Weekly Report

This week felt a little chaotic, but it went well overall. We were a little unfocused mid-week, but I prefer to chalk that up to winter doldrums rather than blame myself. :) Truth be told, when I'm off, we're all off...but you all know this already about your own life as teacher-moms.

Let's start with the littlest academic this month. View my previous post to see what she thinks about her home "education" experience, and now here's what really goes on...

Munchkin:
Right Start Math level A has been fun. She loves saying "quadrilateral" but it comes out more like "quad-i-wata-wul" which is incredibly endearing. I do try not to giggle. :) We've been identifying "parawew" and "perpa-dikler" lines around the house in the striped wallpaper and criss-cross window panes. Writing tally marks, counting up to 10, and adding to 10 using "Yellow is the Sun" song are what make up math lessons right now. Matching games are played with big sisters too.

Phonics Pathways is going well, and ETC workbook time is a favorite activity. There is a "Bag a Bug" game in PP that literally makes Munchkin lose control laughing. I highly recommend games for learning--maybe that's why she says we don't learn anything. :) We have read all but one of the Bob Books in box 1.

In addition to these activities, Munchkin has about 10 books on tape/CD from the library which she loves, and she plays on Starfall for about 15 minutes most days during her sisters' lessons.

Cupcake:

In math, she is working on subtraction. Practice sheets are going slowly, but she is now timing herself and graphing her results, proving to herself that she is indeed improving. On Monday, the lessons involve the drawing board which she cannot wait to do!

Co-op writing assignments have been the focus here, practicing IEW skills of keyword outlines and then dress-ups. The library class on creative writing is going well. Cupcake's story involves several "chapters" of journal entries now about a Union soldier boy. Her illustrations are coming out as she has hoped, and I cannot wait to post photos here when it's done.

In TOG, we are working through WW II which has been heartbreaking. We are approaching the end of the war, and working on labeling a map of the Middle East to prepare for next week's history class at co-op. Cupcake is really struggling with the sinful nature of humanity.

Memory work now involves Awana verses as well as Latin review. Science reading is done with Dad, which got bumped to Saturday this week...it's always fun no matter when it happens!

Sweet Pea:

Math continues to be a battleground when we're not studying Geometry...Sweet Pea despises it when we work in BJU. I waffle between wanting to make her work through it on principle or choosing something new that doesn't create this tension. Her mistakes are careless and not related to the new material. Ugh.

TOG's WWII studies have been intense but she is enjoying history a lot and works through tons of reading each week without complaint, sometimes working in the Dialectic column, but mostly UG. Angels of Mercy is an enjoyable read about WWII nurses. For co-op next week, she is preparing a presentation about the Battle of the Bulge.

Writing has been diverse....in addition to the library's story book project, she had two co-op assignments this week--one that was a creative short story using a humorous prompt, with mandatory dialogue for practice in punctuation, and one was an IEW based assignment for which she chose some text (science), created a keyword outline, wrote a summary, and added 6 dress-ups to the paragraph. This was a practicum for the class before moving on to new writing techniques, and Sweet Pea did a great job with it.

Memory work, Awana, Latin, and Science are all done with Cupcake, so their work this week was similar.