Smrt Lernins

This week started out with lofty plans, but was derailed in a couple of areas. For starters, Captain Science is consistently having difficulties w/ a certain type of algebra problem set-up, so we tanked our math plans for the week and Office Daddyman has been making math Mad Libs w/ Captain Science this week, in order to work on that type of problem. We also went to the Roy Barnes rally on Wednesday, which made that day pretty much academically useless after the rally was over.

Here is what our week should have looked like:

Monday

• Life of Fred pg 95-100, Your Turn to Play – review w/ Daddyman
• PLATO Science – Rock Cycle mastery test
• Essay Voyage pg 40-43
• Caesar’s English pg 39-41, completed work on pg 40, note cards
• History: DVG pg 158-159
• Finish at least 4 Pantheon Cards

Tuesday

• Life of Fred pg 101-104
• Fred’s Home Companion pg 49, Lesson 32
• PLATO Science – Weathering, Soil, and Erosion lesson and application
• Essay Voyage pg 44-47, choose from options 1, 2, 3, 4, or 6.
• World of Poetry, read pg 40-45
• History: DVG pg 160-163
• Finish remaining Pantheon Cards

Wednesday

• Life of Fred pg 105, Advance and El Campo
• PLATO Science – worksheet packet
• Essay Voyage pg 49-51
• Caesar’s English pg 42-45, Classic Words Challenge and Caesar’s Usage
• History: DVG pg 164-167

Thursday

• PLATO Science – practice tests
• Soccer
• Math Olympiad

Friday

• Life of Fred pg 106, Gadsden and Hampton
• PLATO Science – Weathering, Soil, and Erosion mastery test
• Essay Voyage pg 52-53, Correct Word Assignment
• World of Poetry read pg 46-51
• History: DVG pg 168-171

Here is what our week actually looked like:

Monday

• Life of Fred pg 95-100, Your Turn to Play – review w/ Daddyman
• PLATO Science – Rock Cycle mastery test
• Essay Voyage pg 40-43
• Caesar’s English pg 39-41, completed work on pg 40, note cards
• History: DVG pg 158-159
• Finish at least 4 Pantheon Cards

Tuesday

• Math Libs word problems w/Daddyman
• Fred’s Home Companion pg 49, Lesson 32
• PLATO Science – Weathering, Soil, and Erosion lesson and application
• Essay Voyage pg 44-47, choose from options 1, 2, 3, 4, or 6.
• World of Poetry, read pg 40-45
• History: DVG pg 160-163
• Finish remaining Pantheon Cards

Wednesday

• Math Libs word problems w/ Daddyman
• Barnes Rally

Thursday

• PLATO Science – worksheet packet
• Soccer
• Spend a half hour chasing our escaped beagle and missing Math Olympiad

Friday

• PLATO Science – practice tests on Weathering
• Essay Voyage pg 49-53, Correct Word Assignment
• History: DVG pg 164-171
• Caesar’s English pg 42-45, Classic Words Challenge and Caesar’s Usage
• Math Libs word problems w/ Daddyman

We still got a lot done and we’re mostly caught up, excepting math and World of Poetry, but it wasn’t the week I’d envisioned.

Patchfire’s Eclectic Girl and my Captain Science get involved in politics.

Ok, y’all. I’m not sure what kid I brought back from Disney World, but he can’t possible be my stalling, grousing, reticent Captain Science. No, this child is responsible, self-motivated, and determined. I shall call him Captain Science 2.0, because he is surely the upgrade of my typical homeschooler.

Captain Science 2.0 had a fan-freaking-TASTIC week this week. No lie. The kid finished his work by 2 every day, by 12 two days, and did it well. He got up early all on his own and finished his morning chores. He corrected and rewrote assignments with no complaint. Even on Tuesday, when he didn’t get into the meat of his academic stuff until 2pm (due to homeschool ice skating day), he plowed right through it all without his trademarked “Capslock Harry” attitude.

