Joy of reading aloud has been forgotten

We look for the plant here, but not one of our local nurseries carries it. So we decided order some seeds to USA in February.

We sow the 40 seeds as if they were regular seeds (Lesson 1: No all seeds need the same conditions), but after many days (30 days), nothing happened. Suddenly we find five tiny plants emerged (each seed is less of one millimeter), but they die quickly even so I did all the effort to keep them alive.

We were very disappointed, but we keep our goal to have that plant. We started to investigate the plant, read about, and we found out that Venus Fly Trap take five years in develop from seeds to a small plant. Five years is too much time to wait, but there were hope: Micropropagation.

Micropropagation is a technique of plant’s reproduction in-vitro. In Micropropagation we need to give the right environment (sterile environment, rich in nutrients, but free of contamination) to a portion of plant’s tissue (it can be even a single cell), so we can reproduce the plant in controlled condition. If the environment is rich and sterile the plant (a clone of the original plant) can develop faster, in addition you can divided the new plants in exponential manner, producing many (even millions) of new plants in one year. So, we take that road.

We found that Kitchen Culture has already sets for beginners, we ordered one. We also join the Home Tissue Culture Yahoo Group and start to receive good advice and tips from professional and other hobbits. We also order a small specimen in vitro of Venus Fly Trap to propagate it.

We did the experiment; learn the basic technique of micropropagation.

Our first experiment did not succeed: we get contamination. We discover that we need continue studding and practicing.

We order more seeds in April. We decided use half of the seeds for Tissue Culture and the rest to planting in soil, BUT, here come the trick: Venus Fly Trap seeds (and the plants) need special soil and care: Sphagnum Peat Moss (low nutrients, acid soil), sterile material to break of peat, and distilled water. I know I can buy easily distilled water in the pharmacy, I wait a couple week until find Peat Moss (the only sell it in huge bags!), I try different options of sterile material to break the peat (even a geologist friend of us helping to find the right material, he suggested Drill Bead, we tried that), but after looking and looking I found the right stuff: Silica Sand (a 25KB bag!) I just need a cup, but it did not came in small bags).

So we use Tissue Culture for half seed and soil for the rest, but no one of this experiment succeed, probably the seed where old. The rate of succeed has relation with the freshness of the seeds. Again I order more seeds, 12 seeds germinate, so I have 12 tiny baby fly traps (they measure from 1 to 3 millimeters), I took the next pictures with Microscope.

Day 1 (after wait 32 days seeds start to germinate)

Day 7 (this plants show the two cotiledons, the only leave that are not carnivorous)

Day 12 (First trap start to develop)

Day 17 (Two inmature traps)

I am waiting for very fresh seeds that were collected this June to try again with Micropropagation. Now we are even reading about other Carnivorous Plants that we want cultivate in the future.

Two days ago I repot the babies, I got alga contamination, so I am afraid this third try will not succed, but we keep trying….

Hello:

After three weeks of vacation we are ready for a fourth year of Homeschooling starting in July 3rd 2010.

In this fourth school program I will introduce a change in the schedule. We will make the schooling in two sessions: In the morning all the language lessons and in the afternoon we will work the “applied knowledge lesson”, basically science and history. The change in this schedule has to do with the fact that we will start to make the Science and History Notebooks. The notebooks require time and concentration and the use all of the language skills, so a break between the language lessons and those “applied knowledge lessons” will bring a better performance for both of us.

PROGRAM – FOURTH SCHOOL YEAR – GRAMMAR STAGE:

MORINING SESSION (5 days per week, weekend off):

-Dictation: One page in cursive, starting one hour per day (The goal is to copy by dictation one page in 30 minutes for the end of the school year.)
-Octavio’s reading aloud: Staring 15 minutes (The goal is to read 30 minutes each day for the end of the school year.)
-Spelling: Continue with Spelling Power Level D (about 10 minutes per day).
-Composition: Continue with Understanding Writing (about 20 minutes per day)
-Memorization: Selection of poems in English and Spanish.
-Pre-Logic/Mathematics: Mathematical Reasoning Level C, starting in page 136 two pages per day until finish the book, then move to Level D, also finish Building Thinking Skills Level 1 (we cover half of the books the past school year).

While I read aloud to Octavio, he will be working in classical languages:

-Latin: Latina Christiana (Starting with review of Lesson 10 until finish the curse)
-Greek: Elementary Greek Year 2 (Starting with review Lesson 10 until finish the curse, then start the Year 3):
-Hebrew: The First Hebrew Primer (Starting with review Lesson 6 and progressing at our pace)

AFTERNOON SESSION (5 days per week, weekend off):

-History: 30 minutes per day. Continue using Mystery of History Series.

-Science: 30 to 60 minutes per day. We will use Exploring Creation Series for Botany, Zoology, Human Anatomy and Physiology, and Astronomy. Sing and Seasons for Classical Astronomy; Planet Earth and Weather and Water for Earth Science; Thames and Cosmos Laboratory for Chemistry and Janice Van Cleave’s Physic for Every Kid for Physics.

We will take one science topic at the time (rotation sciences as we finish a topic). We will focus in going deep in the topic rather that covers a big amount of topics in a superficial manner. We will start our lessons reading the theory, then proceeding to the experimentation, evaluation of the experiment, conclusions and entry in the notebook. We know that some experiment will take more than one day, especially those that have relation with live subjects, other observation -as the Astronomical- could take several weeks, but as I mentioned, the goal is work science rather that just fill the bucket with random data.

