February 1st 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down with Mr Tom and worked on my piano lesson for today. We started off by working in the Technique book, where we went on to a new song, entitled Major Third, Minor Third. After that, we worked on Space Shuttle Blues in the Lesson Book, and played a song from a game I have, Red Alert 3.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

Mr Tom

---

February 2nd 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs Space Shuttle Blues, Major Third, Minor Third, and a song from a game I have, Red Alert 3. I also made up many songs, and wrote one down so that I could remember it.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

---

English

Time: 20 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I wrote a story about Carhenge (yes, that actually does exist!), and used pronouns and nouns to bring the story to life. Carhenge is the monument of a man with way too much time on his hands, and is made out of roughly 15-20 cars arranged in pretty much the same way Stonehenge is. If you have too much time on your hands, you can go see it in Nebraska. I underlined all the nouns and pronouns I used.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

---

Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We went for a walk down the road and through the woods. It was very beautiful and warm, but quite slippery.

---

Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/NatureJournalFeb2.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

---

Elective

Time: 40 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this morning, I learned some more about people's expectations for President Obama's first 100 days. I finished almost all the article questions, and I am doing well.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/Obama100Days.pdf

Resources

NY Times Current Affairs website

---

Elective

Time: 120 min

A Local Study of Mountain Lake

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/ShippenNativeAmericanDay.pdf

Resources

Mr Andy Drysdale

Shippen Manor

---

Math

Time: 75

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my algebra 1 lesson today by working on the lesson in the book for Video 16, which I watched last time. We started by working on the video questions, that were there to test what I had learned from the last lesson. Because we did this lesson so late, I had a bit of trouble with this bit, but it was mainly my basic math that let me down. We used the graphing calculator to solve some quadratic equations which I wouldn't have been able to on my own yet. After that, we moved on to the article questions, where I did a bit better. I solved some more quadratic equations, did some exercises that linked quadratic equations to their graphs and created some quadratic equations of my own. After that, I worked on an exercise that involved figuring out the equation for a diagram of a box with the corners cut off, and finished up.

Resources

My Math Book

Algebra 1 Course

My Dad

---

Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we listened to and talked through a short exercise in our Voila! Cd and Book, that involved going shopping at a small store. In it, the shopkeeper gets increasingly annoyed at the shopper because they only have a 20 euro bill and the price was around 3 euros. After that, we read through some more of Voila! and worked on a french solitaire game on the Ma France website.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

Ma France Website

---

February 3rd 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs Space Shuttle Blues, Major Third, Minor Third, and a song from a game I have, Red Alert 3. I also made up many songs, and wrote one down so that I could remember it.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

---

English

Time: 20 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I corrected some sentences with the wrong pronouns in them, in my Hot Fudge Monday grammar book. After that, I circled all the pronouns in a story about a man from France who eats bicycles!

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

---

Elective

Time: 40 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this morning, I learned some more about people's expectations for President Obama's first 100 days. I finished all the article questions, which definitely gave me food for thought.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/Obama100Days.pdf

Resources

NY Times Current Affairs website

---

Math

Time: 30

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my algebra 1 lesson today by working on the last problem in Lesson 16, which was on problem solving with quadratic equations. Today's problem was about finding the equation for the area of a rectangle whose length was two times its width. Therefore, the equation for finding the area was 2x times x, which is 2x^2, and so we found the area. Next we found the perimeter, which was 6x. Dad gave me some coaching on how to write up what I had done so that someone looking at my book, or me in a few months time, would know what they were looking at. Lastly, we used some clever manipulation to find x.

Resources

My Math Book

Algebra 1 Course

My Dad

---

Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we listened to and talked through a short exercise in our Voila! Cd and Book, that involved asking for change in French, and practiced that. After that, we read through a short French shopping magazine, which encouraged us to buy, buy, BUY! the HyperSup? Barbecue Oven, and finished a solitaire French word-matching game on the Ma France Website. We did it TIMED today!

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

Ma France Website

---

Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

For my worms project, I filled in some pages about worm anatomy and movement in my Worms Eat My Garbage Book, and then worked on a short story about my first experiences with worms. When I had done that, I created a model worm out of a rubber band and compared its movement to a real worm's.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/worms.pdf

Resources

Worms Eat My Garbage Course

My Computer

Worms books

---

February 4th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs Space Shuttle Blues, Major Third, Minor Third, and a song from a game I have, Red Alert 3. I also made up many songs, and wrote one down so that I could remember it.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

---

English

Time: 20 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I started work on interjections in my Hot Fudge Monday grammar book. Interjections are things that you put into a sentence to add life to it, like 'Bang! The gun went off!", where Bang! would be the interjection. I filled in the punctuation in some sentences with interjections in them, and then wrote a short, interjection-filled story.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/highschoolreunion.pdf

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

---

Math

Time: 30

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my algebra 1 lesson today by watching video 17 of my Algebra 1 course, which was on modeling real-world data with quadratic functions, and was very interesting. The video started by discussing what it means to model real-world data using quadratic functions, and then introduced the real-world examples we would be using in the lesson. The first was on the acceleration of an object in free-fall, and the second was on the annual revenue and ticket prices of a theater company. The first example was quite tricky, and, as usual with real-world problems, the numbers weren't at all accurate. Nevertheless, we managed to use a graphing calculator and its regression curve function to find the quadratic equation and answer the questions posed about it. Then we moved on to the second problem, which was quite easy to figure out, but harder to find the equation. Lastly, we summarized what we had done and finished up.

Resources

My Math Book

Algebra 1 Course

My Dad

---

February 5th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs Space Shuttle Blues, Major Third, Minor Third, and a song from a game I have, Red Alert 3. I also made up many songs, and wrote one down so that I could remember it.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

---

English

Time: 20 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I worked on the second interjection activity in my Hot Fudge Monday grammar book. It asked me to craft a small script about a conversation with someone who uses too many interjections. When I was done with this, I read through it to see if I had made any mistakes.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

---

Elective

Time: 45 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we listened to and read through a fake french magazine full of advertisements and answered some questions about it. Then we wrote some past-tense sentences using imparfait and passe-compose, read through them and sent them off to our french teacher Miss Marie.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

Ma France Website

---

Science

Time: 40

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

For my evolution this morning, I went on the National Geographic website to learn about the evolution of birds from dinosaurs. I started by reading through a facts section on the turkey and its ancestors (who were bigger and had more teeth!), and then read about the evolution of the whale and the turkey. There was one tiny little dinosaur that had wings on its arms and legs that would soar through the trees, which I though was especially interesting! I took lots of notes.

Resources

National Geographic Website

---

Science

Time: 90 min

Physical Science

Reflection

For our science today, we worked on part two of our weather project. We started by doing a little recap of what we learned in the last lesson, and discussing the different layers of the atmosphere. Then we moved on to the new lesson, which started with a discussion of what drives the weather: wind! And how is wind caused? By warm air rising and cold air sinking, creating a cycle that drives the wind. This can be seen on a large scale on the earth, with the warm air rising from the equator moving to the the north and south poles, getting cold and coming back to the equator. If the earth wasn't rotating, this would be in a perfect line, back and forth, but because it is rotating, the air currents move in a sort of circular pattern. After that, we discussed some weather proverbs, learned about how clouds form and change, about pressure maps, and how to ID clouds. Then we finished up.

