Ch A Week 13 Suggestions for Snow Day

Hi all,

As you know, tomorrows class is canceled due to weather.  We will not make up the Ch A week 13 community day, so I have some suggestions to keep on track and begin preparing for the next week.  I will be available all day tomorrow by cell phone (360-619-2202) or email if you or your student has any questions. 

Logic (Math) Strand: continue to keep up on math lessons and use the snow day to catch up if you are behind (in between sledding and hot chocolate breaks:))

Grammar (Latin) Strand: continue to work on vocabulary flashcards and review the 1st conjugation rules.  We were going to work on exercise 116 as a class if you want to review. 

Research Strand: I know how hard all the students work on their research presentations, so you can record and video your student's presentation and send to all the other students and myself.  Also, you can begin researching the next topic:  Amphibians.

Rhetoric Strand: This would be a great opportunity to have a dialectic conversation with your student regarding Ch 12 in the book It Couldn't Just Happen.  Also, review catechism questions. 

 

Exposition/Composition Strand (LTW): Have your student read their persuasive essay to you since they should have completed them this week.  Make sure that they utilized Amplification and Parallelism of phrases and clauses.  The students will start their next Essay this week by making a new ANI chart based off of an issue they come up with from the book Amos Fortune, Free Man.  Remember, they are not adding any new information to the next essay.  While this will be Essay 5, we are not moving on in the book to the Essay 5 lessons.  We only go as far as Essay 6 in the LTW textbook in all of Ch A.  Students should look over the recommended review lessons (see wk.14—At Home assignments for LTW on pg.61)  This would be a great day to get caught up (or re-watch) the LTW videos with your student.  If you have difficulty finding these videos online, please let me know.  I was going to have a dialectic discussion with the students re: Amos Fortune, so you may want to do that at home.  Even if you haven't read it, you can still have a profitable discussion by asking your student questions using the 5 common topics as a guide.

Debate (Cartography) Strand:  Draw, Draw, Draw.  Make sure to continue drawing both Europe and the Western Hemisphere. Continue to practice the geo terms.

I hope you all have a great day tomorrow,

-Corey

Geo Game Today!

Week 12 Recap (Open House)

Hello,
It was a pleasure to see the students show off their skills at the Open House today.  I am very proud of them--can't say it enough.  Miss Glanzer, you were missed!

Semester 1 only has 3 more weeks.  I reminded students that Semester 1 final exams are on Week 15 (December 22nd).  We will end that CC day with our 'End of Semester Party' which will include the prize auction.

Reminder: Friday December 9th is the Bunco Party at the Richardson's house.

Miss Chavez organized the Secret Santa Exchange and students drew names today.  There is a $10 limit for this 1 time gift that will we be given on Decemer 22nd.  Miss Glanzer, Crystal will let you know who your person is.

Great job today!
-Corey

Here's our week 12 recap:

DEVOTIONS:
-discussed the term COVENANT and the various meanings associated with it (contract, agreement, promise, etc)
-brainstormed various covenants mentioned in Scripture:  Adamic, Noahic (Gen. 9), Abrahamic (Gen. 12), Mosaic/Old/Law (Ex. 19), Davidic (II Sam. 7), New Covenant (Jer. 31)

LTW:
-Reviewed active and passive verbs
-Reviewed Amplification and some students shared theirs
-Compared and contrasted phrases and clauses
-Introduced Parallelism II which involves EXPANDING sentences and REVISING existing clauses and phrases in their proofs.
-**STUDENTS NEED HELP at home with Amplification and Parallelism II.  It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that parents and students watch the videos that LTW provides.  The link and password is in the front page of the LTW teacher's guide.
-Developing skills in writing parallelism is one of the most beneficial things they can do.

GEOGRAPHY:
-Team review game of Western Hemisphere.
-Practiced drawing Europe
-Pictionary for Geo terms

RHETORIC:
-Dialectic discussion regarding chapter 11
-most of the chapter showed various animals that have characteristics that defy evolution
-Ben Stein's video Expelled is recommended
-video series titled Incredible Creatures That Defy Evolution is recommended
-Nerf Catechism review game

LATIN:
-Introduced VERBS: Voice, Mood, Tense, Person, Number
-"Declension is to noun as Conjugation is to verb"
-Introduced 1st Conjugation and practiced conjugating
-Introduced 4 Principal Parts
-Introduced new vocab and did some translating

RESEARCH:
-PRESENTATIONS WERE GREAT!
-We were so proud to have the open house attenders see what they can do!
-Dialectic discussion about birds (how they compare/contrast to other creatures, how the Bible defines them, birds in history, etc)

MATH:
-briefly discussed unit pricing and expanded notation
-most of the time was spent in a dialectic discussion about minimum wage and the effects of a minimum wage increase on employees (both upper and lower levels), employers, and consumers. The students may enjoy more conversation at home about this topic.

