Brainstorming help for an alternative 6th grade year

[quark]

I'm trying to create a DIFFERENT 6th grade year for my 10.5yo guy. It needs to be advanced in content/style of materials or he won't be interested. The funnier and more eccentric, the better.

 

I have asked him what else he wants to learn and he says he can't think of anything atm. He says that whatever he did this year for 5th was great...so yes, I am honoring that by following his wishes for Math (he will be doing 2-3 math threads as has been the norm for him since he was young) and German and piano. I will work with him on writing. For other areas, I want to give him a year or two to "breathe", to have fewer curricula and outsourced courses, more time to read for fun and contemplate and observe and use his hands because although he had a smashing, very high level, very academic 5th grade year (we both think it was a great year, just busy), he didn't have as much time to read and make and giggle like we used to when he was younger. And he's pretty advanced so I have no worries atm about catching up etc.

 

The more suggestions, the merrier. What is something challenging yet fun and different that you would have liked to learn in 6th/7th grade if you could have?

 

I'm having brainstorming-block. Wild (but secular, please) ideas most welcome!

[azucena]

Could you somehow interweave the book "Goedel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" into his studies somehow (mix of music, math, art, and paradoxes)? Maybe it is a year or two down the road for him, but from your description of your ds it feels like it is up his alley.

[quark]

This is a great idea! Thank you! The book has been in my wishlist for a while and maybe it's time to get it. I googled around a little about GEB...there's an MIT OCW course that discusses it! Cool! Thanks again! :)

 

I'd love more suggestions if anyone has any.

[Bang!Zoom!]

Phew, am I ever glad I logged in today to read! :) Super cool.

 

I think that's a home run Quark! :)

 

The OCW to match is here: http://ocw.mit.edu/high-school/courses/godel-escher-bach/

[quark]

He he, with an endorsement like that, how can I refuse? :) Gonna run it by the boy in a while. Fingers crossed.

 

Thanks a bunch you guys!

[JennW in SoCal]

Just wanted to pop in with a "go quark!" because your general plan sounds fabulous. Reading for pleasure with German, math and piano sounds like an excellent education for a bright 10/11yo.

 

My only suggestions are perhaps things you already have or know about, but how about the books by Theoni Pappas such as Math-A-Day? How about collections of logic puzzles such as those found at Dover Publications? My ds loved books such as The Lady or the Tiger. That book and other fun logic puzzle books are in the recreational math section at Dover.

 

Have fun with it. Pick out some literature titles you'd recommend to him then just follow those rabbit trails. And by all means, make more time for giggles!

[Dmmetler]

Metamagical Themas is another good one and is a little easier to comprehend than GEB (so makes a good introduction to Hofstadter) because the sections in it were originally stand-alone columns in Scientific American. It's a bit dated now, on the technology side and programming side, especially, but still a lot to play with-and it segues well into GEB (which has been one of my favorite books since high school-not surprising since I'm a mathy musician :) ).

[quark]

All awesome, awesome ideas! We've collected a ton of Dover math books but not the Lady or the Tiger, Jenn. Thank you! And thank you dmmetler and loesje. GEB does seem a little heavy for him right now so your suggestion looks great. And he might enjoy that architecture book too because he's really into geometry and it will be great to put his favorite theorems into some of the real life applications around him.

 

Please keep the ideas coming. I am feeling so restless about this decision. I have been playing around with Excel spreadsheets trying out different plans to do some ancient history and biology with him because he has huge gaps in those areas. Can't help it lol...just can't fight this need to plan and structure, structure and plan. So please, please suggest anything else you can to keep me away from those darn spreadsheets lol. :D

[Kathy in Richmond]

My son needed something different for sixth grade since we were transitioning from public gifted magnet school semi-burnout to homeschooling. He needed a break from stuffing in knowledge, memorizing, and regurgitating on countless tests...So that year, I let him pick a couple of subjects of his choice to concentrate on, as you're doing (math, Latin, & grammar --haha, he wanted it), and I added in daily writing, which was a sore spot & definitely needed some work. For the rest of his year, we went with delight-directed learning.

