We actually did a lot last week.

Considering how much candy we have consumed in the last week and how crazy my kids have been during this past week, I am surprised by how much we were able to do academically.

History: It was Viking week at our house because our SOTW chapter was about Eric the Red and Leif Ericsson. We read a ton of books

and even made some paper viking ships.

The kids have really enjoyed this study. They especially liked it when I let them watch Veggie Tales during school time. Lyle the Kindly Viking sort of goes along. Ian even built a small viking ship out of legos on which some of his playmobil pirates have been sailing on.

Science: This week we read more books about rivers and other fresh water bodies of waters. We still have a number of books from the library about swamps and ponds that we haven't read yet. I think we may continue this through next week although according to the planner we are supposed to move on. But I think we can bump our next ecosystem to the next week without throwing everything off too much.

Sophie has a science class that she goes to each week and the boys were allowed to attend this weeks class. They made all sorts of balloon rockets. And even one type of chemical rocket that would blow the stopper off of a tube. It was a very fun class and the boys will be heartbroken if they don't get to attend again.

Math: Sophie is almost finished with her Singapore 2A workbook. She is getting really good at multiplying and dividing up to 3's but I think she is just doing quick adding or subtracting in her head rather then memorizing the times tables. But with more and more practice she will get it eventually. Ian has been doing math each day too. He is mostly working on counting the number of objects in a picture and writing the numbers. He has a difficult time with the writing part but does so well with the rest. The writing will come I am happy to see him so excited about math.

Sorting is a math concept so I will add this with our review of math. We sorted the candy we got from our Trunk or Treet the Saturday before. We had so much candy but the kids had a great time sorting it and getting to eat a bunch of it. Add the stash we go on the actual Halloween day and we have way more candy than one family really should have.


Language Arts: We started going through Primary Language lessons and so far it has been alright. Sophie doesn't fight it too much and she also doesn't mind reading a passage from the McGuffey Reader also each day. Ian is working through Explode the code's Ready for the code primer. He didn't have a new letter this week it was mostly review of the letters he has already studied. He is slowing coming along with his phonics. Both Henry and Ian love to play starfall so they are also getting a little phonics that way as well.

Music: Our musician for the month is Bach but we have spent the week listening to everything but Bach. I think we reviewed each of the different Classics for Kids CDs we have. I know we heard the one about Tchaikovsky, the Vivaldi and both of the ones about Mozart. Sophie is back to drawing pictures of Papagueno and singing like the Queen of the Night from the Magic Flute. I guess it is a good thing we are going to do Bach next month as well. We did watch a movie about Bach this week. Bach's Fight for Freedom was interesting for me and Sophie but the boys got a bit bored and left to do other things.

Drawing/ Art: I already discussed our Drawing lesson in a previous post. And I showed our viking ships that we colored. Other than those things we didn't do any formal projects. Sophie has been busying drawing on every piece of scratch paper and a lot of our printer paper as well. I need to buy paper by the box instead of the ream from now on.

As for our Artist of the month, I can't say we have done much of anything other than look at a few his paintings once in awhile. I have a few of them posted on the wall but we haven't done much. I am excited to start a new artist for November. I think the kids will really enjoy this one. I have picked Ansel Adams (One of my Favorites) and we are going to look at how a camera works over the next few weeks.

Sophie and I have finished The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge. We both really liked it and are looking forward to seeing the movie which is being made of this book. Sophie wanted me to read it to her again after we finished it because, "I don't think I got everything" she said. We aren't reading it again but it was one of the books that she keeps by her bed. I know she is rereading parts of it at night when she sneaks her light on or in the morning before everyone else is awake.

I guess that about sums it up.