WOW! I haven't done a report in a long, long time. I am so behind on downloading pictures and everything. So sorry everyone but I hope to catch up soon.
Literature: We listened to two chapters of Robinson Crusoe. We are almost done with this book. It was a slow start and I almost dumped it but I am glad we persevered. The discussions we've had from this book have been fabulous. We also did 4 chapters each of Pollyanna and Secret Garden and continue to compare and contrast the protagonists of each. We started a new Shakespeare play, Julius Caesar. For our myth, we read Latona and the Rustics from Bulfinch's Mythology.
Reading: We started our humor unit. The kids are reading the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. We are examing cause and effect in this unit.
Poetry: Continued working on My Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson plus reviewed the other poems learned so far in IEW Poetry memorization. We read two Goops poems and covered Jack Be Nimble for our weekly nursury rhyme in popular culture study.
Composition: The kids each wrote a summary about George Washington following the SWI-A guidelines. We added in a new layer and now they are editing each other after the self-edit and before the teacher edit. Wow! The kids raised their own expectations. We had a victory in this subject this week. My son, the one who used to throw tantrums over having to write one sentence, had to rewrite his final draft that took him an hour the first time because he doodled all over. He did so without any fuss!!
Penmanship: Few more pages of HWT Cursive and daily copywork.
Grammar and Spelling: SWR N-6. Worked on changing adjectives to adverbs by adding ly ending plus other derivatives and antonyms.
Latin: Finished up Latin for Children Primer A -Unit 10
Spanish: We had computer issues this week so we only got two lessons of Elementary Spanish done.
Math: Division speed drill. DS9 continued on with Singapore 5A and DD10 worked in 4B.
Logic: DD10 worked in Logic Countdown. DS9 has completed that book but redid same problems dd did for the fun of it. He also did all of Mindbenders A1. Both played chess and clue.
History: We read one chapter in This Country of Ours and five chapters in George Washington's World. Kids are reading Lion to Guard Us as a historical fiction go-along and a non-fiction book on the Sea Venture.
Geography: We read chapter 13 in Holling's book Seabird. We started a new unit on Oceans in Explore His World. Lots of mapwork as always.
Economics: We studied the dollar bill and learned some of the facts about it and learned about counterfeiting. They designed their own money while keeping in mind that it should be hard to duplicate.
Citizenship: We began a new life in our Plutarch book: Brutus to go with our Shakespeare play. This was well received and we had LONG discussions from this reading.
Science: Did 2:1-2:4 in Snap Circuit Student book along with 9 experiments.
Nature Studies: Made a nature video about maple trees in lieu of nature journal this week.
Music: Listened to Hallelujah Handel from Classical Kids; Reviewed some of Bach's works and read about Bach in our George Washington book. Also started He Shall Feed His Flock from Handel's Messiah as our monthly hymn. Reviewed several patriotic songs. DD10 worked on her song for her voice class and DS9 practiced guiar and had a lesson.
Art: Both kids worked on drawing dinosaurs and making stick puppets for a show. They worked on painting with control. They did dinosaur origami too.
Other (Both): Halloween: trick or treating, pumpkin carving.
Other (DD10): Scouts (made family fun jar); Horses (Horse show competiton -two seconds and 1 third plus class); Preteen Worship team and God Squad performances; Bible small group; Odyssey of the Mind; Co-Op (paper albums and American Girl); Drama, Voice, and Broadway Dance classes. She also brought a friend to our park playdate.
Other (DS9); Precepts; Historical Sworsmanship class; Scouts (earned Citizenship Belt Loop and worked on Athlete Badge); Guitar lessons, Lego League; Co-Op (Paper Airplane and Strategy Games); Also went to a friend's house for playdate.
Showing posts with label Weekly Report. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Weekly Report. Show all posts
Monday, November 9, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
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.
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!
Friday, May 15, 2009
Weekly Report 5/15
Spring came back this week! After a very hot and humid weekend, we had a wonderful week of great weather. So our slack schedule this week is due to ME. Yes, Mom had spring fever!!!
Literature: Continued Wind and the Willows and Princess and the Goblin.
Reading: Melissa read two Spiderwick Chronicles reference books, part of a horse reference book, and part of Baby Island. Harrison read two Calvin and Hobbes books, two Beast Quest books, 1 Ready Freddy book (which he pulled out the "to donate" pile as he read it years ago) and is on book two in the Lone Wolf series.
Writing: I dropped the bomb here. We did just a little copywork and M did a blog entry.
Language Arts: We did a lot of work on library skills -using card catalog, shelving, Dewey decimals, etc. We did our usual ad hoc spelling and grammar, plus our normal Spanish, Word Roots, and Typing and Boggle games. We rounded out with some word finds and scrambled word games.
Math: Melissa reviewed long division and multiple digit multiplication and adding and subtracting fractions in Singapore 4A. Harrison is working on dividing decimals in 4B. We did some graph work this week with Fitday and e-bird. They helped with shopping this week and practiced counting back change.
Logic: Melissa finished up the analogy portion of Logic Countdown.
Nature Studies: We read more of Tales of Jasper Jay. We did some bird watching at home and we went to Harris Lake County Park to monitor bluebird boxes. We got some experience collecting data and doing charts. We learned a lot about blue birds and nests in general. We continued entering data in e-bird also. Also at home, Melissa is learning about dog training. She is watching It's Me or the Dog and has ordered a couple books on obedience training from the library. She is also doing a lot of experiments with all our pets using a book called Pet Science. Harrison watched a documentary on ants and aphids and got to see some on a nature walk.
Science: They learned about arches and how they work. We also played some Elementeo.
Health: We have been learning about fitness and nutrition and how it relates to overall health and well being.. We've explored a website on the world's healthiest foods and are looking at ways to incorporate healthier choices in our menu. We are working on establishing regular exercise routines.
Geography: We did some map reading and map work. They continue to work on their Chinese opera based on the story of Mulan. They both independently read a Mongolian folk tale picture book called The Khan's Daughter.
History: This week we mostly focused on the earliest settlements in Florida (both French and English). We also discussed more on the Protestant Reformation and the Spanish Inquisition.
PE: They participated in our co-op's field day. They both went on hikes, jumped on trampoline, went to gymnastics class and played at the park three times this week. Harrison had football and baseball. Melissa had tumbling.
Music: Harrison is working on a song called Tom Dooley for guitar.
Religion: Melissa had Awanas this week. We had several discussions on different ways people interpret the scriptures and how to respect those beliefs whether we feel they are important or not.
Social: They both had playdates this week plus usual neighbors, classes, etc.
Literature: Continued Wind and the Willows and Princess and the Goblin.Reading: Melissa read two Spiderwick Chronicles reference books, part of a horse reference book, and part of Baby Island. Harrison read two Calvin and Hobbes books, two Beast Quest books, 1 Ready Freddy book (which he pulled out the "to donate" pile as he read it years ago) and is on book two in the Lone Wolf series.
Writing: I dropped the bomb here. We did just a little copywork and M did a blog entry.
Language Arts: We did a lot of work on library skills -using card catalog, shelving, Dewey decimals, etc. We did our usual ad hoc spelling and grammar, plus our normal Spanish, Word Roots, and Typing and Boggle games. We rounded out with some word finds and scrambled word games.
Math: Melissa reviewed long division and multiple digit multiplication and adding and subtracting fractions in Singapore 4A. Harrison is working on dividing decimals in 4B. We did some graph work this week with Fitday and e-bird. They helped with shopping this week and practiced counting back change.
Logic: Melissa finished up the analogy portion of Logic Countdown.
Nature Studies: We read more of Tales of Jasper Jay. We did some bird watching at home and we went to Harris Lake County Park to monitor bluebird boxes. We got some experience collecting data and doing charts. We learned a lot about blue birds and nests in general. We continued entering data in e-bird also. Also at home, Melissa is learning about dog training. She is watching It's Me or the Dog and has ordered a couple books on obedience training from the library. She is also doing a lot of experiments with all our pets using a book called Pet Science. Harrison watched a documentary on ants and aphids and got to see some on a nature walk.
Science: They learned about arches and how they work. We also played some Elementeo.
Health: We have been learning about fitness and nutrition and how it relates to overall health and well being.. We've explored a website on the world's healthiest foods and are looking at ways to incorporate healthier choices in our menu. We are working on establishing regular exercise routines.
Geography: We did some map reading and map work. They continue to work on their Chinese opera based on the story of Mulan. They both independently read a Mongolian folk tale picture book called The Khan's Daughter.
History: This week we mostly focused on the earliest settlements in Florida (both French and English). We also discussed more on the Protestant Reformation and the Spanish Inquisition.
PE: They participated in our co-op's field day. They both went on hikes, jumped on trampoline, went to gymnastics class and played at the park three times this week. Harrison had football and baseball. Melissa had tumbling.
Music: Harrison is working on a song called Tom Dooley for guitar.
Religion: Melissa had Awanas this week. We had several discussions on different ways people interpret the scriptures and how to respect those beliefs whether we feel they are important or not.
