Week of 8/25-8/29

It's never too late for the weekly report, right?

Let's see, it was a pleasantly productive week, I'd say. Our most surprising success would have to be ...
LATIN. Yup, that's right, LATIN. We started Prima Latina this week, and Ian was totally on board with it! Why? Because 1) I told him he'd learn to talk like Julius Caesar, and 2) He got write out his five new vocabulary words in a Bionicle code language. How cool is that? It's called, "Doing What Works For Us."

History -- We're budding experts on the Jamestown Colony, having read parts of Exploration and Conquest, and The Jamestown Colony. I'm also reading the chapter book Pocahontas and the Strangers to them as they color industriously in their Dover historical coloring books. But wait, there's more! How is the craft-project-challenged mom faring so far with her new curriculum? Well ... we made a salt dough map of the eastern half of the U.S. this week! Our driveway may never be the same. :-) Up next week: painting the map. The kids report that salt dough tastes horrible. One of those things they just had to find out for themselves.
Oh, and on Friday, we played "Who am I?" at breakfast to review our historical figures of the week, and Eliza was taking her turn. "I'm very tidy, and I make my kids do it too. And I wash lots of dishes." Now, who could that possibly be? The answer was ... ME. I can't figure out whether that's good news (I'm a shining example of industry and diligence for my daughter) or bad news. (I'm a slightly anal-retentive drone).

Science -- Chugging right along with Pagoo. Also attempted battery-related science experiment with friend Isaac and his mom, Lynn. We weren't so successful in the millisecond of time we had the boys' attention. Once they'd gone off to create Lego contraptions, we did great things with wire and batteries. Yay us. And oh boy, what fun when Tim brought home a bunch of photos he took of a blue jay feather under an electron microscope. Daddy sure has some cool toys at work.

Math -- Miquon, math game card, and a session with the Mathtacular DVD from Sonlight. Oh, don't we all love that silly Justin.

Art -- Besides the coloring mentioned above, Ian and I did a session with our Mark Kistler's Imagination Station book, which gives humorous and user-friendly instruction in 3-D drawing. I'm actually kind of proud of what I turned out. And Ian did a nice 3-D alien ship, which he then put in an envelope and shipped off to Mark Kistler for inclusion in his next book. :-)

Music -- We started reading Sebastian Bach: Boy from Thuringia this week, and listening to various Bach CD's. Also caught a free folk music performance on Thursday with some hs'ing friends downtown.

Poetry -- Still working on Psalm 23.

Bible -- Reading stories from the NT gospels at breakfast, and now that Ian has his very own Bible, he's reading voraciously. Already in Exodus, and it's all voluntary, which pleases me no end. That may change, of course, but for now it's encouraging to see him so motivated to read it.


So, that's about it. One thing I'm pondering is whether to schedule something regular for the girls. Right now I incorporate Eliza into some of what I do with Ian, but the focus is pretty much on him most of the time. I read to her (and Caroline), but in a rather fly-by-the-seat-of-my-capris sort of way. Since I'm a mom and it's therefore my lot to FEEL GUILTY, I do fret a bit about giving her short shrift -- like not really buckling down in teaching her to read and whatnot. But on the other hand, sometimes she wants to read her Bob books with me and sometimes not, and reading is not something I want to unduly push. Can I really handle scheduling something else, something specifically for her? I think I'll have a clearer idea after a week or so.