Religion - We continued with our advent calendar and read some more about Jesus as our Exemplar. We read about the leper who was cleansed and came back full of gratitude.
Math - Chicklette did her one page of practice and Xtramath. Racer did Xtramath and then more programming with Khan Academy. He is so close on Xtramath to going on to division.
Physics - We completed our egg drop experiment for gravity. Racer's egg drop carton exploded and he lost his egg, but Chicklette's stayed shut and her egg survived. I'm surprised hers survived because I actually expected both of them to crack. We will review and revise next week and try it again.
Literature - We did grammar and Writing with Ease to get caught up from yesterday. Chicklette is learning a new poem in grammar about the months of the year. She also did a story narration and copywork for Writing with Ease. Racer learned about predicate nominatives and direct objects. His Writing with Ease was dictation.
I also challenged him a lot. I didn't realize it would be such a challenge. His Faith in God program has a requirement to write a poem, story or short play about one of Heavenly Father's creations or a principle of the gospel. Oh, the anguish. He wanted to write a poem about Jesus, but didn't know what to write. I told him I thought a poem would be harder than a story. Then he tells me, quite vociferously, that he doesn't want to write something fake about Jesus and that it wouldn't be respectful. I told him he didn't have to write about Jesus and it was fiction not fake, and it could absolutely be respectful. But, if he felt strongly about it, then he could write about a creation that he appreciated. He didn't know where to start so I started asking him questions, asking him to come up with a main character and a problem or something the character would have to overcome. First he tells me he doesn't want to have a character in the story. That's not going to work, I tell him, you need someone to do the action. But my story isn't going to have any action, he wails. I explain that the action I'm thinking of is not cars racing and superhero action, it's just what happens in the story. I proceeded to make up a story on the spot to illustrate what I mean by character and action and a problem to solve. I can see that he likes the story, but he's still convinced he can't make up his own. Finally, after many tears and saying I can't, I cant, he comes up with . . . something. It starts out as a description of strawberries and moves into a story, kind of, about how he wants to have strawberries in the winter and decides to grow them indoors. It is not a very good story, has no description, but it's a start.
He is very much his father's child because when I told DH what Racer had said and done, DH said, "I don't blame him, it sounds like a stupid assignment."
Somehow, I've got to get this kid writing and access the imagination that he does show occasionally.