Z is for Zhou Rule Changes (Blogging Through the Alphabet)

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In the last Blogging Through the Alphabet series, I shared an introduction to the Zhou Dynasty of China. Today, I would like to delve a little deeper into how their ruling system changed that led to their having less power.

Even though the Zhou people overthrew the Shang people, they did not completely do away with them or their ways immediately. The ways of the Shang were actually incorporated into the Zhou Rule.

Changes 

One of the changes instituted by the Zhou was moving away to a new area and a new capital. They moved the center of the state to their own homeland and built the capital Xian Yang. This city and its design would become the standard for city design for future dynasties.

Governmental Changes 

Over three hundred years, the Zhou expanded their territory and their population grew. With the growth, the Zhou kings found new ways to govern their territory. Local rulers were appointed and over time these local rulers moved power away from the Zhou kings—leading to fragmentation and more changes in China.

Local  administrators were of different types: members of the royal family, military leaders, and (over time) these local rulers were the descendants of original appointees. As time progressed, local rulers wondered why they were sending money and their allegiance to the Zhou royal court. Eventually, these local rulers even called themselves king. It was also during this time the Qin people began causing problems for the Zhou.

Little by little, the Zhou kings lost control of territory—local rulers ruled independently and set up their own rituals and customs. The Zhou kings had no real power and things changed again in China.

Looking for more history-themed posts? 

In past series I wrote about Confucius, the Boxer Rebellion, and the Qin Dynasty.

Want to Join Blogging Through the Alphabet?

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A Quest for a Great Homeschool Year: Electives in our 2019-2020 Homeschool Year

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What is an elective? In high school, electives are often those considered outside of the main course of study (English, math, history, science, and foreign language). Electives can be those chosen by the high school student that relate to their interest like choir or playing an instrument for fun, improving a skill, related to a future career, or even something along the lines of economics or study of laws and government.

Examples of electives include:

• Study of World Culture 
• Church History 
• Marketing
• Accounting 
• Creative Writing 
• Public Speaking 
• Graphic Design 
• Drawing 
• Home Economics
• Debate 
• And more

In one's homeschool, there are so many options and ideas that it might even seem overwhelming. After all, if our children are involved in the day-to-day tasks of helping to keep, manage, and run the home, they will be learning about cooking, budgeting, and more just through daily interactions. As the very classes that students need to become successful homeowners are often those that school districts cut first (home economics courses like sewing and cooking or woodworking), that makes homeschooling and incorporating electives all the more important. 

Electives are where we get to have a lot of fun in picking courses, resources, and materials. With our oldest son's goal to become a photographer, we are able to select from a variety of courses through SchoolhouseTeachers.com that allows him to build the skill set he needs to accomplish this goal.

High School

Photography 

Our teen has shown a keen interest in starting his own photography business so why not take the time to learn the basics of photography during his homeschool year? The online Photography class at SchoolhouseTeachers.com covers the functions of a camera, composition, and elements of design. It also provides the opportunity to take photographs that fit the week's themes over 30 weeks.

There is also a Photography Challenge course that our son can take if he so chooses that has the child take one or more photographs based upon the weekly challenge topic. Some of these topics include:

• School
• Winter
• Hobby
• Textures
• Landscapes
• And more

Elementary

At the elementary level, electives are not necessarily seen as something separate. In a public school setting, children are still introduced to art and music on a somewhat regular basis. While homeschooling, younger children have a lot of time to explore topics that interest them. Perhaps they wish to learn how to play the piano or they are involved in Sunday School that puts on plays at church.

Both our younger children enjoy arts and crafts and we have studied several artists in the past when learning about different art styles. We used Learning About Art from SchoolhouseTeachers.com which introduced our children to different artists like John James Audubon, Albert Bierstadt, and Grant Wood and different techniques for drawing simple pictures. They also studied more techniques and learned how to use different mediums like water color crayons, pastels, and clay with ARTistic Pursuits' Art for Children: Building a Visual Vocabulary and Art of the Ancients.

How do you incorporate electives into your homeschool? 

Not Back to School Blog Hop 

This week I am joining up with the Homeschool Review Crew for the Annual "Not Back to School" Blog Hop...5 Days of Homeschool.... Please visit the other members to see what they are sharing this week.

A Quest for a Great Homeschool Year: Counting on Math for 2019-2020

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The plan for mathematics this year revolves around CTCMath as the main component of our curriculum with additional online programs and hands-on materials for our younger children. Math is one of those subjects that one either seems to love or hate and while our younger children seem to love it right now, our teen seems to dislike it greatly. We are hoping that this is a good homeschooling math year for him.

