Wrapping Up Week 15 (2015-16)

Posted on November 10, 2015 by Deanna

Last week was mostly spent recovering from our road trip. At home we focused mostly on math and history. The boys also had their IEW class and all the kids were happy to be back to their Friday music classes. I’m both looking forward to and dreading the holidays, because while a break is always nice, it’s hard for us to get back in the swing of things!

We continued enjoying King Arthur stories by reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, as told by Michael Morpurgo and beautifully illustrated by Michael Foreman. Ian enjoyed the book, though I found myself wondering if I should have skipped this one. During part of the story, Gawain is tempted by the wife of his host, and I became a little uncomfortable. We talked about the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife, comparing the wisdom Joseph showed by fleeing with Gawain’s foolishness in allowing someone else’s wife to spend time alone with him and accepting her kisses. It wasn’t exactly a discussion I would have planned for my 2nd grader, but once it had come up I didn’t want to just ignore the situation and give the impression that I was okay with such behavior.

Elijah really enjoyed mapping our trip and keeping track of which states we passed through, so I tried to give him time to practice the geography he had learned. He really enjoyed looking at maps of the US and putting together a wooden puzzle of the states. I love that we were able to make the map come alive for him, and I’m looking forward to exploring more of the country in the years to come!