My son continued with his algebra class, which runs through the end of the month. We're finishing up the chapter in geometry in Russian Math 6 at home. That's the last I will do with him this year. I may use work from the rest of the chapters in that book as summer math practice, if his algebra teacher doesn't give him any to do, or I may use it as drill work next year.
He is going to begin Algebra II work with his tutor next year and I'm also planning on using the VideoText materials I already own as drill work for him at home to give him extra practice in Algebra I level work so that he doesn't get rusty. That's if we have time for all that! It may take him longer to complete his homework for Algebra II and he may not have much time for other work....
We're wrapping up vocabulary and Greek review; completing work in Easy Grammar; and he's continuing watching some tapes about Biblical archaeology. He watched Chronicles and Kings this week. Latin continues, per usual. Spanish will wrap up at the end of the month and then they'll get together for a fiesta and pool party which we do every year. There are more kids involved this year so if everyone comes it should be fun!
Physical Science Lab started this week and we read through all the chapter one sections of the BJU lab book in preparation for that. Those books are a bit of overkill, I think, LOL! There are questions after every section in the text, then more (a page or two) at the end of each chapter. Then there are also questions with each section in the lab manual, which don't include the actual info to be filled in for the investigations! Oy! It's enough to drive the love of science right out of a kid if they're asked to do it all.
Right now, we are only reading through the lab manual and he is answering those questions at home after his lab if the work doesn't get done as part of his lab. And that's really quite a bit of work, since they're covering multiple sections in each meeting. They did labs 1.1 - 1.4 this week as an intro to get them ready for more involved work.
I honestly don't know if I'm going to use the BJU text with him next year. I have to get my CPO physical science book back out and look over it first. And I've been looking at online things, as well, that seem more appealing to me. A friend of his has asked to do science with us at our house once a week, so I'm thinking about what I'm going to pull together for them to work on. I know that I'm going to use Science in a Nutshell kits as well as some others I have, but for the reading material to get them prepared for class each week, I'm just not sure yet. I'm thinking of using Rader's Physics 4 Kids website, but the MSNucleus website also has some good math/measuring investigations related to physical science, so I may do a mish-mash of things, per usual....
In history and literature, we continue to finish up reading from our last several topics related to the 19th century.
Regarding Africa during that period (and the country as a whole, for geography purposes), he finished up reading:
Ashanti to Zulu, African Traditions, Margaret Musgrove; A True Book: South Africa, Ann Heinrichs; and South Africa, A Question and Answer Book, Kremena Spengler.
Regarding slavery in America, he finished: If You Lived When There was Slavery in America, Pamela Johnson.
Regarding the Cherokee (who we've been reading about in relation to the Indian Removals), he read: Ahyoka and the Talking Leaves, Peter and Connie Roop. I really like their books. In fact, we just found their Louisiana Purchase book in his bedroom which he'd read earlier. We're not generally too bad about losing books (but I tend to make him keep them out of his bedroom, LOL)!
He also read another Bruchac book: The First Strawberries, A Cherokee Story
Our actual history topic for the week was supposed to be about Mexico and America during the Mexican-American War, the Alamo, etc. I only got some basic material covered with regard to this subject, however, because he had standardized testing two days and we just didn't have much time around that. At least it only took him two days, however. They had three scheduled, but I'm thankful he finished so that we didn't have to trek across town for a third day.
He read the chapter in SOTW about Mexican/American relations and outlined one portion of it. He also read: Davy Crockett, Defender of the Alamo, William Sanford, and The Battle of the Alamo, Matt Doeden, which is a graphic "novel", if you can call a hardback comic book that, LOL!
We are supposed to be reading more about Australia and Oceania in history/geography this next week, but I'm still going to be playing catch up!
We went home for my grandmother's 103 birthday last week and that was nice. The weather was too cool for me to plant the flowerbed I intended to put in for her, but I took them plenty of flowers to make a nice bed. I hope that the weather has warmed up enough now for them to get those planted.... Hmmmm, I was going to post pictures, but since the Blogger update, they won't post any more. Wonder what's up with that....
Oh well, we're getting quite a bit of gardening done this spring. I've planted more edibles than usual and have also reinforced my flower beds with new blooms. Maybe I'll be able to post some pics someday soon if they get this thing working properly again....
We got new bedroom furniture delivered for the boys on Saturday! We've been waiting for it for almost a year. We got disgusted with what was out in the stores and how poorly made it was and decided to go find our own Amish or Mennonite farmers/craftsmen who would make furniture for us. If you're patient, they certainly do good work! This furniture is something they can have their whole lives and pass down to their children.
Now I've got to find towels made in America, or from someone who hasn't changed their manufacturing process so that the towels begin to unravel with the first wash. Have you looked at towels lately? If you pinch a loop and pull very lightly, the whole thing will begin to unravel like a berber carpet! What's up with that? Towels didn't use to be made that way! I was beginning to think I was crazier than normal, but I came home and checked my old towels and they don't do that. I've been looking for more than two months now....
Regena
2 comments:
Regina, where did you find towels made in the USA? Congrats on the bedroom sets made by Amish artisans. It was a wonderful solution. Thanks for the weekly walk-throughs of your schedule. I'm just now getting a chance to read more than just look at the pictures now that much of our curriculum is ready for the fall. The stuff that isn't ready ? History
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any towels made in the US. I emailed one company, but they never responded; another that is still listed as manufacturing in the US really isn't now, they've moved operations to India; and a third makes linen towels that are supposed to be extremely absorbent, but they're also $250 each! Yikes! So I'm hunkering down and considering pulling my "rag" towels back out of the rag bin if I need them, LOL....
I know what's happening: because cotton prices have gone up, the manufacturers are looking for ways to make up for increased costs. They evidently don't want to use good quality cotton and raise the cost of their towels, so they've all reset their machines (and in some cases the cotton quality is just awful, too) to a much looser weave so that there's less cotton used per square inch, and also it has the added bonus that the towels will fall to rags very quickly and need replacing. So they'll increase the volume of their sales. They've all done it. I can't find one tightly woven towel anywhere. The pinch test demonstrates readily that every one ravels out like crazy with just a light pull.... I'm just wondering how long it will take before lots of people notice and begin to complain? I did notice complaints on the Land's End and L.L. Bean websites about the same thing, under customer comments. I just wonder how long those will stay up....
Post a Comment