 

One thing that we had a blast with that year was kitchen chemistry: it gave him an easy-going intro to chemistry & ummm, we enjoyed eating the results!   Lots of fun, laughs, and hands-on science, & we supplemented with regular library trips, local science museum, & science magazines as a side dish. :)

 

Some resources:

 

MIT open courseware kitchen chemistry and advanced kitchen chemistry. These are taught as 'fun' advising seminar classes to bring freshmen together in their first semester at MIT w/o the pressure of their other classes, and as such are accessible to a great range of learners. Dr. Patty C, who designed these classes, is a very gifted chemist/teacher/mom (ds had her for freshman chem & I saw her in action).

 

Vicky Cobb's Science Experiments You Can Eat, & More Science Experiments You Can Eat - surprisingly good, especially if you have a curious mind and follow up on any questions & ideas that arise (it's a little youngish, but she uses correct terms like oxidation, distillation, and precipitation, perfectly good as a chem intro. We had a chem text on the shelf & ds could follow up on anything of interest).

 

Btw, my 11 year old was also very advanced in science & he enjoyed that laid back science year. On his own, he designed a few experiments as the year progressed, learned to write up a nice lab report, did lots of science fun reading & continued to work on his electronics kits in his spare time. The spare time alone was a huge gift to him, so I didn't mind going easy on the course requirements that year. I'd rather start with something easy-ish and build up as interest is shown, than work with a dry college-level book (and my 11 year old was capable of it) and have it become drudgery. I did keep those higher level resources on hand, but making them optional seemed to help a lot at that age.

[8filltheheart]

I'm not sure I understand exactly what you are seeking, but when my kids and I need something new or time to simply rejuvenate, we thrive on the rabbit trails.....the random approach. ;) You can take books like Sherlock Holmes and follow a zillion different trails creating a quasi unit study approach where a little literature/science/history/geography guide your studies. For example, Sherlock discusses a scientific breakthrough for blood detection. That could lead to researching the history of crIme scene investigations or the chemistry of blood detection or the numerous biological crime scene tests. Sherlock rooms with Dr. Watson who is recovering from war......this could lead to a study of the British Empire, the history of India, methods of war during the 1800s, etc.

 

You can do the above with just about any book that is of interest to him.

[StephanieZ]

If you don't already use MCT for English, it is VERY different from most anything else you've ever seen, and we happen to love it, and it is definitely quirky and fun. I'd suggest beginning with Town -- the whole "Homeschooling Basic" package. It's awesome.

 

You could explore AoPS for math, too. It's awesome. Look at the original Problem Solving books (vol 1), or the Prealgebra, or just play with the online Alcumus. Very creative and exploratory.

 

You could spend more time on art or music. Try out an instrument with lessons, or sign up for art classes, or whatever.

 

Patty Paper Geometry is very fun and creative, too. No pressure whatsoever, but covers a lot of good geometry topics. 

 

Real books for literature . . . You could choose themes your son is interested in (adventures, scifi, etc.) or just go free form. TWTM has great lists.

[quark]

Edited the below:

OK, I think I have found what I am looking for (bolded)! This sounds like the best alternative for now unless something else more appealing comes up. Repeating my thanks to everyone for your help!

 

--------------------------

Thanks for weighing in Kathy, 8 and Stephanie!

 

Kathy, we actually did some kitchen chem this year using the MIT list as a jumping off point. Eventually, he decided to drop the list and readings and we just did a few things on our own. It was definitely fun but we didn't have time to do as much as we wanted to. And I think he found the plan-side of it stifling. So sad...I love plans, why can't my kid love them too? :p

 

Maybe what I'm looking for is a lighter year and an opportunity to work on writing skills because the gap is so obvious. So the gift of spare time and random wanderings sound good. I also worry that he will suddenly get all pubescent on me so alternative/ different/ relaxed all sound super appealing right now.

 

I asked for ideas because I know that he doesn't do well with boredom. I can easily give him spare time but experience has shown he gets very cranky with too much time on his hands. Then I get cranky because he is cranky...not a good combo.

 

I could just stock up our shelves with some of the resources mentioned here then leave it to him to pick and choose. He seems to naturally gravitate towards academic things so maybe he doesn't need an entirely different year, just a less scheduled year? We are dropping outsourced science this year so that should definitely help. He will wilt if I drop the outsourced math so we are keeping that going. We are going to focus a little more on outdoor activity too if possible so that will need time as well.

 

I really appreciate all your thoughts guys, thanks so much for taking the time to weigh in.

[ebunny]

Keep us posted on how the year goes, Q! I love the idea of a quirky, fun academic year.

[quark]

I just wanted to update you guys on what I've decided in the hopes that it might inspire someone else at some point too.

