Thursday, September 30, 2010

Read-Aloud Thursday

This week we read Great Wall of China by Adele Richardson. It provided a fair amount of information, but it also provided tons of wonderful pictures!

I wish I had stuck to my original plan and covered the 2 chapters on ancient China from Gombrich's A Little History back to back. Alas, I did not. We had already talked a little about the Great Wall and Qin Shi Hwangdi when we covered Confucius, but this week we look at them again in more depth.

This book contains fabulous photos and enough information for a basic report, but it is set up in a 32 page, hardback, picture book layout. It was a really good book to read aloud side by side on the couch.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Wordless Wednesday- What's inside your purse?

Thanks, Daisy!

Why is my passport in here? That is being put upstairs now.

Oh dear- where is my little bag of Neosporin spray and band-aids? I had it at the park on Sunday. I also don't see my suglasses that I had at the park on Sunday. hmm, maybe they are in dh's vehicle.

It is also common for me to have a gameboy and/or a book, but my keys and phone do not stay inside my purse.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Friday- Week in Review for Grayson

Grayson is my junior. I wish Grayson's was more interesting, but since it isn't here are some photos of my big guys from our last visit.


Grayson and his "big" brother. Yeah, Christian didn't realize that Grayson was trying to be as tall as possible.
Since the other photo is such a bad one of Christian, I thought I should include a good one.

Language Arts
Grayson read selections from EMC’s World Lit. This week he read selections from Tartuffe by Moliere.

He completed his homework in IEW, Mother Tongue, and reviewed puctuation rules in The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation.

Precalculus
On Wednesday he went to the math tutor. This week he is finishing up Sullivan’s Precalculus Chapter 2: Linear Functions and Models.

Chemistry
He began chapter 4 and all is well.

History
This week in Glencoe high school World History Grayson read about Southeast Asia.

He also watched lecture 14 from The Teaching Company’s A History of England from the Tudors to the Stuarts. Lecture 14 covers Edward VI. Grayson filled on a TRISMS Famous People sheet for him.

Economics
On Tuesday he attended his one semester economics class using ABeka.

Arts
Grayson watched lecture 9 from The Teaching Company’s The Art of the Northern Renaissance.

Volleyball
Grayson’s fourth game was last night. They won again, but I didn’t’ stay to watch, so I can’t comment on the actual game.

Friday- Week in Review for Mei

Mei is the dd of a good friend who was with us 2 days this week. Mei is in the 5th grade and here is what she did at my house.

We didn’t do any ABFIAR, but we did set up a Autumn Table. After the picture, we opened the runner and spread everything out, but I wanted to get everything in one shot. (It's fun having a girlie visiting to appreciate these things!)


Memory Work
Tell me about parentheses in an arithmetic problem.
When there are parentheses in arithmetic problem, operations inside the parentheses must be performed first.

Tell me about a clause.
Each group of words with a subject and a predicate in it is called a clause.

What are dwarf planets?
Dwarf planets are astronomical objects that orbit the sun and are round, but, unlike planets, they have not cleared their orbital path.

Tell me about the Punic Wars.
The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage that resulted in the utter destruction of Carthage.

Poem 1
the witches’ chant from Macbeth

Math
Saxon 65- Lessons 22-25

Language Arts
John Audubon : Young Naturalist
Daily Handwriting Practice Contemporary Cursive
Music of the Hemispheres pp.14-17
The Random House Poetry book on Thursday

History
Gombrich’s A Little History Chapter 13
assembled Roman minibooks
Kingfisher pp.34-35; pp.62-63
Selections from Mr. Donn’s History

Science
Great Science Adventures- Lessons 18 and 13 (Pluto and The Asteroid Belt)
Read about Dwarf Planets at Starchild
Watched asteroid and planet videos at howstuffworks

Spanish
Mei and Duncan continued playing with Chapter 2 in Spanish Every Day. Mei also worked in The Everything Kids’ Learning Spanish Book.

Friday- Week in Review for Duncan

Duncan is my 2nd grader.

