Okay, so I haven't posted a weekly report since October. I should probably just admit I'm never going to consistently meet that goal. So here's what happened: October was very, very busy. As I wrote in my last post, RobotBoy spent a lot of hours rehearsing and performing in Don Quixote. I added it up recently and realized that he spent 23 hours at the dance school and theatre in one week. Add in the fact that we spend at least 30-45 minutes on the road each way for each rehearsal and performance and that I volunteered to supervise the kids backstage for all but one performance, and that ballet just pretty much ate our lives for a while there.
Right after that, we took off to meet up with Moonheart for her fall break. We wisked her off on a surprise trip to NYC, including an early birthday gift of tickets to see Gypsy. Let's just say that Patti LuPone is her new hero. We did some other tourist-y things, including taking RobotBoy back to Rockefeller Center for another skating session and taking a great backstage tour of Lincoln Center. And we worked in a little education for RobotBoy by visiting the Egyptian wing at the Metropolitan Museum.
We deposited Moonheart back at school and then came home to prepare for our church's Halloween party.
By the time I woke up, it was November, which brought more intensive Nutcracker rehearsals and yet more trips to Virginia. Moonheart had to be picked up and brought home for Thanksgiving and then returned after the weekend was over. Then, a week and a half later, she had to be brought home for the semester break. In the midst of it all, RobotBoy was attending lots of rehearsals for The Nutcracker and for his choir's big holiday concert, sometimes both on the same day.
I blinked again, and it was December. No sooner had we arrived home with Moonheart than she had to rehearse with her local choir. That very weekend, she rejoined the choir for their advent concert. We were also able to get our hands on copies of the new CD the choir (including our favorite alumna) recorded last summer.
The plan had been to have RobotBoy on break by the time we brought Moonheart home. Because we were so behind, though, that didn't happen. He had to keep working for about 10 days and still didn't accomplish all I had hoped. So, here we are.
All was not lost, though. We're still behind in a few subjects, but we did manage to accomplish a lot. RobotBoy danced eight performances of The Nutcracker (including two abbreviated school matinees as Fritz) and sang with his choir. He also finished his FLVS Art class and completed the first semester of FLVS Geography. He worked through most of his assigned reading for recent months in the car and continues to make good progress in Algebra. On the Virginia road trips bookending Thanksgiving, we did field trips to the "Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs" exhibit in Atlanta and the "Day in Pompeii" exhibit in Charlotte, NC. At the Discovery Place in Charlotte, he also had a great time exploring the Machine Shop, which tied in nicely with the reading he's been doing about ancient science.
We're now on break until about January 12. At some point before we pick back up, I'll have to sit down and figure out how to redistribute the remaining work over the second semester. I'm not terribly worried about it, though, because finishing the art class means we'll have a little more wiggle room in our daily schedule to make up the work.
Given RobotBoy's very busy schedule this holiday season, we opted not to have him participate in the children's Christmas eve concert at church. Moonheart was asked to participate, though, and reprised her popular solo of "I'll Be Home for Christmas." She sang again for the service later that evening, doing a lovely job on a song written by our church's music director. I thought you might enjoy seeing/hearing it:
Since we are on break, I'm not going to even pretend I'll be posting again until we get back to work in January. I hope everyone is having a lovely holiday season!
Friday, December 26, 2008
Monday, October 06, 2008
Still Playing Catch-Up
[Insert heavy sigh here.]
We might have had a chance if it hadn't been for those extra ballet rehearsals.
We started the week with just a few "leftovers" from last week. And RobotBoy had a really good attitude about getting it all done.
Then we got the e-mail telling us that the ballet company was doing full run-throughs Tuesday through Friday afternoons, starting at 2:00 each day. They asked the boys to attend at least two of those rehearsals.
Since RobotBoy has his organ lessons at 3:00 on Thursday, followed by choir practice, we decided not to have him attend the ballet rehearsal that day. That left three days to choose from, and since "at least two" was the minimum, RobotBoy felt strongly that he should go to all three. Hence, we had very short homeschool days available because we needed to leave the house by shortly after 1:00 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.
In addition, both of the adults had eye doctor appointments on Wednesday that took far, far longer than we had anticipated. So, RobotBoy didn't have any time available on Wednesday to do any catching up.
Hence the heavy sigh indicated above.
Still, we persevered . . . until Thursday.
I assume he was tired. In addition to being extra busy, he's so excited about the upcoming shows that he's having trouble falling asleep at night. In any case, he hit a wall with math on Thursday: couldn't concentrate, wouldn't listen, had a total meltdown. I insisted that he finish the lesson without me, since he was so ungracious about accepting my help. And he completely bombed out.
He did eventually pull it together and get the day's work done, but we ended up having to re-do Thursday's math lesson on Friday. Since he had also not done a math lesson on Wednesday, we ended up two lessons behind for the week.
It'll be okay. We'll dig out of the hole. We always do. It's just disheartening to be in so deep so early in the year.
On the other hand, I suppose that means we have that many more weeks to catch up, right?
So, here's what he did accomplish.
Math: He took the chapter test left over from last week (94%). He then did the first two lessons of the next chapter, Linear and Nonlinear Equations. The Number Devil chapter for this week was about rabbits and those "Bonacci" numbers.
History: He read about early settlements and the beginnings of civilization in his history atlas. He also read the opening chapters of Walking the Bible and some articles from the Learning Through History issue about the Ancient Near East. On Friday, he wrote a History Scribe page about Mesopotamia.
Reading: He's almost finished with The Cat of Bubastes. He says it's "pretty good." He's also been enjoying putting the mini book covers on his timeline.
English: We finished up Chapter 2 of English Prep 2, working through the vocabularly exercises (words beginning with "circum-" and toponyms) and the grammar and punctuation sections (adjectives, adverbs, serial commas). RobotBoy also completed his writing project for the week, a re-telling of the Egyptian creation myth about Nut and Geb.
Science: The hands-on projects were one of the casualties of the over-scheduled week. The plan is to try and make up at least one of them this week. We'll see how that goes. He did do all of his reading, though, which was one chapter of The Story of Science and the remaining chapters of Science in Ancient Egypt.
Latin: Ug. RobotBoy started the week with the best of intentions, planning to complete the whole week's assignments by Thursday and leaving Friday just in case he needed to catch up or make corrections. But it didn't work out that way. We got through most of the text pages I had planned, but he didn't touch the workbook exercise. Again, we'll try to work the leftovers into this week.
Spanish: Bueno! In addition to the listening exercises, RobotBoy had his first written work of the year. He has almost finished the section on prepositions, learning about how to say where things are in relation to other things. He's also learning about present progressive verbs.
Greek: He's begun working on the next group of six letters in Greek Alphabet Code Cracker and is continuing to use Hey Andrew! for review.
Geography: The Geography in Action lesson encouraged him to learn about some well-known landmarks and to consider the effects humans have on the physical enviroment. One of his favorite assignments was looking at a satellite map showing light patterns and thinking about what that map indicated about human populations.
Art: He completed lessons introducing the concepts of space and color. We're having a bit of a struggle with getting him to put more effort and more of himself into these assignments. This was a class he chose to do for fun, an elective, and I admit to feeling a bit frustrated with the amount of time it takes out of each day, compared to what he seems to be getting out of it. He enjoys it, but still tries to rush through and turn in kind of sloppy, careless work. And now that he's getting dinged in the grades for that lack of effort, he's angry and upset. I kind of which we could just drop the course, but he's well past the 30-day grace period. So, if he did drop it, there would be a note on his record. Since I hope he will do some FLVS courses for high school and want to be able to use them on his transcript, I'd like his record to stay "clean." At the moment, he's getting a solid B in the class, which is fine, as long as he is content with it. But I sort of wish we hadn't started it.
Other Stuff: Other than the above, he danced. A lot. He did all of his regular classes, plus rehearsals on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. He had his second organ lesson on Thursday. So far, so good, although the teacher is having a bit of trouble tracking down appropriate lesson books. Apparently, there aren't a whole lot of young organ students, and the materials he had planned to use are out of print. I had to laugh when he told RobotBoy he was "a rare breed." Yeah, like that's news to us! We went to an organ concert on Tuesday night, which was very cool. He had his regular choir rehearsal after organ on Thursday. And he spent a very happy Saturday morning launching model rockets with dad and the other members of the local NAR club.
So, a full and productive week, all told. I can't believe we're coming up on the end of the first quarter of the year already!
We might have had a chance if it hadn't been for those extra ballet rehearsals.
We started the week with just a few "leftovers" from last week. And RobotBoy had a really good attitude about getting it all done.
Then we got the e-mail telling us that the ballet company was doing full run-throughs Tuesday through Friday afternoons, starting at 2:00 each day. They asked the boys to attend at least two of those rehearsals.
Since RobotBoy has his organ lessons at 3:00 on Thursday, followed by choir practice, we decided not to have him attend the ballet rehearsal that day. That left three days to choose from, and since "at least two" was the minimum, RobotBoy felt strongly that he should go to all three. Hence, we had very short homeschool days available because we needed to leave the house by shortly after 1:00 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.
In addition, both of the adults had eye doctor appointments on Wednesday that took far, far longer than we had anticipated. So, RobotBoy didn't have any time available on Wednesday to do any catching up.
Hence the heavy sigh indicated above.
Still, we persevered . . . until Thursday.
I assume he was tired. In addition to being extra busy, he's so excited about the upcoming shows that he's having trouble falling asleep at night. In any case, he hit a wall with math on Thursday: couldn't concentrate, wouldn't listen, had a total meltdown. I insisted that he finish the lesson without me, since he was so ungracious about accepting my help. And he completely bombed out.
He did eventually pull it together and get the day's work done, but we ended up having to re-do Thursday's math lesson on Friday. Since he had also not done a math lesson on Wednesday, we ended up two lessons behind for the week.
It'll be okay. We'll dig out of the hole. We always do. It's just disheartening to be in so deep so early in the year.
On the other hand, I suppose that means we have that many more weeks to catch up, right?
So, here's what he did accomplish.
Math: He took the chapter test left over from last week (94%). He then did the first two lessons of the next chapter, Linear and Nonlinear Equations. The Number Devil chapter for this week was about rabbits and those "Bonacci" numbers.
History: He read about early settlements and the beginnings of civilization in his history atlas. He also read the opening chapters of Walking the Bible and some articles from the Learning Through History issue about the Ancient Near East. On Friday, he wrote a History Scribe page about Mesopotamia.
Reading: He's almost finished with The Cat of Bubastes. He says it's "pretty good." He's also been enjoying putting the mini book covers on his timeline.English: We finished up Chapter 2 of English Prep 2, working through the vocabularly exercises (words beginning with "circum-" and toponyms) and the grammar and punctuation sections (adjectives, adverbs, serial commas). RobotBoy also completed his writing project for the week, a re-telling of the Egyptian creation myth about Nut and Geb.
Science: The hands-on projects were one of the casualties of the over-scheduled week. The plan is to try and make up at least one of them this week. We'll see how that goes. He did do all of his reading, though, which was one chapter of The Story of Science and the remaining chapters of Science in Ancient Egypt.
Latin: Ug. RobotBoy started the week with the best of intentions, planning to complete the whole week's assignments by Thursday and leaving Friday just in case he needed to catch up or make corrections. But it didn't work out that way. We got through most of the text pages I had planned, but he didn't touch the workbook exercise. Again, we'll try to work the leftovers into this week.
Spanish: Bueno! In addition to the listening exercises, RobotBoy had his first written work of the year. He has almost finished the section on prepositions, learning about how to say where things are in relation to other things. He's also learning about present progressive verbs.
Greek: He's begun working on the next group of six letters in Greek Alphabet Code Cracker and is continuing to use Hey Andrew! for review.
Geography: The Geography in Action lesson encouraged him to learn about some well-known landmarks and to consider the effects humans have on the physical enviroment. One of his favorite assignments was looking at a satellite map showing light patterns and thinking about what that map indicated about human populations.
Art: He completed lessons introducing the concepts of space and color. We're having a bit of a struggle with getting him to put more effort and more of himself into these assignments. This was a class he chose to do for fun, an elective, and I admit to feeling a bit frustrated with the amount of time it takes out of each day, compared to what he seems to be getting out of it. He enjoys it, but still tries to rush through and turn in kind of sloppy, careless work. And now that he's getting dinged in the grades for that lack of effort, he's angry and upset. I kind of which we could just drop the course, but he's well past the 30-day grace period. So, if he did drop it, there would be a note on his record. Since I hope he will do some FLVS courses for high school and want to be able to use them on his transcript, I'd like his record to stay "clean." At the moment, he's getting a solid B in the class, which is fine, as long as he is content with it. But I sort of wish we hadn't started it.
Other Stuff: Other than the above, he danced. A lot. He did all of his regular classes, plus rehearsals on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. He had his second organ lesson on Thursday. So far, so good, although the teacher is having a bit of trouble tracking down appropriate lesson books. Apparently, there aren't a whole lot of young organ students, and the materials he had planned to use are out of print. I had to laugh when he told RobotBoy he was "a rare breed." Yeah, like that's news to us! We went to an organ concert on Tuesday night, which was very cool. He had his regular choir rehearsal after organ on Thursday. And he spent a very happy Saturday morning launching model rockets with dad and the other members of the local NAR club.
So, a full and productive week, all told. I can't believe we're coming up on the end of the first quarter of the year already!
Monday, September 29, 2008
Cheating
Okay, alert readers will note there was no weekly report posted this past Friday.
The truth is it had been a long and challenging week, and RobotBoy still had a fair amount of work to make up over the weekend, and I really just couldn't face typing up that report.
