November 1st 2008

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), Railroad Boogie, and the Hokey Pokey, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. I experimented with playing my songs in different instruments on my electric piano. I also made up a song of my own!

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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Community Service

Time: 90 min

Community Service

Reflection

We went to Long Meadow Farm for an hour and a half, to pick apples for a food pantries with Grow-a-Row. When we got there, there were only a few people picking, but more arrived later. Chip, who was running the program along with the farmer whose farm it was, showed us piles of apples that had been knocked from their trees. We picked up apples, made sure they weren't overly squishy or cut, and put them in a basket. When the basket was full, we put it in a wheelbarrow that would later be taken to a big box and all the apples would be put in. It was actually very relaxing and when it came time for us to go, mom kept saying "Just one more apple! Just one more apple!"

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English

Time: 60 min

Speech: The Actor and Writer Speaks

Reflection

When we arrived at Growing Stage, we were just on time, so I hopped out of the truck and ran in with my folder. We went up to class and read through the plays that everyone had written during the week. We all got to act in most of the plays, although not in our own plays, because we had to listen and observe how smoothly it went. Everybody did a great job, and it was fun to see how other people interpreted my characters. I played a boss and a complete jerk (that role wasn't much fun...).

Resources

Notebooks

Miss Mary

Other students

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Physical Fitness

Time: 90 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

I worked in the yard for an hour and a half. We started by removing an enormous pile of branches and moving them over to our other pile. I chopped off the burnable bits with dad's machete and threw them onto dad's wood pile. Then we cleaned up in the front yard and dad pulled up quite a few tree roots (or bush roots, if you want to be exact) that were really hard to get out! I carted them over to the compost in the wheelbarrow, where dad is going to use them to make the compost wall stronger.

Resources

Machete

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November 2nd 2008

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

Mr Tom came over to my house for my piano lesson this morning, as it was too cold to do it in the church. We played through the Railroad Boogie in my Technique book and went on to a new song entitled Casey's Tune. In the lesson book I can now play the whole of the song The Hokey Pokey hands together, after practicing hands separately, a lot. In my solo book I move on to playing the second half of I Just Can't Wait to be King hands separately.

Resources

Mr Tom

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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November 3rd 2008

Elective

Time: 15 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), Railroad Boogie, and the Hokey Pokey, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. I experimented with playing my songs in different instruments on my electric piano. It sounded really good!

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We went for a walk down the road and through the woods. We saw that a telephone pole had been removed and replaced, which was probably why we lost power.

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Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

We sat down and did the eight part comprehension quiz for the Ma France Unit One video. We got it right 88% the first time around, so we did it again and got it one hundred percent right! After that we watched the Ma France video again, and tried to speak in time with the people in the video. We couldn't do it because they spoke so awesomely fast! After that, we worked on the word aimer, which means to like.

Resources

Ma France website

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Science

Time: 270 min

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

I started off by copying all the botany pictures off the Polish computer onto my computer. I stored them all in one folder, and then created an HTML file in the folder. In the HTML file I created hyperlinks to all the folders in the botany folder. After I was done with that (I had to add a few folders and move files in from elsewhere), I added a background. After dinner we looked through all the slides that the people from PPL had so kindly given to us, which took a while. It was a long presentation! When we had finished that, we put my Darwin Presentation into my botany folder along with the PPL disks, and stuck my habitat project down properly with Velcro stickers. It took a long time, but it's looking good and only needs one more folder (the pictures for that haven't been copied off the camera yet!).

Resources

My Computer

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November 4th 2008

Elective

Time: 15 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), Railroad Boogie, and the Hokey Pokey, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. I experimented with playing my songs in different instruments on my electric piano. The Hokey Pokey is really coming along!

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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Science

Time: 120 min

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

I started off by writing out two labels for my botany project, marking where people had to lift things up or pull things out. Then I found two pictures of flower parts I had taken with my microscope, and shrunk them down so that they would fit on the page they were going on. After I had finished that, I took a picture of myself and a Pawpaw tree from our trip to Tyler Arboretum, and a picture of myself sketching a flower at the Maine Botanical Gardens. Then I attached the Tyler Arboretum link to the website I had created for the botany project. When I had finished that, I rearranged the page with my "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" logo on it so that it included my picture of sheriff Jack in the Pulpit.

Resources

My Computer

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English

Time: 40 min

Creative Writing

Reflection

I wrote a page an a half of chapter two of my Boomo and Co story. I introduced a few new characters, and advanced the plot with the evil accordion.

Resources

My Computer

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Science

Time: 75 min

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

We started our first Worms Eat my Garbage biology lesson with a small and easy question sheet about worms. It asked questions like "what is the flap above the worms mouth called?" When we had finished that, we pulled out two worms and shone a flashlight underneath them. We counted their five hearts and intestine. Then we drew a picture labeling the parts. We finished off by making a word portrait of a worm, with words that describe worms.

Resources

Workbook

Worms!

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English

Time: 90 min

A Study of Classical and Modern Literature

Reflection

I finished up the third book in the Bobby Pendragon Series, The Never War, in which Saint Dane, the evil traveler, has traveled back in time to stop the Hindenburg from crashing. If he does, it could lead to a Nuclear War. Pendragon must travel back in time to stop him and prevent his world from being wiped out!

Resources

My Computer

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November 5th 2008

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), Railroad Boogie, and the Hokey Pokey, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. I enjoyed making up a song which I entitled "The Fall Falls".

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We went for a walk down the road and through the woods. We saw two Pileated woodpeckers flying through the trees, saw a Red Tailed Hawk and saw a deer running away from us.

