Funky Garden Institute: My Garden

From my garden blog, Funky Garden Institute: My Garden: "Here is a picture of my side flower garden This is my flower garden in our side yard, between the house and the driveway. This was in ear..."

TWO WEEK WRAP UP (HANNAH)

Hannah (11th grade) is studying U.S. history, using History of Us.  She is almost done with Book 1, The First Americans.  She is working on an ACT math and science review book in hopes of bringing her math and science scores up when she next takes the ACT, probably in October.  She also is almost done with the first unit in Teaching Textbooks Pre-Calculus.  She is also 2/3 through The Science of Liberty by Timothy Ferris.  This ties the development of science to the rise of democracy and the age of reason, which dovetails very nicely with her readings in Physics, using Physics Demystified.  She will be taking college freshman English beginning this week at Christian Brothers  University, so other than having her read the Scarlet Letter over the past 2 weeks, I'm holding off any additional assignments while she is in that class.  
  

TWO WEEK WRAP UP (Cree)

In the midst of having our upstairs carpets replaced and both of our full bathrooms tiled and updated, we completed our first two weeks of homeschooling for this school year.

Cree (7th grade) is studying U.S. Geography this year, using Trail Guide to US Geography.  The past 2 weeks and this week she is covering New England, doing mapping, making a chart for the states, answering research questions.  She watched a GlobeTrekker video on New England, and we made blueberry muffins and scalloped oysters for dinner.  This week we'll be making apple pandowdy and pumpkin pie.

Cree is using Sequential Spelling, a new program for us, developed by AVSKO for use with people with dyslexic issues.  It seems to be working well so far.

We are using Lightening Literature, which had Cree reading and working with Rikki Tikki Tavi, learning about plot structure and story boards.

In science we did some work with weather.  Cree kept a weather chart for the 2 weeks, and also kept a record of the clouds.  Although the temperatures were in the upper 90's and 100's the entire time, there were quite a few clouds to take note of.  She also did some reading on wind, currents, and hurricanes.  She also learned about bivalves -- all tying in with New England.

Our family readalouds these 2 weeks were A Break With Charity, a novel about the Salem Witch Trials by Ann Rinaldi, and Lyddie by Katherine Paterson, about a mill girl in Lowell, MA in the 1840's