Math Week

Aiden is in charge of the lessons this week. He has decided that they haven't been doing much math lately, so that is the theme for the week. They've both spent a while on Khan Academy doing the practice and earning points/badges. We've played around with this before, but I had forgotten how great it is. Although you have to do a set number of problems correctly to become proficient, you can skip around on the flow chart and it will back fill proficiency as needed. Best of all it's FREE!

He also wrote 10 story problems for Zoë to do based on Halloween. They're cute problems like "You get 12 Reece's peanut butter cups, but Dad gets a 25% toll. How many peanut butter cups do you have left?" We've also been playing math games like Equate and Set. Basically he said he wanted to find a way to do math things that Zoë would enjoy.

We are also as a family learning Sign Language. That has been a lot of fun. The kids are excited that they can now "talk with their mouths full." We checked out books from the library and have a friend that knows ASL so we can practice with her. Most of our dinner conversation last night was spent sharing signs and trying to talk in sign.

My big issue right now is coming up with a way to evaluate success in their learning by the end of the year. I've started to piece together some vague ideas and in the end I'm hoping to have a questionnaire we can each use to see how we think things are going. It needs to be life skills/job performance based instead of a standardized test. In this information age it isn't important that they can recall mundane facts, but rather can they work on a team, can they communicate (in many forms) their ideas to others, can they solve problems creatively...that kind of thing. I'm constantly evaluating and thinking about these kinds of things, but it would be nice to have it in writing with specific examples. In the end it will probably help if I need to create high school transcripts for them too.

Pasta, Link and enzymes

As usual our week off doesn't mean a lack of learning, just a lack of record keeping for me and a very relaxed schedule. On Monday we all tried our hands at making pasta. It tasted fantastic, but I'm not sure it's worth all the work it took. Tuesday the afternoon was spent planning and designing a treehouse that the kids are going to build with their Grandpa. They were also both bitten by the cleaning bug and spent hours cleaning their room in the morning. It is so great when they do things like that without being told!

Zoë has more sewing lessons with Nana this weekend, and I'm sure they'll be busy finishing Aiden's Halloween costume. He's decided to be Link from the Zelda games. He's even growing his hair out to fit the image.

I also wanted to share this success story with everyone. If you're not familiar with Foldit, it is a game put out to help scientists fold proteins to try to find cures for diseases. Apparently a gamer has accomplished in 3 weeks, what they have been trying to do for years. We have played around with Foldit for about a year now. It's amazing what can be learned through games!

A Much Anticipated Update

This picture was from our nature hike in Bush Wildlife Preserve in August. Despite the heat it was a great day and we discovered lots of new things.

Now that summer is finally over I'm starting to get back into our groove. This is our first week with all of the fall activities running. In a push to get Zoë involved in more social activities, we've added even more to our schedule this year. She has joined Team Spark in the First Lego League and the local 4-H club. We also have soccer, piano, JET and Tae Kwon Do for both of the kids. My Google Calendar looks crazy!

Two weeks ago the kids came down for breakfast with the idea that they were going to take turns planning activities for a week for each other. Zoë started last week with a reading unit. They read the first book in the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series by Katheryn Lasky. She made a scavenger hunt for Aiden to do in order to give her reading directions to him. They also researched owls, drew accurate pictures of owls, made up their own kind of owl and discussed the book. What most amazed me was Zoë's ability to tailor her lesson to Aiden. She knows that he doesn't really like to read and has a tendency to read 5 pages of a book then put it away. So the first day she gave him his first scavenger clue which told him to read the first chapter of the book. When he finished that, he could have the second clue and so on. By the end of the day he was so engrossed in the book that he kept reading past where she told him he could stop.

This week is Aiden's week. He is calling it Game Week. He's helping Zoë design her own Scratch game, playing different games with her, and they're making their own board games. It has been so enjoyable to see them get up each morning and be excited about what they're doing for the day. They really seem to like taking charge of teaching the other about something that interests them.

Zoë also had a sewing lesson yesterday at the place she got her new sewing machine. I could tell that the woman teaching the class was a little apprehensive that I was just planning to leave Zoë and not take the class with her. By the time we got back an hour later of course the woman had changed her tune. She raved about how quickly she learned things, and what a pleasure it was to teach her. Of course I knew that would be the case, because we all know that Zoë should be an ambassador for homeschooling and is a delight. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly she picks things up and amazes the people she meets!