Wrapping Up Week 28 (2015-16)

Posted on March 7, 2016 by Deanna

Last week continued our trend of sickness and field trips tweaking our regular school schedule, but we managed to stay on top of things. Thankfully the boys can get through their math independently (Ian in Teaching Textbooks Math 3, Elijah in Year 1 of MEP, with both doing drills on xtramath.org every day that we’re home). Ian’s also really good about doing his Veritas Press Self-Paced History course on his own, studying the Inquisition this past week.

Field Trips

On Monday we visited the Compassion Experience along with some other friends from our homeschool group. The kids really liked learning about what life was like for two sponsor children in Kenya and the Philippines. Even Nicholas (2) did better than I expected, though he had a little trouble keeping the headphones on his head.

Then on Thursday we visited the Huntington Library and Gardens to see their complete vellum copy of the Gutenberg Bible (one of only five left in the world). It was pretty impressive to think that we were looking at something actually created by Johann Gutenberg over 500 years ago! The kids also had a wonderful time exploring the Children’s Garden.

A few final thoughts

We’re being stretched (in a good way) by Essentials from Logic of English. It’s a very detailed curriculum, more structured than anything else we do, but I’m already seeing some very positive results. It’s also created a new dynamic for us, teaching Ian and Elijah the same thing simultaneously. It’s spurring both of them on, and so far I like what I’m seeing from them. I think we accomplish more when they’re working together than we would if Ian were going through the program alone. The little ones have also loved having time to play on Starfall (we’ve had the “more Starfall” subscription for several years and LOVE it) and Reading Eggs while we do our Essentials work.

We also had fun getting started with Stopmotion Explosion. Both boys have made short little movies to learn the basic process, and we’re getting ready to tackle something a little bigger. Out of all the things we’ve reviewed, I think the boys will remember this one the most!