Week began well, the new method of coloured ‘expectations cards’ still working. Children are motivated to place their cards up on the corkboard as they complete each subject, and it assists in facilitating some more independent work. We addressed a few areas, mainly our struggle to get to the ‘subject’ and reading components of our learning. So I declared 3 days a week will be seatwork, and 2 days a week we will focus on the 4 subject areas; history, science, nature and geography. It shows great promise, though still haven’t managed a successful time for the reading basket.
Biggest block to a full work load being completed however was towards the end of the week contagious sickness swept the house, ‘best laid plans of mice and men..”
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Faith
Mariah – One lesson of Didache 🙂 These are long chapters
Faith Novel: St Catherine of Siena- Louis de Wohl. Read 3 chapters, found engrossing, loving!
Mariah, Genevieve, Saxon & Sebastian – Catholicism by Fr R Barron
Watched first half of Episode 1. Children took in to varying degrees, Ignatius in particular astounded me with his recall!
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Language Arts
All About Reading
Sebastian – Continuing with his Level 2 book, doing well, wonderful to see his confidence and ability. Completed 3 lessons.
All About Spelling
Sebastian – Completed 2 lessons, doing well
Ignatius – Completed 2 lessons!!!! Slowly building his confidence
Saxon – Completed 2 lessons 🙂
Genevieve – Completed 2 lessons
Creative Sentences
Sebastian – Sebastian continuing to use the phrases from his Spelling lesson to create sentences. Wrote 3 sentences.
Handwriting
Sebastian – Completed 3 lessons, very happy with his progress. Letter formation and direction progressing nicely
Ignatius – Completed 2 sessions, was very excited to notice a big improvement already regards IJ’s incorrect letter direction. Noticing even an improvement outside of handwriting sessions. I’m still sitting with him and focusing on corrections, he is taking it well.
Genevieve – Completed 2 lessons, cursive
Dictation
Ignatius – Still using sentences from his All About Spelling, still working well. Wrote 2 sentences!!
Saxon – Continuing with Spelling Wisdom, doing very well, very happy, completed 1 exercise
Genevieve – One lesson
Mariah – One lesson.
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Maths
Sebastian – 3 maths lessons.
Ignatius – 3 maths lessons.
Saxon – Completed 2 maths lessons
Mariah – 4 Lessons! 🙂
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Science & Humanities
Science – Experiments
Saxon & Siena – Did an experiment involving vinegar, food dye and an egg.
Genevieve – Tried to make ice stick with salt, didn’t work. Recorded findings
Nature Studies
Boys & Siena – Wonderland of Nature: Read about Dragonflies (revision for IJ) and Bees. all most interested, boys rather horrified of the life of a drone and his ‘uselessness and disposal’. Saxon was particularly engrossed and gave a wonderful narration in detail 🙂
Completed a couple of worksheets from the CD.
Genevieve & Boys – Read aloud Karrawingi the Emu by Leslie Rees. Began and finished book! Children took in turns narrating each chapter
Genevieve – Read Tiger Cat by CK Thompson, read the whole book! 9 chapters. Enjoyed, found interesting
History
Boys & Genevieve – Read Bible, Creation and Expulsion from Garden of Eden
Read a couple of pages from Usborne Ancient World regarding Mesopotamia
Read Mesopotamia, a few pages. Took in turns with the older two to read, G particularly struggled with place names.
As we read I had the children frequently orally narrating.
Mariah – Read 5 chapters of SOTW3, finished!!! Jotted down timeline of important dates
Really enjoyed, informative, easy to understand.
History Novel: A Little Black Princess – A Gunn. 6 Chapters. Finding really interesting.
Geography
Boys & Siena – Pagoo – Hollings, 2 chapters, rock pool life. Saxon particularly interested.
We had a few worksheets relating to the chapters and Ignatius & Sebastian filled out one each.
Mariah – Geography Novel: Christopher Columbus, Read 5 chapters. Learning lots.
Geography – Mapdrill
Sebastian – Still working on the map of Australia, doing very well, finished 4 maps
Genevieve – One drill, she is struggling to remember the states but worked most diligently.
Mariah – Worked daily on mapdrill, Australia
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Languages – Spanish
Saxon – Still loving Spanish, completed 3 lessons.
Genevieve – 5 lessons
Mariah – 6 lessons!! Still loving, taken to calling Dad, Papa!
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Readings
Literature Reading
Mariah – If Only They Could Talk by James Herriot. 3 chapters, enjoying.
Poetry
Mariah – Charge of the Light Brigade, memorised and dramatically recited it:-)
Read a couple of other T’s poems.
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Enrichment Learning
Folksong – Advance Australia Fair
Sebastian – Sang daily, amazed us to realise he is not only memorising but also reading the words! He has nearly memorised all the lyrics, though his tone needs work 😉
Ignatius – Sang once.
Saxon – Sang 3 times
Genevieve – Sang a couple of times
Mariah – Singing, I Am Australian & Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree.
Art Appreciation – Bank of Oise at Auvres by Van Gogh
Sebastian – Studied studiously, 4 sessions.
Ignatius – managed two studies
Saxon – 1 Session
Genevieve – 3 sessions
Mariah – Studied and recognises piece.
Art
Mariah – Coloured Adult colouring turtle, incredible work
Nature Walk & Journal
Sebastian – Went for a walk.
Genevieve – Went for walk, sketched Eatonsville Road looking down
Mariah – Observed and drew kookaburra in tree.
Music Appreciation – Beethoven
Mariah & Genevieve – Listened to Beethoven Moonlight Sonata, all 3 movements.
Music Practice
Saxon – 2 Practices
Mariah – Diligently daily, 20-30 daily. Working very well having piano in her room.
Baking
Mariah & Genevieve – Made ginger cookies a couple of times 🙂