I decided to use the J-Term concept for homeschool -- January is going to be a month of short-term study of things we don't normally study.

Primary J-Term subjects:

Can you guess what we're doing in February?

That's right, we're going to Mexico! I am so very excited. A friend called us on Christmas Eve to say that because of illness (sad) some family members would not be using their 1/2 of a double bungalow, so we are going for an entire week. Plus our friends have 3 little girls, so built in playmates and childcare swapping! We never go anywhere for a week anymore. Wahoo!

Violet also "graduates" from Yamaha right after our return, and for their final in-class recital she wants to write her own song. I'd said that's fine as long as we actually write it. I will probably do most of the recording, but I thought at least she could help me fill in the black dots and such. I think she needs some reinforcement on notation anyway -- especially the various rest symbols -- so it should be good. We also have our teacher search narrowed down to 2, both supposed to be very good. One I know is supposed to very good with precocious kids and kids who like to improvise and compose -- though I hear she is a bit "picky" with her students.

Violet has also been begging Husband to teach her more HTML. They did a little bit one night before bed and I had to drag her away from the computer. Of course, her dad is her hero, so she loves computers. And she would love to be able to do games and such.

Not sure how much physics we'll actually cover, but I want to make good use of the Physics Circus that Violet and Husband will be attending soon.

Monday we're headed to the homeschool store for new Singapore books. I think our plan is to buy two years at once and bounce back and forth among them, plus use some supplementary materials. She averages about middle of 5th grade for math, but she still needs work memorizing those multiplication facts! So we will get the 4th grade books as kind of an "intro" to stuff and then go into the 5th grade for more depth, and continue to use outside geometry and algebra materials for challenge as well.

I don't know why I even put so much effort into math. It's not her passion, it's not her best subject, she does fine with it, but somehow math is the subject that I spend the most time trying to get just right.

I think that's another musing for another day: What is the place of math in our school? Do I really want to give it so much of our energy?

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Posted by Anonymous

Your trip sounds so exciting!

Mamita

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