V's Version

Week 1

We started the new school year with my plan to get all academic work (except reading) finished before the end of the public school day so that Pk can play with his friends in the neighborhood. I also implemented a bedtime and a wake time due to Dani’s work schedule and sleeping needs (and the small size of our house.) This has not been particularly popular and I appreciate Pk’s cooperation with the new schedule and the increase in academic work.

Pk worked on spelling sheets – (looking up words in a dictionary and identifying the parts of speech) as well as reviewed commonly misspelled homonyms. In math, he reviewed placement holders and decimals, square numbers, multiplication tables, estimation and learned how to read and use a scale ruler in the creation of an architectural blueprint based on his drawing of the “Perfect Room”. He saw a documentary about Philippe Petit, a French aerialist (“Man on Wire”). He was accepted to and began training for the Santa Cruz Sports Central gymnastics team (a much bigger commitment than recreational gymnastics) and, as always, was physically active every day (especially with skateboards, parkour and scootering). In science, he completed a BBC Curriculum about the food chain and habitat of animals, insects and trees. He read “Frindle by Andrew Clements and then moved on to
"Jack Black and the Ship of Thieves" and then to a graphic novel of the Simpsons. Pk learned the 5 Ws of reporting and read several books on Viking History as part of our study of ancient cultures.

Last, but not least, Pk learned about CA Family Court and the rules of a formal courtroom when he was legally adopted by Dani on August 29th.

Week 2

Pk identified the main ideas in a story, learned abbreviations and practiced spelling by using word search puzzles. He identified and used in a sentence: subject, predicate and object (nominative and adjective), Pk can identify (in a multiple choice game) literary terms such as poetry, limerick, comedy, tragedy, narrator, foreshadowing, symbolism, plot, theme, point of view, haiku, lyric, ballad and oral tradition. He also learned the first two of 29 major spelling rules and finished reading both “The Lampkins” by Eve Bunting and a non-fiction book about gymnastics.

He continued his architecture project but much more prefers to create small and a large scale graffiti drawings using color, line, perspective, positive and negative space. He keeps several sketch books and uses sharpie markers mostly. In addition, he began training on the software program Photoshop. In Viking history, Pk studied daily life, culture dress with the help of books, interactive computer games and theoretical discussion. He also learned about and wrote in the written language of runes.

He honed his daily life skills by looking up and figuring out the Santa Cruz Metro bus schedules to Ben Lomond skate park. He highly values his social and physical activity – swimming, flipping, practicing dance moves and chillin’ with the girls. For the first time, Pk introduced me (without prompting) to a few of his friends. In science, he spent a long and active day at the Exploratorium in San Francisco where he witnessed several optical illusions, used centrifugal force to create designs with sand and discovered the relationship between movement and pattern. He also learned how flavors are distilled by using fruits, ginger and vanilla.


We had a conversation about "being a good loser." Pk’s attitude is "never lose." My suggestion was to acknowledge the disappointment and realize how much one values competency in order to move forward, (Non Violent Communication skills)




Week 3

Pk worked on spelling rules numbers three and four. He also wrote the rules out with paper and pencil. He loves puns and read (but discarded) works by Roald Dahl. He began “The Boy who Escaped from Alcatraz Island” by Eve Bunting.

He worked again on the subject and predicate of a sentence and how to modify using adverbs and adjectives that use the 5 senses. Pk completed an assignment on the incorrect use of double negatives

He continued to study Viking life and seems to enjoy the stories in the subject of history. In math, he struggled through
Tang grams. In general, he is resisting math in all forms and seems hopeless about understanding it. I suspect that until he masters the concepts of multiplication and division and has memorized the multiplication tables, we will be unable to move forward. In science, he continued to learn about the science of soda, how carbon dioxide is made by water, acid and bicarbonate of soda to make bubbles in water. . He discovered (but was not too interested in) the Farmer’s almanac and astrology.

Pk went to the first Capture the Flag of the season. In addition to working out 7 (+) hours in the gym, he also uses the trampolines at his friends’ houses. He set up obstacle courses in our house and another outside to push his ability to jump at higher heights and longer distances. He jumps from our garden wall into rolls, 360 spins, back and front flips and other tricks that scare the heck out of me – even with a landing pad.

He continues to enjoy graffiti art using color, line and shape. This was also the beginning of Junior Youth Group at the UU Church in San Jose. Much to his delight, he was “kidnapped” by many of the Senior Youth Group to socialize after church. They are a very active and engaging group of youth.



Week 4

With the beginning of Block I classes, we had much less time for academics at home. We did focus on the multiplication tables quite a bit. I made custom-tailored mazes and pattern finders for him to use. At Pk’s request, I began giving graded tests in spelling and history. He worked on spellings rules 5, 6 and 7.

Pk attended his “Writing with Jenny” class where he was thrilled to not have to do much writing at all. He began the beloved Many Rivers Collective and, in a fiasco of timing, jostled both the Family Tea and Tom’s math class (scheduled at the same time.) He continues to work out and prepare for competition with the gymnastics team. He also continues to push himself by doing flips off the wall with his friends.

Pkcontinues to love to sketch and doodle and practice graffiti style art in his sketch books and had a blast picking out art supplies at Palace Arts. This week he mastered and has been practicing a rhythm that combines chest thumps, snapping and clapping to create a specific beat. Also new this week was the beginning of a back-and-forth journal in the style of the “Freedom Writers” documentary that we saw last year. In the journal we will write to each other but will not discuss what is written so that the written communication can be unique.

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