What we are using

29 February 2008

Week 26 - Weekly Report

Like my dog sled team?

The girls are almost over their chicken pox. It has been a long week. We did learn that baking soda in the bath is even more comforting for the pox than oatmeal. Their appetites are back which is good - I was worried.

BB turned 18. We normally make a holiday of someone's birthday, but this year BB had two classes at the cc, and he even had an Italian test. So we had a big breakfast with presents and candles in the muffins, then he spent the rest of the morning studying and most of the day at school. Welcome to being an adult. It was very poignant for us since it was his last birthday home.

Our IEW lesson this week had us doing a rewrite of a fable with dress-ups. It was difficult. We had to change the story but keep the moral and basic plot the same. I have never done that kind of writing before. I do appreciate that the plot was set for us which allowed us to focus on the mechanics of writing and not have to really worry about coming up with original content. I always knew in theory that this was a good idea. Now I have experienced just how well it works. This really reaffirms my plan to implement classical writing in our homeschool from the beginning for the girls. I think I would like to actually do something like Writing Tales in a co-op. I need to think more about this. I wonder if there are any families in my co-op that would be interested in doing this...

We started doing the second grade part of FLL this week. I have been planning to start FLL 3 with CC before summer, but realized that I could try using what we have instead of buying something else. Shocking. I sat both of the girls down and taught lesson 100 to them. LB climbed on the back of the couch and added random nouns to our conversation while she was pretending to be a lion cub. CC was surprised that she knew what nouns were (they had been discussed in this week's IEW lesson that she was forced to listen to). One grammar lesson is complete - we'll have to see how long it lasts.

CC is still enjoying the HWT cursive book. We finished chapter 2 in BJU math 2. This week we counted playing Zoo Tycoon as part of school. The girls were feeling better, but not well enough so I tried to do enough school to keep them consistent but relax enough for them to rest and recover.

LB has been enjoying the Giant storybook by Beatrix Potter. She also started to really enjoy doing mazes.

BB is enjoying Frankenstein. He agreed that it is a nice change from all of the poetry that we have read. I think that it fits nicely with what he is studying in philosophy right now. Shelley's writing reflects the struggles of her age with questions about what it means to be human. It follows very nicely after Paradise Lost too. Not just because of the references to Milton, but also because of the creation and fall of the monster.

As for me, I actually walked for twenty minutes each day on the treadmill. I am trying to make it part of my routine. I also made wonderful shrimp pasta with a tomato cream sauce. Not that I needed another recipe with heavy cream, but it was REALLY GOOD. Thanks Ree!

3 comments:

my5wolfcubs said...

Hey, are those my long-lost relatives? :) Cute picture!

Glad to hear the girls are recovering, you got a lot done!
Lee

Anonymous said...

Oh man, if we lived near each other I would send my 2 littles over to get the pox! I SO want them to catch it. :-)

Your shrimp pasta sounds yummy!

Tina in WA said...

I think a writing tales class would be great. :o)

Glad to hear the kids are on the mend. I want mine to get it them the natural way when they are little. I am hoping I meet someone close by that has them. ;o)