Friday, August 12, 2011

Weekly Wrap-Up: The One That Ended in Tears

Well week 2 of our new school year was just as perplexing as the first.  Sigh…  So on to the highlights.

Bible

We are still working our way through Genesis with our Bible Study Guide for All Ages program.   Mackenzie is really enjoying working through the pages on her own.   She tends to get testy if I try to get in on it. LOL

Math

We’re using Math-U-See Epsilon.  Mackenzie had her first math test of the year.  We weren’t surprised to see that grade, as it was just review.


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She also got to try out the fraction overlays this week.  Those are pretty neat.

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Language Arts

We’re using  Advanced Language Lessons and Writing With Skill this year, but they won’t be out until October.  In the meantime, we’ve been working through Word Root Beginnings and Wordsmith Apprentice.    She likes both, especially Wordsmith.  The premise is that you are an “intern” at a newspaper and you are learning the art of writing from the “editor.”  She thinks it is great fun!
For spelling we are using Big IQ Kids.  She is also enjoying that.  I’d like to tell you more about it but that will have to wait, as it is something that I’m currently reviewing for the TOS Review Crew.   I will tell you that she is doing well with it and really enjoying it.  Winking smile


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She is currently reading Sherlock Holmes as her reader.  And just look at her.  Chewing gum and blowing bubbles!  During school.  I made that mistake once in fifth grade and all that got me was 50 sentences declaring that “I will not chew gum in class.”   LOL  The things homeschoolers get away with is shameful!!

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Science

Science is definitely our favorite subject at the moment.  We are LOVING Exploring Creation with Anatomy and Physiology. 

Our apple that we mummified last week was ready.  It worked great and we were thrilled.  You could definitely see the difference between the mummified apple and the control apple.

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Our focus this week was cells.  She made a drawing of a simplified cell in her notebook.

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She also made her “person” that we will be adding to throughout our study.

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The highlight of the week was our edible cell.  So fun!!

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Social Studies

The best part of social studies this week was one of our review items.   A wonderful game called Civil This.  We’re having a B-L-A-S-T reviewing past studies with this game.  And that’s all I’m going to tell ya for now.
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If only the rest of social studies were this wonderful.  We had one issue after the other.  So lets start at the top.

Let’s start with the labeling of the Travel With Me map.  We were supposed to label the countries.  Sounds simple enough.  Except the maps are inaccurate and we had four extra labels.  I can sort of see maybe forgetting some of the tiny countries, but Iceland?   Really?  Plus I paid a lot of money for these things and I want all the countries on there.

Make no mistakes, Mackenzie does not like having to deal with all the Winter Promise errors.  Every. Single. Day.

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The map’s looking pretty full now.  And we’ve yet to add the cities and “landmarks”.

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We were assigned this…

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Sounds simple enouch, strange, but simple.  What we found.  A table of contents.

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And this…

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These pages had lots of interesting facts and stats.   And yet were are never assigned these pages to read.  Just to pronounce the names of the states.  Why Winter Promise, why?  We read them anyway.  Ha!!

Then there was this one.  Simple enough.

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Opps!  Pretty much every page for these readings are mis-numbered. 

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And now the one that took us an hour.  Color and label a landform map of Europe.  You get a list that they expect you to label.   Please note that the things circled in pink are items that we couldn’t label.  We were also supposed draw the boundary between Europe and Asia.  We couldn’t do that either.  Why you might wonder…

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Well it was pretty much impossible because, once again, their map cut off about 1/4 of the eastern part of Europe.    And, again, Iceland wasn’t even on it.

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We had to add all the rivers and mountains ourselves.  So those are definitely not accurate.  They did have the Alps on there, so kind of them.  However, they had them running into Spain.  The Baltic and Black Seas were entirely closed in by land, making them lakes.  Do I really need to keep going?
The result of this “educational” activity…tears.

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When she tried to label the Baltic Sea and couldn’t find it, because it was blocked in by land and looked like a country, well…it was the straw that broke the camels back. 

And that, my friends, was all she wrote.  I’m revamping my plan.  Definitely anything from Winter Promise involving a map is being tossed out the window. 

We shall see what I come up with.

Check out Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers for more pleasant happenings. 

13 comments:

  1. Mummified apple? Way too cool! Looks like a great week, even if it did end in tears. :(

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  2. Poor K! I think I would drop it too! It's not like its Language Arts, Math or Science - it's "just" geography! You can print out your own maps from on-line sources and travel around on your own. The apple is cool! We're easing into the school year (starting 9/6) with a brief study of hieroglyphics and Egypt. Kids found a book while organizing and want to learn! After that it's back to American History through History Pockets (since C likes them): North American Explores and Moving West. Miss you on the boards!

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  3. I'm so sorry that you got such a yuck curriculum for geography. I hope you can find a happy solution.

    I love the bubble gum rule breaker, and all your photographs.

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  4. What are you going to do with your time when you don't have to document all the errors in the WP curriculum? LOL

    Time to drop the whole thing and demand a refund, I say.

    (((hugs))) sounds like you both need them. ;-)

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  5. Oh, I am so sorry you had trouble with Winter Promise maps... again.
    But everything else looks like so much fun, ask for a refund (if it's possible) and enjoy your days!

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  6. I'd considered WP in the past, but just a couple of months ago, I started to hear other people make comments like you have, about how there are so many inaccuracies, etc. It's a shame that a homeschooling company would continue to sell materials that are full of errors - important errors! The wrong page numbers would really bother me, a lot, because it's hard to know what they really want you to do.

    So sorry to hear that this has been difficult.

    Julieanne
    http://www.JoyInOurJourney.com

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  7. When I was younger a boy put gum and a girls long hair so we couldnt have gum anymore..o the memories. Besides a couple hiccups sounds like you had an awesome week =)

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  8. We are enjoying Big IQ Kids, too. Thanks for the peek into your week....glad you are ditching the maps! :-)

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  9. Welcome to the Five in a Row blogroll!

    (((Hugs))) on the Winter Promise errors. We did a year of Winter Promise and had similar issues and many frustrations. Sadly frustrating and made it a tough year to constantly have to figure out the errors. Thankfully much of our year was using Homeschool in the Woods which was amazing and made up for all the WP issues.

    I hope that your Five in a Row schooling journey is more pleasant!

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  10. We reviewed Big IQ Kids last year and loved it! Your week looks like so much fun! Ok, except for the Winter Promise stuff. I can't imagine spending so much on something to have it be so full of errors. I think I would have to demand my money back! Definitely not worth tears!

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  11. Ouch! Poor girl (and poor Mom too!)

    Your mummified apple looks great! I think I might have found my science curriculum for next year! Please keep posting about it :)

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  12. Until the tears, it looked like your girls are loving school. I've tossed math programs because of tears- at least you were able to identify the problem.

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  13. Mummified apple!!!! That sounds really cool!!!

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