Curriculum and School Hits - 9th Grade

Now that Amber has finished her first year of high school (eek!), we took a look back the positive aspects of the year. This is a short list of her favorite classes, curriculum, or school related items from 9th grade.

Amber's Favorites from 9th grade:

Homeschool Co-Op - having every class with her best friend

Drama Class Play: The Snow White Variety Show - The culmination of the co-op drama class. Amber played one of the dwarves, Creepy. It was a fun play to watch and the kids had a blast performing.

Yearbook - It was Amber's second year being on the yearbook for our homeschool group. She has such a fantastic time with her friends on the yearbook committee. They are all assigned portions of the yearbook to create, as well as some additional work to create superlatives and write summaries.

Greek Mythology - This was a class taught at our homeschool co-op, using D'Aulaires' Greek Myths as a spine. Amber already owned the book and had read it several times over. However, the course had a few more details and Amber loved every session.

Forensic Science - Amber requested this topic for science and I opted to teach it at our co-op instead of at home to only Amber. It was a fun class to teach and, according to Amber, a great class to take too.  (Click to see our class resources)

Greek Language - Amber decided she wanted to learn Greek, but wasn't sure there was going to be a curriculum she liked since we've had so much trouble finding a German curriculum that we both like. We were given the chance to review First Form Greek from Memoria Press, which Amber took to immediately and loves the format. It was a surprise hit!

Pride and Prejudice - I didn't expect Amber to love Jane Austen as much as she did. Of course, I love Jane Austen's books, but Amber and I tend to have different tastes. However, it was another unexpected favorite from 9th grade.

Essay Writing - Oddly enough, Amber really wanted to take the IEW High School Essay Intensive when the review came up. She loved every second of the video course and was happy to write all the essays.  Who knew essay writing could be such a well received topic.

Lightning Literature - Honestly, Amber has loved everything we have done out of Lightning Literature so far this year. It's just her style of a literature curriculum and she is happy with the selection of novels. She also was rather giddy to begin Shakespeare at the end of 9th grade. We're just wrapping up Julius Caesar and she's tickled pink still.

Week 34 - Wrapping Up

We have one more week left of our normal school year before we enter summer school mode. Amber has finished the total number of hours (1000) required by the state of Missouri per school year! She is still short a little on the number of core subject hours required each year (600), but those will be completed in the next two weeks. We are in great shape, even though we've been a little light on school this week.

This past Sunday was my 45th birthday. How is it at all possible that I'm halfway through my forties? Before I know it, I'll be 50 years old with a 20 year old child. Time passes so slowly some days, yet I still clearly remember being Amber's age like it was a week ago.

My mom was still here on Sunday morning since her house was still without power from the storms on Friday. She opted to go to her church and we went to ours, but at least I got to see my mom on my birthday this year.  Her power came back on while she was at a church senior event Sunday afternoon, so she never returned to our house that day. But she did come out on Monday to take us to lunch for my birthday and collect the food we had been storing for her over the weekend when her refrigeration appliances had no power.

Rosie has been feeling better and moving better. She is still super cuddly, but treatment is helping her.

She also was able to go shopping with Amber and me on Monday to buy a new refrigerator for our kitchen. Sunday afternoon / evening we noticed our kitchen refrigerator was not cooling properly; it had been acting wonky for about 10 months, so it was not a total surprise. Thankfully, we have a spare garage fridge and a basement deep freezer. Plenty of space remained in both of those even with my mom's food for us to empty our kitchen refrigerator.  Luckily, the model of refrigerator I had been wanting was in stock - one left - and available for delivery on Wednesday. The whole ordeal was more of an inconvenience than anything, since we have the spare appliances. I am most grateful for that.

Amber and I took Monday off from school because of the belated birthday lunch and refrigerator shopping. Tuesday was an appointment day though, so we honestly had zero time for school. We barely had time for meals. But I'm happy to report both she and I have healthy eyes. Amber's prescription hasn't changed in years and I still do not need vision correction. There is no sign of disease or damage in either Amber's or my eyes, which is a huge bonus when we both have diseases that can affect the eyes. Yes, we see a fancy opthamologist who converses with her patients about their overall health and not just their eyes, since they are all connected.

