Week 7

I want to thank everyone for all the prayers and support this week!  I am pleased to announce that the good Lord has blessed the Mahoney household with a lovely new to us mini-van.  Compared to what we have been driving we feel very spoiled.  Our God is good all the time :)

Thank you Jared for bringing in snacks this week.  Next Tuesday is PAJAMA DAY! Don't worry about getting dressed, just roll out of bed and come on in.  (Feel free to brush your teeth :)  I will be bringing a sweet breakfast treat, and Hannah has offered to bring in some "slumber party" snacks.  (participating in days like PJ day is always optional)

Algebra 1: We went over the next four lessons.  I  let them know there will be a quiz next week.
Homework: Lessons #25 - #28

Rhetoric: I believe everyone participated in discussion this morning and it was great!  Keep up the good work guys.
Homework: Chapter 7 in both books; add questions #19 - #21 (Don't forget I have a link here to help study them)

Science:  The students did an awesome job with Mollusks.  It was hard to pick a winner for the art "challenge", but this week Jared prevailed.
Homework: Arachnids! Ewwwwwwwwwww

Geography: Every time we test I just want to give these guys a big group hug!  They always looked so exhausted afterwards, like it takes every bit they have left.  I encouraged them that this was probably the hardest one we had and that South America would seem very easy afterwards.
Homework: Start in on South America, countries and capitals. DO NOT FORGET TO REVIEW! We will be playing a new review game this coming week.

Writing: Hannah gets a shout out here for her "hands-on" demonstration. I loved the creativity! I enjoyed that some of the kids even wrote their own story. We reviewed all the stylistic techniques to this point.  I finally introduced clinchers. We also added 6 decorations to our mix. (All of these can be found in your BBW books)
Homework: One more week or choice, next week back to the guide.  Your child can choose to A) Complete Lesson 14 using the Esther pictures. B)Choose the silly pictures that Ms. Bonnie pulled together. C) Create their own series of pictures, and use Ms. Bonnie's outline to create their story. No matter which option they choose, they can use the guidelines in lesson #14 to write their story.

Latin: We reviewed all of our vocabulary and worked on parsing sentences from English to Latin.  I parsed a sentence fragment from John 1.
Homework: Pages 71 - 85 in our workbooks.  I also challenged them to parse a sentence from the Bible using a Latin/English dictionary, or a reputable website (with mom or dad's permission of course)
For those that were feeling overwhelmed with Latin...I encouraged them to study study study the vocabulary words and memorize our endings for 1st, 2nd Declension and 1st Conjugation.  The rest will come with time :)


Enjoy your week! If you have any questions feel free to call or email.

Week 6

I cannot believe I just named this post week 6!! Where does the time go?!?!

I want to thank everyone for their prayers.  They are SO coveted right now.  I know God has a plan for the car situation and cannot wait to tell you His answer :) I am so grateful tonight for a God that is bigger then any car situation on this Earth. AMEN!

Thank you Brandon for bringing in snacks! Anyone want next week? A reminder that week 8 will be PJ Day!  (Thank God the car did not break down on that day LOL)

Algebra 1: We went over at a very accelerated pace.  Everyone seemed to grasp the concepts quite well.  I reminded them that on Fridays between the hours of 3pm and 4pm I am on site at the Kernersville campus for help or any questions.  They are also welcome to email or call with any questions :)
Homework: Lessons #20 - #24

Rhetoric: We were so involved with our conversation on carbon dating, that we never made it to the catechism questions game!  Not to fear, know those questions for next week!
Homework: Chapter 6 in both books (with study guide pages), add questions #16 - #18

Science: The pictures are so hard to choose between in our art contest!  I truly loved each of them for different reasons. Art contest continues on to next week, i imagine next week will be just as hard :)
Homework: Mollusks!  (please no shellfish in real life, Ms. Bonnie is allergic:)

Geography: These guys did an awesome job on their Canada quizzes.  They should be in their bags so check them out.  I tried to reassure them that this was probably the hardest test coming up and it gets easier as we go along.  We also played a game of "Who Wants to be a Hypothetical Millionaire?"
Homework:  To continue to study for our test next week.  Central America and company :)

Literature: Here is where we stray a bit from the guide this week.  First, you are more then welcome to just do lesson 13 in the BBW lesson OR your student can have a little more freedom this week.  Whichever path they choose, I forgot to copy off the checksheet for them.  If you could please provide them with a copy of page 49, that would be great.  The "freedom option" is to use the note outline I gave them and using their favorite novel (or series of novels) fill it out.  Now this is NOT a book report.  I do not want their opinion of the book.  I am looking for a theme and three examples from their book to support that theme.  We did a sample outline in class.  There is a lot of freedom to this one, so don't worry about if you are doing it right or wrong.  We have such a class of talented writers, I wanted to encourage them with some choice :)
Homework: Write 3 paragraphs from Note Outline or Lesson 13

Latin: We are all starting to really understand and it is exciting!!!  I encouraged everyone to really work on vocabulary this week.  It is a lot easier to parse when we know the meaning of the words :)
Homework: Complete pages 62 - 70 in our workbooks.  Drill, drill, then drill again the vocabulary.

