1st Day(s) of School

We started school Monday and are off to a pretty good start... though we are having to work around a house painter and running errands to Home Depot.


I meant to get our house painted during the summer, but we just got it arranged to start on Monday. So, we're living in kind of a mess... but an exciting mess! We've always had white walls and we are going to a fairly dark brown. I'm loving it!!! The first 2 rooms to be done are our master bedroom and bath. So, we're sleeping in the spare room and sharing Alexandra's bathroom.
So far, we've had 2 pretty full days of school. For history, we are reading 3 books about Benjamin Franklin. They are a Time for Kids biography, What's the Big Idea, Benjamin Franklin? and Ben and Me. We are enjoying and learning from all three. While I was reading, Alexandra drew a picture of Amos from Ben and Me.

Since we are studying about Benjamin Franklin, I thought we should study electricity for science. I actually have a book of experiments about Ben, but I just couldn't get into it. But, I found one of my science kits (I seem to collect them!) about electricity that we hadn't finished, so we got it out. We started by making a battery... and it worked! Then, we tried an electromagnet... and it didn't. I think it is because we used pennies that were post-1982. Did you know that "U.S. pennies made before 1982 are 95% copper, but newer pennies only have a 2.5% copper coating!" (from this website)

Alexandra has 2 new favorite subjects: Latin & composition.

She is really enjoying Latin for Children - especially the chants. And, she loves finding derivitives for the various vocabulary words. For example, we had the word "terra" which means "earth" and she came up with "terra cotta" and I came up with "terrestrial sphere" and "extraterrestrial." For "porta" which means "gate", she came up with "portal" from Cyberchase... the "gate" which takes them into Cyberworld.

For composition, we're using Andrew Pudewa's Teaching Writing: Structure & Style. So far, it is working great! We both think it is a lot of fun... and effective! For this first step, you basically write an outline and then tell the story back from the outline. I'll share a story she did today. I got the story from a sample of a Scholastic Magazine.

How Many Hurricanes? (retold by Alexandra)

Hurricanes are some of the biggest storms. The hurricane season is June 1 to November 30. Weather experts say that nine could occur this season.

Their winds have to be faster than 74 miles per hour. They can knock down trees, destroy and flood.

Each hurricane gets its very own name. More than one can happen at the same time. People like knowing their names so they can see which is on the news. Hopefully, not all the names will get used this season.