Waldorf High School at Home

Ecology Main Lesson

Next week I begin a 2 week very condensed ecology main lesson with my son and another homeschooled 9th grader. Two weeks is really a silly amount of time for a main lesson like this - but this is homeschooling and we have to compromise, right? Factors that got in the way included a two week cooking block for the boys (what they're doing right now) and then my son's involvement in the school play at the high school he used to attend full time. I somehow forgot that in the last two weeks of school, those students in the play do nothing but the play all day from 8:30 till 3pm (other students do building projects or gardening at this time). I even wrote on my calendar "ecology main lesson" right next to where it already said "Gabriel at school all day"!! Oh well....

 

So - two weeks to squeeze in an ecology main lesson. I had briefly considered skipping this but I really wanted to do it because I want to do botany and zoology with the boys next year. If you look at the Waldorf high school curriculum as it appears in many schools around the world, ecology does not come in 9th grade - it is a culmination of sorts in 12th grade. This puzzles me. Twelfth grade, quite sensibly, is when one finds subjects like "biotechnology", "genetics" and, increasingly, "chaos theory" - topics which need a great deal of life experience, maturity and knowledge to engage with properly. So why is ecology in 12th grade? I shall explore and try to find the answer.

 

My thinking is that ecology is just right for 9th grade so as to prepare for a more detailed look at the "components" as it were, that make up ecology, namely, plants, animals and minerals. I feel this is setting the stage for a more holistic way of looking at these subjects, by starting with a grand sweep of the whole - a bit like the way I did world geography with the 8th grade at our local Waldorf school a couple of months ago. I want to set the stage with a beautiful look at how our Earth is whole and how this whole expresses itself through weather, minerals, geography, plant and animal life. I want the boys to really get how these things are utterly interconnected.

 

I think that this is especially important with a subject like ecology. One might think that there is no way that ecology could be taught in a reductionist way, but it generally is - just get a hold of a biology or ecology text used in your local high school to see. One starts with cells and goes "up" from there. One boils concepts down to abstractions at all times, never giving a sense for the life which should surely flow through a study of - well, of life!

 

Here's what Martyn Rawson, a long time Waldorf teacher says, writing in Paideia, a British journal for Waldorf teachers:

 

When we (move from whole to part) in an artistic, creative way, then the relationship of the parts to the whole is a living one, where the whole somehow always expresses more than the sum of the parts and the identity of the parts is complimented by the whole. This mood far better expresses the reality of ecological relationships within the living world than reductionist building block or jigsaw puzzle models which are also "true" but limited. As long as the child's experiences are open to further, later enhancement then the foundation for an understanding of organic processes is cultivated. A one-sided experience of fixed, merely additive and absolute forms is more conducive to a mechanistic thinking that is suitable for the inorganic world, perhaps, but inappropriate for knowing the living world.

 

Now Martyn Rawson is, of course, speaking about the elementary school grades but I think his point continues to be valid at least as an introduction for life sciences in high school. And I further think that one should not be apologetic about striving to maintain such a living approach throughout high school. It is not as if "living thinking" is synonymous with "poor thinking"!!

 

Anyway.... I will return after our block is finished and give a description of what we did. I should add that we will, actually, go past two weeks as the boys final joint project (on ethanol) is due to be presented to both families a week after the block ends and that our other big project, setting up a 40 gallon warm water fish tank, wont commence until the summer.

 

I leave you with a link to a wonderful article by Craig Holdrege of the Nature Institute, the first place anyone should look when looking for stimulating information and suggestions on creating and working with an artistic, life imbued way of science. This article is the first reading assignment I am giving the boys.

Help with Physics - MIddle Years and High School

I know it's only April, but if you're like me, you're already thinking about next year's homeschooling adventures! And judging by the number of first grade syllabuses and other things we're selling at the moment, there are a lot of you who are in the "plan ahead" camp!

 

Right now I'm thinking about not just next Fall for my will-be 10th grader, but also about how the next years of his high school education might unfold. There are two other Waldorf homeschooled students of about his age here where we live - and we will probably do a number of things together (we already do). Some subjects are easy (for me at least) to teach and organize - others are a bit more difficult. Science is one of the topics which, though I love it, does not thrill my son. It is also incredibly hard to find resources which lend themselves to being used by people struggling to keep at least a bit of a Waldorf approach to science intact!

