Weekly Report

Week 8.

We took it easy this week. With no heat and low temperatures, I didn't make the kids get up early. We also worked Monday and took Tuesday off--the first Tuesday of the month is always a big grocery day. It threw my rhythm entirely "off." Well, that and shaking from cold.

Highlight: The Albrecht Durer print exhibition at the Provincial Art gallery and making our own prints from carving lino blocks. My son developed an appreciation for Durer's exquisite detail. "How did he do that?" he asked more than once, after he'd done his own.

Print by the Older:

Print by the Younger:



Spelling:
SWR--Dictated L5, did an Antonym and Analogy worksheet, wrote our words to cards--and FORGOT to do the Spelling test! That's supposed to happen Friday and with all the excitement and activity of having out new furnace installed, I simply forgot.

Latin:
Lively Latin: Ex. 9.6 to Ex. 10.2 (The Imperfect tense.)

Writing:
Aesop. Didn't do any writing this week.

History:
SoTW2, Ch. 32: The Kingdoms of the Americas. We did only one narration, our map work and the chapter test.

Art:
Durer exhibit and print works at the Art Gallery.

Science:
Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day. Finally finished Ch. 11, Social Insects.

Dictation and Copywork:
1x. (Told you it was a light week!) Here's the Older's:



Poetry:
I introduced Jabberwocky. They groaned and protested. What's wrong with these children?

Bible:
Proverbs. Chapter 7. My son went on and on about what a bad thing it was for a woman to sleep with another man not her husband. It was curious: where had he picked up all these opinions? As far as I knew, this was the first time we'd discussed such a topic.

Geography:
Canada Map Book, p. 24 and 25.

Canadian History Read Aloud:
(see sidebar for program). Days 10, and 11. (We're supposed to be finished the 21 day program for "Native Peoples Before Contact.") Oh well, the kids are well into our main novel, The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich.

Math:
The Older.
Singapore 3B, Workbook Ex. 35, Reviews 5 & 6, Practice 6B and Review D. drill 3x

The Younger:
Singapore 2B: Textbook Reviews B, C, Workbook Ex. 45, 46, 47 and 48. drill 4x.

Grammar:
The Older
R&S4: Lessons 23 and 24.

The Younger:
FLL: Lesson 185 & 186.

Assigned Reading:
The Older:
(1 hour a day 6 days/week plus 1 book report or summary/week)
--behind by 1 week, 3 days and 2 book reports.

The Younger:
(1/2 hour/day, 6 days/week plus 1 book report/week)
--behind by 1 week, 4 days and 5 book reports.

Logic:
The Older has finished the Visual Mind Benders book from Critical Thinking Press. I'm not sure what to move into next. He started the new Mind Benders book, A1 and did the first three.


This coming week is Canadian Thanksgiving and then we're taking a week of "School-Lite." I need to plan some activities for us and keep it structured--but fun. But you can bet they'll be doing a lot of Assigned Reading!

Weekly Report

Week 7.

One word: harried.
I'm not good with strangers in my home and this week there were three: two furnace salesmen (our furnace is quite obsolete and quite dead) and a fellow from the Federally sponsored Eco-Energy program (which may net us a $600.00 rebate on the furnace).

Highlight:
No breaks. I was frustrated with how long our day dragged when I let the kids go out and blow off steam. More than a couple of times they'd be late returning from the break because they hadn't done as I'd asked (clean the Guinea pig cage, get dressed). So, as a discipline measure they were not given a break either Thursday or Friday--the minute one was done one thing, I handed him another. To my surprise, it worked very, very well. One day we were even done by 1pm (except for grammar which got pushed aside as a result of all these appointments).

Spelling:
SWR, List L4. Dictated L4. The kids wrote sentences. I made up a worksheet on antonyms, homophones, homographs and homonyms for them. We quizzed L3 and counted it as the "test." The older had one error, the younger, two. (And this was after a fight about studying her words before the test.)

Latin:
Lively Latin: Lesson 9.2, Ex. 9.2, Lesson 9.3, Ex 9.4, Coriolanus, Ex. 9.5 and The Roman Legionary. For the most part, it went quite well this week. This is a page from the Younger:

Classical Writing:
Aesop A: Diogenes. We did a lot of thesaurus work with nouns and removed as many "said"s as possible.

illustration by The Older.

