Plugging Along. Weeks 10, 11, and 12
Nothing really major that is new to report. Emma has been having some blah days, which affect her school also, but we are slowly chugging away, making progress. I'm glad to be keeping this blog, or sometimes I'd feel we never get anywhere.
Algebra: we finished Pace 5 yesterday with an 85% on the test. Emma does NOT share my love of Algebra, but I am really pushing her through it to "get it done". We are officially 5/12 of the way through now.
Ancient History/Literature: Emma has completed 22 lessons out of 90. I'm not sure we will complete this in one school year. We finished reading Exodus, and she is currently reading, "Mara, Daughter of the Nile". It seems to be a quicker read for her than the last three books.
Writing: we are almost done with chapter 8, the "Emotional Appeal Persuasive Essay". Emma had a nice gift from her oldest grown sister....She bought them each a copy of a blank story starter notebook. She also likes to write, so they both have the exact same book of story starters, and both are spending time each day writing stories, and when they finish, they will exchange books and read how the other sister wrote stories to the same prompts. I thought this was a really fun and thoughtful gift, and Emma is enjoying it and writing lots daily. Since we are both "persuasive essayed" out, this counts as writing, while we continue studying (but not currently writing essays) the how to's of yet more persuasive essays.
Chemistry: this week we watched the entire second DVD of Chemistry 101, The Periodic Table. Again, I will stress how interesting and understandable Wes Olsen makes Chemistry. Honestly, if I had known how much I would find to love about this curriculum, I would have made it our sole Chemistry curriculum this year. However, next week I plan to get back to our main textbook. We are halfway through it, so I'm not worried about this subject getting finished easily before the end of the year.
French: Emily continues to do very well in French. We are in chapter 4 now, times of day and different activities done throughout the day. She now can conjugate 2 different types of verbs. (Reflexive, and "er" verbs, and knows probably 20 of them at least. Verbs are definitely the most difficult part of the French language.
Life: the big news is we are getting a puppy! Emma's other older grown sister's dog is pregnant, due in about 4 weeks. Emma has been having bouts of depression, and has wanted a puppy for ages. We used to have 8 (yes, 8) dogs, but they have all succumbed to old age except our Pug, who is 11. Big sis has promised us one of the puppies. :) Ironically, they will be ready to be away from mama dog right around Emma's birthday. I'm more of a cat person, but this dog will be for Emma anyway.
Emma's competition season for gymnastics begins in December. Technically, the first meet is in two weeks, but we decided to skip the first meet and give her more time to practice before competition, due to her missing 7 weeks for her back injury, and missing another 4 weeks of private lessons due to her coach having some life issues going on. I wish we were allowed to post videos of her actual routines. Her floor routine is just beautiful this year! She is having major struggles with high bars and one particular required skill on the beam though. She has to do either a cartwheel on the beam or a back walk over, and she is TERRIFIED of both these moves. She once fell and was hurt and now lives in fear she will miss the beam. So...She misses the beam every time. She twists at the last moment and lands her feet OFF the beam so as not to HIT the beam and get hurt. Unfortunately, this results in....missing the beam and not getting her landing. Her coach and I have been working and working on dealing with her fear, but if she doesn't make these skills, she will never even qualify on this event. Thursday, Emma almost had ME in tears watching her try and try and try and then break down sobbing with frustration.
Algebra: we finished Pace 5 yesterday with an 85% on the test. Emma does NOT share my love of Algebra, but I am really pushing her through it to "get it done". We are officially 5/12 of the way through now.
Ancient History/Literature: Emma has completed 22 lessons out of 90. I'm not sure we will complete this in one school year. We finished reading Exodus, and she is currently reading, "Mara, Daughter of the Nile". It seems to be a quicker read for her than the last three books.
Writing: we are almost done with chapter 8, the "Emotional Appeal Persuasive Essay". Emma had a nice gift from her oldest grown sister....She bought them each a copy of a blank story starter notebook. She also likes to write, so they both have the exact same book of story starters, and both are spending time each day writing stories, and when they finish, they will exchange books and read how the other sister wrote stories to the same prompts. I thought this was a really fun and thoughtful gift, and Emma is enjoying it and writing lots daily. Since we are both "persuasive essayed" out, this counts as writing, while we continue studying (but not currently writing essays) the how to's of yet more persuasive essays.
Chemistry: this week we watched the entire second DVD of Chemistry 101, The Periodic Table. Again, I will stress how interesting and understandable Wes Olsen makes Chemistry. Honestly, if I had known how much I would find to love about this curriculum, I would have made it our sole Chemistry curriculum this year. However, next week I plan to get back to our main textbook. We are halfway through it, so I'm not worried about this subject getting finished easily before the end of the year.
French: Emily continues to do very well in French. We are in chapter 4 now, times of day and different activities done throughout the day. She now can conjugate 2 different types of verbs. (Reflexive, and "er" verbs, and knows probably 20 of them at least. Verbs are definitely the most difficult part of the French language.
Life: the big news is we are getting a puppy! Emma's other older grown sister's dog is pregnant, due in about 4 weeks. Emma has been having bouts of depression, and has wanted a puppy for ages. We used to have 8 (yes, 8) dogs, but they have all succumbed to old age except our Pug, who is 11. Big sis has promised us one of the puppies. :) Ironically, they will be ready to be away from mama dog right around Emma's birthday. I'm more of a cat person, but this dog will be for Emma anyway.
Emma's competition season for gymnastics begins in December. Technically, the first meet is in two weeks, but we decided to skip the first meet and give her more time to practice before competition, due to her missing 7 weeks for her back injury, and missing another 4 weeks of private lessons due to her coach having some life issues going on. I wish we were allowed to post videos of her actual routines. Her floor routine is just beautiful this year! She is having major struggles with high bars and one particular required skill on the beam though. She has to do either a cartwheel on the beam or a back walk over, and she is TERRIFIED of both these moves. She once fell and was hurt and now lives in fear she will miss the beam. So...She misses the beam every time. She twists at the last moment and lands her feet OFF the beam so as not to HIT the beam and get hurt. Unfortunately, this results in....missing the beam and not getting her landing. Her coach and I have been working and working on dealing with her fear, but if she doesn't make these skills, she will never even qualify on this event. Thursday, Emma almost had ME in tears watching her try and try and try and then break down sobbing with frustration.
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