Friday, April 4, 2008

Weekly Report


In spite of how I am feeling, we had another successful week of learning. We got everything done I had planned with the exception of one history project and one lesson in math. I think that is pretty good considering.

History (Both)
This week we studied the Greek god's and the Greek's War with Persia. Magnus is obsessed with mythology right now. He is reading everything about it he can get his hands on. It is not an unhealthy obsession though. He knows the difference between his God (big G) and their god's (little g). They are adventure stories to him. For one of the projects, he drew a picture of what he thinks the Greek god's world looks like. He was very detailed and included several of them. Tomorrow, Collin and I, are going to take them to Nashville to the Parthenon. I wish we were able to visit the real one in Greece (someday we will!), but for now N'ville's copy will have to do. I'll post pictures and information about it soon.

Language Arts (Magnus)
Grammar has got me vexed. I still really like Queen's Language Lesson's for the Very Young, but I don't think it is challenging him enough. I have been mulling over this for the past week and still have not made any decisions. I posted this on the message boards hoping to find clarification. Then, Jessica at Trivium Academy shed some light on it by posting this. She hit the nail on the head. Especially with this...

"If the Queen's thread (there was a thread posted that started me questioning the use of this book) only brought up insecurities that were already there, then find out what you need to feel comfortable with whatever you'll use. You can always beef up or scale back, you are in control-not the product."

She is right and I just needed to be reminded of that. I have been feeling like Queen's needs a little "beefing" and I think I will do just that. I'll "beef" it up a bit, but still continue to use it. He really likes worksheets, so I think I will create my own worksheets to go along with First Language Lessons. OR, I may just purchase Growing with Grammar since the work is already done for me!

Phonics (Thane)
He LOVES his Get Ready for the Code workbooks. In fact, he asks if he can "go first" when we sit down to do our school work. He also started his Queen book, Language Lessons for the Very Young volume 2, and enjoyed doing it. It included a picture study, a narration, and a poem this week. After having questioned my grammar choice for Magnus, I got to second guessing my phonics choices for Thane for next year. After doing some more research and looking over some more programs, I am going with the original plan...Explode the Code Workbooks, but adding the Teacher Guide for more instruction, and Happy Phonics. I may include some Ordinary Parent's guide to Teaching Reading, but only if I feel he needs it.

Math (Magnus)
He worked on pattering, recognizing thousands, and locating right angles. The right angles were giving him a little bit of trouble when using triangles. I'll have to continue to review that with him.

Nature Study (Both)
I didn't follow Barb's Green Hour Challenge again, but you know what? I am letting it go...see, there is goes...bye, bye! I want to do it, but can not find the time to get it done. So, rather than beat myself up over not completing them, I am saying goodbye. I do have a lot to thank her for...renewing my love of nature, helping me make the outdoors and studying it a priority, and helping me figure out how to study it. Thanks Barb!
So, with that being said, here is what we did manage to do this week...
A Family Hike
Creating a Bird Habitat
Creating a Toad Habitat
Clicking on the above will take you to those posts on my nature blog, Dancing with Dandelions. I posted a lot of great pictures. Oh, and I have been working on creating notebooking pages of the various birds we have been coming into contact with as we are reading the Burgess Bird Book for Children. There are 90 some birds we will be learning about and I have 50 or so pages made. I am excited to use them.

Activities...
Monday...Homeschool Storytime
Tuesday...Swim Lessons
Wednesday...AWANA
Thursday...We went to the Discovery Center with our friends. Here are some pictures...



Friday...I am just trying to survive until Collin gets home from work.
Saturday...We will be going to the Parthenon in Nashville.

Hope you all have a great weekend!




6 comments:

Lori C., Texas said...

I am having some of the same feelings about Queen Homeschool stuff. My kids like it but I think they like it because it is super easy and quick. I know that they are learning but know that they can learn more. I am going to finish out through the summer with it but switch back to FLL3 in the fall for my ds6 and I am not sure with dd11 yet. We are also having some trouble getting our Green Hour Challenges done. Have you heard of this?? http://letterboxing.org/ I am thinking this is a great fun way to add in nature study and geography!:) We are going to try it out soon. I just found out about it the other day!

Have a great weekend!
Lori

Dawn E said...

Sounds like you had a great week! We are enjoying GWG 1/2. I am probably going to mesh together several products for next year. I'm having a hard time getting my Green Hour's done, and haven't blogged for over a month. :) Life around here has been rather chaotic of late. I'm just glad GH is on pdf so we can catch up later.

Happy weekend!
Dawn E

Unknown said...

Looks like a great week! I hope that whatever you decide to use for your children, brings you peace. :-)

Anonymous said...

Oh goodness, that was me! I didn't sign out of hubby's account. (tom) lol

Tina in WA said...

I haven't posted week 6/7 GHC yet, but will do this tomorrow(along with our Weekly Report). We seem to get side tracked a lot and have been learning about a few other things along the way. Why can't I stay "Focused"?

We made bird nesting bags 2 years ago. Those were so much fun. Your nature week/activities sound wonderful. You're doing get, and don't loose heart.

My son likes workbooks too. I made some pages for FLL but my excitement for it died out not to far into the book. We use GWG 1/2 and are enjoying it. He is a workbook page type of kid. He would be ok with FLL, but GWG is more his style. We do copy work, picture studies, poetry, etc in other subjects so I don't feel like we are missing out on that stuff from FLL.

Praying for you!

~Tina

Alane @RaH said...

Sounds like you had a great week! We've got lots of bird houses and bird feeders to put outside so we can enjoy watching the birds.