Weekly Report I

I realize I'm a little late with the weekly reporting. Since this is my first one for the year, it will probably be rather long.

The kids and I had a great week of school.

To celebrate Labor Day we spent the day with family, enjoyed ribs and sundry southern cuisine.

Tuesday through Thursday were normal days. Friday was a special day because it was Patriot Day. We spent some time remembering September 11, 2001. They wanted to remember how old they were and hear about what they were doing that morning.

History
When I first planned our curriculum (about five years ago), I planned to teach history chronologically, adding a new student each year or two. Well, that didn't happen.

I had also planned that we would do science together. That's not happening, either.

I understand that my life would be a lot easier if I taught these two subjects to all four children together, but it seems simpler to me, rather than creating four lessons, to create two. Hannah and Benjamin work together while Abbey and Noah work together. I still teach history chronologically; however, Hannah and Benjamin are studying American History, while Abbey and Noah are just beginning with Ancient History.

For American History I chose Sonlight Core 3. IT IS FABULOUS! The kids are having fun and learning so much! The books we're reading are excellent books and I know they are getting so much more than they would from a textbook. I have them write a short narration/summary of their reading every day. That is, if their reading doesn't already include questions they have to write answers to. Writing a summary of what they've read really helps them remember and interact with what they've read.

For Ancient History, I chose The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer. I enjoyed this book and the activity guide with Hannah. The only problem I had was finding the books they recommended. I figured out how to use my Sonlight catalog to fix this problem, though. The second issue I had with Bauer's text is that it seemed to contradict everything they write about in The Well-Trained Mind. What I mean by that is that they advocate using real books to learn, to not use a pre-chewed/distilled informational textbook, but then what do they do? They published a textbook.

We had so much fun this week studying the ancient Egyptians. Abbey and Noah reminded me over and over again, when they would gasp over our reading, that they have never heard this stuff. They seriously grossed out to learn how the ancient priests prepared a pharoah for burial. And they were genuinely excited to learn about how the Egyptians were the first to make paper. They had fun trying to write with glyphs and cuneiform. So, even though they have gone with us on field trips, two on which I KNOW they saw real mummies, they have forgotten everything. I guess they were just too young.

Bible
I decided not to buy a Bible curriculum this year. Our church uses Children Desiring God curriculum. So, well....there you go. I go over their lessons with them, make sure they understand the stories and themes, and help them memorize their verses. We're also working on memorizing the books of the Bible in order. Hannah and Benjamin already know them, so they mostly sit and correct me when I get them mixed up. We are also learning one hymn per week.

Earlier last week, I gave a sweeping overview of the message of the Old Testament to them, covering both of my white boards. They paid attention, so I kept going. Later, as I considered how interested they were in the simple organization of the Bible and its message, I entertained the idea of adapting Grudem's Systematic Theology for them, but decided that CDG was good enough for now.

As usual, when it comes to teaching Bible, I get carried away and don't want to move on to the other subjects. I love studying the Bible and teaching its truths to my children. What a privilege!

Math
I am beginning to see where Saxon has its weaknesses. Because there isn't so much drill, it is taking longer for Hannah and Benjamin to memorize their multiplication facts. Last year we did all of the skip counting every stinkin' day; I thought they had them. Not so. To help remedy this I've started giving them a multiplication fact sheet every day. They hate it, but they're getting better. I'm shooting for fast and accurate. They can't exactly move on until they know all of those.

Abbey has about 30 lessons left in Saxon 1. Noah started Saxon 2 this year and is finding it easy these first two months of school. The hardest part of math for him is reading the word problems.

Science
Hannah and Benjamin are in Sonlight Core 3 Science. They are kind of bored with it, I think. They enjoy reading the biology book and doing the activity sheets. And I have found some great videos online to supplement. But what they miss is experiments. The experiments right now center on growing plants. We already have a garden in which they have to work, so I haven't done any of the experiments with them. We have learned a lot just from our experience with watching our garden grow. They have worked, planted, observed plant growth, learned about good bugs and animals for a garden and harmful ones, smelled the compost bin, and learned about how plants make food (for us and themselves). I'm sure as we move along in the year, there will be tests and projects for them to do.

For Abbey and Noah, I chose Considering God's Creation. This week they've learned about our universe and solar system. They have had some really fun projects to do, and I think this is where Hannah and Benjamin are feeling left out. So that even though they are officially studying biology, they are doing the astronomy work because they want to. Fine with me!

Reading
Abbey is reading everything she can get her hands on. She has reached the point at which she is confident with her abilities to read and so she does it all the time. This week she read The Giving Tree. We're still working through her 2nd grade Hooked on Phonics book, which I pair with Explode the Code (book 3 for now).

Noah is getting so much better. He struggled with Spell to Write and Read last year, so I switched to Hooked on Phonics. He did much better with that because it's much easier than SWR. He's almost finished with the first grade book. I also add Explode the Code lessons for him, too. These he enjoys and they help boost his confidence.

Hannah and Benjamin read too fast. They have breezed through the first 12 weeks of history readers in Sonlight. I had to make them stop so that we can get our history lessons caught up to where they are on the readers. They are also in an Eragon reading class for our co-op. I think the book and the older kids in the class are providing the reading challenge they needed.

Our Sonlight core includes A Child's Introduction to Poetry. Everyone is loving this book and CD.

Grammar
I chose Shurley Grammar again. Abbey and Noah are in Level 1. They are learning how to find subject nouns and verbs. I also introduced them to journal writing this week. Abbey was thrilled. Noah was distressed, until I told him he could draw a picture at the bottom of his page.

Benjamin is perfecting the 2-point paragraph.

Hannah is writing letters and creating her own narrative paragraphs.