Friday- Week in Review for Grayson

Grayson is my junior.

Language Arts
Grayson read selections from EMC’s World Lit, 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 also discussed Chemistry with the math tutor, because he was stuck squatting on a section.

Chemistry
Actually, an online friend ended up helping him figure out what he needed to know. Today, we will be trying to move forward in the text.

History
This week Grayson read chapter 12 section 5 in the Glencoe high school World History by Spielvogel and completed this section in the Active Reading Notetaking Guide workbook.

He also watched lectures 6 and 7 from The Teaching Company’s A History of England from the Tudors to the Stuarts. I have not watched any of these lectures, but Grayson likes the professor. He says that he is very enthusiastic. He bounces around a lot, but after the first couple of lectures the camera man figured out to keep a wide frame, so that the camera doesn’t need to move around so much.

Economics
This Tuesday he attended his one semester economics class using ABeka. It is a fun group of high schoolers. This week one of the young men brought some little magnets to keep his hands busy while he studied, but apparently the fun little things were far too entertaining and the group played with magnets while they studied. The group leader asked these not come to class anymore.

Arts
Grayson watched lecture 4 and 5 from The Teaching Company’s The Art of the Northern Renaissance. The professor is a character- she is a little stiff and moves her mouth much more than her jaws when she talks. Something about her reminds me of Sister Wendy. Maybe it is that she comes across as being knowledgeable and reserved. She isn’t as opinionated in these lectures as Sister Wendy, but you get the feeling that she could be if this were a different format. I like the choices of lecture topics and the material presented, but that is something I knew from reading the information on The Teaching Company website.

Volleyball
Grayson began volleyball last night. It is co-ed, but there is only one other guy on his team. The funny thing is that there also only one other guy in his IEW composition class!

Grayson in blue with the only other guy. LOL

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.

Memory Work
What do we call the answer to an addition problem?
The answer to an addition problem is called the sum.

List the helping verbs. (The helping verbs that can also act as state of being verbs are listed on the back of the Winston Grammar verb card. We discussed this and studied these helping verbs this week.)
may / might / must
shall / should
will / would
can / could
has / have / had
do / does / did

What are the phases of the Moon?
New, Crescent, Quarter, Gibbous, Full

Name the two rival city-states of ancient Greece.
Athens and Sparta

Math
Math drill- reviewing multiplication facts 5s
Saxon 65- Lessons 7-10
Making Math Meaningful Level 5 pp.60-61

Language Arts
Winston Grammar Lessons 8
Daily Handwriting Practice Contemporary Cursive pp.8-9
Teatime Poetry
Beezus and Ramona Chapter 3

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

Above and Beyond Five in a Row
For ABFIAR we continued down our first rabbit trail looking more at birds. This week she did a worksheet from Enchanted Learning on the food chain, researched bird beaks at KidWings, and made a minibook on what different birds eat. She also looked at eggs on KidWings website and completed a sheet labeling the parts of an egg.

Other Stuff
Mei and Duncan learned how to wash their clothes… while still wearing them.

Full Santa regalia

Yes, that is my towel in the tub instead of hanging on the wall. 

Mei explored the idea of becoming a chiropractor.

Friday- Week in Review for Duncan

Duncan is my second grader.

Memory Work
None of the memory systems out there really fit what we are doing, so I am winging it. I like Anki, but Duncan really likes cards that he can hold, so we are using large index cards. Until now, we have been reviewing everything in addition to the new cards I add for the week. This week, however, we went through the cards and the ones that Duncan knew without hesitation we moved to the back of his card box. In a few weeks, when it is time to pare down our cards again, I plan to pull them back out. If he doesn't remember them, I will add them back into his drill deck. At least this is the plan.

Tell me about multiplying decimal numbers.
We do not align decimal points. After multiplying, we count the total number of decimal places in the factors and place the decimal point so that the product has this number of decimal places.

Tell me about conjunctions.
A conjunction joins two words or two groups of words together.

List the coordinating conjunctions.
FANBOYS- for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so

Tell me about prepositions.
Prepositions show how two things are related.

Tell me about interjections.
An interjection is an emotion word.