Milori and Biscotti also wanted Amber cuddles this week. Only Amber gets to hold Biscotti so compactly without argument.

Wednesday and Thursday ended up being normal school days - yippie. And Friday was therapy day for Amber, which means less school than a regular day.  We've really pared down the school lessons as we near summer school time. Most of the subjects have been completed except for the ones that will be continuing over the summer.  Accomplished during the shortened week:

• Amber finished the last rewrite and edit of her essays from the High School Essay Intensive, which finishes off writing for 9th grade.  
• She has one more grammar lesson before that is complete for the school year too!
• One history lesson. I do want to sneak in one more history lesson before we call it complete for the summer. In August, she will simply pick history back up where we left off. So, it's not a huge issue. 
• She finished the first read through of Julius Caesar along with all of the accountability questions and now is going on the second reading of it as outlined in the Lightning Literature schedule. 
• Worked on Latin, Greek and Chemistry which will all continue over the summer.

History timeline and Shakespeare.

Amber's summer (school-ish) plans include:

• Greek and Latin - we don't want her to lose her momentum or forget.
• Literature - Some Lightning Literature Shakespeare because it's a review, some reading I assign because there are novels I think she should read.
• Chemistry - It's a review.
• Creative Writing - A home course and with a group writing a couple act play.
• Botany plant genetics experiment now that the weather is warmer.
• Weighted blanket sewing with her friends

It's been a good week, even with the anxiety over a quick appliance purchase and delivery. Now here's to hoping tomorrow's storms leave us alone. I really don't like severe weather... as in I'm preparing tonight for tomorrow's storms.  You'd think I am a recent transplant to the mid-west as opposed to living here my whole life. Yet, I'm still terrified of severe storms.

Happy Memorial Weekend, and may your weekend be storm free.

Linking With:

  

Week 33 - A Quick Recap

A quick run down of our week since the storms in Missouri altered how our Friday and Saturday have gone.  Very intense storms in the wee hours of Friday caused us to loose power for the early morning hours. We also lost a tree branch in a front yard tree and may still need to take more off of the tree.

But we are fortunate since many in our metro area are still without power, including my mother. A tree in one of her neighbor's yards came down during the Friday morning storm and took out a electric pole with transformer. So, my mom and her perishable foods have been staying with us since late Friday afternoon. There is no estimate of when she will have power back.  I may get to have my mom visiting for my 45th birthday tomorrow!

Mother's Day lunch after church. Sadly, this was the best selfie we could take.

This week's fun:

• Mother's Day relaxation with my family
• Late Mother's Day lunch with my mom on Monday
• Sewing day with Amber's friends - they have 10 weighted blankets ready for the bead stage!
• "Amber and Mom Day" for May - we didn't do much except relax and then take in Grandma.
• Grandma visiting - who doesn't have fun when their grandma visits, and gets to go to our regular Saturday Texas Roadhouse lunch.

Sewing with friends (I cropped out the friends), back to her drawings, and Star Wars LEGO sets.

Lunch with Grandma on Saturday!
My Mr. Lincoln rose bush is having hybrid problems. It now has large red flowers and small pink flowers. 

This week's school:

• Essay writing - editing and working on a longer version of her essay from the High School Essay Intensive
• Grammar - every day, except Friday
• Literature - Started reading Julius Caesar with only one act left. She's enjoying this.
• Greek - Most days
• Latin - Most days
• Chemistry - We are reviewing General Chemistry from Novare Science. Amber so badly wants to take chemistry, but is afraid after some poor science curriculum choices in the past. I'm hoping this one will be more successful, especially if I participate in the lesson time.

