Week in Review 12/8/2014-12/12/2014

We finished week 16 this week.  For some reason the days went really long this week.  N. wasn't goofing around or doing anything different.  I think most of it was just the work load was a little heavier due to many days with 2 science lessons and also finishing up his personal essay.

He did finish up his personal essay this week.  It was over 2 pages long and over 600 words.  He wrote about an event that impacted his life.  His writing has really improved over the years.  In fact this week as we read a poor example of a paragraph in the EIW student book he laughed at it and was surprised when I told him that he wrote just like that 2 years ago.  I then brought out an example to show him so he could see his  progress.  I think that pushed him to continue to improve.  He still needs to work on changing up word order, but he is getting there.  Here is a picture of his first page.

In World Geography he drew several maps, but I failed to get any pictures.  He watched videos on Bhutan and read about Tibet.  I love how this tied in perfectly with both the World Religion study and the Living Library.  In the Living Library box we are reading "God Spoke Tibetan".  In World Religions he is studying Buddhism.  He did some graphic organizers for the different schools of thought for Buddhism.  Later he had was excited that he was able to explain Nirvana to both his dad and sister.  It's not often that he knows more about a topic than they do.  He still needs to add some more details sometimes to his graphic organizer boxes.

In literature he is reading "Men of Iron" and was struggling to understand the book.  Finally at chapter 12 I decided to let him listen to the Librivox recording while her read.  This made a huge difference in his comprehension.  It added time to his day but it was worth it.  He did that for 2 days and then the Librivox website wouldn't work on the third day so he read it without the audio.  He said it was much easier to understand because he could hear the readers voice in his head now and knew how the accent/dialect was supposed to sound.  This is an adaptation he may need to use often in order to understand more challenging books. 

He continues to love Teaching Textbooks Geometry.  It is a very good fit for him.  He also is now in a good place with The Art of Argument book for Logic.

He is almost half way through the year and I feel like he is exactly where I want him to be as far as his skills. 

Week in review 12/1-12/5, 2014

Back to school this week after taking Thanksgiving week off.  We had a bit of a slow start since N. came down with a cold on Friday and wasn't feeling all that great Monday, but he did his entire school day. 

In World Religions he finished up Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus.  I will be honest and say it wasn't his favorite book.  I don't know why.  My dh and I both read it and found it very interesting.  He may have just struggled to understand it some and then he has a tendency to kind of shut down. This is something we have talked about and he is working on.  He had to answer questions at the end and it was a struggle because he hadn't paid as much attention to his reading as he should have.  This also served as a good life lesson about giving your best to something even if you don't love it.  He did end up realizing some things he learned from it that enabled him to understand Jesus better.

In World Geography he has been reading about the exploration of South America and surrounding islands.  He watched videos about the Amazon and read about Iguazu Falls.  I love how he reads about the discovery of these places and then visually gets to see them.  He made population,temperature and rainfall maps.

He then had to show a little bit of his true personality by perching on his vault while holding his paper.

He also drew a map of South America.

One of the activities he made was a star chart, but he hasn't had a chance to use it since it has been so cloudy here.  Once again he was being goofy for pictures.  I do love that school is enjoyable enough for him that he gets silly during the day.  I am so glad it isn't drudgery.  HOD truly does make it still fun.

In Science he and his dad did an experiment on electrolysis of water.  It didn't turn out quite how they expected, but there is a lesson to be learned in that also.

He and his dad continue to meet early on Saturday mornings to discuss the book Practical Happiness.  My dh was sharing with me today the things they discussed and he is very impressed with N.'s ability to discuss biblical things at a deeper level.  This time is highly valued by both of them. 

We just finished up listening to The Captive from the Living Library-wow what a great story.  The dramatic presentation is so well done.  As soon as we finished N. stated that he wanted to give it to his dad so he could listen to it in the car.

He just started reading Men of Iron for literature and so far that is going well.  He had to come prepared with a few notes to tell me things that stood out to him or were meaningful to him.  I had to remind him about taking the notes because he wanted to do it off the top of his head, but once he took notes he came up with some very good observations.

