Morning Meeting
Who Is God? – Chapter Four – Can You Trust Your Feelings? which focused on Psalm 43:5. This was a really great chapter about giving your feelings the right amount of attention rather than being controlled by them.
Mystery of History Vol 2: The Early Church and the Middle Ages. We completed the following lessons: Boniface, Missionary to Germany; the Iconoclast Controversy; Charles “Martel” and the Battle of Tours; Charlemagne; The Thousand and One Nights: Tales from Arabia; The Invasion of the Vikings
The Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way. We completed chapter 10: Getting Atom which covers the first murmurings in history that life could be stripped back to one small part which could not be split further. They called this the atom. Obviously, time has shown that the atom can be split, but this was a step towards that. We learnt about Lucretius’ poem: On the Nature of the Universe, about atoms. We began Chapter 11: Aristotle and his Teacher. This chapter focused on early indications that the world was round and not flat (such as the curved nature of the lunar eclipse); the duality between the perfection-seeking Plato and his observing and experimenting student Aristotle. We learnt once again about irrational numbers, the complete antithesis of the perfect numbers Plato discovered and admired so much. We also learnt of the solid shapes, first discovered by Pythagorus but later named after Plato – Platonic solids – five regular solids with all equal sides, angles and faces. We also learnt about what Aristotle got wrong, yet how his teachings pervaded the world’s knowledge until the Middle Ages due to the respect for his intelligence.
Vincent’s Starry Night and Other Stories. We have learnt about Johannes Vermeer and Jean-Simeon Chardin. Next, we moved onto the artists of the Industrial Revolution (1750-1860): Jacques-Louis David, Francisco Goya, Caster David Friedrich, Katsushika Hokusai, William Henry Fox Talbot, J. M. W. Turner, Gustave Courbet
Read Aloud: Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
English
Abigail:
Read Alone – Abigail has finished Hot Zone by Richard Preston, Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzzanne Collins and Why Does E=MC2? by Brian Cox and Jeff Foreshaw. She has also re-read Icarus Falls by Charlotte Stewart (her sister!) and begun the Earth’s Children Series by Jean M. Auel, reading Clan of the Cave Bear, Old Gods Don’t Die by Charlotte Stewart (poetry), Archangel by Anthony Horowitz, Alex Rider: Snakehead by Anthony Horowitz, Pegasus and the Flame by Kate O’Hearn, Pegasus and the Fight for Olympus by Kate o’Hearn, Pegasus and the New Olympians by Kate O’Hearn and is currently reading Valley of Horses by Jean M Auel and Sandra Burr
English Curriculum – Ignite English Student Book Three – This month she has been learning about thrillers and building atmosphere.
She is also learning from Student Writing Intensive from IEW and this month has been learning how to do key word outlines and taking notes.
Rebecca:
Read Alone – Becs is my only child who does not like to read. I suspect this has something to do with her spelling difficulties – she finds reading harder than any other work she does. This month she has finished the book Cress by Marissa Meyer (The Lunar Chronicles) and Winter by Marissa Meyer (the next book in The Lunar Chronicles). She has also completed To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han and The Wolves Of Willoughby Chase (The Wolves Of Willoughby Chase Sequence) by Joan Aitken
English Curriculum – Becca goes over to her Granny’s for individualised spelling lessons. She is working through all the National Curriculum words years 1-6. Becs finds spelling really hard but having 1-2-1 with granny is really helping. Writing wise, she is working her way through IEW Writing Intensive. This month she has learnt how to paraphrase a story using keyword outlines.
Maths
Abigail
Abs is working her way through Key Stage Three maths and will almost definitely be finished by summer. This month she has completed the following lessons and tests:
Becca
Becca began her Key Stage Three maths last term and is making good progress:
Abigail (Aged 13-14, Year 9)
Abigail’s main school outside of maths and English is mostly science based.
Abs has completed the whole Environmental Management GCSE. We’ve decided not to put her in for the exam this summer, but instead to focus on learning the material well. Granny is testing her on the glossary at the back of the book. Each day she is writing one revision question with the answer and Granny will also test her on these each day too. Once a week she watches a YouTube video based on one of her lessons from the text book to further consolidate her learning.
