Smrt Lernins

So, remember how we continued homeschooling while Babypie and Officer Daddyman were sick? Well, Daddyman recovered just in time to take over homeschooling when I was felled by the pukies on Wednesday morning. He did the school day on Wednesday and the short part of Thursday that’s remotely academic (we do extra-curricular activities then). Our week apparently ended yesterday, as the glory of the 48 hour incubation period laid Captain Science low at around 3 this morning — while he was spending the night at Nana and Papa’s house, so I could get a little extra rest (which didn’t happen anyway). Suffice it to say, our greatest scholastic achievement this week was accomplishing anything, just anything at all.

Math this week saw the completion of another set of cities in Life of Fred: Beginning Algebra and Fred’s Home Companion. I’m not sure where Professor Schmidt is getting the names for these cities or deciding on the order, but Captain Science completed Adrian, Sacramento, Elliot, Galt, Hannibal, and Raglan. He and Daddyman did some additional practice on one particular word problem set up that’s giving Captain S some grief (the two cars going at different speeds towards each other word problems) and I think the kid has figured it out.

Science went smoothly this week with the start of the unit on Volcanoes. Captain Science completed all but the mastery test, which he would have taken today, had he not woke up sick. I’ll be perfectly honest; I didn’t check the worksheets. However, as he was working, Captain Science brought the packet to me to point out one question was missing an answer (it was, having only a blank next to choice A), but that the missing answer was undoubtedly “explosive,” as that was the correct answer to the question (it was). I think this lesson was well absorbed.

Language arts leads us deeper into Essay Voyage, Caesar’s English II, and World of Poetry. Captain Science finished chapter 1 in Essay Voyage (each lesson is broken into multiple lessons; we do one a day) and wrote his first essay from a prompt. He actually chose the option of writing a detailed paragraph about an unusual animal, then rewriting it out of order, then writing an explanation of what makes a disorganized paragraph. Being a corner-cutter, Captain S first answered that in two sentences about how a disorganized paragraph is one that isn’t organized, and organize means not disorganized. *headdesk* His later effort was much better, however. He also completed pages 23-27 in Caesar’s English II, pages 23-32 in World of Poetry, and wrote two poems — on using consonance and alliteration, one using reversals (which I’ll post later, as it was quite good).

Captain Science read pages 42-63 in Aztec & Maya. Subjects this week included some of the famous cities of Mezoamerica and of a subject he wasn’t too fond of, human sacrifice. He thought it was pretty gross and disturbing, but hey, that’s history! We haven’t been doing any history-based writing, since he’s doing so much more writing in language arts right now, but once we move into the middle ages, I’ll start incorporating more writing into the assignments, especially as he begins reading period texts. I’m going to toss a little parallel translations of Canterbury Tales at him and see how he feels about middle vs. modern English.

Finally, Captain Science had his day of electives yesterday. He did another chapter of KidCoder, which he bombed horribly through a simple inability to actual read through the chapter. Perhaps it was a warning sign of his impending illness. Perhaps he cannot concentrate on that much text on a computer screen. Whatever the cause, the result was a garble of programming that didn’t actually program. The plan for next week is to print the chapter, have him read it through once, then work through the programming on the computer w/ the printed reference next to him, rather than on the screen. He’ll do this independently, to see if he can.

We also had our next to last full soccer practice yesterday. One more full practice and one half practice, half pizza party, remain. Both kids are loving it, though last night I received a dramatic phone call from Captain Science’s teenage coach’s mommy, letting me know that Captain S is rude and insubordinate and that I needed to “handle it at home.” Of course, neither mommy nor son could give me any details as to the rudeness, other than Captain Science took his shirt off two weeks ago when it was 90+ degrees out and that he supposedly said “You can’t make me” to his female teenage coach — unlikely, considering a) the coach was new this week and Captain S, unprompted, brought up how scary she was and how no one would think of crossing her and b) of all the sassy, rude things he says, “You can’t make me” isn’t his style. “That’s UNFAIR!” or “Why are you NAGGING me?” are his style. Even a, “No, I don’t want to.” But, “You can’t make me?” Really? The real gist of the phone call seemed to be that Captain Science’s partial disrobing made either the coach, his mom, or both uncomfortable, and that they needed an additional reason to call to complain about it. Of course, that boat sailed two weeks ago; I’d already asked Captain S to keep his shirt on to prevent sunburn. I’d have been happy to correct him for legitimate rudeness, but barring any real examples? I’ll just observe him at practice and correct him if I see it.

As for Tank, well…he and Officer Daddyman did something this week, but I was too sick and out of it to have any idea what it was. I think it involved coloring and blocks. I did observe a pyramid board game being played. They seemed to be having a good time.

Well, that’s our week. Off to tend my sickies.