New books already

This afternoon I was supposed to be ordering some Christmas presents online. Instead I ordered some school books that we'll need soon. I really didn't think that I'd need to order school stuff until sometime in January. 

Both girls are using Life of Fred for math. Rosie Jane has already finished the Fractions book this year and is 8 lessons away from completing the Decimals and Percents book. I was hoping that she could finish it before Christmas break but now looking at the calendar I don't think she'll be able to. Either way, she'll need the next book pretty quickly in January so I ordered the next two books this afternoon.  Funny thing is that they're Pre-Algebra 1 with Biology and Pre-Algebra 2 with Economics. She asked if she had to do the biology and economics and when I told her yes, she asked why.  I think she was thinking she's going to get enough biology with the science she's doing this year and she doesn't want to do economics (although she probably doesn't know what it is), but it's all integrated so she's doing it.

Sweet Pea is using the Bible books from Sonlight's World History in Depth course. I ordered the first three books used, thinking it would (again) take her until mid- to late-January to finish them. Didn't quite turn out that way! She read the first book But Don't All Religions Lead to God and is working her way through the BBC workbook. The next book up was supposed to be How to Stay Christian in High School. The problem occurred when Bob started looking for something new to use in the senior high Sunday school class (he's one of the teachers). Some of the kids brought in some options and Sweet Pea took in that book. She hadn't started it yet, but thought it looked good and the other kids would like it. They did so they're using the book at church (and really enjoying it from what I hear). So that left her with nothing at home so I ordered the other two books this afternoon, Daring to Live on the Edge and Life Like a Jesus Freak. Can't wait to see how she likes these two since she really liked the others.

Hopefully these orders will hold us until the end of the school year. I've already got the next math book that Sweet Pea will need and they should be good with the rest of their things.

The home stretch for this year

We're entering the home stretch for this year (the calendar year!).  I think we'll do some sort of school through Dec. 22 then take off until January.  We've been kind of taking it easy already this month, too many things to do but some school work keeps going on.  The girls are a little behind in a couple of things so we're working hard on those, math for Sweet Pea (and when I say "working hard" in this case I mean it, it's been hard!) and science as well; for Rosie Jane, it's been English, science, and math.  Sweet Pea has been catching up on some projects for history now that we've gotten a new black printer cartridge.  Printing out a bunch of pictures isn't going to work well without that color.

Both are keeping up with their foreign language.  This coming week is their last until the end of January.  I need to keep them reviewing next month so they don't forget everything before they meet again.  I will have Sweet Pea work on the French unit study in January before her class begins again.  Hopefully she'll know more about French geography, the people, and the country by the end.

I think we'll do some baking (easy math) next week, finish Christmas shopping, hit the slopes at least one day hopefully (p.e.), and just enjoy some time together. 

I should have known

Grand ideas and all, but I should have known better.  While I like the idea of unit studies, they just don't really work for us, especially at this time of year.  There's too much going on between Sweet Pea's birthday, Thanksgiving (not necessarily in that order), shopping, baking, Christmas,  youth group stuff, and all sorts of other miscellaneous things.

I really liked the idea of the Christmas unit study that I got, but I think it's too much work for this time of year.  While it had movies and books, it was primarily a writing program from what I saw.  Maybe I'll save it for next year, take a closer look at it during the summer so we can work it in during December.  The good news is that I got it for free so I'm not feeling like I wasted money on it.

I do have higher hopes for the French unit study I got.  It's only a week long and looks like a lot of fun. I'll be taking a closer look at that one over Christmas break, maybe while the gang is off skiing.  I told Sweet Pea that we'd do it the first week back to school in January.  Should be a good time to review French for her, her last class is next Friday and they don't start again until Jan. 30.

Shhhhh....

Shhhh.....we're semi playing hookey today.  I very rarely call a day off from school.  Even if I don't have their schedules done (like today) I can get them started on "the next thing" in several subjects and get their assignments written up pretty quickly.  After traveling and eating away the weekend, I just didn't feel like doing writing up assignments last night.  Today I have several things that have to get done, a few of which are out of the house.  Not really a big deal, but this teacher needed a teacher work day. 

