Friday, October 15, 2010

Weekly Recap 10/11-10/15/10

We've been talking about atmosphere, weather and the water cycle this week.  We had some beautiful sunny weather just perfect for showing that water is constantly moving through our environment and that a river or lake isn't the only source of evaporation in the water cycle.  All my dc were surprised at what could be collected by a simple drinking glass left in the grass.

We learned how clouds are formed.  Identified the different kinds of clouds and discussed the type of weather most often accompanied by each kind of cloud.  Then, we made our own cloud. 
Everyone is moving forward in all lessons, perhaps not as enthusiastically as I'd like but overall, it was a good week.  I'm especially pleased with our Latin lessons.  It's fun to hear all the children sharing their Latin knowledge together.  S8 probably has the easiest time with memorizing but M6 has the most fun with her lessons.  K14 and H11 are working on verbs and conjugating.  It's not as fun but they are moving along and able to help the younger two.

In history, we are learning about the Franks.  We worked a lot with the globe this lesson. 

K14: High - A on French test
Low - none
H11 working on her Young Novelist Workbook.
H11:  High - working on preparing for NaNoWriMo
Low - diagramming sentences

This is a typical math lesson gone wrong for S8!  His love of drawing often causes him to be distracted from the task at hand.
   
S8:  High - I love history because I get to illustrate and caption our stories.
Low - I do not like practicing violin because it takes awhile.
 A reading lesson with M6.  The switch from Phonics Pathways to The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading was such a good choice for us.
M6: High - That I got to do my reading in a happy way.
Low - I had to do grammar every day.



6 comments:

  1. I like your lows and highs! I'm a violin teacher and I would agree with your ds it takes time! So would my 8 y/o dd violinist! It's worth it though! Violin players are some of the smartest kids in my experience! Keep up the hard work!

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  2. Nice comment Robyn. I also like the high and low of the week. When writing out these weekly missives, sometimes I am at a loss as how to frame our week. The high and low of the week seems a good solution.
    I am pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable Latin can be to study. Who would have thought?

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  3. The highs and lows are fun to read.

    I'd be interested in why you prefer OPGTTR vs. Phonics Pathways, as I've got a bit of a problem with Phonics Pathways with my current phonics-aged child...pretty please? :)

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  4. My dd6 was overwhelmed by the pages of Phonics Pathways. There was too much information per 2 page spread. Even if I told her we were only going to read 10 words or to this point on the page, she'd see the rest and melt down. She did fine with it until we hit about pg 40 and then every lesson became a struggle, not of reading but of dealing with the amount of stuff on the page and convincing her to get started.
    I checked OPGTTR and 100EZ Lessons out of the library to see if the problem continued. Didn't even try 100EZ after looking it over. Started OPGTTR roughly where we'd been in PP and things have been happy and easy since then. DD6 knows she only reads the big words on each page and that seems to make all the difference.

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  5. That's what my ds' whiteboard looks like as well full of doodles.

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  6. My DD15 is still having S8's problems with math -- the drawing just flows out of her! :)
    Lee

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