Week 3 In Review-Fall Field Trips

This week, the weather went back and forth from rainy and cold, to sunny and pleasant, and it seems our moods followed suit.  Motivation was low for schoolwork, and when it was attempted, our brains seemed foggy and forgetful; not much was accomplished.  It was a good thing we had some distractions planned; it helped to just get out and be social!

Monday

What can I say, it was Monday.  We did some stuff and moved on.

Tuesday

  Everyone was crabby and in a snit.  The best thing we squeezed out of the day was listening to another chapter of The Lord of The Rings. Oh, and I picked some of our late season Prairie Spy apples.

Wednesday

We were up and out of the house early to see a play at the near-by Festival Theater with friends.  We were excited to find out that the Festival was putting on Ichabod Crane and The Headless Horseman this year, as the boys had all read Washington Irving this past spring.  

This particular production, featuring a combined cast of youth and professional guest artists, begins as a live radio play set in 1946, and is upended when its young audience intervenes, turning the tables on the broadcast and taking the commonly tragic ending into their own hands.

It was cleverly done, had great moments of both suspense and comic humor, and retained much of the original wording and language of the story. 
  
Some of our home school friends were in this one, too! And don't you just love this set? So cool and spooky.  Perfect for this time of year!

Thursday

Thursday was cancelled due to lethargy.  

Actually, William worked on a still life painting of one of our Prairie Spy apples, so not all was lost!

Friday

A perfect fall day...sunny and crisp!  While the older boys, along with some of their buddies, opted to do some raking for an elderly neighbor, Charlie and I visited an orchard with friends.  

We hiked the wooded trail,

enjoyed a warming fire,

and of course tasted many apples and enjoyed fresh-pressed cider.

He wears a bow tie now. Bow ties are cool.

Pressing a delicious blend of Honey Crisp and Haralson apples.

Today, Saturday, it is back to rain and cold.  The older boys are participating in Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) today with the Boy Scouts, and will be camping out tonight.  The low for the evening will be 31F.  Brrr.  I think they love it though!  As for me, I'll be enjoying a warm house and doing some planning for next week.  Hope your week was good!

Week 2 in Review

A pretty no-nonsense week around here, continuing with the usual subjects of math, language arts, science and history.

The older boys took their first vocab quiz for Lord of the Rings chapters 1-3, and did well.   We've been alternating days of listening to a chapter, and then using the next day for discussion and vocabulary review at lunch time.  This has worked well so far, and everyone is enjoying it all.  

 I added in World Religions for the older boys this week, too. I plan on getting to this subject a few times a month, when we can slip it in.  We started with a lesson on Creation Myths that can be found at World History for Us All, Big Era 1, Landscape Unit 1.1 Scroll to the bottom for a link to the lesson, or, a direct link to the PDF lesson is here.  We had some interesting discussions on this topic.

Ben is continuing to work on his amateur radio antenna tuner project, as well as reading Around the World in 80 days.  

Charlie and I finished up reading Ribsy together, and enjoyed it very much.  A simple, sweet story.  Now we're on to Knight's Castle by Edward Eager.  Meatier vocabulary and writing, and quite humorous so far!

Charlie's biosphere project from last week is working out nicely; plants are growing and thriving.  

This week for Charlie's science, we read about Mars, and next week we'll do a lab to make rust, the substance that gives Mars its orange-red color.

I choose an art project from That Artist Woman for Charlie that  used thinned acrylic paint in warm colors, and featured a leafless tree created by blowing paint along the page for fun branching effects.  

Will and I did the first 2 lessons from Unit 1 of Artistic Pursuits grades 6-8 book 1; learning to use space.  We did some quick sketches of an elephant chasing his attendant, at full size and then half-size.  The idea of the lesson was to become comfortable with fitting your subject into a given space.

Will's sketch

my sketch

Well, that's the highlights for this week.  I'm glad it's Friday!  Looking forward to a relaxing weekend!

New School Year-Our First Week In Review

We added in more school subjects this week, and officially declared Monkey Island Academy open for the 2013-2014 school year. 

We started our week out with the obligatory and traditional school cones, filled with cocoas, treats, music and art supplies. 

We also took advantage of a beautiful sunny afternoon to go on a short hike and do some apple tasting at one of our local orchards.

This week Ben began his history studies with History Odyssey Modern Times level 2.  He's reading Around the World in 80 Days and doing map work and research into places traveled.  He likes the story thus far.

