Thursday, February 28, 2008

Weekly Report


We seem to be on a roll! We had another great week! Only a few bumps with having to deal with bad attitudes (me included), but we were able to turn it around and move ahead.

History
We are on Chapter 19, The Mycenaeans, in SOTW. One thing, among others, I love about homeschooling is that I am able to fill in the gaps of my public school education and have my own "aha" moments. I had one this week. I didn't realize, or maybe I did but didn't make the connection, that the Mycenaeans are the group of Greeks who attacked Troy? You know. Paris and Helen and the Wooden Horse? Homer? Anyhow, we started reading Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliffe. This is a great book and the boys love it, but I am trying to talk Collin into reading this aloud to the them as I am having a difficult time with the names. He is much better at that stuff than I am.

Nature Study
This has been a bit of a challenge this week due to a cold front that moved through. I know, I know. Those of you who are buried in snow up north are saying, "Cry me a river.". I spent my childhood up north, but have become acclamated to the warmer temperatures of the south, well, except in the summer. Anyhow, we tried to get out earlier in the week, but it didn't work out. We are going to give it another shot. I'll be posting about our adventure soon so check back.

Language Arts-Magnus
Well, my order from Queen Homeschool finally came in. You know, it was worth the wait. I ordered both Language Lessons for the Very Young and Language Lessons for the Elementary Child because I was unsure where Magnus would fit. We started with LL for the Very Young this week. We are loving this program so far. The first lesson was a picture study. The boys ran with it! They both made up an entire story about the picture, complete with who, what, when and why. When we were done, they asked what was on the next page because they wanted to do another one! Instead, I gave them an art book and they did the same thing with pictures from that. He also really enjoyed the Robert Frost poem we read and talked about.

Phonics-Thane
He completed several sheets in his ETC books. He finished letter "b" and is now on "m". We did another magazine art project and he liked that.

Math-Magnus
I have noticed he writes a few of his numbers backwards sometimes. So, I took the opportunity to work on that with him this week. There is a rhyming poem in the beginning of our Right Start math book that helps kids remember which "side" the number starts on. I had him write the numbers several times through out the week. We continued playing math games too.

Sketch Tuesday
We participated in this fun activity conducted by Barb at Heart of Harmony. You can see our sketched here in case you missed them.

Activities

Monday: Homeschool Storytime at the library; swimming with friends; Thane's Swimming Lessons
Tuesday: Attempted our Nature Walk; Magnus' Swimming Lessons
Wednesday: Thane's Swimming Lessons; AWANA was canceled due to snow...there wasn't any snow accumulated!
Thursday: Park with friends (2 hours!); Magnus' Swimming Lessons
Friday: Birthday Date Night for Mom and Dad! :0)

I have decided to change up our daily schedule a bit and have it look more like a CM kind of day. I'm still playing around with it but will post it when I get it finalized. I am also going to work in a "tea time" each day and rotate what we do for that. Maybe read our nature books, poetry, picture study and the like. Fridays are going to be our "Fine Arts" day in addition to the three R's. We are going to blow the dust off Artistic Pursuits Book 1 and get started again.

Thanks for checking in. Be sure to look us up next week. Hopefully my blog will no longer be under construction!

8 comments:

Lisa~ said...

1st... Loving the new look... I like having 3 columns....

2nd.. what a great... full week....

3rd...I love Black ships before troy... it was a wonderful read aloud... Im w/ you though... the names can be challenging... and to this day I have no idea I got it right on some or not! lol

I'll post on Sat... *Ü* something... maybe not much.. but it will be what we have been doing...

Lisa

my5wolfcubs said...

Sometimes my attitude is the worst...or a least my reaction to my kids attitudes is worse then theirs were to begin with. :)

I'm glad you liked your Queen Homeschool order! I still haven't placed an order, but I want too!

Is there a story behind the header?? Great job on the blog construction!
Lee

Keys to the Magic Travel said...

I love your new look! We are a book family too :-)

After taking 5 years of Latin in school - and teaching it myself - I can actually pronounce those names (one of my few talents!)...

Lori C., Texas said...

Sounds like a great week. I am glad you all have found your groove. We are getting there but not there yet. With 3 kids doing 3 different levels of almost everything. It is hard!:) But we are getting there and I am working on our schedule right now. I will post it when I get done.

Oh, and I have to have my husband to read all those books with the hard names in them. That or I get them on tape from the library. I have started to upload books to the kids MP3 players that I really don't enjoy reading!:)

Sherri in GA said...

I'm always afraid that when I hit a good groove that it will end soon!! LOL

Looks like you really did have a great week and got a lot done!!
Sherri in GA

Anonymous said...

Looks like a great week!

The Sutcliffe book was a hit here too. I wish her others were easier to find.

My book club read and watched "Rebecca" recently and its now a running joke how throughout the book, no matter what else was going on, everything stopped for tea. Old haunted, manorhouses were burning to the ground and it was all:

"Oh no! Our olde, haunted manor house is burning to the ground!"

"Quick! Someone! Do something!"

"Right away! But first, we must have tea!"

Maybe this is the attitude to keep in mind to keep you on your game. No matter what. Have tea.

Tonia said...

Your blog looks great! Sounds like you had a good week - I can't wait until my dd is old enough for Story of the World!

Tina in WA said...

We are doing the sketch tuesday's as well. What a blessing that has been.

Back when I was thinking of using Queen's language lessons I didn't find many folks that were using them. I wish now I would have taken the plunged. :o)

What a wonderful recap of your week.