I now have I new computer . It's running great and it's much faster than my old one. It is a little more than 3x faster.   I tryed out a few things and it worked great. It took awhile to get updates for windows and install.  Then update Norton Anti-vrius. But that didn't take too long.

Even though it took a little while to get it up and running, I still had plenty of time to play around with it. However, school kinda disappeared  Nothing much got done. But I guess you don't get a new computer every day. Still things needed to be done. I have a feeling that tomarrow will be more productive, especially now that I don't have to move from system to system.

We did a lot today. We researched the topics related to the chemical nature of minerals - including keeping track of the resources we would need to cite. Jesse and I were teamed up and we added our part of the reserach into the co-op's wiki. That was interesting.

After that we took notes from a video on crystal habits and photographed Zachary and Maria being molecules. They would be the molecules in our chrystal lattice illustrations.

Then we worked on a lab. We didn't have time today to write the lab write up. I will get that done tomorrow.

I am getting behind on my learning journal. Here is what I did today:

Literature:

I worked mostly on the Tom Sawyer Notebook today. I finished the setting analysis and have begun the character analysis for the character Tom Sawyer. His will be a big one since he is the main character. I have located pictures to illustrate the page, but I forgot to record where I found them. Tomorrow I will go back to get that information. I just am not in the habit yet to gather research and resources and remember to record the bibliography data. I remembered it for getting the quotes from the book at least. I noted the publisher, printing, and page number information wI will need.

Art:

yesterday I finished one of the unit one art projects. I wanted to do it on the computer. but mom said no. the assignment was for paint media. After she brought out a brand new set of acrylic paint I was enthusiastic. There were lots of colors, but the assignment was to create a non-representational monochromatic painting. The design was easy. I am good at setting up patterns - all the internet graphics work I have been doing. It looked really good and I couldn't wait to begin adding the paint. But the paint was so uncooperative. Every brushstroke was so streaky. I wanted smooth colors like I can get on the computer, but the paint would not make an even layer. The brushes were brand new and good ones too, so it must have been the paper or the paint. The paper is very slick. I think that the paint just couldn't stick very well. With time running short because I am behind on the art scehdule, mom relented and let me do my design using the computer instead of restarting with the paint. For this design, it really will work so much better. I do want to use the paint though. I like the set. I just need to get some different paper next time. Even then, I think non-representational paintings still would be best on the computer instead.

PE:

I really don't like heat. I much prefer colder weather. Today it was great. So cool and comfortable. I had already had PE day this week, but mom said to go ahead and enjoy the first cool day of the season. The cats were playful and Spanky kept attacking my shoes. I finally just held still and let him chew and pull on my shoe laces. Mom came out with a camera and we took some pictures of the kitties. They seemed to be so glad for the cool weather too.

Neo was a pain though. In the heat I think he left the other cats alone just because he didn't want to over-heat himself. But he was so mean to the others today. I got much of my exercise chasing him away from the others. He is such a grumpy cat with everyone. As mean as he has been with the others though, they don't have a mark on them, but Neo has all kinds of scratches on his nose. Why won't he would just stettle down and be friends like the rest of them do?

General News:

My computer still has not arrived, but at least it is actually in the UPS sytem now. I have waited for over three weeks. Mom and Dad just about gave up on ever getting the people we bought it from to ship. Dad stayed patient and it really paid off because they bumped the sysytem up to a better motherboard in apology for all the delays. It should get here by Monday or Tuesday. It is coming from New York and is in Illinois right now.

I got a lot done again today, so I think that it may be official that I am back on track.

Math:

I am still working my way through unit assessments. I finished one today. I was a bit rusty on some of the concepts, I had to really sit and think about a few of them, but  finally what to do came to me and I got them right. The K12 and the Saxon method of estimating are different and I couldn't remeber the K12 one. Mom said that it was OK to use the Saxon way. I now only have the geometry assessment and to finish about 5 problems on the variables assesment (I forgot it had a back side too)to be done with semester 1. Mom says that she will hold off on giving me the semester assessment until December. I will be glad to get back to the Saxon 7/6. Mom gives us a reward of $25 dollars every time we complete a Saxon text and I am within 8 weeks from being done.

