The Dreaded Algebra

Funny how I dread teaching ALGEBRA, but as I was working through how to at least get a start on school while we wait to move in to the new house, and I'm still in NY and not in TX... Oh the ramblings and meanderings of my mind. What to do? What to do?, and who calls but Mike Austin, looking for the web guy, who is not in NY and his old phone number is not forwarding properly. Mike was so helpful, and one email later,  I have a few things headed our way that we can start on that will help us not fall too far behind.

I already had the No-nonsense Algebra here so I got it out and sat down with Little Miss Sunshine... Sweet Potato is doing summer schooling with it... we at least have moved one whole chapter! My sister found an error in the guide.  Lesson 4-6 it's problem 15 or 16 I have forgotten which one but 3 of us all kept coming up with one of the answers but the other one didn't match the answer key. My sister picked it apart for 45 minutes before declaring the key was wrong.  Her father in-law a long time math teacher said "Oh the stories I could tell you about wrong answers in the the answer key."  Oddly he didn't actually tell us any.

So we finally got into the fun part of algebra solving X & Y because we have 2 equations. I told Sweet Potato it was magic math... (insert flying rainbow unicorns here) we don't know the variables but we have enough information that we can *still* solve them.  It was fun.. I can't believe I just said algebra was fun, but there it is on my computer screen. This from the girl who never understood square roots.  So as Sweet Potato and I slog through algebra going at her pace of learning. I'm at that point where Little Miss Sunshine is starting.

What a difference, I wonder if she knows how amazing it is to be introduced to negative numbers and immediately grasp if you have -45 -3 you add them to be -48 or that mental gymnastics of -32+56 =24 even the tough ones 3-4+7-10 =-4 type didn't stump her.

She told me she hated math and algebra was hard... I told her not to be scared and discussed real life negative numbers. You want beef jerky but you didn't bring your money it costs 4$ I buy it for you you now owe me (-4$)  and you give me 5 dollars when we get home how much money do I need to give you back?  It seemed to do the trick... (Think it was the beef jerky example beef jerky always holds her attention.) Suddenly she just understood *boing* like that...  I kept giving her harder and harder problems and she just kept working her way through them.

Later as Dad and I were driving to the hardware store he said... "You are a good teacher. You praise her so much and encourage her that is the key." Thanks Dad! We had a good discussion on how hard it is for me to find things to encourage Sweet Potato on, and yet how important it is. Her stubbornness has been imprinted in her mind from the time of her birth, it kept her alive in the orphanage, yet now it causes her to not listen.  So often I have to let her figure it out, you can do it your way 15 times and bang your head against the problem your way and when you figure out you need help and are ready then and only then are you teachable, and ready to learn... Maybe some day that persistence will create some new invention. I certainly hope so, but for now I can look forward to a few weeks of light school, that she can choose to make hard or easy.

A Beautiful Girlhood

Well we just reach week 5 in our meanderings through our Resurrection to Reformation curriculum. So this isn't a week in review but I can't wait any longer.  Were only on page 27 of A Beautiful Girlhood, but I love love love this book. Carrie always picks bible study books that focus on character. I do find the book to be a bit dated in it's wording but when I read aloud I just update the language on the fly (bad me I know).  Yet the questions it asks us to discuss are wonderful.  I found we have to set the timer or we just sit and talk about the study for an hour.  The questions really help my kiddos to examine what motivates them and why they are behaving the way they do. It's funny I have a phrase I say a lot "You can wait impatiently and angry or you can wait patiently and happy, but in the end you are going to wait."  The books brings up the same principle all the time.  Our character is an out-pouring of our heart and choices we make.

I gave the girls a scenario, if they could make a skirt any color, any style what would it look like? They both described short skirts one knee length blue and frilly, one mid thigh and covered in animal prints. I then asked them if either of these skirts would be acceptable in say a Amish household? They blanched "No Mom they couldn't wear either of these!" Ok how bout here at home?  Well one was not acceptable here either... Why? Discussion about chocolate cake ensued. It all led back to our choices and how we see ourselves. Why does one of my girls think super short skirts are an option anyway? I have a funny feeling it's the hormones that have been turned on in her brain,  while her prefrontal cortex has not yet caught up.  I keep thinking this too shall pass.

