Our Week in Review - 9/14/2008

I think this week was probably pretty typical for our school weeks. Of course, I wish we had gotten more "school" done, but I keep trying to remind myself that unstructured time is just as important to the children as scheduled schoolwork.

Bible - Still working through Genesis. Memorized Proverbs 3:5-6.

Math - Kids are continuing in ALEKS. They both did assessments which were pretty good.

Spanish - Kids doing well in Power Glide.

Spelling - Ga'hoole Girl has been a little frustrated because we did place names which included Massachusetts and Saskatchewan. Yep, they're tough. Wild Man is now working in All About Spelling Book 2. Most of what he learned in Book 1 is finally coming more easily. We got a magnet board, so our lessons are shorter since we don't have to do the setup.

Reading - Wild Man continues in Explode the Code Book 6. He is also very highly motivated to read on his own. He used some of his reading money to buy a used copy of Quidditch for GameCube this week. A few days ago, Wild Man decided he would try his hand at reading Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone. The chapters are much longer than he's used to, so he only had to read 1/2 of a chapter. I'm pretty amazed that he did it!! Ga'hoole Girl is starting the Lord of the Rings trilogy since she's finished all of her Sonlight books.

Grammar - Ga'hoole Girl is now correcting her own grammar workbook. She doesn't really like to do it, but I think it helps her learn where her mistakes are. My original plan was to use Editor In Chief after she finishes her grammar book because I think she needs some work on using grammar and punctuation, but I think I've changed my mind. When we are done with her grammar workbooks, I'll just correct her writing for a month or so. If she continues to have tons of mistakes in her own writing, we'll use Editor In Chief in addition to working on her writing. Ga'hoole Girl seems pretty motivated to clean up her own writing - now she has an incentive to proofread!!

Writing - Ga'hoole Girl did a couple of short writing assignments this week. I've talked to her about the need to proofread her writing (see above). The content was reasonable. She is working on a research paper from her Jump In! book. We've pushed the due date back since she needs to go to the Appleton Library to do research this week.

Handwriting - I've been impressed with Wild Man's progress in cursive. He actually is writing his y's correctly now so that he can write them in cursive later.

Art - Ga'hoole Girl did some reading about medieval art this week and did some writing about a tapestry about a unicorn hunt. We also listened to an audio book about various artists.

Science - Ga'hoole Girl is working in her new Earth Science book and read about minerals this week. Next week she'll read about rocks. Wild Man watched a TV show about the new particle accelerator. He didn't really understand much about the particle physics, but he thought the idea of such a huge machine was interesting.

Sonlight - We did some reading about kingdoms in Africa, the rise of Burgundy, and the Hapsburg family. We also read and did some map work while discussing explorers.

Election Unit - The kids are making their platforms, writing introductory speeches, and making up running mates. Ga'hoole Girl made herself a duct tape hat.

Food Science - The kids watched some food science shows on days when I didn't feel well. Ga'hoole Girl made some scrambled eggs in a homemade double boiler (and learned that scrambled eggs made in a metal bowl are hard to clean). Ga'hoole Girl is supposed to grill soon, but the weather has been yucky. She has done her reading, though. Both kids are pretty limited in their kitchen activities right now, though, because they left the kitchen a wreck Friday afternoon.

Dance - Ga'hoole Girl is loving her tap and theater dance classes. Wild Man's jazz class is taught by a man, which he likes.

Argumentation - Ga'hoole Girl got stuck on the lectures she was supposed to watch this week, so we will watch those together this week.

This week looks to be interesting. There is a Marc Chagall art exhibit at the Appleton Art Center, which I want to see when we're in town this week. We have to work that around Ga'hoole Girl's piano lessons and library trip. Mr. Math Tutor is substitute teaching Monday and maybe Tuesday this week. We are also planning a trip to Chicago in a few weeks to check out the museums. We're all excited because we'll be taking the train and staying right downtown.