In my life this week…

This has been another laid back week. We had to get Philip ready for a winter survival camp this weekend. It meant tracking down some of our equipment and replacing some that just wasn’t going to cut it for the cold. He has everything he needs loaded onto a sled and snowshoes to hike through the snow. They have tarps to make shelters with and good, very warm sleeping bags. I’ll have a picture of the sled for next week.

My fun for the week was making the little Lego Tie fighter that I got for Christmas. I like to organize the parts before starting. I believe there is a word for that as I got it from watching Adam Savage on Tested.com. I think the word is “Knowling” but searching for it brings up no results. I guess I have it wrong. Anyways it was fun, quick and looks great sitting on my desk.

I’m Cleaning…

I have continued my cleaning of the old craft room in the laundry area. I have made great progress but it still needs a lot of work. I got a box and a bag out and there is at least another box or two to go but I need to finish sorting them.

We cleaned our desks in the homeschool room this week. It is nice to start the semester with a clean work area.

In our homeschool this week…

With the new semester we have implemented a new schedule. So far it is working better. Our time blocks now align with our subjects so they are slightly longer. The breaks are fewer with two short 5 minute one and two longer at 15 minutes.

The biggest change is the reporting. With them telling us what they have done it is easier to keep track and make sure they are on schedule. We do need to work with them on what they report. Both are little short on details. Margaret’s at least gives me the basics of what she has crossed off but she could have just given me a her original task list with the items crossed off. Philip’s “I did Rightstart math” basically says it all. What sections???

We built a lever out of K’nex for Ian and demonstrated that the longer the arm the easier it was to lift a weight. I also showed him that he had to go further the less force he was applying and that the work he did was always the same.

Margaret built her K’nex elevator. We also looked at the ratio of how much she had to move the string to move the elevator. Next week she needs to do some reading on simple machines and answer some question on the elevator.

Last week Christy over at Unexpected Homeschool asked about our reporting requirements so I thought I would explain it a bit more. I homeschool through a Distance Learning provider. In doing that I am required to meet the province’s Prescribed Learning Outcomes. They are sort of like Common Core but with a whole lot more sense. I am not told how to teach them, the only requirement is that they can demonstrate their knowledge. The Distance Learning provider basically acts as a buffer between me and the government. They fulfil all the reporting requirements. They assign me a licensed teacher that oversees us. Mostly in the form of the portfolios that I submit three times a year. The teacher that we have also attends our church so we see her every Sunday and she reads my blog. The Distance Learning provider receives funding from the government and in turn they provide me with a curriculum budget through a PO# I can use at a variety of homeschooling stores.

This is the first summary page from a 94 page government document that is very good if you need to go to sleep. This document is only Grade 7 Math. My distance learning provider has an online database version of this that is easier to read and helps us keep track of where we are.

So they don’t tell me how much time I have to spend on a subject but they can warn me that we are behind on completing those outcomes. In math we are behind and are playing catch up. Fortunately we can continue into summer.

We are Reading…

Apparently I am behind on what Margaret is reading. She has finished reading “The Giver”, “Gathering Blue”, “Messenger” and is almost finished “Son”. It is now a race to see if I finish writing this before she finishes reading. (Note I lost)

I don’t know what Philip is reading right now and he is out camping. I am guessing that Philip read all the books above as he has read “The Giver”and he wouldn’t have stopped. Plus they are on the e-reader so somebody bought them…

Other…

Crash Course now has Astronomy with Phil Plait. They are being release every Thursday and are very good.

Linking up at: