Week 26

Hello to all reading the blog this week!  This is Sarah back from a blog writing vacation.  I’ve actually been doing a multimedia workshop at the Telling room these past four weeks.  Go to the Telling room web site to see and hear our pieces!

This week in Life skills math we rolled for our scenarios.  This week, my scenario is that when I was at a club dancing, a big time producer saw me and asked me to make a two minute choreographed dance routine.  I could be famous!  (Metaphorically speaking)

In Ethics, we left Socrates and started learning about Aristotle.  He was one of Plato’s students after Socrates died.  He was the one that taught Alexander the Great, which was very fascinating to me.

In Logic we learned about consistency, necessary truths and contingency statements.  I know, it seems confusing, but once you learn the basics, it doesn’t fry your brain like an egg.

In History we finished our Assyrian mosaics and focused our attention on the rise and fall of New Babylonia, which we stitched into our maps which are coming out fantastically if you were wondering.

In Science our teacher found what she was looking for.  Whitchetty bugs.  Ha!  Fooled you!  We really didn’t eat them!  (We were very very pleased she didn’t find a supplier)  What we did was have eggs, shredded cheddar cheese, Filo dough in the oven.  Not one of us wanted to eat any but she persisted.  She said there was one secret ingredient in the mixture and we freaked, although they were particularly tasty.  Turned out, no secret ingredient.  She did that just to scare us a little, and said that’s what a cooked Whitchetty grub would taste like.  God knows what a raw one would taste like!  Yuck!  We also drew the larval stages of butterflies and moths.

In Grammar we learned about identifying and diagramming object complements.  Again, I know it seems like a lot to cram into your brain, but it’s very simple.  Here is an example.  I’ll help you.  The town appointed four people Selectmen.  First is the subject which is town.  The verb is appointed. The describes town and four describes people.  People is the direct object.  But we have Selectmen left.  The rule for an object complement is that if it follows the direct object and re-describes it, it’s an object complement.  So Selectmen is the object complement.  It might hurt your brain, but take it from me, my brain doesn’t hurt as I’m writing this.

In Spelling we have a change of plans.  Instead of studying the really boring long words (Sorry Jen) we’re doing prefixes.  Pretty simple you think, but think harder.  There are thousands  of prefixes that I can’t even tell you how many!  But we only learn the ones we’ll see around a lot.

In Reading Comp we left Homer and are now reading Prometheus Bound by Aechylus, but first, we’re reading about Greek tragedy, comedy, and Satyr plays and how they were performed and all kinds of other interesting things.  I know, seems boring to you reading this, but if you read the book we’re reading, you’ll be amazed.

I’m writing the blog from the Telling room and we have Co-op tomorrow and the new classes starting.  I’m in homemade cosmetics, my writer’s guild, and Greek drama (Coincidence?).  And Friday I’m back at Grapheteria working on framing and pictures with Jim and Lisa.  If you want a perfectly framed picture or a newly fixed copied photo, I recommend the best.  I hope to see you all back next week!  (Maybe I can convince Sophie to do the blog next week.)

Week 25

It's been a gorgeous week of unseasonably warm weather here. I think we can all agree that we're experiencing a bit of Spring Fever. Unfortunately, some illness kept us out of school on Wednesday, so it felt like a very short week. However, we did manage to get some work done. Two of the students have the State competition of Odyssey of the Mind on Saturday, and much of the time out of school has been spent preparing. Wish us luck! What we covered this week:
1. We had a fortunate convergence between Life Skills Math and Independent Math. Students have been working on the relationships between decimals, fractions, and percentages at their own pace in their Independent workshop. They also had to apply this knowledge to several "situations" presented to them in Life Skills. It's a great remedy to that age-old question "When are we ever going to use THIS?"
2. In Ethics, we read Aristophanes' The Clouds. Actually, we acted it out, and the kids loved it. For those of you unfamiliar with the play, Aristophanes was known as the father of Greek comedy. He also happened to be quite jealous and bitter about the fan-fare surrounding Socrates at the time. As the city of Athens considered their case against Socrates (and his eventual death sentence), they began one of the world's first nasty PR campaigns. They hired Aristophanes to write The Clouds, which is an absolutely hilarious satire of Socrates, his followers, and his school. Because it is chock-full of scatological humor and absurdities, the common folk of Athens LOVED it. And, of course, who wouldn't like to see such pomposity cut down a bit. Our students were thrilled to find that Greek Theater, which is so often considered pedantic, utilizes the same humor seen in movies like "Dumb and Dumber". Humans have not changed much...
3. In Latin, we completed another chapter translation of The Life and Times of Cornelia. The plot thickens as we now suspect that Cornelia's mother is responsible for poisoning members of the farming community!
4. In History, we studied the demise of Old Babylon and the rise of the Assyrians. Because this point in history gives rise to so many nations [Hittites, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Akkadians, Elamites, Amorites, etc.], we've found that using our map and acting out the battles, the expansions, and the defeats that take place between these rising empires helps the students visualize the political motivations behind each nation's decisions. Once again, we're learning that humans have not changed an awful lot...
5. In Science, we started a 10 week unit on Arthropods, specifically Insects and Arachnids. I'm using the subject of entomophagy (the eating of insects) as a jumping off point. This week we focused on the Witchetty Grub of Australia as a model for studying the insect larval phase. I'd love to find some samples to taste, if anyone out there happens to have a supplier...
6. We missed school on Wednesday, so we're behind on our C-Day classes [Grammar, Reading Comprehension, Spelling, Word Derivation, and Writing], but we'll make it up somehow.
7. Co-op was on Thursday. For those students in Odyssey of the Mind, it was a full day of practice. My non-Odyssey student, Sarah, spent the day in Writer's Guild, Small Animal Dissection, and Digital Photography.
8. Today is Internship. Abe's is at the veterinary office; Sophie is at the day care; Sarah is beginning her internship at the Salt Institute in Portland (a very prestigious placement, if you ask me).