What are the phases of the Moon?
New, Crescent, Quarter, Gibbous, Full

Name the two rival city-states of ancient Greece.
Athens and Sparta

Math
Kumon Math- daily drill
Saxon 76- Lessons 39-42
Keys to Decimals Book 2 pp.29-30

Language Arts
SL LA 2 adv week 5 copywork and activity sheet
The Children of Noisy Village chapter 10-end (reader)
Ralph S. Mouse chapter 1 (reader)
MCP Word Study D pp.22-25
MCT Grammar Island pp.72-90; p.156; p.158; p.90 (orally)
Teatime Poetry on Tuesday

History
Gombrich’s A Little History Chapter 9
colored in the Greece minibook from Enchanted Learning (I wondered if Enchanted Learning would be worth the cost of the subscription, but it has been worth every penny and then some. I have used something from there every week.)

Mei's cover

Mei top. Duncan bottom.

The First Olympics from The History Channel DVD (This was a little too much for Mei and Duncan. Although they did sit fairly quietly and assembled a craft project, I don’t know that they got anything from it.)
You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Greek Athlete (without Mei)

Olympics Mei and Duncan style. That is Grayson in the blue shirt playing volleyball.

Science
Great Science Adventures: Space
Lesson 8: What do we know about the Moon?
We complete an lab designed to demonstrate that the Moon and Earth reflect the light of the sun.

Mei left. Duncan right.

Lesson 9: What is an eclipse?

DVD- Bill Nye: The Earth’s Crust
DVD- Bill Nye: The Planets (yes, this was made prior to 2006, so, yes, we discussed the reclassification of Pluto as a dwarf planet again. Also, he says counterclockwise about a million times, so Mei and Duncan definitely know that planets move in a counterclockwise motion around the sun.)

Spanish
Barron’s Spanish Every Day
began looking at some vocabulary from Chapter 2

Latin
Song School Latin Lesson 5 (And we just keep rolling along! At this point I am almost positive that we will continue with Latin for Children next year.)

As sad as it is, I must admit that, unless I can find a cheap tutor, we are dropping Farsi. Ditto for violin.
:-(

Read-Aloud Thursday

Yes, yes, I know that it is Friday morning, but I had no time to blog yesterday until after midnight when I arrived home from my moms meeting. So, here I am on Friday morning.

You Wouldn't Want to Be a Greek Athlete!

This isn't one of my favorites from this series: it just isn't as engaging for a 7yo boy as some of the others. It presents the basic information, but it isn't as silly/ laugh-out-loud entertaining or as eewww/ gross as some of the titles. Also, based on the presentation of the information in the book, a better title would be If You Are A Poor Male Athenian Child, Athletics May Be a Way to Recognition.

Wordless Wednesday

dorm

bikes and athletic building

Nashville out car window

sky welcomes us home

Note to self-
Never send a 10yo and a 7yo together to wash their feet.

Tuesday Teatime Poetry

While we did read poetry yesterday on Tuesday, it wasn't much of a teatime. Mei, Duncan, and I munched on carrots and looked at poetry while Grayson was at his economics class. Mei shared  specific poems from and Duncan and I continued to march through The Random House Book of Poetry for Children.

When we picked up Grayson, we went through the drive thru at Chik-Fil-A and grabbed some milkshakes. At home Mei shared her poems again. This one seemed particularly relevant to the chocolate shake in my hand-

Chocolate
Chocolate
by Arnold Adoff

                i
love
       you so
                i
want
       to
marry
        you
        and
live
   forever
            in the
            flavor
of your
 brown

And then there were 2

Yesterday at 3am after less than three hours sleep, I pulled out of the driveway south of Nashville, TN and the boys and I headed to Berea, KY and Berea College. We set up the Christian's dorm. Then, he received his laptop, his work assignment, and his POBox info. We left the big guy to listen to a welcome speech from the college pres, have dinner with his advisor (the group assigned to his advisor all met and had Papa John's Pizza), meet with his RAs, and go to a welcome mixer. They kept the freshmen busy until 11pm. Well, I guess nobody had time to be homesick!

Boxes piling up in our living room

Standing near window looking into hall

Under Christian's bed

The Draper Building (modeled after Independence Hall)

The boys (now just 2) and I exited the highway into town at about 7:30pm and pulled directly into Carrabba's where we met dh for dinner. When I finally fell into bed, I was so exhausted that the room was sort of swaying.

