Homeschool Friday: Weeks 9 & 10

I've been a little behind on blogging lately, but I am going to blame it on NaNoWriMo and leave it at that.

First of all, here is a short summary about last week (Oct. 28-Nov. 1). I did not get a lot done. Halloween was kind of a big deal this year, and with all the stuff going on, school did not end up being my top priority. I did no history, a little Spanish, some math, some science, and half of a Rhetoric chapter. Latin was my best subject of the week. Also, I hosted (and sort of led) a discussion for The Joy Luck Club for our teen book club (our theme this year is World Lit). I hope to write a review of the Joy Luck Club soon, but you know, it is November.

This week went much, much better.

History
For history this week, I did a short writing assignment where I did some research on the Abbasid Dynasty, and wrote several paragraphs about their rise, fall, and the various things that happened in between. I then read and summarized a long chapter out of my textbook about the early middle ages in Europe, ending with the Vikings.

Math and Science
I did not do quite as well here. I did two science lessons on earthquakes, and I did four out of the five math lessons. One of them I did terribly one, one was a test (which I did better on then I had expected), and the other two went pretty well.

Latin and Spanish
In Latin, I finished the chapter I was working, which is really good. It was pretty short, but mostly translation, which is a little more time consuming. I actaully did this book two years ago, but this year I felt like I was not ready to move on to the next book in the series, so I started over, meaning that I have done this all before. I think the repetition is helping me, and I actually know what is coming up. Right now, the translation passages are all ones written by the authors of the textbook, which means they are pretty generic, but I know that pretty soon I will move into older passages (modified for an intermediate student) that were actaully written in Latin hundreds or thousands of years ago.

In Spanish, I finally am almost done with the intro chapter, which is really good. It will be nice to move in to some real grammar and useful information.

Rhetoric
In Rhetoric, I worked through the chapter about statistics, which was fun. They gave me statistics (some straight numbers, others summaries) which I had to analyze, and decide whether or not you can draw conclusions from it, and, if you can, what kind of conclusions. Definetly the most fun I have had in Rhetoric all year!

English, ect.
I am not doing any official English until the new year, which is really nice. I am, of course, writing a novel, but there will be another post about that later today. I am also rereading Things Fall Apart for the World Lit group.

So, that is pretty much it. I have finished several books in the last few weeks, all of which I really want to review if I have time. I am thinking about taking today off of NaNo (even though I am behind) and get a bunch of blog posts written up. We'll see.

NaNoWriMo: Week 0 {Everybody Panic!!!}

I had about five posts I've been meaning to write and post this week, but this is the first time I've even opened up Blogger since Sunday. Sorry! Life has been CRAZY, and it's not looking like it's going to slow down any time soon. I only have about ten minutes to write right now before my grandmother comes to take us to lunch for my sister's birthday. As soon as we get back from that, I will have less then an hour to get all costumed up before heading to a local park to do a Lord of the Rings photo shoot, since we might not have a chance to get any good pictures on Thursday.

Some of the other LOTR people will be coming back to our house after that to participate in a discussion of the Joy Luck Club, which I am hosting, and apparently leading as well, though I have not even looked at any discussion questions yet.

That's just this afternoon. Anyway, I doubt you want to hear about how busy my life is, but at least you have some idea of why the blog has been a little quite, and will probably stay that way.

So, this is going to be be NaNoUpdate number 1. Normally, they will go up on Saturdays, but I forgot to write a post last Saturday. I don't have a lot to say this time, other then that I have hit the panic stage. If you have done NaNo multiple times, you might know what I mean.

Every December I swear that I will never put myself through the torture of NaNo again. In mid September of the following year, I begin to remember how much fun NaNo was, and start getting excited to do it again. On about Oct. 28 or 29, I suddenly remember just how hard and stressful NaNo can be. At this point, I've already told tons of people I'm doing it, and I often have even done a little planning, so I can't back out.

I just hit that panic stage. I've done very little planning this year, less then ever before. I do have two wins (out of two tries) under my belt, so that helps, but such rational thoughts don't do much good against that late October panic.

I have only TWO days left until NaNoWriMo, and they will be completely filled with an insane ammount of STUFF. In fact, the first time I will realiztically have to sit down and relax will be Friday morning. Friday, November 1st. Maybe I should just give up on the idea of relaxation until December. :)

How is your NaNo planning going? Do you get that late October panic too? Do you feel ready to tackle this novel (what a ridiculous question)? Also, if you are a NaNoer, feel free to add me as a buddy! My username is Daisy512 on the site.

Homeschool Fridays: October 7-11 2013 {Week 6}

I'm sorry this post is late two weeks in a row. Today, I really do not have a good excuse.

History
This week for history, I did more of those mini bios that I did a bunch of last week (and will be doing more of next week). I did a worksheet on the spread of Islam in the early middle ages, and I wrote a couple of paragraphs on the differences between Sunni and Shiite muslims, both in the middle ages, and today. I was also supposed to read another chapter out of my textbook on Byzantium, but I did not get to that. Luckily, it was the only thing I was supposed to do this week that I didn't get it in all my subjects. :)

Science
In Earth Science this week, I finished up the chapter on rocks, and then moved into the chapter on energy sources. The last section of the week had to do with unrenewable energy sources (oil, natural gas, coal, ect.).

Math and English
In math, I finished up the chapter on roots, and started the one on quadratic equations. I have done all of this before when I did Life of Fred Advanced Algebra, but since I started back at the beginning when we switched to Teaching Textbooks, I have been doing a lot of review. In English, I continued through the section on verbs, nothing really new or interesting there.

Spanish and Rhetoric
In Spanish, I finally started moving out of number, and began learning the months and days of the week. I am finally nearing the end of this introductory, conversational chapter, and will be moving into some actual grammar and vocab soon. In Rhetoric, I just continued through the section I was in.

Other Stuff
I got a start on blogging for November this week. I want to make sure there are posts going up, but I'll be too busy with NaNoWriMo to do a lot of blogging, so other then two update posts a week, the rest will have been written ahead of time. I also wanted to do some editing this week, and while I did get some done, it was not as much as I would have liked.

All right, that's it for this week. I have cleaning to do, and a Halloween costume to try to finish. Does anyone know where you could find some rather authentic looking hobbit pants? And what to do about the feet...