October: Peter

This month Peter was off to a bit of a rocky start when he suffered a concussion while mountain biking on some dirt jumps.  He had a rough 2-3 weeks with a lot of headaches, some nausea, and a hard time concentrating.  Despite all of that, he never ceases to amaze me!  He's extremely persistent and did an amazing job playing catch up once he was feeling up to it.  Here's what he accomplished this month, from what I can remember...

Math:

In Math, Peter has completed all of his Saxon 8/7 lessons through lesson 29.

Here is his most recent lesson:

 Here is Peter's most recent test as well:

As usual, Peter is doing all sorts of extra curricular Math activities as well.  This month we received several Math games in the mail, so all the kids have been really enjoying playing those in their spare time!

Language Arts:

Peter has completed all his Good & the Beautiful Level 6 lessons up to and including lesson 28.  Here is his most recent lesson:

Here is an example of some sentence diagramming from a previous lesson as well:

 Here is one of Peter's recent writing samples from October:

Peter has been continuing to work on his memorization of The Living Christ Document.  He has now memorized the first 5 paragraphs:

Peter has been continuing to read a lot in his spare moments.  Some of the books he's mentioned reading this month are: 

Guinness World Records 2018

Smithsonian books

Nat Geo Almanac 2016-2017

He is also partway through reading The Phantom Tollbooth with his book club, and has made a goal to finish reading the Book of Mormon before the end of the year.  He just finished the book of Mosiah within the Book of Mormon.

Science:

Peter loves science, and has his nose in some kind of science or fact book whenever he gets a chance.  As far as his unit studies go, he's been working on the Plants for Food and Fibre unit.  He's been using review sheets and study guides from Edquest.  Here's a few of the things he's done lately:

Social Studies:

Peter has continued to work on his Social Studies little by little, although the units he's supposed to be studying are not his first choice.  Here is a recent sample of his work his Alberta aligned notebook:

He also does a great deal of geography woven in with his Language Arts, which he finds a lot more interesting.  Here's the pile of world geography flash cards he has mastered so far, as well as some work samples from his Language Arts where he's been spent a good deal of time learning about the Australian Bushland, and is now delving into learning about Europe (Scotland more recently):

Extra Curricular:

Peter and his siblings recently made a goal to earn money to "potentially" get a dog.  First they did a research project to find low shedding dog breeds, as well as responsibilities that would be required and how much the supplies would cost etc.  They have since decided on several ways to make money, including selling baked goods, sewing and selling wheat bags, selling some of their toys and books, and raking leaves.  They have surprised us at how dedicated they could be to their goal and how fast they could work.  In just under a month they are only $25 away from their $300 goal.  Here's a picture of the first yard they raked for pay, as well as some hand warmers and a wheat bag they sewed, and then sold.  They also recently sold a bunch of their gently used costumes leading up to Halloween.  It's been great for them to work together towards a common goal.

Another thing Peter has been spending increasing time on is rebuilding engines with his Dad in their shop class.  He's been learning a lot and having a lot of fun.  He finds it pretty fascinating.

He has also been spending a significant amount of time doing genealogy work on the computer, and has made a weekly service goal to attend the temple every Friday.  He has kept that goal diligently, except for one week when I didn't let him go because of his concussion, but boy did he want to!

I would be amiss if I spent so much time writing about all of Peter's talents and academic achievements without taking a brief moment to mention something so much more spectacular; his amazing heart.  He's a great young man, and every time I turn around it seems he's getting even better.  He's a responsible, loving, giving individual who is constantly looking out for his siblings, as well as his parents.  The last thing he does before he goes to bed every night is heat up his parent's wheat bags and places them under our covers without being asked.  I couldn't ask for a more amazing son.

Here's a glimpse of Peter's fun "snow blower" Halloween costume: