Weekly Report 11/1/09-11/6/09

School-y stuff:

• Read alouds: Read more Bible History (story of Samuel), Carry On, Mr Bowditch and Archimedes and the Door To Science. I love how Mr. Bowditch and Archimedes are overlapping when it comes to mentioning navigation and astronomy! Learned about the Achimedean screw.
• Did catechism on Monday
  
• B and S did cursive every day
• S did a week's worth of spelling in his spelling workbook
• B did read a story from her reader and a page in her workbook. A couple times during the week she copied over some words she'd been reading onto the whiteboard
• S did Lessons 11, 12, 13, and 14 in Saxon 6/5
• B learned rounding to 10's, hundreds, reading large numbers, place value
• J did lessons 17-21 in Saxon Algebra II. He took a test on Monday. Scored 75%. Argh! Rick says there was one question he just didn't understand but that the rest was just carelessness in arithmetic and trying to do too much figuring in his head. So the new rule is that if he scores less than 85%, he has to retake the test. I think J knows his dad will just go over the test with him so he doesn't need to work hard for accuracy. Daddy is too nice!
• J and I watched two lectures on Earth Science - how the planet was formed and the rock cycle. Earth science is cool!
• J, W and I watched first lecture on Classical Archaeology. This also seems very cool, combining history and science.
• J, W and I read/listened to Book 7 of the Iliad
• W went to Music Theory class
• Latin - S did Latin 3x times this week. B sat in when we watched the dvd lesson for ch. 16.
• Latin again - did Latin homework and went to class on Tuesday. W and J studied to make up test and took it on Thursday afternoon. I have no idea how they did.
• Did a crossword puzzle in our Greek workbooks
• Violin and piano lessons. S practiced every day, B not so much!
• S read in his Seton reader using his flippers (VT exercise)
  

Unschool-y stuff:

• W and S continue to have a music appreciation study together. They've been into Steve Reich this week big time. They've been trying to jam on the piano together.
• We watched a lot of Bill Nye clips on youtube this week - science!
• We watched The Wizard of Oz and the first Willie Wonka movie with Gene Wilder this week.
• S played a neat geography game at One More Level
  
• J was been really into the game The Way this week. He and Rick had to figure out a big computer glitch.
• W and S helped pack kits and write cards for the troops at a youth service project at church
• J and W went to their CLC meeting on Wed night - Bible study, discussion, etc
• B and S love their cartooning class. S worked really hard drawing a cartoon mouse. His perfectionism works against him mightily! B is constantly drawing.
• B is also constantly writing. She writes on the whiteboards, on paper, making posters, etc. Both she and S are constantly asking me how to spell stuff.
• B and S played at drawing school. B set up a classroom in her room with 4 stuffed animals. It is the cutest thing ever! I should take a photo!
• B and S loved gymnastics and have been practicing lots this week in the front yard.
• B and S also got into being mimes this week using the leftover face paint from Halloween. They made up all kinds of acts! Very cute.
  
• Rick is reading The BFG to both B and S, HP to S and Samantha to B
• S finished reading the latest Wimpy Kid book. Now he's into F- minus cartoon.
  
• J seems to just be reading stuff he finds lying around. Not into any particular book this week. He did read a couple of chapters of History
  
• S and B went to Music Theory dot com a couple times this week to each themselves MT.
• B starting getting back into Starfall site again.
• I've started reading S Grimm's Fairy Tales at his request. I've been reading Little House in the Highlands to B which makes me want to travel to Scotland so badly!
  

Projected:

• Today - Friday - Socratic discussion group this a.m.
• J has appointment with spine doctor at 1 p.m.
• Afternoon: cleaning the house would be good; also reading another book in the Iliad
• Getting everyone out to do some exercise.
• Over the weekend - J needs to do another lesson in Algebra II; W, J and I need to do some Latin homework.
  

Learning Log 11/3/09

Monday:

• A good day! B did cursive, math (rounding to 100's), read the story of The Little Red Hen, copied over some words from the story on the whiteboard, listened to the story of Samuel from Bible History, I read her the next chapter from F&L, violin lesson
• S did cursive, math (story problems), read Wimpy Kid book, Bible History, F&L, Latin vocab and grammar, piano practice and lesson
• Rick is reading them The BFG by Roald Dahl.
• J took Algebra test which Rick corrected.
• J and I watched next lecture in Earth Science about how planet was formed. I need to watch it again. It was pretty technical and I didn't quite get it all.
• W went to Music Theory in a.m.
  
