A truly terrific week of learning! Lots of creativity abounded and many connections within academics also took place.
Family Read Aloud
Finished Penderwicks at Point Mouette – Jeanne Birdsall
Began Heidi.
Literature
Dominic
Clive Cussler
Holes – Louis Sacha
Nina of the Dark – Kathryn Kent
Xavier
Nina of the Dark – Kathryn Kent
Malachi
Danny and the Egg – Colin Thiele
Mariah
Catholic Tales for Boys and Girls – Caryll Houselander
Happy Little Family – Rebecca Caudill
Dictation – Spelling Wisdom
A neglected area this week:(
Spelling- All About Spelling
A few lessons with the older children and a lesson with Genevieve.
Phonics, Reading & Writing with Little Ones
Genevieve is rather keen to continue with her handwriting book. I’m not happy with where she starts her letter formation, however she is not keen for correction, mmm. Planning to print out some of Startwrite sheets and she if that will help. Saxon is still focused on writing his name and other words he knows:)
Genevieve read a couple of Dr Suess books, she is making deeper connections now, much happier.
Copywork
Mariah writing continues to be a delight. The boys…sigh. Dominic didn’t get his done but then I didn’t print out:(
Editing
Great Editing Adventures neglected this week;(
English- Grammar, Composition
Dominic completed half a chapter of Ridout.
Xavier wrote an essay on ‘My Pet Peeve’.
Literature Analysis
What can I do to make this work?
One Year Adventure Novel
Dominic watched DVD and spent a number of hours writing on his novel. He really is dedicated.
Narrations
Consistently getting all to write narrations for history and sometimes science. Very happy with this and I can see many benefits.
Logic
Another area that needs work:(
Typing
Dominic and Xavier are quite faithful, Malachi a little less so but he did do some.
Spanish
D & X still faithful, had a discussion about pronunciation at dinner one night, good to find application.
Faith
Xavier read a little of Intro to Catholicism, Dominic read Understanding the Scriptures. At this stage they are answering orally but I think a written narration would be of benefit.
Continuing with the faith notebook, for M & girls, much better approach.
Maths
Absolutely HUGE progress in maths this week, very exciting!!
Genevieve worked on place value, hundreds tens and unit, progressing to addition and subtraction of bigger numbers. At first she didn’t really get it, then she clicked and spent hours one night, working out sentence problems after problems. Working her way up into the 40s.
Mariah had a massive interest and just clicked and completed half her book in one afternoon!! Unheard of!!
Saxon also firing along, unaided one morning he wrote out all his numbers in sequence 1-20. then began to write/count in the 1000s. 1000, 2000 etc. He also is consistently and correcting telling the time!! Can also talk and understand 1st place, 2nd, 3rd etc.
Dominic – Life of Fred, algebra. Understanding and going well.
Xavier working on area and volume. Understanding.
Malachi – fractions, percentages, diameter, radius and circumference. Understanding fractions and circumferences. Struggling with percentages.
Malachi and the girls spent hours making paper boxes of all different sizes, huge ones and ones so tiny that just sat on their fingertips! Lots of geometry at play there:):)
History
SOTW2 – Dominic read 2 chapter and wrote 2 chapters.
Xavier read a chapter and wrote rough draft of narration.
Malachi has read so far ahead we concentrated on him writing narrations. He wrote narrations for 3 chapters.
SOTW1– Girls really enjoyed reading about Nebuchadnezzar and the Hanging Gardens in Babylon. wrote a couple of excellent narrations.
Science
John Hudson Tiner Xavier completed Biology, answering questions.
Dominic read a couple of chapters of history of Medicine, answered questions.
Geography
Did not get to Geo this week.
Art & Creativity
An absolute HUGE outpouring energy in this area this week. I set up a craft centre, gathering all of our materials out making it far easier to use. The children just went mad and LOTS of creating too place CONTINUOUSLY. I then also set up an art centre, changing the ‘offering’ each day. Soft pastels one day, then oils, then special pencils with advanced colouring books. Another huge success. We have also set up a sewing centre and an interest in handicrafts is picking up and the girls have their own scrap fabric box and are enjoying crating.
An absolute delight to see all this take place, and I’m believing that creativity impacts positively on their academics.
