I've been delinquent in getting these blogs out. I apologize. These last few weeks have been quite hectic. We have two students who are testing in the local public school for assessment, and they have missed several classes because of it. We also have another student who underwent her portfolio review with the State, and I'm pleased to say that she passed with flying colors! So, technically, she has moved onto the seventh grade. Our co-op is wrapping up, and last Thursday we had our last classes. Next week is our final week in Gorham, and we'll spend the day sharing what each class has accomplished.
In short, we've continued to plug along in all of our classes. Spring fever has officially hit, and in anticipation of that, I scheduled most of our field trips for the last few weeks. We took the kids to two fish ladders to see the alewife migration. One of them, Damariscotta Mills, is the state's oldest and most productive alewife fishery. We also went to the Bowdoin College Museum of Art to see their antiquities exhibit. The kids all agreed that antiquities are more interesting when you can recognize the influences (mostly Greek) and you know the symbolism. As for other planned field trips, we are going to the Maine State Aquarium in Boothbay Harbor; we're going to try to get to the Science Museum in Boston; and we are attending the yearly "Homeschool Festival" in Bethel. We'll be tying up the loose ends in our classes, and lastly, we'll be cleaning up our space. Internships will continue to the bitter end, and I know of one student who will continue internship throughout the summer. It's safe to say that we're all looking forward to summer. The kids have worked so hard, and they deserve the break!
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Friday, May 4, 2012
Week 30
I think I can safely say that we are all feeling the effects of this wet and cloudy weather. Here at the school, the energy level has been low this past week for all of us. Our routine was further disrupted by the fact that two of our students are taking the NEWA tests at the local schools for end-of-the-year assessments. Nonetheless, we did make some headway in several of our subjects.
The students have been expressing boredom with the math that we have been covering: using percentage, fractions, and decimals interchangeably and within word problems. I decided to take a break from that topic this week and cover a math concept that is a personal favorite of mine: algebra. The students were less than thrilled, almost all of them claiming to "HATE algebra". I assured them that we would not be examining multi-variable problems, yet. We walked through several single variable problems using a "put all of your cows on this side of the fence and all of your people on this side" method, and they seemed to catch on fairly quickly. And you know what? By the end of the second math class, I think they would all agree that algebra is a puzzle. Not "puzzle" in the sense that it is unsolvable, but "puzzle" as in "this can actually be kind of fun".
In Logic, we continued with our new unit in Propositional Calculus which neatly coincided with our Ethical unit on Aristotle. Basically, we've moved from the categorical logic of Socrates and the Sophists and the logic of the ancient courts to the consequential logic of Aristotle and the scientific "revolution" of Classical Greece.
In Latin, we introduced new vocabulary and English derivatives. We are also continuing our noun declensions. Declensions are tough only in that they require rote memorization. Through our prior translations, the kids have come to recognize some of the endings in an intuitive way: possession, direct object, subject. The others will come only through practice. One neat crossover from Latin to our Reading Comprehension: We have been reading all of the Greek play-writes, and the students are quite comfortable with the Greek names of the gods. We are just starting to hear about the Roman pantheon through the poems of Virgil. It gets confusing, sometimes, keeping track of which Roman god is which Greek god. A very logical approach (and granted, not one that works all of the time), is translating the Greek to Latin. For example, Zeus, the father of the gods, translates to Latin as Zeus pater. If you say that really fast a few times, you'll see how the Romans adopted the name Jupiter from the translation.
In History, we are continuing our study of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. This week we focused on Akhenaten (formally Amenhotep), his wife Nefertiti, and the son King Tutankhamun (formally Tutankhaten). We also looked at why several pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom seemed to have a couple of names. Very simply, the Middle Kingdom was a period of religious unrest. As each pharaoh took power, they either sided with the classical belief of Amun as supreme god, or they sided with the new cult of the sun, Aten.