Resources

My Dad

My Computer

---

English

Time: 240 min

A Study of Classical and Modern Literature

Reflection

I read The Rangers Apprentice for an hour, and one of my Dungeons and Dragons books, Open Grave, for another three hours.

Resources

My Computer

---

February 6th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs Space Shuttle Blues, Major Third, Minor Third, and a song from a game I have, Red Alert 3. I also made up many songs, and wrote one down so that I could remember it.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

---

English

Time: 20 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I worked on the third interjection activity in my Hot Fudge Monday book of grammar. It was about preposterous interjections, like "Holy hubcaps!" or "Jumping jelly beans!" I wrote down many crazy interjection sentences in the space provided, and mom went through it with me.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

---

English

Time: 240 min

A Study of Classical and Modern Literature

Reflection

I read The Rangers Apprentice for about half an hour, and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for two hours and a half.

Resources

My Computer

---

Elective

Time: 40 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For our history study today, we listened to our Story of the World Cd on the Modern Age. Today's stories were on the aftermath of the civil war, Abraham Lincoln's assassination (and the way he had a premonition of it, which was quite spooky), and lastly about Fransisco Lopez, and his failed war in South America.

Resources

Story of the World

---

February 7th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs Space Shuttle Blues, Major Third, Minor Third, and a song from a game I have, Red Alert 3. I also made up many songs, and wrote one down so that I could remember it.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

---

Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We started our third dancing and singing class by working on some stretches and exercises, which included touching our toes, doing isolations (where we isolate one body part and stretch it), neck rolls and pushups. Then we began to work on some more games to increase our feel for balance and pattern. The first was a game where one person made a shape with their body and another person added to it, using the shape the last person made as a base. Then the first person left. It was a lot of fun, but quite hard. The second game was about making a chain of shapes to go across the room. When we were done with that, we began to work on the movements for one of our songs, and sang!

Resources

Miss Lia

Other students

---

English

Time: 60 min

Speech: The Actor and Writer Speaks

Reflection

When we arrived at my acting class with Mr Danny, we began by doing some warm ups, which involved telling a story about your week, which the other kids had to identify as true or false. I thought my friend Lizzi did a very good job with this part. Then we talked about Mr Danny's plans for the rest of the classes: that we will take poems and make plays out of them! For fun today, we took Shel Silverstein's poem "The Dirtiest Man in the World" and made a play based on it. Mr Danny said that it was very good, and we will continue it.

Resources

Mr Danny

Other students

---

February 8th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down with Mr Tom and worked on my piano lesson for today. We started off by working in the Technique book, where we finished Major Third, Minor Third and went on to a new song, entitled Perfect Fifths. After that, we worked on Space Shuttle Blues in the Lesson Book, and finished it! We moved on to a new song called Olympic Procession, which is very cool! For our last piece, we worked on an unnamed song from a game I have, Red Alert 3! We worked a little bit on the speed and the rhythm.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

Mr Tom

---

English

Time: 45 min

A Study of Classical and Modern Literature

Reflection

I read the sixth Harry Potter Book, Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince, for 45 minutes.

Resources

Book: The Half-Blood Prince

---

February 9th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs Olympic Procession, Major Third, Minor Third, and a song from a game I have, Red Alert 3. I also made up a few songs.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

---

English

Time: 20 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I worked on the pirate's interjection handbook, which tells pirates which interjections like "Aha!" and "Arrgh!" should be used at what time. I had a really good time filling them in, and finished up.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

---

Elective

Time: 40 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this morning, I learned all about chocolate! Why? So I could learn just how much information there is on that topic and fill in a Chocolate Bingo board with the information. I got some great recipes, and tomorrow, continuing on the theme of learning information online, I will be studying wickepedia.

Resources

NY Times Current Affairs website

---

Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We went for a walk down the road and through the woods. It was very beautiful and warm, but quite slippery, because the ice is melting.

---

Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/NatureJournalFeb9.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

---

Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we read through a page of our Voila! book that didn't require the CD. There was an interview, as well as a helpful box identifying all the new words. When we were done with that, we did an activity that involved posing questions about how much we liked things, and the other person answered them.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

Ma France Website

---

Math

Time: 75

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my algebra 1 lesson today by working on the lesson in the book for Video 17, which was about creating mathematical models using real-world data. We started by answering some questions about modeling and others about things I learned in the lesson. We also used the graphing calculator on the computer to answer some of the questions. I did pretty good in this part. After that, we moved on to the supplementary exercises, which were about learning to use the quadratic regression curve function on a type of graphing calculator we don't have. Fortunately, we were able to use Openoffice Spreadsheet to solve the problems as well as we could. Then we finished up. Today's lesson was fun!

Resources

My Math Book

Algebra 1 Course

My Dad

---

Social Studies

Time: 90

A Study of Physical and Political Geography

Reflection

When everyone had arrived for our Geography lesson, we started learning about civic duties and civic virtues. Civic duties are things that the community says you must do, like pay taxes and follow the law. Civic virtues are things you can do to benefit the community, like picking up litter or donating money. To explore this more, we read a sheet about how villagers in the town of San Martin Alto discussed how they would keep Alpacas on the Parama (the high ground). They were discussing how they would be able to keep them now that Pumas had been spotted on the paramo. One man volunteered to be an Alpaca herder, and the whole community agreed to provide food and lodging for him. This was a form of taxation, where the community members had to pay for something that would benefit them all. Lastly, we split into groups and drew up plans for three different community projects. We had a vote, and Matthew and I won with our Project Road Cleanup!

Resources

Lessons from a Village Called Earth Geography Course

My mom

---

February 10th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs Olympic Procession, Major Third, Minor Third, and a song from a game I have, Red Alert 3. I also made up a few songs.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

---

English

Time: 20 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I worked on interjection-y things I would say if certain things happened, like finding a library book that's so overdue, I owe the library $600. I had a really good time writing it.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

---

Elective

Time: 40 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this morning, I learned all about wickepedia in an article by the New York Times. They asked the question "How can a source of information be trustworthy if anyone can go in and edit it?" The answer is that, although the system isn't perfect, we can track most of the abuses, and wickipedia is a great online resource.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/wickipedia.pdf

Resources

NY Times Current Affairs website

---

Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We went for a walk down the road and through the woods. It was very beautiful and warm, but quite slippery, because the ice is melting.