• W practiced music with band member in afternoon
• Evening J, W and I did Latin homework

Tuesday

• Got up and finished Latin homework
• Went to Latin class
• B did cursive, reading workbook, math, coloring
• S did cursive, reading in Seton reader, did math lesson on lines, page of spelling book
• Took kids to vote with me
• J did next lesson in Algebra
• Discussed History reading with J and W
• B and S went to gymnastics which they loved
• Watched first lecture on Classical Archeology with W and J
• B and S watched Bill Nye videos on youtube
• W went to Soundry for open mike night
• B and S played at Music Theory.com
• R is reading so many read alouds: BFG, Sea of Monsters, Samantha (American Girls), Prisoner of Azkaban.
  

Random Thoughts in a Desperate Attempt to Feel on Top of Things!

• Why do I like this bullet function so much? Is it because my brain is so scattered I can't write in actual paragraph anymore?
• I have signed J up with Clonlara and have yet to do anything with them. I haven't even talked to our advisor even though I've gotten two e-mails from them asking me to.
• After two weeks of flu J is right back to living in a hole where the only thing he wants to interact with is his computer. This is the whole reason I signed up with Clonlara, to get some structure into his life. Hey, there! There's a whole life going on out here that you might want to participate in! LOL. So this week J and I really need to sit down and go through the Clonlara manual (which we've only done partially) and then communicate with his adviser.
• J really needs to keep track of his time. I don't think he has a clue that he spends hours in front youtube and very little time doing other things. Keeping track of his time will make him aware of that. So I'm going to ask him to do that little exercise; jotting down what he's done all day.
• I need to get W registered for the CC next semester. I can not figure out how to do it online to save my life. I think also maybe you can't if you are a high schooler still. I think we need to go in and talk to a counselor. But last semester we waited too long and the class he wanted filled up. So this week I really want to take care of that. Maybe we'll do this tomorrow.
• I'm hoping that we can finish reading the Iliad and Odyssey by the next semester. Then I think I'll give W a credit for Greek Lit. He'll be so busy with CC courses that I don't think we'll be able to do the whole year of Ancient Lit that I had planned. It is very hard to get all three of us together for long enough blocks of time to move forward at the pace we need to. So I am letting W go. J and I can hunker down and get some learnin' done and I won't have to worry about W. He's got so many outside things going on that it really interferes with scheduling something we can do together.
• I'm thinking of having an audio-visual hour after dinner on Tuesdays and Thursdays. These are the nights when we don't have to be out. We have so many Teaching Co. courses, documentaries etc that I'd like to watch, but again it is too hard to schedule it in on the fly. I think we need to have set times!
• Just now I realized that we missed a meeting on Thursday night to sign up for High School Workcamp. Grrr.
• I'm assessing what's working for the younger children. Read alouds have been going well. S is really into the new Archimedes book. I'm planning to read about St. John Vianney after Carry On, Mr. Bowditch (Modern Studies). I'd like to read the new Jean Bendick on Herodotus next for Ancient Studies. Bible History continues to chug along. B wants to participate in the Science Fair which is in February (27th I think?). Both children are doing very well when it comes to reading and learning cursive. I think I need to be a little more consistent with math and Latin (which ironically is supposed to be the core of our planned stuff but somehow gets shoved aside frequently!). Doing the Greek once or twice a week seems to be working fine. I'm in no rush with Greek!
• After Christmas I think we'll switch to Writing With Ease. I'm looking forward to that.
• Okay, it is the Feast of All Saints! I need to get costumes ready for our party. We aren't going to Mass until 6:00 p.m. tonight. It is the youth group Mass (1st Sunday of the month).
  

Weekly Report 10/26-10/30

• Since this has been a slow recuperation week from the flu I decided to just do a weekly report a la WTM.
• Read alouds: Read about Ruth in Bible History, decided to can Ancient Tales from Egypt for now. We'd gotten half way through and they just weren't holding our interest anymore. We can always come back to them in time. Instead we started reading Archimedes, And the Door of Science by Jeane Bendick. This covers both Ancient history and science as well. We ditched our science read aloud when we got to roundworms which grossed everyone out! Read a lot of Carry On, Mr. Bowditch this week. This also touches on science and math as well as American history. We are almost done with that book.
• Didn't do much math this week at all. Everybody's heads are still too congested to think clearly enough to do math! S did work on his 100 subtraction facts sheet on Thursday. B did mental math on W and a fun rounding exercise in her workbook on Thursday. J did only two lessons in Algebra. L. 17 and 18.
• Languages: W and I took Latin test on Tuesday. J was still sick. He's been studying for it to take next week. On Thursday did some Latin for Children with S. Also worked in Greek workbooks a little with B and S.
• B and S have been doing a lot of writing/spelling on their own, writing little notes or cartoon captions or sending e-mails. They did cursive practice every day.
  
