We arrived back from our month in Australia at the beginning of October. Em was sick for the last few weeks in Oz and then I got sick when we got back. So the first 2 weeks of Oct I spent recovering from a nasty cough. School happened when it could. It brought to mind an interesting concept. Homeschool parents and sick days.
Math - Tom continues to work through Algebra 1 No Nonsense math with his dad. It is going OK but not keeping a pace I would like. But a very positive thing that came out of it was that Tom decided to take notes of all of the chapter he was working on before taking the end of chapter quiz. Last night he reviewed the notes. I think I will watch the videos with him before taking the quiz too. It seems like a bit much for just a chapter quiz but he is learning study skills which is priceless.
Em - Em finished her Horse Lovers math curriculum while we were in Oz and she is now back into Beast Academy. She is in chapter 2 and I would like to speed it up so we finish by the end of the year (there are 12 chapters) but with all of the other learning / field trips we are taking we might just keep plodding along for now.
Science - Tom is continuing his Herpetology curriculum and I used it to teach note taking which we do for most chapters. He is up to chapter 17 out of 24 (?). Since we completed most of the labs and field work already for the whole book, he can move along at a reasonable pace. My goal is to finish it by the end of December. Then he will have a capstone project next semester to create a presentation about his herpetology related experiences this past year. I look forward to seeing what he creates. See writing (below) for another frog related project. Tom is also doing Time 4 Learning Nature of Science and I would love for that to be done by the end of the calendar year too.
Em - Em continues to slowly plod along in her Time 4 Learning science program - it is not particularly exciting or engaging but it presents the basic info. We have done so much science in the past (hands-on kits, 4H cats, vet science etc that I am OK not doing a lab portion right now. She is in a girls STEAM co-op and they get together twice per month and do a while range of activities. I will be leading Vet Science and Animal Science in April.
Language arts Tom - Tom is getting closer to finishing Time 4 Learning LA 8. When it is done (hopefully end of December) he will start One Year Adventure Novel. It has video based lessons with a workbook, some online webinars, parent guide and a novel. The "novel" the kids create can be entered in a competition but unfortunately it needs to be 1st person and Tom is working on a 3rd person novel. So we will used the course as a learning guide but will not be following the instructions exactly for the novel (the output for the year).
Em - Em finished a condensed version of All About Reading 3. I want to start AAR 4 but haven't purchased it yet. She continues to work on Time 4 Learning LA 4. Like BA Math it is just my goal to stay on track enough to finish by the time the next school year starts (end of August 2020).
Writing - Tom - Tom continues to write his Zandor story and it is 60,000 words not. He finished the first draft of Part 2 and is working on Part 3. Lots of adventured=s happen in this part so it will take months to finish. His book is a 4 part book with parts of 3 written and 4 is not started. I am super proud of him for his dedication to this writing project. It is phenomenal. We write together on Goggle docs (meaning he writes, I watch and make suggestions) but he has truly moved on to Faltering Ownership level of writing. Last night he asked me to write a sentence for him they literally pushed me out of the way to take over so his creativeness could flow onto the page - Payday for me.
This semester (Aug - Dec) Tom's non-fiction writing project is a "watershed proposal." It was a project run by a water district to get kids to solve real world problems in the local watershed. It was a competition for real money for the kids to put there plan into place. The competition is over but we are using it as a tool for learning how to write proposals about a topic of interest. Tom chose to educate others about the frogs in a nearby pond and is writing a proposal to add signs education people about the litter in the pond. We visited and did a bunch of scientific measurements on the water quality, did a pond clean-up, measured distance to the closest development, etc. He is only about 10% done with the proposal itself but the leg work is all done.
Em - It is time to put an new emphasis on writing for Em. She recently switched (her choice) from 4 sentences a day (1 freewrite, 1 trace, 1 copy, 1 dictation) to just freewrite - although the option for the others still remains. It is progress but we still have a lot more work to do here. Since she is really into dragons right now, most sentences are about dragons. We haven't done enough jot it down lately but she does fine with that - creating stories or learning paragraphs. I want to get back into writing forms next semester (but thise will be jot it down). I believe wholeheartedly in the Bravewriter approach to teaching writing and I have seen it work for Tom. After T4L LA 4 Em is going to start Bravewriter curriculum and I am really looking forward to it. I did them with Tom and the approach takes years and lots of trust in the process but I am hoping for great results with Em too.
Extra curriculum activities - we put Swim Instructor Aide on hold for the fall as we roadschooled 2 of the 3 months. But I suspect that will continue in January. Travel has been the biggest extra curriculum activity - with all of the benefits that come with it (the need for practice patience, flexibility (everything from different beds, lack of familiarity with surroundings in different homes/hotels, boredom in a car all day driving, resilience, seeing different parts of the county and the globe, trying new things like foods in Australia, physical challenges like ropes courses and massive climbing structures, and of course new adventures like ATVs, zookeeper for a day, animal encounters at science centers, etc.
When we were at home we did our Minecraft Meetups and Nature Days whenever possible (although weather and sickness got in the way).
Em has been able to connect via FaceTime with friends and I am thrilled. I wanted to find a way for her to contact her friends while she is travelling and she hasn't really been ready before now for the style of conversation that happens remotely. Now she made it work and it has been great. Tom has done a lot of MC while interacting with his friends but this is not a new concept for him.
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