MAME School of Schoolery

... Did you forget about us?

2010-10-18T20:08:00.003-04:00

You may not have forgotten about us, but we surley forgot about you! Yeah, so this hasn't been written on in a LONG time (Unless it has and I just didn't pay attention)
SO! Northstar and homeschooling are going pretty good. I've met a lot of awesome people. I think a great thing about NS is that you're not separated by age groups, so I have a lot of friends from all over the spectrum. So I can be all mature with people, then... not so mature with other people.
ALSO! I'm learning ASL and spanish right now. It's pretty awesome. I'm catching on quick (With ASL, not so much Spanish) But that's okay!
I don't feel like writing anything anymore...

~Abbey

Chapter 4 is HISTORY!

2009-12-18T12:05:00.002-05:00

That's right. We did it!!! AEM and I are going to Twilight tonight. And I am going to enjoy it. I am not too proud to admit it.

AEM will be finishing up the homework today and tomorrow, and taking the test when she gets back, but we got through the whole chapter on graphing linear equations. The next chapter is cleverly... MORE linear equations. They are diabolical.

Peace,
CAM

Chapter 3 is history!

2009-12-14T17:02:00.000-05:00

AEM took her chapter 3 math test yesterday. Tonight we start the Chapter 4 CHALLENGE! Since it is a short chapter on graphing, our goal will be to blast through the chapter in ONE WEEK! Chapter 3 took 2 months, so.... This is a biggie. If we succeed, we will go to the movies and watch a terrible teen film AEM has been bugging me about for a month. (I also secretly want to see it, so.... well you know how it goes.). If we complete this quest, we will be back on track for when she is back from Canadia. We have stepped up math from 1 night to 2 a week, so that we can have a prayer of finishing the book by the end of the school year. It is challenging and AEM, while good at Math, I am sure would be happy to never do it again. The good part about what we are working on is that it is the kind of math you use every day. When we get to graphing parabolas I am going to have less of a leg to stand on. We have been slacking on our sociology and will have to catch that up in January. I am hoping to finish reading the book over the break. Also, TEAM will be working on history more vigorously in the spring as well.

Regarding French night... We have abandoned it. It was fun, but it is so not going to be a regular thing. AEM has joined a Spanish class at Northstar. Thank goodness for Northstar! She is also taking a kabillion classes there and working a lot on her film projects. Anyone have an extra external hard drive they want to send our way so she has a place to store all her movie parts?

Muah!
CAM

Thanksgiving Learning Hours

2009-11-30T09:42:00.001-05:00

We got some in over the holiday. AEM has been working dilligently on some art projects and we are trying to get through another chapter of math before they have their winter break in Canadia. Deep breaths! We had a great holiday and are eating lots of turkey soup!

Catching up!

2009-11-09T19:46:00.002-05:00

Sorry for getting so behind...

Here is what we have been up to:
AEM took her first math test and kicked some butt. We are now on to solving algebraic equations. We are also making our way through the Racist Mind at a pretty good pace.

The cheer leading teacher may be fired soon for suggesting that Abbey should do 500 jumping jacks at cheer leading practice. He doesn't remember that Kubb is all about activity you can do while holding a beverage in one hand.

AEM started work on a painting, but hasn't had a chance to finish it yet. She has been taking lots of classes at Northstar and getting a lot out of it. We have had the opportunity to enjoy some of her rough cut videos from school.... We are looking forward to when they are more than random and long clips of teenagers being weird. She got a new laptop and we are working on getting her editing software to work.

French Night 2

2009-10-20T10:22:00.002-04:00

French night was great this week! We had it on Saturday instead of Friday with french style risotto, lots of veggies, and of course, bread and cheese, with a light apple tart for dessert - no more butter catastrophes! Thanks to zebra for the cookbooks. We did okay with the french speaking, but not great. We have come to the conclusion that we are going to need to go outside the family for french help. AEM and I are going to investigate classes for her, and she is also considering switching to Spanish. I guess there is some kind of class at Northstar on it. AEM is taking her first math test this week, and we will be going over that on Wednesday night. Then we need to get cracking on the next chapter because we have been slow in the last couple of weeks. She is also getting some math exposure in the math group at NS. The kids are going to NYC this weekend to see their grandparents - maybe we can get some education hours, AEM will have to be attentive to that!

Peace,
CAM

AEM is on the Northstar blog this week

2009-10-19T10:41:00.001-04:00

Balsa planes!

http://northstarteens.org/blog/2009/10/14/it-snowed-this-morning.html

We hate the homeless-ness problem!

2009-09-30T09:37:00.003-04:00

Thank you Captain Hammer!

