Home-SU-Cool

 This is how we did SAT prep for the firstborn. He went through the whole book. But the information was really hard to stick! So he did the first practice test. Then we are going through the test together a few questions at a time. Next he will be using Khan Academy t o practice. He will do the diagnostic tests (there are 8) on the site and do 15 mins practice everyday. That will be about 10 questions. Maybe the next half year he will increase to 20-30 mins? He will review the strategies from the Princeton book regularly. Every two months he will do a full length practice test and go through the questions. He has a year and hopefully this will give him enough practice. 

Week 5 Big Bro did another argumentative essay based on Job. He finished the reading of Genesis and started the book Cat of Bubastes. He does not like historical fiction, so this is a stretch. But I feel that ancient history is a stretch to him and my goal for him this year is to learn things even when they are hard to learn. He is doing very very well organizing his schedule and planning his time. He did conscientious work even though they are not easy material for him. For Biology, he finished Module 3 on Kingdom Protista (another difficult topic) Last module on Kingdom Monera (Bacteria), we tried to do a bacteria culture, using agar. Before culture 1 week later. I am a bit disappointed to have not found much difference. But, oh well. He also looked through some prepared slides for the experiments in Module 3. We tried using the phone to take pictures of the microscope slides. They turned out exceedingly well. This helps a lot with the observation for...

Bible Big Bro continued with OTC (Old Testament Challenge) and I with him. We would sometimes discuss interesting learnings at meal times. English/Literature For these two weeks he read Job as part of English. He also did the Epic of Gilgamesh Ancient Literature study. He did well for the quiz. History He read Unwrapping the Pharoahs, Exploring World History, and the Encyclopedia of the Ancient World. Because I had no idea what he was retaining, I asked him to write a few things as a summary or highlights from his reading (except for EWH which he has review questions to do) Maps/Timeline He did some maps and also timeline (he is using digital timeline from here ) Biology He finished Module 2 (Kingdom Monera) and did a test on VHSG with he did well. I needed to sit with him for some lectures so that I could answer some of his questions. We did a bacteria culture experiment that still needed time to "grow nasty". =) He went on to Module 3: Kingdom Protista ...

This week Big Bro continued studies on Genesis and Job in OT challenge, and also Exploring World History. He also started the Unwrapping the Pharoahs book and learnt a little on Ancient Egypt. We discussed the timeline and he will probably do it online. For Biology, we started on the microscope and it was really fun! We did the cheek cells experiment. This is the microscope we got, and we got these blank slides , coverslips , and stain . Overall, I think we saved on the cost and it works well enough. Big Bro did his first test on VHSG  and he got 100%! It boosted his confidence thoroughly. For week 2, he spent about 4-5 hour average everyday on his work and I think he is getting a good hang of it. I work with him on Biology and sometimes Algebra.

Why is it Week 0-1? Well, I had some issues with the Notgrass History books, so they did not come in time. I improvised, moved the schedule somewhat, and came up with Week 0. =) The first two weeks were gentle start to 9th grade and I am REALLY grateful for the wisdom of the MFW creators for the wisdom of starting a new highschooler a week ahead. I was able to sit with him without distractions to go through the schedule and work flow. By the 2nd week, he was pretty much on his own. I only worked with him for Math and Biology because he needed more help. We meet on Friday to go through his work. Daddy helped us redo the schedule so that we can add in the things we wanted. We made some changes to the New Answers Book. Instead of reading, he searches articles or videso on the website . This is because the books' chapters were really long and it was hard for him to follow. Since he has ample reading to do, I decided that for him to understand the apologetics of the faith is...

We have entered a new milestone! This year we have a highschooler, a junior highschooler, a middle schooler, an elementary schooler, and a "What on earth am I here for" toddler-schooler. Here is our plan. HIGHSCHOOL 9th Grade 1. OT Bible, Ancient World History, Ancient Literature (English), 1 credit each. After much prayer and discussion, we have decided to stay with MFW for highschool. The core of it will cover 3 credits. I am also doing the Old Testament Challenge with him. 2. Biology, 1 credit We are using Apologia's Biology, with a lot of help from Virtual Homeschool Group 's FREE teaching videos. I think Tammy does an AMAZING job teaching. We will still do our own tests, labs, and notebook, but the bulk of the teaching might be done by her. Most likely we won't do dissection, but we did get a nifty microscope for the many labs. And this year, I decided to buy the student notebook for DS. I REALLY like it! 3. Algebra I, 1 credit We foun...