Week 10 Recap

Hello,
Congratulations on making it 1/3 of the way through Challenge A!  In 10 weeks, I have seen so much growth in these students.  I look forward to watching their growth continue.

Here's our Recap:

DEVOTIONS:

-We discussed the specific uses of Thee/Thou/you/ye/thy/thine
-Understanding this can help bring clarity to specific Bible verses AND prepare the students to read Shakespeare and other classical works.
-Thee/Thou is 2nd Person Singular, meaning 'you' individually
-You/Ye is 2nd Person Plural, meaning 'you' the group
-Thy/Thine are Possessive, meaning 'your'.  Thy is used before a word beginning with a consonant and Thine is used before a word beginning with a vowel.  (Examples:  Thine apple is red.  Thy banana is yellow.)
-Ex 4:15, Ex 29:42, John 3:1-16, Mt 26:64, Lk 22:31-32

LTW:

-Students read their Essay 3
-Introduced Essay 4, Comparison II
-Discussed Differences of Degree and Differences of Kind
-students need to make their ANI chart from Number the Stars and complete the Comparison Worksheet pg 35

GEOGRAPHY:

-First map draw of Europe and discussed next portion of Europe
-Congrats to Abigail for winning the competition
-Challenged students to learn about the Bosnian War this week
-**Parents this Europe portion can be a great time for discussion of events that took place in our lifetime
-Pictionary with Geo terms. *There is plenty of room for improvement in this area for most students.  

LATIN:

-Introduced Predicate Adjectives
-Discussed differences between Predicate Adj (PA that you already know from Essentials, such as 'The dog is brown'.) and Attributive Adj (adjectives that modify a noun directly, such as 'The brown dog..')
-worked on Exercise 92 together

RESEARCH:

-Everyone did FANTASTIC today!  Everyone showed up very prepared and it showed.
-The students are taking feedback and working to improve their speaking skills.
-Introduced next topic, aquatic invertebrates, with a brief dialectic discussion.  We mostly discussed exoskeletons and the difference between mollusks and crustaceans.  Those discussion are getting shorter because their presentations are getting longer.

RHETORIC:

-Discussed chapter 9 about rocks, fossils, and geological column.  Ask your students if they have an explanation for why things show up in the different levels.
-Catechism review game with Nerf.  This memory work is a weak area, but we saw improvement this week...keep it up!
-It was brought to my attention that the CC Connected Flashcards have minor differences from the Ch.A Guide.  It is up to parents which to use.  I will allow both during games.

MATH:

-discussed and demonstration why Area of Triangle = 1/2 Base x Height
-Discussed, defined, compared, and demonstrated adjacent angles, supplementary angles, and vertical angles


Have a great week!

-Corey

Week 9 Recap

Hello-  
Yesterday was a great day!  Here's the Recap:

DEVOTIONS:

Week 8 - Impute: to credit to one's account
-Lev. 7:18, 1Sam 22:15, 2 Sam 19:19, Ps 32:2, Rom. 4:6-8

Week 9 - Salvation: the act of deliverance
**CONTEXT determine what someone is being saved or delivered from
-Mt 1:21, Mt 8:25, Romans 8:24, 1Cor 1:18, 1Tim 2:15, 1Tim 4:16
-We went to different passages that use the word Salvation and discussed possible meanings.  Sometimes 'saved' is regarding our justification, but sometimes it means deliverance from suffering, the effects of suffering (i.e. despair/lack of hope), confusion, etc.

**CHALLENGE-  Any student who can list the books of the Bible by memory to me anytime this year will get 2 stickers.


LATIN:

***REMEMBER-students received corrections to the Challenge A Guide for Weeks 8-10
-Introduced ADJECTIVES
-Adjectives are grouped into 2 classes: those with 1st/2nd declension endings and those with 3rd declension endings.
-declined Magnus
-Reviewed new vocal
-Adjectives agree with their nouns in gender, case, and number
-Adjectives of quality generally precede their nouns
-Adjectives of quantity generally follow their nouns

RESEARCH:

-Students performed presentations on Fungi.  I was pleased to see the unique ways they chose to research this topic and unique things they learned.
-Dialectic discussion on next topic:  Trees, herbs, wildflowers
-We brainstormed about different plants and trees that are mentioned in Scripture (Garden of Eden, the cross, the ark, seeds, olive tree, "being rooted and grounded in love", "bearing fruit", etc.).  The students did a great job coming up with these examples.  This could be a topic of dinner conversation this week!
-Students are encouraged to practice Exordium to introduce their presentations.

