WEEKLY REVIEW

This week, we started a new composer, artist, and poet.  Our poet and artist happen to be the same person - Edward Lear.  He is most famous for his nonsense poetry, such as The Jumblies, and The Pobble Who Had No Toes.  We are memorizing his most famous poem, The Owl and the Pussycat.  We like his paintings so far.  He did a lot of Audubon-style paintings, and was actually compared favorably with Audubon.  His other paintings so far have been historical in nature with a sort of fantasy-feel to them.

Our composer is Ralph Vaughan Williams.  We do enjoy many of his pieces we have listened to so far.

In geography, we are still plugging along in the BJU book.  This week, we learned about how the economics of the world work.  Kind of dry, but useful information.  

In history, we are reading William the Conqueror, and will finish it up this week.  Also, for U.S. history, we are reading Thunder Rolling in the Mountains, a historical fiction book written from the point of view of Chief Joseph's daughter.  The girls are reading books on Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, and sharing what they read each day with us.

Big Girl finished her second Key To Algebra workbook, and will be starting the 3rd one.  I had her start reading Streams of Civilization again as a review and to tie things together in our history.  She read the chapters on the Middle Ages.  

As for her Critical Thinking book, we both were getting very tired of the second chapter, which is on logic, with all the symbols and whatnot.  So we skipped to the next one, and figure if we need anything we skipped, we can look back at it.  The first lesson is on "probable vs. possible."  

Little Girl started her CLE Language Arts this week.  So far, I like it.  We don't do the handwriting, and we are still doing our own spelling, though I do have her do the spelling exercises in the book.  I won't have her copy the spelling words in a notebook anymore though. I like the variety each day, and the constant review of what has been learned.  And the way they actually use what they are learning.  She is continuing to read one story per week in her CLE reading.  Not sure what I think of it yet.  I do want to finish this level though, regardless.

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WHAT WE ARE DOING

We took the week off week before last because we had some things we needed to get done. We were back to work last week.

We are currently reading the Landmark book, Custer's Last Stand, for American history. We are reading some of the spines and working our way up to starting William the Conqueror in Middle Ages this week. I don't know if I mentioned it, but I also subscribed to God's World News, to keep up somewhat with important current events from a Christian point of view. We enjoy those little magazines. We are continuing with Scott Joplin, Alfred Noyes, and Grandma Moses for music, poetry, and art. Will probably be starting new ones next week.

Big girl finished her first science module. We have been working through the Critical Thinking book together. Haven't gotten far. It is some hard stuff, but I know it is good stuff. Big girl is into painting model horses now, and she really does a great job! She has natural artistic talent. She has also created her own website where she has a model horse ranch, and posts her pictures and other stuff about all her horses. I must say, she did a great job. I love that she has the time and desire to pursue her own interests and to do what it takes to learn how to do them. This, after all, is one of my goals for homeschooling. To teach my children to learn for themselves.

Little girl has finished the Burgess Animal Book and started the Collodi Adventures of Pinocchio. It is another book online. I prefer actual books, but when you can't get them at the library, it is good to have the free ones online. We are also changing up some things with her language arts. We will continue to use the Spelling Wisdom passages, but she will use them for copy work one day, and for studied dication (typed) the next. We are continuing the dictated sentences from Spelling Plus, but adding back in the word lists. We will do one list (along with some review words) each week on the Spelling City site. She will work with them every day, testing and games. Then, the following week, we will work on the sentences for those words, plus the next word list. I like that they are common words that kids actually need to know, but I like the passages in the Spelling Wisdom for a little something more. Also, I ordered CLE language arts for her. I ordered level 4. She looked at the samples and said she really liked the looks of it better than the Rod and Staff she has been doing. She likes that it is a workbook, I think. I like that it has integrated review, and I prefer the writing exercises to what R&S has. We have only done a couple stories in her reading, and so far, it is ok. Nothing terribly exciting or anything, but not bad either. I have skipped a couple things and done others orally.

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