In Science, we continued our study of Arthropods, class Insecta, specifically grasshoppers and locusts, with a dissection. We got these really HUGE grasshoppers online, and they were perfect for seeing the internal organs. In fact, one of them had a cache of un-laid eggs attached to the ovary!
On Wednesday, we had our weekly spelling quiz, and the students received a bunch of new prefix additions. They're picking the prefixes up very quickly. Many of them are similar or the same as the Latin, so they're easy to remember. In Grammar, we continued sentence parsing, focusing on identifying the types of pronoun in the sentence and the antecedents. We finished reading Sophocles' Oedipus Rex in Reading Comprehension, and we have moved on to Euripedes' Iphigenia in Aulis. Then, after lunch on Wednesday, we went to Portland to our writing workshop at The Telling Room.
Thursday was co-op day, and today our students are attending their internships. Another busy week!
The students have been expressing boredom with the math that we have been covering: using percentage, fractions, and decimals interchangeably and within word problems. I decided to take a break from that topic this week and cover a math concept that is a personal favorite of mine: algebra. The students were less than thrilled, almost all of them claiming to "HATE algebra". I assured them that we would not be examining multi-variable problems, yet. We walked through several single variable problems using a "put all of your cows on this side of the fence and all of your people on this side" method, and they seemed to catch on fairly quickly. And you know what? By the end of the second math class, I think they would all agree that algebra is a puzzle. Not "puzzle" in the sense that it is unsolvable, but "puzzle" as in "this can actually be kind of fun".
In Logic, we continued with our new unit in Propositional Calculus which neatly coincided with our Ethical unit on Aristotle. Basically, we've moved from the categorical logic of Socrates and the Sophists and the logic of the ancient courts to the consequential logic of Aristotle and the scientific "revolution" of Classical Greece.
In Latin, we introduced new vocabulary and English derivatives. We are also continuing our noun declensions. Declensions are tough only in that they require rote memorization. Through our prior translations, the kids have come to recognize some of the endings in an intuitive way: possession, direct object, subject. The others will come only through practice. One neat crossover from Latin to our Reading Comprehension: We have been reading all of the Greek play-writes, and the students are quite comfortable with the Greek names of the gods. We are just starting to hear about the Roman pantheon through the poems of Virgil. It gets confusing, sometimes, keeping track of which Roman god is which Greek god. A very logical approach (and granted, not one that works all of the time), is translating the Greek to Latin. For example, Zeus, the father of the gods, translates to Latin as Zeus pater. If you say that really fast a few times, you'll see how the Romans adopted the name Jupiter from the translation.
In History, we are continuing our study of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. This week we focused on Akhenaten (formally Amenhotep), his wife Nefertiti, and the son King Tutankhamun (formally Tutankhaten). We also looked at why several pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom seemed to have a couple of names. Very simply, the Middle Kingdom was a period of religious unrest. As each pharaoh took power, they either sided with the classical belief of Amun as supreme god, or they sided with the new cult of the sun, Aten.
In Science, we continued our study of Arthropods, class Insecta, specifically grasshoppers and locusts, with a dissection. We got these really HUGE grasshoppers online, and they were perfect for seeing the internal organs. In fact, one of them had a cache of un-laid eggs attached to the ovary!
On Wednesday, we had our weekly spelling quiz, and the students received a bunch of new prefix additions. They're picking the prefixes up very quickly. Many of them are similar or the same as the Latin, so they're easy to remember. In Grammar, we continued sentence parsing, focusing on identifying the types of pronoun in the sentence and the antecedents. We finished reading Sophocles' Oedipus Rex in Reading Comprehension, and we have moved on to Euripedes' Iphigenia in Aulis. Then, after lunch on Wednesday, we went to Portland to our writing workshop at The Telling Room.
Thursday was co-op day, and today our students are attending their internships. Another busy week!
