Weekly Wrap-Up: Sept. 26-30

I'm going to experiment with writing a summary of what my home learners did each week just as several of my friends do with their kids.  Hopefully this idea will lend itself to more regular blog posts and also give me a little bit of extra motivation to get something done at home even when none of us feels like it!

We're still slowly adding in subjects as September comes to a close.  Grammar Town, Writing With Skill, and Artistic Pursuits start next week!

JaneG. is thrilled with Spelling Workout--spelling is quickly becoming her favorite subject.  She completed one lesson and began the next this week.

Teaching Textbooks Math isn't a favorite, but it is getting the job done with few tears and complaints.  She is more concerned with her score than I thought she would be, and aims for 100+ percent for each lesson.  She completed seven lessons this week.

Jane is slowly getting a handle on Vocabulary from Classical Roots, and finished the first lesson with a smile on her face.  Her least favorite part is reading about each lesson's words and roots; she prefers the activities that help her to learn the definitions.

We began science this week by learning about the scientific method while reading Stephen P. Kramer's How to Think Like a Scientist.  Using well-written passages that are a pleasure to read aloud, Kramer tells stories to illustrate how the scientific method works.  Charming pictures by Felicia Bond (If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, et. al.) are the icing on the cake.  Highly recommended, and we'll be looking for more books by Kramer, a former junior high school biology teacher.  School Library Journal puts this book at the 3rd-5th grade reading level.

Jane read some of Thorkill of Iceland: Viking Hero-Tales, and explored the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia's entries about the Vikings.  I helped her find one important thing in each section in the encyclopedia to write down in her history notebook.

Both Jane and J.J. listened to several read-alouds this week, including the Story of the World chapters that have to do with the Vikings.  The D'Aulaires book  Leif the Lucky was read and enjoyed as well.  We're going to give The Children of Odin by Padraic Colum (whose Children's Homer we so enjoyed a couple of years ago) a go next week.

J.J. continues to show reluctance to learn how to read, and would prefer to play with Lego rather than work in his Miquon math book.  He completed a math lesson or two, though, and several pages of Explode the Code.  He listened to his first (in his memory) Jack & Annie book this week, and is showing signs of developing a Magic Tree House passion already.  Both Dogs in the Dead of Night (monks in the Alps)  and Polar Bears Past Bedtime (the Arctic) had a (loose) tie-in or two to the Vikings that I took full advantage of.  Now if I could just find our copy of Viking Ships at Dawn, I'd be a happy homeschooling parent.

Jazz is at the charter school, happily reading and discussing The Outsiders, writing personal narratives, learning some algebra, and getting to know many kids his own age.  He's still finding his way, but he seems to be enjoying the journey.