Elementary

Our four-year-old daughter and six-year-old son are both working through the CTCMath curriculum. Our daughter is completing the Kindergarten level while our son is completing the First Grade level. They watch short videos which introduce a concept, go over practice questions, and then answer a number of questions on their own (okay, I am sitting next to them to help them if they need it).

One of the questions in the kindergarten set on CTCMath.

In addition to CTCMath, our children are using workbooks from MathSeeds. (You can read my review of the Kindergarten book here.) We also have tons of manipulatives and other hands-on materials to study mathematics. We have a Mickey Mouse clock to work on reading an analog clock and a play money set from Learning Resources.

We also have a number of online resources that the children will continue using such Matific Galaxy, IXL.com, and I Know It. These three sites provide fun games to either review or introduce new concepts to our children. Our son really enjoys Matific Galaxy and can do even more on it using my phone. Both of our younger children use an older tablet to practice their math (and language arts) skills on IXL.com.

I also plan on putting to use these really cool dice that our son received last year for his birthday. They were missing in our house for almost the entire year but now that I have found them again, I can't wait to use them (along with the rest of our dice).

You can read more in my reviews on Matific Galaxy, IXL.com, and I Know It.

High School

Last year, our teen took Geometry with Mr. D. Math through SchoolhouseTeachers.com. This year, I gave him the option of using the Algebra II course on SchoolhouseTeachers.com or using CTCMath (that we would be able to review). He decided he liked the idea of CTCMath since there would be videos to watch for instruction (much like last year's Geometry course) and would need to rely upon us less as his teacher.

The videos on CTCMath are short and can be viewed over and over by both student and parent.

We are in the middle of his working through the first dozen or so lessons. I like that we can print the worksheets or he can complete in them in his notebook. And the fact that I can set tasks and see exactly when things are or are not completed through the parent portal helps me keep track of his homeschool work.

We will be using IXL.com for our teen to review math skills and practice his Algebra II skills.

Not Back to School Blog Hop

This week I am joining up with the Homeschool Review Crew for the Annual "Not Back to School" Blog Hop...5 Days of Homeschool.... Please visit the other members to see what they are sharing this week.

Lots of opportunities to read great "Not Back to School" posts in the Blog Hop!

Patti Pierce - Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy - My Favorite Homeschooling Things
Wendy @ Life on Chickadee Lane - 5 Days of Nature Study
Jacquelin @ A Stable Beginning - Homeschooling my final 4 
Christine @ Life's Special Necessities - Yes! You Can Homeschool Your Special Needs Child
Sally M - Tell the Next Generation - Tips for Homeschooling Struggling Learners

A Family Approach to Spelling: A Review of Spelling and Vocabulary Family Textbook from Love at Home Education

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For many homeschooling families, there are multiple age levels who need to be taught together. Finding materials that can meet the needs of kindergarten to high school students has been made simpler with Love at Home Education. There are a variety of products from short unit studies to fuller curriculum that will enable you to teach your youngest and oldest children together. In this review, I will be discussing the K-12 Vocabulary and Spelling Curriculum from Love at Home Education.

What Do You Get?

You can choose from a PDF or a combination of both Print and PDF copies. We received the 79-page full color PDF for the purposes of this review.

Monthly Themes

• Neighborhood
• Space
• Community
• Nature
• World
• Family
• Weather
• Transportation
• Animals 

When you receive your copy of the K-12 Vocabulary and Spelling Curriculum Family Textbook you will need to decide at which level your children will be working. You will be able to choose from four levels. There are three suggestions for games and activities that will help your homeschooling children with writing skills as well as learning vocabulary and practicing spelling.  And then there are six suggestions for active games and activities to help with learning vocabulary and spelling. You will need to prepare for these games and activities prior to your lesson.

Each month consists of four weeks of weekly stories, suggestion for weekly study, games and study help ideas, spelling words, and vocabulary words. If you choose to do the games and study help idea suggestions, you will need to prepare your own pre-test and test, word searches, fill-in-the blanks and other materials to fill out your weekly studies.

How We Used the Spelling and Vocabulary Family Textbook

Summer time for us means a lighter workload for our teen but we still continue with our younger two children. The Textbook suggests a five-day schedule for the entire family starting with reading the weekly story and administering pre-tests to introducing chosen vocabulary and working on spelling activities and games. Finally, there will be a review and you can administer a spelling test on day five if you wish.