I am so excited for him, but a little sad at the sight of his empty bedroom here at home.

Almost Friday- Week in Review for Grayson

Grayson is my junior. He will continue to add to his schedule until the week of August 23 when volleyball begins.

Language Arts
He read selections from EMC’s World Lit.

He completed his homework for comp class using IEW and Mother Tongue.

Precalculus
On Wednesday he went to the math tutor. He is using a Sullivan Precalculus text.

Chemistry
This just didn’t happen this week. I am a Chemistry bomb.

History
This week Grayson read chapter 12 section 4 in the Glencoe high school World History by Spielvogel and completed this section in the Active Reading Notetaking Guide workbook.

He also watched lectures 5 from The Teaching Company’s A History of England from the Tudors to the Stuarts.

Economics
This Tuesday he began his one semester economics class using ABeka. I should have added this last week, because they had to have chapter 1 completed before the first class.

Arts
Grayson watched lecture 3 from The Teaching Company’s The Art of the Northern Renaissance.

Almost 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. I am very fortunate in that Mei and my little man Duncan are very bright and very focused, fast workers.

Memory Work
What is the commutative property of addition and multiplication?
a + b = b + a
a x b = b x a

What is a verb?
A verb is word that expresses action or a state of being.

List the layers of the Earth.
Inner Core, Outer Core, Mantle, Crust

Name 4 important kings of ancient Persia.
Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius, Xerxes

Math
Math drill- reviewing multiplication facts 9s
Saxon 65- Lessons 4-6
Making Math Meaningful Level 5 pp.58-59

Yes, I am letting her write in the Saxon book.

Language Arts
Winston Grammar Lessons 5-6
Daily Handwriting Practice Contemporary Cursive pp.half of 6 and 7
Teatime Poetry
The Random House Book of Poetry for Children
Beezus and Ramona Chapters 1-2

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

Above and Beyond Five in a Row
For ABFIAR we continued down our first rabbit trail looking more at chapters 1-4 in John Audubon: Young Naturalist. This week Mei read about swallows and completed a minibook on Haiti.

She chose her favorite setting from last week’s second worksheet and used it to fill in The Writer's Craft- Setting Worksheet. Then, she wrote a paragraph based on the worksheet. She revised her paragraph using some IEW material. I banned the verb see, so she used the IEW reference page to replace it with witness. She added in a bunch of great –ly words using the IEW -ly ending sheet. I also snuck in a triple and introductory clauses without explaining what we were doing. Finally, I typed it up correcting punctuation (which we are not focusing on right now) and spelling (which she will be doing at home and I didn’t want to focus on in this lesson). I meant for us to paint a tropical bird and discuss folly, but alas it didn’t happen this week.

Mei's Paragraph-
I can’t believe we walked away from that car crash. Guido chased us relentlessly. I witnessed people dying while Guido drove dangerously after us. When our cars scratched together, there were lots of sparks. I heard the tires screeching, the glass breaking, and the metal bending. I could smell all of the gas when the cars flipped over and burst into flames. When I flipped over, I could taste blood in my mouth. Quickly, the airbag exploded saving my life. Although I was frightened and in pain, I was astounded by what I discovered. Happily, Guido was crushed in his corvette!

Almost Friday- Week in Review for Duncan

Duncan is my second grader.

Memory Work
Tell me about adding and subtracting decimals.
We line up decimal numbers for addition and subtraction by lining up the decimal points.

What is an adverb?
An adverb modifies a verb. (There is a teacher’s note in Grammar Island that explains that adverbs also modify adjectives and other adverbs, but for right now we will focus on modifying verbs. I read this to Duncan, but did not include the info on the back of his index card.)

List the layers of the Earth.
Inner Core, Outer Core, Mantle, Crust

Name 4 important kings of ancient Persia.
Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius, Xerxes

Math
Kumon Math- daily drill
Saxon 76- Lessons 35-38
Keys to Decimals Book 2 pp.27-28

Language Arts
SL LA 2 adv week 4 copywork and activity sheet
The Children of Noisy Village chapter 1-9 (reader)
MCP Word Study D pp.19-21
MCT Grammar Island pp.52-71; p.162 (5); p.154
Teatime Poetry on Tuesday
The Random House Book of Poetry for Children

History
Gombrich’s A Little History Chapter 8
colored in Iran minibook made from sheets off Enchanted Learning
At the Court of the King of Kings DVD
Rostam: Tales from the Shanameh

Mei's on left. Duncan's on right.

