This week was… odd. I suppose you could say it had its roots in the weekend. Normally, introvert that I am, I'm careful not to be busybusybusy all weekend. This past weekend, though, I had Stuff Friday afternoon & evening, all day Saturday, and all day Sunday. The result was school prep not getting done, so I had to restructure what I had planned for the week to make it all as much "do the next thing" as possible. I learned that we do not do well without written plans.
Purple Child and I have a cold. For me, it's manifested as a really awful sore, scratchy throat, and some congestion. PC nods when I ask her if her throat hurts, but she's really got the upper respiratory thing going on. Poor bub put herself to sleep on the couch this morning after being up for just two and a half hours.
I didn't keep a list of literature for FB this week, and we didn't do OPGTR. He did do two-three pages in ETC each day, and we reviewed pronouns instead of going forward in FLL. He did all of week fifteen in WWE 1, and finished his first SWO A lesson with an actual list of words. Once PC wakes up, I'll go upstairs and give him his "test."
FB also did one to three pages in Miquon each day, and we pressed forward in SOTW 1, reading about the Assyrians and the Babylonians.
EG got more done, since more of her stuff does fall into the "do the next thing" category. She did five lessons in Advanced Algebra and completed the first unit of PLATO Earth & Space Science. She's also started working through a big "for Dummies" book about the computer. We've deliberately had her not use the computer for, well, anything until a little over a year ago, and now it's time for her to learn about all the nifty tools the computer can be. Speaking of the computer, her critical thinking class is going well; they're having a mock trial next Friday and EG's very excited about that.
I assigned Oedipus as her reading, and had two weeks for her to finish it, but she zoomed through it in just two days. We're going to spend next week discussing it. She did complete lesson eight in CE II, and chapter four in EV. I substituted an essay about a topic in history for one of the options (she chose Sparta), and a paragraph about "what is the earth made of?" for another option. She's still reading all about ancient Greece for history.
She read about icons for art appreciation, and we did skip music appreciation this week.
All of their outside the house stuff went well. EG has band this afternoon and is going to attempt to pass off some of the second semester pass offs. We are hoping she can finish the entire year's worth well before the end of the year approaches in the spring, which means fewer times we have to go for two hours.
28.10.10
Thankfulness, Day Four
Miso soup & milkshakes.
I've managed to acquire my first infectious agent of the season, and so far its primary goal is to make my throat as miserable as possible.
Luckily, there's miso in my house, so I had a lovely cup of steaming miso soup. When my throat still didn't relent, the Spousal Unit went to the nearest Steak 'N' Shake (and somehow got lost, so I suppose I should say I'm thankful he returned!) and got me a milkshake.
Mmmm.
I've managed to acquire my first infectious agent of the season, and so far its primary goal is to make my throat as miserable as possible.
Luckily, there's miso in my house, so I had a lovely cup of steaming miso soup. When my throat still didn't relent, the Spousal Unit went to the nearest Steak 'N' Shake (and somehow got lost, so I suppose I should say I'm thankful he returned!) and got me a milkshake.
Mmmm.
27.10.10
Thankfulness, Day Three
Song & Stride
The stride is everything.
I should rewind a bit. As a child and a teenager, I liked to run. One day, my knee began to hurt. Badly. I was poked and prodded, x-rayed and otherwise imaged. No discrete cause was ever found. I was told once that if I could ever build up the muscles around my knee, perhaps that would help.
I decided around this time last year that I was going to run again. I missed it. I missed the stride; running is meditation, for me. I decided to use the Couch to 5K program. I did the first few weeks, and had to stop. I started going to my chiropractor regularly again. I rewound, though not to the beginning, and did it a few weeks. I added back in visits for massages. Finally, around the end of August, I returned to it, to finish it. I finished it two weeks ago, just shy of my birthday.
It is, and was, such a gift. Every time I let my legs unfold and go, I'm thankful. I don't enjoy most forms of exercise. Running, though - there's my joy.
And song. The beat that carries me when I run.
The stride is everything.
I should rewind a bit. As a child and a teenager, I liked to run. One day, my knee began to hurt. Badly. I was poked and prodded, x-rayed and otherwise imaged. No discrete cause was ever found. I was told once that if I could ever build up the muscles around my knee, perhaps that would help.
I decided around this time last year that I was going to run again. I missed it. I missed the stride; running is meditation, for me. I decided to use the Couch to 5K program. I did the first few weeks, and had to stop. I started going to my chiropractor regularly again. I rewound, though not to the beginning, and did it a few weeks. I added back in visits for massages. Finally, around the end of August, I returned to it, to finish it. I finished it two weeks ago, just shy of my birthday.
It is, and was, such a gift. Every time I let my legs unfold and go, I'm thankful. I don't enjoy most forms of exercise. Running, though - there's my joy.
And song. The beat that carries me when I run.
26.10.10
Thankfulness, Day Two
Today, I am thankful for...
• Serendipity. Specifically, the serendipity that lead us to such a wonderful trumpet instructor for EG. Our initial selection was based on nothing more than location, a two-paragraph biography, and available days and times. EG has a real gem, a professional musician and composer who refuses to give into her pleas of "it's hard," and pushes her for excellence.
• Security. Not necessarily in the manner that immediately comes to mind, but I am secure in knowing that there are some things my children will not have to face, and for that, I will always and forever be grateful.
• Stew. I love beef stew.
• Serendipity. Specifically, the serendipity that lead us to such a wonderful trumpet instructor for EG. Our initial selection was based on nothing more than location, a two-paragraph biography, and available days and times. EG has a real gem, a professional musician and composer who refuses to give into her pleas of "it's hard," and pushes her for excellence.
• Security. Not necessarily in the manner that immediately comes to mind, but I am secure in knowing that there are some things my children will not have to face, and for that, I will always and forever be grateful.
• Stew. I love beef stew.
25.10.10
Thankfulness, Day One
Yesterday, Daisy suggested using the month leading to Thanksgiving as an opportunity to find gratitude and thanks in each day. I thought that was a great idea, so I'm joining in (that sounds so much nicer than "stealing the idea," doesn't it?! :D)
What am I thankful for today?
• My chiropractor. Yesterday was a wonderful day (see below), but moving tables, standing, and walking on a concrete floor for most of the day was hard on my hips. Worse, the pain referred down my leg to my knee and ankle. Serendipitously, my monthly appointment with my chiropractor was today! He fixed me right up; I could distinctly feel my SI joint move into its correct position. Dr. Dan is awesome!
• Yesterday was our non-profit's* big Red Tent event. A Red Tent is a safe space for women to tell their birth stories, resurrecting the oral traditions around birth. Additionally, we had a potluck meal, twenty-four vendors, and charity raffles that raised $300 for our designated charity, which is a "comprehensive housing program providing shelter, mentorship, resources, and guidance to homeless expectant mothers." It was a huge success, and I'm thankful both for the success of the day, and for the four women with whom this was planned. They knock my socks off in the best ways, and I'm so glad to know them!
*We aren't officially a non-profit yet, but we're working in that direction.
What am I thankful for today?
• My chiropractor. Yesterday was a wonderful day (see below), but moving tables, standing, and walking on a concrete floor for most of the day was hard on my hips. Worse, the pain referred down my leg to my knee and ankle. Serendipitously, my monthly appointment with my chiropractor was today! He fixed me right up; I could distinctly feel my SI joint move into its correct position. Dr. Dan is awesome!
• Yesterday was our non-profit's* big Red Tent event. A Red Tent is a safe space for women to tell their birth stories, resurrecting the oral traditions around birth. Additionally, we had a potluck meal, twenty-four vendors, and charity raffles that raised $300 for our designated charity, which is a "comprehensive housing program providing shelter, mentorship, resources, and guidance to homeless expectant mothers." It was a huge success, and I'm thankful both for the success of the day, and for the four women with whom this was planned. They knock my socks off in the best ways, and I'm so glad to know them!
*We aren't officially a non-profit yet, but we're working in that direction.
22.10.10
Weekly Report: Week Thirteen (days 061-065)
This has been an incredibly busy week. In addition to all of our usual activities, we went to a rally for one of Georgia's gubernatorial candidates on Wednesday morning, and I have been busy making lists, getting ready, and talking Smrt Mama off her ledge, all with regards to our Big Event on Sunday.
FB learned about to, too, and two this week, as well as the hard and soft sounds of 'c.' He's zooming through Book 2 of Explode the Code, and I'm continuing to use EG's AAS phonogram cards with him. The combination of all these things seems to be helping. Of course, nothing can provide the impetus to want to synthesize it into "reading," which is in fact the ingredient that I suspect is lacking. Oh, he wants to read, in a half-hearted sort of way. Not in a "Yes! I want to read!" way, though.
In First Language Lessons, we've at last left behind nouns and moved to pronouns. FB finished week fourteen in Writing With Ease, and in Spelling Workout A, he moved into the first lesson with an actual list of words to spell. Handwriting this week was practice with lowercase 'i' and 'e.'
FB's literature this week ranged widely. Australia, Giggle, Giggle, Quack, Perfect the Pig, Because a Little Bug Went Ka-Choo, Stranger in the Woods, If You Give A Pig A Party, Lost in the Woods, Guess How Much I Love You, Love You Forever, Caps for Sale, All Things Bright and Beautiful, Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See, The Runaway Bunny, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, and The Witch Who Was Afraid of Witches.
FB continues to tear through Miquon Orange. My original plan was to start Right Start B next week, but due to Extreme Busyness this weekend on my part, and therefore lack of time to even pull the B materials out, I think I'll let FB have one more week with just Miquon before we start combining the two.
In history this week, we talked about the Phoenicians. There's not a whole lot of extra stuff to do with regards to the Phoenicians; the one book recommended in the AG isn't carried by our library system, and it's nearly $30 on amazon. I can't even get Borders or Barnes & Noble to order it so I could get a teacher discount – ouch. So no supplemental reading.
FB had a good time at Master's Academy. They're teaching them to play recorder, except he calls it flute! :) We listened to the Classics for Kids episodes on Vivaldi, and FB moved to the "every other one" schedule for level one of IEW's poetry memorization program. At this point, I don't plan to start level two with him before March or April – just let him have plenty of time for the level one poems to soak in, and also give him plenty of time for our other memory work. This week was the last week of autumn homeschool soccer, which FB thoroughly enjoyed, and the first week of the new session of his oceanography class. Last week was the first week of gymnastics for this session (we skipped the first autumn session), which he is still enjoying. He's eager to turn six, though, and move into the sex-segregated classes where they learn about the various apparati.
EG had a good week. She finished five lessons in Advanced Algebra, plus read through some of Real World Algebra. She's getting very close to beating her drill times, but not quite yet. Language arts this week was four sentences in Practice Voyage, a lesson in Caesar's English II, and chapter four in Essay Voyage. She didn't have a formal literature assignment this week, but read through two or three books in her spare time.
This is the last week of her 'break' from PLATO; she read The Double Helix, watched two lectures from The Teaching Company's Joy of Science, and read chapter ten in Science Matters. Next week, she'll dive into PLATO Earth & Space Science. History this week was more on the Greeks; she read a biography of Alexander the Great (one of the Sterling Point books, by John Gunther) and wrote her summary about slavery in ancient Greece.
EG took a week to do a lot of review for Latin, and wrote a couple of exercises that we had previously done orally. She studied four pages in Art and wrote down dates on her timeline from chapter fourteen in The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music History. Her listening selection this week was Turath. Band is this afternoon, where she's going to attempt to get her hands on a list of the second semester pass-offs; she passed all the songs for first semester last week! Trumpet and piano are both going very well for her.
This was obviously her last week of homeschool soccer for the autumn, too. She also had a lot of fun doing it, and is looking forward to the spring. The next session of her history of science class began. Master's Academy continues to go well, including her public speaking course in the mornings before Master's Academy starts. Finally, she seems to love logic and her online class; they're making speedy progress through the book and she's eager to do her assignments early in the week so she can participate in the online discussions the rest of the week, before Friday's webinar.
I discovered that part of PC's reluctance to be fully potty-trained is that she really likes the Target training pants I've been buying. They have a cat on them, you see, and she thought I just wouldn't let her keep wearing them if she were actually fully potty-trained. Bizarre child.
