Our Week in Review, 3/14 - 3/18

We had a really good week this week!  Not only did we get a lot accomplished, I think Connor is finally realizing that we get done much more quickly (and happily!) when he cooperates.

Connor

Math: He continued to work on measuring, perimeter, and subtraction in RS B lessons 100-102.  He struggled a bit with the idea of subtraction as going up (finding the answer by figuring out how much to go up from the lower number to the whole), not so much because he doesn't get the concept as because the answers weren't as simple as before when we introduced the concept.  He still has a hard time dealing with things he doesn't "get" right away--frustration, tears, etc. before he has even really tried or let me help him.  We need to work on the "keep at it" attitude.  It wasn't as bad this time, though, thankfully!

Measuring strips of paper to cut and make triangles.  One of the perks of homeschooling--doing school in your PJ's!

History:  We finished chapter 19 (Early Greeks) and began chapter 20 ("Greece Gets Civilized Again").  We're still working on his Mycenaean war helmet, so I'll post pictures of that later.  He was intrigued by looking at the Greek alphabet and seeing how similar it was to ours--only two letters of his name were different.  He continues to have a better attitude about narrations, even though it's still not his favorite thing to do.

Chariot and horse (with dust kicked up behind the chariot).  Realizing that I need to work on my OWN handwriting for his narrations . . . 

Reading: Continuing with the D'Aulaire and McElderry Greek myths books.  He asked this week if we could get the McElderry book to keep. *grin*  It's on my Amazon wishlist!  This week we read about Pygmalion and Galatea, King Midas and the Golden Touch, and Apollo, Artemis, and Hermes.

Science: He was pretty interested in lizards, so we stuck with lizards for another week.  He was fascinated by the flying lizard that can glide from tree to tree and the horned toad (which is actually a lizard) that can shoot blood out of its eyes at an attacker.

Grammar: He finished FLL lessons 77 and 78, reviewing abbreviations and beginning titles of respect.

Spelling: He finished AAS Step 8 and began Step 9.

Spelling "cupcake"

Dividing "cupcake" into syllables and labeling with syllable tags

Latin: He completed SSL chapter 29, learning the Latin words for flower, garden, ground/dirt, leaf, and plant--very timely since we're planning to start a square-foot garden next week!

Handwriting: This week he practiced how to connect after letters that end on the upper line (like o and w).

Memory work:  Continuing on Ephesians 6:13-18, the disciples, Latin phrases (added "Mea Culpa" this week), the pronoun list, catechism question, and history sentence.  A month or two ago, we started learning hymns--at their request (I was thrilled!).  Brennan had learned Holy, Holy, Holy at BSF (he goes with his grandmother), so he wanted to sing that together.  After a couple of weeks, I suggested a new one: Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee.  They both learned it willingly and were thrilled to hear it one day in the van when I was previewing Easter musicals for choir at church. *grin*  So this week we started O Worship the King.

Brennan
We've been much more consistent this week about getting school done with Brennan.  It helps so much when his brother is being cooperative!

Math:  He did RS A lessons 31, 32, and part of 33: coins, halves, and grouping by 5's.  After we talked about the concept of "half" one day and demonstrated it by cutting shapes in half, I was surprised to see him use the same idea to divide a group of tiles in half.  Instead of passing them out one by one or counting to see if he and I had the same number, he made a rectangle of the tiles and divided the rectangle in half.  Then I asked him, and he was able to recognize that we each had the same number of tiles.  I love the way RightStart teaches them to think about math!

Phonics:  He has been less than enchanted with reading out of the phonics book lately (not that I blame him much!), so I took the time to print words from the book (-nk words, plus -ng, -tch, and -ch words to continue working on fluency) on cards and we've been playing memory (he reads the words as he turns them over), Go Fish, and hide-and-seek with them this week.  He LOVES hide-and-seek--I choose 10-15 of the cards, hide them in the living room, and he finds them and reads them.

Handwriting: First full week of real copywork!  This week he copied his name, part of a Bible verse, and a short poem with numbers (to work on the numbers).

Reading/Literature:  We're continuing to read about Reddy Fox, who managed to get himself shot by Farmer Brown's Boy this week!


Together

Bible:  This week we read several stories about Jesus healing the sick and about how He calmed the storm.  For that lesson, we made a storm in a bottle with blue water, oil, and some glitter.  They enjoyed watching the "waves" as the oil and water sloshed around without mixing and seeing how they separated after being shaken.

I'm excited--we got Writing with Ease this week, and I can't wait to start using it.  I really debated over what level to start Connor in.  He *could* probably start in level 2, but I think going back and doing some really easy narrating for a while and then building up from there will be good for him, as well as starting to use parts of his own narrations for copywork.  He also really seems to like workbooks/worksheets, so I'm hoping he'll respond to that as well.  I also got a chance to really look at Prima Latina and Latin for Children, and we'll definitely be doing Prima Latina next.  I like LfC (we'll probably use it after PL), but while I think he's *capable* of doing LfC, I think it'll be too much added on top of everything else.  PL looks like a good step up from Song School Latin, and it has some good grammar review as well that looks like it's right in line with what he's been doing in FLL.  We also got How to Teach Art to Children, and I'm looking forward to using that as well.