The two weeks before Christmas we are doing lego school. The kids have to build houses and make businesses and sell things and build an economy. Kate and Johnny volunteered to make a government much like ours where they are requiring permits to even be able to sell. It's been interesting to hear the kids say, "how can I pay for a permit when I have no money and how can I get money when I cannot sell anything?" (I know that frustration.) They also have some fun things like a lawyer character going around and causing accidents and convincing people to sue each other. They have made up a court system to take care of that and they hold court and have a jury and judges. The little gold and silver round pieces are their money, so it makes a real economy with real economic restrictions. They are also required to pay taxes and register marriages and births. Kate at one point made it so there were no taxes but had to pay a registry fee every time they changed their clothes.Their mini figures are all the people and they do have plenty. Joseph made a terrorist who built bombs and took down some homes. The last I heard, they have not solved the mystery of which mini fig is the terrorist, even though they know which player has that mini fig. It's a fun and memorable way to learn about government, taxes, permits, and licenses, and co urts and juries and such. After lego school, we'll take 2 weeks off for the holidays, and then back into the regular academic grind.
We've been reading together as a family again. We will finish up the Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov and then move on to a Christmas Carol. John will likely pick the next book.
I finally got out to the yard to play capture the flag with the John and the kids. It has been a long hard recovery from this pregnancy and labor and delivery and I don't think that I am half there yet. But I noticed that Adam had no energy. He spent the game lying on the ground and that motivated me to get in charge of my kids fitness. For the past year, I sent them outside to play and do their own games. Now, I am getting them out of bed earlier on Monday and Tuesday mornings and we are running what we thought was a mile, until I clocked it with the van and found out that it is closer to a mile and a half. One other late afternoon during the week, I am taking them out to our biggest field for races and physical education games. John takes them out to play soccer. I told Adam that it is not embarrassing for a 46 year old woman who has born 13 children to not be able to run a mile, but it is embarrassing for a 17 year old boy. He is trying hard, and it will get easier for him. I will not let up on this one until the April or May when it will be too hot. Then I will have to find something else. I am thinking we will either do weight lifting or aerobics videos. I want to be able to run that full distance too. Johnny is coming with us and he is getting back into it fairly easy. He has allergies and didn't want to cough outside during covid, so he quit running, but is now getting back into it with us. The next best runner is Joshua. We would never have guessed this because Josh spends as much of his free time on the computer as he possibly can and then he sits down and draws a lot and he has never much played soccer. Joseph would be in third place. Rachel and Anya and Susan and Arwen can run about half the route. Watching Anya do anything athletic makes me wonder if that was me with those awkward long arms and legs and total lack of coordination. I usually have Gideon and Sam with me. Gideon runs the whole way to keep up with my walk and he keeps me from running, so I need to go out without him once a week.
Now for each one individually:
Adam is a junior in high school. He is understanding his chemistry and his math fairly well. I think he might get chemistry a little better than math, but his math is stronger than it has ever been and he is really starting to understand concepts. I think he will be ready for calculus in about two months. I want to go over the geometry part of pre-calculus again, We've spent the year on the algebra and trigonometric concepts thus far. Adam does read better. He has read a few books and is reading more. His history this year, is History of the Church. I do not know how his computer programming is going because Johnny takes care of that. I have been looking into a few online courses for Adam, so I might go that route. He could take classes at the local community college, but with the lack of clothing on the girls, and the gender confusion, and anger and hate and perverse sexuality coming from this generation, he will not be going to any institution for college. Even if I wanted him to, he would not do it.
Rachel is a sophomore in high school. She is a much better reader now and is really enjoying her books. (Few, that took years.) For history, I am having her read biographies. Right now, I have handed her biographies from world war 2, but later, I will get her on some from the French revolution and the American revolution. Then she will have to do American History and World History again before graduation. Rachel hates science. I am trying to find creative ways to get her through that. I will probably have her take chemistry next school year as it is mostly math. I am going to teach a biology or an anatomy and physiology course for all of the kids in May, so that will be a start. Rachel is in algebra 2 and is doing fine with that, but she complains a ton and doesn't like fractions and decimals and wants every number to be a whole, positive number.
