Weekly Report

This week's theme is "Carnage Comes to the Barbie-arians".

Eleanor: More of the same in grammar, spelling, science and French. We're still reading "Black Beauty" which I'm finding to be a much easier read than "Little Women". For writing she re-told the story of Cincinnatus. Her dictation came from "The Complete Book of the Flower Fairies"; "The Song of the Daffodil Fairy" pays homage to the daffodils are blooming in our yard.

I'm everyone's darling: the blackbird and starling
Are shouting about me from blossoming boughs;
For I, the Lent Lily, the Daffy-down-dilly,
Have heard through the country the call to arouse.
The orchards are ringing with voices a-singing
The praise of my petticoat, praise of my gown;
The children are playing, and hark! they are saying
That Daffy-down-dilly is come up to town!

This week in history Eleanor continued to learn about the Romans. We opened our "Lift the Lid on Gladiators" box. This was very exciting for Eleanor and she played with it for a good long time. The gladiator was engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Barbie for a while but spent most of his time changing his attire to reflect different styles of gladiator fashion. We still have to explore the game and set up the Colosseum.

We completely hit a wall with Singapore 3A and now I'm reading that it might be better for a kid to start 2B before 3A even if some things are review simply because of the different methods taught in the earlier levels...so we're starting 2B. I have to say that math is the only area where I really question my ability to teach these kids (don't tell anyone!). I'm just not sure what is best for them at this point.

Henry: He had a rough week. Right now he is resting on the couch and isn't feeling very well which might explain his recent peevishness. We'll be finished with Dr. Dolittle today. He's nearing completion of "Explode the Code 3" and we are nearly finished with our mammals study. We are still back and forth between Singapore and modified-Saxon but sometimes just take a day to do a few drill pages and some word problems.

Susannah: Still totally adorable and working on her letters/phonics.

All in all a pretty good week with great weather. The changes that I implemented in January are really adding to our enjoyment of school/life. I'm feeling very positive about our direction (in spite of math) these days. I know it won't last forever, there are bound to be times when things won't be going as well, so I'm going to enjoy this while I can.