 

And the same is true for those of you figuring out how to work with science in the middle years. Eventually we will have a wealth of materials which will spell it all out - but we're not there yet and some of you have 6th, 7th and 8th graders next year and need some help.

 

At the moment I just want to talk about physics - the only area of science which fills me with horror! It just does not go in! I love the color experiments in 6th grade and fiddling about with sending sound through a garden hose, but pulling it all together is well, rather a challenge. And to be honest, as brilliant as Roberto Trostli's Physics is Fun book is (this is a highly recommended book written by a Waldorf teacher) it just doesn't really, really convert 100% to the home situation.

 

So for those of you with middle grades students next year, I do recommend our Nature Stories to Natural Science to help you understand the flow of the Waldorf science curriculum and, specifically, what happens in 6th, 7th and 8th grade. There are many book reviews and practical ideas. I also think that getting Eric Fairman's Path of Discovery books (from www.waldorfbooks.org)  for those grades is a must - he does a great job with science - though again.... it's not quite translatable to one parent teacher and one student at home. But they'll definitely help.

 

So I've been gloomily looking through physics websites trying to figure out what might be helpful in my situation. I'm banking on one of the other students'dads doing a lot of mechanics type physics with them.... but that might not happen. My son is interested in astronomy - and he'd like to understand theoretical physics - I can handle that. So we might spend more time than recommended in Waldorf schools reading than doing... but sometimes that's just the way the cookie crumbles.

 

Anyway, here's a physics teacher's website which is somewhat helpful. I like it for a variety of reasons - the positive is that there are some really wonderful lesson plans here which, even if you don't use them as they are (because a) they're for groups and b) they are not Waldorf at all) can be useful in helping one think through various physics concepts and/or inspire you for more Waldorf projects and ideas. The negative reason is that by reading through all the silly, inane and ridiculous lesson plans, I can feel better about what I'm doing, reassured that in public schools they spend an awful lot of time doing things that really are not worthy of the time.

 

The lesson plans on this site range from k through 12th grade.

 

Then there's a funky looking free astronomy and Newtonian physics e-book which I found. The author's credentials look impressive - the material looks great at a cursory glance.... But I don't vouch for it until I look it over before my son and I use it!

 

Lastly, I think I will order a programmable robot kit for Gabriel for this Fall. There are some really sophisticated  (and expensive) kits which use both engineering and computer programming skills to create robots which perform a variety of tasks. You can get these kits from www.homesciencetools.com. Once we get the robot and use it, I will report here how it went!

Cannery Row

We've finished Cannery Row. Both students read it and my son really enjoyed it.  Unfortunately, the other student didn't like it! I'm always shocked when someone doesn't like a book by one of my favorite authors - and I told her so in a playful way. She shook her head "nothing happens in this story" . That's true, I said - and then we launched into a discussion on exactly what Cannery Row is about. Does it have a plot? Not much - but isn't it  a snapshot of life at the low end of society? Aren't Mac and the Boys Everyman? We talked about this for a bit. I shared that the reason I adore this book is because Steinbeck makes the characters so real that one feels like they'll be sitting there looking over your shoulder when you look up from the book! She acknowledged that.... a bit grudgingly...

 

She wanted some plot. I asked her what was a book she really liked and she started off exuberantly praising Cry, the Beloved Country. I had read that in high school and had really disliked it - but my student made it sound intriguing so I said I would read it and let her know what I thought in the next class. The we went back to Cannery Row.

 

Over the last two weeks they had two assignments. One was to write a 2 - 3 page paper on Cannery Row considering the following questions - was it a positive novel? what do the characters represent? what does Steinbeck think of his characters and of people? Do the inhabitants of Cannery Row have a moral code? How do they live by it - or fail to live by it?

 

The second paper was to take a scene in the book and then spin off an imaginary scene. Doc drives off to collect marine specimens - the trip to his destination is described and certain things happen - but his journey back is not in the book - he just returns to Cannery Row. The students had to really live into the character and make a believable scene - and try to imitate Steinbeck's style. This is what my son wrote.

(scroll down to the bottom of the page, after Nina's poetry).

