Weekly Accomplishments 3/7 - 3/11

~What we are Reading~

Me: Chelsea, Chelsea Bang Bang and re-reading TWTM

Bear: Demon in the Freezer, The Great Divorce, Animal Underground

Noodle: The Mouse and the Motorcycle on CD

Reading Aloud this week from:  The Farewell Symphony and The Matchlock Gun

Monday

Noodle starts each day updating our calendar and our Days in School chart.

This morning we started with our CLE LA - a lesson that didn't get finished on Friday - and then today's lesson.  Today was contractions - do not;don't, can not;can't. 

After CLE we did history.  We started talking about slaves in the colonies and we read a lot of Daily Life on a Southern Plantation. We looked over an artist's rendition of what a plantation may look like, the layout etc.  In discussing slavery, I just laid out some information without voicing my thoughts or judgements because I wanted to see what his comments would be.  After a few minutes he said, "That is very mean."  Proud moment for me - even though it should be obvious - as a mom of boys, I just never know what they may say.  He got it.  At his age (7) we probably won't go too much deeper, but he gets the jist of what was happening.

Then we moved on to read The Farewell Symphony and completed the TOG SAP (Student Activity Page) for it. 

Afterwards we found a YouTube video for Haydn's Symphony 45.



For Art- yes we did Art - we first read about how pieces of paper were hard to come by in the Colonies so every piece was saved and used.  Noodle then did a very messy Decoupage (day-koo-paj) on a box.

After Art we had lunch and then moved on to Math.  I introduced a new game today, called Place Value War.  Noodle loved it and we played 4 rounds!  Basically on each turn, each player gets four number cards and then has to make the largest 4 digit number possible.  Whoever has the highest number gets to keep the number cards.  When all the cards are gone, whoever has the most wins.  It was great because we haven't done numbers in the thousands yet, but he picked up how to read them right away!  He still gets confused a little when there are zeros in the ones and tens place, but mostly he gets it.  After that we just did our regular Abeka lesson - speed drill, review and lesson.

Next, he wanted to do science.  We read about Crocodiles, Turtles and Frogs.  Then he completed his narration pages and drew pictures of today's three animals.  We didn't do the experiment because it was a little babyish for him.  To finish off science he read along with/listened to one of the DK Audio Books called Animal Groups.  I love when these cover something we have been talking about. 

After Science he did ETC and the reading lesson from OPGTR. 

Wednesday

Noodle did school at Grandma's because I had errands to run.  The little stinker got all his work done in record time!!!!  I think I may send him to Grandma's for school more often!

Thursday 

 We had Co-op in the morning.  After co-op we did CLE LA and OPGTR and called it day.  We had lots of chores to do because we were having company in the evening.

Friday

We babysat this morning for a homeschool friend.  Noodle and she did handwriting and math together and then played the rest of the morning.  After she left he completed Explode the Code, a CLE LA Quiz and his OPGTR lesson.  Lots of other stuff going on so we called it a day.

I always feel like I neglect Bear on our blog, but he is in high school and doesn't do as much of the "fun" stuff that Noodle gets to do.  His days are fairly routine. 

He is wrapping up Module 9 on his Apologia Physical Science and just needs to take the test Monday.

We are studying the French and Indian War for History and beginning to learn about George Washington, William Pitt, James Wolfe and Sir Edward Hawke - and their courage.  He did some more reading in A Patriot's History of the United States.  He read a lengthy article on World Book Encyclopedia, about George Washington and then wrote up an essay about him.  I ordered The Last of the Mohicans from Netflix - so we will be watching that soon.  We are watching the movie over reading the book because after the first 4 chapters Bear begged me to let him quit.  He hated the writing style and I don't have the time to read it aloud and discuss with him - so we will watch the movie.   It's not the best choice, but it is better than nothing.  I allowed him to drop it because I can count on one hand how many times he has asked to quit a book.

For Literature this week we covered some literary terms and discussed Denotation and Connotation.  I read The Pit and the Pendulum aloud to him.  He didn't care for it - he has been despising most things fiction lately.  He wants to deal in facts and facts only.  As an avid reader and lover of literature, this depresses me!  I asked him how he could not like this story.  It is scary, suspenseful and has so much descriptive language and imagery!  I am thinking of calling the hospital where he was born just to make sure babies weren't switched.  Seriously, if he denounces chocolate next then I will KNOW something is up!

He did a CLE grammar lesson daily and continues with Wordly Wise 3000 for Vocabulary.  He wrote an essay about our dogs and a character analysis paper for a character in a book he finished recently.

For Health he did some reading, comprehension exercises and a quiz.

No Philosophy or Logic this week.

Algebra- the usual.  He met with his tutor.

He continued working on his research paper, which is an assignment from one of his co-op classes.  He is writing a comparison - pros/cons of zoos paper.  It is due April 28th.

That's all folks!!