MATH:

-various equations with decimals
-Ratio's and probability

LTW:

-Instructions for Essay 3 Elocution
-Defined and discussed Active vs. Passive Verbs
-Defined and discussed Vague vs. Precise Verbs
-**Active and Precise Verbs are what you want to use when writing
-Practiced editing verbs so that they are more effective

-In WEEK 8, students were introduced to Exordium.  This was difficult for them (which is age appropriate).  I recommend practicing this skill with them and helping them find resources to read/hear good examples of Exordium.  Bronwyn Dieter mentioned that Ted Talks have excellent  Exordium.


GEOGRAPHY:

-Test Day on South America.   Students completed "peer reviews" to grade each others tests.
-Parents should grade these.
-Introduced Europe.   This was fun to discuss!   We will be covering Europe for the rest of the semester.  This should allow for fun research at home (current events, foods from different European countries, etc)
-CC CONNECTED has a great breakdown of Europe cartography for 5 weeks.  There are several errors in how they label the categories, but this is still a great 5 week breakdown and the students can see the correct locations with their atlases.
-There is also a great SNIPPET section on CC Connected for Europe

RHETORIC:-

-Discussed Evolution in terms of Micro vs Macro Evolution (the book uses big E vs small E) and the fallacy that evolutionist use to try to convince people that Micro Evolution proves Darwinian Theory.
-discussed worldview agendas behind various forms of media


Have a great week!
-Corey

Week 8 Recap (belated) -

My apologies for not getting a Week 8 Recap out last week.  Life at the Richardson home was particularly hectic.  Thanks for understanding!  

You should have received a quarterly Progress Report for your student.  If you have any questions about their progress in class, please let me know.   These reports are based off of what I see in class.  You are their teacher and see what they are doing all week and what they are truly comprehending.  Your assessment of them is most important, my report is just for your feedback.

In class, the students received updated corrections to the Challenge A guide for Latin.  Please make sure your student is using these corrections.  I assume they are because they make it easier.  :-)

I was so proud of how the students performed at the EiE Event.  It was a great opportunity for them to meet with their peers and exercise "ownership" as they planned their presentations.  They rose to the challenge!   Also, I heard that they conducted themselves so honorably which made me proud!

Thanks,
Corey

Week 7 Recap!

Yay--A break is here!  These kids have accomplished so much in the last 7 weeks.

I look forward to seeing most of you at Outdoor Camp this week!  If you and your student are attending camp and would like some review time with me, Kelly and I would be happy to arrange time for that.

Here is our Week 7 Recap:

**DEVOTION TIME (EiE):
This time was spent planning our Geography Presentation for EiE.  Students were broken down into smaller groups and must coordinate time together to prep during the week.  Each group needs to prep a 2 minute presentation on their portion of the US (state boundaries, plus features and/or capitals).
Groups are:
Abigail and Giu Giu:  Introduction, Draw outside of US and some major features
Brody and Averi:  Northeast US (ME, VT, MA, RI, CT, NH, NJ, NY, PA, MD, DE, VA, WV, OH, KY, IN)
Valerie and Tyler: Southeast US (NC, TN, AK, OK, TX, LA, MS, AL, GA, SC, FL)
Emily L, Emily G, Hailey: The rest of US, Conclusion

**EiE event info was sent by email.  Please let me know if you need that resent.  Please make sure you student spends time practicing their portion of the presentation. 

LATIN:
-Introduced 5th Declension
-Some nouns are used in the plural but have a singular meaning such as camp and baggage
-Some nouns have different meanings in the singular and in the plural
-Went through Exercises 70 and 74
**If you are behind in Latin, this break is your chance to get caught up!  I highly recommend all students still review flashcards/ending during the break!

RESEARCH:
-Very interesting presentations on Oceans.
-Introduced next topic, Protozoa and Algae, with a dialectic discussion.  Students are less familiar with this topic so the actual researching may take more time/effort.

