Friends With Boys - a webcomic by Faith Erin Hicks

Friends With Boys - a webcomic by Faith Erin Hicks:

This was recommended for KM by one my very bestest buds and I have to say she read the whole thing in under an hour!!!! So it must be good! Check out online before it is available in print until March 6th

What I am Reading - December - Music Kid

I have been really enjoying drawing Manga characters the last few weeks. I picked this book up at the library to help me work on the eyes. I will post some of my work here soon.

What I am Reading - Fairie Mom - December

I had read the Well Trained Mind, but after hearing the interview with Susan Wise Bauer on Unplugged Mom I decided to pick up The Well Educated Mind at my library and take a gander through it. I will post a full review when I am done with it! 

Adventures in Science!!!!

As I mentioned we are in deschool mode for DN and KM is on break this week since it is Thanksgiving, so we spent a lot of time doing Science.

We start off the week by using the downloaded copy of Janice VanCleave's Biology For Every Kid: 101 Easy Experiments That Really Work that I had on my kindle and let me tell you this is the first FULLY successful set of experiments that we have EVER done!!! Every single one was successful, easy to understand, follow and explain! LOVE LOVE LOVE this book!

Scientists at work - 

Growth Rate - this one will take a while, but we are going to measure the difference in rate from sunny to dark spot! 

Freezing Tissue - Which do you think froze first? Leave your guess in the comments section!

 

Hard to Freeze - 

Fluffy Raisins -

Before

After

Stand Up - 

wilted leaves

12 hours later - crisp, firm 

 and blue leaves! 

Sugary Leaves - what do you think the outcome of this one was? Leave your guess in the comments section!

We also took a trip into the Boston Museum of Science and here is a video KM pasted together of some highlights - The best part is at 4:40!!!

What I am Reading - November - GCKMom

Be sure to check out - The Core – The Perfect Name For This Incredible Book – Official Review

A new MUST read for EVERYONE!!!

What I am Reading - November - GCK Student

What I am Reading - October - GCK Mom

This has some great insight and TONS of links! Totally worth a read at the fabulous kindle price of $0.99!!!

What I am Reading - October - Music Kid

One of my all time favorites!!! Great for a Sunday morning!

Immense Praise for Joy Hakim’s A History of US

Immense Praise for Joy Hakim’s A History of US - OFFICIAL REVIEW on Unplugged Mom!


I have previously reviewed Joy Hakim's Story of Science series and since I was so enamored by her writing, I bit the bullet and bought the 11 volume set A History of US for Kali to use for her U.S. History studies. AM I EVER GLAD I DID!!! I had planned on glossing over the content so that I could figure out when I would need to order additional reading material and movies from our local library to supplement and ended up not being able to put the book down! I am no history buff, but this book captured my attention and I literally couldn't put it down.

I love that she points out what our family calls "duh" moments, things that when you are reading you think why doesn't every textbook take this approach. "When Leaders say something is all right, most people agree, without thinking for themselves." p.113

Hakim has a way of writing that just captivates and inspires you to want to keep reading. The story unfolds as if you are in a time machine looking down on what is going on. Her writing flows in an engaging and thought provoking way as she is constantly asking you to analyze and question what is being said in a conversational manner. She manages to cover even some of the more gruesome facts without getting graphic, which makes this a perfect multi-age resource.

Hakim challenges the reader to question history and emphasizes that "No one knows what happened in the past - at least not we don't know the whole story"..."You gather pieces of information and try to discover how they fit." p. 9 

When I was in school I was never taught about anything before the James Town Settlement, sure we were taught about Christopher Columbus sailing across the ocean blue in 1492, but they never mentioned all that went on from one point to the next, it was basically as if they left out the 16th century all together! And I took U.S. History in college. In Hakim's text she is truly telling the story of US, beyond the United States, but in depth to how the Americas were formed. Begining back with Beringia she has the audacity to discuss how there are actually no "NATIVE" Americans as we all came from somewhere else. She delves into the formation of settlements in the Central American islands, the Spanish onquests of Mexico and also defends the Indians, repeatedly making note of the "arrogant European" behaviors.