Have I mentioned how much I like memory work? Here is Duncan’s for week 9.

Tell me about prime numbers.
Numbers that have exactly 2 factors are prime numbers.

Tell me about a clause.
Each group of words with a subject and a predicate in it is called a clause.

What are dwarf planets?
Dwarf planets are astronomical objects that orbit the sun and are round, but, unlike planets, they have not cleared their orbital path.

Tell me about the Punic Wars.
The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage that resulted in the utter destruction of Carthage.

Poem 1
the witches’ chant from Macbeth

In poetry we continued with MCT’s The Music of the Hemispheres. That reminds me- does anyone know of a good online explanation of aspirated sounds, guttural stop sounds, etc.? It has been a long time since my oldest was in speech therapy and I think a quick review would really help me teach this first section of Music of the Hemispheres. (I think that I will ask this on TWTMforum. Duh.)

Duncan also covered clauses in Grammar Island and some handwriting. After being sick last week and not covering SL LA, I decided just to start over. Something irritates me about being on week 9 of school, but week 8 of SL. Oh, well.

Duncan is moving along in Saxon 76. It is pretty certain that he will finish the book before the end of this year, so here soon I will be dropping down to 3 lessons each week. I am considering doing Hands on Equations and reviewing some before beginning Saxon 87 to give him time to master the material and approach some information in a fun, hands-on way. He really liked Cuisenaire rods and the MUS blocks, so I think that he would like some time with manipulatives.

Moving on to history, Duncan and Mei held on to their seats and did a fly-by of ancient Rome from Romulus and Remus through the Punic Wars. I use Gombrich’s Little History as our spine and all of this is in Chapter 13. I read aloud two Roman spreads from my handy old Kingfisher, a short version of Romulus and Remus, and information from Mr.Donn’s Roman history online. They made 5 little minibooks for a lapbook of ancient Rome. (Even in this quick overview we will spend 4 weeks on Rome including our week that covers Christianity. So, I decided that it needed its own lapbook. Mei is excited!) Without Mei, Duncan and I read Hannibal by Robert Green. Whew! So much history, so little time!

Mei's Left; Duncan's Right

In science Mei and Duncan explored Pluto, dwarf planets, the Kuiper Belt and the Asteroid Belt. They completed two lessons of GSA Space and filled in information on Pluto for their solar system book. They read about dwarf planets at Starchild and watched some space videos at howstuffworks.

Last year our Spanish was just fun relaxed exposure. This year I actually purchased materials, but rather than curriculum I just bought some books at Borders. Duncan and Mei are just having fun looking at the books and filling in the pages. I am not doing much in the way of instruction other than just reading the words on the page. Even though I don’t mention it often, we are still plugging away.

Latin for Children- Lesson 9: swimming through it splashing and having fun.

My School Log for Duncan

Memory Work
Tell me about prime numbers.
Numbers that have exactly 2 factors are prime numbers.

Tell me about a clause.
Each group of words with a subject and a predicate in it is called a clause.

What are dwarf planets?
Dwarf planets are astronomical objects that orbit the sun and are round, but, unlike planets, they have not cleared their orbital path.

Tell me about the Punic Wars.
The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage that resulted in the utter destruction of Carthage.

Poem 1
the witches’ chant from Macbeth

Math
Kumon Math (not daily)
Saxon 76- Lessons 61-65

Language Arts
SL LA 2 adv week 8 copywork and activity sheet
Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill chapters 5-8 (reader)
Handwriting Help for Kids: Create Cursive
MCT Grammar Island pp.124-135; discussed pp.168-169
Music of the Hemispheres pp.14-17
The Random House Poetry book on Thursday

History
Gombrich’s A Little History Chapter 13
assembled Roman minibooks
Kingfisher pp.34-35; pp.62-63
Selections from Mr. Donn’s History
Hannibal by Robert Green (without Mei)

Science
Great Science Adventures- Lessons 18 and 13 (Pluto and The Asteroid Belt)
Read about Dwarf Planets at Starchild
Watched asteroid and planet videos at howstuffworks

Spanish
Mei and Duncan continued playing with Chapter 2 in Spanish Every Day. Mei worked in The Everything Kids’ Learning Spanish Book while Duncan learned animal names in The Complete Book of Spanish.