MATH:
-mental math exercises to warm up
-discussed dividing fractions by multiplying by its reciprocal
-discussed multiplying and dividing mixed numbers
-Explained shortcut to finding Least Common Multiples using prime factorization
-teams tried to stump each other with story problems they created

LTW:
-Reviewed parallelism.  Students did a great job with this during the week.
-discussed Comparison (1 of the 5 common topics of invention) by practicing completing the following 3 sentences:  Both are....   Both have....  Both do....
-Made class ANI chart from The Magicians Nephew.  We used comparison to discuss our thesis and added those things to the Interesting column.   Students can take items in the Interesting column and move them to Affirmative or Negative columns if applicable.
-students need to have 20 items in each column of the ANI Chart this week which is based off of The Magicians Nephew

GEOGRAPHY:
-students were tested on how well they could draw Central America from memory.  Top 3 were chosen...Congratulations Miss Lo, Miss Glanzer, and Master Richardson.
-Remember to grade your students test drawing.  Parents need to be checking in on this strand to make sure students are practicing and progressing in their map drawing/labeling skills.  I asked students if they are drawing 4 or more times per week and only half the class said yes.  They will only reach their goal of drawing the world if they put in the time each school day practicing the current location and continuing to draw previous locations.  This strand also involves memorizing geo terms and features of the locations that are being drawn.  If parents are unsure how to be involved in this strand please contact me and I would be happy to answer any questions.
-Introduced South America with drawing and discussion.

RHETORIC:
-What is science?
-Compared hypothesis, theory and law.  How are they same/different.
-What is the cause and effect of ruling theory?
-Do we as Bible Believers go wherever the evidence leads?  Should we?  What is our source of authority?
-Played NERF game with Catechism questions.
-Please make sure students are fitting Catechism Memorization time into their school weeks.  If this is a weak area for your student, the break will be a good opportunity to catch up.

I will be praying for you and your students!  Even though I will be at Outdoor Camp, I will have my cell phone and am happy to answer any questions or address any concerns during the break.

-Corey

Week 6 Recap!

Hello,

I was very proud of level of class participation today!  Abigail, you were missed!

Every Thursday the day flies by!  I am trying to balance the amount of class time spent on dialectic discussion, game, and explanation of the material.  If you have feedback and/or expectations regarding this, please let me know.

Today, we spent some time getting more familiar with our Challenge A guide.  All assignments are listed in the guide by week so that students can look ahead for planning purposes.  This is particularly helpful for the Research strand.  I recommend that students look up the topics that are a couple weeks ahead in order to reserve books at the library.  They will feel more successful if they start their week with their resources in hand.  Remember, we are not the only Challenge A class using Fort Vancouver Libraries.  We also reviewed the weekly Latin planning sheet that is in their guide.

Here is the Week 6 Recap:

DEVOTIONS
-word SANCTIFICATION: set apart, holy
-In the Bible different things are sanctified by God (Gen. 2:3, Ex. 19:10, 22, 23)
-Believers are sanctified: Positional Sanctification (1Cor. 1:2, 6:11, Hebrews 10:10)
-Condition of Christian walk: Practical Sanctification (2Cor. 6:17-7:1, 1Thes. 4:3-4, 2Tim. 2:19-21)

LTW(Exposition and Composition)
-students read their outlines from the previous weeks
-reviewed proofs and subproofs
-Introduced, defined, and discussed Parallelism
-dialectic discussion on the words in LTW's definition of Parallelism
-reviewed parts of speech in order to use Parallelism
-assigned essay (See LTW Teacher guide)

GEOGRAPHY (Debate)
-Team contest of USA and Central America (See pics on previous post)
-Students still need practice on the middle of the US and Eastern US
-Team Pictionary game to review features

RHETORIC
-Discussed key points in the chapter
-lengthy dialectic discussion of radiometric dating and the geologic column
-Catechism Cornhole game

LATIN (Grammar)
-As a class, worked through Exercises 57, 58, 62
-reviewed I-stem
-Reviewed LANCET, SOX ERROR
-Introduced the new vocab
-Introduced 4th Declension

RESEARCH
-Very polished presentations this week!  It was evident that the students were more interested in their topics this week.
-Introduced next topic, OCEANS, with a dialectic discussion about oceans.

MATH (Logic)
-mental math exercises
-Introduced and discussed Prime Numbers
-Practiced Prime Factorization using a factor tree and 'division by primes'

Have a great week!  Contact me by phone or email if you have any questions/concerns.
-Corey

Week 6 Geography Competition

Team 1

Team 2 **WINNERS

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Spirit Week this week!

This week is CC Spirit Week. If possible, we recommend wearing your Challenge T-shirts this Thursday!

Field Trip to Cedar Creek Grist Mill Apple Pressing Day Oct. 29

Cedar Creek Grist Mill Apple Pressing Day Oct. 29 

The mill will process about 8,000 pounds of apples into apple cider. They will start distributing cider at 9 AM and until all 8,000 pounds are pressed! They just ask for a donation for the cider you will be taking home. Younger children are welcome inside the Mill to help press the cider as well. Here is a little tidbit of history I copied from their website. Feel free to read more about this historical Mill before you go.

