Week in Review

I can't say it was an especially busy week academically. Sophie hasn't really been interested in doing much of anything. I think because she knows we are going on vacation next week. But we did accomplish a bit.

History - We reviewed the chapter or Story of the World about the Byzantine Empire and then moved onto the next chapter about India and the Gupta dynasty. We read a number of picture books that take place in India that really didn't have much to do about the chapter but because they took place in India I guess they went with it. We also reviewed some basics about Hinduism and Buddhism. We looked at the Kids book of world religions but the kids really enjoyed the Schlessinger Video What is Hinduismand What is BuddhismI think seeing the people actually doing some of the rituals and things really brought the topic to life. I already have the What is Islam on hold at the library for the next SOTW chapter which is about Muhammad and the raise of Islam.

Science - We read a few books about caves. I think the kids know the difference between stalactites and stalagmites. We are planning to go into a cave next week while on vacation. So this was prep for that outing. We had a good review of all our earth studies when at the Tech Museum. The IMAX movie was all about volcanos and earthquakes and weather.

Math - Sophie did about 3 exercises in her book. And we have spent a lot of time just reviewing some basic math facts. She has been doing funny things with her subtraction. She needs to remember to borrow instead she has been just subtracting the bigger from the smaller number or even just adding instead. So we are going to do some additional math drills in the future.

Language - We had a great week with our Language lessons. We actually did it every day. This week was all about sentences. We went over the four types of sentences. Statements, questions, commands and exclamations. My kids now are always telling me "That was a command". I guess I give a lot of orders around here. I am always saying "That was a statement not a request" when they just say "I am hungry" and expect me to get them food. They are getting the idea.

Art/Music - I can't say we did a whole lot with either of these. I think we are ready to move onto another composer and artist.

We sort of did a FIAR book this week. We were supposedly doing All Those Secrets of the World. Mostly we just read the book a few times and discussed different things about it. We didn't do any activities other than search out a sycamore tree which ended up being our Outdoor Hour this week. I can't say this was a really big hit with my kids. But then I didn't put much into it. I need to plan ahead more. Maybe we will try this one again when it fits more into our history schedule.

Anyway... that was our academic week.

Mostly my kids did this.
I can't tell you how many times I had to help clean up after they got out almost every toy we own. But they played nicely most of the time and did clean up after themselves most of the time (with my help of course)