AP Testing

I found information about AP testing at the College Board site.  They have many more tests/subjects than I realized. 

Art History Biology Calculus AB Calculus BC Chemistry Chinese Language and Culture Computer Science A Macroeconomics Microeconomics English Language English Literature Environmental Science European History French Language German Language

Comp Government & Politics U.S. Government & Politics Human Geography Italian Language and Culture Japanese Language and Culture Latin: Vergil Music Theory Physics B Physics C Psychology Spanish Language Spanish Literature Statistics Studio Art U.S. History World History

I'll be looking into having Michael test on some at the local high school during the next four years.  At USF, they didn't accept too many CLEP test credits, but I think they are obliged to accept AP credits, so that's an advantage over CLEPping.  The fee for the AP test is about the same as for a CLEP test.
By March, homeschoolers must be in contact with the College Board - check their calendar.

Planning for Summer: Music, Art, Cooking, and Sewing School

I have found that it is beneficial for us to not take a long summer break from school; but rather, to change the subjects we are studying and take a more relaxed and casual pace with them.  The break in routine and change of pace is fun for us and starting something new is always exciting.  This approach offers the flexibility we need to join in other summer fun activities, when and if they present themselves. It also makes my school year a little easier, if I can just concentrate on the more academic subjects and not worry about these areas that are more time consuming.

I am working on getting my curriculum for music, art, cooking, and sewing in order.  Investing time organizing everythings, making all photocopies and gathering supplies ahead of time will help things go a lot smoother.  The kids all like these subjects.  Part of my plan is to pick up where we left off next summer and add to what they've learned each year. 

MUSIC

Even though all our children have taken piano lessons from an early age, and we touch on music periods during our history studies, I like to spend some time learning about the composers that have shaped our musical heritage.  Familiarizing ourselves with their history, biographies, and music is important in developing a sense of what good music is, especially in the world we live in today.

Classics for Kids
Provides a list of composers by period and also sorted by country with brief biographies.  The classics for kids site also has sample music from each composer to listen to.

The Voki Lesson Plan database has several lesson plans that use their tool to enhance lessons.  I like this, especially for Michael.  He will use it to make a Power Point presentation of his projects by the end of summer.

Homeschool in the Woods
I am using the lapbook unit study for structure. These are the topics covered:

* Periods of Music
* Keyboard Vocabulary
* Composers Collection
* Pieces with a Purpose
* Composers Timeline
* Music Appreciation

ART

I'll be using Masterpiece Art Instruction's The Phonics of Drawing course.  I ordered the art materials from Blick Art Materials.  After shopping around I found they have the best prices and everything we need is there.  The prismacolor pencils, my favorite, were more expensive at JoAnne's even after a 50% off coupon! 

One convenience to shopping at Blick's was that the Masterpiece's site has each course's required materials linked to the Blick site, so all you need gets put in your cart automatically.  We did an inventory of all our art materials last Friday, so I deleted those things from the list that we already owned.  Easy!

COOKING

Michael loves to cook, and eat, so he will also be doing this subject with us.  I will be focusing on making individual, organized notebooks (cookbooks) for the recipes they have learned. 

We will be using Sue Gregg's cookbooks.  They are written with the idea of teaching children in mind, though that is not their main purpose.  Here is a quote from their website:

    Recipes written by the numbers help avoid confusion. Nutrition questions for discussion highlight the value of key ingredients. Help your children discover how to satisfy appetites with quality alternatives to refined flours, sugar and hydrogenated shortening. 

I like the idea of using Sue Gregg's cookbooks because she is health conscious and teaches the importance of using a variety of nutritious ingredients.  She has sections in her books describing the properties of differeng foods and why we should eat them, so it's not just a cookbook but a book about nutrition as well.

SEWING

The girls are very excited and looking forward to learning to make their own clothes.  Perhaps by the end of summer, they will each have make a skirt with the skills I hope to teach them.  Michael, of course, has no interest in sewing, so he'll be off doing something outside while I teach the girls.

I'll be using Sewing School, 21 Sewing Projects Kids Will Love to Make.  It comes with all the patterns needed, and I like how it touches on the basics. 

It teaches how to make 21 projects including:

*Pillow
*Apron
*Coasters
*Skirt

I like that the book is both product and process oriented.  It emphasizes hand-sewing skills, which is what I want at this point - basic sewing skills.  We will use the sewing machine a few times, just to familiarize them with it.

Learning About Bees & Honey

The big excitement at our home the last few days has been our honey harvest of this weekend.  We got our first beehives back in April and had been anticipating the day we would get to taste their honey.  This weekend was it. 


We had friends over and made a fieldtrip out of it, and we are taking a  break from our regular science curriculum to work on a bee unit.

I found a complete, free honeybee lapbook at Homeschool Share. 

We watched Moody's City of Bees video and read library books about bees.

I had fun drawing on the board while explaining the parts of the bee and the shapes of the cells in the honey comb.  The girls used my board sketches to draw copy their own pictures for bee cover pages for their lapbooks.

We also watched this nice video about queen bees.


Follow the link to read more about our honey harvest.

These are the books and video we used for our bee study.



