Friday, November 18, 2011

Week 14 - 2011 - Ready for Thanksgiving Break!

Well, with the darker days, I'm seeing a return of my son's anxiety problems.  I was hopeful that last year's problems were just hormonal and wouldn't return this year at the same time, but they're back....  So we had a bit of a crisis this week, but I'm hopeful that he's pulling out of it now.  I've got some recommendations for some things to try to help him with seasonal problems and I'm hopeful those will work out well for him.

We attended a fun afternoon workshop this week where all of us (literally all, as the moms got drawn in too, LOL) made colored glass suncatchers/ornaments.  We've left them to be fused in the kilns and will pick them up shortly.  I'm very excited to see how both our projects turned out (he did a dragon)!

All his classes are proceeding well.  He has been working on an essay on the Yukon Territory, its geography, climate, and culture, which he will turn in on Monday.  They are going to work on some short stories in class on Monday and then be homework free over the Thanksgiving break (yeah!)....  He's out of algebra next week, too....  We just attended our end of semester co-op get together and that was nice....

Here are some books we've been reading this week:

He continued with The Yearling and is working on finishing up Bold Leaders of World War I.  He read three more chapters in volume 9 of History of US, as well as three more chapters in Story of the World.  He read Kids' Discover: Titanic.

TITANIC    http://www.kidsdiscover.com/product/104/TITANIC

I'm almost finished with The Yanks are Coming.  I started a Reader's Digest condensed version of a book I read as a child that I wanted to cover before we went completely away from the late 1800's:  The Johnstown Flood, David McCollough.  I finished up readings related to WWI from The Encyclopedia of the US at War.  I read more on the time period (worldwide) from Haywood's Atlas of Past Times (I LOVE this book!)....  And I read more on personalities of the time period from First Facts About American Heroes, David King.

       The Atlas of Past Times

First Facts about American Heroes

I think we will be ready to move on to discussions about the Bolsheviks and Fascism when we get back from our Thanksgiving break next week.  I hope everyone has a good holiday!

Regena

Friday, November 11, 2011

Week 13, Ending in Lucky 11-11-11....

...not that I believe in lucky or unlucky numbers, LOL....  (Did you hear about the Egyptian antiquities department closing down Cheops' pyramid today due to various rumors about groups seeking to conduct weird rituals on this "special" energy day?  Word was, 11:11 a.m. came and went with no signs of strange energy bouncing 'round the place....)

Our leaves are really coming down here now and since the time has changed I really feel as if we're coming into that sleeping time of the year.... 

We only have one more week of school until we take off for Thanksgiving.  While my older son will be home from college, my husband will be out of state, taking care of his elderly father.  We are all sort of bummed about the need for him to be away and our inability to go with him....  Our parents are all older now, however, and I expect that we will be called on increasingly to care for them.  It would be so much simpler if we could only get them to come here and be nearer us, but I'm afraid that will never happen....

Oh, well....

On the school front, only Spanish was really disrupted by voting this past week.  My son used the free time afforded by that to catch up in the Spanish workbook that we use at home.  He hasn't had time to work in it the past several weeks due to the amount of homework his teacher has been assigning.  I really like the amount that they are writing in Spanish this year.  I think their reading/writing skills are really growing.  (And speaking of voting - only about 25% of voters in Kentucky showed up at the polls for a governor's election.  I thought folks were more charged up than that right now....)

Math was pushed back to Wednesday morning.  We're discussing possible geometry texts for next year and I'm trying to look at some different ones to decide what we'll use.  I've got to get copies to the teacher so that she can choose what she wants to use for his class with her, too....

He has started work in his Latin Grammar book and I hope that it will progress smoothly.  He liked the video lessons that went along with the Latin Primers.  I wish they had something for the grammar books, too.  I think I am going to put him into an outside Latin class next year that uses Cambridge Latin....

His Lit class if finishing up Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde this week.  They are going to be doing some sort of research papers the next two weeks.  I'm not quite sure why research papers always seem to fall over the holidays, but I guess it really won't matter that much this year, as we won't have any company....  After their papers are completed, they'll be doing a study of A Christmas Carol through Christmas....

I've just heard that the Vienna Boys' Choir is going to be performing at Norton Center on the 20th.  I'm debating whether or not to try to go see them as a holiday treat....

My son's piano studio is finalizing preparations for an early December jazz recital.  I love all the music they've been playing since summer and can't wait for it!

He finished up his fourth art class this week.  Next week we're going to a glass studio to do some glass fusion.  I can't wait to see how those projects turn out!

His soccer has finished; awards have been handed out; they didn't sign our team up for first session indoor, so we have to wait to find out if they'll sign us up for second session, which starts in January.  His PE class comes to an end next Thursday.  What to do for exercise?  He has become suddenly interested in working out at home, so at least he's exercising regularly (while I'm reading aloud, LOL, while he's watching TV, etc.)....

