January 1st 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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

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January 2nd 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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

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Elective

Time: 150 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my dad's birthday today, we went to Fonthill, the house of Henry Mercer. Why is this house special? Well, Henry Mercer was a wealthy man who was a proponent of the arts and handmade objects in the days of the industrial revolution. He made tiles by hand (well, he made the designs and hired a team to do them by hand) and made quite a profit out of that. When his aunt Elizabeth died, she left him quite a bit of money as well. But what does this all have to do with his house? Henry Mercer was a great believer in art with a function, so when he set about to build a dream home, he built with an artist's eye, and not an architect's. Thus, his house is a wonderful, rambling, many-windowed castle built entirely out of concrete. From the outside, it looks cool, but once you get into the house itself, you can see that it was definitely the work of a lifetime! There were mosaics and tiles everywhere, on the walls where you might expect them, but also on the floor and ceiling. We had a guided, hour and a half tour of the house, and after we had finished, we went to the Moravian Tile Works. This is the factory Henry Mercer built for the creation of his hand-made tiles. It was closed down after his death, but has now been reopened, and the workers there make the tiles the way they were made in Henry Mercer's time. We took an hour-long, self-guided tour, where we saw every part of producing the tiles. When we had finished that, we took a walk around, and went home. I had a great time!

Resources

Fonthill

Guides

Moravian Tile Works

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January 3rd 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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

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January 4th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down with Mr Tom this morning and started by playing A Minor, Harmonically in the Technic book. I finished that, and moved on to A Minor, Melodically. Then I went on to the solo book, where I played I Just Can't Wait to be King. Finally, we played Prelude in A Minor in the Lesson Book, and finished it. Now I am learning about 2nd inversion triads.

Resources

Mr Tom

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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English

Time: 75 min

A Study of Classical and Modern Literature

Reflection

I read Goblins! for about an hour and fifteen minutes, and finished it. It was very good, and I will write a review of it!

Resources

My Computer

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English

Time: 60 min

A Study of Classical and Modern Literature

Reflection

I read the Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Novelization for about an hour.

Resources

My Computer

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English

Time: 30 min

A Study of Classical and Modern Literature

Reflection

I wrote a review of Goblins!, a book I read.

Resources

My Computer

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January 5th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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

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English

Time: 30 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I learned about subordinating conjunctions. I then used those conjunctions to connect several sets of two sentences into one sentence. One thing I thought was interesting was the fact that you could place some at the beginning of the first sentence in order to connect them.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

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Elective

Time: 40 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this morning, I filled out a quiz about some different newsworthy things that happened in 2008. I got 12 out of 15 right, and learned quite a few new things about 2008 that I either had not known or had not known that much about.

Resources

NY Times Current Affairs website

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Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We went for a walk down the road and through the woods. The clouds were stratocumulus.

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Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/NatureJournalJan5.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

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Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we worked on two exercises in our Voila! Book that didn't require the CD. We learned about some more temperatures and how to say them, and described today's weather in french. Then we listened to the CD, and learned about french telephone numbers.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

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Math

Time: 60

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my algebra 1 lesson today by working on linear functions that related to geometry. The first activity was about pi (3.14...), and it began by asking me the question "What is pi?" I answered that pi was part of an equation that gave you the area of a circle. But at the end of the first activity, I emerged with a very different understanding of pi, and how you can use it in a linear equation to give you the area of a circle. Anyway, we took the circumference and the diameter of several circles, divided the circumference by the diameter for each circle, and took the average of the answers. The answer was 3.1519. Does that sound familiar? Yes, it's very close to pi. If we had circles that were perfect, it would be exactly pi. So we can say that "Pi is the number of times the diameter of a circle can fit into its circumference." For the second activity, we were comparing the number of sides in a polygon and the product of all the angles in the shapes. For this we figured out that triangles had a total angle of 180 degrees, and also figured out that since triangles fit into all the other shapes, we could see how many times a triangle could fit in and multiply that number by 180 to get the total number of angles. The linear equation for this was y=180x-360. With this equation, we could solve any polygon angle-related problem! And then, we finished up.

Resources

My Math Book

Algebra 1 Course

My Dad

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Elective

Time: 90 min

A Local Study of Mountain Lake

Reflection

We started our study of Mountain Lake by reading through what we had typed up in the lesson before. I had written an article on the Bojak Mastodon, Amy had written the first part of a report on possible reasons for mammoth extinction, and Rachel had finished up that report. We began by learning a bit about prehistoric native Americans that lived near us in Warren County. We all wrote a report on the different periods that the early native American civilization went through. Finally, we cleared up and went outside to play.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/WoodlandPeriod.pdf

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/paleo-indiansamy.pdf

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/Archaic_indians.pdf

Resources

My mom

Books on the Native Americans

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January 6th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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

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English

Time: 15 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I learned more about subordinating conjunctions. I used subordinating conjunctions to continue some sentences, and then filled in the ends of those sentences. I had a good time.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

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Elective

Time: 30 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this morning, I learned about a college student who designed a new type of motorcycle that ran on electricity and was small enough to move through most traffic and even to carry with you. Then I answered some questions about it.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/entrepreneur.pdf

Resources

NY Times Current Affairs website

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Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We went for a walk down the road and through the woods. The clouds were stratocumulus and cirrostratus.

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Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/NatureJournalJan6.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

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Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we looked at some corrections our French teacher, Miss Marie, had made to sentences we had written. Then we went on to learn some more about french telephone numbers, and about gambling in France. We finished up by going through some verbs.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

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Math

Time: 60

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my algebra 1 lesson today by working on the lesson in the book for Video 11, which I watched last time. I started before dad got there, by working on describing pi and the relationship between a circle's circumference and its diameter. I also finished up the exploration for the second activity, and used my brain, common sense, and a calculator (for checking) to solve the problems. Then we figured out the first part of the lesson, which involved more explorations of pi. After that, I moved on to the additional explorations, which involved finding a linear equation to express the relationship between a square's side length and its perimeter (p=4s), found out that the formula for the area of a square was not a linear function, found two linear functions to express the perimeter and the area of a rectangle, did some explorations on rectangles and circles, then finished up.

Resources

My Math Book

Algebra 1 Course

My Dad

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Science

Time: 120

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

We started our evolution course today by going through what we did in the last lesson (learning about multi-drug resistant bacteria), and looked at an email from a local nurse practitioner. Then I wrote a summary of what I had learned in the last lesson, using the information from the email and from the website. Then I read through our current lesson's information about multi-drug resistant bacteria, and wrote it down in an easy to read, fun way.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/multidrugresistant.pdf

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/multidrugresistantQA.pdf

Resources

My Mom

The PBS Evolution Website

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Elective

Time: 90 min

Art and Publishing

For my art this evening, I worked with my art teacher to finish up the inking on one of my pictures for Terror of Porridge, my book. When we had finished that, we took a rough sketch and turned it into a tight one on the light box. I am going to try and ink it on my own this week.

