Weekly Report-Week 9

I can't believe that we have finished our first quarter already! I knew that we were starting early so that we could take off while we are in the States, but it just seems so early to have finished the first 9 weeks. I guess time flies when your having fun! Here's what we accomplished this week...

Language Arts: We spent the week reviewing our last 5 spelling lessons. We also played spelling baseball (not a hit) and spelling bingo (definitely a hit). We learned several more Latin nouns this week with Prima Latina. We also completed another analysis and imitation week with Aesop and several KISS grammar lessons. Princess read Stone Fox, which she loved. We also started reading Farmer Boy which princess has enjoyed, but I have found terribly boring to read, hopefully it will get better.

Math: We learned about liters and milliliters this week. This was our first section in the capacity unit and princess handled it well, but then again metric units are so much easier!

Science: We started studying the metalloid group. Princess was very interested to find out where we can find the elements boron and silicon. She still thinks that its cool that we are learning about what things are made of.

History: We studied Charles the 3rd and the 4th. We also looked at the Great Fire in London. Here's a project that princess did all on her own this week..
Other: We're still settling in, so none of the extras got done this week.

Weekly Report Week 1-7 of 3rd grade

Yep, you read that right, weeks 1-7! I can't believe that we have already finished that much school. I thought instead of listing what we've done over the last 7 weeks, I'd share what we are using and what I think of it so far, so here it goes...

Bible: We've been using plans that I wrote for a survey of the New Testament. Last year we did the Old Testament and made several lapbooks to go along with our study. This year princess was tired of lapbooking so we have been making mini books instead. So far, so good. This won't take us all year, so I'm still researching what we will use next.

Math: We've continued on with Singapore Math. Every year we use this program I fall more and more in love with it! I'm so impressed with how it teaches a student the language of math. We have also been having game day Friday where we play the games suggested in the HIG for the week. It's been fun!

Language Arts: Our readers and read-alouds are going well, princess has enjoyed them so far. We've continued with Spelling Workout and now that we are on lesson 23 I'm finally starting to see some progress in her spelling. This series is not the most fun, but it gets the job done and that was what I was looking for. We've started Prima Latina and princess is enjoying learning Latin. I know that this series sometimes gets a bad rap as being boring, but we are thoroughly enjoying our introduction to Latin. Finally, we added Classical Writing Aesop A this year. We are doing the Analysis & Imitation one week and the writing project the next week. So far, we both really enjoy this program. It took me several times of reading through the Core book to really get how to teach it, but I really thing that CW is making me a better writing teacher. I really have no complaints about this program. We do plan to start adding in KISS grammar over the next several weeks as I feel princess needs some more concentrated work in grammar.

Science: We are using Chemistry for the Grammar Stage this year. I have to admit that I was a bit worried since Chemistry is my favorite, I really wanted princess to love it as well. I happy to report that she has caught the Chemistry bug!

History: We are using Story of the World 3 this year (you can see our plans for this under the free stuff tab). I love this series! Every year I wonder if I have it in me to plan it all out again and I begin to look for something different. I always come back to SOTW and the AG because it's just that good. So far princess has really enjoyed this volume as well.

Electives: We are continuing on with Art Adventures at Home, our third year with it. This is a simple yet effective art curriculum and I can see the progress princess has made over the years. We also started the Usborne Book of the Recorder and finally music instruction is getting done! I'm trying to fit in artist composer studies, but with the addition of little man, it's just not getting done.

Well, that's how our year has been so far, thanks for reading and if you want to see what other homeschoolers are planning for 2010-2011, check this out.

Weekly Report-Last one of second grade!

We did it! We've finished the work I wanted to finish for second grade and with a few days to spare before the baby comes. Which is good because his birthdate was moved up to April 29th. Here's a run down of the last little bit of second grade...

LA: Princess finished reading The Corn Grows Ripe which she really enjoyed. We finished up to lesson 16 in Spelling Workout, we'll pick this back up again next year. We also took the final test for Writing With Ease. I'm very pleased with all that she learned this year in Writing with Ease and we'll incorporate some of the principles when we use Classical Writing next year.

