2024-25 school year

2024-25 School Year–Week Twenty-Five

We’re back from spring break and in the final stretch now, and counting down the days until Ladybug’s graduation!

Speaking of Ladybug, she picked up where she left off in Jane Eyre, finishing volume one. She read about mental health disorders such as bipolar, schizophrenia, and DID in psychology. In writing she also practiced avoiding overused techniques. She also picked a topic and started finding sources for her big research paper. She continued reading Murder on the Orient Express and began Between the World and Me. In religion, we discussed the arrival of protestants in America.

Chickadee calculated sine, cosine, and tangent for different triangles in pre-algebra. We continued reading The Bronze Bow. In history she learned about the opium trade in China. She started reading about the circulatory, cardiovascular, and respiratory systems in science. In writing she worked with temporal comparisons. We also took a field trip to visit the “It’s Electric” neon sign park in Granite City, where we found a cool, mini reproduction of the old Chain of Rocks Bridge.

I can’t believe April begins next week…the school year really is rapidly winding down!

2024-25 School Year–Week Twenty-Four

Not a whole lot to say this week, as we spent our time wrapping things up before spring break. Ladybug had a psychology test and continued reading Jane Eyre, Between the World and Me, and Murder on the Orient Express. Chickadee learned about the Pythagorean Theorem in pre-algebra, the Trail of Tears in history, and the digestive system in science, and continued reading The Bronze Bow. And we finally made it back to the Missouri History Museum…this month’s theme was of great interest to me, because it focused on women and fashion, a topic near and dear to my heart!

See you after our break!

2024-25 School Year–Week Twenty-Three

Ladybug continued reading Jane Eyre this week. She also started Murder on the Orient Express. In psychology she learned about IQ tests and the difference between general intelligence and emotional intelligence as well as the difference between fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence. In writing she practiced writing different forms of parallelism. We read about John Knox and John Wesley in religion.

Chickadee continued to work with systems of equations and also converted between celsius and fahrenheit in pre-algebra. We read about the Zulu in Africa in history. In science, she finished the chapter on the superstructures of the human body. We continued The Bronze Bow. We also began our Lenten Jesus Tree readings and Amon’s Adventure. We stopped by the library to see the baby chicks once more before they move on…they’ve gotten so big!

Speaking of birds, we’ve been on pip watch and absolutely obsessed with Jackie and Shadow’s adorable babies…the Big Bear Bald Eagle Live Nest cam has been on pretty much all day all week here!

We celebrated making it to March and the return of our very favorite Starbucks drink, too!

One more week of school, and then it’s time for spring break!

2024-25 School Year–Week Twenty-Two

It’s finally the last day of February (and the month decided to be annoying one last time with the gift of a flat tire, but that’s neither here nor there….)!

Ladybug began reading Jane Eyre for her next literature study. In religion we discussed Calvin and Zwingli and Reformed theology. She worked on extending sentences with prepositional phrases, participles, and appositives in writing. In psychology she read about spotlight effect and self-esteem. She finished Wuthering Heights and continued to read Travel as a Political Act.

Chickadee learned how to calculate slope, rewrite equations in slope-intercept form, and solve systems of equations in pre-algebra. In history she read about Santa Anna and Mexican independence. We finished reading Heart and Soul, which was an overview of Black history in the US, and turned our attention to the stories of some specific Black Americans…in addition to more well-known figures like Ruby Bridges, Coretta Scott King, and Jackie Robinson, we also read about a few lesser-known individuals like Ann Lowe and Ethel Payne. In science she learned about the skeletal system and began a section on muscles. We began reading The Bronze Bow.

We also went to the library to check up on the chicks. We saw some the day they hatched:

And we went back once all five of them were moved from the incubator to the box they’re currently residing in:

We’re hoping to go back to the library next week and see the chicks once more before they move to the farm that will be their new home!

2024-25 School Year–Week Twenty-One

This week, Ladybug finished A Tale of Two Cities, and is working on her final essay on the book. In psychology she learned about Freud’s id, ego, and superego, as well as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. In religion, we took a closer look at The Book of Concord and especially the Augsburg Confession. She worked on writing and rewriting sentences in active and passive voice in writing. She continued reading Wuthering Heights and Travel as a Political Act.

Chickadee learned about the Cartesian coordinate system in pre-algebra, and also solved two-variable equations and graphed the results. In science, we finished up the chapter on the five-kingdom classification system, and did a classic experiment with celery and dyed water to demonstrate turgor pressure in plants. She finished reading The Trojan War. We revisited Napoleon and read about Waterloo in history. We continued reading Heart & Soul.

Our library has been incubating chicken eggs, so we got to go see an egg candling this week…I had not idea how much detail we’d be able to see, but there was definite movement within the eggs, and you could clearly make out the shape of a foot in more than one of them!

The eggs are supposed to hatch next week, so we’re planning on going back and seeing the chicks at some point!

