Catching Up October 27th

Once again I have fallen behind on my updates! Between work and a round of the stomach flu things have been a bit crazy. I've also been doing a LOT with the homeschool group to help get their websites/blogs organized which makes me reluctant to do much work on here. However, I have to take the bull by the horns next week and really work on my own web presence for work... but I digress -

TJ's homeschooling was spotty last week but this week finds us back on the path of knowledge! TJ's been going to open swim/gym every Thursday and went on a trip on the Ghost Train in Lake Linden on Saturday with a homeschooling friend. It was cute - the grim reaper (a LARGE mechanical creature with a speaker) pointed to TJ and said, "I see you TJ, in the first car." It totally freaked him out! He's still talking about it! TJ also attended his first gymnastics class (of the year) on Monday. He's doing a LOT better than when he was younger and there's actually quite a few boys in the class - so he's got some friends there and it's great exercise!

For academics, we've been taking advantage of our Netflix membership to order educational videos from Nova, the Discovery Channel and the History Channel on the Mayan, Incan and Aztec cultures - as well as on plants. TJ's also been exploring some online science games at http://classroom.jc-schools.net/basic/sciplants.html
These activities coincide with the chapters he's working on in Social Studies and Science. TJ's working on learning how to take notes, make an outline and what the difference is between a primary and secondary source. We've also been working on Poetry in language arts and he is continuing to read Roald Dahl books and do worksheets and activities associated with the books - due to the extra stuff I'm throwing in he's still working on finishing Matilda but I think it's worth it for the extra information (one of the worksheets is what made us take a closer look at poetry - for instance) and for thoroughly assessing his reading comprehension (which is a LOT better than I feared! LOL!). In geography we're moving on to Alaska and doing a bit with Google Earth - a program that lets you view the globe interactively. In Math, TJ's struggling with word problems but that seems to be normal at this age. He'd like to take the lazy way out and just have the problem put before him! But he's finally starting to get it. We continue to work on simple math drills too to keep up multiplication, addition, division and subtraction skills. Japanese has not been going very well but yesterday I finally got in touch with a student at Tech that may be willing to tutor him. Now all I have to do is come up with the money! LOL!

Guess that's about it for now! I'll try to get back to post pictures of Jessica's B-day from last Sunday and to give more updates...

October 4th

We've been so busy I haven't gotten around to updating much! Last tuesday we did go to the corn maze and it was a LOT of fun. Then on Thursday TJ went swimming. We did a lot of reading, math, geography and social studies. We also reviewed Japanese (but no - TJ still hasn't decided what he wants to ask his Japanese penpal - lol! I think he's being shy but we'll get there!). For science we did some experiments with toadstools and mushrooms that we found in Grandma's yard. We also used the microscope to view mold and fungus spores. On Friday was Joe's birthday and not much was accomplished due to Mom being busy getting stuff arranged for that.

This week is another crowded week. 1st, I have a looming deadline for a series of articles and have to get quite bit of work done during the day too. Then today we went and saw a presentation at MTU called Rainforest Reptiles. TJ really enjoyed the show and got to pet a Chinese alligator. He also got to see a large alligator snapping turtle, an African spur tortoise, a black necked monitor lizard, a Burmese Python, a venomous viper (of some sort - can't remember the name), Chinese alligator and American alligator. TJ says there was one more but neither of us can remember what it was. Either way it was a great science presentation! On Thursday TJ has swimming. On Friday there's no public school but TJ (and the other two kids) are going back out to the corn maze; then going to chess club and gym - with the homeschooling groups.

In between time he's going to finish Matilda and start another Roald Dahl book (which will complete his 3 needed for the Roald Dahl contest) plus he gets credit on the Book It! Program. He'll finish Alabama and start ALASKA (we're looking forward to that because it's Aunt Aimee's state!) in geography. We'll start the colonization of America in Social Studies and finish the Chapter 1 in science as we talk about the importance of plants and how the various parts work together to keep the plant alive. In math we'll continue to do multiplication drills and work on book theory - pattern recognition and mental math skills. In Japanese we're continuing to practice the hiragana alphabet while learning more common phrases. Whew... I just hope we get through it all!

Until next update: ittekimasu (roughly: see you later or I'll be back later)