The good news is that he was really good about getting up and getting on-task Saturday morning with almost no nagging. The less-than-great news is that he still has a couple of minor things waiting to be finished.
The good news is that he is completely good natured about accepting the lost points for turning in his work late, freely admitting that he should have gotten it done on time. The so-so news is that I no longer have any enthusiasm for going through the motions of a weekly report for a week that doesn't seem to want to get done.
So, I'm cheating.
I realized that I have not yet posted a sample of my lesson plans for this year. And, since it's one of those things that homeschooling parents never seem to tire of discussing, I figured someone, somewhere might find it helpful.
Therefore, I am posting below the official "plan" for last week, the week that won't die. And then I'll just make a few notes about it.
Okay, what's not shown on here is the leftover reading from last week, which was selections from Exodus. We did several chapters, but are still working on finishing that this week.
As of the time we left for his dance rehearsals on Saturday afternoon, RobotBoy had finished pretty much everything on the sheet, except for two pages of Greek Alphabet Code Cracker that are "mostly done," the FLVS Geography lesson that still needs a bit of polish but should be turned in today and the Birth of Civilization DVD that didn't arrive from Netflix in time.
So, it's not terrible, but obviously we need to work on the time management and planning skills. This morning, before he started on anything, we chatted about this issue and have come up with a new strategy to help keep him on track. We created a table in Word that has columns for his four regular desk work days and rows for each subject. The idea is that we'll look together at the the week's assignments and fill in how much of each thing he's aiming to do each day. Since the last thing I want to do is create more scrap paper, we've decided to try keeping it virtual for now. We filled in the sheet together, and I e-mailed a copy of the file to him. (That way, I still have the original in case it gets "lost" or something goes wrong.)
He is keeping his copy open on his computer so he can look at the plan as he goes. As he completes each task, he changes the color of the text. Sp far, as of when he took a break for lunch at 1:00, he had finished his designated chunks for today of math, history, art and geography.
He's enthusiastic so far about the new approach and is making an effort to "front load" the week, meaning he'll try to do more than one quarter of each subject each day, leaving himself room to catch up later in the week if he needs to do so. We'll see how it goes.
The other piece of news for last week is that RobotBoy had his first organ lesson. He had a great time, seems very enthusiastic and even practiced (including on the weekend) without requiring nagging. So that, as they say, is a good thing.
And that is probably enough for now.
The truth is it had been a long and challenging week, and RobotBoy still had a fair amount of work to make up over the weekend, and I really just couldn't face typing up that report.
The good news is that he was really good about getting up and getting on-task Saturday morning with almost no nagging. The less-than-great news is that he still has a couple of minor things waiting to be finished.
The good news is that he is completely good natured about accepting the lost points for turning in his work late, freely admitting that he should have gotten it done on time. The so-so news is that I no longer have any enthusiasm for going through the motions of a weekly report for a week that doesn't seem to want to get done.
So, I'm cheating.
I realized that I have not yet posted a sample of my lesson plans for this year. And, since it's one of those things that homeschooling parents never seem to tire of discussing, I figured someone, somewhere might find it helpful.
Therefore, I am posting below the official "plan" for last week, the week that won't die. And then I'll just make a few notes about it.
Okay, what's not shown on here is the leftover reading from last week, which was selections from Exodus. We did several chapters, but are still working on finishing that this week.
As of the time we left for his dance rehearsals on Saturday afternoon, RobotBoy had finished pretty much everything on the sheet, except for two pages of Greek Alphabet Code Cracker that are "mostly done," the FLVS Geography lesson that still needs a bit of polish but should be turned in today and the Birth of Civilization DVD that didn't arrive from Netflix in time.
So, it's not terrible, but obviously we need to work on the time management and planning skills. This morning, before he started on anything, we chatted about this issue and have come up with a new strategy to help keep him on track. We created a table in Word that has columns for his four regular desk work days and rows for each subject. The idea is that we'll look together at the the week's assignments and fill in how much of each thing he's aiming to do each day. Since the last thing I want to do is create more scrap paper, we've decided to try keeping it virtual for now. We filled in the sheet together, and I e-mailed a copy of the file to him. (That way, I still have the original in case it gets "lost" or something goes wrong.)
He is keeping his copy open on his computer so he can look at the plan as he goes. As he completes each task, he changes the color of the text. Sp far, as of when he took a break for lunch at 1:00, he had finished his designated chunks for today of math, history, art and geography.
He's enthusiastic so far about the new approach and is making an effort to "front load" the week, meaning he'll try to do more than one quarter of each subject each day, leaving himself room to catch up later in the week if he needs to do so. We'll see how it goes.
The other piece of news for last week is that RobotBoy had his first organ lesson. He had a great time, seems very enthusiastic and even practiced (including on the weekend) without requiring nagging. So that, as they say, is a good thing.
And that is probably enough for now.
Friday, September 19, 2008
The Tweakly Report
Well, here we are again, huh?
This was our first more or less "normal" week, and it went reasonably well. RobotBoy did miscalculate his workload just a bit, knocking off early on Monday, which resulted in a long and slightly icky day on Thursday. But we got through it without major drama.
Here's the run-down:
Math - This week's lessons introduced graphing linear equations. RobotBoy did well with it. I continue to be pleasantly surprised at how quickly and easily he seems to absorb this stuff. On Friday, he read he next chapter of The Number Devil and learned all about "rutabagas" (square roots).
History - RobotBoy dived into early cultures this week, reading about "The First Europeans" and "The Rise of Agriculture" in his history atlas. He also read a National Geographic article about Stonehenge and watched the accompanying documentary on DVD. His worksheet for this week was on the same topic.
Reading - We finished reading the selections I had chosen from Genesis and moved on to Exodus. RobotBoy is familiar with the story but is finding it interesting to hear the "original" version. On his own, he read Jill Rubalcaba's A Place in the Sun. Just for fun, he watched Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
English - He started the week with the next lesson of Word Roots. Together, we did the first reading comprehension exercise in the next chapter of English Prep 2. The fiction except for this chapter was from The Lord of the Flies. RobotBoy actually had to look up some of the vocabulary, but he did very well answering the questions. He also worked on his Gilgamesh writing project, turning in a pretty good first draft on Tuesday and the final version on Friday. Now, if only he'd pay just a bit more (okay, any) attention to his spelling . . .
Science - This week, he read "Ionia? What's Ionia?" in The Story of Science and the last three chapters of Science in Ancient Mesopotamia. For his project, he chose to do the "Scrubbing Bubbles" experiment from the Ancient Science chapter on Mesopotamia. On his free day, Wednesday, he watched two episodes of Chased by Dinosaurs.
Languages - This week in Latin Prep 1 he had his first meaningful encounter with verb declensions. He did not have a particularly great time with the concept. We'll keep plugging along, though, and I'm sure it will sink in. His Spanish lessons have focused on saying the same thing in two different ways:
La banana está debajo del tazón.
La banana está bajo el tazón.
I'm sure that will come in handy someday, right? He's also chugging right along in Greek, working with the first 10 letters of the alphabet.
Geography - He finished the first module of the course this week, with lessons designed to help students understand what geography is (and isn't) and why it's important. I'm rather looking forward to him getting to the more substantive lessons.
Art - His major project for the week was completing a series of gesture drawings. He seemed to enjoy that. He started a second lesson that required drawings of common household items, but ran out of time to finish that one.
Extras- Rehearsals for both ballets continued this week, as did choir rehearsal. On Thursday evening, we enjoyed a family outing to see Kiss Me, Kate, the first production of the season at the Shakespeare Theatre. It was fun, and RobotBoy especially enjoyed the dancing.
Homework - Because RobotBoy initially underestimated his workload for the week, he hit Friday with quite a lot still to do. Having been out late on Thursday and looking forward to a longer-than-usual block of dance rehearsals and classes on Friday evening, he ended the week with a few assignments to be finished over the weekend. He could have pushed through and finsihed more on Friday afternoon, but wanted to make sure he got some rest in preparation for the evening. So, he'll be spending Saturday morning completing some Latin workbook exercises, a page of Greek and the rest of the second art lesson. It shouldn't take him too long, which is a good thing, since he's got another chunk of ballet rehearsals in the afternoon.
Oh, and by the way, I just have to give credit to vix and her comment from last week for the name of this post!
This was our first more or less "normal" week, and it went reasonably well. RobotBoy did miscalculate his workload just a bit, knocking off early on Monday, which resulted in a long and slightly icky day on Thursday. But we got through it without major drama.
Here's the run-down:
Math - This week's lessons introduced graphing linear equations. RobotBoy did well with it. I continue to be pleasantly surprised at how quickly and easily he seems to absorb this stuff. On Friday, he read he next chapter of The Number Devil and learned all about "rutabagas" (square roots).
History - RobotBoy dived into early cultures this week, reading about "The First Europeans" and "The Rise of Agriculture" in his history atlas. He also read a National Geographic article about Stonehenge and watched the accompanying documentary on DVD. His worksheet for this week was on the same topic.
Reading - We finished reading the selections I had chosen from Genesis and moved on to Exodus. RobotBoy is familiar with the story but is finding it interesting to hear the "original" version. On his own, he read Jill Rubalcaba's A Place in the Sun. Just for fun, he watched Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
English - He started the week with the next lesson of Word Roots. Together, we did the first reading comprehension exercise in the next chapter of English Prep 2. The fiction except for this chapter was from The Lord of the Flies. RobotBoy actually had to look up some of the vocabulary, but he did very well answering the questions. He also worked on his Gilgamesh writing project, turning in a pretty good first draft on Tuesday and the final version on Friday. Now, if only he'd pay just a bit more (okay, any) attention to his spelling . . .
Science - This week, he read "Ionia? What's Ionia?" in The Story of Science and the last three chapters of Science in Ancient Mesopotamia. For his project, he chose to do the "Scrubbing Bubbles" experiment from the Ancient Science chapter on Mesopotamia. On his free day, Wednesday, he watched two episodes of Chased by Dinosaurs.
Languages - This week in Latin Prep 1 he had his first meaningful encounter with verb declensions. He did not have a particularly great time with the concept. We'll keep plugging along, though, and I'm sure it will sink in. His Spanish lessons have focused on saying the same thing in two different ways:
La banana está debajo del tazón.
La banana está bajo el tazón.
I'm sure that will come in handy someday, right? He's also chugging right along in Greek, working with the first 10 letters of the alphabet.
Geography - He finished the first module of the course this week, with lessons designed to help students understand what geography is (and isn't) and why it's important. I'm rather looking forward to him getting to the more substantive lessons.
Art - His major project for the week was completing a series of gesture drawings. He seemed to enjoy that. He started a second lesson that required drawings of common household items, but ran out of time to finish that one.
Extras- Rehearsals for both ballets continued this week, as did choir rehearsal. On Thursday evening, we enjoyed a family outing to see Kiss Me, Kate, the first production of the season at the Shakespeare Theatre. It was fun, and RobotBoy especially enjoyed the dancing.
Homework - Because RobotBoy initially underestimated his workload for the week, he hit Friday with quite a lot still to do. Having been out late on Thursday and looking forward to a longer-than-usual block of dance rehearsals and classes on Friday evening, he ended the week with a few assignments to be finished over the weekend. He could have pushed through and finsihed more on Friday afternoon, but wanted to make sure he got some rest in preparation for the evening. So, he'll be spending Saturday morning completing some Latin workbook exercises, a page of Greek and the rest of the second art lesson. It shouldn't take him too long, which is a good thing, since he's got another chunk of ballet rehearsals in the afternoon.
Oh, and by the way, I just have to give credit to vix and her comment from last week for the name of this post!
Friday, September 12, 2008
Week Three, and We're Still Here
We had yet another minor scheduling upheaval this week, with friends we haven't seen in years coming into town to visit The Mouse and making time for us while they were here. So, RobotBoy very graciously agreed to switch his day off to Tuesday. We also had a bit of catching up to do on work left over from last week. All in all, we've been busy.
But we did have a great time catching up with our friends, which made it all worthwhile!
Math - RobotBoy had the chapter test from last week left over and had a bit of a rough time getting in the zone on Monday. He did manage, though, and did quite well (92%). We had a minor kerfluffle on Thursday when I insisted he show his work and ended up making a new rule that he will lose points every time he doesn't. Once that blew over, things were fine, and he did well on all of his assignments this week. We're still slightly behind, but he has agreed to do this week's test on Saturday morning, which will put us back on schedule. He also read another chapter of The Number Devil, this one about "prima donna" numbers.
History - We're wrapping up our overview of prehistory and beginning the transition to early civilizations. So, this week he read about the spread of homo sapiens in his Atlas of World History and and almost finished the book about the ice age. He also read "Fire! Fire! Fire!" from A Child's History of the World and watched two short videos about Mesopotamia. (The Schlessinger video was from their Ancient Civilizations for Kids series, and RobotBoy was, to put it mildly, unenthusiastic. He said he thought they took the "for kids" part a little too seriously and that the host talked to him like he was two years old. Hmm, I guess I'd better take the rest of the series off the agenda, huh?)
Reading - Geraldine McCaughrean's Gilgamesh the Hero has gone over very well here. I pre-read it, and I have to admit it makes so much more sense than the very literal but very fragmented version I read with Moonheart a few years ago! RobotBoy is reading that one independently, and together we are reading highlights from Genesis. We're using the New International Version, which I'm finding quite readable. We also watched the "Darmok" episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (in which Picard re-tells part of Gilgamesh), just for fun. The history/literature "output" for this week was a worksheet with questions about the Tower of Babel.
