How do I accomplish these lessons?

Math - Students should do every problem in the Practice Set and Problem Set.  Doing a complete lesson each day will keep you on schedule.  If students have a question, encourage them to first reread the chapter before asking you for help.  The Problem Set equations include the chapter number in parenthesis (2) when there is a question.  **Our goal is to teach students how to find answers to their questions by reading and researching.

IEWriting - Each lesson in the Bible Based Writing book has detailed instructions to follow.  For class, be sure to put all the parts in a page protector.  The parts include the keyword outline, a hand written rough draft with dress-ups underlined, the lesson checklist with 2 sets of checks ( student's & parent's), and the final draft.  **The goal of this seminar is to enable students to organize their writing with an outline and use strong, interesting vocabulary within its content.

Geography - The goal is to draw the world from memory, memorize the capitals of each country and geographical terms.  Students can accomplish this one step at a time.  When assigned a region, they should trace that region several times the first day without paying close attention to detail.  The next days should be spent drawing the same region while looking at the original, adding more detail each day.  Towards the end of the time alloted, students should attempt to draw from memory, checking their work and making notes of places missed.  Labeling the maps will be helpful at least once a day.    **Besides conquering the world, our goal is for students to learn how to memorize a subject with the goal of mastery.  !

Latin - Drill, drill, drill those flashcards!  Vocabualry should include memorizing 2 forms of each noun and 4 parts of each verb.  Knowing the parts of speech and how they are used in English is also necessary to be able to identify words within the Latin sentences.  This first year students must memorize all the paradigms (patterns) for each declension and conjugation.  There are no shortcuts to success.  **Why a dead language?  Latin provides a clear, simple formula for learning languages in general.  Once the pattern is understood well, other languages can be inserted and learned more efficiently. 

Science - This is a research and writing course designed to give students a journal of their scientific learning.  Each week's topic should be studied using 2 or more resources.  Using the keyword outline from IEW will provide a system of taking notes.  The notes from each source will then be combined and compiled to form an outline for their own writing.  After a rough draft is reviewed, the final draft, bibliographies, and a detailed sketch should be entered into their sketch notebooks.  The source notes (keyword outlines), combined outline, and rough draft should be coorelated into a page protector for class.  **The goal is for students to accumulate their own written research of subjects through the kingdoms from one-celled organisms to plants, then animals to the human anatomy.

Rhetoric - Topics for conversation are best found in this seminar.  Students are learning how to efficiently use a text by evaluating each chapter of It Couldn't Just Happen.   The first day should consist of an overview of the title, subtitles, picture descriptions, and any graphs.  Writing a sentence predicting what they think the chapter is about is the assignment.  The second day includes reading the chapter in its entirety and putting it away.  On the third day, students should take the time to reread and take notes on each section of the chapter.  I would like their notes to consist of new ideas they would like to discuss in class written in complete sentences.  This will bring to mind their original thoughts while reading and not just agreeing with others' comments.  Save Don't Check Your Brains at the Door for Wednesday to read and answer questions.  Parents should be reading this book ahead of their students in order to prepare for any questions or conversations that may come up.  **Our goal here is twofold.  The first goal is to learn how to use a text efficiently by scanning reading and taking notes.  The second is to stimulate logical thinking on topics that matter such as how we know Creation is true and why we believe God is who the Bible says He is.  The answer "...because the Bible says so..." will be discouraged in our conversations even though that is reason enough for us as believers.  We are preparing this next generation to have intelligent conversation with non-believers, able to argue Evolution using scientific theories that are not true.  Pray that God will use the fruit of this seminar through your student.