Weekly Report for 7/27/08 - 8/2/08

Memory Work - This week we are adding new memory verses and a new poem to memorize. As we add new verses and poems throughout the year, we will continue to rehearse the old ones in order to ensure their permanent retention in the children's minds. This week's verses and poem are: Bible Verses - Genesis 1: 27-28
Poem - "Celery" by Ogden Nash

Bible Study - I had been doing my Bible study time separately from Octe and the children, but as I read the lessons I felt like there were lots of things I wanted us to discuss together, so we decided to change the time of day we did Bible study so we could all do it together, and we are starting this off by repeating last week's lessons and discussing them.

Math - RightStart math is proving not to be a good connection with Octe's teaching style, so we have decided to switch MelloYello and Jester's math to Unique Math, which is an individualized online math program that is produced by the same company that provides the Unique Reader program Jester and Princess are using for phonics instruction. All three of the children will be using this program, although Princess will be using it only casually as I will be taking over her math instruction and continuing RightStart math with her. This week the children completed the Diagnostic Online Math Assessment (DOMA), which is a similar assessment to the DORA, and serves essentially the same purpose. Princess completed lessons 8-9 in RightStart A this week.

Thinking Skills - Princess finished p. 13-17 in Developing the Early Learner

Phonics - Jester: Work on Unique Reader lessons as directed by the program.
Princess: Unique Reader: lessons as directed by the program
Ordinary Parent's Guide: lessons 34-37, with some review of older lessons
Family Readers: Set 1, Books 5-6; Set 2, Books 1-2
Explode the Code: Lesson 2

Science - The Bug Book: p. 86-103
Creepy Crawlies: This week we seperated out three individual males into seperate
terraria, and added females after a couple of days in an attempt
to observe courting behavior. No luck so far.
Worksheets: Walkingstick focus. MelloYello continues to work on his field guide.

Literature - MelloYello: Blackthorn Winter, chapters 1-4
Jester: Finished William Bradford: Pilgrim Boy and started an adaptation of
Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped, along with a corresponding
comprehension worksheet for each chapter. He also continues to
participate in the literature read-aloud with Princess.
Princess: Listened to read-aloud of Finding Providence, continues to listen to
readings of poetry and fairy tales.

Writing and Grammar - Princess continues with the Play and Write handwriting program, and MelloYello and Jester are doing copywork assignments I got as free printables off the internet. The copywork pages include, selections from Scripture, poetry and quotes of famous people from history. These will last the boys several weeks.

History - Our topic for the week: Charters, Creeds and the English Civil War. The historical figure who stood out in my mind the most for this week was a man named Roger Williams. He was a Puritan tuned Seperatist who lived in the Puritan colony of Boston in Massachusetts. He caused an uproar among the Puritans in his colony because of several beliefs that he held. Williams believed that no one should be forced to follow a certain religion, as men's hearts could not be changed by force. This flew right in the face of his fellow colonists in Boston because, ironically, although the Puritans themselves had come to America for religious freedom, they did not believe in religious freedom for people outside of their own faith, and had been trying to force the neighboring Native American tribes to convert to Puritanism. Along this same vein, Williams also rejected the idea that the government should be controlled by the Church. He was one of the pioneers in the idea of seperation of church and state. The idea that drove the Puritan leaders in Boston over the edge, however, was Williams' belief that the settlers had no right to forcefully take the Indian's land from them and that the king of England had no right to charter land that didn't belong to him. Because of this, the leaders of Boston called Roger Williams to trial and sentenced him to be sent back to England. Providentially, he escaped capture by the Boston authorities and fled into the wilderness. After several days, he was discovered and rescued by the Narangassetts, whom he had befriended in the past. They gave Williams their protection and a piece of their land which he used to start a colony of his own called Providence Plantation, which became modern-day Rhode Island. Providence Plantation became one of the first colonies in America to truly allow religious freedom, even to those from non-Christian religions and Atheists.

Spelling - MelloYello and Jester finished days 8-10 in Sequential Spelling.