No formal science at home for Ben this year.  We are concentrating on math instead.  He is however perpetually involved in an electronics project and so I can't exactly say he isn't doing any scientific or technical thinking on a daily basis!  Currently he is programing an amateur radio antenna tuner interface with his Arduino microcontroller. 

Ben is also taking another class at the local high school this year, Principles of Engineering, and thus far is enjoying it.

No formal science for Will this year, either.  He'll just be reading through Joy Hakim's The Story of Science: Newton at the Center.  He began that this week and gives it a thumbs up.

In the language arts department: Will and Charlie are both using Spelling Power again this year, and this week we just did the placement tests.  I hope to start Writing With Skill with William in the coming weeks as well.  Charlie is learning cursive with Zaner Bloser, and has started Writing with Ease for copy work and narration. 

In science, Charlie is continuing with Real Science Odyssey: Earth and Space.  This week he read about planet Earth (You may have heard of it) from an Usborne Encyclopedia and created a tabletop biosphere to represent the perfect conditions for life we have here on Earth.  He planted a small plant in his biosphere as well as adding some grass seeds which we will monitor for growth over the coming days.

We also managed to get a little water color art done to brighten up our walls.  In future weeks I will be getting Will started with Artistic pursuits, and I will be choosing projects for Charlie from Deep Space Sparkle.

But the biggest hit thus far in our home school day is listening to the unabridged audio of Lord of the Rings, and holding discussions afterward with the help of Literary Lessons from Lord of the Rings.  The latter part of this week as been quite dreary and rainy, and it has been wonderful to just hang out and listen to this great story while snuggled in on the couch!

That's all for the first official week.  I'll be adding in more subjects as the weeks progress.

Week 2: Ch-Ch-Changes

Slowly, slowly.  That's how we're getting our start. 

Although I felt like I had things pulled together and ready for the start of the school year, as the day approached, doubts set in.  I wasn't feeling comfortable with many of the choices I had made, and became paralyzed with indecision about what to do.  Not good.  Clearly I needed to make some changes here in the 11th hour, and I figured it was better to do it now, rather than in the middle of the school year. 

But, we also needed to get the ball rolling, that much I knew.  Question was, just how fast did it need to roll right away?  I decided we would start out with a couple subjects, and slowly add things in as I figured it all out (again).  Two weeks later...So far, so good.

So what are we doing?  

The choices I made for Charlie will remain mostly unchanged.  I guess because I've been through 2nd grade a couple times I have a more solid idea of how I'd like to proceed.  Daily lessons from Horizons Math, First Language Lessons, my home-made cursive notebook, read-alouds, and R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey are keeping Charlie happy and engaged.  Thumbs up, by the way, on the science curriculum.  It has been enjoyable, easy to implement, and has led us a little deeper into some investigations than we normally would have gone.   Couldn't ask for more.  We'll add in history, spelling and some fine arts in the coming weeks.  We will most likely not use Writing With Ease and instead rely on history narrations to serve the same purpose.

William has been doing daily lessons with Teaching textbooks, Junior Analytical Grammar, copywork, and reading Tom Sawyer.  Next week we'll get into Excavating English, and after that we'll add science and history.  I decided I couldn't wait for the February release of the R.E.A.L Science Odyssey-Biology, so chose to go with Elemental Science instead.  We're waiting for that to arrive.  I have history figured out for Will too, but that's a whole nother post!

Ben. High School. Ugh.  First of all, he is greatly enjoying his engineering class at the local B&M school.  The teacher is nice, and the material is interesting.  Aside from that, he is using Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1 with great success, and learning to write a literary essay with Teaching the Essay from Analytical Grammar. Oh, and he's also programing an Arduino to be an oscilloscope.

I've decided to drop spelling and grammar review for Ben this year as he honestly doesn't need it.  I'm also working on revamping science and history for him, and within a hair's breadth of deciding on a German foreign language curriculum.  

There's a lot up in the air right now, but I'm feeling surprisingly calm about it all.  Stay tuned for some fine-tuning, and the big "what I decided on for history" reveal.

Slowly, slowly.

Week In Review October 31-November 4

Whew!  Where did the week go?  

