Week in Review: Week 9

It was a fairly good week for us. We completed everything on my to-do list. I added Greek to our daily schedule last week and TJ is loving it. She keeps humming the Letter Sound-Off.

Diagonals and Vertices

The Basics: We focused on the sums that add to 11 and a bit of geometry this week in math. We finished step 2 in spelling, more work with action verbs in grammar, and the names of various body parts in French. We're working on learning the Greek alphabet too.

Monday's history work

History: We read another two chapters in The Story of the World this week – the early Greeks and the first Olympics.  We read a story about the Trojan Horse and a book about the early Olympics. TJ made two Greek masks while I read a bit about Homer and a story from the Odyssey.

Poke, poke, "eww!"

Science: The kids learned about fish this week in our mini co-op. They enjoyed the dissection process and looking at the organs (okay, so it was more like lots of poking and saying "eww!"). In her independent study, TJ read a book about goldfish and filled out an animal study page for her notebook.

Animal study page - Goldfish

Reading: We're reading Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle for our evening read-aloud (and enjoying it a lot!). We gave up on The Princess and the Goblin (our breakfast audio book). TJ just isn't into it so we'll set it aside for now and give it a try in a year or two. TJ finished reading Young Cam Jansen and the Spotted Cat Mystery. We flipped through Sing a Song of Popcorn during our 'poet-tea' time and read a pile of picture books (The Legend of the Persian Carpet and Custard the Dragon and the Wicked Knight were TJ's favorites). 

I'm linking this post to Weekly Wrap-Up.

Book Review: Head in the Clouds

When a recovering romantic goes to work for a handsome ranch owner, her heart's not the only thing in danger!

Adelaide Proctor longs to find a real-life storybook hero to claim as her own. But when a husband-hunting debacle leaves her humiliated, she interviews for a governess position on a remote Texas sheep ranch and vows to leave her silly romantic yearnings behind.

Gideon Westcott left his privileged life in England to make a name for himself in America's wool industry, never expecting to end up with a child. To his dismay, five-year-old Isabella hasn't uttered a word since she lost her mother. The unconventionality of the new governess concerns Gideon—and intrigues him at the same time. But he can't afford distractions.

When Isabella's uncle comes to claim the girl—and her inheritance—Gideon and Adelaide must work together to protect Isabella from the man's evil schemes. Soon neither can deny their growing attraction. But after so many heartbreaks, will Adelaide be willing to get her head out of the clouds and put her heart on the line?

About the Author: Karen Witemeyer holds a master's degree in psychology from Abilene Christian University and is a member of ACFW, RWA, and the Abilene Writers Guild. She has published fiction in Focus on the Family's children's magazine, and has written several articles for online publications and anthologies. Head in the Clouds is her second novel. Karen lives in Abilene, Texas, with her husband and three children.

My Thoughts: Head in the Clouds is Karen Witemeyer's second novel and is even better than her first (you can read my thoughts on her debut novel here). Her characters are funny and endearing and the story is memorable. I enjoyed the little bit of time I spent in the world she created. If you're looking for a light, fun historical romance with Christian overtones then I highly recommend Witemeyer's books.

Now for the fine print… I received this product free of charge in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was provided.

"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. Available at your favourite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group".

What's on your Nightstand?

It seems like I've gotten through a ton of books lately but the basket in the living room is still full! (Guess I should probably stop ordering more library books for awhile!) Here are some of the things I've just finished:

C. S. Lewis's Out of the Silent and Perelandra - I'm still waiting for the last book in the trilogy to arrive. Very good series.

Mockingjay - I really liked the first book in this series but I have to admit that I wasn't that thrilled with this one. The violence just seemed to take on a whole new level compared to the other two books.

Teaching What Really Happened – loved this book! Nice look at how history textbooks are put together and lots of information about times in history that I didn't know much about. I've got another book in my stack from this author and I'm looking forward to reading it.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society – I LOVED this book! What a charming story (told in letter form) about such a hard subject – the German occupation in the Channel Islands during World War 2. Beautiful story.