This week, Captain Science completed:

Tank had soccer practice, too. He and Officer Daddyman have also been working on this piggy bank game, which teaches saving/spending concepts. Tank does love money so very much.

Babypie has learned the word “no.” She says it as “neeeeeew,” which is extra-adorable, but “neeeeew” is now the answer to every.single.question. Send help!

I’m also having a productive week. I started the two hundred situps challenge and also began an aerobic routine using the Wii Fit. I got a bunch of cleaning and laundry done. I oversaw contractors doing repairs to our ceilings. I continued to work on a great big project I have coming up on October 24th.

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.

I’m gonna do our weekly review a little bit different this week. Instead of the usual write-up, I’m posting Captain Science’s schedule exactly as I write it up each week. This isn’t just ’cause I’m lazy (though make no mistake, I am), but to give an idea of how our schedule is balanced. I should note that due to a schedule change on Officer Daddyman’s part, we ended up doing KidCoder on Wednesday and part of Wednesday’s work on Thursday instead. KidCoder takes a 2+ hour block of time and requires Officer Daddyman’s presence, so if he isn’t here on Thursday, we don’t code that day. This is a decent rundown of how our days look, however. Each day, Captain Science chooses the order he works through his activities.

Monday
Fred’s Home Companion p37, Lesson 21
Aztec & Maya pg 23-29
World of Poetry pg 18-23, Types of Rhyme – write couplet in each of the rhyme types
PLATO Science – rewatch Earthquake lesson
Essay Voyage pg 5-7, Correct Word Assignment
Caesar’s English II pg 5-10, activities on pg 10, note cards of new word stems

Tuesday
Life of Fred pg 71-74
Home Companion pg 39, Lesson 22
Aztec & Maya pg 30-33
Essay Voyage pg 8-10, four-level analysis
Caesar’s English II pg 11-14, activities on pg 13
PLATO Science – sections 1, 6, 7 of Earthquake worksheet packet; practice test 1-4

Wednesday
Life of Fred pg 75-79, Your Turn to Play (Lesson 23)
Aztec & Maya pg 34-37
Essay Voyage pg 11-13, Practice and Bugs
Caesar’s English II pg 16-19, activities on pg 19, note cards of new vocabulary
PLATO Science – Earthquake practice test 5-8

Thursday
KidCoder
Soccer, 1-3
Math Olympiad 6:30-7:30 (forgot our club leader was at Disney this week!)

Friday
Life of Fred pg 80-82
Home Companion pg 41, Lesson 24
Aztec & Maya pg 38-41
Essay Voyage pg 14-16, Practice
Caesar’s English II pg 20-21, Caesar’s Usage activity on pg 20, discuss Sesquipedalian Story together
PLATO Science – Earthquake mastery test

We were making great progress this week, then today dragged so badly that I just went ahead and shot it to put it out of its misery. We wrapped up at 3, without doing the Grammar Voyage post-test or our World of Poetry unit. Captain Science agreed to do the post-test tomorrow without a fuss, so at least I can feel ok about that. I hate to make poetry wait, but I was d-o-n-e.

This week in history, Captain Science started the Aztecs and the Mayas. He read the chapter on “Early American Civilization” in History: The Definitive Visual Guide and started The Complete Illustrated History of the Aztec & Maya, reading the introduction and the chapters on “History and Mythology,” “Fragments of History,” “Aztec History and Mythology,” and “Unlocking the Secrets of Maya Society.”

Despite my memory lapse on Sunday, which kept me from remembering to put science on the schedule initially, Captain Science did actually manage to work on some science this week. He completed the main lesson for the earthquake unit of PLATO Earth & Space Science. He also did the application and the worksheet packet. He has a few areas where he needs some additional practice, probably because Donovan was being rather distracting when Captain Science watched the lesson, but we’ll pick back up on Monday with that. I had put the first 4 practice tests on the schedule (they’re very short), but I felt like he needed another pass at the lesson first.

