Week 9 Weekly Report - 75 and Sunny

"With weeping and with laughter,

Still was the story told,
How well Horatius kept the bridge
In the brave days of old."

CC chose this as her copywork for the week. She liked the way it sounded, and was surprised at how the word laughter was spelled. After we finished our history reading this week, she said "I wish we could keep reading all day." I think that is wonderful. Sometimes I think the Baldwin book is too complex for her, but she is enjoying it and is always excited when we read it. I think that the complexity of the stories is part of the charm for her.

Co-op this week went well. On Monday, I was still uncertain what activity to do for Katy and the Big Snow, so I gave the book to CC and BB and instructed them to read the story and come up with an activity. They devised a game that was part treasure hunt. I used it in the class, and it worked well. I learned that FIAR works well even without me spending hours planning for it. I think I might just relax a bit about it. For the history class, we somehow sidetracked into a discussion of human migration and how salinization contributed to the spread of people. It was an interesting discussion to have with a class of mostly six year-olds. I always take my 3-d world map to class with me. I appreciate it every time we pull it out. It is not extremely detailed, but it is very tactile and seems indestructible - which is good since all the other maps I have are missing Antarctica due to a two year-old that will remain nameless.

CC went to a video expo with hubby this week. She did well from what I heard and surprisingly learned that she loves to be in front of a camera. She even got to learn to use some very expensive video equipment. When they got there the lady at the desk asked CC if she should be in school. Hubby got the pleasure of explaining that she is homeschooled and this is a field trip. For school work, I assigned her to read a chapter from a Little House chapter book and to find one fact about Romans that she didn't know in 100 Things You Should Know about Ancient Rome. After she came home, I asked her about the chapter she had read, she did a great narration of it, and I was surprised that instead of choosing the first chapter which is a story she already knew, she chose a chapter later in the book. This tells me that she read more than just the chapter assigned to her. She also told me several things she learned about Rome instead of just one.

We finished out the week by enjoying the weather at the park and pulling weeds by the fence. For the past two days, it has been 75 and sunny outside. I love the warm days this time of year - it seems like we appreciate them more since they are going to be quickly replaced by the more brisk temperatures.

LB found a ladybug while we were at the park. We brought it home and the girls made a habitat for it and found some leaves with aphids to feed it. This morning she kept singing the ABC song during breakfast. She even commented that she knows the song very well. I can't believe that my youngest baby will be three next week.

Monday, I sat down with BB and went over the literature with him. I have been negligent about this, but I am glad that I made the time for it because I really enjoyed talking to him about it. It is easy to get into the habit of just tossing work at him instead of sitting down with him.