Friday, April 27, 2012
Week 29
After a nice week long break, we are back at school. To get everybody warmed up we did some "easy" stuff. For example, we sat down and started right out on Ethics. You know, where you only have to think...a lot. We studied Aristotelian Ethics and ethics in the modern day. We compared Fatalism to Determinism. After that class, if you haven't already guessed, we were wide awake. Then we did Life Skills math and then jumped right into Latin. Now that class was...confusing. We started noun declensions. For those of you who don't know what that is, don't worry, I'll tell you. Noun declensions are endings that go on Latin nouns to tell the reader if the noun is a subject, direct object, predicate noun, direct noun or a indirect noun. Get it? Okay, of you don't then, sorry. For the rest of you, now you can act like you knew it all along. Then we did a new Cornelia. Now that was a different story. That part was interesting!
For whole other reason, this was the best week EVER!!!!!!!!....so far. That is because it was Rue's first week at school. Rue, is my four month old puppy! And she gets to come to school with us! I posted a picture of her at the end of the blog. Anyways, getting back to our day, we all had lunch, then we did math. Just to give you an idea of how much Rue enjoyed math, when we started trying to figure out the problems, Rue fell asleep. On Tuesday we did History, where we traveled to the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. We talked about Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Akhenaten, and his wife Nefertiti. Then we came back and had Science. We are moving onto crickets, grasshoppers, and locust. We read a bunch of books, and one of them was how people regularly eat grasshoppers. The book is called Man Eating Bugs. It shows a bunch of bugs people eat all around the world. Some of them are REALLY gross. And it comes with recipes. We learned that grasshoppers shed their skin like a snake about 5 or 6 times before they are adults. Each shed is called an "instar". When they grow wings, it means they are adults and stop shedding. The book also said that they lay 2-202 eggs. We all agreed that that was a big difference and not very helpful. Then after lunch we did math, again. And again Rue fell asleep. But not after she tried to eat my work. I guess she really doesn't like math.
And that brings us to today. We started out with Reading Comprehension and read half of the play Oedipus Rex. After that we did spelling, in which we did prefixes and some Latin derivitives. I have a question for you: do any of you know a word with the prefex "dendr-" meaning tree or bush? We could only come up with dendrology and rhododendron. Just leave your answer in the comment section if you know more. Then it was time to go to the Telling Room, where I am writing this. And then, we have co-op tomorrow and internships on Friday. I cannot wait(of course)! It is just so fun! But enough of that, I have to wrap this up. So...the end.
written by Sophie, (student)
Here is a picture of Rue! Isn't she so cute?
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Weeks 27 and 28
Due to the onslaught of both Easter and Passover last weekend, I wasn't able to get to the blog, so I'll be reporting out on two weeks here. In addition, this wraps up our last week of classes before April break! I think I can speak for everyone when I say that it's a much needed and much deserved rest.
We've been experiencing a few cases of interesting synchronicity across and within several of our classes. In History, we've just left the Greek Dark Age for the Egypt of the New Kingdom (18th, 19th, and 20th Dynasties). In Reading Comprehension, we finished Aristophanes' The Clouds and Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, and we've moved on to Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. We also happened to finish studying the Greek Theater in Ethics. Once we read Euripides, we've completed a work from each of the Greek play-writes.
In Ethics, we've left the Socratic and Platonic schools of thought, and we've moved onto Aristotle. Aristotle's more scientific approach to ethics branches into philosophy and a kind of applied logic called Propositional Calculus. The Sophists that we had been studying earlier in Ethics had used a basic form of logic that was easy to manipulate. They would use its manipulative nature to confuse and convince their audiences. In fact, the Sophists were the first "lawyers". My students, like Aristotle, had found basic logic frustrating. Now, knowing Aristotles' inclinations (through Ethics) and his rationale for Propositional Calculus (from Logic), the students are actually experiencing the relief that come with being able to PROVE why an argument doesn't "feel right".
