Special Needs Child
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Time for an update on T.J.’s studies. We had some breaks for the Christmas holidays, and also took about two weeks off in early March due to the birth of T.J.’s newest cousin. Otther than that things have largely been uneventful.

Mathematics: Deductive logic and lengthy forays into applied statistical analysis.
English: Moving through American Literature sparked a real passion for hard-boiled detective fiction. Our exploration of what I term ‘Gumshoe Lit 101′ is focused on the works of Robert Parker, John D. MacDonald and Ed McBain. Parker is the most heavily represented as T.J. and I have both read over 20 of his books in the past 4 months.
Humanities: T.J. continues to play guitar and feels comfortable with acoustic and electric versions of same. We have also made a brief survey of world religions and may return to that study at a later date.
Social Studies: We have completed our Economics unit and had a series of shorter topics since then. Among them are:

• discussion of American social mores and their changes over time, including same-sex marriage, the rise of divorce, etc
• the drug war and the rise of methamphetamine abuse
• the problem of global warming and what would be most effective to slow it

General Science: Several of our Social Studies topics above were so enmeshed with scientific study as to render a distinction between the two basically meaningless. All other science study has remained learner-led.

Of note: After scoring a 31 on the English portion of the ACT (97th percentile), practice has continued. T.J. plans to take the Science and Reading portions next.

Future Plans: Continued ACT preparation, summer employment, possible community college enrollment (part-time) in the fall.

An article on college students who were homeschooled in the Oklahoma Daily, OU’s campus newspaper.

Of note:

• Experts say homeschoolers are thriving in college because the homeschool environment mimics college, with more emphasis on independent study and time management.
• Many institutions of higher education, including Stanford University, are actively recruiting homeschooled students because they score better on college entrance exams.

Good article! It’s pretty short, go read the whole thing.

I thought I should give a general recap of the last two months, since we are on a two months ‘on’ (focused on learning new material) and one month ‘off’ (review, application of material learned and analysis of future study) cycle.

Geometry: T.J. decided that he would prefer to postpone a study of geometry in favor of a study of formal logic.
English: We have covered several short works in depth.

• ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Gilman and ‘The Story of an Hour’ by Chopin and an analysis of pre-feminist thought, the feminist movement, and our post-feminist world
• ‘The Kugelmass Episode’ by Allen and ‘Happy Endings’ by Atwood and discussion of the differences between meta-fiction and other unusual literary forms.

Also reading Travels with Charley by Steinbeck.
Humanities: The short stories in English sparked interest in the films of Woody Allen and Mike Nichols. T.J. watched ‘Annie Hall’ and ‘The Graduate’ and we have discussed both in depth. Of note also is an interest and exploration of the folk, gospel and blues influences in the music of Bob Dylan and other modern singer/songwriters.
Economics: Reading Eat the Rich by O’Rourke, discussion of each chapter as completed.
Logic: A Concise Introduction To Logic by Hurley. Working through methodically, chapters 1-3 completed. (This was begun mid-cycle)
General Science: This subject is almost entirely self-led as T.J. avidly seeks to broaden his scientific knowledge and understanding without any external influence. However, I do take credit for telling him what is coming up next on NOVA, if I think he might like it.

Future Plans: We will be focusing more and more on the ACT and preparing for it, and continuing most of the above study as well.

Today, I evilly sprung part of the ACT on T.J. He was not expecting it (and you know it’s usual to take college entrance exams as pop quizzes, ha ha) but he responded with aplomb, as usual. We have the only guide with three complete, actual ACT tests and he took (timed, no less) the English portion of one of those.

He did GREAT.

He got a 31.

That’s 97th percentile. He scored 16 on both subtests (95th percentile for Usage and Mechanics, 98th [wow!] percentile for Rhetorical Skills.)

Not too shabby for a tenth grader anyone at all! (Especially since most people at least know when they’re taking the darn test!) We’ll do Science next, after we finish going over the English.

Yay T.J., you rock.

One of T.J.’s goals is to really fustigate the ACT. To that end, The Real ACT Prep Guide: The Only Official Prep Guide from the Makers of the ACT will be whizzing our way soon. I tellya, when Amazon is cheap they’re really cheap. Even paying for shipping (I have sworn to never again go with the Free Super Saver Get It In Two Months Or Less Maybe Shipping) it was still a good three dollars less than it would be locally.

T.J. had a cold today so we didn’t meet. But I got our new logic textbook in the post, yay!

I bet it’s nice for him to miss ’school’ because he’s actually sick, and not just sick of school.

If it’s ever nice to be sick, anyway. Get well soon T.J.!

College Algebra tutorial

That looks great!

T.J. read “The Story of an Hour”, by Kate Chopin for lit today. (Here it is, in its entirety, if you’d like to read it. It’s short, about a thousand words, and I think you’ll find it interesting.) It sparked a discussion of historical feminism vs. modern feminism vs. contemporary feminism.

Then, while talking about hybrid seaweed and parrot intelligence, of all things, we had a minor foray into comparing the bureaucracy structure of our government to the bureaucracy structure of various European governments and he’ll be reading the World’s Best Economics Overview, Eat the Rich, by P.J. O’Rourke in response to that.

homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/explore/geometry.htm has some really great geometry links.