 

I wanted to thank you again and say that I have given all your suggestions some more deep thought.

 

I love the idea of doing GEB or dmmetler's suggestion on Metamagical Themas with kiddo but I really don't see him at that level of maturity right now. And I want this to be a lighter year. If I try to embark on GEB or MThemas, it is highly possible that I will burn myself out trying to prepare enough to approach these resources to the level that I want to. I don't think I am ready for them either. But I definitely have these ideas saved for another day. I can see him loving them at some point, maybe just not now. I have to consider this carefully because out of choice kiddo will also be working on 3 heavy math subjects concurrently...algebra 2, precalc and he will continue with his advanced geometry as well. We are using resources that can be stretched over 2+ years if need be to keep his enjoyment of math high while also keeping the level of challenge high. He will also be continuing with a math circle this year at a more advanced level.

 

Math will take at least 8-10 hours a week, and he will spend 3-4 hours on german 2, and 4-5 hours on piano with the possibility of additional practice hours if he is invited to join a jazz band his teacher is setting up. That leaves me about 5-7 hours a week to work with him. I want to focus on writing skills during this time but also on enjoyable discussions. I don't think he can improve his writing further without also learning to think better.

 

What I really would like to do is create a 6th and possibly 7th grade year that really focuses on the skills of learning and thinking deeply and really enjoying ourselves. I have been following Lori D's posts on various boards about Socratic learning and discussion and I'm really excited by all that she suggests. I think this is exactly what I want to develop. We already discuss a lot but a lot of the time my mind wanders or I have to cut things short to attend to something else and I don't think I give it enough thought or preparation. So instead of breaking all our subjects down into content subjects like science and history and skill subjects like writing, I will think of it as one "umbrella" subject called Introduction to Socratic Learning or Writing through Socratic Discussion or something like that. I need a nifty name just to center and focus my direction, otherwise I find it hard to be committed to what I want to achieve. :) And if I consciously set aside time for it I know I will get it done. By focusing on the Socratic part of it, I won't worry so much if we don't finish some of the resources kwim?

 

So the books and such will just be tools towards achieving good thinking and discussion skills. For example, I have chosen an old Scott, Foresman literature text I found used with high school level works because that's the level of lit he loves right now and gets excited by, a Duiker/ Spielvogel history text, again for the level of content he's most eager to address and a bunch of science reading materials, philosophy-themed books (Sophie's World and The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten), historical fiction/ nonfiction and a host of Teaching Company videos. And I'm going to give MCT a try again just for the grammar/ vocab components. I tried it a couple of years ago but it didn't seem right at the time. He took a look at Magic Lens 1 this week and seems to find it right up his alley so fingers crossed. We'll work on some Caught 'Ya Grammar style proofreading too because he likes the concept.

 

I like Kathy's science idea a lot so I've arranged the unit studies/ kits that we already have at home on our formal dining table where he sometimes likes to work to give him free reign to explore and play. I've played around with schedules and I think I have one that will work well. He will easily have 4-5 hours of free time a day to use for the kits and math explorations and other things.

 

I'm really excited to start. I have a cute whiteboard handy for discussions and some really nice lit selections (short stories mostly for now) from the textbook to begin with. We want to check out some cool software too like Prezi and see what we can do with them. I put a list of SAT vocabulary words on Wordle and printed them out like a poster for DS's desk and he is already happily picking out words every day to study and use in his blog posts or daily conversations. We make it lighthearted and silly as can be. So hopefully his writing will improve too in this coming year. If anyone is interested, here are the links for the Wordle posters:

From a-m: http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/6887341/SAT_Vocab_Words_a-m

From n-z: http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/6887377/SAT_Vocab_Words_n-z

You can print them from the link (I just used letter-sized card stock)

 

It might not be a truly quirky year after all but that's okay...the way we approach the learning will be slightly different and that alone might make the difference we (I?) need.

 

I'm so grateful for all your suggestions and support. Thanks guys!

[Lori D.]

Go Quark! What an exciting adventure this year is going to be! :)

 

One last thing I'd like to throw out there: field trips!

 

I can't tell you how great it was to still be doing field trips in grades 6-10 (by grade 11-12, time was so tight, and we were doing dual enrollment, it was too hard to work those in). I organized about 5-6 group field trips a year for our homeschool group's youth (grades 6-12), and we did a lot of fascinating more adult-oriented things. Some are easier to get people to give you a tour if you have a small group (10-15 students and parents), but others you can go just the 2 of you. We had great conversations traveling to/from our field trips, and what we saw/heard often sparked deeper conversations on science, ethics, careers, etc.