Math: Princess spent the first part of the week in review. I gave her the 3A placement test, which she passed with flying colors, so onto 3B next year. Over our break, I'll have her work through the Miquon green book just to keep up her skills.

Science: We doubled up a few days and finished our earth science unit this week. Princess declared that science was her favorite subject this year, hope she'll enjoy chemistry just as much :).

Our other subjects were already finished for the year, so it was a relatively simple week for us. All in all we had a great year! I feel like we've found curriculums and teaching styles that work for us. I'm really proud of how princess is doing in school and look forward to starting third grade at the end of June! If you want to see our line up for third grade, just click on the curriculum tab at the top. Be sure to check out more weekly reports at the weekly wrap-up.

Weekly Report-Week 33

Truckin’ right along. We finished another week here and it went very well. It seems that princess works quite a bit harder when the end is in sight! Here’s what we accomplished…

Language Arts-Princess began reading The Corn Grows Ripe, this will be her last assigned book this year, so she’s trying to finish it ahead of schedule. We completed another week of Spelling Workout and Writing with Ease. I’m amazed at how much better princess is doing dictation. I’m thinking that next year we may blend Writing with Ease and Classical Writing Aesop.

Math-We finally finished the multiplication section with our x9 facts. We ended the unit with a game of Multiplication War, which princess really enjoyed! I’ll have to remember to suggest playing this later on. We only have one more unit left in 3A, so it looks like we will finish it before the baby comes.

Science-We spent the week studying fossils. Here’s a look at her narration sheet…

History-We finished Story of the World 2 this week! It was a good year, not as good as last year, but I think that’s partly due to the fact that I didn’t get the activity guide. Next week we’ll spend some time catching up on our timeline and looking back at what we learned this year.

Extras-We didn’t get to any of the extras this week.

That’s a look at our week, hope yours was good too!

Weekly Report-Week 30 & 31

We have been keeping up with school, but I haven't been as good about keeping up with this blog :). I forgot how draining the last few weeks of pregnancy can be; there's nothing like feeling as if you are a beached whale! Princess has been a great helper and is continuing to work very hard on school so that we can finish before our little guy makes his appearance. Here's what we have accomplished over the last two weeks...

Language Arts: Princess read a biography on William Shakespeare and an abridged version of Romeo and Juliet. She loved learning more about The Bard of Avon! We've kept up with Writing with Ease and Spelling Workout. Princess has also been doing more of her copywork in cursive. Her cursive is looking great (much better than her mom's :))!

Math: We've been working through her x 6, 7 and 8 facts as well as continuing to drill her other facts. She's doing a great job and we are very close to finishing her 3A textbook. I wasn't sure we would be able to do this before the baby came, so I'm very proud of her efforts in math!

Science: We've continued to look at different types of rock. We also made a lapbook on the types of rock which I hope to post more about later this week.

History: We studied Queen Elizabeth, William Shakespeare, Sir Walter Raleigh and the Lost Colony. Princess is loving history once again, of course this happens when we only have two chapters left :).

Other: Princess has continued her clay class; she has 3 more before she completes the first level of study. Our other extras have fallen by the wayside, but I hope to pick them up again next year.

Hope you've had a great week, thanks for reading about ours!

Weekly Report-Week 29

I'm a bit late getting our weekly report up due to the fact that hubby is out of town and I haven't had time or energy to write it before this! We did manage to get in an almost full week of school. Sorry about the lack of pictures, hubby took the camera with him. Here's the run down...

Language Arts: Princess read and Magic Schoolbus Chapter book on rocks. She loves these books. They are easy for her, but I figure she had earned a break. We read the Apprentice together this week, which we both thoroughly enjoyed. We also completed another week of Spelling Workout and Writing with Ease.

Math: We spent some time on x6 facts and some time on x7 facts. Princess doesn't have them memorized yet, but she does understand how to do the problems. I allow her to use her fact chart when she does her workbook exercises which is working quite well. We are still working on daily drill without the chart.