Now you can go visit the Homeschool Chick's Hip Homeschool Hop and see what other homeschoolers are doing this week.

Science - The Circulatory System (BLood)

In our lesson about the circulatory system last week, the girls enjoyed a neat experiment that helped them learn the parts and functions of blood.

The large Red Hots candy pieces, lentils, and fava beans were perfect substitutes representing platelets, red and white blood cells.  Corn syrup held them all in suspention as blood plasma.  The experiment even caught the attention of my two older ones who happened to be around at the time. 

I'm linking with Hip Homeschool Hop.  Go see how other homeschoolers are learning!

Nature Journal - Purple Sea Urchins

On our trip to Cayo Costa, last week, we found dozens of (dead) sea urchins strewn all over one section of the beach.  We brought home a few to add to our collection of shells and other beach finds and to learn more about them.  We wondered why so many would be washed up to shore, most of them with all their spines but some without.  They look like works of sea art.

We learned that the sea urchin have been categorized in a Phylum called Equinodermata, which means spiny skins.  They are grazers and like to eat algae.  They aren't very sophisticated animals though, as they don't have a brain at all.

In Japan, sea urchin roe, which they call 'uni', is considered a delicacy and costs over $200/lb.!  It turns out that California exports tons of sea urchin roe to Japan.  Who knew? 

All this was an opportunity to discuss a little geography to see where Japan is on the globe and how long it would take to fly a case full of sea urchin roe over there.

Emily focused on what the sea urchins like to eat and who likes to eat them... I'm wondering if she was hungry when she wrote that.  Also, see the little fish with the sad face?  I think she was the little fish and that was her view of the waves!  She was, true to her personality, very cautious about those waves and swimming in general.

We also watched this wonderful BBC video showing an army of sea urchins mounting its attack on the kelp forest off the coast of California.

Linking with Friday Blog Hop and Friday Follow.

Wordless Wednesday - The Girls

I'm linking with:
Wordless Wednesday @ Home Grown Families       Wordless Wednesday @ The Florida Hogans
Wordless Wednesday @ Homeschool Reviews       Worldless Wednesday @ Grammy Mouse Trails
Wordless Wednesday @ Shibley Smiles

Field Trip to Cayo Costa

I thought I'd share some of the pictures from our trip to Cayo Costa, and it has been hard to pick just a few.  We had a really good time!  The weather was perfect, the beach was beautiful, the trails were interesting and beautifully kept.

 We had the beach to ourselves most of the time.  There are miles of beaches there, and because the island is only accessible by boat, there aren't many people there.

 The kids swam from morning till evening....

There were dozens of different types of birds around us all the time.

We enjoyed taking hikes on the trails, discovering new native plants, and even a pioneer cemetery...

Pioneer Cemetery

 There were no letterboxes in Cayo Costa, so we planted one near the cemetery.  Letterboxing is one of our favorite things to do together.  We've discovered many interesting places in our letterboxing expeditions.  Letterboxers like to lead you to beautiful, out-of-the-way sites that are not well advertised, and Cayo Costa fits that description well.


Michael's first catch

 The beach was teeming with fish...  We saw large schools of them jumping out of the water.  We caught enough to make a meal out of them.

Cabbage Palm (Sabal palmetto)- Florida native, source of edible swamp cabbage

See our cabin in the background?

 I took this picture when we were about to leave.  We had a hammock on the porch and a few chairs, plus towels hanging on the line which provided shade in the afternoon.  The cabins are rustic, with three bunk beds and a picnic table inside.  There is no electricity or running water in the cabins; however, there are bathrooms and showers available there.

Osprey - sea hawk or fish eagle

  Did I mention the bird population?  We watched as the ospreys, pelicans, and seagulls fished their meals out of the water.

Scrub Morning Glory Bonamia grandiflora

Native wildflowers decorated the landscape.  These morning glories were scattered everywhere.  They are an endangered species.  It was good to see how the rangers have been taking care of this island and its native plants and animals.  Maybe this is what the entire state of Florida was like just 100 years ago. 



wild coffee (Psychotria nervosa)

There were numerous cacti and sea grapes with their edible fruits along the trails. We also found several wild coffee bushes, like this one, loaded with berries.

One of the things Cayo Costa  is known for is the abundance of shells along its beaches, and it didn't disappoint.  The girls came home with a big bag to add to their collection.  They also found many sea urchin shells, which they will be writing about in their nature journals this week.

We never caught sight of Ol' Henry, but that's not a bad thing.  We've already made reservations to go back  next year!

Here are my top ten favorite things about Cayo Costa:

1. It is remote - This means less crowds, noise, pollution, and more wildlife

2. The wildlife - It was like being on a safari...

3. The combination of beach and hiking trails - It gave us two very different things to do

4. It is a state park - there is always a park ranger on call

5. It was close to home - Only a three hour drive

6. It was inexpensive - Even though we had to pay the ferry which added to the cost...

7. The cabins - I don't really like tent, trailer, or RV camping.  RV camping generally means generator noise, plus it usually brings crowds

8. Privacy - The cabins had lots of space between them.

9. Great fishing

10. Nice beach - clear water, lots of shells, calm waters...

I'm linking with Hip Homeschool Hop, and Top Ten Tuesday today.