Resources

Mr Pete

Light box

Bristol Board

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January 7th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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

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English

Time: 15 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I wrote a story about the life of a potted plant in a school classroom, and how it has not gone well. I used three subordinating conjunctions in my story, and quite a few normal conjunctions.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

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Elective

Time: 30 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this morning, I learned about how you can get into the senate, and what is like to be in it, and the hundreds of ways to succeed.... and thousands to fail. It was a lot of fun reading it, and it made me realize just how tricky it must be to be the new guy in the senate. I then answered some questions about it.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/Senate.pdf

Resources

NY Times Current Affairs website

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Physical Fitness

Time: 30 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We went for a walk down the road and through the woods. It was icky!

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Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/NatureJournalJan7.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

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Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we tested each other on the endings of several french verbs, and then moved on to the grammar section of our Voila! Book. When we had finished that, we moved on to the test, which certainly did test us on what we had learned. I enjoyed it, and when we were finished, I felt that we did well.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

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English

Time: 75 min

A Study of Classical and Modern Literature

Reflection

I read Quantum Profecy for about an hour and fifteen minutes. It was very cool, and when I finish it, I will write a review of it.

Resources

My Computer

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Math

Time: 60

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my exploration of big numbers by looking at a page on big numbers in my How Math Works book, and then doing an activity to find out roughly how many seconds I had been living. Then I went on to the Go Figure! book, where I learned more about big numbers, about infinity, and did the big number quiz, which was all trick questions. After that, we moved on to the Penrose books, where I learned more about big numbers (specifically googols and googolplexes) and infinity.

Resources

My Math Book

Math Books

My Dad

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Math

Time: 120

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my first programming class by taking a quick look at some of the darkbasic tutorials, and then using that knowledge and dad's knowledge of similar programming languages to create a simple jumping program that moved a sphere up until it's upward velocity was less than one, then moved it down. When we had done that, we figured out what we wanted to do with our program, and wrote that down. After that, we added in some basic movement keys, and figured out how to set the movement keys as a separate function that we could call in the loop. Finally, we figured out how make the space bar make you jump. Then we called it a day. Next time we will figure out how do to some more stuff with the jumping.

Resources

Darkbasic

My Dad

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January 8th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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

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English

Time: 15 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I wrote a story about the kidnapping of Mr and Mrs Potato Head at a five-star restaurant. The police say that they cannot rule out foul play... Anyway, the point of the exercise was to use four conjunctions from a list provided, which I did.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

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Elective

Time: 30 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this morning, I learned about how a Rabbi battled hatred and the Klu Klux Klan in Nebraska. He used love to battle against the hatred of the local Klu Klux Klan leader, who threatened him and his family. Eventually, the man called him and said he wanted to stop doing what he was doing but didn't know how. He asked the Rabbi for help. From that day on until the day of his death, the man left the Klu Klux Klan and lived a happier and better life. It was a beautiful story of how showing kindness and love in the face of hate can make a real difference.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/RabbiWeisser.pdf

Resources

NY Times Current Affairs website

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Physical Fitness

Time: 30 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

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

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Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/NatureJournalJan7.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

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Elective

Time: 35 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we read the french grammar section, and then worked on another test of what we had learned so far in the course. I really enjoyed it, and I felt it taught me a lot about what I had already learned about the language. I feel we are really coming along.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

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Math

Time: 60

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my algebra 1 lesson today by watching video number 12, which was about quadratic equations. Quadratic equations are very different from linear equations, in the way that they aren't linear. By that I mean that when you make them into a graph, they aren't a straight line. They are curved. They also involve powers. The default form of a linear function is y = ax^2+bx+c. The quadratic explorations I worked on in the lesson were very fun. The first involved a square that got bigger by the number of times it had gone round each time. The equation for that was y=x^2. The next involved a rectangle did the same each time. Its equation was y=x^2+x. The last involved a diamond that did the same. Its equation was y=2x^2-2x+1. I really enjoyed this lesson, and I felt I learned a bit about quadratic equations!

Resources

My Math Book

Algebra 1 Course

My Dad

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Physical Fitness

Time: 120 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

I vacuumed the entire house, ceiling to floor. It was hot work, even though it was cold out. I moved furniture and objects some I could vacuum behind them.

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January 9th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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

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English

Time: 20 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I wrote an advert about new clothes created out of fruit, vegetables and different edibles. There was a purse made of cheese, a sweater made of cashews and shoes made of banana peels! I used ten different conjunctions from a list provided to finish it.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

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Elective

Time: 60 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we went to our French teacher, Miss Marie, for our next lesson. We were a little bit rusty from all the time during the holidays when we weren't practicing, but we did reasonably well. We started by going through the tests we completed last time, and then moved on to the next lesson, lesson 4. We learned about stamps, money and acted out a French shop scene. I bought a lot of candy (in the scene, don't worry!) Then we learned about different foods that are popular in France. After that, we conversed a bit in French and then finished up.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

Miss Marie

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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, which went a lot faster this time. Perhaps I am getting better! I got all the way up to 1000 this time. When I was done, I popped all the little cards away.

Resources

Librarians

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Elective

Time: 30 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

I listened to a living books for the ears program on the War of 1812. It was specifically about the burning of Washington DC, and was very fun to listen to. The British basically sailed right into the heart of America, unloaded their transports, and attacked the undefended capitol. Although this was possible in part because of the training of the British soldiers, what really made it possible was the unpreparedness of the Americans. The burning of Washington taught America a lot about being prepared. It could have been so different if they had just remembered what George Washington said: "To be prepared for war is the best way of keeping the peace." I enjoyed the program.

Resources

Living Books for the Ears

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Elective

Time: 20 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

My mom and I listened to our new Story of the World CD, which is on the modern age. We learned about Britain's Glass Palace, the sepoy rebellion to British rule in India, and how Japan opened its doors to trade with the west after some heavy pressure from America. I really enjoyed it!

Resources

Story of the World

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January 10th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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

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English

Time: 190 min

A Study of Classical and Modern Literature

Reflection

I read The War of the Ancients and Merlin's Dragon for 3 hours and 10 minutes. I finished Merlin's Dragon, which was about a little dragon that grows to become Merlin's dragon and stops an invasion by an awful creature called Rita Gawr. The War of the Ancients was also very good, and when I am done reading it, I will write a book review of each one.

Resources

The War of the Ancients

Merlin's Dragon

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Elective

Time: 180 min

Art and Publishing

For my piece for the Geico road safety contest, I started by drawing out a rough sketch of my design in a sketchpad. Then I used the light box to copy part of the design onto a big piece of paper, and finished the picture off. After that, I scanned in the image into the computer, and used the GIMP to clean up the lines and draw over them to make the drawing computerized. Then I got rid of the annoying splotches that were left behind. Finally, I added color to the picture, added the slogan "1! 2! 3! 4! 5! Buckle up before you drive!", and added shading. It looks really good!