Science: We talked about sedimentary rock this week and we tested our seashells for the presence of limestone. Princess also got the DK Rocks and Minerals book this week which she has really enjoyed looking at. She can't read it yet, but the pictures in the book are beautiful and she's been fascinated. She now wants to be a geologist :).

History: We read about the Reformation and the Renaissance.

Others: Princess worked on typing and went to her clay class this week.

Education of Me: Didn't happen this week...

That was our week, I look forward to catching up on all of yours.

Weekly Report-Week 28

School went well this week for the most part. I’m a bit cranky as I’m getting to the “I’m always uncomfortable” stage of my pregnancy. Thankfully, princess have given me quite a bit of grace :). Here’s what we accomplished this week…

Language Arts: Princess read The Whipping Boy this week. On the second day of her reading she threw the book down and said “I’m not reading anymore because it’s not fair what’s happening”, then she promptly picked it up and read several more pages. I had to laugh, but I’m also so proud of her because she’s gotten to the point where she gets engrossed in the story instead of in the act of reading the book. Yeah, progress!! We also completed another week of Writing with Ease, First Language Lessons and Spelling Workout.

Math: We spent the week multiplying by 6. Princess has caught onto this quickly, but we still need to keep working on her facts. Thankfully we have a game on her DS to help with that!

Science: We spent the week studying rocks, specifically what rock is and how it can be formed. We did a fun, but simple experiment about lava involving a toothpaste tube! We squeezed the tube to have the pressure build up and then opened the cap a bit and wah lah!

Princess can’t stop talking about this one. Here a look at the experiment page we did for her notebook…
History: We talked about Martin Luther and Henry the VIII this week. Princess was enthralled with Henry the VIII, so much so that when we went to meet her dad for lunch the first thing out of her mouth was the poem about his wives (Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced beheaded survived). My hubby turned very quickly to me and said, what are you teaching her? I had a good laugh and then explained that we had read the poem in Story of the World that day. We all had a good laugh about it after that! I’m amazed at all the “informational pegs” that princess is picking up along the way.

Extras: We managed to get our artist composer study done this week. Princess also went to clay class this week and brought home this project…
I’m really amazed at what they are teaching her to do, it’s far beyond my ability!

Education of Me: I started Gulliver’s Travels this week and frankly, I’m bored. I’m going to keep plugging on and try to finish it, but I’ve taken it off our read-aloud list for next year. Maybe we’ll read it during the logic stage, but I’m guessing it’s going to get saved for high school.

Hope you had a wonderful week! Be sure to check out what others are doing over at the Weekly Wrap-up.

Weekly Report-Week 27

Only 8 more weeks to go, less than 60 days and I'll be holding our new little one! Seems hard to believe. I have to say that as the date loom closer I feel more pressure to finish school, but less motivation to do so. Even so, we did complete the week, except for our read-aloud which we should finish this weekend. Here's the rundown...

Language Arts: We completed another week of Spelling Workout and Writing with Ease. Plus we talked about interjections and conjunctions with First Language Lessons. Princess finished Shadrach, which she has declared to be the best book ever. We read three chapters in Secret of the Andes together, but we still need to read 3 more sometime this weekend.

Math: Princess did well this week with division in the hundreds and remainders. She showed alot more confidence about it this week than she did last week. I also discovered that one of her DS games drills math facts, so we have been much better about doing drill everyday this week.

Science: We talked about caves this week. We also started a really cool experiment that I hope will turn out. We are basically making our own stalactites and stalagmites. The only problem is that I couldn't find Epsom salts, so we used regular salt and I'm not sure it's going to turn out.

History: We studied that Mayans, Aztecs and Incas this week. All of which princess enjoyed because she likes to claim Peru as home :). (We lived there when she was three).

We also played the Battle for the Gold Game and I was really suprised that princess was able to answer each and every question correctly. Maybe she really is learning something...

Extras: I got princess to her clay class this week, but that was about all. She did a really neat project this week and I'm impressed with what she's learning. It's drying at the studio right now, so I'll try to post a picture of it next week.

