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!
No comments:
Post a Comment