Grammar Fun with Z

Leave it to Z to come up with a way to make grammar fun. He was on a roll yesterday and decided that there were a few culturally relevant ways to learn about verbs. Our little gift from Z to you.

Introducing...

The Verbinator: "Read these verbs if you want to live."

Dark Verb: "Noun, I am your father."

Drive Thru History: Greece

If you're like me you've had some teaching on Ancient Greece, although Z might say it was in the ancient days. Twenty-five years does seems like a long time, yes do the math, I'm 41. If you're also like me you might have had some biblical history thrown in via Sunday School, messages from your pastor, etc.

So if this were a visual I'd be holding up both arms wide apart. I'd shake my right hand and say "On one hand you have Greek History" and then I'd shake my left hand "On the other hand you have biblical history, and never the two shall meet." At least that has been my experience. So these histories are as far apart as my arm span, which honestly is not that far, I have short arms. You can't mention God in the public schools and you don't hear so much about ancient Greek culture in Sunday School.

Drive thru History: Greece solves that dilemma. The three videos on this DVD weave Greek culture into biblical history in a way that is fun and educational. To top it off Dave Stotts is a hoot. He seems to possess a humor that is similar to that of me and Z, so he is very welcome in our classroom.

These DVDs are produced from a Christian perspective however I believe anyone interested in biblical history should watch these. They do not come off as overly evangelistic, IMO. I would also say that anyone who in using the neo-classical or classical model for education should watch these. We are using MOH (Mystery of History) as our history/religion course and this DVD ties in nicely with their schedule. If you have not studied biblical history and how it relates to the ancient cultures this DVD ties them together nicely.

I would rate this DVD as PG. Z is eleven and I did not find anything I would discern as objectionable in this DVD. However he does discuss some of the less savory habits of the ancient world, but it is done tastefully. There is also artwork scrolled that depicts ancient life. These are more pencil-like drawings and I did not see any true "nudes" however you might want to preview for your family's standards.

I had been wanting to buy these as I have caught some episodes on TV, but it was never a priority in the budget, kwim. Our local movie store did not carry them, so we requested them from Netflix. I'm learning to love Netflix and the other installments of Drive Thru History have been added to our queue.

The Professor and His Art Project

Z loves to make spider webs of yarn in his room. This was his project for yesterday. He spent a great deal of time weaving the yarn throughout specific areas. it was quite creative.

A New Year, a Revamped Schedule

After much contemplation I am doing an experiment with our daily schedule. The Latin-Centered Curriculum outlines doing some subjects once per week. We will continue to do reading, Latin, math, and comprehension daily. I do like approaching those subjects in that manner. I also like doing history, literature, religion, science, and geography once a week. However, due to illness, injuries, and other various distractions I find some of those subjects not getting done and we are woefully behind in at least two of them.

I have decided to experiment by focusing on one subject five times per week for a period of time. For instance, we will focus on religion for the next few weeks and should finish that subject for the year in two to three weeks. Then we will move to history and should finish it in three to four weeks. Literature will be our last subject to handle in that manner. That is if the "experiment" works.

I'm crossing my fingers and hoping this will help with Z's retention as well. We will continue to do Science on Fridays as that is one of Z's favorite subjects. Friday is also a shorter day as Latin and Comprehension are done four times per week only. Geography will continue to be done once a week.

I'll report back to let you know if this is a hit or a flop.

Classical Writing: Robin Hood, a collaboration

We are delving into Classical Writing Aesop B this year. This is the first year Z has done a formal writing program. This week I have been sick so we opted to make this weeks lesson a collaboration. Z wrote half of this, including the opening paragraph. I helped with other parts. It was a true tag-team effort.

Robin Hood

A guy was walking down the road. Robin Hood saw him and left him alone.
The very next day the man was again there. Robin Hood jumped out and said, "What can you spare?"
The guy had five shillings and gave them to Robin. Then he pulls out a ring starts a sobbin'.
Robin Hood is going to help the guy. Allin-a-Dale agreed with a sigh.
He went to church as a harper but did not play. He protested the maiden marrying the man old and grey.
Then Robin Hood saved the day. They grey old man went away.
Allin-a-Dale married the maiden fair that day then and there.

Go Hypothesize!

Z and I have these cards. It's simply a deck of regular playing cards with a different scientist on each number or face card. Today we decided to make up our own game using them. Well, it was basically Go Fish but with a twist. Instead of calling out the value of the card we had to use the scientist name. If we didn't have that card instead of saying "Go Fish" we said "Go Hypothesize" and then that person drew a card from the deck. It was fun and educational. I know Z learned a lot in that fifteen minutes of play. One thing I learned is that it is possible to still laugh and learn at the END of the school day. We haven't done that in a while.

Wordless Wednesday

Back at it Again!

We started back to school today after our two week break. It was nice, too fast, but nice. Our bathroom went through a time warp, Z launched himself into the techno world, I finished editing one of my stories. So it was a productive break. Here's some pics from the bathroom. 70s to modern, what a vast difference.