Science
Great Science Adventures Space
Lesson 7: What do we know about Earth?
We completed our Earth page for our 10 page booklet on our Solar System and did the daytime/ nighttime lab with a ball and a flashlight.

Duncan's on top. Mei's on bottom.

Spanish
Barron’s Spanish Every Day
Reviewed chapter 1 and index card vocabulary

Latin
Song School Latin Lesson 4 (Have I mentioned how easy to implement and fun this is!)

Well, this is all we accomplished. I cancelled violin this week and we didn’t do art or Farsi. In my defense we are trying to pack up my oldest to get him out the door to college this weekend. Yay, Christian!

Read-Aloud Thursday

This year in order to help my second grader better connect with what he is learning most of our read-aloud Thursday books will be tied to our history lessons. This week we are studying ancient Persia, so imagine my delight when I found a comic book version of a selection from the Shahnameh.

Rostam: Tales from the Shahnameh is a wonderful visual introduction to the story that still manages to capture the elements of an epic. There is the flawed hero living and fighting for what he believes to be right, but caught in a web of love between himself and his country, himself and a woman, and the love for him from the child he doesn't know he has. Then, of course, the web is made more complex by the treachery of another who wants more power for himself. This is like the tales of King Arthur, but from a rich, foreign culture that many children don't have the opportunity to know. Good stuff!

Wordless Wednesday

What's beside the bathtub?

Tuesday Teatime Poetry

The Random House Book of Poetry for Children

This is by far my favorite compilation poetry book for young children. It has a ton of poems- 572. They are all appropriate for young children. The arrangement is fabulous. We will be starting MCT's Music of the Hemispheres in week 9, but even then I plan to add in poems from this book.

Today, only Mei and Duncan participated in Teatime Poetry, because Christian and Grayson were out and about. But, Mei's mom Sarah joined us in their place! Mei read Rules by Karla Kuskin and Leave Me Alone by Felice Holman. After Leave Me Alone, Duncan commented that he feels like that sometimes and compared himself to the child speaking in the poem. I love these connections!

Duncan read I'm Glad the Sky is Painted Blue. As he doesn't have a wide selection of favorites, I am just going to have him start at the beginning of the book and read the next short poem that appeals to me.

I am also starting at the beginning of this book. I read The Universe by Mary Britton Miller. Sarah really enjoyed this one and we all discussed it for a little bit before rapping up. 

Friday- Homeschool Week in Review for Grayson

Grayson is my junior. He will continue to add to his schedule until the week of August 23 when volleyball begins.

Language Arts
Grayson di just a little in Queen’s Language Lessons for the High School Student.

He read selections from EMC’s World Lit.

This week he began a comp class that is using IEW and Mother Tongue.

Precalculus
On Wednesday he went to the math tutor. He is using a Sullivan Precalculus text.

Chemistry
This week Grayson completed chapter 2 in Prentice Hall’s Chemistry: Connections to Our Changing World.

History
This year Grayson is using the Glencoe high school World History by Spielvogel. This week he read chapter 12 section 3 and completed this section in the Active Reading Notetaking Guide workbook.

He also watched lectures 3 and 4 from The Teaching Company’s A History of England from the Tudors to the Stuarts.

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

Friday-Homeschool Week in Review for Mei

Mei is the dd of a good friend who was with us 3 days this week. Mei is in the 5th grade and here is what she did at my house. In addition to all the schoolwork she did, Mei's chickens also won lots of awards at the county fair. In junior poultry she had chickens in two categories. She placed first in one category and second in the other. She also received third, fourth, and fifth place ribbons.

Memory Work
What are some words used to mean + in word problems?
add, sum, plus, gain, rise, climb, total, increase, combine, number more than

Define personal pronoun.
Personal pronouns take the place of nouns. Personal pronouns do not follow articles and do not form plurals by adding -s.