My favorite quote has to be - Looking back, today, it seems as if people and nations were acting just like silly little kids. Each one saying "My religion is better than yours." p. 139

I have only read the first volume, but I have already absorbed more information from this book than I did in my entire college semester of U.S. History. I highly recommend this series as a first rate, informative, intelligent text that will surely make a history lover out of the most resistant person.
I will be getting Volume 2 off the shelf as soon as I finish typing this!

What I am Reading - September - GCKMom

The First Americans: Prehistory-1600 A History of US Book 1 

I was just going to glance through this to prep movies, additional reading and projects for our U.S. history lessons, but I couldn't put it down!!! Full review will be posted soon, but for now I will just say I LOVE Hakim's storytelling skills!  

4th Annual NOT Back to school Day

I tried and tried again to plan a Not Back to School Celebration for our local home ed community, but the weather would just not cooperate! So KM and I decided to go back to our roots and do what we usually do for NOT back to school - breakfast, library and whatever we please!

After the third round of buses rolled by the house this morning, I decided to wake up K, so we could head out to breakfast with CJ. While we waited for our food we played hockey with the twisted straw wrappers and the plastic ad holder.

 Then we headed to the library and and came out with a bagful of books!

 KM spent some time chatting and playing on line with some friends and then

 we decided to bust out the hair dye!!!

While it processed we watched Cyberbully - a MUST see for all teens and parents - on the new monitor! 

It is rather difficult to get the colors to show while it is still damp, I will have to try for a better shot. There are two shades of green - a torquois and a GREEN and purple which is more easily seen! 

What did you do on your NOT back to school day?

What I am Reading - August - Music Kid

MANGA, MANGA & MORE MANGA!!!

Food Rules – Micheal Pollan – A Wealth of REAL Information – Review : Unplugged Mom

Check out my review -

Food Rules – Micheal Pollan – A Wealth of REAL Information – Review : Unplugged Mom

What I am reading - July GCK Mom

I was thinking about the significance of "Independence Day" and how it has changed for me over the years, so I picked up my Kindle to reread one of my favorites -

Two of my favorite quotes - 

My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose.

I am done with the monster of "We," the word of serfdom, of plunder, of misery, falsehood and shame.

If you have never read this I HIGHLY recommend it! I think it might even be time for KM to read it. Hope you all enjoy your Independence day and hope that you find your true independence! 

What I am Reading - June - Music Kid

What I am Reading - June - GCK Mom

I am rereading this one - helps get me inspired for new ideas for next year! 

What I am Reading - May - Music Kid

What I am Reading - May - GCK Mom

This is a new thing I was thinking of doing. Each month we will take the time to share the book we are reading at that time. Sometimes there might be a review, others it will just be what we are reading right then! 

 I downloaded this to my kindle and have been delving into it whenever I get a chance. So far it is very well written and I am thoroughly enjoying it! If you have kids who are being home educated or even if your kids are still in school this is a great insight and understanding of teenagers!

Finishing up Winter Session and Prepping for Spring!!!

This is our last week of our winter session and KM has continued to do really well and is truly enjoying her topics of study. As always we have tweaked and evolved things throughout the session and will continue to do so as we set forth our plans for next session. I have most of the outline planned and over the next week will be fine tuning things.

First and foremost we have both decided after a long discussion, that we need to slow down a bit. We went FULL THROTTLE through the winter and managed to not get any winter duldrums or cabin fever, however we are EXHAUSTED! I have made a last minute decision to go back to our 3 stay day routine and with all that is coming up I am feeling a NEED to really stick to it.

There are some big jobs around the house that need to be taken care of and we are hoping to address a few this weekend ~ including taking down the snow damaged pool ~ while we are all around. The spring brings different chores and household responsibilities that need to be addressed and with CJ starting a full 6 week course to get his advanced licenses, KM and I are going to have to step up and take on some of the things that we would normally leave for him to do.

