Weekly Report

What a great week! Monday and Tuesday were incredibly productive, Wednesday was another major snow storm, Thursday was a library writing class (for fun) and a visit with friends, and Friday was, ... well...Friday.

Sweet Pea's week:
More great Geometry this week which went really well.

In Grammar, she completed a Chapter 10 test in R&S 5, which means it was time to go back to the beginning and work through chapters 1-7. Because we often miss that last few chapters before summer, we started there this year. Those final chapters on reference materials are mostly review for her so she did well, but it was good to go over those topics. Sweet Pea has done so well in grammar over the years that on Friday she tested out of chapters 1 and 2. She is VERY excited. This means she has only 4 chapters to work through and she'll be done for the year. I am proud of her, and her grammar knowledge has translated well to our IEW writing work and dress-ups.

Latin is going slow but it's still a lot of fun for us. In TOG, we are studying WWII which has been quite intense. Sweet Pea has been doing a lot of reading and is planning a presentation for co-op this week about Pearl Harbor. She has been moving slowly through The Cay as assigned TOG reading but is moving quickly through Angels of Mercy, about WWII nurses. These, along with her own choice of Journey to the Center of the Earth are keeping her busy!

We are experimenting with a public library writing class that the children's librarian is offering. Her expertise is in art so she is especially excited about helping the kids with illustrations. So far, we've been attending for 3 weeks and Sweet Pea has written SEVERAL (yes! I'm shocked!) pages of a story that incorporates some Harry Potter-ish elements. It's cute and she is using a lot of dialogue (with correct punctuation) which pleases me to see.

Cupcake's week:
Math has been heavy in subtraction, and after a slow start, Cupcake is back to her usual I-love-math self. The RS practice sheets were slow on Monday but after doing them all week without a timer and with just a goal of practicing strategies and working through the problems, she really started to get comfortable again. This next week we will start timing and graphing with all the subtraction practice sheets.

TOG's WWII studies are going well. Cupcake has been reading Going to War in WWII which is a concise book for her age. We also picked up a couple picture books and My Secret Camera. She is enjoying the reading but is having a hard time understanding why people hate other people. It's hard to watch her shedding a few layers of innocence, and I'm not ready for it all to go at once, so we talk in general terms as we work through the horrors of Hitler and others throughout history. The reminder that God is in control of all things is a comfort.

Cupcake's Bible studies are frequent and thoughtful. She truly loves her Savior and she is enjoying Explorer's study of the Old Testament.

Grammar has been hit or miss, but we will easily finish FLL 1/2 by the end of the year, so I don't worry too much. Cupcake does a lot of writing, plus an occasional Daily Gram, thanks to a book I happen to have on hand, so I think she is learning more than I giver her credit for.

In addition to writing for co-op, Cupcake is also attending the library class with her sister. Her story is set during the Civil War. It's a journal of a Union soldier. She is a natural artist so the illustrating is exciting for her, and she is planning to model it after The Wave by Suzy Lee, which includes just charcoal pencil with a bit of blue watercolor for waves. Her idea is to draw the soldier in black and highlight with just blue.

Munchkin:
Having only been home from preschool now for a few weeks, Munchkin is doing a great job adjusting to our school routine. The first few weeks were fairly unstructured to just let her go with the flow, but this week we made a checklist like her sisters. She is in love. Her clipboard brings her unspeakable joy! I love that she wants to be a big girl and do all her "work" like her sisters. Her chart has a few blank spaces so each day I can write in a few activities that are her required works for the day, like Phonics Pathways, practicing her Bob books readers with someone, writing practice, listening to books on tape, or math. I also put http://www.starfall.com/ on her list some days, plus puzzles, play-doh, and other fun activities. She loves to check them off as she does them. I am so glad she is home. I love having all my girls home.

I am sure there is more. Every time I post about our week I feel like I could write boring VOLUMES so this is apparently my concise version!