Weekly Up date 11/19/21 12th grade update

 MarioFan is plugging along with school and we seem to be hitting a pretty good stride but we are incredibly busy.

For Social Justice we just finished reading the book Stamped and while good and eye opening in some areas it does require looking at it with a very critical eye as it can be very biased is some areas.  We had some excellent discussions about the book and we agree with some things,  we also didn't think some of the arguments were well researched or they were written from a very biased point of view.  As with everything you read these days you must look critically at it and recognized what is well researched and what is not.  Race relations in this country are very divided and while we are making progress we have a long way to go.

Next topic in this class will be voting rights/gerrymandering, which is a very current event in todays world.

For Human geography we are reading and looking at very critically at is Jared Diamond's book Guns, Germs and Steel.  There are some very public and angry critics of the book as well as some very strong defenders of the book.  Chapter 3 seems to be the cause of where most of the angst comes from.  Again we had some great discussions and learn to look very critically at what was in the book and also what the critics were saying.  WE finished up talking about the Anthropocene era and climate change next we are learning about land changes and population changes which we hope to finish up before Christmas.

For Literature we have begun reading the novel Slaughter house five.  

On line physics class is going well, I was out of town for the second physics lab so no pictures to show, hopefully I will catch the next one.

Cybersecurity is at the half way point in finished the online curriculum.  MarioFan is enjoying it and learning quite a bit.  After doing a GIS class with his Dad he wants to investigate this area as a possible career path so I am researching resources that we might be able to use to give MarioFan insight in that career option.  

MarionFan just completed his slide presentation about codes and  plans to explain it to his grandmother when she comes to visit for Thanksgiving!

Spanish is going well.  Recently he sat through a spanish cooking class with a friend of the tutor who was doing a cooking class for college students.  The entire 90 min class was in spanish.  He said he could follow along fairly well. 

the Spanish chef  showed the the students how to make patatas bravas and spanish tortillas and gave all the students the recipe so we may be trying this pretty soon.

Mariofan is loving driving and always wants to drive these days.  I am actually getting better at being in the car with him while he drives.  He is doing highway driving now and loves hitting higher speeds.   He is still meeting up with a driving instructor every other week to assist with learning or fine tuning his driving skills.  

I am taking next week off from blogging as Firedrake is coming home from college and my Mother is arriving to spend the Hollidays with us.  I plan to enjoy some family time and take a break form all things school related.  MarioFan however has a few school days to do before he can take a holiday break.  He decided to work a little now so that he can take a longer break at Christmas!  

Weekly Update 11/12/21-- GIS lesson

Look at this incredible sky!  I just had to take a picture of it.  I love Fall weather

This was take on my way to the gym 6:30 in the morning.  

A few weeks ago my husband taught a lesson for our Human geography class.  We were learning about maps.  Since my Husband works in this field he wanted to do a lesson on GIS mapping.  The boys had fun mapping out the neighborhood and also working on some mapping in Africa. 

Over all the lesson went well and now MarioFan says he wants to investigate GIS further in addition to cyber security as a possible career choice.  We plan on investigating options after his cyber security class which is is halfway done with.

Weekly Update 11/5/21 Home repairs and clearing out the school room

 We are looking to possibly sell our home next year.  Now that the kids are fully grown and I am done with homeschooling the house is too big and we wish to downsize and possibly move out of the area.  I want to move closer to my Mother and my Husband is seriously thinking of retiring.  So we have been looking around the house and getting a few repairs done that we have been putting off

We replaced the deck boards --  we wanted to do this 2  years ago but lumbar was hard to come by.  But luckily we found someone who had a stash of cedar wood and was able to tightening up the railings and make sure the deck was up to code. 

We have been meaning to paint the porch porch for awhile but never had the time. So we finally hired someone to do it for us.  

They did a good job and also painted the railings, the columns and the door .

I have been clearing out the school room and getting rid of so much stuff.  I have held on to things the kids made when they were in elementary grades.  Oh and the books, I have so many books.   

I cleared off my 31/2 book shelves and did everything I could to give them away to other homeschoolers or even public school teachers.  I only had three people come by to sort through the books they took boxes of books away but we still ended up with loads to take the the recycling center.  It broke my heart that I couldn't find someone to take them especially since I was GIVING them away.  

This is all I kept. trust me when I say these book shelves were completely full. Some books I just can't let go of.  I even got rid of all the kids school projects that I have been saving for years.

My husband did think it was a bit ironic that we spent all day clearing out the school room and then this was delivered to the door.  In my defense it is for my Human Geography class that I am teaching :)

My art/science shelf was cleared out and I donated it all to our local co-op art and science teachers.  We literally filled up their car 

Now to schedule painters to come in and paint and fix the many holes in the walls that we have made.  While I am sad to see all my and the kids work gone it does feel good knowing that this phrase of the life is almost over and I am excited to see what comes next, even if we are in the planning stages.