Apart from the post-test that we put off until tomorrow, Captain Science finished Grammar Voyage! This means he gets to start Essay Voyage on Monday. I’m very excited! He also finished Caesar’s English I, after doing the last lesson (Lesson 20) this week, and will start Caesar’s English II next week. He only missed one question on the final test!

Math is moving along nicely, too. Captain Science worked through lessons 17-20 this week in Life of Fred: Beginning Algebra/Fred’s Home Companion, which includes pages 57-71 in Life of Fred, three “Your Turn to Play” sections, and additional questions in the Home Companion. We had another Math Olympiad meeting. I have no clue what they’re working on, but he really enjoys it, whatever it is.

Electives-wise, this week, Captain Science did another unit of KidCoder and both Captain S and Tank had another soccer practice and were taken to the homeschool ice skating day by Officer Daddyman while Babypie and I went to La Leche League.

My soccer star!

Tank had a good week. Dimhibbins came over for his first day of preschooling with us. His father works from home, so I’m trading a day of homeschooling for the pleasure of Tank having a playmate — a worthwhile trade! Today, we worked on money. I pulled out our giant change jar, showed the boy four types of coins (pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters) and instructed them to each pick out 10 pennies, 2 nickels, 1 dime, and 1 quarter. I gave each of them a piece of white paper, on which I drew three big circles. The big circles had 1, 5, and 10 written in them, with a little doodle of the thing they could “buy” with their money for that price. Together, we worked on different ways to add up the amount we needed. I love this age, when you get to see their brains click with understanding. Captain S is old enough know that almost everything he learns is synthesis, which doesn’t create the “click” you can see. With the 4-year-olds, though, it’s pure, raw learning, absolute newness, so when they grasp a concept for the first time, the “Eureka!” is visible in their faces. We had money Eureka today! To make it even better, Dimhibbins and Tank each got to keep the coins I’d counted out for them, so they went home 55 cents richer.

Tank and Dimhibbins working on their money activity

Babypie added some new words to her already impressive vocabulary. She is now saying “dog” and “cow.” She uses “dog” in jokes about Badge, saying he’s a dog and then switching and saying he’s “kitties” (most things are plural right now). She called my great-aunts both by name this week and when we all clapped and said “yay!” after she sang us a little song (which goes “yeah yeah yeah yeah YEAH yeah”), she also clapped and exclaimed, “I LIKE yays!”

Babypie likes yays!

I also had a reasonable accomplished week, making some progress on a BOLD Red Tent we’re planning for the area, getting some stuff cleaned, getting all caught up on the laundry (which languished due to travel), and even doing a little planning for next school year!

The very tired face of accomplishment (from earlier this week)

As we’re headed to Asheville, NC tomorrow for Biltmore’s Homeschool Day*, we’re only logging two real days of school this week. Technically, Captain S will be in classes all morning at Biltmore, but I’ll just have to review those later.

This week was pretty light, two days of wrapping things up. Captain Science did the final pass of his Confucius essay, finished the next lesson in Life of Fred: Algebra (lesson 16, Queen City and San Juan), read the section on phrases in Grammar Voyage (including DOING the activity on identifying phrases in sentences), and knocked out the play-test deck of his Pantheon Project cards. He also had a piano lesson and will do his KidCoder computer programming on Saturday.

Tank’s week consisted mainly of tracing the cursive upper and lower case letters on his dry erase sheet. He traced and erased the alphabet, then wrote the numbers 1-10 below them, multiple times, all under his own steam. He also drew several more monsters for me to put in the file, because they’re all so cute that I can’t stand throwing them out. I added a few preschool apps to my iPhone for him: Fairytail Preschool, a simple phonics app (really, it’s just letter sounds), and a preschool matching and puzzle app.

Babypie’s week has consisted mainly of pitching fits and dancing.

Badge the beagle’s main accomplishment was yarking on the carpet.