Here are just a few of the books that are at the top of my stack:

• Gulliver's Travels
• Secrets of Mental Math
• The Divine Commodity
• All Things Wise and Wonderful
• Six Walks in the Fictional Woods
• My Life in France
• Lies My Teacher Told Me

What's on Your Nightstand?

From the Teacher's Desk

Here's the plan for week 9:

Morning Devotions: The Children's Bible in 365 Stories and Leading Little Ones to God; TJ's also reading one section of The Beginner's Bible each evening

Drill and Recitation: Matthew 6:9-13; various poems (from First Language Lessons and others); French days of the week; seven wonders of the ancient world; first 20 emperors of Rome

Math: RightStart Math, lessons 63-65

Writing: Writing with Ease, week 16

Spelling: All About Spelling, lessons 2-3

Grammar: First Language Lessons 1/2, lessons 54-55

Languages: French Mission ABC, lesson 16; Greek Alphabet Code Cracker, unit 2; Song School Greek, chapter 1

History: The Story of the World 1, chapters 19-20

Science: Animal study – frogs; science experiments from Science with Water

Read-Alouds: Breakfast – The Princess and the Goblin; Evening – Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and history or science books

Week in Review: Week 8

We had a not-so-great week off (TJ and I both ended up with a gastro-intestinal bug which thankfully didn't last very long) and were actually looking forward to starting school again this week!

After reading this post at Milk & Cookies I decided to change things up this week. Instead of just working through our list of subjects, TJ and I laid everything out on the table. I had her stand back and toss a coin at the table and we worked on whichever subject the coin landed on. I was only planning to do this for one day but TJ thought it was really fun so we ended up doing it every day. It was a nice way to break up the routine.

Order of subjects from left to right, top to bottom: Poetry (TJ's choice for the day), Recitation, Math, Drill work, Writing, Read-Alouds, Reading, History, Grammar, and Spelling.

The Basics: This week we focused on the 9s trick in RightStart. The manual only allots 2 days to this but I wanted TJ to spend a bit more time working on the concept so we spent the week playing some extra math games and adding 9s. We started the first lesson in All About Spelling book 2, worked on action verbs in grammar, and animals and counting in French. We also started learning Greek this week using a combination of The Greek Alphabet Code Cracker and Song School Greek.

Working on the 9s trick

History: We covered another two chapters in history. The first day we spent learning more about Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, and Daniel. The next day we learned about Crete and the story of the Minotaur. TJ spent her project time making a maze for the minotaur. The little pony is Theseus, of course! ;-)

Building a maze for the minotaur

Science: No science group this week. TJ spent her science period working on water experiments and watching a few segments of a Discover and Do DVD.

Reading: I finished reading aloud Betsy and Tacy go over the Big Hill and started Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle (which I think will be another favorite!). We started listening to The Princess and the Goblin for our breakfast audio book (Mr. Popper's Penguins had to go back to the library before we finished it so we're on the list for that one again!) TJ finished reading Clara and the Bookwagon and started Young Cam Jansen and the Spotted Cat Mystery. We also finished reading through The New Oxford Treasury of Children's Poems and flipped through a few history books. TJ's current favorite is You wouldn't want to be an Egyptian Mummy.

I'm linking this post to Weekly Wrap-Up.

From the Teacher's Desk

Here's the plan for week 7:

Morning Devotions: The Children's Bible in 365 Stories and Leading Little Ones to God; TJ's also reading one section of The Beginner's Bible each evening

Drill and Recitation: Matthew 6:9-13; Psalm 23; various poems (from First Language Lessons and others); systems of the body; counting by 2s; +5s math facts; counting in French; grammar definitions; French vocabulary

Math: RightStart Math, lessons 61-64

Writing: Writing with Ease, week 15

Spelling: All About Spelling, lesson 1

Grammar: First Language Lessons 1/2, lessons 52-53

French: Mission ABC, lesson 15; French lapbook

History: The Story of the World 1, chapters 17-18

Science: Animal study – frogs; science experiments from Science with Water

Read-Alouds: Breakfast – Mr. Popper's Penguins; Evening – Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and history or science books

Crew Review: William Tyndale E-Book

To God Alone the Glory. That is the cornerstone of Soli Deo Gloria Resources and their belief that all things, even our education, should glorify Him. Glorifying Him through all that we do, all that we learn, and all that we are is ultimately what we are called to do as His children. With this thought in mind, Kim Kargbo offers her unit studies for various subjects from geography, history, Bible, or science.

