Where has the time gone?

It's that time of year again! Actually, it has been for the last two weeks, but life has been busy outside of school, so this is the first chance I've had to sit down and write anything.  Henry is in sixth grade! What the actual heck? I am just as amazed as anyone else, and he's my own kid!

We are doing a few new things this year. Fist, we are studying German with Duolingo. I don't know much German, so I thought it would be something interesting for both of us to learn. He seems to be enjoying it. We usually do one lesson per day, but occasionally, he chooses to do two or three lessons. At this point, we can tell who is a man, woman, boy, girl or child with alacrity. We can also identify bread and water.

The other new thing we are doing this year is writing about One Cool Thing every day. Big Brother #2 bought a book of 6,000 facts that is a great source of new information. One would think that Henry would just open the book and take the first thing he comes to, but no. He reads through several passages before he finds the thing he wants to write about. I wanted to do this as a sneaky was of getting him to write more, but it's also turned into a sneaky way to get him to read more. Hashtag winning! His Big Sister will be going off to college this coming week. Henry will be tasked with texting her his One Cool Thing every day, mostly as a way of allowing him an excuse to keep in touch with her. He is going to miss her so much!

As for the other subjects, we are doing Mathematical Reasoning and Root Words, as we have for the last two years. It's familiar, therefore there are fewer arguments. We are doing nine science units, each a month long, from space (the current one) to dinosaurs, to metals, to nature. We are using a variety of resources for those, and my hope is to get Henry to learn how to take notes. I also hope to have some hands-on projects as we go along. We are continuing with the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Age of Exploration. I want to get into the colonization of the Americas, and the beginnings of the Revolution.

We are reading books that have been made into movies this year, starting with Holes by Louis Sachar. He is eagerly reading the assigned chapters every day, which I consider a minor miracle. I am reading the book along with him, since I have never read this one, and I have seen just a bit of the movie. I freely admit to bribing Henry to read with the enticement of watching a movie, but sometimes these things can't be helped.

We recently added a new puppy to the family, so hopefully, exercising the puppy will lead to more exercise for Henry. Unfortunately playing video games has gotten in the way of running around like an 11 year old boy should.

I am looking forward to seen where the rest of the year takes us. Only 170 more days to go!