Finishing the week up...

So, here's the update for the week ending on Sept. 29!

the Elf:
He is now (as of today, the 28th), keeping a journal, as part of a collaboration between his IST and myself, in order to get him in the flow of writing more easily. It will not be corrected, so all the spelling and unique grammar will be entirely his own! Today, he wrote (and incidentally almost all even spelled perfectly) about hot rods. And then drew a picture of a hot rod, with giant exhaust pipes and flames down the side.

In math, he is, as always, trucking along. I think it took him all of 5 or 6 minutes to do a whole worksheet today! He's really enjoying keeping track of the weather with his Meeting Book, and plans to count up the hot, warm, cool, and cold days at the end of each month for comparison purposes.

Historically speaking, we read today about Osiris (how do you pronounce this? I hear different ways from different people) and his evil brother Set. Then we had an interesting discussion about gods, and why people believe in them/him. I also did some digging around and found this site (scroll down to find Color Me Egypt), and this one for more coloring pages. We also actually did all the comprehension questions from part one of this chapter, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Elf did listen!

In language arts, he has finished his review of capital letter formation in HWOT, and has gotten through the first couple of lessons in ETC. He's also still reading aloud in the evenings, usually a Bob Book, although he's working on a set of readers that we got from his school, along with a caterpillar chart to color in as he masters each book. He's been doing some copywork as well, plus now journaling, so I think we're making some good headway in this area.

For science, we've been studying Animals of the Ice and Tundra, and if you look under Science Samples in the sidebar, you'll find his caribou drawing. He's also been spending a lot of time playing with the microscope, and of course, both kids are fascinated by the snake!

Other than that, he draws something everyday, so I haven't been bothering with art lessons at the moment. Musically, we've been listening to a cd called Mozart in Egypt. He's working really hard in gymnastics, and has even asked M to show him how to do some strengthening exercises at home so that he'll perform better in class. We're looking forward to having a weekly park day, as long as my job schedule meshes well with it.

the Fairy:
Not a heavy schoolwork week for her. She has been working a lot with her alphabet flashcards, and playing a lot of self-designed counting games, as well as spending an hour at a time at the little drafting table, drawing insanely intricate pictures of... well, things. She also colors the Egyptian handouts (as I type this she's working diligently on a picture of Osiris), and participates in the SOTW discussions, as well as following the science topics, so I'm not worried about her "falling behind".
She's also been working hard in gymnastics, and practices some of it at home as well.

In general household news, there's a fabulous grocery store opening up nearby, and tomorrow they are holding open interviews for all positions. If they pay any better than where I work now, I'm jumping ship. Unlike where I work now, they are not a corporation - instead they are a small, local chain (this will be the third store). Also, Elf cooked a whole dinner by himself last Saturday! He made turkey sloppy joes and coleslaw, his absolute favorite meal in the world. I just oversaw the process of cooking to make sure there were no burns, cuts, etc. Ummm.... let's see... oh, check out the new link at the bottom of my sidebar - cool whale pictures, some of which were taken by my brother-in-law.

And that's it from here for now!