Social: They both had playdates this week plus usual neighbors, classes, etc.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Weekly Report 5/8/09
Wet! That sums up this week! We had rain every day with thunderstorms and tornado watches all week. When we had a break in the weather, we went to Waterfest and got wet again! This week was a tiring week too. We had a lot of field trips. On the homefront, my husband came home extremely sick on Monday. It turned out that he has Rocky Mounted Spotted Fever. I have to tell you that it's not easy homeschooling at home with a sick husband who is trying to work from home (aka we had to be very, very quiet).Literature: We finished reading Lamb's version of Midsummer Night's Dream and watched the BBC animated version. We read some more of the Princess and the Goblin. We listened to more of Wind and the Willows.
Reading: Melissa finally finished Spy for the Night Riders. She ended up liking it even though I had to assign it to get her to read it. This week, I gave her one of my childhood books, Mandy by Julia Edwards (aka Mary Poppins). It still had my name in it from when I was a child. I had her write her name under mine and told her that she could give it to her daughter one day. She read the book in one day! She also read Nixie's Song (Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles). Harrison was in a reading funk this week. He didn't want to read The Two Towers and just wanted to reread Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare. We finally found him a new book. It was a Choose Your Own Adventure type book with a Roleplaying/Fantasy slant.
Writing: We did copywork this week and played a round of Legends of Druidawn. Melissa sent off a few emails to some friends and Harrison did a comparison chart for Deadliest Warrior.
Language Arts: They did Word Roots, Rosetta Stone Spanish, and Typing on the computer. They played some Boggle. We went over some spelling and grammar rules.
Math: Melissa worked on Area and Perimeter and finished up Singapore 3B. Harrison was busy multiplying decimals this week. He did some Challenge Word Problems too. He had a lot of practicing adding and subtracting in his roleplaying book.
Logic: Melissa did some analogies from Logic Countdown. Harrison played strategy games.
Nature Studies: We learned a lot about nature this week! We read some more of Tales of Jasper Jay. We went out and observed the clouds and weather patterns and animal behavior to predict the weather. We took a class on worms and composting. We took a class on Woodpeckers and went bird watching at a county park. We saw four red-headed woodpeckers and two flickers and found evidence of a yellow-bellied sapsucker. We also saw cowbirds, robins, wrens, a bluebird and a chickadee. Great day for our E-bird account. The kids made suet for the birds too.
Science: We went to Waterfest this week. Waterfest is a yearly festival about water and it's uses held by the the local water treatment plant. We didn't get to do all the activities but we enjoyed the ones we did. The kids rode a open air bus through a bus wash and got soaking wet. That was the most favorite activity lol. They did learn things though. They split a water molecule, looked at ecoli under ultra violet light, learned how filters work, climbed all over a fire truck, pet a police dog and police horse, climbed through tunnels and dug for fossils. We also watched Before the Dinosaurs and another Dinosaur documentary that was on the History channel about how the dinosaurs may have been killed off by insects and not the meteor.
Geography: We read more in our Marco Polo book. We also learned about the Chinese New Year and Chinese Operas. We watched Mulan and ate Chinese food with chopsticks. The kids wrote their own Opera based on the legend of Mulan (lots of fighting and acrobatics). We also read about the Netherlands in regards to our Renaissance studies, including the Little Dutch boy, dikes and canals, windmills, tulips, dutch linen and herrings. We did quite a bit of mapwork this week because our studies of Balboa led us on a rabbit trail of the Panama Canal and Melissa wondered if there was a bridge that allowed you to cross over it. This led to a discussion of the Pan American Highway so we traced it's route from Alaska to Argentina. (We also brought in math skills to calculate how long it would take to drive the entire length at speed of 60 MPH and driving 10 hours a day).
Geography: We read more in our Marco Polo book. We also learned about the Chinese New Year and Chinese Operas. We watched Mulan and ate Chinese food with chopsticks. The kids wrote their own Opera based on the legend of Mulan (lots of fighting and acrobatics). We also read about the Netherlands in regards to our Renaissance studies, including the Little Dutch boy, dikes and canals, windmills, tulips, dutch linen and herrings. We did quite a bit of mapwork this week because our studies of Balboa led us on a rabbit trail of the Panama Canal and Melissa wondered if there was a bridge that allowed you to cross over it. This led to a discussion of the Pan American Highway so we traced it's route from Alaska to Argentina. (We also brought in math skills to calculate how long it would take to drive the entire length at speed of 60 MPH and driving 10 hours a day).
History: We continue learning about various explorers. We into more depth with John Cabot and Amerigo Vespucci and learned about Balboa.
Art: We looked at St. Peter's Cathedral designed by Michelangelo. We also made stained glass suncatchers. Melissa practiced photography too.
Music: We listened to Bach this week. Harrison continued practicing guitar and we listened to several versions of Worried Man Blues this week since he had just learned that song.
Religion: Harrison and I co-read Pilgrim's Progress. We all had a big discussion on evolution and creation and why it's not a conflict for me as it for many of our friends. We didn't make it to church or Awanas this week due to the thunderstorms and sickness
PE: Well, my kids ended up doing quite a bit of pushups this week. Both had some honesty issues that they needed to "work out". They also did gymanstics, trampoline play and several hikes. Melissa had tumbling and Harrison had football and baseball.
Social: I don't usually include social but since it's one that non-homeschoolers worry about....
Both kids had lots of time playing with neighborhood friends in the afternoons and over the weekend (including a sleepover). We didn't have a playdate over this week due to Daddy being sick and didn't go out to one due to the numerous field trips. However, we met several of our friends at Waterfest and did activities with them there. Melissa made a new friend at the Worm class and chatted away with the girls in her tumbling class. She was glad to find that she wasn't only girl whose mother wouldn't allow her to do the cheer program there due to the midriff revealing uniforms. Harrison didn't make a new friend but interact well with his peers in the class. I am working on him with to recognize his annoying behaviors and trying to replace them with less annoying ones. We've made a lot of progress with his table manners and we've finally gotten the use of the fork down pat!! They went to the kids night out program that our church has for families with special needs and played with quite a few of their friends there.
Other: Melissa played vet and detective games with her sleepover friends. She also volunteered at the dog park, filling water dishes, pools, and gathering toys as well as playing with the dogs while she was there. Harrison built several things with K'Nex.
Other: Melissa played vet and detective games with her sleepover friends. She also volunteered at the dog park, filling water dishes, pools, and gathering toys as well as playing with the dogs while she was there. Harrison built several things with K'Nex.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Weekly Report 5/1
This week went by really quick!
Literature: We continued listening to Wind and the Willows, picked by back up our evening read aloud (Sisters Grimm) and started The Princess and the Goblin. We watched the Animated Shakespeare Tales version of The Tempest and started reading Lamb's version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Harrison and I co-read his weekly chapter of Pilgrim's Progress.
Reading: Melissa read books four and five in the Spiderwick Chronicles. We did a lot of work of compare and contrast of the characters, the books, and the book against the movie and video game. She read a bit more in Spy for the Night Riders and started reading the Royal Diaries book for Elizabeth. Harrison continued The Two Towers. He started Under Drake's Flag but wasn't interested in it, He also found my stash of Calvin and Hobbes books so now I am doomed. LOL
Writing: We did copywork in our commonplace journals. We played several rounds of Legends of Druidawn with accompanying writing. Melissa worked on her Megalodon report and put up her first blog post. She also wrote her birthday list. Harrison did a compare and contrast sheet on this week's episode of The Deadliest Warrior
Language Arts: They did typing, Spanish, Word Roots. They played a few games of Boggle. We did our normal ad-hoc grammar, spelling, and vocabulary. We also played around with alliteration and abbreviations.
Math: Melissa did review work on angles, area, and perimeter. H is working on multiplying decimals. He also did challenge word problems for money. They both played Timez Attack this week to keep up their times table speed. They did a lot of hands on math with Druidawn.
Logic: Harrison worked on inferences and Melissa worked on analogies.
History: We read about early explorers: John Cabot and Amerigo Vespucci. H also watched several Time Commander episodes and this week's episode of Deadliest Warrior on Knights vs. Pirates.
Music: Harrison is working on Worried Man Blues by Woody Guthrie. We also listened to Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky.
Art: We finished our Michelangelo Biography and used the Moses statue for our narration. Harrison worked on drawing circles.
Other Fine Arts: We went to see the Carolina Ballet perform Swan Lake. The kids wrote and performed a skit as part of their tree study. Their tree was the American Holly so they used that as Hollywood and did the tree Oscars. It very funny.
PE: Melissa had tumbling and Harrison had football and baseball. They both went to gymnastics class. At home, we went on evening hike, jumped on trampoline, and did Wii Fit.
Literature: We continued listening to Wind and the Willows, picked by back up our evening read aloud (Sisters Grimm) and started The Princess and the Goblin. We watched the Animated Shakespeare Tales version of The Tempest and started reading Lamb's version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Harrison and I co-read his weekly chapter of Pilgrim's Progress.