And now I hear my children coming back up the stairs to, horror of horrors, finish the schooldays. Don't they know I wanted a longer session of peace and quiet? ;)
FB learned about to, too, and two this week, as well as the hard and soft sounds of 'c.' He's zooming through Book 2 of Explode the Code, and I'm continuing to use EG's AAS phonogram cards with him. The combination of all these things seems to be helping. Of course, nothing can provide the impetus to want to synthesize it into "reading," which is in fact the ingredient that I suspect is lacking. Oh, he wants to read, in a half-hearted sort of way. Not in a "Yes! I want to read!" way, though.
In First Language Lessons, we've at last left behind nouns and moved to pronouns. FB finished week fourteen in Writing With Ease, and in Spelling Workout A, he moved into the first lesson with an actual list of words to spell. Handwriting this week was practice with lowercase 'i' and 'e.'
FB's literature this week ranged widely. Australia, Giggle, Giggle, Quack, Perfect the Pig, Because a Little Bug Went Ka-Choo, Stranger in the Woods, If You Give A Pig A Party, Lost in the Woods, Guess How Much I Love You, Love You Forever, Caps for Sale, All Things Bright and Beautiful, Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See, The Runaway Bunny, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, and The Witch Who Was Afraid of Witches.
FB continues to tear through Miquon Orange. My original plan was to start Right Start B next week, but due to Extreme Busyness this weekend on my part, and therefore lack of time to even pull the B materials out, I think I'll let FB have one more week with just Miquon before we start combining the two.
In history this week, we talked about the Phoenicians. There's not a whole lot of extra stuff to do with regards to the Phoenicians; the one book recommended in the AG isn't carried by our library system, and it's nearly $30 on amazon. I can't even get Borders or Barnes & Noble to order it so I could get a teacher discount – ouch. So no supplemental reading.
FB had a good time at Master's Academy. They're teaching them to play recorder, except he calls it flute! :) We listened to the Classics for Kids episodes on Vivaldi, and FB moved to the "every other one" schedule for level one of IEW's poetry memorization program. At this point, I don't plan to start level two with him before March or April – just let him have plenty of time for the level one poems to soak in, and also give him plenty of time for our other memory work. This week was the last week of autumn homeschool soccer, which FB thoroughly enjoyed, and the first week of the new session of his oceanography class. Last week was the first week of gymnastics for this session (we skipped the first autumn session), which he is still enjoying. He's eager to turn six, though, and move into the sex-segregated classes where they learn about the various apparati.
EG had a good week. She finished five lessons in Advanced Algebra, plus read through some of Real World Algebra. She's getting very close to beating her drill times, but not quite yet. Language arts this week was four sentences in Practice Voyage, a lesson in Caesar's English II, and chapter four in Essay Voyage. She didn't have a formal literature assignment this week, but read through two or three books in her spare time.
This is the last week of her 'break' from PLATO; she read The Double Helix, watched two lectures from The Teaching Company's Joy of Science, and read chapter ten in Science Matters. Next week, she'll dive into PLATO Earth & Space Science. History this week was more on the Greeks; she read a biography of Alexander the Great (one of the Sterling Point books, by John Gunther) and wrote her summary about slavery in ancient Greece.
EG took a week to do a lot of review for Latin, and wrote a couple of exercises that we had previously done orally. She studied four pages in Art and wrote down dates on her timeline from chapter fourteen in The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music History. Her listening selection this week was Turath. Band is this afternoon, where she's going to attempt to get her hands on a list of the second semester pass-offs; she passed all the songs for first semester last week! Trumpet and piano are both going very well for her.
This was obviously her last week of homeschool soccer for the autumn, too. She also had a lot of fun doing it, and is looking forward to the spring. The next session of her history of science class began. Master's Academy continues to go well, including her public speaking course in the mornings before Master's Academy starts. Finally, she seems to love logic and her online class; they're making speedy progress through the book and she's eager to do her assignments early in the week so she can participate in the online discussions the rest of the week, before Friday's webinar.
I discovered that part of PC's reluctance to be fully potty-trained is that she really likes the Target training pants I've been buying. They have a cat on them, you see, and she thought I just wouldn't let her keep wearing them if she were actually fully potty-trained. Bizarre child.
And now I hear my children coming back up the stairs to, horror of horrors, finish the schooldays. Don't they know I wanted a longer session of peace and quiet? ;)
15.10.10
Weekly Report: Week Twelve (days 056-060)
We had an abbreviated schoolweek for this week, for several reasons. On Sunday and Monday, the kids spent time with their grandmother, and we also took them to get Christmas pictures taken. The pictures turned out fairly well, though the photographer wouldn't honor the coupon we had as it was written. Minor aggravation, since we've already decided we need to find a different way to get the kids' pictures taken. And today is my birthday, so we're not officially doing school. EG is finishing her literature book (it was abandoned on Wednesday in favor of The Lost Hero), and FB decided he wanted to do a page or two of Miquon today. We did make up the lost schoolwork as far as EG was concerned, at least, so I could continue being even with my days and weeks matching up. Yep, I'm obsessive complusive (though not, officially, disordered, so that's something I suppose).
EG's aforementioned literature book this week was Green's Tales of the Greek Heroes, and she read all about Athens in history. She outlined from The Ancient City, but her writing assignment was modified from Essay Voyage, so I didn't require a separate summary.
EG worked in Practice Voyage & Caesar's English II, and worked on a writing assignment for Chapter 3. I merged two of the options (the structure of one, something of the topic from the other), and then modified it to apply to Athens. The result was a essay – "Athens: The Place of Learning." Her micro-language was "learning," as you may have guessed. Her statement of the thesis could use a little clarity, and it has gems of phrases like "where there was stuff to study," but overall I was very pleased with her effort.
In mathematics, EG worked through four lessons in Advanced Algebra, and continued to work on drill. She didn't conquer any drill levels this week, but with the shortened week, that's less surprising.
She also didn't do as much Latin work (only scheduled for two days), and continues to go through chapter five in Latin Prep. I'm trying to decide if I'll have her move on to the second half of the book immediately when she finishes, or if I'll instead let her take a week or two for more extensive review before going on.
Since this was a shortened week, and we're between PLATO's Life Science and Earth & Space Science, EG read Silent Spring, as well as reading chapter nine in Science Matters. She also watched two lectures from The Joy of Science Teaching Company course.
Music appreciation this week was listening to Traditional Arabic Music and making a one point outline of chapter fourteen in The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music History. Art appreciation this week covered Ancient Rome, with Art supplemented by Art in Ancient Rome.
EG's logic class moved on to chapter three in Critical Thinking 1 this week. The next to last week of soccer was held in near-perfect weather (perfect, with an extra side of wind). Master's Academy was off this week, as was EG's History of Science class.
FB had a good week as well. I added Spelling Workout A to his language arts line up, at his request. He also seems to be enjoying Miquon; we'll do one more week of just Miquon, and then add Right Start back into the mix.
FB's history this week was about Moses & the Israelites leaving Egypt. I intended to get Wildsmith's Exodus from the library, but we never made it over there (despite the fact that it's just up the road a ways).
FB's books this week included Equal Schmequal, Mister Seahorse, Owl Babies, Africa, Make Way for Ducklings, Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?, Bad News for Outlaws, The Very Busy Spider, and two Bob books.
Purple Child has been constructing obstacle course for herself all week long. I just looked to my left and realized one of the Billy bookcases has a shelf that is going to fall without intervention in the next twenty-four hours. Guess I know what I'll be having Spousal Unit do tonight.
EG's aforementioned literature book this week was Green's Tales of the Greek Heroes, and she read all about Athens in history. She outlined from The Ancient City, but her writing assignment was modified from Essay Voyage, so I didn't require a separate summary.
EG worked in Practice Voyage & Caesar's English II, and worked on a writing assignment for Chapter 3. I merged two of the options (the structure of one, something of the topic from the other), and then modified it to apply to Athens. The result was a essay – "Athens: The Place of Learning." Her micro-language was "learning," as you may have guessed. Her statement of the thesis could use a little clarity, and it has gems of phrases like "where there was stuff to study," but overall I was very pleased with her effort.
In mathematics, EG worked through four lessons in Advanced Algebra, and continued to work on drill. She didn't conquer any drill levels this week, but with the shortened week, that's less surprising.
She also didn't do as much Latin work (only scheduled for two days), and continues to go through chapter five in Latin Prep. I'm trying to decide if I'll have her move on to the second half of the book immediately when she finishes, or if I'll instead let her take a week or two for more extensive review before going on.
Since this was a shortened week, and we're between PLATO's Life Science and Earth & Space Science, EG read Silent Spring, as well as reading chapter nine in Science Matters. She also watched two lectures from The Joy of Science Teaching Company course.
Music appreciation this week was listening to Traditional Arabic Music and making a one point outline of chapter fourteen in The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music History. Art appreciation this week covered Ancient Rome, with Art supplemented by Art in Ancient Rome.
EG's logic class moved on to chapter three in Critical Thinking 1 this week. The next to last week of soccer was held in near-perfect weather (perfect, with an extra side of wind). Master's Academy was off this week, as was EG's History of Science class.
FB had a good week as well. I added Spelling Workout A to his language arts line up, at his request. He also seems to be enjoying Miquon; we'll do one more week of just Miquon, and then add Right Start back into the mix.
FB's history this week was about Moses & the Israelites leaving Egypt. I intended to get Wildsmith's Exodus from the library, but we never made it over there (despite the fact that it's just up the road a ways).
FB's books this week included Equal Schmequal, Mister Seahorse, Owl Babies, Africa, Make Way for Ducklings, Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?, Bad News for Outlaws, The Very Busy Spider, and two Bob books.
Purple Child has been constructing obstacle course for herself all week long. I just looked to my left and realized one of the Billy bookcases has a shelf that is going to fall without intervention in the next twenty-four hours. Guess I know what I'll be having Spousal Unit do tonight.
13.10.10
The Book Pile
I had an entire shelf of a small bookcase devoted to books I owned but had not yet read. Some of them were from paperbackswap. A few were loaners. The rest were books that looked really good, but had gotten pushed to the bottom of the pile over time, as newer, shinier titles took the coveted "next to be read" spot.
Two weeks ago, I mercilessly went through the entire shelf. I kept one fiction book, and consigned the rest to the box. I culled the remaining books, as well, and the culled books in their box have been sent to the storage building, to await their eventual freedom when I live in a new abode.
Naturally, of course, I immediately began the cycle anew, and soon found myself with additional books to the now smaller pile on my bedside table. Someday, I'll catch up. Until that day, I'll bemoan the lack of time I possess to read.
Currently in the to be read pile, I have...
01. The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods, A. G. Sertillanges.
02. 365 Manners Kids Should Know, Sheryl Eberly.
03. The Calculus Diaries, Jennifer Ouellette. (There's an interview with the author from Science Friday available online here.)
04. A Disturbance of Fate, Mitchell Freedman, the lone fiction book I spared.
05. Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends, Sarah, Stephen, and Grace Mally.
06. The Digital Pandemic, Mack Hicks.
07. Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, Daniel G. Amen, M.D.
08. Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation, Kate Bornstein & S. Bear Bergman.
09. The Mabinogion, translated by Sioned Davies.
10. Deadly Decisions, Kathy Reichs, also fiction, but spared by being in another room at the time of culling.
11. Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction, Barry C. Lynn.
and finally, I'm in the middle of
12. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell.
This sounds reasonable, given I read quickly, read at least 30 minutes a day (and often much more), and in theory won't be buying any books for at least another ten days or so (I refuse to commit beyond that point. Some women buy shoes, some women buy purses; I buy books.). In practice, though, I'm sure that some new, shiny book will once again leap to the top of the pile...
ETA, 10/16/10: Hooray! I've managed to finish four of the books listed above. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming...
ETA, 10/27/10: I finished two more, and started a third, but then I went and added four more books. Oops.
ETA, 12/09/10: I finished two more, am not sure where number one nor number seven are(!), read all but one of the four I added in October, added four more in November, and read two of those. And now I feel like reading nothing that I already own. Hmph.
