Beracá Valley Academy: Royal's Exam

Royal has just completed his 2nd term of Year 3. This go-round I decided to type it up as he spoke because last term I recorded him and never mustered up the energy to go back through it and type it out. This manner of recording seemed to work out quite well. After a little bit of a rough start (mostly me trying to keep up with his speech), we both fell into a groove of him speaking, noticing what I was writing and pausing until I caught up. Now I've got it all ready to print, store for record-keeping, and post!

If you are so inclined, you may read through all of this. If not, no hurt feelings here!

I pretty much took the Exam from the Ambleside Online website, only with a few minor adjustments. We spread this exam over 3 days, about an hour at a time. I know there are a small amount of mistakes in his remembering certain details; however, this is part of finding out what our children are (or are not) remembering. I am usually WAY more impressed with what they *do* remember than what they don't!

Bible

How the Israelites were fed in the Wilderness: One day God since the Israelites had starved, so God put out whatever it was called (manna) and He kept feeding them this for about 7 days. (afterwards I reminded him it was 40 years and not 7 days!)
Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego: One day the king decided to make a statue of himself and said everybody should bow down to it whenever they heard the instruments, but Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego would not do this. So they were brought before the king and he said, "Why have you not bowed down to the statue?" and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego said, "We will not bow down to it because there is only one true God". So the king said, "I will give you one more chance and if you do not bow down to it I will throw you into the furnace", so they heard the instruments but they did not bow down to the statue. So they were thrown into the furnace. The men who had thrown them in had died from the heat. But then the king said to his men, "Didn’t we put three men in the furnace?" His men said, "yes we did, sire". The king said, "Well why do we see four men? And the fourth man looks bright and looks like a god". Then all the of the sudden he was filled with terror for that shining person was Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego's God and so he said, "Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, come out of there!" And so they came out and he said everyone should obey Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego's God for he is the one true God!
The Parable of the Mustard Seed (Mt 13:31-32) & explanation: The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants. It grows branches and birds come and make nests in its branches. … The mustard seed is like the tiny little beginning of something and then it grows into something bigger and it makes you kinder. It’s like growing in God.
The story of the Good Samaritan: One day a man was robbed and was left half dead on the side of the road. Then a priest came by and looked at the man and passed by. Then another man came by and looked at the man and passed by. Then a Samaritan passed by and looked at the man and had pity upon him and so he put him on his mule and took him to an inn and gave the hurt man all his money and some good clothes and sent him on his way.

Writing/Penmanship:

Copy "Edward walked on without making any reply" in print, then in cursive (as much as you remember):

Free Read:

Choose one of the following books we read together this term. Draw a scene from the story & explain.

*Alice in Wonderland

*The Water-Babies

*Mary Poppins

*The Door in the Wall

*The Bears of Blue River: This is after they had made the tree house and the bear had come in and slept with them. On the right Balser is trying to aim at the bear, and under the bear is Tom being attacked. Jim with Tom’s hatchet is whacking violently at the bear.

History

What do you know about Sir Walter Raleigh? One day Queen Elizabeth was walking through the streets and in those days people didn’t take good care of the streets so she was coming upon a huge mud puddle that she would have to cross in her nice shoes. So a guy came up named Sir Walter Raleigh and took off his beautiful coat and put it over the mud puddle so that the queen could cross. After that the queen started to like Sir Walter Raleigh and gave him a high position in the castle. Until one day he did something against the queen and was put in the Tower of London and was put to death.
Tell about how London was burned: One day a fire started in a bakery and spread through London and burned most of the houses to the ground. This was called the Great Fire of London. Many people died and when the workers started to rebuild the houses the fire came too fast so they had to run away from their work and their work was burned to the ground.
Talk about the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe: One day a Scottish colonist from Virginia decided to see what was over those mountains so he took a couple of men and set out on his long journey over the mountains. When he got to the top of the mountains where he could get a good view, he gave each of his men a golden horseshoe so they could remember him and called them the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe.

