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.

Week 22

Well, we're slowly getting back into the rhythm of the school day. Our two weeks off were greatly enjoyed and flew by. We began our week with a Logic Day--a quick way to warm up after time off. We began with a couple of hours of Life Skills Math and Independent Math combined. Students had to pay all of their February bills, and we have one student designing the floor plan of his newly up-graded home. Between you and me, I have my doubts he'll be able to afford the mortgage on his salary. He'll either need to interview for a new job or get rid of the second story game room/indoor swimming pool/boxing arena.

In addition to math, we introduced new Latin vocabulary, translations, and derivatives. Our translation this week centered on the Roman occupation of Britain and building of Hadrian's Wall. We finished our Logic Day with Ethics. We're starting a new unit of historical ethics, beginning with the Ethic of Reciprocity [a.k.a. The Golden Rule]. In an effort to underscore the gulf separating the Golden Rule theory from the Golden Rule in practice, we ran through the notorious thought experiment "The Prisoner's Dilemma". It took us seven tries to agree, as a group, on the most ethical solution despite KNOWING the ethical answer ahead of time. It proved to be a great example of how "group think" overshadows individual reasoning.

Other topics we covered this week:
--Examination of the rise, rule, and fall of the Minoan civilization. The kids finished stitching the island of Crete on their ancient civilizations "tapestry" they're each making. We also created examples of Minoan pottery using authentic pottery profiles and designs. We talked about the extensiveness of the Minoan trade route, and how trade with the Egyptians gave rise to the Minoan Linear A script [they copied Egyptian hieroglyphics in many ways], the grandfather to modern Greek characters.
--We studied the floor plan of the palace of Knossos on the island of Crete, the palace of the very wealthy and powerful legendary King Minos. Students made interesting observations regarding how much the floor plan resembled a labyrinth. In fact, they surmised, perhaps the legend of the Minotaur and King Minos' building of a labyrinth was based on how confusing the palace and surrounding marketplace felt to commoners. Above all, we learned that myths and fables do not arise from a vacuum; that all stories have a basis in reality, and it is our job to untangle these legends from history.
--There was some grumbling about getting back to Grammar this week, but I thought they did well recalling prepositional phrases as adjectivals, adverbials, direct or indirect objects. We also warmed up by diagramming sentences with compound parts.
--We continued our reading of the Odyssey, discussing how many classics have been written about the heroes of the Trojan War: Virgil's Aeneid, Ovid's Metamorphoses, Joyce's Ulysses.
--We continued our unit on fresh and saltwater bony fish. We spent one whole morning dissecting a couple of 2 pound Striped Bass. Not all of the students enjoyed the experience, but I think we would all agree that it was informative. Students followed along with a dissection Power Point that explained the proper dissection procedure and helped us all locate the organs. The lesson concluded with anatomical drawings, both exterior and interior views, sketched into lab books.
--Students also received new spelling words for the week; we have a culinary theme this week. Students are so happy to have new spelling words after so many weeks without studying!

That was it for this week.

Week 21

Hello to all you Blog readers!  To reintroduce myself I’m Sarah.  I’m hoping you all remember me anyway.  Finally this is the last week before February break!  All of us are very excited but also heartbroken to stop school.  Now let’s talk about what we did this week.

This week we finished Little Prince written by Antoine de St Exupery. “ It’s a very beautiful book,” as our old librarian would say.  As you can tell, he’s French.  We also had another paper of Cornelia translation.  If you remember the last blog our teacher gave you an example of one of the translations.  I also won the lottery!  Okay, not literally but I did win the lottery in Life skills math.  In winning the lottery I had to calculate a tax percentage on $10,000.  I lost about $2,400 of the $10,000.  We also continued our truth tables in Logic.  A truth table is how you see if the argument you have is true or false, even if it sounds true when you read it.  We also learned a little bit about the Minoan Empire on Crete, ruled by king Minos.  In doing this we all agreed to learn about the Greeks next and we had to stitch Crete and the Black Sea on our maps.  In science we learned about freshwater fish, and we finished our frog sandwich.  (“I’m very, very, very, tasty.”)  In grammar we learned how to diagram adverbial and adjectival prepositional phrases. Bet you don’t know what that means!  Well I’ll tell you.  It’s actually quite simple.  If you know about a prepositional phrase then you’re ahead of the game.  If you don’t it simply means asking the question “Where’s Johnny?”  Try to find the prepositional phrase in this sentence.  I was out walking in the great green pasture on a sunny afternoon.  The “where’s Johnny?” is ‘in the great green pasture’.  Now we have to find out what this prepositional phrase is describing.   In the great green pasture is describing where you were walking so it makes it an adverbial prepositional phrase.  Cool huh?  We also went to court.  Not a real court but a mock court to help us remember our spelling words which are based on crime and punishment.  My case was that I was arrested for breaking and entering, attempted armed robbery, and attempted man slaughter.  Poor, poor, me.  In Reading Comp we started on Homer’s Odyssey, the next story after the Iliad.   We went to the Telling room on Wednesday and I’m writing this blog from Co-op.  And tomorrow is our internship day and I have come to tell you that I’ve changed from an equestrian barn to taking photography from one of my mom’s great friends at Graphetria.  That’s all we did and I hoped you liked my blog.  Maybe you’ll end up in better condition than me right now.  I’m stuck in fake jail.  See you next week!

Written by Sarah Cyr.  (Student)

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.