Week in Review 10/19-10/23,2015

This is actually 2 weeks in review.  Since things are just going along fairly smoothly I don't have much to say and I don't take many pictures.  I guess that is a good thing.

N. just finished week 10 in the guide.  There continue to be new types of assignments, usually these are a step up in the level of challenge.  Last week he had a Critical Thinking Using Primary Source Documents assignment.  He had several primary source documents to read about Caesar Augustus and he had to then decide a mock trial verdict of guilty or innocence of the accusations against him.  He also had several questions to answer.  This was a tough assignment and another one I hope to see growth in as the year goes on. 

He also had another You Are There assignment on the Last Days of Pompeii.  I always listen to these with him since I then scribe his notes into the notebook.  We both agreed this one was pretty chilling.  This one was harder to hear than the others so I think he struggled more with it.  He also had to give a topic oral narration and previously the topics have been listed in the guide.  This time he had to come up with the topics.  He thought it was going to be too hard and we had to discuss attitude a bit, but then he did it and did fine with it.  He also had some quotes from the book In Context that he was asked to answer some questions on, that were designed to have him make connections with his belief's or other knowledge.

He continues working on his Art History notebook.  Almost every week there is a writing assignment.  These seem to be difficult for him.  He struggles to pull in lots of details and wants to give very general answers.  We are working on that.

He is enjoying the Pilgrim's Progress Study.  This picture is grainy, but it shows how intensely he is focusing as he listens and follows along in the text.  We have had some really good discussions with the discussion questions that the guide directs us to do together.

Last weekend our church did a service project for Hands Against Hunger.  Around 100 of us went and packed 45,000 meals to go to Sierra Leon.  N. was at a table of teens, many of whom are homeschooled, and they worked very hard to get all their meals packed.  It was pretty amazing to see 4 year old up to 70+ year old working side by side.  N. was rocking his hairnet.

Week in Review week of 10/5-10/9,2015

We had another good week this week.  He had one or two long days, of around 7 hours of work, but mostly his days are 6-6 1/2 hours of work.  He doesn't complain about the long days, he just keeps plugging away.  We only do school 4 days a week so that leaves the 5th day for co-op and volunteering at the animal shelter and this week his Dad took him back up to the gym run by Michelle Warnke of American Ninja Warrior fame.  I say all this to make sure people know that even though the days are full he still has plenty of time to pursue his passions.

This week he finished reading Julius Caesar and really enjoyed it.  I love that at the same time the history tied in with the death of Julius Caesar, so one day after he finished the book he then listened to the "You Are There:The death of Julius Caesar".  It was very interesting for him to see where Shakespeare  took some liberties with the actual events.  At the end of each lit novel he has to complete a Plot diagram.  I knew I would get more complete answers if I let him dictate to me the answers.  He just goes down through each number and answers it out loud while I dictate exactly what he says.  It amazes me how much he remembers and how well he draws conclusions.  I love that the guide includes an answer key for this assignment, so it makes it easy to check it.

He also had to do a written narration this week for literature where he was to contrast the Roman view of suicide as presented in the book and the Christian view of suicide as presented in the bible.  Carrie gave him some bible verses to look up.  This is definitely a different type of written narration, but I felt like he did a pretty good job with it.  The work he has done in EIW and other writing programs definitely helped him know how to tackle this.

He continues to enjoy the history reading.  He started a new book called In Context this week and he found those stories very interesting as well.  I try to catch a picture of him reading without him knowing it, but it never works as evidenced by his grin in the first picture.

He took a Science test this week and he is figuring out that open book tests aren't as easy as they seem.  Since I know my daughter takes many open book tests in college I think this is a good skill for him to learn.

One more funny story from this week is that on day 1 in Art History he finally had the video by Mr. Stebbing scheduled again, it has been several weeks since he has had that as an assignment.  It was pretty funny to see him clapping when Mr. Stebbing appeared on his computer screen.  I sure wish he was giving one of his seminars in our state, because that would thrill N.

And here is just a video of him pursuing his passion for all things Parkour and American Ninja Warrior.

Week in review for the week of 9/28-10/2/2015

I only took 2 pictures this week so this will be a short week in review.  N. finished week 7 this week and he had a few days that ran pretty long due to the additon of the You Are There listening assignments.

A typical day has consisted of around 6-6 1/2 hours of work up until this week.  Day 1 of this week he worked for 7 1/2 hours and day 2 was around 7 hours of work which doesn't include his lunch break.  He was pretty exhausted.  He had a "You Are There" listening assignment every day this week and they seem to add time to the day.  These can be challenging.  I had been told that some of them are hard to hear.  We dealt with that by plugging in a USB speaker to the lap top.  This has worked very well.  Due to his dysgraphia he is unable to take notes in his notebook while listening so he takes them on a piece of paper and then I later scribe them into his notebook while he is formulating and typing his opinion paragraph.  This system has worked well.  He is still struggling some with doing a more detailed and in depth opinion paragraph.  The first one he did this week was a difficult one to figure out what he was supposed to form an opinion on, but the other 3 were easier to figure out.  

He and I are doing the Living Library and we finished Cyrus the Persian which was fantastic and gave me a much deeper understanding of this time period.  We then started reading "A Sparrow Alone".  We have been splitting the readings.  I read about half out loud and then he reads the rest on his own and gives the book back to me so I can read the rest to myself.  I have to admit with this book it has been hard for me not to read ahead. The living library is optional, but honestly I just can't imagine skipping it.  It brings so much depth to the study and makes it much more memorable.  I will admit that I have been having him only do the literary synthesis sheet on every other book and since this week the days were going so long we have been discussing the information orally instead of filling it out. 

In lit he is entrenched in Julius Caesar.  We watched most of the film that stars Marlon Brando.  That seems to have helped his comprehension and enjoyment of the book.  He continues with his lit journal assignments.

He also watched his first true dissecting videos for Biology this week.  I am impressed with how clearly you can really see what is being dissected.  This makes the videos very worthwhile.  Even though he could never do a real life dissection, he handled the virtual ones very well.  I have done many dissections in my time and I feel the video ones are just as beneficial as the in person ones. 

That is our week in a nutshell.  He continues to enjoy this guide and I feel he is learning beneficial skills that will certainly help him in future years.