Homeschool Update

Mikro started some new classes in September. He is taking Debate/Mock Trial, Applied Social Sciences and Earth Science Regents Lab. (He may or may not take the Regents exam this year. I'm leaving it up to him. He still doesn't much like timed tests, and his handwriting (and lack of stamina) are issues. His knowledge of science is not... It will be his call.

In debate/mock trial, he has done a few challenge debates, and he is working on his public speaking skills. He is memorizing the St. Crispin's day speech from Shakespeare's Henry V, and already has a poem memorized. He's also working on other Shakespeare bits. For mock trial, he is working on putting together opening and closing statements, learning common courtroom objections, and he can finally answer what Article III of the Constitution does. (Back when he was 5, he decided that I was an imbecile because I did not know all the dinosaurs. In an effort to illustrate that people have different sorts of knowledge, I quizzed him on legal minutiae, which left him getting that there are more ways than one to be intelligent in this world. He just reminded me of this as he was researching Article III!)



In Applied Social Sciences, the kids role played forming a society after beig stranded together on a deserted island. Their next scenario has been to act as cabinet advisors to the President, advising him on a hypothetical crisis (which resembles the Cuban Missle Crisis...)

On his own time, he's designing a prehistory board game.



He's also intrigued by my art journaling, and has started a little daily cartoon journal.

In Earth Science Lab, he has been doing rock ID labs, using tools like scratch plates and a mineral testing kit that comes with various specimens of known hardness on the Mohs Scale. He worked with a team to learn how to use an altimeter, and some trigonometry, to calculate the jheight of the waterfall in the Central Park Ramble. He gave an oral report on plate tectonics and the Indian subcontinent. He has learned about superpostion, intrusions, folding, minerals, plate tectonics, volcanoes, etc. and is really enjoying the class. He isn't enjoying writing up lab reports, because of his fine motor issues... But he is equally hating learning to type, so I'm just leaving it to him to decide which process is more odious...











He was really intrigued by the cast members from iLuminate who appeared at Maker Faire, and I was lucky to be able to get discounted tickets to see their show.



We also saw a show at the New Victory Theater:



Both of these performances got us into a discussion of visual storytelling, and Mr. Verbose is thinking of how to retell the Prometheus myth visually. I am eagerly waiting to see what he comes up with. (Last night, he informed me that The Phantom of the Opera was the story of Persephone...)

We continue to do all our other academics at home, and although I designed this year's history study as dark ages and middle ages, we have gotten obsessed with Roman Architecture over here (I am doing a Yale Open Courseware class.) So we are taking a little detour and revisiting Rome. We are almost done with a Great Courses offering entitled Understanding Greek and Roman Technology: From the Catapult to the Pantheon, which is an engineering class! Mikro and I are both fascinated. Kev has not had much chance to watch with us, but was intrigued by the bits he was able to catch. We are also doing the Great Courses' Experiencing Rome series. We're a third of the way through that one. (And I have the Great Courses Vikings class on hold at the library for when we are done with Rome...)

Mikro is working on his UFO models. Here is his latest creation:



And since it is November, he's once again signed up for the Nanowrimo Young Writers Program. He is working on a sequel to his story "The Boy and the Egg." I can't wait to see what he does this time.