List the personal pronouns.
I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they
me, you, him, her, it, us, you, them

Name 3 categories of galaxies.
Irregular, Elliptical, Spiral

Tell me about the Phoenician Civilization.
The Phoenicians were a seafaring people who are remembered for their purple dye and their written alphabet.

Math
Math drill- reviewing multiplication facts 9s
Saxon 65- Lessons 1-3
Making Math Meaningful Level 5 pp.53-57

Language Arts
Winston Grammar Lessons 3-4
Daily Handwriting Practice Contemporary Cursive p.5 and half of 6
Teatime Poetry (1x)
The Random House Book of Poetry for Children (1x)

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

Above and Beyond Five in a Row
We started down our first rabbit trail. In Chapter 2 of Hitty, Hitty is picked up by an American Crow who deposits her into its nest. Since the birds of North America are very interesting and since John Audubon lived about this same time, Mei is going to study a little bit about some of the places that he lived… and a lot about birds.

This week she read John Audubon: Young Naturalist chapters 1-4. Then, she read about the American Crow from Enchanted Learning. We discussed and she completed two worksheets on setting. We also discussed why slavery and the Haitian Revolution were important to the story of John Audubon and she completed a cutout worksheet on triangular trade. She also studied birds and began putting together things for a massive bird lapbook that she will be assembling.

Friday-Homeschool Week in Review for Duncan

Duncan is my second grader.
Memory Work
What is the definition of area?
Area is the number of squares of a certain size that it takes to cover a given surface.

What is a verb?
A verb is word that expresses action or a state of being.

Name 3 categories of galaxies.
Irregular, Elliptical, Spiral

Tell me about the Phoenician Civilization.
The Phoenicians were a seafaring people who are remembered for their purple dye and their written alphabet.

Math
Kumon Math- daily drill
Saxon 76- Lessons 31-34
Keys to Decimals Book 2 pp.24-26
The Adventures of Penrose the Mathematical Cat pp.8-11

Kumon from yesterday

Language Arts
SL LA 2 adv week 3 copywork and activity sheet
The Whipping Boy (reader, completed)

James and the Giant Peach Chapters 21-25 (read-aloud)

Handwriting Help for Kids Workbook 3: Create Cursive pp.11-15

MCP Word Study D pp.15-18

MCT Grammar Island pp.44-51; p.162 (1-4)

Teatime Poetry on Tuesday

The Random House Book of Poetry for Children (1x)

History

Gombrich’s A Little History Chapters 6-7

colored in Phoenician information on map

Sailing with the Phoenicians DVD this is in this series

The Minotaur’s Island DVD

(without Mei) In Search of Knossos

Phoenician Information Map

Science

Great Science Adventures Space
Lessons 5: What are galaxies?
We also looked at galaxies on pp.56-57 of DK’s Children’s Night Sky Atlas

Mei's inside on top. Duncan's outside on bottom.

Lesson 6: What is the solar system?
When I read through the GSA Lesson 6 minibook, we added dwarf planet to the vocabulary list. When Ceres and Pluto were mentioned, I noted that along with Eris they had been classified as dwarf planets in 2006.

Duncan's on top. Mei's on bottom. First page of a 10 page project.

Astronomy 101 DVD
(without Mei) The Universe: 7 Wonders of the Solar System on the History Channel last night.

Latin
Song School Latin week 3

Spanish
Barron’s Spanish Every Day
Second half of chapter 1 with index cards vocabulary. This casual approach is nice, I plan to cover a chapter in 2 weeks and then review it in the third week.

(without Mei) The Complete Book of Spanish Grades 1-3 pp.5-24 We picked this up just for fun last weekend at Sam’s.

Farsi
BYKI Farsi
Yep, I still feel like we are getting nowhere.

Art
Draw Squad
This week Duncan drew a candle.

last week and this week

Music

Duncan has totally stalled out in violin and I have no idea how to help him. He practiced every day except Wednesday.

Read-Aloud Thursday

This week we read In Search of Knossos: The Quest for the Minotaur's Labyrinth. It is very difficult to find children's books that cover Mediterranean history prior to the Greeks, so I was delighted that the library had this book on the shelf. It is full of information. However, for those bothered by nudity be aware that this information includes depictions of bare-chested women.

