Wrapping Up Week 33 (2015-16)
We kicked off the week with a choir festival, in which Ian got to both sing and and his first performance with handchimes. It was a wonderful experience and fun reward for the last couple years of work he’s put in in our Friday music classes.
Science
We’ve got a few science-related reviews coming up, but this week our main focus was the Book of Astronomy Set from Memoria Press. I was really excited about this product, and so far it’s living up to my expectations. This week we memorized the fifteen brightest stars and began learning about the constellations. One night Ian came in from playing announcing that he’d found Orion’s belt, so we grabbed our book and headed outside to see how our picture of the constellation matched up with the real thing. Another night we were out late and as we walked in from the car, Elijah said, “That looks like something to scoop up soup!” Sure enough, he’d found the Big Dipper.
We’ve haven’t learned about Orion or the Big Dipper yet, so that was as far as our stargazing went those nights, but I’m thrilled to see the boys looking to the sky and recognizing the pictures that have captured man’s attention for thousands of years. When I lived in rural Kenya back before I got married, I was so familiar with the stars in the night sky and always aware of the current phase of the moon, but now being back in busy, light-polluted Southern California I rarely look up or sense the rhythm of the heavenly bodies as the months pass by. I am enjoying learning alongside my children as we “listen” to the heavens declaring the glory God.
Computer Learning
We have grown so dependent on our computers this year, and when I cracked the screen on one of them a couple weeks ago it really disrupted our rhythm. Thankfully, I was able to replace it this week (thank you, YouTube!), and so both boys are able to work at the same time.
Language Arts
Both boys spent quite a bit of time on Read, Write, and Type. I love the extra spelling practice it is giving them. Elijah seems determined to complete all ten levels, and I’m going to have both of them keep working toward that goal. Ian has to work harder on spelling than his brother, and this will be a fun way to practice through the summer. He also got started exploring Essential Skills Advantage.
History
Ian only as two lessons left in his Veritas Press Self-Paced History Course on the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation! This has been one of our favorite things about this school year. He’s always eager to get his history done, and it’s been a great introduction to the Classical method has he’s memorized the timeline and worked through the lessons.
Math
Ian is just a few lessons away from completing Teaching Textbooks Math 3. I’ll give him the summer off before we continue onto Math 4. For now, he’ll finish up his A+Interactive Math Mini-Course on time, since he’s still struggling to master reading a clock, and then just keep up with facts practice. The boys have had a break from xtramath.org while the extra computer was down. I’m dreading to see their scores next week. For Elijah, summer math will consist of facts practice and completing the A+Interactive Math Mini-Course on money, but he’s still got a few weeks worth of MEP lessons left.
A few final thoughts
This week should see us finishing up most of our year’s curriculum, as well as the final choir performance for all three kids in the music program, but the boys still have several weeks left in their IEW class, plus working on our review products, so while things will be changing, we’re not quite looking at a full break just yet.
Upcoming Reviews
We’re enjoying several products right now, so watch for these reviews in the next few weeks:
- A+Interactive Math Mini-Courses
- Wonderfully Made: God’s story of life from conception to birth by Danika Cooley
- Captain John Smith: A Foothold in the New World book and unit study from YWAM publishing
- Music Appreciation Book 1 Collection from Zeezok Publishing, LLC
- Book of Astronomy Set from Memoria Press
- Introductory Science from Shepherd Science
- Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization from IEW
- Essential Skills Advantage
- Hey Mama! Schoolhouse Planner from The Old Schoolhouse
- Plug n’ Play Hub by Securly (helping provide safe wifi for kids)
Then we really enjoyed learning about NASA and America’s exploration of space. 
all week. They’ve gotten so familiar with the names of the moons of various planets through this game, and they loved it when they’d recognize them in the videos we watched.
It wasn’t assigned in the course, but I had him read 
I’m definitely ready for the break myself. After posting my 
,” “
,” and “
.”
The boys (and Daddy) had a great time at the First Flight field trip sponsored by the Mighty Ducks hockey team. They learned a lot about electricity and had a blast exploring the different exhibits and watching the demonstration on the ice.
by Eleanor Porter, just finishing it up this weekend. I wasn’t sure how a book almost entirely about one little girl and the adults around her was going to go over, but it was a big hit all around. Ian was constantly begging for more chapters, and Elijah and Arianna actually stayed and listened for most of it as well, which is unusual for them.
We also enjoyed stepping back in history with 
, which is a great DVD for learning more about the subject from a biblical worldview.
, and then the boys and I played several rounds of our new favorite, 
set for Christmas. Eli really prefers creative construction to following directions, but I wanted him to learn about specific building techniques that he could use, so we pulled out 
to learn about different types of bridges, and each boy built one of the models in the K’NEX kit.
I’ve missed the way we used to start our school days together, so I decided to begin cultivating the habit of “circle time” each morning once again. We do our main family Bible study together with Daddy in the evenings (now that we’re through the Advent season, we’re back to 
a while back, so I pulled it off the shelf and we started in with it. Everyone seemed to listen an absorb it well, so I think we’ll stick with it for while. The page introducing January featured Jeremiah 29:13, and all three older kids did a great job memorizing that verse over the course of the week.
a few years ago. We revisited some of our favorite books, CDs, and videos about Venice and the famous Venetian composer 
(Lovely picture book that tells the story of Vivaldi’s life)
(story about a girl who sings with at the Pieta school in Venice where Vivaldi worked. Not completely accurate, but still gives a glimpse into this piece of history.)
Ian has listened to this several times a year since we first found it. I think it’s his favorite of all the titles in 
and 
(though we’ve enjoyed them all). I didn’t realize there’s also a 
to go along with the story, so I just ordered it to surprise him. (We have a couple of the others that complement the CDs in the series already and love them.)
(8-minute streaming video featuring a Venetian boy sharing about his home)
(25-minute streaming video that provides a good introduction to the city)
(This is a fascinating program about how Venice was built and the dangers facing it in modern times. I watched it on Netflix years ago, but now that’s it’s no longer streaming I bought the DVD because it’s so interesting.)
is still a little too advanced for my kids this time around (though we probably could have done some of the projects), so we stuck with 
, which has a great map in the front of it which I copied and laminated so the boys could follow along as I read the book (as well while we read 
during Circle Time one day).
, in which Patick and Beth travel to the court of Kublai Khan and meet Marco Polo. The biggest hit of the week, however, was a series I stumbled across on Netflix called 
, part of the Basher Science Books collection.
(He took care of the volcano models and spared me the mess.)