Lots of Julius Caesar and beginning chemistry (she was chilly and being silly)

Coming Up:

• Another birthday celebration - we are supposed to be having lunch with my mom on Monday to celebrate my birthday with her. So.... that may not happen though if she's still staying with us on my birthday tomorrow, or even on Monday. 
• Eye doctor appointments - Amber and I both have our annual checkups. I'll be dilated, as usual.
• Therapy day  - Amber's regular therapy. I'm still so happy we only go one day, every other week. It's been a sanity saver to have this new schedule.

Biscotti being adorable for such a large kitty.
Rosetta is still going to the vet 3 times a week for laser treatments and now Adequan injections (glucosamine for cats). She's walking better, but still has a significant hitch in her walk and clearly still has pain.

Happy Stormy Weekend!

Linking With:

  

Week 32 - Pets...

We had a most unexpected week and nearly all of our days were not how we had planned them. It mostly revolves around our smallest cat, Rosetta, having some pretty severe problems that we had no clue about until last Sunday.

Fun Events

But first, Amber went to the Spring Formal / Prom last Saturday and had a fantastic time. I got the impression that they are no longer "magical" to her anymore though. Instead she just enjoys dressing up and hanging out with her friends. She doesn't ever make the group photo session in the park because her options are to spend an hour or more traipsing about a park for photos, or to spend the evening at the dance. We take the latter option.

Sunday Amber had a birthday party to attend in the late afternoon and evening. She is so proud of herself because she went down to a creek with her friends, walked through the creek, and fished. She even caught a fish, which she would not touch. She kept saying "I was outdoorsy!"  Yet once we got home she immediately took an hour long shower to get the "outdoors and creek off."

Earlier Sunday afternoon I had remembered that I had an appointment for the steroid shots in my back during Amber's flute lesson later in the week, so managed to reschedule that for Monday. Only to have a message AFTER we arrived home from the flute lesson that my pain management doctor is on indefinite medical leave and I'll need to reschedule to see one of the other doctors in the practice. That is after re-arranging the authorization for the shots with my insurance. I've done none of that yet. It was all too ridiculous.

Cat Problems:

The problem with Rosetta arose Sunday morning. We awoke after the late night for Amber's dance to find Rosie not using her back left leg. Fred took her to the emergency vet while Amber and I got ready for the day. We were fortunate in that the vet on call at the emergency office was actually one of our veterinarians from the practice we use. So, this veterinarian actually knew Rosie.  Fred was sent home with Rosie and a pain killer. Nothing was broken and probably soft tissue damage from a jump. Rose is a jumper.

Rosetta.  This was our first trip to the vet's new location. They have exam rooms designed for cats and dogs now, and are a certified Fear-Free vet.

However she got much worse over the afternoon and evening on Sunday, so Monday morning I called bright and early and got her in to see our other veterinarian (just because the one she saw Sunday was off on Monday) Monday morning.  This time Rosetta was x-rayed. She has severe arthritis. Very severe. There are "significant changes to her hips."  Sigh. Rose is only 4 years old (and one month). We immediately started cold laser therapy to help with the inflammation. Tuesday Rosie's pain was more than the vets wanted to see, so I took her in for an anti-inflammatory shot. She got three of those shots on consecutive days and goes Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for her laser therapy. However, on Thursday and Friday she also ended up with enemas because she hadn't gone since Sunday / Monday (hard to tell).

At this point, on Saturday afternoon, she is using her litter box appropriately again. She always ate and drank well. She is still walking with a hitch and doesn't walk too far at one time. She runs after resting, but then has to stop. She does small jumps, but has come to realize she can't make most of the jumps she used to do.  We have to keep her confined to a safe room when we are asleep or gone, so that she doesn't re-injure the hip even more. We confine her brother, Milori, with her too.

This means to leave the house for anything is an ordeal. We also have Biscotti who is still not out with the other cats without a leash or us being watchful. I spend half of my day juggling where cats are, and which ones get the roam of the house. Biscotti doesn't know that Rose is injured, I don't think. But he is enjoying being out more since Rose and Milori must be put away more for Rose's safety.

Silly moments: This week at the same restaurant as last week, Amber got a normal sized straw and a small glass :) Being a pirate, and accidentally matching her dad today.

