Friday, September 3, 2010

Week 3: Almost Up to Speed

It's been another great week! The kids did a great job of staying on track for the most part even on the mornings when I was sick and kept running to the bathroom. Why DH and I were the only ones with intestinal problems when we all eat the same food, I don't know. I'm just glad to be feeling better finally.

MATH


Jessie had her second try at the first IP section of the 6A book on algebraic expression. I glad to say it went much more smoothly this time around, so on Thursday, she started the second unit in the textbook and workbook covering solid figures. So far she has counted and characterized the faces of the figures and determined whether or not a flat layout could be folded to make the desired figure. She's enjoyed having extra time first thing in the morning.

Violet finally finished up the first unit in the 4A textbook and workbook on Monday and has spent the remainder of the week working on the corresponding IP section. She has an excellent grasp of the concepts, but the number of careless mistakes was a bit frustrating for both of us. When I asked to rework the problems and show me her work, she did great.

Benny has been working through the 1A IP section on addition within 10. We did a lot of his work orally this week, and I tried to pick and choose the problems so that he wasn't bored by too much repetition. We also completed several addition pages in his Miquon Orange text. We turned it into a game where I tried to stump him with an addition problem to solve. He did a phenomenal job of solving them all in his head.

LANGUAGE ARTS

Jessie completed lesson 21 in SWO H and reviewed compound subjects, predicates, and sentences and how to diagram them in grammar. Her literature selection for the week was Lantern Bearers by Sutcliff, which we need to discuss after I finish this report. She also typed up a short book report for Beowulf: A New Telling from last week. Her CW model for the week was "The Old Nurse" from Colum's The Children's Homer. Her final draft wasn't quite as detailed as I was hoping although she did an excellent job of starting the story in the middle. I'm thinking we may need to alter the way we outline the model at the beginning of the week.

Violet managed to pass her second lesson in SWO F although she still missed 3 words. She also worked on compound subjects and predicates in grammar. She sometimes reverses the location of the subject and the predicate on the diagram, so I think we'll diagram a sentence or 2 next week as part of her CW analysis for a little added practice. In CW Aesop, she rewrote and illustrated the fable, "The Milkmaid and Her Pail". She continued reading and narrating Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh for the second week.

Benny finished up -sh, -th, -ch, and -tch on Monday doing very well on the review page. After a general review, we spent a couple of days working on -ing, -ang, -ong, and -ung. He also finished reading the A1 set of Bob books this week and read the first three books in the A2 series. We're keeping his ETC 1 work at 2 pages per day. He finished up with short a words on Thursday and started the short i sound on Friday. This was also Benny's first week of actual copywork. (I know it's hard to see, but there really are four lines completed in the picture.) After reminding him to draw the horizontal lines from left to right for the umpteenth time, I started tickling him every time he drew the line right to left. It seems to have worked quite effectively. He giggled every time he came to the letter t, but at least he stopped to think before he drew the horizontal line.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Jessie and Violet completed chapter 2 in LfC C and A respectively. Jessie is still cruising through the Greek Code Cracker text and should be finished with it by the end of next week I believe.

GEOGRAPHY

Jessie labeled a blank map of Europe, while Violet built the Europe puzzle yet again.

HISTORY

This week we covered topics 3 & 4 in TruthQuest Middle Ages, and the girls added timeline figures for the Fall of the Roman Empire, the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, Hengist and Horsa (AKA the Anglo-Saxon invasion), St. Patrick, and Beowulf.