English - We wrapped up the first chapter of English Prep 2, working through the vocabulary, grammar and punctuation sections. RobotBoy learned about eponyms and practiced recognizing how a single word can play different parts of speech in different sentences. We introduced his next writing model, an excerpt from a version of Gilgmesh different from the one he's reading. We talked a bit about narrative voice and decided that this excerpt is written in the third person omnicient. Finally, he did the next two lessons of Word Roots.
Science - RobotBoy read the chapter in The Story of Science about early calendars and two chapters of Science in Ancient Mesopotamia. He did a simple experiment from Ancient Science: 40 Time-Traveling, World-Exploring, History-Making Activities for Kids, which was a bit hit mostly because it gave him an excuse to use a knife on a wooden dowel. Just for fun, he watched the remaining three episodes of Prehistoric Park.
Languages - Latin Prep 1 seems to be really clicking for him. This week, he was introduced to some regular, first conjugation verbs, and he did very well translating back and forth between Latin and English. In Spanish, he did several more pages of listening exercises. He finished Unit 2 of the Greek Alphabet Code Cracker, introducing the first six letters, and did two pages of Hey Andrew to help him review. By the way, I just have to mention that the RobotBoy is having so much fun with the Code Cracker book that he insisted on making extra copies of the decoder wheel to give to a couple of friends from church so they can send each other secret messages.
Geography - RobotBoy is still in the "introduction" phase of this course. He "met" his instructor over the phone on Monday. She sounds very nice and very approachable. The lesson for this week required him to survey 10 people about their knowledge of and attitudes toward geography as a subject and to compile the and analyze the results.
Art - The lesson that lingered from last week got finished on Monday. RobotBoy had to view an online exhibit of Roy Lichtenstein works, create his own sketch of one piece and participate in an online discussion. In the primary lesson for this week, he learned some art-related vocabulary.
Other News - RobotBoy happily returned to choir rehearsal on Thursday. He came out of the choir room bouncing and singing and ready for another year. Tomorrow, he will attend his first rehearsals for both The Nutcracker and Don Quixote, which will keep him busy most of the afternoon. Sunday school classes have also begun at our church, which I suppose means the year is officially in full swing.
But we did have a great time catching up with our friends, which made it all worthwhile!
Math - RobotBoy had the chapter test from last week left over and had a bit of a rough time getting in the zone on Monday. He did manage, though, and did quite well (92%). We had a minor kerfluffle on Thursday when I insisted he show his work and ended up making a new rule that he will lose points every time he doesn't. Once that blew over, things were fine, and he did well on all of his assignments this week. We're still slightly behind, but he has agreed to do this week's test on Saturday morning, which will put us back on schedule. He also read another chapter of The Number Devil, this one about "prima donna" numbers.
History - We're wrapping up our overview of prehistory and beginning the transition to early civilizations. So, this week he read about the spread of homo sapiens in his Atlas of World History and and almost finished the book about the ice age. He also read "Fire! Fire! Fire!" from A Child's History of the World and watched two short videos about Mesopotamia. (The Schlessinger video was from their Ancient Civilizations for Kids series, and RobotBoy was, to put it mildly, unenthusiastic. He said he thought they took the "for kids" part a little too seriously and that the host talked to him like he was two years old. Hmm, I guess I'd better take the rest of the series off the agenda, huh?)
Reading - Geraldine McCaughrean's Gilgamesh the Hero has gone over very well here. I pre-read it, and I have to admit it makes so much more sense than the very literal but very fragmented version I read with Moonheart a few years ago! RobotBoy is reading that one independently, and together we are reading highlights from Genesis. We're using the New International Version, which I'm finding quite readable. We also watched the "Darmok" episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (in which Picard re-tells part of Gilgamesh), just for fun. The history/literature "output" for this week was a worksheet with questions about the Tower of Babel.
English - We wrapped up the first chapter of English Prep 2, working through the vocabulary, grammar and punctuation sections. RobotBoy learned about eponyms and practiced recognizing how a single word can play different parts of speech in different sentences. We introduced his next writing model, an excerpt from a version of Gilgmesh different from the one he's reading. We talked a bit about narrative voice and decided that this excerpt is written in the third person omnicient. Finally, he did the next two lessons of Word Roots.
Science - RobotBoy read the chapter in The Story of Science about early calendars and two chapters of Science in Ancient Mesopotamia. He did a simple experiment from Ancient Science: 40 Time-Traveling, World-Exploring, History-Making Activities for Kids, which was a bit hit mostly because it gave him an excuse to use a knife on a wooden dowel. Just for fun, he watched the remaining three episodes of Prehistoric Park.
Languages - Latin Prep 1 seems to be really clicking for him. This week, he was introduced to some regular, first conjugation verbs, and he did very well translating back and forth between Latin and English. In Spanish, he did several more pages of listening exercises. He finished Unit 2 of the Greek Alphabet Code Cracker, introducing the first six letters, and did two pages of Hey Andrew to help him review. By the way, I just have to mention that the RobotBoy is having so much fun with the Code Cracker book that he insisted on making extra copies of the decoder wheel to give to a couple of friends from church so they can send each other secret messages.
Geography - RobotBoy is still in the "introduction" phase of this course. He "met" his instructor over the phone on Monday. She sounds very nice and very approachable. The lesson for this week required him to survey 10 people about their knowledge of and attitudes toward geography as a subject and to compile the and analyze the results.
Art - The lesson that lingered from last week got finished on Monday. RobotBoy had to view an online exhibit of Roy Lichtenstein works, create his own sketch of one piece and participate in an online discussion. In the primary lesson for this week, he learned some art-related vocabulary.
Other News - RobotBoy happily returned to choir rehearsal on Thursday. He came out of the choir room bouncing and singing and ready for another year. Tomorrow, he will attend his first rehearsals for both The Nutcracker and Don Quixote, which will keep him busy most of the afternoon. Sunday school classes have also begun at our church, which I suppose means the year is officially in full swing.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Today's Visitors
These guys wandered into the yard early this afternoon and hung around for quite a while. RobotBoy (and our cats) had a grand time watching them graze.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Friday, September 05, 2008
The Weekly Report
This was a challenging week, schedule-wise. When I wrote my lesson plans for this year, I just divided the whole she-bang into 30 equal portions, figuring we'd adjust as necessary as we went. But, honestly, there's not a lot of wiggle room to do that adjusting, given what a compressed schedule we're working with already.
So, here we are in our second week of school, in which we have a national holiday (Labor Day) and my husband's birthday. Now, we feel free to ignore and work through legal holidays, especially since we take off so many days that school kids and office workers don't. However, we have a general policy of not doing school on days when Dad is on vacation. He had Labor Day off, and he traditionally gives himself the "gift" of a day off on his birthday.
Because RobotBoy is on a four-day schedule for desk work, we can pretty easily absorb a single day off. However, two days off in a single week presents a bit of a challenge. We went over the assignment list at the beginning of the week, and RobotBoy felt confident he could squeeze in everything he needed to do. I opted to let him try.
This led to some icky moments on Friday, when he overslept and couldn't get into gear, while I was tense about how much he had left to accomplish. Always a bad combination. Things came to a head over the first reading comprehension exercise. He normally eats these things alive, but had left all of the assignments for the week until Friday and was trying to rush through them. Our new grading plan for this year allots him 5 points for every one of these exercises he does "correctly, with good effort." So, I was able to bring things back on track by reminding him of that and telling him that he had already lost one point.
Here's a copy of the grading plan, by the way. We each have one tacked on our cork boards.
Once the smoke cleared, here's how the week looked.
Math - The lessons for this week were about absolute values and how to deal with them in equations. RobotBoy did very, very well with this, turning in perfect-on-the-first-try work for three out of four assignments. As I mentioned above, he has the chapter test still to finish sometime over the weekend. Still on his agenda (perhaps in the car going to and from dance this afternoon) is reading the second chapter of The Number Devil.
History - We're still in the prehistory phase. RobotBoy read from his atlas and a book called Exploring the Ice Age. He also did the "People Who Lived in Caves" story from A Child's History of the World and completed a handout/worksheet on "The Life of the Earliest People."
Reading - Continuing with our prehistoric theme, he read Dar and the Spearthrower.
English - We did the aforementioned reading comprehension exercise in English Prep 2, plus a few more comprehension, grammar and vocabulary exercises. RobotBoy turned in his first draft of his Genesis retelling. It needed some corrections, but he did a good job with them and turned in a nice, clean final draft on Friday. Here's his retelling side-by-side with the model from which he worked:
He also did Lesson 3 of Word Roots, earning a perfect score on his first attempt. (Woo-hoo!)
Science - The highlight of the week was probably finishing his triceratops excavation and assembling the skeleton:
He also finished reading the book that came with the kit, plus the chapter about creation myths from The Story of Science and the introductory chapter of Science in Ancient Mesopotamia. I got him the first disk of the Prehistoric Park series from Netflix, and he thoroughly enjoyed the first three episodes. Even though we'll be moving on from dinos next week, I may go ahead and bring in the second disk, just for fun.
Languages - He continues to enjoy Greek Alphabet Code Cracker, and his first assignments from Hey Andrew! earned good reviews, too. So far, he's learned the first four letters. I was very pleased at how well he got through his first "real" assignments in Latin Prep, even remembering some of the vocabulary he was familiar with from last year. He also did quite well with the first few workbook exercises. And he did several pages of listening exercises from The Learnables Spanish Grammar Enhancement, which seemed to go well.
Geography - The lesson for this week introduced the concept of the world as a village of 100 people. He watched an online presentation about the idea and then did an assignment that required him to find specific statistics. It seemed to make a big impression.
Art - RobotBoy turned in his first hands-on art projects this week. This is not an area of strength for him, so we'll see how it goes. Again, this is a course he chose to do for fun, so I just hope he has a good time learning some basics.
He still has a few tidbits to make up over the weekend, but I feel pretty good about what we accomplished in a very short and interrupted week.
So, here we are in our second week of school, in which we have a national holiday (Labor Day) and my husband's birthday. Now, we feel free to ignore and work through legal holidays, especially since we take off so many days that school kids and office workers don't. However, we have a general policy of not doing school on days when Dad is on vacation. He had Labor Day off, and he traditionally gives himself the "gift" of a day off on his birthday.
Because RobotBoy is on a four-day schedule for desk work, we can pretty easily absorb a single day off. However, two days off in a single week presents a bit of a challenge. We went over the assignment list at the beginning of the week, and RobotBoy felt confident he could squeeze in everything he needed to do. I opted to let him try.
This led to some icky moments on Friday, when he overslept and couldn't get into gear, while I was tense about how much he had left to accomplish. Always a bad combination. Things came to a head over the first reading comprehension exercise. He normally eats these things alive, but had left all of the assignments for the week until Friday and was trying to rush through them. Our new grading plan for this year allots him 5 points for every one of these exercises he does "correctly, with good effort." So, I was able to bring things back on track by reminding him of that and telling him that he had already lost one point.
Here's a copy of the grading plan, by the way. We each have one tacked on our cork boards.
Once the smoke cleared, here's how the week looked.
Math - The lessons for this week were about absolute values and how to deal with them in equations. RobotBoy did very, very well with this, turning in perfect-on-the-first-try work for three out of four assignments. As I mentioned above, he has the chapter test still to finish sometime over the weekend. Still on his agenda (perhaps in the car going to and from dance this afternoon) is reading the second chapter of The Number Devil.
History - We're still in the prehistory phase. RobotBoy read from his atlas and a book called Exploring the Ice Age. He also did the "People Who Lived in Caves" story from A Child's History of the World and completed a handout/worksheet on "The Life of the Earliest People."
Reading - Continuing with our prehistoric theme, he read Dar and the Spearthrower.
English - We did the aforementioned reading comprehension exercise in English Prep 2, plus a few more comprehension, grammar and vocabulary exercises. RobotBoy turned in his first draft of his Genesis retelling. It needed some corrections, but he did a good job with them and turned in a nice, clean final draft on Friday. Here's his retelling side-by-side with the model from which he worked:
He also did Lesson 3 of Word Roots, earning a perfect score on his first attempt. (Woo-hoo!)
Science - The highlight of the week was probably finishing his triceratops excavation and assembling the skeleton:
He also finished reading the book that came with the kit, plus the chapter about creation myths from The Story of Science and the introductory chapter of Science in Ancient Mesopotamia. I got him the first disk of the Prehistoric Park series from Netflix, and he thoroughly enjoyed the first three episodes. Even though we'll be moving on from dinos next week, I may go ahead and bring in the second disk, just for fun.
Languages - He continues to enjoy Greek Alphabet Code Cracker, and his first assignments from Hey Andrew! earned good reviews, too. So far, he's learned the first four letters. I was very pleased at how well he got through his first "real" assignments in Latin Prep, even remembering some of the vocabulary he was familiar with from last year. He also did quite well with the first few workbook exercises. And he did several pages of listening exercises from The Learnables Spanish Grammar Enhancement, which seemed to go well.
Geography - The lesson for this week introduced the concept of the world as a village of 100 people. He watched an online presentation about the idea and then did an assignment that required him to find specific statistics. It seemed to make a big impression.
Art - RobotBoy turned in his first hands-on art projects this week. This is not an area of strength for him, so we'll see how it goes. Again, this is a course he chose to do for fun, so I just hope he has a good time learning some basics.
He still has a few tidbits to make up over the weekend, but I feel pretty good about what we accomplished in a very short and interrupted week.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Is It Halloween Already?
Well, no, but RobotBoy has been bugging me about his costume since sometime in June. So, this weekend we did some re-arranging to create a crafting space in a corner of our kitchen and got started on that project.