Two weeks ago, I mercilessly went through the entire shelf. I kept one fiction book, and consigned the rest to the box. I culled the remaining books, as well, and the culled books in their box have been sent to the storage building, to await their eventual freedom when I live in a new abode.
Naturally, of course, I immediately began the cycle anew, and soon found myself with additional books to the now smaller pile on my bedside table. Someday, I'll catch up. Until that day, I'll bemoan the lack of time I possess to read.
Currently in the to be read pile, I have...
01. The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods, A. G. Sertillanges.
04. A Disturbance of Fate, Mitchell Freedman, the lone fiction book I spared.
07. Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, Daniel G. Amen, M.D.
09. The Mabinogion, translated by Sioned Davies.
and finally, I'm in the middle of
This sounds reasonable, given I read quickly, read at least 30 minutes a day (and often much more), and in theory won't be buying any books for at least another ten days or so (I refuse to commit beyond that point. Some women buy shoes, some women buy purses; I buy books.). In practice, though, I'm sure that some new, shiny book will once again leap to the top of the pile...
ETA, 10/16/10: Hooray! I've managed to finish four of the books listed above. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming...
ETA, 10/27/10: I finished two more, and started a third, but then I went and added four more books. Oops.
ETA, 12/09/10: I finished two more, am not sure where number one nor number seven are(!), read all but one of the four I added in October, added four more in November, and read two of those. And now I feel like reading nothing that I already own. Hmph.
8.10.10
Weekly Report: Week Eleven (days 051-055)
The important discovery of the week is that long vowels agree with FB much more so than blends and digraphs. The second most important discovery this week is that using EG's AAS phonogram cards to drill FB on said digraphs is much more effective than any other review. Apparently it makes it that much easier for him to grasp the idea of the digraph as one 'unit' of sound, just as a single letter is one 'unit' of sound. Go figure.
FB blazed into ETC 2, which covers said blends and digraphs. He also did two lessons in FLL and week twelve in WWE. He worked on magic c lowercase letters and 'u.' He listened to His Majesty Queen Hatshepsut, as well as Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett, Blueberries for Sal, Asia, The Magic Fish, and Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm. He read several books to me as well - Floppy Mop & Lolly-Pops from Bob books, plus Dancing Dinos on the Beach and Berenstain Bears Ride the Thunderbolt.
FB finished RS A! We're going to take a couple of weeks and just do Miquon, then transition to doing both RS and Miquon. He did six pages in Miquon Orange.
History this week was all about the New Kingdom of Egypt. FB also listened to You Wouldn't Want to be Tutankhamen and Tut's Mummy Lost and Found. I still hope we'll get to some science experiments today or this weekend, but we did read The Four Oceans and What's So Bad About Gasoline?. Now I've been admonished that we need to ride our bikes everywhere. Not a bad idea in theory, but in practice, I'm not riding a bike on the 120 loop.
Finally, we listened to Classics for Kids, and FB had a good time at Master's Academy, as usual.
For language arts this week, EG did four sentences in Practice Voyage, lesson five in Caesar's English II, and started chapter 3 in Essay Voyage. Her literature this week was Colum's The Golden Fleece. She wrote a book summary about The Egypt Game.
EG finished up Chapter 4 1/2 in Advanced Algebra, and also did review work through chapter four in Real World Algebra.
EG finished PLATO Life Science! We'll take a couple of weeks to read a few books, and then delve into PLATO Earth & Space Science. She also started the Young Readers' Edition of Our Choice, finished The Cartoon Guide to the Environment, and finished Ocean. This week in history, EG delved into Ancient Greece, where she'll stay for several weeks. She read in Famous Men of Greece, as well two primary sources. In Latin, she continued moving through chapter 5 of Latin Prep.
Art appreciation this week was about "Themes in Art," specifically "Nudes." She read about middle eastern music for music appreciation, and we listened to Arabic Groove. Logic focused on the last portions of chapter two in CT1.
This was the last week of the current session for their Wednesday classes, but they'll resume in two weeks. The weather was actually perfect for soccer this week – 74°F and no rain.
FB blazed into ETC 2, which covers said blends and digraphs. He also did two lessons in FLL and week twelve in WWE. He worked on magic c lowercase letters and 'u.' He listened to His Majesty Queen Hatshepsut, as well as Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett, Blueberries for Sal, Asia, The Magic Fish, and Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm. He read several books to me as well - Floppy Mop & Lolly-Pops from Bob books, plus Dancing Dinos on the Beach and Berenstain Bears Ride the Thunderbolt.
FB finished RS A! We're going to take a couple of weeks and just do Miquon, then transition to doing both RS and Miquon. He did six pages in Miquon Orange.
History this week was all about the New Kingdom of Egypt. FB also listened to You Wouldn't Want to be Tutankhamen and Tut's Mummy Lost and Found. I still hope we'll get to some science experiments today or this weekend, but we did read The Four Oceans and What's So Bad About Gasoline?. Now I've been admonished that we need to ride our bikes everywhere. Not a bad idea in theory, but in practice, I'm not riding a bike on the 120 loop.
Finally, we listened to Classics for Kids, and FB had a good time at Master's Academy, as usual.
For language arts this week, EG did four sentences in Practice Voyage, lesson five in Caesar's English II, and started chapter 3 in Essay Voyage. Her literature this week was Colum's The Golden Fleece. She wrote a book summary about The Egypt Game.
EG finished up Chapter 4 1/2 in Advanced Algebra, and also did review work through chapter four in Real World Algebra.
EG finished PLATO Life Science! We'll take a couple of weeks to read a few books, and then delve into PLATO Earth & Space Science. She also started the Young Readers' Edition of Our Choice, finished The Cartoon Guide to the Environment, and finished Ocean. This week in history, EG delved into Ancient Greece, where she'll stay for several weeks. She read in Famous Men of Greece, as well two primary sources. In Latin, she continued moving through chapter 5 of Latin Prep.
Art appreciation this week was about "Themes in Art," specifically "Nudes." She read about middle eastern music for music appreciation, and we listened to Arabic Groove. Logic focused on the last portions of chapter two in CT1.
This was the last week of the current session for their Wednesday classes, but they'll resume in two weeks. The weather was actually perfect for soccer this week – 74°F and no rain.
1.10.10
Weekly Report: Week Ten (days 046-050)
Fabulous Boy made his first foray in the world of long vowels, and seems to appreciate them much more than the digraphs and blends that had been the topic du jour in OPGTR. He also finished ETC 1, so I need to find the second book for him over the weekend. We only did two lessons in FLL this week, but he did complete week eleven from WWE 1. Learning about lowercase 'g' and other homework practice rounded out language arts this week.
This week, we read One Morning in Maine, Pecos Bill, Europe, Mike Fink, The Year at Maple Hill Farm, Why Are the Ice Caps Melting?, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Adventures in Ancient Egypt, and Pumpkin Pumpkin, amongst others.
FB is nearly done with RS A; just two lessons next week, and then we'll take a week or two to just do Miquon before picking up RS B. In fact, FB did four pages in Miquon this week.
History this week covered the Middle Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. FB gave me a great narration of each section, he did the mapwork and coloring page, and then listened to You Wouldn't Want to Be An Egyptian Mummy, which EG enjoyed reading to him.
FB continues to whiz through the IEW poetry program – he's now memorized eighteen of the poems in the first level, in addition to his other memory work. I'm trying to decide if we should press forward with level two immediately, or wait until at least after Christmas. If we wait, I'll still move to the every-other-day pattern after a week or two of doing the full level daily.
FB had a good time at Master's Academy and is looking forward to the end of the session "Beach Party" next week in his oceanography class. Soccer was held mostly in the rain this week!
Eclectic Girl had a full language arts week: lesson four in Caesar's English II, sentences 17-20 in Practice Voyage, and two writing assignments from the "options" at the end of chapter two of Essay Voyage. We modified the options to fit with what she has been studying in history and science. She also did two exercises from the diagramming workbook we have, and read Heroes and Heroines, Monsters and Magic for her assigned reading. She wrote a book summary for Mandy, and also finished reading Outliers.
In math this week, she finished four lessons in Life of Fred Advanced Algebra, beat one of her two drills, and worked on chapter four in Real World Algebra.
EG has nearly finished PLATO Life Science! I have a few supplementary books for her to read, so she'll probably take one to two weeks to do that and a few more experiments/projects before starting PLATO Earth & Space Science. This week, she started re-reading the Young Reader's Edition of An Inconvenient Truth, and reading The Cartoon Guide to the Environment. She also worked on completing chapter seven in Science Matters. One of her Essay Voyage assignments was to write a paragraph about the similarities between communities and ecosystems, and a second paragraph detailing the differences.
History this week was wide-ranging, covering ancient peoples on the steppes of Asia and ancient people of the American continents. She read In the Land of the Jaguar and The Ancient American World, and outlined from the former. Her other Essay Voyage assignment was to write a paragraph about the people of the Asian steppes.
EG redid her translation from last week for Latin, then forged forward into chapter five, which initially has much to do with numbers. Logic this week covered the second half of chapter two of Critical Thinking One, and she also had to complete a quiz online. Webinar later today!
Music appreciation this week was to read a Venezia biography of one of the composers features in Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra and then write a one paragraph summary. She chose Bach and did a good job summarizing his life. She also listened to the Classics for Kids episodes on Copland. Art appreciation moved on this week to ancient Greek art, and EG also read Ancient Greek Art.
Like her brother, EG played soccer in the rain this week. We skipped Math Olympiad because I was feeling bad, and EG was moving slowly through her work yesterday. She had a good week at Master's Academy, and finished the last book of the old level of piano books. Trumpet lessons went well and her instructor thinks she'll be able to pass off three or four songs at testing this afternoon. Finally, EG had a good time in history of science.
Purple Child has finally deigned to poop in the potty, though it's still more sporadic than peeing.
This week, we read One Morning in Maine, Pecos Bill, Europe, Mike Fink, The Year at Maple Hill Farm, Why Are the Ice Caps Melting?, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Adventures in Ancient Egypt, and Pumpkin Pumpkin, amongst others.
FB is nearly done with RS A; just two lessons next week, and then we'll take a week or two to just do Miquon before picking up RS B. In fact, FB did four pages in Miquon this week.
History this week covered the Middle Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. FB gave me a great narration of each section, he did the mapwork and coloring page, and then listened to You Wouldn't Want to Be An Egyptian Mummy, which EG enjoyed reading to him.
FB continues to whiz through the IEW poetry program – he's now memorized eighteen of the poems in the first level, in addition to his other memory work. I'm trying to decide if we should press forward with level two immediately, or wait until at least after Christmas. If we wait, I'll still move to the every-other-day pattern after a week or two of doing the full level daily.
FB had a good time at Master's Academy and is looking forward to the end of the session "Beach Party" next week in his oceanography class. Soccer was held mostly in the rain this week!
Eclectic Girl had a full language arts week: lesson four in Caesar's English II, sentences 17-20 in Practice Voyage, and two writing assignments from the "options" at the end of chapter two of Essay Voyage. We modified the options to fit with what she has been studying in history and science. She also did two exercises from the diagramming workbook we have, and read Heroes and Heroines, Monsters and Magic for her assigned reading. She wrote a book summary for Mandy, and also finished reading Outliers.
In math this week, she finished four lessons in Life of Fred Advanced Algebra, beat one of her two drills, and worked on chapter four in Real World Algebra.
EG has nearly finished PLATO Life Science! I have a few supplementary books for her to read, so she'll probably take one to two weeks to do that and a few more experiments/projects before starting PLATO Earth & Space Science. This week, she started re-reading the Young Reader's Edition of An Inconvenient Truth, and reading The Cartoon Guide to the Environment. She also worked on completing chapter seven in Science Matters. One of her Essay Voyage assignments was to write a paragraph about the similarities between communities and ecosystems, and a second paragraph detailing the differences.
History this week was wide-ranging, covering ancient peoples on the steppes of Asia and ancient people of the American continents. She read In the Land of the Jaguar and The Ancient American World, and outlined from the former. Her other Essay Voyage assignment was to write a paragraph about the people of the Asian steppes.
EG redid her translation from last week for Latin, then forged forward into chapter five, which initially has much to do with numbers. Logic this week covered the second half of chapter two of Critical Thinking One, and she also had to complete a quiz online. Webinar later today!