Latin
Song School Latin Lesson 9 (review lesson)

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Read-Aloud Thursday: Hannibal

This week we are reading Hannibal by Robert Green. Alongside our whirlwind overview of Rome from Romulus and Remus through the Punic Wars, this book was just perfect. It has 5 chapters, so one can be read each day of the week. While it could certainly be used to write a report, the book is a good read and contains numerous pictures of paintings, sculpture, maps, and photos that add to the written information.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Wordless Wednesday- Trivia

This week I painted my toes blue, because I thought my little guy would like them. I thought wrong. He informed me that they were "a little too Halloween town" for him and that he likes my toes pink!

One of the Indian ladies at Kumon brought in a henna cone and was kind enough to put a little vine on my hand while I taught in the junior room. I like it, but I never knew that, when it is applied, wet henna smells bad. I guess I never thought about it.

Oh, and Happy Autumn! I hope it cools off soon!

Friday, September 17, 2010

Friday- Week in Review for Grayson

Grayson is my junior.

Language Arts
Grayson read selections from EMC’s World Lit. This week he read selections from Fables by Jean de La Fontaine.

He completed his homework in IEW, Mother Tongue, and reviewed comma rules in The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation.

Precalculus
On Wednesday he went to the math tutor.

Chemistry
He wrapped up Chemistry chapter3. Woohoo.

History
This week in Glencoe high school World History Grayson read about Africa.

He also watched lecture 13 from The Teaching Company’s A History of England from the Tudors to the Stuarts. Lecture 13 wraps up the personal life of Henry VIII. Grayson filled on a TRISMS Famous People sheet on Henry VIII.

Economics
On Tuesday he attended his one semester economics class using ABeka. He wore a NOM NOM NOM t-shirt where he used duct tape taped ECO over the first NOM and ICS over the last NOM. I was amused.

Arts
Grayson watched lecture 8 from The Teaching Company’s The Art of the Northern Renaissance.

Volleyball
Grayson’s third game was this week. Again they won, so they are undefeated.

Friday- Week in Review for Mei

Mei is the dd of a good friend who was with us 2 days this week. Mei is in the 5th grade and here is what she did at my house.
Mei and Duncan enjoying a puddle

Memory Work
Three ways to show division.
a division box
a division sign
a division bar

What is an adjective?
An adjective is a word that modifies a noun or a pronoun.

What is a mnemonic phrase to remember the order of the planets?
My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nachos.

Tell me about Alexander the Great.
Alexander the Great, 356B.C. to 323B.C., became king of Greece at 20 and went on to conquer Asia Minor, Egypt, Persia, and Northern India.

Math
Saxon 65- Lessons 19-21

Language Arts
Winston Grammar Lesson 11
Daily Handwriting Practice Contemporary Cursive
Music of the Hemispheres pp.4-13
The Random House Book of Poetry for Children (selections from)

History & Science
See Duncan's Review

Above and Beyond Five in a Row
We continued down our John Audubon rabbit trail. We finished our lapbook on France and it is Mei’s favorite lapbook so far. I added a little extension and I think that is part of what she liked.

Outside
Inside

Inside with some of the mini-books open
Inside with extension open

Friday- Week in Review for Duncan

Duncan is my 2nd grader.

Well, I have not been up to par this week, so we didn’t do as much as I had planned. However, we did trudge along and covered what needed to be so that we wouldn’t end up behind schedule especially in MCT with Duncan, Saxon with Mei, and the history and science that they do together. Oh, and they continued with their memory cards and Duncan did Song School Latin.

