Week 22: Starting the Renaissance

It's been a bit slow this week.I spent a lot of time over the weekend planning some changes to Jessie's history.  I've also been trying to research different programs to nail down as many subjects as possible for next year to give me more time to look for used resources.  Add to that the time the kids spent outside in the snow, and we didn't accomplish everything on our normal list this week, but I still feel good about the week overall.


MATH

 Jessie continued to work with fractions this week.  Monday was a review of last week's topics, and then she spent the remainder of the week reviewing order of operation with a combination of fractions and whole numbers in the problems.

 Violet progressed slowly through the IP section on area and perimeter.  Although she made several mistakes due to carelessness, she did an excellent job if I just sat down and watched her work through the problems and explain to me as she went.  At least, I'm confident that she understands the concepts now.

Benny spent the week working in a new unit of Singapore 1B covering numbers to 40.  He matched words to numbers, grouped objects by ten before counting, compared numbers, and completed some simple addition and subtraction.  In Miquon, he completed the section on odd and even numbers, counted by 2s to complete his dot to dot, did some basic adding, and added by making ten first.

LANGUAGE ARTS

Jessie finished CW HOMER!!!!  For grammar, she finished the unit on pronouns and began working on a unit covering capitalization and punctuation.  VCFR seems to be going well.  She completed lesson 3 this week.  I didn't have a

new literature selection ready for her, so she had plenty of time this week to complete a book report of Tolkien's Return of the King.

Violet completed her grammar unit on pronouns and moved on to the unit on adjectives this week.  In spelling, she worked on lesson 20, but missed several words on her test so we'll continue that lesson next week.  In CW Aesop, she finished her revision of "The Three Little Pigs" from last week.  In addition to the regular copywork and dictation, she completed reading The Beggar's Bible by Vernon and began Adam of the Road by Gray. 

Benny and I continued some phonics review this week in Phonics Pathways.  He also read The Big Honey Hunt by Berenstain. Add in a little ETC, some SWO A, and a mix of copywork, and that sums up his week.  We didn't get to any read alouds as I spent a lot of time this week working on plans for next year at the beginning of the week and he spent a lot of time outside in the snow at the end of the week.

LATIN / GREEK

Jessie completed lesson 18 in LfC C and lesson 14 in EG1.  Violet and I spent the week review vocabulary and grammar chants.

HISTORY

History was the biggest change for us this week.  Up til now, I've primarily used the TruthQuest guides to line up topics so that everyone stayed together.  I decided this week with the start of the TruthQuest:  Renaissance, Reformation, and Exploration guide to start bridging Jessie over to focusing more on ideas and the relationship between events instead of just the events and the people taking part in them.  Step 1 was to get my brain in gear.  I actually went through the guide making notes, read a good portion of her assigned reading, and jotted down quotes and page numbers from the various sources to refer back to during our discussion.

Next, I assigned the commentary in the TruthQuest guide as part of Jessie's reading with 1 or 2 questions to help her pick out the most important points from each section of the commentary.  She considered and outlined the problems with the church in Europe with the guide and The Story of the Renaissance and Reformation by Miller; studied the beliefs of John Wycliffe and Jan Hus for her essay using the guide, the Guerber book, Famous Men of the Renaissance and Reformation, and Monks & Mystics; took a brief look at the changes in art and architecture by reading the commentary and looking at a two page timeline spread from The Story of Painting and read Filippo's Dome by Rockwell, summarized the contributions of Prince Henry the Navigator to exploration, and listed the events surrounding the fall of Constantinople and the results of its fall.  To tie it all together, I had her map the various locations mentioned.

Violet and Benny had a much simpler week.  We learned about the Renaissance from part 1 of chapter 35 of SOTW 2

and summarized and mapped the information.

Next we read about Henry the Navigator from the second part of chapter 28 in SOTW 2 and from Prince Henry the Navigator by Fisher, completed a narration, and mapped the relevant portion of the map exercise in SOTW.

Our first hands on activity was to write the kids names in Greek, which I didn't take a picture of.

Then we tried to make a compass by magnetizing a needle

and setting it to float on a piece of paper in a bowl of water.  It didn't turn out to be a very good compass.  I think we needed a stronger magnet.

SCIENCE

Jessie completed her last chapter in Apologia's Exploring Creation with Anatomy and Physiology text.  YEAH!!!  (I think we were both getting a little tired of the topic).

No earth science this week.  I spent to much time focused on history and long range planning to get the activity supplies together.  We'll start up again next week.

HENRY'S CORNER

This week Henry made more noise than mess.  He banged pot lids together for cymbals, spent some time hitting a metal measuring cup with a spoon, and sang along with various VeggieTales songs when no one was in the room with him.

This was the closest I came to getting a picture of any of that.

Friday, he decided to be silly and came walking down the hall calling, "Mom, look!"  I really don't know where he gets some of his ideas...