The girls had their cousins with them, so we went a bit off topic and discussed literature and other various topics.

We used the notes the girls took and discussed how to create the workable thesis and develop topics to then target the details in order to form the support for a three and five paragraph essay to be written as a rough draft for the weekend.

Jared and I reviewed a way to write an essay comparing authors from different historical eras. We looked at both similarities and differences in themes and styles.

Adrianna had brought her notes taken at art museum and we all discussed how we would construct an outline for an essay with the free writing she had done on her painting. After perusing the essential observations of the painting, we clustered ideas, and worked on the development of the supporting paragraphs and discerned the different topics they would fall under. We then discussed thesis development taken from her most outstanding theme in her reaction to the painting and questioned the artist's motivations for the painting that would also aid in thesis development. The girls were extremely receptive and intuitive in ideas and construction of the essay. We also covered dangling modifiers and misplaced modifiers and practiced exercises from the pronoun packet for subsequent quiz.

Jared read several of Whitman's poems to learn about early industrialization, democracy, and free verse writing. We also reviewed 25 common, serious mistakes involving grammar and punctuation, and practiced a few so as to write correctly.

The girls and I finished the pronoun packet practicing adjectives and adverbs. They then took the quiz and we reviewed. They both did fabulously well on the tests receiving 97%'s!

We had an excellent final session in Jared's Earth and Space Science Course. After quizzing Jared on a variety of topics, I gave him free rein to ask questions on any outstanding subjects we hadn't yet covered. We discussed the latest findings on the structure of the Earth's inner core (new research had just been published on this matter, one that greatly interests Jared); the Pauli exclusion principle (how electrons fill energy levels in atoms) and the structure of white dwarfs, and how in some white dwarfs the carbon is so tightly packed there might be diamond material; we also touched upon relativity again, and black holes - a perennial favorite of Jared's. We also discussed the all-important scientific method, and the implications for understanding margins of error, and trends, and the importance of understanding the statistical significance of experimental results.

It's been a real pleasure teaching Jared these past few months. His curiosity is insatiable, and his ability to retain and process the information given to him in a rational and methodical manner should serve him well in the future in all subjects.

We reviewed the homework on pronoun agreement and reference. We also reviewed the homework on subject/verb agreement in preparation for quiz. We then discussed writing an introduction to the essay using "Giving up Baby." We then reviewed the outlines the girls did at home they created from the three essays.

We reviewed the reading comprehension questions to "Giving Up Baby" packet. These questions covered the proper use of transitions, how to recognize thesis statements, previews, and noting different organizational tools. We then did a modifier review to prepare for quizzes on adjectives, adverbs, and subject/verb agreement.

The plan was to review Jared's comparison of writing between Thoreau and Stephen King, but Jared was ill today.