Week 22: Working Around Interruptions

It's been a very busy week this week as evidenced by my lack of blogging. Monday went beautifully with our new schedule. Then I had to do some rearranging on Tuesday and Thursday to drop off and pick up my van from the shop (where they couldn't seem to get in the right part so it still needs a new bumper). I've also been distracted by work around the house
that needed to be caught up when I wasn't chasing down Violet to send her back to finish her school work. Henry is also running a fever at the end of the week and has required a lot more Mom snuggle time than usual. We did manage to accomplish most of our work anyway.

MATH

Jessie began her second week in her 5B textbook and workbook. She completed 7 days worth of assignments since a lot of the workbook pages were only 1 page instead of the regular two pages. She worked on multiplying and dividing with decimals. She also spent two days applying her decimal skills to conversions between various units of measurement. Most of the units were metric (kg and g, m and cm, l and ml) but there were also some non-metric units (lb and oz, qt and cups, ft and in) where she found it a bit tricky to figure out the decimals. She would much rather have written the answers in fraction form I believe.





Violet finished her 3A workbook and her IP book this week. YEAH!! Next week she'll move on to the 3B books where we can work on catching up. She's doing very well with all of her calculations, although we still need to work on her math facts. In Miquon, she was introduce to fractions this week. I did have to take some time each day to explain how to complete the page, but once she had the instructions she did an excellent job with the work.

Benny finished up his IP section on subtraction this week. He did a great job with the word problems in the IP book with me reading to him. In Miquon, he continues to work with a combination of addition and subtraction. The pages this week had several related problems (ie. 5+3, 5+4, 5+5, etc.) in a series so that he could see the pattern and use it to solve the problems with answers larger than 10. He completed all of his Miquon work without any help from me this week and would just grab the book and get started on the next page without even waiting for me.

LANGUAGE ARTS

Jessie completed her 4th spelling lesson in SWO H with flying colors. In grammar, we've worked most of the week with adverbs either identifying or diagramming. She did an excellent job with her diagramming worksheet on Friday. In CW Homer, we finally finished an entire lesson in one week as scheduled. She analyzed and rewrote "The Golden Apple". The picture to the right is from our day 4 analysis where we chose a sentence, diagrammed it, paraphrased by using synonyms, paraphrased by altering the grammar, and then condensed the sentence. Don't ask me why the 3rd sentence says Hera and Juno instead of Hera and Athene. Neither Jessie not I noticed until the picture went up today for the weekly report. In literature, she's thoroughly enjoying The Hobbit (I've caught her rereading chapters during her free time already.) and has finished Age of the Fable at long last.

Violet completed her spelling work and began a unit on adjectives in R&S 3. In CW, she rewrote and illustrated her own version of "Mercury and the Woodman". Her copywork from The Secret Garden finally reached the point where Mary finds the garden and will continue with a description of that find next week. In literature, it was more Red Fairy Book and Complete Peterkin Papers while we wait for The Children's Homer.

Benny spent most of the week working on the long i sound, first in Phonics Pathways and then in the Pyramids book. He's started to do more guessing so we may need to back up and review soon or add some readers for extra practice. He managed to go the whole week without any handwriting. (I don't know where my brain was.) We finished Surprise Island and did most of his Bible reading, but missed a few days due to interruptions.

HISTORY

In the Old Testament this week, we covered from the division of Israel under Rehoboam through the events under King Ahab in Israel. Jessie made a chart for the kings of Israel and another for the kings of Judah. For each king she listed some of their choices or actions and the resulting consequences. The final column is her evaluation of what kind of king each was (mainly bad, worse, and worst.) Violet gave me oral narrations of her reading each day, which I typed up. Both girls made a map of Israel and Judah. Timeline figures included the division of Israel, the kings of Israel, the kings f Judah, and Elijah.

In ancient Greece this week, our focus was Athens during its golden age. Violet read and wrote summaries for Cimon and Pericles using The Famous Men of Greece. Jessie read several chapters of The Story of the Greeks. She wrote a paragraph describing some of the disputes and conflicts between Sparta and Athens which set the stage for the Peloponnesian War. She also wrote about Pericles and what Athens was like during his rule. Both girls drew a picture of the Parthenon using our Draw and Write Through History books. On Violet's page above is her Greek soldier from last week as well. Jessie still has to find hers for her page next week. Timeline figures for Greece included Cimon, Pericles, the Golden Age of Athens, the Statue of Zeus, and the Parthenon.

SCIENCE

We did not finish all of our scheduled science lessons this week mostly because of interruptions. We did complete the last lesson of unit 2 covering oxygen, and the girls enjoyed watching a candle flame go out under the glass when it ran out of oxygen. Their second unit test went better than the first. We also completed the first lesson in unit 3 covering ionic bonds. They were really excited to make marshmallow models of lithium and fluorine. We opted to use saran wrap and a twist tie to hold the nucleus together rather than glue so that the kids would still be able to eat the marshmallows when we finished. (I also saved the toothpicks in a bag for the models for the following lesson, so I didn't have to go buy more.

LATIN

Jessie completed lesson 19 in LfC B this week. I finally broke down and used the answer key. I have some studying to do over the weekend. Violet started lesson 3 at the beginning of the week. I'm not sure she's really understanding the material. I may need to spend some more time covering the grammar portion with her.

OTHER

Henry continues to enjoy his playtime with Violet and Benny in the morning and has also been joining Jessie and Benny during part of their play time most days. Still there are times when everyone's busy, and he goes looking for something to do. At those times, (when he's not trying to sneak onto my computer) he goes looking for Jack. A dog that is napping in the morning must be really bored and need someone to wake him up and play with him.