Weekly Reports 10/3 - 10/7

Be sure to check out what other homeschoolers did this week, at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.  Also, link up your own weekly report!


First of all, Praise the Lord for the little bit of rain we have been receiving here in Central Texas!!!  It isn't enough to end the drought, but it's certainly better than nothing.  I won't even complain about how the dogs bring mud in the house - that's how bad we need rain.

This week we have made some deliberate changes to how we do things.  If you are a regular reader then you know last week we rearranged the school room slightly to separate dueling siblings.  Well this week we had a little family meeting and we came up with some house rules - together- and we wrote them down on poster paper to hang in the classroom.  Among the rules are: No intentional aggravation of each other - as well as - Mind your own business.  We decided to work as a team to help each other.  Also, on the rules list are: If you see a mess, pick it up (as opposed to walking by it!) and adopted from the Scouts - Do a good turn daily.  In other words, do something nice without being asked.  So far, it has really helped our week run smoothly.

Noodle decided he wanted to do dishes, which is normally Bear's job.  Here he is, and doing a great job I might add.  He did it CHEERFULLY - something his brother never does.  The next day, Bear beat him to it and he actually cried and started having a fit. I told him he could do them next time.  I also told him that when his brother leaves for college and is no longer around to share the job, he will be crying about the dishes for an entirely different reason!

In other news, Operation Rat Breeding was moved to the garage now that the weather has cooled off.  (Cooled off to below 95 each day!)  It couldn't have been soon enough. Those little guys are REALLY NOISY at night.  One even escaped the other night and Bear had to chase it around the room several minutes before he caught him.  That's the last thing I need, a loose rat in the house!!

 School News:

Noodle

Language Arts:  I was diligent this week about doing WWE! I really like it.  Here is Noodle doing the copy work assignment for this week.

This is his dictation exercise.  Obviously, I don't help him with spelling.  I am purposefully doing that because all this time I have been assigning him copy work, I realized that it does nothing to tell me about his spelling skills.  Oops.  At this point I am not too worried, since we just started "formal" spelling with CLE anyway.  Plus, it gives me cute photos to look back on!

He only has two more lessons in CLE LA Book 106.  We are moving right along!  Additionally, he is almost finished with Explode the Code Book 4 too.  We did a few more lessons from First Language Lessons as well.  I really like the gentleness and the mostly verbal aspect of FLL.  Last, but not least, he completed a few more lessons from The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading.

On the reading front, I am excited to say that Noodle's interest in reading rises when his skills rise.  In addition to OPGTR, he has been reading aloud to me from the Pathways Reader.  He loves the story, which makes me happy because it is a sweet, innocent story, unlike the kind we see on cartoons.  Further, he has been attempting to read other books that he usually wants me to read to him.  Last night I was looking for him and this is what I found.....

He was in the dark classroom, sitting on the floor, reading by desk lamp light that he plugged in under his desk.

How cute is that?  I almost cried. 

Bible:  We started a new Bible curriculum this week. I purchased the 2nd grade program from Positive Action for Christ.  We did the first lesson and he took the quiz.

This is Noodle's memory verse this week, taken from A Reason For Handwriting Book A.

History:  All we did for history this week was a little reading from Story of the World Volume 3 and from America in the Time of Lewis and Clark.  Plus a few more episodes of Liberty's Kids.  I have a couple of things planned for history, that we just haven't done yet. We seem to go in spurts.  When we do history, we manage to cover a lot in a short time.  We are just about to start TOG Week 4 from Year 3, so things will pick up. 

Science:  We did our last lesson on the Human Body this week.  We read about the Immune System, allergies and what is in food.  Noodle did the Elemental Science narration page and filed it in his science notebook.  Next up, PLANTS! I expect to spend about 2 weeks on plants, if I can keep my act together.  After that we will move on to RSO: Earth and Space, combined with Apologia Astronomy. Noodle can't wait to study space!!

Math:  Nothing new, just a speed drill and a lesson each day. 

Latin:  Latin time this week was just spent reviewing words and singing along with the songs.  I have to say, I really like Song School Latin. We didn't get around to playing the Latin Monkey Match game this week, but I am sure Noodle will remember it exists, any day now.

Bear

Algebra:  We are ramping it up to two lessons a day so he can finish by Christmas and move on to Geometry.  His tutor is going to have a baby any day now, so I am nervous about him going without face to face help for a while.  He started watching some Khan Academy videos, so they may be helpful during that time.

Russian:  He loves it.  He found a forum online where he can interact with Russian speakers.  Also, he started doing this........

Labeling things around the house..........

Everyday, he listens to the audio and works through exercises in the text.  He also is driving me crazy every day by talking about going to Russia on a Foreign Exchange program.  We are awaiting information from AFS and will be doing an online info session next week.  It costs $10,000 so we are obviously going to have to look in to scholarship opportunities.  I think it would be a great and exciting opportunity. He would only do the one semester program (5 months) but that is still a long time!  He says, "But we'll have Facebook, cell phones and Skype!"  This is the kid who texts and calls every night he is away camping, checking on us.  Who knows though, maybe God would place him with a Christian family in Russia??  I am going to keep praying about it and we will take the steps to get information and then after a family discussion, we'll decide on applying or not.

Biology:  He continued with his lessons from Exploring Creation Through Biology and the Miller/Levine Biology book.  If not for the AP Biology test next year and his need to score well, I wouldn't be using this Miller/Levine book. I am annoyed by it for obvious reasons.  Also, call me ignorant or closed minded but I don't understand him and others who claim a belief in God, but deny God's power by saying he had nothing to do with evolution, but evolution is how we got here. There seems to be a disconnect.  But, whatever, it doesn't matter I suppose.  I don't care if Bear wants to believe evolution, but I'd prefer he believe in God along with it!  I know for many out there that seems ridiculous too, but knowing Christ is what matters, evolution, in my not so humble opinion is not a salvation issue.  Unless of course that belief in evolution replaces belief in God, which is what I am dealing with over here right now. It is maddening and I am powerless except to pray about it.

History:  He finished Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier.  He has read several writings about the Industrial Revolution, Thomas Jefferson and his Presidency. For Government, he read the Alien and Sedition Acts and the Virginia Resolution.  We discussed them and answered some questions put forth in TOG.  He also did some reading about the Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark.  I find all of it fascinating, however he finds it "boring."  I love history, so that just makes me sad!

Grammar and Composition:  He did some lessons and put in to practice, how to take notes from an Encyclopedia article and an audio lecture.  Since he watches/listens to lectures for his online Yale course, Listening to Music, he used this week's lecture to complete his TOG Writing Aids assignment.

Watching a "Listening to Music" lecture.

He completed the Literature SAP for Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier.  He also continued working through lessons in CLE LA.  He still hates diagramming sentences, but I am making it my personal mission for him to one day view it as something fun! Like a puzzle or riddle.  Hehehehe.  We didn't do any Vocabulary from Classical Roots this week.

Boy Scouts:  His troop had elections a few weeks ago so he is currently Senior Patrol Leader for his troop.  Next month he will be having his Board of Review for Life Scout.  Then he will begin the decision making process for his Eagle project.

Goofy dog hanging out with me on the couch.