Our Adventures: Week 5

Weekly Reporters!!

(Connection is to weak to upload pictures)

This last week was probably one of the toughest weeks that I have had personally in a long time. I struggled daily with my own personal demons and that effected our overall day of homeschooling... but with the Lord we got through it and rejoiced in His grace. I am going to turn these little weekly reports down a more detailed path. I have been just vaguely updating on each subject but need to be more specific with them. Each subject I will report where we are and where we should be and what I liked/disliked about it and changes that I feel will help it or us.

Starting us out as usual is...

Math: Where we should be: Lesson 25
Where we are: but we actually just finished lesson 20 along with the test. I am not sure how that happened? I thought we were on schedule with our math... This week I made some pretty big adjustments to our lessons. I bought a timer and did not allow any lessons go over 20 minutes. It did not matter whether or not we were "finished" or not. I told him that we only had 20 minutes to do each lesson and that I demanded his full attention in that short time. I was suprised at how well he accepted this and how much more we actually acheived in that amount of time rather than the usual drawn out 45 minutes :0).

Grammar: Where we should be: Lesson 7
Where we are: we finished lesson 6 this week so we are OFF but that is okay (no pressure :0) I have been so relaxed with this and just enjoying each lesson really trying not to put on any pressure with each new idea. What I am really trying to do with our grammar is read up on the lessons and then approach each one as a casual conversation... I am learning that we both respond with restful and giving spirits to the excercises when they are just "apart of our day".

Spelling: Where we should be: Exercise 5
Where we are: We finished Ex. 5 "The laborer is worthy of his hire." Luke 10:7. This is so simple but for me that can become my worst enemy, letting it slip between the cracks of math and science. This week was nice because I had a plan. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays are SW(Spelling Wisdom)day. Tuesdays we simple observe the exercise until we are confident of each word then spell each out loud several times. Wednesday's it is copied several times while examining each word and then spelled out loud and then on Thursday we dictate it. If it is still not his then we go into to Friday for a little more examination. I have each exercise typed out and put on an index card for easy use and then put on a metal picture holder where he can see it daily.

History: Where we should be: Lesson 5 The Medievel Indian Empire
WWA: We are there and this week was a little hard to concentrate on but I am very proud of his growing concentration and articulation in retelling me each chapter. Again like in the grammar I want each History lesson to be as natural as possible so we listen to the story together and then just discuss it together like any other story, NO pressure! We didn't do any projects :0(.

Science: WWSB: Flowers...
WWA: We passed flowers and are went through Food. We all enjoyed talking about and reading book about what foods we eat that come from seeds. We are continueing to observe our bean that has "gone crazy" as Superman puts it. He draws and colors his observations, he is just amazed at it.

Our bean gone "crazy" and it has only gotten crazier since this picture.

T-Rex captivated by ALL the seeds in a pumpkin!

Superman reading a beautifly illustrated and written children's book on Wildflowers.

Explode the Code: WWSB: Lesson 5
WWA: We finished lesson 4. I love these books and the great thing is that so does he! There is no fuss when I pull them out, from either one of us :0). He just glides right through each page in his little workbook and loves how they describe the rules of decoding... magical "e"s and making new words from old words!

Nature Study: This was fun, we went on a Mushroom hunt after reading the book Mushroom Hunt. We only found some very small ones but it was still fun. We have also been on the look out for any fungus we can see and I just love how excited my boy gets about a piece of old bark that has green fungus on it! :0)

Artist and Music Appreciation: We are nearing the end of Vincent and Mozart. We have njoyed them both so much. This week Superman created his own painting using the same technique as Van Gogh, Impasto. He had fun and I just love his creation. I have all of his paintings that we have hanging on the walls of our home. It is our own little Vincent Van Gogh exibit. It is fun when company comes over wondering why his paintings are placed all through out our house :0).

Extras: He decided last week to write a book. I honestly didn't think he would follow through with this but he did and he wrote about 5 pages. I was amazed and so pround. I am hoping to help him edit it and illustrate it and then turn it into a "book" :0).

I am praying that this next half week will be much more enthusiastic, disciplined, joyful and complete. It is a "half" week because we are taking 2 days completely off. One day to go to Six Flags and the other the Texas State fair. Mon. and Tues. are the only 2 days we can fit them in for sure. I hope that the Lord will grant me strength to push hard but joyfully the rest of the 3 days left in the week to complete all of our weeks lessons... but if not we press on and leave it all in His hands.

JOYfully in Him,
Kelli