Jessie's focus for the week was the German tribes, their beliefs, and the Anglo-Saxon invasion. Her reading for the week included 8 more chapters of The Story of the Middle Ages as well as The Children of Odin by Colum. The first page below has a map of the migration routes of the various tribes, a Germanic family tree, and some brief facts about Alaric, Genseric, and Attila. The page on the right show the locations of various tribes during the reign of Theodoric and has an outline of the Middle Ages chapter on Theodoric.
The last page has her essay about the Germanic gods. I asked her to think of adjectives to describe Odin, Frey, and Thor while she read The Children of Odin. Each adjective had to be supported by either the words or actions of the character, which she noted by page number. We discussed how these gods were different from one, true God and how people who worshipped them would likely treat one another. The final result was a very basic 5 part essay to stretch her writing ability. Below the essay is another outline of the chapter covering the Anglo-Saxon invasion and a summary of St. Patrick from both her Middle Ages book and Peril and Peace.
Benny and Violet focused on Britain this week using chapter 2 of SOTW 2. They each narrated summaries about the Celts and the Anglo-Saxon invasion and mapped the latter. We also studied St. Patrick using Peril and Peace. Violet's extra reading for the week came from Our Island Story chapter 8-10 covering a more detailed account of the Anglo-Saxon invasion. We read Celtic Memories by Matthews and The Hero Beowulf by Kimmel for related literature.
I let each one choose a timeline figure to print and color for their notebook pages below.

In the picture below, Violet and Benny are playing Defeat the Romans from the SOTW AG. (Violet thinks Benny takes to long to think, but that thinking won the game.)Here are our Celtic brooches and battle axes from the SOTW AG. Benny wasn't very enthusiastic about the brooch at first until I explain we would go to fabric store that afternoon so that he could pick out fabric for his cloak. I decided I had better make the axes a little sturdier than the original directions. Instead of using piece of poster board for the axe head, these heads have a center of corrugated cardboard with white cardstock glued on either side (so we would only need one coat of paint). Right now the brooches are just cardstock, but I expect I'll end up reinforcing those as well.
SCIENCE

Jessie continues to study the skeletal system this week. She outlined the section of the text covering bone growth and healing and wrote summaries covering the different types of bones and types of ribs. Her diagrams for the week include the 5 sections of the spinal column, an illustration of the different ribs, and a complete skeleton. This week's lab looked at the importance of calcium for bone strength by soaking chicken wing bones in vinegar and water. Now I just have to find her speculation sheet which is currently MIA so it can be graded.
By far Jessie's favorite activities for the week came from The Body Book. She put together the spinal column on Monday and cut out and assembled her skeleton Wednesday and Thursday. It looks like we missed putting on the front of the rib cage, so I'll have her add that this afternoon.
This week in astronomy, we studied stars, galaxies, asteroids, and comets. Our new constellations for the week were Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Aquila (with Altair), and Cygnus (with Deneb). The kids made their constellation cards, and we punched out the stars for our planetarium box. In addition to answering questions, I had the girls complete an extra worksheet about star colors and brightness that covered the major named stars. Benny made a star booklet, used glitter glue to make a booklet showing types of galaxies, completed the asteroid half of his booklet on asteroids and meteors, and colored the parts of a comet. (I've linked to the booklets I found online.)
Benny made a star wheel using our T&K kit, while the girls made this free one, which is slightly more detailed. We also used the T&K kit to demonstrate why a comet's tail always points away from the sun. Our demonstration of dark nebula showing how the cloud of particles blocks the light coming from behind it and casts a shadow turned into a game of shadow puppets on the bathroom wall, but I still think we got the idea across.

ART
Jessie's last pre-instruction drawing assignment before starting lessons in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain was to draw a person from memory.
Violet and Benny got to pick any picture from one of our 1-2-3 Draw books for art.
Benny's is technically traced and not drawn, but he was happy with his finished picture.

HENRY'S CORNER

Henry's been a little left out this week. We didn't do our morning reading or have any scheduled activities. Happily he's been quite content to play with Benny's wooden Thomas train set, which spent most of the week in my living room.

4 comments:

Daisy said...

Wonderful! My daughter starts that same Beowulf book next week and the book by Colum soon after. Looks like we are a similar sequence this year. Glad to know you are all enjoying it.

Tonia said...

Looks like a very good week - you got a lot accomplished. I enjoyed reading about your week!

MissMOE said...

Glad you're feeling better! and tracing does count! Looks like a full week--thanks for taking the time to share it.

Mandy in TN said...

Full week! I really like the expression on your Violet's face while she is playing with Benny! LOL