We finished Week 11 here in our little corner of the educational world. Nothing terribly earth-shattering happened, but it was generally enjoyable.
Rosie Girl
Her choir class sang at a Veteran’s Day presentation at the Middle School on Wednesday. They did quite well and I was very proud of them. It was also very interesting to see all the kids sitting on the bleachers and almost all of them were slouching, but Rosie Girl was sitting straight up – remnants of all those years in ballet class!
I continue to be thrilled with Writeathome.com. Rosie Girl has had two graded assignments returned, one was a “B” and the other an “A”. She clearly showed improvement from the initial drafts to the final drafts. And there was no arguing with me!!
Rosie Girl asked me last night if she could loan out one of her Sonlight books from last year - Don’t All Religions Lead to God?. I told her it was fine with me and asked why and to whom. She said that one of her friends in choir believes that all religions believe pretty much the same thing, so it doesn’t matter which religion you believe as long as you’re sincere. Rosie Girl thought that this book would be very helpful for her and offered to let her read it. I’m definitely pleased that my girl is talking about faith issues to her friends.
For Science this week, Rosie Girl was supposed to do a microscope lab, but I couldn’t find the slides that she needs. I have concluded that I actually didn’t purchase those slides, so I have to decide how strongly I feel about her looking at them.
At the public school parent-teacher conferences, Rosie Girl’s art teacher was very pleased with how she’s doing. He commented that she does tend to get behind easily, but that’s because she’s something of a perfectionist. She’s getting a little better at choosing projects that are more doable, and her teacher definitely is happy to have a student who wants to work hard, so he’s happy. We didn’t get to talk to her choir teacher. In any case, she has “A’s” in both classes.
Wild Man
One of the main things that I have noticed with Wild Man has been that reading is not an obstacle to much of anything anymore. He still does Explode the Code which is helpful for the sounds that he still has trouble with, but he is able to figure out most words now from context that he rarely gets completely stumped in a book.
In light of Wild Man’s reading prowess and my spate of migraines, I have had him start reading “Adventures of an Early American Boy” for Science since we haven’t done nearly as many experiments as I would have liked. After he finishes that book, I’ll have him reading biographies of scientists.
I have been constantly surprised by how much information Wild Man has been learning from sources unknown to me. For example, he was able to tell me about guerilla warfare tactics used by the American colonists and why they were effective against the British regulars. We talked about World War 1 on Veteran’s Day and Wild Man knew a good bit about trench warfare and why it was so horrendous. There’s information stored in his head that comes out at surprising times!
On Wednesday, Wild Man and I worked at the Nutrition Center as usual. After working, he took out his bell set and drum pad and played a little bit for the clients. Several of the clients that day stayed at the center until time to go to the Veteran’s Day program at the Middle School. Wild Man and I went home first, but then walked to the Middle School for the program. There was something very special about seeing these guys who were just the elderly men who at lunch at the center most of the time who were now dressed up sharp and carrying the flags. It made and impression on me and Wild Man. All of the sudden, we realized that these guys had done more than just run the farm and raise a family – they protected our country. Wow.
On parent-teacher conference day, Mr. Math Tutor and I visited Wild Man’s band teacher. He agreed that Wild Man is, indeed, very distractible, but said that he was easily redirected back to the task at hand and wasn’t a behavior problem. Wild Man needs to practice more, but is otherwise doing well in band.
So, that was our week. This next week is going to be just a four day week for academics because the grandparents are coming on Thursday night. I’m going to be working on the schedules tonight. We are taking all of Thanksgiving week off of school. The kids will still have to go to their public school classes, but they won’t have to do their academic work here that week.
So, how was your week? Anything exciting happen? Check out Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers for more great posts!!
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