Anyway - AEM and CAM are doing a walk for homelessness prevention in Western MA with the organization Construct, Inc on October 18th in Great Barrington. The organization is closely tied to the church I am now serving. If you would like to donate towards our walk, we would welcome it. You can give via paypal at www.constructinc.org, or you can email me and I can add you to our paper list. Actually, either way you should let me know so I can put it down on our sheet if you made an online donation. Also, I recommend checking out their site just because they do a lot of work in western MA on a very little amount of money.

Thank you all so much for reading our stuff. It makes us feel much less lame.

Love,
the MAME School of Schoolery.

Home Economics

2009-09-28T18:57:00.003-04:00

We made a couch. (or as Lisa calls it, a cooch... um. Yeah.)

It involved a trip to Lowe's and a staple gun. We made a sweet back for the couch.

Pics from Corn Maze

2009-09-28T18:54:00.003-04:00

We learned about logic, physical education, and astronomy. Also patience.

Pics from September French Night - Bonjour!

2009-09-28T18:50:00.005-04:00

Week Three

2009-09-24T11:33:00.003-04:00

Our loyal reader reminded me that we need to catch this baby up! So here is the update. AEM was home sick last week, but we did have French night on Friday and got through our history work (Thank you T-money!). On Saturday we went to a corn maze and saw that thing in the sky that was either aliens or a weather satellite being launched. Does a corn maze count as instructional time? There is logic... Hmm... We will have to think about that.

Anyway, FRENCH NIGHT. Holy crap.

T-Money and AEM made French onion soup that was delicious. I stopped at the boozery and there was liquor in EVERYTHING (not to worry, the alcohol was all baked or cooked out) but holy moses, there was so much butter. We cut it in half or more from what Julia recommends, but still. The next morning I felt like there was a ball of evil in my stomach. Oh, and the dessert! AEM and I made this crepe thing that involved layering the kind of crepes you would use for stuffing (with yeast) with apple stuff (like what would go in an apple pie - but with brandy) and almonds. Then you put sugar over the top, bake it like a cake, then you pull it out, pour brandy over it again and set it on fire. Since in our lease we can't even have candles, we forwent the flambe and cooked the brandy way down with a little more sugar and poured it over the top instead. It was delicious! But from now on we may only have one french dish on french night. A friend also suggested that we explore the culinary stylings of the Mediterranean parts of France, which is an excellent suggestion that we will explore for next month. This month we watched Amelie, next month Beauty and the Beast - black and white from the 1940s, I think.

Last night, we had our first algebra class and finished 7 sections of chapter one in our book. We are that cool. Well really, AEM had had most of the concepts in 8th grade, but still, it felt great. Next week we will be cruising into chapter two, and then the distributive property. I am all giddy with excitement. I just love algebra.

This weekend we are going for a hike and will do some natural science work. All those years of Audubon Camp are really going to come in handy!

Second day down!

2009-09-11T17:47:00.002-04:00

2hrs. and 2 classes today!

End of Week One

2009-09-11T10:35:00.003-04:00

AEM and SAM went to Northstar for their first classes yesterday. By all reports they had a great time and are looking forward to continuing with those classes. A had dance class last night and is going to keep going with that class (yay instruction hours!) They are back at NS today, A is at 2 more classes and S is at 2 (I think?), including Rock Band. Nice! Next week, once the text book is here, we start Algebra over (The week at our local high school was not so much...), sociology basics, and our first chapter in Howard Zinn. Yes, we are using Zinn. What else would we use? Also next week - our first French night! I am very much looking forward to that. A has her beret all picked out.

Instructional Hours Completed (a/o 4pm today): 41h and 10 min
Hours left to enjoy: 858h and 50m

The Student

2009-09-09T21:28:00.002-04:00

Today was a great first day! It was picture day and I went to the alternate education school where I will be spending SOME of my learning time.

But the best part is that I tried out for a lot of teams and got on them. I also joined many clubs. I'm on the cheerleading team, the soccer team, the kubb team and Matheletes! The I joined the year book commmittee, the salsa club and the competetive dish washer team. Looks like this is going to be a good year!

I like most of the staff there, I just don't understand why the music teacher is also a janitor. He's a very...busy man. Then there's the guidance counsler who sometimes doesn't come out from under the couch for days. It's weird. But other than that, they all seem nice. Wait... there's one more thing. I just realized half of the staff are cats.

Ahh Sh*t.

First Day

2009-09-09T21:04:00.004-04:00

Today was the student(s) first day at the other school where they will be doing some book learning in additon to the MAME School of Schoolery. They will be at the super sweet North Star Learning Center for Teens. We start our studies in earnest next week, but have logged a good chunk of hours so far, including teaching how to "make" this blog.

Hours completed: 30 hours and 10 min
Hours left to enjoy: 869 hours and 50 min

The Founding

2009-09-09T20:34:00.000-04:00

We now embark on the journey of the MAME school of schoolery. We are homeschooling and we are going to do it with style.