More Than a Week in Review, 8/16-8/25

Duncan is my 10yo, and he is my only one who has not graduated.

Let’s see. We have finished week 4 of our fall semester. We are using folders, and, when I asked Duncan his favorite thing about his school line-up so far this year, he said it was his green folder. When I asked if he meant a particular subject, he said no that he liked everything in his folder.

This includes:

Holt Skills Practice (coordinates with Elements of Language Introductory Course)

MCP Plaid Word Study F
MCP Spelling Workout F
Evan Moor Daily Paragraph Editing 5
Evan Moor Read and Understand Poetry, Grades 5-6+ 
EMC Write-in Reader, Grade 6, Redwood Level 
CHOLL Guides and other guides
Evan Moor Daily Math Practice, Grade 6
World Geography and You, Book 2 Eastern Hemisphere
Conceptual Physical Science Practice Book
Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way Student Guide

I also stuck in a page telling him what to do in his history text, A Message of Ancient Days and Readings in Social Studies: Ancient Times and a sheet of paper to write the answers to the section questions.

No idea why this is the big favorite.

Evan Moor Daily Paragraph Editing

EMC Write-In Reader

Daily Math

Geography Reading Pages

Geography Question Page

Duncan has been taking swim lessons. 

Duncan swimming.

Friend Mei being silly.

This week has been busy, busy, busy.

Last weekend we were in NYC with my husband’s cousins. Yes, Duncan was the only child there and he greatly enjoyed himself. We were only there for two full days. It was Duncan’s first trip there so we did the whirlwind tour. On the first day we went to The Museum of Natural History, walked through Central Park to Columbus Circle and on over to the Apple Store and FAO Schwartz (that he ended up not even wanting to enter). Then, we went to my brother’s apartment and Times Square before heading back to my husband’s cousin’s place in Brooklyn. On day two we went to ground zero, the Statue of Liberty, Trinity Church, St Paul’s Chapel, and City Hall Park before heading to a Persian restaurant. We did other things like go for a grocery run, eat, and stop at Starbuck’s to rest, but that isn’t very interesting. Oh, and my husband’s cousins taught Duncan a new card game. :)

Museum of Natural History Dino Attack

Museum of Natural History Gator Scare

Duncan holding Lady Liberty

My favorite thing on the trip- statue by Olaf Breuning.

Nice interpretation of being hit over the head with your own mistakes. lol

This week we went on a field trip to Owl’s Hill Nature Sanctuary. In the morning Doodle participated in a forest ecology hike and in the afternoon water ecology.

Forest Ecology

Cool Dude Pond Ecology

Mei just loves the creek. hehehe

Tonight we went to Shakespeare in the park where we were not allowed to take photos. :(

It was a very audience friendly production. In addition to the main stage, there was a round platform in the middle of the audience. There were signs up that said, "Feed the Fairies." The fairies ran around and crawled around in the audience stealing popcorn and kids. lol Well, they didn't exactly steal the kids. If they wanted, the little children were allowed to accompany the fairies to attend Titania and things like that.   

The play within a play was a riot. Duncan was laughing so hard he could hardly sit up. The actor playing Nick Bottom absolutely stole every scene he was in. Theseus was portrayed as a politician with a heavy Southern accent. He was also very good. Perhaps, it was Athens, TN. XD Puck was entertaining. The actor was not quite the scene stealer that you hope for in Puck, but he had a few really good moments particularly when he was interacting with the audience. 

Summer education with the prepubescent 10yo male, Duncan: Week 2

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 4^th. :( 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.

What I missed... a lot of rice!

Moving Beyond the Page- A Wrinkle in Time Literature Unit

I wanted to talk a little about MBtP’s A Wrinkle in Time unit. 

We finished the first 3 days. Each of these days covers one chapter, but some days cover two. In addition to 4 comprehension questions for each chapter, language arts concepts are covered using A Wrinkle in Time. On these 3 days, Duncan covered hooking a reader with the first line of a story, elements of science fiction (diagram), vocabulary from the book covering prefixes and suffixes (chart),  possessive plurals (fill in the blank), characterization of Meg (diagram), creative thinking skills guided to describing a picture, discussion and illustration of things beyond human comprehension, adding –ed and –ing to words (chart and fill in the blank), read an explanation of science fiction as part of the fantasy genre, and brainstormed ideas for science fiction stories. Each lesson ends a wrapping it up conclusion that sums up what was covered, a couple of questions to discuss that are more analysis and less comprehension, and things to review.  

The comprehension questions at the beginning of the lesson include questions like:

What is Meg upset about in the first chapter?

What did the government tell Meg's mom when she went to find her husband?

The discussion questions at the end of the lesson include questions like:

In what ways is Meg's family similar to and different from your own?

What does Meg mean when she says, "I do face facts. They're a lot easier to face than people, I can tell you."?

Summer Education with the Prepubescent 10yo Male, Duncan

This week we started our Summer Schedule: MBtP Literature Study- A Wrinkle in Time; Astronomy Study- astronomy chapters from Conceptual Physical Science, George's Secret Key to the Universe, and library books; math tutor; Kumon Math; Evan Moor Daily Paragraph Editing.

What did we actually accomplish? Let’s see we skipped math tutor this week. And, well, Duncan finally finished Evan-Moor Daily Math 5. I know that isn’t on my list of summer things, but I really thought he would be finished with it before now.

Duncan completed 3 days of the MBtP literature study, Chapter 26: The Solar System in Conceptual Physical Science, 16 chapters in George’s Secret Key to the Universe, The Tour of the Solar System section in Planets, Stars and Galaxies: A Visual Encyclopedia of Our Universe, and 6 days in Evan Moor Daily Paragraph Editing.

MBtP A Wrinkle in Time Literature Unit

There is even a website for this book.

Monday, Duncan went to Kumon for several hours while I worked. Tuesday, he went to mandolin. Wednesday, he went to Games Workshop where is playing in a Fantasy league battle and went back over there today, Saturday, and did the same. He will stay there for 6 or 7 hours. It’s crazy. Duncan has rediscovered the Xbox 360 and the thrill that is Halo. No idea how long it has been since he played it, but we had to “find” the Halo disc and put new batteries in the headset. Also, MapleStory had a major update, so much excitement over that as well.   

Warhammer is a game played with miniatures on a 2'x4' playing surface.

MapleStory is a MMO that Duncan has played for half his life.

 

Thursday night we had a Mei party. Mei is my good friend’s 13yo daughter. My husband took Mei and Duncan bowling until midnight where they bowled 11 games.  Yes, you read that correctly- 11 games. Friday, Mei and Zak met a new violin teacher at 10 a.m. They both liked him, so Duncan is going to try him again next week. If it goes well, we may set up a weekly lesson with him.

After violin, we went home, had pizza, and made banana bread, but that wasn’t the fun part. We watched Pitch Perfect and Mei and Duncan worked on The Cup Song. However, they were both tired, so I didn’t make a video. They can do the cup part, but there was a disagreement over the singing. :-/ Maybe, next week. Mei has a scruffy voice that is perfect for this kind of song. 

Do you notice what is missing from this list? Yes, that is correct. We did not go outside. Friday, Mei’s mom, Sarah, did take Duncan and Mei to the pool at around 5. I did not go, because, yes indeed, the sun was still up.

I know that some children complain about being at home and want to go, go, go, but that isn’t how our house rolls. This is plenty of activity for one week.