Resources

Light box

Bristol Board

GIMP

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Math

Time: 180

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

We started my programming class by figuring out how to set the jump to work so that you could jump forward and backwards. When we figured that out, we added a ground and set the sphere to stop jumping when it reached that level. We also added a box that you could jump onto. At least in theory, you could! In reality, it took some tweaking before we got it to work properly. And you could still walk right into the cube. We solved that problem, by creating a plane through the center of the sphere and having the plane stop the sphere if it hit anything. It worked well most of the time, but sometimes you would get stuck. So we added some collision detection for the sphere (now a hover tank model that I had imported) that allowed it to move back when it collided with another object, but not forward. Then we allowed the camera to follow the object. It is very cool!

Resources

Darkbasic

My Dad

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January 11th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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

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English

Time: 60 min

Creative Writing

Reflection

I continued work on my play, writing some new scenes and then reading through everything to check if I liked it. I did!

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/playideas3-rewrite3.pdf

Resources

My Computer

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January 12th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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

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English

Time: 15 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I wrote a story about visiting the ice hotel in Sweden. I used conjunctions to tie the story together.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

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Physical Fitness

Time: 30 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We went for a walk down the road and through the woods. It was very beautiful, but quite cold and slippery after the snow we got on Saturday.

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Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/NatureJournalJan12.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

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Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we tested each other on the endings of several french verbs, and then moved on to lesson 4 of our Voila! course. In that lesson, we went through the numbers 60-100, and then listened and read through a shop scene in the first part of lesson 4.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

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English

Time: 90 min

A Study of Classical and Modern Literature

Reflection

I read The War of the Ancients for about an hour and a half. It was gripping, and when I finish it, I will write a review of it.

Resources

My Computer

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Math

Time: 60

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my algebra 1 lesson today by working on the book part of my lesson on quadratic equations. I had a little bit of trouble in this lesson, mostly because I hadn't eaten my lunch and I was getting hungry, but dad helped me through it. I started by reviewing some of the concepts covered in the video, and answering some questions about them. Then I moved on to the supplementary exercises, which were about a series of triangles that got bigger each time, and a set of toothpicks arranged into squares. I found the quadratic equations for each one, and then finished up.

Resources

My Math Book

Algebra 1 Course

My Dad

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Social Studies

Time: 90

A Study of Physical and Political Geography

Reflection

When everyone had arrived for our Geography lesson, we started learning about communities. What are communities? The lesson said that a community is a group of people with a common interest. We learned about global, country, state, neighborhood and school communities. Then we identified which communities would have what interest in mind. One thing we noticed was that the global communities shared interests in things that could affect the entire world (Global Warming, oil spills), whereas the interests of the smaller communities got progressively smaller and smaller. When we had finished that, we talked about some things that might need a global community to solve, and finished up.

Resources

Lessons from a Village Called Earth Geography Course

My mom

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Elective

Time: 30 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this morning, I learned about the assault an Gaza by Israel and about the hostilities that have gone on in that part of the world for decades. It seems that ever since the Israelis said that they had to right to settle where they did because of God's word, and the Arabs replied that they have the right to the land because they had lived on it for thousands of years, the two groups and their many sub-groups have been fighting or arguing with each other. When I had read through this information, I answered two questions that were asked by the article. I will answer the rest tomorrow.

Resources

NY Times Current Affairs website

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January 13th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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

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English

Time: 20 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I identified the conjunctions in a story about a very bad eater, who sprays the other diners with food. It was tricky, but I think I got most of it okay.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

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Elective

Time: 30 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this morning, I learned more about the assault on Gaza by Israel. It seems that Israel has, in many ways, created terrorist groups like Hamas through their actions. It also seems that attacking Gaza is not making them any friends, and is causing Palestinians in other countries to be fearful. And where there is fear, terrorist groups can take advantage. I filled in some more answers on the question sheet.

Resources

NY Times Current Affairs website

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Physical Fitness

Time: 30 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We went for a walk down the road and through the woods. It was very beautiful, but quite cold and slippery after the snow we got on Saturday. I fell down a few times in the woods.

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Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/NatureJournalJan13.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

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Science

Time: 90 min

Physical Science

Reflection

This morning, when I finished my current affairs, my mom dragged me over to the computer and told me to watch a training video about identifying clouds for NASA. Identifying clouds for NASA? was my first thought. I thought NASA were the space people. It turns out that NASA have two satellites that are used to study cloud formations on the earth. But why did they need me and other students? They needed us to record the cloud types, heights, and thickness at the time the satellites went over our area. It sounded easy, but it wasn't, let me tell you! Clouds are enormously fickle and the pictures shown in the cloud identification books aren't always what it looks like in the sky. Nevertheless, we filled in and sent off three cloud reports to NASA, one for each time a satellite went over. It was fun!

Resources

My Dad

My Computer

NASA

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Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we worked on four french verbs that we needed to work on, and read through a part of the lesson, on shopping in France, that didn't require the CD.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

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Math

Time: 60

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my math lesson today by reading through a little story about the discovery of pi before dad arrived. Then we worked through two page of the How Math Works book. These pages were about some very interesting numbers, including prime numbers, modular numbers, factors and perfect numbers. We first filled out a chart that found the prime numbers one through one-hundred, then worked on a table that could give you, at a glance, all the factors of the numbers one through twenty-five. We learned about about perfect numbers, whose factors added together make that number (6 is a perfect number). After that, we learned about modular arithmetic, which is a process of dividing numbers and looking at the numbers left over. It is often used for account numbers. Then we moved on to Go Figure!, where we learned about prime numbers.

Resources

My Math Book

Math Books

My Dad

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Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

For my worms project, I read a little story about giant worms (and yes, they do exist) and how scientists study them. Then I filled in some questions, and wrote a little story about a giant worm.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/Megaworm.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Worms books

---

Science

Time: 90

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

For my evolution course, I took the information I had recorded before about multi-drug resistant bacteria and made it into a three-fold brochure. It was tricky, but I managed to create a table and fit everything I had written on to it. Then I added images for the front and back of the brochure, and made sure that everything fitted and looked good.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/multidrugresistantQA.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Evolution books

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January 14th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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

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English

Time: 20 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I went on to pronouns in my Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book. Pronouns are like stunt men and women for actors; they are there to fill in for a noun. I read a story that desperately needed some pronouns, and added them in where they were needed.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

---

Elective

Time: 30 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this morning, I learned more about the assault on Gaza by Israel. Then I answered the last of the article questions. It was a very interesting exploration!

