Day 95 / 101 - Rewrite the Sentence

Earlier this year I posted a diagramming activity that my son and I tried to accomplish daily.  The activity is taken from our Essentials curriculum.  For each sentence we identify the purpose (declarative, imperative, interrogative, exclamatory) and the structure (simple, compound, complex, compound-complex), as well as the pattern.  After that we would diagram the sentence and end our assignment for the morning, even though we were given a few 'additional tasks' if we had time.  I always thought we never had time.

Well, even though our Essentials curriculum has wrapped up for the school year, I have tried to return to some activities that I thought we didn't have time for during the school year.  I wish I would have been doing this one all along!  I think this is the best assignment suggested.  All we are doing is rewriting a sentence by purpose and structure.  It is simple and manageable (takes less than 5 minutes a day), yet has been the quickest way for both my children to quickly master the different sentence purposes as well as what is needed to change a sentence structure (independent clauses, dependent clauses, conjunctions, etc).  I guarantee you, we will be doing this task nearly everyday this summer.

Day 94 / 101 - 2nd Dan

On Saturday evening my daughter tested for her Taekwondo Second Degree Black Belt.  As always, she performed wonderfully and is quite deserving of her new rank.

Day 93 / 101 - Mental Math with Dice

 

This was an easy way to spend the morning practicing our math skills.  We rolled dice and added the functions to create problems.  The goal was to find the answer mentally and as quickly as possible.  My son usually won!

Day 92 / 101 - Coal Miner's Son

While in West Virginia, my son attended a safety mining workshop with my husband.  Since he was fresh off his writing intensive camp, I asked him to write a paragraph describing his day.  Above you see him walking the lifeline with his eyes closed as he details below.

The Mining Class

By Alex

      On May 26^th my father brought me to his mining class.  This class, which was about being safe in the mines, lasted seven hours.   Some of the things we learned were: what to do if there is a flood, why not to wear loose clothes, and safety tips.  There were seven students including my dad.  Mr. Bennet, who was the teacher, has bravely worked in the mines for thirty years!  I also visited the practice mine.  In the practice mine I witnessed a massive, white fire hose.  I also blindly walked a lifeline.  A lifeline is a line that is above your head that is used during disasters to safely guide you out of the mine.  You walk out of the mine by holding onto the line.   On it are orange cones and black squigglies.  When you come to a squiggly that means there is a rescue chamber with oxygen.  If you come to a cone that means you continue walking.  If you come to two cones that means the line branches out in different directions. Miners also make brass name tags to identify themselves. I made a brass tag for my DS case.  I learned much new information from the mining class.

Day 91 / 101 - More Camping in Tents

During our recent trip to West Virgina, we spent four days camping at Twin Falls Resort State Park.  Twin Falls is about equidistance between Beckley and Pineville (the town where my husband is now employed).  In order to make his commute a little easier, we headed for the campground once our practicum ended.

We always enjoy ourselves while camping, and Twin Falls is an excellent park.  Since my husband was still working during the days, this trip was quite 'educational' as the kids and I were responsible for all camp maintenance, food prep, wood splitting, fire building, etc.  I'm proud to say, we managed quite well.

Day 90 / 101 - Student Writing Intensive Camp

While I was at my practicum, and my daughter in her Geo-Drawing camp, my son attended a Student Writing Intensive Camp using materials from the Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW).  For the past two years, we've used IEW materials at home as part of our Essentials program with Classical Conversations.  The IEW believes that in order to succeed in every area of life, children must hone the skills needed to communicate confidently and effectively. Through the process of learning to write well, students learn how to think clearly and to express themselves eloquently and persuasively.  My son spent three days honing his writing skills and learning new writing techniques. This intensive camp covered more structures and styles as my son improved his writing and prepared for more advanced writing assignments.

I've posted earlier this year about some IEW assignments we've done at home.  A compliment came to me from one of his camp leaders who said, 'I can tell he's been working on this at home.  He seems to know quite a bit of the material'.

Day 89 / 101 - Geo-Drawing Camp

Last week I attended a three day Classical Conversations practicum in West Virgina.  While there, my daughter spent her days in a popular Geo-Drawing camp where she learned about the geography of the earth including the major features and political boundaries of the continents.  She was taught drawing skills in order to help her complete her projects.  Above is her drawn map of Africa, that shows country boundaries and rivers and is colored by geographical region.