Amazed!!!

Oct. 21, 2007

Week in review, 10/8-10/14/2007 (week 21)

October 18, 2007 Week in review, 10/8-10/14/2007 (week 21) What a wild week we had.  It seems that we had all sorts of appointments and things this week, plus K. had a gym meet this weekend.  We were crazy!  But we managed to get quite a bit done. For our Bible studies, we continued studying Paul’s missionary journeys and his trials and hard times.  We also read about the Cherokee tribe in American Indian Prayer Guide.  We are very saddened when we read about any of the tribes that were force to endure the Trail of Tears.  What a sad piece of history.  For memory work this week, the girls are choosing passages to memorize that are not from the Bible.  A. is memorizing the last part of Patrick Henry’s speech, and K. is memorizing Longfellow’s poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride”.  The girls will have 6 weeks to memorize these. We read about the post-war era this week in our Landmark history book, and we also read about it in The Story of the USA, book 2.  We read two stories from American Adventures, which were very interesting.  They were about what was going on during the Revolutionary war years, but in the western part of what is now the USA.  We read about the Spanish government trying to get folks from Mexico to settle into California, in order to try to protect CA from Russian and French invaders.  We were impressed with the hard work all these folks went through in order to put together fine towns and cities.  We also read about the beginning settlers of Los Angeles.  For our poetry readings, we read selections written by Thomas Hardy in Classical Poetry.  It was a pleasure to read some of his poems—we discussed how his claim to fame was initially his novels, but that he later turned to poetry.  We read “Snow in the Suburbs”, “Throwing a Tree”, and “At the Railway Station, Upway”.  I have been very impressed by the girls’ understanding of the poems and am glad for their early exposure to poetry.  I remember being frightened of having to “decipher” poetry when I was in high school.  I think having this early exposure helps children to enjoy and love poetry and not be intimidated by it. Because of our crazy week, we limited our Iroquois studies to just two topics.  We learned about the many different ways they used to make corn, and we learned about their meal patterns.  Apparently in Iroquois families, you only ate with your family at breakfast times.  The rest of the day, a pot of food would be left out and you just helped yourself whenever you were hungry.  We thought that was very interesting!!! For science this week, we learned about estuaries.  We learned how estuaries form, what life is like in an estuary, what strange animals live in estuaries and we learned about mangrove swamps.  We also learned about islands, how they form, and what sort of animals live on islands.  We learned that there were some birds that were once able to fly, but became flightless after many years of living on the island because they just didn’t need to fly.  We discussed how, even among humans, skills can be dropped due to lack of use.  For example, in previous decades, all women knew how to sew and knit because that was the only way you could get new clothes.  You made your own.  However, in time, factories were made and clothes were manufactured and were cheaper and thus, women no longer really had to learn to sew or knit.  We finished our week in science by learning about grasslands.  We learned what sorts of grasses grew in these areas and how they grow there.  All of our science studies are from Living World Encyclopedia.  We also read from Usborne Science Activities vol. 3.  We are learning about weather.  First we learned about air pressure.  We learned about air pressure.  We did an experiment where we filled a plastic cup with water.  Then we put a piece of cardboard over it.  We then turned the cup over--and were amazed when the cardboard did not fall and splash water all over us!!!  The air pressure pushing up against the cardboard was enough to keep the cardboard in place.  Then we made a homemade barometer to figure out when the air pressure was high or low.  We took a jar, stretched a balloon over it, then taped a straw with a pointed end over the balloon.  We then taped a piece of construction paper to the back.  When the air pressure outside is greater than the air pressure inside the bottle, the outside air pressure will push down on the balloon and the straw will be pushed up, like what we observed the next day: The next day, the outside air pressure must have been a lot higher, because look at this: We had a few days of rain, so our construction paper is ruined, but we are still looking at the straw to see if it is level, up or down.  We don't have any pictures of the air pressure inside the jar being greater than the outside air pressure, and thus having the straw point down.  Oh well.  What a nice experiment! A., had a very nice week.  She was able to teach me Lesson 18 from her MUS Beta book and did a great job.  She was able to move on to Lesson 19, which was basically the same thing, only harder.  LOL  Lesson 19 is multiple digit addition, but this time, going into the thousands place. She also continued forth with her MCP workbook, pages 121-128.  We continued with Sequential Spelling book 1 and did lists 104-107.  We continued with our dictations and creative writing assignments from (old) Sonlight LA 2 Intermediate.  For handwriting, she is using Printing Power by HWT, and she is getting along okay.  She does still need to really focus to make her handwriting neat.  She started reading The House on Walenska Street  for her reader and is enjoying it.  We are also reading Martha Washington, Our first first lady which we are also enjoying.  Martha Washington was quite a character!!! A. continues to excel in her piano class and her gym, dance and yoga classes.  She got to see her orthopedist and her former PT this week.  She also saw her orthotist and will be getting new braces soon.  She can’t wait! K. had a great week this week.  She continued with Lesson 28 from her MUS Gamma workbook.  She is doing multiple digit multiplication.  She started this last week and just needed a little more time to really master it.  For her vocabulary, she continued to work with Wordly Wise Book B and is reviewing lesson 4.  She is also continuing with SL’s LA 3 Advanced (new).  This week, she worked on her dictation and also started her research paper.  She will be working on her research paper for the next 3 weeks.  The program walks her through the research and preparation phase of the project.  She chose to write her paper on dolphins.  She is still working on Sequential Spelling book 2 lists 104-107.  Her reader this week was Martha Washington, our first first lady which she is enjoying.  She also read for her Bible studies from 1 Kings 19 to 2 Kings 5: 17.  We are also reading Carry On, Mr. Bowditch for her read aloud.  She continues to do her home program in piano, but she just barely remembers to practice.  She is still doing dance, gym and tennis, and has two classes in each per week.  She had a gym meet on the 14th out of town.  She did her best, and almost got all of her scores above a 9.0.  She is determined to get all above 9!  Despite the two busy mornings, with A’s orthopedic appointment, and the girls’ dental appointments, we were able to get just about everything done.  Yay!!! AH

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