Week 9

Week 7

This week was full of work for Caleb.  He had lots of reading and writing to do!  We started our week with fixing the dishwasher.  It wasn't getting the dishes even close to clean so we went to work to find out why.  Youtube and a trip to the hardware store for a torx wrench were key in discovering the problem.  Broken glass and some bones were clogging things so the water pressure was little to none.  Caleb took things apart, cleaned things out, and put it all back together!

• Latin- Caleb drilled his vocab everyday on Quizlet.  He completed exercises 84-91 in his Henle book.  
• Math- Topics covered this week: area as a difference, mode, median, means, and range, average in word problems, areas of triangles, improper fractions, mixed numbers, and decimal numbers.  
• Logic- Logic is not for the faint of heart! I am doing it right along with Caleb because it is beginning to get very difficult.  Thankfully he has a naturally logical mind, but the terms and concepts are taking me a long time to grasp!  Caleb did the review exercises for Lessons 6-18 and then moved on to Lessons 19-21.  
• Current Events- This week's topic was whether it is a prisoner's right to have a comfortable life in prison.  We found a very interesting article on a prison in Norway that is more like an island resort than a prison!  There are many different points of view on this topic and they discussed both the affirmative and negative sides in class.  
• Science- This week Caleb researched Michael Faraday and wrote a 5 paragraph essay on his life.  He also conducted an experiment at home based on some of Faraday's findings.  He was able to light a candle by lighting the smoke!  It was fascinating.  He gave a presentation in class on Faraday's life, discoveries, and conclusions.
• LTW- This week the assignment was to read Where the Red Fern Grows and write an essay on Little Britches. He watched the movie of WTRFG and began listening to the audio CDs.  He wrote an essay including parallelism, amplification, and exordium.

Week 6

• Latin-  Caleb worked on Exercises 84-86 and 88-91.  He wrote down grammar rules and vocab rules.  He drilled his vocab using Quizlet.
• Math- He finished Problem Sets 21-24 in his math book.  He covered: average,  multiple fractional factors, unit mulitpliers, U.S. customary system, and metric system.
• Logic- Caleb completed Lessons 16-18 and all of the exercises that went with them. Subcontrariety, subimplication, and superimplication were topics covered. He finished memorizing the square of opposition.
• Current events- talked about ISIS and what is going on in the middle east.
• Science- We opted out of science this week due to the shortened school week.
• LTW- Caleb sorted his ANI chart and wrote his outline for Little Britches. He practiced amplification and exordium on his workbook pages.  

We ended the week with a field trip to the Deerfield Fair!

Week 5

• Latin- Caleb is doing really well with this subject!  He has his declensions memorized well and knows his vocab.  He continued working on his exercises and spent time drilling using Quizlet.
• Math- He worked Problem Sets 17-20.  Area of rectangles, multiplying fractions and whole numbers, fractional part of a number, symbols for multiplication, multiplying and dividing fractions, multiples, least common multiples- those were his areas of study this week.  In class he played math games and reviewed concepts from week before.
• Logic- Caleb read Lessons 11-15 and did the exercises that went with them.  He wrote out all definitions.  He began working on the square of opposition with the goal of complete memorization in two weeks.
• Science- Caleb researched Isaac Newton this week.  He had to make 20 notecards so that he could present in class with them.  He was called on in class to combine his notecards with another student's and give his presentation that way.  He did a great job!
• Current events- We opted out of this subject due to the topic.
• LTW- Caleb came up with an issue from Little Britches and created an ANI chart with 25 items in each column.  He used several workbook pages from LTW Student Workbook to incorporate the five common topics into his brainstorming process.  He is improving with his independence and ability!