Another example of "worlds colliding" occurred between our History/Reading Comprehension/Ethics classes. In history, we've been watching how various empires are fighting for boundaries: the Hittites, Hyksos, Egyptians, Assyrians, etc. We've seen references to these groups of people in the Greek plays that we've read. We're now able to answer questions like: Why was it so important for Oedipus to answer the riddle of the Sphinx?; what did this 'challenge' symbolize, historically?; what was Aristophanes' satirical criticism of Socrates based on?; weren't Aristophanes' frustrations due to the fact that he was applying Aristotle's logic to Socrates' arguments?
Lastly, we've continued our study of entomophagy as a jumping-off point for Science. We're moving into grasshoppers/locusts/crickets. In addition to their basic anatomy, we will be studying the various cultures who routinely eat them. It just so happens that we'll be starting our reading of the New Testament soon, and I'll be sure to point out that John the Baptist's "bread" that he ate during his stay in the desert was locust. And, we'll have to re-read our Old Testament passages that mention potential grasshopper sightings: Leviticus 11:22 specifically allows the eating of locust, grasshopper, and katydid. In addition, I'd like to suggest the possibility that the "manna" from heaven that sustained the Jews in the desert could have been locust swarms.
As you can see, there are lots of connections lately. There is nothing more rewarding to hear your student say "Oh, hey, that TOTALLY makes sense because..."
We've been experiencing a few cases of interesting synchronicity across and within several of our classes. In History, we've just left the Greek Dark Age for the Egypt of the New Kingdom (18th, 19th, and 20th Dynasties). In Reading Comprehension, we finished Aristophanes' The Clouds and Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, and we've moved on to Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. We also happened to finish studying the Greek Theater in Ethics. Once we read Euripides, we've completed a work from each of the Greek play-writes.
In Ethics, we've left the Socratic and Platonic schools of thought, and we've moved onto Aristotle. Aristotle's more scientific approach to ethics branches into philosophy and a kind of applied logic called Propositional Calculus. The Sophists that we had been studying earlier in Ethics had used a basic form of logic that was easy to manipulate. They would use its manipulative nature to confuse and convince their audiences. In fact, the Sophists were the first "lawyers". My students, like Aristotle, had found basic logic frustrating. Now, knowing Aristotles' inclinations (through Ethics) and his rationale for Propositional Calculus (from Logic), the students are actually experiencing the relief that come with being able to PROVE why an argument doesn't "feel right".
Another example of "worlds colliding" occurred between our History/Reading Comprehension/Ethics classes. In history, we've been watching how various empires are fighting for boundaries: the Hittites, Hyksos, Egyptians, Assyrians, etc. We've seen references to these groups of people in the Greek plays that we've read. We're now able to answer questions like: Why was it so important for Oedipus to answer the riddle of the Sphinx?; what did this 'challenge' symbolize, historically?; what was Aristophanes' satirical criticism of Socrates based on?; weren't Aristophanes' frustrations due to the fact that he was applying Aristotle's logic to Socrates' arguments?
Lastly, we've continued our study of entomophagy as a jumping-off point for Science. We're moving into grasshoppers/locusts/crickets. In addition to their basic anatomy, we will be studying the various cultures who routinely eat them. It just so happens that we'll be starting our reading of the New Testament soon, and I'll be sure to point out that John the Baptist's "bread" that he ate during his stay in the desert was locust. And, we'll have to re-read our Old Testament passages that mention potential grasshopper sightings: Leviticus 11:22 specifically allows the eating of locust, grasshopper, and katydid. In addition, I'd like to suggest the possibility that the "manna" from heaven that sustained the Jews in the desert could have been locust swarms.
As you can see, there are lots of connections lately. There is nothing more rewarding to hear your student say "Oh, hey, that TOTALLY makes sense because..."
Friday, March 30, 2012
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.)
Friday, March 23, 2012
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.
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.
Friday, March 16, 2012
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.
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.
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