2024-25 school year

2025-26 School Year–Week Fourteen

This week was very social studies heavy! Not only did we continue our regular survey of history, focusing on WWI, but we also continued to study the US Constitution, and dove into the history of the Mayflower and the first Thanksgiving. We had plenty of other work, too. Chickadee divided polynomials and started factoring in algebra. We continued reading Treasure Island. In science she learned about catalysts. And this week’s recipe from the American Girl Sweet & Savory Treats Cookbook was “Ice Cream Sandwiches” inspired by Molly, with a festive twist…we filled the homemade chocolate-chocolate chip sandwiches with hot cocoa ice cream we found at Target!

Next week we’re just going to wrap up a few things before Thanksgiving!

2024-25 Curriculum

Wrapping up our 2024-25 school year with one last post…all of the curriculum we used this year! This was my final year with two students…Ladybug was in 12th grade, and Chickadee was in 7th. The beginning of the year seems like a very long time ago, so hopefully this list is complete!

Religion

  • Journey Through Church History

Math

For Ladybug:

  • The Fallacy Detective

For Chickadee:

  • Horizons Pre-Algebra

Language Arts

For Ladybug:

  • On Writing Well
  • The Lively Art of Writing
  • Wordly Wise 3000, Book 12
  • The British Tradition Book Three: Poetry from the Romantic to the Victorian Age

For Chickadee:

  • Spelling Workout G
  • Wordly Wise 3000, Book Seven
  • Writing with Skill, Level Two

Literature

For Ladybug:

  • A Tale of Two Cities
  • The Merchant of Venice
  • Jane Eyre
  • A Farewell to Arms
  • Fahrenheit 451
  • 1984
  • The Great Gatsby
  • Paradise Lost
  • The Screwtape Letters
  • The Art of War
  • Wuthering Heights
  • Murder on the Orient Express

For Chickadee:

  • Tom Sawyer
  • The Trojan War
  • The Bronze Bow

History

For Ladybug:

  • 1491
  • A People’s History of the United States
  • American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America
  • March–Books 1-3
  • Driving the Green Book
  • There are No Children Here
  • Between the World and Me
  • Travel as a Political Act
  • On the Hippie Trail

For Chickadee:

  • The Story of the World, vol. 3: Early Modern Times
  • Underground Railroad and Oregon Trail unit studies

Science

For Ladybug

  • Exploring Creation with Advanced Physics (one semester)

For Chickadee

  • Apologia Exploring Creation with General Science

Electives

For Ladybug:

  • Photography using Understanding Exposure
  • Psychology

For Both:

  • Duolingo
  • Tennis
  • Cooking featuring The Wizard of Oz: The Official Cookbook (and others)

2024-25 School Year–Week Thirty-Two

You’ve already seen Ladybug’s graduation photos, but I waited until today for the final wrap-up of the 2024-25 school year because I had one more very special outing planned for Ladybug:

The rest of the week was just finishing everything up…Ladybug was ecstatic to be done with Jane Eyre and her term paper, plus she finished American Nations and our mad dash through poetry. Chickadee also finished her final paper and history project, plus wrapped up pre-algebra, and now I never have to teach it again!

We also did a few of our favorite things one last time…took a really long walk, visited the library, and played tennis.

And our favorite last-day-of-school activity…building some new Lego sets! We went with a floral theme this time…they’ll make excellent decorations for our school room (or any other place in the house that needs a bit of brightening), and there’s a fourth piece in the set that Chickadee will build on the first day of her eighth grade year!

That’s a wrap on my 17th year of homeschooling…up next, my first year ever with only one student in my school!

The High School Graduate

It’s Graduation Day!

Ladybug has successfully completed high school…and the entirety of K-12 in my little homeschool!

We had a nice little celebration, including photos and “Pomp and Circumstance.”

For fun, we built our last-day-of-school Lego sets…three of the seasons available in the Botanical collection…they’re absolutely beautiful, and used interesting building techniques and pieces!

For her graduation dinner, Ladybug chose some of her favorite recipes from The Ultimate Final Fantasy XIV Online Cookbook…Stuffed Cabbage Rolls, Pixieberry Tea, and Princess Pudding:

Not that I really thought it would, but it doesn’t get easier to say goodbye to students from my classroom at home…I’m going to miss seeing Ladybug at her desk every morning!

2024-25 School Year–Week Thirty-One

The penultimate week (and a short week, no less) of the 2024-25 school year is complete!

We spent a lot of time outside, walking, playing tennis, and taking a field trip.

For our field trip, we took the train to downtown St. Louis, not just to walk around the Arch grounds, Citygarden, and Ballpark Village, (which we did), but also to visit the Old Courthouse, which just reopened over the weekend following years of renovations.

Ladybug is almost done with Jane Eyre! She continued reading American Nations. We began a (very brief) study of poetry from the Romantic to Victorian Age…better late than never, right? She continued working on her term paper.

