3 Weeks and 57 Chickens

We have had an interesting three weeks. The first of these was normal, so very plain vanilla that there was literally nothing to write anything about. The second was more interesting. We did normal school work the first four days, then we butchered 30 of our meat chickens on Friday. Henry got to gain some real world experience of processing chickens for the freezer. He was very helpful, if not extremely skilled. I think next year, he will have no problems at all getting in there to help us get the job done.

This past week was a whirlwind. We did normal stuff on Monday. Tuesday, we did the remaining 27 chickens. Wednesday, he was so worn out from the day before that he didn't get up until almost noon. Thursday was normal, and Friday was a day off because Big Brothers #1 and #2 and Henry had dentist appointments, and I took Big Brother #3 to an appointment two hours away. I am looking forward to a normal, boring week again this week.

We had a few WOO-HOO moments over the last few weeks, too. First, we finally finished the Basics section of German in Duolingo. We have moved on to The, and we are working through it diligently. Second, we finally finished reading Holes, and we watched the movie. I was pleased with the movie. I thought it was fairly faithful to the book, and actually had a more satisfactory ending. I honestly think it's the only time I've experienced the movie being better than the book.

Henry has taken to doodling on the white board while I read history, or while we watch a video for science. Here are some of the drawings he has produced.

They got progressively more elaborate over the course of a week. I have a friend who is an artist who said that Henry had good composition and use of color. The bottom one was said to have a lot of movement in it. That's one thing I love about Facebook; you can get all sorts of advice, comments and compliments. You never know.

This week, we are going to continue to read The Giver, continue our dinosaur/early earth study, learn about the people of North and South America before the voyagers got here, and hopefully finish The in German. May the dull be with us.

We had a short week, which is never a bad thing. Everybody needs a break now and then. We got back to long division on Tuesday, and I had the brilliant flash during a bout of insomnia to write the problems on our white board in different colors. I thought if I put the numbers the divisor was supposed to go into first in one color, the next number in another, the third in another, it would make the problem easier to work out. It did! 

The white board came in handy later in the week when we had to divide three numbers by two. I thought it would be torture. Nope! As long as Henry gets to draw stuff with the markers, he's good to go with just about anything. That white board has turned out to be worth its weight in gold!

We moved on a bit in the Middle Ages. I wanted to go deep into the weeds with the monarchs and popes, but Henry's eyes were glazing over. So, we discussed how the Crusades actually made things marginally better for women, in that they were able to run things the way they saw fit while the men were away. Also, we discussed how towns became more populated as fiefdoms broke down. All I can say is I am glad I didn't live at that time. It must have been a long, hard, not-all-that-happy life.

We did a quick one week study of the wildflowers and plants in our immediate area. My goal was to show Henry how much of what we have right around here is edible and medicinal. Not to be a crazy conspiracy theorist, but if anything major happens with society, I want everyone in our household to know that we can eat well, and keep minor infections at bay with what we have on hand. That won't work in the winter, of course, but we are good for at least six months of the year. One thing I learned that I truly did not know is that forget-me-not flowers are edible. As soon as Henry learned it, he wanted to go outside and try them. For the record, they have a kind of nutty flavor.

We're still reading Holes. I am really hoping to get it finished this week so we can watch the movie next weekend.  I am also hoping that Henry finishes the Basics section of German so we can move on to more interesting phrases and words.

Until next time, Auf Wiedersehen!

Another two weeks have passed, and we have been so busy! First, I need to take a moment to take the spotlight off Henry. Our darling daughter, Big Sister, went off to college. It was a momentous, and sort of upheaving, event for our household. There was the business of getting ready, then there was the Big Day. There were tears all around when we left. But, it's all good. She had a fun orientation experience, then she got down to learning last week. She came home for the long weekend, and is back at her school again. Little birdies leaving the nest is hard!

Okay, back to Mr. Henry. We had a fairly run of the mill couple of weeks, but with a couple of notable exceptions. We finally got going on history. We are still in the Middle Ages, and I was trying to figure out how to get the monarchy organized without going too deep into the weeds. I finally decided to use the articles from edhelper.com. They gave good information about how England became England, and the monarchs that followed. I added a few extra tidbits, especially about the fight between Matilda and Stephen. You should read about it.  It's a fascinating story. I realized that we are going to have to go back over the Crusades and tie them to the monarchs, so it might make more sense. I think my calling in life is to write a history book that ties everything in together, rather than having events and people be two completely separate things.

The other super great, really fantastic thing that happened is that Henry finally got long division! We have been working on in for about three years now. I found a video, Long Division, that he watched, and did the steps along with the presenter. After that, he got it! I am so tickled. Seeing that light bulb go off is always a great thing. .

We finished our exploration of the planets with videos from Crash Course Astronomy. I learned so much! Like, did you know that Venus spins backwards? Yup. We are going to do a quick, one week nature study this week, then we are going to delve into dinosaurs.

German is still going well. We have Brot and Wasser down pat. We know who he, she and it are. We know that Ich bin eine Frau und Henry ist ein Junge. I hope we get some new words soon.

I have sneakily introduced daily PE with a one mile walk every afternoon. At first, he was not at all into it, but now he kind of expects it. It's good for both of us.

We're still working on Holes. I think we need to try to finish it this week so that we can watch the movie.

Where has the time gone?

It's that time of year again! Actually, it has been for the last two weeks, but life has been busy outside of school, so this is the first chance I've had to sit down and write anything.  Henry is in sixth grade! What the actual heck? I am just as amazed as anyone else, and he's my own kid!

We are doing a few new things this year. Fist, we are studying German with Duolingo. I don't know much German, so I thought it would be something interesting for both of us to learn. He seems to be enjoying it. We usually do one lesson per day, but occasionally, he chooses to do two or three lessons. At this point, we can tell who is a man, woman, boy, girl or child with alacrity. We can also identify bread and water.

The other new thing we are doing this year is writing about One Cool Thing every day. Big Brother #2 bought a book of 6,000 facts that is a great source of new information. One would think that Henry would just open the book and take the first thing he comes to, but no. He reads through several passages before he finds the thing he wants to write about. I wanted to do this as a sneaky was of getting him to write more, but it's also turned into a sneaky way to get him to read more. Hashtag winning! His Big Sister will be going off to college this coming week. Henry will be tasked with texting her his One Cool Thing every day, mostly as a way of allowing him an excuse to keep in touch with her. He is going to miss her so much!

As for the other subjects, we are doing Mathematical Reasoning and Root Words, as we have for the last two years. It's familiar, therefore there are fewer arguments. We are doing nine science units, each a month long, from space (the current one) to dinosaurs, to metals, to nature. We are using a variety of resources for those, and my hope is to get Henry to learn how to take notes. I also hope to have some hands-on projects as we go along. We are continuing with the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Age of Exploration. I want to get into the colonization of the Americas, and the beginnings of the Revolution.

We are reading books that have been made into movies this year, starting with Holes by Louis Sachar. He is eagerly reading the assigned chapters every day, which I consider a minor miracle. I am reading the book along with him, since I have never read this one, and I have seen just a bit of the movie. I freely admit to bribing Henry to read with the enticement of watching a movie, but sometimes these things can't be helped.

We recently added a new puppy to the family, so hopefully, exercising the puppy will lead to more exercise for Henry. Unfortunately playing video games has gotten in the way of running around like an 11 year old boy should.

I am looking forward to seen where the rest of the year takes us. Only 170 more days to go!