All his other subjects continue to go very well.  He is writing his personal essay for EIW and is now doing The Art of Argument for logic.  This book requires more essay type answers and he is growing into that skill now.  I love how skills just continue to get added and build on each other.

Week in review week of 11/10-11/14,2014

Week 13 finished this week and I don't have a lot to say because things are just going really well and N. is putting forth good effort in pretty much all of his subjects.

The big news is that he finished Level 7 dictation this week.  When he first started with HOD we started at a pretty low level of dictation and it took him about a year to really get in a groove with dictation, but now he does really well.  He is hoping to finish Level 8 by the end of this year, but I imagine if he doesn't he will want to finish it over the summer.

He was assigned a watercolor painting this week to depict how islands are really underwater mountains.  I think he misses the weekly history projects from the younger guides so he was pretty excited to do this painting.

In World Religions he continues to read Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus.  This week it had him do things such as searching his heart for unconfessed sin and then confessing and also seeking restoration with the people he sinned against if needed.  He also was challenged to not gossip or slander others.  We talked about how this was a timely challenge since he has a church youth group retreat this weekend and sometimes there is drama involved when a group of teens spend the weekend together. 

In World Geography he drew maps of Great Britain and Newfoundland which went well with his readings on John Cabot.  He continues to push himself with his written narrations.  This weeks was  around 381 words.

He continues to add things to his Book of Centuries.  He always colors the pictures, but often I label the timeline for him because it is challenging for him to write small.

He continues to do very well with Spanish.  In Logic he finished up the Fallacy Detective and will now move into The Art of Argument.  I think Logic is such a valuable course.  He is always commenting now on fallacies he sees in commercials.  He recognizes them in arguments also.

In EIW he has brainstormed and done a graphic organizer for his personal essay.  He told me again this week how much he likes this writing program. 

We will school this upcoming week and then take a week off for Thanksgiving.  As well as this year is going it still will be nice to take a week off.  Hopefully he won't loose any of his momentum.

Week in Review Week of 11/3-11/7, 2014

This week we finished up week 12.  Things continue to go smoothly.  He finished reading "Treasure Island" this week.  He really enjoyed this book.  At times he struggled to comprehend it, but his dad who was listening to it in the car said that he also had trouble following the action at times.  That made me feel better.  I think sometimes my expectations are too high.  I expect him to understand everything he reads with no issues and with the higher level literature I have to remember that in a classroom he would have a teacher helping him to dig into the story and truly understand it. When he finished the book we compared the ending with the endings in the 2 different movie versions he had watched.  Here is his last written narration from this book.

He enjoys the readings and the activities in Mapping the World with Art.  This week we played a game where he was the pirates and I was Spain and Portugal trying to get to various destinations to trade spices.

He continues to learn about the different types of maps and the different tools used for navigation through the different time periods.  He drew a compass rose this week.  I made a mistake and gave him the wrong type of paper and when he went to label his directions everything smeared.  He was a good enough sport about it to do another one on the right paper this time. 
Here he is drawing his first attempt and then the finished second attempt in his notebook.

We finished up the paragraph section in EIW and are starting the essay portion of the program.  I really like how the lessons are program up into manageable parts.

In science he is doing very well with the workbooks.  He continues to do the labs with his Dad, then he has to come explain to me what he learned. 

He loves Teaching Textbooks Geometry and I see his strengths in visual spatial skills really coming through as he works the problems. 

In his time outside of school he has 2 volunteer activities that he loves.  He goes to the Animal Shelter with me and he does whatever they ask.  Lately that has included helping with the laundry.  Animal Shelter laundry has to be some of the grossest laundry around, but he does it with a good attitude.  He is also the official carrier of heavy things while there.  The other volunteer activity he does is works the sound booth at our church on Sunday nights.  He loves doing this and I plan on adding an electronics elective either this summer or next year to see if that is an area he would like to pursue further.  I am a firm believer in getting teens involved in volunteer activities.  I have seen him mature in many ways due to these 2 things. 