Reading: Melissa read books four and five in the Spiderwick Chronicles. We did a lot of work of compare and contrast of the characters, the books, and the book against the movie and video game. She read a bit more in Spy for the Night Riders and started reading the Royal Diaries book for Elizabeth. Harrison continued The Two Towers. He started Under Drake's Flag but wasn't interested in it, He also found my stash of Calvin and Hobbes books so now I am doomed. LOL
Writing: We did copywork in our commonplace journals. We played several rounds of Legends of Druidawn with accompanying writing. Melissa worked on her Megalodon report and put up her first blog post. She also wrote her birthday list. Harrison did a compare and contrast sheet on this week's episode of The Deadliest Warrior
Language Arts: They did typing, Spanish, Word Roots. They played a few games of Boggle. We did our normal ad-hoc grammar, spelling, and vocabulary. We also played around with alliteration and abbreviations.
Math: Melissa did review work on angles, area, and perimeter. H is working on multiplying decimals. He also did challenge word problems for money. They both played Timez Attack this week to keep up their times table speed. They did a lot of hands on math with Druidawn.
Logic: Harrison worked on inferences and Melissa worked on analogies.
Nature Studies: Melissa's 4-H group went to visit a beekeeper. We learned a lot about bees and got to do some taste tests on different types of honey! We went to Prairie Ridge ecostation and did some bird banding and a tree study. We read some more of Tales of Jasper Jay and observed the birds around our yard. We saw mockingbirds fight, a Red-tail hawk soar above us and a gorgeous house finch.
Science: We read about Copernicus and reviewed our knowledge of the earth's rotation. We watched a documentary on Megalodons. We learned had some health lessons on body alignment and posture and skin care in the sun.
Geography: We practiced map reading skills with our Legends of Druidawn game. We did our weekly mapwork on the globe for a change of pace. We read more of our Marco Polo book and studied Chinese Architecture and the practice of Feng Shui. We learned about Chinese inventions and the importance of tea in Chinese Culture.History: We read about early explorers: John Cabot and Amerigo Vespucci. H also watched several Time Commander episodes and this week's episode of Deadliest Warrior on Knights vs. Pirates.
Music: Harrison is working on Worried Man Blues by Woody Guthrie. We also listened to Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky.
Art: We finished our Michelangelo Biography and used the Moses statue for our narration. Harrison worked on drawing circles.
Other Fine Arts: We went to see the Carolina Ballet perform Swan Lake. The kids wrote and performed a skit as part of their tree study. Their tree was the American Holly so they used that as Hollywood and did the tree Oscars. It very funny.
PE: Melissa had tumbling and Harrison had football and baseball. They both went to gymnastics class. At home, we went on evening hike, jumped on trampoline, and did Wii Fit.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Weekly Report 4/24
We enjoyed our one week of Spring here in the sunny South. Now it appears that Summer is soon to be in session. It is going to be 90 degrees for the next three days!!! I am ready for our park playdate to move to shadier park LOL.
School-wise we made some progress towards acclimating Melissa into our routine. Things went smoothly this week for most part, even with me working and two field trips!
Literature: We read The Tempest by Shakespeare from Tales of Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb. Harrison and I co-read his weekly Pilgrim's Progress chapter. We listened to another chapter of The Wind and the Willows. We have not picked up our evening read-alouds in weeks though. I have to get that routine started again.
Reading: Melissa read all The Seeing Stone and most of Lucinda's Secret (Spiderwick Chronicles Book #2 and 3) and continues Spy for the Night Rider. Apparently, one chapter is so interesting that she keeps rereading it. She also started reading a book called Dolphin Song but I am not sure if that one will make it to conclusion. Harrison continues Two Towers and read all of Twenty and Ten. The bulk of his attention has been reading the background information to our Legends of Druidawn game.
Writing: The bulk of our writing this week has centered around the Legends of Druidawn game. Harrison, who normally hates anything that involves picking up a pencil, is obsessed with writing for this game. I would recommend it for reluctant writers who like to read fantasy novels. He wrote his character sketch and has written his account of the game as a story. He's also worked on copywork and has been chatting with his pen pal about the game.
Melissa worked on her Megalodon report, wrote another email to a stable, emailed with a friend about horses, did her copywork, as well as her Druidawn character sketch and story work.
Language Arts: We did Rosetta Stone Spanish, typing, and Word Roots. One of our favorite things right now is playing Babble. One of the kids will start the game and find as many words as they can and then the other takes over and finds some more and then I try to finish the game.
We also did the spelling bee last Saturday. Harrison got first place for third grade and Melissa got third place for fourth grade. Now before you think she is a great speller, I have to admit there was a huge disparity between the level she got out at and where the final two ended. On the otherhand, Melissa has made great improvements with her spelling in the short time we've been homeschooling her. I have introduced a few spelling rules and continue working with her using SWR.
Math: Melissa did the chapters on graphs and time from Singapore 3B. Harrison continued working on subtracting decimals in 4B and played Lure of the Labyrinth. They both did chapter 19 (dividing by zero) and a bridge from Life of Fred.
Nature Studies: We finished Tale of Reddy Woodpecker and started Tale of Jasper Jay, both by Arthur Scott Bailey. We compared the blue jay and the bluebird (again) and did some bird behavior observations here at home and on our nature walks while collecting data for E-bird. We also took a trip to the NC Museum of Natural Science to study their marine life and bird exhibits.
Melissa had a pen pal email her a report about a horse breed (I believe it was Friesians?) and critiqued it.
Science: Our main science project this week was our shark dissection. It fit in well with Melissa's research project on Megalodons. To follow up we visited the historic ocean life and current marine life exhibits at the Nature Museum. They also had fun this week playing Plant Tycoon and Spore.
Geography: We continued our Marco Polo book. This week we studied the three main religion/philosophies of China: Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. We even tried out the practice of qigong. We also read about Mongolia, Kublai Khan and his niece Khutulun, and Musk Deer and musk perfume. We did our normal mapwork too.
History: This week was all about the reign of Queen Elizabeth. We read about her, Mary (Queen of Scotland), the Spanish Armada and Admiral Drake, William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, Sir Sidney Phillip, Sir Walter Raleigh and the Earl of Essex, Queen Elizabeth. Harrison watched an episode of The Deadliest Warrior on Apache vs Ninja.
Civics: We had an interesting discussion on taxes and what they pay for as we admired the new signs that have gone up in our downtown area.
Art History: We continued reading Michelangelo's biography and our picture study this week was of his painting in the Sistine Chapel called The Last Judgment.
Music: Harrison continued guitar lessons and practices. He is now on the fourth string. We all played "Find the Beat."
PE: Harrison had football and baseball games/practice this week. Melissa had tumbling and a cheer clinic. They both had gymnastics class. They also tried out for the Junior Olympics but only the winner got to move on. Melissa was 3rd and Harrison 5th. We had a lot of trampoline jumping and few after dinner walks that turned into hikes.
Another highlight was our company had a bowling outing for the employees and families. Harrison decided to play with the adults instead of the bumper lane that was set for the kids. He did surprisingly well.
Religion: Awanas, Church, memory work, devotions, etc.
Other: They both played Virtual Villagers this week. Harrison played Empire Earth with his father and Melissa's godfather but ended up killing everyone when he closed the game to go play (as the game was hosted from his computer).
School-wise we made some progress towards acclimating Melissa into our routine. Things went smoothly this week for most part, even with me working and two field trips!
Literature: We read The Tempest by Shakespeare from Tales of Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb. Harrison and I co-read his weekly Pilgrim's Progress chapter. We listened to another chapter of The Wind and the Willows. We have not picked up our evening read-alouds in weeks though. I have to get that routine started again.
Reading: Melissa read all The Seeing Stone and most of Lucinda's Secret (Spiderwick Chronicles Book #2 and 3) and continues Spy for the Night Rider. Apparently, one chapter is so interesting that she keeps rereading it. She also started reading a book called Dolphin Song but I am not sure if that one will make it to conclusion. Harrison continues Two Towers and read all of Twenty and Ten. The bulk of his attention has been reading the background information to our Legends of Druidawn game.
Writing: The bulk of our writing this week has centered around the Legends of Druidawn game. Harrison, who normally hates anything that involves picking up a pencil, is obsessed with writing for this game. I would recommend it for reluctant writers who like to read fantasy novels. He wrote his character sketch and has written his account of the game as a story. He's also worked on copywork and has been chatting with his pen pal about the game.
Melissa worked on her Megalodon report, wrote another email to a stable, emailed with a friend about horses, did her copywork, as well as her Druidawn character sketch and story work.
Language Arts: We did Rosetta Stone Spanish, typing, and Word Roots. One of our favorite things right now is playing Babble. One of the kids will start the game and find as many words as they can and then the other takes over and finds some more and then I try to finish the game.
We also did the spelling bee last Saturday. Harrison got first place for third grade and Melissa got third place for fourth grade. Now before you think she is a great speller, I have to admit there was a huge disparity between the level she got out at and where the final two ended. On the otherhand, Melissa has made great improvements with her spelling in the short time we've been homeschooling her. I have introduced a few spelling rules and continue working with her using SWR.
