Celebrating Success, Finding Balance

The past couple of weeks, we have been working on finding a comfortable balance of activities.  I'm trying to be cautious about the slide between quantity and quality, and trying to ensure that we are productive without running our poor little selves ragged, and that Amara is fully learning all the intended concepts and achieving objectives. 

A prime example of our striving for balance is the fact that we are moving through Math more slowly than I would like, but we are making progress; the quality has been shown by my first compilation of Daily Lesson Grades, and by the first Test. Amara has an 85% B average on her daily lessons.  And, as the curriculum suggests, she goes back to the previous Daily Lesson and corrects missed problems during the next Daily Lesson.  On her first Test, she received a 95% A.

In the picture above, Amara is making "Manipulatives" that she cut apart and arranged and rearranged in order to visualize the conversion relationship between fractions, percents, and decimals.  It is an activity the curriculum calls an "Investigation," and it has made the subsequent Daily Lessons easier when she needs help with visualization to complete problems that are related to this math skill.

In order to break up monotony with arts and physical activity and meet new friends, Amara has joined a Pottery Class and an Ice Skating Group. 

She's met some new folks and enjoys these activities, and she is also doing thinks like scouring the Public Library Booksale for mystery and fantasy genre gems. She only found a few, but we frequent the library every week or so to pick up new books that she finds and puts on reserve to go get.

Right now she is reading the Mortal Instruments series, is on Book Four, and we just saw the movie last week and really enjoyed it. Since the official start of homeschool she has devoured 11 lengthy novels at middle grade-ish level. 

One thing that is going speedily along, but that also reflects quality learning is her notebooking activities in Language Arts.  She completed a 6 week unit on Figurative Language in 3 weeks, and completed a unit on the Three Types of Irony last week.  Coming right up this week is a 6 week unit on Reading Literature, with lessons on Plot formation, Character Studies, Types of Conflicts etc.

She is still working on her Social Studies research project, we are taking an extension.  This week, she is moving from compiled notes to drafting of her paper.  I have supplied her with graphic organizers, a template/heuristic for organizing her paragraphs with evidence to support the main points of each and every paragraph to fully support her thesis, and a handout on MLA formatting and the Works Cited page.

She is completing notebooking activities on the Human Skeletal System and will be moving on to the Human Muscular System.  She is working through the Houghton Mifflin Curriculum for science, and the Human Anatomy unit is slated to take six weeks, but I have interspersed the book and web labwork with notebooking activities that treat the lessons in the unit in a more in-depth manner.  For instance, the curriculum asks her to learn about types of bone and functions of bones, etc. and the notebooking has her learning many more names of bones and adding foldables into her notebook, etc.  So, we are purposefully moving more slowly through Science.

As you may have seen, Foreign Language is conspicuously absent.  With our schedule broken up by my activities on campus and extra curriculars, so to speak, we can't seem to religiously fit it in.  She may end up doing language as a summer activity.  As it is, she works from about 9-2 or 4 every day, with some breaks for changing locations/eating etc.

Ultimately, we are adjusting to a new way of life and enjoying our freedom.  Sometimes I have to remind myself that no one is breathing down my neck, and also realize that I tend to push a lot, so I'm confident that on days it feels like we don't get as much done as I'd like, we are still ok.

Oh, someone asked Amara where she is going to college the other day.  I always kind of figured that we don't need to think about it now, because obviously we will be moving before then, and because location needn't influence her decision anyway.  With cousin Clara packing up to attend one of several UC system schools she got into, however, the time is right to be imagining this moment in Amara's life.  We have been discussing this, and soon, we may do a google search of top pre-med programs, so that Amara can be a top surgeon like on Grey's Anatomy when she grows up. ;)

First Research Project, (after completing a study skills unit)

Egypt Research Project Prompt: Egyptian Goddess Bastet

September 3, 2013

Due: September 17, 2013

You will research this Egyptian diety and create a project with several parts that work together to enable you to present your findings as if you were teaching your audience about this important Egyptian mythological figure.

Questions to lead your research:

·         What was Ancient Egyptian Mythology?  What was its importance to ancient Egyptians?

·         What role does this figure fill in relation to the whole of Egyptian Mythology?  What importance did this figure have to ancient Egyptians?

·         Specifics about the figure: what characteristics was she known for, how was she viewed, how was she worshipped, how was she depicted in hieroglyphics, etc.?

As you can see, you will be researching a bit about mythology in general, in order to place your figure in specific into a larger context.  Utilize the skills that you learned in the Study and Research Skills Unit to inform your research, organization, and synthesis and preparation of your materials into your presentation.

Your project will have three parts, all which will combine to help you present your findings:

Written:

                Compile your researched findings into a three page essay, typed in MLA format, that has a clear introduction, body, and conclusion.  Your essay’s thesis statement will be: an argument about what made this mythological figure important to ancient Egyptians.  Create a Works Cited Page to cite your sources on, this should be at the end of the essay.

Visual:

Create a visual aid to help you illustrate important points throughout your presentation.  This may be in the form of a decorative posterboard, a prezi, a powerpoint, etc. This may be especially helpful for organizing interesting images that you have found that support the points that you make in your research.