Looking Forward to a New Year

So here is my school for next year all ready for us, on the shelf. We are going half speed through Heart of Dakota's Resurrection to Reformation. If I have done my math right that should place my youngest on track for High School without a gap year. It will also give my oldest more time to develop and hopefully we will hit a few jumps this year.

I really like it when she jumps. Jumping is when she appears stalled on a skill but in reality her brain is actually working away behind the scenes. One day she is unable and the next she is able, and she stays able 90% of the time. I have noticed she jumps instead of growing bit by bit.  She often appears to stall out completely but if we persist in our pursuit of her best, she will suddenly jump to the next level.  I'm hoping to see some jumping this year.

I thought I'd bring out some of the things we will be doing differently than just the "as written" curriculum.  One I'm enraptures over the Logic Of English and I confess I want to do it with my children to learn alongside them as we go.  I recall Mrs. Simmons she despaired of ever teaching me proper grammar and I couldn't tell a adverb from an adjective when I hit college. If it hadn't been for my so awesome roommate  I wonder if I would have ever made deans list that last year. So I bit the bullet and paid out the big bucks for the Logic Of English.  I went with the PDF version and discovered I need 2 sets of phonics cards... But I think I'll have my kids make their own as I'm out of money for school books atm.  I'm looking forward to learning all those rules I just read through by heart this year.

  We also will be adding in this Middle-school music history program  Discovering Music 300 Years of Interaction in Western Music, Arts, History and Culture on the side. It adds more writing but also covers much of the same time periods as Resurrection to Reformation I haven't lined the dates up all nicely but I have managed to schedule it almost daily. Some days all the kids do is listen to music, or do vocab work or research a variety of topics. Other days they watch a lecture by the author. My husband and I previewed these.  They were addictive! We kept looking at the clock and each other and saying ok just one more lecture then we will go to bed!  I love how she dissects history through music. I think it will be great for Daddy and the kids to have something near and dear to his heart to talk about together. I am also hoping it will reinforce the history they are learning. I Love it when I can find VISUAL things for Sweet Potato to watch. She keeps turning her visual activity of reading into an audio activity by reading it out loud. This also slows her school down tremendously.  So anyway we can use movies to get information into her brain! I'm all for it.

As I was unpacking I got so excited to see this book. It looks soooooo yummy! I have yet to sit down and devour it but I can't wait.  One of my favorite things to do is Really LOOK at pictures. I call it listening to pictures.

I remember about 4 years ago going to a museum with my sister and her family. My nephew was kind of bored. I could tell he was exercising his good behavior muscles. I drew him aside and made him "listen" to the painting I was standing in front of.  I can recall it vividly it was a painting of a tavern, there were card players, serving wenches, a baby in a basket crying, a troubadour playing, a spilled jug of beer. It was a loud painting. As I made him look really look and imagine the sounds, the place, the smells, he got so excited he dragged me from painting to painting to listen to them with me. We got so caught up in reading the paintings my sister had to backtrack to find us.  I hope to instill that kind of love of art in my children this next year.

On another note Little Miss Sunshine has started a blog. I found this Kidblog site (I can lock down real tight if I need to.)  I find it so funny if I asked her to write a paragraph a day she would be griping about all the work,  but she pestered me daily to blog. Ha ha ha ha Check it out. :-) and please forgive the spelling and grammar. 

http://kidblog.org/SluberskisHomeschool/baf4a895-1e23-4440-90fc-85cbd91113c9/scarves-of-scrapes/

Watercolor Tutorial Unit 31 CTC

Oh the days are just flying by and I've had these pictures for a while. I've been procrastinating because there is only one more painting after this one. :-( last 2 weeks of school are poetry Memorization. 

I hope like me you have had a renewed interest in the sky. Last night as my daughter and I were walking at dusk we discussed how we would paint the sky.It was all grey and pink and orange.

So here goes Day 2 

 Tape down your painting if you want it to dry flat. 

 here is how I set up my pallet. I read though the directions first in hopes that maybe this time I wouldn't make one mistake. Look how I paired the paints in the way I would be mixing them. 