Resources

NY Times Current Affairs website

---

Physical Fitness

Time: 30 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We went for a walk down the road and through the woods. It was very beautiful, but quite cold and slippery after the snow we got on Saturday.

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Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/NatureJournalJan14.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

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Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we supposed to write a little paragraph about the attractions in our town. Mom did that, but I decided to write about the town of Mouton-Ville, the town where my character, Eric le Mouton, lives. (In case you don't know, mouton means sheep!)

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

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Math

Time: 60

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my algebra 1 lesson today by watching the video for lesson 13, which was about more explorations on quadratic functions. It was a lot of fun, and I felt I learned a lot. The first quadratic function was based on Gauss's formula. Gauss was a really smart guy, and when he was a kid his teacher made him add up all the numbers one through one hundred. What a meanie! But clever Gauss figured it out in a few minutes. How? We don't know exactly what he did, but there is an easy way to solve the formula for one through any any number (let us call this number n). You write down 1 through n, and then under it, write down the first one backwards (n through 1). Then you add them up, and divide that number by 2. The formula for this for any number is A= n(n+1)/2 which becomes A= n^2 + n/2 or A=1/2n^2 + 1/2n. The second exploration was finding the rectangle with the largest area for a given perimeter. The perimeter length was 24, and we arranged it into a variety of shapes, and figured out a formula for it. The formula was A= L^2 (L=length) + 12L. This gave us an upside down parabola when we made it into a graph. After that, I finished up.

Resources

My Math Book

Algebra 1 Course

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Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

I vacuumed the entire house, ceiling to floor, and made sure that I pulled out the furniture and went behind it.

---

English

Time: 40 min

Creative Writing

Reflection

I wrote a book review of War of the Ancients, a fantasy trilogy I read.

Resources

My Computer

---

January 15th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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 adding pronouns into some pronoun-less sentences. Then I wrote some short, pronoun-filled things a coach might say to his team.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

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Elective

Time: 30 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this morning, I learned about the inauguration speech, or more specifically, the things that seem to go into every inauguration speech. In fact, it is the standard inauguration speech. I read through the points listed, and then answered some questions about them.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/Gaza.pdf

Resources

NY Times Current Affairs website

---

Elective

Time: 180 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/Greece.pdf

Resources

Big Dog

Other Students

Projector

Maps

Artifacts

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January 16th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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 a page of my Hot Fudge Monday grammar book on possessive pronouns, which are like normal pronouns, but with "self" on the end. It was easy, but fun. When I had done the main part of the lesson, I worked on a fake resume for someone who wants to be a chocolate taster.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

---

Elective

Time: 30 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this morning, I learned more about the standard inauguration speech. I read through the article again, and then finished the questions that were asked.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/AllPurposeInauguralAddress.pdf

Resources

NY Times Current Affairs website

---

Elective

Time: 60 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we went to Miss Marie's house. French was a lot of fun today! We started by learning about different types of fruit, and how to say them in French. Then we listened to a french shop scene, where the shopper asked for big, expensive stuff, and the shopkeeper got annoyed when they misheard him. It was fun, and when we had listened to it a few times, we spoke through it ourselves. I learned a lot of new words in this lesson, and I wrote them all down for later use.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

Miss Marie

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Community Service

Time: 30 min

Community Service

Reflection

For my community service at the library this morning, I worked on sorting out the DVDs. I sorted out almost all the DVDs, going from 1-1200.

Resources

Librarians

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Elective

Time: 30 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

I listened to a Living Books for the Ears program about man's dream of flight. Ever since people looked up at the sky and saw birds there, they have been trying to fly. Some of the first experiments were quite ludicrous, but they all added up and created a basis for other flying ideas that, however wobbly at first, grew firmer and firmer. Finally, the Wright Brothers managed to fly the first airplane, and we have never looked back!

Resources

Living Books for the Ears

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Elective

Time: 20 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

We listened to our Story of the World CD for 20 minutes. It was very good today! The parts we listened to were on the Crimean War and the Great Game, which was where Britain and Russia both tried to take Afghanistan.

Resources

Living Books for the Ears

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Elective

Time: 20 min

Art and Publishing

For my art this evening, I worked on a sketch for a muse contest on what sort of art a robot would make. I had a robot make a robot sculpture of The Thinker out of nuts and bolts!

Resources

My Sketchpad

My Computer

---

January 17th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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: 120 min

A Study of Classical and Modern Literature

Reflection

I read Sphere by Michael Crichton for about two hours. It was very good, and I have finished it. I will now write a review of it.

Resources

My Computer

---

Social Studies

Time: 90

A Study of Physical and Political Geography

Reflection

We started our Ecuadorian evening by watching a slide show on Semilla Arts and what they are doing in Ecuador. It was very interesting. Then we had a little quiz, where I attempted to remember all the stuff I had learned in our Geography class and answer the questions. There were all sorts of things I somewhat remembered from our lessons, but had never really put into practice. However, I did get my chance to shine when I explained the importance of the Galapagos Islands (which are owned by Ecuador) to the theory of Evolution. After that, we watched some more of the slide show on Ecuador, and then moved over to the community center, where we tried our hands at a spot of traditional Ecuadorian dance. We played something that was suspiciously like musical chairs, and then did a real Ecuadorian dance, where we danced around in a circle, back and forth, and did all kinds of cool things. After that, we took a break to eat some snacks, and then learned about how people in Ecuador celebrate the new year. When all the dancing is over, they write down the things they have done wrong in the past year, and all the things they want to do right in the new. Then they make a life-sized puppet to symbolize the things they did wrong in the last year, and burn it. Of course, we didn't burn our puppets, but we did burn our list of new year's resolutions. After that, we finished up. I really enjoyed the Ecuadorian evening.

Resources

Church Hall

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January 18th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down with Mr Tom and played through my lesson with him. I finished off I Just Can't Wait To Be King (or Prime Minister, as Mr Tom keeps saying to annoy me!), and played through a song from my new game, Red Alert 3!

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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Elective

Time: 90 min

Art and Publishing

For my art today, I was working on my robot art picture for Muse magazine. The contest was "What sort of art would a robot make?" So I had a robot artist make a robot statue of The Thinker. It was a lot of fun! I first drew it out in my sketchpad, then on Bristol Board. Once I had done that, I scanned it in and did the inking and the coloring on the computer. It looks really good!

Resources

My Computer

Bristol Board

---

English

Time: 60 min

Creative Writing

Reflection

I wrote a story for Cricket magazine on escaping a monster. I had my character encounter an arrogant dragon which had attacked him when he was younger and has now returned to finish him off. He manages to use its pride against it, and trick it!