I think I'll save telling the specifics of what/who he will be for later. But here are some photos to pique your interest.
We started with the sheild, cutting a nice round out of cardboard and attaching straps on the back for RobotBoy's arm.
We threaded the straps through slits in the cardboard and tacked them down.
Then we went to work on the breastplate. RobotBoy did most of the cutting.
We bent it roughly to fit around his torso and used some tape to hold the shape.
The last step (for today) was applying the first layer of paper mache to both pieces and setting them out to dry.
It feels like a good start.
I think I'll save telling the specifics of what/who he will be for later. But here are some photos to pique your interest.
We started with the sheild, cutting a nice round out of cardboard and attaching straps on the back for RobotBoy's arm.
We threaded the straps through slits in the cardboard and tacked them down.
Then we went to work on the breastplate. RobotBoy did most of the cutting.
We bent it roughly to fit around his torso and used some tape to hold the shape.
The last step (for today) was applying the first layer of paper mache to both pieces and setting them out to dry.
It feels like a good start.
Friday, August 29, 2008
We Survived!
Our first week of the new school year, that is.
Actually, it's gone pretty well. We kept to our routine all but one day, completed all the assigned work for the week and even managed a field trip. As I've written about before, I have been very, very nervous that we had bitten off more than we could chew this year, especially given the compressed schedule required in order to work around Moonheart's college calendar. Now, though I'm knocking on the wood of my desk as I type this, I'm beginning to feel that we might be able to pull this off.
Here's what he did:
Math - One of the things about which I was most concerned was math, especially since we would be jumping back into the midst of an algebra course he started last year. For the first time, I required no review over the summer, and I thought it very likely that he would lose a lot of ground. Instead, though, he got in there and picked up where he left off with no discernable problems. He completed the unit on Using Inequalities with little trouble and near-perfect scores. On Friday, he earned an A on his first math test of the year. He also seems to be enjoying the idea of the supplemental reading, getting through the first chapter of The Number Devil bright and early Monday morning.
History - He read sections from various books about prehistory, from dinosaurs to cave folk. He also watched the short video about Aboriginal Rock Art on the National Geographic for Kids website. He then did a review/worksheet about prehistoric art.
Reading - Tying in with the prehistoric art theme, his assigned reading this week was the novel Boy of the Painted Cave. He enjoyed it very much, although he was sad when Greybeard died.
English - We did the first reading comprhension exercise in English Prep 2 and introduced our first writing model of the year, adapted from Genesis ("In the beginning . . ."). RobotBoy also worked through the first two lessons of Word Roots B1.
Science - He read the first chapter of The Story of Science, which got thumbs up. Together, we watched the first two episodes of the Nova series Origins, which we'll finish next week. He also read the first half of the book that came with the triceratops excavation kit and starting digging into the project. On Wednesday, we took a field trip to Dinosaur World, which we've been driving past for several years but had never done before. I fully expected it to be terribly cheesy, but it was very nicely done.
While I could certainly have lived without the oppressive heat and the biting bugs, I can't blame the owners/operators for those. And, of course, the whole day might have been more pleasant had my car not quit and had to be towed to the local dealership for repairs . . . Nonetheless, RobotBoy had a good time and might even have learned a few things.
Languages - We read together through the introductory pages of Latin Prep 1. I have to admit that the pronounciation thing is likely to be my downfall, but we'll keep plugging away. On his own, RobotBoy tackled the first several exercises of The Learnables: Spanish Grammar Enhancement and the opening pages of Greek Alphabet Code Cracker. He's especially enthusiastic about the Greek.
Geography - He dug into the first lesson of the FLVS middle school World Geography course, which, as usual, was mostly about the mechanics of the course rather than actual content. The motif sounds interesting, though, and I suspect he'll enjoy this one.
Art - This is another FLVS course, with a motif that will certainly appeal: pretending to be a comic book artist. I'm not quite sure how that will play out as the course continues, but the syllabus looks pretty good. This is one that RobotBoy chose to do for fun, so I'm not worrying too much about the rigor.
That's it for schoolwork. RobotBoy also had his first full week back at dance classes, after the school had to close for Fay-related weather a couple of days last week. He seems very happy to be back. He auditioned for both The Nutcracker and Don Quixote and was cast in both ballets. It sounds like the young boys won't have a whole lot to do in Don Quixote, but RobotBoy always enjoys any opportunity to perform. We're still waiting to hear the details of his participation in The Nutcracker, but it sounds like he'll have about as much to do as last year. Fortunately, most of the rehearsals for both pieces will be scheduled on Saturday afternoons, which will at least minimize the number of car trips I'll be making for the next couple of months.
Next week, we'll add Thursday afternoon choir rehearsals to the mix. And we're waiting to hear for sure about the new tap class, which is tentatively scheduled to begin next week, also.
So, I guess we'll just see how it goes from here, but it's definitely not a bad start to the year.
Actually, it's gone pretty well. We kept to our routine all but one day, completed all the assigned work for the week and even managed a field trip. As I've written about before, I have been very, very nervous that we had bitten off more than we could chew this year, especially given the compressed schedule required in order to work around Moonheart's college calendar. Now, though I'm knocking on the wood of my desk as I type this, I'm beginning to feel that we might be able to pull this off.
Here's what he did:
Math - One of the things about which I was most concerned was math, especially since we would be jumping back into the midst of an algebra course he started last year. For the first time, I required no review over the summer, and I thought it very likely that he would lose a lot of ground. Instead, though, he got in there and picked up where he left off with no discernable problems. He completed the unit on Using Inequalities with little trouble and near-perfect scores. On Friday, he earned an A on his first math test of the year. He also seems to be enjoying the idea of the supplemental reading, getting through the first chapter of The Number Devil bright and early Monday morning.
History - He read sections from various books about prehistory, from dinosaurs to cave folk. He also watched the short video about Aboriginal Rock Art on the National Geographic for Kids website. He then did a review/worksheet about prehistoric art.
Reading - Tying in with the prehistoric art theme, his assigned reading this week was the novel Boy of the Painted Cave. He enjoyed it very much, although he was sad when Greybeard died.
English - We did the first reading comprhension exercise in English Prep 2 and introduced our first writing model of the year, adapted from Genesis ("In the beginning . . ."). RobotBoy also worked through the first two lessons of Word Roots B1.
Science - He read the first chapter of The Story of Science, which got thumbs up. Together, we watched the first two episodes of the Nova series Origins, which we'll finish next week. He also read the first half of the book that came with the triceratops excavation kit and starting digging into the project. On Wednesday, we took a field trip to Dinosaur World, which we've been driving past for several years but had never done before. I fully expected it to be terribly cheesy, but it was very nicely done.
While I could certainly have lived without the oppressive heat and the biting bugs, I can't blame the owners/operators for those. And, of course, the whole day might have been more pleasant had my car not quit and had to be towed to the local dealership for repairs . . . Nonetheless, RobotBoy had a good time and might even have learned a few things.
Languages - We read together through the introductory pages of Latin Prep 1. I have to admit that the pronounciation thing is likely to be my downfall, but we'll keep plugging away. On his own, RobotBoy tackled the first several exercises of The Learnables: Spanish Grammar Enhancement and the opening pages of Greek Alphabet Code Cracker. He's especially enthusiastic about the Greek.
Geography - He dug into the first lesson of the FLVS middle school World Geography course, which, as usual, was mostly about the mechanics of the course rather than actual content. The motif sounds interesting, though, and I suspect he'll enjoy this one.
Art - This is another FLVS course, with a motif that will certainly appeal: pretending to be a comic book artist. I'm not quite sure how that will play out as the course continues, but the syllabus looks pretty good. This is one that RobotBoy chose to do for fun, so I'm not worrying too much about the rigor.
That's it for schoolwork. RobotBoy also had his first full week back at dance classes, after the school had to close for Fay-related weather a couple of days last week. He seems very happy to be back. He auditioned for both The Nutcracker and Don Quixote and was cast in both ballets. It sounds like the young boys won't have a whole lot to do in Don Quixote, but RobotBoy always enjoys any opportunity to perform. We're still waiting to hear the details of his participation in The Nutcracker, but it sounds like he'll have about as much to do as last year. Fortunately, most of the rehearsals for both pieces will be scheduled on Saturday afternoons, which will at least minimize the number of car trips I'll be making for the next couple of months.
Next week, we'll add Thursday afternoon choir rehearsals to the mix. And we're waiting to hear for sure about the new tap class, which is tentatively scheduled to begin next week, also.
So, I guess we'll just see how it goes from here, but it's definitely not a bad start to the year.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Ready . . . Set . . .Really?
Tomorrow is the big day. Now that Moonheart is safely settled back into her dorm and I've had a couple of days to recover, RobotBoy and I will be starting our 2008-09 academic year tomorrow.
I'm ready, right?
I keep reminding myself that I have only one child to teach and that, if things aren't going well, I have the flexibility to change them around until it's better. I have tons of resources and my lesson plans in place and our schoolroom and supplies all organized. And I've been doing this for a few years, now. So, honestly, why do I still feel nervous?
I suppose that's a mystery we may never solve. So, let's just go on to talking about the plan.
We're cycling back around to the ancients this year, and I've done my best to run that thread through all subjects and give RobotBoy the opportunity to make lots of connections.
Here are his shelves, with all the books for the year all ready to go:
.JPG)
.JPG)
History: We're going with our home-designed approach again, although I'm trying to kick things up just a notch or two from last year. I'm adding in the Parragon Atlas of World History as a spine, which RobotBoy will read alongside the first 40 stories from the Child's History of the World CD/ROM. He'll also read another 17-ish non-fiction books, magazines or articles about specific historical people, places and events. I've cut back a bit on the number of DVDs and videos from last year, but still plan to make good use of our Netflix account. I'm determined to increase his "output" for this year, but hesitant to insist on the heavy duty outlining and narration suggested in The Well-Trained Mind. So, I've collected/created worksheets and review pages for him to do each week. He may also do some hands-on projects, and we have at least three good field trips on the agenda.
Literature: I've pulled together a stack of more than 20 books the coordinate with our history study. I think RobotBoy will enjoy most of them very much. He has become fascinated with the concept of the "hero's journey" and delights in comparing various books and movies that tie in with that theme. So, we're going to spend some time chatting about Joseph Campbell and discussing those concepts as they come up in his reading for this year.
Grammar & Writing: He'll continue with Galore Park's English Prep (Book 2), but we'll skip the writing exercises in favor of trying out the progymnasmata approach as outlined in Classical Writing. I've modified the suggested schedule to fit into our routine. So, we'll be spending two weeks with each model: the first week reading and picking it apart for grammar and style, the second week doing the actual writing project. Our samples are all drawn from the literature or culture RobotBoy will be reading about in history in those weeks. We're also going to try again to get around to the next volume of Word Roots, which got dropped from our schedule last year due to computer troubles.
Science: I think he'll have fun with this, spending the year learning about science in ancient civilizations. He'll use Hakim's Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way as a spine, supplementing with the six-book Science of the Past series and Jeanne Bendick's Archimedes and the Door of Science and Galen and the Gateway to Medicine. For the hands-on component, he'll use Ancient Science: 40 Time-Travelling, World-Exploring, History-Making Activities for Kids.
Math: This is the subject about which I feel the most nervousness and ambivalence. Right now, the plan is to continue with the University of California open access algebra course he started last year. However, I have recently realized that I'm not doing a very good job of making math seem particularly interesting. So, we're going to try adding in some supplemental, "fun" math reading (The Number Devil, Murderous Maths). And, in an nod toward creating a connection to the history theme, he'll play around with the activities in Can You Count in Greek?
Languages: He's continuing with The Learnables for Spanish, doing the Grammar Enhancement package this year. For Latin, we're moving to Galore Park's Latin Prep, which I'm hoping will be as good a fit for him as is their English series. And, just for fun, he's going to do a light introduction to ancient Greek, using the Greek Alphabet Code Cracker from Classical Academic Press and Hey Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek, book 2.
Other Stuff: He's also signed up to take two classes with Florida Virtual School, World Geography and a single-semester introduction to two-dimensional art. The geography class was my idea, the art his. At this point, I consider both of them expendable if we determine that his academic load is too heavy. And, although we're not doing a formal logic program, he will be doing a couple of puzzles a week from something I found on a bargain table called The Giant Book of Mensa Critical Thinking Puzzles.
Every time I sit down and type it all out, it starts to look like an awful lot of work. And when I remember that we're planning to continue doing four-day weeks (with Wednesdays off and/or available for hands-on activities or field trips), I really have to fight down panic. But RobotBoy just looks at the list and shrugs and assures me he can handle it. So, I guess we'll see . . . bright and early tomorrow!
I'm ready, right?
I keep reminding myself that I have only one child to teach and that, if things aren't going well, I have the flexibility to change them around until it's better. I have tons of resources and my lesson plans in place and our schoolroom and supplies all organized. And I've been doing this for a few years, now. So, honestly, why do I still feel nervous?
I suppose that's a mystery we may never solve. So, let's just go on to talking about the plan.
We're cycling back around to the ancients this year, and I've done my best to run that thread through all subjects and give RobotBoy the opportunity to make lots of connections.
Here are his shelves, with all the books for the year all ready to go:
.JPG)
.JPG)
History: We're going with our home-designed approach again, although I'm trying to kick things up just a notch or two from last year. I'm adding in the Parragon Atlas of World History as a spine, which RobotBoy will read alongside the first 40 stories from the Child's History of the World CD/ROM. He'll also read another 17-ish non-fiction books, magazines or articles about specific historical people, places and events. I've cut back a bit on the number of DVDs and videos from last year, but still plan to make good use of our Netflix account. I'm determined to increase his "output" for this year, but hesitant to insist on the heavy duty outlining and narration suggested in The Well-Trained Mind. So, I've collected/created worksheets and review pages for him to do each week. He may also do some hands-on projects, and we have at least three good field trips on the agenda.