 

Below are a few ideas. Have fun exploring! :) Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

- free tour of the local university's carbon dating lab

- free tour of the local university's aerospace engineering lab

- free tour/demo by 3 of the local university's engineering clubs (SAE formula baja style race cars; micro-air vehicles)

- free tour of local university agricultural extension & research grounds

- astronomy facility tour

- student matinee showings of plays

- evening symphony concert

- tour of local radio/TV station (and learned about careers in broadcasting)

- City planning dept

- radiology and medical lab tour (and learned about medical careers)

[Nan in Mass]

Here are some things my children did. They aren't particularly wild, and they don't really match the sort of thing you are talking about, but in case they are helpful, here they are:

 

Go through Draw Squad (to learn to draw) and then produce a Farside cartoon every day. This actually took quite a lot of thinking. I still have some of the results hanging on my wall, years later.

 

Speak only German. I did this with French. It was a smashing success, when it wasn't being an excersize in how little it is possible to say to your children.

 

Learn to read and write music, really read and write music, with voice and ears only. This was one of those those places wehre I wished I were better qualified as a teacher. We would have gotten so much farther. You can play follow the leader on recorders, too. (At first, somebody plays a phrase and somebody else repeats it. As you get better, the leader doesn't stop and the follower has to both play and listen at the same time. You can do the same thing with clapping patterns.)

 

Improvise music every day. Get a bunch of instruments together (we used a xylophone, rosewood sticks, and a wooden recorder and called it tree music) and take turns improvising. I'm sure there are better ways to do this, but what we did was have somebody play a repetative pattern on the xylophone, then have somebody start adding rhythm on the sticks, and then have the third person start playing little tunes on the recorder. The result was definately "wild". It would sound awful for a bit and then suddenly something cool would happen and then it would go back to sounding awful. We did it every day for about ten minutes for a year.

 

Do a year of storytelling. Every day, your son has to read a story and retell it to you. Start with very short stories and get longer. Listen to Oddsbodkin's Odyssey and watch The Storyteller for ideas. (Can't remember if The Storyteller has unsuitable bits. Might want to check. Mine were older when we did this.) This turned out to be unexpectedly useful.

 

Read Eisner's Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative and make a graphic novel.

 

Keep an inventor's journal. Make some of your experiments.

 

We did a lot of kitchen chemistry, too, with emphasis on designing and writing up one's own experiments.

 

Learn to identify every living thing in your yard and something about it.

 

Do Peterson's bird call tutorial. (We never finished this, a regret of mine, but what little we did was wonderful.)

 

Gather family together, divide up the parts, and do Shakespeare readings. Greek drama works well, too. If you got really ambitious, you could put on a play, costumes, sets, memorized parts, and all.

 

Learn to play Go. Or chess. Or those games with a million little models and books worth of rules. The last is really an experiment in altering systems.

 

Learn drafting.

 

Play the video game Portal.

 

Do electronics kits. A soldering iron that shuts itself off automatically is a comfort.

 

Build a boat. It is fairly simple to build a child-sized (under 100 lbs.) flat-water boat. It is basically a box out of quarter inch high-grade plywood glued together with wood glue. Make it long enough for your child to sit in with his legs stretched out and about 2 1/2 feet wide. The sides should be at least a foot high. You can do some fun math to figure out how high will provide enough boyancy (sp?). You cut two long rectangles for the sides, making them curved on the bottom, and two rectangles for bow and stern that are wider on the top than on the bottom by a bit. Glue and nail (or screw) a frame around the inside of the bow and stern. Glue and nail another piece of 1x3 along the bottom of each side (so you have somethign to attach the bottom to) stopping an inch short of the ends. Glue and nail the sides to the bow and stern. Turn the boat upside down and put a piece of plywood on top and trace around it. Cut that out for the bottom. Glue and nail that on. Buy a roll of fiberglass tape and a container of epoxy and tape and epoxy the seams. Paint it a fun colour and give it a name. Use boat nails so they don't rust. A kayak paddle works well for this type of boat. It isn't meant to be used as transportation as it swamps easily in the wake from a motor boat.

 

Get memberships to museums and go every few weeks. The science museum was popular here.

