Week 5 Highlights

Good Evening! I hope you all are having a great finish to this beautiful, "is it summer or is it fall???",weekend. If it's just as beautiful as last week, we'll eat outside and enjoy part of the afternoon outside. Bring a chair or a picnic blanket...

We started our morning with Introductory Logic. The students will need to complete through chapter 18 at home this week. Focus on vocab and the Square of Opposition. If we need to slow down the pace at some point, we can. Please connect with me if you have questions.

In Bible, we read Matthew chapter 4 together. Miss Julie joined in with us.  

Our Math time was basically the same as last week, we chanted squares, some mental math problems, Jack taught us a math problem and we discussed absolute value.

Latin consisted of vocab games, parsing, introducing the next assignment and parsing some of the sentences in the new exercises. Follow the guide for assignments.

For Science Research each of the students shared their presentations about Galileo and his telescope. We discussed this weeks assignment about Kepler.  The assignment details are found in the appendix on page 180.

Each of the students read their essay's out loud to us in LTW. We then discussed Comparison I by comparing Mr Moody with Hi. We came up with a class issue for Little Britches. Follow your guide for this weeks assignment. 

Current Events, oh Current Events! Please do not grow weary here :) This strand is invaluable for future Challenge years, particularly DEBATE. Here are my main tips!

1. Have your student define the terms that are unknown. We discussed this at length in class. Use those terms to understand the issue better. 

2.With every issue ask 5CT questions to help figure out what to research.

Here are some examples:

(Definition ) What is a charter school? Public school? Private school?

(Comparison questions) How do these types of educational tracts compare? How are they different? Similar?

(Relationship questions) Does the Federal Government mandate educational standards? 

(Circumstance) In what way are these mandates helpful? In what way are these mandates not helpful? 

(Testimony) 

Authorities: What are the federal government's biases in these mandates?

Testimony: What are citizens saying about the federal government's mandates?

Hope that helps :)

Miss Dara

Heading into Week 4

Good Afternoon! Isn't it beautiful out? It was just as gorgeous out Thursday so we just HAD to do our last strand outside this past week. If the weather is pleasant we'll take the lunch break outside (suggestion; bring a picnic blanket or a lawn chair) *AND* we will likely have our current events strand as a discussion walk outdoors!

Logic went really well. Your students are grasping the concepts! We were able to discuss lessons 6-10.  We had an oral quiz covering lessons 6-8. Next week we will review lessons 6-10 via quizzing and introduce the next 5 lessons.

In Bible we covered Matthew chapter 3. I showed them how to find the footnotes* referenced in chapters 1-3 when we were looking into the old testament prophecies. Matthew quotes multiple OT prophecies that were fulfilled by Jesus. We discussed some main themes in Matthew;
1) Jesus the NEW Moses
2) Jesus the KING who descended from the line of King David
3) Jesus as GOD with us, Emmanuel

They are creating a poster graphic about Matthew.
*the lower case italicized letters in the passage linked to scriptures sited on the bottom of the page. We are using the ESV Bibles in our room courtesy of Stonebridge Church.

Timothy prayed for our day.

Our Math discussion included out loud chanting of the squares, fill in the blanks on the white board quizzing of squares, a biblical mental math problem, & Jack taught a math problem to us using the whiteboard. Timothy is up for sharing this week's mental math problem.

In Latin, we did around the world and trashket ball for vocab quizzing and discussed the upcoming week's assignments. We parsed some sentences together. Pessime? Omptime? Anyone?

For LTW, we discussed parallelism, covered outline points for Essay Two, and discussed this weeks assignment; found in the challenge B guide. Please have them bring their graded essay to class. They will be presenting their essay's this week. They should have LITTLE BRITCHES completely read by Thursday.

The Research presentations this week were excellent! I think everyone particularly enjoys this strand. We talked about Galileo briefly and went over the assignment expectations for this week found in the guide. The appendix in the guide is especially useful, page 179 details this week's assignment.