Music appreciation this week was to read a Venezia biography of one of the composers features in Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra and then write a one paragraph summary. She chose Bach and did a good job summarizing his life. She also listened to the Classics for Kids episodes on Copland. Art appreciation moved on this week to ancient Greek art, and EG also read Ancient Greek Art.
Like her brother, EG played soccer in the rain this week. We skipped Math Olympiad because I was feeling bad, and EG was moving slowly through her work yesterday. She had a good week at Master's Academy, and finished the last book of the old level of piano books. Trumpet lessons went well and her instructor thinks she'll be able to pass off three or four songs at testing this afternoon. Finally, EG had a good time in history of science.
Purple Child has finally deigned to poop in the potty, though it's still more sporadic than peeing.
24.9.10
Weekly Report: Week Nine (days 041-045) - Quarter Done!
I admit it, I love writing these weekly reports. Day by day, it's so easy to get lost in the minutiae, not to mention I have a tendency to focus on what I haven't done. I hold myself to a (too) high standard many times; the weekly report is a refreshing anecdote to that.
Purple Child (aka The Carnivore; no budding vegetarian here) is mostly peeing in the potty. If I can get her pooping in the potty (she seems to think potty = pee only), I think we'll have the potty training done. She's stayed dry at night for months already. She may or may not know yellow, red, blue, and green. Like any good future Slytherin, she's playing her cards close to her chest. And may I just say I'm overjoyed to have another Slytherin in the house? :D
Fabulous Boy covered time and measurement this week in RS A. The measurement lessons felt way too simplistic (which is longer?), so we winged it a bit there. I'll make sure to treat the similar lessons in RS B with a bit more respect, when it comes around again. We also read Beanstalk: The Measure of a Giant, which sort of ties in with the measurement theme.
FB covered more digraphs and a few three-consonant blends in OPGTR. I decided I'm going to break out the AAS phonogram cards to help with digraphs. Once it clicks with him that it's a different sound, he has it; otherwise, he tries to sound out the digraph. He completed a lesson in ETC and started another; I think I need to order the next book soon. He also read four Bob books to me. We continued to learn about proper and common nouns in FLL, and talked about Davy Crockett and Sacagawea via WWE. In HWT, he learned about 't' and 'd.'
Books this week included The Adventures of Spider, Henri Matisse: Drawing with Scissors, People, Rhinos for Lunch and Elephants for Supper!, Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears, What's Under the Sea?, Where Does the Garbage Go?, stories from African Folk Tales, and one of our favorites, Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain. Our copy is almost falling apart; I may need to invest in a hardcover copy.
In history, as you may have guessed, FB learned about ancient Africa. He and EG watched an episode of Lost Civilizations (from Netflix) about ancient Africa, as well. In theory, we may do an African Feast on Sunday.
FB enjoyed Master's Academy on Monday and homeschool soccer on Thursday; no oceanography class this week.
Together, we listened to the Classics for Kids episodes for Mozart and Haydn.
Eclectic Girl had another busy week. She finished the chapter on graphing in LoF Adv Algebra, and did drill each day. There was no math olympiad this week, but she worked in Introduction to Number Theory each day.
EG's literature selection this week was Tales from China. While we were at the beach last weekend and on the way home, she read Chasing Vermeer and The Wright 3; now she's working her way through Outliers. She completed sentences 13-16 in Practice Voyage, lesson three in Caesar's English II, and the non-writing assignment portions of chapter 2 in Essay Voyage. Have I mentioned how much I love Caesar's English II? It is superlative.
In science, EG read Eyewitness Horse, and finished the next unit in PLATO Life Science. Just two more units left! She already read a portion of chapter seven in Science Matters and watched lecture five from The Joy of Science lectures from The Teaching Company. No history of science class this week.
History this week covered ancient China, and she wrote a nice summary about Confucius. Latin was the tail end of chapter four, preparing for the final assignments in the workbook, which I will be grading... tomorrow. ;) I am pleased - this is right on target for the number of chapters she needs to cover to complete the book this year.
Music appreciation this week was to read Story of the Incredible Orchestra and complete two outlines. For art appreciation, she read the pages in Art about "Civilizations of the East." She also read in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.
EG's logic class seems to be going well; since it's conducted online, it's really our first experience with her taking control of a course in this way. I do still list it in her planner, but just as "complete one half of logic assignments" twice, and "webinar, noon."
Public speaking was a bit of a surprise this week. The teacher's syllabus, passed out on the first day of class, stated that there would be expository speeches presented on September 27. Excellent, we had thought, because we'd be out of town the weekend preceding September 20, for which there was no homework listed. When we got home Sunday evening, EG told me she thought there was one page in her workbook, and maybe a speech? We looked at the syllabus again, were reassured, and EG merely did the brainstorming page in her workbook. You can guess where this is going, right? Her teacher had redone the syllabus, but not passed it out to the students nor emailed it to the parents. So EG had to wing her expository speech on Monday morning. Ugh! Why pass out a syllabus if you don't follow it? I suppose it's a good lesson for her to learn, but I was really looking forward to her having an opportunity to learn to use a syllabus before she got this particular lesson.
The rest of her Monday classes & lessons went well, as did trumpet lesson, homeschool soccer, and band, all later in the week.
I can't believe we're a quarter of the way through the year! Yes, I am definitely doing a happy dance. :)
Purple Child (aka The Carnivore; no budding vegetarian here) is mostly peeing in the potty. If I can get her pooping in the potty (she seems to think potty = pee only), I think we'll have the potty training done. She's stayed dry at night for months already. She may or may not know yellow, red, blue, and green. Like any good future Slytherin, she's playing her cards close to her chest. And may I just say I'm overjoyed to have another Slytherin in the house? :D
Fabulous Boy covered time and measurement this week in RS A. The measurement lessons felt way too simplistic (which is longer?), so we winged it a bit there. I'll make sure to treat the similar lessons in RS B with a bit more respect, when it comes around again. We also read Beanstalk: The Measure of a Giant, which sort of ties in with the measurement theme.
FB covered more digraphs and a few three-consonant blends in OPGTR. I decided I'm going to break out the AAS phonogram cards to help with digraphs. Once it clicks with him that it's a different sound, he has it; otherwise, he tries to sound out the digraph. He completed a lesson in ETC and started another; I think I need to order the next book soon. He also read four Bob books to me. We continued to learn about proper and common nouns in FLL, and talked about Davy Crockett and Sacagawea via WWE. In HWT, he learned about 't' and 'd.'
Books this week included The Adventures of Spider, Henri Matisse: Drawing with Scissors, People, Rhinos for Lunch and Elephants for Supper!, Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears, What's Under the Sea?, Where Does the Garbage Go?, stories from African Folk Tales, and one of our favorites, Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain. Our copy is almost falling apart; I may need to invest in a hardcover copy.
In history, as you may have guessed, FB learned about ancient Africa. He and EG watched an episode of Lost Civilizations (from Netflix) about ancient Africa, as well. In theory, we may do an African Feast on Sunday.
FB enjoyed Master's Academy on Monday and homeschool soccer on Thursday; no oceanography class this week.
Together, we listened to the Classics for Kids episodes for Mozart and Haydn.
Eclectic Girl had another busy week. She finished the chapter on graphing in LoF Adv Algebra, and did drill each day. There was no math olympiad this week, but she worked in Introduction to Number Theory each day.
EG's literature selection this week was Tales from China. While we were at the beach last weekend and on the way home, she read Chasing Vermeer and The Wright 3; now she's working her way through Outliers. She completed sentences 13-16 in Practice Voyage, lesson three in Caesar's English II, and the non-writing assignment portions of chapter 2 in Essay Voyage. Have I mentioned how much I love Caesar's English II? It is superlative.
In science, EG read Eyewitness Horse, and finished the next unit in PLATO Life Science. Just two more units left! She already read a portion of chapter seven in Science Matters and watched lecture five from The Joy of Science lectures from The Teaching Company. No history of science class this week.
History this week covered ancient China, and she wrote a nice summary about Confucius. Latin was the tail end of chapter four, preparing for the final assignments in the workbook, which I will be grading... tomorrow. ;) I am pleased - this is right on target for the number of chapters she needs to cover to complete the book this year.
Music appreciation this week was to read Story of the Incredible Orchestra and complete two outlines. For art appreciation, she read the pages in Art about "Civilizations of the East." She also read in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.
EG's logic class seems to be going well; since it's conducted online, it's really our first experience with her taking control of a course in this way. I do still list it in her planner, but just as "complete one half of logic assignments" twice, and "webinar, noon."
Public speaking was a bit of a surprise this week. The teacher's syllabus, passed out on the first day of class, stated that there would be expository speeches presented on September 27. Excellent, we had thought, because we'd be out of town the weekend preceding September 20, for which there was no homework listed. When we got home Sunday evening, EG told me she thought there was one page in her workbook, and maybe a speech? We looked at the syllabus again, were reassured, and EG merely did the brainstorming page in her workbook. You can guess where this is going, right? Her teacher had redone the syllabus, but not passed it out to the students nor emailed it to the parents. So EG had to wing her expository speech on Monday morning. Ugh! Why pass out a syllabus if you don't follow it? I suppose it's a good lesson for her to learn, but I was really looking forward to her having an opportunity to learn to use a syllabus before she got this particular lesson.
The rest of her Monday classes & lessons went well, as did trumpet lesson, homeschool soccer, and band, all later in the week.
I can't believe we're a quarter of the way through the year! Yes, I am definitely doing a happy dance. :)
16.9.10
Weekly Report: Week Eight (days 036 to 040)
I knew this week would be busy; all of our possible regular activities, plus the monthly homeschool ice skating day on Tuesday. We worked a little ahead on Sunday afternoon as well as Monday evening after Master's Academy, with the end result that we're almost finished with the week on Thursday. Oops?
This week, FB worked on more digraphs in Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading, completed a lesson in Explode the Code, and read four Bob books to me. He also read a review lesson out of McGuffey's Primer. Elsewhere in the language arts arena, he did week nine of Writing With Ease Level One, which was based on Charlotte's Web. I think that may be his next read-aloud, because he was very interested in the story. He also did four lessons in First Language Lessons, including beginning to memorize the "Days of the Week" poem, and he continues to progress through his handwriting book. I'm really happy with our language arts line-up, and I figured out a different way to explain digraphs to him that seems to be making a big difference. He's asking about adding spelling, so it may be about time to pull out Spelling Workout A.
Amongst the books that we read to FB this week were: Once A Mouse..., The Story About Ping, One Grain of Rice, North America, Degas and the Little Dancer, and Koko's Kitten.
Most of FB's math work this week was about the clock and naming the o'clocks. He did really well with it. We still have to do one lesson tomorrow, about halves. I don't anticipate any problems there; he's had at least one sibling his entire life, so he's had a lot of practice in making anything split into halves!
This week was history-heavy, as we covered both ancient India and ancient China. EG read D is for Doufu to him, and he also listened to the chapter about China in Ancient Agriculture.
FB had another great week at Master's Academy, and we listened to the Classics for Kids podcasts about Tchaikovsky 's Romeo & Juliet Fantasy Overture. One of the podcasts was about various stage and screen adaptations of the play, and I was gratified that they began with the Baz Luhrman version. The kids looked at me strangely – oh well.
Spousal Unit finished reading The Golden Goblet to all of the children.
EG had a good week as well. She finished her assignment from chapter one of Essay Voyage with a paragraph about the platypus that she then joyfully rearranged into an unorganized version of itself; successfully completed sentences nine through thirteen in Practice Voyage; and had a lot of fun with lesson two of Caesar's English II, including when we talked about the awesome oxymoron that is "vivacious hatred." What's not to love about a phrase like that? She read Tales from India for her assigned reading, and finished Summerland during her free reading time.
In math, EG covered graphing and slope, and beat both levels of drill, one of which was new this week. The other level had been new last week. I'm really seeing a difference in her computational speed this year and I have to attribute at least part of it to her daily use of the Flashmaster. I love that little machine!
EG finished up the unit of PLATO Life Science that covered genetics and heredity, including the worksheets, and moved on to the unit "Organisms and Their Environment." She also read Eyewitness Whale and started reading through Ocean.