Chickadee worked on her review of all of the big concepts in pre-algebra. She also reviewed for her final science test. She continued working on her final writing assignment, as well as the special project about the Oregon Trail I assigned her.

One more week until Ladybug’s high school graduation!

2024-25 School Year–Week Thirty

We started the week off with a trip to the St. Louis Zoo!

It was a beautiful day, and most importantly, we got to see Jet, the baby elephant!

We also worked on wrapping more things up for the year. Ladybug completed her psychology course. She continued reading American Nations. Her term paper is coming along. She’s getting closer to the end of Jane Eyre.

Chickadee began her big review in pre-algebra. She finished the final chapter in science by learning about sight and hearing. We finished reading about the Oregon Trail, and she started an end-of-year project about what she learned. She also began working on her final writing assignment…not nearly as long as Ladybug’s, but a big paper for her!

Next week will be a short week for us, plus I have a field trip planned, and I’m really hoping the weather cooperates…just two weeks to go!

2024-25 School Year–Week Twenty-Nine

This was a fun week! Not only did we finally get to play tennis, but we also took a rare nighttime field trip to the St. Louis Zoo for the Animals Aglow Lantern Festival!

Of course, we did our regular work, too, although that is dwindling down, and our days are getting shorter. Ladybug began volume three of Jane Eyre…the end is in sight! She continued working on her term paper. In psychology she read about aggression, attraction, and altruism. Her final writing assignment was writing a “bad” thesis using subtle and blatant irony. She continued reading American Nations.

Chickadee completed all of the new material in her pre-algebra book with a final lesson on finding the area of regular polygons, and is now ready for the end-of-year review! Since she finished her history curriculum for the year, we’re focusing on topics that bridge the time around the California Gold Rush and the Civil War, including the Underground Railroad and the Oregon Trail. She began learning about the five senses in science. We started reading Amon’s Secret.

Three more weeks of school, and a lot of fun things in the mix between now and then!

2024-25 School Year–Week Twenty-Eight

We finally made it out of the house on a field trip! On Wednesday, we went to see the new “Collected” exhibit at the Missouri History Museum…I was very impressed with it!

This was also a short week for us, as we always take the day off on Good Friday. Ladybug finished the second volume of Jane Eyre. In psychology she read about social dynamics. She continued to work on her final research paper. In writing she wrote four different theses. She finished reading On The Hippie Trail…her last social studies book is American Nations. We made it to the final chapter of our study of the history of Christianity, and discussed what it means to be a confessional Christian today.

Chickadee worked with graphs in pre-algebra, performing transformations including reflections, rotations, translations, and dilations. She read about the California Gold Rush in history. We finished The Bronze Bow. In science she began a very long chapter about the nervous system. Her writing assignment is to combine the various topoi for writing about history to complete a paper about Joan of Arc.

I’m hoping for a few more field trips before the end of the school year!

2024-25 School Year–Week Twenty-Seven

Ladybug took her last psychology test this week! She’s not done with the course yet…I let her choose one test to drop, and she picked the last one, so she’s still doing lessons, starting with one on social psychology. She completed Between the World and Me and began On the Hippie Trail, her penultimate social studies book. She continued to read Jane Eyre as well. She also worked on her final term paper, which is about the relevance Babylon 5 still has today.

Chickadee used the FOIL method in pre-algebra and also learned how to divide polynomials. She continued scientific writing. In history she read about the colonization of New Zealand. She finished the chapter on the endocrine, urinary, and lymphatic systems in science. We continued to read The Bronze Bow. We took a week off of religion because we only have one chapter left!

I had hoped we could find time to get out and at least play tennis this week, but it just didn’t happen. Maybe next week…or we might go see the next exhibit at the Missouri History Museum!

2024-25 School Year–Week Twenty-Six

Happy April!

Ladybug continued her literature study of Jane Eyre. In psychology she learned about various treatments for mental health disorders, including counseling, therapy, prescriptions, and ECT. She finished Murder on the Orient Express (and was surprised by the ending!). In writing she reviewed avoiding common mistakes, such as adding the suffix “wise” to everything. She’s about halfway through Between the World and Me. We read about the Saxon immigrants in religion, including the controversial Martin Stephan, as well as C.F.W. Walther, who had the pulpit at our church when it was in its infancy.

Chickadee added and subtracted polynomials and multiplied and divided monomials in pre-algebra. She also multiplied a monomial by a polynomial in preparation of learning the FOIL method next week. In history she read about the Alamo, Sam Houston, and the Mexican-American War. In writing, her assignment was a temporal comparison by history about a topic close to my own heart…Chicago! She continued to read The Bronze Bow. In science she started a chapter on the lymphatic, endocrine, and urinary systems.

The weather hasn’t been great for getting outside this week, but I’m hoping for sunnier days for a fun activity next week!