Our Maple Dog

RIP

Maple

2007-2010

Yesterday, we left for math tutoring a little early so that we could eat some fast food. After Christian and Grayson finished, we went to Target on the way home. We were gone for about four and a half hours. Maple was in the backyard with shade and before we left Grayson filled her big bowl with ice water. When we came home, she was dead. She still had water in her bowl.

I called a friend who has two of her litter mates and she told me that their father died before they were born. I think remember that story. Maybe she had some congenital defect that made her more susceptible to heat than other dogs of her breed. I wish I had left her inside in her crate. She was the sweetest, gentlest, happiest dog I have ever known.

I am so sad.

Another Not-Wordless Wednesday

Angry Man with Blue Hands and Glow-in-the-dark Monster Teeth

In addition to her work this is what every Kumon student should bring to the center. LOL! I have a beautiful 4yo Indian girl that comes to Kumon who is a laugh riot. This is what she brought to show me on Monday. She is so animated. Her demonstration of the glow-in-the-dark monster teeth made my evening.

Tuesday Teatime Poetry

Today Christian, Grayson, Duncan, and Mei shared their favorite poems with each other.


Christian’s favorite is the first six lines of Puck’s epilogue from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber’d here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream.

Grayson’s favorite is one of my personal favorites as well- Issa’s Snail-ku. This is the same one that inspired the name of this blog. Here is where I blogged about it.

Duncan’s favorite is The Lizard by John Gardner.

The Lizard
John Gardner

The Lizard is a timid thing
That cannot dance or fly or sing;
He hunts for bugs beneath the floor
And longs to be a dinosaur.

Today Mei shared Mother Doesn’t Want a Dog by Judith Viorst.

Mother Doesn’t Want a Dog
Judith Viorst

Mother doesn't want a dog.
Mother says they smell,
And never sit when you say sit,
Or even when you yell.
And when you come home late at night
And there is ice and snow,
You have to go back out because
The dumb dog has to go.


Mother doesn't want a dog.
Mother says they shed,
And always let the strangers in
And bark at friends instead,
And do disgraceful things on rugs,
And track mud on the floor,
And flop upon your bed at night
And snore their doggy snore.

Mother doesn't want a dog.
She's making a mistake.
Because, more than a dog, I think
She will not want this snake.

Friday- Homeschool Week in Review for Grayson

Grayson is starting his junior year and is still adding material. He will continue to add to his schedule until the week of August 23 when volleyball begins.

Language Arts
Grayson began Queen’s Language Lessons for the High School Student.

He read selections from EMC’s World Lit.

He will begin IEW and Mother Tongue next week.

Precalculus
On Wednesday he went to the math tutor. He is using a Sullivan Precalculus text.

Chemistry
This week Grayson answered questions from chapter 1 and read chapter 2 in Prentice Hall’s Chemistry: Connections to Our Changing World.

History
This year Grayson is using the Glencoe high school World History by Spielvogel. This week he read chapter 12 section 2 and completed this section in the Active Reading Notetaking Guide workbook.

He also watched lectures 1 and 2 from The Teaching Company’s A History of England from the Tudors to the Stuarts.

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

Any thoughts on Spanish? I have no idea what to do about this and we need to start soon!

Friday- Homeschool Week in Review for Mei

Mei is the dd of a good friend who is permitting me to borrow her a couple of days a week this year. Mei is in the 5th grade and here is what she did at my house this week. This was a fast week for Mei and Duncan. As county fair stuff and life stuff made our days short, we just completed the basics during the two brief periods that she was able to spend with us.

Memory Work
Tell me about Operation Symbols.
Operation Symbols are the action verbs of math. They are symbols such as +, -, x, / that indicate something that needs to be done- an action.

Tell me about proper nouns.
Proper nouns begin with capital letters and name specific persons, places, things, or ideas.

