Weekly Report: Week Nine!

Quick, EG: if we have 36 weeks of school to complete, and we just finished week nine, what percentage of the school year have we finished?

As any scholar that's finished Life of Fred: Decimals and Percents will tell you, that's 25%.

That's EG's big news for the week: finishing the aforementioned title. I, being the harsh supervisor of scholars that I am, had EG do all five tries at the Final Bridge. Yes, she had passed the Bridge long before the end of the week, but despite a few tears, we persevered. She also completed Key to Measurement Book 2 and started Key to Measurement Book 3, and finished seven selected review pages in Key to Decimals Book 2. Starting next week, she'll have a slight break from LoF while she does some more extensive work with measurement and reviewing decimals and percents further. After about four weeks, she'll resume learning more about Fred in Beginning Algebra. Eek!

Latin continues to go well for EG, as she's almost completed Chapter 8 (out of a total of sixteen chapters). She does need to solidify her command of the most recent vocabulary, so she's been told she can play vocabulary games on the computer this weekend. Since she doesn't often get to play on the computer, this ends up being a treat for her. She also continues to do penmanship daily, and work in Editor in Chief A1 thrice a week. She and her father read less in The Hobbit this week than previous weeks, but I think she has renewed enthusiasm - she was reminded yesterday that after The Hobbit, there are three more books she can read! As far as her own reading, this week she read Pinocchio. She observed that she didn't think it was the same story as the Disney version, which led to a discussion about how Disney modifies their source material into a story that they feel will make a better movie and sell more tickets. Her model for Writing Tales was about Sir Walter Raleigh this week, and the grammar consisted of when to make a new paragraph. Hooray! We've been needing that lesson, I had noticed in recent weeks.

EG and Smrt Mama's Captain Science are finishing magnetism this week. They'll actually do the last three labs in just a little while, when the McLernin family comes over for dinner & Dollhouse. EG also read in The New Way Things Work and Paul Fleisher's Waves about magnetism and its applications.

History this week was chapter eleven in SOTW 4, and EG also read Elizabeth Blackwell, Helen Keller (both COFA biographies), and Tree in the Trail. We continued using IEW's Geography-Based Writing Lessons in lieu of writing history summaries. I'm not impressed by the story sequence charts and am tempted to skip that Unit altogether, in favor of more expository writing.

It's official - EG has memorized The Gettysburg Address, as well as "O Captain! My Captain!" I feel like my duty as a parent is nearly completed with the memorization of the latter, which is one of my favorite poems. She's still doing daily review of the other poems she's memorized, including "Charge of the Light Brigade" and the first eight poems in the first level of IEW's poetry memorization program. We'll start back focusing on their poems on Monday, now that her history memory projects are complete.

The nitty-gritty: she's working through Vocabulary from Classical Roots 4 two or three times per week, and doing a page or two out of Logic Liftoff thrice a week.


FB chose a new puzzle at Borders today (EG got the next book (The Black Cauldron) in her current series (The Pyrdain Chronicles.), and is happily trying to put it together. It's a beautiful pink horse scene. He resumes swim lessons in the morning and completed his HWT pre-K workbook today! We'll start work on the K level book next week. He told me today that he "just can't deal with" phonics lessons, despite wanting to learn to read. Go figure. Since we've been doing handwriting steadily once more, I'll think I'll wait another week of just handwriting, then add math. Two weeks of math and handwriting, and we'll cautiously approach phonics. I think when he does decide to learn to read, he'll take off with the skill. I can only lead the horse to water, though; can't force it to drink!


PC ran down the hallway the other day. Noooo. She also correctly identified the cat on the cat food packaging. "Daaaaeeeee!" Well, PC, the cat pictured was not, in fact, our cat (Daisy), but close enough. She really likes the cat.


I am toying with the idea of making resolutions for my birthday, rather than New Year's Resolutions. I'll be turning 29 on Thursday (no, really, I was born in 1980), and I wonder if I would do better with my goals if I capitalized on my favorite season of autumn. It might just be worth a shot. I'm also busy making lists, and then lists of lists, trying to decide what to do with our house should we have an offer accepted on the house we'd like to buy. I know enough to stage the house and make as many repairs as possible, but we also have a limited budget within to work, so I have to prioritize. My goal for this week is to eliminate as many things as possible that require $50 or less, and identify professionals for the remaining tasks. If anyone who lives near me knows of reputable exterior painters, interior painters (just one wall, but it's tall), or HVAC professionals, please, let me know!