Matters of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of True Happiness

Oct. 5, 2007 - Our Week: October 1, 2007 - October 5, 2007

Posted in Homeschool
Here are the highlights of our school week.

Monday

All
History: I read from Story of the World Volume 1 (Ancients), which was about nomads and nomads-turned-farmers. Dodger and Song both colored narration pages.

Language Arts (Grammar): We did a Months of the Year activity and colored a calendar page for October. We recited the months of the year. We like to sing them to the tune of 10 Little Indians. In First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind lesson 41 deals with months of the year.

Literature (History): We read from our Old Testament Stories (bible for kids) Chapters 4-7, which took us through Noah.

Literature (Recreational): I read a chapter or two of one of our read-alouds, The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis from the Chronicles of Narnia. I thought of this one because of the lovely creation story when Aslan creates Narnia.

Dodger (7)

Math: MathUSee Review worksheets for Alpha lessons 4-14; MathUSee Alpha Unit test 13 (adding doubles)
Dodger has really got a good grasp on adding doubles now. It took her awhile to cement 6+6, 7+7, 8+8, and 9+9, but now she's got them memorized.
Language Arts (Reading): personalized spelling list
Worked on copying the words and spelling them out loud.
Song (5)
Math: MathUSee Primer Lesson 10 (place value)
Song is something of a perfectionist and gets flustered fairly easily. She's pretty cute to see with her brow furrowed as she thinks and she likes to speak her thought processes. "Ok, so if there are 3 hundreds home, 1 ten home, and 5 units home that makes...3 hundred fifteen!"
Language Arts (Reading): Explode the Code B p. 38-41
Song really likes her Explode the Code workbooks. She frequently requests to do them and usually does quite a few pages before telling me she's done.

Tuesday

All
Literature (History): We read several chapters from A Little Maid of Old Philadelphia which is historical fiction set in American Revolutionary war times. There are many books in this series that take place throughout the thirteen colonies.

Literature (Recreational): We read more from The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis.

Dodger (7)

Math: MathUSee Primer Lessons 26-28 (telling time)
Dodger had a lot of fun creating the face of a clock using the MathUSee blocks. She used 5-unit blocks to form the circle and used a 10-block as the minute hand to set the time. She's good at skip-counting by 5s already.
Language Arts (Reading): Beyond the Code Book 1 p. 12-13
Dodger has shown a lot more interest in doing language arts activities and seems to enjoy this book more than the regular Explode the Code.
Language Arts (Copywork): Article of Faith #1
We are in the process of memorizing all thirteen of the articles of faith in our religion. Dodger worked on handwriting by copying out the first one.
Song (5)
Math: MathUSee Primer Lessons 10F and 11A (place value and unit value)
Song consistently requests to "do math". She enjoys it.
Language Arts (Reading): Explode the Code B p. 42-51
Song completed a substantial amount of pages today.

Wednesday
All
Literature (History): We read several more chapters from A Little Maid of Old Philadelphia in preparation for our American history club for girls that we host twice a month. Our activity during the club was embroidery.

Thursday
All
Literature (Recreational): We read a few library books.
  • We read Jump by Steve Lavis. Song and Sparkle (almost 3) especially enjoyed acting out the motions described on each page. Dodger later read the book to herself while she ate breakfast.
  • Dodger and Song also enjoyed looking at Anno's Alphabet while Song "read" it.
  • I looked at Anno's Counting Book with Sparkle. She enjoyed counting all the things in the pictures.
History:
  • I asked review questions about nomads and nomad farmers from the Story of the World Volume 1 (Ancients) Activity Guide. Dodger remembered everything from our reading on Monday and answered every question I asked.
  • We colored pictures of the early machine, the shaduf, which farmers used to water their crops.
  • We did the map activity found the SOTW Activity Guide, which was a map of the fertile crescent in the Middle East between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Language Arts (Grammar): Dodger can recite the months of the year without any help. Song can do it with a couple of hints and prompts.

Literature (History): We read from our Old Testament Stories Chapters 8-9 about Abraham

We went to the library and checked out some of the books that were listed in the SOTW Activity Guide in the chapter on nomads. We also checked out other books of interest.

Dodger (7)
Math: MathUSee Primer Lessons 26-28 (telling time)
Dodger had more fun with the blocks and clock. She completed more practice worksheets on telling time and I quizzed her with the blocks. She got nearly every one right on the first try.
Language Arts (Reading): Beyond the Code Book 1 p. 14-20
Dodger's understanding of word groups has improved.
Song (5)
Math: MathUSee Primer Lessons 11A and 11B (unit value)
Song is pretty cute as she sticks out her tongue while she concentrates on coloring.
Language Arts (Reading): Explode the Code B p. 52-60
Now that she's working from this book nearly every day, Song is more easily remembering letter sounds and names.
Friday
All
Literature (History & Recreational): We read a few library books.
  • We read Little Grunt and the Big Egg: A prehistoric fairy tale. The kids all liked that one.
  • We read one of Sparkle's picks, Dora and the Egg, which was about a hen who envied everyone's cute, cuddly, and fluffy babies over her little eggs (until those eggs hatched!).
  • We read about half of It's Disgusting and We Ate It. The kids are not interested in eating bugs or snakes or other exotic food items.
  • We read chapter one from one of Song's picks, Tiara Club #1 Princess Charlotte and the Birthday Ball.
  • Dodger and I read The 2,000-year-old Man Went to School, which was recommended in the SOTW Activity Guide. I'm not sure either of us liked it much.
Literature (Recreational): We've also been reading The Hobbit by Tolkien. We finished Chapter 7. Dodger and Song both colored narration pages.
Dodger (7)
Math:
MathUSee Alpha Lesson 14 (adding doubles plus 1); she had already completed 14A so she did 14B today.
Dodger was quick to pick up the concept of 6+6+1 = 6+7.
Language Arts (Reading): Beyond the Code Book 1 p. 21-23
Dodger's understanding of contractions has improved.
Song (5)
Math:
MathUSee Primer Lessons 11C and 11D (unit value and review)
Song is understanding the concept better.
Language Arts (Reading): Explode the Code B p. 61-67
Song is proud that she is almost done with another reading book.
Me
Literature (Historical): I finished Genesis 6 today. I checked out The Epic of Gilgamesh from the library, which is on the Rhetoric Level reading list in The Well-Trained Mind for the Ancient time period. I'd like to make my way through that and 7 other classics from this era by the end of this school year.

Overall Thoughts

We had a good week. I'm please with our new system. I've left the workbooks on the dining room table all week and I think that has helped us be interested in using them.

__
"Live free or die. Death is not the worst of evils." ~ General John Stark
Post A Comment! :: Send to a Friend!

About Me

Here's where I'll post my musings on liberty as well as where I'll share my experiences homeschooling my four children in the classical style.

Blog Links

Home
View my profile
Archives
Friends
My Blog's RSS

Blog Category Links

Curriculum and Book Reviews
Homeschool
Political
Spiritual
General

Other Links

The Well-Trained Mind
Homeschool Reviews
The Well-Trained Mind Forums
Core Knowledge Foundation
George Wythe College

Friends

Today's Modern Mother
The Barefoot Pixie
A R.A.R.E. Education
G.R.A.C.E.
My Laughin' Place
Kings Academy
Mothers Nurture
Mother Ginger
Katie's Words
Entry 27 of 28
Last Page | Next Page