Monday - Holland School Open Despite Weather

While the local schools were closed due to the freezing temperatures outside we were OPEN for education.  Another great bonus about home schooling... I control the schedule... not the county.  Anyway it was a great day of study.  Tommy turned in some great writing assignments today and made a 100 on his 5th grade spelling test.  We still struggle with time management because Tommy wants to drag out any lesson that involves any form of writing... his least favorite thing to do, but he is learning that he is in control of how long his day is.  He is realizing that, unlike traditional school, we will not move on to the next subject until he completes the current one... So he can either be "out of school" for the day by 1:00 or he can still be working at 6:00 pm.... it truly is all up to him.  He is also learning that mommy will only accept his best and nothing less.  This is why I came up with our "School Creed":

I am a smart special valuable person
I respect myself
And respect others
My words and actions
...Are kind and honest
I except only my best in what ever I do
I AM PROUD TO BE ME!!!!!!

I honestly believe that allowing him to manage his time will lead to him becoming more timely on his writing assignments.  Especially, when he wants to get to the fun parts of his day. I also made a deal with him that if he finished the lesson in the time allowed I would reward him with 30 minutes of game time at the end of the day.  This should be a huge motivator since Tommy loves his DS. 

No exciting experiments, but we did have another art project.  Tommy learned about abstract/realistic art and representational or nonrepresentational art.  He had to draw a picture and tell me about it.  Of course Tommy's favorite subject is Pokemon so he added a few to the mountain scene that he drew.  Here is his finale picture and of course a few of him working on the picture.

Tommy thinking about how to lay out his picture.

He decided to sketch in pencile first and then add color.

The Completed Art

After he completed the project we discussed his pictures and the techniques he used.  He decided that the picture was nonrepresentational since it was a mountain scene with Pokemon.  He then insisted on explaining to me that the ONLY reason it was nonrepresentational was because Pokemon are fictional characters, but if he could have his way they would be real.  I just loved it. 

This weekend we will be conducting an experiment with seeds to see what types of environments they will grow in... such as in the freezer, sun, dark or light.  We were suppose to start this project with today's science lesson, but I was missing a few of the materials we needed to complete the project.  We will also be making some of our banana recipes... yummy!