History:
Story of the World 2, ch. 31, Columbus and others. I took a slightly different approach this week. I had the kids do their reading on Tuesday and Wednesday before we did our work with SoTW. Retention was much better. Colouring pages, map work, review questions, one narration, and the chapter test.

Dictation and Copywork:
3x.

Poetry:
Didn't get a minute to introduce it. Not a problem. Jabberwocky will be here next week.

Bible:
1x (oops). Proverbs 6: 9-19. Though, I must admit, it's fun to say, "Wake up, you sluggard!"

Geography:
2x. Canada Map book, pp 20-23.

Canadian History Read Aloud:
Day 9. And I did it only because the kids were still awake and bouncing around at 10:00 last night. So, I got off the computer, made hot chocolate and had them lie on the couch. It was a wonderful discussion. I enjoyed how relaxed and "unschoolish" we were.

Math:
The Older: Singapore Math, 3B, Week 11: Fractions. Ex. 31-35. drill 4x. Here's what his drill sheets typically look like:


Obviously, they aren't timed!

The Younger: Singapore Math, 2B, Week 12: Fractions. Ex. 40-45. Drill 3x.

Grammar:
The Older: Rod and Staff 4, Lessons 22 & 23.

The Younger: FLL: Lessons 180, 182, 183. I'll be skipping great chunks of this, so we'll be done sooner than I expected!

Science:
We really didn't have a lot of time today, unfortunately. We read about honeybees from Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day and did up a quick comparison between them and the honey bees. (I never even knew bumblebees weren't honey bees!)

The kids have been reading all about honeybees, though, and the older did a "report" on bees as part of his required weekly "book report."

Art:
Next Saturday. The Provincial Art Gallery has an exhibition of prints from wood cuts by Albrecht Durer. How cool is that? On Saturday afternoons, they have an activity lead by a local artists to

Learn the techniques of traditional woodblock printing and create your own relief print.

We have to rearrange my son's music class to make it work, but I hope we can go next week.

Assigned Reading:
Older: 6h/week plus one book report or summary.
Younger: 3h/week plus one book report.

This is not going terribly well. I had incentives set up to be rewarded every three weeks. Last week the kids were supposed to qualify for their Week 6 reward. The Older did work fairly diligently at it and got his this week. But, he's still behind in "real" time. My daughter isn't motivated by a reward at all it seems.

Younger: 4 hours 15 minutes and 2 book reports behind.
Older: 5 1/2 hours and 1 book report behind.

CW Aesop A: Diogenes

Diogenes
By The Older

Diogenes was a strange man but extremely wise. He thought people didn’t need luxuries and to show that he lived in a barrel.

One day, Diogenes walked through the streets carrying a lamp. The people asked, “What are you doing,” The sage replied, “I am looking for an honest man.”

One day, Alexander the Great came to the city to see Diogenes.
One man said “Hail the mighty Alexander the Great!” But Diogenes didn’t come to see him. So, Alexander searched for the wise man.

Alexander found him and said, “I will give you anything you want in the world, Diogenes.”
The strange man replied, “Would you please move? You are blocking the sun.”
“He is a fool not to take such an offer,” the people murmured.

Alexander thought that if he were not Alexander, he would want to be Diogenes.

**********************************

Diogenes
by The Younger

Once there was a man named Diogenes. He lived in a tub. He was very wise. He always said no man should have more than he needed. Every day he sat in the sun and preached worthy advice to people around him.

“Diogenes is so wise, Alexander is coming to see him.” said the people excitedly.

Alexander sailed to Corinth. Diogenes wasn’t there to meet him. So, Alexander searched for him. When he found him, the wise man was lying in the sun. When he saw Alexander coming, Diogenes sat up.

“I’ll give you anything you want.” Alexander offered, “What will it be?”
“Could you please stand a little to the side? You are blocking the sun.” Diogenes answered.

Alexander left. Later he told his adviser, “I would like to be Diogenes if I were not Alexander.”

The End

Wordless Wednesday