We had lots of children read some passages from our program. I was handing out slips of paper with paragraphs on them and Maxwell excitedly asked if he could read one. He got up, and hardly made a mistake as he read his paragraph in front of the 50 or so group of people.
I was so proud, and I knew in that moment that homeschool was a blessing. Dyslexia in public schools usually creates a paralyzing anxiety of reading in public, but here Maxwell was EXCITED to read out loud. HORRAY!
This week in history we learned about that scurvy Prince John:
Yes, he sounds like he really was as bad as the children's books say.
First we BRIEFLY talked about Muhammad, The crusades, Saladin, Pilgrims and King Richard. I figure it's all in Story of the World, so they've heard it all before and they'll hear it all again.
Then we of course focused on Robin Hood! We had so much fun with our bows and arrows. Maxwell even made his before we started our Robin hood lessons because he saw it on the calendar that it was my plan. He liked his dollar store one too though.
We then went further and learned about the Magna Carta. We read a children's book that was pretty detailed. Yes King John WAS in Nottingham on several occasions and yes he DID tax the country into starvation, and everyone DID hate him, ESPECIALLY the friars and anyone else religious.
In fact, did you know that he make the Pope so furious that the pope actually ordered all religious clergy to LEAVE England? And then told the French king that England was now up for grabs? Can you imagine what that would be like for anyone in medieval England? It basically was sending them all to hell and death because of one man.
Anyway, I guess it was a good thing King John was so incredibly horrific because it did bring about the Magna Carta, and now we have the right to trial by our peers.
We made illuminated manuscripts while I read. Oh, we talked about illuminated manuscripts as well. (Can you tell I'm trying to squeeze in all the history I'm behind in?!?)
We also read about Joan of Arc. Medieval history's not complete without her!
This week was our last Westwind co-op day. This semester they've been studying geology and plants. They are growing a garden at the school, and I think it's so cute and wonderful how excited our principal and teachers are about the project. They've gotten a lot of support from the town, and they got t-shirts and plants that our kids could take home.
Maxwell has been VERY excited about this, and has been making his own greenhouses in preparation. They were made out of plastic and cardboard and ended up not to really fit the plants properly, but I was proud of him for trying.
For science we did PH testing. This year went better than our last rotation because I did it Steve Spangler's way! (gotta love that guy) We took cabbage and blended it and then added vinegar to one and clothes detergent to the other. Behold:
We also made Turmeric paper and tested different cleaners. We also had some strips from the chemistry teacher in town. My little band of students went a little CRAZY this lesson. Not sure why they were so hyper, but it's a good thing nothing we tested was explosive because they ambushed me and went on testing everything they could find and combined things in the cabbage juice and kept at it! Um, glad they were excited?
Later that week, Daniel said ""The acid in the sour keys put holes in my tongue and ruined my taste cells."
Only one more science club left.
On to Math. HYRUM PASSES HIS MULTIPLICATION TABLES!!! I'm so proud of him. This has been quite the accomplishment for him. He has major anxiety when I time him, so I just have to say, "Let's see if you can do it easily." and if he make any mistakes or asks for help, we have to do it again next time.
But he finally did pass off every number on his treasure map.
We could have NEVER done this without the help of Times Tales. I will sing their praises loud and clear. I used the 12 times tables stories I made up as well. Here's a link to those.
Hyrum I know is smart (regardless of his pirate face.) He just goes about things in a different way. I remember when I was in school learning the times tables. The teacher had you put a picture of the times table you were on hanging from the ceiling above your desk. Everyone knew who had passed off their times tables....and who had not. I had not. I stressed out over being timed. I felt dumb and resorted to cheating.
I ended up getting "A"s in math in jr. high, high school and college, and getting such a high math score on the ACT that I was able to skip a course or two in college.
So the fact that I couldn't get my times tables fast enough and that I was one of the last in my class to master them, reflected very little of my math capabilities.
And all that my third grade teacher accomplished was to teach me to cheat and feel horrible.
Anyway, sometimes Hyrum uses the Times Tale stories, sometimes he remembers patterns, sometimes he skip counts, and sometimes he uses strategies I think are exhausting. Like thinking 4x8. Well, 4x5 is umm well 4x10 is 40 and half of that is 20, so 4x5 is 20 and then 4, 8, 12, so 12 is 4x3, so 20+12=32, so 4x8 is 32! I have actually heard him say all this out loud when doing this question.
Just plain memorization is not realistic for him.
I'm so happy for what he's been able to do and we went on a family party to Lethbridge as a reward.
Also, as it was Mother's Day, my sisters-in-law invited me to go have a beautiful picture shoot among the sunflowers:
I love these women who make homeschooling so much easier than it could be. They are my mentors and I sure adore them!
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