Smrt Lernins

This is just a quick update about our current program(s) of study, mainly to give me an at-a-glance look at our curricula:

Grammar: Growing with Grammar Grade 4, 3-4 chapter lessons twice weekly, with sentence diagramming as applicable and Houghton Mifflin Grammar Blast quizzes to demonstrate mastery of new concepts.

Vocabulary: Vocabulary from history chapters 2x weekly, vocabulary words from Rare Words 2x weekly, starting Vocabulary from Classical Roots, Grade 4 2x weekly [on hold for one more week due to broken arm].

Writing: Writing Strands Level 3, 1-3 sections 2x weekly, depending on chapter content. [on hold due to broken arm]

History: Using History: The Definitive Visual Guide as our spine text, 1-2 sections 2x weekly. Daily activities include vocabulary, important people/places/events, summary or narrative, timeline, maps, supplemental reading. Currently covering Greece, so supplemental reading includes Greek mythology from various sources, Greek literature, and Eyewitness: Ancient Greece as an alternating text w/ our main history text. One project per culture/time period.

Mathematics: Life of Fred: Fractions, four one-chapter lessons or three one-chapter lessons and the bridge per week.

Science: TOPScience physics lessons (currently on magnetism), twice weekly with Patchfire and Eclectic Girl.

Music Appreciation: Once weekly segments from Classics for Kids, one composer a week.

PE: Martial arts once weekly (at co-op), running and calisthenics 2-3 times weekly [on hold due to broken arm].

Extracurricular: Chess, math club (cyphers), and film making, once weekly through the co-op.

Still need to add:

Arts appreciation (looking for program)

Foreign language (possibly Japanese, possibly using Rosetta Stone, possibly starting in the spring semester)

Handwriting (picking one up this week to start once his arm is healed)

Typing (starting with the free BBC Dance Mat Typing but if that doesn’t do the trick, trying Typing Instructor

.

Entertaining any suggestions, questions, criticisms, or comments on our curricula!

Captain Science, while looking up a word in the dictionary*, said with frustration, “Why do teachers make students memorize things? In the future, we’ll all have personal robots who tell us anything we need to know.”

I said, “Well, then in the future, we’ll all be pretty dumb, won’t we?”

Later he said he wanted a personal robot servant to flap his shirt for him, so that he could cool down. He also said his personal robot servant would fix him a snack. “I have lots of servant robot cooks.” When I told my mother, she said I should tell him he needs to learn a lot about mathematics and get a degree in robotics, so he could build his servant robots.

“I’ll just have my servants build them for me,” was The Captain’s response.

“Your servants?” I asked.

“Yes, when I’m rich and famous, I’ll have lots of servants.”

My mother pointed out that you have to do the work up front if you want all of that, because no one will give it to you (“unless you’re Paris Hilton,” she added). Captain Sciences says that he will invent new words and get rich off of them.

Sounds like a plan. Hope he remembers the little people.

*Please note that he wasn’t being asked to memorize anything here. He was just feeling pissy and this was the topic that popped into his mind, I guess.