Almost all the outside commitments have been scheduled and we've had 2 weeks to settle in and see how the planned curricula fits. Now comes a weekend of tweaking and modifying the plans to a workable routine.
I've not got a permanent biology text yet, though it has been ordered. In the meantime we're using a 10 year old edition from the library. The DVD lectures are a hit and there are some wonderful labs and extras on-line so everything should be covered. This is just going to be the course that will require weekly research on my part to figure out labs and quizes and projects as I haven't made a semester long syllabus.
I'm enjoying Spanish as it is at a level I am comfortable with. I realized quickly that Breaking the Barrier is not a great independent study program, but it is perfect for a homeschool mom who knows Spanish. I'm throwing in some Rosetta Stone as a supplement since we already have it and it will help with aural comprehension and with vocabulary development.
Geometry and logic look to be entirely independent courses. No muss no fuss which is great by me!
My history and literature course is good except I can't quite come up with writing topics or good discussion starters with this first unit. We've had other good discussions recently about bad literature and stupid exposition devices, but those discussions related to other books. Ah well, everything is a learning experience, right?
We're still trying to figure out how to best use the grammar and vocabulary books. They don't seem to require much time, yet I want to be sure they are still being studied and the material absorbed. It's one of those cases where I see why teachers (and homeschool moms) resort to lots of work sheets -- even though I don't think those really prove any learning has happened. It just **looks** better because a sheet of exercises has been filled out.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
So begins 10th grade...
The school year is starting -- time to dust off my blog and start writing again! We are going it alone this year with no outside academic classes, but more than enough outside activities to keep us busy.
This is how it looks:
Biology: Teaching Company DVD series -- two lectures per week. I'm waiting on Campbell's Biology: Concepts and Connections text but will use the Holt text in the mean time. We've got a microscope on loan from the charter school and I get to start planning labs. The goal is to take the SAT II exam in June.
Geometry: Jacobs -- fun text, algebra review mixed in. No muss no fuss!
Logic: Traditional Logic from Memoria Press.
Spanish: Breaking the Barrier. I remember enough Spanish from my youth that this seems easily do-able. I'm hoping too that my friend, a native speaker, will be available for some regular conversation practice.
Western Civ: A combo history and literature class of my own creation. I'm so jazzed about this, though my 10th grader may not love it as much! I'm framing it on another Teaching Company series called "Western Literary Canon in Context". I'm also using History of the World in 6 Glasses as an overview for different periods of history and DK's Story of Philosophy for background reading. His literary reading list is a combo of classics and modern works as follows:
Outside activities:
All in all a very ambitious schedule around which I have to schedule violin students, quartet and orchestra rehearsals. Oh my!
This is how it looks:
Biology: Teaching Company DVD series -- two lectures per week. I'm waiting on Campbell's Biology: Concepts and Connections text but will use the Holt text in the mean time. We've got a microscope on loan from the charter school and I get to start planning labs. The goal is to take the SAT II exam in June.
Geometry: Jacobs -- fun text, algebra review mixed in. No muss no fuss!
Logic: Traditional Logic from Memoria Press.
Spanish: Breaking the Barrier. I remember enough Spanish from my youth that this seems easily do-able. I'm hoping too that my friend, a native speaker, will be available for some regular conversation practice.
Western Civ: A combo history and literature class of my own creation. I'm so jazzed about this, though my 10th grader may not love it as much! I'm framing it on another Teaching Company series called "Western Literary Canon in Context". I'm also using History of the World in 6 Glasses as an overview for different periods of history and DK's Story of Philosophy for background reading. His literary reading list is a combo of classics and modern works as follows:
- Genesis and Exodus
- Walking the Bible by Bruce Fieler (just sections)
- Plato Apologies
- An epic of choice, either Illiad or Aeneid
- Shakespeare's Tempest
- Longitude by Dava Sobel
- A poetry unit using a series by Michael Clay Thompson
- Candide
- Faust
- Kim
- Lost City of Z by David Grann
- All Quiet on the Western Front
Outside activities:
- Robotics team with First Tech Challenge
- Mock Trial
- Fencing
- Par Kour
- Project Feeder Watch
- and, time permitting, youth choir at church (his least favorite...)