 

And I did read Cry, the Beloved Country - and really enjoyed it. My student and I talked about the wonders of the narrative - Paton's style and the simplicity and power of the story itself. Then I thought about why I might not have liked it when I was a teen - I think I didn't get it. I think the people and the setting were too remote from my experience for me to relate. But now, as a "worldly" adult, I was really moved by this book which is probably no longer considered PC which, if that's true, is just too bad. I think it's wonderful and I shall see if I can get Gabriel to read it over the summer. He knows a bit more about South Africa than I did at his age - I think it will amazxe him that it was written before apartheid really became all pervasive (1946). He knows about Nelson Mandela because he is someone I have talked about a lot - so I think Gabriel will be in a better place to work with this book than I was. I will also find a good book for him from a black South African point of view, to help him with context and with historical change. If anyone has any suggestions, I am open!

A Typical Day

Thought I might chronicle a typical day for you all to see what we do and how we do (or don't!) do it....

 

After a desultory stab at cleaning the kitchen after breakfast, Gabriel announces that he going to read. I grumble at him about the fact that he is still wearing his bathrobe and pyjamas, but he insists it helps him read better. I make a rude comment on this but let it go.

 

An hour later from my office I see him staring into the refrigerator. "There's no food" he says sadly and then wanders in to sit near me. I sigh, trying not to think about how much I paid at the co-op yesterday for that "no food." I turn to him, "So, what are you doing next?" We discuss the pro's and con's of him working on his research paper on Egypt, working on vocabulary or doing some math. He sets up a time to work with his father on math - Gabriel is on Key to Algebra Book 6 (multiplying and dividing rational expressions). They choose together which problems Gabriel is to do and then they go over it together when he finishes. They do about 1/2 an hour's work three times a week. Gabriel ,who says he hates math (but secretly rather enjoys it), is whizzing through the Key To books with a pretty good attitude about it all.... so we're satisfied with his progress.

 

Gabriel goes for a short walk and then returns and settles down to work on his Egyptian research. He has completed a time line of Ancient Egyptian history - this was mainly an exercise for him to get his head around the sequence of events. He and I also spent a pleasant half an hour a few days ago making pyramids and sphinxes out of clay. He has given me the outlines for his two papers - he chose the topics. The first is a biography of Ramesses II (whose name is now apparently spelt differently from what I am used to!) and the second is about the changes in Egyptian religion during the time of Akhenaten. Gabriel is aware that his first draft of both papers is due next week. He is not an "outline" person. I honor this (I am not an outline person either) and instead of my hammering away that one must do outlines for research papers, I help him figure out a way to effectively organize his material. So far he has stuck to an "it's all in my head" method and I have yet to come up with a project which will show him that this isn't always th best way to do things! (after all, last year he wrote a 17 page paper on Napoleon without notes or  an outline...maybe he can effectively organize all his material in his head!).

 

Before Gabriel disappears to his room to read, I remind him that he also needs to find a piece of Egyptian art work to do a charcoal drawing of. He nods and he's gone.

 

That was most of our morning. In the afternoon he scans through Cannery Row in preparation for a creative writing assignment. I challenged his class to take a particular scene in Cannery Row and to extend it. It must be believable - the characters must act and speak exactly as they do in the book and the words, phrasing and tone must match Steinbeck's writing.

 

Thus ends another high school homeschool day!

 

George Orwell

So Gabriel is doing two English "classes" this semester - the real class with other homeschooled students and his own class just with me. I gave a description of the former class - here is what he is doing for the second.

 

The first question might be - why two English classes? There's a two fold answer - because he loves English (ie reading and writing) (he's not keen on things like grammar) and because it's good for his portfolio. This is a boy who should have a good shot at a selective college and some of the more interesting ones no longer bother looking at SAT's or ACT's (such as my alma mater, Sarah Lawrence, as well as colleges like Lawrence here in Wisconsin, Bennington, Hampshire, Bard, Bowdoin - can anyone tell I'm from back East?!) but they will look very carefully at  the portfolio one puts together. So in addition to working with him to create the content and expectations of each class (or "class"), I am also mindful of his portfolio and his future. At 14 he isn't especially interested in either so I am Guardian of the Portfolio until he (hopefully!) takes over one day.

 

As an aside, in the English section I am also keeping a list of "Other Books Read". So far we have a couple of Agatha Christy novels and The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

 

On to Other English - Gabriel has undertaken a project on George Orwell. So the class he takes is Freshman English - and this is AP (advanced placement - not attachment parenting!!) English. Gabriel loves George Orwell - he loves his style of writing and he loves what he writes about. This began when he read Homage to Catalonia and grew when he read 1984. We are still negotiating the exact parameters of the project - I suggested he read three of Orwell's novels and a bit of his non fiction - Gabriel wants to read all of Orwell. In addition to the two books I've mentioned, he's read Down and Out in Paris and London and has just started Coming Up for Air (a bit of light relief after the others). He has a mid April deadline (that's my job to set and enforce after conversation with him) for the first draft of his paper which is to be an overview of the books he's read and analysis of Orwell's style. I don't think he'll manage all the books - but I also might allow a bit of negotiation on the deadline!