Week 4

• Latin- Caleb completed Lesson 3 in his Henle Latin book.  He finished Exercises 46, 47, 51, 53, 56,  57, 58, & 59. He wrote out his vocab words with definitions and and studied grammar rules.  He took notes in class.
• Math- He worked Problem Sets 13-16.  In class they reviewed all he had done during the week: They talked about common factors, greatest common factors, reviewed vocabulary.  Defined fractions, and talked about fractions in everyday life.  The students discussed how to make equivalent fractions, expanding and reducing fractions.  We converted fractions to decimals and decimals to fractions. The students reviewed decimal place values!
• Logic- He worked on Lessons 8-10 in his logic book and wrote out definitions.  He covered topics such as supported statements, relationships between statements (consistency, implication, logical equivalence, and independence), and consistency and disagreement.  He learned to distinguish between real disagreements, apparent disagreements, and verbal disagreements. He continued to work on memorizing Appendix A.
• Science- The scientist this week was Johannes Kepler. Caleb studied his three laws of planetary motion by reading books and watching several videos.  He drew a diagram of each law and explained each in class.
• Current Events- The issue for this week was: Whether illegal aliens should be deported.  We had really great discussion along with our research.  Caleb had support for both the affirmative and the negative and was able to find scripture to support each as well.  
• LTW- Caleb wrote an essay on The Phantom Tollbooth.  His thesis was: Milo should have opened the package that was in his room.  He completed it as a persuasive essay.  He read Little Britches: Father and I were Ranchers in preparation for next week's assignments.

Week 3

• Latin- Caleb is flying through his Latin book.  He is still reviewing last year's concepts, but going through and doing a lot of translating.  He reviewed the most difficult of all declensions this week- the third!  
• Math- He did Problem Sets 9-12 this week.  Points, lines, rays, line segments, angles, perimeter, divisibilty, word problems about equal  groups, prime numbers and composite numbers, and products of prime numbers were all concepts covered this week.  
• Logic- Caleb completed Lessons 6-8 in his logic book.  He learned about Statements, Self-Supporting Statements, and Supported Statements.  He had to read many statements and be able to identify if they were self-report, tautology, self-contradiction, true by definition, false by definition, or supported.  Analyzing statements has been a really great way to learn critical thinking.  He is doing well with it!
• Science- This week's study was on Copernicus.  Caleb watched two short documentaries on the life and times of Copernicus and learned how important his heliocentric theory was.  His discoveries opened the door to many new discoveries by astronomers and mathematicians who came after him.  Caleb not only wrote a paper on his life but had to research why the Catholic church rejected Copernicus' theory and if their reasoning was logical or not.
• Current Events- The premise this week was: Whether the federal government should mandate education standards.  We all watched the HSLDA video: Building the Machine and Caleb used that, as well as a news article to form his opinions and prepare for discussion.  
• LTW- Caleb sorted his ANI chart and wrote his outline for The Phantom Tollbooth

Week 2

• Latin- Caleb is still reviewing what he learned last year.  This week he did all the Essential Exercises between exercises 10 and 26.  He wrote out all of his vocabulary and grammar rules.  He took notes in class.
• Math-  He worked on Problem Sets 5-8 this week. Topics covered: addition and subtraction word problems, reading and writing decimal numbers, adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing decimal numbers,rounding decimal numbers, estimation, multiplying and dividing by powers of 1, and ordering decimal numbers.
• Logic- Caleb completed Lessons 1-5 in his logic books.  He wrote out all required definitions. He learned 3 methods of defining a word: defining by synonym, defining by example, and defining by genus and difference.  He learned that when defining by genus and difference, the definition should: state the essential attributes of the term, should not be circular, should not be too broad nor too narrow, should not be unclear or figurative, should be stated positively if possible, and should be of the same part of speech as the term.  After mastering those guidelines, he was able to identify errors in definitions.
• Science- Caleb studied Archimedes in depth.  He watched a NOVA documnetary The Infinite Secrets of Archimedes.  He also watched a National Geographic Kids episode Absolute Genius-Archimedes and Archimedes the Great Mathemetician.   He also used the books Archimedes and the Door of Science by Jeanne Bendick and Archimedes by Claire O'Neal as sources.  He wrote a 5 paragraph paper on the life and discoveries of Archimedes.
• Current Events- The premise of this week's topic was: whether euthanasia should be legal in all 50 states.  Caleb prepared to present two articles to his class on this topic. He used this one and this one.  He found verses to back his opinion that God values life and both giving and taking it is up to Him. He was part of an excellent discussion in class.
• LTW- Caleb filled in 20 items in each column of his ANI chart.  His issue is: whether Milo should have opened the package. He did some great brainstorming!  It's not easy to think like that, but he's doing a great job training his mind to think that way.