Yanuell and I got to know each other. I asked him what his interests are and how he likes school. We then took a walk through of the Studies Weekly website. I gave him his username and password. He knows how he is able to earn coins/points by completing assignments and answering questions. There are 36 different topics/weeks in the course but we will not have time to go through them all. I will pick which topics I feel are the most beneficial to his learning. We began the first week's lesson on geography learning about Earth. He did a great job answering questions on the article we read.

Yanuell will need a notebook (any kind) for this class to take notes and complete assignments.

Today, Danny and I read about different types of communities - urban, suburban, and rural. He is such a delight to work with, and I am so excited to have him as a student this year!

As the 7th grade curriculum for this subject includes geography, in order to continue assessing where Charlie's interests lie, I shared with Charlie a book on the creation of America's national parks, and briefly discussed where in the country the national parks were located and why they were created. We will study geography later in the term. In the interim, we continued a discussion of the functions of government as whole, and the concept of federalism. Charlie has a good aptitude for the concept, but the terminology-federalism- was new. We read portions of the text charting the functions of state and local governments, and began a discussion distinguishing a direct democracy from a representative democracy. We are working out of the textbook "Civics and Economics", and I anticipate assigning reading and some written assignments from the book on a regular basis to be followed by a review in class the following day of the assigned material. However, there was no homework assigned today.

For our introductory session, Charlie and I discussed the extent of his prior study of American government, Colonial history , and geography. As Charlie was conversant in a number of these areas, we began instruction in the structure of American government and the responsibilities vs the legal obligations inherent in US citizenship. Charlie was quite astute in quickly identifying the paying of taxes as a legal obligation. We then discussed how military service was once considered a legal obligation-at least during wartime- and how and why this obligation was modified by use of a volunteer army. We then discussed the other levels of government-state and local-identifying jury service as a legal obligation to the State of Florida. No homework was assigned. Charlie was given a notebook ,and each day he will be keeping notes of our class discussions and classwork .

Charlie was being tested today.

Arianna and I looked at a map of the U.S. and discussed capital cities. We continued working on the "Just the Ticket" project. Arianna worked on her map. We looked at "Time for Kids" and discussed landforms. We reviewed notes from yesterday about how a bill becomes a law.

Charlie and I will read two articles about the Chernobyl disaster, one from a witness perspective and the other about the animal population. I will ask questions about the material that he read and then we will move to a video about the event.
We will use the remaining portion of the session to watch the following:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojSIrED1xEk

Craig and I finished our book today! It was a great ending. Again, it referenced many governmental and geographical concepts. We also learned about the strange deaths of both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams on the same day - and it was July 4th, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. We read the Epilogue and parts of the Afterward. We agree, a good book!

We discussed the overall class sessions and format. Charlie asked for information about the history of comedy. We reviewed the early history of Charlie Chaplin and watched a brief video of his work. Monty Python's comedy series was also viewed and discussed. This is our last class and I am pleased to have had this time with Charlie.

Today we began with a Me on the Map activity. This flip book helps Danny relate to his location on the map by examining his home address, state, country, and world (Earth). We wrote in the information and discussed. Danny colored several pieces of the project. We wrapped up our landforms project as well today by discussing and writing about valley and canyon. We explored pictures of the Grand Canyon. We completed the islands page in his Geography textbook looking at life and travel around islands. Danny was able to identify the correct picture by named landform or body of water 10/11. Next, we read through a Florida Studies Weekly packet about Earth. We reviewed many of the landforms and bodies of water. We looked at the seven continents. We colored them to match a key along with watching the Brain Pop Jr. video about continents and oceans. We cut the continents out and then placed them to create our own map. We enjoyed a fun video for kids about reading maps. We were introduced to the map key and learned the symbols they use. We completed a map key activity in his Geography textbook to practice using a map key.