Subjects Other Than Math

I complain about Math all the time, and for good reason I will add. Every Monday we have skill checks that have nothing to do with what Ian is actually studying. Today I decided to do it. I know, that's cheating and hopefully no one who is involved with Ian's home school program, reads this. I did it because I'm tired of trying to convince Ian he needs the skill check for........I can't figure out what for. So I did it and used all the notes the Math gods sent along and got a 90%. You know, it's not really that hard as long as you have a sheet to follow along with. If I had to remember what I did, well, that's a different story. See, that's the problem with math, who can remember it from time to time. Now, if we used it everyday, like English, then I could see it.

English - we just finished reading a number of short stories that I've never read and were not bad (except this one about a "bat-poet." I think the underlying theme had something to do with creativity, but it was so stupid, who really cared?) The way his program is set up is that we read half of a short story and the other half the next day. That's also stupid - it's a short story-read the whole thing, which is what I make Ian do, or I read it out loud. So now we have to write about one of them. Why do schools ruin reading by making students write?

History - at the rate we're going we'll hit North American as we now know it, about the year 2012. That's true even in public schools, no wonder  18 year olds know nothing about Vietnam but everything about the Greeks. Seriously, all you need to know about Greek History is that they died and the islands are supposed to be really nice to visit.

Science - today we did an experiment involving duct tape (Ian's favorite product), toy cars, knives and a stopwatch. Last week we did an experiment with lye...do you know how hard it is to find lye? It was all sold out in the hardware store (apparently someone up here is making soap), the grocery store clerk wandered around with me for a half hour before we figured out they didn't carry it. I finally got smart and went to the library and asked Julie where she thought I could find some lye. She thought Lurraine at the Fabric Store had some; her drains were plugged up and she believes in the power of lye. So we went to the Fabric Store and Lurraine did indeed have some lye in her bathroom that she lent it to us.

Spanish - it's all done with a microphone and an online geeky-looking kid. So far Ian knows, "muy bien, hola, me llama es Ian" and the difference between "tu" and "usted." And....he's earned umpteem million dollars which he can use to change his Avatar. Does anyone out there know what an "Avatar"is??

Report cards are coming and I can't wait to see how I've done....I mean how Ian's done.