Yay, a new year brings new adventures. I am looking forward to learning with the kids in 2021.
I am excited about planning for High School for Tom. Being homeschoolers in our state, I get to determine what constitutes a High School education. I determine grades, topics, diploma, etc. I have done a ton of research over the past couple of years and I am using a combo of guidelines - local school districts graduation requirements, state college acceptance suggestions, and 2 specific university requirements. Tom has done a lot of work for high school credit so far. A "credit" is a year worth of study (120 hours). He has completed 1 out of 4 English credits, 1 out of 4 science credits, and 1 out of 4 math credits. He is currently working on a 1/2 visual arts credit, 1 science credit, and 2 elective credits.
Math
Em - She finished chapter 1 of Beast Academy 5 and then took a few days off of regular math to focus on the upper times-tables. On a Beast Academy day, we do at least 1 lesson (if there is a video, story, and math problems for that lesson). Lately, we have been able to do more than 1 lesson per day (because there are sometimes no videos or stories for a particular chapter). We are working at a good pace so far and it is still my goal to finish by August. I have purchased the vet math book for after Beast Academy and it will be a great review of the basics. We also need to spend some time on measurements (especially liquid conversions from US to metric).
Tom - He continues to do one chapter per week of School Yourself Geometry. It is easy for him and a good intro to the basics of shapes, lines, etc. He has 9 lessons to go. He also continues to do 1 lesson of Algebra review per week. We will continue this pattern until the 150 question review is complete and the geometry intro is done.
Language Arts
Em - We still do the weekly rotation of topics for Language Arts. She is making progress on the Editor In Cheif workbook. She did lesson 4 of Logic Of English Essentials last week and this week we will do Brave Writer - Mr Popper's Penguins. We watched the movie last week and now we will do 5 days of lessons. I have decided to stop doing All About Spelling (at least for now) as LOE has a decent spelling portion. Em is reading well now (but still doesn't read for "fun"). We read together (page for page) 5 nights a week and she seems to enjoy the stories. Tom started reading for fun at age 11 so I am hopeful Em might too. I am waiting to start Power Homeschool Language Arts until LOE Part 1 (chapters 1-7) and the EIC book are done.
Tom - He has done 5 sessions with his writing coach and it is going well. He enjoys it and leaves the online session with lots of ideas for improvements in his book. He has the session on Tuesday, then we work on the suggestions on Wednesday. Thursday he has his Druidawn writing club and Friday we work on the suggestions from that (if any). The other days we work on improving his novel - often replacing unnecessary or weak words. I am super proud of how much effort he has put into his Zandor project. It has taken longer than I thought it would but it is definitely a lifelong learning experience.
Science
Tom - He continues with his Herpetology studies. We are getting closer to officially wrapping up his Herp 2 studies. I would love to be finished by summer. He is currently finishing Photography classes (see below) which were originally part of Herp Studies but I moved them to their own half-credit Fine Arts credit. I am also moving some of his biology (conservation biology and ecology classes) to a new credit ), Biology. He has enough other work for Herpetology. This week he dissected a snake. He does great with dissection and especially the follow-up microscope work.
Em - Her vet class did microscope work this week and Em liked making the fake blood slide - it was more interesting than expected. I am looking into making her next school year focussed around vet studies - vet math and vet science for becoming a veterinary assistant. My theory is if I use real books, lessons etc. designed for high school and beyond and just make them age-appropriate, she will be better prepared if she chooses to study vet medicine later in life. She got a Phlebotomy kit for Christmas and I hope to start the video lessons later this month.
Technology - as part of the kid's online weekly enrichment program, tech is a required course of study.
Em - Recently Em taught herself the software to design "skins" for video game characters. She had been posting them online and people can download them. This week her microscope work counted for her tech.
Tom - He completed a fantastic spreadsheet that he started last month. It is complex and programmed to pull data from a website and use it on his spreadsheets. He wrote up an instruction sheet and linked the spreadsheet on an online forum for all to use. Such a cool project.
Photography
Tom is almost done with his Photography/Video making high school half credit. He completed the DLSR camera class, is about an hour's work away from finishing his Documentary-making class project, and is about halfway through both his Photography Composition class and his Photoshop class. Then his half credit will be complete.
Horse Riding - Em had her 4th lesson at her new riding center. She is learning to fully tack, clean, and blanket the horse before and after the lesson. Her riding is improving and despite the freezing weather she is enjoying the lessons.
Classes -
Em - Currently, Em is taking a weekly online social club, vet class, dragon club, and horseriding.
Tom - Tom is taking photography composition, finishing up his documentary class, photoshop class, Druidawn writing club, writing coaching, and Minecraft club. The first 3 will end this month and he will start Herpetology 2 (10 weeks) and Ecology (4 weeks).
Poetry Tea Time - another successful Poetry Tea Time this week. Em is ready for a new Poetry book. Steve has been able to join us this past year since he works from home.
Comments