Smrt Lernins

I missed last week’s review, which makes that my first one skipped this year, a bit of a downer and a disappointment. This week, despite Officer Daddyman being in domestic violence training (preventing and pursuing, not perpetrating) and me having to solo parent, has been exceptionally productive, academically-speaking.

I have noticed an irritating trend of learned helplessness in Captain Science, cropping up most noticeable in areas where he’s asked to either apply a general idea specifically or glean an idea based on data that doesn’t spell it out exactly. Now, I know this child well. I know he’s capable of all of that. When he demonstrates he knows how to round decimals, but insists he simple can’t round pi to the thousandth place after the decimal, because the book doesn’t say how to round pi specifically, it’s hard to resist the urge to whack him on the head with the book (of course, I did resist, but it was difficult). When he’s been able to read and extrapolate ideas, even very abstract ones, from reading for years, but he can’t come up with why he thinks Cleopatra was a good or bad ruler of Egypt because the books doesn’t specifically say she was either, that book-whacking urge resurfaces (I resisted it then, too, but golly! Difficult!).

I’m nipping that helplessness in the bud and Captain Science does seem to be responding to that. I told him in no uncertain terms that he was neither helpness nor incapable, and that I wasn’t going to hold his hand through assignments. I also told him that if he could only learn through being spoon fed select bits of information through worksheets and books that give all the answers, I may as well send him to public school, because that’s not what we’re about here. He agreed that being spoon fed wasn’t much fun and didn’t teach him much, and he’d rather make more of an effort at home. Since we had our talk, he’s definitely shown me he is willing and able to step it up. I’m very proud of his efforts from Wednesday onward!
Last week, Captain Science completed his last bridge in Life of Fred: Fractions and started Life of Fred: Decimals and Percents, completing chapters 1 and two. This week, he completed chapters 3-5, the bridge to chapter 6 (only missed 1, corrected on the first try), and chapter 6.

In history, Captain Science read about both Julius Caesar and Cleopatra in History: The Definitive Visual Guide, and wrote essays about his feelings on their respective rules (and in Caesar’s case, whether or not his assassination was justified – he felt it was). He’s enjoying Rome tremendously, everything from history and culture to language…which brings us to our next topic!

Captain Science has decided that he wants to learn Latin! He’s been coming across Latin phrases in his Percy Jackson, mythology, and history books, and asked if he could learn “the Roman language.” Who am I to say “no,” when the main reason he wasn’t learning it from the start was what I perceived to be a lack of interest on his part? I’ll be researching Latin curricula over the break and he will start in January!

Captain Science completed a review of chapter 7 in Growing with Grammar, leaving only the “growing with words and punctuation” section before we take a break from GWG. He finished exercises 5 and 6 in Editor in Chief A1. Unfortunately, I think this level is much too easy for him, and while I like the format, I’m unimpressed by the writing. Despite having originally balked at it, due to its popularity and reputation as the only acceptable program for gifted students, I have become swayed to the Michael Clay Thompson language arts curriculum and am considering picking up Grammar Town for Captain Science to start next semester. I might also replace Vocabulary from Classical Roots with Building Language, since the vocabulary in Vocabulary from Classical Roots has been underwhelmingly challenging. Captain Science completed review quizzes of chapters 1, 2, and 3, then the test for the whole first section. The ones he got incorrect on the test, I understand why he chose the answer he did. The answers he chose also made sense if you looked at the question another way. One example was a fill-in-the-blank that said, “Because young children will often lie to please you, you should question them _____.” The correct answer was “delicately,” but Captain Science chose “delightfully.” I asked him why, and his reasoning was that if you appear to be very happy with them, they will be more likely to tell the truth. That’s apparently the same argument Patchfire’s Eclectic Girl made, when she answered that same question in the same way! Gifted minds, I guess.

He’s also doing some outside-the-box thinking in logic. He completed several Logic Countdown pages over the last two weeks, and in the ones where you have to find the relation between the items or choose which doesn’t belong, the relations he draws are often interesting. Today, one problem had squares with dots on them (1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 dots). The obvious answer was that 1 didn’t belong, because it’s odd and the others are even, but Captain Science chose 8, because the others were all the numbers and patterns found on a six-sided die. I accepted it as correct.

Tonight, we did another water-related science unit at Patchfire’s house. Captain Science, the Tank, and I all did a crystal-growing project on Thursday night, too, which was fun. We grew faux red tourmaline. It does appear to be working, though crystals are growing everywhere but the granite stone, which was supposed to be where they grew. Oh well.

The Tank had his Christmas pageant at preschool. He was one of the only three-year-olds who sang and his hand gestures were flamboyant. He enjoyed himself immensely. It was the exact same pageant performed when Captain Science was two and three, with the exception of the overly long prayer by the new minister at the beginning. Really, you’re not converting anyone at a preschool pageant, sir. Let it go.

Officer Daddyman is now home, but my week isn’t over yet. Tomorrow, we have Captain Science’s birthday, which means housecleaning instead of a much needed morning of sleeping in. Oh well. Maybe Sunday?