Like I mentioned, we held our  Current Events discussion outdoors. They shared their current event forms and articles during this strand. I can tell that there is a limited understanding, among the students, on how to find articles for the issues we are covering. I believe that is why it is very important to guide your student well here. What is happening in this strand is huge. We are opening up their eyes to the wide world of politics, government, and issues that don't really *seem* to effect them as homeschoolers in the 8th grade. We are trying to help them understand these issues through the lens of our Christian World view. As an example we discussed week 5's issue; "Whether the federal government should require all citizens to purchase health insurance?" 
Some understanding needs to happen by answering some questions for clarification and definition first. Such as:
What is health insurance?
Is everyone able to afford health insurance? What makes health insurance affordable?
Can college students, elderly, lower income families, and disabled people afford health insurance?
What were the requirements for the citizen's of the US regarding health insurance under the Obama administration? What are they under the Trump administration?
How can our federal government require it's citizens to purchase health insurance?
Does our constitution say anything about health insurance?
What does the Bible say? What does Jesus say?
How does the Bible impact your family's viewpoint/worldview on this issue?
AND FINALLY;
What are the positives and negatives in this issue? Pros/Cons? 

***I realize now, that we discussed ideas for week 5. If your student does week 5 this week, they can do week 4 next week. Sorry for any confusion. ***



We talked about ownership and discipline being two key elements in their studies this year. Questions to ask at home might be:

What does the Bible say about ownership and discipline?
What is the definition of ownership? Discipline?
What does it mean to have ownership of their studies this year?
How does that look for your student this year?
How does ownership inspire discipline?
Are they important? Why?


For Him,

Miss Dara

Heading into WEEK 3

Hello Challenge B families! Here's an overview from our day. We started with Rhetoric: Logic by reviewing lessons 1-5 and then dove into lessons 6-8. Next week I will review lessons 1-10.  Follow the guide for this week's assignment.

For Bible we read through Matthew 2 aloud. Next week I'll bring poster paper in for them to start creating their posters about Matthew.** Bring markers! **In their personal study this week I want them to identify the prophecy's cited in Matthew chapter 2 about our Messiah. Timothy opened our day with prayer.

In Logic: a Math discussion, Liam and Sophia,  shared a math problem in front of the class. We discussed expanded notation and the Associative Law of Addition. Jack shared our mental math problem for the day. Next week we will spend time memorizing squares 11-20 & 25. Next week Liam is up to bring a mental math to challenge us with. Jack and Timothy can bring a math problem to teach us about and I will be talking about subtraction and absolute values.

In Grammar: Latin we did Latin vocab review (lessons 1-2) games, quizzing, and parsed two sentences from Lesson 2. Lesson 3 was then introduced covering the assigned vocabulary and grammar rules 46-52 for the 3rd declension. We went over their assignment for week 3. Follow the guide. Make sure to remind them to do their "DAILY FUN DRILL" :)

For Exposition/Composition: LTW the students worked on sorting a class ANI chart and from that we sorted them into 3 proofs. From there we made 3 subproofs for each proof. Whew! Follow guide for SW assignments and bring a fully sorted ANI and OUTLINE to class. START reading Little Britches this week.

Research: History of Astronomy
We listened to everyone's report on Archimedes. Very well done. Everyone seems to enjoy this strand! I introduced them to the CC connected snippet on Copernicus and Ptolmey. I highly recommend that you utilize this resource. Follow the guide for this weeks assignment. The appendix is particularly helpful in understanding each weeks assignments clearly. You'll find week 3 on page 179. We will be creating a timeline in class.

At this point in our day they are having hot cocoa and listening to Tanglewood Tales read aloud by me for about 15m. We also shared popcorn that I brought for them. The kids talked about wanting to be on a snack rotation. Maybe with Timothy starting? Are you up for that? Let me know. We also discussed creating a challenge B google hangout for our class. That way if they have questions and want to communicate about challenge B questions/ideas/reminders we can. If I can get each of the students email addresses and your permission, I will set that up ASAP.

Finally, in Debate: Current Events we listened to each student present on a right to life issue. There was some confusion on how to find a suitable article. I promise you that is is really quite simple. Part of the issue is "how" you type in your topic in the search bar. I showed them how to do this from the links I provided right here on my blog. For this weeks issue, " Whether euthanasia should be legal IN ALL STATES." I pointed out that the search for pro or con articles will absolutely need to be narrowed down by looking specifically for euthanasia in the United States of America. Part of the search will require researching which states already have laws for or against euthanasia. According to the guide a parent will help with the choosing of these articles. Follow the guide to understand how to complete this assignment.

