Our Week in Review, 9/6 - 9/11

We had a really short week this week; between the holiday, medical tests for me day, and the first MOPS meeting of the year, we only got about 2 1/2 days worth of school done.  Still, what we got done was very productive, and we did manage to pick up a few stray activities here and there as well.

Connor
Math: I think he's really getting adding 10's and 100's now.  His confidence has grown too, and it's great to see his grin when he gets the answer.  Hopefully this will serve as a mile marker to look back on the next time he doesn't grasp something immediately!  We've also been reviewing telling time, which he learned pretty thoroughly last year.  I almost skipped it, but I decided he could use a few "easy" lessons after pushing through the last few.

Reading: He and I are reading The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson together, with both of us reading a few pages to finish a chapter a day and then "working together" to narrate the chapter.  He's been resisting narrating a bit lately (not good, since it's a major part of what we do!  Plus, he's pretty good at it when he tries!), so hopefully this will help.  So far we've been inspired to find France and Paris on the map, and I'm hoping for some good talks about families and homelessness, among other things.


History: He and Brennan painted their "Ming bowls" and we read a little from Ancient China, a DK Eyewitness Book by Arthur Cotterell.  Today we began glazing Connor's bowl with a glue/water mixture, but Brennan forgot my warnings about how breakable they were and broke the bottom out of his.  After a few tears and hugs, we got out the clay and started another one for him.

Science:  We began studying hummingbirds this week, beginning a notebook page and reading from our animal encyclopedia.  To be finished next week!

Latin: He finished up SSL chapter 14.  It was particularly fitting that he learned the Latin word for cat this week since we just adopted a stray!  He really enjoys listening to the songs and will even ask to listen to the CD on his own, especially when he's drawing/coloring.  Who am I to object to that?!? *grin*

Singing along with "Animal Song" from chapter 14

Grammar: FLL lesson 49, more pronouns.  He can recite the whole list that we've learned so far--I'm constantly amazed at how quickly he can memorize!  But here's the kicker--Brennan has started pointing out random pronouns ("Mommy!  You said a pronoun!") too.  And I don't even remember him listening in on a lesson! Maybe he was hiding under the table.

Brennan

Math:  He worked on RS A, lesson 12: patterns and making rectangles.  He always likes it when we bring out the tiles!

Making a rectangle

This is what he came up with when I asked him to come up with his own pattern after doing a few together:

Now, we've worked a little with patterns before, and I have shown him how sometimes patterns can consist of items in different positions and not just different colors and shapes, but I was totally impressed that he change the pattern by standing up some tiles on his own!

Phonics:  He's working on two-consonant endings, most of which he can already do.  Good review and confidence-building, though!  It seems like his fluency is building very quickly.

Handwriting:  Once again, he's insatiable!  I think he'd do handwriting sheets all day if I let him!  This week he did H and L.

We're also working on a spider lapbook, which is going very s-l-o-w-l-y, partly because we've got other things going on and partly because Mommy needs to get it together!

Together:
Bible:  We learned about God parting the Red Sea for Moses and the Israelites to pass through (and acted it out with stuffed animal Israelites and Egyptians and blue blankets for the water--unfortunately, I didn't think to get any pictures!) and about how God provided for the Israelites with manna and quail.  We acted this one out too--they pretended to be  sleeping Israelites while the manna (cotton balls) was scattered around them, then in the "morning," they woke up and gathered manna for their families.  We had to do this several times!

We've also done a couple of simple science experiments this week from 101 Cool Science Experiments by Glen Singleton.  I really like this book.  It's got a wide range of activities, from simple to complex and capable of being done by or with multiple ages.

I started to post the details here, but this post was getting really looooong, so I created another post with pictures if you're interested!  Just click here.