Week in review 3/16-3/20,2015

This week went pretty well overall.  He didn't start as early as he did the week before, but he still got things done in a timely manner.

He had a science experiment that was a carry over from the week before that involved building hydrocarbon molecule models.  It was fun for me to listen in as he and his dad discussed various things.  Since my dh is an engineer that works with environmental remediation he was able to tell N all kinds of interesting facts.  In addition to the fact that N. needs a set of steady hands to do some of the experiments, these conversations are the reason we chose to have him do the labs at night or on the weekends. 

In World Geography he learned more about the discovery of Australia and Tasmania and other islands in this area.  The videos he watched were excellent and really gave a visual picture to go along with his readings.  It tied in so well with the living library book Florence Young.  He continues to show improvement with his written narrations. 

In World Religions he has just started reading Japan Diary, which I already read and enjoyed. I like that he is learning about all the major religions of the world.  This is so timely considering all that is going on in the world.

Grammar went a little better this week.  I had considered switching out of Rod and Staff because of his struggles, but for now I have decided to finish up this year with it.  It is just hard because I know he is giving it his best effort, but sometimes he just really struggles to remember all the labels and concepts.  He has told me that grammar makes him feel stupid and that is the last thing I want.  I have told him that all I ask is that he try his best and that it is ok if he misses a lot of them, that we will just keep plugging at it.  The fact is he won't be an English major and to me it isn't important if he can correctly label gerunds and infinitives etc and easily discern which sentence is complex, it matters if he can write a paper that uses what he has learned. 

Logic has also been more of a struggle lately.  I think because many of the fallacies are so similar and he gets confused about which is which.  He always knows it's a fallacy and can describe what seems wrong about it, but he can't always match that to the definition.  I love the books he is using but I do wish in the answer key it would say why it is a certain fallacy instead of just listing the answer, because sometimes I really struggle to figure out the why even after looking back at the descriptions and examples.  

This week though I was reminded of how much he really is taking in even though he doesn't talk about it much.  As we are planning at trip to Washington DC he got excited when he heard that there is a painting by DaVinci there.  He also has definite ideas of places he wants to see based on the historical events we have studied that stick out in his mind.  We also watched the movie 42 and he was very moved by it.  I know it is because of all he studied in MTMM last year.  He truly is more well rounded than I give him credit for and probably much more so than most boys his age. 

Week in Review 2/9-2/13, 2015

This week in review once again covers more than 1 week.  I just don't take as many pictures now that he is older.

This week he decided to get started earlier each day and he was a man on a mission.  He would get bible done before I even had breakfast.  He liked finishing up his day earlier so I'm not sure if he will continue this or not, but it worked well.  He told me this week he finds the Science interesting.  He is doing well with it.  I didn't get any pictures but this week he did an experiment of a hydrometer and last week he looked at parts per million.  My dh is an environmental engineer who has one of the big oil companies as a client so he was able to give N. very practical applications for what he learned.  He usually does very well with the workbook.

He drew Japan in World Geography and also has been reading about the discovery of Australia.  He is learning to take bullet point outline type notes.  He dictates these to me since there is no way he can write that small.

He finished up his Expository Essay.  I didn't use a prompt from the book because none of those appealed to him.  He writes much better if he is interested in the topic.  I let him answer the prompt of "If you could invite 3 people to dinner who would it be and explain why you would invite them".  He did a really nice job.  He decided he would invite his Youth Pastor, his best friend and Colton Dixon the contemporary christian singer. I really likes the reasons for inviting each one.  He is enjoying writing essays and says he really likes EIW.

Grammar has been a challenge lately.  He is really hitting a wall and honestly is just guessing many days.  I am not much help here because I am struggling with it also since I don't ever remember learning some of these things.  I have Easy Grammar Plus, but I am undecided if we will just stick with Rod and Staff through this year and then re-evaluate or if I will switch now.  I love Rod and Staff and think it is a fantastic program, but he just isn't grasping the higher level concepts.

He finished reading Queen of the Dark Chamber and answered the questions in his notebook. He didn't go as in depth with his answers as I would have liked, but that's just a boy thing I think.

