Friday's Homeschooling

PE today was swimming. It may be the one of the last warm days this year, so I encouraged Aaron and some of his friends to spend time in the local creek.

Math - was fractions. He didn't listen to my instructions and got all the (simple) problems wrong. We'll do that page over again next week. ::sigh::

He's 12. I try to teach him - and his mind goes 100 miles an hour... in other directions. Sometimes it feels frustrating. I know he's learning all the time, and gets a lot of information from sources that have nothing to do with me sitting across from him at the table asking him to do things... but sometimes it feels too much like a battle to try to keep his mind on the topic at hand.

Ancient Wisdom today - was to read more Aesop's Fables and discuss them, and then the Golden Rule. Writing was to copy the Golden Rule. Reading - he did a word search puzzle.

Social Studies - we read a well-illustrated book about the ancient Roman Empire. When we got to the part about taxation of people in conquered countries, we were able to compare that situation with the US Revolutionary War taxation issue. I was impressed at reading that Roman homes were heated via hot water pipes under the floors. We discussed that, and it got him thinking. Since building is one of his interests, we have one class section this semester called "Alternative Archetecture". I'm always looking for new building ideas to show him.


Thursday's Homeschooling

Yesterday Aaron wanted to ride his bike, so I followed him in the car - several miles south along the river highway, and back again. He is fast, and didn't look at all winded when he got back. He wants to train for mountain biking, now that he's spent so much time reading about it.

He was really hard to work with for the other subjects... he was so distractable and energetic today. Math was fractions. Reading and writing were from the Dolch word lists we've been working with. We played the same game again, but he wasn't all that interested this time. I'm going to have to think of a new game strategy. I had him fill out a crossword puzzle worksheet... one I created myself for him a few days ago. This was his first time to do a crossword... like I have said so many times, this is a child who really, really did not want to learn to write (or read)... except in theory, perhaps.

He had fun painting and making ink blots - we compared our impressions on what the ink blots resembled... that was fun.

For Ancient Wisdom I read him more of the Aesop's Fables.

  ¶ 5:22 PM