It’s back to the grind, back to reality. I was a bit excited and bit sad to give up my “life of leisure.” lol
Our plan for Christmas school using the Christmas bits from Winter Promise fell through the cracks a couple of weeks in. It was okay. She found some of the reading to “babyish” and then the rest was typical WP. They give you a couple paragraphs of info and then left you hanging. We found ourselves having to dig a lot deeper, which wasn’t in our plan for a relaxed Christmas school. So like all things Winter Promise, we ditched it. We focused on something useful, our Jotham’s Journey readings and she did a lot of Kayleigh’s advent crafts.
With the start of the New Year, we’re making a few changes. Mackenzie is very into creative writing lately so I bought a creative writing course, The Creative Writer, from Peace Hill Press, home of the rest of our LA curriculum. I like it because it’s mainly meant for her to work on independently. Other changes are coming, mainly TOS Crew related. Some I’m very excited about.
Some of our highlights…
We are back to our beloved Visual Latin. Oh how we missed you. Between our Christmas break and our Spanish review it’s been too long.
In science we are starting a study on the respiratory system. So fascinating how God created everything so perfectly. One of our experiments involved studying how our mucus membranes help keep nasties our of our body. We used honey as our mucus and set it outside to see how it could keep airborne nasties from entering our bodies.
Unfortunately we never got to see the results because Daddy saw it outside and threw it away. How awful!
We also talked about the vocal cords this week and did some fun experiments about how the thickness and length of the cords effect pitch.
In our Sonlight studies, we are still studying Japan. Since we’ve both been to Japan, we are loving this. Plus it’s making us a little hungry for some real Japanese food.
At the moment we are reading about how Commodore Matthew Perry’s visit to the country led to huge changes. I was worried that this book might be a little boring but it’s really good so far. We are finishing up The Master Puppeteer as our read aloud. It is fabulous!!!! We’re a bit ahead because we can’t stop reading. Mackenzie is also reading The Big Wave as her reader and she’s ahead in that too.
Math is back on track, she’s still plugging away on fractions with Mr. Demme. This week she’s been working on multiplying fractions. Naturally, she freaked when she heard what the lesson was on. Typical Mackenzie drama. Then she actually watched it and all was well.
She’s also having fun reviewing basic math facts with Math Rider, a current review item.
We are slowly getting back into the groove. Next week all of our extras, piano, art, cheer, and basketball, start back up so life will be very full.
Check out other Wrap-ups over at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
We are loving Math Rider too! Sounds like you had a good week back. I love these weeks when we are schooling but, have not extra-curricular activities in the mix.
ReplyDeleteWe *LOVED* Master Puppeteer. Such a wonderful book! The story is so intriguing that it's near impossible to put it down.
ReplyDeleteYou're not liking Winter Promise? We used Animal Worlds about 5 years ago and LOVED it. All except the Small Square books...never enjoyed those..too dull. The pic's were great though.
ReplyDeleteSo you have some exciting changes invloving TOS...do tell, hee hee
Oh and the President's placemat in your picture...we have one just like it...I knew you'd need to know that :)
We are really enjoying Math Rider too. Sounds like you had a good first week back.
ReplyDeleteHow DO you get all this information into your post?? I can't seem to recall what happened during the week! Always fun to read what's been going on in your family and school. Too bad about the mucus project!
ReplyDeleteHave a great week!
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