ThadenPierce School

I love my language. So absolutely irregular it hurts! Here’s one of the editors of Merriam Webster describing the actual application of the “I before E” rule.

I Before E

I wish there was a better format file to include all of them but I’m not finding it. C is working on earning some belt loops & pins and here’s the requirements for geography:

Belt Loop

Complete these three requirements:

Draw a map of your neighborhood. Show natural and manmade features. Include a key or legend of map symbols.
Learn about the physical geography of your community. Identify the major landforms within 100 miles. Discuss with an adult what you learned.
Use a world globe or map to locate the continents, the oceans, the equator, and the northern and southern hemispheres. Learn how longitude and latitude lines are used to locate a site.
Academics Pin

Earn the Geography belt loop, and complete five of the following requirements:

Make a three-dimensional model of an imaginary place. Include five different landforms, such as mountains, valleys, lakes, deltas, rivers, buttes, plateaus, basins, and plains.
List 10 cities around the world. Calculate the time it is in each city when it is noon in your town.
Find the company’s location on the wrapper or label of 10 products used in your home, such as food, clothing, toys, and appliances. Use a world map or atlas to find each location.
On a map, trace the routes of some famous explorers. Show the map to your den or family.
On a United States or world map, mark where your family members and ancestors were born.
Keep a map record of the travels of your favorite professional sports team for one month.
Read a book (fiction or nonfiction) in which geography plays an important part.
Take part in a geography bee or fair in your pack, school, or community.
Choose a country in the world and make a travel poster for it.
Play a geography-based board game or computer game. Tell an adult some facts you learned about a place that was part of the game.
Draw or make a map of your state. Include rivers, mountain ranges, state parks, and cities. Include a key or legend of map symbols.

Here’s the main site.

German family granted asylum in US for homeschooling, it’s illegal in Germany.

Interesting. I’m grateful we leave in a state that has no regulations about homeschooling. Yes, it can mean people take advantage of the system and are neglectful – or worse. But there are bad parents in every state regardless of homeschool laws and I’m thankful good parents have the freedom to educate their children in whatever method they feel is best without facing imprisonment or $10,000 fines! I read of another homeschool family in Germany who had their daughter taken away when they refused to enroll her in school.

We have so many books and it seems that as soon as we buy another shelf it magically fills up. If there’s a book I’ve browsed and think it’s worth getting then I keep my eyes out for when I see it on sale, even if it’s one we won’t need for a few years – C, your math books you’ve raced through so fast that I picked up the series to get us through junior high level math and you’re already in the 5th grade book so I’m glad I did. But now our shelves are bursting and I fear I’m forgetting what we have and not using them.

SO, I think we’re going to start something new. A few times a week we’re going to pull some books off the shelf, regardless of the subject, and spend some time going through them. Today it was an art book, a science textbook, and a geography book. It reminds me of what we own, gets you guys exposed to them so you can explore them later on your own, and helps me feel like these books are getting used. If I find some I don’t think we need I can pass them on and hopefully we’ll create a good library in the process of books we want to keep that you enjoy. I don’t know if we’ll just go shelf by shelf and I’ll record titles as we go? Not sure yet, we’ll figure out some system.

C, yesterday you took over an hour to do your math assignment and it should have taken 30 minutes, tops. You admittedly got distracted and today I decided to provide some extra incentive to move things along – it’s 34 degrees right now and so cold in the sunroom. I sent you out there to do your lesson and I said as soon as you finish, run back in and I’ll check your work. An HOUR LATER you came in and showed me your feet and asked, “Mom, is this frostbite?” After I stopped laughing I said it was not and are you done yet?? You almost were.

SO needless to say, serving a mission in Siberia probably won’t phase you because even in the frigid sunroom you got just as distracted daydreaming. Hmm, how to better help you focus then? That really is a concern for me, I know the kids are distractions for you but even alone you get distracted by your own projects and thoughts and you lose track of time. Not that I don’t know where you got that from but I would like you to have a habit of focusing on your tasks until they are completed.

Mo wrote up the abbreviations for the months of the year and we’re now filling in the holidays for each month. We include our anniversary in July as a family holiday – it’s when our family began! Bennett asked why it was a holiday and Emiline said, “Because we love each other, Ben!” Then this:

I know, they are sideways, I took them with the iPhone and they are not cooperating with me.

Christopher: First Language Lessons 3 (grammar, narration, dictation, memorizing scripture mastery instead of the poems in the book.) Piano book 2, composition book for Spell to Write & Read lists, binder with spelling tests, grammar writing, science notes, etc. Missing – timeline/century binder for history.

Moira: Saxon 2 & workbook pages in binder, piano book one, First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind level 1, composition book for Spell to Write & Read spelling lists, Ready Bodies Learning Mind activity guide for OT work. Missing century binder & binder with spelling test, science notes, etc. And Out of Sync Child has Fun.

Combined work: Spell to Write & Read with Wise Guide (teacher’s manual), Teaching the Classics, Cursive First, flashcards for phonograms and spelling rules, etc.

Bennett: Saxon 1 with workbook pages, speech therapy workbook pages in binder, phonics binder with spelling test.

Science: Just a ton of books for reading and science experiments on “creation” to cover solar system, animals, rocks, etc.

Social Studies: Right now it’s Texas/local history and geography but in fall we’ll start Story of the World again. Lots of geography books and social studies stuff the kids enjoy plus My First Book of Biographies.

Art: Annotated Mona Lisa, American artists book (with huge posters to accompany it), Ed Emberly, lots of sketchpads, Discovering Great Artists, Science Arts.

We are reading The Chocolate Touch for our February book club and Christopher fell in love with it. Mo and C have a birthday party in a couple weeks and we decided that would be a fun present. I was able to put a copy on hold at the local Barnes & Noble (so nice and easy!) and then we brainstormed for other ideas. C wanted to get a gold wrapped chocolate and put it in a candy box alone (how the boy receives the magical chocolate) – Kit picked up a Ferrero Rocher 3 pack and we crumpled up some tissue paper and put it in the bottom of an old candy box we had, put a single chocolate in the center then crumpled up more tissue paper on top. We tied a ribbon around it and wrote a note on top to not open it until after Chapter 2. Christopher also made a foil wrapped cardboard coin (how the boy buys his candy) and wrote the birthday girl’s initials on it and “The Chocolate Touch” around the edge in a Sharpie. Cute extra touch.

But C, ever creative, also said he wanted to find a chocolate pencil! Kit suggested we look for some Pocky sticks – the store only had strawberry ones so we wrote a note on the box explaining they were strawberry “pencils” and wrapped them up with a note to not open until after Chapter 5. C insisted we also needed a real pencil since the teacher replaces the chocolate one with a real pencil and we had a cute glittery pink pencil we tied onto the Pocky with a ribbon.

So, we wrapped up the book and wrote, “Open first!” on it then tucked in the other wrapped presents – the Pocky with a pencil, the coin, and the chocolate box. I think it’s a totally cute (and educational!) and fun present. These could easily be used for a book club activity, too, though the Pocky and Rocher both have gluten so we can’t use them for our club safely. We have other fun activities planned!

I caught him doing math! (This is the Saxon 1st grade text, lesson 19.) The last problem is what impressed me the most, it says put 3 seeds in the first apple, 1 seed in the third apple, and 5 seeds in the second apple and then circle the one with the most seeds. Not so shabby for my four (almost 5) year old, eh? He’s been asking for lessons a lot but I was nursing Joseph and looked over to see him doing that. Bennett, you rock.