Scheduling Challenges

One of the joys of homeschooling is long uninterrupted time to read, create art, dig in the garden, daydream..... All good, all very necessary - but all in danger of getting out of control, thus throwing  a student's homeschooling schedule out of kilter.

 

My 11th grader is totally self organized - and seems to have been from day one. When he was younger I consciously wove his interests into his schedule - so at 10 we had a block on the Voyageurs; at 11 we did some paleontology; by 12 American history was a huge interest; and at 13 we used a lot of science fiction for his English lessons. When he was in high school he managed reasonably well with arranging his studies to the demands of the school day - but when in 10th grade he decided to write a novel, this definitely got in the way of other classes. And his father and I supported him - we would have preferred he didn't fail Art History - but we respected his choice to do his best at what he was interested in - what was worthwhile to him - and to not just "play the game" and pass because passing comes easily to him. There was a nobleness about this - and yet he needed to also understand that sometimes in life there are times when one simply has to learn to juggle things -and that some of those things will be less interesting than others.

 

Daniel is now doing a correspondence course from a college in the UK - he is working on several exams as he will be returning to the UK (rather sooner than we had first thought...). He hates these exams - and I don't blame him. Even though he chose subjects that he likes (politics and history) the format is pretty dull and dry. (he also is studying math - maths as they say in Britain). Anyway, what he has learned to do is to strictly schedule time for his exam studies - and then to allow time for his own interests. At the moment he is reading Lao-tse, Thomas Paine and Schopenhauer and exploring permaculture.

 

Gabriel, my 9th grader, is also figuring out how to develop a schedule. Each Sunday night we discuss the things he has to do in the following week and then he uses this as a rough guide to get the balance right. We started a system like this when he was in about 4th grade. By 7th grade I would just write up his weekly schedule - in years previous I would write out each day's work.

 

Gabriel's challenge is that he too really gets into something and can focus on that to the exclusion of all else. Before he went to high school there were weeks when all he did was Latin and German - and maybe a bit of math when I nagged at him. He moved a long wonderfully in his languages - but when the phase was over, he wouldn't return to them for weeks and would then lose much of his thread. It felt important to let him discover this for himself at his age.

 

 He embarked on a history main lesson starting this week - I asked him to choose a subject or period from Ancient history to focus on - he chose Egypt. Then I helped him get books from the library - and now he is scanning books to narrow down the focus of his study. We have a couple of good history text books to help him get a broad sense for the development of Egyptian Ancient history. He has also been asked to choose an art project for the main lesson. He has two English classees (regular and AP); algebra 2, French and then his classes at school in pottey and dance. We will do a science main lesson later in the spring. Social studies consists of regular family debates on the merits and shortcomings of the presidential candidates, the American government system, the continued war in the Middle East.... and so on. We watch the Jim Lehrer report on public TV and read the papers and follow several internet sources for information. We occasionally watch Fox news to see what so much of America uses as its source of information on the world and to thus get some understanding of some of America's problems.....

 

So.... it can be a challenge to find the right way to work with a high school schedule - I am really excited by students (my sons in this case) who love to really go deeply with their interests. But I also feel a responsibility to help them learn to budget their time and to make themselves work on lesser interests when necessary.

This Semester

Our first step once Gabriel decided that he wanted to return home and once we all agreed that this was indeed the best thing to do was to have a discussion about what he wanted to do. As in the middle years of homeschooling, we had a conversation about what Gabriel's interests are and then I would note all that down and make suggestions about additional or alternative things to study.

 

Gabriel had already been doing an independent study at school with me in Philosophy - not really a subject for 9th graders, but Gabriel was pretty adamant. He had had a pretty rough first semester so we wanted him to feel good about what he was doing in his second semester at school. Well, he wound up returning home and Philosophy has become his first main lesson. At school he would have only had 3 weeks for a main lesson - at home we have the luxury of drawing that our to 5. In later blogs I will explain in some detail what we are doing for each block (and for other lessons) - for now I'll just give an overview of our plans.

