Saturday, September 21, 2013

Friday Wrap-up - 9/20/13

Homeschool Mother's Journal Link Up
This week was another fairly good week. I was pleased with the way my son is beginning to (most days) tackle his assignments as a matter of course. There were, however, many times of grumbling, complaining, groaning, begging for things I'd already said "No" to, etc. I took comfort in reading comments of some other 13-14 -year-olds, and apparently this is not unique, although I wish I did not have to suffer through it.

Anyway, here's the week's summary:

Bible:
Assignments done in conjunction with other subjects; verses from America the Beautiful assignments and from Apologia Physical Science assignments.

I'd like this next week to also incorporate memorizing verses from the unit study we are currently doing on Jim Elliot, by YWAM, which (even though a biography) I guess would also fall under "Bible", so we've worked on that this week.

I need to ramp up to include "Hymn Study" in our "Bible" next week as well.

Math:
Have been working on Videotext Online Algebra. We are in unit 1. I don't know whether to decide that he still "doesn't get it", or if he is being lazy and not working hard enough to memorize terms and what they mean. Regardless, Math is a subject where I get a lot of resistance always and still. He tries to do the worksheets without watching the video, then he tries to watch the video and take the quiz without doing the worksheets. Net effect is that we are progressing very slowly. I am trying to get him to do this independently, so he tells me he did his work for the day, and he moves on to another subject. I try to quickly get to his work to review it, only to find he has lots of incorrect answers. I ask him if he watched the video, reviewed the class notes, before he did the worksheet, or did he do the worksheet before he took the quiz, and inevitably he has intentionally skipped a step because he just wants "to get on with it", which really isn't getting on with it at all. Because when answers are wrong we have to slow down, do it over, do it together, etc. So, worked on math a lot this week. Did not get very far.

Science:
Working on Chapter 1 of Apologia Physical Science. He was really dragging his feet at the beginning (probably this happened last week) and would not round up the materials and do the first experiment. My schedule (and my attitude, and my recovery from the loss of our dog) did not contribute to getting this experiment done, so I pulled up a YouTube video of it and we just watched it. Not ideal, but it got us to a point of moving forward in our Science.

So this week I really was very, very pleased when he tackled experiment #2 on his own. That went well. He wrote things up in the Journal and everything, too!

But then we got to some math, right there in the Science. "If you have 2.853 ml, how many liters is that equal to?" He balked. He didn't want to read, read, and reread the chapter to find out how to do it. And I, unfortunately, really don't remember the answer either, and I don't have a teacher's key to the book. So it took us a long time, but we got through that section. I don't know if we got through it well, or correctly, but we got through it.

So we didn't get as much done as I had hoped, but we did do Science. My son actually got to a point where, when I told him that a lower level Chemistry was coming up for review with the TOS Crew and did he want me to ask for it, he actually said, "Yes!" He NEVER asks for review items, and there were two this week that he wants, so it was quite surprising to me.

Social Studies:
We are working on America the Beautiful by Notgrass. Again, not making quite the progress I had hoped, but I think he got three or four lessons done this week.  Similar to Math, he is to do this independently and I am to go back over his work to check it for "done"ness, accuracy and correctness, etc. Like Math, he will sometimes just decide to not do something, and I have to call him on it. "Hey, you need to do the mapwork for the day." Etc. But we're making progress.

So "Social Studies" includes history, geography, mapwork, and timeline work. The curriculum also includes some Bible and some Creative Writing, which I won't also list under Language Arts, but I'm pleased with what he did this week!

Language Arts:
We are currently working on Bridgeway English (a remedial program that will count as 1 year high school credit when we finish). So far I have been really, really pleased with his work in this program and with the program itself! I need to spend some more time looking at it, but I remember that Book 1 is primarily Grammar and Book 2 is primarily Writing. He is working out of both books right now. This is a review item, so for the review I have to have him work out of both books, but after the review I will just focus on Book 1, finish it and move to Book 2 and finish it in that order.

We have not been working on Spelling or Vocabulary, but I am working to ramp this up in his schedule. I have a membership to VocabularySpellingCity - another review item - and I am going to create vocabulary and spelling lists to correspond to College SAT preparation. Next week I'll have him working on the first list, and I'll be working to get more lists ready for future weeks.

We are also working on Spanish. We are reviewing Flip Flop Spanish, and it is going really well. This seems to be a gentle, fun, mostly painless way to absorb, learn and play with Spanish, and we're both learning! I love it!

Health
This week in J-boy's life a palatal expander was inserted in the roof of his mouth. His top palate needs to be wider than his lower jaw. We're also hoping it will widen his nasal canals and make nose-breathing easier.

We're also working on healthier eating. For this boy with the voracious hunger and the corresponding wasteline, we need to purge the house of things we don't want him to eat, because at night he goes on the prowl and eats and eats and eats. So away are going the white flour, white sugar, chocolate chips, crackers, etc., etc., etc. It has been helping. I am hoping it can eventually become a more painless process as well.

The palatal expander might also decrease the amount he eats. We'll see. Hopefully he will also work on healthy lifestyle in Boy Scouts soon too.

Phys Ed:
Have not been keeping this written down yet, but he has gone down and worked on the treadmill two or three times this week. I think I should put a chart by the treadmill where he can check off a box each day that he walks or runs a mile.

Art:
I came so close... so close to opening the Artistic Pursuits this week, but didn't. Hopefully I'll get it started next week. I'd also like to be doing the Ambleside Artist Studies simultaneously, but we'll see. This is feeling like a lot.

Music:
Have not done any music this week. Goal for next week: to include Hymn and some classical music into our week.
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So that's it for my week. How did your week go?

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