In all, Rose went to a vet at least once a day Sunday - Friday this past week. I'm relishing that we were able to stay home this morning. Amber has been a huge help in herding cats, following my texted instructions as I wait at the vet each day, and generally being patient with my exhaustion from it all.

School

We were supposed to start Amber's standardized testing bright and early on Monday. That didn't happen because we were both tired from the weekend, and spent most of the morning at the vet with Rosetta.  Instead Amber worked on some Grammar after lunch, began her new Lightning Literature Shakespeare (tragedies) that we are reviewing, and had her flute lesson.  I think that was a pretty good start considering the long weekend and Monday morning.

Tuesday and Wednesday Amber spent the bulk of her school days on her standardized testing. She uses the Stanford 10 (Task 1 this year) along with the OLSAT ability test. To celebrate the completion of the testing, and because Fred could come home early that day, we went to see a late afternoon showing of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 on Wednesday. It was a fantastic movie and good way to relax.

Standardized testing. Maybe not the best choice this year.

Thursday, after our daily vet visit, Amber's friends came over for a sewing session on the weighted blankets we are making for Children's Hospital. They made good progress, and we helped one of her friends learn to sew. Next week we have another sewing day with an additional friend who was unable to join this week. Amber and I plan to sew on the blankets most Thursdays this summer and will open our house to whichever of her friends that want to join us each week. I'd like to finish 20 blankets over the course of the summer, so we'll see how well the girls work.

Friday was another therapy day, so most of the afternoon was spent at the hospital for Amber's PT and OT. Then she had her last yearbook meeting of the school year. Amber has all of her assignments completed! You know we are quickly approaching the end of the school year when the yearbook is finished.

Sewing and Lightning Literature Shakespeare. The Lightning Lit had literally arrived in the mail 5 minutes prior.

In school hours, Amber is almost finished with her total hours - she might even finish next week. However, she is still not there with her core hours. After looking over our May schedule and invitations Amber has received for fun events, we have decided to not stress over finishing the core hours before the end of May. Although I wanted to give Amber a full summer off, she has never had that. Amber decided to work on a few core subjects through June. Working 2-3 hours a day on Science, languages, and English will easily allow her to complete the remaining core hours needed. I'll then give her most of July off from school. She finds this an acceptable solution and really wasn't sure what she would do with an entire summer off.

Next week we still have to take Rosetta to the vet three days, assuming she has no additional problems. We'll still have to keep her from roaming the house when we can't watch her too, which means the cat juggling will continue. But otherwise, there really isn't anything additional on the schedule except for flute lesson. Whew. I'm relieved. This week was a bit too much.

Linking With:

  

{Review} High School Essay Intensive - IEW

My 15 year old daughter had just finished her most recent Institute for Excellence in Writing course back in early April when we received for review the new edition of their High School Essay Intensive. You probably have never seen a high school student as happy to be given additional writing work towards the end of the school year as Amber was with this video course.

First, let me provide you with the specifics of the course.
The High School Essay Intensive is a video course led by Andrew Pudewa, the director of the Institute for Excellence in Writing. It is taught directly to the student and there is no teacher's guide for this course. In our IEW box we received:

• The 5 DVD set (6.5 hours of instruction)
• A copy of the student handouts
• Portable Walls for the Essayist

Along with the physical DVDs our set also included the ability to stream the video course from the IEW website, which is invaluable to our family since we love to school in various places that do not always have access to a DVD player.

The High School Essay Intensive is divided into five parts (each on a separate DVD) to cover various aspects and types of essay writing. If you have seen the older edition, it was updated in 2016 and now includes the new ACT® essay and the redesigned SAT® essay.

• Part 1A: General Strategies for Essay Writing: Length and Structure
• Part 1B: General Strategies for Essay Writing: Invention and Style
• Part 2: Understanding and Preparing for the New ACT® Essay
• Part 3: Understanding and Preparing for the Redesigned SAT® Essay
• Part 4: Strategies for the Personal Essay

Note taking!