In history, EG covered ancient India and, more generally, ancient south asia. She wrote her summary on the Vedas; I learned things I didn't know! She read part of The Ancient South Asian World and all of Eyewitness India.
EG seems to be enjoying her logic class. It's a good mix of activities to learn the material, at least so far. The weekly webinar is tomorrow. She also continues to progress through chapter four of Latin Prep 1. I've noticed she seems to enjoy working with various verb tenses and conjugations much more than she like declining nouns. I'm not sure that I blame her.
Music appreciation this week included finishing up The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, listening to the accompanying CD again, and also listening to Music from Ancient Rome. For art appreciation, she read about Egyptian art in Art and then read Art in Ancient Egypt. No art skills lesson this week, but EG did have both piano and trumpet lessons. It's her last week in her current piano books, and tomorrow is her first testing day for band; her trumpet instructor thinks she'll be able to pass off a decent number of songs right away. Yay! The fewer weeks we have to go early for testing, the happier I will be!
Purple Child is, for some reason, still awake at 10 pm. I've also been told by EG & FB that I need to change her blog moniker to The Carnivore.
This week, FB worked on more digraphs in Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading, completed a lesson in Explode the Code, and read four Bob books to me. He also read a review lesson out of McGuffey's Primer. Elsewhere in the language arts arena, he did week nine of Writing With Ease Level One, which was based on Charlotte's Web. I think that may be his next read-aloud, because he was very interested in the story. He also did four lessons in First Language Lessons, including beginning to memorize the "Days of the Week" poem, and he continues to progress through his handwriting book. I'm really happy with our language arts line-up, and I figured out a different way to explain digraphs to him that seems to be making a big difference. He's asking about adding spelling, so it may be about time to pull out Spelling Workout A.
Amongst the books that we read to FB this week were: Once A Mouse..., The Story About Ping, One Grain of Rice, North America, Degas and the Little Dancer, and Koko's Kitten.
Most of FB's math work this week was about the clock and naming the o'clocks. He did really well with it. We still have to do one lesson tomorrow, about halves. I don't anticipate any problems there; he's had at least one sibling his entire life, so he's had a lot of practice in making anything split into halves!
This week was history-heavy, as we covered both ancient India and ancient China. EG read D is for Doufu to him, and he also listened to the chapter about China in Ancient Agriculture.
FB had another great week at Master's Academy, and we listened to the Classics for Kids podcasts about Tchaikovsky 's Romeo & Juliet Fantasy Overture. One of the podcasts was about various stage and screen adaptations of the play, and I was gratified that they began with the Baz Luhrman version. The kids looked at me strangely – oh well.
Spousal Unit finished reading The Golden Goblet to all of the children.
EG had a good week as well. She finished her assignment from chapter one of Essay Voyage with a paragraph about the platypus that she then joyfully rearranged into an unorganized version of itself; successfully completed sentences nine through thirteen in Practice Voyage; and had a lot of fun with lesson two of Caesar's English II, including when we talked about the awesome oxymoron that is "vivacious hatred." What's not to love about a phrase like that? She read Tales from India for her assigned reading, and finished Summerland during her free reading time.
In math, EG covered graphing and slope, and beat both levels of drill, one of which was new this week. The other level had been new last week. I'm really seeing a difference in her computational speed this year and I have to attribute at least part of it to her daily use of the Flashmaster. I love that little machine!
EG finished up the unit of PLATO Life Science that covered genetics and heredity, including the worksheets, and moved on to the unit "Organisms and Their Environment." She also read Eyewitness Whale and started reading through Ocean.
In history, EG covered ancient India and, more generally, ancient south asia. She wrote her summary on the Vedas; I learned things I didn't know! She read part of The Ancient South Asian World and all of Eyewitness India.
EG seems to be enjoying her logic class. It's a good mix of activities to learn the material, at least so far. The weekly webinar is tomorrow. She also continues to progress through chapter four of Latin Prep 1. I've noticed she seems to enjoy working with various verb tenses and conjugations much more than she like declining nouns. I'm not sure that I blame her.
Music appreciation this week included finishing up The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, listening to the accompanying CD again, and also listening to Music from Ancient Rome. For art appreciation, she read about Egyptian art in Art and then read Art in Ancient Egypt. No art skills lesson this week, but EG did have both piano and trumpet lessons. It's her last week in her current piano books, and tomorrow is her first testing day for band; her trumpet instructor thinks she'll be able to pass off a decent number of songs right away. Yay! The fewer weeks we have to go early for testing, the happier I will be!
Purple Child is, for some reason, still awake at 10 pm. I've also been told by EG & FB that I need to change her blog moniker to The Carnivore.
12.9.10
Shift
We went to the water park this morning; the last day of the season for 2010, the air was a brilliant clear blue, the sun was shining, and there were yellow, orange, and red leaves beginning to fall, swirling in the water along with the inner tubes.
Yesterday, we drove into the mountains of north Georgia to pick apples, and as we finished filling our bags, the skies opened up in a perfect example of a pop-up summer thunderstorm. Today, I cooked some of those apples for lunch, and tonight, I'll prepare fried okra for dinner.
Juxtaposition. Contradiction. Shift.
Two weeks after the vernal equinox, our weather changed abruptly from cold temperatures to hot. By mid-April, the daily high was averaging above 80°F. By the end of May, highs were in the 90s, and this summer (encompassing the months of June, July, and August) was the hottest recorded here in Georgia.
Now, at last, as we dip towards the autumn equinox, there are hopeful signs, however small, that a change is coming. Cooler nights with bright warm (but no longer hot) days, apples and sweet potatoes instead of squash and okra. Soon. I love the summer's warmth, but I need the autumn. I need its clear skies, its harvest, its careful end of growth. And, at last, it is whispering.
Shift.
Yesterday, we drove into the mountains of north Georgia to pick apples, and as we finished filling our bags, the skies opened up in a perfect example of a pop-up summer thunderstorm. Today, I cooked some of those apples for lunch, and tonight, I'll prepare fried okra for dinner.
Juxtaposition. Contradiction. Shift.
Two weeks after the vernal equinox, our weather changed abruptly from cold temperatures to hot. By mid-April, the daily high was averaging above 80°F. By the end of May, highs were in the 90s, and this summer (encompassing the months of June, July, and August) was the hottest recorded here in Georgia.
Now, at last, as we dip towards the autumn equinox, there are hopeful signs, however small, that a change is coming. Cooler nights with bright warm (but no longer hot) days, apples and sweet potatoes instead of squash and okra. Soon. I love the summer's warmth, but I need the autumn. I need its clear skies, its harvest, its careful end of growth. And, at last, it is whispering.
Shift.
10.9.10
Weekly Report: Week Seven (through day 035!)
Purple Child
PC has managed to pee in the potty reliably about 60% of the time. She has yet to poop in the potty – she clearly has the idea but seems unwilling to sit for the necessary length of time. We'll keep working on it. Her verbal skills are improving rapidly lately, too; her pronunciation of FB's (actual) name has gotten so much clearer just in the last two days. If she knew I was writing this, she'd want me to mention that she doesn't really like being dragged hither and yon with her siblings, but she does put up with it.
Kash
Here's the $20,000 question in my mind: do we go for a house that is move-in ready, but more expensive, or buy a house that's cheaper where I could literally construct my dream kitchen (but, you know, be without a kitchen until it was done) and landscaping (ditto)? It's an academic question at this point, since we're still 4-5 weeks away from our house being on the market, but I think the answer to that question will necessarily eliminate some possibilities when we are looking, especially if we decide definitively against anywhere that needs more than paint.
Starbuck
Starbuck nearly had a feast on Labor Day. She and I came around the corner of the house to find a couple of rodent bodies. I initially thought they were mice (albeit with slightly fuzzy tails, but really, I didn't have time to run in and get Animal to check the species), and so we thought they had been poisoned. So then Spousal Unit and I had to work together to get her prey out of her mouth. I did the jaw-squeezing part, not the grasping the body part. Then SU did some research online (thank you, youtube?) and we realized they were young squirrels who had likely fallen (hence the strange slow movements), and we also realized there was an additional dead body nearby. Poor dog couldn't figure out why we took her prey away. For the record, it was all I could do to keep hold of the leash until my screams brought the cavalry, especially since I thought they were mice.
Fabulous Boy
I've decided to add a few things to FB's line-up, which I'll detail in a bit. In phonics this week, we covered three lessons in OPGTR, did some review, did a lesson in the McGuffey's Primer (at his request), and he read a Bob book to me daily. I think I'm going to add in the cards from AAS for the vowels (he's started the short-e/short-i switching just like EG did) and digraphs. I'm also looking at Memoria Press's Classical Phonics and the Victory Drill Book to hopefully come at it from a slightly different angle. He's also doing Explode the Code, but just finished Lesson 6 in Book 1, so it's serving more as a review than covering new material.
We also covered four lessons in FLL and a week in WWE 1, plus two pages in HWT (and lots of practice). I think it's so interesting that 'everyone' says reading and writing skills shouldn't be linked, with the implication that it would be holding reading skills hostage to writing skills that are lagging. In FB's case, it would be the opposite. Besides, he's getting quite good at figuring out words in context, which isn't a horrible skill to have alongside phonics.
Among the books he read or had read to him this week: A Fish Out of Water, Miss Rumphius, The Snowy Day, Looking at Maps and Globes, several Bob books, Gilgamesh the King, The Revenge of Ishtar, The Last Quest of Gilgamesh, Oopsie Otter, and The Life and Work of Michelangelo Buanorotti.
FB finished through lesson sixty in Right Start A, which means he'll finish it the first full week of October. We'll probably take a week or two and do Miquon alone, and then continue with Right Start B. My goal is to be doing both daily (or, at minimum, each four days per week) by mid-November. I just love Miquon too much to give it up. :)
In history this week, FB read about the Assyrians. He seems to retaining history as well as I could expect from a five year old, so I'm pleased with that. In addition to the sections of SOTW, we read You Wouldn't Want to Be An Assyrian Soldier and in UBWH. He did one or two more experiments in the Colors lab (Spousal Unit helped with that), and the goal is to finish that kit (for now, anyway) over the weekend. FB continues to love his Oceanography class on Wednesday afternoons. This week they talked about fish anatomy.
We listened to the Classics for Kids episodes about Beethoven this week, and there was no Master's Academy. We also didn't explicitly add any new memory work, although FB did progress in poetry to the next poem, "The Swing," and in FLL, he worked on "Hearts Are Like Doors."
Eclectic Girl
EG seems to be thriving on her coursework this year. The big news is that she's officially on an every-six-week 'check-up' schedule for vision therapy, instead of hour-long sessions weekly. Hooray!
EG finished chapter three in LoF this week, and did some problems from Real World Algebra. She also went to a Math Circle meeting on Saturday morning, and continues to do, yes, more math in the evenings.
EG continued to work on her assignment for Essay Voyage, even though technically she has an additional week, since I staggered the starting weeks for it and Caesar's English II (they loosely correlate). She completed Lesson I in Caesar's English II, sentences five through eight in Practice Voyage, and together we read chapter five in World of Poetry. She attempted to craft some oxymorons and metaphors as instructed. It's actually pretty difficult to come up with new and unique ones, as the assignments directed! Once or twice, she'd come up with one that was, in fact, new to her, and I'd have to inform her that it was actually not, in fact, new and unique. She also read The Children's Homer and we discussed it.
EG continued reading about ancient mesopotamia this week, and wrote her summary on the gods and goddesses thereof. We had another issue with her injecting judgment into the summary, so we had to have two important clarifying conversations. The first, of course, is that just because people in the past (or in another part of the world) believe differently, it doesn't really state anything specific about their relative intelligence or sanity. The second was the difference between summarizing or reporting versus analyzing versus judging, at least as far as writing goes. I suspect the second one will require more repetition over the years than the first will. We also started working at refining her outlines. I'm glad she grasped the concept so quickly, so now it's time to make her outlines the best one-point outlines possible. ;)
EG wrapped up the fourth unit of PLATO life science and completed the remaining worksheets for the third unit. She also did three projects (she refuses to call them experiments; I don't entirely blame her) about various systems in the human body. In her history of science class, discussion centered around Eratosthenes.
