First Week of School....Year 6

We have completed week one of our 6th year of homeschooling! I now have one in jr. high and one in high school! My initial goal was to hopefully keep them out of the school system through jr. high. I've always given them the choice but have hoped that they would choose on their own to at least make it to high school. Now, here is Madison in high school and still choosing to home school. It makes me happy that the choice is hers.

I always love planning and organizing things for school to start. Although the kids continue to help me around the house to some extent during the summer, I look forward to getting back on a schedule with official chores and activities. Free, unscheduled time is good, but like with any good thing, too much of it gets old.

Jeff surprised us again with a goodie basket on our first day.

We started our study of Earth and Space Science with an explanation of the scientific method. First, we did an experiment to determine if an energy drink contains more carbonation than regular sodas. Patrick and Carter both believed that it did, but our experiment proved otherwise. Next, we did an experiment to prove that a cold soda was more carbonated than a warm one. The kids all believed that it was because a cold soda burns more when going down. According to our method of testing, this hypothesis was true!

While discussing supply and demand during our study of the depression, we did a blind taste test to determine which soda the kids preferred and if it was the one that they thought it would be. Madison chose the one that she thought....Dr. Pepper, but the boys both chose Pepsi. They were surprised to learn that it tasted sweeter than Dr. Pepper!

In history, we learned how political cartoons influence people's votes during Presidential elections. The kids came up with their own political cartoons based on things happening in our world today.