Week in Review 1/11-1/15,2016

We finished another week of the WH guide.  N. had one day where he struggled just overall in all subjects.  I know he was tired that day and because of his CP this seems to affect him more than it would most kids his age. 

He finished up a project in Total Health this week. It was a mental health project and he chose one that was at the end of the chapter on self image.  He chose to memorize 3 bible verses that related to helping him keep a self image that is centered around who he is in God and qualities that God desires to build up in him.  He picked pretty short verses, but I was ok with that. Since he is not neurotypical, he has battled some self esteem issues. The verses he picked are verses that are very applicable to his life.  He then recited them for me. Here is a picture of him right after he told them to me.  You will note all the exercise equipment and vault in the picture-yes my living room is his gym during the winter months.

He continues with his Art History and each week he has to answer short answer questions as well as do a "writing project", which is really just a paragraph in answer to a question.  This week he was asking "why he had to write in art?".  After we discussed the negative attitude I told him because writing wasn't just for history or English, that he will be asked to write in all subjects in college.  I do like how this year he does have writing assignments in almost all subjects.  It is very good practice for future assignments.  The short answer questions can actually be very challenging.  They often require some thought.  Some of them are written in a way that requires some inference.  He has always struggled with that, but I see some improvements this year.

In history he had to read several primary source documents about the peasant revolt that occurred during the time of Martin Luther and he had to decide if Martin Luther was guilty of inciting the peasants to revolt and then ordering them to be killed.  He also had specific questions to answer about the reading and he has to go back and highlight things in the text that support his verdict.  When he and I discussed what he was going to say for his verdict he gave such a good answer, but then when he put it on paper it was very simplified.  That happens often and it is frustrating.  I did not make him fix it because I use things as a baseline to be able to see if he is showing improvement in an area.

In Math he continues to do very well with TT Algebra 2 and I see some pretty deep thinking going on as he figures out how to solve the problems. 

In literature he continues to read The Scarlet Pimpernel and says he enjoys it.  We started watching the 1982 movie and while it is a good movie, it is very different from the book.

Week in Review 1/4-1/8/2016

This was our first week back after break and I think N. handled it better than I did.  He hit the ground running and actually jumped back in pretty well.  We finished week 18 of the World History guide. 

In history he finished up learning about Joan of Arc from a few different sources.  He learned about various aspects of the Middle Ages and since he has such a good foundation in this time period due to RTR he was able to build on that core knowledge and think about things from a deeper perspective.  He had 2 You Are There assignments this week. One was on the burning of Joan of Arc and another was on the Trial of Savonarola.  These are one of the hardest assignments in the guide for him.  He listens to the audio and takes notes about each person in the event.  He is to list things they did, words they said, and decisions they made.  If I think there is something key that he is missing I will pause it and wait to see if he comes up with it.  One thing I am learning is that he is a slower processor than some so I need to give him time to process what he has heard.  Often if I do that he will come up with some insight or good answers, but if I jump in or seem in a hurry he will just tell me the first thing that comes to his mind and often that is more superficial.  The most challenging part is forming his opinion at the end.  Sometimes it is hard to figure out what we are supposed to form an opinion on.  I'm not sure we always figure that out correctly.  What I focus on though is as he gives his opinion I want him to focus on backing up what his opinion is and he needs to use details from the audio.  This is a learning process. 

He continues to make entries in his Book of Centuries.  This is a useful tool to keep track of what all was going on in a certain point in history.

One assignment he has in history each week is talking points about his reading.  It is always interesting to see what he finds interesting or significant.  It is often not what I would have picked out, but he tells me why he found it interesting and that gives me insight in to what he values and how he thinks. 

In Bible he finished up memorizing the 10 commandments.  He found a video with hand gestures that helped him with this so here he is showing do not steal.

In Fine Arts he studied Coubet.  He had to write answers to 2 of the questions in his Art notebook.  The questions this week were easier and required less writing than usual.  He is getting better about pulling out the essential information from the readings.  I always label the paintings for him.  He criticized Coubet's imagination in naming his paintings as he read out loud to me the title "Self portrait with a black dog". 

In Literature he is reading The Scarlet Pimpernel.  I absolutely love this book and I am willingly reading it again as he reads it.  I love the written narrations that go along with the lit this year.  I love that they guide him in to thinking about things that he probably wouldn't have thought about such as why Percy and Marguerite got married.  He usually finds the literature narrations easier and I think this is because he is so relational and therefore he relates to the characters.  I never would be able to come up with these things on my own so I am thankful for all the guidance Carrie gives in the guide.

I asked him again this week how he likes this guide and he said he enjoys it.  There are parts he likes more than others, but overall he finds it very interesting.  I asked him if he feels like it is too much work and he said no not really.  Science is the only subject where he might complain about the number of questions, but I know that is due to how hard it is for him to write all the answers.  If I sense he is getting weary I will come along at the end of his lesson and scribe for him.  Overall this guide continues to impress me and I feel like it is an appropriate amount of work for a high schooler.  We don't have big lengthy discussions, but he would hate it if we did.  He will initiate discussions about the lit even on days that aren't discussion days.  I know if I tried to force these discussions I would not get could information and I would probably kill his love for learning.  Since he is a slower processor letting him process and discuss as he feels led works much better.  We also have good discussions at other times other than school that come directly from his bible study or other things he has done in school.