ok, i know i just got started posting these weekly school roundups and i already skipped one week. i have no good excuse except that life happens. on the plus side, there's not really a whole lot you'd miss in one week. we try to stick to a routine, and these weekly roundups are really for my records so i know these posts aren't very exciting to read.
maybe one of these days i'll write a nice narrative about our typical week of learning. one of these days...
EMMA
history (books in brackets):
emma read about france explorers who sailed to the new world, and settled for a little while in florida [this country of ours]. this was an interesting read, particularly because the topic of cannibalism came up at the end of the reading (don't worry, it wasn't graphic). the french explorers who had settled in florida pretty much didn't want to hang out there anymore (because their captain never returned as he had promised), so they decided to build their own boat to sail back to france. you can guess how well that turned out...and out of desperation they drew straws to see who would be, umm, dinner.
and then there was king henry and his 6 wives [our island story]. she did very well on her narration, and we had some good discussions on king henry's character. emma was not overly impressed by king henry's choices from this section of reading, and thought he was kind of a selfish guy.
natural history/science:
emma read chapter 4 in Pagoo, and i had her list 4 facts about a hermit crab that she learned from her reading. she loves that book, so that comprehension activity was pretty easy for her. but i love that she's excited about her school books, and that she's read the whole thing through already yet is willing to re-read it a little bit at a time for school.
language arts:
i ordered a print practice and cursive practice book for emma through
handwriting without tears. i decided to order the
2nd grade print book for her as a quick refresher course on print writing. we're breezing through it (she even likes to do extra pages), so we'll be starting
cursive soon enough!
emma's been alternating between doing the HWT print book and copywork from her copywork notebook. her print writing has actually improved just from a few weeks of doing the HWT book.
this year, i doubled the number of spelling words emma has each week. we are on the second week of spelling, and still using
mcguffey's eclectic spelling book to source the weekly word list. this weeks words are belt, deer, dear, whine, wine, quite, quiet, bear, bare, beer. we discussed the "qu" sounds, letters that make the long e and the long i sounds, and rule-breaker words for the long e sounds (a.k.a. jail words).
math:
emma did a couple more chapters from her life of fred book, and i two worksheets from
homeschoolmath.net focusing on solving for missing addends and place values (larger numbers).
poetry and literature:
we have been lagging in our daily poem readings. i suppose i can just have emma read one to herself, but i do enjoy reading it to her. plus, they're pretty short, and reading them together gives us an opportunity to discuss the poem together afterwards.
she read about pecos bill from her american tall tales book. i had her tell me 5 questions she would ask pecos bill if she were to interview him. i wish i had written down the questions, because they were pretty creative, and showed that she understood the reading well. she also went on and narrated many parts of the story...i think she enjoyed learning about pecos bill.
she read chapters 10 and 11 for the week in The Princess And The Goblin. she was looking forward to reading more, but we had a pretty busy week so there didn't end up being enough time to read ahead.
she read the mechant of venice from the book Tales From Shakespeare. she narrated pretty well, but had difficulty remembering everything that happened. the story was pretty long, and i should have had her spread it out over a few days. that would have made more sense, and she would have retained more of the reading that way. oh well. next time!
ballet (p.e./performing arts):
things are going well, from what emma has told me, and she's halfway done with her 7 week session. the studio is on the upper level, so there isn't really any space for parents to watch, and i don't think they really like parents peeking either. i don't blame them. i usually didn't care for having parents watch during class time, because it can get distracting for the students. according to emma's latest class update, they practiced tendus, and "ballet" skips (a.k.a. skipping with pointed feet). she has made a sweet little friend in class, and i'm hoping that they can stay in the same class for the new session.
GIBSON
so, our printer head for the black ink is a little mucked up, and i couldn't print out the sheets to make his letter of the week notebook page. booo.
fortunately, that didn't hold us back. gibson continued a few more pages in
his HWT print book. like emma, he is really enjoying doing his handwriting practice. the HWT books are different from the typical handwriting books i've seen, and the kids love it.
we also did a little math. nothing big, just adding some numbers with 10 as the highest sum. gibson started adding numbers before he could write them, and i came across the best idea online (i wish i could remember which blog it was i saw it on) to encourage kids who can add, but haven't quite mastered writing them yet. i use little round stickers with the answer to individual addition problems written in each sticker. all gibson has to do is find the correct number that matches the answer to the addition problem and stick in the blank. that way, they're not slowed down (or discouraged) by their lack of mastery in writing the numbers. it's a pretty brilliant idea.
these two babies are going to end up starting school at the same time. they do well playing on their own most days, and sometimes they'll want to join in with big brother and sister so they'll pull out some papers to draw or a coloring book to color in.
lani thinks she can use scissors, so she sneaks in my room and digs around in the school supply box until she can find the scissors to cut things. so far, she's been trying to cut just paper. i'm hoping that's as far as she goes right now, and doesn't move on to cutting hair!
ALL KIDS
bible:
this week, we read from Luke 2:1-40, Exodus 2:11-16, Acts 7:23-34, and Hebrews 11:24-28.
our memory verse for the week was Genesis 2:7, and since we're using
this system for scripture memorization we also review memory verses from previous weeks.
french:
i've been trying to make sure we do french at least 3 times a week, and we managed to fit a french lesson 4 times this week (we were out and about more than usual this week, and that pimsleur audio cd really came in handy). some new and old words/phrases that stood out this week include j'e vais bien, comment allez-vous?, tres bien, chaud, merci, bonjour, quest-ce que c'est?
nature walk:
i kept lessons short on thursday, and we spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon exploring
volunteer park. there was some drizzling involved in our stroll, but the kids were totally excited about it because they got to use their umbrellas (which the boys sometimes turned into weapons *ahem*). the park is quite big, with plenty of places to explore. i will have to save a more detailed post about volunteer park for next time.
we also took some time to check out the park's
conservatory, modeled after a victorian area glass greenhouse. the building reminded us of the book
misss rumphius, which is currently one of the children's favorite books (it was one of mine when i was a kid). it was actually really neat to come home and look at the illustration of the conservatory in
miss rumphius, after experiencing a real-life conservatory.
inside the conservatory, we had the opportunity to observe plants that aren't commonly seen here in the PNW - many unique, tropical plants that thrive best on year-round warm, humid conditions.
it was an excellent nature day. sometimes, all we need to refresh us is some good, quality time outside, with freedom to explore, run, and experience at your own pace. i'm glad we played hookie that day!