All in all a very ambitious schedule around which I have to schedule violin students, quartet and orchestra rehearsals. Oh my!
Monday, June 29, 2009
Adventures with audio books
I started listening to Sword in the Stone while commuting to a gig that was a 40 minute drive from my house. I really enjoyed it because it is so whimsical, so random as my teen sons would say. I can see why JKRowling counts it as an inspiration for her writing. It kept reminding me of the Harry Potter books.
I did not know, however, that when TH White decided to compile his Arthurian books, including Sword in the Stone, into The Once and Future King, that he edited and even rewrote big sections of each individual book. This fact set me up for a major case of befuddlement!
One afternoon when I was home and listening to Sword in the Stone, I drifted off to sleep. I could remember that Arthur was learning to be an owl with Archimedes, and when I started to regain consciousness he was in a giant's castle and King Pelinore was looking for his toothbrush. I wondered what on earth I had missed, but thought, no worries. I'll just re-read the section from our print copy of Once and Future King and continue on with the book.
Only problem was I couldn't find any mention of giants or toothbrushes. I started thinking maybe I had dreamed it all.
The next time I had a chance to listen to it, I started once again at the owl part of the story and once again started drifting off to sleep just as the episode with the giants was starting. Aha! There really is a section with giants, I thought. But the next morning when I once again flipped through the print edition I couldn't find it! I was beginning to think I was losing my mind. I was further perplexed because I also couldn't find in the audio version a section I had seen in the print edition where Arthur has an adventure with storks.
I was a perplexed. Puzzled. Befuddled. And a little worried about the state of my mind.
Fortunately my ds was also listening to Sword in the Stone, and I had told him about my confusion and questionable state of mind. He finally caught up with me in the book and was able to reassure me that there is indeed an adventure with giants, that King Pelinore had indeed been looking for a lost toothbrush! Hallelujah, I wasn't crazy! He was confused that there should be a chapter featuring storks, and was adament there hadn't been one.
I finally looked it up on Wikipedia and learned about the differences between the original Sword in the Stone and the version of it in Once and Future King. What a relief! The Naxos company, for some unknown reason, decided to produce an audio version each original book rather than the entire Once and Future King.
I have also learned that when my eyes start getting heavy to use the "sleep" function on my iPod dock so it shuts down after 15minutes!
I did not know, however, that when TH White decided to compile his Arthurian books, including Sword in the Stone, into The Once and Future King, that he edited and even rewrote big sections of each individual book. This fact set me up for a major case of befuddlement!
One afternoon when I was home and listening to Sword in the Stone, I drifted off to sleep. I could remember that Arthur was learning to be an owl with Archimedes, and when I started to regain consciousness he was in a giant's castle and King Pelinore was looking for his toothbrush. I wondered what on earth I had missed, but thought, no worries. I'll just re-read the section from our print copy of Once and Future King and continue on with the book.
Only problem was I couldn't find any mention of giants or toothbrushes. I started thinking maybe I had dreamed it all.
The next time I had a chance to listen to it, I started once again at the owl part of the story and once again started drifting off to sleep just as the episode with the giants was starting. Aha! There really is a section with giants, I thought. But the next morning when I once again flipped through the print edition I couldn't find it! I was beginning to think I was losing my mind. I was further perplexed because I also couldn't find in the audio version a section I had seen in the print edition where Arthur has an adventure with storks.
I was a perplexed. Puzzled. Befuddled. And a little worried about the state of my mind.
Fortunately my ds was also listening to Sword in the Stone, and I had told him about my confusion and questionable state of mind. He finally caught up with me in the book and was able to reassure me that there is indeed an adventure with giants, that King Pelinore had indeed been looking for a lost toothbrush! Hallelujah, I wasn't crazy! He was confused that there should be a chapter featuring storks, and was adament there hadn't been one.
I finally looked it up on Wikipedia and learned about the differences between the original Sword in the Stone and the version of it in Once and Future King. What a relief! The Naxos company, for some unknown reason, decided to produce an audio version each original book rather than the entire Once and Future King.