 

For his P. E. credit he continues to take his Parkour gymnastics class and has now taken up bouldering.  Here are just two videos of his newest things.  It still amazes me what God has given him the ability to do despite his CP and an MRI that says he should be in a wheelchair.

 

Week in Review 1/26-1/30/2015

This is actually 2 weeks in review.  The weeks seem to fly by.  N. continues to just move right on through the guide.  We countinue to tweak just a little bit here and there to make things easier for him to complete the guide as written.

The Bible study is very good and one day a week we have a discussion during the chapter review assignment.  It is a good time to make sure he understands what he has learned.  I do grade his daily work, but because the teacher's guide is very detailed in it's answers I just make sure he has the idea that they wanted, even if he doesn't have all the words.  Still hoping to find a way he can type his answers for bible.  He did do that for one day this week and the difference was amazing. When he doesn't have to grapple with the challenges of his writing, he does very detailed responses vs the 4 word sentences he usually does.  He uses the Bible app on his Ipad.  This is nice because he can switch versions if he needs to.

In World Religions he is reading Queen of the Dark Chamber.  I found this to be a very good book and so far he seems to like it also.  The bookmark he does after each reading helps me see the connections he is making between this book and his life.

In Science he is studying Acids and Bases and he and his dad did an experiment looking at the ph of various chemicals and things around the house.

In Literature he is back in the BJU lit book.  It isn't his favorite, mostly because he struggles to come up with the answers to the questions at the end of the story.  He and I do those orally and that way I can figure out if he truly didn't understand the story or if he is just struggling to explain what he read.  Each section begins with a painting and they use that to teach a literary term.  This time there was a picture by M. C. Escher.  N. has very strong visual perceptual skills so he found this picture fascinating and one day at lunch I found him researching more M. C. Escher paintings.  One of the great things about homeschooling is that if he finds something he finds fascinating he can just stop and take the time to find our more about it.

He had a project this week of this Octahedral Globe.   He really enjoyed the history projects in the younger guides, so when something like this comes up he really enjoys it.

He also did a review map of Europe for Mapping the World with Art.  He is really understanding how all the European countries connect now.

In World Geography he read about the search for a Northwest Passage by Frobisher and also about Sir Francis Drake.  He still struggles sometimes understanding A Book of Discovery so I downloaded an app called Voice Dream that will read Epub books out loud, highlighting each word as it goes.  I figured we would try and see if it helps his comprehension and sure enough it did. After some trial and error he found a voice he likes and it happens to be a male with an Australian accent.  There are some software programs out there that will do this also, but they are very expensive so we will do it this way for awhile and then figure out if it is beneficial to him.  At this point I am always on the look out for things that will help him in college. 

Week in Review 1/12/15-1/16/15

I don't have very many pictures this week, not sure why, but I don't.  So this may be short and sweet.  We finished week 10 of the WG guide this week.

In World Religions he finished reading Sundar Singh.  At the end of each book the dc spend 2 days answering questions about the book.  N. does this on his own and I am increasingly surprised at how well he does with this.  He really enjoyed this book and seemed to learn some valuable lessons from it.

In English he is almost done with his persuasive essay.  He is learning some valuable skills in regards to putting together a persuasive paper.  I have been emphasizing editing, because since he always types his rough draft we have often just edited on that day, but now I am making him do true editing.

One thing I forgot to put in last week's post was how in his bible curriculum he had to write a few lines of praise to God in the form of a Psalm.  In the past this would have really challenged him, but I think all the things he has learned through the years are really starting to show fruit spiritually and educationally.  His lines of praise really blessed me on a day I was struggling some with fears about his future.  Then I read this and realized he is getting grounded in the Lord and that is the most important thing.  I am realizing my job is just to give him the tools and let God  take care of the blueprints. 

In history he has been reading about Cortes, the Mayan Civilization and watching videos that supplement what he has read.  It ties in very well with his Living Library book "The Kings Fifth". 

One last fun picture from this week.  One day this week it was National Hat Day.  N. wears either a beanie or a snapback hat all the time, so he was pretty excited about this day.  He decided to put all his hats on his head so I could take a picture in honor of the day.  His goofiness just makes me laugh all the time.

