Weekly update for the Week of 8/26/13

This was our 2nd week of MTMM.  I like to be very candid on this blog so I will say the first few days of this week were a little rough.

It started when N. had difficulty with his oral narration from Rescue and Redeem.  He was back to a very general summary instead of a detailed oral narration.  He only used 3 of the key words he was supposed to use.  He and I talked about it and I made it clear what my expectations were.  I don't expect him to use all the words, but he needs to use more than 3! He also struggled in his other subjects and I felt like he was not giving me 100%.  He was getting the work done, but not doing his best work.  We had several conversations about that.  I really think some of it is the age and some of it is being a boy, however as I pointed out to him the Bible is clear that we are to do all things to the glory of the One who made us.  The third day he turned a corner.  Day 3 and 4 were fantastic days. He put his full effort into everything he did.

For his science experiment this week we had the pleasure of having the principal (Dad) home to help with the experiments since they involved fire and chemicals and those thing make me a little nervous.  This is an Independent box, but tremors and chemicals don't go together very well so often we are N's hands and he tells us what to do.

He used the PDF expert app on his Ipad again to type his science experiment and it worked out well.  His experiment didn't work out as expected so he was able to figure out why that might be.

He studied Hudson Taylor this week so his history project was a scroll or in our case a wall hanging that had the word Christian painted in Chinese.

His written narration was also on Hudson Taylor.  I was a little worried about how he would do since the reading was once again in Rescue and Redeem, but he did a great job.

His Worthy Words document this week was a letter by Hudson Taylor about spiritual issues.  This is right up N's alley and we actually were able to have a pretty good Socratic discussion. 

He finished up Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra and started Teaching Textbooks Algebra.  I plan on supplementing this with some problems from other books just to give him some variety. 

First Week of School 8/19/2013

This has been a very full week.  This past weekend we spent the weekend at a getting started weekend with S. at her college.  Wow, talk about emotional.  It was hard and very strange to drive away knowing this was the first step on her way to becoming an independent adult.  We do feel that God has led her to this college and we loved what he heard at this school.  I think they truly do desire to lead the students into a deeper relationship with Christ and the Bible is the ultimate authority on all things. 

On Monday N. and I decided we would go ahead and start school since it would keep us from missing S. so much.  I am so thankful for the familiar layout of the guides.  N. was able to just jump in and start ordering his boxes and reading the instructions.  I did make sure he understood each box, just like I do every year.  He loves the bible study already.  It is a little tricky for him to write on the small lines and we have had some issue with him writing one or two word answers when he should write a sentence or two.  If I ask him what the word means he can tell me the answer in full detail, he just has difficulty writing it.  We are still figuring out a work around for that.  I love hearing him belt out the hymns in full baritone voice.

In Science he has gotten in the groove of the Tiner book about Chemistry and is doing a good job answering the questions.  He did his first lab and was very thorough in following all the safety directions. I love him in his lab outfit. He was able to type his lab report and that went well.  I need to tweak things a little  as far as formatting, but I think it is going to work.

For Storytime we are reading "Under the Hawthorn Tree".  I am still reading out loud to him.  We both enjoy it and it enables him to concentrate on the story and as a result he does a better job on the bookmark follow ups.  These he also types on the Ipad.

My dear dh designed a Word Template for the Presidents notebook to enable N. to type the information for the President's study.  This worked very well.  I can see a skill he will need to grow into is gathering information from a video.  He struggled with that some this week, but I am sure he will improve.

He did a fantastic job on his written and oral narrations this week.  I am hoping that maybe the struggles he has had in the past with these are behind us, but we will see.  He really likes The Story of the World and says it is easy to understand.

The other area that I can see that will be a skill that will come in time is the Socratic Discussion over the Worthy Words (primary source documents).  This week was mainly me modeling it for him.  He is a man of very few words so lengthy in depth discussions are a little out of his comfort zone, unless they are about the bible then he is all about it.

We are finishing up TT Prealgebra and then will move right into TT Algebra.  I plan on adding a few more practice problems, but overall I am pleased with this program.

At the end of the week he told me that once again he enjoyed his first week of school.  That is a successful week in my book.