Week in review 10/27-10/31, 2014

We  finished week 11 this week and things are still going well.  He tends to have 1 or 2 longer days where he works 6 1/2 hours, but then he usually has one day which is usually day 4 that goes shorter, more like 5 hours.  He never complains about the longer days, but he does enjoy the shorter day. 

This week he had several drawings to do.  He drew the Black Sea, Caspian Sea and Aural Sea one day.  He did a review map one day and he drew the Iberian Peninsula. He really works hard on all of these.  The review map is usually hard for him and he does end up looking back to remember how to draw the countries and where to label things.

He is really enjoying Treasure Island.  His written narrations continue to improve and contain high level vocabulary.  He now loves to see what challenging words he can put into his narrations.  I am now talking to him about making sure he borrows some of the words the author uses and also to make sure he doesn't use so many big words that it becomes cumbersome to read.  He was starting to get a little confused with what was occurring in Treasure Island so I let him watch the old 1950 Disney version.  This really helped him to picture the action as he read. 

In EIW this week he wrote 2 compare/contrast paragraphs.  What I have been doing is making him write one where he uses one of the given prompts, but then for the second one I give him a prompt that I know will excite him.  He usually writes a much better paragraph if it is something that interests him.  He has just recently watched the new Karate Kid movie and all 3 of the old Karate Kid movies so I let him do a compare/contrast paragraph comparing Mr Miyagi in the old movies and Mr. Han the trainer in the new movie.  What I love is that writing is no longer a burden for him.  He actually enjoys it.  I never thought that would happen.

He continues to read "Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus".  This week we had a good conversation about Jewish blessings.   We want tend to think in terms of bless me, instead of bless the Lord for all He has done.  He then wrote his own blessing, emphasizing God's power and goodness. 

We finished up "A Silk Road Pilgrimage" in the living library and have now started "Where Am I?".  This looks like it will be a very informative book that will back up things he has already read and prepare him for future readings in "A Book of Discovery".  I love that often times he gets similar information from 2 different sources.  It really helps to cement the learning.

He continues to move along in Teaching Textbooks Geometry and I think what he has learned in Logic is actually helping as he thinks through the proofs.  This program is working well for him so far.

I think I have mentioned he is also earning a 1/2 credit in Musical Theater.  As part of that credit we watch a different musical each week.  This week was "Hello Dolly", which he loved, but the fun part came when Louis Armstrong came on the screen.  N. had studied him in I think MTMM and loved learning about him.  So the minute he came on the TV N. immediately recognized him and was so excited that he knew who he was and enjoyed the scene that much more.  I just love that HOD introduces him to so many things that I never would think of on my own.   I also love that my 15 year old son isn't "too cool" to show how excited he is over something like that.  I really do think that is a benefit of homeschooling. 

Week in Review 10/13-17,2014

Week 9 was finished this week so that means we are 1/4 way through the guide!  I can honestly say I am very pleased with the WG guide and with how N. is progressing each week.  I feel he is being challenged in so many important skills and he is also enjoying what he is learning and applying it to every day life.  Not sure there is anything more I could ask for.

He enjoys his bible time so much that he always does it first.  What a great way to start his day and what a wonderful habit to get in to.  He and his Dad continue to go out on Saturday mornings for their time to discuss "Practical Happiness".  They both really look forward to this time together and my ds is being challenged to grow in his faith and learn to be content in Christ. 

He continues along in Logic and this week as I was telling him about an "argument" 2 friends of ours were having on facebook he was quickly able to point out that one of the points was a generalization fallacy!  He has also picked out fallacies in some of the political ads.  I love that he is learning this skill.  In our world he is going to really need it. 

In Literature he is reading "Treasure Island" and he loves it!  We did watch the Muppets version of Treasure Island before he started reading the book.  This seems to really help him paint a picture in his head as he reads.  He loves to draw comparison's between the movie and the book.  I just love that he is actually enjoying reading literature.