I have also learned that when my eyes start getting heavy to use the "sleep" function on my iPod dock so it shuts down after 15minutes!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
52 Books in 52 Weeks: update
I haven’t been blogging, but I have been reading. I’m up to 30 books now, though at least 9 of them are from a period of binging on Janet Evanovich books. I needed some escapist reads during the hectic month of May, and these provided a good diversion and some laughs. Her earlier books are better as by the 14th book it is getting old to have the protagonist continuing to be such a clutzy dope! Shouldn't she be improving by now?
There have been some other easy fiction reads, too. Garden Spells and the Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society both were predictable but enjoyable reads. Dreamers of the Day was good historical fiction placed in Egypt just after WWI. I enjoyed the first half of the book better than the second half when the author just couldn’t quite leave her academic voice out of the picture.
My 14yo convinced me to read Death by Black Hole, and I’m glad he did. It was intimidating to start simply because learning about astrophysics isn’t really something I look forward to reading for enjoyment, but Neil deGrasse Tyson is an engaging author. I learned so much, and want to go back to reread some sections that left me a little puzzled. What I especially loved was his exacting English that only a physicist can have. It reminded me so much of my physics professor father, and how he would get mad with tv reporters who weren’t exact in their explanations of things. Of how he would explain things. It reminds me of how great it was to have a physicist in the house to explain how things work!
There have been some other easy fiction reads, too. Garden Spells and the Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society both were predictable but enjoyable reads. Dreamers of the Day was good historical fiction placed in Egypt just after WWI. I enjoyed the first half of the book better than the second half when the author just couldn’t quite leave her academic voice out of the picture.
My 14yo convinced me to read Death by Black Hole, and I’m glad he did. It was intimidating to start simply because learning about astrophysics isn’t really something I look forward to reading for enjoyment, but Neil deGrasse Tyson is an engaging author. I learned so much, and want to go back to reread some sections that left me a little puzzled. What I especially loved was his exacting English that only a physicist can have. It reminded me so much of my physics professor father, and how he would get mad with tv reporters who weren’t exact in their explanations of things. Of how he would explain things. It reminds me of how great it was to have a physicist in the house to explain how things work!
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Merry Month of May
On the homeschool schedule for the next 5 weeks:
9th grader:
reading list:
Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff
finish DK’s America’s Century
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, watch Teaching Company lecture
TH White’s Once and Future King (possibly only the first book or 2)
last 3 chapters of Foerster’s Algebra, plus do the word problems I’ve been avoiding!
fit in at least 2 more geology field trips from Rise and Fall of San Diego
finish health book and create a final project
final projects for 2 charter school classes
final project in computer programming
Par Kour classes twice a week
apply for Zoo corp
12th grader:
finish IEW co-op class
tech week and 10 shows of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat
write two essays for honors award applications
cinematography final project
vocal ensemble concert
behind the wheel driver’s ed class
weekly theater class
Both must have work samples ready next week, final exams and projects ready early June.
Both have one more Sunday singing with Youth Choir then the awards dinner to attend
But wait -- there's more!
On the mommy schedule for the next 5 weeks:
Finish reading Right Stuff, Sir Gawain and Once and Future King; study Algebra
rearrange lessons for my 5 violin students around rehearsals and productions of:
Pirates of Penzance - 2 dress rehearsals and 4 performances, immediately followed by
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat -- 3 dress rehearsals and 10 performances
Faure's Requiem - 1 more orchestra rehearsal, 1 dress rehearsal, 2 church service performances
Quartet rehearsals for June gig with vocal group
Clean the house, do a bit of gardening to get ready for visits from family who are arriving for my niece’s college graduation in the middle of the last weekend of Joseph performances.
Plan something for 12th grader’s graduation.
***whew***
Who has time for a Swine Flu pandemic?!!
9th grader:
reading list:
Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff
finish DK’s America’s Century
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, watch Teaching Company lecture
TH White’s Once and Future King (possibly only the first book or 2)
last 3 chapters of Foerster’s Algebra, plus do the word problems I’ve been avoiding!
fit in at least 2 more geology field trips from Rise and Fall of San Diego
finish health book and create a final project
final projects for 2 charter school classes
final project in computer programming
Par Kour classes twice a week
apply for Zoo corp
12th grader:
finish IEW co-op class
tech week and 10 shows of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat
write two essays for honors award applications
cinematography final project
vocal ensemble concert
behind the wheel driver’s ed class
weekly theater class
Both must have work samples ready next week, final exams and projects ready early June.
