WEEKLY REVIEW

We started a new Bible memory passage this week. Philippians 4:4-7. The girls are still reviewing the "old" one, as well as each of them doing one of their poems each day.

We are going to be finishing up our Classical Karaoke for Kids book before the first of the year, so we can start back to doing one composer at a time.

I skipped quite a few artists that were on our list and we went with Pieter Bruegel the Elder for our current artist. His paintings are quite detailed and interesting to look at.

Our current country of study is Denmark.

We are pausing with our periodic table studies until after the first of the year, so we can finish up the Classical Karaoke book. We will begin again in January.

Still reading one or two poems a day from our anthology.

Still reading The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible and The Deadliest Monster daily. These two books are fascinating and contain much truth and much to think on.

Still reading Little Town on the Prairie a few days per week.

For Middle Ages, Big Girl is reading The White Company, by Doyle. I read from our TQ book and from Story of the Middle Ages spine this week on the Hundred Years War and various things surrounding that period.

For American history, we are reading White Star, a Dog on the Titanic. We will also be watching a documentary on the Titanic from Netflix, whenever it gets here.

Big Girl continues in her LBC math book, a couple lessons per week. She also does some writing on the computer every day, and we go over it together. She is still doing one vocabulary lesson per week, reading from her biology and history books, and is finishing up Chosen By God. She also did a spelling lesson this week.

Little Girl did her last MUS Delta lesson this week. She will do the final tests next week, then work on a few problems per day that I will print up for her until the end of the year. She will start the LOF fractions book then. She will be finishing up her CLE Language Arts 4 next week. Not sure if we will start the new level then, or wait. She has started doing a page daily in her Maps and Geography workbook again. She also completed a spelling lesson, and did her independent reading.

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ODDS AND ENDS

I made some pumpkin nut bread today for our church dinner tomorrow.

Ordered CLE 5 Language Arts and Reading for Little Girl. I didn't like the CLE reading workbooks for 4th, but the 5th look much better. CLE is about a year ahead of other curriculum, so we do a year behind what her "grade" actually would be.

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VACATION

We are taking this week completely off for Thanksgiving week.

We made some homemade crackers yesterday using this recipe:

1 cup flour

Half tsp. salt

Half stick butter

Fourth cup milk

Mix flour, salt, and butter together in food processor or using a pastry blender or fork. Add milk and make into dough. Add more milk or flour as necessary. Roll dough out very thin on a baking sheet ( I bought one of those pastry rollers for this - nice!). You can score with a knife or pastry wheel to break apart later, or just bake it whole and break it up into uneven pieces. Bake at 400 degrees until lightly brown. This varies extremely depending on your oven. Start with 10 minutes and go from there. Took mine 20, I think. This also makes a really good flat bread for dipping in oil or sauce if you roll it out a bit thicker.

Here is a really good youtube video of the process, even though I didn't use her recipe or make the double batch she did.

Homemade crackers

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REVIEW AND LOOKING AHEAD

This week, we just stayed with our Proverbs memory verse. I want them to have it down completely before moving on.

We moved on to Michelangelo for our artist, but are going to be moving on again after the Thanksgiving break. We are all tired of these Romanist painters who painted (or sculpted) nothing but vulgar images of what is supposed to be Biblical scenes, combined with pagan gods. Ick! We will be skipping ahead quite a bit, in spite of the "importance" of a few we are skipping. What is considered important to the world is not what is important to those of us not of this world.

We started reading The Deadliest Monster this week, by Jeff Baldwin. It is a very good overview of different worldviews, with the focus on Christianity. We are liking it so far.

We finished up the Louisa May Alcott book this week for our American history. For Middle Ages, we read some chapters from Story of the Middle Ages.

We are on the next to the last Little House book, I think. It is Little Town on the Prairie.

We will take next week off for Thanksgiving, then be back for 3 weeks before the obligatory xmas break. Little Girl will be finishing up the last of her MUS book in that time, as well as her language arts book. In January, she will start with the Life of Fred fractions book, and the Junior Analytical Grammar book.

Big Girl won't really have any changes at this point.

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THIS WEEK

We read about John Wycliff and Louisa May Alcott this week. Big Girl is working on a story about a fictional ranch that she and her sister own for her daily writing. It is really quite good.

The spelling practice Big Girl is doing seems to be actually sticking, so far. She said it may be because the words so far have been easy. :-)

We will be starting a new Bible memory passage this week: Philippians 4:4-7.

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BACK ON TRACK...FOR A WHILE ANYWAY

I'm glad to be back in our routine this week. Unfortunately, it won't last long before it is interrupted by Thanksgiving, and again by Xmas. I will be glad when January comes and we have a long time before anymore breaks. All these little breaks every time you turn around are a pain.

This week, we read Philemon and started 1 Timothy. I decided we needed to start doing some Bible memorizing, so our first passage that we are working on is Proverbs 3:5-8. I want to do passages that have practical use, that are handy to have in mind for situations that come up in life. We get in enough pure theology on an everyday basis. Also, I started having one of the girls (alternating) read a Psalm out loud and discuss it each day. This is hard for Little Girl right now, but she will get better.

We started reading about Finland this week. We are still reading from a poetry anthology each day, as well as the girls reciting one of our old memorized poems each day. We are also still going through the Themes to Remember book, and the periodic table that we have been doing for a while now. Our current artist is Da Vinci, if I haven't already mentioned it.

Big Girl wrote a long paper on cat genetics as her writing assignment this week. I go over her writing with her daily and we correct and edit together. I think she will learn simply by the repetition.

We finished up a book on Theodore Roosevelt. For Middle Ages, we read some chapters online from Our Island Story.

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UPDATE

Well, we have only done one full week of school since the last post. Birthdays and doctor appointments.

We have continued to read through the New Testament in basically chronological order. We will be starting Philemon next. Also, I have decided that I will start requiring the girls to read out loud from the Bible each day, and to explain what they have read. We will start in Psalms, doing one at a time, or part of one for the longer ones. It will be good for their speaking ability, as well as their thinking skills in figuring out how to explain the meaning.

We finished up Jekyl and Hyde, and have started a Frankenstein adaptation. Then we will read The Deadliest Monster, for worldview.

We read a book on George Washington Carver, and are currently reading about Helen Keller.

For math, Big Girl is continuing in her LBC book, and Little Girl has been working on her multiplication tables and a couple long division problems each day that we had school. We will do a new lesson next week. She doesn't have much left in her MUS book, then we will do LOF fractions.

Little Girl is still working through her CLE Language Arts, and is in the 9th book. Big Girl has resorted to only reading through her writing book, as she just wasn't really getting anything out of the writing assignments. Next week, I am going to start having her just write something each day, and we will go over it. Big Girl is working through her spelling words a bit at a time. We tested through the SWR book and wrote down all the words she missed in a notebook. We will work on those words a few at a time, using Spelling City online, as well as analyzing the words.

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