Weekly Report...Week 12

We are a third of the way through the required 36 weeks of school! Not sure why I am doing the happy dance since we school year round...I guess it just feels good to have reached a milestone even if it is not one that was placed there by me, but by "big brother". Overall we are having a great year. We are staying on track and learning is taking place. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I am looking forward to evaluating some things over the break and changing a few things up when we resume.

Tapestry of Grace (Both)
Due to the changes that I have made, this week went smoother and I feel good about it. I still plan to take some time in the next few weeks to really look at it and make sure I am doing everything I can to prepare myself in teaching it each and every week.

History/Literature/Lapbook...we discussed the feudal system, knights, and castles. Seriously, what more could a boy want? The boys even had a jousting tournament on their bikes with handmade shields and lances. Not the safest thing, I admit, and thankfully no one was impaled! I learned a little something this week too. I learned that I kind of like cuddling on the couch and reading to my boys. This is huge for someone who does not like reading aloud. As long as I don't do it for too long, it's great! (No throwing tomatoes, please! I know it is hard to believe that a homeschooling mom doesn't like reading to her kids...BUT...I am learning to...and before it is too late!) We read The Making of a Knight. We took the things we learned from the book and filled in a couple booklets for our Middle Ages lapbook.

Language Arts (Magnus)

Grammar...plugging away in his Growing With Grammar book. He is working on alphabetizing. However, he has lost his privilege of working independently on this subject...at least for the time being. He wasn't reading the rules and instructions, but doing what he "thought" the directions said to do. Learning was not taking place. So, for now, I am walking him through each lesson and he is not liking that. Once he can show me that he is ready to take on the responsibility again, then maybe I'll think about it.

Spelling...we are on step 4 of All About Spelling Level Two. He worked on multi-syllable words by clapping the syllables and seeing that every syllable has at least one vowel. He missed 2 out of the 10 words, but he'll get 'um next week!

Phonics...this is one of the areas I am unsure of. Need to think about this over the break. It's hard to know what to do with a kid who is reading and comprehending at a 6th grade level. Do I not worry about it, or try to fill in the gaps even though I am not sure what they are?

Phonics (Thane)
His little face lights up as he reads and it makes me warm inside! I would be missing this if he was learning from someone else in a classroom. Praise God that He has blessed me with the opportunity to homeschool and with a husband who is supportive of it!

Math

Magnus...learned and worked on the 8 facts by learning the "8 trick". For example...8+4=? Well, take 2 away from the 4 leaving you with 2, add it to the 8 giving you 10...10+2=12, so 8+4=12. Like I mentioned last week...I want to give the boys strategies for figuring the problems out and not have them rely on memorizing facts. So far so good!

Thane...learned the difference between a "copy" and a "reflection". We did some "mirroring" exercises and worked on the geo boards.

Science

Continued reading One Small Square: Cactus Desert this week. And yes, I enjoyed reading it aloud to them! :o) We discussed the temperature differences between the day time and night and how different they look as far as animal activity. We also started working on our desert animals lapbook.

Latin
Didn't get done this week. "Bad, Magistra! Bad, Mater!"

Thanks for checking in with us this week! We will be doing school next week, and I have planned to do a full week of all of our subjects, but that may change. Not sure I want to do that. Might have to plan some things just for the fun of it! Hope y'all have a great weekend!