 

After Philosophy we will have 5 weeks of History for main lesson. This is Gabriel's favorite subject (at the moment). He wants to do modern history but I have persuaded him to go back and pick up on Ancient history again for now. I have given him two whopping great books to look through to figure out what he wants to do. One is Ancient History: First Civilizations to the Renaissance a huge 900+ page volume full of photos and illustrations as well as World History: Patterns of Interaction, a conventional high school text book published by McDougal Littell. I have used the latter one extensively when preparing for classes I taught at the Waldorf-ish high school here as it is very well done. One would never want to teach out of a text book (at home or at school) but a text book certainly helps one get an overview of things and helps orientate oneself to do further research.

 

Anyway, Gabriel has until Monday to decide what he wants to do: he has to either choose a civilization to study (Mesopotamia, China, Egypt) or choose a time period and study what was happening at various places during that time. Depending on what he decides he wants to do, I'll come up with requirements for papers and possibly a test. He is presently doing a main lesson book in Philosophy and will not be thrilled by two MLBs in a row. So we'll see. I am trying top get him to do some art projects but I have found that pretty hard with him since he was about 13. Fortunately he can do some art classes either at his old school  or in the community. So it's not a proper Waldorf "teaching via art" - but it's the best we can do!

 

After that is a 2 week catching and bits and bobs period in April. He'll be able to take a breath during that time - his grandmother and her husband will be visiting here from the UK during that time as well so we'll be pretty busy with them.

 

After that is two weeks of cooking - from planning to putting it on the table, all on his own. He wants to do really fancy cordon bleu type meals. I look forward to that - especially as that will be when we are finishing our second and third grade curriculum and might be fairly crazy!

 

The last main lesson of the year will be on ecology. That will be 4 weeks long and we will hopefully be joined by our neighbor's son who had been in the same class as Gabriel and also decided to return home (he also had homeschooled).

 

In addition to these main lessons, Gabriel is doing French, pottery, dance and then theatre at school; and math, English and business studies at home. This latter is something he's been involved with since we started Christopherus. Gabriel co-wrote our Medieval history unit study and has been a help in the office for quite some time. Starting last summer we took him on as a paid part time employee then lost him to school... now he's back and he will be involved in website management and design; marketing; fulfilling orders and much more!

Homeschool High School

Well, Gabriel, my 14 year old, decided to return home. He spent a semester and a little bit at the vaguely Waldorf high school where I was teaching and has had enough. He has come home.

 

So now both my boys are homeschooling again! Well.... I'm not sure what Daniel is doing really counts - he's doing a correspondence course for his British exams so that he can get a job or perhaps go to university once he's settled back in the UK. Gabriel, like us, has no plans for moving and eventually wants to go to college here. Like his brother, he could probably go to a very selective college - unlike his brother, that is a path which interests him. Daniel has decided that he needs grounding and wants to pursue a trade. He is interested in working for the railroad. Or he might go into the Royal Navy, a path which really challenges his anti-militaristic parents - though the discipline and hard work would undoubtedly do him an enormous amount of good. Daniel has always been a handful - largely because of him I have never felt I have "the answer" when it comes to parenting and largely because of him I am very good at strategizing ways of dealing with difficult youngsters with clients! He has also helped me be humble - I might be an expert when it comes to working with children and teens - but he helps me remember that parenting one is a totally different kettle of fish!!

 

Anyway, he is at home studying - he also goes to the high school to take Spanish. Gabriel will do most of his work here at home but will take a couple of classes at the school as well. He will continue with French and is finishing both a dance class (tango, would you believe!!) and a pottery class. Once they finish he'll join a theatre class. I am pleased he can do those things at his old school as they are certainly not opportunities I can provide at home (sorry - I don't tango with anybody!).

 

There are many reasons why Gabriel came home - some have to do with the school itself. But his main reason is that he likes to study things in depth and that was not possible at school. This was in part due to a school which is not formed very well - there are far too many classes and the main lessons are too short (they are all 3 weeks long). But the nature of school itself does tend to conspire against deep study - even in a real Waldorf school. He tried out school before - he spent a semester and a half in our local Waldorf school in 5th into 6th grade. His main complaint was that he had no time to read books - they had 30 minutes two or three times a week to read - but many of the children were very restless and noisy and Gabriel got very distracted - and when one is used to being able to read uninterrupted for hours at a time, reading in 30 minute bursts just doesn't cut the cake!