2024-25 School Year–Week Twenty

Fun things first…we attended Once Upon a Valentine in St. Charles, MO again this year, and the girls took pictures with their favorite literary character (again) at the event!

On to the school work. Ladybug and I were sick pretty much all week, so it’s kind of a muddle, but we did accomplish most of our planned learning. She only has one chapter left in A Tale of Two Cities (it’s really too bad she couldn’t wrap it up before the weekend!). She continued reading Wuthering Heights and Travel as a Political Act (as well as a 1,200 page book she picked up at the library!). She worked on paragraph hooks in writing. In religion, we read about Philip Melancthon, Martin Chemnitz, and Frederick the Wise.

Chickadee learned about different types of lines and the parts of a circle, as well as how to identify complementary and supplementary angles, in pre-algebra. In science she started reading about the five-kingdom classification system, beginning with Monera and Protista. She read about the Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark in history. We are down to the last few chapters of The Trojan War. She worked on writing a historical essay about the space race for writing.

Hopefully we’re all feeling well next week…I don’t want anyone else to catch whatever we had!

2024-25 School Year–Week Nineteen

A whole week of February down and we’re surviving!

Ladybug finished her logic course by looking at the appeal to tradition and appeal to high tech fallacies. She began reading both Wuthering Heights and Travel as a Political Act. She learned about mental and emotional maturation from adolescence into adulthood in psychology. She is getting close to the end of A Tale of Two Cities. She used the picture frame technique in writing by coming up with descriptives.

Chickadee learned how to calculate problems using mass, density, and time & velocity in pre-algebra. She continued reading The Trojan War, making it to the sack of Troy. In religion, we read about Martin Luther and the Reformation. Her writing assignment was timely for Black History Month…she wrote a short essay about Dred Scott. We also began reading Heart and Soul, covering the period of time through Reconstruction. In science, she reviewed the parts of the cell. We read about the Haitian Revolt and factories in England in history.

Only thee more weeks of February to go!

2024-25 School Year–Week Eighteen

This week Ladybug learned about the snob appeal and transfer fallacies in logic. She finished There Are No Children Here and started Driving the Green Book. In writing, she practiced avoiding the use of the word “there” as well as avoiding using first and second person. She continued reading A Tale of Two Cities and read all of The Screwtape Letters. Since we can’t make it to the ice skating rink as often as we’d like, she also began roller blading.

Chickadee learned how to calculate the volume of prisms, pyramids, and cylinders in pre-algebra, and also learned how to calculate the surface area and lateral area of different shapes. In science she learned about the criteria for life. She read about the death of Achilles in The Trojan War. In history we discussed China and the opium trade and had an introduction to Napoleon. We learned about Wycliffe and Hus in religion…we’ve almost reached the time of Martin Luther!

We’re supposed to have some spring-like weather next week, but I haven’t decided how we’re going to take advantage of it yet!

2024-25 School Year–Week Seventeen

This is what I would call a pretty low-key week of school…we dropped Bunny off at college, and Turkey’s classes have resumed as well, so everything just felt kind of flat and uninteresting.

Ladybug learned about the exigency and repetition fallacies in logic. She finished “Book the Second” of A Tale of Two Cities. We read about Anselm of Canterbury and the ontological argument in religion. She started reading There Are No Children Here, which was a foundational book in my high school career. She wrote an essay using the triangle-rectangle-triangle structure in writing.

Chickadee began a unit on geometry in pre-algebra, and learned how to calculate the area of different shapes including triangles and trapezoids. She read about Catharine the Great, the creation of the steam engine, and the invention of the cotton gin and standardization in history. We finished the third part of The Trojan War. In science, she continued to compare uniformitarianism and catastrophism. She wrote a paper combining literary analysis and biographical sketch for writing.

I am going to need to find some interesting outings or something for us to do, because I don’t usually feel this blah until February!

2024-25 School Year–Week Sixteen

Time to get back to work after an extended Christmas break!

We eased back into our routine with a visit to the St. Louis on Monday…we really wanted to see it while it was still snow-covered, and we weren’t disappointed!

Ladybug also learned this week that she placed first in the high school category of our city’s winter art contest…she put a lot of effort into her painting, and was very excited to find that it paid off!

We got back into the routine of our regular schoolwork, too. Ladybug identified the appeal to pity and bandwagon fallacies in logic. She picked off where she left off in A Tale of Two Cities. In psychology she read about physical portrayal of emotions. She started reading 1984. In religion, we read about John of Damascus and the Great Schism.

Chickadee calculated permutations and combinations in pre-algebra. We read about the French Revolution in history. In science, we discussed evolution. She continued her literature study of The Trojan War. In writing, she read the “The Highwayman” and learned about reversals in poetry.

Hopefully I’ll find another interesting outing in the coming weeks to break up the monotony that is the time after the holidays!