Are we done yet?

We had a pretty good week, especially since last week ended up being a very light week of school work. We just didn't feel like staying inside last week. The kids wanted to be outside in all the sunshine. I didn't blame them, the weather has been perfect, sunny but not hot. However, this week we did accomplish quite a bit. Not everything I think we should have done but still, we did a fair amount of work.

The end of the school year is coming and the kids can feel it. Not that we ever really stop doing school. It is always easier to just keep the schedule going during the summer rather then take months off. But we are getting to the end of all our books. Infact Sophie finished her Singapore Math 2b book this week. She was so excited and even completed the entire last review on Friday. It was long and took her some time but she wanted to finish the book this week. She is so excited to start the 3A book. It is pink! We will see if we jump into it right away. I am thinking of just some fun Family Math games for a bit.

I haven't been having Ian do his math book. Instead we have just been focusing on his writing and reading. It would help a lot if he could read. He just isn't that motivated. But we are finishing up his Explode the Code primers. He only has a few pages left and that is that. He then will jump into the Explode the Code 1 book.

We of course have been reading and looking at birds the last bit, and that is our science. We have taken a break from planets and space. We will come back to it but we needed a change. And since the Outdoor Hour challenges are going to be about birds for the next few weeks I figured we could use that as our focus. We haven't kept up with the challenges the last few months. Birds has been a hit with the kids, at least Sophie and I. The boys usually read some of the books with us but they are more interested in climbing trees and riding their scooters when we go outside so they don't really look for birds. Maybe I need to find our binoculars and take them on a bird hunt. Tools like binoculars are always helpful in keeping their attention. As long as they each have a pair.

We went through two chapters of Story of the World this week. We learned about the Maya, Aztec and Incan people. We covered each but focused a bit more on the Incan because we haven't studied them before. We read a number of books and looked at pictures of Incan ruins, especially Machu Pichu. The 2nd chapter we covered was about Montezuma and Cortez and the Spanish taking over. We watched a number of videos. One for each of the three civilizations and then one about the spanish conquest and the end of the Aztec empire. We will be heading back to Europe in our studies next week.

As usual I fall short on Language Arts. Sophie doesn't write enough but I don't know how to change this without making her, and forcing her to do it. Which would only make her angry, hate it and fight with me. So I just have to be content at the moment with having her read aloud to me and then narrate a bit back to me. Even this is a struggle. I tried to have her silently read a passage and then narrate what she read but I could tell she just skimmed it and then couldn't tell me much and she missed most of what the passage was saying. So this is something we need to work on. Reading comprehension and hopefully some writing. I know she reads very well it is just that she doesn't take the time to read carefully for understanding.

We have had a great few weeks in our New Testament Studies. We have been very slowly reading through the last week of Jesus's life and yesterday finished the Gospels. It has been really good to break down that last week into each event and read each of the different accounts of what happened. We finished our week with watching The Lamb of God video. We are a little early for it to be an Easter study but it is just how it happened.

I can't say we have done anything specific for art or music. The kids haven't really been listening to anything except audio books all week. They are currently listening to Homer Price and Centerburg Tales both by Robert McCloskey. They are very fun stories but I think after the 9th or tenth telling I am ready to move on, but the kids aren't. I even brought home a few new audio books for them to listen to and they don't seem to want anything else except Centerburg tales. I guess it is the best thing to listen to when playing with Legos or Knex.

No we are not done yet. We are always learning and will never really be done but it does feel good to be finishing a few things while still plowing ahead in other things and staring new things too. That is what learning is all about.