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/dragon.pdf

Resources

My Computer

---

January 19th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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 a sheet about pronouns that are always singular. When you use these pronouns, you only use the singular version of any verbs you use with them. I read through the information on them, and then filled out some sentences with singular pronouns so that they were correct.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

---

Elective

Time: 90 min

A Local Study of Mountain Lake

Reflection

We started our study of Mountain Lake today by reviewing what we had written last time. Then we talked a little bit about Native Americans in our area, and watched a half-hour video about the history of Native Americans and white settlers. It seems that the settlers could be quite ruthless and tricky when making deals with the natives. In one deal, the natives agreed to sell the colonists in Pennsylvania the amount of land a person could walk around in a day. The colonists organized a team of runners who relayed around an extremely large area of land, which the Native Americans were forced to sell! When we had finished watching the video, we did some more research into the Native American periods we wrote about last time, and wrote our notes down. Then we finished up.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/lenape.pdf

Resources

My mom

Books on the Native Americans

Videos on the Native Americans

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Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we listened to the names of some fruits and vegetables and repeated them to better remember them. Then we tested each other on the names of those fruits and veg. I kept getting pounds and kilograms mixed up, and funnily enough, a pound is une livre, which is funny because un livre is a book.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

---

Math

Time: 40

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

We started my math for today by working on triangle numbers. What are triangle numbers? Triangle numbers are a sequence that goes 1-3-6-10 which you can get by adding up all the natural numbers (1=1, 1+2=3, 1+2+3= 6... etc). I answered some questions about them, and then moved onto the other exercise we did in the video lesson, which was about finding the largest area of a rectangle with a perimeter of 24. I used the formula I got in the video lesson to answer some questions about it, and then moved on to the supplementary exercises, of which we did one. I was about taking the cubes of the natural numbers you add up in the triangle number series, and adding those up. Funnily enough, you get the squares of the triangle numbers! When I had answered some questions about that, we finished up.

Resources

My Math Book

Algebra 1 Course

My Dad

---

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 cold!

---

Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/NatureJournalJan19.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

---

Elective

Time: 50 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this evening, I listened to a podcast from the Teaching Company on Martin Luther King and his struggles with segregation. He trained as a baptist minister, and studied the teachings and the methods of Gandhi, but never thought about applying them in his hometown. But when Rosa Parks refused to let a white person take her place on a bus, he was called upon to do just that. Funnily enough, it was a white librarian who first drew the link between Gandhi's protests in India and the protests in the area. I really enjoyed the program.

Resources

The Teaching Company

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January 20th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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

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English

Time: 20 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I worked on a sheet about more singular pronouns. They were "Somebody, everybody, nobody, no one, everyone... etc". I figured out which verbs were correct in sentences with those pronouns, then wrote a little story about an accident at the Fourth of July parade.

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 cold!

---

Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/NatureJournalJan20.pdf

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/coldbloodedwarmblooded.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

---

Elective

Time: 150 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs today, we went to watch the inauguration of the now President Barrack Obama in a nearby theater. It was a monumental occasion, the first time the United States has had an African American president, and it was the biggest turnout I have ever seen for anything. Even though it was cold, I could see person after person after person standing or sitting in front of the capitol building in the cold, waiting for Barrack Obama to make his appearance. There was barely a a spot on the lawn where grass showed through, that's how many people there were there. When the president came on, there was this enormous roar from the crowd, and everyone was clapping and cheering in the theater where we watched it. Barrack Obama's speech was amazing well written and spoken, and he had to keep pausing while people cheered so that he didn't get drowned out. The inauguration was mostly very well run, except for one moment when the guy who was inaugurating Barrack Obama messed up, and there was a moment of silence while they both adjusted. All in all, it was an excellent occasion!

Resources

Washington Theater

President Barack Obama

2 Million People!

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Math

Time: 90

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my algebra 1 lesson today by working on lesson 13 of my Algebra 1 Course. This time, we had to finish some supplementary exercises that were very tricky. In the first one, we calculated the number of non-repeating diagonals that could cross the surface of different polygons. We made a list of the numbers and we knew it was a quadratic equation because the differences of the lengths between the numbers went up by one each time. We just needed to find a quadratic equation for it. We worked hard, and after taking two points and solving for a and b (c was not an issue because it was zero) and working with those numbers, we managed to get an equation. Of course, it was not that easy! It turned out that if we had used more simple points, we probably could have figured it out sooner. Then we moved on to the second equation, where we had to find the largest area for a rectangle with a perimeter of 20 (The official story was you making a pen for your pet). It sounds familiar, but this time one wall was not an issue, because your house was used as that wall. We solved this one relatively quickly, and then 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 a section of our Voila! CD that was on buying fruit at a French market. We listened to a little skit on that, and then read and translated it in the book. After that, we each played the different parts in the skit, and finished up.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

---

Elective

Time: 90 min

Art and Publishing

For my art this evening, I worked with my art teacher to finish up the inking on a piece for Terror of Porridge, a book I wrote when I was eight. I felt we really used black to full effect, to make Harold, the main character, pop out. The robot in the background looks really mean! We also started a new piece.

Resources

Mr Pete

Light box

Bristol Board

---

English

Time: 60 min

A Study of Classical and Modern Literature

Reflection

I read Alien Log for about an hour, and finished it. It was very good, and I will write a review of it!

Resources

My Computer

---

January 21st 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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 a sheet where I had to combine pronouns and prepositional phrases into sentences. I filled it in on the computer, and it was a lot of fun!

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/Pronouns.pdf

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

---

Elective

Time: 40 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this morning, I read an article about expectations that people have expressed about President Barack Obama's presidency. When polled, it seems people have high expectations of Mr Obama, although some express doubts that he will be able to follow through with the things he said he could. We will just have to see. When I had read the article, I answered a question about it.

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 cold!

---

Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/NatureJournalJan21.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

---

Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we worked on two exercises in our Voila! Book. They were very fun. One involved prices at a store, and the other challenged us to use the masculine and feminine versions of the adjectives big, fat and little, to describe objects and produce.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

---

Math

Time: 60

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my algebra 1 lesson today by watching video 14 in the Algebra 1 series, which was on The Geometry of Quadratic Function Graphs. It was a very interesting lesson, and I enjoyed it a lot. The standard form of a quadratic function is y = ax^2+bx+c. We started by trying to find what effect a has on the graph. We made b and c zero, and so only looked at a. What we found was that a controlled the slope of the line. If a is positive, the parabola of the graph has a minimum point, meaning it slopes upwards, and if negative, it slopes downward. Then we had a look at c. By varying c in the equation, we found that it controls the position in y of the minimum or maximum point of the graph. By some clever math and rearranging of some equations, we managed to find that b controlled the x-position of the line. I had actually already guessed that that would be what it would be, but it would have taken a while for me to figure it out. The lesson was very good, and I felt I learned a lot.

