This year Elijah's main focus again was on Linguistics. He spent the vast majority of the year immersed in the world of languages, writing systems, and phonetics.
Language Arts:
Elijah reads online articles on a regular basis for information and pleasure. He enjoys writing emails, grocery lists, and determining phonologies and pronominal morphologies using Lexilogos.com. He is adept at finding information via online wikis, Internet and Google searches, encyclopedias, and the library catalogue. This year Elijah continue to focus on linguistics, constructed languages, writing systems, and foreign languages. He was mentored by both armchair and professional linguists via online conversations on the web forum Reddit.
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| E reading to his sibling. |
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| E reading to his sibling. |
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| E reviewing commas and "its" vs "it's" |
Mathematics:
Elijah continued to practice and gain skills in addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, and measurements by exploring calculator and number tricks, calculating area for building Minecraft creations, assisting with creating grocery lists and budgets, figuring maths problems in his head, working maths and logic puzzles, and following recipes. Elijah and his family play tabletop games involving maths and strategy and web series videos by Khan Academy and Vi Hart are watched frequently.
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| E reviewing some problems using the Pythagorean Theorem |
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| E playtesting a virtual reality chemistry game for Schell Games. |
Science and Technology:
Elijah enjoys Science Fridays on NPR, as well as other science related web series/podcasts. He also really enjoys hands on science projects with immediate results such as, Snap Circuits, working with magnets, and bases/acids forming reactions. A frequent favourite past time for Elijah (and family) is falling down a rabbit hole of animal taxonomy. Elijah is quite competent in computer literacy. He is able to navigate the Internet, social media, conduct online research, use a word processor, and navigate Apple iOS, Android OS, Ubuntu Linux, and Mac OS X enough to satisfy his computing needs.
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| E used paper and a pinhole to watch the solar eclipse and used the back camera on a cellphone to take pictures of it. |
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| E took the California Achievement Test (per the PA Home Ed Law) and scored above average in all areas |
Social Studies:
As a family we continue to have discussions about current events in politics such as, equal rights for the Queer & POC communities, feminism, and racial politics concerning institutional racism. We also discussed democracy, anarchism, and other forms of government, the Civil Rights movements, civil disobedience, and the importance of voting in local and national elections. We always listen to NPR in the car and discuss the current topics in science and politics while commuting. Elijah has been exposed to general world history while learning about the history and evolution of different languages and writing systems in various countries. This year we also spent some time reading up on the Pennsylvania state symbols, including the contentious history of the Pennsylvania Long Gun, which might actually be the Kentucky Long Gun or in fact the American Long Rifle!
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| E teaching his sibling some notes on the piano. |
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| E got glasses this year after several years of denying he needed them and can literally see things from a whole new perspective now! |
Health, Safety, and Physical Education:
We covered fire safety for our home, especially concerning the pilot lights on our older gas range. Elijah knows how to exit the house and use his cellphone to call 911, his parents, and his parents' friends in the event of a fire or other emergency. We also revisited safely navigating the Internet and social media. We continue to keep an open, healthy, and honest dialogue with Elijah concerning drugs, alcohol, general hygiene, personal care, sexuality, and sex. Elijah has also learned a fair amount about human development and childcare while helping to care for his toddler sibling in general and while his mum recovers from a broken femur. Elijah walks, dances, engages in unstructured play outdoors, and enjoys swimming whenever he can.
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| E with his guitar, hamming it up. |
Fine Arts:
Elijah enjoys listening to a variety of music via YouTube, the radio, and our personal family collection, including the music that his father writes and produces. Elijah utilises computer software, iOS applications, and gaming software to create music for his video game designs and for pleasure. He also uses MuseScore to compose his own arrangements of songs from video games and other sources. Elijah was gifted a guitar this year and has been casually learning to play.
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| Snapshot of E's arrangement of "Gourmet Race" from Kirby Superstar. |
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| Snapshot of E's arrangement of "Inkwell Isle" from Cuphead. |