 

So... we are Real Bona Fide homeschoolers again! And that means I will be sharing with you all what we do! This is good news for the range of curriculum we are orividing as I not only have the high school lessons I taught at school to draw from for publications, but I will be designing lessons for Gabriel and will be churning them out over the years too!

 

I will also be regularly blogging in the meantime focusing on what I am doing with Gabriel. There are no other Waldorf high school homeschoolers doing this as far as I know (and if you know differently please tell me about it!) so I anticipate this will be of great service to those few lonely souls trying to do Waldorf high school at home. If you know of any place where this blog can be listed where others will find it, do so! Please tell other Waldorf (or open to Waldorf) high school at home people about my blog. Let's get the word out there so people will be less isolated!

English Class

Today will be the first session of our new homeschool high school English class. We will meet once a week till the end of the semester - with a break in the middle for Easter - and will have 12 sessions all together.

 

The first day of a class is always the most important - I have learned that over the years. It's when the children or teens decide "hmmmm.... is this person really up to what they say they can do? Am I going to like being here?" I like to start classes by being very lively and moving quite fast. I always make a mental note of any child's weakness or questions (said or unsaid) and go back and pick up on things when the time seems right. Some children just sit there with their unspoken questions which can be quite a weight - a challenge is to either help them find ways to articulate those questions or to answer them in the course of what one does with the child.

 

Anyway.... here's an outline of what we're doing....

 

Our emphasis is on writing. We'll also be reading two novels, Cannery Row by John Steinbeck and  The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. And we'll also be working on vocabulary and a bit of grammar here and there - the great thing about having a focus on writing is that one can pick up on problems or confusion a student has right then and there. That is how I like to teach - I have a well worked out plan and then am completely willing to go a different direction if needs be.

 

Today we'll go over what we'll be doing in the class and then work together on some vocabulary and word usage lessons I have created. I especially like doing things like creating tangled sentences (overblown or too sparse) and asking students to improve them. This can generate a lively conversation - in large classes students usually fall over each other in attempts to "please, please can I read mine?!" It also makes for an easy way to address the nuts and bolts of good writing in a living and lively way.

 

The point here is to talk about good writing and experiment with it. I also have excerpts from a few books of wonderful descriptive paragraphs - Gerald Durrell in My Family And Other Animals (great for middle years or high school reading or read aloud) has some wonderful descriptive paragraphs - which we read aloud and look at. Part of the students' homework  is to bring in a book or two next week with a couple of examples of good writing - and we will discuss this. What makes good writing?

 

Another part of the homework will be a number of writing prompts which I have created over the years of teaching English to homeschoolers and at school. When they return next week I will collect what they have written and go over it and write comments on it. The students will rewrite what they've written next - a process which many balk at - and then we will read it aloud in class the following week.

 

More homework - to read Cannery Row. I HATE reading books in snatches and bits!! The good readers get frustrated because they have to slow down and the poor readers get frustrated because they have trouble getting a sense for the whole book. I hated it as a student and I refuse to do it as a teacher (I learned how much better it is to read books in one go and then go back over them at college). So I always arrange my classes so that the students have time to read the whole book - and then we go back over parts. Much better. Authors do not write books in chunks - they weave a whole story which needs to be looked at as a whole!

 

Last part of the homework is vocabulary. I have come up with a list of words for them to work on for the next 4 weeks. Then we will work with Vocabulary from Classical Roots by Norma Fifer and Nancy Flowers. I recommend this series in my  Curriculum Overview for middle years  students - Book C and up is suitable for high school. These are really well done non patronizing non dunbed down self teaching workbooks (not Waldorf) available on line or through Amazon.

 

Here is a list of  this weeks' vocabulary that I think this class can handle (and they are a pretty advanced group - not all 9th and 10th graders are up for vocabulary like this though I think they should be): cryptic, ensconce, ignominious, mutability, spurious, dissipate, timorously, speculative, congenial, piscatory. Next week they will be given a test in which they need to define some words and use some in sentences which clearly indicate the meaning of the word (some students find this extraordinarily difficult - from 6th grade on I suggest one work with this - I give examples in my Roman History unit study). I might also use antonyms.

 

You can see that there appears to be a lot of homework here - I am an anti homework person (by and large) when students are in school. But when one is homeschooling and only meeting in a class once a week, the students need to spend a lot of time outside class doing work.

 

I will give more updates as we move through the semester!