Weekly Report...Week 9

Remember how last week was rough due to intense emotions? Well, this week started out the same way. I have been reading Raising Your Spirited Child by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka. It is a guide for parents whose child is more intense (check!), more sensitive (check!), more perceptive (check!), more persistent (check!), and more energetic (check!). I have concluded that I do not have one "spirited" child, I have two "spirited" children! And to complicate matters, I, too, am "spirited". I encourage you to click on the link to read an excerpt if you are interested in finding out more. Attitudes did improve by the end of the week.

Tapestry of Grace (Both)

History...this was the first week of week 5 for us. To be honest, I really can't recall what we learned about. Maybe it has something to do with us completing history during the first half of the week. Or, maybe it has something to do with the fact that history has been very blah. It's disappointing. The Middle Ages is our family's favorite time period. Something needs to change and I am not sure what. It's not the fault of TOG...it's mine and I don't know how to fix it. Oh, yes...we are in the middle of studying about the Vikings. Maybe we'll just have to have a "re-do" for this week.

Literature...Magnus has been reading a Landmark book called The Vikings by Janeway. He is really enjoying it.

Timeline...we added a couple people to our timeline. It's starting to fill in and the boys are making connections. I am glad that we are doing this.

Project...the boys started making a model of a Viking ship with Collin. They will probably finish it next week. I'll post pics of it when they are done.

Language Arts (Magnus)

Grammar...he started learning about adjectives this week and completed 5 lessons in GWG. I wanted to make sure that the rules are getting cemented in his head so I created some copywork pages for him to complete.

Spelling...completed Step 2 and he got all of his words correct on his test! He was very proud of himself as was I. This subject has been a struggle.


Phonics...almost finished with book 4 of ETC. I picked up book 4 1/2 and book 5 this week. I might have him do 4 1/2 so that he'll have a chance to work on the rules that he just learned in book 4 or I might have him move onto book 5 and alternate lessons with book 4 1/2. I'm not sure.

Phonics (Thane)
Thane is starting to read!!!!!! We worked on sounding out simple words that had the short "a" sound. He read the first couple books in the Bob series and was so excited! We didn't have these milestones with Magnus as he just picked up a book and started reading. It's fun to see the joy in Thane's eyes! He worked some more on starfall.com. I was able to check out the site more and found some great worksheets to print off for him. He liked doing them since he has become familiar with the characters.

Thane also atteneded Mrs. P's class. It was "e" week so he brought in an elephant to share.

Math
I can not say enough how much I love Right Start!
We played the Corner game again. I know you can't tell by the look on Thane's face, but this is loads of fun!

Magnus...I printed off some worksheets for review of the "9" facts. He did really well. He also worked on partitioning 11 and creating patterns on the Geo Boards.

Thane...started simple addition through word problems. I could not stump him! He also learned the art of partitioning and did well with doing "5".

Science

I think the reason our week turned around was because of science. It was interesting, I enjoyed teaching it, the boys were involved, and we watched videos on the internet. I am thinking this might be the secret to making things interesting...using different resources to teach and learn. It breaks things up. Forgot to mention...we started studying invertebrates.

Magnus also attended his science class with Ms. Carla. They studied amphibians and reptiles.

Latin

We finished up chapter 4, the review chapter, in Song School Latin. We listened to the songs and sang along. We like this program.

That about covers it! Next week is Thanksgiving, but we will still be doing school M-W. Maybe that would be a good time to "re-do" our Viking week. Whatever the case, I need to do some serious thinking about how to approach history. Hope you have a great weekend!