SGS Fall Catalog

Last week Dagfari decided we should make a course catalog for Stratford Grammar School. With a few notable exceptions, the classes are of his design.

Here's what we came up with:

Stratford Grammar School
Fall 2007 course list

Art
Drawing and Painting 101. Students will learn basic techniques of drawing and painting and will also do special projects. Offsite location: Sawtooth Center.

Nature Photography 102. Students will learn basic techniques of nature photography with a digital camera. Includes field trips.

Computer Science
Keyboarding 101. Introduction to basic keyboarding. By the end of the class, student should be able to type with all ten fingers.

Web Page Design. Create a personal web page using Dreamweaver.

English
English Lit 101. Survey of literature in English, beginning with Beowulf and other Anglo-Saxon poetry, through Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Student will be expected to do daily reading assignments and write weekly short essays.

Modern Children’s Literature. Student will read and discuss a series of modern works of literature for children.

Foreign Languages
Intermediate Albanian. Continuation of Introductory Albanian, taught by native speaker. Student will learn the basics of oral and written Albanian and experience Albanian culture.

Introductory Latin. Introduction to classical Latin language and grammar.

History
World History 101. History of the world from prehistoric times until whenever. Student will write and produce a documentary.

Barbarian Europe. Study of indigenous European peoples from prehistory through the fall of the Roman Empire.

Home Economics
Cooking 101. Introduction to basic cooking techniques. Student will learn to make green and fruit salads, scrambled eggs, and a variety of sandwiches.

Mathematics
Mathematics 4A. Continuation of Mathematics 3B. Student will learn and practice a variety of mathematical concepts, while whining and protesting loudly. Student will be expected to have mastered multiplication tables 1-11 by the end of the class.

Architecture 101. Student will practice building structures with Legos.

Music
Music Appreciation. Student will listen to a music from a variety of classical composers and discuss the historical influences and qualities of each.

Piano Lessons 101. Student will begin study of piano.

Philosophy and Religion
World Mythologies. 2 semester course. Historical survey of mythology and its influence on human thought. Student will begin research on topic of choice, on which he will write a term paper during the spring semester

Physical Education
Bicycling. Weekly biking trips, including field trip to New River Trail in Virginia.

Swimming. Recreational swimming at Wake Forest pool.

Psychology
Introduction to Cognitive Science. Study of how humans develop thought processes and acquire language. (Course dependent on instructor’s ability to brush up on Noam Chomsky, Stephen Pinker, et al. May have to be postponed until Spring semester.)

Science
Animal Husbandry. Student will learn about animal care and behavior through interaction with guinea pigs and cats. Occasional dogsitting also involved.

Robotics 101. Student will build mechanical stuff with Legos and other kits.

Darwin and Evolution. Study of life and work of Charles Darwin, including the impact of evolutionary theory on modern thought. Probably a 2 semester course.

Theater
Introduction to Theater. Students will learn basic acting and playbuilding techniques. Offsite locations: High Point Regional Theater, Little Theater of Winston-Salem.

Shakespeare in Performance. Student will study Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, and will make a field trip to see a performance at the American Shakespeare Theatre in Staunton, Va.

Writing and Rhetoric
Creative Writing 201. Continuation of Golden Paper Clip Award series. Student will work on weekly story or chapter of creative writing of choice.

Fall Happenings

I've fallen behind on blogging-- and on most other things, for that matter. This is typical of September, which tends to be quite busy for those of us in academia. By October, things have usually settled down into a routine.

This seems to be true of our homeschooling venture too. Our kid-minders are all working out well, and various classes are underway. Dagfari goes to work with ProfDad on Tuesdays and Thursdays, even though his homeschool drama class in High Point was canceled due to lack of enrollment. He's going to a class on Saturday mornings now, which he likes for the most part, even though they're not doing Shakespeare. Art class starts this Thursday afternoon. And on Fridays D is with his Albanian "Nona", learning unusual language skills (I'm told he has an excellent Albanian accent!).

Dagfari is still loving the homeschool thing and doesn't miss school a bit. We've been very unstructured for the past few weeks (mostly out of necessity), which D has enjoyed. He has learned to ride the spiffy new bike that he got for his birthday in April. And he's gotten into Lego in a big way, which is a new thing for him. He's also made progress in his typing tutorial , taken lots of pictures of the guinea pigs, and finished the new Spiderwick book. D has actually requested that we get a bit more structured in our study of literature, mythology, and history, so we're working on that. Karen Armstrong's A Short History of Myth is proving to be right up his alley, so we're using that as a jumping-off point.

We've also had time for some not-so-educational activities, like the Dixie Classic Fair! The guys liked the funhouse, as you can see.

We met up with the secular homeschoolers group again last Friday afternoon. There are a bunch of boys ages 8-11, and Dagfari had a good time. The only problem is that D appears to be the only 9-year-old boy in the universe who has no interest in video games. This was an issue at school too. Maybe somewhere out there is another boy who can't partake in a discussion of Halo 3?

Field Trip: Chicago

We just got back from a stay in Chicago. I attended the Society of American Archivists annual conference (more interesting than it sounds!). Dagfari and ProfDad spent two days at the Field Museum and the Shedd Aquarium, which D loved. Especially the Field Museum. There were special exhibits on Charles Darwin, the Maori of NZ, and new dinosaur discoveries. I now need to find a good kid book on Darwin/evolution for our science "curriculum", since that's what D seems most interested in.

