Biology

Last February, I bought some text books on eBay. About the time I was expecting them to arrive, my Dad called and asked that we come to help him with his surgery. If you've been reading my blog, you know the rest of that story. Before we could leave for Denver, we had to wait for the mail man. On March 7th, the car was packed, the dogs were leashed, we were ready to walk out the door. In fact, we were out the door, watching down the street for our friendly letter carrier. When he arrived with our books, I tossed them in the school room expecting to look at them when I got home.

When we did get home from Denver, April 3, I didn't even think of the books. I left them sit. In fact, I didn't look at the books until a few days before we started school.

And when I finally opened them up, 7th and 8th grade texts with teacher's manuals and lots of other accompanying stuff, I hated them. Not what I wanted. I think they're great for Thomas to sit and read, because he actually loves to sit and read science text books. However, they weren't what I wanted to teach. Why? They're integrated science, and I that's not how I wanted to focus on our science.

Bob and I sat down and discussed, at the very last minute, what we should do for science. This is the area Thomas excels in. We discussed the typical high school plans for science, biology, chemistry and then physics for 10th, 11th, and 12th grade. We hemmed and hawed and finally decided to follow the same schedule for 7th - 9th grade.

So then we needed to find a text book. It didn't take me long. We chose Power Basis by Walch.

Bob and Thomas started Power Basics Physics--was it last year, or the year before? They liked it, Thomas learn a lot, but they stopped mid-way through because Thomas didn't have the math skills yet. We'll use it in 9th grade instead.

We got the biology stuff last week? I think, but we are going so slow that we haven't had time to start. So tonight Bob took pity on me. Thomas was begging to start biology, and I promised I'd start after dinner. (It helped that the neighborhood kids weren't going to be home tonight!) Bob volunteered. And the boys snuggled up on the floor and read three sections. And then they discussed and discussed and discussed. Thomas tends to ask a lot of science questions that I don't always know the answer to. Luckily, Bob does.



They spent an hour together all cozy.




Thomas is wrapped up in an ugly orange and brown afghan that my mother made when I was younger than he is now. I used to play with that and wrap up in that when I was a kid. No one wanted the afghan, and I couldn't stand for it to be donated, so I took it. To be fair, I don't think the afghan was ugly when she made it, but I barely like orange and I don't like brown, and I don't like them together. lol

Still, it was nice to see my Mom, who has been gone 15 years now, included in school. She would have liked that.

With Bob's help tonight, I can gladly say that we accomplished everything on our school list today. Now only if I could get everything done on my personal to-do list, but that's another story.



Even the cat joined in on their fun.