Work for Week 24.....

Bible:

This week, my son is practicing some memory work, including the books of the Old and New Testaments, the Lord's Prayer, the 23 Psalm, the names of the Apostles, the Ten Commandments, and the Beatitudes.

He's also reading through a couple of old books we've had for years.  This is a last pass on them before they're stored away for another generation of children yet to come (I hope):

My Picture Bible to see and share, V. Gilbert Beers.  I love this old book!  It has short, paragraph length Bible stories with good pictures on each page.  There is a picture study with one or more questions for each picture and also several questions about each story to get you thinking about it.

He's also reading through My Easter Basket, Sheri Brownrigg.  This book includes stories, religious information about the holiday, poems, recipes, crafts, etc.  I'm letting him choose if he'd like to try any of the recipes or crafts.  We're going to make fruit smoothies this weekend and he's decided to make a Mardi Gras mask instead of an Easter bonnet.....

Geography:

We're still completing the mapwork from SOTW to go along with our studies of history each week.  He's completing his U.S. geography workbook right now and practicing memory work for the states and capitals.

Math:

Algebra with Dolciani and a tutor continues.  She's going to continue Algebra II with them next year, hoorah!  Drillwork with Russian Math 6 continues at home (have I mentioned lately that I love this book?  I wish they had other levels available....)

Reading:

Here's what he has read this week.  We've continued studying the industrial revolution all week:

Charles Dickens: The Man Who had Great Expectations, Diane Stanley and Peter Vennema;  A Head Full of Notions, A Story About Robert Fulton, Andy Bowen; and Robert Fulton: From Submarine to Steamboat, Steven Kroll:

                                                                                                     

                    


In history, I read aloud from:  Industrial Revolution, John Clare; Cotton gin, Milton Meltzer (chapters 1-5); Great Scientists, Derek Hall, Ed. (re: James Watt); New Way Things Work, Macaulay (re: steam engines); DK 1000 Inventions and Discoveries, Roger Birdgman (re: timeline of 1700's inventions); and The Industrial Revolution in American History, Anita McCormick (chapters 2-5).  I tried to keep all readings to the early period of the industrial revolution, as we will return to the later portion of that period at another date.

   



Language Arts:

He continued his vocabulary work in the chapter concerning Greek roots (Vocabulary for the College Bound).  We worked on interjections and conjunctions this week in grammar, and he will begin work with adjectives next week.  He had study questions to complete for his lit/writing class, per usual. 

He got back his longer paper from last week and I think he made a B or B+ on it.  She did give him some very good feedback and told him he could rework it and resubmit it to her if he'd like to improve his grade.  He seems interested in doing that, so I'm encouraging it.  I do hope I can get this boy writing better by high school!

For his outside lit/writing class this week, he had to prepare a timeline of events during a seven year time span of the great depression.  He got to use a bunch of the skills we've learned in our computer classes covering "Word" over the past few months.  I think he did a pretty good job with it, but it wasn't really an exercise in writing so much as an exercise in computer skills.  Here's a picture of his finished timeline:

I'm not sure I can capture any degree of detail very well:

He did find out a lot of interesting info.  And even I was surprised about how much the "show did go on" during that time period.  There were tons of new books, movies, etc. released throughout the time period, for instance.  He did find some interesting facts, too, of which we were unaware, and I think he's going to turn one of those into his paper for next week - if we can find enough background info on it....

Work in Greek, Latin, and Spanish continue as usual.  I believe his class is coming to the end of their current workbooks and is going to move into a Barron's Spanish NOW! book that I already own.

In Chemistry this week, he continued work in his Atom workbook, we finished chapter 4 in The Elements and modeled atomic molecules (which reinforced the work we just finished in Friendly Chemistry), and he did a chapter in Tiner on Metals.  We then started chapter 5 in The Elements, which also covers metals and some of the other element families we haven't looked at too closely yet this year.

Here are his atomic molecule models:



We're reading the intro information for his chemistry lab book this weekend and he goes for his intro safety and lab work on Tuesday afternoon.  I can't wait!  Real chemistry labs in a mad scientist workshop of a real chemist - woohoo!

Piano lessons continued as usual.  (I have a list of his current pieces up on the right side of the home page.)  His recital of the Lucy and Linus piece is March 11 and it's coming along nicely!

Group guitar lesson, chess, and PE went well this week.  His PE teacher has entered them in a health challenge so they have several things to work on completing each week.  She is also working on some health related issues with them and they are looking at body systems, such as the skeletal system:

A new session of art began and he completed his wooden sword that his instructor let him make using his wood working tools.  I'm not sure what he's going to do this session:

It has been raining like crazy here and I'm glad we don't have to drive out of town today for a field trip!  He's eating a rare breakfast of toast and jam while reading this morning.  Here he is with his cat, books, and breakfast:



 He' laying on his bed working on memory work in these pictures.....

And I'm told that I MUST take pictures of his mighty Lego armies and Playmobile armies to share with you:

We attended STOMP! this week at Centre College's Norton Center, but I must say that I thought Blue Man Group was better!



It was a good week, overall, despite the fact that I'm living with a soon-to-be 13 year old!  Now we're off to his last indoor soccer game of the season.  They're playing for third place, which is bit of a let-down from their undefeated fall season.  Outdoor soccer should be starting any day now, but we have yet to hear from the coach....

Regena