Thursday, March 26, 2009

Weekly Report...Week 23

Collin was on Spring Break this week so I intentionally planned a light week for us. I wanted to be able to leave our school work behind and go somewhere if we chose to. However, that didn't happen. Poor Collin was sick this whole week. :o( Still glad I didn't plan a lot though.

Tapestry of Grace (Both)
It was kind of a tricky subject this week. We learned about King Henry VIII and the joy he felt when he heard about Martin Luther and his dissatisfaction with the Catholic Church. King Henry needed a male heir and his wife did not provide one. The Pope would not let him remarry. So, The Church of England was formed. *We*, are Anglican. But...many an Anglican will tell you that the "Church" was already there in England and that this was not how it came to be. So, we'll go with that.

History...as I mentioned, we learned about King Henry VIII and all of his wives and their...(clearing throat)...ends. We also watched The Other Boleyn Girl. (Just kidding! I did though.)

Lapbooking...the boys completed a booklet I created about the wives of King Henry.

Language Arts (Magnus)
Grammar...learned about capitalizing proper nouns such as days of the weeks, months of the year, and holidays.

Spelling...this is a thorn in my side! I simply do not know what to do! I received the Phonetic Zoo, but it looks like the word lists are going to be too advanced for him. They don't recommend it until 3rd grade anyways. BUT...my charter school wants me to pilot the program. I just don't know. Andrew Pudewa of IEW suggested using All About Spelling before starting PZ. Doesn't he know that I was but I stopped using it? And I am not exactly sure why I stopped except that it seemed like Magnus just wasn't retaining the rules. Maybe that was not a good decision. Maybe we will have to revisit it. BUT...I also have Spelling Power and I like the looks of it. So many choices!!! Arrrgghhhh!!! Can I just not do spelling until next year?

Writing...
only did a few lessons in WWE.

Phonics...completed a lesson in ETC.

Phonics (Thane)
Still working on the simple short vowel words. I had him read a couple readers I picked up at our charter school and he did so well. He asked if he could keep them because he was so excited about being able to read them easily. I am glad for my decision to take reading slow with him. He also played a little with starfall.com

Math (Both)
Magnus...HE IS FINISHED WITH LEVEL B!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yippee! I'll be moving him into Level C next week after I give him the Level B final test.

Thane...STARTED LEVEL B THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Most of the lessons in the front are review so we are already up to lesson 24 or so. I have a feeling we are going to plow through this level. He sat in on most of Magnus' teaching time so he knows a lot of it already.


Science (Both)
We started our unit on Dinosaurs. The boys requested it and are very excited about it. We, of course, are going to take it from a creationist perspective, but do not think we are going to take it as far as "dinosaurs being on the ark". And then there is this whole "old earth", "new earth" thing. Why does it have to be so complicated? Anyhow, we read the creation story from the Bible, we read about the first fossil being discovered (an Iguanodon tooth) and that dinosaur means, "terrible lizard". We also reviewed the characteristics of a lizard. The boys completed a few booklets for their lapbooks. We are also going to do some research on our favorite dinosaurs and write a mini report on them. The boys are actually excited about that! I also have some fun projects to do in the coming weeks.

Latin (Magnus)
What? We were suppose to do Latin this week? I didn't get the memo.

P.A.C.T. Classes
The boys attended them.

I had to share this picture...

Magnus gets so excited about the books he reads and the things he reads in them that he tells all of his friends about them. Then, he grabs the book and starts reading parts of it to them. It's so cute!

I am crossing my fingers and hoping and praying we will be able to make it to the beach on Sunday! I need a beach break!!!

Oh, we are taking a little day trip to somewhere really cool next week with our friends, Zelda and Rick and kids. You'll have to check back next week to see where!

Hope you have a great weekend! :o)

9 comments:

Lori C., Texas said...

Sounds like a great week!:) We haven't discussed dinosaurs around here yet!:)

Lori

Audrey said...

Very good week!! (Even though you say it's light.) :) :)

Anonymous said...

It sound like it was a very productive week even though you planned it light.

Blessings,
Karen aka Testimony on WTM board
www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

Jenny said...

Wow! That sounds like a really full, productive week. I understand about spelling, too. I just keep putting it off "until next year."

Our Westmoreland School said...

I love finishing things! Congrats on moving onward and upward!

I feel your spelling pains, btw. We've started Spelling Workout and I'm just not impressed with it. Spelling is starting to feel like busy work.

Sounds like a good week!

Rhonda said...

You had a wonderful full week! Sorry you had sickness in the house though.
I'm sure the kids will greatly enjoy studying dinosaurs-that is so fun.
I hope you do get to have your beach break this week-end. That sounds wonderful.

Paige said...

Shh, don't tell anyone, we don't do spelling (gasp!). I've convinced myself that ETC counts as spelling :). Looks like a great week. Thanks for sharing!

Z said...

Sounds like a fab-o week! I read The Other Boleyn Girl and I don't care who knows it.

You're going to have to fill me in on the lapbooking.

You're super stressed about spelling. My own experience was that it kicked in later.

Just some guy... said...

Great work this week! Wow, you do lots. You deserve a raise. I would talk to the headmaster.