This week at the House of Hope might aptly be called “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” or perhaps “The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat.”  This was our fifth week of schooling, so I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later.  Actually, in terms of learning, we had a good week.  It was more the organizational/logistical side of things that went awry.  Let’s address the good stuff first, shall we? 

Bible and Devotions

We continued reading about the prophet Elijah.  He went head-t0-head with the prophets of Baal this week, and then he fled from Queen Jezebel.  We read a couple of devotionals from Leading Little Ones to God and continued learning the verses to the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy.”  We pretty much have the first three verses down pat; we’re still working on verse four.  Our memorization of Psalm 24 continued, as well; we’re up through verse seven now. 

Reading
Lulu finished section ten and began working on section eleven in OPGTTR this week.  These were her independent read-alouds:

• Harry Gets an Uncle
• The Deer in the Wood (I thought this would be a winner due to the girls’ longstanding LHOTP obsession, and I was right!)
• Henry And Mudge And The Happy Cat

I know she read more than this; I’m pretty sure she finished a book a day during her mandatory ten minutes of quiet reading time prior to rest time, but I didn’t keep up with the titles.  I’ve tentatively put out a copy of a Magic Tree House book, Mummies in the Morning , in hopes that Lulu’s interest in mummies and Egypt (thanks to our history studies!) would give her the incentive to delve into a chapter book on her own.  I’m not pushing it, though–just offering, gently.  I think this is something that can’t be rushed.

Louise completed two lessons in OPGTTR this week:  lessons 34 and 35 (minus the game).  She also enjoyed all of Lulu’s read-alouds! 

Math

Lulu was introduced to writing equations this week in RightStart level B.  She also began keeping her math journal for RightStart, which is something I’m glad is a part of this particular curriculum.  (It’s something that I’ve always wanted to have her do, but not something I usually think of on my own.)  As I mentioned last week, we began using Math Mammoth this week, too.  We’re working in the light blue series, which is arranged topically.  Lulu worked on counting in groups of ten and naming and writing numbers.  I decided to not worry about aligning the curricula, but instead to let Lulu think about and work on the topics as they come.  I like both curricula and how they teach math conceptually (I believe this is the correct terminology), but I’m going to have to rein in my enthusiasm and limit how much I try to do in Math Mammoth, which I’m looking at as our secondary curriculum.  If not, math tends to go on and on. 

History

We had something of a difficult time getting history done this week, for some reason.  I only intended for us to cover one half of chapter four in SOTW 1–the “Making Mummies” portion of “The Old Kingdom of Egypt.”  We finally got around to writing hieroglyphics from last week, but we didn’t finish making our scrolls.  (Note to self:  Buy whatever school materials we need on the weekends; if we don’t have the materials by Monday, we’re not likely to get them through the week!)  We read a couple of supplemental books and began working on our Ancient Egypt history pocket (from History Pockets: Ancient Civilizations, Grades 1-3).I wasn’t sure how the girls would like reading and studying about mummification–it’s pretty gruesome.  In true kid fashion, they liked it.    Stay tuned to find out if I actually go through with my plan to mummify a chicken! 

Science

Our animals of the week were the giraffe, the camel, and the deer, via Elemental Science Biology for the Grammar Stage.  As usual, we read several supplemental books, and Lulu read aloud a few books related to our animal studies, as well.  We completed our first “experiment” this week (not including the one we did a few weeks ago that didn’t work out).  The idea behind this experiment is to figure out the importance of a camel’s large feet.  We took a large cardboard disc and a small cardboard disc and determined which one was easier to push down into a bowl full of salt (to mimic sand). 

I like to highlight any good books we read for our science studies, and this week, the camels won out.  This book is a fiction title, but it is a fun read.  What’s the Matter, Habibi?, written and illustrated by Betsy Lewin, is the story of a camel, Habibi, who gives rides to children to make a living for her master, who loves her and calls her “my darling.”  One day, Habibi refuses to get up, and her master is unable to figure out why.  It turns out that Habibi yearns to improve her appearance, and she steals her master’s shoes to make it happen.  This one made me laugh! 

We’re really enjoying this approach to science this year!

Language

More First Language Lessons and Writing With Ease.  Lulu finished memorizing “The Caterpillar” several weeks ago, but we finally got a new memory piece in FLL:  “Work.”  We managed to complete three lessons in each of these books this week. 

This is actually where Art should go, but this is also where “the Bad,” which I alluded to above, comes in.  On Thursday, our usual art lesson day, Louise had a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon.  This necessitated that I take Louise and the DLM out to my parents’ house, about fifteen miles in the opposite direction from the doctor’s office, and then get Louise over to the doctor.  I also try to mix it up a little on Thursdays–for all intents and purposes, it’s Friday for us here at home (the girls’ homeschool group meetings will resume next Friday), so I try to add in a little bit of fun.  After all, we’re homeschoolers, and we can do that, right?  Right.  I decided to bake cookies on Thursday, in addition to trying to accomplish most of what we usually do.   Well, we did make the cookies, but it was not a good day.  I do not handle stress well ( ), and I was a near-basket case all day, trying to get lots accomplished but still get out the door in time to make Louise’s appointment.  This is also where “the Ugly” comes in–as in, my attitude and dealings with my girls.  I don’t want to dwell on the bad here, especially since this is a record of our school year, but let’s just say that mama has a lot to learn about patience and letting things go.   

But like I said, we did bake cookies, and they were good.  (We used this recipe from Alton Brown.)

Chocolate works wonders, doesn’t it? 

On Friday we had to take the DLM to the photography studio to have his 3 month picture taken, and after lunch out and a few errands, we came home to have rest time.  The girls and I began working on our art lesson before we left this morning, and we finished it after we returned home and had rest-time.  I’ll post what we drew for Sketch Tuesday next week.

The girls have enjoyed listening to The Cowgirl Aunt of Harriet Bean, Caddie Woodlawn, and The Cricket in Times Square in audiobook during rest-time and in other little snatches of time this week.  We’re still reading Ginger Pye as our read-aloud.

I don’t usually mention Louise as much in our weekly report because since she’s not officially school-age yet, I often let her just play when she’s willing.  I try not to push, but as a not-much-younger sibling, she’s all about keeping up with big sister.  Louise did reach a milestone this week, though.  She finished her last toddler/little kid music class and will begin class piano lessons next week!    At Louise’s little mini-recital, Lulu tickled my mom because she brought in the book she was reading in the van on the way over so she could finish it.  Mom said that this was just like me growing up, and I suspect it was just like Steady Eddie, too.  We’re both bookworms from way back! 

The DLM–well, he just keeps getting cuter and more engaging.  This week he began making those cute little growly noises down in his throat.  We’re all quite taken with him. 

Well, it was a good week, despite my failings.    I just need to work on the organizational and planning end of things–how much can we realistically do when we have afternoon appointments?  Any ideas or advice?

I don’t want to end this week down in the dumps, so I’m going to end with a clip from one of my favorite t.v. shows.  When we studied giraffes at the beginning of the week, this clip kept playing over and over and over in my mind.   Enjoy! 

(I’m linking this post to the Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.)