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English

Time: 15 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

Mom went through my page of grammar on idioms. I wasn't able to identify what one of my idioms (down to the wire) meant, so I looked it up on the Internet. It meant at the very last second. Then we went through the last page of the prepositions section, which was about putting the right prepositions into ads that had no prepositions in them. I got almost all of them right, and mom liked the ad I had written.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday

The Internet

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Elective

Time: 60 min

French Language

Reflection

I started by writing out three French sentences, one in present tense and the other two in past tense. The type of past tense they were written in was called passe compose, which means compound past tense. It is called that because you combine two verbs (the first is usually avoir, to have) to create the past tense. It was really hard. When I was done, dad went through it with me. He really helped me get it right!

Resources

My Computer

My Dad

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Science

Time: 150 min

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

We made a solemn vow that we would finish off our huge teetering pile of pressed flowers today, so that tomorrow we could have time to finish off my botany folder. We worked steadily through them, and slowly the enormous pile grew smaller, as I wrote their names and whether they were a native, a non-native or an invasive and mom stuck them down. We finished the pile! Of course, it helped that some of them were unidentified, and we didn't bother with those. But still, we finished it! When we were done, I drew a logo to go along with the Invasives and Non-Natives section.

Resources

My Computer

Glue

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November 6th 2008

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), Railroad Boogie, and the Hokey Pokey, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. I experimented with playing my songs in different instruments on my electric piano. I also made up a song of my own!

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We went for a very rainy walk down the road and through the woods.

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Science

Time: 120 min

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

I started my botany today by preparing a document full of labels and pictures for my botany project. Then mom went through the document and the website with me. When we were done going through website, I copied it and all the pictures onto a disc. It took a while because we copied it wrong the first time we tried, and the disc couldn't be read on the other computer. But eventually we got it right, and the disc was put in it's holder and stuck down in the botany folder. Then I attached a picture I had drawn of a Black-eyed Susan to the botany document, and printed it out. We stuck everything down in the botany folder. After that, I wrote out a rough plan for the index of the Botany Folder, and typed it up on the computer. When I had finished that, I brought out a book entitled The Seed is Sleepy, and used the pictures in it to draw a picture of a bean growth time line and a bean embryo. I printed these out with my Natives and Invasives and Non-Natives logos for the second half of my botany project, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Resources

My Computer

Glue

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Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

I vacuumed the entire house ceiling to floor. When I came into the main room, Dad showed how to be more thorough in my work.

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November 7th 2008

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), Railroad Boogie, and the Hokey Pokey, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. I experimented with playing my songs in different instruments on my electric piano. I also made up a song of my own!

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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Elective

Time: 70 min

French Language

Reflection

Before we went off to our French lesson this morning, my mom and I went through the corrections Miss Marie had made to our French Sentences. There are quite a few things we still need to work on, but we are definitely coming along. After that, we got in the car and went to our French Lesson. When we got there, we began to work on our Voila program. The hardest part was figuring out, based on the male and female words for people who come from different countries (such as anglais (m) and anglaise (f), English), what the name of the country was. The most fun part of the lesson was an exercise in which two of us (first my mom and I, then my dad and I) discussed whether we were going to rent the other's apartment for a vacation. My dad and I ended up insulting each other (in French, of course!) over the apartment. It was great fun!

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 a big pile of paper bearing the title: "If you liked (author's name)'s work, you might like these authors". I had to sort a small pile into a larger one alphabetically. Unfortunately, it wasn't as useful as I had hoped, because the smaller pile was all repeats. Oh, well! I also sorted out videos 1-500 in the DVD stack.

Resources

Librarians

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Elective

Time: 40 min

Economics

Reflection

I wrote out a paragraph for my economics where I took a quote from the Authors Disclosure Section of Whatever Happened to Penny Candy, and discussed what it meant to the original colonists and what it means to us today. When I was done, mom went over it with me.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogNov2008/Economic1.pdf

Resources

My Computer

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Elective

Time: 30 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

I wrote out my current affairs article on Political Caricatures, where I described how caricatures can shape how we view a politician. When I had completed my current affairs, mom went through it with me. There were no mistakes!

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogNov2008/CurrentAffair-Politics.pdf

Resources

My Computer

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Science

Time: 120 min

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

I started my botany today by adding a background picture of ivy, which I also used for the botany website, to the contents page I created for the project yesterday. Then I printed it out and stuck it down on the first page of my botany folder. When I done that, I cut down the page of images I had printed out yesterday, and stuck them down where they needed to go in my folder. Then I wrote out a page of acknowledgments for all the people who helped me with my project. I used the same background for it as I did for my index. Then I glued that down as well. We finished the botany project!

Resources

My Computer

Glue

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English

Time: 45 min

Speech: The Actor and Writer Speaks

Reflection

I wrote a new scene for my actor and writer speaks, expanding the character's personalities. I also wrote a more intriguing personality for one of the security guards.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogNov2008/playideas2.pdf

Resources

My Computer

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November 8th 2008

Elective

Time: 15 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), Railroad Boogie, and the Hokey Pokey, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. I played my songs in different keys and instruments.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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English

Time: 80 min

Speech: The Actor and Writer Speaks

Reflection

For our Actor Speaks class today, we merged with the acting class so we could see actual, living actors acting out our plays. Gasp! It was very fun actually. We came in and I volunteered to do my scene first. I explained to the actors who they were, where and when the scene was set and what age they were. It was very funny, and went well except in one scene, where there was a chase and Joe was supposed to try to jump out the window, forgetting it was closed, and knock himself out. Maybe I didn't explain that part well enough! Everyone else did a fantastic job, and the acting class really brought our plays to life. I also left with some great tips for making my play better.

Resources

Fellow Playwrights and Actors

My Teachers

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English

Time: 90 min

A Study of Classical and Modern Literature

Reflection

I wrote reviews of seven books that were on my book list, each of which well overdue for a book review. I really thought about what I liked and disliked about each book.

