Wampum Beads

Today in History we made wampum beads.  Wampum beads were valuable to the Iroquois Indians.  They used them as money, gifts, and messages.  After learning about them, we made ourselves some.  Here are the results.

We made a simple salt clay, rolled the clay into small beads, poked a hole in them with a toothpick, then baked them.  After they cooled down the kids colored them with Sharpies.

Faith in God

I have been asked a few times what Audrey does during her Faith in God time.  This is how we do Faith in God over here.  (I was going to load my checklist, but I can't figure out how to load a document, so you just get an explanation.)

Audrey has a checklist I printed off for her that tells her what to do each day. 

Every day she prays and reads her scriptures.  She grabs the kitchen timer, says her prayers, then sets the timer for 5 minutes to read Scriptures.  I decided this year that she would read from the Scripture Readers. My parents bought these for us a few years back and we use them for our morning devotionals as well.  Audrey wasn't doing so well reading straight from the scriptures, so we're giving this a shot to see if it helps her understand what is going on better.  

After the timer goes off, she sets it again for 5 minutes and does one of the following:
Works on Faith in God Goals, Writes in her S.O.A.P. notebook, works on memorization, or writes in her personal journal.

On Tuesdays she works on Faith in God goals.  For her Goals, she decides what goal she wants to work on and writes the page number down on her sheet (it is in a page protector so she can use a dry erase marker on it).  Then she asks herself some questions:  What do you need to do to accomplish the goal?  Can you do it alone or do you need Mom's help?  How long witll it take to finish?

Wednesdays are for S.O.A.P. Her S.O.A.P. notebook is a place to ponder and study specific scriptures I choose for her.  Again, she sets her timer for 5 minutes and gets to work. 
S is for Scripture:  She reads and copies the scripture I have assigned her for the day.
O is for Observation:  What does this scripture mean?
A is for Application:  How does God want me to apply this scripture to my life today?
P is for Prayer:  Keep a prayer in your heart, asking God to help you apply this scripture to your life today. 

Thursdays are her memorization day.  Currently she is working on the Articles of Faith since she needs to pass those off for her Faith in God award.  When she has passed those off we will start working on other scriptures such as scripture mastery, common verses, verses from her S.O.A.P, ect.

On Fridays she writes in her personal journal.  She can write whatever she wants.  She just has to work for 5 minutes. 

She does not have a Monday assignment because that is her Options day where she is at school all day. 

At the end of each day she is instructed to come talk to me about what she accomplished, what she learned, and what she read about. 

When she turns 12 this box will become her personal progress box. 

What's in the box: Audrey's 2012-2013 edition

I know you have ALL been DYING to know what's in Audrey's boxes this year.  Well, the long wait is over.  Here is the post you have been sitting on the edge of your seat, waiting for!  ;)

So, here we go.  Take a look at Audrey's new workbox set up.  If you look back to older "What's in the box posts" you will see that her boxes are not as varied in color scheme.  There is a reason for this.  I have color coded her boxes according to what type of activity is in them.  The top yellow box is for her school supplies (pencils, markers, scissors, ect.)  The next two green boxes are her independent study boxes.  The four purple boxes are her "do with Mom" boxes.  The bottom blue boxes are her group school boxes.  Now....what is IN each of those boxes you ask?  Read on, my friend, read on!

 Here we have box #1.  It contains her Evan and Moor Geography book.  She will do this independently and complete one page each day.  The tag for this is on the left side of the box.  On the right side is another tag, which is her practice piano tag.  She will be doing this independently this year.

 Box #2 contains her Faith in God activities.  It has her book, her check list, her journal, Article of Faith cards and other things she needs.  Each day she works on some aspect of Faith in God whether it is reading scriptures, writing in her journal, memorizing Articles of Faith or working on goals. On the right side of the box is a tag for her Typing.  We have typing instructor and she works on this every day.  This year I will be monitoring to make sure she is progressing.  Last year I just let her play around. 

 Box #3 is her first "do with Mom" box.  It has her spelling in it.  We use spelling power.  I like this curriculum because it keeps words together in rule groups and goes all the way through 12th grade.  PLUS, with this curriculum she never has to study and practice words she already knows how to spell.

 Box #5 is Math.  We love Singapore Math.  Audrey will be finishing up Math 2B (which is equivalent to beginning 3rd grade level Math) then moving on to 3A.

 Box #6 is for English.  This year we are trying out Rod and Staff grammar.  I am very excited to try it out! 

 Box #7 is not pictured.  It is her reading box.  Whatever book she is currently reading will be in it.

Box #8 begins our group school activities. All of the kids (excluding Bree, who will be napping) will participate together. This box has her Science notebook.  We are doing Elemental Science's Earth Science and Astronomy for the Grammar Stage this year.  It looks fun, and we really liked Biology last year, so I'm hoping we have more success with this curriculum.

 Box #9, and her last box, is her History notebook.  This year we are trying out Elemental History's Adventures in America.  It will take us on a trip of America from the Native Americans and first settlers up through the Civil War.  It looks like a lot of fun!  Unfortunately this is their ONLY curriculum so I will be on the hunt again next year.  :(

That concludes our session of What's in the box.  Tune in next time for........oh who knows what will pop up next!!!!  Hope you enjoyed seeing what Audrey will be doing this school year!!!

Slow down

Ah.  I can take a deep breath now.  Our summer fun and craziness has come to an end.  We went to Lagoon, went camping, attended a wonderful homeschool activity at Fort Buenaventura, saw some family, celebrated holidays, watched LOTS of extra kids, tutored the neighbor boy, and all this while doing "summer school."  Now we can all take a deep breath and take care of things at home.  I have a long list of things that need to be done over the next few weeks before we resume schooling.  My children are taking the next couple weeks off from school in order to rejuvinate themselves (plus then they will be EXCITED to start school back up to end their boredom!). 
Some of the things I will be doing over the next couple weeks are:
Having the kids do a "fashion show" of all their fall/winter clothes to determine what we need to buy
clothes shopping
School supply shopping
Purging the kitchen and getting it ready for school to start again
Preparing the workboxes for this year's curriculum
And getting ready for my oldest to turn 9 at the beginning of September

I am so excited to start our new curriculums and get going with "full" school as opposed to "summer" school.  I am also excited because I seem to have hit on something that actually is motivating Audrey to read!!!  Hallelujah!!!  I found a link on pinterest to an "I can read 100 books" challenge.  I talked to Audrey and had her decide on a reward she would REALLY want to earn in exchange for reading 100 books.  Her choice?  Fake nails.  So, I have arranged with a friend of mine to go shopping with us to find Audrey some really cute fake nails and then my friend will put them on her with nail glue and make them nice and pretty.  She is so excited she has already read 7 books.....granted they were all picture books, but they were all 2nd and 3rd grade level which is HUGE for us. 

As soon as I get Audrey's workboxes set up for this fall, I will do a "what's in the box" post for her boxes which will double as a glance at our curriculum for this coming school year. 
Until then....enjoy the rest of your summer!!!