In language arts we began MCT’s The Music of the Hemispheres and Mei and Duncan began memorizing the witches’ chant from Macbeth- “Double, double toil and trouble.” I would like to them to have it memorized by 10/8 , but I really want them to have it memorized for Halloween! Duncan also covered prepositional phrases in Grammar Island and some handwriting. What we didn’t cover was our SL stuff- his reader, activity sheet, and MCT Word Study D. I have high hopes that he will catch up in his reader this weekend, but I think that we will be skipping the activity sheet and next week pick up word study where we left off.

Fortunately, the section of Saxon covered fractions. As Kumon has already beat Duncan over the head with fractions, I didn’t need to use my limited voice to explain his lessons. He did some problems in lessons 52-59, but we really focused where I am not seeing speed and accuracy- decimal problems. I feel naughty for skipping problems in Saxon! LOL

Moving on to science and history, Duncan and Mei covered Alexander the Great using a variety of materials. They explored Uranus and Neptune in science. They also watched the Magic School Bus video that covers weather/ the water cycle, not because it was relevant to anything we are doing but just ‘cause they wanted to watch Magic School Bus- so there.

Last week's Saturn that Duncan wanted me to post.

Mei's Neptune 
Past this is just my accountability journal. If you are interested in reading everything that I am logging as school this week, continue. If not, don’t bother. The rest is boring.
Memory Work
Tell me about a prepositional phrase.
A prepositional phrase begins with a preposition and ends with its object. In a sentence a prepositional phrase acts as either an adjective or an adverb.

List some common prepositions that do not indicate location.
about, after, against, before, down, except, off, until

What is a mnemonic phrase to remember the order of the planets?
My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nachos.

Tell me about Alexander the Great.
Alexander the Great, 356B.C. to 323B.C., became king of Greece at 20 and went on to conquer Asia Minor, Egypt, Persia, and Northern India.

Math
Kumon Math (not daily)
Saxon 76- Lessons 52-59

Language Arts
Betsey and Tacy GO Over the Big Hill chapter 4 (reader)
Handwriting Help for Kids: Create Cursive
MCT Grammar Island pp.115-123; he completed the story maker on p.121 & 166 (in addition to identifying the underlined part of speech we analyzed some of these for words and parts of a sentence.)
Music of the Hemispheres pp.4-13
The Random House Poetry book on Thursday

History
Gombrich’s A Little History Chapter 12
colored in an Alexander the Great Mini-book
You Wouldn’t Want to Be in Alexander the Great’s Army
Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History pp.160-161

Science
Great Science Adventures- Lessons 16 and 17
(Uranus and Neptune)

Latin
Song School Latin Lesson 8

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Read-Aloud Thursday

This is another good one from this series. You Wouldn't Want to Be in Alexander the Great's Army follows the military campaigns of Alexander from the perspective of foot soldier. It has all the sort of information that little boys love- soldiers freezing to death, starving to death, being trampled by elephants, etc. That said it doesn't give much information about Alexander.

We did read the page on Alexander the Great out of Usborne's Internet-linked History Encyclopedia and that helped. I had planned to read The Life and Times of Alexander the Great. However, I have almost lost my voice this week, so my throat just wasn't up for it.

I read/skimmed through it and I think Duncan would have enjoyed it. It gave some really good historical information about Alexander the Great.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Tuesday Teatime Poetry

We began MCT's The Music of the Hemispheres today. WooHoo! We read pp.4-11 which included a poem by Emily Dickinson. We also read the witches' song (double double toil and trouble) from Macbeth. Mei and Duncan will be memorizing it over the next several weeks.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Grayson, Weekly Review: 9/6-9/10

Grayson is my junior and here is my very late week in review.

Language Arts
Grayson read selections from EMC’s World Lit. This week he read a selection from “Of Cannibals” by Michel de Montaigne.

He completed his homework in IEW, Mother Tongue, and reviewed comma rules in The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation.

Precalculus
On Wednesday he went to the math tutor. He is using a Sullivan Precalculus text. Yesterday (9/12) we bought him his own graphing calculator. He had been using Christian’s, but Christian took his to college. Imagine that.

Chemistry
Alright, things are better. He read RS4K Level2 Chemistry 1.1-1.2 and chapter 3 in his Prentice Hall text and there was no problem!