*Leaving Officer Daddyman here to man the fort

I’m sending in my first monthly attendance report for the year. How is that even possible? I also love having the lessons plans for the full week finished on Sunday night. It makes such a difference in my stress level. I’m not prepared to write them up further ahead of time than that, because I have this terrible fear of getting off track and having to redo all my hard work, but on a weekly basis, this is rocking my socks of.

We had another productive week at the McLernins house. Captain Science finished the mapping lesson in PLATO Earth/Space science. He’s going to take the mastery test again on Monday, because he’s having a hard time with topographical maps. I think this is less a comprehension issues, however, and more a vision one. His current glasses aren’t up to prescription and the teensy lines are so hard for him to distinguish. He just doesn’t have the patience to trace the lines w/ his finger and relies on faulty eyesight alone. I know this will be better when his knew glasses arrive, hopefully next week.

Captain Science completed lesson 12-15 in Fred’s Home Companion/Life of Fred: Beginning Algebra, which included a Your Turn to PLay, and the cities of Admire, Elk, Fairburn, and Halstad. Though we had a little initial trouble with him sneaking peaks at answers, he did very well. Officer Daddyman helped him with a quick review of mixed fractions today. On Thursday, he had another Math Olympiad meeting, which he really seems to enjoy. I’m glad for the additional math outlet.

MCTLA is great, as always. Captain S read pgs 46-87 in Grammar Voyage and is looking forward to finishing it up, so he can start essay voyage. He took and passed the Caesar’s English I chapter 18 cumulative quiz and read chapter 19. He’s getting close to the end and will soon be ready to start Caesar’s English II. He also started World of Poetry this week, just doing a little bit of reading. He’ll begin poetry writing next week or the week after, as next week only has two instructional days for us.

To wrap up the unit in ancient China and work more on his formal writing skills, Captain Science research and wrote an essay on the life and teachings of Confucius. He did one-point outline using two sources, wrote a first draft from his notes alone, and then rewrote the draft to include more details and better structuring today. He’ll write a final draft on Monday. We’ll start ancient South and Central America the week after next!

Piano practice started back up this week and Captain Science received his two pieces for his December recital: Amazing Grace and Toyland. We’ll hold a small Christmas party so he can have a formal recital. He’ll dress in nice clothes and perform his pieces from memory. I’m very excited!

Captain Science also completed another lesson in KidCoder computer programming. Now that he’s over that first hump of “this is so tedious! I just wanted to make games!” he seems to be moving right along. Thursdays are electives day, so he spends a few hours each morning doing computer programming with Officer Daddyman, before we start our out-of-the-house activities.

Speaking of out of the house, Captain Science and Tank started homeschool soccer league this week! Tank is with the 4s, so he’s there with Gretchen’s youngest son Gus, and Captain Science is in 8-9 Boys with her oldest son, Ari. Sadly, my kids aren’t with either of Patchfire’s soccer-aged kids, but since our middle children’s “fields” are right next to each other, Babypie and Purple Child can play together while we watch the little boys. Tank threw himself into soccer headlong and loved every minute. Captain S is always the “watch and adjust” kid; I caught him on the sideline in the shade, socks and shoes off, where he complained, “I didn’t realize the shin guards would be uncomfortable.” I told him to put his gear back on and get out there to play, which he did. He was on goal initially, but asked if he could have a shot at playing forward! Once he started playing, he really tried hard. His team played the 11 year old girl team — they apparently like to play boys against older girls, as the same-age girls are often a little less competitive. It was a tie: nothing to nothing. Both boys are looking forward to next week’s game.

I bought Tank a bunch of stuff from the Target dollar spot this week, including dry erase print and cursive letter tracing. Today, he surprised me by sitting down and tracing all the cursive letters. He did a beautiful job! He also finished his robot with Daddyman this week, did a little bit of workbook work, and started his new favorite activity, stamping. He used letter stamps to sound out and spell names. We sounded out words that started with A, D, and J, then stamped them. He then dumped an entire container of fine glitter on his paper, which means we now have a layer of glitter over everything in the house. It looks like a fairy was sucked up into the air conditioner outside and spewed into the house.

