Weekly Report 2/27/09

Wow. This week went by really fast. I am actually working at the office today and my husband is homeschooling.

Literature
We finished book one of Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan this week. We've really enjoyed reading and discussing this book over the year. I think we both learned a great deal about our relationship with God. Next week we will start with book two.
We read chapters 2-4 in Robin Hood by Howard Pyle. He continued comparing and contrasting three different Robin Hood movies.

Reading
He is reading Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers this week and we have been comparing and contrasting it to the movie and to the first book.

Composition
We are working on paragraph writing right now. This week, he made up recipes to learn how to order sentences. For most of them, we made the recipe as we wrote about it. That seemed to help him break through his usual fear of the blank paper.

Penmanship
He worked on writing various Fellowship of the Ring quotes into his copywork journal.

Typing
Daily practice. He challenged me to a type off.

Spelling
He has ten words to work on from SWR N-3 -the word criticize is throwing him for a loop for some reason lol.

Vocabulary
Worked on Word Roots and entered some new words in his personal dictionary.

Spanish
He did two Rosetta Stone lessons

Math
Singapore 4A: He did exercises 45-51 in the workbook (angles, lines, area, perimeter)
Life of Fred Fractions: Exercises 14-15 and the third bridge.

Logic
He did four exercises in his Logic Countdown book!!! This was not required but I keep the book with us for when we are out and about. (Topics -If, Then; deduction, inference)

Nature Studies
We read three chapters in Burgess Bird Book. We looked up some video clips of the different birds. He really liked the oriole. He built a bird feeder to help attract more birds. We went to the pet store and looked at various bird seed to decide which one would most suit our needs.

Science
We made a stepping stone out of plaster of paris and discussed the chemistry behind it. This was a fun one because my daughter was home to do it with us.
We did some work on leverage using a quarterstaff.
He built a raft and floated it down a creek several times this week.
He hosted a paper airplane clinic for four other boys.
He decided to reenact the Battle of Stamford Bridge and got interested in bridge building.
He continued experimenting with making a better catapult and trebuchet.

Geography
We read more in Marco Polo for Kids. We read about Persia, the Silk Road (and felt some real silk material), the Islamic religion and compared it to our religion. We watched a Time Warp Trio episode on Ghenghis Khan which we read about last week.

History
We continued reading in Our Island Story. We read about Richard II, Wat Tyler, Henry IV, and Prince Hal.
He re-enacted the Battle of Stanford Bridge with his blocks, legos, and plastic army men.
He played Crusader Stronghold and Age of Empires II.

Music
He practiced his guitar daily and nailed Rock Me Like a Hurricane at his lesson. He is now transitioning from reading tabs to reading music and is working on transcribing some music that his guitar instructer gave him.

Art
We made a stepping stone so that we can make a path to our trampoline. This one was done with a Fleur de Lis pattern.

PE
He went to his gymnastics class and really enjoyed working on the bars there. At home, he is teaching himself how to use a quarterstaff via youtube videos and my broom handle. He also has enjoyed jumping on the trampoline and playing at the creek.