Weekly Report - Week 6

Boy was this a lazy week! It was the week before our "pre-spring break", and we had very little to do anyway.

Math: We just did math games this week, since we finished MM1B last week. We'll start 2A after our break. We played Addition Solitaire from the RightStart Games book, did a few math computer games recommended in MM1, and did Personal Trainer Math on his DS.

Reading: We continued reading Charlotte's Web, though didn't get to it every day. I don't think Wilbur has met Charlotte yet...

Grammar: We finished up Unit 1 and did the unit test. Actually, we did half the test, because I didn't realize test 2 was part of the test. I thought that was just an extra test in case you bombed the first test. Whoops! Oh well. He aced the first test and I didn't bother with the 2nd test. :)

Independent Reading: Various library books including some Nate the Great, Amelia Bedilia, some random science books, and a Star Wars book.

Writing: Our passages this week were from Mary Poppins. This went pretty well for the most part. The last day's narration leading questions had to be gone over again (ie, reading the passage completely again and then asking the questions again), but then we were fine. It was an attitude issue.

Handwriting: Boy is this getting better! He did Joshua 24:15 on Tuesday. He had a bad attitude that morning and wrote horribly, so he got that copywork assignment again on Thursday, and it was very nice. :) On Wednesday, he did Genesis 1:27.

I bought StartWrite software this week so I can make my own copywork (I've been using some that I'd made with the demo a while back). It is very nice! I'm practicing my own handwriting, learning italic. :)

Spelling: We finished level 1 on Tuesday! Hooray! Level 2 is ready to go. :)

Read-Aloud: We finished Stuart Little and Little House in the Big Woods via audio books in the van. Finally!

Bible: We learned about Samson's life in a nutshell.

History: First, we finally got to a project we'd skipped earlier on... Cuneiform writing on a clay tablet. Here's what the Sumerians would have written if they'd played hockey:

Next, we learned about Hammurabi's Code. I'm surprised that anyone was willing to be a doctor in those days, since if a patient died during surgery, your hand would get cut off.

We also talked about Abraham almost sacrificing Isaac, and Isaac finding a wife.

Science: We started Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding this week, doing lessons A-1/B-1 and B-2. We discussed organizing things into categories (A-1/B-1) and distinguishing living, natural non-living, and man-made objects (B-2).

I had a talk about science with Tornado Boy the other day, and we are going to change direction for science, kind of doing a mixture of interest-led and BFSU. Probably more BFSU in the near future, and then more of the interest-led as we get further into BFSU. We have a plan laid out. I'll hopefully make a separate post about it soon!

Art: We drew a cow this week. They're so cute!

 

Music: We learned about Beethoven and listened to some of his music via a website made by the author of Math Mammoth: Piano Lessons 4 Children. She has several composer studies on the site, for free. Great resource! We also looked up Beethoven's 9th Symphony, 2nd movement on YouTube because Tornado Boy really likes that one. This caused me to think "Hey, why not play classical music on the stereo I never use?!?!?", so we did that Friday, listening to a good variety... various Canadian Brass, Empire Brass, Pictures at an Exhibition, Firebird Suite. I just stuck the 5-disc CD changer on random and let it go. Tornado Boy loved it!

I did absolutely nothing with The Brute this week, though he did read the word "STOP" at Publix and noticed his name on a store. I can see him working with numbers more lately as well. Of course, Tornado Boy keeps asking him questions like "What's 50 + 50?"

Oh, I should mention that we finished our week Thursday morning before 9am! Woohoo! We spent Friday morning cleaning, and afternoon was for planning science. We're taking all of next week off from school. We'll get the house cleaned top to bottom, I hope.