History-This week we finished up our reading from Gladiator.  We all really enjoyed this book and found ourselves both fascinated and puzzled by this aspect of Roman culture.  Highly recommended-especially for boys!  Unexpected bonus tie-in: We just happened to catch a program on TV this week called Colosseum: Rome's Arena of Death. Colosseum revolves around the true story of Verus, who rises from slave to star gladiator, but who faces the ultimate challenge in one of the very few gladiatorial fights that was recorded and described by contemporary writers. Its outcome was quite unexpected. The whole family watched and enjoyed this one.  We also completed reading about the early life of Christ and the fall of Rome from K12's Human Odyssey.  Ben and Will completed notebook pages on all these topics.

Munching pumpkin seeds and creating history notebook pages.

Science/Nature Study-For Charlie's science this week, we read The Skeleton Inside You.  Charlie then assembled a simple skeleton on our felt board and named the bones.  We also talked about how muscles help to move our bones.  I had Charlie lift some small weights to feel muscle fatigue, and did an activity with Tootsie Rolls to illustrate why we should warm up our muscles before a hard work-out. He warmed one in his hands and I put one in the fridge. The warmed one stretched and flexed easily.  The cold one not so  much. Then, on You Tube, we watched Bill Nye the Science Guy Bones and Muscles.  I also read a story from Among the Forest People to Charlie.  This week's story was about moths.  The big kids are anxious to start their chemistry course soon.

Assembling the bones.

Math-Ben seemed completely brain-dead in math this week and and Will managed to somehow get out of doing any math at all.  I don't want to even talk about it.  

Charlie whizzed through lessons per usual.

Language Arts-The older boys love Spelling Power.  No problems there.  Still haven't gotten my act together for grammar though. Tsk. Tsk.

Charlie's fable this week was The Fox and the Grapes From Aesop's Fables for Children illustrated by Milo Winter.

 

After I read, he narrated the story back to me and I wrote it down for him.  He then illustrated the page.

Art-Charlie attended his art class at the library and had the chance to do some pictures with colored sand.  There is a lovely local artist who donates her time to present these classes and it is so nice to have the chance to use varied materials without the cost or need to plan.  We both look forward to attending. 

Looked at and discussed artwork in Enjoying Art With Children. 

This afternoon we'll be off on a field trip enjoying a beautiful sunny November day at a local sculpture park.  We went last month and are now taking some friends who have never been there before. It will be interesting to see if our perspectives on some of the pieces change after seeing them for a second time.

Poetry-We have switched our regular Tea Time from Tuesday afternoons to Thursday mornings.  I found that poetry often got left off the list at the end of a long day, so now we enjoy a larger/fancier breakfast one day a week while listening to poetry.  Right now I'm focusing on poems that Ben and Will are familiar with, but that are new and appealing to Charlie.  The Poetry For Young People series is especially nice as each book is devoted to one poet and is illustrated to fit the mood of the poems. We're currently reading Edgar Lear. I also pulled a few complimentary poems from Favorite Poems Old and New.  I plan to add in some poetry and discussion soon from The Harp and The Laurel Wreath for the older boys. 

Music-Field trip for the grown-ups to see They Might Be Giants last weekend.  It was a good show, and a much needed night out!    

Hope your week was good, enjoy your weekend!

The Week In Review March 16-20

Monday-We began the day by looking at some photos and a video tour of the Robie House in Chicago, IL. Built by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1910. We have been reading The Wright 3 by Blue Balliet recently and decided to get more information on the house. Researching the house fits right into our current period of history study.

Robie House Art Glass

Both boys went quickly through their math pages. Ben is still working in Math U See and Will with Horizons. Will did some copy work and Ben practiced his cursive. For history we read about the Christmas Truce of 1914 from True Stories of The First World War. We did a bit of Latin, too, after a prolonged break. Charlie enjoyed working with some Lauri Letters and word puzzles.


I turned the boys loose before lunchtime so they could play outside. It is about 60 degrees and climbing so they are really excited. No one is wearing a jacket. They are currently flying a kite.


Tuesday-A typical day with Math, Latin and Copy work in the morning. In the afternoon the boys did some independent reading. Ben is currently reading Rascal by Sterling North and Will is reading a Time Warp Trio book. For read aloud we have gone back to Swallows and Amazons which was sorely neglected for awhile. I think all the "They tacked left, then tacked right, then left again. Then they boiled water for tea" in the first few chapters got a little monotonous for all of us. Now that we are back into it after a break, some exciting stuff is happening! Charlie and I read Bear Shadow by Frank Asch together, talked about the sun and how it creates different shadows, and he drew some cute pictures and narrated parts of the story.


