READING THROUGH THE UNITED STATES...CONNECTICUT

Connecticut...

Question...is it cheating if I chose to read a juvenile book? I think I’m going to go with no. The book was a short but enjoyable read, which I devoured on a Saturday morning while relaxing in the quiet of the morning and having my second cup of coffee. Both Quirky, Dork, and our dog Milo were still sound asleep. Honestly, it was perfect. The book I chose was The Witch of Blackbird Pond, by Elizabeth George Speare. It was the 1959  Newberry Medal winner, and a well deserved honor. 

Sixth Grade Math Notebook

As I was cleaning out our school room the other day I ran across Quirky's math notes from Sixth Grade. I had completely forgotten that we still had them.  I talk about it here only because of the unusual way that she took her math notes. It was just creative enough to keep her interest piqued for the school year.

Getting Ready For The New School Year

The new school year is just around the corner and I have been busy...busy...busy trying to get everything ready for the first day. I finally got around to cleaning out our school room/ sun room, which I have been saying I was going to do since the last day of th school year last year. I may have procrastinated just a bit.

Field Trip to the Chrysler Museum of Art

The third day of our trip Dork finished up early and we were all able to go to the Chrysler Museum of Art. It was awesome...ok I thought it was awesome. Dork and Quirky are of the same mind sight when it comes to art museums..."look its another really old piece art by another dead guy." I find this so surprising, because Quirky is such a blossoming artist herself. Oh well...I can be thankful that I had the opportunity to expose her to such wonderful pieces of art and that I myself was able to see paintings that I had always loved but thought I would never see beyond the pages of a book. Paintings by artists that I have admired from the first time that I realized that there was something called art history, which combines two of my favorite things.

Field Trip to the Norfolk Zoo

The second day of our trip we ventured over to the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk. It was a zoo on the smallish side. We saw a variety of animals from hippos to red pandas, most of which were curled up asleep. We did get a chance however to see the Asiatic Bears horsing around and playing with each other, which was fascinating to Quirky. We were also lucky enough to be standing in the right spot when a giraffe walked right up and started eating just a few feet in front of us. Otherwise we saw a lot of curled up asleep animals, whether do to the heat or the noise, who knows.

Field Trip to the Norfolk Botanical Gardens

Recently Quirky and I were able to visit the Virginia Beach and Norfolk, Virginia area with Dork. Dork was busy most of the day with work so that just left Quirky and I to entertain ourselves. The beach was way too crowded for Quirky or my taste, but lucky for us there were some great fieldtrip opportunities nearby. The first morning we were there we went to the Norfolk Botanical Gardens.

Field Trip...Jazz and Blues Concert Series

Music Appreciation: Jazz

We are fortunate to have near us a community college that often offers free events, such as plays, concerts, or lectures, that are open to the public. This school year, for music appreciation, we were to able to take advantage of a series of Jazz and Blues concerts and lectures. We were able to attend two of the concerts.

Body Systems Unit Study

Body Systems Watercolors

I mentioned in this post, that Quirky and I, for school this year, for several weeks worked on a Body Systems Unit study. We have studied body systems in previous years, but not in detail...she was not ready and the information just would not stick.  So I mapped out a few weeks for us to review what we had previously learned and dig deeper into new material. I came up with a short list of guiding questions to keep us on task. We checked out numerous books from the library, utilized several different apps, and used the internet. I even bought body system posters at local school supply store. The unit itself took far longer than I intended,

Field-trip...Bird Sanctuary

One of the most important parts of education, in my humble opinion, is actually seeing and experiencing the world around you. Yes you can talk about birds, read about birds, look at websites about birds and yes you can even find videos about birds if you look hard enough. And yes, a person can learn a lot from all of those things, but nothing can comparing to watching someone fascinated at seeing all of these magnificent birds close up. Quirky and I were very lucky this year and were able to go on a fieldtrip with friends of ours to a Bird Sanctuary. They were kind enough to ask us to tag along on a fieldtrip they had already planned. I am so glad that they did.

