New Student

After reviewing my posts, I am surprised that I have not mentioned this, yet. My fourteen year old has decided to homeschool. He is my child with high-functioning autism and there were a few aspects of this school year that were very difficult for him to connect and make work. Since I could see the pattern emerging where this turns into a downward spiral, I decided to allow him to remain home for his education and we'll see if we can work him ahead for the next school year.

To avoid the mess with a portfolio and remain in compliance with Florida's homeschooling laws, he is going to continue taking the FCAT. These scores will suffice for his academic achievement for the school year.

I have not consulted him for a blog pseudonym at this time so he will remain nameless until I do.

I've picked up a reputable Algebra I textbook and keep him working on Khan Academy for his mathematics. It is important to me that he completes and excels at both Algebra I and Geometry before the next school year begins.

He remains ahead in both history and science so I'm finding it difficult to challenge him. I have finally decided on an assignment for this quarter.

First Quarter Essay Assignment

Compare and Contrast two Nations geographically located on two different continents. These nations can be from different eras and do not need to exist during the same period of time. They should be superficially distinct from each other.

• Include a general review of history, culture, religion, political climate, and governments, then choose a specific aspect to compare/contrast for these nations, explain why your chosen aspect is significant for each nation.

• Cover the ways in which these nations are similar to and are different from each other in the chosen aspect.

• Include 3 graphic aids that are relevant and help illustrate the information of the essay.

• Minimum 4,000 words, Maximum 6,000 words.

• Spelling, grammar, and vocabulary will impact your grade. To get more information on how to write at a 10th grade level, use:

http://www.azed.gov/standards-practices/files/2011/09/grade10.pdf

• Cite sources using CMS. To reference how to use this citation style properly, use:

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/pdf/20110928111055_949.pdf

http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html

* access this assignment sheet through Google Docs to easily follow links.

To Build Your Essay Properly

Contributing work should include*:

• Notes of material to use with citations
• Outline with revisions through writing drafts
• First Draft
• Second Draft

* does not need to be included with essay assignment

Completed Essay Due: November 21.

Subject Credits:

History

Social Studies

Political Science

Geography

I was impressed with his interest and eagerness to begin. He was impatient while I typed out the requirements and details of the assignment for him. Giving a young teen with HFA so much freedom to learn and write will yield positive results. And, just to make sure he doesn't slack, I reminded him that I will fail him and he will end up repeating the nineth grade, if he does not do his assignments on time and as expected. That is a choice he makes, not me. HFA kids are not lazy. Sometimes they feel overwhelmed or exhausted by a project and will become slap-dash to be done with it. While this essay is not easy, he's well within his realm of ability. By providing him the ability to choose his own elements and focus for this essay, I've empowered him the ability to write well over 6,000 words. I know he will learn editing skills with this assignment.

Overall, I'm pleased with my new student. He's getting along with his little brother very well and is assisting in Reo's lessons, as well as taking a positive energy with his own education and work. This is becoming a tremendous homeschooling year!

Upgrading Science and Literature

The Science class was pretty heavy on astronomy and agriculture, focusing on the Ancient Civilizations' understanding and research of earth and space with contrasts to what we know now.

Spoiler Alert: this was going to be very awesome.

After a lot of research, I picked up R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey Earth & Space (Level One) by Pandia Press. [Buy it here] This is supposedly for grades 1-4. There's not a lot for fourth graders. In fact, this is a good first grader science book and that's it. However, not losing hope, this book contains some solid experiments that can be used to apply to more advanced lessons. Then I added another resource material to help broaden the imagination: "What If?" by Randall Munroe. [Buy it here]

I'm pretty sure this is exactly what Randall Monroe did NOT want
to happen with his book, but here we are and my nine year-old is loving it.

This week for science class

This week is energy sources. Last year, we covered fossil fuels, what they are, how they are found, what they provide, how they are harnessed for energy, and the damage that they can cause when used in different ways (or just in the manner that they're extracted from the earth). So, we dove right into renewable energy, what they are, how they are found, what they provide, how they are harnessed for energy, and the damage that they can cause when used in different ways. Additionally, we have an interesting exploration of the natural ways the Earth has been using renewable energy since the beginning. Reo is interested in learning how other planets use renewable energy. Venus, and its possible metal snow, is an intriguing concept to him.

There will be experiments! Oh, the experiments! Sun, Water, Wind, Soil! From what can we extract energy and what is the measure of how renewable it is. Is it safe? Is it prevalent? Is it productive? Can we cook a hotdog?

This week for literature

Reo has finished Per-Bast and furnished his book review. He's identified the fact from the myth, the non-fiction elements from the fictional story, and provided a good summary of what he gained from reading this book. I think Lara-Dawn Stiegler would be pleased at his approval and insight into her clever novel and I would thank her kindly for that opportunity.

Now, he wants a change of pace. Something different. I didn't want to throw the Narnia series at him so I took a lighter edge and provided a book that gave insight into serious subjects with an incredible amount of humor.

You have no idea how hard it was to wrestle this book away
from my older kids. I'm lucky to still have my life.

Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate situations, flawed coping mechanisms, mayhem, and other things that happened by Allie Brosh. [Buy it here] I am reading this with Reo for age-appropriate censorship. Allie Brosh's subjects are fine enough but sometimes the language is a bit adult. An occassional profane word is not going to destroy my child but he takes offense to it, so to provide some general comfort for his personal preferences, I read this to eliminate the occassional uses of profanity. He's sitting right by me. He can see the words are there. I don't get it, but it's what's working.

The important thing is that he's gaining some personal insight into how emotions can behave for other people, how situations can be different, how others can feel and respond differently to the world around them, how depression creates chaos for his big sister... He's learning compassion and understanding. And he's laughing his ass off while he's learning because Allie Brosh is funny.

This will channel into an assignment but I haven't decided what it will be, yet. We have time.