Two weeks to report

I didn't do my school run down last week so now I have two to report on.

Math - Sophie did fractions one week and then time this week. Both were very simple for her. It was stuff we had done before just in day to day things I think because she can already read a clock just fine. We have been doing some cooking together because "you use fractions when you cook". She is excited to start volume next.

Science - We are mostly just reading books for science. I need to find us something fun to do to make our Space study more interesting. But we have covered the Sun, the Moon and the Earth. We are just starting the other inner planets. We did have a good star gazing evening Friday night. We went out to see the crescent moon and Venus right next to it.
This isn't my photo but this is pretty much what it looked like to us without the telescope.
We broke out the telescope to get a better look at the moon and any stars and things we could see in the sky. Sophie could point out the big and little dipper as well as Orion's belt. That is pretty good for one nights viewing. We are going to have to get a better telescope so we can do more stargazing. The one we have isn't that exciting.

History - We have been doing history a bit half heartedly. I can't say any of the topics have been that exciting the last few weeks. We covered Ferdinand and Isabelle of Spain the previous week. We couldn't find that many books about spain or that many folk or fairy tales that are from Spain either. Sophie found the Story of Ferdinand in one of our Children's book treasury and read it to me because it was the only Spanish story she could think of or remember. We did a FIAR unit on Ferdinand a few years ago.
This week we read our Story of the World Chapter about the west coast African Kingdoms. I can't say the chapter was all that exciting but we thought the story of Mansa Musa going on Pilgrimage to Mecca sort of funny. Mostly we just enjoyed reading a bunch of Africa books I could find at the library. Here is a sampling of the books I found.
My kids always love Anansi stories so they especially enjoyed "reading them for school" this week. But I think best of all they enjoyed getting to play Mancala for school since it is an African game. Ian is especially getting good at this game. He is actually taking the tips I give him and using them and remembering them. Pretty soon he will be beating me.

Language Arts - Sophie has been reading a lot this week. She picked up The Cat in Numberland at the library and has been carrying it around with her the last few days telling me all about the different things she has relearned. We read this one awhile back. She always seems to have her nose in a book.
She has also sat in while I read Homer Price to the boys. My boys sure have enjoyed reading these little stories. I think we have revisited each story twice. I often find Henry sitting with the book on his lap looking at the illustrations that go along with these funny tales. Good thing there is another book. I picked it up at the library this week and we will start reading Centerburg Tales this next week. Thank goodness for sequels.

Ian has almost finished his last primer in the Explode the code series. We will get to start book 1 before too long. Sophie hasn't fought me too hard about writing this week. But the week before we didn't go as smoothly. It is really hit or miss with her. I guess I just have to catch her in the right mood in order to get her do her dictation or copy work. This week she got to write a familiar Aesop's tale from dictation. Maybe writing something she already knows is the ticket. In any case she did her writing and I hope she is learning a little from the experience.

Music - We listened to the Classics for Kids episodes on Haydn but never did get around to finishing the Opal Wheeler biography we are working our way through. I picked up The Farewell Symphony finally from the library (this hold took a long time to come in) and haven't started it yet. I don't think we will move on to another musician in March. We will finish up Haydn in the coming weeks.

I guess that is about it. We didn't really do any art (we attempted an art lesson but it ended in tears) or even much of anything else. Just played a lot. The boys have been outside every day shooting baskets on their new hoop. I love that they have something they can do outside that doesn't involve mud.
Sophie and Ian have played chess everyday and even made up their own game using the pieces for chess, checkers and a few other games. I am pretty sure we are going to be missing pieces the next time we try to play those games but they sure have had a good time! Just another typical week in our house.

On to another week........