Literature: I've pulled together a stack of more than 20 books the coordinate with our history study. I think RobotBoy will enjoy most of them very much. He has become fascinated with the concept of the "hero's journey" and delights in comparing various books and movies that tie in with that theme. So, we're going to spend some time chatting about Joseph Campbell and discussing those concepts as they come up in his reading for this year.
Grammar & Writing: He'll continue with Galore Park's English Prep (Book 2), but we'll skip the writing exercises in favor of trying out the progymnasmata approach as outlined in Classical Writing. I've modified the suggested schedule to fit into our routine. So, we'll be spending two weeks with each model: the first week reading and picking it apart for grammar and style, the second week doing the actual writing project. Our samples are all drawn from the literature or culture RobotBoy will be reading about in history in those weeks. We're also going to try again to get around to the next volume of Word Roots, which got dropped from our schedule last year due to computer troubles.
Science: I think he'll have fun with this, spending the year learning about science in ancient civilizations. He'll use Hakim's Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way as a spine, supplementing with the six-book Science of the Past series and Jeanne Bendick's Archimedes and the Door of Science and Galen and the Gateway to Medicine. For the hands-on component, he'll use Ancient Science: 40 Time-Travelling, World-Exploring, History-Making Activities for Kids.
Math: This is the subject about which I feel the most nervousness and ambivalence. Right now, the plan is to continue with the University of California open access algebra course he started last year. However, I have recently realized that I'm not doing a very good job of making math seem particularly interesting. So, we're going to try adding in some supplemental, "fun" math reading (The Number Devil, Murderous Maths). And, in an nod toward creating a connection to the history theme, he'll play around with the activities in Can You Count in Greek?
Languages: He's continuing with The Learnables for Spanish, doing the Grammar Enhancement package this year. For Latin, we're moving to Galore Park's Latin Prep, which I'm hoping will be as good a fit for him as is their English series. And, just for fun, he's going to do a light introduction to ancient Greek, using the Greek Alphabet Code Cracker from Classical Academic Press and Hey Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek, book 2.
Other Stuff: He's also signed up to take two classes with Florida Virtual School, World Geography and a single-semester introduction to two-dimensional art. The geography class was my idea, the art his. At this point, I consider both of them expendable if we determine that his academic load is too heavy. And, although we're not doing a formal logic program, he will be doing a couple of puzzles a week from something I found on a bargain table called The Giant Book of Mensa Critical Thinking Puzzles.
Every time I sit down and type it all out, it starts to look like an awful lot of work. And when I remember that we're planning to continue doing four-day weeks (with Wednesdays off and/or available for hands-on activities or field trips), I really have to fight down panic. But RobotBoy just looks at the list and shrugs and assures me he can handle it. So, I guess we'll see . . . bright and early tomorrow!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Let's Try This Again
Well, I had the best of intentions. Honest. But those last three months of the school year just did me in, and the whole Weekly Reporter thing was one of the casualties (along with folding laundry and cooking dinner more than three nights per week).
Anyway, here we are approaching a brand new academic year. A fresh start, perhaps?
In an attempt to get myself all energized to start that new year, I've spent some time over the last couple of weeks cleaning up and re-organizing our schoolroom. I even quit practicing denial about Moonheart not schooling with us anymore and moved her desk out of the room. It made me feel a bit misty, such tangible evidence of the end of an era, but we do appreciate the extra floor space.
So, without further ado, here's what it looks like now:
This is the "nerve center" of the space, RobotBoy at his desk on the right (playing a game, truth be told) and my desk on the left. One of the things I like about the new arrangement is that I get to sit right next to the window. RobotBoy didn't like having his desk there, because he didn't like the glare of the sun on his laptop screen. But I just love the view and the natural light.
On the wall between our desks are four timelines from Milliken: Early Africa, Mesopotamia, Ancient Israel and Ancient Rome. They have lots of good graphics and information and should be helpful for quick reference during the year.
Here's the opposite wall, RobotBoy's books and curriculum for this year on the third and fourth shelves (counting from top down) on the bookcase next to the window. My stuff--including answer keys and books I might want to refer to during this year and anything reproducible--is on the shelf above his books. The other two shelves have generic supplies: printer paper, books that didn't have any other home, etc. The bookcase on the left has all of my parenting/education books, dictionaries and other reference things, projects from previous years and assorted arts and craft supplies in the plastic bins.
Here's another view of my desk (near the window!). The plastic bags on the floor are full of supplies waiting to be donated to our church's Religious Education program. One of the things of which I'm most proud is that sheet of white paper smack in the center of the corkboard over my desk: It contains my grading standards for every subject for this year. It's the first time I've ever actually sat down and worked out a logical and consistent grading plan in advance, and the hope is that seeing it there in black and white will motivate my darling son to take his work more seriously.
And, finally, a better view of RobotBoy's domain. The colorful posters are of various Greek/Roman gods and goddesses, tying in with our ancients theme for the year. I moved the world map from its ignominious position behind the door to a place of honor next to RobotBoy's desk. The green strip beneath the map is the portion of our timeline that covers the historical period we'll be studying. The plan is to add a similar strip for each of the other three eras as we get to them. Under that is a map of ancient Persia that my husband found in a recent National Geographic.
So, in terms of physical space, we're about as ready to go as we can get.
The lesson plans are pretty much done, too, but I'll chat about that in another post.
So, now all I have to do is get Moonheart through the final weekend of her current show, make sure she is packed up and ready to head back to college by this time next week, drive her there, move her into her dorm room and drive back. Yep, I should have all kinds of energy left over to start school bright and early the following Monday morning, right?
Anyway, here we are approaching a brand new academic year. A fresh start, perhaps?
In an attempt to get myself all energized to start that new year, I've spent some time over the last couple of weeks cleaning up and re-organizing our schoolroom. I even quit practicing denial about Moonheart not schooling with us anymore and moved her desk out of the room. It made me feel a bit misty, such tangible evidence of the end of an era, but we do appreciate the extra floor space.
So, without further ado, here's what it looks like now:
This is the "nerve center" of the space, RobotBoy at his desk on the right (playing a game, truth be told) and my desk on the left. One of the things I like about the new arrangement is that I get to sit right next to the window. RobotBoy didn't like having his desk there, because he didn't like the glare of the sun on his laptop screen. But I just love the view and the natural light.
On the wall between our desks are four timelines from Milliken: Early Africa, Mesopotamia, Ancient Israel and Ancient Rome. They have lots of good graphics and information and should be helpful for quick reference during the year.
Here's the opposite wall, RobotBoy's books and curriculum for this year on the third and fourth shelves (counting from top down) on the bookcase next to the window. My stuff--including answer keys and books I might want to refer to during this year and anything reproducible--is on the shelf above his books. The other two shelves have generic supplies: printer paper, books that didn't have any other home, etc. The bookcase on the left has all of my parenting/education books, dictionaries and other reference things, projects from previous years and assorted arts and craft supplies in the plastic bins.
Here's another view of my desk (near the window!). The plastic bags on the floor are full of supplies waiting to be donated to our church's Religious Education program. One of the things of which I'm most proud is that sheet of white paper smack in the center of the corkboard over my desk: It contains my grading standards for every subject for this year. It's the first time I've ever actually sat down and worked out a logical and consistent grading plan in advance, and the hope is that seeing it there in black and white will motivate my darling son to take his work more seriously.
And, finally, a better view of RobotBoy's domain. The colorful posters are of various Greek/Roman gods and goddesses, tying in with our ancients theme for the year. I moved the world map from its ignominious position behind the door to a place of honor next to RobotBoy's desk. The green strip beneath the map is the portion of our timeline that covers the historical period we'll be studying. The plan is to add a similar strip for each of the other three eras as we get to them. Under that is a map of ancient Persia that my husband found in a recent National Geographic.
So, in terms of physical space, we're about as ready to go as we can get.
The lesson plans are pretty much done, too, but I'll chat about that in another post.
So, now all I have to do is get Moonheart through the final weekend of her current show, make sure she is packed up and ready to head back to college by this time next week, drive her there, move her into her dorm room and drive back. Yep, I should have all kinds of energy left over to start school bright and early the following Monday morning, right?
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Trying to Get Back in the Swing
We dived right back into our regular routine this week, with a full slate of extra-curriculars and a more-than-full slate (thanks to needing to make up the work missed over the last few weeks) of regular desk work. The whole process was made more challenging by the fact that we didn’t really take time to catch our breath before we took the leap. Our plane touched down at shortly after 9:30 on Saturday night, meaning that it was after 10:00 before we claimed our luggage and drove home. For reasons that seem slightly insane to me now, we decided to get up on Sunday and go to church. (That did not go well, mostly, I suspect, because RobotBoy was both over-tired and overwhelmed by his experiences of the last few weeks.) Then, he was scheduled to go sing a concert with his choir on Sunday afternoon.
So, Monday morning arrived all too soon.
Nonetheless, we’ve tried to forge ahead.
Math:
RobotBoy started working his way through the University of California College Prep open access Algebra One course this week. He did the first three sections of the first lesson—Real Numbers; Variables, Expressions and Equations; Number Operations—with nary a whimper or problem. He earned perfect scores on all three assignments and says he really likes the format. I’m crossing my fingers that it continues to go well.
History & Literature:
At long last, the conclusion of Great Expectations is in sight. I anticipate finishing it by about Tuesday of next week, after which we will move on to our next read-aloud, Around the World in 80 Days. RobotBoy finished The Adventures of Tom Sawyer on Tuesday and is about halfway through Treasure Island. He also read Mark Twain in Lives of the Writers: Comedies, Tragedies (and What the Neighbors Thought) and about Rutherford B. Hayes in Time for Learning: The Presidents. Through the magic of Netflix, he watched an A&E Biography about Thomas Edison.
English:
We did major league catching up in English Prep this week, since this was one of the subjects that got seriously neglected while we were running around. RobotBoy finished the remaining reading comprehension exercise for this chapter, as well as doing all the grammar and vocabulary orally and completing a writing assignment. There wasn’t as much “writing” as I would usually require, but he was so good about tackling it independently and making all the corrections I asked for that I decided to let it be enough.
Science:
He did some more reading from Human Body and Earth’s Waters, with extra helpings of each to get us back on schedule. Wednesday brought the second meeting of his chemistry class at the science center, where they did all kinds of good hands-on activities and attended a show about the many uses of liquid nitrogen.
Latin:
RobotBoy was back to Minimus Secundus, completing most of a chapter this week. He read and translated both picture stories, did an activity sheet about positive and negative imperatives and read the Roman Report about having a baby in ancient Britain. On Friday, we went through the Grasp the Grammar and Latin Roots exercises together.
Spanish:
It just happened that this week’s pages from The Learnables didn’t include any written ejercicios, and I got a bit nervous about how much attention RobotBoy was really paying. So, we sat down together on Thursday and went over all the pages for the week together, just to make sure he was staying on top of things. He did stumble a few times, but I remain impressed with how much he learns and retains from this program.
Music:
RobotBoy spent some time listening to and singing through the two excerpts from “The William Tell Overture” in Themes to Remember. He also watched a Great Composers DVD about Franz Schubert, and made some very interesting comparisons between Der Erlking and the opera in which he recently performed.
Other Stuff:
Why is it I always think that “things will calm down after the holidays?” You’d think by now I’d know that doesn’t happen. Especially when it comes to all the performance activities, it seems like things just get more hectic from February through the end of the academic year. In RobotBoy’s dance classes, they are starting to work seriously on their recital pieces, and his choir has either an extra rehearsal or a performance scheduled at least two weekends a month. Add to that the fact that his Pirates of Penzance performances will happen in late April and that he has a birthday coming up in March, and it becomes clear that there is no calm in sight. It is equally clear, however, that RobotBoy is truly happy and thriving on this routine, so I suppose it’s all worth it.
At least I'm sure I'll think it is once I get some sleep!
So, Monday morning arrived all too soon.
Nonetheless, we’ve tried to forge ahead.
Math:
RobotBoy started working his way through the University of California College Prep open access Algebra One course this week. He did the first three sections of the first lesson—Real Numbers; Variables, Expressions and Equations; Number Operations—with nary a whimper or problem. He earned perfect scores on all three assignments and says he really likes the format. I’m crossing my fingers that it continues to go well.
History & Literature:
At long last, the conclusion of Great Expectations is in sight. I anticipate finishing it by about Tuesday of next week, after which we will move on to our next read-aloud, Around the World in 80 Days. RobotBoy finished The Adventures of Tom Sawyer on Tuesday and is about halfway through Treasure Island. He also read Mark Twain in Lives of the Writers: Comedies, Tragedies (and What the Neighbors Thought) and about Rutherford B. Hayes in Time for Learning: The Presidents. Through the magic of Netflix, he watched an A&E Biography about Thomas Edison.
English:
We did major league catching up in English Prep this week, since this was one of the subjects that got seriously neglected while we were running around. RobotBoy finished the remaining reading comprehension exercise for this chapter, as well as doing all the grammar and vocabulary orally and completing a writing assignment. There wasn’t as much “writing” as I would usually require, but he was so good about tackling it independently and making all the corrections I asked for that I decided to let it be enough.
Science:
He did some more reading from Human Body and Earth’s Waters, with extra helpings of each to get us back on schedule. Wednesday brought the second meeting of his chemistry class at the science center, where they did all kinds of good hands-on activities and attended a show about the many uses of liquid nitrogen.
