Weekly Report... 4/16-4/20...

The week started off very well--Monday was awesome! The rest of the week... well. Pretty good, but not as good.

What We Did...

Cyrus: worked on fractions and division this week in Math Mammoth, as well as a review of his times tables up to 12. He made it through another spelling lesson, and did the "bonus" work this week of writing additional sentences using each word. He also made all the extra sentences alliterative, for example (spelling word in italics): "Bulbous blue baboons believe belching breaks barriers." Lovely, isn't it? What can I say.. he's a nearly 11 year old boy!

He started on the second book in the Beastologist series: The Basilisk's Lair. We read more in Abel's Island together, but haven't quite finished it. He worked on any number of art projects, made a few more short films at my mom's house, worked on computer animation (soft body physics), and helped in the garden a bit. No piano lesson this week, as our piano teacher was out of town, but he did practice twice each day!


Cassia: Made more progress in Phonics Pathways, working on 3 letter blends (short words and phrases)--this program is making her much more confident, and she's no longer struggling with letter sounds, at long, LONG last! She worked on place value and a review of addition facts in math, using Math Mammoth and this addition chart I found.

We read more of All of a Kind Family, and a book called Emily, by Michael Bedard, which led to an interest in Emily Dickinson's poetry, so I have promised to run by the library tomorrow to get a book of her poetry. Cassia also helped with cooking, gardening, and laundry, and she made a little felt playing board imaginary world, peopled with tiny animals made of tin foil. I'll have to get a picture of it!


With both: We read about Niagara in geography (Halliburton's Book of Marvels); read some more of Little House in the Big Woods; picked up Early Human World again and read a chapter; worked on getting the weeds out of the front yard; identified a few birds; and read 11 or 12 chapters in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. They watched a few episodes of America the Wild at my mom's, and Birds of the Gods at home. We listened to more of Peter Pan in the car. We love Jim Dale as a narrator, and we had a fantastic conversation/discussion about Mr. Darling and his terrible attitude toward ties and medicine! We also read the story of Thomas the Rhymer from a book of Scottish Fairy Tales - very enjoyable, and now I want to look into other versions of this story.

I am debating between four books for our next read aloud... The Secret Garden, The Marvelous Land of Oz, The Smoky House, and The Princess & the Goblin. I think I may have to choose two and just read them at different times of day! We will be reading The Birchbark House as soon as we finish Little House. And then?

Overall it was a good week. I'd like to have more days like Monday, instead of the days where we got the basics done and called it quits! How was your week?