WEEKLY REPORT - WEEK 5 - October 4-8, 2010


Week 5 I had to have my prenatal appointment in the middle of the week, but Husband came to the rescue! He not only watched the kids for me while I went, but taught them as well. I left detailed instructions. My due diligence in planning out lessons and experience the previous month have helped me to be basically open and go when it comes to my little homeschool. I'm very proud of the fact that Husband was able to pick up where I left off. Son liked it very much, and of course, as Dad is a novelty, he told me he preferred Dad to me as teacher. Oh well :)


ENGLISH
Lesson 7 in PLL was memorization, which Son somehow managed, but not as thoroughly as I'd like. He has many selections to memorize as it is. He would need to repeat it many times, and not just during the three times a week we have the lessons.


PHONICS
Reviewing Tanglewood Phonics, we covered ang, ong, ing and "qu" sounds. I emphasize to Son that knowing the sounds help in Spelling as well.


READING
Son really enjoys Tales of King Arthur, and I'm right there with him. I've never read the stories before, so I'm equally surprised and fascinated. I really do try not to read ahead. His vocabulary is increasing, and his ability in reading aloud is improving, too. We also discuss, and I geto to assess reading comprehension, all on the comfort of our couch.


LITERATURE
Pinocchio is such a rascal! He keeps not listening and getting in trouble. When will he learn? Very interesting book, and many life lessons revisited for me and hopefully absorbed by Son. There's plenty of material to discuss. Since there are so many chapters, I don't anticipate finishing this book until almost the end of the following six-week period, especially if we have a few historical fiction thrown in for good measure.


HISTORY
This week we covered chapter 5, which involved the Gupta Dynasty. We learned about Chandragupta, and what a dynasty is (a family who rules one region for many years).

SPANISH We continue studying numbers, where he counts and reads the numbers. He also practiced on his Muzzy computer interactive game.

NATURAL SCIENCE BFSU's Seasonal Changes and the Earth's Orbit was our topic for this week. Since we don't have a globe yet, Husband made a makeshift globe out of a balloon, and did the activity with Son and Daughter illustrating the months of the year and how rotation affects the seasons and temperature.

ART Children continued practicing with lines. This week Son and Daughter copied apples and other shapes, using Drawing with Children's templates.

MUSIC
Peter Tchaikovsky's biography keeps on moving along with him being very sensitive and going to law school solely because his parents want him to. His true love is music, however.

POETRY Son memorized "Wild Swans". We also discussed it so he was clear on its meaning. Edna St. Vincent Millay certainly has a knack for elevating the most mundane activities into art.

GEOGRAPHY We learned about keys and legends of maps in Maps and Mapping. Son already knew a little about this since he was used to helping us read maps at theme parks and doing the map activities in SOTW during History.

HEALTH & SAFETY This week Husband explained to him the importance of first aid and how to clean and dress a wound.

COPYWORK Copywork consisted of lines of poems and a thank you card to our Aunt Chris.