He wrote 2 descriptive paragraphs this week.  One he did describing the steps of a parkour move that he does and the other one describing a Dairy Queen Blizzard.  For several years I have had a goal of getting him to use more mature vocabulary words in his writing.  We have done multiple vocabulary programs, I have tried to get him to increase his vocabulary in every day conversation, and we have talked about it over and over, and yet he has still really struggled with vocabulary in general, but especially in his writing.  Well I don't know what happened, but the light bulb has gone off and suddenly he is motivated to use more complex words in his writing.  It started with his Blizzard description where he talked about it cooling his innards.  That made me laugh out loud. 

His use of vocabulary continued with his written narration.  He sat with his Ipad Thesaurus app and he would type what he wanted to say and then would use the app to find more descriptive replacement words.  He actually enjoyed doing it and couldn't wait to show me his narration.  It was on Iceland.  There are still some grammar and punctuation issues, but I wasn't going to dim his enthusiasm for his narration, by picking it apart too much.  I have learned that will shut him down.  Right now he is pushing himself to do better each time so I am going to just give minimal suggestions each week and see how that goes. 

One of his World Geography projects was a Viking board game.  This was a fun break in the afternoon for both he and I.

I love the blend of the resources in the World Geography boxes.  He started out having difficulty with A Book of Discovery, but as he gets further into the book he is enjoying it more and more.  I love how the other books, which are easier reads, complement A Book of Discovery so well.  He also really enjoys the DVD's.  I have to admit to watching those with him, even though it is an Independent box. They are a great addition to the readings and really give strong visuals to the places he is reading about. 

He is moving right along in dictation and if all goes well  he will finish level 7 around Thanksgiving.
He types his dictations and this works our well for him.

I posted one of these on my facebook page this week and commented how much I love being this young man's teacher.  I never thought I would enjoy teaching him high school, but thanks to HOD we truly are having an enjoyable year.  I love watching him grow and mature into the man God would have him become.  It is such a privilege to spend as much time with him as I do.

Week in review 10/6-10/10, 2014

This week went really well as we finished week 8 in the WG guide.  I see him maturing each week in taking responsibility for his schooling.  A perfect example of this is that on Tuesdays he has his parkour class in the middle of the day.  He gets up early and starts school a 1/2 hour earlier on this day and works straight thru until 12. On other week days he works only until 11 and then eats lunch.  This week he also was going somewhere with our church youth pastor and a few kids later in the afternoon on Tuesday so he knew it was going to be tough to get all his school done.  He looked ahead in the guide and saw that 2 science lessons were scheduled for Tuesday and only 1 on Wednesday so he asked permission to move one of Tuesdays to Wednesday.  I love that he is thinking ahead and planning out how best to accomplish his work.  This is a skill that will be essential in college.

In science he continues to plug away.  He says he likes it, but it is hard.  He tends to miss the questions that require more application or thinking so he is working on improving in that area. He also sometimes just gets careless in finding the answers to the questions so that is another area I would like to see him improve in.
I really like this science curriculum.  I think it is thorough and delivers lots of information in an enjoyable way. 

He continues to really like Spanish.  He does his lesson and then he either does oral practice with me for around 10 minutes or he uses a flash card app on the Ipad to practice his words.  I don't often show his handwriting because I don't want his intelligence judged by the quality of his handwriting. However I think it can also be helpful in showing what dysgraphic handwriting can look like and it makes it very obvious why I allow him to type most of his things.

In World Geography he made a T-O map.  He had to use a compass for this and that is still pretty tough for him to do.  I think he was so focused on that activity that he did draw a permanent line over one that was supposed to get erased. 

He also drew the Arabian Peninsula and  did a review worksheet that contained smaller versions of all the maps he has done before.  He was supposed to do that without looking.  His memory issues made this pretty impossible so I did let him look back at the maps. Here he is concentrating on the video for drawing the Arabian Peninsula. 

In World Religions he has started the book "Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus".  He is finding it interesting and we have had some good conversations already.  He made a chart that outlines some of the differences between a traditional Jewish viewpoint and a modern Jewish viewpoint.  I found it interesting because I remember many years ago having a conversation with a Jewish friend about some of these same differences.