Getting ready for the school year

     I have spent the summer finalizing things and getting ready for the school year.  It is weird to have only 1 that I am planning for.  In between buying all the things for S to take to college I have been assembling everything N will need.

     He will continue with HOD and is now in the Missions to Modern Marvels guide.  This guide looks very full and meaty.  It will definitely challenge him.  Usually we follow the guide exactly as written with the exception of math.  This year we are changing up 2 other things, the literature and the writing program.  I am changing the literature because he has already completed the DITHOR 6/7/8 book.  I love DITHOR and think it is a fantastic program, but the one negative for N was that usually he ended up dictating his answers to me which took away some of his independence.  Instead of DITHOR he will use Bob Jones' 8th grade Lit book "Excursions in Literature".  There are varying types of questions at the end of each chapter that we will use as discussion questions.  There is also a teachers CD that has other worksheets.  I will be using these very sparingly in instances where it covers something I know is a struggle for him.  This is only meant to be a 1 semester course so I have also planned out 3 books from the HOD 7/8 book pack that he hasn't read yet.

     The writing program scheduled in HOD is Write With the Best Volume 2.  We did WWTB volume 1 a few years ago and he did well with it and enjoyed it, however as I looked through WWTB vol. 2 I realized there were some things that were going to overwhelm him.  The passages that the dc base their writing off of are very challenging to read.  I knew he would get bogged down there and not be able to see the forest for the trees so to speak.  I had my dh look at it closely and we both agreed to go in a different direction, so we will use Jump In.  I have only scheduled the units that match up with what WWTB teaches so he will still write the same type of essays.  I like the looks of the program a lot and think N will like it also. 

    We are considering this year 8th grade for N even though if he were still in ps he would be in 9th.  He has a late spring birthday so he was always young in his ps classes.  N is in total agreement with this now, but I am going to keep track of grades so that if he changes his mind I have something to show for it.

Here are some pics of getting all the binders ready.

Here is the supplies for his nature journaling.  I am excited to see what he thinks of this.  He loves to draw animals, so I think he will enjoy this.  

 He will study the State of Ohio.  This meets a requirement in our state.

Science is a combination of Chemistry using various things, Genetics, and the book Evolution the Grand Experiment.

He will do a Presidents study.  I was worried about how he would write in his notebook since he has difficulty writing small.  My wonderful dh made a Word template that matches the President's notebook so now N can type his information and just print it and glue it into his notebook.

He will also use the Ipad and an app called PDF expert to fill out other forms that are used in the program. We are looking forward to another good year with HOD.

Graduation!

When S. came home after 9th grade I was pretty nervous about how homeschooling her would go.  I had only 1 year of homeschooling experience under my belt with N. and that wasn't high school.  I knew though that God had brought her home and He would equip both of us for the journey, and He was faithful way beyond what I could have imagined.  It has been a wonderful 3 years.  I can honestly say I have really enjoyed her high school years.  I dont' think I would feel the same if she had stayed in ps.  She has become a different person.  She feels much more able to be herself.  She has been able to pursue her passion which is spending time with kids with special needs.  She has spent hours in a ps classroom, where a good friend of ours is the teacher, helping out with the kids that need more one on one attention.  She now feels very sure of the fact that she wants to become a special education teacher. 

This past weekend we had her graduation party.  This type of thing is out of her comfort zone, but she was a wonderful hostess and it was a fantastic time celebrating her graduation.

She will be attending a wonderful Christian college in the fall and the best thing is that is is only an hour from home.  She is excited, yet sad at the same time.  We both have mixed feelings about this stage ending and another one beginning.  We will miss her daily presence so much, but thanks to technology we can contact her easily and even see her smiling face whenever we want.  I am excited though to see where God takes her next.

Last week of Rev to Rev

We finished Rev to Rev this week.  I asked N. what he thought of the year and how the guide ranked among the other guides he has done. He said it was one of his favorite guides.  The only book he struggled with was The Growth of the British Empire, he said that was his least favorite book of the year.  It is a more challenging book with more challenging vocabulary, so it doesn't surprise me that it wasn't his favorite.  He loved everything else. 