The student handouts provide a detailed outline of the course, although the students are expected to fill in the specifics by taking notes during the video presentation. Essay assignments, including source text for the SAT® essay, are also part of the student handouts. The last page lists the nine step essay assignment that will culminate the course.

Portable Walls for the Essayist is a helpful, cardstock weight, tri-fold folder that can be used to block others while you work or as storage for the papers associated this course. All six faces of the Portable Walls for the Essayist have valuable information for your young writer:

• Types of Essays
• Essay Models
• Essay Writing Process
• Essay Writing Strategies
• Specific Models
• Transitional Words and Phrases

I would like to note that this course is not designed to teach your student the basic mechanics of sentence or paragraph writing. The purpose is to help them with their essay composition skills.

Now back to my high school student's reaction. Why in the world would she be so giddy about essay writing?

Amber loves to write and intends to major in English. Despite all of her experience with various IEW courses, she felt her essay writing was still sub-par for someone with her aspirations. Don't misunderstand, her writing has grown leaps and bounds while using the IEW Student Writing Intensive levels. However, she felt there were some weaknesses in her writing and wanted a chance to work specifically on those areas.

Since the course was recorded with a group of students over the span of a single day, there are no straightforward breaks for those of us who want to go through the course in one or two hour increments per day. Our first day of use I assigned Amber a set length of video to watch and take notes from in her student handout. When she reached the end of that section, I was informed "This course is rather fun. May I continue?"  Absolutely, child. Please do. Actually, that was her reaction most days. She always happily went farther than I requested. There are not many topics that will elicit that reaction from Amber.

I listened in to most of the video course with Amber, even if I was not exactly in the same room. Although it is taught directly to the student, I wanted to be vaguely prepared if she had any questions. If you are an experienced IEW Style and Structure parent, then you will be familiar with portions of the first two sections. It is not necessary for the parent to have IEW Style and Structure experience for this course to be of benefit, yet it will be easier for you to edit your student's work if you watch the course or have Style and Structure experience.

Amber completed the course, at least the portions I assigned, during the review period by working on it several days a week. She did stop the video playback quite a bit so that she could take detailed notes as suggested by Andrew Pudewa in the first few minutes of the video. I did allow Amber to skip one of the writing assignments in Part 1B because it was the same type of writing as she has been doing in her regular IEW courses for years. She preferred to get on with the new information.

Outlining and writing her final essay

We had decided in advance that Amber would not complete the ACT® or SAT® portions of the High School Essay Intensive at this time. Amber does not expect to need to take either of the tests for her college admittance, so we chose to spend more time on the personal essay section which she will need. I believe this was a good choice; she did not suffer at all for skipping the two middle sections on the test essays and kept her positive momentum going with personal essays.

What did we think?

• Although some of the information in the General Strategies for Essay Writing sections (Parts 1A and 1B) had been introduced in Amber's other Institute for Excellence in Writing courses, we appreciated how it was presented in the High School Essay Intensive. Still, the majority of the information was new to Amber.
• The heart of the course is in Parts 1A and 1B, so I would never recommend skipping those sections. However, the remainder of the course could be adapted for a student who does not need specific type of essay experience. This was a huge bonus in our mind.
• Amber feels her essay writing is stronger now and she has a better understanding of the different essay styles. I see definite improvement in her writing style and independence. I did not get a single question on how to structure her final project essay. I allowed Amber to use the basic essay as her final assignment, but after seeing how well she did with it I decided to have her edit it into the expanded essay and perhaps afterwards will try the super essay.

The High School Essay Intensive from the Institute for Excellence in Writing was exactly what my high school student needed to firm up her essay skills and give her the confidence to keep practicing those personal essays.

***

Connect with Institute for Excellence in Writing on social media:

Facebook
YouTube
Twitter
Pinterest

Other members of the Homeschool Review Crew also had a chance to use the High School Essay Intensive. Please follow the link in the graphic below to read their experiences with this program.

