Week 20

We had another busy week here. New classes at our co-op began yesterday, and our students are taking Robotics, small animal dissection, the second part of the digital camera workshop, paper quilling, and continuations of Odyssesy of the Mind and Writer's Guild. During the school week, the most notable projects we completed were frog dissection labs and the completion of the Iliad. The kids were actually disappointed to end this reading, and we had a lot of fun comparing the real story to that portrayed in the movie Troy (the one with Brad Pitt).

I think, however, that the subject that elicited the most interest this week was Latin. I had mentioned in an earlier blog that we are supplementing our first year Latin with a primer published in 1933 called Cornelia. Like most first year language readers, Cornelia tends to be a bit insipid. As in the study of most new languages, students are introduced to new vocabulary, gender-ed words, and irregular verb tenses. In the case of Latin, nouns also require different suffixes depending on their role in the sentence. A complete Latin noun declension consists of seven grammatical cases: nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative and locative.

The nominative case marks the subject of a statement and performs the action of the verb. The vocative case is used to address someone or something in direct speech. The accusative case marks the direct object of a verb. The genitive case expresses possession, measurement, or source. The dative case marks the recipient of an action, the indirect object of a verb. The ablative case expresses separation, indirection, or the means by which an action is performed. Lastly, the locative case expresses the place where an action is performed. Dull, right? Well, multiply that by five (as there are five different forms of declension) and add your irregulars, your pronouns, and your peculiarities (yes, these are the technical terms), and you'll understand why Latin is a dead language. Why study it? I go into detail on that argument in the sidebar to the right, but the short version is that Latin is a great brain workout. It helps to strengthen grammatical understanding, it requires strict logic for successful translation, and it is the source language for all of the Romance languages.

In any case, Latin can be excruciatingly dull to learn, and most Latin primers worth their salt are fairly tedious. The primer Cornelia, in its original, is about a young girl who lives with her mother and siblings on a farm during the very beginning of what we now call the Dust Bowl. I can only surmise that the lack of explanation regarding the absent father, female cousin who lives with the family, and the jingoistic (one of this week's vocabulary words) tone of the narrative is due to the era in which this primer was written. Also, there are no pictures. That being said, the students at Pownal Independent and I are rewriting our Cornelia primer. I can't give too many details for fear of spoiling the ending, however I will state that Cornelia's squatting cousin is not to be trusted. And that absent father? Well, he might turn up, literally, in the back field like some nightmare Mildenhall treasure. Here's a teaser:
Puella pulchra est Cornelia. Estne haec alta puella soror Corneliae?
Haec puella est discipula. Haec puella non est soror Corneliae sed hic puer est frater Corneliae...Fama Americae est magna. Vitae Americae sunt longae. America est patria Corneliae. Corneliae vita erit longa. Cornelia Americam amat. Mater Corneliae Americam amat. Frater quoque Corneliae Americam amat. Haec femina est Corneliaem matruelem. Sed haec femina Americam non amat.

Haec femina nihil amat. Eritne haec feminae vita longa? Non ita.
[Translation: The small girl is Cornelia. Is this tall girl Cornelia's sister? This girl is a student. This girl is not Cornelia's sister, but this boy is Cornelia's brother...The wealth in America is great. American lives are long. America is Cornelia's country. Cornelia will have a long life. Cornelia loves America. Cornelia's mother loves America. Cornelia's brother also loves America. This woman is Cornelia's cousin. But this woman does not love America. This woman loves nothing. Will this woman have a long life? It is not so.] Riveting, right? Well the kids thought so. And they can't wait to see what happens next which I guess is the best I could hope for when studying Latin.

A Little Bit About the Rest of Our Week

Jen and the kids do such a great job telling you all about the "classroom" work that they do each week that I wanted to get in on the action too. I thought it would be interesting and fun to let you know some of the other things we do when we are not at school.
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON'S
On Wednesday's from 1:30-4:30 the kids go to The Telling Room in Portland. The Telling Room is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping kids (and adults) find their inner writers. They offer many workshops and programs at no charge. Every Wednesday they open their space to young adults to come and write. There are volunteers there to help with ideas, critique work and offer inspiration and encouragement.
THURSDAY'S
Every Thursday we carpool to Gorham to participate in the classes that are offered by the co-op that we belong to. The name of the co-op is Earthschool and there are approximately 85 families and over 150 children ranging in age from 4-18. The classes are taught by the volunteer parents and some are even taught by the kids themselves. Our day begins at 10 a.m. with a one hour lunch break and recess/game/play time and ends at 3 p.m. Here is a sampling of the classes that our kids have participated in so far this year:

• Odyssey of the Mind
• Leggo Robotics
• Animee Art Class
• Digital Photography
• Drama
• Cooking
• Paper Quilling
• Journalism
• Writers Guild
• Dissection
• All kids have served on various planning committees