She continues to work through chapter four of Latin Prep. There's not really much else to say.
Her online class for Critical Thinking 1 started this week. Last Friday afternoon was the orientation webinar, and she received her first assignments (read three sections, answer a poll online, post to the discussion board) to be completed before the first webinar today. She told me at dinner last night that she should "get back to doing Mind Benders, too" to "improve [her] logic skills." "You could even assign them to me, if you want," she added generously. In other words, she likes doing them, and wants an excuse to find time to do them. I won't tell her I figured that out, though.
She read a bit more in Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra and of course listened to the Classics for Kids episodes about Beethoven along with FB. No Master's Academy also meant no piano lesson, but trumpet went well, and band begins for the school year today. She also read about "Ancient Near Eastern Art" in Art and read chapter one in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.
In her spare time, she finished My Side of the Mountain and The Yearling, read more in the young readers' edition of The Omnivore's Dilemma, and started making lists and plans for our winter Disney trip. I think she also worked on a Girl Scout badge or two?
PC has managed to pee in the potty reliably about 60% of the time. She has yet to poop in the potty – she clearly has the idea but seems unwilling to sit for the necessary length of time. We'll keep working on it. Her verbal skills are improving rapidly lately, too; her pronunciation of FB's (actual) name has gotten so much clearer just in the last two days. If she knew I was writing this, she'd want me to mention that she doesn't really like being dragged hither and yon with her siblings, but she does put up with it.
Kash
Here's the $20,000 question in my mind: do we go for a house that is move-in ready, but more expensive, or buy a house that's cheaper where I could literally construct my dream kitchen (but, you know, be without a kitchen until it was done) and landscaping (ditto)? It's an academic question at this point, since we're still 4-5 weeks away from our house being on the market, but I think the answer to that question will necessarily eliminate some possibilities when we are looking, especially if we decide definitively against anywhere that needs more than paint.
Starbuck
Starbuck nearly had a feast on Labor Day. She and I came around the corner of the house to find a couple of rodent bodies. I initially thought they were mice (albeit with slightly fuzzy tails, but really, I didn't have time to run in and get Animal to check the species), and so we thought they had been poisoned. So then Spousal Unit and I had to work together to get her prey out of her mouth. I did the jaw-squeezing part, not the grasping the body part. Then SU did some research online (thank you, youtube?) and we realized they were young squirrels who had likely fallen (hence the strange slow movements), and we also realized there was an additional dead body nearby. Poor dog couldn't figure out why we took her prey away. For the record, it was all I could do to keep hold of the leash until my screams brought the cavalry, especially since I thought they were mice.
Fabulous Boy
I've decided to add a few things to FB's line-up, which I'll detail in a bit. In phonics this week, we covered three lessons in OPGTR, did some review, did a lesson in the McGuffey's Primer (at his request), and he read a Bob book to me daily. I think I'm going to add in the cards from AAS for the vowels (he's started the short-e/short-i switching just like EG did) and digraphs. I'm also looking at Memoria Press's Classical Phonics and the Victory Drill Book to hopefully come at it from a slightly different angle. He's also doing Explode the Code, but just finished Lesson 6 in Book 1, so it's serving more as a review than covering new material.
We also covered four lessons in FLL and a week in WWE 1, plus two pages in HWT (and lots of practice). I think it's so interesting that 'everyone' says reading and writing skills shouldn't be linked, with the implication that it would be holding reading skills hostage to writing skills that are lagging. In FB's case, it would be the opposite. Besides, he's getting quite good at figuring out words in context, which isn't a horrible skill to have alongside phonics.
Among the books he read or had read to him this week: A Fish Out of Water, Miss Rumphius, The Snowy Day, Looking at Maps and Globes, several Bob books, Gilgamesh the King, The Revenge of Ishtar, The Last Quest of Gilgamesh, Oopsie Otter, and The Life and Work of Michelangelo Buanorotti.
FB finished through lesson sixty in Right Start A, which means he'll finish it the first full week of October. We'll probably take a week or two and do Miquon alone, and then continue with Right Start B. My goal is to be doing both daily (or, at minimum, each four days per week) by mid-November. I just love Miquon too much to give it up. :)
In history this week, FB read about the Assyrians. He seems to retaining history as well as I could expect from a five year old, so I'm pleased with that. In addition to the sections of SOTW, we read You Wouldn't Want to Be An Assyrian Soldier and in UBWH. He did one or two more experiments in the Colors lab (Spousal Unit helped with that), and the goal is to finish that kit (for now, anyway) over the weekend. FB continues to love his Oceanography class on Wednesday afternoons. This week they talked about fish anatomy.
We listened to the Classics for Kids episodes about Beethoven this week, and there was no Master's Academy. We also didn't explicitly add any new memory work, although FB did progress in poetry to the next poem, "The Swing," and in FLL, he worked on "Hearts Are Like Doors."
Eclectic Girl
EG seems to be thriving on her coursework this year. The big news is that she's officially on an every-six-week 'check-up' schedule for vision therapy, instead of hour-long sessions weekly. Hooray!
EG finished chapter three in LoF this week, and did some problems from Real World Algebra. She also went to a Math Circle meeting on Saturday morning, and continues to do, yes, more math in the evenings.
EG continued to work on her assignment for Essay Voyage, even though technically she has an additional week, since I staggered the starting weeks for it and Caesar's English II (they loosely correlate). She completed Lesson I in Caesar's English II, sentences five through eight in Practice Voyage, and together we read chapter five in World of Poetry. She attempted to craft some oxymorons and metaphors as instructed. It's actually pretty difficult to come up with new and unique ones, as the assignments directed! Once or twice, she'd come up with one that was, in fact, new to her, and I'd have to inform her that it was actually not, in fact, new and unique. She also read The Children's Homer and we discussed it.
EG continued reading about ancient mesopotamia this week, and wrote her summary on the gods and goddesses thereof. We had another issue with her injecting judgment into the summary, so we had to have two important clarifying conversations. The first, of course, is that just because people in the past (or in another part of the world) believe differently, it doesn't really state anything specific about their relative intelligence or sanity. The second was the difference between summarizing or reporting versus analyzing versus judging, at least as far as writing goes. I suspect the second one will require more repetition over the years than the first will. We also started working at refining her outlines. I'm glad she grasped the concept so quickly, so now it's time to make her outlines the best one-point outlines possible. ;)
EG wrapped up the fourth unit of PLATO life science and completed the remaining worksheets for the third unit. She also did three projects (she refuses to call them experiments; I don't entirely blame her) about various systems in the human body. In her history of science class, discussion centered around Eratosthenes.
She continues to work through chapter four of Latin Prep. There's not really much else to say.
Her online class for Critical Thinking 1 started this week. Last Friday afternoon was the orientation webinar, and she received her first assignments (read three sections, answer a poll online, post to the discussion board) to be completed before the first webinar today. She told me at dinner last night that she should "get back to doing Mind Benders, too" to "improve [her] logic skills." "You could even assign them to me, if you want," she added generously. In other words, she likes doing them, and wants an excuse to find time to do them. I won't tell her I figured that out, though.
She read a bit more in Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra and of course listened to the Classics for Kids episodes about Beethoven along with FB. No Master's Academy also meant no piano lesson, but trumpet went well, and band begins for the school year today. She also read about "Ancient Near Eastern Art" in Art and read chapter one in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.
In her spare time, she finished My Side of the Mountain and The Yearling, read more in the young readers' edition of The Omnivore's Dilemma, and started making lists and plans for our winter Disney trip. I think she also worked on a Girl Scout badge or two?
3.9.10
Weekly Report: Week Six (days 024-028)
Fabulous Boy
Language Arts – FB did five lessons of FLL, including beginning to memorize another poem. He also completed Week Six of WWE 1, many pages in ETC, three lessons from OPGTR, and worked on 'o' and 's' from HWT. He read several Bob books, and listened to Chicken Little, The Mommy Book, van Gogh and the Sunflowers, Pet Show, The Winged Cat, Music, Music for Everyone, Oh Say Can You Say, Doctor DeSoto, Doctor DeSoto Goes to Africa, and Stellaluna. We also read some stories from McCaughrean's God's People, to tie in with his chapters in SOTW this week.
Arithmetic – FB worked through five lessons in Right Start A, and we read Pepper's Journal from the MathStart book series.
History – This week, FB covered chapters six and seven from SOTW 1. We read the stories of Abraham and Joseph, and learned about Hammurabi's Code. He did mapwork from each chapter, listened to the chapter about Hammurabi in Ten Kings and the World They Ruled, and read a few pages in UBWH.
Science – EG & the Spousal Unit helped FB complete an experiment from the Colors lab, we re-read What Makes A Shadow?, and played with the prism more. I think we'll try to finish up the Colors Little Lab in the next couple of weeks.
Fine Arts – FB continues to love Master's Academy. We all listened to the Classics for Kids shows on Bach & the Brandenburg Concertos during dinner. :)
Memory Work – FB is doing well with his memory work. This week, he added poem 14, level one from IEW's poetry program, as well as "Four Seasons of the Year."
EG & FB
Homeschool soccer started this week! EG has wanted to try soccer for a long time, but due to the general way soccer is set up around here, I had shied away from it since she was over, oh, age five. This is perfect – she gets a chance to play without so much competitiveness. FB is thrilled to run around outside for two hours with other kids. He also knew one of his teammates from Master's Academy.
Eclectic Girl
Language Arts – EG did the first four sentences in Practice Voyage this week, and we continued through World of Poetry with chapter four and its suggested activities. She also began Essay Voyage! I already loved the MCT curricula in general, but this book – oh, it's just wonderful. We read chapter one together, and EG started on one of the options at the end of the chapter.
Memory Work – EG added the Pythagorean Theorem, parts of a cell, her father's cell phone number, and poem 2.16 to her memory work this week.
Mathematics – EG worked through four lessons of Life of Fred and beat both levels of drill. She's started chapter four in Number Theory, but we did miss Math Olympiad this week in order to watch the agricultural commissioner debate. Oh, yes. We're that family, the one that had to make the hard decision between math geekery and scientific/political geekery.
Science – EG finished the third unit of PLATO Life Science, and half of the worksheets for it! Yay! She also read Eyewitness Seashore and Visual Dictionary of the Human Body, and is looking through Animal (which, by the way, ties in nicely with option one in chapter one of Essay Voyage).
History – EG has been steaming through her history work, so since she's ready for "week 8" and this is only "week 6," I had her concentrate on her assigned reading and a few more pages in her outlining workbook.
Latin – EG made good progress into chapter four of Latin Prep 1.
Fine Arts – More Master's Academy, of course. EG read about prehistoric art in Art and also read Susie Hodge's Prehistoric Art. She read a few pages in The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, then read and listened to all of The Young Person's Guide to Opera. She also read the Preface and the Introduction to Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.
Other Stuff – EG's trumpet lessons continue to go well. She seems to be really enjoying her History of Science course, and I mentioned homeschool soccer above. The exciting thing this week was the aforementioned debate for state agricultural commissioner. We had intended to attend in person, then found out that the event was expected to go into overflow rooms! Luckily, there was a simultaneous webcast, so after a few initial hiccups, we were good to go. I'm always a fan of the political process, and this debate was focused specifically on issues of sustainable agriculture. EG was enthralled, and at one point, she turned to me and said she wanted to go to the library and learn "everything there was" about it.
Purple Child
Time to use the toilet. She shows interest, she understands the concept, and most importantly, continuing to have her in diapers is detrimental to her skin. She has ugly red welts and blisters. It's clearly something digestive, but since she eats practically everything in existence, narrowing it down seems unlikely. In this case, it's going to be far easier to have her use the toilet, and then see if any other manifestations occur.
Starbuck
The dog's reprieve is over; she's getting clickered. Bwahahaha.
Language Arts – FB did five lessons of FLL, including beginning to memorize another poem. He also completed Week Six of WWE 1, many pages in ETC, three lessons from OPGTR, and worked on 'o' and 's' from HWT. He read several Bob books, and listened to Chicken Little, The Mommy Book, van Gogh and the Sunflowers, Pet Show, The Winged Cat, Music, Music for Everyone, Oh Say Can You Say, Doctor DeSoto, Doctor DeSoto Goes to Africa, and Stellaluna. We also read some stories from McCaughrean's God's People, to tie in with his chapters in SOTW this week.