---

Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/NatureJournalFeb10.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

---

Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we wrote down the sentences we talked through last time, which all started with "Vous aimez....?" or "Vous preferez.....?" When we were done with these, we typed them up and sent them off to our french teacher. Then we went on the Ma France website and watched a video about asking for directions (and following them), in which the protagonists got lost and had to ask for directions to "La Cite International." in Lyon. It was very good, and when we were done, we printed out the transcript to read through next time.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

Ma France Website

---

Math

Time: 30

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my algebra 1 lesson today by watching video 18 of my Algebra 1 course, which was on Explorations with Polynomials (Degrees Greater than One). It was very cool, because at last I got to see a cubic equation in action. The standard form for a cubic equation is this: ax^3+bx^2+cx +d, which looks kind of confusing but isn't. The first situation in this lesson was this: You have a 16" by 16" sheet of paper, and you want to cut off the corners (x by x large) and fold up the sides to make a box. The questions are: "What is the value of x that gives you the largest volume of the box?" and "What is this volume?" After Dad and I figured out the equation (although we messed up a bit) we each made our guesses. Then, on the video, the instructor drew out a chart, and I was closest to the answer, but no cigar. Then we put it on the graphing calculator and used one of its functions to find the highest point and its x-equivalent. Then we moved on to scenario number two, which was about making cubes with little cubes. The questions were: "How many faces are exposed in a 7x7x7 cube?" "Find the side length for the cube that has 96 unit cubes with two faces exposed." and "Find the side length for the cube that has 216 unit cubes with 0 faces exposed." We solved these using visuals, the graphing calculator, and our brains. Then we finished up.

Resources

My Math Book

Algebra 1 Course

My Dad

---

Elective

Time: 25 min

Economics

Reflection

Mom went through today's section of our Economics course, Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?, with me. I started by reading the Preface and A Note About Economics from the lesson book, and in the exercise book, answered some questions about them.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/economics1.pdf

Resources

Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? Economics Course

---

English

Time: 120 min

Speech: The Actor and Writer Speaks

Reflection

When I arrived at my second session of Dungeons and Dragons, we had a bit of a social time while the dungeon master struggled to find all the stuff he had written down from the last lesson. Then we started up again. We were right in the middle of a climactic boss fight with some kobolds and a big kobold war-chief (kobolds are a cross between a rat on two legs and and a crocodile having a bad hair day). The kobold war-chief wasn't as much of a fight as he seemed to think he was, and after dealing with his minions, we finished him off quickly. As he glared at us through his rapidly glazing eyes, he swore that his brotherhood would avenge him. And then he died before I could ask him what he meant. He didn't seem desperately chatty anyway. Later that night, after stealing what we could from the kobold fortress, we went to sleep, but were rudely awakened by some kobolds who ambushed us in our first session. Despite the fact that they set the fortress on fire (we were in the middle of a dry forest, so this was a really bad idea), we won the battle and went back to town victorious, where, thanks to some sympathizing with the guards, I got to go in free. My friend Trevor, on the other hand, offended them and wouldn't pay the toll. He was about to start a fight so I payed it for him. While we stopped at the village, I bought a horse and a staff, while Trevor went to jail after starting a fight over an overpriced item. I am still deciding whether to teach him a lesson and leave him in there, or bail him out. I'll find out next time. Anyway, I really started developing my character's personality this time, and I cannot wait for next time!

Resources

Quin, our Dungeon Master

Trevor, the other Player

Dungeons and Dragons Handbooks

---

Elective

Time: 90 min

Art and Publishing

For my art this evening, I worked with my art teacher on my Gargoyle painting, something I haven't done in a while. We are figuring out how to make the gargoyle look limestone-y, but right now we are just working on the shadows, which we are doing in a dark green. I think it is looking really good!

Resources

Mr Pete

Paints and Brushes

---

English

Time: 240 min

A Study of Classical and Modern Literature

Reflection

I read Stormy Weather and Odious Oceans for about an hour, and my Dungeons and Dragons books for another hour.

Resources

Stormy Weather

Odious Oceans

Dungeons and Dragons books

---

February 11th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs Olympic Procession, Major Third, Minor Third, and a song from a game I have, Red Alert 3. I also made up a few songs.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

---

English

Time: 20 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I worked on a page about making your own internet search engine, which I called Yippee! I wrote a short paragraph on it, and its seven subcategories, Eek!, Ah!, Aha!, Hey!, Yo!, What! and Shucks!

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

---

Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We went for a walk down the road and through the woods. It was very beautiful and warm, but quite slippery, because the ice is melting.

---

Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

We started our first birding class by discussing a little bit about what we had planned for the class. Today we watched a presentation about birds, and then went out and did a bit of bird identification. The presentation was very good, and started with the question: "What are birds?" "What makes them different from any other kind of animal?" The answer is that birds have feathers. That is the only thing that separates birds from other animals. Then we moved on to the evolution of birds, how the first bird was the archeopteryx and all the bird species are descended from that one family. After that, we learned about bird populations, habitats and birds that get into other bird's nests, kick out all the baby birds and makes the poor parent bird feed it. These are called brood parasites. Anyway, when we were done with the presentation, we went outside and did a bit of walking and bird-watching. This was very cool, and we identified quite a few birds. Lastly, we went inside and got our countries for our bird projects.

Birds we IDed

-House Sparrow -Turkey Vulture -Tufted Titmouse -White-Breasted Nuthatch -Goldfinch -Starling

Resources

Miss Liz

Miss Jessica

Sibley's Guide to Birds

Other Students

Birds

Presentation

---

February 12th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs Olympic Procession, Major Third, Minor Third, and a song from a game I have, Red Alert 3. I also made up a few songs.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

---

English

Time: 20 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I worked on a story which was full of interjections that I had to identify. It was a very funny story, and I enjoyed reading through it.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

---

Elective

Time: 35 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this morning, I read through my Up Front magazine, which was very thought-provoking this month. There was an article about a girl's school in Afghanistan, which recently had a series of acid attacks upon its teachers and students by Taliban militants who believe that girls shouldn't go to school. One girl will have to get plastic surgery if the scars on her face are ever going to go away, but all the girls have returned to the school, because, as the principal said, if they give in the evil has won. I thought this issue was very good.

Resources

NY Times Current Affairs website

---

Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

For our keepers today, we learned about amphibians. We started with a short Native American story about a lady who married a frog, and then moved on to distinguishing characteristics of frogs and toads. Lastly, we learned about mating and reproduction. It was very interesting.

Resources

My Computer

Keepers Book

---

Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we listened to a short video about asking for directions. We went through it, pausing it and saying the lines as we did so. When we were done with that, we read through the transcript online, and did a comprehension quiz, in which we scored 7 out of 7.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

Ma France Website

---

Math

Time: 75 min

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my algebra 1 lesson today by working on ratios in my How Math Works Book. We first read through the summary, which contained information about the history (the ancient Egyptians had them) and uses of ratios. Then we moved on to the next page, which was about comparisons. I learned about money exchange rates, population density and ratios in shadow (where you measure a small object's shadow, and when it is as tall as the object, you can see that any object's shadow will be the height of that object). After going through some more pages on ratios, we read a Penrose story and went into the Go Figure book, where we learned about phi, the golden ratio. Dad and I went into scribble-mania as we struggled to prove some things the book said about phi. Phi is an irrational number, which means if you write it as a decimal fraction, it goes on forever. Lastly, we read a bit more about phi in our Fractals and Googols book.

Resources

My Math Book

How Math Works

Fractals and Googols

Go Figure

My Dad

---

Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

My Dad and I vacuumed our house, ceiling to floor, and took care to pull out and go behind furniture and doors.

---

English

Time: 90 min

A Study of Classical and Modern Literature

Reflection

I read Stormy Weather and Violent Volcanoes for half an hour, and my Dungeons and Dragons magazines I found on the internet for another hour.