The GCSEs in Psychology and Sociology are going slow and steady which is fine as she is doing them over two years, and maybe even over three. She has (finally) finished the research modules of both courses. These were the longest and probably least interesting modules which she is over-the-moon to have at last completed! Next month she will be moving on to the Psychology of Crime (Psychology) and Criminology (Sociology) which she is really looking forward to.
Lastly, Abigail is working her way through the Apologia text book and Key Stage Three Science book three. She works at these at her own speed and we do the end of unit questions together verbally.
Rebecca (Aged 10-11, Year 7)
Rebecca’s main school apart from the English and Maths is 100% creative. She is currently studying towards a Level One qualification in Mixed Media and another Level One in Textiles.
We have been focusing on her textiles this month almost exclusively. She has needed to do a lot of work on completing the design of her jelly fish dress, which is proving much harder than we first thought. There is a lot of trouble-shooting in terms of vision verses skills. She has got to a place where she thinks she might be ready to start the actual making of it next month.
This month she explored visual communication through drawings and sketches as she began working towards her final dress design using water colours. The tutor suggested she explore some embellishments, which she did with pencil drawings of a pearl, shell and sea-glass:
Extra-Curricular Activities
This has been a much busier month for both girls. Each Sunday morning, they have both been volunteering at church by working in the creche. They are learning a lot, serving the church and thoroughly enjoying themselves in the process! Sunday evening they have their church youth group after the church service.
Monday afternoons are spent doing some physical activities with other homeschoolers, which they both love. Monday evenings is another youth group which meets in a church nearby. Becca walks the dog with her big sister at lunch time on a Monday and then goes back to her work and shares lunch with her.
Tuesday evenings both girls attend children’s choir, after which Becca spends the rest of the evening with a precious homeschooled friend whilst Abigail attends Army Cadets. Every couple of weeks, she has a physical training session, where the goal is to improve on her own performance from week to week. To this end, Abigail now goes jogging at least 3 times a week, often more, and is building the number of squats and press ups she can do in one go. Each week, she comes back beaming having improved ever so slightly on the day before.
The girls also participated in a beautiful Mother’s Day service singing in their youth choir and both girls read out passages from the bible. There were tea and cakes afterwards with a chance to catch up with other parents of the choir members. A lovely, lovely night!
Wednesday, Abigail goes to Explorers with one of her friends from church. She has spent fun times making pancakes, quiz nights, playing dominoes and potato printing. She also went to an evening at LazerQuest which she thoroughly enjoyed and which allowed her to integrate with the group even more.
Thursday, Abigail attends Army Cadets again. She is learning lots of things, and is maybe beginning to find her feet. All the other cadets go to the same school so all know each other and I think she feels a bit left out sometimes. That said, she doggedly continues to go, determined to learn how to fit it. All of us offer her ideas to conquer the half hour of social time they have half way through. It is this time she struggles with the most, and often wants to cry. She doesn’t though and I am so proud of her for continuing to go even though she finds it hard.
In fact, she opted to go away for the weekend with her squadron this month which I seemed to be more worried about than her! I needn’t have been however, as she had a wonderful time, making new friends with teens in different squadrons as well as consolidating some relationships in her own. Ultimately, this weekend away has made attending the weekly meetings much more enjoyable for her. She also achieved her shooting badge whilst away!
Friday’s are spent with friends or with their sisters. Becca has lunch with Lillie at least once a week, and the four sisters often go shopping together to the nearby town and have video nights together, snuggled up on the sofa
Each Saturday we have Girls’ Club, something I got from reading Sally Clarkson’s book of the same name. My four girls and I gather together and spend a few hours chatting, drinking coffee and wandering around the charity shops, something that we have all enjoyed since they were little. It is a fun time, without phones, to focus on each other, to decompress and to enjoy being together. I began it as a way to spend more time with my younger daughters before they grow up too. I invited the older girls to join us and it has definitely become a ‘thing’ now. Girl Club. Every Saturday. In fact, last Saturday we added an element to our Saturday afternoons – we went swimming! I think this will become a permanent fixture in girls’ club because we had SO much fun, got some good healthy exercise in and I even managed to get twenty minutes in the sauna! Bliss!!
Becca has also been spending lots of time with friends who live just up the road from us, and has even had a sleep over (on her own!) at their homes. She has also slept over at her Granny’s house a couple of times this month as we have needed her bed for guests. She loves this and always has morning coffee with her granny to start her day!
Family Night: This month for Family night we watched Prince Caspian.