Resources

My Math Book

Algebra 1 Course

My Dad

---

Science

Time: 120 min

Physical Science

Reflection

We started our science class this afternoon on weather with dad giving a presentation on air. We learned about how the first philosophers thought about air, as one of the four elements. Little was known about air until the 17th century, when some some smart guys figured out a lot. After that, we learned about what makes up air, which is a mixture of about 20% oxygen and about 80% nitrogen, which a smattering of carbon dioxide mixed in. Then we learned about gases. We found that at Standard Temperature and Pressure (STP), 22.4 liters of a gas is equal to the atomic mass of a gas's molecules. Then we used a scale and two balloons to prove that air under pressure is heavier because it has more density. How did we do this? We blew up one of the balloons and left the other deflated, then hung them both from the scale and made sure they balanced. Then we slowly let the air out of the blown-up balloon. The first balloon now weighed more than the hole-filled one, which proved that the air under pressure inside the other balloon added something to the weight. After that, we learned about how to measure air pressure, and built a simple barometer. After that, we learned about the different layers of atmosphere, imploded a can by creating low pressure inside so that the air outside pushed in on it, and finished up.

Resources

My Dad

My Workbook

Stove

Computer

---

English

Time: 20 min

Creative Writing

Reflection

I wrote a book review of Alien Log, and book I had read.

Resources

My Computer

---

January 22nd 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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: 25 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I worked on a sheet where I had to identify which verbs were wrong for singular pronouns in a short story. It was a very funny story, and I enjoyed working on it. I think I got most of it right, but I checked through it before finishing up.

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 cold!

---

Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/NatureJournalJan22.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

---

Elective

Time: 30 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this morning, I filled out a form about the inauguration speech of Barack Obama. I covered the key parts of his speech, what his goals were, what historical references he made, and how it was received by me, the general public and the press. I felt that his speech was very good, and a lot of the 2 million people who went to Washington DC to watch his speech must have felt so too!

Resources

NY Times Current Affairs website

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Math

Time: 40

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

We started my exploration of place value by reading through two pages in my How Math Works book on place value. I learned about how you would count if you were an alien and had only six fingers and how to make a simple computer using an or gate. Without place value, to count to the number 35, we would go 10+10+10+5, which could get annoying once you got to really big numbers. So it is a good thing that we have place value. Then we moved on to the Fractals and Googols book, where we learned that aliens with 6 fingers on each hand probably would develop a base 12 place value system. I had a bit of trouble with this bit, but I think I now understand it pretty well. In any place value system, let's call it A, the units column is A^0, then the next column is A^1, then A^2... etc. When we had done that, I learned about the origin of place value, and then designed some problems for dad.

Resources

My Math Book

Math Books

My Dad

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Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we worked on an exercise where we made a shopping list and then wrote a little shopping scene to go along with it. I wrote a scene entitled Les Produits Trop, which means The Overpriced Produce. It was a lot of fun writing it, especially when the shopkeeper told the shopper that 2 kilograms of apples was 120 euros!

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

---

Physical Fitness

Time: 120 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

I vacuumed the entire house, ceiling to floor. It was hot work, even though it was cold out. I moved furniture and objects some I could vacuum behind them. I also vacuumed behind doors and in the corners.

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January 23rd 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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

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English

Time: 30 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I learned about possessive pronouns. Possessive pronouns are pronouns that show ownership of nouns in a sentence. When I had read the section of possessive pronouns, I wrote a story about a nightmare vacation, using my possessive pronoun skills!

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

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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 presidency, and finished off the article questions provided in the lesson.

Resources

NY Times Current Affairs website

---

Community Service

Time: 30 min

Community Service

Reflection

I started my work at the library by finishing up sorting out the DVDs. I found at least seven DVDs that weren't supposed to be there. Then I worked on the CDs.

Resources

Librarians

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Elective

Time: 30 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

I listened to a living books for the ears program on President George Washington and his journey to become president of the United States. He really didn't want to become president, but did it because he felt a responsibility to keep the nation together. He wasn't a happy guy on his trip to be inaugurated! It was a great program, and I really enjoyed it.

Resources

Living Books for the Ears

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Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we worked on an exercise for Ma France, a BBC french learning program. In the last video, we learned about the Islands of Friouls in France. Now, we learned about what materials on the island you could use to decorate your house. We watched the video twice, then when through with French subtitles on and translated it. It would be helpful if the people spoke a bit slower.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

---

Elective

Time: 20 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

My mom and I listened to our new Story of the World CD, which is on the modern age. We learned about David Livingstone and his adventures in Africa, which unfortunately paved the way for European invaders, and about how Italy won its freedom from Austria in the Italian revolution.

Resources

Story of the World

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Elective

Time: 60 min

A Local Study of Mountain Lake

Reflection

I made some more notes for my Woodland Period report.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/lenape.pdf

Resources

My mom

Books on the Native Americans

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English

Time: 60 min

Creative Writing

Reflection

I got an email from my Actor and Writer speaks teacher, which had some constructive criticism on my play. I corrected most of the stuff she pointed out, but some I left in.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/playideas3-rewrite4.pdf

Resources

My Computer

My Teacher Miss Mary

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January 24th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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

I went to my first dancing and singing class with slight trepidation. I had been exercising and stretching for two weeks in preparation for the class, but I wasn't sure whether I would be able to do some of the stretches and exercises very well. As it turned out, I did fine. We started by doing some light exercises to stretch our muscles and get us loose. Then we played tag, which was quite interesting in such a small room. After that, we played zombie tag, a game where, when the zombie (it) came to tag you, you had to say the name of one of the other people, who became the zombie. This was designed to test our reflexes and clear thinking under pressure. When we finished that, we did an exercise in showing emotion and breathing properly. Finally, we finished up by doing some basic singing. I thought that I did well!

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. Then we did a small improvisation talk show where we worked in pairs: one person was the talk show host and the other was the person being interviewed. It was fun! Then we took random words and combined them together to make a scene. Our first scene was about a cheese shop, and the second scene was about a cruise on the amazon river! I really enjoyed our class.

Resources

Mr Danny

Other students

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Elective

Time: 90 min

Art and Publishing

For my art this evening, I worked on a picture for the Neuroscience for Kids art contest. In it, I compared my brain to a gallery because of all the stuff stored in it. I started out by drawing it in pencil, and then going over it with ink. Tomorrow, I will add color.

Resources

Light box

Paper

---

English

Time: 60 min

Creative Writing

Reflection

I wrote some descriptions of units for a futuristic real-time strategy game I am designing. I am designing the units of the Confederacy, one of the empires on Earth in 2040. Most of these units are equipped for use in the dangerous environment of Mars, but are useful on earth as well. I am figuring out a grid system for movement in the game.

Resources

My Computer

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January 25th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down with Mr Tom and played through a song in my technique book, and moved on to a new one, entitled A Minor Melody. Next, we moved on to the lesson book, where I practiced a new song, The Rocketship Blues. It was a lot of fun, and involved the use of second inversion chords. Finally, we played a piece of music from one of my games.

