Yes, we have successfully survived made it through our fourth week of homeschooling. Twenty days down, 160 days to go!
This week was a little different, because we added a field trip on Friday, thus throwing off our normal history/math/science rotation. On Monday, Captain Science completed a crossword puzzle review on the Mesopotamians (got it all right!) and started reading about the Ancient Egyptians. His supplemental reading this week is Tales of Ancient Egypt, which he needs to finish up today in order to get started on next week’s book. For our second history day this week, we took a field trip on Friday to the Michael C. Carlos Museum to view their Ancient Egypt exhibit. The Carlos Museum once houses the mummified remains of Ramses I, and though the mummy has been returned to Egypt, the small museum’s collection is still impressive. Captain Science’s assignment was to find his favorite three objects and write observations about them, including name, composition, and date. He drew pictures to go along w/ the observations, and next week he will copy those pictures into his binder, color them, and add the observations at the bottom.
The Captain took and passed the “bridge” (review quiz) in Life of Fred: Fractions and passed it on the first attempt. He moved on to chapters six and seven this week, finally getting into the actual fractions portion of the book. This book continues to be an enjoyable way for Captain Science to learn math. He never complains about “working on Fred.”
Captain Science and Eclectic Girl continued working on circuits. They had their most on-task day ever, perhaps motivated by the box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts they were told they could dive into after completing their work. They finished with 15 minutes to spare, a first, and ate two doughnuts a piece. Since both children could be easily blown away by a heavy wind, I don’t think they’ll suffer from this rare bribe. They may be starting their magnetism unit next week!
We had an unpleasant discovery with our writing curriculum. While I realized it wasn’t a strictly secular program (the emphasis on the story of Noah gave that away), I was not prepared for the Bible literalism that was sneaked into one of the lessons, an essay on Gilgamesh. I didn’t even catch it on the first read-through. It wasn’t until I noticed a reference to the “real” story of the Garden of Eden in Captain Science’s essay and reread the source essay that I saw it. Sure enough, the stories of the snake in the garden and Noah’s flood were referred to as the “true” stories that inspired the fictional tale of Gilgamesh. I was already unhappy with the program, with its list of “banned words” and emphasis on -ly adverbs, but the insidious nature of the content means I’m going to have to find another writing program. $50 down the drain, alas, and uncertainty about our curriculum for now, neither of which makes me very happy.
The above incident also made me realize that Captain Science doesn’t know Bible stories. He’s had almost no exposure to them. While I don’t want him to learn Bible stories as fact or within a religious context, it’s important to have a passing familiarity with things like the Garden of Eden, both for cultural reasons and to catch allusions in literature. Luckily, Patchfire found Old Testament for Teens, a book designed to teach “some of the more important aspects of the Old Testament through an educational approach that recognizes that the majority of our cultural and social history has been strongly influenced by interpretations of Biblical episodes.” Hopefully, New Testament for Teens will soon follow.
Grammar progresses well. Captain Science passed his grammar quiz over nouns on Monday and started reading about pronouns on Wednesday. That’s really all I can say about grammar, which is useful, but rarely exciting. I can’t wait to get back to some diagramming again!
Co-op classes went well this week, but the Captain is having a hard time behaving in Officer Daddyman’s martial arts class. It’s hard when your dad is your teacher, but Daddyman is going to have to implement a “three strikes and you’re out policy” to curb the grabbiness that Captain Science and a couple other classmates keep exhibiting. I haven’t heard any complaints about his behavior in other classes, however, and he’s having a great time.
I’m currently looking at adding some logic to our weekly curriculum. Logic Countdown was recommended to me, and after checking out the follow-up Logic Countdown, I’m pretty sure it’s the right program for us.
All in all, another great week here at the McLernins household!
Congratulations on surviving your first 20 days.
When a home school child is sick do they bring a note from their mother?
I’d work for Krispy Kreme doughnuts!
Sick homeschooled children have to bring a note from their father TO their mother.
Thanks for the info on the museum! I didn’t know about that one. We will have to check it out.
Atlanta-area colleges have a bunch of great resources. Kennesaw State University has an impressive rare book collection that includes a large assortment of first editions of American authors (like Mark Twain), Shakespeare’s folios, and an original printing of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.