Resources

My Computer

---

February 13th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs Olympic Procession, Major Third, Minor Third, and a song from a game I have, Red Alert 3. I also made up a few songs.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

---

English

Time: 20 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I worked on the first lesson in my Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book on adverbs. Adverbs are words that add to verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. Sounds simple enough, and it is. So far, anyway... This lesson was about linking adverbs to the verbs, adjectives and other adverbs they were adding on to in some interesting sentences.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

---

Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, my dad and I went to our French teacher, Miss Marie, for our lesson (mom couldn't come because she was sick). When we arrived, the very first thing we learned about was cars. There was a scene where two guys named Jacques and Christian talked about cars they would like. After that, we moved onto a scene where two dinner guests wanted to buy chocolate for their hosts. Lastly, we learned about colors and clothing. We wrote down all of the French words we learned today.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

---

Community Service

Time: 30 min

Community Service

Reflection

I started my work at the library by sorting out almost all the DVDs, by checking their little cards to the DVDs. While doing so, I spotted a movie which I thought looked good, and so we took it out. I learned some more about what events the library has planned for this summer.

Resources

Librarians

---

Elective

Time: 40 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs today, we listened to Story of the World Volume Four, The Modern Age. Today it was on the Dominion of Canada, which recognizes the Queen as their leader but govern themselves, and how France went through being two empires and three republics. It was very good today.

Resources

Story of the World Volume Four

---

Science

Time: 20 min

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

Today we worked on our Great Backyard Bird Count project, and started at three o'clock. We stared out the window at whatever birds we could see, and although we saw a few, we really didn't see that many. We spotted five sparrows and two black-capped chickadees, but that was pretty much it. I enjoyed it, but I wonder if we would have got more birds if we hadn't changed the bird feeder just a few hours earlier.

Resources

My Computer

Checklist

Birds

---

Science

Time: 30 min

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

Today for our Keepers, we read through the section on frogs, toads and salamanders, and specifically learned about their adaptations and survival traits. I feel I learned a lot from it, and I enjoyed reading it out loud. We also looked at my calender, which lists facts about many creatures and things in winter.

Resources

My Computer

Keepers of the Animals Book

My Calender

---

Elective

Time: 40 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

I listened to a Living Books for the Ears program on Lincoln's assassination at the Ford theater in Washington. It was actually quite spookily done, the way they introduced the different facets of the story. Booth was quite unhinged, and he creeped me out all on his own. I really enjoyed it, although it was a bit sad.

Resources

Living Books for the Ears

---

Elective

Time: 90 min

A Local Study of Mountain Lake

Reflection

I used my notes I had made on the woodland period to write up a article on that period. I think I did a pretty good job.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/lenape2.pdf

Resources

Books on the Woodland Period

---

February 14th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs Olympic Procession, Major Third, Minor Third, and a song from a game I have, Red Alert 3. I also made up a few songs.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

---

Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We started our fourth Dancing and Singing Class by playing some concentration games. The first was called "Yes!" and in it you had to look towards a person and say their name, they would say yes, and then you could start walking towards them. Then they had to find someone and say their name, and when the next person said yes, they could start walking towards them, and so on. The second game was called zombie, and was a type of tag. Then we worked on our singing as a group, and on our own, doing exercises to warm up our throats and voices. After that, we sang our song, and began to work on our movement for it. We each chose different characters from a circus, and I am a lion tamer! I really enjoyed today's class.

Resources

Miss Lia

Other students

---

English

Time: 60 min

Speech: The Actor and Writer Speaks

Reflection

When we arrived at my acting class with Mr Danny, we began by reading through The Jabberwocky, the poem we are going to adapt for our play in this session. We read through it, thought up our own translations for the words, then read through Lewis Carol's official translation. We got them mostly right. After that, we took the letters of the word "Valentine." and used them to make as many words as we could. Then we took five of those words and, in pairs, made a play based on them. Ours was on a guy named Ian who was speeding in his van and got stopped by a cop, and the other group did one about a lion who needed to go to the vet. I really enjoyed the class.

Resources

Mr Danny

Other students

---

Elective

Time: 40 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

I listened to a Living Books for the Ears program on Lincoln's parents, which was very interesting and well done. Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin which his father built and homeschooled by his mother, like me (well, the homeschool bit anyway!).

Resources

Living Books for the Ears

---

Science

Time: 20 min

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

Today we worked on our Great Backyard Bird Count project, and started at three o'clock. We stared out the window at whatever birds we could see, and saw absolutely no birds from 3 o'clock to 3:15. Better luck tomorrow, I guess.

Resources

My Computer

Checklist

---

Elective

Time: 60 min

Art and Publishing

For my art this afternoon, I worked on my picture for Muse. The contest this month was to draw the beautiful side of something many people consider gross or icky. I chose a compost heap, because many people consider that icky, and I drew a pumpkin vine growing up the side of it. I started with pencil, and added some color to bring it to life. Tomorrow I will finish the coloring and add pen and ink to my picture.

Resources

Bristol Board

Colored Pencils

---

February 15th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs Olympic Procession, Major Third, Minor Third, and a song from a game I have, Red Alert 3. I also made up a few songs.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

---

Elective

Time: 60 min

Art and Publishing

For my art this afternoon, I worked on my picture for Muse. I finished up the coloring on the compost heap, adding shadows and highlights, and then began adding pen and ink to the mix. Lastly, I finished coloring the sky and the sun.

Resources

Bristol Board

Colored Pencils

---

Elective

Time: 150 min

A Local Study of Mountain Lake

Reflection

I wrote up some notes on the Historic period so that I can do a write-up for it tomorrow. The Historic Period is the period when the Lenape first had contact with Europeans, and it was very interesting time.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/lenapeHistoric.pdf

Resources

Books on the Historic Period

---

Science

Time: 20 min

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

Today I worked on our Great Backyard Bird Count project, and started at three o'clock. I stared out the window for fifteen minutes, and saw Three House sparrows, one Black-capped Chickadee, and one Tufted Titmouse.

Resources

My Computer

Checklist

Birds

---

February 16th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs Olympic Procession, Major Third, Minor Third, and a song from a game I have, Red Alert 3. I also made up a few songs.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

---

English

Time: 20 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I worked on a page about adverbs, which was specifically on adverbs that tell you the "where?" of a verb, adjective or adverb. Then I wrote a short story using some of these adverbs.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

---

Elective

Time: 35 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this morning, I read through the Up Front website, which was very good. I read through the archives of the magazine, and found three particularly good articles. The first was about Nelson Mandela, and his rise to become president of South Africa; the second was on Adolf Hitler's 12 years of terror; and the third about the first black students to be integrated into a high school in the South, the Little Rock Nine.

Resources

NY Times Current Affairs website

---

Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We went for a walk down the road and through the woods. It was very beautiful but not very warm.