Education of Me: I read 4 pages of MacBeth this week, that's all.

That was our week, how was yours?? Be sure to check out the Weekly Wrap-up.

Weekly Report-Week 26

Is it Friday again already? It was a good week for us, but it went by very fast for me. Here's a look at what we did...

Language Arts: Princess began reading Shadrach this week. She has fallen in love with this book and I suspect that she might try to finish it this weekend. We also completed 5 lessons in FLL, a full week of WWE and another lesson in Spelling Workout. We began reading The Secret of the Andes this week. Both of us are super excited about this book since it's set in Peru near where we used to live. When I read it, I can hear the panpipes playing and feel the breezes blowing through the valley. It's brought up some great memories!

Math: We spent some time on review this week, which princess did very well at. So we moved onto long division. This has proven to be alittle tough for princess. I think mainly because she doesn't have her facts down cold yet. The strange this is though that when she has a word problem that requires long division to solve it, she can do it without a problem, but if you give her the exact same problem by itself, she has a hard time with it. I'm not sure what to think about this, she obviously understands the concept, maybe it's a confidence issue?? Either way, we are going to pause when we finish the 3A book and spend some time reviewing the concepts she learned using Miquon, plus work on her mult/div facts before we move on.

Science: We studied habitats this week and made habitat fact posters, here's a look at them...

History: We spent the week studying the civilizations of Central and South America, such as the Mayans, the Aztecs and the Incas. Princess really enjoyed history this week and for that I'm grateful!

Extras: We looked at different types of wind instruments this week. Also princess went to clay class again this week, beyond that, it didn't get done.

Education of Me: I'm still plugging away at MacBeth.

Hope you had a great week, read about others at the Weekly Report.

Weekly Report-Week 25

We had another good week here, here's a look at what we did...

Language Arts: Princess read a book about Columbus, which she enjoyed. We completed two more lessons in Spelling Workout and one in Writing with Ease. We also squeezed in alittle First Language Lessons.

Math: We contiued to work on multiplying tens and hundreds this week and things went very well. Princess is gaining confidence in the multiplication department, so we ended the week with a test. She passed with flying colors, so I guess that means that she does get it after all :).

Science: We talked about oceans this week. The neat thing was that when we looked at the pages about life under the sea, princess was able to point out fish she had actually seen when she went snorkling with her Dad. I love those moments when life collides with learning and your child sees that what they are studying is really true! We also did an experiment on ocean currents. Here's a look at what happened when we added cold colored water to hot clear water...

Pretty cool, huh?

History: We continued to read Pedro's journal this week. Princess couldn't believe that Columbus though America was India. I explained to her that in those days they didn't have the maps we have now; on their maps they didn't have the Americas. She responded with, "Well why didn't Leif Ericson just tell them, he knew about it". I had to snicker a bit but seriously I'm glad that she's remembering things we have studied and making connections. We'll just have to work on the whole timeline aspect of it :).

Other: We actually got to some of the extras this week. We looked at a painting by Michaelangelo and listened to a concerto by Telemann. Princess declared that Telemann was much better than Scarletti and I have to say that I agree!

Education of Me: I managed to read two Acts of MacBeth this week. So far, I'm loving this play. I'll write more about it later.

Well, that's our week, hope you had a good one too! Read more at the Weekly Wrap Up.

Weekly Report-Week 24

I'm tired this week! I think that my body is trying to get ready for the baby, so I'm not sleeping all that long at night, which means I need a nap, which just perpetuates the cycle. Thankfully I plan at the beginning of the year, so for the most part I've just had to open my plan book and go! Here's what we did this week...

Language Arts: We completed two lessons in Spelling Workout this week. We also completed another week of First Language Lessons and Writing with Ease. Princess read a book about volcanoes this week. She very much enjoyed this book and I'm surprised how much she likes to read non-fiction.