For Tea Time we enjoyed some minty chocolate cupcakes and read a bunch of Edward Lear's limericks. In the evening William had scouts and we did a fun food chain project which I modified a bit to use small wooden blocks rather than milk cartons, and tried out this fun food-chain animation. The boys loved watching all the animals get eaten in turn! The boys finished up requirements for the Wildlife Conservation Belt loop.


Wednesday-Errand Day! Listened to our Latin chants in the car. In the afternoon Charlie and I read from Little Bear together, talked about the moon and he narrated and drew pictures again.


Thursday-Nature Storytime in the morning with Aztec the Owl. Piano lessons in the afternoon. Ben's teacher reviewed his audition scores with him. The judge wrote such comments as "Lovely long legato lines", "Steady tempo and excellent dynamic contrasts" and "Good rich solid tones". Ben had scouts in the evening and they worked on the Webelos Handyman pin. Ben has earned all the pins for his rank except sportsman.

Friday-After working on math and copywork we made a Mr. Gallon for our schoolroom wall. Just for fun.


I am feeling lazy today and we'll probably just do some reading this afternoon, maybe play a game, and call it a day. That's it! Have a great weekend, everyone!

The Week In Review-Week 20

Monday-Martin Luther King Jr. day. We watched video of his "I have a dream" speech and discussed civil rights in the mid-1960's. Other than this and some math work we took the day off when what was supposed to be 15 minutes worth of errands, turned into 2 hours of stress after mom locked her keys in the van at the library. Life happens.

Tuesday-Read about our day here

Wednesday-A full day of academics today. Ben is doing some multiplication review this week. For some reason the 7's table doesn't stick with him. William is working on addition with carrying. He grasped this concept easily. Moving at a good pace through Horizons 1 second book. William is working with me in WWE. I think this program is really growing on me. Helps me get copy work done, I can pull in FLL to support the target concept and it provides a little extra narration practice for Will. I feel like it fits with what I want to be doing in our day. Ben continues to write in his journal on a topic of his choosing for both practice in handwriting and in getting ideas down on paper in general. Latin went well for both boys. We have just begun to study the cases of nouns. We watched a couple videos from the History channel entitled Ellis Island. An interesting look at the journey and process of immigration in the early 1900's. For science we have been checking out he NASA web pages for the International Year of Astronomy. This month's focus is on Venus. We're waiting for a clear night to go out and take a look at her.

Thursday-Winter Nature Story time has started again at our local state park. Julie, the naturalist who runs story time, puts on such a wonderful program and the kids have such a good time exploring the park. Each week there is a story, activity and time outside. Ben and Will are on the older end of things so they volunteer their time with Julie and assist the younger kids in their projects, serve snack and lead games and activities. Charlie is just the perfect age now for sitting to listen to all of Julie's wonderful books and participating in all the program has to offer. This week's theme was wolves.

Charlie and his friend Thomas move in for a closer look at the illustrations.

Piano lessons in the afternoon. It was nearly 30 degrees F. today so the boys spent time after piano sledding with the other home schooled families who come for lessons. I love this "built in" play date for the kids every week!

Friday-Back to obnoxious weather again this weekend. It will be in the teens today but will drop to negative temps for the weekend. Nothing too noteworthy today. We covered the basics of Latin, math, language arts. We have a get-together this afternoon with friends.

That's all for this week. Thanks for stopping by!

The Week In Review...Week 19

January is hard. All the excitement of the holidays is past, our 2 week vacation from schoolwork is a distant memory now and it is cold, cold, below- zero -all -day- and- night cold. I have a friend who is right now in possession of a public school registration form and is threatening to use it. She means it, too. Everyone I talk to is tired of all the materials they were so fond of a couple months ago. January is hard. We can't really seem to get into the swing of things right now, but we're hangin in there.

Here is a rundown our home edumacatin' week, January 12-16

Monday-Fight, fight fight. Ben and I fight all morning long over everything. He is being incredibly stubborn about any and all assignments and shooting me laser eyes any chance he gets. Ben's journal entry was on what a curse cursive writing is. It was hilarious, but he meant it o offend so when I laughed, he gave me laser eyes again. Someone please remind me why I am doing this? His handwriting for this journal entry, by the way, was beautiful! The afternoon was a bit calmer as we spent it playing scrabble. I won. Haha.