Week in review 9/29-10/3, 2014

N. finished week 7 in the World Geography guide.  He seems to just be rolling along in most subjects.

He had 2 science projects this week which he did at night with my dh.  This one involved work and power and he looked at those with ramps of different heights.  I like how he has to work some calculations as he does these labs. My dh always has him come to me after he is done and he orally tells me his conclusion and answers any questions I might ask about his explanation.  This way we can see if he really understood the concepts.

Logic is going better now that he doesn't feel as much pressure to get them all right.  When we discuss them I can tell he understands why it's a fallacy, he just might not know exactly which fallacy it is.

He started TT Geometry this week and he loves it.  He is very strong in the area of visual spatial relationships so Geometry should fit him very well.  He has learned about Deductive and Inductive reasoning and is able to tell valid reasoning from invalid.  I think doing Logic at the same time as Geometry will work well for him.

He struggled with his written narration again this week.  So I just continue to work with him and teach him what I expect.  A World of Discovery is just really tough for him to do an oral narration or a written narration from.  I am hoping it gets better as he goes along in the book.  EIW though is going very well.  He wrote a nice persuasive paragraph this week.  

In World Geography and Cultures he drew Italy and The Holy Lands this week.

In World Religions he finished Mimosa and ended up really liking it.  He had questions to answer at the end and did a pretty good job.  Still working on getting longer answers out of him.  He is a guy of few words.  He did these on a template I made so that he could type the answers and then just glue them into the notebook.

This week we were talking about all the HOD guides and I asked him what was his favorite and he answered Preparing Hearts, as he always does, but he then said that this was a good guide also and that it made high school much better than he thought it was going to be.  I loved hearing him say that.  I think he had been dreading high school and had always wondered if he would enjoy it at all.  He knew it was going to be a lot of work and that there would be some subjects he would have to really work at.  I love that he feels like he can accomplish what is required of him.  When you have a dc that has some learning challenges you always fear that at some point they will just get too discouraged and quit trying.  I love that HOD makes it where he feels like he can do this thing called high school. 

Week in review 9/22-9/26,2014

Another week completed in the World Geography guide and N. continues to rise to the challenge of this guide.  I have talked about some of his areas of struggle, but one area I am seeing growth in is in his diligence to task.  A few weeks ago we talked about giving his full effort and I truly feel like in almost every area he is doing that now. 

The big improvement this week was in his written narration.  He spent at least 1 hour and 15 minutes doing this one, but he put some of his personality in it and really tried to use sentences with more varied vocabulary and more descriptive words.  It still isn't perfect but it is a big improvement.

He is now doing paragraph writing in Essentials in Writing and I think that is helping to remind him of what good writing should look like.  He did this expository paragraph this week.

He is back to BJU lit and I will say it is still a struggle.  On certain days he is supposed to write the answers to the end of the story questions instead of just discussing them.  I tried to have him do that this week and he just couldn't.  If I discuss the questions with him and give him some feedback on his answers he can eventually come close to what the guide is looking for or at least he gives an answer that makes sense, but to sit down and write the answers without the feedback at this point is just too hard.  He has always struggled with making a connection with excepts of stories.  He does much better with full length novels where he can develop a relationship with the characters.  This is a skill we will keep working towards.

He was thrilled this week to finish TT Algebra 1 and we have now started TT Geometry.  We will continue to add in some Algebra I review sheets so that he doesn't forget everything he learned.

He was supposed to make a star chart this week for the World Geography.  He did about 1/3rd of it before his hand just wore out so I helped him some. He decided that using the Ipad app was much easier :).

He is finishing up Mimosoa for World Religions and we have had some conversations about the trials she endured.  He is doing bookmark questions for this book and I have enjoyed seeing how his answers are more thoughtful this year than they were last year.

For his PE elective he continues to go to his B.E.A.S.T class.  This has been great for him in so many ways.  Here he is practicing a new trick called a flyaway back flip.  It just amazes me he can do this.

Week in review 9/15-9/19, 2014

This week we finished week 5 of the World Geography guide.  I really like how this guide is put together.  I like the alternating of the lit books with the BJU book.  He finished A Christmas Carol and went back to BJU lit and found that he actually did a better job of answering the questions than he did when we fist started back to school.  I think by reading A Christmas Carol he got tuned in to noticing details that he wasn't noticing before.  I thought he did a good job on his last written narration for A Christmas Carol.