Babypie’s new accomplishments this week are an annoying tongue clicking noise (she learned from Tank, of course) and the words “dressed” and “cold.”

This weekend, we’re going to the Love the Lake festival in Acworth, probably both days, and next week, we’re off to Biltmore for their homeschool days. Let me know if any of you will be there!

I think we’ve finally found our pace for the year. Watch, I’ll say that and next week will end up completely bunk.

Captain Science finally got started with Grammar Voyage and is making fast work of it. He took the pretest for the book and made 100%. If I had any doubts about Michael Clay Thompson’s ability to teach materials in a way designed for retention, those doubts are put to rest. He read pages 3-45 in Grammar Voyage this week. He also took the pretest for World of Poetry, and got 7 of the 15 correct — not bad, as I’m pretty sure some of those terms weren’t in Building Poems. He also started reading The Black Stallion and watched the 1970s movie version of The Secret Garden for a little comparative media experience.

In history, he read pages 22-57 in Eyewitness: Ancient China and wrote a beautiful piece on the ancient Chinese irrigation device. He wrote a first draft on Tuesday and rewrote it on Wednesday. He’s showing good progress with essay writing, which makes me very hopeful about a good beginning with Essay Voyage in a few weeks. We’re wrapping up China next week and beginning ancient South and Central America.

Captain Science finished lessons 8-11 in Life of Fred: Beginning Algebra, including the cities of San Francisco, Gainesville, Palmer, and Racine, and a “Your Turn to Play.” He is doing great with negative numbers and beginning multiplying with variables. At his Math Olympiad meeting, he worked on probability. Captain Science likes to play the odds of situations, so that’s right up his alley.

In PLATO science, Captain S completed the Plate Tectonics packet, the pretests, and the mastery test. He did a second pass of the application of that unit, as well, because he missed a few important questions on his pretest. He did very well on the mastery test and, today, started working on mapping. He finished the main video, but didn’t get through the application, so we might log in and do that in the morning.

Finally, he completed another unit of KidCoder computer programming. He’s running into his first real challenges, however, so he and Officer Daddyman are going to sit down this weekend and go back over the lesson to make sure he’s got all the right foundations to continue.

Tank also had a busy week. He worked on the numbers 6-10, including tracing and writing the numbers, counting objects, and matching items to numbers. He also continued working on his letters, doing a second pass with A a and starting B b. He did workbook pages on circles and rectangles, did some tracing and cutting work, and together, he and Officer Daddyman made a robot using various shapes Tank drew and then cut out. They will be pasting them onto a colored background, so I’ll get a picture then.

Babypie mostly worked on screeching, which she’s mastering, and on slapping the dog, which we’re trying to stop.

Captain Science is motoring through some stuff!

This week, he completed the second unit of his PLATO Earth Science, watching the main video, doing the application activity, finishing the 7-page packet, taking the practice tests (and getting 100% on them), and then passing the unit test w/ a 90% (27 out of 30 correct). He started the third unit today and completed the video and the application activity.

Math is coming along nicely. Captain Science completed lessons 4-7 of Life of Fred: Beginning Algebra/Fred’s Home Companion, including the first set of cities (which this book has instead of the bridges in the previous books). He got all the problems in Adin and Elberfield correct! He’s also enjoying the Math Olympiad meetings, though he hasn’t completed the homework for next week’s meeting yet.

This week in history, he read about the first emperor of ancient China and about civil service careers in ancient China. He wrote his first history summary of the year, choosing to write about the civil service exams, their importance, and the risks of cheating. A valuable lesson, if there there was one. He wrote a first draft and a final draft.

In computer programming, he started his first actual piece of programming, a very simple application that pops up the text “hello, world!” He also reviewed the previous chapter and did a short test on those chapters.

