This was an extremely difficult week. My daughter was snuffling and suffering from a sore throat on Wednesday. We plowed through, but she didn't get her math done. On Thursday, though, it was a different story. She complained of dizziness and nauseousness. We did what we could.
Not only has her illness thrown off our school schedule, but our sleeping schedules as well. It also makes me anxious. It makes me so uptight and so anxious, I'm afraid I'm going to spiral into a tempered frenzy and lash out in anger at every provocation, however slight. It's important to keep our frustration levels low, as mine is already too high.
I've put myself between a rock and a hard place. (Knowing it is self-inflicted doesn't help that much.) I want to drive those kids forward, wake them up and get them caught up and yet I must back off, as they are tired, grumpy and unable to learn under pressure.
So, today, Saturday, I plan to go to our city's Library Book sale. I don't expect to come home with much--I don't have the shelf space to come home with much!--and all the "good" books will still be in the library.
That means dropping all expectations of getting our planned work done. It means dropping both art and science this week. It means I'm stir-crazy inside.
Enough.
What did we manage to accomplish?
Highlight 1:
I "invented" Latin vocabulary Bingo. They were struggling badly with their Latin last week and someone suggested we slow down a bit and make sure our vocabulary was rock solid. So, I made up and printed off a few Bingo cards (with the Latin) and called out the English. It's more of a review than a proper game--they tell each other the answers all the time!
Highlight 2:
Still slowly introducing the Older to his Grade 5 curriculum. This week it was what I call Baby Logic. He started "Visual Mind Benders" amidst much resistance only to discover he doesn't mind it too much. I also hauled out our Mind Benders Beginners book 2 and started him again on that. He's only required to do one a day, 3 days a week. His comment when he'd finished the last one: "This is easy!" But he wouldn't do another one.
Latin:
Lively Latin, Mucius, the Left Handed, Lesson 8.4, Ex. 8.4, Vocabulary E, Ex 8.5, Ex. 8.6.
Spelling:
SWR: List L2. Dictated and Tested. We did up a small worksheet on analogies I made from The Wise Guide. Here is the Older's (complete with doodles.)
History:
SoTW2, Chapter 28: African Empires. This was utterly fascinating to me--I'd never learned any of this stuff, ever. We only completed one narration, however and most of it didn't stick in the kids' heads at all as was evident from the chapter test on Friday. But my son enjoyed reading West African folk tales, and Mansa Musa by Khephra Burns. My daughter liked her Anansi tales and Travelling Man, the Journey of Ibn Battuta 1325-1354. by James Rumford. The older also outlined a chapter on "Ancient Kingdoms" from a book on Senegal.
Writing:
CW Aesop, week 9. We did all the "analyses" (that we do) but no writing! I did have the kids outline their model: A Laconic Answer by Baldwin, but we didn't turn those outlines back into the story as I had planned. This is an example of how we mark up our models (from the Younger):
Science: sigh.
Dictations & Copywork: Only one dictation. One sheet each of 'm's and 'n's.
Poetry: The Splendor Falls by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. We recited on one day only.
Bible: Proverbs, Chapter 4.
Geography: Canada Map Book. pp. 11-15.
Cdn. History Reading Program.
At least when someone is lying on the couch, they're receptive to being read too! See relaxed reading under Cdn. History in the side bar. We did Unit 1: Days 3-6.
Math:
Older: Singapore Math 3B. Graphs. Ex. 24, Ex. 25, Review 3 and extra practice sheets from the Intensive Practice workbook. Drill 3x.
Younger: Singapore Math 2B: Text Book Practice 3B and drill 1x. Nothing else.
Grammar:
Older: R&S4: Lessons 16, 17, and 18.
Younger: FLL, Lesson 174 and Lesson 175.
Logic:
Older: Visual Mind Benders, Ex. #1-8.
Mind Benders, Beginning, Book 2, Activities #26-29.
Younger: she clamoured to do her Mind Benders Beginnings book, too. Insisted. She's up to Activity #32.
Assigned Reading:
Older: (1 hour/day) behind by 2.5 hours and 1 book report or summary.
Younger: (1/2 hour/day) behind by 1 hour and 45 minutes and two book reports.
3 comments:
I always have trouble figuring out how much to relax when someone's sick, too. And being "behind" drives me crazy! It sounds like you did really well, though, under the circumstances.
that still looks like an impressive week full of learning. So sorry your daughter is sick, I hope she gets better soon!
We love Anansi at our house, my boy was into spiders at a young age, and we stumbled upon the Anansi stories on audio-there are some videos around too that are done well-with a accent, too!
We are not doing much science here, except health-science, I haven't ordered our science yet- I was going to order Noeo science, but now I am not too sure after reading bad reviews of it over at the hive boards.
have a great week,
very nice weekly report, thanks for sharing!
Alana: It really looks like you accomplished quite a lot especially under the circumstances. Sometimes getting it all done in the report can show you what you got done and it is really better than you might have thought.
I anticipate a slower week than usual here because we all have a cold to some degree or another. It IS hard to plow through sometimes. :)
I hope your daughter is much better this week.
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