His last project of the year was a salt dough map of the British Empire.  I helped him out by writing the labels since he just can't write that small, but he did everything else.

 He was very excited about some of his last written narrations that he did in his Inventors notebook.  He thought it was great that it was so big he had to fold it in half for it to fit.  He made sure to show his dad this one when he was doing his end of the year show and tell.

He also loved putting together the Composer study lap book.  It gave him quite the sense of accomplishment.  He even had to show his sister all of it.

I think my favorite Storytime book was the one we did last and that was "George Washington Carver".  What an amazing man of faith. N. really enjoyed it also.

It was a good year.  I can look back and see growth.  It is hard if I compare him to other dc his age, but God is teaching me to not play the comparison game and just rejoice in N. and his accomplishments.  We have a tradition that at the end of each guide I take a picture of how he feels about ending the guide/school year.  Here is this years picture.

Update for week of 5/6/13

You can tell it is almost the end of the year in that I haven't been nearly as faithful with my blog.  We just finished week 34 of Rev to Rev which means next week is our last week!

Here are pictures of a few things he has done the past few weeks.

Here N. is reading his Wright Brothers book to his foster dog.  He has done some fantastic narrations after reading his selections in this book.  One of my favorite parts of this year has been the Inventor study.  He has learned so much about perseverance and not quitting just because things get difficult.  This is a very important lesson for him to take hold of since so many thing are hard for him.  The written narrations for these books have been more open ended.  It just says to do a written narration without giving him a number of sentences.  It is funny, when he does his history written narrations he focuses on the 10-14 sentence thing and often only puts down 10 or 11.  With these he often does at least 15-16 sentences.  In fact many times he has to fold the paper in half to make it fit in his inventor notebook 

He also finished his Singers of the Declaration Research cards.  He did very well with these this year.  This week he has had to organize them in different ways.  He organized them by colony they were from one day and another day by how old they were when they died.  He said this activity wore him out-such drama.

This week he learned about the Chicago World's Fair and he made Sweet Tea, Carmelized Popcorn and ate Ice Cream from a cone.  These were all things introduced at the World's Fair that year.  The Popcorn was amazing and I have a feeling it will become a favorite family snack.

In Science he has been experimenting with light and the solar fan he made.  We have had many dreary, rainy days so this has been a little tricky, but he finally go the experiments done. 

He has already said how sad he will be to see this year end.  That to me is a successful year.

Update week of 4/8/2013

The month of April is flying by.  Last week we had Spring Break and we went to Conner Prairie Farm. It tied in so well with Rev to Rev. It had a Lenape Indian Village complete with a man who is a Lenape Indian who told us all about his people and which years they were forced to move to which states.  After reading "Only Their Names Remain" this had quite an impact on N.

 There was an 1836 Prairietown where we were able to visit a fur trading post, several houses, a quilt being spun on a loom, candles being made, dinner being cooked and this man turning pottery to get it ready fire on the huge outdoor kiln.

We went up in a Hot Air Balloon.  N. wasn't too thrilled with this, but I think he did enjoy it.  S. loved it.  It was very cold!

There is a re-enactment of Colonel Morgan's Raid on Dupont Indiana.  It is pretty high tech and really gave us a feel for how it would be to have Confederate Raiders come in to your town.  This tied in well with "Gabriel's Horses".  There was also a telegraph station set up and they had the telegraph hooked up to a computer so he could see what letters he was tapping out.  He had just finished reading about Samuel Morse so this was perfect.

This week it was back to Rev to Rev.  We finished up week 30.  He has almost all of his components for his Composer Study lapbook done.  Here he is with his Orchestra.

We finished reading the book "Shipwrecked".  He really enjoyed this book.  He commented several times about how interesting it was.  For his history project he made a Japaneses fan.  The decorations were supposed to be Cherry blossoms, but they didn't quite turn out looking that way.

He did a fantastic narration in science this week.  It was his longest yet and required very little editing from me.  He really has improved in his writing skills through the practice of written narration.

The other exciting thing this week is that we brought home a foster dog for N. to take care of.  She was hit by a car and wasn't healing very fast at the animal shelter.  He has done a great job taking over responsibility for her.