I think he has finally finished The Secret Garden. He’s dragging it out, possibly because I also gave him It’s Perfectly Normal his week, a book on human development/puberty/sex ed. He’s alternating between the two and, as long as I don’t bring up puberty, seems perfectly comfortable learning about it. If I so much as say “hair under your arms,” he gets mad at me and says, “Can we change the subject?”

Tank also had a good week. He’s working on tracing, which is as much an exercise for his patience as for his hand. He worked on tracing shapes, identifying and writing the numbers 1-5, tracing big A and little a, and identifying words that start w/ an “a” sound. He finished a few pages in his workbooks on matching and comparing, as well. We’re hoping his friend Dimhibbins* will be joining us soon, perhaps as early as next week, for some additional pre-K fun!

Babypie’s big thing this week has been working out a nice balance of smacking and biting with Badge the beagle. She slaps him, he gently bites her, I intervene and fuss at both of them, they both look chastened, and as soon as I walk away, she’s smacking him and he’s nipping her. Honestly, since neither one is crying about it, I suspect this might be how they play. Puppy pals, maybe?

Today, we wrapped up our day with a “surprise” field trip to Fernbank to meet up with some friends and go back through the gecko and Sensing Nature exhibits more carefully, now that most of the public schools are back in session. Much less crowded! We blew some great bubbles, played with the sound exhibit (where I was faux-chided by my friend’s husband for saying “the magic of science,” because he says that’s the very thing I rant about on my blog), and looked at a backlit gecko’s internal organs through its translucent belly. All three of my kid came home with small plastic geckos (which only cost $.93 a piece before my 10% membership discount).

Anyway, that’s our week in review. Our Michael Clay Thompson stuff came today, so we can jump right back into that come Monday!

This has been a great week for working on projects and getting things done.

Our Life of Fred: Beginning Algebra and Home Companion books finally arrived. Captain Science completed lessons 1-3 in Home Companion. He also had his first Math Olympiad team meeting last night. I’m not exactly sure what he worked on or how well he did, but he enjoyed it, and enjoying math is a goal that all parents should want their parents to achieve! We’ll go weekly on Thursday, 6:30-7:30, which makes Thursdays a busy day for us!

Captain Science is still working on his Pantheon Project, writing the blurbs for the cards. We’re waiting on our next MCT curriculum to get here, so this is a good opportunity for him to focus on a little writing. He’s completed the work on the Greek pantheon cards and will go ahead and do the Roman pantheon next. Speaking of Rome, he also finished all the flash cards for Cesar’s English I, which we should have been doing this whole time, I realize now. It really cements the words in his memory. We’ll continue with the flash cards for the remainder of the book and with Cesar’s English II.

Computer programming began this week, too. It was mainly vocabulary and history of computers, but a nice foundation on which to build. We’ll be setting aside a two hour block every Thursday for Captain S to work on it. The final project of this semester is to program a game of Pong!

We’re finished the first unit in our PLATO Earth Science course. Captain Science passed the skill mastery test with 96%. He started the second unit today. We’re working on science four days a week, M/T/W/F.

Captain Science has almost finished reading The Secret Garden. It’s a nice change of pace from Where the Red Fern Grows, what with no dogs dying. He was excited to recognize one of the sentences from the first chapter, which has been used in Cesar’s English I as an example sentence! So far, not a peep of argument about the assigned reading, though. I think we’ll start The Black Stallion next week.

Tank got two new giant workbooks from Nana, who picked them up at Costco. He happily worked on them Monday through Wednesday, then declared yesterday that he was too tired to work on anything but drawing (which he did, quietly, in his room) and flat out refused to do anything but watch Go, Diego, Go with our brand new DOG!!!!! this morning. Last week, Tank and I discussed that if he were going to school at his old preschool, he’d only be going four days a week anyway, so anything he does on Fridays schoolwork-wise is lagniappe, anyway. On Monday, I think we’re going to do some more time-telling work, since he’s enjoying that and has grasped the concept of the small hand telling the hour.