Math: We took things slow this week, but we did get through the beginning of two digit multiplication. Princess understands how to do it, she just gets nervous because she doesn't know all her facts cold. So today we took the day off from bookwork and just played a game suggested in the Home Instructor's Guide. Both of us were surprised by how quickly she did her calculations. It was just another good reminder that games are an effective teaching tool. They build speed and confidence in a very sneaky way :).

Science: We began the week by erupting our volcano. I wrote a whole post about this below, but here's a picture of what it looked like as it was erupting...

Then for the rest of the week, we studied about mountains and glaciers.

History: We spent the first part of the week studying the Moghul empire and then we began reading about the explorers, such as Columbus. We have paused in our reading of SOTW so that we can read Pedro's Journal. So far princess loves this book!

Other: The only extras we go to this week was princess's clay class. Oh, well.

Education of Me: I didn't get any reading done this week. Hey, I was just happy to be able to stay up long enough to teach school and make lunch before crashing :).

Hope you had a great week, thanks for reading about ours! Be sure to check out other weekly reporters over at Kris's blog.

Weekly Report-Week 23

Keep on trucking seems to be the theme of our school this year. I keep expecting the burn out to hit or to hit a wall, but thankfully that hasn't happened yet. Here's what our week looked like...

Language Arts: Princess finished Mrs. Piggle Wiggle's Farm this week and I'm very proud of her because this book was a bit of a stretch for her. She did great though and only complained about the length of her assignments once. Our switch to First Language Lessons and Spelling Workout is going great and I'm pleased with the decision to make the change. We also completed another week of Writing with Ease.

Math: We continued to work on multiplication and introduced multiplication within the tens and hundreds. At this point she's just doing problems like 600 x 2, but I can see that she's frustrated because she doesn't know her facts down cold. For the time being we are going to keep moving forward, but we'll see how things go next week.

Science: This week we talked about tornadoes and volcanoes. Here's our tornado...

We also made our volcano out of salt dough, which is currently drying. Next week we'll explode it, which is the part princess is really looking forward to.

History: We talked about Spain and Portugal during the Middle Ages and we also looked at the African kingdoms of Ghana and Mali. We continued to work on our mapwork, coloring pages and narrations. Her notebook is really looking great!

Other: Here's the one part of school that doesn't get done as much as I would like, but I guess that's bound to happen. Princess is continuing to go to clay class. Here's a look at some of the projects she has made so far...

Education of Me: I started to read MacBeth this week. I haven't finished all that I wanted to because of all the other things that needed to be done this week, but so far I like it. But then again I love Shakespeare so I'm not surprised.

Thanks for reading about our week, if you want to read about others, go check out the weekly report over at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Weekly Report-Week 20-22

We've been busy here with friends visiting from the states and conferences to attend. Then we got back to find out that my Nana had passed away. We have managed to keep up with school, but I haven't been so good about keeping up with the blog :). Here's a look at what we've been up to...

Language Arts: Princess is doing great with reading so I have been steadily increasing her requirements. There's been a few times where she has balked, but on the whole she has risen to the challenge. We have continued to work on Writing with Ease and that is going well. We've also added back in First Language Lessons, which is much easy for me to keep up with. Good English was taking too much preparation on my part, so even though I think that it's a great foundation, it had to go in favor of what I know will get done. We've also switched to using Spelling Workout instead of Dictation Day by Day. Again my reason for this is purely because I don't have the time to prepare it properly and it wasn't getting done. We also read Kildee House together. Frankly I thought this book was boring to read aloud, but princess loved it.

Math: We wrapped up our review of addition and subtraction and entered the world of multiplication and division. We also spent some time working on making bar graph models of our word problems. It was alittle rough going for a few days, but princess seems to have gotten a handle on the models, she just doesn't want to write them out :).

Science: We've talked about storms and earthquakes and several other things that escape me at the movement. Mostly we are looking forward to next week when we'll make our own volcano!

History: We've continued to work through Story of the World and we are enjoying it. I really wish that I had ordered the activity guide this year, but alas I didn't. Next year though, I've already got it waiting.

Other: We've kept up with our artist composer studies and we've started to look at the abridged version of Hamlet.