We skipped past the Neighborhood theme to the Space theme since our younger two children are studying astronomy. The first week's story asks you to imagine you are traveling through space and use some of the vocabulary that will be introduced such as oxygen, solar system, comet, and asteroid. 

The vocabulary words are broken up into four categories: 

1. Novice
2. Competent
3. Advanced
4. Proficient 

The Textbook provides you with information to determine where your children fall so you know which words to focus upon each week. Our two younger children will be looking at mostly the novice words but we will be discussing some of the others as they fit into their science curriculum. For example, later on in the year they will be talking about asteroids, comets, and constellations but these words fall in the competent and proficient categories. And we have already talked about satellites which falls in the advanced category. So, as with most homeschooling curriculum and tools, you can adapt this for your own families' needs.

As we are using this with two younger children, I wrote the words on index cards for them to practice reading and our small white board. This would allow us the opportunity for our six-year-old to copy the words to practice penmanship and spelling.

Do you want to learn more about Love at Home Education?

"Love at Home Education – A Dinner-table friendly, all-inclusive family curriculum; that your high schooler, kindergartner can learn together on their own levels."

Love at Home Education offers both secular and faith-based curriculum for preschool to 12th grade so you will be sure to find something that meets the needs of your homeschooling family.

If you want to see a sample of the K-12 Vocabulary and Spelling Curriculum, check out the gallery at Love at Home Education. You will be able to see the first month's words and recommended activities.

In the past we have reviewed Natural Disasters K-12 Unit Study, Thomas Jefferson Unit Study (K-6), and George Washington Unit Study (K-6) from Love at Home Education.

A Quest for a Great Homeschool Year: The Sciences Overview for 2019-2020

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We have a plan in place for Science this year! Our younger son has eagerly begun studying Astronomy with Exploring Creation with Astronomy textbook and junior notebooking journal from Apologia and our teen will be studying Friendly Chemistry for Semester 1 and Botany for Semester 2. Our younger daughter will be studying Astronomy alongside her older brother as well as learning more about animals and plants.

Preschool

A lot of what we will be studying with our four-year-old consists of reading animal-related books and other science books that we pick up at the library. She will also be working alongside her older brother as he studies the stars and planets.

Elementary

There are so many different ways to study sciences when children are younger. From hands-on experiments to nature walks where they can learn about the world around them to visiting museums, reading books, and viewing online resources, children have so many doors available to open to learn about science. For our first grade son, the primary focus of science this year will be studying Astronomy.

We are using materials from Apologia as the core curriculum and then we will be adding in books, documentaries, and other activities as the year progresses. We started studying Exploring Creation with Astronomy a few weeks ago. Our children have been enjoying listening to me read aloud the text during lunch. Our six-year-old then works on completing the accompanying notebooking pages in his junior notebooking journal. He really enjoys the activities that allow him to create mini-books. I love the fact that the journal has copy work, pages for notes, pages to write about the activities and experiments, and coloring pages.


I also printed out some notebooking pages on Astronomy from Productive Homeschooling for our daughter so she can write and color alongside him. She loves working alongside her brother as he learns. The Astronomy Science Notebooking Pages offer coloring pages and a variety of lined pages for taking notes or practicing writing.

We will also be using several resources that we have from WriteBonnieRose for Life Science Level 1. We will complete "Familiar Plants and How They Grow" and "Fruits & Vegetables Around the World." I like the fact that our younger children can study a similar topic as their older brother (as he will be studying botany).

High School

Our teen will be taking two science courses this homeschool year. Friendly Chemistry and Botany. He will be taking both courses through SchoolhouseTeachers.com.

In Friendly Chemistry, he will begin the basics of chemistry that will serve him well if he should choose to take a more advanced chemistry course in the future. There are 12 lessons with activities, laboratory experiences, worksheets, video segments, and tests to help him learn about chemistry.

In the second semester, our junior will be studying Botany. The course is designed for students who wish to gain a foundation for a career in science as well as those homeschool students who wish to learn about the importance of plants in their lives and in the world. The course takes place over 17 weeks and includes worksheets, text-based lessons, experiments, and tests. From studying about soil and minerals to plants as medicine, the course promises to be an in-depth introduction to botany.

We will also be able to supplement all of our children's science studies with CrossWired Science which opens the avenue to study a myriad of topics at the student's discretion. You can read more about CrossWired Science in my review here.