Week 30: Trying to Regain Traction

We had a rough start to the week. Henry's runny nose became full blown cold, and I spent a few sleep deprived nights with him on the sofa bed. The kids were still in break mode and had a hard time getting up and getting going on their school work. We accomplished a fair amount despite the poor start, a mid-week dentist trip, and a distracted Mom busy trying to pull out and wash spring clothes by putting in a few long days but didn't quite get to everything I would have liked. Here's our week.

MATH

Jessie finished up her textbook and workbook unit on rate and began working on the corresponding unit in her IP. She's had a harder time with the IP book than usual, so we worked more problems together to get through them. The IP section was finally finished up on Friday, so we can start fresh with a new topic next week. It didn't help that we were also trying to pick up the pace a little to be able to finish by mid-May. I'm hoping the next topic will be easier, so we can breeze through it.

Violet finished up the textbook and workbook section by spending a few days working with gallons, quarts, pints, and cups. By mid-week she had moved on to the corresponding section in the IP. Her Miquon assignments continue to involve graphing coordinates of a given equation (ie. x=y+5). She's had a hard time with her CWP because she hasn't been drawing diagrams. Next week we may have to do a diagram refresher to see if that helps.

Benny is still adding and subtracting within 20 for his Singapore. I still think their method of subtraction at this point is confusing. It teaches to take 13-8 and do 10-8 then add back in the 3 ones. Personally I prefer to split the 8 and go 13-3-5. Benny preferred to work it out with the pictures. Another day, we did adding and subtracting smaller numbers using a number to figure out problems like 14+2. In Miquon, we've started a new section which is giving him a combination of addition, subtraction, and multiplication problems. He does a great job as long as he uses the blocks although he doesn't pull them out any more unless he is told to do so.

LANGUAGE ARTS

Jessie completed another review lesson in SWO H this week. In R&S 5, we finished up another unit and tested on Friday. (Only one more to go I think. YEAH!!) In CW, we analyzed and rewrote the scene from The Children's Homer where Odysseus visits Circe's island. I was satisfied with her original condensed draft this week, so we skipped editing for once. In literature, she's continuing to plod along through Robinson Crusoe. Her narrations are becoming increasingly shorter as her interest in the book diminishes, but she's determined to finish.

Violet and I didn't do any spelling this week. It's harder to remember when we're not following a curriculum. In grammar, she worked some more with synonyms and antonyms and had a writing assignment to describe a place. I didn't get her copywork prepped over the weekend, so I've had her copying straight out of the book instead. She makes a lot more careless mistakes that way, so I'll try to the assignments written in the notebook before next week. In CW Aesop, she rewrote "The Ant and the Grasshopper", but I haven't typed it up for her to illustrate yet. Her favorite part of the week has been literature since she has started reading Detectives in Togas.

Benny and I spent a few days reading Bob books and a couple of days working in Phonics Pathways. He did one sentence of copywork using his memory verse from Sunday, but I didn't have him do copywork every day. Instead I let him spend more time outside with DH, who finally headed back to work on Thursday.

HISTORY

In Bible history this week, we started our last term on the New Testament. Jessie's reading mainly from the gospel of Luke with a few chapters from the other books to fill in stories like the wise men visiting Jesus. Violet and Benny continue to use Egermeier's Bible. In addition to narrating their readings, the girls completed a map showing the route of Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem to Egypt and back to Nazareth. Jessie also completed a map showing the lands controlled by King Herod for the Roman empire. They added King Herod, the birth of Jesus, and John the Baptist to their timelines.

In ancient history, we began our first week in ancient Rome by learning about Aeneas and Romulus and Remus. Jessie read In Search of a Homeland and made a timeline of the story events. She also started The Story of the Romans at about chapter 5 and wrote a summary of Romulus. Violet and Benny have been using the first several chapters of Roman Myths by McCaughrean to cover the same topics. Both girls completed a map showing the route of Aeneas using a map I found online. Jessie also completed a map showing the various groups of people living in Italy at the time. They both added the founding of Rome to their timelines.
SCIENCE

Not this week. Looks like it will be a project to carry over into the summer at this rate.

LATIN / LOGIC

Jessie completed another lesson in LfC B. Happily, this one was a review, since I'm still trying to catch up with her. She had the week off from logic simply because I wrote down the wrong assignments and didn't get around to correcting her check sheet. Violet finished lesson 6 in LfC A and has begun lesson 7. I think she finished her critical thinking this week, but I don't recall checking Thursday's assignments yet.

OTHER

Henry has been his usual mischievous self walking around in various shoes belonging to someone else, wearing the girls' sunglasses in the house, practicing removing and replacing the batteries in the television remote over and over and over again, and making all kinds of messes with cuisenaire rods, colored pencils, puzzles, and probably a few other items I've since blocked from my memory. On the learning side, he started swinging in the older kids swings very gently by himself and will happily stay there for long periods of time. It's a shame the swings are outside instead of inside. This afternoon while I was working on this report, he took off his overalls and his diaper and climb up onto the regular toilet in the kids' bathroom and sat for awhile all on his own. It was very cute until he decided to stick his feet in the toilet to splash in the water.