Weekly Report 1-25-08

We've had a week of running around--Sky had to have his cast checked, but it's a-ok. He had a great day last Saturday, but now he's bucking the system--has to do an anger management packet. He will, but everything is a struggle when it comes to submitting to authority.

Nature Girl had a pretty good week, overall. She had more attitude problems, esp. in maths, but today was awesome. I sat with her almost the whole school day, and helped her instead of giving her independent work. We just plowed thru the worksheet stuff, and she did well. I have some examples here of Saxon 3, Adventures in Phonics and Rod and Staff Grammar. Her handwriting isn't as lovely as usual, but she also had a fever yesterday and snark today.


We did have an excellent history week. One of these pictures shows our Viking Sundial and some notebooking work that we will finish next week. The cards in the picture are downloaded from Hannah's Homeschool Helps (sorry, don't know the link). We heard the story of King Alfred this week, both from SOTW and from Famous Men of the Middle Ages, so we made King Alfred cakes today--mmmm! Think scones, made with nutmeg, dates and raisins. We were so happy they turned out well (unlike the Viking Bread last week!).


There's also a pic here of her using her Tasco microscope to find the "hidden" states on the $5 bill. She was thrilled to find so many on the Lincoln Memorial, and remembered to turn the bill upside-down first. Loving that Home Science Adventures kit!!
We really enjoyed reading this book on micro-photography, which told about a man who was a scientist and a photographer. We got to see great pictures of him collecting samples and viewing them under different kinds of microscopes. We also finished reading (aloud) The Apple and the Arrow, about William Tell and the founding of Switzerland. Since Heidi has been one of her favorites for years, it was interesting to her to hear another tale of that part of the world. Nature Girl also read 5 Magic Treehouse books (they are definitely candy to her!) and is beginning the Little House series all over again, for the 5th time. Sigh. I'll just let her.


Film Buff was thrilled to hear No Country for Old Men got so many Oscar nods, and also that his boy Viggo (Mortensen) got a nod for his work in Eastern Promises. It's always so fun to watch the Oscars with Film Buff, because he gets truly excited and it's a pleasure to watch him have a good time!
This week he finished Module 7 in Apologia Chem; had lessons on Brahams, Tchaikovsky, and Dvorak in music; started the 1950's in Sonlight 300; and started and will finish over the weekend The Old Man and the Sea. We are mostly using the Sonlight commentary for this. I am pre-reading Alas, Babylon, and really loving it. I skipped Brave New World with him--he can pick it up on his own later. He is on Module 6 in his Driver's Ed dot com class, and did math with Dad all week (I'm hands off on that one--Thank the Lord). We have 4 more chapters in French before we are done with the book. I am going to give him credit for this year's work, labeling it Intermediate French. He will not be ready for the public school class in French 2 this next semester (starts Tues.), so we will just slog thru. He says it's like being Homer Simpson, when Homer finds he has to learn French to put together the grill ("Le Grill? What the H@ll is THAT?"). At least he knows his limitations. He was happy to find out he will not have to continue in French next year.

That's about it from here! Hope your week was filled with blessings, big and small.
(Sorry about the photos being all over the place--still trying to figure it out!)