Resources

My Computer

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English

Time: 60 min

Speech: The Actor and Writer Speaks

Reflection

For my Actor Speaks homework, I updated some of the characters to make them more different, and added a new scene and character, Joe's Boss. This man has some blood pressure problems! The new scene also explains a few things in the play, such as "Why does Joe want the job in the first place?"

Resources

My Computer

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November 9th 2008

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

Mr Tom came over to my house for my piano lesson this morning. We played through Casey's Tune in my Technique book and went on to a new song entitled Over the Top in F. I finished the Hokey Pokey in my lesson book, and went on to Prelude in A Minor. In Prelude in A Minor, I was introduced to a new type of note, called an arpeggiated chord. By the time we finished Prelude in A Minor, it was nearly time to go over to church, but we managed to squeeze in I Just Can't Wait to be King too.

Resources

Mr Tom

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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November 10th 2008

Elective

Time: 15 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), Railroad Boogie, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. I played my songs in different keys and instruments.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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English

Time: 20 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

I started a new section of my grammar book on adjectives today! I had to go through five sentences, and identify all the adjectives in each one and which noun they were describing. When I finished, mom went through it with me. I only got a few bits wrong. I learned that "a", "an" and "the" are all adjectives! I didn't know that before (or if I did I had forgotten!)

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

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Elective

Time: 60 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

I tried to find a New York Times Current affairs student activity about Barrack Obama winning the presidential election, but I couldn't find it, so I settled for today's one on who Barrack Obama is going to choose to run the Treasury. I first read the article, then began to answer some questions about the article. There are two main candidates, and I discussed the good points and bad points of choosing either. I got to question number three, and I hope to finish it tomorrow.

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. It was really gusting!

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Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogNov2008/NatureJournalNov10.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

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Math

Time: 60

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

I started my algebra 1 lesson today by going over what we had already done in the lesson last time. Then we moved on to the next part of the lesson. Last time we multiplied fractions, this time we had to divide fractions. It was very tricky but I feel that I worked my way through it properly and learned a lot. Then I worked on some general algebra sums (1x2 + 3x)(4+2) and other things like that. I learned a few new manipulation techniques (like +- becomes a -) and finished that section up. I only have a few more exercises left to do on this lesson.

Resources

My Math Book

Algebra 1 Course

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Elective

Time: 40

French Language

Reflection

For our french, we worked on lesson two of our Voila! CD and Book. We repeated the masculine and feminine names for people from different countries until I nearly went crazy. Then we moved on and looked at a map where different characters were shown coming from different countries. We had to name the character and say where they came from (In french, of course! You didn't think we were getting off that easy, did you?) Then we did some exercises where we responded to people on the CD, and finished up.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

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Social Studies

Time: 30

A Study of Physical and Political Geography

Reflection

When everyone had arrived for our Geography lesson, we began to discuss incentives, which are why people do things. Why do you watch TV? (I'm asking you, because I sure don't!) Why do the people in Ecuador choose to keep animals? What are the incentives for them? We talked about how money is one incentive, but there are many others. When we had finished that, we worked through some simple math problems that demonstrated how the people in Ecuador made money by selling alpaca wool. Just selling the wool gave you a higher percentage of profit than, say, making a sweater out of it. It was very interesting. When we had finished all that, we had recess.

Resources

Lessons from a Village Called Earth Geography Course

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November 11th 2008

Elective

Time: 15 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), Railroad Boogie, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. I played my songs in different keys and instruments.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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English

Time: 25 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I wrote out a paragraph describing the worst night of some kid's life. Well, actually, I expanded on a sentence that said: "Last night was the worst night of my life." so it actually showed what the night was like. I had a lot of fun writing the story. When I was done, mom went over it with me.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

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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 leaves in the woods were really slippery, and the trees are almost entirely bare.

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Science

Time: 30

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogNov2008/NatureJournalNov11.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

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Elective

Time: 40

French Language

Reflection

For our french, we continued to work on lesson two of our Voila! CD and Book. We went through some areas we covered in our lesson with Miss Marie on Friday, and also went on to a new part of the lesson. We learned how to say how old you are, learned about more nouns, and did an exercise where we asked each other questions about our families (which was a bit tricky because we're obviously related). All in all, it was a fun French lesson, and I learned a lot.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

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Math

Time: 40

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

For my math today, I first worked on some self-checking sums where I had to multiply them out into their simplest form and then find the answer on another list to see if it was correct. I was a little rusty at first, but I soon began to zoom through them. When I had finished, dad came and checked through them. I had got them all correct! I was feeling pretty proud of myself, until we went on to the next section and I had to work through the same sorts of equations the other way, working back from the answer until I got to the beginning. I was having a lot of trouble, so we decided to finish for the day. Maybe I will get it tomorrow.

Resources

My Math Book

Algebra 1 Course

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Elective

Time: 90 min

Art and Publishing

I went over to Mr Pete's house for my art lesson tonight, and after dinner I got out my gargoyle painting. Unfortunately, it had got slightly scratched, but we managed to clean that up. Then we began work on the building behind the gargoyle. It was hard to mix up the right color paint, but when we got it, it really worked!

Resources

Canvas

Paints

Color-Mixing Book

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November 12th 2008

Elective

Time: 20 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), Railroad Boogie, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. I made up quite a few songs of my own!

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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Math

Time: 40

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

For my math today, I continued on the sums I started yesterday. I did a bit better today, and figured out the first three. If you remember from yesterday, I was working on sums that were like the ones I zoomed through, but backwards, so I had to work from the answer to the beginning of the problem. I had a great time with the first three, but then I ran into one that the technique I was using didn't cover. We talked about it for a little while, but we decided to take a break for the day.

Resources

My Math Book

Algebra 1 Course

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Elective

Time: 30

French Language

Reflection For our french, we watched a movie about the iles de Frioul (the island of Frioul). When had watched through the movie several times, we printed out the manuscript in both French and English and went through them. Then we watched the video again.