Education of Me: I'm mostly finished with The Chaucer Storybook and so far I have enjoyed it. It should be a perfect choice for us in the logic stage.

Well, that's what we've been up to the last several weeks. Now if I could just get the baby off my sciatic nerve, things would be alot better :). Hope you've had a great January!

Weekly Report-Week 19

Back to the grind again! We are keeping at school so that we can finish second grade by the time the baby comes. So here’s what our week looked like…

Language Arts: Princess read about Marco Polo, which she absolutely loved! I was surprised how much she got into reading a biography, good thing I’ve planned some more for this year and next. We completed another week of Writing with Ease. We also add First Language Lessons back in. So far it has been far more successful this time around. We also started a verb lapbook as princess has been asking to do more lapbooks. Math: We continued working on subtraction within 10,000. We also began work on two step word problems and how to draw a basic bar diagram to solve them. It went well, but we’ll see for sure when she has her test on Monday :).

Science: We completed our first week of Earth Science, most of which was review from our Astronomy unit. Here’s a look at her notebook page… We also attempted to make a paper mache globe, but I don’t think it’s going to turn out, as our balloon started to shrink before our paper was dry.

History: We talked about Marco Polo and his exploration of China. Princess found it all very fascinated, so now I’m really looking forward to studying Columbus with her!

Others: We started studying Leonardo DaVinci’s paintings this week and we started listening to Scarlatti as our composer. Princess also started a Clay art class which she is really enjoying. I’ll try to get a picture of what she’s doing for next week.

Education of Me: I began reading The Chaucer Storybook and so far I like it, but I haven’t got very far. Hopefully I’ll be able to read more next week!

Hope you had a great week, thanks for reading about ours.

Weekly Report-Week 18

Well, we finished Week 18 of school today, just in time for Christmas Eve. I will never again school this close to Christmas! Princess had present fever all this week and she found it very hard to focus on learning. We also took a long weekend to do visa paperwork and stop off at one of the places I have wanted to visit for a very long time, Angor Wat. It's one of the benefits of living in Asia, you're close to alot of the ancient wonders of the world :).
All things considered I'm shocked we actually completed another week of school. Gotta keep on schedule though so that we can be done (or at least close to done) before the baby comes. Which is approaching faster and faster! Here's what we did accomplish over the last week and a half...


Language Arts: Princess read an abridged version of Robin Hood while we read Ann McGovern's version aloud together. We also completed another week of Writing with Ease. Princess still doesn't like dictation, but she is tolerating it better and I'm glad that I stuck to the plan on this one.


Math: We started the week studying subtraction within 10,000 and it went well until present fever hit. So we ended the week by playing math games.


History: We read about the Jews and the Diaspora. We also read about Genghis Khan and the Mongol empire.


Science: We finished our astronomy unit this week by reading a biography on Neil Armstrong. We also did a review quiz and I was surprised that princess knew the order/names of the planets right of the bat. I'm really pleased with how much she retained from our astronomy study especially considering we weren't able to get to half of the experiments.


Other: We completed our study of Sandro Boticelli and Antonio Vivaldi this week. We also watched the BBC animated version of The Merchant of Venice. Finally, thanks to a very special friend sending use some glitter pens, we made some Christmas ornaments.


Education of Me: I've almost finished Stories from Dante and we will definately be reading this in several weeks. It's totally appropriate for this stage, so we'll have to find something different for the logic stage.


Thanks for reading about our week. Hope that you and yours have a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends!

Weekly Report-Week 17

This was a tough week for me, as I was sick for most of it. When they say that if your pregnant it will take you twice as long to get over a cold or the flu, they mean it. Luckily princess knows our routine and she can do some of her work independently. I was able to give an assignment and then lay back down in bed while she completed it. Gotta love homeschooling! Thankfully after much rest I actually started to feel human again by the end of the week. Here's a look at what we accomplished this week...

Language Arts: Princess read A Minstrel in the Tower and we finished reading A Door in the Wall together. She completed another week of Writing with Ease and spelling.