Both have one more Sunday singing with Youth Choir then the awards dinner to attend
But wait -- there's more!
On the mommy schedule for the next 5 weeks:
Finish reading Right Stuff, Sir Gawain and Once and Future King; study Algebra
rearrange lessons for my 5 violin students around rehearsals and productions of:
Pirates of Penzance - 2 dress rehearsals and 4 performances, immediately followed by
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat -- 3 dress rehearsals and 10 performances
Faure's Requiem - 1 more orchestra rehearsal, 1 dress rehearsal, 2 church service performances
Quartet rehearsals for June gig with vocal group
Clean the house, do a bit of gardening to get ready for visits from family who are arriving for my niece’s college graduation in the middle of the last weekend of Joseph performances.
Plan something for 12th grader’s graduation.
***whew***
Who has time for a Swine Flu pandemic?!!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Wordless Wednesday
More from our geology expedition last week. This stretch of canyon is surrounded by urban sprawl, bookended on east and west by major interstate freeways and on the north and south by suburban cookie cutter housing tracts. But once you hike in, as we did heading down from a housing track, you forget the city is surrounding you.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Field Trip
My youngest son is doing Earth Science this year using a boring text book and taking a class that has some projects and labs. I decided it was time to break free of the formal studies and get out of the house to see the geology in our area. The inspiration for this is a terrific book by San Diego State professor Patrick Abbott called The Rise and Fall of San Diego. Starting with the Jurassic, each chapter describes what was happening in San Diego during each geologic period and includes field trips to see specific formations.
It was a beautiful day, so we grabbed the camera and a couple of water bottles and went hiking in a nature preserve to see some Jurassic period rocks.
The canyon floor is long and flat, a popular route for horseback riders and bicyclists. We were just about to turn around and give up hopes of finding these rocks when we rounded a bend and spotted this:
A giant boulder sticking up out of the ground. We were joking that it is San Diego's own Uluru.
Behind this monument is a small waterfall with lots of perfect boulders for climbing around and over. But what it really is, we learned today, is sedimentary layers that formed under the ocean during the Jurassic period. They've been up-ended and are lying on their sides now as you can see:
The boulders are especially cool as they are not the generic granite you'd expect, but volcanic-clast conglomerates as you can see below. The lovely green plant next to it is poison oak!
The sediment was also quite varied in color with red layers and gray layers that are apparently mud sediment. We never did find the traces of fossils, but hope to on our next outing to find some Cretaceous formations by the ocean.
That's me on the middle right , providing a bit of scale for you. I was enjoying the view while the 14yo youngster made like a mountain goat and scampered about all the boulders. All in all we hiked about 2 miles and agreed it was one of the coolest outings we've had in a while -- and the way homeschooling should be more often!
It was a beautiful day, so we grabbed the camera and a couple of water bottles and went hiking in a nature preserve to see some Jurassic period rocks.
The canyon floor is long and flat, a popular route for horseback riders and bicyclists. We were just about to turn around and give up hopes of finding these rocks when we rounded a bend and spotted this:
A giant boulder sticking up out of the ground. We were joking that it is San Diego's own Uluru.Behind this monument is a small waterfall with lots of perfect boulders for climbing around and over. But what it really is, we learned today, is sedimentary layers that formed under the ocean during the Jurassic period. They've been up-ended and are lying on their sides now as you can see:
The boulders are especially cool as they are not the generic granite you'd expect, but volcanic-clast conglomerates as you can see below. The lovely green plant next to it is poison oak!
The sediment was also quite varied in color with red layers and gray layers that are apparently mud sediment. We never did find the traces of fossils, but hope to on our next outing to find some Cretaceous formations by the ocean.
That's me on the middle right , providing a bit of scale for you. I was enjoying the view while the 14yo youngster made like a mountain goat and scampered about all the boulders. All in all we hiked about 2 miles and agreed it was one of the coolest outings we've had in a while -- and the way homeschooling should be more often!
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