“The Cedar Creek Grist Mill is a working museum, showing visitors the inside workings of a grist mill of the 1876 time period. It is the oldest building is the state of Washington that is still doing the job that it was built to do 126 years ago.”

It will be a whole lot of fun to get together with the younger foundations group as well. 

Get details here below for important parking instructions and directions. 

http://www.cedarcreekgristmill.com/special-events/the-apple-cider-pressing

Address:

43907 NE Grist Mill Rd, Woodland, WA 98674

When to Meet up:

8:45 am  

**Christina Lo has thoughtfully planned this!!  Sounds so fun!  Richardson's are looking forward to attending! :-)   

Week 5 Recap!

Greetings,
Another great week under our belt.  Valerie, you were missed!

**EiE Event is October 25th.  We are starting to plan the class presentation.  Sometime soon, we will need to get a headcount of who can attend.  I (Corey) cannot attend due to my job, but Kelly will be coordinating our class's involvment.  Please direct any questions to her.

Here is the recap:

DEVOTIONS:
-Discussed the word REMISSION
-Romans 3:25 "Remission of sins that are past"
-from Latin 'remitto' meaning: to send back
-Remission of sins: to send back the penalty of sin, synonym: forgiveness
-Discussed what a scapegoat is in Leviticus 16
-Matthew 26:28, Luke 1:77, John 20:23, Acts 10:43, Hebrews 9:22 and 10:18

LATIN:
-Reviewed gender rules
-Introduced I-Stem and how to tell if a word is an I-Stem
-Declined flumen and pars (flumen has macron over the u, but I can't make it show up right now using my iPad) :-)
-Worked through exercises 43, 48, 49, 50
-used collis to show that Henle will point out words that are exceptions to the rule
-vocab review
-'Gentile' comes from 'gens', and 'apartment' comes from 'pars'.  Hopefully, families are taking time to enjoy finding derivitates in the real world.  That can help motivate and bring some enjoyment to Latin.
-Keep studying those flashcards as much as possible.  Remember to study both ways (Engish to Latin and Latin to English).

RESEARCH:
-Presentations were...again....AWESOME!
-Several students really pushed themselves out of their normal comfort zone this week and I am so proud of them.
-Dialectic discussion about next topic:  Weather.  We discussed the various weather patterns around us and in other parts of the world.  We talked about weather's effect on economy, inventions, military endeavors etc. in the past and currently.   We discussed biblical events involving weather.  This is a great topic to have discussion using the 5 Common Topics.

MATH:
-Mental math exercises on their lap boards
-practiced how to use protractors to draw specific angles
-defined polygons and looked at various polygons
-defined polygon: equilateral, vertex, similar vs. congruent, irregular vs. regular
-compared/contrasted perimeter of a polygon to circumference of a circle
-Introduced exponents and square roots
-Reviewed PEMDAS order of operations

LTW:
-candy sorting exercise that was done at Parent Boot camp
-practiced sorting the ANI that we made as a class the week before
-Brainstorming and sorting were easy and enjoyable for us adults, but dialect skills are still developing in these students.  They still need to be prodded with guided questions as they practice sorting and choosing labels for their categories.  They may get stuck this week and need a little help.
-They should have at least 15 per column on their ANI chart from last week.  If not, have them use the 5 common topics to fill their ANI chart prior to sorting.
-LTW will take more time this week than it has in previous weeks.

GEOGRAPHY:
-Geography Test on United States
-Parents are to grade their students tests but, in class, the top 3 students earned stickers.  They were: Miss Glanzer, Miss Lo and Miss Morse were the class winners
-Introduced Central America, Greater Antilles and Lesser Antilles
-Remember to still practice Canada and US

RHETORIC:
-discussed chapter 4
-uniformitarianism verses catastrophism
-played outside game reviewing catechism questions

We ended the day outside in the warm fall day, which was a nice change of scenery!
Have a great weekend!  Please call/email if you have any questions or concerns!


-Corey

Week 5!

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EiE Event

Please mark your calendars for this year's Excellence In Education (EiE) Event.  It will be Tuesday, October 25th at the Cental Vancouver CC location (9711 Saint Johns Road) from 11:30-1:30.  Our Challenge A class has been asked to give a brief geography presentation to the local leaders and politicians that will be in attendance.  They were also invited to attend a luncheon immediately following.  We will have more details as it gets closer.  What a great opportunity!!

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Week 4 Recap!

Greetings,
So, we have completed our first 4 weeks.  That is quite the accomplishment!  Yes, the workload is intense, but students and parents seem to be settling into a routine.  The students are getting more engaged in discussions and are having fun showing off their skills in review games and presentations.

