Weekly Report: Discovery Week

"In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue..."
What an incredible discovery he made! I try to imagine what it must have been like. How he must of felt. The trip was horrendous. But to discover a new world! To change the course of that world forever. The whole world was changed and affected by that one single voyage. Yes, there had been others. But this one was definitive.

We enjoyed learning and discussing Christopher Columbus this week. We acted out a play. We drew pictures we read stories, biographies and poems. We reviewed the poem Sam learned last year about Columbus. It was neat.

Here are some more discoveries we made: Shamsi-Adad was NOT a nice guy and it probably wasn't easy living in Assyria around 1750 BC, Pennies should not be swallowed but do pass through our digestive system, Elise can read the scriptures by herself, Anna can get chocolate chips by herself, Samuel is good at memorizing, spilling water on the computer keyboard is not good for the keyboard, Dad looks different without a beard, we all discovered that Discovery Gateway is a really fun place!

Scripture Study: Alma 52-54. Things continue to be very exciting for Moroni. Well, it's tragic actually. War is always tragic. Wickedness NEVER was happiness. Helaman encouraged the Ammonites to keep their oath of not taking up arms. This must have been very difficult for the Ammonites. It must have been so hard for them to see the sacrifice of others on their behalf and NOT be able to defend themselves. Still, they trusted in the Lord and He provided them with a most amazing solution: Their sons. I can't imagine sending my son off to war. I hope I never have to. My heart breaks for all the mothers in the world who send sons and husbands off to war. Still, the example of these Ammonite mothers is eternal. And we will read of the miracles that take place because of these righteous mothers' examples. (I also loved re-reading Sister Beck's wonderful talk this conference session about Mothers Who Know)

Samuel:

• Saxon 5/4 lessons 24-25, Assessment 5
  
• Language Arts: "Farmer Boy" study lesson and book report
  
• Spelling: light, bright, might, sight, flight, blight, slight, tight, establishment, prohibiting, necessary, violated, infamous, indictment
• Memorization: Christopher Columbus (re-memorizing)
  
• Reading: many library books this week
  
• Journal writing
• Science: How we hear--inner ear/ Robotics at Discovery Gateway
  
• Piano: Half-Time Show, The Lonely Pine --YIKES we need to be practicing!!
• Composer: Francois Couperin
  
• SOTW: Chapter 8 The Assyrians and the Story of Gilgamesh
  
• Cub Scouts: Worked on Achievement 10, 11

Elise:

• Saxon2 lessons 21-23
  
• Language Arts: More Homonyms
• Spelling: eat, ear, treat, leaf, bead, peach, wheat, dream, clean
• Reading: "Frog and Toad are Friends" and "Uncle Elephant" by Arnold Lobel (one of our favorites)
• Journal writing
• Science: How we hear--inner ear, Robotics at Discovery Museum.
  
• SOTW: see above
• Piano: "Hey, Mr. Half-note Dot"
• Composer: Francois Couperin
• 50 States Book: Washington
  

Claire: Lesson 3 in "100 Easy Lessons", Claire has been practicing hand stands and flips! She's getting pretty good. She is amazing at the bridge.

Anna: She is climbing and getting into EVERYTHING! She is really turning into a toddler. She can play with the other kids..she even pretends to be a puppy when they are playing puppies!