Year 4 in Words and Pictures

Year 4 began in June 2011 and ended in December 2011.

Unlike previous years where I begin a new year of learning in June and wait till the following May or June to write a summary of our year, I decided to summarize our 6+ months of Year 4 today, the day after we ended a brief but interesting semester. We seem to have reached a point in our learning journey where it seems much more natural to begin a formal study in January, end in October or November, pursue a relaxed December and begin again the following January. This also means I will be renaming our course of study from Year X to simply 2012 or 2013. Year X is a misnomer anyway. I never liked calling him a 4th grader. And now, I don't want to use Year 4 either. We've homeschooled longer than 4 years and kiddo is by no means in "elementary" school any more. I think it's time to completely break away from the bonds of a school-ish system. I'm feeling liberated and bold and creative right now so after this post, I'll just keep things Gregorian and simple, thank you very much.

Summer of Year 4 began with swimming lessons, and a fantastic trip to Colorado.

At the Garden of the Gods in Co. Springs. Kiddo in orange tee and white hat. Dad in blue shirt and blue hat.

Learning the freestyle in May 2011.
As of Dec 2011, he is working on the breast stroke.
Since the pool is heated, kiddo takes
lessons from this school year-round.

Kiddo discovered Zome Tools in summer.

Fun Play and Projects in Year 4 included building the glider in his Exploration Education kit, making a model airplane from scratch, chemistry experiments with Dad, playing with his bucky balls, and researching how a time machine might work and presenting his research to our homeschool group. We also had a couple of fun architectural field trips, one to a pretty church and another to the Stanford Medical Center.

Exploration Education glider.

Making cool shapes with bucky balls.

Electrolysis experiment.

Kiddo and Dad and friends discovered kayaking too!

For classes and learning resources, kiddo has had most fun with geometry, German and Latin and his weekly Debate class (one that we drive 70+ miles for!). We also love the excellent Lord of the Rings audio books we play in the car on our way to Debate. He has been appointed a team captain for the Debate finals in January and takes great pride in this. :) We've also enjoyed a number of Teaching Company Great Courses these past few months. Special shout out for Impossible: Physics Beyond the Edge and Dr Schumacher's clear, engaging presentation skills (although a number of the concepts are above our ability to understand them, the lectures are very watchable!).

We very strongly recommend the LOTR audiobooks narrated by Rob Inglis and the
Impossible Physics Great Course presented by Dr Benjamin Schumacher.

Our Year 4 Curriculum included:

• Algebra: Structure and Method Book 1 by Mary Dolciani et. al. (Year 3, Jan 2011 to Year 4, Sept 2011)
• Introduction to Number Theory from the Art of Problem Solving (in progress)
• Secrets of Mental Math and the Art and Craft of Mathematical Problem Solving (both Great Courses and both in progress)
• A large number of the geometry resources bookmarked here.
• Geometry by Ray Jurgensen et. al. (in progress)
• Excavating English by Ellen McHenry (Year 4, May to Aug 2011)
• The Lord of the Rings trilogy (primarily via audio) plus misc. classic lit by Mark Twain and Jules Verne.
• German I from OK State University's German Online program (in progress)
• Visual Latin I (in progress)
• Irasshai Japanese I (in progress)
• Exploration Education Advanced Intermediate science kit (in progress -- I'm not sure if we'll ever finish this one, lol)
• Impossible: Physics Beyond the Edge (Great Course) and various physics and quantum physics-themed reading including the Secrets of the Universe series by Paul Fleisher, Mr. Tompkins in Paperback by George Gamow, Alice in Quantumland by Robert Gilmore and Get a Grip on Physics by John Gribbin.
• The Cartoon History of the Universe, and the Modern World series by Larry Gonick and misc. documentaries
• The Lukeion Project's Bizzare Ancient Languages and Alphabets 4-week workshop
• Art History videos linked here.
• Piano Lessons, and Elements of Jazz: From Cakewalks to Fusion (Great Course)
• Debate and Critical Thinking Lessons, and The Art of Public Speaking (Great Course)
• Swimming Lessons