FRIDAY'S
Friday's are internship days. The purpose of our internship program was to give the kids an opportunity to "work" in a field that interested them. Each of them had to create a list of goals that they wanted to achieve during their internship, and while they are at their respective jobs they are required to keep a journal. In the journal they record what they have done that day, any challenges they encountered and what they learned that brought them closer to their goals.
Able chose to do his internship at Pownal Veterinary Hospital. While there Able is allowed to observe operations such as the removal of an ovarian cyst. He has witnessed the intubation process and has learned to identify various blood borne parasites. He is also able to participate in patient interviews and assist during all appointments. During the down time, Able helps with general office chores.
Sophie's internship is at Rise and Shine Child Care Center in New Gloucester. Sophie's interest is in early childhood development. She has been helping in both the infant room and the toddler room. To prepare she participated in a workshop and has had hands on instruction. She also participated in a recent open house. She helps with feeding, diaper changes and nurturing. One of her other duties is to record data on each child that she assists with.
Sophie is also involved with The Children's Theatre of Maine and will be performing with Youth Voices in the coming weeks. Youth Voices is a peer group that brings anti-bullying messages through role playing to local schools.
Sarah will be finishing up her first internship at the end of this month. She wanted to do her internship at Sable Oak Equestrian Center in Brunswick with Sherrye Trafton-Johnson. Sarah has been riding horses since she was 6 years old and wanted to learn more about training, natural horsemanship, breeding and barn management. She also helps out with school vacation camps and has regular barn chores. Starting in February she will be interning at The Grapheteria in Portland. She will be working with owner Jim Castonia learning about photography. Jim is a published photographer and talented artist. While there she will have the opportunity to work with The Salt Institute to learn about photo journalism and writing.
So, as you can see, we have a pretty full week with lots of variety. Either Jen or one of the kids will be back to update you next week. Until then you can check out some of the websites we like:

Wonderopolis , MIT Open Courseware , Saylor free online courses , In Praise of Homeschools , Virtual Dissection

Week 18

Hi this Able again. What happened to you guys? The answers are:
1. "Perissodactyl" is a hooved animal with an uneven amount of toes.
2. It comes from "perisus" which is Latin for "uneven".
3. "Pinniped" comes from two Latin words: "Pinnus" which means "fin" and "pes" which means foot. A pinniped is an animal from the water that uses its fins as feet on dry ground.
4. A symbiotic relationship is when two things depend on each other to live well.
5. Lichen is made up of algae and fungus.
6. Trojans: Paris, Hector, Priam Greeks: Achilles, Diomedes,Meneleus, Agammenon, Teucer, Ajax the Greater
7. Homer wrote those stories.
8. Homer is called Homer because that was what they called blind people in ancient Greece.
9. I tried to put the diagram on this blog but it came up in codes. So, I'll tell you what everything is: subjects are "class" and " teacher" combined by a conjunction; the verb is "are taking"; the prepositional phrase is "to beautiful Paris"; the object of the preposition is "Paris"; "trip" is direct object; adjectives are "our, French, the, a," and "beautiful".
10. Categorical ethics is when you believe that there are rules that can't be changed no matter what. If you believe that people should go to jail if they kill someone no matter what the situation is, that is categorical thinking. Consequential is when you think that not all situations should be handled the same way. If you think that most people should go to jail if they kill someone except in cases of self-defense or protecting a baby or something like that, then you are a consequential thinker. God in the Old Testament is definitely a categorical thinker. One example is when Moses tapped the rock twice instead of once (which was what God told him to do). God told him he would be punished by never getting to the Promised Land. There are a bunch of other examples, too.

That's all I have for today. Goodbye. Able Henry Kaplan

Week 17

Hi, this is Able. I'm happy to be back at school because I love the subjects, especially Life Skills Math and Reading Comprehension.

I got a C average on my mid terms. I want to work harder next time. This week we read the Iliad which is a really good story. It's as good as the Epic of Gilgamesh. This week we also went over our mid term tests to review what we got wrong. We also paid our monthly bills and worked on our projects in Life Skills Math. Our project is to make a presentation for a travel agency about Pownal. In the project, we have to make a model of a place in Pownal, and we have to pick 5 places in town to write about. We also got new words in Latin, and I won this week's Spelling and Derivation quiz.

I have a test for you. Here are 10 questions.
1. What does perissodactyl mean?
2. "Perissodactyl" is an English word. It is a derivation of which Latin word, and what does that Latin word mean?
3. What does pinniped mean? Which Latin word and meaning is it derived from?
4. What is a symbiotic relationship?
5. What symbiotic relationship creates lichen?
6. Name 3 Trojans and 6 Greeks from the Iliad.
7. Who wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey?
8. Homer's real name was Melesigines. Why was he called Homer?
9. Diagram this sentence: Our French class and the teacher are taking a trip to beautiful Paris.
10. What is the difference between catagorical and consequential ethics? Was the God of the Old Testament a catagorical or consequential moralist?

Next week we'll pick the top 10 winners to play again. The week after that, we'll pick 3 winners. The last week, we'll pick the final winner. The final winner gets to visit our school! In next week's blog, I will answer these questions. Comment your answers below. By the way, I love China. Goodbye. From Able Henry Kaplan