Mix up your paints prior to wetting your paper. 

As you can see I didn't mix them up first but I struggled to keep my paper wet here. It wasn't that dry of a day but I think overall my paper is as dry as a flattened sponge 

 Brush paper with water.

 Blot with Paper towel. 

 Paint an even light blue sky. 

 Now do the yellow. 

 Add some blue into your light blue wash to make it more intense. 

 Almost ready for the "hill" smudges. 

 Mix up blue and green 

 Paint in some smudges in a hilly formation. 

Ok all done for today. Put your painting in a safe place to dry. 

 But since we're blogging. I'm going to dry mine super quick with a blow dry set on low. 

 Day 3

 with my round brush I mixed up a green paint. 

 See yet another mistake. Somehow yesterday I dripped one dot of blue wash on my yellow!
I'm gonna have to cover that up! 

I didn't like my green it was too close to yesterdays So I fiddled with the color a bit. 

 That is better. 

Made some smudgy trees.  

Don't use your tip to make smudges it will take forever and gives them to much detail.
Here you can see the left side is made with the side of the brush and the right side is made with the tip. Experiment and play around with your brush to see what it can do.  

 Ahh thats better see how almost all of the side of my brush is in contact with the paper. 

 Now add more blue to your paint. 

 Make bushy trees. 

 More Bushy TREES! 

 Now add ea touch of black paint to get a blueish green.
Be careful with the black a little goes a long way. 

 Now paint more trees with leafy tops. (That means let lots of yellow back ground to show through.) 

 See lots of the background is peeping through. 

 Ahh my masterpiece. 

 here are photos of my kids painting some follow the directions exactly others follow their heart... 

Ahh uniquely Sweet Potato 

This one feels very Dr. Susseish (if that is a word!).

Well next Tutorial post will be the last for this school year I can't wait to see what next year brings! 

CTC watercolor Tutorial Unit 22

DAY 2

So today we are looking at things from a new perspective. If you were a bird and looking down on the tree tops what would you see??? Lets find out.  

 All supplies are listed in your book. 

 Tape down your paper if you want it to dry flat. Remember the rough side is  up. 

 Start out with a small amount of paint, but we did discover this painting is a paint hog. It gobbled up a whole tube! Of course the fact we had lots of guests today contributed to the excessive use. 

 Wet your paper. 

 Blot dry.

 Start off very light. 

 Make a center circle. 

Add in a bit of dark green.  

 Go around your circle letting the paints meld is fine. 

 Add in more of the dark green. 

 Keep working your way around the green bulls eye. 

 When you get the edge just keep following the curve.
You will be tempted to make up an down stroke to fill in... DON'T!

Keep doing the circular thing. 

 I worked one side then the other. 

 Now finish the other side. 

 Set aside in a safe place to dry. 

 We were joined by Lullaby and Lighting Storm today. 

 Off they go. 

 I barely had enough flat and wide brushes. 

 She is saying this is my drinking water don't stick paint bushes in it.

 They start the bulls eyes. 

 Look how nicely they are sharing :-)

 Every one has their own way of doing it. 

 Such concentration. 

 Uh Oh Lighting strikes twice, lighting knocked over her glass. Bwahahaha! 

 Almost done. 

 Here Sweet Potato didn't follow the curve see how it looks odd... 

 Lighting Storm is ready to fly! 

Day 3 

We started by crumpling up our paper towels

Crumple, crumple, crumple

This is what we need for today.

Add water to your dark green paint. 

Look how crumpled this is. Were good to go! 

Dip

Dab dab randomly but in clumps

Make clumps of tree leaves.

So I have the start of clumps. 

Mix in a bit of blue paint. 

Dab over your clumps. 

Here we are, I got a bit excited and dabbed everywhere. 

Now for your brown paint,

mix in a bit of water so its smooth.

Now add tree limbs. 

Off the kids go. 

 This was a full tube of paint. when we started. Oh my! 

Connect any outlying clumps of leaves. 

Everyone has a different approach

See her tree is all connected. 

Sweet Potato thought she had to make trunks. 

Little Miss Sunshine made a central trunk.

That's all for today! Don't forget to clean up your mess!