---

Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/NatureJournalFeb16.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

---

Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we listened to and talked through a short exercise in our Voila! Cd and Book, that involved two guys talking about what kind of cars they liked and discussing whether a car someone was selling would be a good buy. Then we read through some vocabulary, and moved on to another exercise where two people going to a dinner party bought chocolate for their hosts. I really enjoyed our french today.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

---

Math

Time: 40

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my algebra 1 lesson today by working on the lesson in the book for Video 18, which was on Polynomial Explorations (a polynomial is a degree greater than one). After going through the standard form of cubic and quartic equations (Cubic: ax^3 + bx^2 + cx + d; Quartic: ax^4 + bx^3 + cx^2 + dx + e), we then looked at some extensions of the things we learned in the lesson. There was a cubic equation to go with the first activity, which had you cutting squares out of the corners of a box, and then folding up the sides. The question was: What value of x (the length of the sides of the squares) gave you the largest volume of a box? We put that to the test, and then moved on to the next activity, which had you looking at the corners, sides, faces and inside faces of a series of rapidly-growing cubes, and trying to figure out the equations (linear, quadratic and then cubic) of the different numbers. The hardest to figure out by far was the cubic equation, mostly because my basic math kept letting me down. When we were done with the cubic equation, we checked it by putting in a real number (3 in this case) as x.

Resources

My Math Book

Algebra 1 Course

My Dad

---

Elective

Time: 120 min

A Local Study of Mountain Lake

Reflection

For our Study of Mountain Lake today, we began by reading through the reports we wrote up last time on our trip to Shippen Manor. All the reports were very different, and ranged from just picking out a few things that were good about the trip, to a full-blown summary of the day. They were all really good. After that, we read a little bit about the historic period from the Skylands Magazine, and learned about how Maple Syrup may have been gathered from Maple trees by the Lenape and other Indians. Lastly, the others wrote up some extra notes for their period reports, and I wrote up my report on the Historic Period. I really enjoyed the class.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/lenapeHistoric.pdf

Resources

Mr Andy Drysdale

Shippen Manor

---

February 17th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs Olympic Procession, Major Third, Minor Third, and a song from a game I have, Red Alert 3. I also made up a few songs.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

---

English

Time: 20 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I worked on a page about adverbs, where you had to fill in the adverbs in a conversation between a rather rude employee and his boss. Then I used five "where" adverbs to create a story about six kids getting lost on a school science trip.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

---

Elective

Time: 35 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this morning, I read through another article in the archives of the Up Front website, which was very good. It was about Iran, and how the CIA supported a powerful, oppressive Shah who ruled there for a long time, until he was driven out by a group who soon became the enemies of the USA, which is hardly surprising. I am going to finish the article tomorrow.

Resources

NY Times Current Affairs website

---

Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We went for a walk down the road and through the woods. It was very beautiful but not very warm, although it warmed up as the walk went along.

---

Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/NatureJournalFeb17.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

---

Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we went through a page of our Voila! book on clothes. There are many different words in French for clothes, as there are in English. We also learned about what is acceptable to give as a gift to your host in France.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

Ma France Website

---

Math

Time: 30

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my algebra 1 lesson today by working on the supplementary exercises for Lesson 18, which was on explorations with polynomials (degrees greater than one). The first was about the finding the volume of a box where the length was x, the width was 0.5x and the height was 0.2x. The equation was y = 0.2x^3. When we were done creating the equation, we tested it by plugging in 200 as y. After that, we moved on to the second supplementary exercise, where I plugged three cubic equations into the graphing calculator on the computer, and looked at how many times they went through or touched the x-axis. I found that the maximum number of times that a cubic equation line can go through or touch the x-axis is three, but it doesn't have to be that high. There was one that appeared to only touch once, but dad said that they all touched three times, it is just that some of the crossings were in the same place or imaginary. We also found that in the standard form of a cubic equation (y = ax^3+bx^2+cx+d), if x is zero, y must equal d. So d controls the position of the y-intercept. With that, we finished up.

Resources

My Math Book

Algebra 1 Course

My Dad

---

Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

For my worms project, I filled in some pages about worm movement, basic survival needs, and one about things different animals have in common. I thought I did a pretty good job with it, although I did mess up on one or two things.

Resources

Worms Eat My Garbage Course

Worms books

---

February 18th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs Olympic Procession, Major Third, Minor Third, and a song from a game I have, Red Alert 3. I also made up a few songs.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

---

English

Time: 20 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I worked on a page about adverbs, where I had to fill in adverbs that tell you when something is happening in some silly sentences. Then I worked on a short story about Uncle Elwin's birthday using "when" adverbs.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

---

Elective

Time: 35 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this morning, I finished the article on the Up Front website that I was reading yesterday, which about the revolution in Iran. It was very good. After that, I went on to an article on ending apartheid in South Africa and another on Operation Desert Storm in Iraq, which was not entirely a victory for the US.

Resources

NY Times Current Affairs website

---

Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We went for a walk down the road and through the woods. It was very beautiful but chilly.

---

Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/NatureJournalFeb18.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

---

Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we wrote some sentences about clothes for our French teacher, Miss Marie. I wrote a story about Eric the Sheep going to the tailor to get some new clothes, but I didn't get time to finish it because I had to move on to my math. I will finish it tomorrow.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

Ma France Website

---

Math

Time: 30

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my algebra 1 lesson today by watching video 19, which was on introductory exercises with rational functions. What are rational functions? A rational function is a polynomial or a variable divided by another polynomial or variable. They create some very interesting effects when you graph them. But before I tell you that, let me explain what we did in the lesson. We started off with a real-world problem, which involved using 24 squares to make a rectangle with an area of 24, but a varying perimeter. The questions were "What is the minimum and maximum perimeter?" and "Can we create an algebraic equation for this?". We started by using cut out squares to get the perimeters, and put them in a chart. Then we put that chart into the graphing calculator, and got a real weird-looking graph that started out going down steeply towards the x-axis, and then turned around before reaching it and headed slightly less steeply up again. Then we used our brains and things we learned in previous lessons to find the algebraic equation for this graph, thus answering question two, and used the resulting graph to find the answer to question one. With that, we looked at the structure of a rational function, and finished up.

Resources

My Math Book

Algebra 1 Course

My Dad

---

Science

Time: 90 min

Physical Science

Reflection

For our science today, we worked on part three of our weather project. I really enjoyed the class today, as I felt it was a lot more focused than last time and we moved much faster through it. We started by talking a bit about climate change, what it is, how it is affecting the world, and why we should care. We talked about the freak storms that climate change is already causing, and how, although the average rainfall will not change, how it arrives will. What I mean by this is that we will get fewer and fewer storms, but they will become nastier, causing flooding and more loss of property and life. With that gloomy thought in mind, we went on to learn about isobaric weather maps. I learned how wind blows inwards anti-clockwise around a depression. We did an experiment with a hairdryer and a Styrofoam ball, to prove that faster moving air has lower pressure than the air around it. Then we moved on to hurricanes, and learned about how that pure destructive force came to be. We also did two experiments, the first with a tornado in a bottle, and the second with a metal pot, water, and some food coloring. We heated the pot in its middle, and watched as the food-colored hot water rose from the heated point and swirled outwards to the edges. Lastly, we talked about what we can do to help stop global warming.

Resources

My Dad

My Computer

---

English

Time: 180 min

A Study of Classical and Modern Literature

Reflection

I read Cryptozoology for a hour, The Wall and the Wing for half an hour, and Point Blank for another hour. I finished Point Blank, and I will write a review of it.

