This Week… Getting Back in Rhythm

This week we focused on school.

Little Man worked really well. I think my goal of having lesson plans complete at least one full week in advance has helped to find the rhythm again. I don’t know how it happened, my guess would be busy-ness, but somehow I had been trying to put together lesson plans as we go. It was not working out. Little Man works well when given a task list. So I did.
I printed out a little weekly calendar with tasks written out. He can see clearly what the expectations are and work at a pace that he is comfortable with. It puts him in the responsibility drivers seat. He knows that he must complete his daily work before he gets play time. So I have to be responsible enough to keep this going. 

Bible:

 Little Man is Working through the end of our study on Egypt in history and subsequently the end of the Israelites in the wilderness. He worked through the giving of the 10 commandments, which I must say was really a review for him. We use Hannah’s Hundred’s for scripture memorization and he learned to say them a while ago. I suggest that if you aren’t familiar with Hannah’s Hundreds you take a look here, they have a special running where you can buy 3 and get 1 free. I am loving the use of Bible Study Guide for All Ages. We will be moving on soon to Joshua and the children of Israel entering the promised land.

Math:

I have made the decision to continue on with Kahn Academy, not as a supplement but as the main source for Math. Little Man likes the set up. I like that someone is teaching him what he needs that I don’t understand. Each topic is taught through a video with an unlimited number of sets to practice. But it doesn’t force him to get bogged down with too many sets. If he is proficient after just 1 or 2 sets then it moves him on. If he needs more work, he can continue with more sets. He also has the freedom to switch to another task if he is just bored or frustrated. This week he worked on Variable Expressions, a review of Fractions and Prime Factorization. He whizzed through prime factorization and as he finished that, the academy set new goals for him and suddenly his list of what to do next got much much bigger. I think the software was basing his lessons on his age range, and I kept bumping him up, after the prime factorization the software opened up more options.

Spelling:

I’m continuing on with the workbook style spelling lesson. Little Man got used to it, it’s teaching him grammar and usage as well as vocabulary so I think it’s working for both of us. I simply couldn’t get used to the literature based vocabulary program that comes with the unit study. I do go over those vocabulary words as we read through the literature, so I guess he’s getting both.

Literature:

We are still enjoying The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis. I must say I really am surprised by this. When I bought the book at convention last year, I thought there is no way that Little Man is going to get into this book. But, it was on the list for the unit study so I bought it. It certainly is taking us a LOT longer to read through it than was recommended, but he and I are really getting wrapped up in the lives of the characters. We read 2 chapters in one day this week. Ranofer has reconnected with Heqet. They are eating a shared lunch together on a regular basis. In fact, Ancient the papyrus gatherer has joined them and the 3 make unlikely but very good friends. Ranofer is learning to trust others and has shared the truth of the way that he lives with Gebu, his half brother, who beats him. Ranofer has suspects that Gebu is thieving again and thinks that if he can just prove it that he will be able to go back to working in a goldsmiths shop, only this time, Zau the Masters shop. Heqet and Ancient are helping him find the proof.

Art:

Jonathan learned the Egyptian art form called frontalism. This is where the front torso of the body is drawn, while the side of the face and lower body portions are drawn, with the exception of 1 eye shown from the front angle. Here is his interpretation of an Egyptian.

History:

This week he returned to Mystery of History to read about Ramses the Great.

Science:

Continuing on in Lesson 4, Little Man worked through some of the worksheets in his notebooking journal. He wrote facts about flying factuals, worked through the vocabulary crossword, helped a virtual woodthrush migrate from Costa Rica to Maryland, and learned about how animals use instinct to travel such large distances.

Latin:

Turns out my son loves Latin. This is the first year/first workbook for him, so he’s still in the alphabet stage, but he did 3 lessons this week. I only assigned 1. So this means, we will be purchasing workbook 2 soon.

Homeschool Support Group:

We started back up from our winter break this Friday. This quarter they are learning Finance for Kids. Activity time was super fun playing Sharks and Minnows. We resumed Making Memories Vocal Choir which most of the kids LOVE.
Last week, on Friday the 4th of January… I haven’t yet had a chance to post about this. 


The homeschool group took a trip to the bowling alley. Little Man had a blast!