Week 11: Busy, busy

It's been a busy week around here, but we got almost everything done.

Jessie's 7th grade

• For math, I've temporarily switched Jessie over to Lial's pre-algebra to work through integers and real numbers until she's got a solid mastery of those topics.  The difficulty isn't anywhere near that of NEM, but there's plenty of practice and the concepts are very clearly explained.  She covered numbers to the hundred trillions, integers, adding integers, subtracting integers, and rounding integers. 
• She finished lesson 8 in CE 2, worked on verb tenses in R&S 7, and did more analysis of a Silence Dogood letter for CW.
• In Omnibus, we spent the week studying creeds and took off from the Secondary lessons since we're still waiting to get the book from the library.
• In Latin, she worked on conjugating 3rd conjugation verbs in the imperfect and future, while EG2 was a review week.
• For logic, we looked at examples of mob appeal and discussion different generalizations made by various historians in the Critical Thinking text.

Violet's 5th grade

• She did extremely well in math this week multiplying and dividing fractions by whole numbers and continues to improve with her math facts.
• She continues to slog through Around the World in Eighty Days by Verne for literature.
• R&S has been mostly the principal parts of verbs with a bit of outlining thrown in.
• She rewrote "The Golden Apple" by Guerber for CW and did very well on her test for lesson 11 of SWO G.
• Latin was a review week.  Logic continues to progress very well.

Benny's 2nd grade

• Benny finished both the textbook and IP sections on weights this week in Singapore, completed his first section in CWP 2, and worked through a variety of mixed operation problems in Miquon.
• We started The Book of Dragons by Nesbit for literature and Misty of Chincoteague by Henry for reading to me.
• He passed two more spelling tests in SWO B and is now on lesson 18.
• We began introducing verbs in FLL while continuing to use "Amazing Grace" for copywork.

Geography

• Jessie's working on the last levels for the states and is ready to move on to a new topic.
• Violet has moved up to level 3 for the states where she drags the state to its correct location on the whole map (instead of just a region of it) and is ready to begin working on capitals next week.
• Benny is still working on the Great Lakes region.  I think I'm going to have him start working on the online game twice a week on the days we aren't doing geography together.

History

This week, we shifted our focus back to England covering the reign of Charles I and his death, the Puritan Revolution and the rule of Oliver Cromwell, and the restoration of Charles II and his persecution of Scottish covenanters.

Jessie and Violet both read primarily from The Story of the Renaissance and Reformation by Miller.  They completed summaries of each king and outlined a section of a chapter on Cromwell's rule.  Jessie read two chapters of Trial and Triumph covering the Scottish persecution, while Violet read Courage and Conviction about Samuel Rutherford.  Jessie was thrilled when I handed her some additional historical fiction Duncan's War, King's Arrow, and Rebel's Keep by Bond.  It must be good since she's on her second read through of the set after only two days. 

Benny and I read the first two sections of SOTW 3 and the same chapter on Rutherford as Violet.  He hasn't been interested in any hands on, so we just stuck with reading and mapwork for the week.

Science

Jessie is working on chapter 10 covering evolution.  Her one activity for the week was designed to illustrate mutation.  She started with a basic sentence.  She spun a number to select which letter to change, drew a new letter for that space, and rewrote the sentence with the new change.  After 8 times, the sentence was of course completely unreadable.

Violet finished her Heat and Energy book this week.

Benny and I read about walruses, dugongs, and manatees and completed the corresponding booklets.  Then he made a seal and a pair of manatees for his ocean box.

Art / Music

 Jessie drew a pumpkin this week, colored it with oil pastels, and attempted some shading.

Violet decided to draw a peacock, and I decided to let Benny's science double as art.

Music has not been done as yet.

Henry's Preschool

It was dragon week for Henry.  In addition to our regular Bible stories, I read the same four books every day this week:  The Egg, The Great Dragon Rescue, The Dragon Snatcher, and The Dragon and the Gruesome Twosome by M. P. Robertson.  I reviewed the first three previously.  The fourth one is an excellent follow up as George and his dragon match wits with a pair of troublesome trolls.  Great books for boys (even Benny snuck in at least 3 days this week to listen as well).

 He also snuck under the table to tickle his siblings feet

and mashed playdough to cut shapes from like his big brother was doing.