Weekly Report, TOG2, Week 14

We've had a tumultuous week. Dh and Danny have had the flu, I've been trying to take care of them and keep up with the house including sanitizing everything so that Camille and I don't get sick. I went to bed last night with a 102 fever but this morning I feel fine except a little congested.

But, we've had a great week again in our lessons! Unbelievable. I guess this was the true test of short lessons, whether our lessons would get done when life demanded more of me than usual. They did even though we have lessons to do today still. Please excuse how happy we are with our lessons, I think we've hit our groove and what works best for us at this time.

Bible
I cannot express how proud of Camille I am, she is reading Beginnings II: Jesus My Shepherd almost effortlessly, all on her own and she is able to answer the questions without problem. At the beginning of this year, I thought she would need another year to figure out comprehension questions, she got very frustrated when the question weren't worded exactly like the text and now it's not a problem for her to seek out the answers. Her reading level has increased too. I am still sitting with her for Bible and I think she will be ready to move into the Discovery product for 3rd grade which reads from scripture with comprehension questions.

Math
Horizons is going well, this is the one subject that can take more time than I'd like but Camille is finally understanding that if she doesn't dwaddle with her work, it's beneficial for both of us. I feel like Camille has matured quite a bit this year and dropping the rote memorization has been a wonderful thing for her. She has breezed through her lessons this week although she has needed more teaching from me with new concepts. I expect that though.

Poetry
I scheduled "Once I Saw a Little Bird" to be memorized for all of this month and she accomplished that in the first week. I've been having her review her poems to keep them fresh. Thankfully next week she'll move on to "Time to Rise". We both love her new poetry notebook although she is going to be required to write in cursive from now on.

Primary Language Lessons
This is probably the best change I could have done for us. She is absorbing the lessons very well and she's constantly amazed at how quickly she can finish them. The writing is just enough for both of us at this time and I think we'll continue to use this non-stop.

Explode the Code, book 5
She's on the last lesson! This coming week she will finish book 5 and it has been exactly what she needed, more phonetic work. She is moving more quickly through the lesson in comparison to when she first started it and she's even attempting to spell words without any help. I have her do 2 pages a day so she's able to do a lesson in 4 days because there are 8 pages of work to each lesson. The teacher's guide has been a blessing, I'm really able to help her through it's guidance, although I was concerned whether we really needed it.

French
Écoutez, Parlez! is a hit. It is Camille's playdoh time now. She loves listening to it while playing with playdoh and her confidence grows each time she reviews a unit. I'm having her work through 1 unit for two weeks, so this week will be the last one for unit 1 and I'll have her do the workbook pages to determine if she needs more review.

Piano
Camille is to practice everyday for 15 minutes but we've talked and I told her to play all of her songs in her books up to the new one and then practice the new one 3x. If it takes 15 minutes, so be it. If longer, so be it. Her lessons are going well but if we move in June, it will also mean finding a new teacher. Sigh. I think she started piano lessons in the fall of 2006- I need to check on that b/c if that so, this fall will mean that she has completed two years of piano lessons. There's a decision on the horizon.

History
This week we learned about the Aztecs and Hernan Cortes as well as the scientific advancements during the Renaissance. We really enjoyed reading about Nicolaus Copernicus. I wasn't as organized as I needed to be, what a convicting reminder! If I'm going to pick books from the supplemental area and bounce from lower to upper grammar, I really need to read the books beforehand.

Science
Today is actually our lesson but Camille has been reading The Magic School Bus Chapter book: Space Explorers and narrating it. We did watch an "Universe: Sun" episode yesterday and today we'll complete our lesson on the sun as well as hang our "sun" from the ceiling. We're hanging our solar system as we learn. My kids love gimmicks like that, go figure. We have not done Nature Study this week b/c of our health issues and the weather. It has been thunderstorming here throughout the week, intermingle that with the flu and it's so much fun!

Camille did go outside and observe the many robins in our yard. We tried to take a picture of the 20 or so robins pecking at our yard but like I've said before- we need a better camera.

We are on schedule and our next break is April 7-11. I think we'll actually make it! Even Danny with a fever wanted to do "sckool" which meant he wanted to play Starfall.