Math: Melissa did the chapters on graphs and time from Singapore 3B. Harrison continued working on subtracting decimals in 4B and played Lure of the Labyrinth. They both did chapter 19 (dividing by zero) and a bridge from Life of Fred.
Nature Studies: We finished Tale of Reddy Woodpecker and started Tale of Jasper Jay, both by Arthur Scott Bailey. We compared the blue jay and the bluebird (again) and did some bird behavior observations here at home and on our nature walks while collecting data for E-bird. We also took a trip to the NC Museum of Natural Science to study their marine life and bird exhibits.
Melissa had a pen pal email her a report about a horse breed (I believe it was Friesians?) and critiqued it.
Science: Our main science project this week was our shark dissection. It fit in well with Melissa's research project on Megalodons. To follow up we visited the historic ocean life and current marine life exhibits at the Nature Museum. They also had fun this week playing Plant Tycoon and Spore.
Geography: We continued our Marco Polo book. This week we studied the three main religion/philosophies of China: Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. We even tried out the practice of qigong. We also read about Mongolia, Kublai Khan and his niece Khutulun, and Musk Deer and musk perfume. We did our normal mapwork too.
History: This week was all about the reign of Queen Elizabeth. We read about her, Mary (Queen of Scotland), the Spanish Armada and Admiral Drake, William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, Sir Sidney Phillip, Sir Walter Raleigh and the Earl of Essex, Queen Elizabeth. Harrison watched an episode of The Deadliest Warrior on Apache vs Ninja.
Civics: We had an interesting discussion on taxes and what they pay for as we admired the new signs that have gone up in our downtown area.
Art History: We continued reading Michelangelo's biography and our picture study this week was of his painting in the Sistine Chapel called The Last Judgment.
Music: Harrison continued guitar lessons and practices. He is now on the fourth string. We all played "Find the Beat."
PE: Harrison had football and baseball games/practice this week. Melissa had tumbling and a cheer clinic. They both had gymnastics class. They also tried out for the Junior Olympics but only the winner got to move on. Melissa was 3rd and Harrison 5th. We had a lot of trampoline jumping and few after dinner walks that turned into hikes.
Another highlight was our company had a bowling outing for the employees and families. Harrison decided to play with the adults instead of the bumper lane that was set for the kids. He did surprisingly well.
Religion: Awanas, Church, memory work, devotions, etc.
Other: They both played Virtual Villagers this week. Harrison played Empire Earth with his father and Melissa's godfather but ended up killing everyone when he closed the game to go play (as the game was hosted from his computer).
Friday, April 17, 2009
Weekly Report 4/17/08
We really had a difficult week getting back into the groove of homeschool after a week off. For one thing, we had a guest move in on Monday that I didn't expect until Friday. Love him to death but it did throw me off guard. We are also still adjusting to having Melissa at home.
So we compensated by having what little school we had in interesting places. We had school on the trampoline one day and at the laundromat another day (thanks to dryer breaking when we are ultra-behind on laundry lol).
Literature: We finished another chapter in Wind and the Willows. I have to say these are the longest chapters. It takes days to do one. We didn't get to any of our other literature books though.
Reading: Both kids read Minstrel in the Tower. H reread parts of Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare. Melissa continued Spy for the Night Riders.
Writing: Melissa made a new outline for her megalodon report, wrote an email to one of the stables to request a tour and wrote in her journal. H wrote a paper comparing Samurais and Vikings. He also composed a multiple choice quiz on Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare.
Language Arts: Our homeschool group is having a spelling bee this week so they took the list of words and divided how many words per day to study this week (after subtracting words they studied last week) and made flash cards for words they had missed in pretesting each other. They did this own their own without any input from me! They practiced typing several times.
Spanish: Rosetta Stone
Math: Melissa worked on capacity and did some review in Singapore 3B. H worked on adding and subtracting decimals.
Logic: M did an analogy exercise from Logic Countdown. H played a strategy board game about Samurais. We seemed to on a riddle kick this week.
Science: They played a game of Elementeo. We also dug for fossils, sorted and classified them.
Nature Studies: We read a chapter from Burgess Bird Book on oven birds and red-tail hawks. We continued identifying birds from our window and on a nature walk. We went to a pond study at Prairie Ridge Eco-Station and also went there for a walk in the aroborteum with a naturalist. They pretended to be prey and predator in the tall grass. We discovered a cocoon and a crysalis too. Our most fun was noticing that there were two types of buttercups. One had more white and was slightly more open and a lot shinier than the typical buttercup. We also went to a horse show.
Geography: We read about the Mongols in our Marco Polo book. We also located San Diego and several of the West Indian Islands on our map.
History: We read about Queen Elizabeth, Bloody Mary, Anne of Askew, Columbus and the Viking presence in North America.
Art History: We read more from our biography on Michelangelo and did a good study on the Sistine Chapel.
PE: They had gymnastics this week. Melissa had tumbling and a cheer clinic. Harrison had the father son football game and a baseball game. Of course we had some trampoline time as well and a playdate at the park.
Religion: Melissa had Awanas. Harrison has decided to just read by my classroom instead. We went to Easter services. We also discussed some variations in different protestant beliefs, why different people have different tolerance levels of different things, etc.
Music: Harrison had a guitar lesson and practiced.
Other: We watched Quest for Camelot and compared it to the Arthurian legends that we read earlier in the year. We went to of DH's softball games and tonight, Melissa and I are going to see her friends perform a play. Harrison got a deck of marked cards in his Easter basket and practiced with those all week.
We also had various social experiences. Melissa's godfather is living with us temporarily while he househunts in the area and he arrived this week and his mom came with him for the drive. He just had surgury on his neck and can't eat alone. So they had plenty of time learning how to be polite with older adults that they don't know as well as those they do. We had a park playdate with multiple ages (ages 1 to 12). Melissa impressed my by playing catch with a 4 yo and a 3 yo at the softball game.
So we compensated by having what little school we had in interesting places. We had school on the trampoline one day and at the laundromat another day (thanks to dryer breaking when we are ultra-behind on laundry lol).
Literature: We finished another chapter in Wind and the Willows. I have to say these are the longest chapters. It takes days to do one. We didn't get to any of our other literature books though.Reading: Both kids read Minstrel in the Tower. H reread parts of Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare. Melissa continued Spy for the Night Riders.
Writing: Melissa made a new outline for her megalodon report, wrote an email to one of the stables to request a tour and wrote in her journal. H wrote a paper comparing Samurais and Vikings. He also composed a multiple choice quiz on Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare.
Language Arts: Our homeschool group is having a spelling bee this week so they took the list of words and divided how many words per day to study this week (after subtracting words they studied last week) and made flash cards for words they had missed in pretesting each other. They did this own their own without any input from me! They practiced typing several times.
Spanish: Rosetta Stone
Math: Melissa worked on capacity and did some review in Singapore 3B. H worked on adding and subtracting decimals.
Logic: M did an analogy exercise from Logic Countdown. H played a strategy board game about Samurais. We seemed to on a riddle kick this week.
Science: They played a game of Elementeo. We also dug for fossils, sorted and classified them.
Nature Studies: We read a chapter from Burgess Bird Book on oven birds and red-tail hawks. We continued identifying birds from our window and on a nature walk. We went to a pond study at Prairie Ridge Eco-Station and also went there for a walk in the aroborteum with a naturalist. They pretended to be prey and predator in the tall grass. We discovered a cocoon and a crysalis too. Our most fun was noticing that there were two types of buttercups. One had more white and was slightly more open and a lot shinier than the typical buttercup. We also went to a horse show.
Geography: We read about the Mongols in our Marco Polo book. We also located San Diego and several of the West Indian Islands on our map.
History: We read about Queen Elizabeth, Bloody Mary, Anne of Askew, Columbus and the Viking presence in North America.
Art History: We read more from our biography on Michelangelo and did a good study on the Sistine Chapel.
PE: They had gymnastics this week. Melissa had tumbling and a cheer clinic. Harrison had the father son football game and a baseball game. Of course we had some trampoline time as well and a playdate at the park.
Religion: Melissa had Awanas. Harrison has decided to just read by my classroom instead. We went to Easter services. We also discussed some variations in different protestant beliefs, why different people have different tolerance levels of different things, etc.
Music: Harrison had a guitar lesson and practiced.
Other: We watched Quest for Camelot and compared it to the Arthurian legends that we read earlier in the year. We went to of DH's softball games and tonight, Melissa and I are going to see her friends perform a play. Harrison got a deck of marked cards in his Easter basket and practiced with those all week.
We also had various social experiences. Melissa's godfather is living with us temporarily while he househunts in the area and he arrived this week and his mom came with him for the drive. He just had surgury on his neck and can't eat alone. So they had plenty of time learning how to be polite with older adults that they don't know as well as those they do. We had a park playdate with multiple ages (ages 1 to 12). Melissa impressed my by playing catch with a 4 yo and a 3 yo at the softball game.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Weekly Report 4/10
We had spring break this week so not too much going on. It was truly an "unschooling" week. We spent two days at my mother's house and then started spring cleaning! Melissa has been MIA some as she had a birthday party and a sleepover during the week.
