Weekly Report: Week Nineteen (days 088-092)

As much as I appreciate that the kids have extracurricular activities, I admit to enjoying this time of the year, when they slowly drop away for a nice holiday break. Band finished before Thanksgiving, and Monday will mark the last day of Master's Academy until 2011!

Even better news is that we passed our halfway point for the year!

EG moved into studying ancient Rome this week. She did not write an essay but did work on a biography paragraph for Julius Caesar. She also read Coolidge's Caesar's Gallic War. She completed four sentences in Practice Voyage and a lesson in Caesar's English II. Together we read through chapter seven, on quotations, in Essay Voyage.

Math & science both continue apace. She beat one level of drill (hooray!) and worked in both Life of Fred Advanced Algebra and Real World Algebra. I had a minor freak-out over where to go next with her with regards to math. She did three worksheets from PLATO Earth & Space Science, as well as finishing up the Atmosphere unit.

Logic, typing, music appreciation, and art appreciation continue to go well. We found out from her trumpet instructor that we need to plan to buy a new trumpet in the next six months or so. She has a performance on piano on Monday, as well as a skit with the other members of her public speaking course. Finally, we went to see The Nutcracker. EG enjoys watching ballet, which is something I hope she'll continue to enjoy as she gets older.

FB is voluntarily reading a few things to us outside of school time. Hooray! He learned about alternate spellings of the long a sound in OPGTR, and is almost finished with ETC 2. He's finished up week twenty in WWE 1, lesson 9 in SWO A, and lesson 62 in FLL. Yay! For literature, he's been listening to various retellings of Greek myths and Homer. History, as you may have guessed, continues to be about ancient Greek. This week's chapter focused on life in Sparta as well as in Athens. FB did four pages in Miquon and played with the rods extensively. I really need to get Right Start B out and get it going.

Over Thanksgiving, FB set up an experiment on composting from his MSB "Go Green" experiment kit, so he's been observing that periodically this week. He also listened to Sounds All Around. His music appreciation is temporarily superseded by listening to vast amounts of Christmas music, including the new Glee Christmas CD.

Speaking of Glee, that segues nicely into my update. I'm so thrilled with Glee. I can't wait to see next week's episode. I am trying to finish knitting a scarf for EG (which I have to do only while she's asleep) as well as a hat for PC (which, luckily, I can do while she's awake). I need to go buy one more skein of yarn to make into a hat for FB before Christmas. Other than a calendar for PC, I am nearly done with Christmas shopping!