Sarah has been watching, reading about, discussing and reviewing movies. I am thrilled with her progress in writing movie reviews. Look at her first 2 reviews, written 8 months ago, and her most recent reviews (and if you stop by her blog, please leave comments! ) I think her work is much more fully developed, with more evaluative writing versus just summary.

Right now, she doesn’t seem motivated to do anything else. She has lost interest in college and academics in all forms. The Professor and the Radical Unschooler who co-habitate in my brain are having frequent cat-fights about this (and it is not pretty). The Professor insists that this is not acceptable, and no parent with more than five functioning brain cells allows her 15-year-old to go on like this, essentially as a high school drop-out.

Then the Radical Unschooler insists, “read that first paragraph, will you? There is reading, writing, and critical thinking going on. Is it a sin to do that through pursuing your special interest? And WTF were you doing at 15 anyway … it would be another year before you would start thinking about the future and decide to pull up your grades so you could get into college. And what do you really remember about those first few years of high school, anyway?”

“That’s not the point,” the Professor insists and then goes on to point out … Oh, never mind. After a while, The Professor, the Radical Unschooler, and I all have to sit down together and have a very cold glass of white wine. Or maybe two or three.

Last night, she and I watched a thoroughly dark and depressing Irish film called Sweet Sixteen. Today I told her that one of the themes, a boy whose love for his mother drive shim to ruin his life, reminded me strongly of D.H. Lawrence (“The Rocking Horse Winner,” Sons and Lovers).

Meanwhile, James is busy living his life. He has been honing his problem solving skills:

• He’s been playing video games like left for dead and using the internet to research “glitches.”
• He’s been building a new Neverwinter Nights module, and he fixed the problem he had with one of his old modules

He’s been developing art and language abilities:

• Listening to the “Percy Jackson” and “Wolf Brother” books
• He practiced writing and spelling by writing narrative for his module
• He also practiced writing and spelling creating a monster notebook. spent much of the weekend drawing zombies and other monsters, labeling them, and listing their attributes (strength, intelligence, etc.)
• He added a page to his story, “A New Animal’s Life,” for our family writer’s club tonight
• http://laughingstars.homeschooljournal.net/2009/07/03/elmer-elevator-and-elementary-math/

He played and explored the natural world:

• He explored his Granddad’s yard in Greenville and found a juvenile five-lined skink. He took pictures of it and identified it using a field guide.
• Running around and playing
• He had a sleepover with his friend Aengus last night, and he’s gearing up for another sleepover tomorrow.

Right before we left on our weekend trip, she and I finished My Father’s Dragon and explored some math in the story. (reading/literature; math) She’s been drawing and writing constantly, sometimes writing in her own mysterious script (letter-lime marks) and sometimes using standard English. She occasionally asks for help spelling words. She knows her letters, but she doesn’t spell or read yet. (art, writing)

Trishy and I explored Granddad’s yard, and she took loads of pictures. She gathered some leaves and sweet gum balls and we talked about how trees strew seeds and how prickly casings, like the sweet gum balls, stick to animals’ fur and help spread seeds to new locations where they can thrive. (art: photography, science/nature)

Over the weekend, we also played 10 Days in Europe and Ten Days in Asia (strategy, sequencing, geography, map skills, visual & auditory memory). We played Art Memo and we played memory games with the animal/habitat cards I’d made. (visual & auditory memory, science/nature) We also played a deductive reasoning game with the animal cards.

This week we read more stories, played at the park together, and she got her first library card.