Sept 22, 2008

..Spanish today. We spent the better part of last week with sore throats and coughs and then the beach. we continue work on grammar.

Lots of discussion as a family ( brothers included ) into colleges and course of study.

Sept 17th 08

..Just because there are no posts doesn't mean there isn't learning...just that my updates are slack!
We finished our family book discussion on All Quiet on the Western Front and I must say we are all VERY impressed with the writing. The book caused sadness in all of us and we had some great talks on the irony of certain things along with the authors point of view.

We need something a bit light hearted after that one so we'll spend a couple of weeks on some Thurber. Tomorrow we'll do Walter Mitty followed by The Night the Bed fell. Thurber is funny stuff!!

Spanish, Chemistry, Algebra & Grammar along with computer and guitar have been happening at End of the Road. C also had basketball conditioning on Monday evening.

Happy Learning!!

Past few days..update

...just because I haven't posted doesn't mean learning hasn't happened. We have had much busyness over the past week or so.

First up a trip to Chapel Hill to the ortho. Usually we hurry into the dental school and then out... we glance at the art work on the walk way, but haven't had time to study it. This time we did. What a treat! A Greek Mythology lesson along with appreciating art!

...then there was a SERIOUS nature lesson.... ground hogs climb trees????? Who knew????
..He's a cutie huh? The only thing that brought him down was
Hurricane Hanna. we spent lots of time tracking her and preparing for her to hit. She turned in to a rain event and nothing more ( thank goodness) but it was a great meteorology lesson




.....With a day full of rain we all settled in to watch Flyboys
this was a great continuation of our WWI study.

We also had an Algebra lesson and did a bit of reading.

Sunday afternoon we celebrated Jeremy's birthday.. Christopher used his travel time to do a bit of Chemistry in prep for his Tuesday class.

Monday morning was Spanish I @ Homelight Books. Christopher enjoyed his teacher and seemed to enjoy the class.

The afternoon was spent doing reading, algebra & english.

Monday evening from 6:30-8:30 was Basketball conditioning in Cary

This morning ( Sept 9th) we headed out to Chemistry...
..Dr Lows was Christopher's biology teacher a couple of years ago and Christopher was looking forward to taking his class this year. Mistie spent the morning
with me and you can imagine our surprise when we went to pick
Christopher up and the teacher was walking outside with a gun and the class following behind... Here is a picture of Christopher taking three shots with the B-B gun ..an object lesson in precision /accuracy.

Tonight is English/ Health / Lit.


Exhausting ..but some great learning going on!

Set 3-6

.. We spent most of the time on Friday of this week tracking Hurricane Hanna
Friday we prepared by moving object that might get blown around to the enclosed porch

He also finished up another Algebra lesson and completed a test.

Continued reading History of the US book 8

Continued reading All Quiet on the Western Front

Prepared for Chemistry by reading Mod 1 using Apologia

Researched criteria for NCAA clearing house.
Basketball , Nutrition and Weight Training.

Sept 2, 2008

....sometimes homeschooling feels like two steps forward and one step back....

Lifeskills; Christopher continued with extra chores and helped his dad do the weeks grocery shopping. Since he is on a new protein/carbs regime he planned his menus before shopping

Read Chapter 4 History of the US
wrote a 5 paragraph paper on Teddy Roosevelt
Had family discussion after researching the phrase " speak softly and carry a big stick"

Algebra

Finished discussion on Chapter 9 of All Quiet on the Western Front

Copywork/ Grammar

Continued reading Teddy Roosevelt's Letters to His Children

Chapter two The Holiness of God

Continued weight training, nutrion study, practiced basketball drills

Computer time

Sports Illusrated for free reading.

Aug 28th 2008

..another rainy day but that didn't stop Christopher from going out and shooting hoops in the rain. His buddy Daniel joined him and the next thing I saw they were sliding down the hill on their backs.... this was followed by a hot shower and a lesson in getting grass stains out of clothing!

C read about 20 more pages in Theodore Roosevelt's Letters to his Children. we are about 1/3 done with the book. It gives great perspective into who this man was.

Continued work in algebra

Did lesson one in Thinking Toolbox, a Bluedorn book. We love Bluedorn books . This is our third. we have completed Fallacy Detective & Whatever happened to Penny Candy. This one is on Logic/Critical Thinking

Christopher made Scampi for lunch

He also spent time on the computer on various message boards and chat.

a chunk of this afternoon was spent watching the movie 3:10 to Yuma. while this is fiction, the story opened up lots of doors for discussion and also gave a fairly accurate depicition of life in the West in the late 1800's. We were able to discuss Pinkerton Agency, the Railroad push west, tuberculosis, and the laws for new territory. Not to mention the integrity of the main character. I give the movie 2 thumbs up!

another great school day here at End of the Road

August 27,2008

..today was a PERFECT day for our study of the Wizard of Oz . First Christopher read the chapter on Frank Baum in History of the Us book 8.
Then we discussed if The Wizard of Oz was an allegory for the late 1800's/early 1900's. Discussing William Jennings Bryan, prohibitionist, the gold standard, Ft Knox , why we can't print more money then we have gold, the intro of silver, and industry during that era.
We also observed literary techniques such as foreshadowing,framestory & irony. Discussed symbols in the movie tornado , ruby slippers ( which were originally silver) etc.
Discussed questions based on the movie from Teach with Movies
we only answered the adult questions but if you were using this for youngers the whole battery would be great!
Talked about special effects then and now.

He also read in All Quiet on the Western Front
Played Guitar for awhile
Cooked Jambalya for lunch
Continued discussion on nutrition and food and did internet research.