Weekly Report: August 18-22, 2014
Our second week had its ups and downs. We had a rough beginning and middle, but the end
was much improved. We had the best Circle Times we’ve ever had, right at an hour of work. We accomplished a lot of work, but did we accomplish the best work?
I’ve been thinking about Brandy’s post from last year (thankful she reminded me of it) that difficulties and struggles are windows into character – mine and that of the children – and opportunities to train and disciple and teach character. I’ve also been thinking about her interview with Sarah of Amongst Lovely Things that is included in the Teaching from a State of Rest bundle (it’s on sale! right now through September 2, follow the link. I’ve not gotten into the book yet, and have only listened to this interview, but [whew] it’s fantastic!)
Onto the week.
Circle Time has been enjoyable. We’ve worked on our hymns, Bible, Catechism. We finished Poetry for Young People: William Blake. We started ‘The Tempest’ in Lamb’s Shakespeare (not loving the editing in the edition I bought [bleah]). We haven’t added all of our Memory Work, but I hope to do that next week.
Math this week has been tough. M-girl is working on multi-digit addition and subtraction. MEP teaches several different ways to do that, so coming up with the right one for her has been difficult. But we’re working through it. N-boy is in a section of lessons that are just *long* we’re taking 2 days per lesson: the teaching part and the worksheet part. There is a lot of order of operations and working with numbers up to 200. I’m glad I can give him some extra time to learn these lessons. R-girl is struggling. She knows how to do the problems, but does them in the least easy way at times. I think we’re going to take a break from MEP and have her do some review work on Khan Academy. They’ve added some elementary math components. We continued to work on Calculadder drills and it is obvious that we need to work on that!
We read one section (on Jamestown, Tobacco, and Slaves) in Story of the World they got a good understanding of Triangular Trade. We had been to Jamestown a year ago, so they were able to connect well to it. I wish we had accomplished more History this week though. Geography Blobbing continues to be a favorite activity – we need to start moving from tracing soon. The children did all finish reading Mystery of the Periodic Table in Science. I wish I had held off on this book for older readers.
In Literature, we’re reading The Silver Chair. They all finished Chapter 8 and did written narrations on it this week. They also worked on a bit of Writing and Rhetoric, studying one of Aesop’s fables about stubbornness. Perfect timing!
M-girl is learning how to diagram prepositional phrases in Grammar. N-boy is reading Grammar-Land and completing the worksheets. R-girl is working on finishing First Language Lessons 2, and doing a lot of review. We learned about antonyms and synonyms, reviewed sentence types, and reviewed types of verbs this week.
We watched Lesson 8 in Latin and learned about the neuter nouns. The children made their flash cards and worked in their lesson books this week. Next week we will do Activity book assignments as well as spend some time on Headventureland.
M-girl has been doing some programming on Khan Academy, and is joining a First Lego League team this year. She and I determined that she doesn’t need as much Nitro Type practice, so she’s going to switch her focus to Khan Academy. R-girl started Dance Mat Typing and is doing very well with it. N-boy is still practicing on Nitro Type.
All three children have continued with some copywork; M-girl and N-boy have completed the C S Lewis Quotes copywork I found, so they’re going to begin copying Westminster Shorter Catechism. I was pleased they offered a pdf and a back to school discount.
All three children have continued practicing piano, despite having no teacher for the time being. I really need to find someone soon!