Week in review......

This feels as if it has not been a very productive week, but when I look back on it I guess we did get a bit done. We were busy with outside activities as well.

E:
Math: Still working in Teaching Textbooks, though I'm starting to hear grumbling. I'm not sure if this level is too easy for him and he is starting to get bored or if it's just the routine of it that is getting to him. We will see. I do need to mix up our math a bit--more stories, games, fun. Actually, as I looked back at this week, I saw that because of the busyness, math was one of the things that I had E doing consistently. That might be adding to his frustration with it.
Reading: E has been reading Magic Tree House books again. He also started a new book called The Mystery of Biltmore House.
Science: I've been finding this subject a little difficult this year, so I decided to try some project based learning in this subject. Basically, the student picks the subject he wants to learn about. Then they figure out ways to learn about it. We discussed several options, but it was his choice how to go about this. Then, he decides what he wants to do with it. When he feels he is done, it is done. So, E said he wanted to learn about gun powder--it's history, chemical make-up, and anything else relevant. Off to the internet we went. He read about it and felt he had the info he wanted at that point. And then......on one website he saw, "How to breathe fire." Can you say rabbit trail? He was off. Do I call this science? Um, well, I tried to make scientific connections, but it wasn't really there. He did do it, though. I MAY post a picture, but I swear, it looks like "homeschooling gone bad".


K:
Reading: K has been furiously working on learning to read. He is struggling through a Magic Tree House book at present. He has also been working with his McGuffey's reader. However, he doesn't remember all the letter sounds. I am planning to start a Main Lesson book (Waldorf style) to help with this.
Math: K has mostly been working on "sums" on his slate. Occasionally he does a workbook page.
Science: Thank goodness K didn't also watch the video that E saw on breathing fire. He did watch Inquisikids and did some of the experiments with magnets. He has also been making funnels out of my coffee filters because Justin showed him how.
Literature: We read two stories from Aesop's fables this week, which I had him narrate. We also read quite a bit of In the Land of the Big Red Apple.
Geography: Although K finished his map last week, we are still reading Paddle to the Sea. We read a couple of chapters this week.




Together:
Literature: We have a book called Shakespeare for Children by Edith Nesbitt. These are Shakespeare's play rewritten in story form. This week we read The Merchant of Venice. We are also continuing with Pinocchio, which the boys love.
Poetry: We have been reading poems by Robert Frost, Sara Teasdale, Strickland Gillilan, and others
Picture Study: We finished up Bruegel last week and started to put together their own picture study books. We also started on our new artist--Matisse. I specifically chose Matisse for the cold winter months to bring some color and life into our gray days. The boys were really excited to see such different art from Bruegel.
American History: I have been reading to them from a book called Brown Paper School--US Kids History: Story of the American Colonies. Sometimes this feels a bit disjointed going from one section to another, but I feel it is a good light overview and the kids like it. Today we read about the early days of slavery in this country.
World History: A Discovery of New Worlds--this week we learned about the burning of Rome.
Nature Study: We went for a walk and collected things for a craft project.

Whew! that does seem like it should be enough. What did me in was the rest of the week. On Wednesday we went to see a concert. On Thursday we had friends over. Both E and K have started new art classes, which they are loving. And I think that's about it.


Picture Study books



The concert



Going out to eat after the concert.