Math

1. Use < or > : 53 __>__ 37

2. If a trucker drives 231 miles on Friday and 172 miles on Saturday, how much farther did he drive on Friday than on Saturday? _313_ miles. (had to go back and talk through why this is subtraction and not addition)

3. You, Heath and Andrew each have 6 knives. How many do you have altogether? _18_

If you have 12 sticks to whittle, how many will each of you do so everyone whittles the same number of sticks? _4_ sticks each

Tales

Tell about Edward Beverley & King Charles: As the king was walking through the streets with his soldiers behind him and Edward at his side, Edward spotted two young ladies looking out the window at him.And then one of them shouted out, “Edward!” and said it so loud that the king and all his men heard her. And the king said, “Are these your sisters, Edward?” And Edward said, “Yes, they are, Your Majesty.” And the king said, “Well, we’ll have a couple of court beauties, won’t we?”
Tell a story about Davy Crockett: One day while Mr. Miller was asleep, Davy Crockett decided to sneak away to his home because Miller had been so cruel to him. So Davy Crockett traveled for about two years when he finally came to his home and at first he did not tell his name when all of a sudden his sister recognized him and said, “This is my long lost brother!” And his pa said, “How did you get here so fast?” And Davy Crockett said, “Well, I just saw a comet coming by and grabbed it by the tail and it took me here.” … He like to make up stories alot, but his pa never like them. He just frowned.

Map Skills:

Choose to label one of the following maps:

*Great Lakes Region (He pointed and I labeled)

*Oceans & Continents

Geography

Describe the beautiful city of Cambalu: It is a huge mass of land and has beautiful lakes with boats on them. And it has flowers and lots of gold writings and beautiful fields and hills, but centuries later it just crumbled to pieces. And today you will find stone pieces with still some writings on them.
Talk about the Khan's great hunts during the spring months: They hunted geese, cranes, tigers, lions, bears, elephants, hawks. They would hunt with their pet hawks and the Khan, to amuse himself, would let his hawk go attack a crane while getting fish. And they stayed there for about 6 months and then went back to Cathay and in their hunts they stayed in huge tents and the Khan had one big tent with a little tent on the side. They had dogs that would hunt wild boar and while the dogs were attacking the boar, the hunters would come up and spear the boar and kill it.
What causes the change of day and night? When the earth is turned away from the sun it’s dark. (ended up doing a physical demonstration with balls and body spinning)

Composer Study:

Draw a scene from one of the following works & talk about it:

*The Sorcerer's Apprentice

*Hansel & Gretel

*Peter and the Wolf: Peter has gotten out of the house without his grandfather knowing. And in the pond the duck is swimming, and on the branch of a tree there’s Peter’s friend, the bird. And in the background is the woods. And in the front is the gate. And Peter is playing around in the yard.

Natural History & General Science

Tell what you know about hermit crab homes: When it is born, it is as small as a pencil dot. If you put it in a upside down beer cap, it would be like an ocean to a newborn Pagoo. And then it keeps shedding skins until it is big enough to find a shell. It is hard to find a shell sometimes. Many hermit crabs fight over shells. And at one point in a hermit crab's life, it looks just like a crawfish.
What do you know about Tookhees the wood mouse? Tookhees the wood mouse peeks out of its home and checks for danger, then goes back in. And it keeps doing this for a couple of times and then it finally comes out all the way and starts wandering around the woods. It’s predator is fox, bear, bobcat, and mountain lion. And the moment it sees a predator it scurries back to its hiding place. When a wood mouse is swimming across the river, it can get caught in a current and if a trout is hungry enough it will come up and devour the mouse.
Talk about one of the entries in your nature journal: The copperhead grows up to 2 1/2’. It has dark brown spots along its back and the rest is a coppery color. It likes to eat frogs and toads. And you can step on it without knowing because they are very stealthy. They are the least poisonous of the vipers.

Spanish

1. Take me on a tour of the house, telling me what each room is and some things found in each room. (I noticed this was a bit difficult and only got mutterings or one-word tellings)

2. Choose one of the following rooms and tell me what you do here: (These were series we have completed and ended up being a nice narration of actions and vocabulary that were apparently more difficult to recall in the context of a list, as in question #1. Interesting!)

a. the bathroom

b. the bedroom: Me quito la ropa; Me pongo los piyamas; Me meto en la cama; Duermo.

c. the living room

Picture Study:

Choose one of Monet's paintings we studied to describe in detail: Woman with a Parasol

This painting is by Monet. There is a woman. It is Monet’s wife and his son, Jean. And Monet’s wife has a parasol and her son has a sailor suit. And there are flowers and they’re on the top of a hill. And it is a sunny day in France. And his wife is wearing a purple dress and a hat with a flower on it. The sky is blue with white, puffy clouds.