We continue to be in quarantine for the Covid pandemic and I am looking forward to a time when the kids can actively interact with their friends again. I made a change to our school schedule to bring a little predictability for the kids and so far so good (but it is early days yet).
We haven't done any travel, field trips, or anything exciting lately. The weather has been cold and we barely go outside. But it has given us time to focus on school.
Math
Tom - He has made progress in completing his algebra review from No Nonsense Math. I have decided to do School Yourself Algebra one day per week as a review when Tom is done with the current review. He has seven chapters left in his Geometry intro. He still complains about doing math but this week is at least finally getting to a good challenge level instead of too easy. I also got some new Math books - Power of 10 series and The Math Kit just to add variety. We will add those on days when curling up with a book sounds more appealing than solving math problems.
Em - Em completed chapter two of Beast Academy and she did great with difficult content (negative numbers with exponents).
Language Arts
Tom - He continues to work with his editing/writing coach and his novel is being improved daily. His Druidawn writing club for winter is drawing to a close and the Spring session will start next month. He is considering whether or not to do the online summer workshop.
Em - Em finished the first section (7 chapters) of LOE (Logic of English). She is doing well with the program and learning a lot. It is a really in-depth look at the rules of the English language. We will take a break from LOE for at least a few weeks before ordering section 2 (the next 7 chapters). I have ordered Sounding Out Sight words to supplement LOE. I also picked a writing curriculum for the next two years for Em. It has a grammar section with funny videos and a novel way to explain grammar. We will start that part next week. The writing portion is the bulk of the curriculum and we will start that in the Fall. Em also started 10 for 10 this week - writing a 10-word sentence per day for 10 days - a bit sporadic but going well so far. She has beautiful handwriting and her spelling has improved tremendously because of LOE.
Science
Tom - He has 1 week left of his 4-week online Ecology class. I supplemented it with 5 hands-on labs and they were the best part. He used M&Ms for 2 of the experiments (one on biomagnification and one on contaminants, did a data-analysis and graphing for 1 lab, and experimented with simulated oil spills for the other two). This is all part of his high school Biology credit. So far he has 12 weeks completed (8 conservation Biology and 4 Ecology). Tomorrow, he will dissect a fake (toy-like) salamander. He is in week 5 of his Herpetology 2 class through Athena's Academy.
Em - He continues her weekly vet class and they are learning about surgery and parasites. Last week she learned how to prepare the surgery site and how to correctly put on and take off gloves.
Other -
Tom
Fine Arts - He finished his photography classes (both composition and camera use) and his 6-week Photoshop class. His Fine Arts high school half-credit is complete.
Tech - He did module 2 of his programming course - learning Java for Minecraft. He is choosing a frog theme and so far has coded a sword and a "ghostly frog" to use within Minecraft.
Emily
Horse riding - She completed her sixth horse riding lesson at the indoor facility and decided she doesn't want to continue. I am glad she gave it a try and learned a lot about caring for a horse.
Social - She continues her weekly girl's chat club but misses her real-life friends.
Tech - Em did her first two screen-recorded gaming YouTube videos and learned the basics of Google Docs.
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