What I love about homeschooling

I love being with my girls plain and simple! I love hearing their thoughts and witnessing their "AHA!" moments and knowing I was a part of it.

Being able to control their exposure to inappropriate influences. Children need to be given the opportunity to stay children and not be pushed into an adult world long before they're ready. Click HERE to read more.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Art project~


Today, we did that project. It was really, really fun.


Squirrel's finished work:










And Fluffy Puppy's. If you can guess where/what this is, you get extra points :)





At first, I was going to do a different picture, but I couldn't get the perception right. So I'll attempt that another day. Here's the original picture: http://www.stpeter-skokie.org/images/outside.jpg

Squirrel is learning about three-four digit multiplication. She likes it a lot, though it's difficult.

And I'm doing the genealogy on my family... It's extremely difficult. My Grandma has 9 siblings, my Grandpa has 10, my Big Bubbe had 5, and my Zayde had 3. :)

-- Fluffy Puppy

Quote of the day

"The purpose of this world is not 'to have and to hold' but 'to give and to serve'. There can be no other meaning."

- Sir Wilfred T. Grenfell

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Okay, so I lied.

One day, while watching an episode of Gilmore Girls, we heard this song about the elements. .
A day or two later, Mom told me to learn that song. So I went to my trusty friend Google and searched it. And now? This is one of my favorite songs. Like, ever.


Lyrics:
There's antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium,
And hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium,
And nickel, neodymium, neptunium, germanium,
And iron, americium, ruthenium, uranium,
Europium, zirconium, lutetium, vanadium,
And lanthanum and osmium and astatine and radium,
And gold and protactinium and indium and gallium, ]
(gasp)
And iodine and thorium and thulium and thallium.
There's yttrium, ytterbium, actinium, rubidium,
And boron, gadolinium, niobium, iridium,
And strontium and silicon and silver and samarium,
And bismuth, bromine, lithium, beryllium, and barium.
There's holmium and helium and hafnium and erbium,
And phosphorus and francium and fluorine and terbium,
And manganese and mercury, molybdenum, magnesium,
Dysprosium and scandium and cerium and cesium.
And lead, praseodymium and platinum, plutonium,
Palladium, promethium, potassium, polonium,
And tantalum, technetium, titanium, tellurium,
(gasp)
And cadmium and calcium and chromium and curium.
There's sulfur, californium and fermium, berkelium,
And also mendelevium, einsteinium, nobelium,
And argon, krypton, neon, radon, xenon, zinc and rhodium,
And chlorine, carbon, cobalt, copper, tungsten, tin and sodium.
These are the only ones of which the news has come to Hahvard,
And there may be many others but they haven't been discahvered.


This is the last post... I promise!

A week or two ago, Mom scheduled a tour at the high school I want to go to. This school... blew all three of us through the roof. I so hope I get in!

Since we were in a private high school during school hours, I only took pictures of the exterior of the buildings. Still, though. It's gorgeous.



Founder's Hall, where the Admissions office is, as well as the Library (left) and Dining Hall. In the Library, they have a FIREPLACE! Insanity, yes?
In the dining hall, the tables are round. While we were there, we couldn't tell the difference between Freshman and Seniors!



This is the academics building. In each classroom (save Math), there's this table called the Harkness table, which I completely adore. It's this abnormally-shaped table that allows discussion and debate, and disables the kid-in-the-back-0f-the-classroom act.



This is the clock tower. It doesn't have any use except to tell time, but isn't it gorgeous?






This is the athletics building. Here, you get your own nutritionist and get to pick what you do for P.E. Besides the workout room, where lay the mechanical machines, you can take Yoga, Meditations, Sports, etc.



This is the building that holds not only the Library, but the Admissions and Dining Hall, too!
*gasp* A SQUIRREL ON AN ENSWORTH BENCH!