Math: We continued to work on numbers within 10,000. Princess had a test this week which she passed without a problem, so we moved onto adding thousands. So far, so good.

Science: We read about astronauts this week and she did her narrations. We also managed to complete our experiment for the week on Friday. We learned all about the importance of insulators in the spacesuit which was fun!

History: We talked about Richard the Lionhearted, Jack Lackland, the Magna Carta and the legend of Robin Hood. We will start working on memorizing the first paragraph of the Magna Carta probably sometime after Christmas.

Other: We did get to our Artist/Composer studies this week. We also combined our art project on stencils with our history project of making a Crusaders Flag. We cut out a cross stencil and them painted red all around it, here's the result..

Education of Me: I was able to get some reading in this week. I started reading Stories from Dante by Mary McGregor and I'm impressed. There was a great, but brief bio of Dante and how he came to write the poem. It was a great introduction. The author has written such a readable version of Dante's Divine Comedy that I think we are going to fit this into our read-aloud schedule for this year rather than waiting.

Well that's what we accomplished this week, thanks for reading about it!

Weekly Report-Week 15

We ended up doing a full week of school, despite the Thanksgiving holiday. They don't celebrate the holiday here, so it made it easy :)! Here's a look at what we did...

Language Arts: Princess finished reading an abridged version of Black Beauty. She decided in that end she really liked the book, for which I am grateful! Once again she's seen the value of finishing a book and not giving up on it too early. A skill I'm sure she'll use throughout her life. We also finished another week of Writing with Ease which went much better this week.

Math: We began 3A this week, our topic was numbers within 1000 this week. It went well, so we'll keep on going!

Science: We continued to study constellations and thier stories again this week. We been using a book that my mother-in-law gave me awhile back called Heavenly Zoo. It tells the stories behind the animal constellations in the sky. It such a good book, but unfortunately it's out of print. If you find this book at your library, I really recommend it, princess loved it and learned quite a bit!

History: We talked about knights and samurai's this week. We made our own coat of arms, which I'll post more about later, for now, here's a picture of hers...

Other: We studied another of Boticelli's paintings and we listened to more of Vivaldi's Four Seasons Concerto. We also read more of a children's version of Merchant of Venice. For art this week, we made some Thanksgiving crafts.

Education of Me: Still plugging away at Piers Plowman. (I got a bit distracted by Squanto and Johnny Tremain this week!). Maybe this weekend :).

Thanks for reading about our week, hope you had a great week too!

Weekly Report-Week 14

Ok, I'm alittle late in writing this, but by the time this weekend got here, I just crashed. I forgot how much fun it is to be pregnant (said with quite a bit of sarcasm). Be sure to check out others at the Weekly Wrap-up. We had a great week of school though, here's what we did...

Language Arts: Princess finished reading Viking Adventures and we started reading Castle Diary together. She continued to practice her cursive and phonics. However, we had a melt down over writing this week though. Princess felt that the dictation was too hard. Which lead into a nice discussion about how school is going to be challenging, that's how we learn. We disscussed the reasons I want her to learn dictation and how it will help her in the future. After she understood the purpose, she was willing to give it another go. We adjusted the way we are doing dictation to challenge her, but to still give her the confidence that she can do it. Let's hope that next week goes better.

Math: Princess passed her final exam for 2B this week! Some of the things she missed I wasn't completely surprised as we are working on them already. Others I was really surprised as they were things that I knew she had down cold. I'm thinking that she just got anxious because it was a test. So now I'm looking at adding a few more tests in to reduce her anxiety over them. If you've got a better suggestion, please leave a comment! I just don't want to send her off to college dreading having to take a test. I realize that we've got plenty of time before that, I'm just trying to be proactive :).

Science: We began studying constellations this week. The plan was to make a shoebox planetarium, but since I don't have a shoebox or index cards or a flashlight, we decided to make a book about them instead! Here's a look at that...

History: We started talking about medieval England this week. We learned all about nobles, serfs and castles. We made our own model of a castle, here's a picture, but you can also read more about it below.

All and all it was a great week for history!

