The Sinister Scribe

Another week has wizzed by!

Math: A really strong week. Monday started out a bit iffy (seems to be a trend there) but by Friday he’d completed the current topic and finished another! He went up a “rank” too. MathScore.com uses military like “ranks” as you go up in points/topics/skills.

Science: Remembered to do a “pre-reading review” before we got started on Monday. It went well and it really seemed like he remembered quite a lot from the previous week. The Rough Guide to the Earth continues to be a big hit. Often he would be excitedly telling me what he knew from this book before I even had a chance to ask. Even later in the day, on the way to TKD, he was still telling me things he learned. It is going to be hard for me to let go of cover-to-cover reading but maybe in this case it is OK.

Another book, Infinite Worlds: An Illustrated Voyage to Planets beyond Our Sun, has held his interest. I think it is quite a bit beyond his reading level which makes me wonder if I’m giving too much latitude in book choices. But… it is supplemental reading AND his reading log input suggests that he is understanding the parts he does read.

Reading Log: I set up a simple MSWord document for him to put the date, title/author and brief notes on after each required reading session. So far so good. I figure that once a quarter I can print it out and file it. You know… I could set up a database to…. nevermind.

Vocabulary: Still going good and he keeps saying how much he likes it. We even did an informal “Neologism” session making up words with roots we’ve covered so far.

History: We discussed what he knew about Ol’ Al and I interviewed him using some of his interview questions. I think I may wait on a final draft until review week as it seems like that would be a good review.

We discussed his book review and he added a bit more too it. I think he could do better. By that I mean more depth and thought. But I’m not sure how to guide him there. Again, perhaps this is something we could revisit (and post to Amazon) during review week.

Japanese: Just did hiragana writing practice this week. Next week I think we’ll alternate with visual recognition (flash cards) and hopefully by the end of the week to a brief test to see if he can write them from memory.

Next week we’re going to give a language lesson (from his Karate instructor) a try. I’m pretty sure I can scrounge enough change to cover the fee ($5/20min) and get batteries for the voice recorder.
Writing: Narnia Weekly Travel Article. He did really good on this one. His illustration is great. I’m getting rather excited over this project and can’t wait to see the final product. Who knows… maybe we’ll pdf it and post it here.

Music/Art Apprec: I have to admit that I will miss listening to FootStompin.com’s AyePodcast. I’ve bookmarked a few songs they’ve played thinking I’ll buy them some time. And I’m sure I’ll be listening as each new podcast comes out. Sam liked it too, just not as much as mom.

I wimped out on Art Appreciation and didn’t do a regular study-and-tell-me session. I was afraid our brains would explode trying to remember all the intricacies of a Celtic knot work piece. Rather we looked at images (I have a few books for C&I) and then created a basic knot. Our outlines have been transferred to watercolor paper and next week we’ll color them. I started out using the tutorials at Aon Celtic but ended up using a hybrid paper that had all the diagonals already in place. Perhaps this is dumbing down, but it sure made the process more enjoyable for him. I’ll PDF that sheet and post it later.

Art: Various drawings… earth and moon, lemon, Mew

Tea Time: didn’t get to this on Friday but did “milk and cookies” on the deck Saturday. Finally got to break out all those Irish poetry books from the library. Sam did all the reading and we had a few science interruptions with “what kind of bug is that?” LOL!

One of those book in particular is quite a gem: A Pot O’ Gold by Kathleen Krull. It is a combination of stories and poems AND recipes. Yippee! There’s also quite a reference listing for further study. I think next week, for copywork, I’ll have him write his favorite.

Things we didn’t get to (same as last week): Nature Study, Shakespeare, Librivox, Pres. Phys Fitness test & program. The first and last ones I REALLY want to find time for!

Next Week: Science switches to hands on stuff… stargazing! Though I think during the day we’ll break out our star maps and review what we should be able to find. We start Chapter 2 in Minimus and will be working on a Roman emperor timeline. I’m considering having him “digitally scrap” this project in Fireworks. Then at the end of the project we can print it out and add it to this year’s “yearbook.” Speaking of that, I need to do a post about last year’s YB. I’m almost done with it!

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 10th, 2008 at 5:22 pm and is filed under Homeschooling, Weekly Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.