Resources

Ma France Online Course

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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 leaves in the woods were less slippery today.

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Science

Time: 30 min

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogNov2008/NatureJournalNov12.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

Wind Direction Gauge

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Elective

Time: 90 min

Art and Publishing

We started our Cemetery Art workshop by discussing the many types of cemeteries. I didn't remember how many types of cemeteries there were! Some of them, mom told us, are good for finding cemetery art (the designs on the headstones), while others are not. Then she showed us a slide show of the different kinds of designs that people put on gravestones and their meanings. Then we played a cemetery card game, where you matched cards with the symbols we learned about on them, and then identified what the symbols meant. After that, we learned about mourning quilts, and finished up by doing some art!

Recources

Paper and Pencils

A Computer

Mom and dad

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November 13th 2008

Elective

Time: 20 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), Railroad Boogie, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. I made up quite a few songs of my own!

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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English

Time: 25 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I worked on a page about a lady who is trying to sell a really bad car, so she dresses it up with all the nicest adjectives. I had to draw lines connecting the nice adjectives to what they really meant. Example: The car has natural air-conditioning. Meaning: Someone threw a brick through the window. After mom went through it with me, I worked on finishing up some grammatical sentences from yesterday.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

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Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We went for a walk down the road and through the woods. It was raining cats and dogs!

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Science

Time: 30 min

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogNov2008/NatureJournalNov13.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

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Elective

Time: 30

French Language

Reflection

For our french, we once more watched the movie about the iles de Frioul (the island of Frioul). When we had finished the movie, we read through the french transcript one more time. Then we completed the unit by doing a comprehension quiz. We scored 100%!

Resources

Ma France Online Course

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Math

Time: 45

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

For my math today, I continued on the sums I started yesterday. They were tricky, but I managed to figure them out. Finally! I'm not sure I quite understood all of what we covered, but I definitely grasped the core concepts. Dad says we will definitely cover these things again in the course. I finished up lesson three! I found it rather fun (isn't that sad).

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. I went in nice straight rows instead of in squiggly circles today, as dad taught me last week.

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Elective

Time: 90 min

Art and Publishing

For my cricket contest this month, I had to draw a cat. I decided to draw a tiger, so I got two pictures of tigers off the internet, copied them out, and drew a rough outline of the tiger's face. After I did that, I cleaned it up a bit, and began to give it orange stripes with my prismacolor pencil crayons. For the orange I used terra cotta covered with a light red. Then I added black stripes. When I was finished, I wrote out a little card that had my name, age and address on it, and stuck it to the back for sending in to the magazine.

Resources

Prismacolor pencils

Paper

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Elective

Time: 60 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

I listened to my living books for the ears program about the pilgrims. It was set when the Pilgrims were struggling to get their ship out of the harbor. There was certainly a lot of mistrust between a lot of people, and one of the ships was very poorly made, so they couldn't use it!

Resources

Living Books for the Ears Radio Show

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November 14th 2008

Elective

Time: 20 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), Railroad Boogie, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. I also tried playing the second part of I Just Can't Wait to be King hands together.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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Elective

Time: 60

French Language

Reflection

This morning, we went to our French class with Miss Marie, and started off by learning about people from different countries. Then we did some French translations where there were four pictures of families and four sentences describing those families, that were purposely mixed up so we had to match them. Then we learned about different professions, and finished by looking at three job applications for a marketing position and deciding which one fit the criteria best.

Resources

Miss Marie

Voila! CD and Book

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Community Service

Time: 30

Community Service

Reflection

I worked at the library for half an hour. I sorted out a pile of books people had ordered and continued to sort out the movies number 600-1200.

Resources

The Librarians

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English

Time: 60

Speech: The Actor and Writer Speaks

Reflection

I felt that some of my characters in my play needed some refining, so I went back and redid some of them. I think my favorite scene so far is the one with Joe's boss. He is very fun to write for because he has serious anger issues. I like this new version much better.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogNov2008/playideas2-rewrite2.pdf

Resources

My Computer

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English

Time: 30

Creative Writing

Reflection

I wrote two books reviews of books I read in October. Check them out on my book list.

Resources

My Computer

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Elective

Time: 30

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

We listened to our Story of the World CD for half an hour. We learned about the Kingdom of the Zulu in Africa, and the Boers, tough Dutch people who settled in Africa.

Resources

My Computer

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November 15th 2008

Elective

Time: 20 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), Railroad Boogie, and Prelude in A Minor, from Alfred's Piano Library Level 4 on the piano. I also tried playing the second part of I Just Can't Wait to be King hands together.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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Elective

Time: 45

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

I worked on questions 2-5 of my current affairs quiz on who president Obama is going to hire as Treasury Director. They were very tricky, and I had to read the article several times and use my noggin to answer them. I finished it up, and finished by reading through what I had written.

Resources

My Computer

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English

Time: 60

Speech: The Actor and Writer Speaks

Reflection

I went to my acting class today to try out my play and see how my new characters and scenes worked. But we didn't actually get to do our plays. Not that I'm complaining, mind you! We worked on conflict and how different character types might relate to each other. We did some exercises where we took two characters (I picked a kidnapper and a spoiled 9-year-old boy) and created a situation and conflict for them. For our homework, we have to finish up our plays. Gulp!

Resources

Miss Mary

Other Students

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November 16th 2008

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

Mr Tom came over for my piano lesson, and we began to work in the technique book. We worked hands separately first, and then hands together. Then we moved on to the lesson book, where I played the first part of Prelude in A Minor. I am now moving on to the second half. In the solo book, I am going to put I Just Can't Wait to be King hand together.

Resources

Mr Tom

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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English

Time: 180

Speech: The Actor and Writer Speaks

Reflection

Yes! I finished my play for my actor speaks. Well, not quite, as it definitely is only a rough draft, but it's getting there!

