Week 6 update

Well, time has gone by so quickly.  We had a small break in the schedule but have had some really wonderful learning in the last several weeks.  The girls in 6th grade have been surprising me with their ability to do their work more independently.  I can remember a couple of years ago when I had to read everything with/to them and now they are reading most of their books on their own.  I still have them read aloud to me at times, or I read to them, just because I love to learn with them!  I have also seen an increase in their ability to focus on their written work.  Sarah used to be so distractable during any kind of writing.  Now she is learning to ignore some of the other noise around and get it done in a timely fashion.  On the other hand, Hannah has learned to slow down a bit and do it better instead of faster!  We have continued to find our study of WWII to be so interesting.  I am only able to give them a tenth of what I have been learning because they are still so young.  I look forward to a few years from now when we will revisit it with a more complete view. 


Mary is enjoying 3rd grade and also growing in her independence though we still read nearly everything together, but she is doing more reading as I do more listening.  We are fully immersed now in multiplication and division facts and I am anxiously awaiting the moment when it finally makes sense to her!  It seems that my girls each have a time of sort of knowing these math functions, but they struggle and confuse them.  We are working slowly and I know she will master them like her sisters when she is ready. 


We also went back to the pool for the first time since we went out of town in August.  The girls loved it especially when they met a homeschool family that was very friendly.  I was actually shopping while Memaw swam with the girls, but evidently the mom, Gwen, and her family used to live on the same street as our church.  She had one of our band's cds (she heard us play at Due South)  and was somewhat familiar with our family.  We are looking forward to a play date with them in a couple of weeks.  They are traveling for a week.  The oldest daughter is Hannah's age and she promised to send a postcard from there.


So here are some highlights of school.


Bible - We are loving this book! http://www.amazon.com/Princess-Adelina-Ancient-Christian-Bravery/dp/1934554332  My girls cry for more every time I stop reading.  My girls are used to the older English language since we have read books like this since they were little and use NKJ or NASU Bibles, but still, if the reader can understand the reading they can make it understandable for young children. 


History - Mary is enthralled with learning about the Kings and Queens of England.  I love this period because we get to study several who were protestant and how they helped the cause of reformation!  Mary kept repeating a rhyme we both just learned about King Henry VIII's wives: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.  She loved looking at the portraits and learning a bit about each wife.  Needless to say there has been a revival in her appreciation for all things princess between the book for Bible and these history stories. 


Science - We finished our unit on the weather and are enjoying our new unit on animals.  Lots of the animals that we saw at the aquarium in Gaitlinburg are coming up in our discussions! :)


Math - The big girls just learned about negative numbers and plotting points on a four quadrant graph.  I love math!  They are nearly finished with Saxon 65 and next week will start Saxon 76. 


Art - we finished studying our artist for the term and will now be doing some drawing lessons again.


Music - we are listening to Aaron Copeland and are enjoying his compositions.  The girls are also practicing the piano regularly and asking for more help to read the notes in the hymnal.  Sarah is trying to learn to sing alto with me! :)


Foreign Language - Spanish continues to be a favorite! In the store today, Lydia was singing the hello song as she rode up and down the aisles!   Greek and Latin are also going along nicely!


Literature -  Hannah and Sarah (Mary listened in too) finished Where the Red Fern Grows and we all cried through the end.  I waited about a week and then offered to show them the movie on Netflix.  We all cried again!  Mary begged to skip the movie when she is in year 6.  She thinks she can handle reading the book again though.  Now the girls are reading Snow Treasure (set in Norway in WWII) and Sarah said it is one of the most exciting books we have read!  I think she will also like Number the Stars when she reads it!  Mary has been listening to Men of Iron by Howard Pyle and loves it.  This seems like such a boys book with all the talk of fighting and learning to be a knight, but Pyle does such a wonderful job of showing the relationships between the boys that all my girls have loved it!  Yes, more on the castles and princes theme! :)


Handicrafts - For the princess room the younger girls worked on making knots and placing beads on yarn.  The object was to make a bead curtain to dress up the doorway of their princess room.  In the next few weeks we hope to do some sewing to adorn the room.  The bigger girls have a rainforest/ tropical theme and continue to paint, cut and hang all sorts of decorations.  They are also working on some plastic canvas projects for Christmas.  Never to early to start on Christmas! ;)


It has been a blessed several weeks.  Looking foward to the next three!

Week 1-3

I want to try to document a little more about our school activities and studies.  Again, this will be fun to look back at and it helps me notice what the girls found really important and interesting.

