Week in review

Between trying to figure out how to blog, understand a new camera and download (or is it upload?) pictures, holidays, birthdays, family stuff, and general whatnot our homeschooling is slacking off a bit and my blog is already feeling a bit neglected.

Here is some of what we've been up to:

E:
Math: Teaching Textbooks--he has been working on rounding numbers and learning about angles
Reading: Since E is a fairly new reader, I am not pushing him to do tons of reading in all his subjects right now, just consistent regular reading in a variety of subjects. It's amazing how much he's improved this year. This week he's been reading from Famous Men of the Middle Ages, CLP Nature Reader, and a Magic Tree House book.
Copywork: Currently most of E's copywork comes from Happy Scribe Lord of the Rings copywork.
Geography: We finished Tree in the Trail this week. E has been working on a map from Beautiful Feet to go along with it. When we finished up he said, "What a great way to learn geography! I want to tell someone about it." So I'm telling all of you.
Grammar: This is actually one of E's favorite subjects this year. We have been reading Grammar Land and doing the worksheets that Jessica over at We Don't Need No Education made. Today the worksheet included figuring out whether words were nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adjective-pronouns, interjections, or articles. This was a bit tougher than some of the previous ones.
Read Aloud: I like to have an individual read aloud going with both children. I have been reading Caddie Woodlawn to E.

K:
Reading: This is huge for K right now. He is determined. He definitely has his own way of going about this and it is quite a different process than it was with E. Somehow, he still doesn't know all the letter sounds, but is struggling to read books. I have told him that this would be easier if he knew the letter sounds so the other day he asked if we could work on only that. All day. He's been doing some of the Explode the Code books. He *does* not* like* them. Well, they helped E quite a bit, so I'm giving it a shot. I also had him watch the Letter Factory dvd. We will be starting back on our Waldorf style main lesson book for the letters. He does not like any of these methods. He just wants to read. I get it. And he will get it. However, I think just a bit of the letter sounds will help us both to be less frustrated. He does like using McGuffey's Eclectic Reader ("just like in Little House, Mom!") And we use the Waldorf style readers by Shelly Davidow. K likes reading from these books, so it is mainly what we do.
Math: We have been covering basic addition and subtraction in various ways. We use Cuisenaire Rods and Math Made Meaningful. K has also been doing review by playing a game on the computer.
Copywork: Happy Scribe copybook
Handiwork: K has been sewing a pencil case.
Read aloud: In the Land of the Big Red Apple--this is part of the Little House on the Prairie series, but from the Rose years. K loves this series.
Geography: K finished his map, but we are still reading Paddle to the Sea.

Together:
American History: We have been reading about Roanoke and Jamestown. The boys heard about how people were encouraged to come settle in the colonies and they each created their own broadsheets to lure prospective settlers to the colonies.
World History: We read about the fall of Rome in The Discovery of New Worlds by M.B. Synge.
Artist/Picture Study: We are finishing up our study of Pieter Bruegel the elder. I am ordering the smaller prints for their own books this week and we will put those together next week. Then we are on to Matisse.
Composer study: This is very informal. We have been listening to and learning about both Mozart and Handel.
Poetry and Literature: Walter de La Mare, Robert Louis Stevenson for poetry. I read the fairy tale of Jack and the Beanstalk this week.
Read aloud: I have given up on The Penderwicks. I just didn't like it that much. And I just started reading Pinocchio to the boys today. This is a wonderful classic.

I think that about covers it, except a few pictures




E doing Teaching Textbooks (math).













The finished maps. K's map, for Paddle to the Sea, is on
left. E's map, right, is for Tree in the Trail.