Even with Picture Day, we got through a lot of material today.  Here is the recap:

DEVOTIONS:
-GRACE was the word of the day, defined as unmerited favor
-reviewed previous terms from Romans 3:20-25
-acronym Gods Riches At Christ's Expense
-using Romans 11:2-6 discussed the difference between works vs grace and works vs believing

LTW:
-using Carrry On Mr Bowditch we discussed the 5 Common Topics in detail
-worked through a class ANI Chart using the 5 Common Topics
-students will make their own ANI Chart this week using the 5 Common Topics to aid them

GEOGRAPHY:
-practiced US boundaries, capitals, waters and features in group games
-suggested putting larger rivers and mountain ranges on their maps before drawing boundaries to help with scaling the size of the states.
-**students will need to know this info well for the Excellence In Education event (more info coming in next blog post)
-practiced defining and drawing Geo Terms.  Be sure student are paying attention to the written definitions in addition to the pictures in order to compare/contrast similar terms.
-Remember to review Canada this week, too

RHETORIC:
-discussed Chapter 3 which included a lively discussion regard the Greenhouse Effect.  It was fun to seem them start forming opinions based off of what they are learning, especially as it relates to politically charged issues.
-briefly reviewed catechism questions.  It can be easy to forget to memorize these.  Remember to verify that your students have these flashcards and are memorizing them.  Soon we will have enough in our memory bank to play review games with them.

LATIN:
-Reviewed vocab
-Introduced 3rd Declension
-discussed how to determine gender in 3rd Declension:  apply the Natural Gender Rule first, then apply SOX, ERROR, LANCET rule to the Nominative Singular
-Introduced Appositives and practiced sentences containing them

RESEARCH:
-Great presentations this week on mountains and volcanos!
-What a joy to see them take what they are learning and give the glory back to God!
-Students will research constellations this week.

MATH:
-Mental Math on their dry erase boards
-discussed the steps to solving story problems
-discussed equivalent fractions
-discussed unit measurement conversions
-practices various problems
-**If your student is interested in Math League, contact the Lo family.  The first practice is this coming Monday.  Info is on Facebook.

Great job parents and students!  Whew! We made it 4 weeks!  I am really enjoying my time with your kids.  They all have such positive attitudes in class all day long.  They have great ideas and insights as they take in this information and integrate it.  I also enjoy seeing their silly sides come out more and more.

Feel free to contact me with any questions/feedback.
Have a great week,
Corey

Week 4 in progress...

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Picture Day this Thursday!

Challenge A is part of the BGCC Picture Day this Thursday.  Please be sure to include your Challenge A student on the form you fill out in foundations.

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Week 3 Recap

Hello parents,
Week 3 went well!

**Please remind your challenge students to follow the same rules at lunchtime as F/E.  Students should be in the lunchrooms from 12:00 to 12:25 and then can participate in the community recess time until class begins at 12:40.  Safety is a priority, so students should not be wandering in the halls. where there is no adult supervision.  Thank you!

Devotions:
-Word of the day--PROPITIATION-satisfying sacrifice
-synonym-appease...who needs appeased?  What are the wages of sin?
-Romans 1:18, 1:32, 2:1, 5:8
-1John 2:1, 4:10
-Hebrews 9:5
-looked at a drawing of the tabernacle specifically looking at the Mercy Seat and discussed the Day of Atonement.  When Christ died the veil was torn symbolizing there is a way to God now.
-looked at Isaiah 53:1-12, an example of propitiation showing that the father was satisfied.

Latin:
-Introduced the conjugation of "I am"
-Introduced Predicate Nominatives.  Predicate nouns are in the nominative case even though they aren't the subject.   Chrīstus est Deus.  (Christ is God)
-Played a game to practice memory work.  It is evident that most students don't have the new vocab memorized.  This list will keep building so it is crucial to lay a solid foundation in the beginning.  This takes a lot of work drilling and memorizing.  
Suggested memory tips:
-Flashcards-students should have their flashcards with them (in pocket, purse, etc) all the time and practice whenever possible (running errands, waiting, etc).  Siblings could help quiz with the flashcards.
-Have a family member quiz them on cases, declension endings, vocab
-CC Connected has different lists and charts to print off
-rewrite charts and vocab lists, trying to do it as much as from memory and then looking at a resource to finish
-use multiple senses-(say it, read it, write it, hear it) say out loud to hear own voice.  Record yourself and listen back.