In Science he had 2 labs to do that he did at night with his dad.  The first one was a to scale model of the solar system so he could look at how to calculate large measurements.  They went to the most open place they could find, but still couldn't fit the last 2 planets. Here he is showing Mercury from the Sun

 

 

Here is Jupiter to the Sun which you can see in the distance.

Here is Saturn to the Sun and the Sun is the way far off tree

The other experiment they did involved motion and forces.  It was a much easier set up.

One highlight of the year for N. is the Practical Happiness book.  He reads it on day 4 and annotates it and then he and his dad go somewhere early Saturday morning to discuss it.  They are really enjoying this time together and my dh says N. is really doing a good job discussing it.  I love that they are getting this time to discuss things that matter.

In World Geography N. did a few different activities discussing latitude and longitude and this also gave him practice with a compass and a protractor.

Here he is drawing lines of longitude on an egg so he can see that the center one looks straight until he turns the egg slightly and that same line then curves.  This wasn't the easiest task to do with shaky hands, but he kept his sense of humor about it.

In World Religions and Cultures he is reading "Mimosa", about a woman who heard very little of the gospel message,but managed to still hold on to a belief in an all powerful loving God, despite living in India in a Hindu family. She has tragedy after tragedy occur and yet still believes.  What an example this has been for N.  A few times he has come out and asked me a question to make sure he is understanding it right. It seems so hard to believe all that happened to her and yet she still has faith. Given the events occurring in the world right now this study could not have come at a better time.  He is reading about what it takes to stand firm in your faith when people all around you are trying to get you to change your mind and denounce God.  That kind of faith is becoming very real to him. 

He was struggling with Logic, but now that I know it matters more if he is giving his best effort and if he understands the concepts than if he gets all the questions right I think it will be more enjoyable for him.

He is loving Getting Started with Spanish and was very excited to hear someone speaking Spanish to their son in the store and he was able to understand a few words.

Our days are full and he it is a challenging program, but I see him grow in independence and maturity each week. 

Week in review for Septermber 8-12, 2014

We finished week 4 of the World Geography guide-so hard to believe we have been at school for a month already.  Overall this week was the smoothest yet. 

In science he is enjoying the study, and I think learning quite a bit.  The days with 2 lessons do make for long days though and I am having to challenge him to not slack off when he gets to the last page of questions.  For science labs there is no way he can do them independently due to his hand tremors.  What works best is if he does them that night or the night before with his dad.  He doesn't mind this because, although he has to do work at night, his day ends up shorter.

He is really enjoying the World Religions and Cultures Study.  We have neighbors that are Hindu so he was pretty interested in the reading he did this week about the Hindu religion.  I am very glad that I made notebook page templates for him because then he can type right on the charts and glue them in.

In World Geography he made a cuneiform map.  He made his wedges too big so he was laughing at how few things he could fit on his map. 

He did 2 drawings this week, the Nile River, and Greece.  He likes the drawings.  He doesn't love the video instruction because he says she doesn't get excited enough.  I think years of listening to Diana Waring has spoiled him.

The one bump in the road for him right now is written narrations for history.  He has taken several steps backwards in the quality of his narrations.  I am not sure why.  He is using very few descriptive words and even though they are 3 paragraphs long they are only around 10 sentences.  We had a long talk this week about it and about the difference between trying, trying hard and giving our best effort.  After giving a visual demonstration of this for him he seems to understand and hopefully this week will do better.  The goal is to just see progress in that direction.  I have a feeling this make take a few months to get him back to nicer narrations. 

He is really enjoying A Christmas Carol and his written narration for this was better and did have more description in it.  He has never done a written narration from a literature book so I was pleased with his first effort.

The only other subject he is struggling with is Logic.  I started a notebook of the fallacies for him and now I am encouraging him to continue writing them down as he learns them.  This seemed to help when he did the exercises this week.