Annemarie's (the main character) place, but I am pretty sure I would help as much as I could. Even though I'm just a 12 year old, I think I could be as brave as Annemarie, because she was 10, and all the people had to be that way in this time period,  because of the Nazis. Another favorite character was the handkerchief. Read it and you'll find out why.:) The things in it are so real and interesting. Every chapter was so exiting. You just have too hold your breath! I liked the end, but the only thing I didn't like about it was it was too short. It was kind of a cliff hangar.


I really want everyone to read this book! you will love it!


PS. It isn't as sad as Anne Frank.

Monday, January 23

Ruby started with math homework because she was sick Friday and missed school.  That took until creative writing started at 9:45.  Math at school at 10:45, then lunch before diving into her to-do list.  She had a grammar quiz, more math homework and an online report and short video to watch about Picasso.  I can't remember what her other assignments were.  Mondays, we have to work fast because we leave for guitar at 1:45.  In the car, I gave Ruby her spelling test.  There are 20 words, and she got 80%.  I made her study the words and retake the test in the car on the way home.  We also talked about Number the Stars, the book we're reading.  It takes place in Denmark in 1940.

When we got home, Ruby had practicing to do and finishing up some work she didn't get to before we left.  She also was assigned to finish Number the Stars, which she did.  I finished it last night, so we're ready to do a book report on that today and get started on the next book, relating to the next chapter in WWII, starting with Pearl Harbor.

Last Week

Our first week was last week, starting on Wednesday.  The first unit is World War Two.  We had already started reading Anne Frank and we started in 1933 in Europe.  First thing in the morning, Ruby fills in a map of Europe with all the country names.  It's the same map every day, and we'll have two tests on it, one this Friday and one at the end of the unit next Friday.  The next 15-minute segment is spelling, then grammar.

At 9:45, Coco comes for Creative Writing.  Ruby produced some amazing writing that I'll have to have her post.

10:45 is math at school.  I pick her up at 12, we have lunch and drop Xanthe off at school at 12:30 and get back to work.  Afternoons fly by.  We try to cover history, reading, practicing, art, science and math homework.  It's a challenge to get everything in.