Literature: Finished disk 2 of Wind and the Willows. We read a bit of the Grimm Sisters.
Reading: Melissa read a little bit of Spy for the Night Riders. Harrison finished Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare, read all of Swords, a bit of Two Towers, and started Twenty and Ten. He and I also had a discussion on Rover Saves Christmas that he read back in December.
Writing: Melissa did a DSI chat with another kid while we waited at guitar. They both wrote in their nature journals.
Language Arts: They quizzed each other on spelling words to prepare for spelling bee. Melissa needs a lot of work in this area as her school didn't stress spelling. They learned a few new vocabulary words while studying. We played "Correct Mom's Grammar." We went to the library and worked on library skills.
Math: We read various charts and graphs in e-bird. We did a lot of impromptu word problems with milage to Grandma's house (how many more miles, estimate how long will it take to get there, etc)
Nature Studies: We went on a nature walk. We followed a naturalist and collected data for e-bird at a local eco-station. We finished up the lessons requiring a chicken from Handbook of Naure Studies. Melissa and I also went to a horse show. Harrison watched a show on great white sharks.
Science: Harrison played World of Goo this week.
Geography: We located Cincinnati on the map. (Let's Go Mets!)
History: We had living history by attending the Renaissance Faire.
Music: Harrison went to guitar lessons and practiced. We played "find the beat."
Art: Drawing in nature journals. Melissa made earrings with my sister.
PE: Football practice and baseball game. Gymnastics class. Trampoline jumping.
Other: They watched the newer parent trap movie with Lindsey Lohan and compared and contrasted it to the one with Haley Mills. They decided they like the older one best.
Harrison watched Eragon with his father and they compared it with the book.
Literature: Finished disk 2 of Wind and the Willows. We read a bit of the Grimm Sisters.
Reading: Melissa read a little bit of Spy for the Night Riders. Harrison finished Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare, read all of Swords, a bit of Two Towers, and started Twenty and Ten. He and I also had a discussion on Rover Saves Christmas that he read back in December.
Writing: Melissa did a DSI chat with another kid while we waited at guitar. They both wrote in their nature journals.
Language Arts: They quizzed each other on spelling words to prepare for spelling bee. Melissa needs a lot of work in this area as her school didn't stress spelling. They learned a few new vocabulary words while studying. We played "Correct Mom's Grammar." We went to the library and worked on library skills.
Math: We read various charts and graphs in e-bird. We did a lot of impromptu word problems with milage to Grandma's house (how many more miles, estimate how long will it take to get there, etc)
Nature Studies: We went on a nature walk. We followed a naturalist and collected data for e-bird at a local eco-station. We finished up the lessons requiring a chicken from Handbook of Naure Studies. Melissa and I also went to a horse show. Harrison watched a show on great white sharks.
Science: Harrison played World of Goo this week.
Geography: We located Cincinnati on the map. (Let's Go Mets!)
History: We had living history by attending the Renaissance Faire.
Music: Harrison went to guitar lessons and practiced. We played "find the beat."
Art: Drawing in nature journals. Melissa made earrings with my sister.
PE: Football practice and baseball game. Gymnastics class. Trampoline jumping.
Other: They watched the newer parent trap movie with Lindsey Lohan and compared and contrasted it to the one with Haley Mills. They decided they like the older one best.
Harrison watched Eragon with his father and they compared it with the book.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Weekly Report 4/3/09
Well, this was my first week homeschooling two children. I have to admit the first couple days were quite tough. They have trouble getting along. However, as the week progressed, attitutudes improved and we are all enjoying each other. I had to lighten academics for awhile so that we can get a groove going.
Literature: We continued reading Sister's Grimm and listened to Wind and the Willows on audio.
Harrison and I continued with Pilgrim's Progress, Queen of Sorcery, and Robin Hood.
Reading: Melissa is reading Spy for the Night Riders, a Trailblazers book on Martin Luther and she read some picture books aloud to a dog at the library. Harrison is read Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare and most of Minstrel in the Tower.
Writing: Melissa made a birthday card, wrote a thank you letter, and has been working on a research report on megalodons. Harrison has been copying Iron Man lyrics for copywork.
Language Arts: We made up new sentences for favorite songs, played Boggle, and went over spelling bee words. They both practiced typing daily.
Spanish: Rosetta Stone
Math: Melissa did some problems with length and weight from Singapore 3B. H worked on 3 reviews in Singapore 4B. They both did a chapter in Life of Fred. They had a decimal hunt around the house and got a lot of fraction practice in our experiments and crafts because for some reason I never seem to have the right measuring cup ;) .
Logic: Melissa did 3 exercises in Logic Countdown on pictorial analogies. Harrison did several exercises on induction.
Computer: Melissa had some lessons in setting up a computer, created a blog (it's just a shell right now- she's working on content), and created an excel spread sheet for her horse research project.
Nature Studies: We continued reading Tale of Reddy Woodpecker. We added a few new birds to out bird list in our nature journal. We continued taking care of baby chicks, they are about 3/4 of the way feathered now. We took dog to vet and interviewed the veternarian. We had a discussion about avoiding bee stings and looked at youtube videos of people who cover themselves with bees.
Science: We made silly putty with a kit and a homemade recipe that uses borax and bought the real deal and learned about polymers. We got a new game this week called Elementeo that we've played numerous times. I will write a review soon. We watched a documentary on prehistoric sea creatures.
Geography: We found our Marco Polo book and we've gotten to China. We learned about the Great Wall of China and the Terra Cotta Warriors. We made our own Terra Cotta Army.
Melissa got caught up on the countriese that once comprised the present day United Kingdom. We located Spain, Portugal, Bahamas, Cuba, Germany, Netherlands (as Holland), and Switzerland in various lessons we had this week.
History: We focused on some of the leaders of the Reformation this week. We learned about Martin Luther and watched the Trial at Worms on video. We learned about William Tyndale and John Calvin too. We continued studying Columbus and Henry VIII, Edward VI, Jane Grey, and Bloody Mary.
Harrison read a book on Medieval weapons and another book on swords around the world. We watched part of the Passion of Joan of Arc but the silent movie format was a bit too "boring" to hold their interest too long. They did like discussing how much movies have changed though.
Art: We continued reading our biography on Michelangelo (we read about the Medici family and his creation of the Pieta). Our art narration this week was the Pieta.
Craft wise, they worked together to create a bunny basket for Melissa to take to the Homeschool Easter Party. Harrison didn't want a decorated one though (too girlish). Melissa also made some tissue paper flowers.
Music: H had guitar and is practicing his duet. We focused on the hymn Our God is a Mighty Fortress by Martin Luther for music appreciation.
PE: We did a family walk and they played on the trampoline almost everyday. They both did the homeschool gymnastics class and M had tumbling too. Football and baseball were canceled due to rain.
Home-Ec: Major focus on chores.
Religion: Memory work, church history, and Awanas.
Literature: We continued reading Sister's Grimm and listened to Wind and the Willows on audio.
Harrison and I continued with Pilgrim's Progress, Queen of Sorcery, and Robin Hood.
Reading: Melissa is reading Spy for the Night Riders, a Trailblazers book on Martin Luther and she read some picture books aloud to a dog at the library. Harrison is read Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare and most of Minstrel in the Tower.
Writing: Melissa made a birthday card, wrote a thank you letter, and has been working on a research report on megalodons. Harrison has been copying Iron Man lyrics for copywork.
Language Arts: We made up new sentences for favorite songs, played Boggle, and went over spelling bee words. They both practiced typing daily.
Spanish: Rosetta Stone
Math: Melissa did some problems with length and weight from Singapore 3B. H worked on 3 reviews in Singapore 4B. They both did a chapter in Life of Fred. They had a decimal hunt around the house and got a lot of fraction practice in our experiments and crafts because for some reason I never seem to have the right measuring cup ;) .
Logic: Melissa did 3 exercises in Logic Countdown on pictorial analogies. Harrison did several exercises on induction.
Computer: Melissa had some lessons in setting up a computer, created a blog (it's just a shell right now- she's working on content), and created an excel spread sheet for her horse research project.
Nature Studies: We continued reading Tale of Reddy Woodpecker. We added a few new birds to out bird list in our nature journal. We continued taking care of baby chicks, they are about 3/4 of the way feathered now. We took dog to vet and interviewed the veternarian. We had a discussion about avoiding bee stings and looked at youtube videos of people who cover themselves with bees.
Science: We made silly putty with a kit and a homemade recipe that uses borax and bought the real deal and learned about polymers. We got a new game this week called Elementeo that we've played numerous times. I will write a review soon. We watched a documentary on prehistoric sea creatures.
Geography: We found our Marco Polo book and we've gotten to China. We learned about the Great Wall of China and the Terra Cotta Warriors. We made our own Terra Cotta Army.
Melissa got caught up on the countriese that once comprised the present day United Kingdom. We located Spain, Portugal, Bahamas, Cuba, Germany, Netherlands (as Holland), and Switzerland in various lessons we had this week.