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogNov2008/playideas2-rewrite3.pdf

Resources

My Computer

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November 17th 2008

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I worked in the Technique Book this morning, and then went on to the lesson book, where I played all of the song Prelude in A Minor hands together. I finished by working on putting I Just Can't Wait to be King hands together.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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English

Time: 25 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I worked on a page about a lady whose son is going to jail for robbing a knitting shop. Obviously she doesn't want him to go to jail, and she knows that it wasn't his fault. Nothing her Harold has ever done has been his fault. So she writes a letter to the judge, begging him to let her son out of jail. I had to write the letter, sprinkling it with nice adjectives all over.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

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Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We went for a walk down the road and through the woods. I ran up the hill on my way home!

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Science

Time: 30 min

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogNov2008/NatureJournalNov17.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

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Math

Time: 45

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

For my math today, we worked in my How Math Works book. We finished up a section entitled using your brain, and boy did it make me use my brain! I felt kind of slow, trying to figure out all these math problems in my head, and just being too rusty on my basic math. Dad says I have got to work on my Mad Minute again. It's funny how quickly I get rusty.

Resources

My Math Book

How Math Works

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Elective

Time: 30

French Language

Reflection

We started our French by listening to a conversation between two men, Jacques and Yves, on our Voila! CD. When we finished listening, we answered some questions about the conversation. Then we moved on to asking each other question about our age, occupation etc. When we had finished that, it was time to move on to.......

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

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Elective

Time: 90 min

A Local Study of Mountain Lake

Reflection

We started our study of Mountain Lake by learning some more about the ice age. We learned that the ice age that formed mountain lake was only the most recent of a long string of ice ages. We also learned about some of the animals of the ice age. Mastodons, woolly, red, tree eating elephants! Woolly Mammoths, enormous woolly grass-eating elephants! Saber-Toothed Tigers, fearsome predators that made all ice age animals quake in fear! And many more that I won't discuss here. Matthew and I got mastodons and woolly mammoths to do a report on. I wrote up the information on them, and Matthew drew two great pictures!

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogNov2008/woollymammothsmastadons.pdf

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogNov2008/Great_Elk.pdf

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogNov2008/sabertoothbear.pdf

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogNov2008/woollyrhino.pdf

Resources

My mom

Books on the Ice Age

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November 18th 2008

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I worked in the Technique Book this morning, and then went on to the lesson book, where I played all of the song Prelude in A Minor hands together. I finished by working on putting I Just Can't Wait to be King hands together.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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English

Time: 25 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I worked on rewording a letter to a person named Twigs so that it was more interesting. The old version was pretty stale, so I had to add interesting adjectives to breath a bit of life into it. When I had finished, mom went through it with me.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

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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 leaves in the wood were slippery!

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Science

Time: 30 min

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogNov2008/NatureJournalNov18.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

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Math

Time: 45

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

In my Algebra 1 course today, I learned about basic equations. There were several different types, like formulas, that weren't meant to be solved, but more to give you information and a way to solve another equation if you plugged numbers into it. An example would be the formula for calculating the area of a rectangle. Then there are equations that are meant to be solved, such as 4x = 20, which is extremely easy to figure out. In the equation, the value of x never changes, but there are other types of equations using variables where the actual numbers can change. Then we moved on to learning about graphing calculators, which are ingenious pieces of equipment that allow you to draw a graph (duh!) of the equation you wrote. You can get some really weird graphs through this!

Resources

Algebra 1 Course

Computer Graphing Calculator

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Elective

Time: 30

French Language

Reflection

We started our French by working on matching some pronouns to sentences so that they made sense and worked. Then we worked on matching some family pictures to mixed-up paragraphs about them. After that we learned about different kind of jobs and how to say unemployed in French.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

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Science

Time: 75 min

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

For our Evolution this afternoon, we began to watch the next video in our Evolutionary Course, which was on a very different period of Human Evolution. This was not about how our bodies evolved to better fit our environment (although that obviously did happen), this was about how our minds evolved. Or to put it another way, when we began to acquire an imagination, a language and a history. We watched the video about halfway, and then took a break to look at the human family trees and answer some questions about them. I read my report on a "missing link", and then we finished up watching the movie.

Resources

Evolution DVD

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Elective

Time: 70 min

Art and Publishing

For my art this evening, I worked with my friend Matthew on our entries for the Cray Pas Competition. Cray Pas, in case you didn't know, make oil pastels, so this is the medium our pictures our going to be in. Matthew wanted to draw a rooster, and I decided to draw a Tyrannosaurus Rex. So I roughly sketched out the head and then added details until it looked like I wanted it to. When I was done, I put it on the light box and drew it out lightly onto a piece of Bristol board, ready to add pastels next time.

Resources

Mr Pete

Light box

Bristol Board

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November 19th 2008

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I worked in the Technique Book this morning, and then went on to the lesson book, where I played all of the song Prelude in A Minor hands together. I finished by working on putting I Just Can't Wait to be King hands together.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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English

Time: 25 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I worked on rewording a letter to the head of Willy's Snake Emporium which had mild adjectives. It needed hot, sharp adjectives, so I reworked it that way. I started it "Dear Willy boy"! When I had finished, it wasn't the kind of letter I would be sending to anyone, least of all my boss!

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

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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 leaves in the wood were slippery!

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Science

Time: 30 min

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogNov2008/NatureJournalNov19.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

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Math

Time: 45

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

In my Algebra 1 course today, I worked on finishing up the lesson four questions in my Algebra 1 Course Book. We started with some easy questions, where I had to identify whether some equations were meant to be solved, and if not, whether they were formulas, identities of a number, or properties of real numbers. Then we went on to some more which required a graphing calculator. Fortunately, we had downloaded a graphing calculator off of the internet, so we solved these quickly. Then we moved on, and worked on some more graphing problems. Dad made one question harder than it was actually meant to be at one point, but we almost completed the lesson!

