Inspired to Write

During a recent visit with a friend, Austin was inspired to write a prologue to accompany her brilliant fantasy story. She offered him her iPad, and he busily typed away for about 30-45 minutes.

Today, Austin and I worked together on a first revision of his writing. Halfway through this exercise, Austin wanted to stop - revision seems to be quite the opposite of inspiring!

Here are the first two drafts of Austin's prologue:

Austin's Story prologue.

1. First draft

It was night in terraplenta but in this part it was always dark

This part of terraplenta was called the black mountains

The reason it is called the blackmountins is the inhabitants here are dragons

.These are no ordinary dragons that breath fire and horde treasure no

These dragons brethe darkness a darkness that can even consume the soul

 one day in the nere by village of

Ignea little did the dragon know that the village was preparing to driVe them

from the black mountains . The dragons awoke with a start at first they

Thought it was visitors coming early after all the black mountains are the only

Safe haven for dragons. When they saw what had cosed the commotion

They were startled to see a army from ignea the closest fairy village they

Were cot off garde the dragons fled with the chief taiking up the rear

The chief stoped suddenly as he herd the ditresed call of his offspring

He rushes back to the den only to find them dead and his mate had suffered

the same fate they fled the black mountains as they got further away the

Black mountains That he called there kingdom vanish from sight.that night the

chief made a Vow to destroy the ones who killed his family.

2. Second draft (focus on spelling and punctuation)

It was night in Terraplenta, but in this part it was always dark. This part of Terraplenta was called the Black Mountains.

The reason it is called the Black Mountains is the inhabitants here are dragons. 

These are no ordinary dragons that breathe fire and horde treasure. 

These dragons breathe darkness, a darkness that can even consume the soul.

One day, in the nearby village of Ignea, little did the dragons know that the village 

was preparing to drive them from the Black Mountains. The dragons awoke with a start. At first, they thought it was visitors coming early. After all, the Black Mountains are the only safe haven for dragons. When they saw what had caused the commotion, they were startled to see an army from Ignea, the closest fairy village. They were caught off guard. The dragons fled with the chief taking up the rear. The chief stopped suddenly as he heard the distressed call of his offspring.

He rushed back to the den only to find them dead and his mate had suffered

the same fate. They fled the Black Mountains. As they got further away, the

Black Mountains that he called their kingdom, vanish from sight. That night, the chief made a Vow to destroy the ones who killed his family.

Swimming and Life-saving

Austin completed and received a certificate for Bronze Star, last month. This course is a pre-requisite for the life-saving course, Bronze Medallion, which Austin is eager to take next month. He enjoyed the group os students who completed Bronze Star with him. They ranged in age from 13-15, with most of the group over 13. Austin is looking forward to learning with that group, again. He is very motivated to become a lifeguard at his earliest opportunity. He has to be at least 16 years old.

In that course, he learned basic CPR and practiced saving a drowning person, even while wearing clothes.

September 12-22, Austin has been taking I Can Swim 4 on M/T/W/Th for 30 minutes per day, 5:00-5:30. He is getting private lessons, because noone else signed up for the course.

Austin's instructor, Hessam, told me that Austin takes instruction very well and he was impressed by Austin's mature response to the question, "What is your favourite stroke?" Austin responded, "The breaststroke, but that's most likely because it's the one I'm best at. I should probably practice other strokes to get better at them, too."

Austin told me that Hessam is getting Austin to work on improving his endurance. Austin has been getting good daily exercise, hiking in the hills around our home, as we walk little brothers to their respective schools.

Khan Academy mathematics

I like the learning tree on the Khan website. Austin is very motivated to earn points and badges. The site colours subjects in orange, if it's time for Austin to refresh what he has learned. Then, he can return to that subject and answer questions to demonstrate that he has remembered what he learned.

Austin spends most of his time with the Khan Academy, working independently. However, I worked with him on angles last week. We watched the video, "The Angle Game," together, and he intuitively was able to solve for the missing angles. Before Salman told us that two lines were parallel, Austin assumed that they were, so was able to identify corresponding angles and solve for supplementary ones. He was very quick with these exercises, clearly enjoying the work.

The blue colour indicates that Austin is proficient in the subject, green indicates the subject is suggested, and orange is selected for review.

Cosmology and Astronomy

Austin has been learning about cosmology and astronomy on the Khan Academy website.

The green-coloured font of the video title indicates that Austin has watched that movie. Since Austin has an enduring interest in this subject, he has already been exposed to many of these topics.

His own library card

Austin got his own library card last Friday. For the first three months, he can have up to ten items out at a time. After three months, he can sign out as many as 100 items!

This library card has given Austin a little more personal freedom and he likes to walk/skateboard up to the library on his own.

A few days ago, he took out books 7 and 9 of the Ranger's Apprentice series. He has already read books 1-6 and book 8.

Lego Explosion

Now that's more like it ...

Austin has been busy setting up his "projects." Now, I think he feels more at home in his room.

We have an agreement for him to keep the floor clear.

Cooking Tacos

One of Austin's favourite meals is tacos. He likes to be the cook who seasons the beef. It's neat to watch him at work, testing and tasting, sprinkling in a little more of this and that. He uses garlic, chili powder, paprika, cayenne, oregano, cumin, seasoning salt and pepper. He says that he prefers to use as little water as possible, because he doesn't want to water down the flavour, but Skye explained that the water helps the flavours to blend and be enriched, so I think he's had a change of heart.

Building his loft bed

We've been slowly moving back into the upstairs of our home these past two weeks.

Austin undertook to build his own loft bed. He worked from instructions on the Ikea website, located all the necessary hardware, and assembled the bed primarily on his own. Skye or I had to hold some pieces in place while he screwed in the bolts.

I think he was pleased with the result.

Austin's Learning Plan - September 2011

Austin and I spent a bit of time this afternoon sketching out some ideas for his learning plan to get this "year" started. Click the image to see the full size version.

A1's Learning Plan - Captured using a Bamboo tablet and stylus

One of the big shifts from previous years is that he has a strong interest in pursuing an academic topic. He has decided to "go deep" in learning as much as he can about Chemistry. To support this he is also brushing up on his math skills and our friend Iain MacKenzie who is a research chemist now working at UBC TRIUMF has offered to show him around and provide some mentoring.