 

Get your ham radio license. Build a radio.

 

Make up your own language. (Intriguing for those who like grammar and like to think about how language shapes culture and vice versa)

 

These are the things I am going to miss most about homeschooling. Sniff sniff. Youngest just graduated.

 

Nan

 

PS - My children didn't do this, but you might want to investigate projects involving a blackberry pi. You also might want to investigate Make magazine, kits, and forums.

[Lori D.]

Oh, Nan! What fabulous ideas! Can I come retire at your house and let you be my teacher?! (And I *promise* I will not be a whiny, rebellious, laconic, bored student! :D)

[Woodland Mist Academy]

 We make it lighthearted and silly as can be.

 

I love seeing this. No matter what we have on tap for the day, nonsense  :biggrinjester:  and laughter :smilielol5: are sure to be near the top of the list.

[quark]

Lori and Nan, those are exceptional ideas. I'm so glad you took the time to add them. I think they'll keep us entertained for years!

 

WMA, I know what you mean. We really NEED to laugh! As essential as the water bottle I carry everywhere with me. :)

[Nan in Mass]

Lori - I would love for you to come and work with me.  Think what fun we could have!

 

quark - That ability to laugh together will probably be essential when you start trying to survive the teenage years with your relationship in tact.  Practising now is essential.

 

Nan

[Nan in Mass]

Oh - and you need to glue and nail a piece of 1x3 along the top of the sides as a gunnel, also.  For some reason, I can't edit my posts.

[quark]

Oh - and you need to glue and nail a piece of 1x3 along the top of the sides as a gunnel, also.  For some reason, I can't edit my posts.

 

Boat building is an incredibly intriguing idea Nan. I have thought about a class that is being offered to homeschoolers where the kids build actual boats but it's about 80 miles away. I could drive but I'm wondering if it won't be much more fun to try to figure it out our way. Perhaps we could start small first (I'm not very good with tools just yet). And we have a small pool so we can test our designs quite easily too. :)

[Nan in Mass]

If you like, I will get my husband to write you out better instructions and I'll send a picture of the tippy boat he and my middle one built.  It is a perfect beginner boat for somebody who hasn't done this before and hasn't worked with tools much.  It is the sort of boat that is great fun for kids to play with in shallow water.  Your pool would be perfect.  Mine had fun seeing how long they could stand up in it while somebody else tried to dump them out by poking them with a noodle.

 

Nan

[Nan in Mass]

Ok - just found this http://dngoodchild.com/5467.htm

It is the boat my father and I built together when I was in high school.  I adored it.  I still do.  With just me and the dog in it, it rows like a dream.

This whole site http://www.dngoodchild.com/divide_for_small_craft.htm is a blast!  Take any time estimates with a HUGE grain of salt.  Times have changed and people aren't as handy as they used to be.  Much of this site reminds me of The American Boy's Book.  I could rename that book Things Your Grampa Was Allowed to Do But Which You Most Certainly Won't lol.  Because of where we live, because my grandmother taught me to play mumbldypeg and my husband's parents were otherwise occupied when he was about 13, our children got to try more of the book than most do now a days.  A friend renamed it A Guide to Maximum Impact Camping lol.

 

Anyway, have fun!  And if you want those directions, let me know.  I keep wanting to take the local stitch-and-glue canoe class that is offered from time to time.  It is rather expensive, though.  Maybe when we are done with college tuitions.

 

Nan

[quark]

Nan, that is awesome of you to offer! :grouphug:  Thanks so much. There is no hurry, only if your DH has time and doesn't mind doing it. I will check out the other resources in the meanwhile for sure. Thanks again!

[Nan in Mass]

LOL - Wish I could edit.

 

You know, I think you could probably have a lot of fun in your pool with roll of plastic sheeting, a staple gun, and something to lash together into a frame, like plastic piping or strapping.  You could even cut the strapping to different lengths and drill holes in the ends and at intervals (think erector set) so you could tie the pieces together with cord.  Then you could staple the plastic sheeting over it to make a skin.  You could cut the sheeting off and try again until you found a design you liked.  That would have kept my boys entertained for quite awhile, I think.  Not as much fun as a real boat, but nice hot-weather fun.  You'd have to do some work with the sander, probably, to avoid splinters.

 

Nan

[Nan in Mass]

I will ask him when he gets home.  It might be something he can do quickly.