History
This week in Glencoe high school World History Grayson read about Africa.

He also watched lectures 11 and 12 from The Teaching Company’s A History of England from the Tudors to the Stuarts. This completes part 1 of the 4 part series and covered the break with the Catholic church and the power of the monarchy through the end of Henry VIII’s reign.

Economics
On Tuesday he attended his one semester economics class using ABeka and he made a B on his test. This is wonderful since we were running so late that not only didn’t he have time to shower but he also didn’t eat lunch. When Grayson is rushed like this, it is not uncommon for him not to do well.

Arts
Grayson watched lecture 7 from The Teaching Company’s The Art of the Northern Renaissance.

Volleyball
Grayson’s second game was this week. They played two 25 point games and one 15 point game and won all three. In the final game, the first 11 points were while Grayson was serving!

Mei, Weekly Review: 9/6-9/10

Mei is the dd of a good friend who was with us 2 days this week. Mei is in the 5th grade and here is what she did at my house.

Memory Work
Describe horizontal, vertical, and oblique lines and line segments.
A horizontal line is level with the horizon, extending left and right. A vertical line extends up and down. An oblique line appears to be "slanted."

Name the four kinds of sentences.
declarative- states.
interrogative- asks?
imperative- orders.
exclamatory- exclaims!

List the outer planets.
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune

Tell me about Confucius.
Confucius, who lived from 551 B.C. to 479 B.C., taught obedience and respect.

Math
Math drill- reviewing multiplication facts 3s and 6s
Saxon 65- Lessons 15-18

Language Arts
Winston Grammar Lessons 10
Daily Handwriting Practice Contemporary Cursive
Reader- John Audubon: Young Naturalist
Teatime Poetry

History, Science, Spanish
See Duncan's Review

Above and Beyond Five in a Row
We continued our John Audubon rabbit trail. Mei read about millers, wind mills, and owls. She also began a cool lapbook on France. Hopefully we will finish that soon, so I can post pictures!

Duncan, Weekly Review: 9/6-9/10

Duncan is my 2nd grader. This is so late that it is obviuosly just for my journal, so it isn't very interesting.

Memory Work
Duncan’s math memory work is pulled from Saxon 76, his LA memory work is pulled from MCT Grammar Island, and his science memory work is pulled from Great Science Adventures Space. His history/ geography memory work is based on what we are studying.

What do we do when the divisor of a division problem is a decimal number?
We remove the decimal from the divisor by writing an equivalent division problem multiplying both the divisor and dividend by a multiple of 10.

Tell me about a direct object.
A direct object is a noun or object pronoun that gets acted on by the action verb.
Subj. Act.V. D.O.

Tell me about a subject complement.
A subject complement is a noun, subject pronoun, or an adjectives that comes after a linking verb and renames or describes the subject.
Subj. L.V. S.C.

List the outer planets.
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune

Tell me about Confucius.
Confucius, who lived from 551 B.C. to 479 B.C., taught obedience and respect.

Math
Kumon Math
Saxon 76- Lessons 48-51

Language Arts
SL LA 2 adv week 6 copywork and activity sheet
Ralph S. Mouse chapters 8-end (reader)
Betsey and Tacy GO Over the Big Hill chapter 1-3 (reader)
MCP Word Study D (he did this, but no idea where the book is now!)
Handwriting Help for Kids: Create Cursive
MCT Grammar Island pp.104-114; he completed the story maker on p.113 & 164 (in addition to identifying the underlined part of speech we analyzed some of these for words and parts of a sentence.)
Tuesday Poetry from the Random House Poetry book

History
Gombrich’s A Little History Chapter 11
colored in a China map and flag from Enchanted Learning
The Life and Times of Confucius
Ancient China DVD from Schlessinger Media

Science
Great Science Adventures- Lessons 13 and 14
(Jupiter and Saturn)

Spanish
Barron’s Spanish Every Day Chapter 2
The Complete Book of Spanish- the pronoun you

Latin
Song School Latin Lesson 7

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Read-Aloud Thursday


This week I am reading The Life and Times of Confucius as our history read-aloud. It contains 5 short chapters, so it is easy to cover in a week. The vocabulary isn't your simple picture book vocabulary and it has nice little FYI sections with pictures at the end of each chapter. I like it enough that we will be using a couple of other ones, but it isn't beautiful. This book on Confucius fits the bill for Duncan, but it is definitely a library book that a middle school student could use to write a report IYKWIM.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Wordless Wednesday

Over Labor Day we took more stuff to my oldest ds, Christian, at college.