Latin:
RobotBoy was back to Minimus Secundus, completing most of a chapter this week. He read and translated both picture stories, did an activity sheet about positive and negative imperatives and read the Roman Report about having a baby in ancient Britain. On Friday, we went through the Grasp the Grammar and Latin Roots exercises together.
Spanish:
It just happened that this week’s pages from The Learnables didn’t include any written ejercicios, and I got a bit nervous about how much attention RobotBoy was really paying. So, we sat down together on Thursday and went over all the pages for the week together, just to make sure he was staying on top of things. He did stumble a few times, but I remain impressed with how much he learns and retains from this program.
Music:
RobotBoy spent some time listening to and singing through the two excerpts from “The William Tell Overture” in Themes to Remember. He also watched a Great Composers DVD about Franz Schubert, and made some very interesting comparisons between Der Erlking and the opera in which he recently performed.
Other Stuff:
Why is it I always think that “things will calm down after the holidays?” You’d think by now I’d know that doesn’t happen. Especially when it comes to all the performance activities, it seems like things just get more hectic from February through the end of the academic year. In RobotBoy’s dance classes, they are starting to work seriously on their recital pieces, and his choir has either an extra rehearsal or a performance scheduled at least two weekends a month. Add to that the fact that his Pirates of Penzance performances will happen in late April and that he has a birthday coming up in March, and it becomes clear that there is no calm in sight. It is equally clear, however, that RobotBoy is truly happy and thriving on this routine, so I suppose it’s all worth it.
At least I'm sure I'll think it is once I get some sleep!
Monday, February 18, 2008
The New York Adventure
Oh, where to begin? I feel as though we were gone for much longer than the single week.
Well, first of all, the rehearsals and “presentations” for the opera went very well. The approach to these performances was quite different from what they had done for the first two at the arts center. Here in Florida, although they had only minimal sets and props, they did much more in the way of staging and had everyone moving about the stage and really “performing” the piece. The New York performances were billed as “musical readings,” and all of the performers spent most of the time just singing or speaking into standing mics. In addition, they were recording the piece, so there was a lot more attention paid to how things sounded. So, RobotBoy had the opportunity to work closely with the music director and the composer during rehearsals, which was really cool.
They did two readings, and, as in Florida, the audience feedback was very positive. The types of comments and questions were different, with the New Yorkers much more interested in the nuts and bolts of production. However, the general feeling in both places was pretty enthusiastic. People would really like to see the full production. And there was universal praise for the whole cast, including my little guy.
By the time he was done, RobotBoy was pretty tired, but was still sad to know it was over. Fortunately, he still has the junior Pirates of Penzance production on the horizon. So he doesn’t feel completely bereft.
Although we did no formal “schoolwork” while we were away, we did manage to get in a couple of outings I can count as field trips. First on RobotBoy’s agenda, given his ongoing fascination with samurai, was the Arms and Armor exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum. He was absolutely delighted to find three rooms full of Japanese armor and swords, and I was, honestly, surprised at how much he had retained from his reading and research on the subject.
We used our last free day mostly at the American Museum of Natural History, where RobotBoy spent a few hours exploring.
He devoted most of his time to the Rose Center for Earth and Space. We walked the Cosmic Pathway, which traces the entire history of the universe at several million years per foot. We visited the Big Band Theater and saw the wonderful Cosmic Collisions in the Hayden Planetarium. He found out how much he would weigh on various planets, the sun and even on a neutron star.
Of course, one cannot visit this particular museum without seeing the dinosaurs. So, we also browsed the Fossil Halls before taking our leave.
In between rehearsals and performances and educational field trips,
we also managed to just plain have some fun exploring Manhattan. We rode the Ferris wheel and did some shopping in the ginormous Toys R Us in Times Square. We rode many different subways from Soho to the Village to midtown and Central Park, and we tried different restaurants in “Little India” on 6th Street. RobotBoy went ice skating (in a borrowed, too-large ski jacket) at Rockefeller Center on Monday . . .
. . . and then again at Wollman Rink in Central Park on Friday:
I waited in line at TKTS while RobotBoy was in rehearsal one afternoon and scored us tickets to his see first Broadway show. We saw Curtains at the really lovely Al Hirschfeld Theater. Coincidentally, we happened to decide to go on the annual Kids on Broadway night, which meant we got a discount on dinner at the Times Square Planet Hollywood and were treated to a brief post-curtain speech from David Hyde Pierce following the show. He reminisced about being taken to see his very first Broadway show when he was nine years old, and it was just magical, like he was speaking directly to RobotBoy.
All in all, I suspect I may have done just a bit too good a job showing him around the city, since he was downright reluctant to come home! I’ve assured him I’ll be happy to move to New York with him just as soon as he gets rich and famous enough to support his dad and me in the style to which we’d like to become accustomed.
But, in the meantime, we’ll try and settle down to getting some schoolwork done.
Well, first of all, the rehearsals and “presentations” for the opera went very well. The approach to these performances was quite different from what they had done for the first two at the arts center. Here in Florida, although they had only minimal sets and props, they did much more in the way of staging and had everyone moving about the stage and really “performing” the piece. The New York performances were billed as “musical readings,” and all of the performers spent most of the time just singing or speaking into standing mics. In addition, they were recording the piece, so there was a lot more attention paid to how things sounded. So, RobotBoy had the opportunity to work closely with the music director and the composer during rehearsals, which was really cool.
They did two readings, and, as in Florida, the audience feedback was very positive. The types of comments and questions were different, with the New Yorkers much more interested in the nuts and bolts of production. However, the general feeling in both places was pretty enthusiastic. People would really like to see the full production. And there was universal praise for the whole cast, including my little guy.
By the time he was done, RobotBoy was pretty tired, but was still sad to know it was over. Fortunately, he still has the junior Pirates of Penzance production on the horizon. So he doesn’t feel completely bereft.
Although we did no formal “schoolwork” while we were away, we did manage to get in a couple of outings I can count as field trips. First on RobotBoy’s agenda, given his ongoing fascination with samurai, was the Arms and Armor exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum. He was absolutely delighted to find three rooms full of Japanese armor and swords, and I was, honestly, surprised at how much he had retained from his reading and research on the subject. We used our last free day mostly at the American Museum of Natural History, where RobotBoy spent a few hours exploring.
He devoted most of his time to the Rose Center for Earth and Space. We walked the Cosmic Pathway, which traces the entire history of the universe at several million years per foot. We visited the Big Band Theater and saw the wonderful Cosmic Collisions in the Hayden Planetarium. He found out how much he would weigh on various planets, the sun and even on a neutron star.Of course, one cannot visit this particular museum without seeing the dinosaurs. So, we also browsed the Fossil Halls before taking our leave.
In between rehearsals and performances and educational field trips,
we also managed to just plain have some fun exploring Manhattan. We rode the Ferris wheel and did some shopping in the ginormous Toys R Us in Times Square. We rode many different subways from Soho to the Village to midtown and Central Park, and we tried different restaurants in “Little India” on 6th Street. RobotBoy went ice skating (in a borrowed, too-large ski jacket) at Rockefeller Center on Monday . . . . . . and then again at Wollman Rink in Central Park on Friday:
I waited in line at TKTS while RobotBoy was in rehearsal one afternoon and scored us tickets to his see first Broadway show. We saw Curtains at the really lovely Al Hirschfeld Theater. Coincidentally, we happened to decide to go on the annual Kids on Broadway night, which meant we got a discount on dinner at the Times Square Planet Hollywood and were treated to a brief post-curtain speech from David Hyde Pierce following the show. He reminisced about being taken to see his very first Broadway show when he was nine years old, and it was just magical, like he was speaking directly to RobotBoy.
All in all, I suspect I may have done just a bit too good a job showing him around the city, since he was downright reluctant to come home! I’ve assured him I’ll be happy to move to New York with him just as soon as he gets rich and famous enough to support his dad and me in the style to which we’d like to become accustomed.
But, in the meantime, we’ll try and settle down to getting some schoolwork done.
Saturday, February 09, 2008
A Whole Week of Relative Normalcy
So, RobotBoy finished his two-week sojourn at the arts center. It was a wonderful experience for him, personally, and the show seemed to be very successful. Although it was technically open to the public for both presentations, they really promoted the second one. And, on that night, they had so many reservations that they had to add chairs. They got a standing ovation and lots of great audience feedback for both the show and the performers.
Sometime during week two, we got word that they wanted him to come to New York to participate in two more presentations. This possibility had been mentioned before rehearsals began, but became “real” when they bought us the plane tickets. So, next week, we’re off on that adventure. RobotBoy has never been on an airplane and hasn’t been to NYC since he was an infant in a stroller. As you can imagine, this is very big news for him.
Needless to say, I’m not planning on trying to accomplish anything academic next week. Instead, I re-wrote my lesson plans for the month to pull in the left-over assignments from last week and all of February and compacted it into the three weeks we’ll actually have. And I did my mean mommy act and cracked the whip this week to make sure we got things done while we were here.
Math:
Having finished his online math class (with a nice A, thank you very much!), he began this week reading through Painless Algebra. The idea was that it would be a gentle introduction and that he could start a full-fledged algebra class in the fall. However, somewhere around Wednesday of this week, he began telling me Painless Algebra just wasn’t interesting for him, because there was too much reading and not enough equations. So, we sat down together and looked at the University of California College Prep (UCCP) open source Algebra One online class, which I had been keeping in the back of my mind for him to do next year. He really liked the look of it, and we’ve decided to have him go ahead and start that now, moving slowly. With RobotBoy, all math plans are always subject to change, but the plan right now is for him to complete slightly less than one-third of the course this year, then spread the rest over the 2008-2009 academic year. I’ll keep you posted . . .
History & Literature:
We’re still plugging away at Great Expectations. We’re really enjoying it, but are having a tough time finding enough time to read. RobotBoy finished Dragon’s Gate during the second arts center week. He is now reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I had intended for him to finish Alice and then start Tom, but he chose to do them concurrently. He seems to be enjoying them both, especially if I will let him get comfortable in my new patio lounge chair while he reads. He watched a Modern Marvels DVD about the invention of the telephone. For fun, he’s reading Kate DiCamillo’s Tale of Despereaux.
English:
We did some reading comprehension exercises on Monday, and RobotBoy spent the rest of his time this week on that essay he owed me from before the opera. He finally got it done and wrote out his clean copy on Friday. It’s still like pulling teeth to get him to write more than a couple of sentences, but he did manage to produce something that looks a lot like an essay.
Science:
He read this week from Human Body and Earth’s Waters. The thing that seemed to make the biggest impression on him was the section about water treatment. He interrupted my lunch on Friday to show me the diagrams from the book and explicate them in great detail. (Lucky me.) Since the Marine Science books seem to be giving us the least bang for our bucks and contain lessons that are not sequential or dependent on each other, they were one of the few things I jettisoned from our compressed lesson plans to save us a little time. On Wednesday, he went to the first afternoon of the Chemistry series at the science museum. He said it was mostly review for him, since we did chemistry last year, but he had fun.
Latin:
In the name of catching up, he did two lessons in Learning Latin Through Mythology this week. He read the stories of “Diana and Acteon” and “Echo and Narcissus,” translated their accompanying picture stories, and did the worksheets. He even voluntarily did the extra activities, making a flip book of Acteon’s transformation into a stag and looking up pictures of flowers mentioned in myths. He seems to enjoy this book quite a lot.
Spanish:
More of The Learnables: Basic Structures. He hit a snag with Monday’s ejercicios and had to go back and look up a few vocabulary words, but then got back on track and breezed through the rest of the week.
Music:
This is the one thing I can think of that didn’t get done this week. He was supposed to read about and learn the snippet of the “Piano Quintet in A” from Themes to Remember, but I don’t think he got around to it. Maybe it’ll get done this weekend before we leave town?
Other Stuff:
After two weeks of hitting only the occasional outside class, RobotBoy returned to his regular schedule of activities this week. Right after we returned on Saturday, he went with his choir to sing for a wedding in a city about an hour south of us. Then he did piano on Monday afternoon, followed by a two-hour rehearsal/class for Pirates of Penzance Junior that evening. He had his boys’ class at the ballet school on Tuesday and the regular class on Wednesday after science. It’s Parent Observation week at the dance school, and I just have to mention how impressed I am with how much they have learned this year. Thursday brought his regular choir rehearsal and Friday the weekly three-class marathon at dance.
Unfortunately, RobotBoy twisted his ankle a bit in the second class, and his ballet teacher decided it was safest to send him home to rest. After a couple of hours on the couch last night with the ankle propped up and iced, there is no swelling. And he says it feels much better this morning.
More Other Stuff:
Last Sunday afternoon, I bowed out of the way to allow RobotBoy and his dad to have a "guys' only" afternoon at the ballet. They saw a dance adaptation of Pirates of Penzance, which they said was lots of fun. One of the boys from RobotBoy's dance school was having his birthday party in conjunciton with the show, so they spent some time participating in those festivities.
We also had tickets for a show at the Shakespeare Theatre on Thursday evening. It was a new play about a string quartet preparing for a major performance and was very good. (I especially noticed that there is a great part for Moonheart when she gets just a bit older.)
I ended up having to change the dates for a couple of the children’s theatre productions we signed up for at the beginning of the year because RobotBoy has conflicts with the original dates. As it turned out, the only way for us to see the production of Treasure Island was to go this week to one of the school matinees. So, we did that on Friday morning. Normally, we avoid student shows, because, frankly, the kids so often don’t behave very well and don’t have adequate supervision. And I usually demand that RobotBoy read the source material before we see a play or film version, which he hasn’t done yet. Consequently, I wasn’t entirely pleased with the whole idea. However, as it turned out, the audience was fine, and the show didn’t give away the ending of the book. So, now RobotBoy is looking forward to reading the original.