Other: We completed our artist and composer studies this week. Our composer right now is Vivaldi and we have been having alot of fun listening to his Four Seasons Concerto. We also began reading Lamb's Tales version of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. So far, so good and I'm really glad that we are back to our Shakespeare studies! We didn't do art this week because I figured that our castle project was enough :).

Education of Me: I haven't been the best about keeping up with my reading this week, my brain just hasn't been able to handle it. Maybe next week will be better.

Hope you had a great week, thanks for reading about ours!

Weekly Report-Week 13

I'm acutally writing this on a Friday night (it's 8pm here), amazing! We had a tough beginning healthwise to our week, but a decent ending, so no complaints. Here's a look at what we did...

Language Arts: Princess read half of Viking Adventure this week. I had to crack up because I asked her to tell me what she read about, she claimed she didn't remember any of it. So I asked her what happened to Sigurd and she launched into a five minute summary of what she read about. I guess that it's all about asking the right questions :). We also read Viking Tales together and she completed another week of Writing with Ease.

Math: We spent part of the week on review and the other part on geometry and area. Princess is flying through the end of this book. I suspect that we will get to the final test by the end of the week, then onto the next one.

Science: We learned all about stars this week, thier life cycles and about galaxies. We also actually did our experiment this week. Lately I haven't been the best about getting those done, but I'm going to give myself a pass on it given how things have been lately.

History: We continued studying the Vikings and made our own paper Viking longship. Princess was upset that it didn't have a flat bottom since all Viking ships had flat bottoms, oh well, here's a look at the finished product...

We also talked about Alfred the Great and William the Conqueror this week.

Other: We completed our artist/composer studies and we did an art project this week. I'm telling you, I was on top of it this week! We finished the week off with a trip to the local snake farm. The principal declared a field trip day today because it's probably the last day he'll feel normal in awhile. He's got to take some nasty meds to get rid of a digestive pest that just wants to hang on. While we were there we got to see a demonstration of snake milking.

I can't believe how those guys handled the snakes, I would have been freaking out!

Education of Me: I am continuing to work my way through Piers Plowman and enjoying it. I'm thinking that it's going to take me another week and half to finish it and then I'll try my hand at writing a review.

Hope that you had a great week also! You can read about others at the Weekly Wrap-up.

Weekly Report

We had another good week here. I'm constantly amazed at the flexibility of homeschool! All the things that we have been through in the last two months and yet my daughter is still getting an education. I am truly blessed to be able to homeschool. Ok, off my soapbox, here's a look at our week...

Language Arts: Princess read Eric the Red and Leif the Lucky this week. The first day she looked at me after she was done reading and told me she didn't understand a thing she read. So we went back and team read it, explaining the words she didn't understand as we went along. The book had alot of new vocabulary for her! The rest of the week she was able to complete her reading on her own. She was pretty proud of herself when she finished the book! I knew that the book would be a challenge for her, but I had no idea how she would handle it. I'm pretty proud of her too!

Math: Princess breezed through the remaining graphs and then we started to work on the geometry section. She is loving the last half of this book, but she is also excited to finish it :).

Science: We studied asteroids, meteors and comets this week. We also made a lapbook about our solar system. I'll try to post more detail about that later this week, but for now, here's a picture from the inside of it...

History: We started learning about the Vikings! Princess is quite interested in this because she actually has some Viking blood in her. We mainly talked about Eric the Red and Leif the Lucky, but we also discussed some of the Norse gods.

Other: We completed an art project and our artist/composer studies this week. However the highlight of the week was at a park we went to Friday. We happened to run into a bit of nature that gave me quite a fright...

I thought this big guy was a Komono Dragon, but it turns out that it's a monitor lizard. They are actually quite common in the parks around Bangkok, a fact I never knew about! Maybe we need to start up our formal nature study times again :).

Education of Me: I have continued to read Piers Plowman. I'm really surprised how much I am enjoying this book. It's a well written allegory and it's definately going to be on our list to read in the future.

Hope you had a great week, visit here to read other weekly reports at the Weekly Wrap-up.