Resources

Mr Tom

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

---

Elective

Time: 120 min

Art and Publishing

For my art today, I used Prismacolor colored pencils to add some life to my Neuroscience for Kids competition entry. I colored it in and added shading to make things pop out more. I feel the color really worked well with the pen and ink. When I was done, I moved on to do a picture for Terror of Porridge, which was where Harold meets the big weird eyeball guy and was fun and easy to do.

Resources

Pencils

Colored Pencils

Light box

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January 26th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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 a page about using non-sexist pronouns, where I had to replace his to be good for both males and females.

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 presidency, and finished off the last of the article questions provided in the lesson. Then I read some of the extra articles provided.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/currentaffairsObama.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. The clouds were stratocumulus.

---

Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/NatureJournalJan26.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

---

English

Time: 60 min

A Study of Classical and Modern Literature

Reflection

I read all my magazines except for National Geographic, and finished a book called Sorcerer of the North, which I will write a review of.

Resources

My Computer

---

Social Studies

Time: 90

A Study of Physical and Political Geography

Reflection

When everyone had arrived for our Geography lesson, we started learning about a civic life. What is a civic life? It is when your actions benefit not just you, but the entire community. We learned about some examples of civic acts, and then filled in a worksheet on them. It was quite easy, as we just had to check whether an act would affect just you and your family, or the community in general. When we had finished that, we learned about a certain type of community project practiced in Ecuador, where everyone in the community gets together to help one family, or to create a project that benefits everyone. Lastly, we learned about Heifer International's values, and filled in a worksheet on that.

Resources

Lessons from a Village Called Earth Geography Course

My mom

---

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 14, which was on the geometry of quadratic function graphs. I really enjoyed it, and I felt I learned a lot. I answered some questions about the lesson, which were mainly pretty easy. Then I did supplementary exercises that involved finding a, b and c for some equations and showing what changes they would make to the graph. It was a lot of fun, and I got pretty good at spotting what a, b, and c would change in the graph. We did one more supplementary exercise, which involved finding the equation for some points on a graph, and finished up. Earlier in the day, I also spent 15 minutes reading through the numbers section of my Go Figure! book.

Resources

My Math Book

Algebra 1 Course

My Dad

---

January 27th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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 a page about combining sentences using pronouns. It was a lot of fun, and quite easy.

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 the possibilities for what President Barack Obama will do in his first one hundred days. I read through the article, and then thought about some questions that were asked.

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. The clouds were cirrostratus.

---

Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/NatureJournalJan27.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

---

Math

Time: 60

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my exploration of number series by learning about Pascal's Triangle. Pascal's Triangle is a wealth of number series, as each of the diagonals hides a series. We learned about triangle numbers and Fibonacci numbers. We also learned about the ancient chessboard story, where a man who was to be rewarded by the king asked for one grain of rice on the first square of a chessboard, then for that number to be squared and placed on the second square, and so on and so forth. Then we did some more explorations into Fibonacci numbers and learned about his famous rabbit problem. Lastly, we learned some more about Fibonacci and Pascal's Triangle, and finished up.

Resources

My Math Book

Math Books

My Dad

---

Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we worked on an exercise for Ma France, a BBC french learning program. In the last lesson, we watched a video about decorating your apartment using only the materials found on the Friouls. In this lesson, we went through the video a few times, read through the french transcript and translated it. We also wrote some french sentences about imaginary towns, and sent them off to our french teacher.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

---

Elective

Time: 25 min

Economics

Reflection

Mom went through today's section of our Economics course, Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?, with me. We went through all the stuff I covered in the last lesson. Then I answered some questions about why economics is important, and read through some short essays that are pre-reading for the course. They were very interesting, and I felt I learned a lot from them. Finally, I filled in a sheet about things we need and things we want.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/Economic2.pdf

Resources

Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? Economics Course

---

Elective

Time: 75 min

Art and Publishing

For my art this evening, I worked with my art teacher to finish up the sketch for one of my pictures for Terror of Porridge, a book I wrote when I was eight. When we had done that, we inked it. There was a shop sign in it, so we used the computer to draw a (almost) perfect circle and printed it out, then used that as my template. My book is really coming together.

Resources

Mr Pete

Light box

Bristol Board

---

January 28th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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 a page about using pronouns in the right order, so that sentences will make sense. The right way to do a sentence would be this "I saw a lady wearing an enormous hat and a fluffy dress walking a dog." The wrong way would be like this "I saw a lady walking a dog wearing an enormous hat and a fluffy dress." See? It doesn't make sense. I corrected a page full of this, and all of the sentences made me laugh!

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

---

Elective

Time: 40 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this morning, I read the article on people's hopes for President Obama's first 100 days as president. Once I had read through it and thought about it, I went through the article questions with mom.

Resources

NY Times Current Affairs website

---

Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we took four verbs each and worked them into a short story about meeting new people. Mom wrote about meeting some children at a swimming pool, and I wrote about how Eric the Sheep met his long-lost brother, Dan the Sheep. Unfortunately, they turn out to be surprisingly dissimilar, and when Dan calls Eric a "fat, greedy glutton!", they begin to fight. Then the police arrive and arrest them. When we had sent our stories off, we went through the grammar and words section of our Ma France Course.

Resources

Ma France

My Computer

---

Math

Time: 60 min

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my algebra 1 lesson today by watching a video about working through quadratic functions in different ways. In one way, we started with some numbers, and used that to derive an equation, in another, we started with a graph and used that to derive the equation. There were several different explorations which we did in the video. The first was on finding the maximum number of regions a pie can be cut into with x number of cuts. While doing this, we used a very cool tool, which was a table where we took the x values and plugged them into a standard quadratic equation, then calculated the first and second differences, to find the values of a, b and c. We found that that y is equal to c when x is zero (duh!), that the first difference was equal to a+b and that the second differences were equal to 2a. From this, we could derive our equation. After that, we started the other way, starting with a graph, taking the points and using those to derive the equation. When I was done watching the video, I went on to the lesson with dad. The lesson was basically giving me more practice of the things I learned in the lesson, and I'd like to think I did pretty well.

Resources

My Math Book

Algebra 1 Course

My Dad

---

Elective

Time: 60 min

Art and Publishing

For my art today, I worked on a sketch for a picture for my Keepers of the Animals project on the forest ecosystem. I drew herbivores eating the plants, insectivores eating the insects, and carnivores eating everyone else. Although I had a bit of trouble (mostly because I hadn't eaten), I think I did pretty well.