RobotBoy will take some history and literature reading with him next week. And we may take his laptop. However, I don’t really anticipate him getting a whole lot done while New York lies outside waiting to be explored. We are planning at least one museum field trip while we’re there and may do more, depending on how busy he is with rehearsals.
Next week’s report may not be posted “on schedule,” but I do promise to share our experiences in “The Big City” after we return.
And now, I’m off to pack!
Sometime during week two, we got word that they wanted him to come to New York to participate in two more presentations. This possibility had been mentioned before rehearsals began, but became “real” when they bought us the plane tickets. So, next week, we’re off on that adventure. RobotBoy has never been on an airplane and hasn’t been to NYC since he was an infant in a stroller. As you can imagine, this is very big news for him.
Needless to say, I’m not planning on trying to accomplish anything academic next week. Instead, I re-wrote my lesson plans for the month to pull in the left-over assignments from last week and all of February and compacted it into the three weeks we’ll actually have. And I did my mean mommy act and cracked the whip this week to make sure we got things done while we were here.
Math:
Having finished his online math class (with a nice A, thank you very much!), he began this week reading through Painless Algebra. The idea was that it would be a gentle introduction and that he could start a full-fledged algebra class in the fall. However, somewhere around Wednesday of this week, he began telling me Painless Algebra just wasn’t interesting for him, because there was too much reading and not enough equations. So, we sat down together and looked at the University of California College Prep (UCCP) open source Algebra One online class, which I had been keeping in the back of my mind for him to do next year. He really liked the look of it, and we’ve decided to have him go ahead and start that now, moving slowly. With RobotBoy, all math plans are always subject to change, but the plan right now is for him to complete slightly less than one-third of the course this year, then spread the rest over the 2008-2009 academic year. I’ll keep you posted . . .
History & Literature:
We’re still plugging away at Great Expectations. We’re really enjoying it, but are having a tough time finding enough time to read. RobotBoy finished Dragon’s Gate during the second arts center week. He is now reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I had intended for him to finish Alice and then start Tom, but he chose to do them concurrently. He seems to be enjoying them both, especially if I will let him get comfortable in my new patio lounge chair while he reads. He watched a Modern Marvels DVD about the invention of the telephone. For fun, he’s reading Kate DiCamillo’s Tale of Despereaux.
English:
We did some reading comprehension exercises on Monday, and RobotBoy spent the rest of his time this week on that essay he owed me from before the opera. He finally got it done and wrote out his clean copy on Friday. It’s still like pulling teeth to get him to write more than a couple of sentences, but he did manage to produce something that looks a lot like an essay.
Science:
He read this week from Human Body and Earth’s Waters. The thing that seemed to make the biggest impression on him was the section about water treatment. He interrupted my lunch on Friday to show me the diagrams from the book and explicate them in great detail. (Lucky me.) Since the Marine Science books seem to be giving us the least bang for our bucks and contain lessons that are not sequential or dependent on each other, they were one of the few things I jettisoned from our compressed lesson plans to save us a little time. On Wednesday, he went to the first afternoon of the Chemistry series at the science museum. He said it was mostly review for him, since we did chemistry last year, but he had fun.
Latin:
In the name of catching up, he did two lessons in Learning Latin Through Mythology this week. He read the stories of “Diana and Acteon” and “Echo and Narcissus,” translated their accompanying picture stories, and did the worksheets. He even voluntarily did the extra activities, making a flip book of Acteon’s transformation into a stag and looking up pictures of flowers mentioned in myths. He seems to enjoy this book quite a lot.
Spanish:
More of The Learnables: Basic Structures. He hit a snag with Monday’s ejercicios and had to go back and look up a few vocabulary words, but then got back on track and breezed through the rest of the week.
Music:
This is the one thing I can think of that didn’t get done this week. He was supposed to read about and learn the snippet of the “Piano Quintet in A” from Themes to Remember, but I don’t think he got around to it. Maybe it’ll get done this weekend before we leave town?
Other Stuff:
After two weeks of hitting only the occasional outside class, RobotBoy returned to his regular schedule of activities this week. Right after we returned on Saturday, he went with his choir to sing for a wedding in a city about an hour south of us. Then he did piano on Monday afternoon, followed by a two-hour rehearsal/class for Pirates of Penzance Junior that evening. He had his boys’ class at the ballet school on Tuesday and the regular class on Wednesday after science. It’s Parent Observation week at the dance school, and I just have to mention how impressed I am with how much they have learned this year. Thursday brought his regular choir rehearsal and Friday the weekly three-class marathon at dance.
Unfortunately, RobotBoy twisted his ankle a bit in the second class, and his ballet teacher decided it was safest to send him home to rest. After a couple of hours on the couch last night with the ankle propped up and iced, there is no swelling. And he says it feels much better this morning.
More Other Stuff:
Last Sunday afternoon, I bowed out of the way to allow RobotBoy and his dad to have a "guys' only" afternoon at the ballet. They saw a dance adaptation of Pirates of Penzance, which they said was lots of fun. One of the boys from RobotBoy's dance school was having his birthday party in conjunciton with the show, so they spent some time participating in those festivities.
We also had tickets for a show at the Shakespeare Theatre on Thursday evening. It was a new play about a string quartet preparing for a major performance and was very good. (I especially noticed that there is a great part for Moonheart when she gets just a bit older.)
I ended up having to change the dates for a couple of the children’s theatre productions we signed up for at the beginning of the year because RobotBoy has conflicts with the original dates. As it turned out, the only way for us to see the production of Treasure Island was to go this week to one of the school matinees. So, we did that on Friday morning. Normally, we avoid student shows, because, frankly, the kids so often don’t behave very well and don’t have adequate supervision. And I usually demand that RobotBoy read the source material before we see a play or film version, which he hasn’t done yet. Consequently, I wasn’t entirely pleased with the whole idea. However, as it turned out, the audience was fine, and the show didn’t give away the ending of the book. So, now RobotBoy is looking forward to reading the original.
RobotBoy will take some history and literature reading with him next week. And we may take his laptop. However, I don’t really anticipate him getting a whole lot done while New York lies outside waiting to be explored. We are planning at least one museum field trip while we’re there and may do more, depending on how busy he is with rehearsals.
Next week’s report may not be posted “on schedule,” but I do promise to share our experiences in “The Big City” after we return.
And now, I’m off to pack!
Friday, January 25, 2008
Hanging in Here
Well, RobotBoy continues to be absorbed by the opera project. This week, he's been in rehearsals most days from 10:00 or 11:00 until 5:30 or 6:00. We've spent a few nights in the on-site accommodations in order to cut down on the driving, but he's so busy and tired that it's been a real challenge to get him to focus on much schoolwork.
Here's what we've managed to get done this week.
Math:
He completed the exam for the last module on Tuesday (and earned a 92% -- yay!). On Wednesday, he made some corrections to previously submitted lessons and started reviewing for the semester exam. He connected with the teacher long enough to get through about half of the oral quiz during his lunch break on Thursday, and they agreed to finish up during the break on Friday. He also did a bit more exam review before rehearsals started on Friday. At this point, it looks like he'll have to do the online portion of the semester exam over the weekend.
History and Literature:
Nothing to speak of, unfortunately. He is supposed to finish Dragon's Gate this week, and I'm hopeful that will happen at some point during our driving. He's just so obsessed with that Garth Nix series, though, that it's extremely difficult to get him to read anything else. (Last time I checked, he was about half-way through Sir Thursday, the fourth book in the series.) He did spend some time with the rest of the cast looking at pictures of rural Maine in 1914. Does that count?
English:
We read the grammar notes on making adjectives from nouns and on hyphens and did the accompanying exercises.
Science:
He's slowly working his way through the rest of the Earth's Waters chapter 2 review. He read about arteries, veins and capillaries in the Human Body book and watched a Bill Nye episode about insects. We're also taking advantage of the fact that we're staying in a nature preserve by walking the trails and reading all of the signs about the flora and fauna here.
Latin:
I left the Secundus activity sheets at home, unfortunately. However, RobotBoy has otherwise prety much kept up. He translated the week's picutre story, read the Roman Report about Saturnalia and did the Latin Roots and both Grasp the Grammar exercises.
Spanish:
He's done pretty well with this, too, probably because it is so well suited to getting done in the car. He did four ejercicios over two pages and is almost caght up for the week.
I think that's about it, in terms of formal academics for the week. We did survive our camping trip last weekend and had a good time, despite rain, unusually cold temperatures (for Florida) and even a tornado warning on Saturday night. One thing to be said for camping with a choir group: The singing around the campfire is unusully good!
RobotBoy had to skip piano, drama and choir this week, and he will likely make it to only two out of his five dance classes. It seems to be worth it, though, since he says working on this project has been pretty close to "heaven."
Here's what we've managed to get done this week.
Math:
He completed the exam for the last module on Tuesday (and earned a 92% -- yay!). On Wednesday, he made some corrections to previously submitted lessons and started reviewing for the semester exam. He connected with the teacher long enough to get through about half of the oral quiz during his lunch break on Thursday, and they agreed to finish up during the break on Friday. He also did a bit more exam review before rehearsals started on Friday. At this point, it looks like he'll have to do the online portion of the semester exam over the weekend.
History and Literature:
Nothing to speak of, unfortunately. He is supposed to finish Dragon's Gate this week, and I'm hopeful that will happen at some point during our driving. He's just so obsessed with that Garth Nix series, though, that it's extremely difficult to get him to read anything else. (Last time I checked, he was about half-way through Sir Thursday, the fourth book in the series.) He did spend some time with the rest of the cast looking at pictures of rural Maine in 1914. Does that count?
English:
We read the grammar notes on making adjectives from nouns and on hyphens and did the accompanying exercises.
Science:
He's slowly working his way through the rest of the Earth's Waters chapter 2 review. He read about arteries, veins and capillaries in the Human Body book and watched a Bill Nye episode about insects. We're also taking advantage of the fact that we're staying in a nature preserve by walking the trails and reading all of the signs about the flora and fauna here.
Latin:
I left the Secundus activity sheets at home, unfortunately. However, RobotBoy has otherwise prety much kept up. He translated the week's picutre story, read the Roman Report about Saturnalia and did the Latin Roots and both Grasp the Grammar exercises.
Spanish:
He's done pretty well with this, too, probably because it is so well suited to getting done in the car. He did four ejercicios over two pages and is almost caght up for the week.
I think that's about it, in terms of formal academics for the week. We did survive our camping trip last weekend and had a good time, despite rain, unusually cold temperatures (for Florida) and even a tornado warning on Saturday night. One thing to be said for camping with a choir group: The singing around the campfire is unusully good!
RobotBoy had to skip piano, drama and choir this week, and he will likely make it to only two out of his five dance classes. It seems to be worth it, though, since he says working on this project has been pretty close to "heaven."
Friday, January 18, 2008
A New Project
And, no, it's not an academic project, but another theatrical experience.
RobotBoy has been cast to help "workshop" a new opera. The piece has been in development for several years, led by a team from New York. However, they are now in residence for about two and a half weeks at an arts center not too far from our home. There is a part in the piece for a nine-year-old boy, and they opted to cast someone local. They took on RobotBoy based on the recommendation of someone who knows him from other things he's done in the area.
So, here we are, in this gorgeous setting. The center is located inside a nature preserve, with facilities for pretty much every kind of creative endeavor tucked among the palmettos and wax myrtles. We have a private room set aside for us for the nights when we want to stay over or just to hang out in comfortably between rehearsals. It's peaceful and so beautiful. And RobotBoy is having an incredible experience working with professional singers and the composer and librettist of the piece.
The only downside? Well, not much school is getting done.
We did manage relatively normal days Monday and Tuesday, and I "gently encouraged" RobotBoy to do some work on what would normally have been a free Wendesday. But from Wednesday evening on, we've been either at the arts center or on the road there and back.
Actually, I'm typing this on one of their computers while waiting for RobotBoy to come out of a rehearsal. So, I'll have to rely on memory to try and recap what we did this week.
Math:
He completed four lessons this week and is now perilously close to finishing the FLVS course. All that's left are the module exam, the final oral exam and the semester exam. He has simply aced this last module, which has been about charts and graphs and probablity. I'd really like him to maintain the current grade, though. So, I've encouraged him to hold off of the tests until he's better rested and able to focus. We're hoping to finish those up by the middle of next week. After that, it's on to Painless Algebra.
History/Literature:
All I can remember him doing on this front this week is continuing to read Dragon's Gate. He has been reading quite a lot for fun in the car and in other spare moments. He zoomed through the fourth of Dorothy Hoobler's samurai novels, A Samurai Never Fears Death, and one and a half of Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series. He's also very much enjoying listening to Five Children and It (courtesty of LibriVox) on the mp3 player her got for Christmas. They all, I suppose, technically fit our modern history timeline. Right? Oh, and we did read a couple more chapters of Great Expectations. RobotBoy has gotten much more interested in the story again now that the mysterious benefactor has made himself known.
English:
Hmm. Well, he's supposed to be writing an essay about theatre this week. We did some brainstorming, and he wrote the outline, but I guess that's something else we'll have to catch up on next week.
Science:
It was another fairly low-key week for science. RobotBoy read from The Human Body and Earth's Waters, watched a couple of Bill Nye episodes and did part of the Earth's Waters Chapter 2 Review.
