trig vanquished,chemistry calling

Well,we are on the final leg of trig now...its been...interesting. We finally solved the mystery of angle 0 -hint;it helps to press the RIGHT button on the calculator! and we are ok with the basics of sin,cos and tan. Chemistry,and we are examining the periodic table,in all its glory. In an attempt to lighten up what appears to be a heavy subject for the Peanut,I downloaded They Might Be Giants album, 'Here comes Science.' For those who havent had the pleasure,its on iTunes.Its awesome. Watch the videos while you are there. (And try not to hate me when you are at work singing the one about photosynthesis,ok?!) Peanut has finished "To kill a mockingbird' which means I now have to read it-fortunately,I can polish that off in an hour,speed reading to the rescue again...We are still working from GCSE maths and english books,and now also mixing GCSE with KS3 science. An hour a day on both science and maths seems to be the way forward,as Peanut will dive into literature quite freely,but is more reticent on any subject which may contain numbers.Tai Chi continues,we are STILL trying to find a class Peanut wants to take,and it looks like Rosetta Stone will be the way forward for french.Too bad they dont do a Finnish one,Im definately a little rusty these days. Looking back on the term so far,we seem to have accomplished a fair bit.Do wish I could get Peanut more excited about history,she loved the WW2 project the first term,but is decidedly less keen on ancient stuff as she puts it. Ah well,social history of 1930s america will have to come into Mockingbird discussions at some point,and she adores the British Museum,so I guess not all old stuff is boring,just the old one teaching it!

trigonometry,how we loathe thee

Well,since our last update we have finally got down to the nuts and bolts of trigonometry itself,SIN,COS and TAN.This is ok. We are slowly getting the hang of this. What is NOT ok is trying to answer a question in which you are not given the angle.We have tried,oh we have.We have studied textbooks,websites and worksheets.We have called everyone we know.STILL the answer eludes us.Ah well. The rest of it is going ok.(although melodramatic proclamations of how trig and I are conspiring to kill the poor,innocent Peanut are fairly common.We have decided that algebra was more fun...and I never thought I would say that...)
In science news,chemistry continues with the anatomy of an atom-say hello protons,neutrons and electrons-and the composition of mixtures,elements and compounds. Today,after the obligatory maths/torture session we are continuing with Peanuts herbal tome. We are about to go and purchase glass bottles and jars,beeswax and raw shea butter to make lotion and balm,and bottle some calendula flowers in oil.
English sees us deep into TKAM,which we will soon begin the joyous task of analysing.
The Peanut if now completing a tai chi segment every day buy one,and we are still walking everywhere,except on 2 days a week,when she catches the train 2 stops to her grandmas house alone.Yes,alone. I take her to the station,see her on the train and then let her go off alone,head stuck in the metro to grandmas,where she is met at the other end by said grandma. I call it gaining independence.Some people seem to think I may as well stake her to the floor,cover her in chocolate and feed her to the predators.Meh. She has a phone,an attitude,and only 2 stops to go. She is savvy enough to know what to say and do in an emergency and I think at 12 this is good life experience.
Not much to report in general news,Peanut still devouring horrible histories and warrior cats and has lately been reading 'the healers handbook' and asking questions about chakras that I am only barely equipped to answer. We are off to the library today to try and find some more answers,Its all a bit new age to me,Im more on the practical side of 'grow it,harvest it,turn it into a tincture/ointment etc,slap it on the affected area and watch it work. Beyond that I think my brain is too firmly rooted in science to start stuff like colour therapy. (Who knew blue could really be depressed?! )

museums,mummys and mockingbirds.

