The Weekly Sum Up

Just for the records... this is what we have been studying this week.

Science: We started our Study of Space this week. We began with just an overview of the Universe. We read the two pages that talk generally about the universe form our Usborne Complete book of Astronomy and Space. I am using this book as our outline as to what we will be covering. We also read Seymour Simon's book about the Universe which was full of photos taken from the Hubble Telescope. We had some really good discussions this week about the theories as to how the universe was created. We talked about Big Bang and Intelligent Design. It gave us a reason to review what the scriptures say about the creation of the Universe. We were supposed to talk about the Sun but we just never got around to it. We will have to start with the Sun next week.

History: We covered two chapters from Story of the World this week. I had planned to only cover one. We listened to and read about the Black Death or Plague. The kids found it interesting but sort of sick. I didn't blame them. On Wednesday when we were supposed to study history again. I brought out a book to read some more about the the plague but the kids asked not to... they didn't want to hear any more about all the dead. I didn't blame them so we read the biography of our Musician for the Month...Haydn. They enjoyed that much better. On Friday I decided to go ahead and do the next chapter of SOTW which is about the Hundred Years war. Sophie really enjoyed the story of Joan of Arc except for the part where she is burned at the stake. We enjoyed the spread on the Hundred Years war that is in the Great Events that changed the world book.

The boys have had my husband read a few Joan of Arc story books to them as bed time stories. He said it was sort of strange to read about a burning at the stake and such to them before heading them into bed, but they choose the stories.
On Saturday the kids broke out the Playmobil knights and decided this one is Joan of Arc. It is the only knight that doesn't have a beard so it must be Joan.
She has been leading battles all day.
Sophie enjoyed the coloring page from the activity book so much she had to do it twice. One is of her leading the troops into battle and the others is just a ride in the countryside.


As for the other subjects...we have been going through the lessons like usual.

Sophie is still fighting math and any writing. I am still making her do it. We may have to do some Family Math for awhile because I don't want Sophie to hate Math. And I am afraid she is starting to really think it is just too hard for her. It isn't of course but she just has trouble focusing on it unless I am right there prodding her along. I can't do that so it takes her a very long time to do just a few problems. Writing isn't quite as much of a struggle but she still hates doing copywork. But her writing is improving.

Sophie doesn't mind reading and discussing the little stories we read out of our McGuffey Readers. And she reads the New Testament with us each day without complaint. I guess I should be happy with this.

We have been listening to Mary Poppins in the afternoons as well as some of Haydn's music. We of course had to listen to Rusty in Orchestraville since Haydn's Surprise Symphony is played. It is the only one of Haydn's pieces that Sophie recognizes.

Our Artist for the month hasn't been introduced yet. Sophie picked Frank Lloyd Wright as our "artist" and I haven't quite decided how to go about our study yet. I better come up with something quick or nothing will happen. We did get a few books from the library but most of them weren't from the children's section. But at least we can look at the photographs and talk about them.

Sophie also has Science club she goes to each week and the boys sit through. They played with snails this week. Racing them and examining them.

I guess that is about all the official school work we have been doing.