Tuesday-Ben started the day by spending three hours making an ipod projector. He got it to work once, but is having troubles with it and is going to continue with it again tomorrow. No fighting or laser eyes today. Both boys completed their math in record time and without any mistakes. Handwriting, too. In history we have been reading about immigrants to the US and are enjoying Immigrant Kids by Russell Freedman. Looking forward to a study of our family and when they first came to America. We have started Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome as an afternoon read-aloud. Will is really interested so far and is highly intrigued by "the island" the children are going to sail to. The boys asked to play Scrabble again in the late afternoon. I won again, with Ben coming in a close second. Charlie played a Blues Clues ABC game on the computer.


Wednesday-The boys started the day making rubber band pistols with K'Nex. When I could drag them away from that they worked on math and handwriting. Both boys made entries in their History Portfolios on immigrant families. After lunch we read more from Swallows and Amazons. I also had the kids fill out an "About Me" worksheet to start our genealogy research on our family. I'm using Climbing Your Family Tree by Ira Wolfman as a guide for what we'll do. You can print out worksheets to go with the book online. I did a ton of genealogical research in college and so I plan to bring all that out at some point, but I want the boys to do some detective work of their own, too.


Thursday- It was 25 degrees below zero this morning when I went out to feed the chickens. Looks like it's too cold for school!! Day off! Woohoo! Aside from going to piano lessons, we stayed at home keeping warm and reading. Ben's electronics project today was a fake hard drive. It has a memory stick inside and so can be used for saving files. It's sort of a joke I guess..an over-kill way of dressing up a USB stick. I don't know. Go ask your 10 year-old!




Friday-Too cold by far today to go anywhere or play outside. It was 25 degrees below again this morning when I checked at 9:00 am. Brrr.Of course with the cold we are obligated to do the boiling water experiment and frolic through the resulting vapor. Thanks to Ben for putting the movie together.

After throwing pan after pan of boiling water into the air, we managed a pretty normal academic day. We did the 3 R's and we finally got around to starting lesson 2 in Lively Latin. The boys and I are still enjoying this! We also accomplished some more reading from Swallows and Amazons and our genealogy book. I had the boys work on a pedigree chart today and we looked at my collection of old family photos. The photo below is of my maternal great-grandparents marriage in Czechoslovakia. I love this photo and feel so lucky to have it!

That's all for this week! Not too bad I guess, for feeling so lazy! Thanks for stopping by to check out The Week in Review!

The Week in Review

Week 10 November 10-14

It has been one of those weeks where I have been so low on energy and so low on enthusiasm for home schooling that I feel like we haven't done a stinkin' thing! Thankfully, I have my notes from the week to look back on to help me see that a lot happens around here even when I am not spearheading the operation! i think my fatigue and attitude were due in part this week to the rotten weather. Freezing rain kept us inside, slushy snow made driving a pain and the grey skies were just plain depressing. The sun is out this morning, though, so I'm hoping for a brighter day ahead!

Math-

Ben and Will continued doing their math assignments independently. I was available for any questions and to make corrections but I did not present any lessons this week. The one day I was prepared to present a lesson, I found that by the time I had my TM out, Will had completed the work already having picked up on the concept on his own somewhere. Score!

Latin-

We practiced our vocab and chants 3 days out of 5 this week. Both Ben and Will are really into learning Latin and I couldn't be more pleased, being the language nut that I am. Ben has everything memorized for this first lesson, and Will is really, really close to that point as well.

Language Arts-

The boys worked independently on studying their spelling words, though I did not muster the energy to quiz them this week. They also practiced handwriting once or twice on their own. Plenty of time was spent on independent reading. Ben has just stared Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit and Will is still plucking his way through Owls in the Family. No poetry at all this week. No memorization or tea time. Not. Motivated.

Religion-

We start our mornings with daily prayer and meditation from Childrens daily Prayer 2008-2009 I really enjoy this text for leading us through prayer and scripture reading every day. It gets our day going on the right path. The boys are still reading in their Faith And Life texts but we will be setting those aside fairly soon to focus on Advent. Will has started his classes for First Communion at our church. He already knows the information that will be set out in the class, but we think it is important for him to get to know the kids he will be making his communion with to appreciate the sense of community of the church.

