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.