Summer education with the prepubescent 10yo male, Duncan
This past week we continued our Summer Schedule.
Duncan
completed 4 days of the MBtP literature study with 4 chapters from A Wrinkle in
Time and its accompanying work. In addition to questions that we answered
orally, he worked with transition words, creative thinking, and editing. He
completed two brainstorming activities and wrote two paragraphs- one description
of an alien and one summary of a chapter from the book. There were also some
vocabulary words and a crossword puzzle using them. I really enjoy our days
with MBtP. It covers so much, but doesn’t require busy work or multiple school
books or suck up hours and hours to do it.
He
read chapters 17-24 in George’s Secret Key to the Universe and about half of Chapter
27: Stars and Galaxies in Conceptual Physical Science. He also read I Am the
Cat by Alice Schertle, a short book of cat poems. In Pizza, Pigs, and
Poetry by Jack Prelutsky he read the first poem and poetry suggestions. (It was
over brainstorming lists which was an unplanned tie-in to what he was doing in
the MBtP literature study. I love it when that happens.) He also completed 4
days in Evan Moor Daily Paragraph Editing.
He
went to mandolin and violin lessons and practiced both daily. Last week he
started noodling in Mark O’Connor Bk 3 and had a fair chunk of the first song
memorized before he played it for the first time with the teacher. I read about
this book in a thread on The Well-Trained Mind forums, and I am so glad I
picked it up. I was hoping to find songs that weren’t too difficult that were
more engaging for a 10yo boy than the songs in Suzuki Violin books. This book
definitely fits the bill.
He
went to the math tutor, and they worked through a test that the tutor had given
him to review completing the square and the quadratic equation. As a side note,
I have decided to have Duncan repeat Alg2. Both of my big boys went through
Alg2 with 2 different programs. I don’t know if it is just my boys or what, but
I expect them to really know the material and yet after Alg2 or during Alg2 it
just seems like so much leaks out their ears. I am considering Derek Owens’
Alg2, because I think that it will work well with the type of more textbookish/
more independent school that my son wants to try this next year. Derek Owens
offers online classes and the students have what is basically a transcript of
the lecture with blanks to fill in while they listen. This keeps them engaged
and you know they have actually paid attention. Then, there are homework sets
to accompany the lectures. The homework is e-mailed or faxed in, graded, and
returned. The same thing happens with the tests. This removes me from the
situation and I think that will be good.
Duncan
went to Kumon one day, but he didn’t actually do any math when he was there-
unless looking over other kids’ math counts. Because there it was a worker’s
birthday, he primarily socialized and ate birthday cake. It rained on July 4th. :( The fireworks were cancelled,
but Duncan’s big brother went with him to see Despicable Me 2. :) He went to GamesWorkshop three days and two of those days
were long 6+ hrs days. Although, one of those long days was Saturday, so I am
not sure if that counts. ;) Yesterday, he went to his aunt and uncle’s place where
they had a belated July 4 gathering. I did not attend, but, according to his
father, Duncan was the belle of the ball. Apparently, he helped the young adult
cousins with the games on their iPhones while the little girl cousins ran
around him trying to get his attention. lol He is so relaxed and comfortable
with the person he is, and that is so cool. When I grow up, I want to be like
Duncan.
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| What I missed... a lot of rice! |