Week in Review 1/5-1/9/2015

This week we were back to school.  Every year this is usually the week I dread because N. usually has a tough time getting back into the groove as far as his attitude and work ethic.  This year was different though.  I guess it is because he is now older and he really is starting to show some maturity in his attitude.  On Monday he came back with his A game as I call it.  He worked hard without complaint and really did a good job. 

One thing he just decided to do on his own was to write his Spanish on a separate piece of paper and complete it in his neatest handwriting.  He is really trying to write neater, but he can only do this for a short period of time and it takes him much longer when he does this.

In English he finished Men of Iron and started back with BJU Lit.  He did a pretty good job with Men of Iron although he does still struggle sometimes with catching all the things that are happening in the story.  He continued work on his persuasive essay with EIW.  His thesis is that "teens should not play video games". 

He continues to enjoy Logic and is doing well with "The Art of Argument". 

In science he has been learning about color and light.  He has learned about this before but this time it goes in more depth and he is truly understanding the concepts.  He and his dad enjoy doing the experiments with the lab kit. 

Bible continues to be kind of challenging for him.  I think some of that is due to the fact that he really struggles to write down complete answers in his workbook.  He can usually tell me what he means by his short answers, but he really isn't conveying that meaning in writing.  I am looking into options next year of being able to convert things to pdf documents that he can type on.  I have to figure out copy write issues and it may involve asking publishers for permission to convert the workbooks for his use only.  I know schools and colleges get permission to do this so I am just figuring out the legal aspects for us.  I know he would do much better work if he could type his answers. 

In Math he is proving to really have an knack for Geometry.  Having his program computer based works out very well for him.  If he had to write out all the steps of a proof it would look as if he didn't understand it when in fact he truly does.

In history he drew maps of the east coast of North America.  He is learning about Cartier and the search for a Northwest Passage. In world religions he continues to read Sundar Singh.  He says he finds this book interesting.

For his Physical Education half credit he has added a new activity.  He and his dad have been going to an indoor place that specializes in boulder climbing.  He doesn't like the vertical climbing of rock walls using a harness, but he loves boulder climbing.  With his grip strength and tremors you would think it would be too hard, but he loves a challenge.

I am looking forward to seeing what the second half of this school year brings.

Week in Review 12/8/2014-12/12/2014

We finished week 16 this week.  For some reason the days went really long this week.  N. wasn't goofing around or doing anything different.  I think most of it was just the work load was a little heavier due to many days with 2 science lessons and also finishing up his personal essay.

He did finish up his personal essay this week.  It was over 2 pages long and over 600 words.  He wrote about an event that impacted his life.  His writing has really improved over the years.  In fact this week as we read a poor example of a paragraph in the EIW student book he laughed at it and was surprised when I told him that he wrote just like that 2 years ago.  I then brought out an example to show him so he could see his  progress.  I think that pushed him to continue to improve.  He still needs to work on changing up word order, but he is getting there.  Here is a picture of his first page.

In World Geography he drew several maps, but I failed to get any pictures.  He watched videos on Bhutan and read about Tibet.  I love how this tied in perfectly with both the World Religion study and the Living Library.  In the Living Library box we are reading "God Spoke Tibetan".  In World Religions he is studying Buddhism.  He did some graphic organizers for the different schools of thought for Buddhism.  Later he had was excited that he was able to explain Nirvana to both his dad and sister.  It's not often that he knows more about a topic than they do.  He still needs to add some more details sometimes to his graphic organizer boxes.

In literature he is reading "Men of Iron" and was struggling to understand the book.  Finally at chapter 12 I decided to let him listen to the Librivox recording while her read.  This made a huge difference in his comprehension.  It added time to his day but it was worth it.  He did that for 2 days and then the Librivox website wouldn't work on the third day so he read it without the audio.  He said it was much easier to understand because he could hear the readers voice in his head now and knew how the accent/dialect was supposed to sound.  This is an adaptation he may need to use often in order to understand more challenging books. 

He continues to love Teaching Textbooks Geometry.  It is a very good fit for him.  He also is now in a good place with The Art of Argument book for Logic.

He is almost half way through the year and I feel like he is exactly where I want him to be as far as his skills. 

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.