Homeschool has been feeling disjointed this week. JD is finally starting to take ownership of some of his subjects, and now the challenge for me is to follow up, make sure he did the subject that day, and correct his work. I think he will do more if I get his work written out on a student planner, and then if he checks off that it is done that will also solve that issue.
So here is how things went this week.
Bible:
We got to our Bible reading most, but not all days this week. JD is also working on his memory verses for church youth group. He is also supposed to be working on Awana memory verses that he hasn't been. He'll probably do more work on that before Wednesday. We also usually include "Hymn" as part of "Bible". I neglected Hymn this week. It is a new month. I will be posting shortly a link for the focus hymn for March.
Math:
Working on Horizon's Pre-Algebra. JD finished lesson 80 yesterday and took test 8. I haven't corrected it yet.
So, that means he is halfway through the curriculum. As I look at my planner I find that we have 70 days left in the school year. That means we won't finish the book, or we will work into the summer. Probably I will just decide not to finish the book, or to do the remaining ten lessons at the beginning of next year. We will have done a full year; it's just that I did other material at one point to help cement certain math concepts.
Science:
We started with Apologia General Science, which he hated. He wanted to do astronomy, so I switched to Apologia Astronomy (because I own it), but it is too low a level for him (even though it could be fairly challenging if he would actually work to memorize facts like who Imhotep was and such, but who really needs to know that kind of stuff?). He has been working throughout the year on nature study as well. This week we saw a really amazing woodpecker, and he managed to catch it on video tape. I'll try to post it soon. And he has developed an interest in electric motors.
I am going to have the opportunity to review Supercharged Science soon. I will be transitioning to that as my source for materials. I suspect we will park, first, in the unit on electricity. Also, JD's 4-H club is the Advanced Electric Club, so if that's what he is interested in, then that's the direction we'll go. Or, if he is still interested in Astronomy, and yearning to learn it at a higher level, then we'll go there. Stay posted.
History/Social Studies:
We are currently working our way through the post-Civil War Reconstruction era. We are reading from The History of US: Reconstruction and Reform. We read about how Rutherford B. Hays was elected because of voter fraud! And my husband came across an amazing clip of a movie that was made in 1992 called An American Story, about an incident I'd never heard of, where post World War II vets came home and found their city's politics had been taken over by fraudulent, dishonest politicians, and the people took up arms to protect the right of the voters to have their ballots correctly counted at election time. It's amazing. Take a peek:
It doesn't apply to the period we're studying right now, but it helps one to understand how election fraud has long been an issue and can be very difficult to overcome. I heard there were precincts in the last Presidential election where the vote was counted 100% for Obama, and folks came forward saying, "I voted there, and I voted for Romney!". Or precincts where the count came up 113% for Obama. What? How can that happen? The issue of permitting people to vote without checking ID is crazy! People are bussed into voting precincts and are voting under names of dead people. I really think this needs to be changed. In this day and age, how many voting aged individuals don't have one photo id? Let the government provide it for free if necessary. ::sigh::
Oh, and for Geography we are reading from with Stanley in Africa, about David Livingstone, and we are reading from Halliburton's Book of Marvels: The Orient. We read a chapter or two from each this week.
Language Arts:
JD is really loving First Form Latin these days, and that is making me one happy momma! He is also working his way through material in Essentials in Writing, Grade 6, which I will review for you in a couple of weeks. And we are working our way through The Art of Poetry, which I will also review for you in a couple of weeks. He is showing some areas where his spelling still has some holes in it, so I am planning to create a weekly spelling plan for him from Kathryn Stout's Natural Speller. In the area of Literature, we finished Ever Hopeful, Hannalee, and are almost done with Lassie, Come Home. We are working our way through Little Britches: Man of the Family, which my son doesn't care for for some reason. We are also reading Our America... The Pilgrim Adventure, by Susan Kilbride, which I will review for you in a few weeks.
Art:
I think we kinda failed in Artist Study, but JD enjoyed making a lot of projects out of fusible beads, and also taught himself how to make "Chinese finger traps", which he made over and over and over. It requires weaving. One time he made one with such small segments that he was weaving 16 different strips of paper!
Music:
We've been working on Adventus MusIQ's Piano Suite program, which we finally got up and going. I will be writing a review about it for you near the end of March.
Phys Ed:
The most consistent thrust of our physical education through this year has been weekly bowling. Well, that is over. JD was having a bad day bowling, was angry, and stormed off. I was informed that his behavior had been a struggle (for the league president) all year, and she said he was off the league. It was her opinion, and she's sticking by it. There are league by-laws that give her the right to do that, so even though there are others who disagree with her decision, she has apparently been endowed with all power, so that's over.
So we'll have to see how I handle PE for the rest of the year. I have Family Time Fitness, but my house is really too small to use much of the program indoors, and I lack a certain level of follow-through that I really need to acquire somehow. The weather is getting warmer, so between having a treadmill, having FTF, and just having the great outdoors, we should be able to get something regular going. Right now JD is on Wii Fit with dad doing bowling.
Health:
We took advantage of the Zane Education health materials this week. We also had many conversations regarding adolescent boy issues.
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