Saturday, September 5, 2009

Weekly Wrapup: Week 2



Here we are at the end of another week of homeschool. Some successes and some frustration this week, as usual. :)

Latin: I think I have already gushed about how much I love SongSchool Latin. I had been trying to keep Latin to 2 lessons a week--this week Jamie begged to do Latin every day except Tuesday! The 31 lessons in the book are not going to last long at this rate. :)

Math: Things were better this week. I haven't implemented the bingo idea yet, but I may not have to--I think Jamie and I inadvertently hit on another solution together! In Horizons Math there are almost always two rows of problems in each set, and I almost always let him skip one row unless it's something he is having trouble with. So this week instead of just crossing one out to begin with, I gave him a time limit for the first problem set and told him that if he got them done in the required time he could skip the second one. Seems to be working like a charm thus far. :) We will see what next week brings--math is still pretty much review for him as of this week so it's not really challenging him.

History: We have been studying the Byzantine Empire this week, as well as the rise of Islam. We looked at some really pretty pictures of the Hagia Sophia and talked about mosaics and how they are made. Thinking about doing a mosaic art project at some point soon...I saw a neat Magnetic Mosaic kit that looks fun. (Side note: we buy almost all our paper and art supplies from that site I just linked. They are awesome!)

Read-Aloud: We finished up Red Sails to Capri this week. I liked it more than Jamie did, I think, although he enjoyed looking at pictures and video of the Blue Grotto. It is really an amazing site--something to put on the wish list for world travel. :)

Language Arts: Jamie's continuing to like Diamond Notes, although he also continues to balk at more formal writing assignments--I'm hoping Diamond Notes will at least make them easier for him. We are progressing with cursive slowly but surely, and we read "The Long Way Westward" and part of "Prairie School" for readers this week. The dawdling seems to have moved over to LA this week which I really can't explain--he usually is great at doing his LA work.

Science: Jamie is upset about the lack of actual science experiments so far in Science 2, but I assured him there will be one for next week so he's very happy about that. In the meantime, we're still learning about animals. I am often somewhat amused by the notes in the teacher's manual about the Usborne books, let's just leave it at that. :)

Extracurricular activities: Nothing huge to note this week. I did get the forms sent in for Jamie's zoo classes and his classes at the Delaware Museum of Natural History, and I will be excited for him to start those soon.

6 comments:

Paige said...

We have to time our math problems too sometimes. Seems like the brain works a bit better with alittle time pressure :). Thanks for sharing your week!

Cheryl@SomewhatCrunchy said...

Sounds great! I'm glad you found a solution to your math troubles.

My oldest likes science. He'd do elaborate experiments every day if I could find the time to fit it in.

Stefanie said...

It sounds like you have a great method to deal with math in place.

We read Red Sails last year and now we want to visit Capri so badly. LOL

We're doing science 2 this year and we're really enjoying the optional activities. And further on the experiments are more in line with the topic being studied so that's been nice.

AF Wife99 said...

That sounds like a good week all around. I think the science demonstrations and experiments really bring the dry facts to life for kids. A zoo class sounds like great fun!

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with Horizons having too many math problems. Like you, we do half unless it's a new concept or one that they're having trouble understanding. I'm glad you've found something that working for you both to get the math done in a more timely manner.

And, isn't is nice when you find something that the kids enjoy so much that they bet to do it?

Angie's Spot said...

I love reading all these updates from my homeschooling mom friends! I'm seriously in awe of moms that homeschool. I just don't have the patience or organization to do it. Thanks for sharing!