Comic Strip Class Final Project

If you have read this post, iTunes University Introduction to Comics Class, then you know that Quirky completed a mini course on iTunes University about comic strip art. Nothing fancy but she has taken what she has learned to heart and has put it to  great use for her final project. Since we have alternating between music appreciation and art units, this will be one of the last two projects we complete for this school year.

Biome Kids Meal Project

Kids Meal Project

At any given time Quirky and I usually have at least two science units going on. She absolutely loves science. She will dig right in and research, read, and take notes. She loves it...but truth be told Quirky works at her own pace...and by that I mean slow. Which is another reason why we often have more than one thing going at a time. If I didn't I don't know that we would get very far at all. My expectation when introducing this unit was for it to last about three weeks,  but Quirky was so excited about making an educational kids meal that she just didn't want to stop working. She researched, read, and took notes and got to work. The next thing I knew her project was done...more than a week early. So what exactly did Quirky have to do?

Literary Device Posters

This school year Quirky has read several novels independently, and we have read several novels aloud together. Everything from Harry Potter to Hugo Cabret. She loves to read and To be read to, and I am so glad. For each novel, along with her readers journal and other book specific projects, we payed close attention to the authors techniques...

AAAAHHHH....Multiplication Facts

I have tried just about everything that I can possibly think of to help Quirky memorize her basic multiplication facts, as had her teachers back during our public school days. Unfortunately, she is still inconsistent when it comes to multiplication. So when I ran across some multiplication rules posters that

Basket Weaving...and a Thank You

Quirky's Basket

Back in February Quirky was lucky enough to attend a one day basket weaving course offered by our local library and taught by  her former art teacher. I've been meaning to post about for awhile but kept forgetting. The class itself was a mixture of teens and adults with Quirky being the youngest one there.

Sculpture Mini Class

Sculpture Mini Projects

I posted recently about the iTunes University class called Introduction to Comics, well in addition to the comic drawing lessons it also has lessons on sculpting. The course once again was set up as short instructional videos and geared toward a younger audience, but not so juvenile not to be worth it. And although clay is not usually Quirky's medium of choice, nor mine, I still felt that having her continue with the course was worth our time. Due to our lack of resources...ie we don't own a kiln, we chose to use air dry clay.

iTunes University, Introduction to Comics Class

Comic Strip Art

Quirky loves drawing comics, has been drawing them since she saw her first one in the Sunday newspaper with her Grandmother. So when I ran across a class in iTunes University called Introduction to Comics that was taught Jim Davies, the artist who produces Garfield and other artists as well, I jumped on it.

Food of Giant Proportions...a Harry Potter inspired Math Project

Food of Giant Proportions Project

I think I might have mentioned that Quirky is a Harry Potter fanatic...I mean fan. To that end I am milking that excitement for every bit of educational opportunity that I can, even for math when I can figure out a way to work it in. I had seen the flat examples of this type of project before on Pinterest and remember doing them as a child when I was in school, but to me they are just another poster. Not that I have anything against posters, but I wanted something a little more challenging and interesting for Quirky to work on. Then it hit me one night

Pinterest Inspired...Mirror Erised Character Analysis

Character Analysis Projects

You might say that Quirky is bit of a Harry Potter fan...oh, who am I kidding she and I both are Harry Potter nuts. There is not a day goes by that at least one Harry Potter movie quote does not come out of Quirky's mouth...whether it fits the conversation or not. She has both the Lego games and at least a couple of times a week she is begging for me to play with her. Truthfully...she doesn't have to beg hard.  There is no way I am going to pass up the opportunity to curl up on the couch and spend time with her. However up until this year Quirky had never actually read the books. She is a great reader and loves to read, but is a slow reader. She just could not finish the books before they were due back to the library. So ...

Rules of Capitalization...Again

Let me start off by saying, Quirky knows the rules for capitalization. We have been over them, year after year after year. She knows them and I know she knows them. What I also know

Cells and Microscopic Life Unit Study

For several weeks Quirky has been diligently working on a cells and microscopic life unit study. She has read books and magazines, went on countless Webquests, viewed videos on You Tube and utilized some great apps. We have looked at yogurt, yeast, to our own cheek and blood cells under our microscope. We have done experiments and collected pond water to view. In short, we have moved beyond the textbook...