Resources

Algebra 1 Course

Computer Graphing Calculator

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Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

We started our French by going through the grammar section of Unit 2 of our Viola! course. When we had read through the grammar section, we worked on a little test of some of the things we had learned in the the lesson. Some of it was easy, like figuring out whether a collection of nouns were masculine or feminine, but other bits were hard, like figuring out how to end different adjectives depending on the pronoun before them.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

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Science

Time: 120 min

Physical Science

Reflection

We started our science class this afternoon on matter with dad giving a presentation on matter. We discussed what matter is, and dad showed us a time line of people's thinking about matter. It turned out that the first guy to think something about matter actually thought pretty much what we do today! But the people in-between didn't think that. Then we moved on to chemistry. Chemistry is basically combining different types of elements to get something new. We compared different objects to get the idea of properties of an element. We finished up by doing an experiment to find the density of a) a paperweight and b) four big bolts. I had a great time.

Resources

My Dad

My Workbook

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November 20th 2008

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I worked in the Technique Book this morning, and then went on to the lesson book, where I played all of the song Prelude in A Minor hands together. I finished by working on putting I Just Can't Wait to be King hands together.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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English

Time: 25 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I wrote a (not real!) letter to Mrs. Silvershine, about her daughter who is causing havoc at camp Runamuck. But because Mrs Silvershine is one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet, I didn't want to hurt her feelings by say "Your kid is a brat!" So I had to be diplomatic and use nice adjectives.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

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Elective

Time: 30

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

I read the news summaries on the New York Times student connection website. The most interesting one was about cloning woolly mammoths.

Resources

My Computer

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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 leaves in the wood were slippery!

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Science

Time: 30 min

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogNov2008/NatureJournalNov20.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

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Math

Time: 45

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

In my Algebra 1 course today, I finished up the last problem of Lesson 2. It involved taking two sets of numbers, recording the relationship between the size of someone's foot and the length of their arm, and making them into a graph. When we had graphed the two numbers, we had the computer calculate the best possible straight line through the points. When we had finished that, we went on to some mathemagical exercises, which seemed magical, but were actually pretty simple once we worked them out algebraically. After that, I read about Carl Gauss.

Resources

Algebra 1 Course

Computer Graphing Calculator

Go Figure!

Fractals, Googles and other Mathematical Tales

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Elective

Time: 30 min

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we finished off Unit Two in our Voila! book. We had three more exercises left in our workbook, so we finished those off. Some of it was a little bit tricky, like remembering that professions are not preceded by a or an, so they end up being "I am doctor." instead of "I am the doctor." Tricky. Anyway, when we had finished that we read through the index for that unit.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

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Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

I vacuumed the entire house, ceiling to floor. I worked on being more thorough and finishing everything up properly. It took longer, but it was worth it.

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Science

Time: 75 min

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

Yes, tonight was the night! The night for what, you ask? The night for our second-to-last botany (well, pretty much the last, but we do have one in December), which was going to be a really special one, with everyone's projects on display, and a special guest speaker, paleoartist Larry Felder, who was giving a lecture. It was really fun, and I brought my folder and computer so that people could look at what I had learned from the botany course. Everybody had done really great projects, and Larry Felder gave a great lecture on the co-evolution of animals (Specifically dinosaurs) and plants.

Resources

Mr Felder

Other students

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November 21st 2008

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I worked in the Technique Book this morning, and then went on to the lesson book, where I played all of the song Prelude in A Minor hands together. I finished by working on putting I Just Can't Wait to be King hands together.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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English

Time: 25 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I wrote a story about a giant nose. Isn't that weird? But have you ever stopped to think what it would be like to be a giant nose? If you have, you're a bit odd, as I hadn't either until this morning. Anyway, if you were a giant nose, everything would be really, really smelly to you, and you would probably have trouble going to an Indian restaurant or a farm. I had a lot of fun writing it.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

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Elective

Time: 60

French Language

Reflection

This morning, we went to our French class with Miss Marie, and started off by going through the exercises we had worked on in the last lesson. They were tricky, but we didn't get that many wrong. Then we moved on to the lesson itself, where we learned about two cities, one where Disneyland Paris resides, and the other with four beaches! I think I'd rather go to the beach than Disneyland Paris! Then we learned about two hotels, one which was two star and the other which was five star. We finished off by learning about a really old city which was a holiday resort.

Resources

Miss Marie

Voila! CD and Book

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Community Service

Time: 30

Community Service

Reflection

I worked at the library for half an hour. I sorted out the movies number 600-1200.

Resources

The Librarians

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Elective

Time: 30

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

We listened to our Story of the World CD, which today was on the Trail of Tears, where the Native American Indians were forced to walk down a really long trail to another part of America, so that the settlers could take their land; Nat Turner's slave rebellion, which ended up doing more harm than good; and the illegal Opium Trade in China, which started the Opium War.

Resources

My Computer

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Elective

Time: 30

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

I listened to a Living Books for the Ears radio program on Thanksgiving. It was obviously produced during the years of WWII, and was full of little adverts asking people to buy war bonds!

Resources

My Computer

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Elective

Time: 120 min

Art and Publishing

For my Muse contest, I had to draw or write about an earth without something, say air or gravity. I picked an earth without water, and I worked on it in Truespace 7.6. I worked hard to make the ground look parched, and added red, dusty storm clouds in the sky. When I finished, it looked sort of like Mars.

Resources

My Computer

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November 22nd 2008

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I worked in the Technique Book this morning, and then went on to the lesson book, where I played all of the song Prelude in A Minor hands together. I finished by working on putting I Just Can't Wait to be King hands together.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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English

Time: 90 min

Speech: The Actor and Writer Speaks

Reflection

For our actor and writer speaks class today, we had the actors perform our play. It was, once again, an interesting experience, as we had four actors in all this time. Everyone's plays went very well, including mine. I also got some constructive criticism on my play. We all felt that I had gone a bit too far, and I decided to end it a scene earlier, on a high. I took in all this information, and though I felt a little sad that my play needed a bit of rewriting, I also realized that it was for the best.