Resources

Cryptozoology

The Wall and the Wing

Point Blank

---

February 19th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs Olympic Procession, Major Third, Minor Third, and a song from a game I have, Red Alert 3. I also made up a few songs.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

---

English

Time: 20 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I worked on a page about adverbs that tell you to what extent an action is being done. I used some "how much" adverbs to create sentences. It was a lot of fun!

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

---

Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We went for a walk down the road and through the woods. It was very beautiful but chilly.

---

Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/NatureJournalFeb19.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

---

Math

Time: 90 min

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my math lesson today by doing a last little bit of calculation on the golden ratio. We tried to prove the golden ratio formula geometrically, and although it was hard, we eventually figured it out. Then we moved on to fractions. The fraction explorations were mostly very interesting and made me think. The first exercise was on finding fractions in music, and we learned lots of different things by taking different fractions of the string length on my dulcimer. We also found that music is very mathematical, and that the chords and their placement in jazz music can be accurately calculated. Then we used an algebraic equation and some fractions to calculate the number of times one light was brighter than another. After that, we read a page about finding fractions in the real world, and looked at glaciers, Archimedes law (the amount of water that an object displaces is proportionate to its weight) and the proportion of the area of land on the earth and the area of the earth itself. Lastly we learned about percentages, which is really just a fancy way of saying "Divide by 100". We thought about how people use percentages, learned about percentages in painting, and looked at some different ways of saying percentages. Then we finished up.

Resources

My Math Book

How Math Works

My Dad

---

Physical Fitness

Time: 90 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

I vacuumed our house, ceiling to floor, and took care to pull out and go behind furniture and doors.

---

February 20th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs Olympic Procession, Major Third, Minor Third, and a song from a game I have, Red Alert 3. I also made up a few songs.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

---

English

Time: 20 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I worked on a page about adverbs that modify adjectives and other adverbs. I identified these adverbs in some sentences, and then wrote a short story about a malfunctioning theme park ride.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

---

Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we all went to Miss Marie's house, and began to learn some more about shopping in France. The first thing we did was a short exercise where a lady named France (Yes, that is a woman's name. I did not know that.) and her husband picking clothes. We learned many new words, including the changing room in a store (la cabine) and how to say what size you are (taille "number"). Then we moved on to an exercise where a rather picky man chose what shorts he would wear. It was very funny. After that, we acted out a short, improvised scene where two people want to buy some things from a clothing store. Lastly, we went on to the grammar section and finished up.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

Miss Marie

---

Community Service

Time: 30 min

Community Service

Reflection

I started my work at the library by sorting out DVDs that needed to go back into the filing system, and then checking all the DVDs in the filing system to their cards. The librarians complemented me on my work!

Resources

Librarians

---

English

Time: 30 min

A Study of Classical and Modern Literature

Reflection

I listened to a Living Books for the Ears program on Gulliver's Travels, specifically his journey to Lilliput. It had a different ending than I remembered, so it's a good thing that I listened to it.

Resources

My Computer

---

Elective

Time: 40 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs today, we listened to Story of the World Volume Four, The Modern Age. Today it was about the Second Reich, and how the kingdom of Prussia slowly ate up all the other German states and made them Prussian. Then we learned about three things that helped to advance the West: railroads, which allowed goods to reach people miles and miles away from the traders; time zones, which came directly as a result of railroads; and the light bulb. Lastly, we listened to a piece about the Meiji Restoration in Japan.

Resources

Story of the World Volume Four

---

Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

For my worms project, I filled in a page about what different animals have in common, and wrote a short story about a day as a worm, by filling in the ends of some sentences.

Resources

Worms Eat My Garbage Course

---

English

Time: 60 min

A Study of Classical and Modern Literature

Reflection

I wrote reviews of Point Blank and The Wall and the Wing. I really enjoyed both.

Resources

My Computer

---

English

Time: 60 min

Creative Writing

Reflection

I worked on my cricket competition for this month, which had me writing a poem about some creatures from a year-long fantasy story the magazine is hosting, the Strongarms! I wrote about the history of the gentle, but gigantic, Strongarms.

Resources

My Computer

---

February 21st 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs Olympic Procession, Major Third, Minor Third, and a song from a game I have, Red Alert 3. I also made up a few songs.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

---

Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We started our dancing and singing class by working on some stretches and exercises, which included isolations (where you isolate part of your body and stretch it), touching toes and push-ups. Then we practiced different ways of crossing the room, by doing step-ball-change, skipping and running. In dancing, when you run, you have to cross the space as quickly as possible, and we did quite a bit of practice with this. After that, we did a step where we crossed back and forth and eventually came back to the same place we started at. Then we began to sing a new song, entitled "We're in the Money", and worked on the movement for it. I think we did very well, and that I am definitely coming along in my dancing and singing.

Resources

Miss Lia

Other students

---

English

Time: 60 min

Speech: The Actor and Writer Speaks

Reflection

When we arrived at my acting class with Mr Danny, we began by doing some warm ups, which involved stretching your face, and playing an acting game where we had to start our sentences with each letter of the alphabet in turn ("Absolutely, we must!" "But why?" "Coward!" etc.). I really enjoyed this. After that, we read through our homework for this week, which was to take one verse of the Jabberwocky poem and, in our own words and words we find by searching on Google, explain it. I got the second verse. Then we played some acting games, called Taxi and Elevator, and finished up.

Resources

Mr Danny

Other students

---

February 22nd 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played Perfect Fifths in the Technic Book with my piano teacher, Mr Tom, and moved on to a new song, titled Major Triad, Minor Triad. Then we played Olympic Procession in the Lesson book, and moved on to the second half of that. Lastly, we played a song from my Red Alert 3 game.

Resources

Mr Tom

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

---

English

Time: 30 min

Speech: The Actor and Writer Speaks

Reflection

We have been practicing a choral reading entitled Moses: How Harriet Tubman led her People to Freedom, for several weeks now. This morning, we performed it in church, and I think it went very well, considering that everyone was either a bit sleepy or super-hyper. There were a few stumbles, but nothing that bad.

Resources

Children

Scripts

---

Science

Time: 120

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

Today I worked on the research for a poster contest on soil conservation I am going to enter. The theme this year is Dig it! The Secrets of Soil, and so I decided to learn about the different creatures that live in the topsoil. I looked up a food web that showed how different creatures in the upper soil relate to one another. Then I went to the Bacteria Zoo: Dirt World website, and learned about the good, the bad and the ugly bacteria that thrive beneath the soil. Lastly, I planned how my poster would look.

Resources

Soil Websites

My Computer

---

Math

Time: 45

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my algebra 1 lesson today by working on the lesson in the book for Video 19, which was all about rational functions. The lesson started by asking me to explain what a rational function is, how it works, and what its different parts mean. Then we looked at some exercises with rational functions that were introduced in the video. I learned about the reciprocal of a function, which is simply 1 over that function (the simplest being 1/x). After that, I moved on to the supplementary exercises, where I had to find the denominator value that would make the answer to some rational functions infinity. Lastly, we did an investigative problem, where I had to create a rational equation to show the price of using a car-rental company's cars.