These last few days have consisted of yet more pre-trig in the form of Bearings, (GCSE CGP maths) continued particle work (CGP KS3 Science and GCSE chemistry) and,of course,To Kill a Mockingbird,which the Peanut seems to be rattling through at some speed. Yesterday,growing a little tired of routine-after all,what is the point of home schooling if we sit at home doing exactly what is being done at school?!-we took a trip to the British Museum. My,it has grown since I last went! All in all,it was pretty epic,making it to a close number 2 on Peanuts list of 'Awesome museums.' (Number one is the science museum,in case you were wondering.)The Mummy exhibit was a particular favourite,and I now have so many pictures of dead cats in various states of mummification on my phone I am expecting a visit from the RSPCA any minute. Sadly,we didnt get round to 'romans in Britain',so we are plotting a return visit very soon. One thing I will say however,is that the British Museum has to be without a doubt the most POORLY SIGNPOSTED museum I have EVER been to! The directions on the site tell you how to get to Russell square tube station-which is the bit I had no trouble with anyway-and then once you leave the station you are given one measly signpost,which gets you as far as the square itself,and then you are abandoned to try and figure out which one of the small,identical back roads you are supposed to go down. We found it.Eventually.After 20 minutes of muffled cursing and a twelve year old being the voice of reason to a crabby 32 year old who just wanted to find the museum before it closed,please! At one point we found ourselves on the UEL campus,at least,I think it was UEL-well,at least I can say Ive been 'on campus' now...That aside,a good day was had by all,and after a sleep which possibly qualifies as a coma,we are up and tackling some extra pythagoras questions,and making notes on trig.After this,we will attempt a little light science,after which I will take Peanut to her Dads,go to work,then slog back to his house to pick her up and resume the round trip back home. I will then feed,water and cheerfully shuffle Peanut off to bed before collapsing on the sofa,and commencing a 'day off' which involves several trips to the tip,tesco and town while also fitting in maths,science,tai chi and english with a possible side order of history and cookery. Suddenly,I feel a little tired...

pythagoras and lip balm

...Thats what this week has been about. Oh,and soup/stew and To kill a mockingbird with a dash of tai chi and plenty of particle theory.* Add a small side track to cover the human journey,and repeated rereadings of 'maths is fun' (seemingly actually read for fun by the Peanut...wonders will never cease...) and you have the first week back at school. Its been surprisingly productive,even managing to knock in four subjects on a wednesday,when historically 2 and a bit of lunch are about as far as we get. 'This is it!' I think to myself, 'finally,we are settling in to a routine,and we are getting organised and its all making sense! This is the moment they talk of on home ed websites,that magical minute when it all clicks!' Ahem. Yeah...then we hit the dreaded 'Friday wall'. For those of you who have not read my previous entries,and do not know the Peanut,said child will work more or less happily throughout the week,humouring the senile old fool who gave her life and generally working away without complaint. Then Friday arrives,and at the merest whiff of a weekend,the Peanut develops the temperament of a wasp and the attention span of a heavily concussed goldfish.This may be unfair to goldfish. Today,therefore will consist of finishing pythagoras,and probably some reading time.Also,Tai Chi at Grandmas house.I think that is about all that can reasonably be expected without bloodshed,and after an otherwise surprisingly good start to the term,we shall leave it there.
*For anyone who requires a more official summation,we have studied and completed CGP GCSE maths higher level module on Pythagoras, CGP KS3 chemistry particle theory-with a little GCSE thrown in, created our own lip balm from beeswax,almond and coconut oil with various essential oils-this will go into Peanuts herbalist folder as well as provide a handy example of solid-liquid state for chemistry,and finally created and cooked the kind of soup that throws everything in the fridge into the pot and stirs.Its good. I guess that classes as home ec. The Tai Chi has been done tues,weds and today-thus is the day off.That covers PE,as each segment takes at least half an hour to 40 mins. The Human Journey is a great programme which takes the theory that we are all descended from several families in Africa,then attempts to follow the 'migration' of humanity until it gets to the sprawling mass it is today. It kind of qualifies as history/anthropology.

well well...holidays are over,let learning commence

So,already a month has flown by,bringing with it the annual trip to Newquay for boardmasters-weather so-so,trip in general awesome.The was much reading,many long lie ins and the usual activities one gets up to when not educating the Peanut .I say not educating,I didnt realise how hard it is to switch off...in fact,darned if she didnt start reading the textbooks Id purchased in an effort to keep up with the new year as a boredom buster.Remind me to get the child bored more often...There was also the obligatory trip to Reading festival on the saturday,we saw Madness,Jimmy Eat World and a few others,Peanut all the while lounging comfortably in the pop up chair she bought with the tenner donated by flatmate.We laughed at her purchase until we realised how wet and cold the ground was,then sheepishly admitted she is definately the smart one...
Of course,I shall be testing and taxing this smart one with various diabolical ploys this year.Today is pythagorus as an ease in to trigonometry,followed by some chemistry in the form of acid and alkali worksheets,and chasing it all down with a 'lets make a huge pot of veggie bean and pasta soup cos its too cold for salad,and I am,quite frankly,too poor and lazy to go shopping for anything more interesting.' In other news,we are starting 'To Kill a Mockingbird' this term.Mainly because the thought of having to get into russian politics for 'Animal Farm' was just to depressing to contemplate.