Resources

Paper

Pencil

---

English

Time: 20 min

Creative Writing

Reflection

I finished off the homework that my acting teacher, Mr Danny, set us in our last acting lesson. We were supposed to write some interesting things about ourselves, so I did.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/dannyhomework.pdf

Resources

My Computer

---

English

Time: 20 min

Creative Writing

Reflection

I wrote about what foods come from what plants or animals for my Keepers of the Animals project.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/Keepers.pdf

Resources

My Computer

---

January 29th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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 a sheet where I had to use pronouns to combine more sentences. They were very funny.

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. The clouds were stratocumulus.

---

Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/NatureJournalJan29.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

---

Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we took four verbs each and worked them into a short story. I continued the saga of Eric and Dan, who went to jail in the previous story. Now they escape from jail with the help of Dan's shirt, which turns out to be a lethal weapon. After we had finished our stories and sent them off, we went through some activities on the Ma France website.

Resources

Ma France

My Computer

---

Elective

Time: 30 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this morning, I learned some more about people's hopes for the Obama administration. President Obama sure has a lot of hopes riding on him. I hope he is up to it. I listened to an interactive feature about people's opinions on the matter.

Resources

NY Times Current Affairs website

---

Math

Time: 60

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my algebra 1 lesson today by watching a video about problem solving with quadratic functions. Yes, it sound scary, but it really isn't. We started with some triangles that got bigger and bigger, and I quickly deduced an equation for that. Then we used a graphing calculator to figure out some sums. Actually, before I continued watching what the answer would be, I yelled "The cheaters! What do they mean that's for algebra 2?" and tried to figure it out. Needless to say, there is a reason why I am not doing quadratic equation manipulation yet, and it was quite confusing. So I called in the help of Dad. Dad sat down beside me, and quickly confused me even more with what he remembered from college (which was the format of the equation itself, not how you got there). Eventually, I gave up on the problem (which involved finding the square root of two constants) and watched the video. They solved it pretty quick. Exploration number two was about finding the golden ratio, or Fi (I cannot write the symbol here), and was a bit harder. Again, it was solved with the aid of a graphing calculator. The last problem was on finding out if a quadratic equation always has two x-intercepts, two points where it touches the x-axis. The program said no, but dad said yes, but sometimes both the intercepts are in the same place or are imaginary. Sounds like of lot of twaddle to me, but there you go. After that, I finished up.

Resources

My Math Book

Algebra 1 Course

My Dad

---

Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

I vacuumed the entire house, ceiling to floor. I took care to go behind doors and furniture.

---

English

Time: 120 min

A Study of Classical and Modern Literature

Reflection

I read The Secrets of the Undead, a source book for my Dungeons and Dragons game, for two hours. I really enjoyed it, and have finished it.

Resources

Secrets of the Undead

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January 30th 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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 a sheet where I had to write a summary of a book called Nobody, about a detective who investigates a mystery where people are drawing chalk outlines of people (but never killing anyone), and discovers deceit, treachery and people with chalk at the heart of his town.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

---

Elective

Time: 30 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

For my current affairs this morning, I learned some more about people's hopes for the Obama administration. Then I began answering the article questions, of which there are quite a few. I finished questions one, two and three, and I am working on the fourth.

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, for our next lesson. We went through the stories we had written, and although there were quite a few mistakes (my characters exploded at one point, when I wanted them to glare!), I thought I and mom both did pretty well. After we went through our stories, we worked on our french grammar. We went over the past tenses of french, which are passe compose (which has one present tense verb and one past tense) and imparfait (which just has a past-tense verb with -ais on the end). When we had done that, we went through our lesson in the book, and learned some more about shopping in France.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

Miss Marie

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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. I went from 1-600, and learned about the programs that the library is scheduling for the summer.

Resources

Librarians

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Elective

Time: 30 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

I listened to a living books for the ears program on George Washington Carver, which was very cool. George Washington Carver was certainly a very cool guy. He was one of the first people not only to see that cotton was going to ruin the South, but actually to do something about it! He cultivated peanuts and found hundreds of uses for them, which brought the South into a period of prosperity.

Resources

Living Books for the Ears

---

Elective

Time: 20 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

We listened to our Story of the World CD on the modern age, which today was on the Taiping Rebellion and the American Civil War. If the Taiping Rebellion had succeeded, China might be a democratic country today! It's interesting to think of these things. The British helped to defeat the rebels and put the Qing dynasty back in power, but they didn't really care about either side. All they knew was the rebels hated opium and if they succeeded in taking control of China, Britain would lose a big market! The American Civil War was a very sad and bloody affair, as I'm sure you know.

Resources

Story of the World

---

Elective

Time: 90 min

Art and Publishing

For my art today, I finished up a picture for my Keepers of the Animals project. I started off with my sketch, put it on the lightbox and inked it. When I was done inking, I added color to parts of it to bring it to life. I felt that overall I did a pretty a pretty good job.

Resources

Light box

Pens

Colored Pencils

Paper

---

January 31st 2009

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I sat down and played the songs I Just Can't Wait To Be King (from the Lion King), Stretch and Leap, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. 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

---

Elective

Time: 40 min

A Local Study of Mountain Lake

Reflection

I worked on reading through more books on the Woodland Period, and adding some more notes to my two pages of them. I have one more book to work through, and then I've got to write it up.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/lenape2.pdf

Resources

My mom

Books on the Native Americans

---

English

Time: 90 min

Creative Writing

Reflection

I continued to write my Boomo and Co story. I think it is really coming along!

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/BoomoAndCo.pdf

Resources

My Computer

---

Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

I think I did just as well in my second dancing and singing class as I did in my first. We started off by doing an exercise routine that wasn't that strenuous but did get you nice and stretched. Then we did some real exercises, like pushups, jumping jacks, and other stretches. After we had done that, we practiced crossing the room using step-ball-change and turning (going fours steps forward and then turning, and going four steps backwards). After that, we practiced singing, singing separately and together. We did some scales, and worked on our song which we are all going to do together. I think I did very well on that, and the class was great!

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 talking about what we wanted to aim towards in our acting classes. Mr Danny said that we could take a poem (like The Jabberwocky) and expand upon it to create a play. I thought that was great, and I suggested that we could do the Jabberwocky or one of Shel Silverstein's poems. Mr Danny went and got Where the Sidewalk Ends, and we read through a couple of his poems. After that, we told some stories that were either true or untrue, and the other students had to guess which one it was. My stories were mostly false, because I enjoy making stuff up. Then we finished up.

Resources

Mr Danny

Other students

---

English

Time: 90 min

A Study of Classical and Modern Literature

Reflection

We went to see a production of Petite Rouge, a Cajun Little Red Riding Hood, at the Growing Stage Theater.

Resources

My Computer

---

English

Time: 60 min

Creative Writing

Reflection

I wrote a review of Petite Rouge, a play I went to see.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogJan2009/PetiteRouge.pdf

Resources

My Computer

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-- JackW - 01 Jan 2009