This is my favorite picture of all. Not only is there bird waste on the Ensworth concrete, but there's also a sliver on Mom's boot. How awesome is that?
Unfortunately, my picture of the Arts Hall (which'll practically be my home) turned out blurry, so I won't post that.
One thing I find cool about Ensworth is that they don't allow money on campus. You have a punch card instead. And on every day of the week, save Friday (casual day) and Tuesday (extra-formal day), Ensworthians wear uniforms. :)

BUNNY EARS!




(insert evil laugh here)





Aww... our little bookworm!



Squirrel and Mystic



Hey, Everyone!

Hey guys!

Fluffy Puppy here, to say how cold it is. Brrr! For the passing weeks, Squirrel and I have been able to take a walk only twice! It'll be nice to get out again, once winter's over. Three more weeks!

I guess you could call our absence period the same as the Europeans: The Dark Age!

Lately, the household has been learning about the Presidents, as well as been very involved in Politics. Currently, my favorites are Obama, JFK, FDR, Teddy, Lincoln and the Clintons. Squirrel's are JFK and Obama.

As for reading? Well, I've been reading a lot. Since the dawn of the new year, I've read Breaking Dawn (Three stars; Stephanie Meyer), Animal Farm (Five Stars; George Orwell), The Pistachio Prescription (Five stars; Paula Danziger), Paper Towns (Four stars; John Green), You Give Me a Pain Elaine (Five stars; Stella Pevsner), The Magician's Nephew (Four and a half stars; C.S. Lewis), Tex (Five stars; S.E. Hinton), Rumble Fish (Five stars; S.E. Hinton), Inherit the Wind (Five stars; Robert E. Lee and Jerome Lawrence), That was Then, This is Now (Five stars; S.E. Hinton), and Animal Farm Cliff Notes (Five stars; Daniel Moran). Currently, I'm in the process of reading Taming the Running Star (S.E. Hinton), The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks), Harry, A History (Melissa Anelli) and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C.S. Lewis). As you can see, I've been busy! :)

Squirrel's really been into the series Beacon Street Girls. As of this year, she's read Blubber (Three stars; Judy Bloom), Freckle Juice (Three stars; Judy Bloom), Double Fudge (Five stars; Judy Bloom), Addie Across the Praire (Five stars; Laurie Lawler), Meet Julie (Five stars; Megan McDonald), Beacon Street Girls Books 1 and 2 (Five stars for both; Annie Bryant). Currently, she's reading Beacon Street Girls Book 3 (Annie Bryant) and A Dog's Life (Ann M. Martin).

About a month ago, we started attending Congregation Micah, which is a Temple in our area. I personally really enjoy it, because all the prayers are sang as songs. We've only yet attended Shabbat Services, but one day I hope we can make it to weekend services too! We've gone to Sunday School, too, which is fun. See our Temple
http://congregationmicah.com.

Squirrel is finally enjoying guitar class. It's the entire Oh-Jeez-These-Stupid-Chords-Are-Hard! factor. I myself thoroughly enjoy chords, and am anticipating writing my own songs!

We've started attending cooking again. We stopped going for a while, because Mom was sick, but we're back! Ms Abbey, our teacher, was unfortunately checked into the hospital a couple weeks ago for asthma problems, but she's fine now. Yay!

As for science, I found a channel on youtube for college lectures. If you're interested, go to
http://www.youtube.com/user/ucberkeley. I'm studying physics, and have already watched the first lecture. I love it! Honestly, I understand it a lot better than Oak Meadow!

Squirrel is learning about nutrition. Currently, they're learning about protein-rich foods, calories, the food pyramid, fats and vitamins. She's enjoying it!

As we're moving along, Squirrel is nearing the end of 3rd grade math, moving on to 4th. I just started 7th grade Math... percentages are stumping me!

As for our leisure, we're just finishing up the 7th season of Gilmore Girls, which we love with all our heart. We feel strongly about the letting-go of Amy Sherman-Palladino, but what can we say? We've also just gotten into My So-Called Life, which I got for Channukah. And we're slowly building up our education about 80s movies and the Brat Pack... We ♥ Ferris!

Until next time!
Fluffy Puppy~