: )

Nan

[Nan in Mass]

This half pea looks fun but probably is more than you want to take on as a first try: http://koti.kapsi.fi/hvartial/dinghy44/dinghy4.htm

 

Here's another fun looking one, again more than you want to tackle, probably, first go round: http://www.cabbs.org/activities/2010-2%20Mini-Skiff.htm

 

I've had a lovely time searching for tippy boat plans in the air conditioning.  : )

[quark]

This half pea looks fun but probably is more than you want to take on as a first try: http://koti.kapsi.fi/hvartial/dinghy44/dinghy4.htm

 

Here's another fun looking one, again more than you want to tackle, probably, first go round: http://www.cabbs.org/activities/2010-2%20Mini-Skiff.htm

 

I've had a lovely time searching for tippy boat plans in the air conditioning.  : )

 

I looked at the actual peapod and thought "hey I can handle that!"... :D

 

then I scrolled down lol.

 

Oh that mini skiff is so darling Nan! We don't have the saws or power sander/ plane but we have almost everything else. Hubby isn't a heavy duty builder. He has always liked building microscale models and tends to veer towards the small-scale stuff, not the bigger stuff. :( How much can we do with a hand saw? Not much I suspect lol. But I love that skiff. We might be able to borrow some tools from our lovely neighbor...hmmm...hatching plans to cook some yummy food to bribe neighbor and his wife. :D

 

ETA: hey...how about a raft? I think that's something we can try for starters with our minimal building skills. We could use found materials. Not as involved and exciting as a boat, true, but still a wonderful experience? Where's the bouncing around excitedly smiley when I need it?

[Pen]

We got a puppy.  That lightened things up quite a lot, and we have had some dog related school--dog learning, dog reproduction and birth (In the Womb dogs and cats --- not funny, but interesting), dog / human anthropology, dog development, dog nutritional needs., dog art, dog writing, dog relations with cats and older dog, dog psychology, etc.   

 

Funny stuff:

 

any DVD's by ... Terry ...    weird, I cannot recall his name...   from Monte Python, but has done non-fiction like history and Story of 1 in a Monty Pythonish way, there is some discussion of sex and violence in the history ones that you might want to precheck.  Some of the Young Indiana Jones is funny--though some is not at all funny, and again there is some sex and violence.  Anyway my ds loved all these at 10, and I did not think they were too much for him rating wise so to speak.  They are definitely secular.

 

Larry Gonick  cartoon books.   Basher books.

 

My ds is enjoying the series of books by Michael Scott that starts with The Alchemist--they are somewhat funny, though mostly adventure-fantasy:

large numbers of the characters are historical, and it gives a chance to go see about things like who is Joan of Arc  or Machiavelli (for example) as a rabbit trail from these fiction books.

 

Fun: Balance Math, Balance Benders, Mind Benders ...  

 

It can also be a nice time for things like Alexander the Grape, or What's black and white and red on top jokes, or the slap stick of The Gods Must be Crazy.  I was surprised to find that this sort of humor was so funny to a 10yo it caused beverages to come out the nose...wow, I remember giggling like that too once upon a time.

 

 

Course, building a boat sounds awesome!

 

 

 

[quark]

Thank you Pen! We do have a dog and his doggy-cuteness has actually inspired DS to write more! DS has started blogging stories written from the dog's or his chew toys' point of view lol. I was already so thankful for our lovely little guy, now with the added writing advantage I am even more grateful!

 

We've used a lot of those materials already. DS didn't develop a huge interest in Gonick's science books or The Alchemist. I'm not sure why exactly. He did enjoy Gonick's history series of books very much though.

 

Terry Deary is a hoot isn't he? We've watched a couple of his shows on youtube.

[Nan in Mass]

A raft is a good idea.

 

My children discovered they could put their baby brother's little plastic wading pool in the lake and float in it.  We were all very surprised, although I don't know why.  We did the math once to see how much a larger one full of water weighed before we put it on a second story deck and it was astoundingly heavy (thinking displacement).

 

For something almost as hilarious as the books, you can play Pooh boats.  Do you know the story of the flood?  We used to roll short fat spruce logs down the beach and try to float upright on them while paddling around.  (We were careful to put them back afterwards so they didn't become a navigational hazard.) 

 

My husband says that if you pm me your email, he will make you a drawing of my son's little boat, scan it, and email it to you.  He says it would be much easier to draw it than to write it.

