Weekly Report: 2/22/10-2/26/10

We took last week off because Mommy and the girls got the yucky cold N-boy had the week before.  I was an impromptu decision.  The flexibility of year-round homeschooling.  It was a little hard to get back into schedule this week, but it went pretty well.

Memory Work:

Bible: we added Genesis 1:6.

Catechism/Creed: Still reading the Nicene Creed, there are enough similar phrases to the Apostle’s Creed to make it tricky.

Hymn: A Mighty Fortress.  I wish I could find a way to have the hymns we want to memorize played on piano/organ (not MIDI!) as we would sing them in church without the words sung.  We need the tempo, key, and notes but I don’t want to rely on the singers.

Manner: Moved this to breakfast time, but we’re enjoying the Polite Moments Book.

Poetry: Started My Shadow this week.  I’m also reading a poem every day for the week during Circle Time not to memorize.  This week we’ve been reading The New Colossus.

Counting:  I think we’ve got counting by 10s down.  Next week we start by 5s.

Other Memory Work:  They can all answer in complete sentences, “My parents are …”, “My Mommy is …”, “My Daddy is …”

Phonics:

M-girl: She’s learning about vowel blends for long A. 

N-boy: He worked on CVC short /o/ and short /u/ words.

R-girl: We read good stories and did the alphabet puzzle.

Math:

M-girl: loves MEP, puts up with Ray’s, and seems to be a worksheet girl.  Too bad, I’m not a worksheet mom.  We did Lesson 10 this week, next week onto the real addition.

N-boy: he’s working on his 10-100 number recognition.  Taking last week off helped him lose his 11-19 recognition, so we’ll keep plugging away.

R-girl:  she’s working on the Mighty Minds puzzles (and loves these).  She probably has the best spatial sight any of my children have had at this age.  She also made her 5 number page with pipe cleaners.

Grammar:

M-girl: FLL is thorough, but perhaps a bit slow.  We combined a couple of lessons yesterday.  She understands the concept of proper and common nouns, so as we introduce each of the different type of words that can be nouns, we talk about the proper and common nouns that fit that category.  M-girl is doing well with the poetry in FLL.

Penmanship: We’re enjoying Cursive First.  We got a table and chairs from my brother and sister-in-law which has a better writing surface, so now we’re doing some penmanship on paper which is nice.

Geography:  We’re studying Argentina this week.  The children colored pictures of the Argentine Flag and map, found Argentina on the globe, in the atlas, and on the wall map.  Wednesday we read short books about Argentina and a picture book set there, called On the Pampas, which they loved.

Spanish: We’ve started Spanish! Lesson 1 does some very introductory “My name is …,” type work.  We colored pictures of the characters in the story, of ourselves, and read some Spanish stories and poems.  My pronunciation is better than my vocabulary [grin]

Science: [sigh]

Art: [sigh]