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.

Week 1

Caleb started eigth grade!  He is doing Challenge B this year.

• Latin- Caleb completed Lessons 1-4 in his book, wrote out the vocabulary (including gender and declension), and wrote out the grammar rules and first declension chart. He took notes in class.
• Math-  Caleb finished the first four lessons in Saxon Algebra 1/2.  He reviewed whole number place value, ordering and rounding whole numbers, subtraction and patterns, multiplication, divivion and more patterns.  He took notes in class.
• Logic- This week was just an introduction to logic.  He read the intro in the book and wrote down important definitions, familiarizing himself with some of the terms.  He was given good intsturction in class in preparation for his upcoming week of work and took notes.
• Science- Caleb read the Hippocratic Oath and answered questions about it.  Some questions included: To whom does Hippocrates make this oath? How does Hippocrates regard his teacher?  Is he willing to commit euthanasia or perform an abortion?  What does he promise about patient confidentiality? What is his ethical view of medicine?  This Oath was written about 200B BC.  Does the science of the past affect you today?  In class they discussed this and talked about modern versions of this Oath.
• Current Events- Caleb did nothing this week at home for this subject. In class however, they discussed the schedule for this in the upcoming weeks. They talked about and discussed euthanasia and right to life issues.
• LTW- Caleb read The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norman Juster.  He composed an issue.  In class they discussed definition as a tool (one of the Five Common Topics) to come up with more ideas to fill in an ANI chart.