WEEKLY REVIEW

This week, Big Girl started her Apologia Biology. We will probably be taking 3 weeks per module instead of two. We will take it as it comes. The first one is definitely going to take 3. There are a lot of neat links to visit in the bookextras section of the Apologia site.

We started studying Scott Joplin this week. His most famous pieces are The Entertainer and The Maple Leaf Rag. He composed and played what is called ragtime music, which was used in a lot of westerns, in saloons, and on player pianos. A lot of fun, familiar pieces there to listen to.

We started studying Alfred Noyes, and read his most famous (long) poem, The Highwayman. It was fun to discuss what the poem was really about, but it is a mystery, and we don't really know. We are memorizing his When Daddy Fell into the Pond. The girls think it is a fun poem.

We watched a PBS documentary on Buffalo Bill yesterday. It was kinda interesting, but I think a book would have been more enjoyable. Keeping that in mind. We also read a book about Annie Oakley this week. It was a fun picture book.

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UPDATE

Big Girl finished up her thinking skills book, and started Critical Thinking book 1 this week. Little girl likes to join in when we do it.  She says it is fun.  Big Girl also finished her Abeka Physical Science book this week, and will be starting her Apologia Biology next week.

Little Girl has been doing great with her Spelling Wisdom dictation and Spelling Plus dictation which I have her type instead of write.  I also ordered CLE Reading 4 for her, and we just started this week.  So far, so good.  Not a lot to go on yet as to how much we will or won't like it.  

We have been reading Rolf and the Viking Bow in world history, and about cowboys in our U.S. history.  We are continuing to read the Little House series, and will do so until we finish, while moving along in our history.

Also, for history, I have decided to do an overview using various sources while we are doing our regular history.  Right now, we are reading through the ending of A Child's Story of America, then we will move on to world history.  I think we will read through the Synge Story of the World books online first.  Then, when we finish those, we will start over with something else - maybe our BJU 11th grade world history books.  I think the repetition with the overviews will be good, along with continuing our TQ for in depth studies of people and events.

We have added the BJU 9th grade geography book to our daily reading as well.  Right now, we are just going through the first parts about geography in general. Then, as we get to each country or continent, we will stop and do a study on it.  We finished up Australia and are currently doing New Zealand.

We will be starting a new poet and composer next week.  We love Robert Frost (at least, I do, lol), but didn't care much for Mahler, except for the second movement of his first symphony, which is really fun.  We will be starting Alfred Noyes (who wrote the Highwayman), and memorizing his poem, When Daddy Fell Into the Pond.  We will be starting Scott Joplin for composer study.  He should be fun, as there will be some familiar tunes there.

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