Resources

My Math Book

Algebra 1 Course

My Dad

---

February 23rd 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs Olympic Procession, Major Third, Minor Third, and a song from a game I have, Red Alert 3. I also made up a few songs.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

---

English

Time: 20 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I worked on a page about fitting adverbs into movie titles and descriptions. I wrote four movie titles that had adverbs in them, and wrote descriptions for them. I think I did a pretty good job.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

---

Elective

Time: 40 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this morning, I learned about how students are expecting higher grades for average work nowadays. I think there either needs to be some re-education done to teach students that C is the grade for average work, or the school system needs to be looked over. Probably both, actually.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/currentaffairsgrades.pdf

Resources

NY Times Current Affairs website

---

Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We went for a walk down the road and through the woods. It was very cold and windy!

---

Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/NatureJournalFeb23.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

---

Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we listened to and went through the corrections that Miss Marie, our French teacher, made to the stories about clothes we sent her. We did very well, and almost everything we wrote was correct.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

---

Math

Time: 25

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my algebra 1 lesson today by watching video 20 of my Algebra 1 course, which was on the Geometry of Rational Function Graphs. In the first activity, which was all I had time to watch, we took the first of the rational functions I was set as homework in the last lesson, and looked at its graph in detail. The equation was 1/(x-2), which meant that when x was 2, the equation was nonsensical, because you cannot divide something by zero. This meant that there was a big vertical line right through the middle of the function, that the other lines of the function could never reach. We also found that output of a rational function graph will only ever reach zero if the numerator can equal zero. Duh! I learned some more about rational functions, but then my lesson was cut short because I had to go onto my geography. I will watch the rest of it tomorrow.

Resources

My Math Book

Algebra 1 Course

---

Social Studies

Time: 90

A Study of Physical and Political Geography

Reflection

When everyone had arrived for our Geography lesson, we started learning about soil and what it does for us. Today we were learning about erosion, and the first thing we covered was the main causes of erosion: wind and rain, coupled with there not being many trees and plants left to hold the topsoil down. Then we learned about what we can do to prevent this: planting trees, obviously, but also by building terraces, steps with plants growing on the edges, on hillsides. These terraces hold the soil better than just slopes, and are less likely to lose the topsoil when it rains. We were going to do a short activity where we would build a mountain in the sandbox, and cut terraces on one side, then test the ability of both sides to hold soil by pouring water on it, but the sand in the sandbox was frozen solid. So we came in and learned about height maps. There were cross-section relief maps, that showed a cut-through picture of the height of the land, and topographical maps, that show you the height with circles around raised or depressed areas and numbers marking the height of each circle. We did two activities to explore this, one where we drew contour lines around one of our knuckles, and then flattened our hand to create a model of a topographical map. In the second, we made a cross-section relief map out of a topographical map, and then finished.

Resources

Lessons from a Village Called Earth Geography Course

My mom

---

English

Time: 240 min

A Study of Classical and Modern Literature

Reflection

I read Skeleton Key, The Chaos King, the Lord of the Rings and Scorpia for about four hours. I have finished the first two, but the third is nowhere near done and the last is nearly done.

Resources

Skeleton Key

The Chaos Kind

The Lord of the Rings

Scorpia

---

February 24th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs Olympic Procession, Major Triad, Minor Triad, and a song from a game I have, Red Alert 3. I also made up a few songs.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

---

English

Time: 20 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I worked on a page about adverbs called Tag Lines. They basically tag on to the end of the sentence, adding to it (as in "dramatically" in "he said dramatically"). I filled in some tag lines at the ends of some interesting sentences.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

---

Elective

Time: 40 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this morning, I learned about how students are expecting higher grades for average work nowadays. I finished up the article questions that were provided. They really made me think.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/currentaffairsgrades.pdf

Resources

NY Times Current Affairs website

---

Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We went for a walk down the road and through the woods. It was very cold and windy. Brrr!

---

Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/NatureJournalFeb24.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

---

Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we listened to and talked through a short exercise in our Voila! Cd and Book, that involved a couple going shopping for clothes. Then we looked through another one, this time where we had to fill in the blanks in a little scene that involved a rather fussy shopper buying shorts. Finally, we wrote our own shop scenes, which we will look through tomorrow.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

Ma France Website

---

Math

Time: 25

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my algebra 1 lesson today by watching the rest of video 20, which, if you remember, was on the geometry of rational function graphs. It started where I left off, and we began by looking at how the value of c in the denominator changes the x-position of the line. Basically, if c is being subtracted from x, then the graph will shift to the right, and if added, to the left. This is called a horizontal translation, and it was interesting to watch. Then we moved on to the second activity, which was a much shorter look at another rational function, this time with a linear function being divided by another linear function. Because the denominator was being added to, the graph shifted to the left. Because the numerator on this function could equal zero, the graph crossed the x-axis. It also had no maximum or minimum values, but instead went on to infinity. Lastly, we did a summary of what we learned.

Resources

My Math Book

Algebra 1 Course

---

English

Time: 120 min

Speech: The Actor and Writer Speaks

Reflection

When we arrived at the auditions for The Never Ending Story, I was pretty nervous. But we played some acting games in the car to relax and unwind, and my friends from my dance group were very supportive. We were first asked to do some movement on the stage. The movement was actually surprisingly easy, and I think everyone did very well. We were asked to move as one of the creatures from Fantastica would. My group did Rock Giants, and it was actually quite hard to move stiffly and slowly across the stage without falling over. Other groups were Wind Giants, Dark Princesses and Giant Creepy Spidery Things. Then we moved on to the acting, which was my favorite part of the audition. After watching lots of other people audition, most of whom did very well (there were only a few times where people lost their places in the script and had to start over), I finally got my chance. I played Atreyu, the hunter, visiting the halls of Uyalala. Fortunately, I had read aloud this section in the book the day before, so I had a good idea of what was actually supposed to be happening, and my mom and dad said that I did well. I really enjoyed the auditions, and I hope that I get a part in the play!

Resources

The Director, Mr Steven Fredericks

Other actors

Music

---

February 25th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs Olympic Procession, Major Triad, Minor Triad, and a song from a game I have, Red Alert 3. I also made up a few songs.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

---

English

Time: 20 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I worked on finishing up some sentences using tag line puns. I wrote five wacky sentences using adverbs, and then finished up.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/adverbs.pdf

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

---

Elective

Time: 40 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this morning, I learned about how plastic bags are banned in some cities, and how some want to put a tax on them. I read through today's article, and then answered the first of the article questions.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/currentaffairsbags.pdf

Resources

NY Times Current Affairs website

---

Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We went for a walk down the road and through the woods. It was warmer, but still pretty cold.

---

Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/NatureJournalFeb25.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

---

Science

Time: 180

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

We started our second bird class by playing a short game about migration. In it, we were birds, and migrated by moving around a little course, and depending on what bases we landed on, we'd get a different story. I rolled the dice to go ahead six bases at one point, and then landed on High Winds and got blown back six to the same place! After that, we started to watch a presentation that Miss Jessica was giving on bird's adaptions (feathers, beak, etc.). The first thing we learned about was field marks, which are the distinguishing marks that appear on all or many birds. Then we took an in-depth look at feathers. I learned that there are many different types of feathers, all with different roles. There is one type of feather, called the powder feather, whose tips are constantly disintegrating, filling the bird's body with an insulating layer of fluff. Very strange. Anyway, when we were done with that, we did a short hands-on activity where we looked at different beak shapes and figured out which ones would be best suited to what food source. After that, we continued with the presentation, and learned about different bird beak and feet shapes and sizes. Lastly, we went out for a nature hike and saw many birds.

