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.