History: We focused on some of the leaders of the Reformation this week. We learned about Martin Luther and watched the Trial at Worms on video. We learned about William Tyndale and John Calvin too. We continued studying Columbus and Henry VIII, Edward VI, Jane Grey, and Bloody Mary.
Harrison read a book on Medieval weapons and another book on swords around the world. We watched part of the Passion of Joan of Arc but the silent movie format was a bit too "boring" to hold their interest too long. They did like discussing how much movies have changed though.
Art: We continued reading our biography on Michelangelo (we read about the Medici family and his creation of the Pieta). Our art narration this week was the Pieta.
Craft wise, they worked together to create a bunny basket for Melissa to take to the Homeschool Easter Party. Harrison didn't want a decorated one though (too girlish). Melissa also made some tissue paper flowers.
Music: H had guitar and is practicing his duet. We focused on the hymn Our God is a Mighty Fortress by Martin Luther for music appreciation.
PE: We did a family walk and they played on the trampoline almost everyday. They both did the homeschool gymnastics class and M had tumbling too. Football and baseball were canceled due to rain.
Home-Ec: Major focus on chores.
Religion: Memory work, church history, and Awanas.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Weekly Report 3/27
Oh this was one of those weeks! I feel we got nothing done. We had an all day field trip on Tuesday and we had the Iowa testing for three days. Harrison was so drained from just the act of sitting still that long so we dropped a lot of our normal stuff!
On the good side, Friday marked Melissa's last day in government school. I will have to change my profile to homeschooling two kids next week!!
Literature: Harrison and I read our Chapter of Pilgrim's Progress Book Two this week. We got a little reading done in Queen of Sorcery. Boy that title really sounds evil doesn't it. It's the second book in the Belgariad series by David Eddings. For those that know me as AuntPol on the WTM boards, my user name is from a character in that series.
Both kids listened to Wind and the Willows and listened to Sisters Grimm.
Reading: Harrison read quite a bit of Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare. I think he only got a little Two Towers in.
Melissa read some more about horses and just started The Lightening Thief.
Writing: Harrison didn't have any writing assignments this week. Since writing is his least favorite subject and most likely to cause anxiety, I decided to skip due to testing. However, He did make a list of military ranks for the Army and Marine Corps.
Langauage Arts: We played some Boggle to work on word patterns. He did one round of Word Roots and he played some vocabulary games at Word Central. He had grammar, spelling, punctuation, vocabulary, etc on the test.
Math: We did manage to get all our scheduled Singaporemath lessons. We are still doing decimals and Harrison is flying through them. We didn't get to the challenge math or Life of Fred this week.
Nature Studies: We went to Museum of Natural Science and looked at arthopod exhibit, butterfly room and a tropics exhibit. We did some bird watching from our window. We weren't able to add any new birds to our list but we enjoyed the ones we saw. Both kids found a four leaf clover this week. Both kids continue to observe the chickens. It looks like Melissa's prediction that one of the chicks was a male (based on his beak) is true. We see the beginnings of a comb.
Melissa and I went to tour the place where she is going to horse camp this summer. We took my mom and sister and had a picnic by the stables. We hiked and she planted some flowers there.
Science: We discussed the properties of water. For those with a sense of humor, you should check out this video, We Will Rock You. It's quite hilarious.
History: We continued reading about Portuguese explorers. Vasco de Gama, Affonso d"Albequerque, and Columbus. He also played related sections of Age of Empires. We had a big discussion on trade monopolies. We also read about Henry VIII and watched a documentary on William the Conqueror.
Melissa went to Old Salem this week as a school field trip. She really enjoyed it and told me many things that she learned.
Civics: We had a field trip to the State Legislature. We met with several representatives and one of the state senators. We looked in on some committee meetings and looked at some of the lobbyists displays.
H is learning about military ranks and how the military is structured. He's also recreated several famous battles with his army men.
Music: H practiced guitar and had his lesson. He's working on timing and was introduced to the metronome this week.
Music Appreciation: We didn't get to Bach this week but we did enjoy hearing Ode to Joy and The Nutcracker in the movie Angels in the Infield.
PE: H had one baseball practice and one football practice. Everything else was rained out. He went to gymnastics and jumped on trampoline at home. He also went shooting (bb and pellet guns) with Dad and Grandpa.
M had tumbling and jumped on trampoline at home. We all managed to get one good walk in before the rain came.
Other: We had a clothing, toy and book swap in our homeschool group and then organized, boxed and bagged up the non-swapped things for charity. H was a good gentlemen and helped a younger friend take her heavy box to the car. My favorite moment was watching Harrison and three girls carrying this HUGE box of stuff.
On the good side, Friday marked Melissa's last day in government school. I will have to change my profile to homeschooling two kids next week!!
Literature: Harrison and I read our Chapter of Pilgrim's Progress Book Two this week. We got a little reading done in Queen of Sorcery. Boy that title really sounds evil doesn't it. It's the second book in the Belgariad series by David Eddings. For those that know me as AuntPol on the WTM boards, my user name is from a character in that series.
Both kids listened to Wind and the Willows and listened to Sisters Grimm.
Reading: Harrison read quite a bit of Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare. I think he only got a little Two Towers in.
Melissa read some more about horses and just started The Lightening Thief.
Writing: Harrison didn't have any writing assignments this week. Since writing is his least favorite subject and most likely to cause anxiety, I decided to skip due to testing. However, He did make a list of military ranks for the Army and Marine Corps.
Langauage Arts: We played some Boggle to work on word patterns. He did one round of Word Roots and he played some vocabulary games at Word Central. He had grammar, spelling, punctuation, vocabulary, etc on the test.
Math: We did manage to get all our scheduled Singaporemath lessons. We are still doing decimals and Harrison is flying through them. We didn't get to the challenge math or Life of Fred this week.
Nature Studies: We went to Museum of Natural Science and looked at arthopod exhibit, butterfly room and a tropics exhibit. We did some bird watching from our window. We weren't able to add any new birds to our list but we enjoyed the ones we saw. Both kids found a four leaf clover this week. Both kids continue to observe the chickens. It looks like Melissa's prediction that one of the chicks was a male (based on his beak) is true. We see the beginnings of a comb.
Melissa and I went to tour the place where she is going to horse camp this summer. We took my mom and sister and had a picnic by the stables. We hiked and she planted some flowers there.
Science: We discussed the properties of water. For those with a sense of humor, you should check out this video, We Will Rock You. It's quite hilarious.
History: We continued reading about Portuguese explorers. Vasco de Gama, Affonso d"Albequerque, and Columbus. He also played related sections of Age of Empires. We had a big discussion on trade monopolies. We also read about Henry VIII and watched a documentary on William the Conqueror.
Melissa went to Old Salem this week as a school field trip. She really enjoyed it and told me many things that she learned.
Civics: We had a field trip to the State Legislature. We met with several representatives and one of the state senators. We looked in on some committee meetings and looked at some of the lobbyists displays.
H is learning about military ranks and how the military is structured. He's also recreated several famous battles with his army men.
Music: H practiced guitar and had his lesson. He's working on timing and was introduced to the metronome this week.
Music Appreciation: We didn't get to Bach this week but we did enjoy hearing Ode to Joy and The Nutcracker in the movie Angels in the Infield.
PE: H had one baseball practice and one football practice. Everything else was rained out. He went to gymnastics and jumped on trampoline at home. He also went shooting (bb and pellet guns) with Dad and Grandpa.
M had tumbling and jumped on trampoline at home. We all managed to get one good walk in before the rain came.
Other: We had a clothing, toy and book swap in our homeschool group and then organized, boxed and bagged up the non-swapped things for charity. H was a good gentlemen and helped a younger friend take her heavy box to the car. My favorite moment was watching Harrison and three girls carrying this HUGE box of stuff.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Weekly Report 3/20/09
Mom, please don’t talk to me for awhile. I am going to be deep in thought.
That sums up this week! We had a lot of thinking going on. This was a week of never-ending rain. It finally cleared up enough for us to meet some friends at the park on Friday. DS took his Nerf gun and had a blast! I think the entire line of mothers spit out their lemonade when he ran across the park picking up Nerf bullets and screaming, “A bullet, a bullet, my kingdom for a bullet!”
Literature: We finished our lunchtime audio book of Frindle this week. What a great book for discussing protagonists and antagonists! We continued listening to The Wind and the Willows in the car. That story is such a delight. We did our weekly chapter of Pilgrim’s Progress Book Two. We also read several chapters in Robin Hood, Queen of Sorcery, and Grimm Sisters. The latter is supposed to be the book that I read to his sister while he bathes but he’s been listening in.
** My afterschooler listened in on Wind and the Willows and Grimm Sisters.
Reading: He’s still reading Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. He’s been playing a LOTR game on the computer which led to pick up his copy of Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare.
**DD is reading several non-fiction books on horses, Warriors series, and just finished Penderwicks and Inkheart. We went to the movies to see Inkheart this week. She discussed how it compared to the book and DS discussed how it had elements from LOTR.
Writing: He wrote a letter to his pen pal (and I promise I will mail it this weekend) and he created an ad for a video game contest, complete with rules and prizes.