If we cover in the school year main 5 topics of each science, I will feel that we make the goal.

Art and Music (On Free Time):

Bye, for now

Buen trabajo Stefano

También felicitaciones a sus orgullosos padres David y Ana Ruth.

Más videos de la exposición de Pilar Sordo al visitar el sitio de YouTube donde aparece el video.

Hello:

Today we arrived to the end of the Third Year of Homeschooling. Yes! three years already

In the past 180 school days we enjoyed and learned from 37 books, 6530 pages in total. Octavio is reading his first chapter book, The Barrowers.

Next, the list of some of the knowledge and abilities that Octavio (6 Years and 3 Months old) has won in this third school year.

PROGRESS – THIRD SCHOOL YEAR – GRAMMAR STAGE:

- Octavio is doing one page of dictation per day. It is taking him one hour to copy by dictation (in cursive) a full page, but I am seeing improvements in time in the last few days.
- He is memorization the poems by himself.
- As I mentioned before, Octavio is now reading his first chapter book. He is enjoying The Barrowers.
- In Latin he has learn the first and second declension. We are in the Lesson 10 of Latina Christiana. Octavio make by himself (without help) the games in Ludere Latine I.
- In Greek he has learned the Genitive Case, and the endings of all the other cases, continue winning vocabulary.
-In Hebrew he learned the definite article, the words “and” (וְ ), “from” ( מִן ), feminine and masculine’s forms of plurals and the current he is working in the Patternפָּעַל of the Perfect Tense .
-In sciences he is participating in Tissue Culture of Plants and in growing exotic plants as the Dioneae Muscipula (Venus Fly Trap) Venus Fly Trap and the Mimosa Pudica, also we start to work in Chemistry Experiment.

After three years of homeschooling I am starting to develop my own philosophy in the matter, to define more easily which resource work better for us and I am learning to make a more efficient use of the time in homeschooling. Octavio maturity is making the process simpler. Now he makes many activities by his own with less supervision from my part.

As always I want use the opportunity to say thank you special people who share so much valuable information in internet: Laurie Bluedorn – Trivium Pursuit, Don Potter – donpotter.net ( He has a whole new web design with much more information), Fritz Hinrichs – Escondido Tutorial (Monthly Lectures in Classical Education), the friends of Basically Bluedorn Yahoo Group, and the friends of Forum of Classical Christian Education in Spanish.

Now video and pictures of his Third Year Homeschooling’s graduation ceremony (I think he needs a new Toga, maybe for the next year!).

Español:

Hola:

Hoy llegamos al final del tercer año de Educación en Casa. Si, ya son tres años

En los pasados 180 días escolares disfrutamos y aprendimos de 37 libros, 6530 páginas en total. Octavio está leyendo su primer libro por capítulos, The Barrowers.

A continuaciones algunas de las habilidades que Octavio (6 años y 3 meses) ganó en este tercer año de Homeschooling.

PROGRESOS – TERCER AÑO ESCOLAR – ETAPA GRAMATICA:

-Octavio está haciendo una página de dictado al día. Le toma una hora terminar una página completa en letra de carta, pero he visto progresos en el tiempo en los últimos días.
-Esta memorizando los poemas por el mismo.
-Como mencione antes, Octavio está leyendo su primer libro. El está disfrutando The Barrowers.
-En Latín aprendió la primera y segunda declinación. Está en la Lección 10 de Latina Christiana. Octavio esta haciendo por el mismo (sin ayuda) los juegos de Ludere Latine I.
- En Griego Octavio aprendió el Caso Genitivo, y las terminaciones de los otros casos, también continua aprendiendo vocabulario.
- En Hebreo ha aprendido el articulo definido, las palabras “y” (וְ ), “de” ( מִן ), las formas femeninas y masculinas del plural y actualmente estamos trabajando en el Patrónפָּעַל del Tiempo Pasado.
-En ciencias está participando de Cultivo de Tejido en Plantas (Micro-propagación) y cultivando plantas exóticas como la Dioneae Muscipula (La Venus Atrapa-moscas) y la Mimosa Púdica, también empezamos a trabajar en experimentos de química.

Después de tres años de Educación en Casa estoy empezando a desarrollar mi propia filosofía en la metería, a definir mas fácilmente los recursos que funcionan mejor para nosotros y aprendiendo a hacer un uso más eficiente del tiempo de escuela. La madurez de Octavio está ayudando a hace el proceso más fácil. Ahora él hace muchas actividades por sí mismo con menos supervisión de mi parte.

Como siempre quiero aprovechar la oportunidad para agradecer a estas personas especiales que comparten información muy valiosa en la internet: Laurie Bluedorn – Trivium Pursuit, Don Potter – donpotter.net (El Sr. Potter tiene una Nuevo diseno de su página web con muchísima mas información), Fritz Hinrichs – Escondido Tutorial (Lecturas Mensuales en Educación Clásica), las amigas de Basically Bluedorn Yahoo Group, y las amigas del Foro de Educación Clásica Cristiana en Español.

Previo el video de la Tercera Ceremonia de Graduación ( Creo que Octavio ya necesita una nueva toga, quizá para el próximo año!)