Picture Study - Princess continues to study postcard-sized reproductions of Leonardo da Vinci's paintings.

Famous Kentuckians - This week we completed chapters 4-6 in the biography of Daniel Boone we are reading.

Movies - This week we watched a movie called Keeping the Promise about a family that settles in a colony in Maine.

Weekly Report for 7/20/08 - 7/26/08

(Sorry so late, but I hope to catch my reports up today.)

Memory Work - Bible Verse: Genesis 1:1
Poem: "Ooey Gooey"

Bible Study - Love the Lord Bible Studies:
Genesis Lessons 5-8

Math - Princess: RightStart A, Lessons 4-7
Mello Yello and Jester - Right Start B, Lessons 7-19

Thinking Skills - Princess: Developing the Early Learner p. 7-12

Phonics - This week we added a new computer program to our Phonics curriculum. It is called Unique Reader and it can be found on this website: www.letsgolearn.com. Princess will be using this program, of course, and Octe and I decided to add Jester into the program as well, to give him some extra support for his reading skills. Both of them completed the Diagnostic Online Reading Assessment (DORA) this week, which will give me a detailed report of their reading level in several different aspects of reading, such as phonics skills, sight words, reading comprehension, vocabulary, etc., as well as place them in the Unique Reader program at their own individualized level in each of four tracks of lessons. I won't post their exact scores, but I will say that in both of them, I found both cause for encouragement and room for improvement. I will also say that I am very proud of the improvement that Jester has made in his reading skills over the last couple of years.

Science - The Bug Book: p. 27-47
Creepy Crawlies: We are continuing with informal cricket observation this week.
Worksheets: Grasshopper focus. MelloYello continues to work on his field giude.

Literature - MelloYello: Finished William Bradford: Pilgrim Boy this week.
Jester: Read chapters 6-9 in William Bradford: Pilgrim Boy and listened in on
Princess's read aloud selection for this week.
Princess: Listened to read aloud of Three Young Pilgrims, continued with fairy tale readings from Andrew Lang's Fairy Books and poetry readings
from A Child's Garden of Verses.

History - This week's topic: Puritans in New England. We learned several things about the Pilgrims this week. Many of the Pilgrims were Seperatists, meaning that they believed in separating themselves from the Church of England to serve God according to the dictates of their conscience. At that time, the Church of England was the only legal religion in England, which meant that the Seperatists were considered criminals in the eyes of the English government. As a result, they were banned from preaching, jailed, beaten and sometimes even killed by the English authorities for their beliefs. Many of them flad to Holland during these times and stayed there about 12 years before they came over to America on the Mayflower. During their voyage, the weather was horrible much of the time, food was inadequate for the number of passengers on board, and almost all of the Pilgrims became seasick and or afflicted with scurvy by the end of the voyage. Those who were less ill had to take care of those who were more ill. During the stormy times, the Pilgrims were forced to stay below deck and had no fresh air or way to dispose of their waste for days at a time. Miraculously, none of the Pilgrims died during the voyage to America, and a healthy baby was born in and survived the horrifically unsanitary conditions the Pilgrims had to endure. When the Pilgrims landed, they soon found a spot of land that had already been cleared by a tribe of Patuxets who had died out from disease and was at that time unclaimed by any groups of natives. The chosen leaders of the Pilgrims in their new colony made a peace treaty with Chief Massasoit and the Wompanoag people which lasted over 40 years. Sadly, by the time of the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving, half of the colony had died of sickness.

Spelling - MelloYello and Jester: Sequential Spelling - Days 4-7

Picture Study - Princess continues with her study of Leonardo Da Vinci paintings.

Famous Kentuckians - I read aloud the next two chapters of the Daniel Boone biography we are reading.

Movies - We watched a History Channel documentary on the Mayflower Voyage called Desperate Crossing, and Squanto: A Warrior's Tale, a Disney movie about a surviving Patuxet who befriended and aided the Pilgrims in the infancy of their colony.