Research:
-Rock presentations.  Each student did a great job preparing and presenting.  They all took last week's feedback to heart and improved.  It is evident that they are continuing to stretch themselves and grow in their abilities to present themselves well.
-Next weeks topic is:  Mountains and Volcanos
-Had dialectic discussion about mountains and volcanos.  What are the largest?  Where have they been?  Where might they like to go?  What mountains are mentioned in the Bible?
-CC Connected has Science Snippet in the File Sharing: Mountains Volcanos

Math:
-Mental math games
-discussed reciprocals and fractions
-defined and worked with improper fractions to solve equations using variables
-took a few 'real life' math problems and found multiple ways to solve them

LTW:
-Students turned their Rudimentary Outline into the Rudimentary Essay
-LTW is very simple right not, which means.....extra time for Latin!  :-)
-If they need to reread Carry On Mr. Bowditch, this is the time to do it.

Cartography:
-Quiz day!  Students had to draw everything from Canada from memory to their best ability.  Teachers at home are to grade and assess these.
-Introduced United States geography
-Suggest going back to the Foundations song from Cycle 3
-Suggest that students use the rivers and lakes when they are dividing up the states.  U.S. state boundaries are often made with these bodies of water.
-Great dialectic discussion about the US being the United States, not United provinces.  What is the difference between a state and a province?   The students were very engaged in this lively discussion.
-They showed off all kinds of random facts that they know about the US.
-CC File Sharing Geography Snippet: US.
-Introduction to new Geography terms.
-Played pictionary with the terms.

Rhetoric:
-Students discussed their chapter summaries from the Planets chapter.
-Stealing from God by Frank Turek is a great apologetic resource I am currently reading.
-Reviewed catechism questions

I hope you have a great week!  I met with some parents today to check in on how things are going at home.  I will be contacting the rest of the parents this week.  --Corey

Challenge A Week 2

Challenge A Week 2!

Again, the students amazed us this week.  Each student came prepared for their presentation and confidently spoke with clarity.  They far exceeded my expectation for the first week of presentations.

Here is a recap of class today:

**Students started Semester 1 individual sticker charts today.  During class, they will earn stickers to add to their chart.  The stickers will serve as their currency in a prize auction we will hold on Week 14 or 15.  If a student loses their sticker chart, they forfeit that $$. (The theme is ownership, right?)

Devotions:
-Defined and discussed the word REDEMPTION and being REDEEMED, Galatians 3:13
-1 Corinthians 6:20 and 7:23 show being 'bought with a price'
-Book of Ruth shows the doctrine of the kinsmen redeemer as shown in Leviticus 25:23-28,47
-Why do we need redemption?   discussed 'wages of sin is death' and the 2nd death in Revelation 20
-Read through Ephesians 1 and focused on verse 14

Expo and Comp (LTW)
-Defined Thesis and learned how to write their Thesis.
-They pick a side from their ANI chart and select 3 proofs.
-Discussed the Rudimentary Outline which will be due next week.

Rhetoric
-Critically discussed Chapter 1 and practiced catechism questions 1-3.  Will learn  4-6 this week.
-Students should fill out summary sheets and bring them to class.  A template can be printed out from page 123 in the Challenge A guide.
-Discussed why God told Abraham about the number of the stars and reviewed Genesis 15.
-Encouraged the students to always be "positive toward God, negative toward man" meaning that we believe God's Word and are critical of whatever man says, even if they are "experts in their field".
-The end of the chapter mentioned a couple things that even Christians can't know, but asked the students if they can know those things.
-Talked about dating with Bible genealogies, Usher's chronology was mentioned.
-Romans 1:27

Research (Science)
-Their presentations were AMAZING!  Everyone did a great job!!!   Each student should be proud!
-The time spent on (1) the research paper and (2) preparing for the presentation needs to be balanced.  Some students might want to try writing a shorter research paper and spend more time working on cue cards and practicing their presentation.  Narrowing the topic can help with this.  Several students were out of town or ill this last week.  We understand life happens and parents are the teachers and set the expectations.
-We played STUMP.  Students take notes on their classmates' presentations and try to stump each other with facts.
-Next weeks topic: Rocks.

Latin
-Introduced 2nd Declension Masculine and Neuter.
-Students need to be memorizing the declensions!
-We played translation games for practice.  Most students knew the basic English word, but were struggling to come up with the correct translation because they didn't know the correct declension, case, and sing/plural.
-In Henle Latin, God is always singular.
-Even though it is difficult, most students said that they really like Latin, which is great!

