Online Class Completed

This past week Hannah was enrolled in a 5 day long online CurrClick essay writer’s workshop.  She received 5 hours of instruction on the following topics:

Narrowing down a topic

Looking for sources

Creating an outline

Making a Rough draft

Revising and editing

Use of a Thesaurus

Writing a final draft

Creating a Powerpoint presentation

Please keep in mind that I have high expectations for everything.  Sometimes my expectations are too high.  Keeping that in mind, my first impressions of the class were mixed.  I would have liked to have received an outline of the topics that were going to be covered and the homework at the beginning of the course.  Hannah received her homework after each class had ended.  I also thought that she would be writing a 5 paragraph essay as that was the title of the course, but she only wrote about a paragraph which was included in an essay that the instructor put together from all of the students input. 

While taking the course, she did realize that it is imperative for her to finish learning to type.  This was actually one of our goals for this homeschool year.  Most of the students input was through chat.  To get the most out of an online class such as this, one needs to be proficient at typing.  There is no way to get around it. 

I do feel like she benefitted from the course and it has given her a boost of confidence in her writing and researching ability.  We have also decided to set her up her own work area complete with a netbook.  Insha Allah, I hope to sign her up for more online courses.

Celebration of Japanese Art

We had the pleasure of attending a celebration of Japanese art family event at the local art museum.  Yahya is currently taking an intro to Japanese course so he was a bit more familiar than the rest of us about Japanese writing and culture. He observed the art of Aikido demonstration and the Taiko ensemble performance while the rest of us participated in the ongoing activities.  The children made carp kites, gyotaku fish prints, and origami boats. We also had opportunity to watch and examine the work of a calligraphy artist.  I was also very fascinated while listening to the explanation of the art of bonsai.  Finally, we completed a Japanese-inspired art gallery hunt and the child earned a prize.  Overall, it was a great event and I am grateful that we were able to experience it.