Latin:
It was back to Minimus Secundus this week, Chapter 6 (I think) about Saturnalia. He got as far as translating the picture story before or routine broke down.
Spanish:
I'm pretty sure he did a couple of pages of ejercios Monday and Tuesday?
I don't think he touched Themes to Remember, so poor old Schubert will have to wait in line. However, given that he's spending two or more weeks working on an opera, I guess he's not exactly "falling behind?"
He did make it to his piano lesson, during which he happily started his new Level 3 book. He also made it to ballet on Tuesday and choir rehearsal on Thursday. And on Monday evening, he attended the first rehearsal/class for the junior production of Pirates of Penzance. He will be playing Samuel, whom the director describes and the Pirate King's "second in command." He has loved Gilbert and Sullivan in general, and this show in particular, for a few years. So, I'm sure he'll have a grand time.
And you know what just occured to me? Gilbert and Sullivan fit into our modern world history era for this year. Bonus! (That's what we call a "two-fer" around here: When something fun that we'd probably do anytway just happens to justify academic credit.)
I'm sure I'd be even more excited about that were it not for the knowledge hanging over my head (like the heavy clouds in the sky) that after we finish here for the day we're off to spend the weekend camping with RobotBoy's choir. We got all kinds of camping equipment for Christmas, so we're well prepared. And RobotBoy is pretty excited. Now all we have to do is cross our fingers that the rain and thunderstorms predicted for tonight and tomorrow don't wash us and all our equipment away . . .
Or that we don't get attacked by bears . . .
RobotBoy has been cast to help "workshop" a new opera. The piece has been in development for several years, led by a team from New York. However, they are now in residence for about two and a half weeks at an arts center not too far from our home. There is a part in the piece for a nine-year-old boy, and they opted to cast someone local. They took on RobotBoy based on the recommendation of someone who knows him from other things he's done in the area.
So, here we are, in this gorgeous setting. The center is located inside a nature preserve, with facilities for pretty much every kind of creative endeavor tucked among the palmettos and wax myrtles. We have a private room set aside for us for the nights when we want to stay over or just to hang out in comfortably between rehearsals. It's peaceful and so beautiful. And RobotBoy is having an incredible experience working with professional singers and the composer and librettist of the piece.
The only downside? Well, not much school is getting done.
We did manage relatively normal days Monday and Tuesday, and I "gently encouraged" RobotBoy to do some work on what would normally have been a free Wendesday. But from Wednesday evening on, we've been either at the arts center or on the road there and back.
Actually, I'm typing this on one of their computers while waiting for RobotBoy to come out of a rehearsal. So, I'll have to rely on memory to try and recap what we did this week.
Math:
He completed four lessons this week and is now perilously close to finishing the FLVS course. All that's left are the module exam, the final oral exam and the semester exam. He has simply aced this last module, which has been about charts and graphs and probablity. I'd really like him to maintain the current grade, though. So, I've encouraged him to hold off of the tests until he's better rested and able to focus. We're hoping to finish those up by the middle of next week. After that, it's on to Painless Algebra.
History/Literature:
All I can remember him doing on this front this week is continuing to read Dragon's Gate. He has been reading quite a lot for fun in the car and in other spare moments. He zoomed through the fourth of Dorothy Hoobler's samurai novels, A Samurai Never Fears Death, and one and a half of Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series. He's also very much enjoying listening to Five Children and It (courtesty of LibriVox) on the mp3 player her got for Christmas. They all, I suppose, technically fit our modern history timeline. Right? Oh, and we did read a couple more chapters of Great Expectations. RobotBoy has gotten much more interested in the story again now that the mysterious benefactor has made himself known.
English:
Hmm. Well, he's supposed to be writing an essay about theatre this week. We did some brainstorming, and he wrote the outline, but I guess that's something else we'll have to catch up on next week.
Science:
It was another fairly low-key week for science. RobotBoy read from The Human Body and Earth's Waters, watched a couple of Bill Nye episodes and did part of the Earth's Waters Chapter 2 Review.
Latin:
It was back to Minimus Secundus this week, Chapter 6 (I think) about Saturnalia. He got as far as translating the picture story before or routine broke down.
Spanish:
I'm pretty sure he did a couple of pages of ejercios Monday and Tuesday?
I don't think he touched Themes to Remember, so poor old Schubert will have to wait in line. However, given that he's spending two or more weeks working on an opera, I guess he's not exactly "falling behind?"
He did make it to his piano lesson, during which he happily started his new Level 3 book. He also made it to ballet on Tuesday and choir rehearsal on Thursday. And on Monday evening, he attended the first rehearsal/class for the junior production of Pirates of Penzance. He will be playing Samuel, whom the director describes and the Pirate King's "second in command." He has loved Gilbert and Sullivan in general, and this show in particular, for a few years. So, I'm sure he'll have a grand time.
And you know what just occured to me? Gilbert and Sullivan fit into our modern world history era for this year. Bonus! (That's what we call a "two-fer" around here: When something fun that we'd probably do anytway just happens to justify academic credit.)
I'm sure I'd be even more excited about that were it not for the knowledge hanging over my head (like the heavy clouds in the sky) that after we finish here for the day we're off to spend the weekend camping with RobotBoy's choir. We got all kinds of camping equipment for Christmas, so we're well prepared. And RobotBoy is pretty excited. Now all we have to do is cross our fingers that the rain and thunderstorms predicted for tonight and tomorrow don't wash us and all our equipment away . . .
Or that we don't get attacked by bears . . .
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Friday, January 11, 2008
Doing the Second Semester Shuffle
Well, here we are back in our first full post-holiday week! I hopeyou all had a lovely holiday season and aren't experiencing too much turbulence getting back into the regular groove.
RobotBoy did more or less keep up with math over the last three weeks or so, but that was about all the formal schoolwork we did. And, because of The Nutcracker and assorted other holiday events, we ended up a little behind by mid-December. So, I’ve spent the last couple of days doing that “second semester shuffle,” in which I figure out exactly where we really are with all subjects and then adjust the lesson plans for the remainder of the year accordingly.
I felt “done” with the process as of sometime yesterday, but haven’t actually clicked “Print” and put the new pages in my binder just yet. Somehow, doing that seems to invite crisis.
This has been surprisingly good week. I feared that, following three weeks mostly off and the usual post-holiday let-down—not to mention the fact that I was feeling tired and stressed after making yet another round-trip to Virginia to get Moonheart settled for the second semester—RobotBoy and I would have some trouble getting back into our school routine. Happily, however, he’s been really, really good about all of it. In fact, he finished his assignments early enough on Friday to have time to build one of the wooden race car models we bought earlier in the week.
So, here’s what we’ve done this week:
Math:
He’s in the final module of his online math class and doing very well. The previous module, on algebraic concepts, was more of a stretch, but this one is all about graphing and tables and charts and such, and the visual stuff is always a snap for him. He’s a bit behind pace, but on track to finish the course within a couple of weeks. I’m not sure he’s ready to move on to the full algebra course. He could certainly handle it, but I have a hunch he’d hate it. So, instead, I think we’ll spend this next semester working through Painless Algebra.
History & Literature:
We rejoined Pip and his Great Expectations this week and are making good progress. RobotBoy finished Alice Rose and Sam on Thursday and has started reading Laurence Yep’s Dragon’s Gate. He watched a DVD biography about Mark Twain and was so excited the day he figured out that Sam Clemens and Mark Twain were the same person. He also read about the Opium Wars in History of the World: Revolution and Conflict.
English:
He had two reading comprehension exercises this week, both about the New Globe Theater in London. One of the excerpts was from Susan Cooper’s King of Shadows, a book he read and enjoyed a couple of years ago. And the subject was a familiar one. So, he breezed through the exercises.
Science:
In addition to his regular allotment of reading, RobotBoy took the line self-test for Chapter Two of Earth’s Waters. He aced it. Since he did not have a science center class this week, we also took some time to do a couple of simple projects. The first, from his Marine Science book, had us each building a “sea scape” in a shoebox and then trading them so that we could do “soundings” through holes in the lids with plastic straws. We then charted our findings. It was both more fun and more meaningful than it sounded to me when I read the instructions.
We also built a model of an artesian well, following instructions from Earth’s Waters. That one was a big hit.
Basically, what happens is that you pour water slowly into the funnel and watch it bubble up through the straw.
We've recently discovered that a local cable channel is re-running the old Bill Nye the Science Guy shows. So, we've been recording the shows, and RobotBoy is happily working his way through the series as a fun supplement.
Latin:
He worked in Learning Latin Through Mythology this week, reading the myth of Daphne and Apollo. He translated the picture story based on the myth and then did the vocabulary worksheet.
Spanish:
He continues to move through The Learnables: Basic Structures on pace and with few problems. He earned perfect scores on this week’s exercises.
Music:
We’re still in Beethoven mode. Over the break, RobotBoy watched a Beethoven bio on DVD, and this week he’s working on the "Moonlight Sonata" in Themes to Remember. Next week, we move on to Schubert.
Other Stuff:
In addition to our at-home work, this was also the week in which most of his outside activities kicked back into gear. He attended his regular round of piano and choir and dance. The science center classes don’t resume until next month, but he is scheduled to begin a series of theatre classes next week and has to go in for a placement audition on Saturday morning. So, he’s been working on his song and monologue in preparation.
I know there will be the usual bumps in the road this semester. In fact, we’ve already learned about one: RobotBoy has been invited to participate in a workshop for a new musical theatre piece, which will eat up two or three weeks of our lives in the second half of this month. However, I’m looking forward to seeing those pretty, new, clean sheets of paper come out of the printer and go into my lesson plan binder. At least I’ll manage to feel organized for a few days!
RobotBoy did more or less keep up with math over the last three weeks or so, but that was about all the formal schoolwork we did. And, because of The Nutcracker and assorted other holiday events, we ended up a little behind by mid-December. So, I’ve spent the last couple of days doing that “second semester shuffle,” in which I figure out exactly where we really are with all subjects and then adjust the lesson plans for the remainder of the year accordingly.
I felt “done” with the process as of sometime yesterday, but haven’t actually clicked “Print” and put the new pages in my binder just yet. Somehow, doing that seems to invite crisis.
This has been surprisingly good week. I feared that, following three weeks mostly off and the usual post-holiday let-down—not to mention the fact that I was feeling tired and stressed after making yet another round-trip to Virginia to get Moonheart settled for the second semester—RobotBoy and I would have some trouble getting back into our school routine. Happily, however, he’s been really, really good about all of it. In fact, he finished his assignments early enough on Friday to have time to build one of the wooden race car models we bought earlier in the week.
So, here’s what we’ve done this week:
Math:
He’s in the final module of his online math class and doing very well. The previous module, on algebraic concepts, was more of a stretch, but this one is all about graphing and tables and charts and such, and the visual stuff is always a snap for him. He’s a bit behind pace, but on track to finish the course within a couple of weeks. I’m not sure he’s ready to move on to the full algebra course. He could certainly handle it, but I have a hunch he’d hate it. So, instead, I think we’ll spend this next semester working through Painless Algebra.
History & Literature:
We rejoined Pip and his Great Expectations this week and are making good progress. RobotBoy finished Alice Rose and Sam on Thursday and has started reading Laurence Yep’s Dragon’s Gate. He watched a DVD biography about Mark Twain and was so excited the day he figured out that Sam Clemens and Mark Twain were the same person. He also read about the Opium Wars in History of the World: Revolution and Conflict.
English:
He had two reading comprehension exercises this week, both about the New Globe Theater in London. One of the excerpts was from Susan Cooper’s King of Shadows, a book he read and enjoyed a couple of years ago. And the subject was a familiar one. So, he breezed through the exercises.
Science:
In addition to his regular allotment of reading, RobotBoy took the line self-test for Chapter Two of Earth’s Waters. He aced it. Since he did not have a science center class this week, we also took some time to do a couple of simple projects. The first, from his Marine Science book, had us each building a “sea scape” in a shoebox and then trading them so that we could do “soundings” through holes in the lids with plastic straws. We then charted our findings. It was both more fun and more meaningful than it sounded to me when I read the instructions.
We also built a model of an artesian well, following instructions from Earth’s Waters. That one was a big hit. 
Basically, what happens is that you pour water slowly into the funnel and watch it bubble up through the straw.
We've recently discovered that a local cable channel is re-running the old Bill Nye the Science Guy shows. So, we've been recording the shows, and RobotBoy is happily working his way through the series as a fun supplement.
Latin:
He worked in Learning Latin Through Mythology this week, reading the myth of Daphne and Apollo. He translated the picture story based on the myth and then did the vocabulary worksheet.
Spanish:
He continues to move through The Learnables: Basic Structures on pace and with few problems. He earned perfect scores on this week’s exercises.
Music:
We’re still in Beethoven mode. Over the break, RobotBoy watched a Beethoven bio on DVD, and this week he’s working on the "Moonlight Sonata" in Themes to Remember. Next week, we move on to Schubert.
Other Stuff:
In addition to our at-home work, this was also the week in which most of his outside activities kicked back into gear. He attended his regular round of piano and choir and dance. The science center classes don’t resume until next month, but he is scheduled to begin a series of theatre classes next week and has to go in for a placement audition on Saturday morning. So, he’s been working on his song and monologue in preparation.
I know there will be the usual bumps in the road this semester. In fact, we’ve already learned about one: RobotBoy has been invited to participate in a workshop for a new musical theatre piece, which will eat up two or three weeks of our lives in the second half of this month. However, I’m looking forward to seeing those pretty, new, clean sheets of paper come out of the printer and go into my lesson plan binder. At least I’ll manage to feel organized for a few days!
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