The End of the Year Recap

As you all know, in four days is Christmas and tomorrow school for my town will be done. This half of the school year has been interesting. I started off by doing Vocabulary, Logic, Writing, Science, Math, Reading, History etc. Lately we have had some changes. We started a new subject Geography, and we finished logic. We also stopped doing writing since we were doing Nanowrimo.

At school school, I did Technology and Orchestra. After the first trimester, I just did Orchestra. In the first trimester, I did cross country which improved my stamina. Now as a winter sport, I’m playing basketball. Our basketball team is 4-1.

Frankly, I think that the school year has been great. I have worked hard to get my work and I got a good beginning of the trimester.

This trimester I liked Vocabulary for its fun words. I liked History for its interesting subjects like the Black Death and China's Song Dynasty.

The Boy’s King Arthur

            I just finished up the book The Boy’s King Arthur.  The author is Sidney Lanier. Now this book is the easier version of Le Morte D'Arthur, which is French for "the death of Arthur". In the bigger book, it goes into more detail. In my book, it touches on the main stories of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.  Here is a list of 10 qualities knights in the 1200s would have.

^·          Brave

^·          Help maidens

^·          Help the poor

^·          Do quests

^·          Be kind

^·          To be a knight known for his niceness

^·          To not be rude

^·          To be strong

^·          To destroy enemies

^·          To hail to the king

Knights in the 1200’s and “knights” nowadays might have some things in common, like
they both should defeat enemies. Something else that they have in common is they should
be brave.

Though many things in my list are the same, there are some differences.  Modern-day
"knights" do not always make it a duty to help women, but knights of the 1200’s made
sure that if a maiden called unto them that they were there and ready to help. Also
“knights” of today don’t take the pain. If they are hurt, they get out of battle and get
healed. Knights in the 1200s were expected to take the pain like a man. 

 Seven qualities of a modern day knights are…

^·          Brave

^·          Help people in need

^·          To destroy enemies

^·          To be kind

^·          To have an education

^·          To stay together and work as a team

^·          To get along

My Learning Environment

            My learning environment is best at home at the table or on the couch. Both are without music. Now I like the table because it is big and this allows me to put all my stuff on the table. (Although sometimes my parents get mad at me for not cleaning up my stuff. I then have to put it away.) I also like to read on the couch. See I have books that are assigned to me and I like to read at the couch because the story is somehow easier to read. It also relaxes me.

            Some of the stuff that I like to do, but should not are listening to music and dilly-dally. I like to listen to music because it is fun, but sometimes the songs get in my way of learning especially when I am reading. Perhaps it is not a good idea to read and listen to songs. I also like to dilly-dally a lot. If I just got done with a subject that took 45 minutes, then I will just play with the cat or read a book for 5- 10 minutes. I know that I should not do it, but I say to myself that I can and I just cannot help myself. I will try to stop listening to music and try to stop dilly-dallying.

My Favorite Subject

It is true that I have a lot of subjects. But my favorite is Vocabulary. Vocabulary is as you might know a time for learning new words. Every other Monday, I write my new vocabulary words. Some new words that I learn that I already know are 'agent' and 'cope'. But then there are words that I have never heard of like 'impunity' and 'bias'. I also have to do some exercises. They are things to help me out on my words. They might include stuff like this.

            1. Which of these can abate?

            A. Wind          C. Car

            B. A Kitty       D. A fire

            2. Christmas: presents: 4^th of July: ______

            3. Mail Truck: Mail: _____: garbage

            On Wednesday, I read a story and fill in questions about it. The story includes all the vocabulary words that I used on Monday. On the next Monday, I do Lincs tables. Lincs are basically writing my vocabulary words and a reminding word. Then I write a short short short story that has to include the remaining words and that word’s vocabulary definition. Now the point of Lincs tables is to sort of learn the vocabulary and it is kind of like a test.

            Vocabulary is my favorite subject because it is interesting to learn new words. It is also cool to use them in my daily language. In fact, one of my words last week was 'lax', meaning that things were not strictly enforced. And at our middle school, you can take tests on books, but it is lax.  When my mom and I were talking about this yesterday, it was a perfect time to use that word.