**My afterschooler wrote a letter to one of her friends at school. Unfortunately, another child rifled through her bookbag, stole the letter and turned it into the teacher. DD ended up with silent lunch even though the letter was written at home, not out during school time, and contained nothing mean or malicious.
Language Arts: DS went through his list of trouble words and used them in his commonplace journal this week. We also had a blast playing around with alliteration this week. H played a few games of Text Twist/Word Challenge and learned about word patterns. We played a game of Scrabble too. He also played Word Roots, Rosetta Stone Spanish, and typing games on the computer.
Math: DS continues working with decimals in his Singapore workbook and did a page in his CWP book. We played a few rounds of Monopoly and he played a little bit of Lure of the Labyrinth. We did some mental math in the car.
** Both kids did one chapter of Life of Fred Fractions this week.
Logic/Critical Thinking: The game of the week on the computer has been one of the Lord of the Rings games. We also played some Lord of the Rings Risk. I forgot to pack his logic book in our Tuesday bag and he got mad at me LOL! He did manage to squeeze in an inference exercise from it later in the week
**DH kept them both entertained with numerous riddles throughout the week.
Nature Studies: He and I continued reading The Tale of Reddy Woodpecker this week. We have been studying the birds that we can see through the window and trying to identify bird calls that we can hear. We did learn the difference between a bluebird and blue jay.
**DD continued working on her horse lapbook and writing her own non-fiction horse book. She went on two small nature hikes and found a 4-leaf clover on each!
Other Science: Due to his irrational fear of vampires and zombies that have caused problems in our daily life (he is afraid to go upstairs alone –no problem walking all over the neighborhood or going downstairs alone to play video games LOL), DS and DH have been studying the science behind vampire legends: diseases that have “vampire like” symptoms and the effects of dehydration and decomposition on corpses leading to “vampire traits”.
Health: We watched a parody of Star Wars called Grocery Store Wars on Youtube. It was about eating organics. We enjoyed that and discussed food engineering and pesticides, etc.
History/Geography: Our Marco Polo book has been temporarily (I hope) misplaced. We did do some mapwork on Africa and India as we studied Prince Henry the Navigator, Bartholomew Diaz, and Vasco de Gama. We also studied Gutenberg and King Henry VII, the first of the Tudor line of Kings.
**We watched the Court Jester as a family.
Religion: DS and I had some good talks from our Pilgrim’s Progress reading. He also had a lot of thoughts about evolution and creation.
Both kids worked on memory work and went to church and Awanas.
Art History: (Both) We continue studying and reading about Michelangelo.
Art: Use of lines to draw different perspectives.
Music Appreciation: (Both) Continuing to listen to Bach.
Music: DS is practicing a duet to play with his instructor.
PE: He worked on the rings and the climbing rope in Gymnastics. At home, he continues working in on his flips on the trampoline. Both football and baseball were rained out this week but he managed to get some skills practice in with DH.
**DD also had her tumbling class and practiced on the trampoline. She is working on her back tuck right now. She and I went to the track and did a few laps.
That sums up this week! We had a lot of thinking going on. This was a week of never-ending rain. It finally cleared up enough for us to meet some friends at the park on Friday. DS took his Nerf gun and had a blast! I think the entire line of mothers spit out their lemonade when he ran across the park picking up Nerf bullets and screaming, “A bullet, a bullet, my kingdom for a bullet!”
Literature: We finished our lunchtime audio book of Frindle this week. What a great book for discussing protagonists and antagonists! We continued listening to The Wind and the Willows in the car. That story is such a delight. We did our weekly chapter of Pilgrim’s Progress Book Two. We also read several chapters in Robin Hood, Queen of Sorcery, and Grimm Sisters. The latter is supposed to be the book that I read to his sister while he bathes but he’s been listening in.
** My afterschooler listened in on Wind and the Willows and Grimm Sisters.
Reading: He’s still reading Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. He’s been playing a LOTR game on the computer which led to pick up his copy of Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare.
**DD is reading several non-fiction books on horses, Warriors series, and just finished Penderwicks and Inkheart. We went to the movies to see Inkheart this week. She discussed how it compared to the book and DS discussed how it had elements from LOTR.
Writing: He wrote a letter to his pen pal (and I promise I will mail it this weekend) and he created an ad for a video game contest, complete with rules and prizes.
**My afterschooler wrote a letter to one of her friends at school. Unfortunately, another child rifled through her bookbag, stole the letter and turned it into the teacher. DD ended up with silent lunch even though the letter was written at home, not out during school time, and contained nothing mean or malicious.
Language Arts: DS went through his list of trouble words and used them in his commonplace journal this week. We also had a blast playing around with alliteration this week. H played a few games of Text Twist/Word Challenge and learned about word patterns. We played a game of Scrabble too. He also played Word Roots, Rosetta Stone Spanish, and typing games on the computer.
Math: DS continues working with decimals in his Singapore workbook and did a page in his CWP book. We played a few rounds of Monopoly and he played a little bit of Lure of the Labyrinth. We did some mental math in the car.
** Both kids did one chapter of Life of Fred Fractions this week.
Logic/Critical Thinking: The game of the week on the computer has been one of the Lord of the Rings games. We also played some Lord of the Rings Risk. I forgot to pack his logic book in our Tuesday bag and he got mad at me LOL! He did manage to squeeze in an inference exercise from it later in the week
**DH kept them both entertained with numerous riddles throughout the week.
Nature Studies: He and I continued reading The Tale of Reddy Woodpecker this week. We have been studying the birds that we can see through the window and trying to identify bird calls that we can hear. We did learn the difference between a bluebird and blue jay.
**DD continued working on her horse lapbook and writing her own non-fiction horse book. She went on two small nature hikes and found a 4-leaf clover on each!
Other Science: Due to his irrational fear of vampires and zombies that have caused problems in our daily life (he is afraid to go upstairs alone –no problem walking all over the neighborhood or going downstairs alone to play video games LOL), DS and DH have been studying the science behind vampire legends: diseases that have “vampire like” symptoms and the effects of dehydration and decomposition on corpses leading to “vampire traits”.
Health: We watched a parody of Star Wars called Grocery Store Wars on Youtube. It was about eating organics. We enjoyed that and discussed food engineering and pesticides, etc.
History/Geography: Our Marco Polo book has been temporarily (I hope) misplaced. We did do some mapwork on Africa and India as we studied Prince Henry the Navigator, Bartholomew Diaz, and Vasco de Gama. We also studied Gutenberg and King Henry VII, the first of the Tudor line of Kings.
**We watched the Court Jester as a family.
Religion: DS and I had some good talks from our Pilgrim’s Progress reading. He also had a lot of thoughts about evolution and creation.
Both kids worked on memory work and went to church and Awanas.
Art History: (Both) We continue studying and reading about Michelangelo.
Art: Use of lines to draw different perspectives.
Music Appreciation: (Both) Continuing to listen to Bach.
Music: DS is practicing a duet to play with his instructor.
PE: He worked on the rings and the climbing rope in Gymnastics. At home, he continues working in on his flips on the trampoline. Both football and baseball were rained out this week but he managed to get some skills practice in with DH.
**DD also had her tumbling class and practiced on the trampoline. She is working on her back tuck right now. She and I went to the track and did a few laps.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Weekly Summary 3/13/09
This week was such a light week -we had three gorgous days earlier in the week and took full advantage of them. The latter half of the week, it was rainy and dreary. I had to work those days anyway and he was in the office. I can't believe how fast this week went!
Literature: We continued Pilgrim's Progress Book Two. We also read two chapters in Robin Hood We continute listening to Wind and the Willows in the car and 2 chapters of Frindle at lunch. We're through chapter 8 in Queen of Sorcery.
Reading: He continues reading Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
Composition: This week, he wrote a synopsis for several Cyberchase shows and let his sister pick one to watch based on the synopsis.
Penmanship: Continued copywork journal
Typing: Same old practice....
Vocabulary: Two rounds of Word Roots.
Spanish: Worked on Rosetta Stone.
Math: We started Singapore 4B and thus decimals.. We watched some Cyberchase. He also did one page in his Challenge Word Problems (CWP) book. However, the highlight of the week was playing Lure of the Labyrinth.
Logic: He did 11 pages in his Logic Countdown book. Most of these were the section on deduction. This led to him doing some level 1 logic problems from my logic problem books.
Nature Studies: We diverted from Burgess Bird Book to start The Tale of Reddy Woodpecker by Arthur Scott Bailey. We watched some youtube videos on woodpeckers and continued our nature walks -observing some birds at play.
Science: I don't think we did any science this week but play with catapults and build a lego ship....
History: Our history readings this week revolved around the War of the Roses. He also played some Crusader Stronghold.
Geography: We continue our reading about Marco Polo, concentrating on his coming into China and learning about Buddhism and I pulled out a jade buddha statue that I was given when I worked in China Town many moons ago. We also looked at a map of Italy in the Renaissance times.
Art History: We continue our unit on Michelangelo with a study of The Creation of Adam. We discussed the technique of fresco. We also began Diane Stanley's biography on Michelangelo.
