Weekly Report: 165 Days Completed (15 Remaining!)

EG had another excellent week. The most notable thing was passing another level of drill - on only her second try!

In other math work, she completed Lessons 91-95 in Life of Fred Beginning Algebra. She also finished Key to Percents Book 2, but was stymied in her attempt to begin Key to Percents Book 3 because... we can't find it. I bought it as a set (with the answer key for all three books) from Rainbow Resource, but we can't find it in any of our school stuff. I'm going to have to spend more time searching over the weekend.

EG read about the vocative case, subjects & objects, and transitive & intransitive verbs in Latin Prep 1, did five exercises in the textbook, and completed two exercises in the workbook. So far this is mostly review material, although presented in a slightly different way than it was in Lively Latin. EG really like Lively Latin, but this appeals to the same part of her that loves Fred and MCT.

Speaking of MCT, EG finished four sentences in Practice Town, read about and practiced using figures of speech in Building Poetry (including an apostrophe to a personified iTouch), studied two lessons in Caesar's English I, and completed two lessons in Paragraph Town.

Literature this week involved beginning The Wind in the Willows. Because she had so many books for history (see below), she'll finish it over the weekend and at the beginning of next week before writing a narration. We're spending our remaining weeks of school on various modern poets, so no narrations will be required.

In history, she read Madam President and They Led the Way, as well as the Sterling biographies John F. Kennedy and Neil Armstrong. Her reading in The Story of the World Volume Four covered 1989 - Tiananmen Square, and the fall of Berlin Wall. EG is nine now; I was nine when these things happened. In addition to her summaries, I found video on youtube for both events. I've tried to convey to her how it felt to see the Berlin Wall come down, but I sense it may it one of those things where she will not understand it fully. Similarly, I can't quite understand when my mother says that she thought, growing up, that there had always been a war in Vietnam, and that there would always BE a war in Vietnam. Since the song "We Didn't Start the Fire" was released in 1989, I realized EG had studied all the years covered by the song, and played it for her. She was excited at how many of the named things she knew.

For science this week, the kids calculated their footprint and read about Earth Day, since science lab is on Thursdays. EG also read a chapter in CPO Physical Science about force and answered the reviews orally. Finally, EG did two Mind Bender puzzles, and did memory work each day of the week.

I have still not been very good about getting to formal school for FB, but he's doing all right anyway. He pretend-reads all sorts of book and does read basic words (CVC, CCVC, etc). He's currently working his mind through subtraction as well as the fact that there are multiple ways to add numbers to get the same sum - at least six, depending on your point of view, for 10, for example. He also has told me once or twice while out that someone nearby "looks like a President." At first I was confused, and I managed to elicit that he thought the person in question looked as though he could be a President. I realized quickly that FB only remembers one President - the current one. In his mind, Presidents are young black men. Say whatever you personally want to about Obama's policies, but I am heartened by this.

PC continues to be small yet in charge. Her receptive vocabulary is scarily large. As long as I can find a way to phrase things in a yes or no manner, I can ask her pretty much anything and get a response. We also can't talk about something without her understanding. It's a little freaky!

This weekend: RenFest!