Geography
-Their drawing skills have really improved since last week.
-Provinces, territories, and capitals are supposed to be memorized.  We played a nerf game to practice these.  Most students still need improvement in this area (the memorization, not their nerf skills, lol).  Parents may want to quiz their student on them this week.
-This week, students should also focus on learning the 'Bodies of Water' and 'Features' that are found on page 140 in the guide.
-Keep learning the geography terms.  Students should know Altitude through Branch for next week. Soon we will be playing Pictionary to practice them.  These terms can be a springboard for dialectic discussion.  We pondered the difference between lake and basin, altitude and elevation, etc.

Math
-Discussed place value into the trillions using our national debt as the example.  It was a fun conversation that we, unfortunately, had to keep short due to time.  The students were familiar with personal debt, but were curious what national debt is.  It demonstrated why it is important to learn about these large numbers.  We watched it grow by looking at it online in real time.  You may want to continue this discussion at home.
-We played a fun game practicing place value.
-Introduced factors.  Discussed terms: factors, common factors, (GCF) Greatest Common Factors.
-Suggest that students memorize the Test for Divisibility section that is on page 35 in Saxon 8/7.
-Discussed 3 dimensional world: Space (length x width x depth) , and 2 dimensional world: Plane (length x width with no depth).
-defined and demonstrated terms: point, line, segment, ray.
-Dialectic discussion on how those geometric terms represent life...which one could represent God, creation, man, animals, etc.?


What a great day!  We are so privileged to be learning alongside your kids.  We could not stop talking about how BLOWN AWAY we were by their presentations today!  ...and it was their first week doing them...Wow!

See you next week!
Corey

Week 2

Week 1 Recap!

Hello proud parents,  

Today was fantastic!  We were so impressed with your students and their willingness to learn and participate in class.  Their answers to the autobiography questions were so unique and fun to hear.  What an interesting group of kids!

Here is a recap from today:

Devotions

-discussion of the term justification as it relates to being “declared righteous” and free from the penalty of sin thanks to the crosswork of Christ

-discussed God being both ‘just’ and ‘the justifier’ out of Romans 3

-look at other ways that the Bible uses the word justification

Latin (Grammar)

-reviewed noun cases, 1st declension, and modeled how to find a stem and decline a noun

-reviewed grammar rules 32 and 33  **It is recommended that students write out the grammar rules and put them in that category of their notebook to study and reference during class

-Performed exercises 1, 3, 4

Geography (Debate)

-drew Canada and learned some tricks for memorizing terratories and provinces

-discussed interesting facts about Canada (thanks Heiko for your input!)

-we recommend the Geography snippets on CC Connected

-students should make flashcards of the geography features for future games; you will find the first list of terms to memorize on the Week 2 section in the guide

-we recommend going to CC connected for Geo Cards by User Lwest

-emphasized PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE with the drawing!!

Math (Logic)

-its OK that students are on different levels and using different curriculums

-defined/discussed a lot of math terms (whole numbers, integers, ellipsis, equation, commutative property, variable, sequences)

-covered basic content of Saxon 8/7 lessons 1-4

-dialectic discussion on uses of math in the real world (they were so awesome with this!)

-students are encouraged to bring problems to class for discussion

LTW (Expo and Comp)

-discussed forming a 'should question' and turning it into an ‘issue'

-did an ANI Chart as a group

-students need to do their own ANI chart for next week as assigned in LTW

Rhetoric

-intro to the text and highlighting system.  For now, just try the blue.

-Ben Stein’s DVD Expelled and the book Slaughter of the Dissidents by Jerry Bergman were mentioned

-students need to begin memorizing catechism questions.  Flashcards found on CC Connected recommended. These will be used in games.

-some of the catchism questions use Bible verses.  Its ok for students to memorize in a different Bible translation.

-students need to read thru chapter 1 which will be discussed next week.

Science (Research)

-performed outdoor planet activity and discussed planets

-DVD The Privileged Planet mentioned

-For next time, students will bring a research paper based on a topic related to planets, a bibliography, and drawing of their topic (length of paper chosen by parent)

-refer to IEW from Essentials for assistance in writing a reseach paper using Key Word Outlining

-They will give a presentation based off of their paper that is 5 minutes or less.  They are not to read their paper, but should have notes on a 3x5 card for reference.

-Sketch journals are recommended.  This could be as simple as a pad of paper.  This is for students to take notes, sketch, journal etc. during their researching and include drawings, diagrams, etc.   This concept reflects back to the scientists in the past, such as Leonardo Da Vinci, who were artists as well as scientists.

It is an absolute privilege to be working with you students!  We were so pleased today and are looking forward to next week!

Please contact us with any questions or feedback!

—Corey and Kelly

Welcome to BGCC Challenge A!

Welcome to BGCC Challenge A!