Art and Basketball..well not together!

Dragon has picked up his sketching book again, he did a penguin and a bear following the instructions in a book called "I Can Draw Animals". He also did a flower from a different book called "How to Draw Flowers".

and...

This past monday night, Fairy had her last basketball night. Even though she didn't score a single basket the whole season, she said she still enjoyed it very much... What a team player! Here she is with her bronze medal.

Journey North Mystery Class 2008

Thanks to a great homeschool friend ;-) we are taking part of this investigation!

I only found out about it last night, but this morning Fairy and I were busy making our 11 charts to chart our local sunrise and sunset. On Friday, we will start charting the 10 other mystery locations' photoperiods. At the end of the 11 weeks, we will try to find out where the 10 locations are, using the photoperiods and longitude clues. It should quite interesting!

You can find a lot of information looking through the Journey North site. Fairy and I watched a couple of the slide shows, the World's Biggest Address Book (about longitude and latitude) and The Sun's Daily Cycle. There are forms to use for graphs, data collecting sheets, etc... This happens every year and it is very well organized!

Handicrafts Saturdays and Dragon's Hockey Pics

Fairy worked on her rag quilt yesterday. We finished cutting all the squares needed and started sewing the squares together. First she had to sew each individual 5 in x 5 in square with a big X, then she sewed all the squares together in rows.

Next Saturday, she will be putting all the rows together. Stay tuned!

Dragon also had his regular game yesterday, and I finally remembered to bring the camera! Here are a couple of pics from his practice. He had a lot of fun playing hockey as usual, and volunteered to be goalie again for next week!

Here is a short video clip, when Dragon was practicing his scoring...

Iditarod

We started today our Iditarod study by reading "Iditarod Dream" by Ted Wood. It is the story of Dusty and his sled dogs competing in the Junior Iditarod Race. The junior race is much shorter than the regular one, but still a very tough one. It is for fourteen to seventeen years old mushers. It's a two day race starting and ending in Wasilla, Alaska, about 158 miles.
This year, the start date is Saturday, February 23 (Dragon's birthday!).
Here is a link for the official site of the Jr Iditarod Sled Dog Race . The kids and I will soon be choosing our junior musher and following him or her during the race through this race update site.
The books we read will be added to the blog, on the left side.
The Iditarod Race starts March 1. I will post about it later on.

A Baking Day!

The sun might be shining but it is still very cold outside, so we decided to do some baking this morning after our school work.

The girls made brownies and I made a raspberry-lemon loaf. Yummy!

A friend for Pixie

Meet Opal, our new little guinea pig. Pixie now has a friend to squeak with! She is very tiny, the runt of the litter, but she seems very healthy so far. Pixie and Opal already seemed to be comfortable with each other.

Handicrafts Saturdays

This morning we started our January handicraft project...a little late but, sometime, life gets in the way, lol! If you would like more information on handicrafts, check here. Personally, I much prefer taking the time to teach our children skills that they could use in the future.


We are making a rag quilt for our first project, since I have made them before, I thought it would be easier. Instructions for making a rag quilt can be found here.

Fairy is making a rag quilt for Nathalie, her doll and Dragon is making one for his puppy.

First, I taught them how to measure and plan out the fabrics they will use, figuring out how big they would like these blankets to be. These quilts will each be approximately 35 x 25 inches.

Next, I showed them how to safely use the rotary cutter and how to cut the squares of fabric. They both cut quite a few squares.

We will be continuing this project next Saturday. I hope you will come back to see our progress!

Our second term plan - January to March 2008

Here is our plan for this term, with a couple of changes from the first term. I added a star in front of the new or changed subjects.


Fairy (5th Grade):

Math - Saxon 5/4

English - Bob Jones 5 Writing and Grammar

Spelling - Spelling Workout

Handwriting - A Reason for Handwriting, when complete, will move on to copywork

* Literature - The Princess and the Goblin, suggested in Ambleside Online Year 3 with narration required

* Geography - Literature Unit Study from Trail Guide to World Geography with Around the World in 80 Days

* History Tales - Michelangelo, Bard of Avon, Good Queen Bess

* Science - Weather, the forces of nature that shape our world (Fairy is fascinated by the weather)

* Free Reading - I didn't use to suggest reading material for their own free reading time, but this time I have given each of them one book to finish by the end of this month, Fairy's is On the Banks of Plum Creek.



Dragon (3rd Grade):

Math - Saxon 3

English - Bob Jones 3 Writing and Grammar

Spelling - Spelling Workout

* Handwriting - Copywork -Marco Polo selections

* Literature - Tales from Shakespeare, then Parables from Nature, suggested in AO Year 2, narration required

* Geography - Paddle to the Sea, then Tree in the Trail both by Holling C. Holling, narration required

History - finishing Story of the World 2 - Middle Ages

Science - finishing Rod & Staff Science 3rd grade

Free Reading - The Door in the Wall


Saturdays are our Handicrafts Days, this month we are working on a rag quilt, Fairy and Dragon will each be making a doll size one, Fairy for her American Girl dolls and Dragon for his Webkinz. I will probably end up making one for Princess too!


A new little helper has been this narration cube . We have used it when Fairy or Dragon have trouble coming up with their own narration. It has been great!

Great start of the new year!

Dragon won the award at hockey today. He was very proud to get the award! He also volunteered to be goalie, his second time, and did very well.