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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Another great year

I am grateful for the opportunity I have had this past year to teach two classes at our Commonwealth School. I can't believe they are already finished. Time truly does fly when one is having fun!

In the fall I taught a class entitled Sword of Freedom. It is a continuation of the class I taught last year (Key of Liberty). Last year the kids studied the founding of our wonderful country and development of our amazing Constitution. In Sword of Freedom we focused on the Civil War: the first great test of our nation and the constitution. I was amazed to learn that the Civil War was not about slavery, at least not in the beginning. It was a fight about States' rights (why wasn't I taught that in school?). The southern states did not want the Federal Government telling them what to do (hmm...sound familiar...history really does repeat itself). I have to say that I am glad that our country was able to stay united, but I can really appreciate the sentiments of those southern states and their desire to remain free from so much governmental control.

This spring I taught Pyramid Project. This is the coolest math and science class ever! During this class we learned the seven habits of a scientist and how to use our scriptures as our main math and science text. It is amazing how much math is in the scriptures. My favorite is Rev. 16:21- "And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent..." Can you imagine a hail stone weighing a talent? No...what is a talent you ask? Well it was a unit of measurement weighing 75 pounds! - OUCH! (puts a whole different picture in your head, doesn't it!) It is so much fun to read the original works of great scientists and mathematicians. And the coolest thing - it really isn't that hard. After reading Einstein's theories in his own words, who would ever want to read a boring textbook again?

It has been a great year! As usual I have learned way more than my students. Although, I do have amazing students and with all this knowledge at their age, I can't wait to see what they will accomplish - watch out world!

3 comments:

  1. Yes, the world better watch out, even if I wasn't your student. Muahahahahahaha!

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  2. Awesome! I want to start a Commonwealth School here...but then...who would come? Not too many people understand TJEd principles enough to value the classes.

    I'm sure you are an awesome mentor!

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  3. Celeste, you should do them anyway. I did last year. I just sent out an announcement to the homeschool groups in the area that I was doing Key of Liberty - explained what the class was about and invited people to join. I had 6 students - only 2 were TJED and it was awesome. I involved the parents and we had so much fun. By the end of the year, they were ready to do more. "build it and they will come" :-)

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