Resources

Miss Mary

Mr Danny

Other Students

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Elective

Time: 15 min

Art and Publishing

For my entry for the Cray-Pas contest, I worked on some techniques for the skin of the T Rex I am doing. It's hard to get the scales in pastel!

Resources

My Notebook

Cray-pas pastels

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November 23rd 2008

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

For my piano lesson this morning, Mr Tom came over to my house, and we began. We started off, as always, in the technique book. We played through my song in the technique book, and began to work on a new song. Then we moved on the the lesson book, where I was playing Prelude in A Minor. I am coming along well on this song, but I needed a bit of help with the second half of the song, so we worked on that first. I am now feeling a lot more comfortable with the song. It was almost time for church, but we had a little bit of time left, so we played I Just Can't Wait to be King hands together. Then we went to church.

Resources

Mr Tom

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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November 24th 2008

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I worked in the Technique Book this morning, and then went on to the lesson book, where I played all of the song Prelude in A Minor hands together. I finished by working on putting I Just Can't Wait to be King hands together.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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English

Time: 35 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I had to find the weirdest roadside attraction I could find, and write a paragraph about it. I found the Spam Museum, where the tour guides are called Spambassadors, and you can have your picture taken with Spammy the Pig (well, not sure about that one, but I can imagine it!) while the Monty Python Spam song plays. I sprinkled the paragraph with descriptive adjectives. When I was done, mom went through it with me.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

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Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We went for a walk down the road and through the woods. There was no wind today.

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Science

Time: 30 min

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogNov2008/NatureJournalNov24.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

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Math

Time: 35 min

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

For my math today, we worked on a page in my How Math Works book entitled Having Fun. A lot of it was quite fun, I must say. We first worked on a little problem that was quite hard, but when we applied some knowledge we had learned over the summer, it became a little bit easier. I also worked on two magic squares problems, which I solved using algebra. The last thing we did was to work on a problem which had you add up digits and add other numbers, but somehow always brought you back to where you started. We didn't try to solve that one, as it wasn't meant to be solved by students of my level.

Resources

My Math Book

How Math Works Book

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Elective

Time: 60 min

French Language

Reflection

For our french today, we began in the Voila! Book and worked through a few exercises of Lesson Three before moving on to the first activity. For this, we listened to a recorded conversation where two people compared the various attractions of their community. One community had Disneyland Paris, while the other had four beaches. I think I would rather go to the one with four beaches! After that, we looked at advertisements for two hotels, and read them out loud in french. The hardest part to read was the french phone numbers. They were hard to figure out!

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

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Social Studies

Time: 90 min

A Study of Physical and Political Geography

Reflection

Today in our Geography Study, we learned about supply and demand, and found out about the equilibrium price, which is a magic number of economics. I'll discuss all that later, but now let's get on with how the lesson went! When we started, we did a short exercise to show the basics of demand with a bar of chocolate. As the price of the chocolate went up, less people wanted it. We also showed this on a graph, which I had a bit of trouble with (I started by drawing it upside down), but managed to figure it out in the end. Then we moved on to figuring out that if you wanted to sell x number of sweaters and x number of people would buy them, when would it be worth your while? We put that on a graph to show us a visual representation of it. After that we took another set of numbers, this time the number of people who would buy sweaters at x price, and put these numbers on the graph too. The place where the two lines crossed over was called the equilibrium price, the place where the number of items the producers are willing to supply equals the number of items people are willing to buy. After that, we went outside.

Resources

Lessons from a Village Called Earth Geography Course

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November 25th 2008

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I worked in the Technique Book this morning, and then went on to the lesson book, where I played all of the song Prelude in A Minor hands together. I finished by working on putting I Just Can't Wait to be King hands together.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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English

Time: 25 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I went through a short story about being a secret shopper and circled all the adjectives used. It was fun, and although there were some hard spots, I finished it quickly.

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

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Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We went for a walk down the road and through the woods. There was no wind today.

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Science

Time: 30 min

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogNov2008/NatureJournalNov25.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

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Math

Time: 35

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

For my math today, I watched the Lesson 5 video from my Algebra 1 Course. It was really cool! First, we worked out an equation for x and y, x being 1, 2, 3 etc. and y being 2, 4, 6 etc. What we actually did there was add two every time, which also comes out as y being two times x. So the equation for this would be: y = 2x. Then we worked that out for the odd numbers, for example: x = 1, 2, 3 etc, y = 1, 3, 5 etc. The equation for this is y = 2x-1. Isn't that cool! I really like how the instructor on the video explains things. Then we worked on some real life problems. The first was where you need to call a plumber, and you find one in the yellow pages that says Reed's Reasonable Rates. With Reed, you must pay $45 for him to come to your house, plus an extra $25 for every hour he spends working. The equation for this is: M (Money you must cough up) = $45 + $25h (hour). Then I worked on another equation, this time about a friend who loans you $250 and says you can pay it off in $18 per month chunks. How long will it take you to pay of the loan. An algebraic way to figure it out is: B = 250 - 18m (month). We also plotted all these equations on to graphs.

Resources

My Math Book

Algebra 1 CD and Book

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Elective

Time: 10

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we worked on a page of our Voila! French Book where we looked at a resort and wrote some french sentences about it to show that we understood it.

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

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Science

Time: 30 min

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

For our Worms Eat our Garbage class this afternoon, we started out with a sheet on the different lengths of worms. Did you know that the largest worm in the world, the giant earthworm of Australia, is 972 mm, which 97 cm! That's big! That page got us to do a lot of math, but it was fun math. Then we learned about the plant, animal and vegetable kingdoms, and talked about what things might go into what kingdom. After that, we discussed what sets worms apart from other animals. We finished up by learning about scientific names for worms.

