It's been a little while since I've posted a weekly report. We have been doing school, this week and last week. It's been relatively lax, as far as book work goes. But there has been no shortage of learning. Let me assure you. Here are some highlights:
Elise has been flourishing in writing and reading. Maybe all she needed was a little break. Maybe she just felt like it needed to be her decision to do it. Maybe it just clicked. Whatever it was, she is now a happier reader (and writer). We have serious spelling issues still. She's six. The words that she misspells in her journal entry, we use as spelling words for the week. We also have hand writing issues. When I ask her to re-write her journal entry with the correct spelling and neater writing she says, "But mom, I want to remember how I wrote when I was six." At least she enjoys writing now. It use to be like pulling teeth. I know the rest will come in time as she continues to practice everyday. She continues to do well in math, geography, history and science.
Samuel is a reading machine. He really absorbs what he reads and that is good. We are working on his writing skills. Her writes like he talks. He did do a book report this week. You can read it at his blog here. We also did a poetry unit in Language Arts. Sam really likes to make paper projects. This week, with all the bad weather, his room looks like another world. He has paper projects everywhere and his floor is littered with the scraps. He learned about the associative property and division this week in math. He continues to do very well in geography and history. I need to be better about instigating science, although he does quite a bit of reading from science books.
Claire is such a wonderful helper. She has been struggling with sleeping in her own bed. She sleeps on the bottom bunk in the girls' room. So, I suggested to her that maybe we could decorate her bed and make it a special place for her. We had fun coloring princess pictures and hanging up pretty fabric all around her bed. She is sleeping better now. Claire is getting better at recognizing the letters and their sounds. She is also getting better at drawing faces. She did a lot of painting this week. Claire likes to bring out my pots and pans and wooden spoons and creates her own kitchen in a corner of our living room. She puts on my shoes (she prefers one black high heeled shoe and one white) and apron. She brings her dolls and stuffed animals along and then lives in her own world for at least an hour. Anna loves to join her.
Anna had a difficult week. It seemed like her head was always in the wrong place at the wrong time. She collected a couple of bumps there and a few scraps on her knees. She is just SO adventurous and HAS to do what the big kids are doing. She continues to talk more and more. She also get frustrated and screams when she feels like she is being teased or when she can not get her way. This week she struggled with sleeping through the night. Hopefully it will be better now that Claire is back to sleeping through the night.
We've been studying Ancient Greece. Very interesting. My kids still don't like the Odyssey. But we owe a lot to the Greeks. I've recently acquired the History Pockets projects from a mom in our home school group and we've been having fun making puppets and masks and Parthenons in addition to reading our Story of the World chapters.
We did some science projects involving solids and liquids this week. Ice was on our minds and all around us so we experimented with ice expansion.
Speaking of ice, the snow this week prompted this poem for memorization:
Snowflakes
Out of the bosom of the air,
Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken
Over the woodland brown and bare
Over the harvest fields forsaken,
Silent, and soft, and slow
Descends the snow.
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
We discovered a really cool web site this week. It's called Brain Pop. You can sign up for a free trial and enjoy all these great animated shorts on so many subjects. Check it out.
We had the opportunity to have some deep and spiritual conversations in our family this week. (As deep as you can have with young children) With the passing of our friend, we reflected on our Heavenly Father's plan for us. We talked with our kids about what happens to us when we die. About forgiveness and mercy. We've been reading in 3 Nephi. It is so wonderful to hear the Savior speak about love and mercy. We are memorizing this scripture this week:
"Behold, I am the law, and the light. Look unto me, an endure to the end, and ye shall live; for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life." (3 Nephi 15:9)
Honestly, eternal life is not always first on my list of things to accomplish for the day. This week as I sat at the funeral of a friend, I was reminded that it is the most important thing in the world. Everything I do should point toward that goal. This week I hugged and kissed my children more. I watched them in silent awe. I held my husband a little tighter. And tried to think more of how I could make him happy. I prayed more fervently and thoughtfully. And tried to let all the little things go so that I could see the bigger picture more clearly.
4 comments:
Sounds like a good week. My kids keep talking about going to the snow. Rain just doesn't cut it. Making snowmen and such does look like fun!
I am glad that you found a positive perspective from your friend's funeral. It is sad to loose someone especially in that way but the reminder of what is really important is something good to take away from it.
Cute pictures! It looks like you are all having tons of fun! Funerals are hard, but I always come away with a little different understanding of who I am and what I'm doing.
*hugs*
As hard as it is to be reminded of our mortality, isn't it nice when our vision of the eternity is renewed? When we have the opportunity to sit back and ponder about more than just getting through the day? I'm so sorry for what happened to your friend, but grateful you could turn your emotions into something positive.
Keeping an eternal perspective is rather hard when we are going about the mundane tasks of life. But it's the choices we make while going about our daily tasks that determine what the end result will be.
Once again I amazed at all the things you guys learn in school. If I was better at keeping track of what we did each week I'd probably be amazed at what we are able to accomplish too.
Post a Comment