Educational Report: Week of February 1, 2015

I'm late posting this but I didn't want to miss posting a report two weeks in a row. :) Plus it was a great week- I fell back in love with reading aloud & memory time!!! Yahoo! These two things have always been foundational to our studies but last year it fell apart. Why? One picture says it all:

Adorable? Yes. Busy? EXTREMELY! I'm sure it's not all her fault (we battle severe sickness in 2014, which made a lot fall apart) but she played a big roll in making life interesting. She's finally sitting in my lap fairly well & can sit for even longer stretches with a snack or activity. We still keep memory time at her nap time (she's my first little to have to do for!) & I do not see that changing forever for a long time. :)

Covenant Classes: Benjamin & Matthias covered chapter 20 for Latin, Patricia discussed Canterbury Tales for literature class, and Jonathan & Elizabeth studied the British Isles for geography. Patricia continues to study the Shorter Catechism for Bible, while the younger children studied about the promise of a Suffering Savior. They will work on memorizing Isaiah 53:5-8 (they worked on verses 1-4 last week). Eric helped the children with their Bible homework while cuddling Katherine (sorry for the VERY POOR iPad picture):

Reading Aloud: I'm moving this into the other sections.

Memory Work: While we didn't do memory work every day, we did it fairly consistently. One older child fought the idea- it's the first time ever I've had this happen. :( By the end of the week, everyone seemed to be back on board. You can see what we memorized this week here.

Abigail: She's doing well working her way through the vowel sounds of Phonics Pathways (pg. 1-6). I found an old, unused handwriting book that I let her begin. She was thrilled! (I didn't use a book to teach writing to Jonathan & Elizabeth but I must have ordered extra copies several years ago.) We did math each day- either playing with manipulatives or working on some of her pages from Essential Math.

Art & Music: No formal lessons this week but lots of practicing. Patricia has begun to learn some music from Oblivion for Eric. It's quite pretty!

History: We're behind with lectures for Patricia & Benjamin & I hope we can play catch up next week! We did listen to one lecture about John Adams & Thomas Jefferson. They took one opportunity, continued their reading & finished memorizing the Preamble to the US Constitution. They also began memorizing the Bill of Rights- Article 1 first. The younger children & I dusted off George Washington's World & spent a lot time reading. Foster does such an amazing job of drawing you into the people's lives while teaching you what's happening around the world. One of my favorite authors for history literature! :) We spent extra time learning about Benjamin West & studied several of his paintings. We should have done more narrations but oh well.

Language Arts: Spelling, copywork & Explode the Code for Matthias, Jonathan & Elizabeth. Patricia & Benjamin worked on lesson 3 of their vocabulary & he also did spelling. I think. I should check that. :) Benjamin & Matthias read chapter 2 of Grammarland. We began a new read aloud: My Side of the Mountain. The children are LOVING it & have requested it read aloud at dinner most nights. :) It's getting me excited to pick up our nature journals again. When it gets warmer. I do not like being cold.

Latin: Chapter 19 about 3rd declension nouns for the boys & unit 6 chapter reading for Patricia. She loves the unit reading because it's basically straight translating (+ it's a short chapter). :)

Logic: Benjamin & Patricia have completed four chapters thus far of The Argument Builder (2 chapters this week). They need to meet with Eric to discuss it so they'll (hopefully) do that next week. The chapter topics were foundations (an introductory chapter), the four idols, definitions, and fallacies of definitions. I'm beyond grateful Eric is teaching all of this! It would not be happening otherwise!

Math: Patricia studied fractions, Benjamin worked on factors & negative numbers, Matthias studied more word problems & Jonathan and Elizabeth continued to get faster at their subtraction & addition facts. I did several pages of Challenging Word Problems with the younger two. Flashcard practice for EVERYONE! (No Calculadder drill because my printer is broke. Still.)

Science: Patricia & Benjamin began module 13 on the human digestive system; Matthias, Jonathan & Elizabeth studied the skin.