Week of 11/15

A normal week. No sicknesses, no extraordinary events, except a visit to the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.

J's reading is slowing down. Or, I should say, his fiction reading is slowing down. Lately he's been reading a lot of Tintin and Calvin and Hobbes, and a lot of library books on planes. But it's hard to tell how much actual reading is going on. I have been lax on having him read The Landing of the Pilgrims. It's time to find a book to read together and discuss, as we did with Charlotte's Web, etc. Maybe Trumpet of the Swan, or Little House in the Big Woods. (L I Wilder may seem too girlish?)

E is reading too many American Girl magazines but she is doing well with her reading. Sometimes she reads to J and I can hear that she is doing fine. But I need to amp up the quality for her too...

Both kids adore the Spectrum test prep books but I don't want to start relying on that type of work too much. Easy for me, not very good for them.

Along with our Swallows and Amazons reading, we are reading The Seven Wonders of the World, which is actually about 7 groups of wonders. Right now we are on the wonders of the ancient world (Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Temple of Diana, etc.). Very interesting; written from a Christian perspective. This was precipitated by the kids listening to an audio book The 7 Wonders of Sassafras Springs.

2006 Reading

2006 Reading

Read Alouds - General

Heidi - J. Spyri
Ten P's in a Pod - Arnold Pent III
The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Graham
Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare - E. Nesbit
Sarah Plain and Tall - Patricia Maclachlan
Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates - M M Dodge
The Chronicles of Narnia
Duncan's War - Douglas Bond (to James only)
Challenger: America's Favorite Eagle - Margot Theis Raven
Caleb's Story - Patricia Maclachlan
Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
The Lampfish of Twill - Janet Taylor Lisle
King's Arrow (James only)
The Diamond in the Window - Jane Langton
Swallowdale - Arthur Ransome
Winter Holiday - Arthur Ransome
Coot Club - Arthur Ransome
Pigeon Post - Arthur Ransome
Stars, Mosquitos and Crocodiles (partial) - Millicent E. Selsam
We Didn't Mean to go to Sea - A Ransome


Read Alouds - History

The Monk Who Shook The World - C. Davey
Fine Print - J Johansen Burch
Michelangelo - M. Venezia
Nicolaus Copernicus: The Earth is a Planet - D. B. Fradin
Along Came Galileo - Jeanne Bendick
Leonardo Da Vinci - Diane Stanley
Good Queen Bess - Diane Stanley
Roanoke: The Lost Colony - Bob Italia
Michelangelo - Diane Stanley
Michelangelo's Surprise - Tony Parillo
Sir Francis Drake - His Daring Deeds - Roy Gerrard
The Search for a Northern Route - Peter Chrisp
Champlain - Christopher Moore (Tundra Books, 2004 Toronto Canada)
Despite all Obstacles: La Salle and the Conquest of the Mississippi – Joan Elizabth Goodman
2001 Mikaya Press, NY
Beyond the Sea of Ice: The Voyages of Henry Hudson – “ 1999 “
La Salle: Down the Mississippi – Harold Faber (Great Exploration Series) 2002 Benchmark Books NY
Pocahontas - D'Aulaire
Jamestown Colony - Brendan January
The World of Captain John Smith (partial) - Genevieve Foster
Story of the World Vol 2 and 3 (partial)





Read Alouds - Science

The Periodic Table - A True Book
Oxygen - A True Book
Hydrogen and the Noble Gases - A True Book
Nitrogen - A True Book
Calcium - A True Book
Carbon - A True Book
Iron - A True Book
Mercury - A True Book
Zinc - A True Book
Chlorine - A True Book
Tin - A True Book
Archimedes: Ancient Greek Mathematician - Susan Keating (J only)
Archimedes and the Door to Science - Jeanne Bendick
Galen and the Gateway to Medicine - Jeanne Bendick
Fine Print - J. Johansen Burch
Leonardo the Beautiful Dreamer


J (incomplete)

The Canterville Ghost - Usborne Adaptation of O. Wilde
Little Wolf's Book of Badness - I. Whybrow
Little Wolf's Diary of Daring Deeds
Little Wolf, Forest Detective
Mice of the Herring Bone - T. Davis
The Adventures of Robin Hood - Classic Starts adaptation of H. Pyle
The Three Musketeers - Stepping Stones adaptation of A. Dumas
Da Vinci - M. Venezia
The Case of the Puzzling Possum - C. Ryland
The Case of the Troublesome Turtle - C. Rylant
A Brave Monk - R. C. Sproul Jr.
The Sword in the Tree - C. R. Bulla
The Minstrel in the Tower - G. Skurzynski
Mercury - S. Tocci (A True Book)
Spies - Richard Platt
Leif the Lucky - Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire (Beautiful Feet Books, 1941)
The Wild Year: Joshua's Oregon Trail Diary (My America series) - Patricia Hermes
Knights of the Kitchen Table - Jon Scieszka
Charlotte's Web - E B White
Weslandia - Paul Fleischman
Robinson Crusoe Reader - Christian Liberty Press
Mr Popper's Penguins - Atwater
The Real Thief - Wm. Steig
Great Illustrated Classics: Ivanhoe - Sir Walter Scott
GIC: The Jungle Book - R. Kipling
GIC: Tom Sawyer - M Twain
The Flying Tigers - John Toland (Landmark)
Tintin - lots
Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims - Clyde Robert Bulla
Wackiest White House Pets - Gibbs Davis

