Education Update for Sept 21-25

Find of the Week

Independent Reading Management Kit: Literary Elements

I know, I know with a name like this you are all running out to buy this exciting book!   What this book lacks in title, it more than makes up for in usefulness.  It is written for the public school teacher who needs to addresss multiple levels of abilities while helping students learn to work independently therefore making it is perfect for a homeschooling mom teaching multiple children-each with different ablilities and levels of independence.   This book is not written to analyze any one book, but rather is full of ideas for projects that will help students learn to think about literary elements.   The projects cover many different styles of learning.  Students could decorate a CD cover to show the theme of a story, fracture a story to work with point of view, make a flip book with a character's personality traits, scrapbook the story's plot, or write a friendly letter from the viewpoint of a character making sure to describe the setting.   This is a resource that makes literary analyze easy for the busy mom and keeps things fresh for the students.  

History--Final test for geography--everyone did really well with A's all around.   I was pleasantly surprised--my kids are not used  to taking test except for math tests.  Our geography test have been all over the place.   Throughout the year test scores varied from 54% to 100%.    So, I think in addition to learning geography, test taking skills were also improved.    We started our study of ancient history.   The rest of my history books came, and I'm so EXCITED!!!!   This week I'll have time to look through everything and plan out the next couple of weeks.  Happy, happy!

Math--Finally found the CD-Roms for Teaching Textbooks.   E had put them away somewhere safe while we waited for our new computer.   They were certainly safe---safely hidden away until E found them while cleaning his room!   I am very happy to have the lessons taught by someone else again.   Lessons 44-46 completed.   Primary Mathmatics --lessons 31-35.   One more lesson to complete before we move on to level 4.   Math time has been moved to first thing(after scripture time).   I am hoping this will speed things up for E who has a hard time concentrating.

Language Arts---Spelling--E-R and I-E lessons 12-16.   Still not getting to it with E and A-M.   Going to start completing it with E alone.    Shurley English--Chapter 10 and Chapter 11 lesson 1 completed.   I am using Shurley to teach the classic 5 paragraph essay.   Completed our rough drafts and will work on revising and editing this coming week.    Lit continues with The Mouse and The Motorcycle and The Golden Goblet.   E continues to work on his compare and contrast essay.   This week he worked on adding more complex and compound sentences.   We also had a discussion about stingyness with writing.   I'm sure that is a concept usually taught, but this kid is so stingy with the written word!   I'm just trying to get him to give a little more!  E finished chapter 2 in Painless Vocabulary.  

Science---We didn't get to it!    Looking for something to replace earth science for E-R and I-E.   I need something with more direction for me.  

Spanish--going well.  E-R usually works on it before we start school in the morning.  

French--Well, Bruno is gone!   E chose Bruno for his French name.   This week he decided he would like to use his name with a French pronouncation which is really funny, because pronounced the french way, his name is his first intial and our last name in English.   He completed lessons 10 and 11 and worked with Rosetta Stone.

A-M had a full week and struggled to fit everything in.   She is glad that tomorrow is a day off and will be able to catch up on her homework.   We attended a debate at Foothill this week.   It was very well done and thought provoking.   On Saturday she attended a workshop sponsored by the local speech and debate league.   She got to see all of the state champions perform and learn about all of the areas available to perform in speech and debate.

N also had a full week.   He is finding it necessary to step up his study time for his Japanese class.  He is getting together with a study group tomorrow on his day off.   I'm very much impressed.   He is continueing to work on  his English class.   Leadership has improved so much from last year, and N is very excited about the improvements.   He is in charge of coming up with a theme for a fun night for November. Fun night is a two or three hour activity just for fun at the school in which all students are invited to particapate.   Any suggestions?

So goes the days of my life!