Our first week back to home school for 2009 was January 5th - 9th. It was a good but light week.

MATH: daily

     CPC is in Ray's New Primary Arithmetic and workbook Series 1 Book 1. He is reviewing numerals and how to spell number words.

     NBC is in Ray's New Intellectual Arithmetic and workbook Series 3 Book 2. He is currently working on multiplication. He is exceeding here and I am very proud of him.

     GQC is in Ray's New Intellectual Arithmetic and workbook Series 4 Book 1. He thinks he is doing kindergarten work because he is doing a review of addition and subtraction. LOL What he doesn't know is that he about to start fractions. wheeeee I think they are fun (I know, big geek) but he has not done them before.

SPELLING: daily

     ALL boys worked on difficult words from their assigned reading books.

READING:  daily

     CPC took the week off from the McGuffey reader and read a Little Bear chapter book. He is getting so much better. On his second and third reading of the book he was markedly more fluent.

     NBC also took the week off from the McGuffey reader but continued reading his chapter book, My Fathers Dragon. I'm interested to see what he rights about the book when he is finished because he doesn't discuss it.

     GQC also took the week off from the McGuffey reader and continued reading his chapter book, The Phantom Tollbooth. It is obvious that he enjoys reading this story. Each day before he reads he will tell me what happened in the previous days chapter.

LITERATURE: daily

     ALL of the family gathers for a read aloud and we discuss different aspects of the chosen story. This week we read The Old Man and the Sea. They have all taken a great interest in the story. We tied it in with GEOGRAPHY by finding Cuba on our shower curtain world map :) We also discussed where it is located in proximity to where we live. What body of water it lies in and nearby islands. I must admit though that our bathroom is a bit tight for a geography classroom :) Where else but in home school? 

WRITING: daily

     No creative writing took place. Instead they are all practicing their handwriting, Zaner Bloser style.

SCIENCE: once a week but normally twice

    As a read aloud we read the chapter on Melons and Their Cousins. We discussed the parts of a seed - hull/shell, protective lining, and the cotyldon where the new baby plant lies. After our reading and during our discussion we dissected seeds to find the cotyldon.

We did not do any formal Bible or History.