What are the 4 main layers of the sun?
Core, Photosphere, Chromosphere, Corona

List 3 important civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia.
Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian

Math
Math drill- reviewing multiplication facts 9s
Saxon 54- finished the book, yay!
Making Math Meaningful Level 5 pp.51-52

Language Arts
Winston Grammar Lesson 2
Daily Handwriting Practice Contemporary Cursive p.4
The Random House Book of Poetry for Children (used selections from 2x this week)

History
Gombrich’s A Little History Chapters 4-5
Enchanted Learning map of Iraq and Iraq worksheet
Mr. Donn’s History online pages on Sumer, Babylon, and Assyria
World Religions for Children- section on Judaism

Science
Great Science Adventures Space Lessons 3 and 4

Spanish
Barron’s Spanish Every Day
First half of chapter 1 with index card vocabulary
This casual approach is nice, I plan to cover a chapter in 2 weeks and then review it in the third week.

Friday- Homeschool Week in Review for Duncan

Duncan is my second grader.

Memory Work
What is a Greatest Common Factor?
The GCF is the largest whole number that is a factor of all the members of a given set of numbers.

What is an adjective?
An adjective is a word that modifies a noun or pronoun.
What are articles?
Article is the name given to the adjectives A, An, The

What are the 4 main layers of the sun?
Core, Photosphere, Chromosphere, Corona

List 3 important civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia.
Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian

Math
Kumon Math- daily drill
Saxon 76- Investigation 1; Lessons 29, 30
Keys to Decimals Book 2 pp.22-23
The Adventures of Penrose the Mathematical Cat pp.2-7

Language Arts
SL LA 2 adv week 2 copywork and activity sheet
More Stories From Grandma’s Attic Chapters 9-16 (reader)
James and the Giant Peach Chapters 1-20 (read-aloud)
Handwriting Help for Kids Workbook 3: Create Cursive pp.8-10
Wordly Wise 3 Lesson 2 reivew only
MCP Word Study D pp.9-12
MCT Grammar Island pp.26-43
The Random House Book of Poetry for Children (used selections from 2x this week)

History
Gombrich’s A Little History Chapters 4-5
Enchanted Learning map of Iraq and Iraq worksheet
Mr. Donn’s History online pages on Sumer, Babylon, and Assyria
World Religions for Children- section on Judaism
You Wouldn't Want to Be a Sumerian Slave

Science
Great Science Adventures Space Lessons 3 and 4

Latin
Song School Latin week 2
This is so easy to use and Duncan loves the songs. LOL! Go figure. I was worried that he wouldn’t sing them at all.

Spanish
Barron’s Spanish Every Day
First half of chapter 1 with index card vocabulary
This casual approach is nice, I plan to cover a chapter in 2 weeks and then review it in the third week.

Farsi
BYKI Farsi
Good grief. My husband is Persian. You wouldn’t think that this would be a problem, but we are getting nowhere with Farsi.

Art
Draw Squad
Duncan wants to draw more accurate representations of what he sees, but I don’t know that he is ready for this book. This week we started lesson 1. Duncan drew two pictures- a birthday cake and a T.V. We will be taking this real slow as he is easily discouraged/ frustrated when his drawings don’t turn out like he thinks they should.

Music
Well, violin hardly happened this week. Where is that blushing emodicon?

Read-Aloud Thursday

This week, while we read about ancient Mesopotamia in Gombrich's Little History, we have read You Wouldn't Want to Be a Sumerian Slave!.

The You Wouldn't Want to Be series is entertaining history information with really fun drawings. We will be using a number of these books this year. My second grader isn't particularly interested in history and I am hopeful that a few of these thrown into the mix will make history more enjoyable/ accessible for him.

Last week we read You Wouldn't Want to Be a Pyramid Builder and it was a nice addition to our week in ancient Egypt.

Easing into the New Year

Monday, July 19, Duncan began some history, art, Grammar Island, and returned to violin lessons. He had continued Kumon math all summer and had read sporadically. Mei joined us 2 days for history and art and she continued with her Saxon and ABFIAR that she had already started. Christian and Grayson were out of town.

This past week beginning Mei and Duncan added science and memory work. Duncan also began Song School Latin, SL LA 2 adv including the reader, and Saxon. Mei added Winston Grammar.

Grayson began precalculus, history, world lit, and chemistry.

Here are photos from some of this weeks work.
History- Egypt Mini-book
Duncan


Mei


Science


Mei is doing the second unit of ABFIAR. Among other things, she has completed a flower lapbook and a mini-book on the Passamoquoddy (Native American Tribe).






We used the Native American sheet from enchanted learning, but made it into a mini-book.