Week 8 Notes

Monday Notes:

After all treats (no tricks) were found this morning we got right to work beginning this morning with Mathematics. Mara began a new concept of function tables. I am feeling very rewarded with seeing her progression in learning subtraction, and her confidence growing in seeing both addition and subtraction on the same page. She is now able to decide what needs to be done for her given problems without prompting.  

Latin followed with an introduction to 4 out of 9 new vocabulary words for this week. We paired a noun with a verb and they were illustrated and the full Latin entry was added to her journal. Lines were left blank at the bottom of the pages to come back to later in the week for writing Latin sentences with these pairings. 

I read Mara's History chapter on Julius Caesar aloud and we followed this with a journal entry about the Roman Senate... actually only got as far as the illustration, but it was quite labor intensive and required patience in letting paint dry. Mara continued painting her Roman soldiers began last week and pretended she was painting a fresco. 

We had plans on going out to explore churches today, but as it's been doing nothing but storming all day, I decided it was a good day to finish up Tanglewood Tales instead and turn around the inevitable disappointment of not being able to go to the playground with a small bribe to watch a movie instead: The Secret of Kells :)

Tuesday Notes:

Mathematics first today, no surprise there.   Continued working with function tables and figuring out the rule when looking at a completed function table. Latin next with the completion of illustrating new vocabulary in noun/verb pairs. We also did verb chants for each new word. She began complaining that her hand was hurting from all the writing, so we switched to Science. Mara nearly completed her lapbook page for Eubacteria, she just has a little more informational stuff to add. We took a walk to the library and I'm so excited to have found the Arthur Ransom book, We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea. So this will be the next book we begin, we are just about finished up with The Phoenix and the Carpet. Mara is completely engaged with her library books right now reading aloud while Elinor naps.

Wednesday and Thursday Notes: 

Wednesday we worked hard on Math, Latin and reading. Wednesday's Latin lesson consisted of a review over the new vocab and the first exercise verbally on Thursday, Mara was to pick six of our previously reviewed sentences to illustrate and caption independently. We finished up The Phoenix and the Carpet on Wednesday and Mara is really looking forward to beginning Heidi instead of starting We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea, which is just as well because it's not the first book of the series and would make more sense if we began with Swallows and Amazons, according to the Daddy-bird. Thursday Mara worked on a journal page about Cleopatra.

I like the pattern we have gotten into with covering Science and History. We use Monday's to start new chapters and topics and Tuesday's to sort of finish the chapter, project, etc. This works well then by leaving Wednesday, and Thursday to focus on Math, Grammar and Reading, which is great for Mara's age. If we have any additional projects that we didn't have time for it's easy to squeeze them in on these other days or on our lighter Fridays when we just review every thing learned throughout the week. I am also in the habit of just taking about 5 minutes out of each day to ask questions from previous reading material from Monday and Tuesday, and I ask the same questions each day. We have been slacking a bit with independent journaling this week as Mara has been doing other writing assignments. I feel like I've got to get this back in sync.

Friday Notes:

We started our morning, not with our normal routine of breakfast and schoolwork but by taking time to pay attention to our long forgotten housework. Two loads of laundry and a near complete restoration later we were finally ready to begin schoolwork by finishing the Cleopatra journal page that was begun yesterday. Do verb and noun chants in Latin then read Latin story ~ Just for Fun. Read Music by Walter de la Mara and allow time for a journal entry about poem. Review History review questions and answers. Complete Mathematics unit. Get out of the house! Possibly start Heidi this evening.