• J and W both read 4 chapters in history.
• W took his Music Theory midterm. Thinks he did well.
• Made it to music lessons on Monday, kids practiced music every day.
• Made it to drawing class, both S and B (especially B!) have been drawing up a storm all week.
• Socratic Discussion Group on Friday
• Read Book VI of the Iliad with teens.
  

Sick week

Well, it feels like a lost week due to illness. S was the first to go down, then B, then J and finally W. B and W are pretty mild though, nothing more than an annoying cold that saps the energy. J got it the worst with the highest fevers.

In spite of this we've read a lot of our regular stuff (at least to the younger two): Bible History, Carry On, Mr Bowditch, Little House by Boston Bay, The BFG, Sea of Monsters and Rebecca (American Girls). S listened to the whole of Bud Not Buddy on audio. Now B's listening to it.

Today W and S decided they were going to start their own music appreciation study. They've been listening to Erik Satie and Philip Glass and S has been picking out melodies on the piano.

B found an old Montessori movable alphabet and she's been spelling out messages to me and others. J is spending most of the day watching Animal Planet.

I had a bad migraine this morning but it got better fast. It is funny how the more violent migraines are shorter than the slightly milder variety. What I don't like is looking in the mirror and seeing one eye so much more dilated than the other. Creepy.

It has been hard feeding folks because even though they are hungry nothing tastes good and they wind up taking a bite and then pushing the rest away.

Okay now it's Friday. Poor J still had a high fever last night. Socractic Discussion has been cancelled and I don't think we'll get to tennis either. Bummer. W thinks he's well enough to go on his CLC retreat this weekend.

So today, I hope to clean the house a bit, that is declutter and sweep floors, wipe down gritty table surfaces which are everywhere! Also, I need to get more laundry done. I need to buy Anthony a confirmation gift and make sure I have nice clothes to wear tomorrow morning, since I'll have to get up at the crack of dawn to make it to Winchester in time for his Confirmation. I also hope to read aloud a lot today. And I hope B and S get outside to play a bit today as well.

Sick day 11/19/09

• Sean's friend has Swine Flu and Sean was running a fever all night
• Sean had no fever when he got up at 9 a.m. but has developed a cough
• W went to Music Theory
• B had been looking at the Powers of Ten flip book. She started drawing on our sliding glass doors with her window markers different sizes of the world. She went from small to very large and then she drew close ups of a house, shed, bike etc. Very cute.
  
• B did cursive and some rounding to nearest ten in her workbook. I think it clicked for her.
• Read next Bible History story to B and S about Gideon and Samson. Both kids started telling me the Veggie Tale version. Love those Veggie Tales!
• Read next chapter in F&L to B (Ch. 7)
• J is doing Lesson 15 in Saxon Alg II
• B read a page from the McGuffey reader
• Watched the movie Babe and then The Princess Bride
• W came home and had bought S Bud, Not Buddy on audio.
• S's fever came back 100.2
  
• J and I studied for Latin test; W said he did too but he didn't study with us.
• Taught RE, I think the girls liked the candy rosary.
• Got home and J was really studying hard for his Latin test. I've studied some but not enough because I know I can't take it due to S's illness.
  
• Will stayed up very late to study
• S was feverish in the night.
  

Weekend journal 10/17-18/09

• Saturday - slow, lazy morning
• Took B and S to great little toy store we have in town, independently owned, lots of cool toys. Went to buy gift cert for neighbor whose b-day party is today.
• S and B loved the puppets, S loved the knights and horses and loved the Ancient warriors as well. B loved the doll houses. They were ecstatic! Lots of idea for Christmas!
• Rick took them to the party which was a laser tag one a good half hour drive away.
• Went shopping for my candy rosary supplies. Still working on actually putting something together.
• W, J and read Most of Book 5 of Iliad
• Watched Seven Brides for Seven Brothers - fun movie
• B did lots of gymnastics
• Rick went over Algebra test with J - he got an 82.5%. Better than before. Again he gets the concepts just doesn't want to take the time to read the question thoroughly and check his math. He needs to show his work to be more accurate.
• I read a little of Boston Bay to B
• R read but I don't know which Rebecca and HP or Sea of Monsters?
• J and I studied a bit for Latin test on Monday
• W said he studied but I don't think he did much
• Sunday - breakfast and Mass with S and B
• W and J went to Youth Rally all day 11 to 9 p.m.
• Sean came down with fever in the evening.