---

Week 32 - The Damp Week

This has been an absolutely insane week here. We did not have much to do outside of the house, and that's a good thing since we live in Missouri - you know the state with all of the closed roads due to flooding. Thankfully our very immediate area did not flood. By that I mean our subdivision and a mile or two around us. Outside of that radius things started to get dicey as far as road travel.

On our way to church Sunday... That's not supposed to have water. Plus a map of Missouri road closures on Sunday, before the majority closed.

We are especially thankful that our basement stayed dry and our sump pump did not fail, although it did run nearly continuously all last Saturday and Sunday, then again this Wednesday and Thursday. Such a small device to be grateful for.

We were lucky to not have a busy week outside of the house because of all of the rain. Besides the flooding, I had no desire to drive in that type of rain either. It was also the first week after co-op ended for the school year. That was a stroke of luck for all of us. Amber and I did a few random errands, but mostly stayed home over the week. That means we accomplished more school this week than in a very, very long time.

Lots of language work this week. And that is a Mr. Lincoln rose bush. They are red. This year mine came back pink. My roses all came back crazy this year. We forgot to cut back the roses so they all started out pretty big too.

Amber worked on:

• High School Essay Intensive - she actually finished the sections we planned on her using. She's now redoing her final assignment as a longer essay. I decided to have her do the basic essay style and then once completed use it as the basis for the expanded style essay.  She spent hours each day on this single topic. (Review coming up Monday or Tuesday)
• History - Three lessons worth over the week. This is an unbelievable amount compared to the rest of the school year. That's three lessons of reading, writing, map, and timeline work. The mind boggles.
• Grammar - every single day!
• Latin - every day, except today.
• Greek - every day, except yesterday.
• Literature - finally finished her reading and writing assignment for the most recent book. 
• Botany - yes, she finished it last semester but we held off on the plant genetics lab because the basement was too cold during the winter and we can't keep the plants on either living level because of the cats. This week we started prep work and reading for the Wisconsin Fast Plants genetics lab that will take many weeks to complete. 
• Flute lesson and practice - we actually left the house in the rain and ventured forth for the lesson.
• Free reading - she received two books from Amazon on Tuesday, release day, and finished both by Thursday evening. Sigh. I guess it's better than constantly playing video games.

Watching birds out his window, sitting on HIS box by my computer (outside of his room), sitting in his spot in the family room while another cat was in the same room.

We spent a good deal of time this week working with Biscotti to help him reintegrate with the other cats. He's still terribly nervous around them, well around Rosetta. He doesn't get out of the room with Milori much yet. They all get along through the crack in a door just fine and even pass toys back and forth.  Today for about an hour Biscotti was off the leash with Rosetta, who was actually on a leash to be safe. Biscotti made no negative sounds, nor did he run away. He was wary, but the whole experience was a huge step forward. Biscotti still prefers it when we put the other two cats away in a room and let him have the run of the house, still we are progressing and may yet have a harmonious cat family again.

Milori and Rosetta chilling in Amber's room. They didn't care about being locked in. Biscotti trying not to care about being on a leash with Rose in the same room.

Tomorrow is the homeschool spring formal / prom, so we will spend the afternoon preparing Amber. I hope this dance is as fun as the last two for her. She's been feeling a little tired this week because of the weird weather, so hopefully tomorrow will be calmer and she can reserve her energy for the evening.

Next week we need to complete Amber's standardized testing that I just didn't get to this week. We were so productive with regular school work that I didn't want to take the time out for testing. So, next week we need to spend a couple days on the Stanford 10. Bleh. I'm thinking this was a poor decision on my part to test into high school. But we will see.

Silly times: Dinner one night - we all received tiny straws, but only Amber got a tiny straw and a tall glass. It kept sinking beneath the water.  Someone needed new sunglasses because it was raining. LOL

Next week is also a therapy week and our first service project sewing day. We will be hosting some of Amber's friends on a near weekly basis over the summer for the girls to work on sewing weighted blankets as a service project. (I'm working on a post with instructions for how we construct the weighted blankets.) The girls will come when they are available, but we will have the supplies out and our house open to them roughly 3 times a month. Wish us luck!

Happy Weekend!

Linking With: