Week Three... 9/12-9/16...

Another busy week! I swear, I don't know where all the time is going. Anyhow, we got a decent amount done, though as always I am aiming for more next week.

Language Arts

Cyrus has started writing a book. It has something to do with robots, cats, transformations, etc. He is writing it on the computer. He also worked in both Intermediate Language Lessons and Igniting Your Writing, and did a couple of pages in Word Roots. He read through a few library books, including the book behind one of his favorite movies, Zathura. And of course his beloved Calvin and Hobbes.

Cassia worked on reading from Hop on Pop. She also started her first lesson in All About Spelling! After reading through much of the teacher's guide in the last two days, I think this program will be amazing for us. She nailed 15 of the phonogram cards, including all the sounds of "a", so I will be working with her through next week on the rest. We also worked on a couple of lessons from Primary Language Lessons. I read a couple of folk tales to her this week as well, our favorite for the week being Doña Flor: A Tall Tale about a Giant Woman with a Great Big Heart.

As a family, we read from Tales of Ancient Egypt and more from The Wind in the Willows. We also listened to another chapter of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in the car.


Math

Teaching Textbooks is fantastic - I simply cannot say enough good about this program! The kids are doing math independently, and getting 95-100% on every lesson! Cassia had her first quiz this week, and got 100%. They each did three lessons this week - next week we'll aim for four or even five!


History

We continued reading from A Little History of the World this week, starting the first chapter on Egypt. We are really enjoying this book! The writing is friendly and informative without being condescending, an issue we have had with other books. Cyrus read in his Egyptology books and shared some facts about pyramids/tombs with us. We also worked on a map of that region from Knowledge Quest.


Science

No formal science this week, although I may read to them today from The Story Book of Science. Cyrus is, at this moment, checking out a great new science website, put together by National Geographic, NASA, NOAA, and more. You should definitely check it out! JASON. You can register as a teacher too, and add students, etc. Oh, and it is free. Cyrus is looking at the anatomy section, and it is pretty awesome.


Other

We had our first 4H club meeting where Cyrus got to fill his Vice Presidential role.

Before the meeting

Speaking from his notes. He did quite well!

We also signed up for our projects for the year, among them: birding, book club, flight dynamics, intermediate cooking, art, a two-day kite workshop, historical crafts, and a couple of other things I can't remember offhand. Keep in mind that most of these projects meet at most once a month!

We haven't done anything lately for Spiral Scouts. I am not sure what is going on with this, except that the other family in our group has been very busy with a major project due by late September. Maybe after that we'll get back into the swing of things! I hope next week to start work on individual life timelines.

Other than that, we're gearing up for a big Disneyland trip... our first! And we're enjoying slightly cooler, almost fall-like weather. The evenings are cool enough now for soups and stews, so my crockpot is back in full use. I have been reading Nourishing Traditions (on my Kindle for PC), so I've been making a lot of broths and freezing them for future use. This is my favorite time of year, so I am happy to see leaves changing color, geese flying overhead at dusk, haybales dotting the fields... is it turning into fall where you live?