3rd Quarter of the 2016-2017 School Year

I forgot to journal about the third quarter after the fact, so am piecing together what I can remember!

In Bible we worked through Kay Arthur's Inductive study on prayer. Using the Lord's Prayer as a model, we learned that staying in communication is the key to all relationships, especially our relationship with the Lord. In order to stay in communication with our heavenly Father, we need to spend time talking with Him and getting to know Him. Prayer is talking and listening to God; it's how we stay close to Him. It's a privilege He has given us.

In history we covered the War of 1812, learning about Presidents, Madison, Monroe and Adams. We learned about Mammoth Cave, the Eerie Canal, Sequoyah and about the daily life of mountain men. Next we learned about President Andrew Jackson, the Alamo, John Jay and the Trail of Tears. We ended the quarter by covering Presidents William Henry Harrison, Old Tippecanoe, and John Tyler. We looked at the Mississippi River and Natchez, Mississippi as well as what it was like to travel and work on a steamboat. And we learned about Samuel Morse.

 In science, Josh returned to his old favorite - dinosaurs - as he studied all about flying reptiles. He also covered flying insects, learning about their life cycles and behaviors. His final unit for the quarter was on social insects - which included bees, ants and termites.

Ellie studied information on the fossil record, the differences of uniformitarianism and catastrophism, as well as, DNA and the cell.

The kids both enjoy science the most which is good as it makes it easier to study.





By the end of the first semester, Learning Language Arts Through Literature was not working for Ellie. So this quarter we just used it for the book studies and I pulled from another resource to cover grammar. I like LLATL through the elementary years, but I think once a student enters middle school/junior high, the grammar skills are not as clearly explained. I'll be doing something else with Josh next year for sure. The book study this quarter for Ellie was a biography of Eric Liddell. She enjoyed it and we plan to watch "Chariots of Fire" with her. Josh continued to do well with LLATL and completed a book study on "Big Red."

We continued to work through math. I think I have decided that Josh needs to be more challenged, so may consider having him do Pre-Algebra next year. Will be looking for a different math program for Ellie as she will be doing Algebra next year. Will look into online options.

This quarter we did two field trips. In January we went as a family to the California Science Center to see the Pixar exhibit. In February we took advantage of a homeschool day and went to the Natural History Museum with friends.

Ellie joined a club volleyball team which kept us busy with two practices a week and tournaments about once a month. Josh did not do golf lessons during the winter session, but began again for the spring session.

We were anxious for a break and really looked forward to our mini vacation to Carlsbad during Dennis' spring break at the end of March.