 

Nan

[Nan in Mass]

Oh - And if you haven't heard it before, while you build the boat, you might want to listen to the audiobook Three Men in a Boat. Or read it aloud. The reader of the audiobook does a wonderful job, though.

 

Nan

[quark]

DS read the book a few months ago and absolutely LOVED it, Nan. He wants more Jerome K. Jerome books for keeps but I have to recoup some $$ first.

Oh Nan, the more I read your posts the more I wish I could have been homeschooled by someone like you. :)

I'll PM you my email now. :grouphug:  Many thanks to you and your DH!

 

ETA: PM couldn't be sent, Nan. Could your box be full? I'll try again later!

[Nan in Mass]

Quark - I'll empty it in a minute. Something about your past posts made me wonder if we were kindred spirits, as Jane in NC puts it. : ) That's why I answered. That and because I remember trying hard to do something similar with my youngest's 9th and 10th grade. I managed by combining history and French, throwing him only semi-prepared into community college bio, chem, and physics in 11th and 12th (more efficient), and giving up all Mum-chosen non-math/sci/LA/SS/FL things and letting him do the choosing. As a result, he had independent projects on his high school transcript with names like Wearable Technology lol. It worked. Your time frame is different but the problem itself is similar.

 

Nan

[quark]

:001_wub: This makes me feel so good inside. Thank you Nan! :grouphug:

[Cosmos]

Oh - And if you haven't heard it before, while you build the boat, you might want to listen to the audiobook Three Men in a Boat. Or read it aloud. The reader of the audiobook does a wonderful job, though.

 

Nan

 

Just butting in to ask, do you know which reader this was? It looks like there have been a few, and I know the reader can make a big difference.

 

I'm raiding this thread for ideas for my ds. :)

[OneStepAtATime]

NOTE:  THIS IS AN OLD THREAD....BUT I still love this thread and it might give someone some outside the box ideas so I am bumping....

[quark]

Thanks for bumping it One Step. Sigh...I often wish I could use some of these ideas with another child. The dog refuses to learn to read. :P

[OneStepAtATime]

Thanks for bumping it One Step. Sigh...I often wish I could use some of these ideas with another child. The dog refuses to learn to read. :p

:lol:

[Arcadia]

The dog refuses to learn to read. :P

At least you don't have a swearing parrot like my neighbor's parrot. Maybe you could get a parrot and teach it multiple languages.

[Vida Winter]

Quark, can you let us know how your 6th grade year went? Which things worked, which didn't?

[quark]

deleted for privacy

[Vida Winter]

Sounds like he had a great year - quite advanced! Thanks! :thumbup1:

[Space station]

NOTE: THIS IS AN OLD THREAD....BUT I still love this thread and it might give someone some outside the box ideas so I am bumping....

Thank you for bumping this! Some of this looks great for us to look at for the next year.

[eternalsummer]

glorious thread, thanks

 

that post of nan's is amazing

[Lori D.]

Thanks for bumping it One Step. Sigh...I often wish I could use some of these ideas with another child. The dog refuses to learn to read. :p

 

Okay… see, we need to form a "homeschoolers schooling other homeschoolers group". I'd love to learn math and science from you Quark! :)

[quark]

Lori, you are the sweetest! :001_wub: I'd end up learning so much more from you! And our dogs could have a play date too! :001_wub:

 

I wish I could say that I teach him math and science... :leaving:

 

We should DEFINITELY have a homeschoolers schooling other homeschoolers group...why do the kids get to have all the fun? :D

[OneStepAtATime]

I'd so be on board with the homeschooling other homeschoolers group...

 

DS insists that all energies in our homeschooling should be directed to inventing site to site immediate transport (DD gets car sick) so that people can experience great things without all the travel issues.  We could do that for our homeschoolers homeschooling other homeschoolers, too.  Just transfer in whenever it is convenient.  Gonna get DH, my engineer, right on it.  I'll let you know when the machine is ready.  :)

[Lori D.]

I'd so be on board with the homeschooling other homeschoolers group...

 

DS insists that all energies in our homeschooling should be directed to inventing site to site immediate transport (DD gets car sick) so that people can experience great things without all the travel issues.  We could do that for our homeschoolers homeschooling other homeschoolers, too.  Just transfer in whenever it is convenient.  Gonna get DH, my engineer, right on it.  I'll let you know when the machine is ready.   :)

 

Beam me up, Scottie! ;)