Start of the Second Month! (Week 5, 2011)

We finished watching the last of our United Learning videos on world religions this week (last two weeks were Buddhism and Hinduism) and he took his last test over this series.  We'll be moving on to new material next week.  I also pulled out his prayer journal last week and got him back into that habit for the year.

My son and his math teacher got confused about when we're going to be on our trip and she gave him two weeks worth of math work to do!  So, we only worked in VideoText on Monday and today I let him work more on the extra things she gave him.

He read Old Yeller this week.  He's continuing with Sounder for his outside lit class.  Since he just finished Call of the Wild, I'm going to get him to do a compare/contrast paper on the three as soon as he's finished with Sounder. 



I just got a notice today that the book by Chesterton of Father Brown stories has finally arrived at the library (I needed it two weeks ago!).  I've looked in book stores all over town and failed to find a copy of any of his short stories - I guess they're not that popular any more....  When my son finishes some of those, he'll be comparing and contrasting Chesterton's work with that of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes - which he's already read)....

Our same routine continues for geography and language arts, as well as Latin.  His outside Spanish class finally got started this week.  They are using Barron's Spanish NOW! as their primary text for the year....

http://www.barronseduc.com/0764129333.html


One of the students in class just bought the book (seventh edition) and found one with a 4 CD set to go along with it - I'm not sure yet what these include, but am anxious to find out!





He's going to participate in a Halloween weekend concert at a nearby piano store, so he's beginning to work on pieces for that.... 

I totally jumped the gun on theatre company!  I thought he had done so well in his summer camps and with his monologue for try-outs that they would surely take him (and they are supposedly desperately in need of money for the last several years, too).  Instead, it turns out that they evidently did not select about 25 kids who tried out. 

While I'm not sure why they couldn't add another section if there were enough kids interested in participating (and PAYING for that), not to mention all the service hours they get out of this (15 per semester, per person), I'm just as glad not to have to make the trip down there and hang out somewhere waiting on him weekly.... 

I'm just praying that this doesn't throw him into a funk that turns into another anxiety crisis like the one we had to go through for six months last school year - so far, so good....

In history this week, we began transitioning into the time period surrounding reconstruction after the Civil War.  We're also covering the westward expansion that went on during this time period to some extent.

We're watching Birth of a Nation and laughing over - err, discussing it - seriously.  It is a serious matter.  We just keep getting surprised by little snippets of what were obviously considered great acting at the time for silent film stars.  We understand that they felt the need to overemphasize gestures, but it can still be quite surprising, LOL (and I've watched this before)....



He has read about a third of the way through volume 7 of History of US, and continues taking the quizzes as he finishes up chapters covered by those.  He read Cobblestone's Building a Nation: Picking up the Pieces.  Our library now has some new versions of these that are like books!

            

He's also continuing with Across Five Aprils:

(This is the version of it he's actually reading - couldn't find it last time I posted....)

In science, he continues with his outside weekly chemistry lab and physical science lab.  He seems to be doing fine in both.  He had a take-home experiment for physical science again last week and I'm enjoying watching him complete those on his own.

At home, I'm continuing with our small class and getting ready to wrap-up our intro to simple machines.  We'll be moving more into work with pulleys and then gears in the coming weeks.  I've got to start trying to schedule a trip to a clock maker!

He read from some very old books of mine this past week, including The Lever and The Pulley, Hal Hellman:


http://www.amazon.com/Lever-Pulley-Harold-Hellman/dp/0871310724

I'm going to be using this kit, in part, as we study pulleys:



http://rainbowresource.com/product/sku/045210/19f53784716a15ef90e0a4ab

Getting ready to do my intro to simple machines last week....

Here's a spinning top that my son invented after experimenting with different types of tops (from the K'nex Simple Machines kit - they're both building from this and the Gears kit right now....)

It spun beautifully!  For some reason, my live shot looks like it's standing still, but it's not!

They also tried out variations of paper planes this week, looking at how the wedge shape helps improve aerodynamics....

My homemade tongs.  We talked about a variety of different types, including chopsticks - and got into quite a discussion on the mechanics of chopsticks, LOL....

And in Home Ec, he sewed his sampler onto the front of what will be his pillow.  (They sewed the pillow sides together in class and stuffed them.  He'll finish stitching the open side together this next week at home.) 

He has a soccer game on Sunday - they won their first two games and seem to be playing really well together as a team, so it looks like it will be a good season for them!

Regena