Week One... 8/29-9/2

I never managed to get around to updating my post yesterday, but don't worry -- I will elaborate here. Overall, it has been a great week! We started out the week following basically a classical education outline. You can read about Monday in more detail here. It was a good day, yet by midweek, we found ourselves shifting again!

Math...
Each of the kids did lessons 1-3 in Teaching Textbooks (3 and 5.) I love, love, love this program. It is simple, clear, straightforward, and easy for the kids to follow.

Besides, shouldn't every child look this happy when doing math?

Language Arts...
Cyrus did the first part of the first lesson in Igniting Your Writing, which he really likes. He did 3 pages in Word Roots Beginnings, a few Mad Libs, and Lesson 1 in Intermediate Language Lessons, as well as a poem in cursive (copywork.) We decided that in future weeks, he can alternate Igniting Your Writing and Intermediate Language Lessons.

Cassia worked in MCP's Spelling Workout, and on Starfall. She read a reader from the Nora Gaydos series, listened to several stories, and on Thursday (by which point we were veering from our original plans), she worked on sequencing the poem she had done the day before for handwriting.

Yes, she is wearing headphones in this picture! Listening to (classical) music seemed to help her focus. This project took her about 20 minutes, at the end of which, she glued the individual words to a piece of construction paper to keep. I think this is something we can do again, and that will help with her reading.

Science...
We had a good variety in science this week. Monday, they drew pictures of magnified cells. Tuesday... well, I don't think we did anything! Wednesday, we went to a friend's house for a kitchen chemistry lesson and learned about macro-nutrients while tenderizing meat with various substances--tenderizer, mashed papaya, a mallet, a fork stabbed into the meat many times, vinegar, and salt. Of course there was a control piece of meat too, with nothing done to it. Thursday, we went on our first nature walk and sketched. We plan to finish up the sketches, label and color them, and add them to our nature journals. Friday (today), we read about plant lice and the way in which ants milk them in The Story Book of Science by Jean-Henri Fabre.

Cyrus also read a bit in The Story of Science, by Joy Hakim. (Yes, he is wearing a fedora and a vampire cape)

History...
On Monday we read a page from the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia. Cyrus entered dates on a timeline and did a couple of summary sentences, while Cassia gave a narration. Both kids started making History Pockets. Thursday, we read from A Little History of the World by E. H. Gombrich. We read the first chapter, about what history is, and a chapter about Neanderthals, the Stone Age, first farmers, and the Bronze Age. The kids want to copy their narrations from this into blank books and add illustrations. They also want to make brown paper bag "cave paintings". I think we might stick with this form of history rather than the outlining and summarizing! Add in a few hands on projects and living books, and history is a delight. We're also going to read one chapter a week from a book called A First Book of American History by Edward Eggleston.

Other...
Check out this painting by Cyrus! It is one of my favorites so far.


We also played with friends; played in the pool; went to Park Day; read stories (The Wind in the Willows, Little Grey Rabbit stories, and The Adventures of Molly Whuppie); watched Mars Needs Moms (which we really enjoyed); and found out that Cyrus will be the new vice president for our 4H club! Very exciting news for him.

And that is our week. We're looking forward to the next one!