Weekly Report Week 1: 1/10/2011-1/14/2011

We had a really wonderful first week.  Our Tuesday and Wednesday weren’t quite as wonderful as Monday, but they were still quite good for the first week back after break.  We ended our week with a field trip to the Newport Aquarium and an overnight with Grammy and Grandpa.  The Aquarium was nice and the children enjoyed it.  We saw the shark show where divers talk about the sharks in the tank and answer questions, an octopus all knotted up at the top of his tank, a 15′ alligator (pretty creepy), poisonous frogs, the shark tunnel where water surrounds you … and divers were in feeding the fish!  The penguin exhibit is currently closed for remodeling, and I suspect that is the reason one adult ticket gets two children in free through the end of February! It was certainly worth it to go even without the penguins. 

Memory Work:

Bible:We’re reviewing in January, so we’re adding back one day of creation each day.

Catechism/Creed: Again, reviewing the Apostle’s Creed which we learned last year.  We’re also reviewing catechism.  It is nice that with the Simply Charlotte Mason memory system, we can review a lot right away.

Hymn: Reviewing hymns from last year. 

Poetry:M-girl and N-boy about have Godfrey Gordon Gustavus Gore down … we’ll see how they do during recitation on this coming Saturday.  R-girl knows all of After the Party, I think I’m going to advance her even though she needs prompts to get the stanzas in order.

Counting:We reviewed counting to 100 by 1s, 5s, and 10s.

Other Memory Work: We reviewed Names, Parents, Phone # and Address.  We started learning the Continents and Oceans songs from Geography Songs.

Phonics:

N-boy: is moving right along in phonics, through Lesson 72.

R-girl: is working on lessons 1-3.  We’re taking our time.  We may do more Explode the Code together for a while.

Assigned Reading:

M-girl: is still reading Little House in the Big Woods.  She’ll finish someday.   She’s also reading aloud to me from the CLP K Nature Reader or McGuffey’s Reader 2.

N-boy: read all of Adventures of Little Bear.  He’s also been working his way through When We Were Very Young (his choice!) and enjoying it.  He read aloud to me from the I Spy readers.

Math:

M-girl: Math is still her favorite subject, always asking to do it first.  She’s working on adding up to 8s.

N-boy: Math seems to be a draw for N-boy too.  He’s working on 3s.

R-girl: Math is a favorite of R-girl’s, too! MEP Reception seems practically perfect for her age and ability.

Logic:

M-girl: M-girl is working through these on her own and doing a fine job.

N-boy: N-boy is working on Mindbenders Warm-up doing a question a day, and, like M-girl, doesn’t really get it yet, but we talk about it and it helps.

Grammar:

M-girl: We are almost done with FLL1! She’s learning about sentences and fragments.

N-boy: Has been doing a lovely job beginning FLL1.  He’s doing a nice job with learning about Nouns … and The Caterpillar.

Writing:

M-girl: We had a few frustrations with doing writing correctly.  She’s glad to write if it doesn’t have to follow the rules.  Once we got past that, she’s done a fantastic job with her narrations and copy work. 


Spelling:

M-girl: We’re working through the placement process.  She’s spelling really well.

Latin:

M-girl:  Not yet started.

Penmanship:

M-girl: She likes to write, and even does a good job with her copywork.  But she *hates* this.  We’re still doing it.

N-boy: He, also, will write a lot (but dislikes not spelling perfectly) on his own, but penmanship is despised.  He’s still doing it too.

History:

We read Chapter 1 from Story of the World and discussed what “History” is and what “Archaeology” is.  We decided to keep a family history this year and have been journaling our days every evening at dinner.  The children seem to be really enjoying this and have gone from not remembering anything to write in the book, to wanting to write too much!

Geography:

M-girl: She has worked through the first 3 pages from the Evan Moore Geography book and seems to enjoy it well enough.

Spanish: Not started yet.

Science: 

Well, we had the big field trip to the Aquarium! But we did start science on Tuesday; the first lesson from Elemental Science and supplemented with Gods Design Science (the plants book) and it was a great combination.  The children narrated and pasted pictures in the book and were done.  I need to get some potting soil so we can do the plant growing project.  We’ll probably continue Week 1 this week.

Art:

The children decorated cut-out people as themselves for the first day of school.  Fun 🙂

Read Alouds:

We continued with the Burgess Bird Book … only 6 more days (thankfully!),  A Child’s Book of Poems,  Milo Winter’s Aesop (wish I had the one with the CD, but have a pretty hardcover with colorful art that I bought used), The Mouse and the Motorcycle, The Jungle Book (there was a big python at the Aquarium and the kids called it Kaa [grin]), and the Vos Children’s Bible (Solomon has been crowned king).

Bible:

We did Lesson 1 in Covenantal Catechism, and I have to say I like it a lot.  We had a lot to sing, read, look up, and discuss.  I’m starting to think that if you’re doing the program orally, you could easily use only the Teacher’s Text.  We aren’t memorizing his questions and answers, but we talk about them and tie them into the Catechism for Young Children.  One week of lessons does not a curriculum make, but I’m really enjoying it so far.