Birds we ID

-Red-Bellied Woodpecker

-Turkey Vulture

-Bald Eagle

-Bluebird

-Red Tailed Hawk

-Juncos

-House Finches

Resources

Miss Liz

Miss Jessica

Sibley's Guide to Birds

Other Students

Birds

Presentation

---

February 26th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs Olympic Procession, Major Triad, Minor Triad, and a song from a game I have, Red Alert 3. I also made up a few songs.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

---

English

Time: 20 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I worked on removing unneeded adverbs from a summary of the story Beauty and the Beast.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/BeautyandtheBeast.pdf

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

---

Elective

Time: 40 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this morning, I learned some more about how plastic bags are harmful to the environment, in that they can strangle sea animals that get caught in them, and making them releases Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere. I answered another one of the article questions.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/currentaffairsbags.pdf

Resources

NY Times Current Affairs website

---

Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We went for a walk down the road and through the woods. It was pretty cold.

---

Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/NatureJournalFeb26.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

---

Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

For our evolution study today, we learned about amphibians. Specifically we learned about the evolution of amphibians, and about the very interesting creatures that first waddled on to land in the Devonian. The chapter we read was short, but packed with information. I enjoyed learning all about amphibians, and next time we will take an in-depth look at frogs and toads!

Resources

My Computer

The Amphibian Class Book

---

Elective

Time: 50 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we read through the grammar section of our Voila! book, which was very interesting and useful. It held a lot of information about tenses and verbs. Then we went through the practical exercises to see how much we had learned. I think that we did very well.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

---

Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

I vacuumed our house, ceiling to floor, and took care to pull out and go behind furniture and doors.

---

Math

Time: 50

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my algebra 1 lesson today by working with dad to finish the lesson in the book for Video 20 of my Algebra 1 course. We started by looking at the equation covered in the lesson, and by discussing things that were specific to rational functions. There are vertical asymptotes, invisible lines straight through the middle of a rational function graph that the two lines can never touch, because x would have to be infinity to touch this point. A rational function will also never reach the x-axis unless the numerator can equal zero. Then we did some of the supplementary exercises, which were on other rational functions that we didn't explore in the video. Then we looked at the investigative problem, which dealt with finding a rational function to express the area of a triangle. I really enjoyed this lesson, and I felt that it was very useful.

Resources

My Math Book

Algebra 1 Course

My Dad

---

February 27th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs Olympic Procession, Major Triad, Minor Triad, and a song from a game I have, Red Alert 3. I also made up a few songs.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

---

English

Time: 20 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I worked on creating a story about the most boring party ever using five adverbs. I wrote it up on the computer and made all the adverbs bold.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/party.pdf

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

---

Elective

Time: 40 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this morning, I learned some more about how plastic bags are harmful to the environment. Then I read through the article one last time, and finished up the last of the article questions.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/currentaffairsbags.pdf

Resources

NY Times Current Affairs website

---

Elective

Time: 60 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we went to our French teacher, Miss Marie, and started by going over the grammar section of our Voila! book. We had worked on the grammar section on our own, but Miss Marie helped us to correct some of the things that were just plain wrong. Then we began to work on the first few activities of Unit Five. The first was about the exchange rate and had a women trying to exchange her traveler's check for French Euros. The second activity involved translating for a French man coming into an English bank. Lastly, we read through a brochure for a town by the beach.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

Miss Marie

---

Community Service

Time: 30 min

Community Service

Reflection

I started my work at the library by sorting out all the DVDs number 1-1300, by checking their little cards to the DVDs. I also learned about some things the library has planned for the summer, and listened in on a staff meeting.

Resources

Librarians

---

English

Time: 20 min

Speech: The Actor and Writer Speaks

Reflection

Today, I worked on my acting homework, which was to take the second verse of the Jabberwocky by Lewis Carol and translate it. I searched on google to find a Wikipedia page that held the translations. I found translations for many words, except, funnily enough, Jabberwocky. I had to invent my own for that! Anyway, here is my acting homework.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/JabberwockyTranslate.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Wikipedia

---

Science

Time: 180 mins

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

For my evolution today, I worked on a new project that was all about why evolution is important to several subjects. Out of the list of subjects, I picked Biotechnology. Biotechnology includes creating medicines and genetically modifying plants (not all of which I agree with, for the record). I read through an enormous scientific article on why learning about evolution is important, and then picked five examples of why you should learn about evolution before you mess around with biotechnology. I learned a lot from this unit, and it incorporated a lot of what I had already learned. Here is my write-up.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogFeb2009/Biotechnology.pdf

Resources

PBS Evolution Website

---

Elective

Time: 20 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For our history study today, we listened to our Story of the World Cd on the Modern Age. Today's stories were on the Dutch East Indies, which were a pretty bad place to live for the poor; and on the "Sick Man of Europe", the Ottoman Empire. I especially enjoyed the one about the Ottoman Empire, which was very interesting.

Resources

Story of the World

---

English

Time: 240 min

A Study of Classical and Modern Literature

Reflection

I read The Witches of Dreadmore Hollow, Kenneth and the Dragon, Cryptid Hunters and The Dark Lord of Derkholm for about four hours. I am especially enjoying The Dark Lord of Derkholm, and I feel it is very witty and original.

Resources

The Witches of Dreadmore Hollow

Kenneth and the Dragon

Cryptid Hunters

The Dark Lord of Derkholm

---

February 28th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs Olympic Procession, Major Triad, Minor Triad, and a song from a game I have, Red Alert 3. I also made up a few songs.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

---

Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We started our dancing and singing class by working on some stretches and exercises, which included touching our toes, doing isolations (where we isolate one body part and stretch it), neck rolls and push ups. Then we worked on a dance pattern where we stepped forward on the right foot, pivoted, did the same thing in the other direction and pivoted again, then did a box step and a jump. We kept adding on to it, creating a kind of circular pattern where two partners linked arms and walked in a circle. Then we moved on to new song, which was called Falling in Love with Love, and had a very easy to sing chorus. Lastly, we sang as a group and individually, and worked on We're In The Money, with our movements from last week.

Resources

Miss Lia

Other students

---

English

Time: 60 min

Speech: The Actor and Writer Speaks

Reflection

When we arrived at my acting class with Mr Danny, we began by discussing our homework that we completed last time, which was to take a verse of The Jabberwocky and try our best to translate the nonsense words. Everybody came up with interesting ideas for what the words meant. Then we tried discussing, as a group, how we would turn the Jabberwocky into a play. Unfortunately, we had a hard time agreeing on anything, so we separated to work on our own plays. Lastly, we each read through what we had written, and thought about how some ideas could be combined.

Resources

Mr Danny

Other students

---

English

Time: 60 min

Creative Writing

Reflection

I wrote book reviews of Scorpia, The Witches of Dreadmore Hollow, and The Chaos King.

Resources

My Computer

Scorpia

The Witches of Dreadmore Hollow

The Chaos King

---

-- JackW - 01 Feb 2009