Actually, it should be our “weeks” in review since I haven’t updated our school situation in quite a while. For one thing, I’m starting to think longingly of Summer – and we’ve got 10 more weeks to go!! But, we will press on!
We did take a week off to go on a trip to Florida as a gift from Grandma. Yippee!! Unfortunately, since we’ve been back, both Rosie Girl and Wild Man have been sick. Wild Man was diagnosed last week with tonsillitis and sinusitis. Rosie Girl will probably go to the doctor on Monday because I think she’s got sinusitis. Between their illnesses and my migraines, it’s a wonder anything has been getting done!
As a family, we read almost every night. Right now, we’re reading The Hobbit. Generally, we read one of Wild Man’s read-alouds from his curriculum, but I haven’t ruled out reading some of Rosie Girl’s literature selections.
Rosie Girl
History/Literature – She continues with Core 200 History and seems to be learning, even though she’s not thrilled about it. Part of me wishes that she enjoyed school more than she does, but then I remember how I felt about Physics classes. She’s not a fan of History, even though I love it, so I just have to deal with that.
Math – Rosie Girl is about 2/3 done with ALEKS Geometry. PWM works with her every morning for a little while on it.
Chemistry – PWM is doing most of the work with Rosie Girl in Chemistry. The online textbook that she’s using is a much better “fit” for her. This last week, they discussed atomic structure, including electron orbital structure. Again, she’s not fond of it, but she’s learning.
Writing – We took a break from the biweekly essay for her to take a Research Paper class through Write At Home. Again, I was very pleased with the instruction. However, Rosie Girl wasn’t too happy with her grade. Since this is the first time she did a full research paper, I’m not distressed about the grade. I’m definitely having her do it again next year, though. She continues to write fan fiction and occasional poetry as well as being part of the Writing Club at the high school.
Music – Piano Festival is next month. Rosie Girl still needs to work on memorizing her music (!), but it’s otherwise sounding good. Last week, we got her a double ocarina which allows her a wider range of tones.
Art – I am continually blown away at the projects that Rosie Girl makes in Art Class at the local high school. I’ll post pictures soon if she agrees.
Japanese – Rosie Girl is halfway through her first semester.
Driving – She’s completely done with the classroom portion of Driver’s Education. Now she has to drive with her instructor and with me and PWM. She’s driving quite well and significantly less nervous behind the wheel.
Community Service – Rosie Girl is very comfortable now helping our Worship Arts Director get music and music packets ready for the worship team each week. She also does some transposing and other fun things.
Bible – Rosie Girl is still reading through the Old Testament along with some background information from How To Read The Bible For All It’s Worth.
Wild Man
History – In the craziness of the last month, Wild Man has not done as much History/Social Science as I would have liked. However, I consider it less important than his Language Arts and Math, so I’m not going to try to catch him up completely. He has recently watched “Gandhi” and a documentary about Mother Theresa along with other documentaries about India. I also had him watch “Bridge Over The River Kwai” just because it’s such a great movie set in southeast Asia. It was also a springboard for a great discussion of the morality of the actions of the various characters.
Language Arts – We’re still using All About Spelling and Easy Grammar 5. Every week (OK, every couple of weeks), I have him dictate a short paper on something he studied during the week. We aren’t using IEW at the moment. I’ve realized that Wild Man is reading well, but he is having real trouble with writing fluency, both handwriting and typing. I’m not sure how much of this is purely mechanical and how much is related to his dyslexia. In any case, I have him copy a paragraph from one of his schoolbooks to try to improve the mechanical side of writing. He is also very slowed down in his writing by his difficulties with spelling. He has trouble spelling words that he has been working on in his spelling book when they are in another context. So, he has a hard time writing more than a couple of sentences before he’s asking for help spelling most of the words. We’ll keep working on both spelling and writing and hope that he can improve his writing soon. In the meantime, I am going to try skipping forward in IEW to outlining. Having to write the words will still be a challenge for him, but most of what he will need to write will be in the work that he’s outlining. We’ll see how it goes.
Math – He’s moving forward in ALEKS.
Science – We’ve been watching some documentaries about nature, specifically earthquakes and tsunamis, given the recent events in Japan. Otherwise, we’ve been reading some about nutrition. I’m going to sign him up for an online course that uses Legos to teach elementary engineering principles. Wild Man is certainly looking forward to that!
Bible – He and PWM are still working through their Bible overview.
Music – Wild Man plays percussion with the 7th and 8th grade band. He’s also been playing with the junior high “Youth Band” at church, alternating between drum kit and percussion since there’s another drum player in that band. A few weeks ago, PWM started to teach him to play bass guitar, which Wild Man is picking up very, very quickly.
Community Service – It’s so cool to see Wild Man excited to go to the Nutrition Site every week to help with Meals on Wheels and the Senior Lunches.
Tae Kwon Do – PWM and Wild Man are both ready for their next belt test, but they missed the most recent opportunity when we were in Florida. They’ll have to wait several more weeks for the next belt testing date. In any case, both are doing well and practice their forms at home a couple of times a week.
So, that’s pretty much it. The kids are learning a lot, even when they don’t realize it. As they’re getting older, we’re able to have more discussions about world events and other important topics.
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