Arithmetic – FB worked through five lessons in Right Start A, and we read Pepper's Journal from the MathStart book series.
History – This week, FB covered chapters six and seven from SOTW 1. We read the stories of Abraham and Joseph, and learned about Hammurabi's Code. He did mapwork from each chapter, listened to the chapter about Hammurabi in Ten Kings and the World They Ruled, and read a few pages in UBWH.
Science – EG & the Spousal Unit helped FB complete an experiment from the Colors lab, we re-read What Makes A Shadow?, and played with the prism more. I think we'll try to finish up the Colors Little Lab in the next couple of weeks.
Fine Arts – FB continues to love Master's Academy. We all listened to the Classics for Kids shows on Bach & the Brandenburg Concertos during dinner. :)
Memory Work – FB is doing well with his memory work. This week, he added poem 14, level one from IEW's poetry program, as well as "Four Seasons of the Year."
EG & FB
Homeschool soccer started this week! EG has wanted to try soccer for a long time, but due to the general way soccer is set up around here, I had shied away from it since she was over, oh, age five. This is perfect – she gets a chance to play without so much competitiveness. FB is thrilled to run around outside for two hours with other kids. He also knew one of his teammates from Master's Academy.
Eclectic Girl
Language Arts – EG did the first four sentences in Practice Voyage this week, and we continued through World of Poetry with chapter four and its suggested activities. She also began Essay Voyage! I already loved the MCT curricula in general, but this book – oh, it's just wonderful. We read chapter one together, and EG started on one of the options at the end of the chapter.
Memory Work – EG added the Pythagorean Theorem, parts of a cell, her father's cell phone number, and poem 2.16 to her memory work this week.
Mathematics – EG worked through four lessons of Life of Fred and beat both levels of drill. She's started chapter four in Number Theory, but we did miss Math Olympiad this week in order to watch the agricultural commissioner debate. Oh, yes. We're that family, the one that had to make the hard decision between math geekery and scientific/political geekery.
Science – EG finished the third unit of PLATO Life Science, and half of the worksheets for it! Yay! She also read Eyewitness Seashore and Visual Dictionary of the Human Body, and is looking through Animal (which, by the way, ties in nicely with option one in chapter one of Essay Voyage).
History – EG has been steaming through her history work, so since she's ready for "week 8" and this is only "week 6," I had her concentrate on her assigned reading and a few more pages in her outlining workbook.
Latin – EG made good progress into chapter four of Latin Prep 1.
Fine Arts – More Master's Academy, of course. EG read about prehistoric art in Art and also read Susie Hodge's Prehistoric Art. She read a few pages in The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, then read and listened to all of The Young Person's Guide to Opera. She also read the Preface and the Introduction to Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.
Other Stuff – EG's trumpet lessons continue to go well. She seems to be really enjoying her History of Science course, and I mentioned homeschool soccer above. The exciting thing this week was the aforementioned debate for state agricultural commissioner. We had intended to attend in person, then found out that the event was expected to go into overflow rooms! Luckily, there was a simultaneous webcast, so after a few initial hiccups, we were good to go. I'm always a fan of the political process, and this debate was focused specifically on issues of sustainable agriculture. EG was enthralled, and at one point, she turned to me and said she wanted to go to the library and learn "everything there was" about it.
Purple Child
Time to use the toilet. She shows interest, she understands the concept, and most importantly, continuing to have her in diapers is detrimental to her skin. She has ugly red welts and blisters. It's clearly something digestive, but since she eats practically everything in existence, narrowing it down seems unlikely. In this case, it's going to be far easier to have her use the toilet, and then see if any other manifestations occur.
Starbuck
The dog's reprieve is over; she's getting clickered. Bwahahaha.
31.8.10
I Can't Help It, It's a Disease
With the year happily underway, I know what it means.
It's time to start thinking ahead. Time to start thinking about... 2011-2012.
Yes, I just created the "Homeschool 1112" folder on my computer.
I know, I know. Some haven't even started the 2010-2011 school year! I spread out our buying throughout the year, though, which means that very soon, I'll need to have a plan in order to purchase.
There's some good news. I know what I plan to use for FB for language arts and mathematics. The only real prep work that will need to be done for him is with regards to science and history. I know we'll continue with SOTW, so that is simply a matter of getting the activity guide and beginning to select books. For science, we'll do life science/biology, as suggested in WTM, but I need to select our spines, any experiments or experiment kits, and supplemental books. For EG, I know what I plan to use for language arts, including about half of the literature list. I plan to have her tackle geometry next year, and I have two of the three resources I plan to use. I do need to choose her history supplements. We'll continue with Latin Prep, and the art & music appreciation plans that we began this year. I think we'll use The Snake and the Fox for logic. So far, so good, right?
There's a little matter of a class called biology. O, hai there, bane of my existence. She wants to do high school biology next year. She's capable of this. That's not at issue. It's just... well, advanced math is pretty easy. We just keep doing the next thing, whether it's the next thing from Art of Problem Solving or the next thing from Life of Fred, or both. The sciences have more leeway. There's the molecular focus, or the zoological focus, or the ecological focus, or... well, you get the idea. To make matters worse, I was a biology major. Why does that make it worse? Because, as a result, I think every single part of biology is Of The Utmost Importance.
You would think that the lack of secular science material would mean I have few options. In a sense, this is true. All of the options I have identified were originally designed for classroom use, not homeschool use. It will also be necessary to add a laboratory component to the course, whatever I choose. The LabPaqs look like a possibility. If I seem to be rambling, that's because I essentially am. This has me far more flummoxed than I would like!
There was a thread on out of the box chemistry on WTM the other day, and I have half a mind to post a thread about out of the box biology. Surely there's some resource out there for biology that's vaguely reminiscent of Fred or MCT or...
In sum, though, my major decisions for next year are few. Decide on first grade life science spines, experiments, and supplemental books; choose books to accompany SOTW 2; finish EG's literature list; choose remaining history supplements for EG; and pick a biology curriculum for EG.
Sure. No sweat.
It's time to start thinking ahead. Time to start thinking about... 2011-2012.
Yes, I just created the "Homeschool 1112" folder on my computer.
I know, I know. Some haven't even started the 2010-2011 school year! I spread out our buying throughout the year, though, which means that very soon, I'll need to have a plan in order to purchase.
There's some good news. I know what I plan to use for FB for language arts and mathematics. The only real prep work that will need to be done for him is with regards to science and history. I know we'll continue with SOTW, so that is simply a matter of getting the activity guide and beginning to select books. For science, we'll do life science/biology, as suggested in WTM, but I need to select our spines, any experiments or experiment kits, and supplemental books. For EG, I know what I plan to use for language arts, including about half of the literature list. I plan to have her tackle geometry next year, and I have two of the three resources I plan to use. I do need to choose her history supplements. We'll continue with Latin Prep, and the art & music appreciation plans that we began this year. I think we'll use The Snake and the Fox for logic. So far, so good, right?
There's a little matter of a class called biology. O, hai there, bane of my existence. She wants to do high school biology next year. She's capable of this. That's not at issue. It's just... well, advanced math is pretty easy. We just keep doing the next thing, whether it's the next thing from Art of Problem Solving or the next thing from Life of Fred, or both. The sciences have more leeway. There's the molecular focus, or the zoological focus, or the ecological focus, or... well, you get the idea. To make matters worse, I was a biology major. Why does that make it worse? Because, as a result, I think every single part of biology is Of The Utmost Importance.
You would think that the lack of secular science material would mean I have few options. In a sense, this is true. All of the options I have identified were originally designed for classroom use, not homeschool use. It will also be necessary to add a laboratory component to the course, whatever I choose. The LabPaqs look like a possibility. If I seem to be rambling, that's because I essentially am. This has me far more flummoxed than I would like!
There was a thread on out of the box chemistry on WTM the other day, and I have half a mind to post a thread about out of the box biology. Surely there's some resource out there for biology that's vaguely reminiscent of Fred or MCT or...
In sum, though, my major decisions for next year are few. Decide on first grade life science spines, experiments, and supplemental books; choose books to accompany SOTW 2; finish EG's literature list; choose remaining history supplements for EG; and pick a biology curriculum for EG.
Sure. No sweat.
27.8.10
Weekly Report: Week Five (days 019-023)
Since we're five weeks into the school year, I asked EG what her favorite thing about school this year was. She told me she "liked all of it." Not exactly the kind of specific answer I was looking for, so I asked a second question – what was her least favorite thing about school this year? She still couldn't pinpoint an answer. I assume that means that the schoolyear is going well.
EG finished up Grammar Voyage this week, and we read two chapters in A World of Poetry. She read Mara, Daughter of the Nile and the second Alanna book, plus she's still in the middle of The Yearling and continues to pick up The Complete Poems of Christina G. Rossetti and read a few poems at night or other times. This list of books is current as of our Thursday evening ride home from Math Olympiad, so who knows what she's reading by now. :)
EG's overall performance on the final three exercises for chapter three of Latin Prep was good. She did all of the translating from Latin to English 100% correct! She started on chapter four and also began learning the vocabulary from chapter five; I like for her to have mastered the vocabulary before she starts declining, conjugating, or otherwise manipulating it.
Four lessons of Life of Fred & one chapter in Real World Algebra this week, plus she did drill each day. Her one request was that rather than doing RWA once a week, I save it and schedule it for her between chapters of Fred. Easy enough.
In science, she's ploughing through the third unit of PLATO life science. If you've seen this, you'll understand my use of the word "ploughing." It's the unit with the most different segments, and each one covers an entire kingdom – plantae, fungi, you get the idea. She finished the worksheets from the second unit, and read another chapter in Science Matters.
History is going well. So far, I seem to have managed in the plans to strike a balance between covering the material and practicing skills versus overwhelming her with moremoremore books, content, and so forth. She's officially finished with ancient Egypt (that "officially" is important, since she's taken the books to her room; Egypt is a love all the time for her), and read this week about the transition between the Bronze Age and the Iron Age in Mesopotamia.
Master's Academy resumed this week! EG's piano lesson is now at MAFA in the mornings, along with a public speaking course. She has a thirty minute "study hall" between piano and public speaking, and then a forty-five minute lunch period before the afternoon MAFA program begins. She also finished the first section of Art, and started using The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music History (despite her dislike of the name) for music appreciation. This week's listening selection was Ankh: The Sound Of Ancient Egypt.
Together, the kids & I listened to the Classics for Kids segments on Telemann.
FB also had a good week. He was delighted to go back to Master's Academy, and didn't understand why he had to wait until the afternoon when Sissy got to go early! He has such a great time there and loves his teachers.
We covered three lessons in OPGTR and reviewed, for what feels like millionth time, ank-ink-onk-unk. Agh! He also completed a lesson in ETC and was happy that it moved on to the short /i/ sound. We also officially moved into the lowercase letter portion of his handwriting book.
He did five lessons in FLL and week five's work in WWE 1. Books read included Something Special for Me, Hana in the Time of the Tulips, Click, Clack, Moo, Puff the Magic Dragon, all library books he currently has checked out, The Golden Sandal, four stories in Tales from Ancient Egypt, and Casting the Gods Adrift. He also read several books to me this week.
In history, we read about Sargon and his empire. After doing the narration, coloring page, and mapwork, we also read two pages from UBWH, and You Wouldn't Want to Be A Sumerian Slave. For science, we re-read All the Colors of the Rainbow and completed another experiment from his Colors Little Lab.
In math, we finished four lessons, and he's working on adding tens. He loves to play Go to the Dump and Old Main. His overall grasp of math seems excellent, so I hope that continues to be the case.
EG finished up Grammar Voyage this week, and we read two chapters in A World of Poetry. She read Mara, Daughter of the Nile and the second Alanna book, plus she's still in the middle of The Yearling and continues to pick up The Complete Poems of Christina G. Rossetti and read a few poems at night or other times. This list of books is current as of our Thursday evening ride home from Math Olympiad, so who knows what she's reading by now. :)
EG's overall performance on the final three exercises for chapter three of Latin Prep was good. She did all of the translating from Latin to English 100% correct! She started on chapter four and also began learning the vocabulary from chapter five; I like for her to have mastered the vocabulary before she starts declining, conjugating, or otherwise manipulating it.
