Weekly Report 5/22/09

This was such a gorgeous week. We had some minor rain here and there but overall just gorgeous. Without any major field trips and outside projects, we got a lot done!!

Literature: We finished Wind and the Willows and started Shakespeare Stealer as our audio book. We read Merchant of Venice from Tales of Shakespeare. We continued Sisters Grimm and The Princess and the Goblin. We also watched the corresponding part of the movie, Princess and the Goblin, to and compared it to the book so far. We also rented Tales of Despereaux and compared it to the book (which we read a few months ago but never got around to movie).

Poetry: We read several poems about birds

Reading: Melissa is continuing Baby Island, and reading Daring Book for Girls. Harrison is reading The Two Towers again. I think that break with easy reads did the trick. He read one Beast Quest book, reread Swords, more Calvin and Hobbes, and Dangerous Book for Boys.

Writing: We managed to do copywork eveyrday!!! We also got in a couple rounds of Legends of Druidawn and they each did a lapbooking/notebooking page on a bird of their choice. Melissa did a blog entry and made an anacrostic poem/card for a friend. Harrison wrote a book report on one of the Beast Quest books.

Language Arts: They did the usual Spanish, Word Roots, and Typing. However they switched to Dance Mat Typing for some variety. We reviewed some spelling rules (strong man e, every syllable needs a vowel, dropping the e before adding suffixes that begin with an i or e, vowels are long at end of syllable). We went over lie/lay and they played Gorilla Grammar and some leapster language arts games. They did some alphabetizing activities also.

Math: Melissa and I went over adding, subtracting, and multiplying fractions, mixed numbers and improper fractions. She did the exercises in 4A and we did some fraction games oneline. Despite covering this in in school, in Singapore, and in Life of Fred, she still doesn't have a good grasp of what to do. I have got to dig deeper into my bag of tricks to figure out why she is having a hard time remembering what to do. If anyone has good suggestions let me know!!! She also made a Roman numeral chart to help her remember those (I suspect that is just lack of interest lol). Harrison continued working on decimals and reviewed fractions and place value and reviewed his multiplication facts playing Timez Attack. They both did subtracting fractions chapter in Life of Fred. We all reviewed symmetry this week when they made mandalas. They both wrote out word problems and solved them and played math games on the leapster.

Logic: Melissa worked on sequencing activities in Logic Countdown

History: We read about Sir Walter Raleigh, Humphrey Gilbert, the Lost Colony and Virigina Dare. They acted out a voyage across the ocean in the backyard!! We also read more about the Spanish Inquistion and the Protestant Reformation.

Geography: We did some mapwork, concentrating on Asia. We read more about Marco Polo. We learned about Mt. Everest and the region of Tibet. We read about the current Dalai Lama and made mandalas.

Nature Studies: We read more Tales of Jasper Jay and they each did a lapbook/Notebook page on a bird of their choice. We spent some time bird watching in the backyard and looking up new birds. We went on a nature walk and drew in our journals. They really enjoyed playing with the goats, sheep, and donkeys at the horse stables. Melissa also got to visit chickens at a friend's house. They had them out of the cages and they flew to the top of the swing set. They had to put them up as a hawk flew over. Harrison watched an episode of Dino Lab.

Science: We spent the week learning about magnets, magnetic fields and the Earth's magnetic field. We had lots of hands on experiments! Harrison also made paper airplanes and conducted some experiments.

PE: Melissa had her first horseback riding lesson. She really enjoyed it and is so excited that she's talked about little else all week. She also had tumbling class. Harrison had football and Melissa joined him in baseball practice this week. They had gymnastics, went on hikes, rode the scooter, and jumped on the trampoline.

Art: We started a biography of Leonardo Da Vinci and talked about his nature journal. We will be watching an episode of Doing DaVinci tonight.

Music: Harrison practiced his guitar and went to his lesson.

Social: Melissa had a playdate and they both played with some friends at the horse stables. She also got to chat online with her buddy from Boston. We had the usual stream of neighborhood kids over every evening.

Other: We took a trip to the dump and Harrison in particular was thrilled at seeing the trash being compacted. Melissa watched It's Me or the Dog and Leader of the Pack. She worked on training our dog to "shake." He's not yet consistant. Harrison watched two episodes of The Deadliest Warrior and wrote out his comparison charts and made predictions. He did a lot of building with K'Nex, Magnetix, and Bionicles. He also helped DH find the hole in a tire, repair it and put it back on. He was extremely thrilled with that!