Literature Class

We joined the co-op at our church! Arielle used to go years ago every Wednesday morning for art, music and P.E. but when Liana started school it was just too much time away from our regular studies. Neither of the girls could settle down to classwork at home after being away all morning, so we lost a whole day of the week.

I had to convince the woman in charge that Arielle really is a 7th grader even though she is not yet 12 because this afternoon class is for the older kids. We only have to go four times during the year as a lot of the work is done at home. Arielle has to read four books throughout the course and do a written report on specific topics. The first assignment was to read The Yearling. The other kids had much more time to read it than Arielle because we found out about this class a little late. We checked it out from the library just two weeks before the assignment was due. This is a 400 page book! I divided the chapters up for her and gave her a reading schedule. We had a lot of interruptions with family events too, so many days she had to double up on her reading. She complained about it initially and said she didn't want to do the class and why was I making her?

Arielle did finish the book and now had to write a two to three page typed report on one of the suggested topics. She wrote (and re-wrote and re-wrote) on Jody's changing relationships with the other characters in the book. She did a fine job! And she went to her first class yesterday. I am very proud of her that she worked hard to complete a task.

In the class the children read their reports and discussed the novel. Arielle had the opportunity to interact with others in a group setting and to gain more insight into this novel, plus learn to read other novels with a more open mind, looking for particular ideas and symbolism. In a way, I wondered if I had ruined this beautiful story of The Yearling by forcing it on her. Maybe she would have enjoyed it more reading it on her own? Would she be sick of it now? We went to the library in the afternoon and she found the DVD and wanted to check it out. So she isn't ready to leave Jody and Flag behind.

The next assignment is to read an autobiography of someone who made an important contribution in history. She has to present a report on this person, plus add something of her own personal autobiography. She's not ready to tackle this yet. At the library she chose "fun" books, the kind she truly enjoys.

Chemistry

If you ask Arielle, she would say she hates science. When she was younger we did a couple of years of zoology and then later botany, astronomy, and an introduction to physics. Nothing much has interested her. This year we are doing a middle-school level chemistry. Still, no spark, except for one brief moment yesterday.

We were learning about acids, bases, and pH. We made an acid/base indicator with red cabbage. Do you know how to do this? Very easy! Put 3 cups of distilled water in a pan and add a whole red cabbage, chopped in several pieces. Bring to a boil and continue boiling about 15 or 20 minutes. Strain out the cabbage and save that dark purple juice.

After preparing our cabbage juice, Arielle cut a white coffee filter in strips and with an eye dropper, dripped the liquid over the strips. We made our control acid--vinegar mixed with a little water and our control base--pure ammonia mixed with a little water. Then we gathered several light or clear colored liquids: Sprite, tap water, milk, lemon juice, orange juice, a little squeezed juice from a ripe tomato, Windex, bleach (careful!), dishwasher soap.

Our coffee filter/litmus paper was not dry yet and we were anxious to begin, so we just put a little of our vinegar in a glass bowl and added the cabbage juice. The vinegar turned bright pink! Then came the even more exciting moment. Arielle dropped some cabbage juice into the ammonia. Instant green! She said, "Cool!" She tested our other liquids and had fun observing the results. (Caution! Never mix bleach and ammonia. I warned Arielle that this is a chemical reaction we don't want to see.)

Well, it wasn't enough interest to spur her onto a career in chemistry, but it was something! She now has all these cool strips of paper too that she can dip into any liquid to see if it is an acid or base. I think we need more hands-on projects.

Begin a Happy Morning!

Liana always has music playing in her head--her own music. She also loves poetry, so she spontanaeously sat down and wrote a song and then sang it for me. I wish I could tell you the tune because it is quite nice.

Work

Working, oh working, all the day,

Never getting a chance to play,

After work's done, play in the sun,

Oh my, oh my dear, it's so much fun,

When the stars are overhead,

You go in and jump in bed,

When the sun rose,

Put on your clothes,

And begin a Happy Morning!

Spanish

A friend of mine let me borrow Rosetta Stone, Spanish 1 for Arielle to use. We tried it last year and kept getting sidetracked. I know from my experience with learning a foreign language, you have to be consistent. That's why Chinese school for the girls years ago did not work. You can't learn another language by attending a class an hour and half once a week. I told Arielle I wanted to learn Spanish with her. So finally we got serious about it.

Rosetta Stone is fun! And I am convinced it is the best way to learn, apart from actually living in another country among native speakers, of course. The program has so many ways of interacting with the language that you can't not learn it. Our study really took off when Arielle and I began competing! We have a notebook with each exercise and our scores in time and percent correct. (Also, this will provide documentation for the portfolio next year.) Right now Arielle is beating me by a small margin, and she is loving that. I should have an advantage, considering I learned a lot of Spanish during my time in Spain. But that was many years ago.

Liana wants to learn Chinese and not Spanish. We don't have Rosetta Stone for her yet, and I don't think she is quite ready for it. I do think either Chinese or Spanish is the language to learn though. To spite my mother who pushed Spanish on me when I was in middle school, I decided to take French. I continued with French all through high school and college, and a lot of good that did me. It would have been much more useful to know Spanish.

Arielle has a natural talent for language. She is so quick to learn and has quite an ear for it. We haven't done much with the speaking portion of the program, but that will be coming soon.

The letter

I was mailed a copy of the letter the Home School Legal Defense Association sent to our school district on my behalf. It was an excellent letter and quite lengthy, part of it quoting the law in our state. The bottom line is "local school districts are without any authority to establish any policies or procedures which add to or contradict the provisions of the law."


It reminds me of what God said about his law in scripture: "Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it." Deuteronomy 12:32. I will do my best to obey state homeschooling laws and, above all, God's word.

Still waiting

No, I haven't been locked up yet for my "non-compliance" and I haven't heard one word from the school district. No one ever returned my call. Do they want me to guess what to do next? Well, my application to Home School Legal Defense Services was accepted. An attorney contacted me and said he would be writing the district a letter explaining to the administrators that my evaluator's report was perfectly legal. I will post more when I hear the results of this.