English:

I completed several complete units of GUM today. I am not doing just unit exams for GUM. I have to do each lesson assessment. Today I did lesson assessments on prepositions and conjunctions. Those are pretty easy topics. Noun assessments were really easy too. Pronouns were hard though. I guess I am forgetting all the pronoun cases and classes. Mom said that we will spend some time with the pronoun concept map to help me brush up on them. Some of them are not too hard, such as the reflexive case which are just pronouns with -self or -selves added on. Possessive case is OK. All the words sound like ownership words. Demonstrative class is another one that is not to bad. They are all 'pointing' words. But, remembering all those personal and relative pronouns is hard work even after you once have had them mastered.

Though only two major categories are listed, I did quite a lot in each one. A really good day.

Today is Gregory's 18th birthday! We will be having a birthday movie night tonight.

Today was a really good school day. I was able to stay focused and got a lot done.

Math

I completed more assesments today. The focus was on fractions. I am really good at those, so it was really easy. I got 100%.  I only have a few more assessments to go for this semester's K12. Once I have tested on all of them and scored above the minimum 90%, mom will switch me back to doing Saxon again. So far, only the inequalities have tripped me up. Saxon had only just touched on them a bit before the week took the three week break and moved into the K12 assessments.

English - Language Arts:

I completed a whole unit of GUM today and two lessons of Vocabulary. The vocabulary lessons were on latin roots related to number words. I pretty much knew all of them though I needed some reveiw to get over being a little rusty on them. Mostly is was the Latin roots for 7 and 9.

Notebooks - Rocks and Minerals:

I worked some more on the Rocks and Minerals Notebook and studied from my notes to take the Minerals unit assessment. I scored 100% on it. Next is the Rocks unit. I have until the end of that one to get both the Minerals and the Rocks Notebook finished. Now that I seem to have hit my school stride again though, it should be pretty easy.

Free Reading:

I have been really wanting to read some more of the Tom Swift books. Today I got a lot done, so I was able to start one of them. This one is just a free reading selection. I will not be notebooking this one.

We are continuing to work on developing research skills in co-op today. Today we specifically focused on web based research skills and web related bibliography skills. We also looked into many different methods to organize notes.

Melody has gone to the oral surgeon today, so we will not have school.

My brothers, Mom, and I all had dentist appointments today. It seemed like we were there for a long time because not all the appointments could be scheduled together. I was the first one to go int to get my teeth cleaned. When the hygenist brought me back to the waiting room she said, "If all their teeth are as clean as Timothy's then my job will be pretty easy." No one had cavities and now we all have polished smiles. Afterwards, we went out to Dairy Queen for lunch. I had a double cheeseburger meal and an Oreo Blizzard. Mmmm.

Math:

I worked on several unit math assessments while in the dentist's waiting room. Mom wanted to see if I needed the units since math is my strong subject. It was kind of hard to get my mind on it though. The waiting room had a TV on and being in a new place was distracting. I didn't finish the assessments because of that. I will work on them again tomorrow when I am at home.

History:

History was also another waiting room school assignment. I was able to read with pretty good concentration, but I am going to wait until tomorrow to do the assignment parts.

That was about all the schoolwork that I could do at a dentist's office. Tomorrow, Mom will be taking my sister to an oral surgeon to see about having her wisdom teeth taken out. She has to chew bubble gum a lot because her back teeth don't have enough room. I am glad I don't have to have any of my teeth removed.

Content coming soon.

I know that it has been a few days since I did my learning journal. I had a technical glitch which has been corrected now. My formatting went all haywire. There were no carriage returns. The removal of the journal entry for September 9th seemed to be the key. Everything returned to normal after that. Well, now I can get back on track with my learning journal again. Jesse will be joining us in our Rocks and Minearls study. We worked to catch him up to what we started last week and explored the collection and field guide. This is what I did today...