See Christian egg on Grayson to climb the tree.


See Grayson easily ascend the branch.


See smug Grayson view his brothers on the ground. 


See Grayson move higher. The dangling leg was a hook to be pulled.


See Grayson enjoy the view.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Tuesday Teatime Poetry

While we read from The Random House Book of Poetry for Children, Mei, Duncan, and Grayson had Pillsbury Cinnabon Rolls. The kids had a good time. We didn't discuss anything, so I have nothing to add to this yummy picture.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Friday- Week in Review for Grayson

Grayson is my junior.

Language Arts
Grayson read selections from EMC’s World Lit. This week he read a selection from Don Quixote.

He completed his homework for comp class using IEW and Mother Tongue and worked a little in Queen’s Language Lessons.

Precalculus
On Wednesday he went to the math tutor. He is using a Sullivan Precalculus text. He is almost finished with Chapter 1 Equations, Inequalities, and Functions.

Chemistry
Well, he finally finished Chapter 2. Aarrgh, Chemistry is my nemesis!

History
This week in Glencoe high school World History Grayson read about exploration and expansion.

He also watched lectures 8 through 10 from The Teaching Company’s A History of England from the Tudors to the Stuarts. The final lecture dealt with Henry the VIII divorce from Catherine of Aragon and his split from the Catholic church- exciting stuff!

Economics
This Tuesday he attended his one semester economics class using ABeka

Arts
Grayson watched lecture 6 from The Teaching Company’s The Art of the Northern Renaissance.

Volleyball
Grayson’s first game was last night. Grayson's serves were consistent and definitely helped win the game!

Friday- Week in Review for Mei

Mei is the dd of a good friend who was with us 2 days this week. Mei is in the 5th grade and here is what she did at my house. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to complete any ABFIAR this week. :-(

Memory Work
What do we call the answer to a multiplication problem?
The answer to an multiplication problem is called the product.

Tell me about contractions.
A contraction is a shortened form of one or two words (one of which is usually a verb).
In a contraction, an apostrophe takes the place of the missing letter or letters.
example:
you are = you' re
she will = she' ll

List the inner planets.
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars

Tell me about Hinduism.
Hinduism began in Northern India near the Indus River about 4000 years ago.

Math
Math drill- reviewing multiplication facts 3s and 6s
Saxon 65- Lessons 11-14

Language Arts
Winston Grammar Lessons 9
Daily Handwriting Practice Contemporary Cursive pp.10-11
Readers: Milly, Molly, Mandy; Beezus and Ramona; John Audubon: Young Naturalist
Teatime Poetry

History, Science, Spanish
See Duncan’s week in review

Friday- Week in Review for Duncan

Duncan is my second grader.
Where did the week go?

Math is usually no problem for Duncan. However, this week something came along and threw him for a loop. In Kumon his pack went from 27 x 2/3 = 36/x at the bottom of page 158 to y x 2 + 3 = 9 at the top of page 159. This is when I realized that he could look at 18 = 36/x and just know the answer without really understanding what he was doing. So, out came the white board and we looked at equivalent fractions and then at the equivalent division problems that he has been doing in Saxon. We also reviewed division of fractions. So, then we applied those same concepts to solving for an unknown. I think he has it, but because he didn’t get it immediately all of a sudden he is feeling a little mathematically insecure and this is something new for the little guy.

