Week 7

Language Arts: I studied some photographs of New England forests. I read some more of Just David. I brainstormed some ideas for my insight paper that I will start working on next week.

Math: I learned some beginning geometry concepts. I was introduced to the proof of how you know an equilateral triangle is actually equilateral. Its based on circles and the rules/definition of what a radius is.

Science: I learned about velocity. I calculated velocity with some different variables.

History: I read about the early explorers, including Christopher Columbus. I also learned about the Conquistadores, including Hernan Cortes.

Welding: I learned about and practiced lap joints. I also learned about practiced T joints. These are a couple of the five basic welding joints.

Sports Conditioning: We did weight lifting. We also played frisbee. I had a game for my Vinaka League. We also had practice. I went to open gym twice this week.

Drone: Canvas class

Equilateral (aka dumb, haha) triangle 

Week 6

Language Arts: I did some proofreading practice, focusing on apostrophes and correct use of a/an. I read some poems and prose by Ralph Waldo Emerson and discussed the themes with my mom. I read a biographical sketch of Emerson as well. His dad died when he was only 8, leaving his mom with 8 children.

Math: I did a lesson on What is Algebra: Basic Algebra Rules. The Other lesson was Word Problems and simplifying algebraic expressions.

Science: I went over mass and inertia. Inertia is the tendency of objects to remain stationary or in motion unless acted upon by a force. Mass is the amount of stuff that an object is made of. I did an experiment with my racer and a penny on top. When the racer stopped, the penny flew off because of inertia. This was compared to a person driving in a car without a seatbelt--the car might stop suddenly and the person would keep going. Not good!

History: I learned about the slave trade. The growing and harvesting of sugar was really hard work and at first Native Americans were forced to work on the plantations. But many of them died from disease and overwork, so the Spanish and Portuguese needed another source of labor and started using slaves. When the English were setting up tobacco plantations, they wanted slaves to do the work. By the 1700s, every colony in the Americas imported slaves from Africa.

Welding: I finished my name plate. I passed off the side by side welding technique, but I can’t remember the technical name of that right now.

Sports Conditioning: This week we just played basketball for sports conditioning. It is kind of annoying because I ended up with a group of boys who aren’t really interested in practicing, mostly just goofing off. I also had a basketball game this week with my Vinaka team. We didn't win but I did make a 3 point shot in the game so that was nice.

Drone: Canvas class

My mom had some leftover dry ice so I 

decided to do this bubble experiment I'd 

seen on the internet. It took so many tries to get it to work. 

The bubble kept popping right at the end when I would try 

and seal it to the other side. 

Completed Drone

Week 5

Language Arts: I read more in Just David. I reviewed different parts of speech. I also did some sentence diagramming.

Math: I did Lesson 4: Ratios Part 1, Lesson 5: Ratio Part II, and Lesson 6: Ratio Part III. The lessons discussed scaling as well as analogies, comparing numbers and other things that aren’t numbers to things that share some similarities.

Science: I did an experiment where I got two saim size pieces of paper and crumpled one up. I dropped them and observed how the crumpled one fell faster. I learned about friction and how key it is to so many events/occurrences in the world. Sometimes it is useful and other times we try to overcome it.

History: I didn’t have a chance to do history this week. I did join in on my siblings’ lesson on Hammurabi, though. He had 282 laws written down and carved in pillars around his empire.

Welding: We actually got to do more welding this week. We did practice welds

Sports Conditioning: We lifted weights. We did cardio. I had two days at the high school this week. I also attended open gym on Tuesday and Thursday. I had my Vinaka league basketball practice on Wednesday. Fall League started this week but we had a bye week so no game.

Drone: Canvas class.

Week 4

Language Arts: In “Just David” I read about how David’s dad was very sick and they needed to move into town so they could get treatment for him. I reviewed the new vocabulary and wrote out the definitions. 

Math: Lessons went over the different types of numbers such as real, rational, irrational, integers, whole, natural. Went over the different rules of addition/subtraction (commutative, etc). 

Science: I built a glider out of balsa wood. I went over the different forces that act on the glider, such as gravity, drag/friction from the air, original force of the throw. 

History: Read about early America before Columbus. Also about Columbus’s voyages and the creation of early maps as the world was explored. Learned about the invention of the compass. 

Welding: Did a test for MIG welding safety. I had a bunch of issues logging into the high school canvas system so that was frustrating. We finally got it to work though. 

Drone: I did take my drone out for some practice flights. It is nice and stable to fly. I will try and get back on Canvas next week to start the instruction. 

Sports Conditioning: We lifted weights. We did cardio. I also practiced a lot of basketball shots.

Hanging out with my cat