Bust of an Angel- Giotto

We had a chance on the weekend to go to the Vatican Splendors exhibit at the Minnesota History center as a family and with my Mother in Law. It was really something else!! Ancient mosaic works from circa 799, Michelangelo items and works by Bernini, Giotto, and others! Artwork dating back to the third century! We were also able to view the venerated relics (bone fragments) of Saint Peter to items from the election of Pope Benedict XVI. Some of the items had never before left the Vatican or been on public display.

Papal cope- Pius ix

I think my favorite pieces were some of the ancient mosaics, the Pope John Paul 2 items, and the Mandylion of Edessa. Fascinating! Charlie (who was incredibly patient and sweet during the whole tour) liked the papal swiss guards best, Ben liked the Michaelangelo room and all the paintings and the amazingly crafted embroidered Papal copes and ...(you get the picture). William liked all the Pope's "shiny stuff' best- patens, chalices, ciborium, lavabo etc. This was really a great experience and a once in a lifetime chance to see some exceptionally beautiful pieces of christian art, and Papal "accoutrement" if you will. And, to put the cherry on the top, as we approached the ticket booth to plop down our $90.00 to get in, a woman came up to us from a tour group and asked us if we needed some tickets. Evidently, some members of her tour were unable to come at the last minute and she had extras! She gave us her five extra tickets. We saw the exhibit for free. What! A! Blessing!

Music-

We listened to Beethoven again this week during breakfast and read The 39 Apartments of Ludwig Van Beethoven. Again I say, what a character that man was! Thanks to Rhonda at Living water Christian Academy, I was reminded of the Classical Kids series (available on CD or DVD) and picked up the DVD Beethoven Lives Upstairs for us to watch together. Really nicely done, interesting and amusing for the kids, and one of those things that really helped to bring the man and history to life for us. Thanks Rhonda for putting some fun in our week!

Literature-

Bedtime reading for Ben is still Holes by Louis Sachar. It's holding our attention, but a different style than we're used to. Will is adoring Farmer Boy as is Charlie who always listens in. What a terrific boy book! Charlie's own bedtime stories this week have been from the Thomas and Friends Collection.


History-

Still enjoying Jason's Gold.

As I often do, I am re-thinking our approach to history studies. Currently I pull together our history using various book lists from around the home schooling world, along with various "spine" readings to give it all a flow. Pretty typical classical WTM 4-year (ha!) history rotation. I love studying history chronologically. I really like the spine+historical fiction and/or non-fiction follow up+narration way to do history but I am so sick of pulling it all together myself. Really tired of it. That's why the Alaskan gold rush study for us consists pretty much of just reading one book right now. Too much work to find other stuff to do. Right now I am looking at something like Tapestry of Grace or Sonlight to schedule it out for me but the problem is, I am my own worst enemy. I know that the moment I get a schedule in my hands and have someone telling me what to do, I will rebel. I will tweak it into oblivion. I will undermine my own plan to make life easier for myself. Why do I do that? Both programs schedule fantastic books, most I would choose myself. Why can't I just follow a schedule? Anyway. It's probably just my mood this week making the history "dilemma" look worse. I will stop my rant now.

Science and Geography-

Finished up our Tree in the Trail and Crimecracker Kids studies last week so this week has been time off from both Geography and science. Not sure what we will get into next. With holidays coming up, I may just let these subjects rest other than spontaneous things the boys come up with to try.

Charlie's Days-

Charlie was very into watercolor painting this week and has finally clued into the idea of rinsing the brush between colors! We did lots of finger plays this week in the mornings before I got the boys going on their work. What You're Preschooler Needs to Know
has a very nice collection of fingerplays and rhymes that I like to use. Lots of read-alouds in the morning too. Sitting down with Charlie first thing in the morning really makes a difference in how the day goes. He thrives on getting that one on one time with me before I go to work with the boys. He's happier to do his own thing afterward and let the boys have their time with me.


Well, that's it. Another week filled with some fairly good stuff...despite my blue mood. Hope you have had a great week, too!

The Week In Review

Week 9, November 3rd-7th

We were at home this week much more than last and that was so, so nice! It is always a good feeling to be able to snuggle down with a read-aloud and not have to think about a time-table. Our only outing was to the library to refresh our stack of books, always a treat. I'm happy with our week as it played out....

