Weekly Report 2-1-08

Welcome to February! Our week was a little "hit and miss,' but not too bad.
Nature Girl continues to be a little stressed with math, but did very well on her timed tests. I think I may slow Saxon down, as I think it is catching up with her--we are using it a year ahead, which has never been a problem, but even so, I don't want to quench her confidence.
Spelling and Phonics went well--SWO C is also starting to get a little more challenging. She did a chapter and a half this week. It's great review, and it just meshes so well with Adventures in Phonics. Nature Girl is also learning cursive writing. She started up again, learning c, d, o, q and g. Here are her d's.
History remains intriguing, and we did a lot this week. We are finally in the 1000's! I loved the way Susan Wise Bauer, in Story of the World, ties people and events together so well. I finally understood that the Normans were the Vikings' descendants, and that made the Norman invasion of England more interesting. We found a youtube video of the Bayeux Tapestry that helped us visualize the events of the invasion and the Battle of Hastings. Check it out here!
We also did a quickie castle project, using the Activity Guide for Story of the World--we mixed marshmallows, butter and Kix (marshmallow treats w/Kix instead of Rice Krispies) and molded them to make a motte and bailey castle. I actually just wanted to eat the treats, but it only took 10 minutes to mix it, mold it, and read about that sort of castle, so hey, that was history. You can read about the development of castles here, like we did. Here are some pics of Nature Girl's history notebooking this week.
Film Buff finished Old Man and the Sea last week, and we discussed it. He started and finished China's Long March, a book about the Chinese Communists in the 30's. He viewed Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator, and we have FailSafe and Dr. Strangelove coming. I read Alas, Babylon last week, and will assign it next week. His driver's ed on-line class is 1/5 finished, so we had to pay for it finally--he's taking that on his own time, but I am giving him credit for it as an elective. I'm going to have him plan a trip to Orlando and grade it to add some content. Math is going well, but since Dad is teaching that, I have no idea what he's doing. That feels good, actually! He got a B on his chem test, and we started listening to Naxos for classical music history. I had a book called The Classical Music Experience, but didn't use it because I had lost a cd that went with it--come to find out, we got a free subscription to Naxos with it, so we are thrilled to have access to all the music. His other curricula for music history has been interesting, utilizing Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers and The Gift of Music, but this other book gives more info about the actual music.
That's about it for the week--oh, we also had a couple of visitors yesterday. I'll see if I can post a pic of them.
Hope your week was filled with blessings, large and small.