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!

Halloween Week

Halloween is my favorite holiday. I'm not a fan of being scared or horror movies or zombies, but I enjoy the process of celebrating the melding of the spiritual world into the physical world, dressing up and trick-or-treating at night, and just having fun with pumpkins and all the imagery of the holiday (except for zombies). I am also divorced from my older children's father and this is a holiday that I do not have to ever share. That's a big part of it, too. So, we celebrate the heck out of this holiday.

The outline for the week is on the dry erase board

Monday was the day of decorations! We cut out pumpkins, bats, and tombstones. Reo decorated them to his pleasing. The first craft of a bat and jack-o-lantern mobile:

I found a great print-out of several different jack-o-lantern faces, and we cut out each pumpkin. We found another print-out with bat shapes and cut those out, as well. Using yarn, we dangled the pumpkins and bats from a frame we made from construction paper. The end result is simple but a fun indoor decoration.

The next craft were colored in pumpkins that Reo decided to adhere to our front window as a decoration. We found a great full-page print-out shape of a pumpkin and Reo went to work designing different pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns.

We also designed bookmarks using orange foam bookmark bases that I already had in the craft box, yarn, markers, and the left-over jack-o-lantern cut-outs from the mobile project. If we'd had the materials for 50 or more bookmarks, we could have added them to the trick-or-treat bags for Thursday.

The last project we did were tombstones. I had intended to have these cardboard tombstones, cut from a basic shipping box, stay as an indoor decoration but Reo had other plans. He enthusiastically planted them on our front lawn so everyone could see his funny and Dr. Who themed epitaphs.

Today, Tuesday, we learned the history of Halloween. To serve this, I wrote a brief book that gave each version of Halloween, from Samhain to its secular version today, its own page and description. I wrote at his reading level but sought to keep it interesting so I kept it short and to the point. Then he answered five questions I'd provided at the end.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, we get to prepare Halloween-themed food, which I plan to include a great fairy cake which is an old recipe that folk lore says will attract fairies and deter them from being mischievous in your home.