E (Incomplete)

Henry and Mudge and the Great Grandpas - C. Ryland
Mr. Putter and Tabby - C. Rylant
Mr. Putter and Tabby Pick the Pears - C. Rylant
Julian, Dream Doctor - A. Cameron
The Courage of Sarah Noble - A. Dalgleish
Ruth and Naomi - Jean Marzollo
Sleeping Bobby - Will and Mary Pope Osborne
Tacky The Penguin - Helen Lester
Pixie Tricks: Sprite's Secret - Tracey West
Daniel in the Lion's Den - Jean Marzollo
Poodlena - E. B. McHenry
The Sword in the Tree - R C Bulla
The Diamond Princess Saves the Day - J. V. Malcolm
Double Trouble Dwarves - Tracey West
The Wicked Wizard - Tracey West
Charlotte's Web - E B White
Mr Popper's Penguins - Atwater
Various American Girl books
Various Jewel Kingdom books
Various Animal Ark books
Magical Animals - Carol Watson
A Light Kindled (about Priscilla Mullins) - Tracy Lenninger
Squanto Friend of the Pilgrims - Clyde Robert Bulla
Orp
Cindy Ellen (A Wild Western Cinderella) - Susan Lowell
Miranda the Great - Eleanor Estes



Mom's Reading (this is pitiful)

The Daughter of Time - J. Tey
The Beekeeper's Pupil - S. George
A Little History of the World - E. H. Gombrich
Sweetness and Light - Hattie Ellis (don't remember finishing this)
Bible (daily reading)
The True Woman - Susan Hunt
By Design - Susan Hunt
Teaching the Trivium - Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn
Shepherding a Child's Heart - Tedd Tripp
Ex Libris - Ross King
Virgin Earth - Philippa Gregory
A Girl of the Limberlost - Gene Stratton-Porter
part of Marriage to a Difficult Man (Susanna Edwards)

Week of November 6

No records to keep, really. We progressed in all areas, more in some than in others.

Bible - Continuing with Psalms, finished Mark. Next is Isaiah.

Catechism - moving along. Did a review with J - he's in good shape. He knows it and more importantly, he understands it. E needs more work but she is getting there. She just doesn't apply herself to memorization. I am pretty sure, anyway. It's that little-girl voice she uses. Sounds so fake. "This is too hard." Remember the talking Barbie: "Math is hard." Ugh.

Math - getting a little better. J is getting faster w/the facts but is doing great in the geometry section of the mathematical reasoning. E is progressing a bit but still has to think - or pretend so - with simple things like 7 + 1.

Had some travel this week so listened to The Penderwicks, a great book-on-CD.

Both kids read/are reading Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims for next week's book club.

Swimming, PE and dance continue.

That's about it. No excitement. Need to add more writing, but don't I say that every week?

Week of 10/30

The big event this past week was the Reformation Celebration at church. This year's theme was the Huguenots, so we read Wings Like A Dove, a story about Jeanne d'Albret last week, to prepare. The story was pretty good, but focused on her life before she made her declaration to protestantism - the rest was mostly a postscript. Still, during the "sermon" part of the celebration the kids understood a bit more than they might have if we hadn't read it.

The day after Reformation celebration is always a bit slow, since we are recovering. But we progressed in all areas - the kids are slowly improving in their math facts, and reading, and writing. They are enjoying the Daily Grams practice and getting much better with punctuation, word usage (which was never much of a problem anyway), sentence combining.

Along with the math facts both kids are working in the Mathematical Reasoning books and J is just eating up the geometry part. I am always amazed at his visual/spatial abilities. E doesn't like it so much, nor is she as good at it. But she perseveres.

We are still reading a psalm a day, and are also reading a chapter of Mark each day. After Mark we will do Genesis, then tackle Isaiah.

Still reading the Swallows and Amazon series for pleasure.

For science, we are continuing with the BF history of science, now on the middle ages. We had previously read Fine Print, about Gutenburg and the press, but no one minds doing it again. We have slowed down a bit with "regular" history. J is reading The Landing of the Pilgrims and E is reading Mayflower Mystery or something like that, in support of American history, but SOTW has us taking a detour to Japan right now which is fine too. I don't place a lot of emphasis on non-western history at this point but they should know that things were going on in other parts of the world too.

Today we had a field trip to McMenamin's Edgefield Estate. Fun but not so great for the kids. A tour of the old building, which has some historical significance, then a brief tour of brewery and winemaking area. I think the wine area was most interesting. Funny thing for a kids' group.

My own reading continues in its desultory state. This morning I started some fun, light fiction: The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley, and I am going to go sit down with that right now.