Anya is in 8th grade. She is in geometry for math and reading an American history book. Anya's math is good. Her art is excellent, but I think she can do better than she is doing, and I am hoping to start painting with Anya and Arwen more after Christmas. Anya is reading about animals for science and she is reading The 5 Kingdoms for her language arts course. This is our year of reading, where almost everything we do is centered around reading to learn and reading for enjoyment. All around, I think Anya is doing well both in life and in academics. Anya is generally quiet, unopinionated, and easy going living in a sea of opinionated brothers and sisters who are always talking.
Joseph is basically in the 8th grade, though officially in the 7th. I will decide when I want him to graduate as he gets older. He is very smart and very capable. He is doing geometry for math, though he's not quite as good as Anya is at it, so he often has to redo sections until he knows them better and can pass the tests with 90%. Joseph is reading about storms and the atmosphere and then rocks and land formations for science, so he is basically in an earth science course. He is reading American history and not enjoying it at all. That has been a big struggle for him this year. Hopefully, in time, Joseph will find some things that he likes and wants to learn. He is not there. He is still saying how much he hates school. I know that in part it is his age. Middle school boys are notorious and he has been no different than his brothers and his father at the same age. But Joseph is exceedingly smart and has always been ahead. He was talking early, reading early, doing difficult math early, doing computer things early. He can do the electronics set up in the house easily. He was good at cooking until he got lazy about it. I hope his boredom with everything he learns will change. That certainly is not who he was born to be.
Joshua is in the fifth grade. He is reading Old Yeller and really enjoying that. He is finally getting a lot more fluent in his reading. This school year he has read about bugs and spiders and snakes and lizards. I am not sure what he will want to do next. We are almost through all of our books on that. I have started writing up questions for Josh to answer while he reads and that has changed his reading a lot. He has gone from trying to figure out what each word says to getting the story contextually. He is reading the same stuff that Adam read at the same age. Adam was always a fluent reader, he just never paid attention. Josh has always struggled with fluency and I am much more on top of what to look for as a homeschooling mom now, so I am really pushing his comprehension. I think Josh feels happier with his reading. Josh has been doing a lot of art this school year too, and he is really, really good at that. Josh is pretty good with his math, but he does not like word problems and he cries over every new concept. Right now he is doing long division. We will probably spend two more months on that before we move on to decimals and fractions. I never stay with the book. The books seem to overdo some things like counting money and then underdo things like long division.
Arwen is in the 4th grade and she is an excellent reader. She is reading the Fablehaven series this year. Arwen is mostly excelling with her math. Sometimes she gets a little confused, but she works best if I leave her alone to figure things out herself. Arwen is doing well with her art and painting. I am hoping to get some time to do that more with her.
Susan is beginning to read. At this point, I think her curriculum is going to slow for her, so I may drop off on the book and do her reading lessons myself or maybe a combination. Susan is officially in the second grade, but she is very behind on reading. I knew that she would be because she didn't talk until she was 3 and she did not understand what I said to her until she was past two and a half, so I have purposely taken it very slow with her and spent a lot more time reading books to her. But I think she is ready to take off. She is reading the Cat and the Hat to me right now and she is a smooth, clean reader. She takes a lot from context. I think in another two years, Susan will be all caught up, but I also think that I need to be consistent with her.
Sam knows his alphabet and his numbers and he can add and subtract simple numbers in his head. In January, I will start him on sounding out words. He likes to do his pre-school work. He does not like to color though. If he has a coloring assignment, he tends to skip school work altogether, so I have been avoiding assigning those coloring workbook pages.
Gideon will be three in January. He is not talking as much as I would like him to be, but he's talking more than my later talkers did at that age. Gideon loves to draw and spends a lot of time on that. He has really loved lego school. Gideon has a theme. He loves superheroes, particularly Batman. He loves to wear anything Batman, read anything Batman, color Batman, play with Batman dolls, and watch Batman cartoons. Spiderman is in second place for Gideon. He has an Avenger coloring book and he likes to look at the pictures of the different superheroes and then watch battles with them on youtube. The one thing that I am focusing on with Gideon right now is potty training. He knows what to, and he knows to ask, but he is stubborn. I am hoping to be done by the end of Christmas break.
School goes best when Eliza is napping. She wants to be held and to be the center of attention. I cannot combine holding Eliza and doing lessons for Josh and Adam. It works all right for lessons with Susan. But Eliza is starting to play on the floor more, so hopefully the second semester of this school year will go better than the previous ones.