We finished our day with covering the Method of Loci for John 1:1-5 ( found on the back of the Rhetoric trivium table) along with  my awesome art skills. Just ask the students. They were raving over my artwork. Anyway, I felt this would especially helpful since they will be required to memorize speeches and lines for mock trial this year. So, John 1:1-5 should not be too much of a challenge?! 

Happy Week 3 to you! See you Thursday, Miss Dara

Heading into WEEK 2

First off, your children are a pleasure to have in community day! Our first week went well and we all tried to shake off summer and dig into our studies conversation style!

Here is a rundown of how our community day went and expectations for this week.

8:30- 9:30 we discussed lessons 1-2 for Rhetoric: Introductory Logic and did some of each exercise in class. At home, their assignment is to finish lessons 1-5 with the exercises and create flashcards for vocabulary- drilling vocabulary each day. 
We'll review some and introduce the next set of lessons 6-10 this week. It's a lot so please do this with your child and focus on vocabulary! 

9:30-9:40 Bible/prayer Focusing on the Book of Matthew. Each student is creating their own poster about Matthew using the video I posted earlier. Who is Emmanuel? What does Emmanuel mean? 

9:40-10:30 Logic: A Math discussion. Our discussion was about Real Numbers: irrational, rational, integers, whole numbers, and natural or counting numbers. We are doing mental math, memorizing squares 11-20 & 25 and will play some games from time to time. Each week I'll cover math topics from Saxon 1/2 and a book called UNDERSTANDING MATHEMATICS: from counting to calculus by Keith Kressin 

10:30-11:30 Grammar: Latin. We played trasketball for vocab review, introduced new lesson and grammar and did some exercises together.

11:30- noon LUNCH break

12- 1 pm Research, Introducing Famous Astronomer/Scientist: ARCHIMEDES. Follow the guide for a research assignment.

1- 2 pm Debate/Current Events, looking through the lens of our Christian world view. Looking at pros/cons of right to life issues. Follow the guide for the assignment. We will probably do this strand last this week.

2- 3 pm Exposition and Comp, The Phantom Tollbooth. ANI chart and issue. Follow guide for assignment. We are going to have hot cocoa while I read a portion of Tanglewood Tales outloud to them at the end of the day.

that's all folks! Miss Dara

The Gospel According to Matthew as our Devotion this year

Are you ready to immerse yourself into the Gospel According to Matthew? Let's dig in....
We'll cover Chapters 1-13 during our first semester and Chapter 14- 28 during our second semester....
What will you need? YOU, YOUR BIBLE, a notebook and pens/pencils/markers/highlighters

AND

The Gospel According to Matthew part 1

The Gospel According to Matthew Part 2

helpful link

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

Semester 1 Week 1!!!!!!

Can you believe it? We are starting in just one short week...GOODBYE SUMMER, HELLO CHALLENGE B :)

Here's a recap of this week's assignments that need to be completed by our first community day August 24, 9-3:30:

First off read each introduction for each strand and ** follow your guide**              

More Specific details:

Latin Lesson 1: read and complete exercises 1-9, focus on vocabulary (make flash cards, use quizlet), understand main concepts in outlined boxes,  and 1st & 2nd declension review

Introductory Logic: this is a grammar strand in my opinion. Focus on learning the vocabulary by using flash cards and quizlet

For Research read page 178 in your guide

Read The Phantom Tollbooth and and finish your plot diagram worksheet. Questions on how to do it? Look here:elements of a plot diagram

If you have any questions please text me! 319-310-2377 

You got this! 

Miss Dara

HELP :)

Positions Available

How can you help with Challenge B this year?

😁Social / Field Trip Planner (year long):  Anybody interested in setting up some activities outside of community day?  (coffee days, bowling, jumping, skating, study groups)  Also, Challenge B has lots of opportunities for field trip ideas: observatory (astronomy), museums, courthouse, etc.  If you are interested in joining up with another mom or tackling a few ideas, just let me know the dates and I will post them here.

💼Mock Trial (mid to late April): I will need a lot of help getting this organized to be a successful day.  Lots of details to come (facility, jurors, a judge, lunch).  Please be thinking how you can help, so all the work your kids put into it will turn into a great day.

🔬Science Fair (mid to late January): We will need set up help, tear down help, snack help.

Please consider helping and getting involved!  I would greatly appreciate it!