Resources

Worms Eat My Garbage Course

Other Students

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November 26th 2008

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I worked in the Technique Book this morning, and then went on to the lesson book, where I played all of the song Prelude in A Minor hands together. I finished by working on putting I Just Can't Wait to be King hands together.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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English

Time: 25 min

Grammar and Writing

Reflection

For my grammar today, I learned about conjunctions, the grammatical glue that holds phrases together. I had to identify 20 phrases with the and conjunction in them. Example: Chalk and cheese, oil and water, fourscore and seven years ago. It was a lot of fun!

Resources

Hot Fudge Monday Grammar Book

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Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

We went for a walk down the road and through the woods. It was more windy today.

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Science

Time: 30 min

Evolutionary Study of Life on Earth

Reflection

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogNov2008/NatureJournalNov26.pdf

Resources

My Computer

Anemometer

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Math

Time: 35

Basic Math and Algebra 1

Reflection

For my math today, I went through the workbook page for lesson five of my algebra 1 course. In this lesson we were learning about different linear functions, and we further explored the four functions in the video by doing exercises with them. For example, for Reed's Reasonable Rates (see math from yesterday) the equation was RRR = 45 + 25h (h = hours). So with this function I had to determine how much I would pay Reed for 3.75 hours of work, and how many hours Reed would work for a pay of $170. It was a lot of fun, and I managed to correct most of my mistakes. But I must remember, what you do to one side of the equation you must do to the other!

Resources

My Math Book

Algebra 1 CD and Book

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Elective

Time: 10

French Language

Reflection

For our French today, we worked on a page of our Voila! French Book where we looked at two different towns and asked each other questions about each one. We also wrote the questions and the answers down, to get some practice with using il y a (There is, there are).

Resources

Voila! CD and Book

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Science

Time: 120 min

Physical Science

Reflection

We started our science class this afternoon on matter with dad giving a presentation that covered some things we had a bit of trouble with last time, namely measuring density. Density is a weight per unit volume, meaning that for a certain unit, denser things weigh more. I had a little trouble with it last time, but the way dad explained it today cleared it up. Then we moved on to our main lesson, which was about measuring the attributes of different substances. We measured the melting and boiling points of butter, oil, and water. We also measured the viscosity of oil, water and alcohol. Viscosity is how quickly a liquid substance can take the shape of a container, or how quickly objects can move through it. How did we measure that? By dropping marbles into pots of filled equally (more or less), with oil, water, and alcohol. The oil had the highest viscosity, which meant that things couldn't flow through it very easily. The water and alcohol were roughly the same. I had a great time!

Resources

My Dad

My Workbook

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November 27th 2008

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I worked in the Technique Book this morning, and then went on to the lesson book, where I played all of the song Prelude in A Minor hands together. I finished by working on putting I Just Can't Wait to be King hands together.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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Physical Fitness

Time: 60 min

Lifetime Fitness

Reflection

I vacuumed the entire house, ceiling to floor.

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November 28th 2008

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I worked in the Technique Book this morning, and then went on to the lesson book, where I played all of the song Prelude in A Minor hands together. I finished by working on putting I Just Can't Wait to be King hands together.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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Elective

Time: 120 min

Current Affairs and World History

Reflection

I wrote out my current affairs article on the Auto Industry, which took a little while and definitely stretched my brain. In it, I answered questions on the how the oil crisis is affecting the auto industry, and why the big three American auto companies cannot go on making cars they way they have.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogNov2008/CurrentAffair-CarIndustry.pdf

Resources

My Computer

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English

Time: 40 min

Creative Writing

Reflection

I wrote four book reviews of books I read this month, and mom read through them with me.

Resources

My Computer

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English

Time: 40 min

Creative Writing

Reflection

I wrote a letter to one of my favorite authors, Douglas Adams, for the Letters About Literature contest. I explained how I had first found his book, the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and how it had helped me find my inner voice for writing, and a style that suited me. I think I did a good job, and all that remains now is for mom to read through it.

http://www.freeunionschoolhouse.com/twiki/pub/Main/JackEduLogNov2008/DearDouglasAdams.pdf

Resources

My Computer

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English

Time: 40 min

Speech: The Actor and Writer Speaks

Reflection

I worked on the first scene of the play for my actor and writer speaks class. I almost entirely rewrote it, clearing up problem areas and adding new characters or re-doing old ones where it was needed. I now feel it is one of the better scenes I have written. My favorite part was the two policeman, one of whom ignores Joe, the bad guy, to give a lecture about his greatness to the new guy!

Resources

My Computer

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November 29th 2008

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

I worked in the Technique Book this morning, and then went on to the lesson book, where I played all of the song Prelude in A Minor hands together. I finished by working on putting I Just Can't Wait to be King hands together.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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English

Time: 30 min

A Study of Classical and Modern Literature

Reflection

We were going on a car trip to get our Christmas tree, and along the way we listened to both a summary of Shakespeare's play The Winter's Tale and the original folk tale he got most of the plot from. It was very well done, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Resources

My Computer

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November 30th 2008

Elective

Time: 30 min

Music Practice and Music Theory

Reflection

This morning, as it was very cold, Tom came over to my house for my piano practice. We started in the Technic book, and I finished my song there and went on to a new one. Then we moved on to the lesson book, where we played Prelude in A Minor, and fixed some problems I was having there. Then we went on to I Just Can't Wait to be King (Or I Just Can't Wait to be Prime Minister, as Mr Tom insists on calling it!) in my Solo Book. Mr Tom says one more week on that should be good.

Resources

My Piano

Alfred's Piano Library Level 4

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-- JackW - 02 Nov 2008