Math-

Math seemed to be met with a lot of resistance this week (at least with Ben). That seems to happen every once in awhile, but not every week so I tend to back off a little when I see it happening. I think I need to spend some time reviewing multiplication tables with him again. They seem to have fallen completely out of his head. Is that normal? I think this is his source of frustration/cause for resistance with math. Will is still breezing through concepts in his Horizons math with confidence. I am thankful for that! Both boys are keeping up with their Daily Word Problems books and flashmaster drills.

Latin-

This week in Lively Latin, we learned about Latin being an inflected language; that nouns change their endings depending on how the word is used in a sentence. The boys had an "aha" moment when they recognized their chants in the endings of the various noun cases. We also started reading a little bit about Romulus. They are having fun with Latin so far and so am I! Glad we took the plunge!

Language Arts-

Nothing new to note with regard to cursive practice. Both boys do a page a day in their workbooks. Sometimes complaining, sometimes not. Par for the course. For young boys, I think their handwriting at this point is very ledgible and that is my main goal with this, so I am happy.

Spelling also continues to be a good subject for both boys. Not much to report on this week.

Ben is almost done memorizing Psalm 23. We have been neglecting poetry a bit this week, but he hasn't forgotten any of it that he has learned previously, so that is good. Will has memeorized Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost. I copied it into his poetry notebook for him and he has illustrated it. The boys have kept a poetry notebook of their memorized poems since Kindergarten.


For Tea Time Tuesday this week we enjoyed muffins that Charlie helped to make and read some "sound" poems from The 20th Century Children's Poetry Treasury. A fun collection of poems arranged by theme in 2-page spreads. The sound poems went along with Charlie's 5 senses theme for the week.

Music-

We listened to Beethoven over breakfast this week, and read his interesting bio from Lives of the Musicians Good Times, Bad Times (and what the neighbors thought.) He certainly was a colorful man! I more or less follow the suggestions for music appreciation in the Harmony Fine Arts curriculum for grade one. It is a basic intro to composers.

Literature-

Ben and I finished up reading The 21 Balloons at bedtimes and have started Holes by Louis Sachar. To Will I am still reading Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and this week Charlie wanted only to hear Katy and the Big Snow from Mike Mulligan and More: Four Classic Stories from Virginia Lee Burton. After one particular reading he ran to get paper and pencil and wanted me to help him write "Katy". He did a terrific job!


And his interest in Katy is quite timely, as it has started snowing today, and is forecasted to do so throughout the weekend. Yikes!

History-

Our topic this week is the Alaskan gold rush. We read about it from our spine books and I have started reading Jason's Gold aloud to the boys. It is a good one so far! We also spent some time this week reading amusing and informative stories about past presidents from Don'tKnow Much About the Presidents


Science-

We finished up our reading and experimenting in The Crimecracker Kids and The Mystery of the Bakery Break-in. The boys sucessfully solved the crime through conducting several simple kitchen experiments.

Geography-

We finished up our California missions/desert study detour by reading The Song of the Swallows by Leo Politti. The boys' uncle Greg called from "an undisclosed location in the desert" over the weekend, too, and talked to us about some of the desert critters he and Aunt Jeanne have been walking wide circles around lately. We looked up and learned more about one of those animals-the Coatimundi. Never heard of that one before! We used the Planet Earth DVD game this week, too. Enjoyable!

We also finished up our reading and mapwork for Tree in The Trail.


We talked about getting some poster frames to display the boys' hand-colored maps from this Holling study in the schoolroom. They turn out so pretty, and it would be a shame to just roll them up again for storage!


Charlie's days-

This week we had fun talking and reading about the senses. For sense of sight, we talked about all the colors we can see and used some color paddles to combine colors, looked through Usborne's 1001 Things to Spot on the Farm, and also looked at all sorts of things with a magnifying glass. For taste we baked some muffins together and enjoyed eating them. For sound we marched around with our maracas and tamborine playing softly, then loudly. He had no trouble with the loudly part. We also played the Animal Soundtracks game.
For touch we did some finger painting, and for smell we did home-made scent bottles (just cotton balls with different scents on them in film cannisters). I also baked a batch of mint chocolate chip cookies to make the kitchen smell wonderful...and then we enjoyed eating them. Lots of LEGO play again this week, and following around of the big brothers.

We're looking forward to a great weekend with a visit to Nana's house. Hope your week was good, too, and your weekend even better.