Welcome!

I wanted to take a moment to welcome a new student to class! Her name is Berkley.  She visited Tuesday and will be joining us from here on out. WELCOME BERKLEY!

Week 5

Awesome!  It's the only word I have for today.  We had a guest for mots of the day and she fit right in.  We had some wonderful conversations and really got into some of our topics.  We did joke about our class motto becoming, "but I digress" :)

The Christies have picked up snack for next week. Thank you!

And away we go....

Algebra 1: I did remind everyone to please take their weekly tests from here on out.  Everyone seems to be keeping up and we are moving at about a perfect pace.
Homework: Lessons 17 - 20

Rhetoric: Everyone is  keeping up well with the study sheets and catechism questions.  Most excellent!  I am encouraging someone other then I to start our morning prayer.
Homework: Read Chapter 5 in both books; add questions 16-18 We will be playing a game with questions next week

Science: I cannot recall when I learned so much about herbs. All the reports were done very well.  I did encourage them to go a  little further with their pictures.  The next two weeks we will have a "picture" contest.
Homework: Trees!  At least two sources with bibliography and picture.

Geography: Thank you Hannah for inviting our guest!!  She used to live in different parts of Canada and did an AWESOME job sharing what the culture was like for Eskimos living in that region.  Special reports help bring Geography alive.  We took our test on Canada and the terms.  They have the opportunity to earn up to 10,000 points.  Yes, you read that correctly :)
Homework: This week we begin Central America and add new terms from your guide.  REVIEW, REVIEW and REVIEW.  We are not done with the US or Canada.  It will come back on the end of year test.

Literature: We read our papers and played a new version of "Apples to Apples" using strong verbs and adverbs.  I introduced 6 sentence openers and how to strengthen verbs.  We also reviewed all our stylistic techniques we have worked with to this point.
Homework: Lesson 12 as is with check sheet attached.

Latin: We covered a LOT!  Be patient here, it WILL come. I sent home a "review" packet of what we have done thus far.  This packet includes an introduction to parsing sentences at the end.  I also sent home sheets on nouns and verbs for Level 3 and 4 of Latin's Not So Tough.  I highly suggested they purchase a Latin/English Dictionary.  This can help with deciding which declension/conjugation to put the noun/verb into.  (Especially if they will be doing Latin up through the other Challenge programs)  I have laid down the gauntlet!  Who can beat me in memorizing our Latin endings!!  There are lots of "extra" sheets coming home the next few weeks.  These should help fill in the gap for some of these questions.
Homework: Come up with at least one silly sentence in Latin and diagram it in English!  Complete pages 47-61 in our workbook.  Review vocabulary....there may be a worksheet with it next week.

Have a blessed week!

Week 4

It was nice to have the whole campus today!

Addie has volunteered for snack for week 5.  If anyone would like week 6, let me know.  I believe we may have two students out of town that week?

Algebra 1/2: No surprise tests or quizzes...just good 'ol math fun :)  They need to be taking one test per week and checking them to make sure they are on track.
Homework:  Lessons 13 - 16

Rhetoric: Another day of great discussion.  I have started opening up with a warm-up question and that seems to get the ball rolling.  We also used the buzz board to practice our catechism questions.
Homework:  Read Chapter 4 in both books.  Add questions 10 - 12

Science: Great research on wildflowers!  I did encourage them to use non-internet sources.
Homework: This week we research Herbs

Geography: I handed back the quizzes from last week.  They all did such a wonderful job for the first time out.  We spent the class reviewing the US from "scratch".  A couple things on Geography: If anyone has traveled and/or knows someone who has that would like to do a presentation for the class, please invite them to do so.  Or, if a student would like to put together a presentation on a country that just interests them, that is welcomed as well.  We also used the buzz board today to review terms.
Homework: TEST next Tuesday on Canada....no outline :)  Features help with points.  Terms will also help with points.  I might even hand out points just for smiling through the test :) Add terms cave, cavern, channel, chasm, cinder, cone, cliff

IEW:  I loved this weeks papers!  We certainly have a talented group of young writers here.  We reviewed when and how to use commas and started in on lesson 8.
Homework: Complete lesson 8. (I did give some creative liberty to change names or objects to make the story their own)

Latin: We reviewed how to classify verbs.  I gave each person a handout pertaining to sentence patterns.
Homework:  Quiz next week.  Know your vocab up to page 42.  Also, know your 1st Conjugation endings, and 1st and 2nd Declension Endings.  We will play a game of beat Ms. Bonnie!  Pages 35 - 46 to be completed in your workbooks.

I hope everyone enjoys this lovely weather we are having.

Many Blessings,
Bonnie Joy

A Wonderful Resource for IEW

I did not know if many of you ...well....knew ;)

IEW has an excellent resource for those who have purchased their materials.   They have free downloads here.  Some of the supplemental material I will be using comes from this resource.

Have fun with this one!