We do Not get to Everything!

Every week I have a basic idea of what we need to get done or cover that week. And every week we never get to it all. I guess that is a good thing. Isn't there a saying somewhere that says "Shoot for the stars and you will hit the trees. If you aim for the trees you will hit the mud".  So I just make sure I am aiming high and even if I don't make it completely to my goal I will still achieve more than if I changed my aim and shot for something less.

So this week.....

We covered Islam in History. We learned about Muhammad and the the 5 pilars of Islam. We didn't do anything fun and only listened to the SoTW chapter and then looked through the DK Islam book. We did watch the movie Aladin (which my kids had never seen). I can't say they really loved it.  They do LOVE the stories of the Arabian Nights. Sophie has it on her new Kindle and she has been reading them on her own but we have also been listening to Jim Weiss tell a few of the tales. I think we have listened to this CD about 3 times this week already.

The Sun was the subject of Science this week. The kids read about the sun and labeled the parts of the sun. We didn't get to the experiment but it is a good one and we will do it hopefully tomorrow if I can get to it.

Sophie and Ian are doing great at their Fix-it everyday. I haven't been as good about having them do their actual writing assignments. So All things Fun and Fascinating and Fables, Myths and Fairytales took a little break this week. Henry is doing great with PAL writing. I often forget that he is only in 2nd grade and needs to learn simple things like the days of week and the months of the year. Thank goodness for his PAL program which reminds me to teach these seemingly simple things.

Ian and Henry are doing great at their Singapore Math. Ian flies through each exercise quite easily and Henry is catching onto multiplication pretty well. It must be all that time doing Timez Attack.
Ian had the first of his online Multiplication classes this week and he seemed to enjoy it but didn't have a whole lot to say about it. Very typical for a boy.

I have changed Sophie's Math program. I was finding Singapore difficult. Not that the math itself was too hard but I wasn't finding their textbook less than effective in teaching the concepts. And without an answer book I didn't know if I was teaching it the way they wanted. I have loved the program up until level 6 but Sophie was no longer able to do her math workbook on her own after I went through the lesson.  I was having to sit through each exercise and walk her through the solving of each one of the problems.  And when she came to a review she couldn't do much of any of the problems on her own.  I don't know if this is a Singapore problem or if it is my issue with teaching the concepts but in any case we are trying something new. I got her Teaching Textbooks level 6 and now she is going to be doing Math on the computer each day. Hopefully something new will help.

We did one DVD Lesson with Visual Latin. We learned the Vocative case. Sophie then went through Harrius Potter and found places where they use that case. I didn't even ask her to do it. She has been reading Harry Potter in Latin for fun this week. Ian has been reading through Fabula de Petro Cuniculo and trying to translate it with me.

Henry has decided Latin is too hard for him and doesn't want to sit through the lessons so I have been allowing him to do Muzzy online which our Library has available for free. He is learning a little Spanish while we work on Latin. Plus he feels like he gets a little online class too.

The boys LOVE their Gymnastics class. Molly had her first ballet class and we all went swimming. I guess that counts for P.E. Right?

Sophie had her first pottery class this week and was a little frustrated with how difficult it was and that it didn't come easily to her. She needs to go back and give it another try.

Piano practice hasn't been as happening as often as it should and I haven't been diligent about getting these kids to do their chores. I end up just doing things for them because they need to get done and it is easier than trying to get them to do it.

We finished the Ella Enchanted audio book and watched the movie. My kids all hated the movie. I warned them that it wasn't anything like the book. I am glad they know that the movie is almost never as good as the book.  We started Igraine the Brave.  We have listened to this one before but they don't seem remember it.

I guess that is about all I can think of at the moment. I know there are things I am leaving out that we did actually do and I know there are things that we just never got around to.

We haven't done anything with our Artist or Musician of the month and I would really like they to read a little more on their own rather than have them so dependent on me or audio books. They love to kill two birds with one stone and play with their new Mindstorms while listening to stories.

So that was it for this week.