All Grades
Bible - We are reading through 1 Kings.  The girls have learned about King Solomon and his gift of wisdom.  We have also been noticing the out pouring of blessing and prosperity that God granted him.  We were talking about all the blessings that we have especially compared to other nations and are trying to pray more for the poor and needy.  We have been amazed at the detailed description of the Temple and how grand it all was.  We are also reading God's Smuggler as a read aloud during family worship and are enjoying it so far.  It has been hard to read some of the sufferings of this man during WWII and afterwards when he served in a war for Holland and loss the use of one of his legs, but we rejoice as he is learning to seek after God.  Can't wait so see how he becomes a smuggler for God???? LOL

Foreign Language - We are still loving the Salsa videos and we are also using another curriculum I found on sale.  It has songs for learning phrases and vocabulary.  This week we have been learning the names of many of our favorite foods.  Also, Lydia got a free book from the library and she chose one teaching Spanish.  Greek and Latin are going along fine too.

Science - We are studing weather and climate right now.  The girls love to watch Storm Stories or any weather videos on tornadoes and such.  We found a really neat video on a storm chaser who has slowed down the photography of lightning and were amazed at what we saw.  When the naked eye sees lightning we think it is coming down, but we are actually seeing the return strike.  Check out the video here:  http://videos.howstuffworks.com/discovery/406-discovery-wonders-of-weather-lightning-phenomena-video.htm
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/science/earth-sci/climate-weather-sci.html  Here is another one that is really good especially starting at 5:00min in showing the initial and the return stroke!
We are using the Rod and Staff book to lead our study and I am so thankful to use a science curriculum which always reminds us of God and His Word in our study of His world!

Artist  - We are studying Norman Rockwell this term (12 weeks) and the girls are really enjoying the autobiography with so many of his pictures.  Hannah has been trying her hand at drawing more sketches of people and the younger girls are detectives studying all the interesting details of the paintings. 

Music - We are listening to the music of Aaron Copeland and really enjoyed Appalachian Spring.  The girls are also making more time for piano practice.  I am trying to sit down at least once a week and work with them on technique and skills, but they are spending lots of time playing the songs.  Hannah and Sarah are really catching on with reading the notes.

Spelling/Vocabulary - The girls are still using the Wordly Wise books.  On the first day they copy the words and definitions.  On the second day, they write the words in sentences to show meaning.  On the third day they play games with the words on a sight called Spelling City.  The fourth day is a crossword quiz.  Test day is the final day of the week and they right the words and definitions. 

Typing - The girls are using an online free program to learn to type!  So far they are enjoying it.  Hopefully soon they will be able to email or type paragraphs for their typing practice!

History - Mary is enjoying reading about Marco Polo and finding the places on the map.  We are also beginning US history this week! 
              Hannah and Sarah studied FDR today and we all learned many interesting facts.  I had been talking to them about our economy and the great depression of the 30's last week.  We were talking about the deficit of America and how it may lead us to have another Great Depression.  I didn't realize that the American government had never had a deficit until the second term of FDR after the GD was over.  Also he was the one who started Social Security which obviously wasn't such a great idea afterall! I was amazed to find out that at one time the taxes on anyone making $50,000 or more were 75%.  I drew a pie chart to show how much would go to the government and how much the person could keep.  My girls both were amazed at this robbery!

Math - Hannah and Sarah are continuing on in Saxon 65.  We have ten more lessons to go before we start Saxon 76.  We have a DVD for that so I will be interested to see how that goes. 
Mary is finishing up various 2nd grade math sheets I had in various workbooks.  She is still working on learning her multiplication facts.  Slowly, but surely!

Literature - The girls are enjoying some great stories right now.  Mary is reading Caddie Woodlawn, which is very similar to the Little House books.  She is also listening to Men of Iron by Howard Pyle.  I am pleased she is enjoying it as well.  Hannah and Sarah are reading about Aristides, a Greek leader and will start reading Shakespear's The Merchant of Venice (in story form) next week.  They also beg for our nightly installment of Where the Red Fern Grows, which is a childhood favorite of mine.  They could read it themselves but they beg me to do it, and I don't mind because I love that book! :)  I earned our copy by using Swagbucks and cashing in for a Amazon gift card!  I love getting school books for free! ;)

Lydia is enjoying studying with us as much as possible. She also loves her Starfall program and playing games with Memaw.  She is really loving checkers right now!  She has not pushed to do lots of writing lately so I am letting her slow down a bit.  It has been wonderful to see all she is learning just being around us during school.

Well, I will try to make this more interesting in  future posts with samples of work hopefully.  :)