We also spent quality time with D's aunt, uncle, and dog cousin, and we attended a RenFaire with the whole family. D is now planning a RenFaire for our backyard. This has been his major project since we returned. He's also writing a graphic novel, starring his guinea pigs and stuffed animals.

We're definitely unschooling this week, since ProfDad and I are dealing with the beginning of semester craziness. I'm also on the programming committee for the BookMarks book festival http://www.bookmarksbookfestival.org , which takes place this Saturday.

Muppets and Museums

Well, Dagfari is pretty much over the fascination with workbooks and to-do lists. I figured it wouldn't last long, and frankly, I'm a bit relieved. I mean, if he wanted to math problems and analogies and books reports all day, there was no reason for us to overhaul our lives in order to homeschool him.

For the past week and a half, D's time has been devoted to watching Season 2 of The Muppet Show (got the DVD set cheap at Costco), and turning the upstairs into an art museum. He's back into drawing, and even painting, which he hasn't done much of for a while. And he even unearthed the bin of plastic dinosaurs, which haven't seen the light of day in about five years (the dino era came to an abrupt end when we started reading Harry Potter, the week after D's 5th birthday!). He's spent a good bit of this week watching his old favorite video, Walking With Dinosaurs, and setting up dino exhibits. I figure this counts as science.

We also survived two visits to the dentist, the first a checkup, the second a cavity filling. D wasn't thrilled, but he was 100% more tolerant than last time we attempted the dentist (which, was, ahem, nearly four years ago). Nitrous oxide was a bad idea, though. It seemed to have the same effect on D that it does on me-- increases anxiety, rather than the reverse.

In critter news... we have acquired two more guinea pigs, Fred and George. These came from a person on the local homeschool list, who needed a home for her two female guinea pigs. Thinking that Robin and Percy might like to have girlfriends, and maybe eventually father a few baby pigs, I volunteered to give these pigs a home. D tentatively named them Petunia and Lily... until a look at their back ends necessitated a name change. Robin and Percy were not at all happy with the idea of two much bigger roommates, so Fred and George now have their own cage, and half of our kitchen is now a pig farm. D finds this all very amusing and thinks we should now get four female pigs. I'm not sure I'm ready for quite that much of a biology lesson.

And here I worried that science was going to be the weak point for our homeschooling!

Pictures of Summer

Summer 2007: Dagfari discovers that the diving board is fun!

More photos on the flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7332078@N02/

It's Official

We received our little orange card from the NC Dept. of Non-Public Education last week, which means that Stratford School is officially open for business.

I was assuming that we'd just continue on with unstructured summer vacation until after Labor Day. But Dagfari was eager to start "doing homeschool" last week, since all his summer camps are done. So we devised a daily list of stuff for him to do-- a bunch of reading, a page from a couple of math/logic and analogy workbooks that I'd picked up, some Minimus Latin, etc. Our "unschooling" is looking pretty schooly at the moment, but this is entirely at D's insistence. I guess this is what happens when two geeky academic types reproduce-- you get a kid who learns Latin for fun.

D is also heavily involved in a project of filming Shakespeare plays using his many stuffed animals as actors. You haven't lived until you've seen Marc Antony played by a stuffed sheep! I think we'll soon need some video editing software, which I know nothing about. Any suggestions are welcome.

ProfDad and I are gearing up for the start of the fall semester and trying to stay cool in the east-coast heat wave. We're hoping D's enthusiasm for the homeschooling project continues next week, when college classes start and the new schedule is put to the test.

Back to School

Dagfari attended the last of his weeklong summer camps last week. Fifteen kids and one incredibly patient teacher came up with a screenplay of sorts and filmed a movie on school grounds. The result was entertaining, as one might expect, and D had a great time.

(The photo above is D at the Borders Harry Potter party. He's dressed as Nearly Headless Nick.)

Now summer camp is over, August is here, and ProfessorDad and I are headed into the always-busy beginning of another academic year. It's going to be strange not having D headed back to school too. But our homeschool curriculum is starting to take shape.

ProfDad ordered a laptop for D to use, so that we won't have to fight for computer time at home. I've ordered Singapore Math materials. This will probably be our only "canned" curriculum, and I chose it because it seemed to have the least bells and whistles of any ones I've seen recommended. D's school used Chicago Math, and he hated all the games and group activities. This is typical of D-- hates the things teachers do to make school "fun" (I was the same way as a kid). Must be darned annoying for the teachers.

We're also going to get some keyboarding software (again, he doesn't want any games!), so that he can learn to do his own typing.

I guess D and I will probably come up with a reading list of some sort. He's been very interested in myths, folktales, and fairy tales, and he wants to do a research paper on the Grimm brothers. I found a nice bio of them by Donald Hettinga, who was a very young English professor when I was an undergrad at Calvin. ProfDad might do a history study of Napoleonic Europe to complement this.

We also learned about some homeschool drama classes starting up in September, so we'll sign D up for a couple of those, and maybe an art class too. When it gets less hot outside, I'm hoping to take another stab at getting D on the dreaded bicycle. This should count as P.E.!

This should keep us quite busy, I think. The next thing we have to address is recruiting college students to look after D while I'm at work and ProfDad is teaching. Homeschooling with two working parents is apparently a very unusual concept. When I tell people we're homeschooling next year, most of them immediately ask if I'm quitting my job! But I think it will work out, and will even be beneficial to D, if he gets to spend time with some interesting people.