Last week I posted that we would do the composition exercise in MCT orally, but Friday evening I decided to let the little guy have a go at it. (thanks in part to blog posts where other kiddos had completed a similar exercise in MCT Town!) And, well, what do you know, he really enjoyed it. The book had columns of words and the child had to build a sentence by choosing a word from each column. Then, he had to write a story based on the sentence. He liked it so much that he did it again on Saturday.

Saturday- working on the rough draft
Finished story on Saturday-
Full but Thirsty Life

Yikes! The muddy chicken clucked greedily toward the worm. He was muddy, thirsty, and hungry. Then, the chicken found a big, juicy-looking worm. The chicken snuck up quietly behind the worm and gobbled the enormous, soggy worm in three delicious bites. He felt good and full, but he was thirstier than he had ever been in his entire life. Yikes!

This week we talked about ancient India. We read a library book about the Indus Valley Civilizations, sat in on an Indian dance class, and read Buddha by Demi. (Demi's books are just beautiful!) With Mei we colored in an Indian map and flag from Enchanted Learning, read from Grombrich’s A Little History, and looked at selections from The Little Book of Hindu Deities by Sanjay Patel.

Mei's India page
Thanks to my 16yo I learned a new word this week- chibi. I said that the Little Book of Hindu Deities was like Hello Kitty. However, my 16yo informed me that there is actually a name for that style of animation where the characters are little with big heads- chibi.
Chibi Hindu Gods!
In science we studied the inner planets and added Mercury, Venus, and Mars to our book. We also made a minibook comparing and contrasting Earth and Venus. Duncan also watched a video from the library.

Duncan tab-top book top; Mei tab-top book bottom
Mei and Duncan continued looking at Barron’s Spanish Every Day chapter 2. Duncan looked at numbers through 59 in The Complete Book of Spanish while Mei looked at numbers, question words and Spanish articles in The Everything Kids Learning Spanish Book.

On a fun note, Duncan joined Boy Scouts this week. We bought his little wolf things on Wednesday and he promptly memorized the cub scout pledge. Yesterday I had to take and hide his wolf book, because for some reason he thinks we must complete or begin everything in it immediately.

Past this is just my accountability journal. If you are interested in reading everything that I am logging as school this week, continue. If not, don’t bother. The rest is boring.

Memory Work
Duncan’s math memory work is pulled from Saxon 76 and his LA memory work is pulled from MCT Grammar Island, and his science memory work is pulled from Great Science Adventures Space. His history/ geography memory work is based on what we are studying.

List four ways we may indicate multiplication with numbers and variables.
1. with a times sign
2. with a dot
3. with parentheses
4. if one or both of the factors is a variable, then the factors may be written side by side.

What is the subject of a sentence?
The subject of a sentence is the part about which something is being said. (What are we talking about?)

What is the predicate of a sentence?
The predicate of a sentence is the part that says something about the subject.

List the inner planets.
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars

Tell me about Hinduism.
Hinduism began in Northern India near the Indus River about 4000 years ago.

Math
Kumon Math
Saxon 76- Lessons 43-47
Keys to Decimals looked at the end of Book 2 and the beginning of Book 3
Penrose pp.12-19

Language Arts
SL LA 2 adv week 6 copywork and activity sheet
Ralph S. Mouse chapters 2-7 (reader)
Catwings by Ursula LeGuin (reader)
MCP Word Study D pp.26-29
Handwriting Help for Kids: Create Cursive
MCT Grammar Island pp.91-103; p.160 & 162 (in addition to identifying the underlined part of speech we analyzed some of these for words and parts of a sentence.)
Tuesday Poetry from the Random House Poetry book

History
Gombrich’s A Little History Chapter 10
colored in an Indian map and flag from Enchanted Learning
The Little Book of Hindu Deities by Sanjay Patel (selections from)
Indian dance class (without Mei)
Library books (without Mei)
Buddha by Demi (without Mei)

Science
Great Science Adventures- Lessons 10, 11, and 12.
The Inner Planets VHS (without Mei)

Spanish
Barron’s Spanish Every Day Chapter 2
The Complete Book of Spanish- numbers

Latin
Song School Latin Lesson 6