School's in Session! Week 1, 2011/12 School Year....

We've had a little bit of a rocky start to our school year.  My sister (who we seldom get to see) sprang a last minute visit on us, so we did our Monday and Tuesday work last week, and finished up the work on Wednesday through Friday of this week....

I'm using a series of religion videos by United Learning as an opener this year.  He watched the video on Christianity this week, answering some questions and taking a pre- and post-test on the topics covered.  There was also some vocabulary work and a small, related map to complete.

Reading takes up most of the first hour of the morning, and we're still covering some books set in the mid- to late 1800's that we didn't get to last year.  His first selection this year is Little Women, and I think he's enjoying it!  (He doesn't like the pink and purple cover AT ALL, but he prefers the text size and style of this particular version to that of some of the others....)








My son's math tutor created a pre-test for him to complete before they began their Algebra II work.  He did that on our first day of school and they met for the first time on the second day.  He completed all his assigned work from her on the two days following that.  He's using Brown, Dolciani's Structure and Method, Book 2 this year.  I got a teacher's book so that I can go over his answers with him and feel confident in trying to help him if he makes mistakes.  So far, so good!



I'm also going to use the VideoText Algebra curriculum I used with my older son as drill and review for him this year on days when he has no homework to do.  We got started on Module A on Friday (intro and lessons 1 and 2).



Language Arts makes up our third hour of the day.  He has been reading Call of the Wild, which is the first selection for his writing through literature class.  His teacher just sent the first set of assignments, so he has started on the first packet of questions for that, too.  We covered the Gold Rush era at the end of last year, but I held off on this book because I knew they were going to cover it first this year....



He is reviewing and working in Easy Grammar Plus (3 days a week), as well as completing a page a day in Easy Grammar Ultimate.  He is continuing with Vocabulary for the College Bound, beginning with chapter 5, which involves Latin roots (an easy chapter for him and extra review of his Latin work).

          



During the last hour before lunchtime, he is studying Latin three days per week and Spanish two days.  He's finishing up Latin Primer III right now and then will begin on Latin Grammar I.  His weekly group class for Spanish won't begin until after Labor Day, so he's practicing using lessons from LiveMocha.com right now, as well as doing work in a workbook I have at home.

 

http://www.livemocha.com/

After lunch, we've been working on reviewing the first two units of Introductory Logic, which we covered last year, and then (hopefully) continuing on from there.  I dropped the ball on logic studies last year!



I plan on using the tests for the first two units, as well as some of the review problems at the end of the units, to review those before moving on....

We  begin our history studies this year by looking in depth for the first four weeks at the time period of the Civil War in America.  We are reviewing and covering a few other topics from that time period, as well, but are primarily focusing upon the war and those involved with it.  To introduce this topic, I read aloud from these books this week:

Kingfisher World History
Usborne Timelines of World History
Usborne World History: The Last 500 Years
Historical Atlas of the 19th Century, John Haywood (LOVE these books!)
Time-Life 20th Century America (preface)
Eyewitness Battle
A Soldier's Life, Andrew Robertshaw
DK Picturepedia: People in the Past (Civil War)

I am also reading aloud from Albert Marrin's book: Commander in Chief: Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.  We both really enjoy his writing style!  My older son loved Marrin at this age, too....

My son read Story of the World Chapters 5 and 16 (he is not outlining from it this year; I'm tired of that approach and am seeking other writing options for him).  He read the prefaces and chapters 1-9 of volume 6, History of US and completed the quizzes that go along with those chapters.  He's reading The Boys' War: Confederate and Union Soldiers Talk About the Civil War,  Jim Murphy              (and says he's really enjoying it!)....


He finished up his last two physical science classes for the course he did over the summer.  His teacher used the BJU lab manual as a guide toward covering this material.  There was some chemistry work involved, but it was mostly physics.  He will be doing another 9 weeks of chemistry with her beginning in September, using The Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments.  (He started work on this book with her last spring.)  She is also teaching a fun physical science class this year at co-op and he will take that class with her.  She's calling it Whacky Science!

 

At home, I'm covering more physical science topics this year with he and a friend.  We're doing bubble science first, while the weather is still nice and we can do it outside.  I had them read through several websites introducing info on bubbles and their science before our first class.  We covered the first couple of experiments from the GEMS Bubbleology book during class and talked a little about the importance of studying foams in physics.




I assigned a number of other websites for them to look over regarding foams before we meet next week.  I don't have those listed in my resources, but they include:

http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistryactivities/a/kidelephantdemo.htm  (my son did this experiment today and liked it, so is going to present it in class next week)

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2003/09jun_foam/

http://www.aquafoam.com/papers/Ouellette.pdf

http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~wiebke/PHYSICS/MY_PAPERS/SoftCondensedMatter.pdf

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=new-theory-explains-the-p

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLTrD9LYQTs

They are both looking through a couple of library books and choosing other activities to do next week, too:

Tom Noddy's Bubble Magic
The Ultimate Bubble Book, Shar Levine and Leslie Johnstone
http://bubbleblowers.com/Human/noddy.html

http://www.tomnoddy.com/




They are designing and building a mock-up of a bubble making apparatus....

And I gave them a couple of hypothetical problems to work related to calculating the volume of a bubble dome.... (V = 4/3 time pi times the radius cubed for a complete bubble, so divide that in half for a dome....)

Next week, we'll be continuing with experiments from the Bubbleology curriculum.

We'll also be adding in more of his outside classes next week.  I hope that I can keep up my strength for this school year - I'm feelin' sort of old right now, LOL....

Hope everyone else is off to a smooth start!

Regena