Month 1 Review

ART
Two lessons from our art curriculum completed, some modeling work, three art appreciation lessons (appreciating background), an introduction to the life, personality, and work of Beethoven has been fairly simple and perhaps not a big part of the school day, but impactful all the same. If one is to groan about the classical music station being on yet again, one ought to at least be able to groan out the proper names of the composers. And so, the first three weeks of school are a success!
PE/HEALTH
Completed Presidential Fitness Test, charted own results against "healthy range" averages.
Completed summer quarter rock climbing class, several hikes, runs, and informal team sports events (kick ball, sword fighting). Spent an entire day climbing Smith Rocks in Oregon with a climbing guide, starting at 5.4 climbs and finishing with 5.9 climbing and practice rappelling.
Swam and practiced diving.
LANGUAGE ARTS
Reviewed nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, the articles, and pronouns.
Completed one formal writing lesson as well as several smaller writing assignments.
Work on cursive is progressing.
Reading: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1080L) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, funny and interesting; Flush (830L) Carl Hiassen, hilarious; A Wrinkle in Time (740 L) A Wind in the Door (790L) Madeleine L'Engle, first was great and a fast read, second was boring; The Mysterious Benedict Society (840 L) Trenton Lee Stewart, awesome, really good; The Cay (860L) by Theodore Taylor, easy to read, good to talk about; The Book of Three (770L) by Lloyd Alexander, scary (good scary) and exciting; Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransomme, calm and nice to read; Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (880L) JK Rowling, exciting and scary to read by yourself; The Breadwinner (lexile 630), Parvana's Journey (lexile 640), Mud City (lexile 740) all by Deborah Ellis, really good, wish there were more.
MATH
A review of material covered last year in beginning algebra is progressing, with factoring, PI, infinite and finite numbers, ratios, and the integers covered so far.
Review of fractions (multiplying and dividing), and percents is ongoing as an extra math lesson.
Practice with logic and story problems is a daily and enjoyable part of the school schedule. A weekly hands on math lab (one involving 30 feet of butcher paper, crayons, and a series of rectangles to divide with various numbers of straight lines) has been quite fun.
SCIENCE
Science thus far has been limited to simple nature observation and a weekly class learning about scientists, scientific current events, and studies. Articles about insect eggs and the dangers of and ways of dealing with space trash were read and reported on, both verbally and in writing.
Several trees and a couple of types of mushrooms were identified. Ecosystems of the high desert and the coastal wetlands and forests were explored.
SOCIAL STUDIES
Reading, narration, and illustrating of the beginning of civilizations was completed. Experiments with simple tools and possible evolution of tool making were spontaneously devised and carried through.
Geography study included a review of the world- oceans and continents, basic geographic terms, map reading- then narrowed in focus to North America.
A mini study about Uruguay was completed, including making dulce de leche candy-sauce.