I hope everyone had a great week! We really did. Do I dare say that I think we might be getting a small handle on our new schedule? Things went much more smoothly this week and felt a whole lot less scattered.
In geology this week Eli concentrated on the three types of rocks: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. We read all about them in our Geology text, and then he watched All About Rocks and Minerals, Bill Nye: Rocks and Minerals, and four episodes of Geology Kitchen.
We attend a small country Methodist church. The elderly ladies there all know that Eli has a love of geology so they bring him samples from their properties pretty regularly. Ms. Lois has taken a special interest in Eli. She brought him three rocks a couple of weeks ago that looked like they could be geodes. He wanted to keep one intact, but we studied all of them and then broke two open. There weren't any beautiful crystals, but one did have a sandy core. It was interesting!
We decided to make some of our own egg shell geodes using three different kinds of salt.
In geography Eli is still learning about the earliest maps. We made our own paprys paper using corn husks and he drew an aerial map of the furniture in his bedroom. In addition he learned about Strabo and Erathosthenes and how geometry was used to measure the distance around the earth. Those were some smart dudes.
His map drawing this week was of the Nile River. And then he traced a current map of the region that includes the Nile River.
As our roof was being torn off our house this week with lots of noise and dust, Eli came up to the library to do some of his schoolwork. I love looking out over my desk to see him working away. He's a good boy.
Although I am not planning to report much on our everyday subjects of math and language arts, I do have to brag on Eli. We have used Fix It Grammar by IEW for the past three years. It has been a slow but steady process for him in editing and diagramming sentences. But the past two weeks he has shown how much it has all started to click for him. He is really doing great, and I am so proud of him! (And Brynne reports to me from public school how so many kids in her 7th grade class still do not know how to identify basic parts of speech like adverbs and adjectives. She is appalled! This Fix It Grammar program has been excellent, and I love hearing confirmation that what we have been doing has worked!)
And in math Eli takes a live online pre-algebra class with Mr. D. He has become completely independent in his study of math, working with Mr. D. Other than helping him schedule out his work for the week, I do not have to do anything in this subject. He does all his own work and then grading, enters his grades in the online gradebook, takes his own quizzes, and logs into his own classes. I am just here to check up on him. It's great!
School life is good.
You make homeschooling look like so much fun! It sounds like Eli is working on some great activities. I love getting a glimpse at your school schedule!
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