What we are using

14 May 2010

Week 31 - I think we have a working plan, again

This counts as science right - maybe nature studies? We found and released a spider from my office which inspired a morning of reading about bugs and an art project. This is made with tape and string.

I've been a little lost since I changed from working weekends to working at home during the week. I needed to refocus. I talked last weekend with CC about what was important in school and reread sections from The Latin Centered Curriculum and The Well Trained Mind, and browsed through several homeschool catalogs I have. We decided that that reading better books more slowly is better for us that speeding through simple books. We reconfirmed that grammar is boring (no matter how much you pay for a grammar program) when you just study grammar. So we are really back to where we started.


I made a new weekly sheet divided into daily work. We managed to get all of the work done as planned except that we skipped school on Thursday due to an unplanned lesson in instinct and behavior - the dog finally got into the poultry pen, and we had a tragic death.

Here is how the rest week was planned and executed. First Start French everyday covers what we were trying to get from grammar programs so she did Lesson 1 this week. A Japanese lesson everyday stretches the brain in some important ways so that is what was planned and what has happened.


Math is back to a full Saxon lesson every day plus work from the Problemoids or the Math Perplexors to provide challenge and logical thinking in addition to computational mastery.


We planned for her to build a project from her invention box every week and explain to me how it works. This week's project was a generator. She and BB were excited to build it together, and she did a terrific job explaining how it worked. She also does nonfiction reading of her choice before breakfast which for this week was from various history books plus a bug encyclopedia.

She had fun with some art and completed her intentional writing project.


LB spent the week playing and doing art. Like her motorcycle?




One thing they did together besides Japanese was to listen to wisdom tales from other cultures then retell them to me. CC is a great storyteller, and LB is learning. It is a wonderful exercise for the memory, and it helps them to learn to pick important and interesting details and order their thoughts. Next week, I plan to have them retell the story they told this week in addition to telling a new one.

2 comments:

laughinglioness.lisa@gmail.com said...

Sounds like a week full of learning. I love the web, as well as the artwork = )!

WildIris said...

I love the photo of your daughter on the hobby horse. My DD looks just like that-sunglasses, skirt and horse. I am looking for grammar too. DD~12 concurs-grammar is boring. Have you found anything interesting yet? For what age/grade are you looking?

Working from home makes homeschooling hard. The boundaries for work, school and home are less defined.

Thanks for sharing your week.
Iris