Four lessons of Life of Fred & one chapter in Real World Algebra this week, plus she did drill each day. Her one request was that rather than doing RWA once a week, I save it and schedule it for her between chapters of Fred. Easy enough.
In science, she's ploughing through the third unit of PLATO life science. If you've seen this, you'll understand my use of the word "ploughing." It's the unit with the most different segments, and each one covers an entire kingdom – plantae, fungi, you get the idea. She finished the worksheets from the second unit, and read another chapter in Science Matters.
History is going well. So far, I seem to have managed in the plans to strike a balance between covering the material and practicing skills versus overwhelming her with moremoremore books, content, and so forth. She's officially finished with ancient Egypt (that "officially" is important, since she's taken the books to her room; Egypt is a love all the time for her), and read this week about the transition between the Bronze Age and the Iron Age in Mesopotamia.
Master's Academy resumed this week! EG's piano lesson is now at MAFA in the mornings, along with a public speaking course. She has a thirty minute "study hall" between piano and public speaking, and then a forty-five minute lunch period before the afternoon MAFA program begins. She also finished the first section of Art, and started using The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music History (despite her dislike of the name) for music appreciation. This week's listening selection was Ankh: The Sound Of Ancient Egypt.
Together, the kids & I listened to the Classics for Kids segments on Telemann.
FB also had a good week. He was delighted to go back to Master's Academy, and didn't understand why he had to wait until the afternoon when Sissy got to go early! He has such a great time there and loves his teachers.
We covered three lessons in OPGTR and reviewed, for what feels like millionth time, ank-ink-onk-unk. Agh! He also completed a lesson in ETC and was happy that it moved on to the short /i/ sound. We also officially moved into the lowercase letter portion of his handwriting book.
He did five lessons in FLL and week five's work in WWE 1. Books read included Something Special for Me, Hana in the Time of the Tulips, Click, Clack, Moo, Puff the Magic Dragon, all library books he currently has checked out, The Golden Sandal, four stories in Tales from Ancient Egypt, and Casting the Gods Adrift. He also read several books to me this week.
In history, we read about Sargon and his empire. After doing the narration, coloring page, and mapwork, we also read two pages from UBWH, and You Wouldn't Want to Be A Sumerian Slave. For science, we re-read All the Colors of the Rainbow and completed another experiment from his Colors Little Lab.
In math, we finished four lessons, and he's working on adding tens. He loves to play Go to the Dump and Old Main. His overall grasp of math seems excellent, so I hope that continues to be the case.
26.8.10
Challenging the Gifted Learner
One of the common criticisms leveled at gifted programs administered through public schools is that, rather than challenging gifted students, they merely give them more work to do. The "smart kids" have finished their grammar worksheet? Never fear, here's another one! While homeschool parents usually manage to avoid the most egregious examples of this, in practice it can be difficult to challenge a gifted child without accidentally slipping into merely requiring more work.
Smrt Mama and I discussed this recently. While some skills do need practice and repetition (even for gifted students), it can be all too easy to throw content, content, and more content at a child. Despite my love for most of The Well-Trained Mind, at times I think SWB's recommendations with regard to history and literature can fall into that trap. And, of course, there is more knowledge in this world than any one person can master, so there is going to always be an idea for another subject or another area of study that could be added, in yet another attempt to challenge a student.
Ultimately, though, more work does not challenge a student intellectually; it merely challenges a student's time management skills. Challenging a student while maintaining an appropriate workload may require more work on the part of the parent-teacher. A gifted reader doesn't need to be required to read two, three, or four books in a short amount of time; a gifted reader needs a book with vocabulary, sentence structure, and content that will stretch him or her, without being developmentally inappropriate. A gifted writer does not need to write more essays, stories, or poems, but he or she does need to be challenged to improve the organization, clarity, and depth of the essays, to tighten the narrative of the stories, and to enhance the imagery and language used in the poetry. A gifted mathematician does not need to do sixty-four similar math problems instead of just sixteen or thirty-two, but he or she does need to see multiple ways of approaching the problem and thinking about math.
The challenge, as it ever is, is finding the appropriate resources and curricula to accomplish these goals. It is harder for the parent-teacher to go deeper and wider. Compression and additional work are far easier responses. While compression may at time be appropriate (one common example of this is First Language Lessons; many have shared their experience in covering the first two levels in just one school year, for instance), additional assignments rarely are. Additional work may approach the material from a different angle, require a slightly different set of skills, or increase understanding in some way; in these particulars, additional work may in fact be appropriate. In many cases, however, these benefits could possibly be acquired through a different approach, rather than merely through further assignments.
Some of the resources I have discovered and have either used or planned to use:
Michael Clay Thompson's language arts curriculum If you watch a video of this man speak, you can see that he really gets it. These materials are exceptional! I also cannot wait to see him speak in person next March – I'm planning to drive to Greenville for the chance to see him & Susan Wise Bauer in person.
Art of Problem Solving mathematics resources. AoPS publishes mathematics resources for approximately sixth grade and up, as well as providing online classes to correspond to the textbooks as well as classes to prepare for prestigious math contests. Also available from AoPS are a few resources for elementary-age students. We have two of their books so far (Introduction to Number Theory and Introduction to Counting & Probability), and plan to have EG participate in some of their online courses in the future.
TIP (Duke's Talent Search) store I am most familiar with TIP because we are in their geographical region; I'm sure other regional talent searches have similar resources. There is an in-depth study of Greek mythology available, as well as one for the Arthurian legends. Actually, I think all of it looks excellent; those are just two I plan to purchase for use later this school year.
What are your best resources for challenging students?
Smrt Mama and I discussed this recently. While some skills do need practice and repetition (even for gifted students), it can be all too easy to throw content, content, and more content at a child. Despite my love for most of The Well-Trained Mind, at times I think SWB's recommendations with regard to history and literature can fall into that trap. And, of course, there is more knowledge in this world than any one person can master, so there is going to always be an idea for another subject or another area of study that could be added, in yet another attempt to challenge a student.
Ultimately, though, more work does not challenge a student intellectually; it merely challenges a student's time management skills. Challenging a student while maintaining an appropriate workload may require more work on the part of the parent-teacher. A gifted reader doesn't need to be required to read two, three, or four books in a short amount of time; a gifted reader needs a book with vocabulary, sentence structure, and content that will stretch him or her, without being developmentally inappropriate. A gifted writer does not need to write more essays, stories, or poems, but he or she does need to be challenged to improve the organization, clarity, and depth of the essays, to tighten the narrative of the stories, and to enhance the imagery and language used in the poetry. A gifted mathematician does not need to do sixty-four similar math problems instead of just sixteen or thirty-two, but he or she does need to see multiple ways of approaching the problem and thinking about math.
The challenge, as it ever is, is finding the appropriate resources and curricula to accomplish these goals. It is harder for the parent-teacher to go deeper and wider. Compression and additional work are far easier responses. While compression may at time be appropriate (one common example of this is First Language Lessons; many have shared their experience in covering the first two levels in just one school year, for instance), additional assignments rarely are. Additional work may approach the material from a different angle, require a slightly different set of skills, or increase understanding in some way; in these particulars, additional work may in fact be appropriate. In many cases, however, these benefits could possibly be acquired through a different approach, rather than merely through further assignments.
Some of the resources I have discovered and have either used or planned to use:
Michael Clay Thompson's language arts curriculum If you watch a video of this man speak, you can see that he really gets it. These materials are exceptional! I also cannot wait to see him speak in person next March – I'm planning to drive to Greenville for the chance to see him & Susan Wise Bauer in person.
Art of Problem Solving mathematics resources. AoPS publishes mathematics resources for approximately sixth grade and up, as well as providing online classes to correspond to the textbooks as well as classes to prepare for prestigious math contests. Also available from AoPS are a few resources for elementary-age students. We have two of their books so far (Introduction to Number Theory and Introduction to Counting & Probability), and plan to have EG participate in some of their online courses in the future.
TIP (Duke's Talent Search) store I am most familiar with TIP because we are in their geographical region; I'm sure other regional talent searches have similar resources. There is an in-depth study of Greek mythology available, as well as one for the Arthurian legends. Actually, I think all of it looks excellent; those are just two I plan to purchase for use later this school year.
What are your best resources for challenging students?
24.8.10
Today was a lovely day of homeschooling, with regards to education, and I think that's instructive. So many components can go into a homeschool day, and the chances of getting all of the components to work in sync are, unfortunately, quite small.
What is a good day, educationally speaking? Today, it meant that EG completed her work within the assigned time parameters, with a good attitude, and did her work well. FB also completed his work with a good attitude and showed understanding. Both of them have time this afternoon or evening to work on science projects; EG is going to help FB with his, and later she'll work on her own. EG has a trumpet lesson this evening, and she's practiced for 20 minutes in preparation for that. She's also practiced piano and marked off a majority of the items on her "chore" checklist, which enumerates her responsibilities each day outside of the schoolroom.
A particular triumph today was that both children started a new poem for memory work yesterday, yet both were able to recite more than half of it by memory already this afternoon.
On the other hand, there's the "home" portion of homeschooling. There's also a toddler, but we'll get to her in a moment. I told Spousal Unit that today was pretty crappy, and when he asked what had happened, I simply said, "No. Literally." The cat left feces on the bed (she's mad at us about getting a dog), the dog had an accident in the living room, the toddler had an enormous diaper, and FB had a slight constipation issue (for the first time in a few months). There was, literally, a lot of crap in my day today. I forgot about a laundry in the washer (though I am thankful that my washer works - Heather, you have my sympathies, and I hope you found an adequate replacement today), and the table has a disturbing number of piles on it. Also, my internet at home went out most of the afternoon. Thank you, Mercury Retrograde. Not my finest "home" day.
Finally, of course, there's PC, who has been in a mood for several days (which also coincide with Mercury going retrograde, come to think of it). She's not sleeping well, which leads to a very grumpy girl. She's not explicitly in need of anything in particular, she's just plain grumpy.
To swing the pendulum back to the positive, I've read several good books in the last few days, and am reading another at present. I've read Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire, The Link, and Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, and am in the middle of Remarkable Creatures. I have more good books waiting.
Best of all, perhaps, is that tonight is Custard Night with my girls. <3
What is a good day, educationally speaking? Today, it meant that EG completed her work within the assigned time parameters, with a good attitude, and did her work well. FB also completed his work with a good attitude and showed understanding. Both of them have time this afternoon or evening to work on science projects; EG is going to help FB with his, and later she'll work on her own. EG has a trumpet lesson this evening, and she's practiced for 20 minutes in preparation for that. She's also practiced piano and marked off a majority of the items on her "chore" checklist, which enumerates her responsibilities each day outside of the schoolroom.
A particular triumph today was that both children started a new poem for memory work yesterday, yet both were able to recite more than half of it by memory already this afternoon.
On the other hand, there's the "home" portion of homeschooling. There's also a toddler, but we'll get to her in a moment. I told Spousal Unit that today was pretty crappy, and when he asked what had happened, I simply said, "No. Literally." The cat left feces on the bed (she's mad at us about getting a dog), the dog had an accident in the living room, the toddler had an enormous diaper, and FB had a slight constipation issue (for the first time in a few months). There was, literally, a lot of crap in my day today. I forgot about a laundry in the washer (though I am thankful that my washer works - Heather, you have my sympathies, and I hope you found an adequate replacement today), and the table has a disturbing number of piles on it. Also, my internet at home went out most of the afternoon. Thank you, Mercury Retrograde. Not my finest "home" day.
Finally, of course, there's PC, who has been in a mood for several days (which also coincide with Mercury going retrograde, come to think of it). She's not sleeping well, which leads to a very grumpy girl. She's not explicitly in need of anything in particular, she's just plain grumpy.
To swing the pendulum back to the positive, I've read several good books in the last few days, and am reading another at present. I've read Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire, The Link, and Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, and am in the middle of Remarkable Creatures. I have more good books waiting.
Best of all, perhaps, is that tonight is Custard Night with my girls. <3
