Weekly Report Week 12: 3/28/2011-4/22/2011

Well, this week took about a month.  But we did it.  Finally got back into a full week of lessons this week, and it feels a lot better. On Tuesday, our friend Miss Laura came to do lessons with us, and we always have a lot of fun with her.  Plus, she teaches a lot of the lessons and I get to relax!

Memory Work: 

Bible: We have been slowly working on Psalm 130, and I think we’re very very close to knowing the whole thing.

Catechism/Creed: I think we have the big paragraph of the Nicene Creed down (R-girl was quoting at dinner tonight [smile]) and have made steady improvement on the catechism questions.

Hymn: We learned Smitten, Stricken, and Afflicted.  Taking the last month slowly means we won’t be learning Up From the Grave He Arose this year.  I’m OK with that.  We’ll start into Oh For a Thousand Tongues to Sing! instead.

Poetry: M-girl and N-boy both know Rosetti’s The Wind, R-girl is working on My Shadow and doing very well with it.

Counting: I think we’re really getting counting by even numbers.

Other Memory Work: We added some new science memory this week (What conditions are necessary for seed germination? WOW! Water, Oxygen, and Warmth)  We have the Southern border of the US down, and will start the Middle States next week.  The History Sentences are going well, but we don’t seem to be adding sentences like I thought we would.

Phonics:

N-boy: He’s moving right along, around lesson 138.

R-girl: She is moving into short e words and doing very nicely.  She really seemed to start to “get” it this week.

Assigned Reading:

M-girl: She didn’t do any.

N-boy: He read two Step Readers, one on Geography and one on Space.  He also read one of the MathStart books … Level 1 “It’s About Time.”

Math:

M-girl: We have been working on calendar and time.

N-boy: He has worked through to starting to add to 8s.

R-girl:  I like MEP Reception, although I wonder if it is getting a little redundant? R-girl still seems to be having fun with it …

Logic:

M-girl: She worked on several pages dealing with matching and Venn Diagrams.  I like how she’s being required to really look and attend to the information as it is presented.

N-boy: He continues to answer a Mindbender question each day.  Some have involved some more math than he’s prepared for (and metric measurement?!?)  But, together we reason through it.

Grammar:

M-girl:  She had her first dictation lesson this week, and did it approximately as perfectly as she could.  I could not have been happier with the way she did this lesson.

N-boy:  He has been working on reviewing addresses and names and which are capitalized and which are not.

Writing:

M-girl:  She’s been working on lessons from Caddie Woodlawn and enjoying it.  I got her the book from the library, I don’t know if she’ll read it or not.

Spelling:

M-girl: She had some tough words on Wednesday after having no review words from Tuesday. 

Latin:

M-girl: She’s doing so wonderfully with this program.  Really, for a six year old being able to hear another language … and even t pick out the occasional derivative with only minor help? Thrilled.

Penmanship:

M-girl: She started lower case “f” this week.  Her manuscript has improved a lot over the beginning of the year, too.

N-boy: He’s still working on the numbers in the program.  I think he’s nervous about starting letters.  I’m not ready to push here, though.

R-girl: She’s writing 6s.  She loves writing (and playing) in the salt box.

History:We studied about Hammurabi’s code and the Babylonians.  We didn’t make the law stele, I really wanted to, so maybe we’ll work on that some other time.

Science: We read about seeds and germination. We learned about monocots and dicots.  I still want to do a seed germination experiment, but need to pull it together.

Art:  OK, so maybe we didn’t do everything this week.  M-girl did make a bracelet.  She finished her first sewing project from the kit she got for Christmas, a little bag … she, then gave it to her sister.

 Read Alouds:  The start of soccer and tball, less dinnertime reading, but we’re still working on Bambi and enjoying it.  Something we can definitely read again in six or seven years and hit different themes.

Bible:  We’ve studied about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and Esau.  They’ve done a really nice job learning the songs and memory verses.  The curriculum has explained things beautifully so the children understand.  In the evenings, we’ve been reading about exile from Judah into Babylon … and starting to read about Daniel and his friends.