Happy Presidents Day

As I write this I am cozy in my pj's and am drinking a nice, hot cup of tea. The weekend has been busy but full of fun. It is always nice to have a few days off from school!

We took advantage of this time off and caught the late showing of Arriety, I highly recommend it!! We also spent alot of time as a family, caught up with some friends and just relaxed. I hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend as well and that everyone is nice and rested up for tomorrow.

Cat

End of First Semester of 10th grade

Wow! The time has flown by! We started the school year off a little early this year, thanks to Lisa Way, who allowed Amys classes to be unlocked so she could work before school started. This was done because we, as a family, had made plans to travel to Italy for the month of October. And we did! It was so nice to be able to board the plane in October and not have to worry about any school for the entire month.
We had an amazing time and I know we could not have done this type of trip is Amy was enrolled in a traditional school.
We saw beautiful works of art, ate gelato every day, walked the Spanish Steps and prayed in cathedrals that were around before the Renaissance. Just amazing!!
So now we are into finals week and I have scheduled the classes so much differently this year. Very relaxed, one final per day and just letting Amy get up when she wants to and allowing her to have as much time as needed to complete her work. It is soooo much better.
I know that once the new semester starts this luxury will change a bit, but for now as long as she gets her work done by June I don't mind if she runs a few lessons behine each day. I am so over that "got to have everything in by today" mentality. It just caused way too much stress.
So, I hope everyone is doing well and that your semester has been good. Now that I am back and things have fallen into place I will post more regularly.
Until then,
Happy Learning!
C

Last Day of School

Wow! The year is finally coming to a close. Amy conquered algebra and biology and looks like she will be finishing the year with pretty decent grades. This year took its toll on me, I have two grey hairs to prove it. Looks like this summer I will be learning the joys of haircoloring!
So, let's look at what we learned this year:
1. Time management is definitely important.
2. Look ahead in the planner so Amy can work ahead to cover for test days.
3. Note taking is super important, she is playing with the big boys now!
4. Don't stress. It will get done, maybe not on my schedule or in the fashion that I want, but it will get done. (I have had to give up micromanaging!)
5. Chocolate is very good....caffeine is even better!!
6. The teachers at CA rock!!
7. The friends I have made through this school are amazing and I don't know what I would have done on somedays without them.
8.I have an amazing daughter who I love very much and who surprises me daily, thanks Amy for making this year super interesting!!
9. Never let said daughter near the Diametecous earth. She will make it look like an indoor blizzard and it will take weeks to get rid of.
10. Laugh, do it often. And enjoy life...
Now, onto planning for 10th grade......
Have a great summer!!!
Cat

What happened to March?

Somewhere along the line I lost a month. Maybe I will get it back at the end of the year, right in time for Christmas. But for now I will just pick up in April, which is where we are, right?
The first week of April has been Springlike. A few moody days and then others that are full of sunshine and smiles. Amy is super happy to be done with the point-slope formulas but is dreading each biology lesson because she is learning about worms. All kinds of worms. And bugs. Icky. I made shrimp for their lunch yesterday and it just turned out that she was learning about anthropods that day in biology. So, I used the shrimp that we were cooking to teach her about the segmented bodies, exoskeleton, etc. I don't think she will ever eat shrimp again!!
Well, off to have a cup of tea and learn about tapeworms, ugh...

Time for Margaritaville!!

After my last post on how "wonderful" our life was in lala land a mean spirited fairy waved her evil wand and put a nasty curse on our week. Now I am trying many different spells and potions to eradicate said spell. It seems that the margaritta mix works the best. I think it has something to do with the salt warding off evil algebra spirits. It also makes mommy very happy!! Part of this nasty curse is that I have this uncontrollabe urge to pull out my hair whenever I see the point-slope formula or need to explain the importance of fungi. Come on, seriously?! Do we really need to know how they sexually reproduce? I just want to know which ones are edible, not if they dimmed the lights and played soft music before ending up on my plate.So, when my husband wakes up to go to work tonight he will find his once beautifully tressed wife is now a middle-aged bald woman with a penchant for margarittas. I will slurringly tell him it was our lovely daughters algebra and biology that drove me over the brink.
I need to get more salt.

Update on New Schedule

Wow! What a difference! We are starting our third week of this new schedule and I am amazed at how well Amy is doing. She and I had agreed that the schedule that is posted on our whiteboard would be followed each day. We both agreed that if we were still in our pj's at 9:00, when classes start, that we would have to stay in our pj's until classes ended. There were other agreements as well, such as lunch breaks, PE, etc.
So, the first week she tested out the schedule and me as well to see if the boundaries were in place. One morning she stayed in her pj's and when 9:00 rolled around I reminded her of our agreement and she stayed in her pj's until her first break. She then chose to use her free time to shower and get dressed. The second test came a day later. She was invited to a soccer game after school and was super excited about it. Well, 9:00 rolled around again and even though she was dressed, she was still upstairs in her room listening to her music. So, when she sauntered down at 9:30 I reminded her of our agreement again and asked if she wanted to work later and miss her soccer game or work through part of her lunch. She was amazed that I was being this strict, but I think she was also really glad that I was not caving. So she worked through her lunch and was a happy camper.
Her grades are improving in Biology and Algebra and she just seems more content.
I was talking to my husband about it and he said that he needed alot of boundaries when he was a teen and that he loved schedules. So maybe she takes after her dad. I hate shedules. But I am finding that they are a wonderful tool to use!

Direct Variation

This is for a couple of people who have asked about Direct Variation.
One thing that helped Amy was to remember that in the formula y=kx the k is the constant of variation. So if you have y=2x the constant would be 2.
Here is an example of one of the problems to find the constant.

8x+2y=0
First move the 8x to the right side, since you are moving it to the right side it becomes a negative.

2y=0-8x
Now you need to isolate the y by dividing the 2y by 2. Remember whatever you do the right you have to do to the left so you need to divide the 8x by two as well.

2y/2=0-8x/2

Now you are left with y=0-4x
Since the zero added to the -4x does not change it's value you now have
y=-4x
this is a direct variation because it follows the formula y=kx the -4 is the k in the formula.

I hope that helps a little, it is a really confusing concept!
More later!