As for our lesson plans we will be continuing with a majority of the programs from the fall and winter we have been doing, but have decided to tweak a few areas including -

• Science - After some dissection of the Spectrum Science Workbook we both felt like the last few chapters were so disconnected in their content that it was too chopped up and KM didn't really want to finish it. On top of this KM has been very Science focused over the last two years, doing multiple programs at a time, so we decided to back off a bit. She will finish up the next few issues of Scholastic's Science World and will be doing the Environmental Study - see below - that she had planned on doing over the summer during the spring instead. I think this will tie in nicely to our gardening and landscaping plans as well.
• Math - She will be completing the Straight Forward Math Series Algebra Book 2 this week and will begin Book 3 after the break. She is moving very smoothly through this series and really seems to be retaining the information well. 
• Social Science - 
• History - KM has completed Volume 3 of Story of the World and has just begun Volume 4. It seems to be just as intriguing to her although the style is a bit different in this volume than in the ones before. She has been a bit stumped on the outlining portion, but I think with continued practice this will improve. As she is moving through this program at a more advanced rate and completing two to three chapters a week, I will not be requiring that she complete all the outlines and we will be  doing far less of the activities as well. I have, however, chosen to incorporate more of the Brain Pop! videos into the the history areas to hopefully bring a bit more life into it. 
• Current Events - This is an area that we have been a bit lacking in lately and CJ feels we should put a bit more energy into. KM does read Youngzine each week, but I stumbled across the CNN Student News and I think this will be a great resource! 
• Art - I went back and forth in this area recently. We tried a Great Course series from the library, but it was more than a bit DRY! KM is always working on different projects and crafts, but she also likes well done documentaries and shows having to do with art. So after some poking around online, I landed on Netflix and found this rather intriguing looking PBS series called Art 21 which we can stream live through the ROKU and/or the Wii onto the big screen! There are also free downloadable educator's guides to give some extra insight and ideas on how to use the program in an educational setting! We are both looking forward to utilizing this resource.
• Environmental Study - We had planned on working through this unit study over the summer, but as I mentioned earlier our plans changed a bit! We will be reading the Cartoon Guide to the Environment and going through the Our Fragile Environment Unit on BrainPop. We will also be watching documentaries that will correlate with each weeks topics. 
• Music - This is another area that we tend to focus a lot on around here. KM is more than halfway through the Annenberg Media course Exploring the World of Music and is thoroughly enjoying it. She will continue with and hopes to complete Piano Adventures Lesson Book, Level 2A by the end of this next session. She has been doing incredibly well considering she is self teaching and neither CJ nor I have any instrumental talent! She also continues to utilize the Wii with Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero, as well as a multitude of Sing It games that she has acquired. There has been talk of wanting to take drum lessons next year, but she is wavering as to whether she wants a traditional drum kit or an electronic one. 
• Literature - KM has picked two pieces to focus on this session Old Yeller and Wright 3. For Old Yeller we will take advantage of this online resource, as well as doing a movie comparison. For Wright 3 we will be using this guide put out by Library Sparks. 
• P.E. - Ice skating was fabulous over the winter and KM really took to it! For the spring the kids will be finishing up their bowling league and we will go back to Basketball and Tennis as the weather permits. When the weather is against us we will be using the Wii Sports Resort and Just Dance to get our sweat on! We have also decided to start incorporating more family fitness activities like hiking, bike riding and roller blading on the weekends when DN is here. These are things that we used to do regularly when KM was little, but have just moved away from over the last few years. 

Will you be changing things up for the spring? What kinds of fun activities does your family have planned?

I will be updating the Current Curriculum & Schedule page soon!

City of Bones - Teen Book Review By KM

The City of Bones is an incredibly well written thriller with suspense, action, and myth. This book is a favorite of mine and I believe that others, teens and adults, will agree that Cassandra Clare is an incredible writer who is always throwing things at you that you would never expect. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of this series.

~~~I have asked KM to start adding her own posts to the blog to get a teen perspective, so hopefully we will be hearing from her more often!