Art: We used our line drawing skills to learn how to draw grass and flowers.
Music Appreciation: We continue our study on Bach. This week we focused on Air on the G-String
Music: Guitar practice and lesson. He's working on Surf Rock. He had some transcription homework.
Religious Studies: He continued his memory work and worked on several Awana lessons during the week.
PE: Gymnastics class-worked on jumping and catching. He also started football over the weekend and baseball this week!! He and his father played catch several times.
Home-Ec: He was a house cleaning slave this week -just ask him!
Literature: We continued Pilgrim's Progress Book Two. We also read two chapters in Robin Hood We continute listening to Wind and the Willows in the car and 2 chapters of Frindle at lunch. We're through chapter 8 in Queen of Sorcery.
Reading: He continues reading Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
Composition: This week, he wrote a synopsis for several Cyberchase shows and let his sister pick one to watch based on the synopsis.
Penmanship: Continued copywork journal
Typing: Same old practice....
Vocabulary: Two rounds of Word Roots.
Spanish: Worked on Rosetta Stone.
Math: We started Singapore 4B and thus decimals.. We watched some Cyberchase. He also did one page in his Challenge Word Problems (CWP) book. However, the highlight of the week was playing Lure of the Labyrinth.
Logic: He did 11 pages in his Logic Countdown book. Most of these were the section on deduction. This led to him doing some level 1 logic problems from my logic problem books.
Nature Studies: We diverted from Burgess Bird Book to start The Tale of Reddy Woodpecker by Arthur Scott Bailey. We watched some youtube videos on woodpeckers and continued our nature walks -observing some birds at play.
Science: I don't think we did any science this week but play with catapults and build a lego ship....
History: Our history readings this week revolved around the War of the Roses. He also played some Crusader Stronghold.
Geography: We continue our reading about Marco Polo, concentrating on his coming into China and learning about Buddhism and I pulled out a jade buddha statue that I was given when I worked in China Town many moons ago. We also looked at a map of Italy in the Renaissance times.
Art History: We continue our unit on Michelangelo with a study of The Creation of Adam. We discussed the technique of fresco. We also began Diane Stanley's biography on Michelangelo.
Art: We used our line drawing skills to learn how to draw grass and flowers.
Music Appreciation: We continue our study on Bach. This week we focused on Air on the G-String
Music: Guitar practice and lesson. He's working on Surf Rock. He had some transcription homework.
Religious Studies: He continued his memory work and worked on several Awana lessons during the week.
PE: Gymnastics class-worked on jumping and catching. He also started football over the weekend and baseball this week!! He and his father played catch several times.
Home-Ec: He was a house cleaning slave this week -just ask him!
Friday, March 6, 2009
Weekly Report 3/6/09
What an interesting week. Monday, my daughter was home from school because of snow and now today we were in shorts!!! Our schedule was disrupted with her snow day on Monday, a 2 hour delay (ice) on Tuesday. Thursday was a half day. She has an Odyssey of the Mind competition this weekend and so we've had all kinds of extra practices to fit in.
So this week:
Literature: We started Pilgrim's Progress Book Two. We did a lot of work with predictions and discussed how it amazingly follows our own spiritual journey. My son (who's still thinking of what he wants to be called online) said that we should name our scaredy cat "Timorance". This cat is scared of everthing and hides under the bed all day long.
We also read a chapter in Robin Hood
We continute listening to Wind and the Willows in the car and 6 chapters of Frindle at lunch.
We're through chapter 5 in Queen of Sorcery.
Boy it looks like we read a lot when you put it down on "paper"
Reading: He continues reading Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
Composition: This week, he wrote advice columns to work on paragraph structure. He and his sister took turns writing letters with a problem and then answering the other's letter with advice.
Penmanship: He did a little bit in his copywork book but composition, copywork, and a lapbook ended up being "too much" writing so we lightened up here.
Typing: Same old practice....
Vocabulary: Two rounds of Word Roots. He FINALLY had his "aha" moment that he's learning something from this during the week.
Spanish: Worked on Rosetta Stone.
Math: We finished up Singapore 4A and played some fun review games. We watched Cyberchase episode on decimals to prepare us for 4B next week. He also did one page in his Challenge Word Problem (CWP) book. Played a few rounds of Timez Attack and is pestering me to get the upgrade.
Nature Studies: Three chapters of Burgess Bird Book -learned about tree swallows, swifts, purple martins, barn swallowsm crows, and meadowlarks. We watched some video clips on identifying these birds and observed birds in our neighborhood. We had a real fun nature walk and watched a squirrel hop from tree to tree. We also found a broken bird egg to take home and examine.
Science: The bulk of our science was the physics of archery. We did several experiments to learn about motion, force, speed, and gravity.
Both kids built a bridge between two trees that fallen across the creek.
He continued working with legos and built the Dwarf Mine kit and a catapult.
History:Learned about John Wycliffe, John Huss, Joan of Arc, and Prince Henry the Navigator.
Played a multi-player game of Age of Empires 2. He also added several components on archery to his lapbook on Medieval Weaponry.
Geography: We continue our reading about Marco Polo and learning about Afghanistan. We also mapped some of the areas that Prince Henry's ships navigated and learned that he never actually sailed on any of the voyages.
Art History: We begin our unit on Michelangelo with a study on "David". This was a great introduction on perspective because from the traditional side view, David looks rather like he is dreaming. However, from the front, you can see that he looks focused on where he is going to sling the rock that is in his right hand. We also discussed how he was model on the Greek ideal of man and he was not circumsized like a Jewish man would have been.
Art: We worked on the technique of line drawing.
Music Appreciation: We continue our study on Baroque composers with a unit on Bach. This week we focused on Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.
Music: Guitar practice and lesson. He's working on Rockin Robin.
Religious Studies: He continued his memory work and worked on several Awana lessons during the week.
PE: Gymnastics class-worked on balance beam and high jumping. (Plus the usual playing at home, trampoline, hiking, biking, etc)
Home-Ec: We made Raisin Bran muffins. I taught him how to make your own buttermilk and what it means to beat eggs.
So this week:
Literature: We started Pilgrim's Progress Book Two. We did a lot of work with predictions and discussed how it amazingly follows our own spiritual journey. My son (who's still thinking of what he wants to be called online) said that we should name our scaredy cat "Timorance". This cat is scared of everthing and hides under the bed all day long.
We also read a chapter in Robin Hood
We continute listening to Wind and the Willows in the car and 6 chapters of Frindle at lunch.
We're through chapter 5 in Queen of Sorcery.
Boy it looks like we read a lot when you put it down on "paper"
Reading: He continues reading Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
Composition: This week, he wrote advice columns to work on paragraph structure. He and his sister took turns writing letters with a problem and then answering the other's letter with advice.
Penmanship: He did a little bit in his copywork book but composition, copywork, and a lapbook ended up being "too much" writing so we lightened up here.
Typing: Same old practice....
Vocabulary: Two rounds of Word Roots. He FINALLY had his "aha" moment that he's learning something from this during the week.
Spanish: Worked on Rosetta Stone.
Math: We finished up Singapore 4A and played some fun review games. We watched Cyberchase episode on decimals to prepare us for 4B next week. He also did one page in his Challenge Word Problem (CWP) book. Played a few rounds of Timez Attack and is pestering me to get the upgrade.
Nature Studies: Three chapters of Burgess Bird Book -learned about tree swallows, swifts, purple martins, barn swallowsm crows, and meadowlarks. We watched some video clips on identifying these birds and observed birds in our neighborhood. We had a real fun nature walk and watched a squirrel hop from tree to tree. We also found a broken bird egg to take home and examine.
Science: The bulk of our science was the physics of archery. We did several experiments to learn about motion, force, speed, and gravity.
Both kids built a bridge between two trees that fallen across the creek.
He continued working with legos and built the Dwarf Mine kit and a catapult.
History:Learned about John Wycliffe, John Huss, Joan of Arc, and Prince Henry the Navigator.
Played a multi-player game of Age of Empires 2. He also added several components on archery to his lapbook on Medieval Weaponry.
Geography: We continue our reading about Marco Polo and learning about Afghanistan. We also mapped some of the areas that Prince Henry's ships navigated and learned that he never actually sailed on any of the voyages.
Art History: We begin our unit on Michelangelo with a study on "David". This was a great introduction on perspective because from the traditional side view, David looks rather like he is dreaming. However, from the front, you can see that he looks focused on where he is going to sling the rock that is in his right hand. We also discussed how he was model on the Greek ideal of man and he was not circumsized like a Jewish man would have been.
Art: We worked on the technique of line drawing.
Music Appreciation: We continue our study on Baroque composers with a unit on Bach. This week we focused on Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.
Music: Guitar practice and lesson. He's working on Rockin Robin.
Religious Studies: He continued his memory work and worked on several Awana lessons during the week.
PE: Gymnastics class-worked on balance beam and high jumping. (Plus the usual playing at home, trampoline, hiking, biking, etc)
Home-Ec: We made Raisin Bran muffins. I taught him how to make your own buttermilk and what it means to beat eggs.
Friday, February 27, 2009
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.
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.
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