That was it. Next week is supposed to be colder, so perhaps it'll be easier to buckle down.

Weeks 24 and 25

Hi, this is Able again. I'm sorry we missed blogging last week. Mommy didn't get to it and we had company. Last week I did three more chapters in Independent Math. Decimals are so much easier than fractions. In Ethics, we acted out a play from Plato's Apology about Socrates' trial. In Science we had a murder mystery. We found 8 slipper shells with holes in them and a clam shell with a hole in it. But they died from suffocating first. We had to figure out who killed them. And the killer left behind an egg case that was a clue. We found out that a guy named Maury Moon Snail did the crime. He strangled them and then punched a hole in the shells. He spit poison into the shell to make the bodies liquidy and then sucked them out.

In History, we learned about the Hittite empire and their discovery of iron and how they were finally destroyed by the Mycenaeans. We went to the Telling Room on Wednesday for writing, and we had Co-op on Thursday. We only have two more weeks before our Odyssey of the Mind competition. We're very nervous. And we're very behind. On Friday I went to Internship and we removed a tumor from a dog. I learned the difference between malignant and benign and how to use an autoclave for sterilizing.

This week I did three more chapters in Independent Math. I am on Chapter 6 now, and I am learning how to use "pi" when trying to find the circumference of a circle. We had Ethics and we acted out Plato's Phaedo which is about Socrates' death. I was Simmeas who is sort of the dumb person. We continued practicing our truth tables in Logic. In Latin we practiced how to put the right endings on masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns. We learned how to make them plural. In History we learned about Old Babylon and how it got powerful and then was sacked by the Hittites. We got to argue about the laws of Hammurabi. In Science we did the anatomy of the Mollusk and had to draw them in our lab books. We finished reading the Odyssey and then we had to diagram some wicked hard sentences. Now we are at the Telling Room again and I'm writing this blog. Tomorrow we are going to Co-op and then Internship on Friday. I think we are removing another tumor from a dog, but it is a different dog. I think the tumor is benign and just has liquid in it. Cytology is when you study the stuff inside a tumor to see if it is benign or malignant.

Week 23

Hi, this is Able. This week in Life of Fred, I passed the Final Bridge in the Fractions book, and now I am on the Decimals book. In Latin we did our flash cards and the 4th Cornelia translation. I think the farmer in Cornelia is guilty in helping the cousin kill Cornelia's father. There is a person under the barn floor in the story, but we don't know who it is yet. I think it is Cornelia's cousin. In Ethics we learned about a guy named Socrates. He was really annoying, but he was a really good teacher. He only taught by asking questions. Our teacher used his way of teaching to teach us binary arithmetic.

We got to make our objects in Mycenaean style in History. Sarah made a chariot; Sophie made a fork; I made a dagger. The Mycenaeans took over Crete from the Minoans. We also stitched Ancient Greece in our maps. I haven't finished all of the tiny islands in Greece yet. We also learned the life cycle of salmon in Science. We drew it in our lab books and sang the salmon life cycle song.

Today we had our spelling test on cooking words. Our new words and derivatives are on education. We read the Odyssey and we got to the chapters on Princess Nauticca. In Grammar we learned how to diagram compound sentences. We also did writing at the Telling Room in Portland. Our Co-op was cancelled because of the snow. Mommy is panicking about our Odyssey of the Mind team getting all our work done by competition. I spent all day Thursday working on my O.M. hat and costume and balsa structure. I have my internship on Friday. I love my internship. I cannot wait for next week. Mommy told me to say that. We only have 13 more weeks of school.