We've been finishing up books already begun this week, as well as adding in some others:

Florence Nightingale, Lucy Lethbridge; The Lord Fish, Walter De la Mare; The Wright Brothers, George Sullivan; Helen Keller's Teacher, Margaret Davidson.  He's about half-way through Bold Leaders of World War I, Red Reeder (short bios of numerous individuals from all over the world).

Florence Nightingale (Usborne Famous Lives Gift Books)     The Wright Brothers The Lord Fish










Helen Keller's Teacher           

I forgot to mention last week that I have also continued reading excerpts from The Encyclopedia of the United States at War (Scholastic): the aftermath of the Indian Wars; Spanish American War; various topics pertaining to WWI.

Scholastic Encylopedia of the United States at War


We worked on mapwork and other activities related to our history studies.  We generally cover this type of work in bulk on Fridays, if we don't have a field trip, or add it in little bytes throughout the week....  He's doing a little copywork right now, too, and we are trying to concentrate more on his memory work.  He's working on the first 16 Presidents (and adding in the next 8 within the next week); he's memorizing the "Gettysburg Address;" and he's memorizing "The Charge of the Light Brigade," as well as "Oh, Captain! My Captain!"

He also started History of US, Volume 9 (three chapters), and The Yearling, Rawlings, this week.

I'm working on getting caught up in grading and going over work with him.  I like to have my things in order, if possible, before we break for Christmas....

Regena

Friday, November 4, 2011

Week 12 - 2011....

My backyard...





...and front...



... I'm glad that enough frost came along to pop the colors before the trees lost all their leaves.  It has been a short color season for us, but at least we finally did get some color....


...although now it's almost all gone after rains off and on all week....

On the school front, all is moving along with a regular rhythm, so I'll just mention some of the things we're reading from this week:



Historical Atlas of the 20th Century

I love John Haywood's books!  They are OOP but I have run down every one I can find evidence of in the past few years.  These are great historical map books to aid in adding geography into your history studies!  As I mentioned last week, we're trying to turn away from the mid-1800's and the U.S. Civil War to break into the 20th century up through the time period of the first World War.  To that end, I also read numerous pages from our Kingfisher encyclopedia about events occurring in the rest of the world up to about 1920.  Some of these we also touched on last year, but this was a good review and tie-in to what was occurring elsewhere as well as in America.

My son finished reading chapters 19-21 in Story of the World this week, as well as completing Volume 8 of History of US.

I continued reading from The Yanks are Coming, Marrin, as well as reading Ellis Island, Hal Marcovitz; The Panama Canal, Scott Ingram; and Galloping Gertrude: By Motorcar in 1908, John Loeper.  These books all relate to topics that have been introduced in other reading during the past couple of weeks.
Ellis Island (American Symbols & Their Meanings)   The Panama Canal (Building World Landmarks Series)
Galloping Gertrude By Motorcar in 1908


We also read short bits from these other books pertaining to topics we've been talking about the past few weeks:




      Places in Time: A New Atlas of American History    Remember the Ladies: 100 Great American Women

A Soldier's Life: A Visual History of Soldiers Through the Ages       People in the Past (Picturepedia)  by Mulvihill, Margaret



My son is continuing to read scary stories/mysteries with Sherlock Holmes, Poe's stories, and since we just visited Camp Nelson last weekend, he's also been reading Civil War Ghosts, Cohen, this week:
The Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes (Illustrated Junior Library) Cover      <p>Civil War Ghosts</p>
  Ten Great Mysteries by Edgar Allan Poe

He's also well into The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, assigned for his outside lit class, and has decided that he wants to read more of Stevenson's short stories, also included in that book:

(I don't think that *I've* ever read any of Stevenson's short stories, so I think I'll be reading some of them, too!)

Related to the WWI time period, he read or is reading:

The Red Baron, Nicolas Wright; Yanks in World War I, Sean Price; and In Flanders Fields: The Story of the Poem by John McCrae, Linda Granfield:
The Red Baron    Front Cover

Today, we also finally watched "All Quiet on the Western Front" and discussed it:

We filled shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child this week and are beginning to gear up for the holiday season.  We're going to take off the week of Thanksgiving and the second through fourth full weeks of December so that we can spend as much time as possible with my older son while he is home on break from college.  He has to go to Florida the day after Christmas, so we have a limited time to see him.  He's also already beginning to plan a semester of study and travel abroad next fall, so I'm starting to get anxious about that (please send calming thoughts my way to help direct me through this time).... 

Turn and turn and turn and the new year will begin....
Regena
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