Oral:

                Present your findings in a clear and professional manner, being sure to clearly state your argument and point to evidence, both textual (based on your written research) and visual (based on the visual element of your presentation), that helps your audience see how your argument is proven.

Day 2:

It is taking longer than 45 minutes to complete each subject's daily work.  We are rolling the idea of block scheduling around in our brains.  Also, once we get back into Math practice mode, it won't take us as long to work through one lesson.  Anyway, this post is mostly because I had some pics to share.  Amara loves to bop to the radio while working through lessons/activities, and I usually hover, multitask, and offer assistance when requested. 

 Above, Amara is "notebooking" using interactive "foldables" to house her language arts activities.  Our first unit is figurative language, she is separating sentences into their types.  For instance, "She slammed the door with a whoosh" is an example of onomotopaiea.

 She refuses to smile for this math pic.  She actually enjoys speeding through timed fact practice and the feeling of accomplishment that comes with finishing each section of the lesson.

Borrowing my computer to get her online components of the science curriculum finished today.  Tech support is still working on the problem with her computer and interfacing to the science site.  There are lots of web based lessons to supplement the book and videos and labs.

See you soon!

First Day of Seventh Grade

Going well so far, oh, except for the washer machine breaking down and the barely enough milk left for one cup of coffee. We began by designating our notebooks and binder for our subjects, science, math, English, social studies, and Spanish. We will be completing the work in those subjects in about that order, and we will give each subject about 45 minutes a day.  That makes for roughly a four hour school day, with time for wrapping up, looking ahead, putting away materials and taking out new ones in between each subject.

We are using Science Fusion from Harcourt for Amara's science curriculum.  There are 11 modules that last approximately 6 weeks each.  She chose to start with The Human Body and Ecology and the Environment.  The textbooks/workbooks come with a year of online access to online lessons that supplement the material in the text in an interactive lecture, quick labs, video based projects, quizzes, learning about various scientists and their professions, etc.  So each week in science, she will do some reading, filling in the workbook, taking online lessons, watching videos, performing labs, and etc. Also, I have found lapbooking/notebooking sets for The Human Body that we can use to fill out her science notebook with diagrams, foldables, charts, etc. of each body system and information about how it works. Week one is on an overview of the body systems and the "big idea" is homeostasis.  She did well on her pre-test and is working in her textbook/workbook now.

For Math, we are using Saxon 8/7 with Pre-Algebra. We have the ultra-comprehensive homeschooling kit from Harcourt.  Each full lesson is slated to last about 45 minutes, and has a set of activities that will establish order and routine and build on facts practice and concepts from lessons over time.  We will supplement with Aleks online lab/tutoring. This first week, it looks like the activities will likely be a bit of review from where she left off last year.

For English, we are using English From The Roots Up (I &II) in order to learn the Greek and Latin roots and their derivatives.  This is so that when Amara comes across new words, she can intuit their meanings not only through context, but by understanding the meaning of the root morpheme and its etymology.  This has been used by homeschooling families an students studying for the SAT/ACT, etc. for years and years with wonderful reviews.  We also have a card game, Roots Rummy, that will allow us to practice with the roots. We will work on one root per day, building a box of index cards according to the system that the text sets out for parents and students working together.  I anticipate learning a lot more about roots, too.

Amara is also going to be completing various units of Language Arts lessons/activities in her notebook, the first being Close Reading for Figurative Language.  We also have units on Reading Literature, Reading Informational Texts (non-fiction), Study Skills/Research, Types of Irony, etc. lined up.  They have a combination of worksheets, readings, foldables for notebooking, etc. Amara also has an independent reading log that she has already logged her first book into, City of Bones, which is a YA Fantasy text recommended to her by our friend who recently visited from Wales.

For social studies, Amara elected to continue with Ancient Civilizations, rather than doing American History (snoooze) so we will revisit these in more depth than she did in 6th grade SS class.  We are starting with Egypt, and are taking a unit studies approach to this subject.  She will do notebooking and writing/research projects incorporating texts from the library, websites, etc. into her study.  We have texts on Mythology and World Religions to supplement.

For Spanish, we are using Baron's Spanish Now! (Level I) with accompanying cd's for listening practice. It is a mixed text with lessons/workbooking built in, and she will do some notebooking in her own notebook, especially for grammar charts, cultural studies, geography, etc. We also have the same curriculum for French, which we will start when we finish Spanish. 

Some extra curricular activities that we have planned thus far are an after school pottery wheel-throwing class in September, a class at AOC Community Media in October on filming/producing TV shows and movies, and we will check out other community classes that come up.  Of course, when my school starts back up next week, Amara will be trouping up to campus with me, and maybe she will want to sit in on Introduction to Academic Writing.  She is a bit averse to taking another graduate course, Major Authors: Twain sort of shocked her little system over the summer with a graduate reading level. 

Something to look forward to: we are planning a trip in October, over my Fall Break weekend, which will be a nice reward for hard work.  Right now, we are down to San Antonio or Destin Beach, and will decide soon based on lodging setup that we can get together at this point in the game. 

Well, there it is.  Our plans are laid out and we are excited to see how week one goes.  This way, we can gauge our expectations, and have a bit of a schedule set before ULL instruction begins.  I will update this blog semi-regularly, and it will be as much for my reflections along the way as it will be for celebrating milestones and keeping family and friends updated on our progress.