The girls are doing their math ("the next lesson") and they're also doing their online class.  We're going to work on picking up some of the clutter so we can pull the Christmas decorations out and get started on making the house look festive and pretty.  A little bit of "life learning" today.  Maybe we'll even start the Christmas unit study by watching a movie.

Unit studies

First a definition, unit studies are usually short studies on one topic.  They can encompass a range of academic subjects but stick to one topic.  For example, I've seen a unit study on chocolate.  With this one you would probably learn the history of chocolate, where it's grown (geography), learn how to use it and make one or more recipes with it (math and science).  Depending on the study, they'll use living books, maps, field trips, videos, and/or music.  In general, I don't use unit studies in my school but I have recently found two that I'm going to be making use of in the next couple of months.

The first is from Connect the Thoughts on Christmas.  It specifically says that it's a creative writing and history course.  I downloaded this one from CurrClick a month or so ago when it was free.  I'm just now taking a look at it since I want to start it the week after Thanksgiving.  At the beginning it's got a list of recommended books, movies, and music (some of my favorites are included).  The first lesson looks to be on the history of Christmas.  I can't wait to delve deeper and see what's in store!  I think it will be a fun study and maybe we can take a break from some of the other work we're doing.

The other one I got today from Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett.  I'm on her email list and got a notice this morning that they've come out with the newest in her Passport Geography series, France. Coming up soon is Germany, Italy, and Spain; Great Britain is also available.  This study is only a week long, but takes a look at the culture, language, food, and lots of other aspects of the country.  Granted, it's a brief look but looks to be a good introduction.  I thought I'd add this in for Sweet Pea in January as an addition to her French class that she's taking.  I think her teacher is giving them some insight into the culture of different French speaking countries, but this will give her a bit more depth into France.  When the Germany study comes out I'll probably get that for Rosie Jane to add to her German class.

Back to it

We thoroughly enjoyed our vacation to Disney but now it's time to get back to it.  Sweet Pea studied hard yesterday for her French test, got it done today and I scanned and emailed it to her teacher.  Rosie Jane said she studied German and thought her test was due on Wednesday.  I asked the teacher when I sent Sweet Pea's test in to make sure.  If it's due tomorrow, I'll be printing and she'll be getting it done quick before class.

I spent the evening writing up assignments for the girls.  Not much fun today.  I had to figure out what was done and what wasn't before we went to Disney and try to remember where we were in different subjects.  I'm still not sure about a few things, but I'll get that all cleared up in the morning.  Sweet Pea has a neat history project to finish up and some cool stuff coming up in science.  Rosie Jane will be finishing The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe this week and starting The Horse and His Boy.  I'm not sure this Narnia study was what she was expecting, but I think she's finally enjoying it; it just took us a while to get here.

Sweet Pea has Girl Scouts tomorrow.  It's been an interesting road with her and her troop.  At this point, it's her and two friends.  Small, but they all really want to be here and I think they all have the goal of earning their Gold Award.  Right now we're finishing up their Silver Award.  That's really been a learning experience!  They built the new website for our Service Unit and just have a couple of things left to finish it up.  They'll maintain it for the rest of the year then train another troop next fall to turn it over to.  They do enjoy getting together.

Rosie Jane hasn't be able to really get involved with her troop this year.  It's based at the local middle school and this year they're meeting after school.  Unfortunately it conflicts with her science labs.  The good news is that I can usually reschedule her labs if there's a meeting she really needs to go to.  I need to get her thinking about her Silver Award so she can start working on it.

Vacation!

We've been on vacation, another trip to Disney, which means that school hasn't happened in a week.  The girls did manage to log into their French/German classes in the car on Friday last week.  Having a smart phone is a wonderful thing!  Sweet Pea told me that she wanted to use my phone and log in on Monday and Wednesday as well.  I was rather skeptical about it but if she wanted to, more power to her.  I asked on Monday but she said no; I don't remember what we were doing, but it wasn't really a good time.  On Wednesday, we had just finished lunch at noon so she logged in then was listening in as we were walking around Hollywood Studios.  Worked out ok.  Now they just need to catch up on their homework which they didn't do and study since they both have tests that are due on Monday.