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.