The Homeschool Crew had the opportunity to review some of the unit studies available from Soli Deo Gloria. I received the e-book William Tyndale: God's Smuggler. Kim originally intended this 5-day study to be a simple introduction for those who had never done a unit study and wanted to "get their feet wet." It's also adapted to fit a multi-level homeschool, with ideas and activities for students of all ages.

What's Included: This 21-page study is divided into 5 days. It's an all-inclusive study that includes language arts, history, science, Bible, and other subjects. During this week-long survey, you'll learn about Tyndale as well as the time-period in which he lived.  You will need to purchase a book or video about Tyndale to use this study - the author includes a helpful list of resources that will work.

Each day you will read from the resource book that you've chosen and then you can refer to the list of activities and projects - vocabulary, timeline ideas, copywork passages, and mapping, to name a few of the ideas offered. Every day follows the same format with different activities listed for each.

What we thought: We didn't really use this unit study because we don't own any of the recommended resources and it would be almost impossible to do this program without at least one other resource. The list of books and videos is nice and I can see how it would make the unit study quite versatile. While I think the study includes a nice list of activities there isn't anything I couldn't have come up with on my own. But if I had more children and less time I'm sure I'd appreciate having the work done for me!

William Tyndale: God's Smuggler is offered in e-book form for $8 and there is a sample available at their website if you're interested in learning more.

The Homeschool Crew had the opportunity to try a few different resources from Soli Deo Gloria. You can read about their experiences at the Crew blog.

Now for the fine print… I received this product free of charge in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was provided.

Crew Review: Read, Write & Type!

Talking Fingers, Inc. has developed a fun typing program geared to kids ages 6-9. With a combination of interesting characters, colorful backgrounds, and fun games, Read, Write & Type! will have your child learning the basics of typing in no time!

The Read, Write & Type Learning System is a reading software program that covers phonics, spelling, keyboarding and word processing. It even includes special features to help students with learning disabilities or students who are learning English as a second language.

Your child will begin their typing adventures after they meet Lefty and Rightway – the friendly hands that will show them where to go. Along they way they'll have to battle the troublesome alien blob, Vexor, to rescue the letters of the keyboard and help them get back to their proper places. With fun games and silly stories, your child will be learning to read and learning to type at the same time.

There's also a place for parents to keep track of how their kids are doing with the program. By clicking on your child's name you'll find an easy to read progress report that shows scores for reading, phonics, and spelling.

What we thought: TJ thought the games were fun but found that holding her hands on the keyboard and reaching the letters was difficult for her small fingers. It's was an odd combination for her because her reading skills are past the level of instruction presented (at least the first few levels; perhaps the other levels are more advanced) but she just couldn't keep her hands on the keyboard properly for the length of time needed to play.

I think the idea of this program is nice but it doesn't really work for us. TJ doesn't struggle with reading and she's still too young to learn to type properly. She likes the games but prefers to 'hunt and peck' to find the right letters. I believe this program would work well for a child who is struggling with reading or needs a different approach to phonics instruction.

We received the one-year online membership of Read, Write & Type to review. Membership for one child is $35 (for the online program) and less for each additional child. There is also a CD version of the program for $79. If you're curious about the program, you can try out the free sample lessons.

Interested in reading what other homeschooling families thought of this program? You can read about their experiences at the Crew blog.

Now for the fine print… I received a one-year membership for this product free of charge in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was provided.

Week in Review: Week 7

We ended up having a three day week since TJ caught a bad cold. Thankfully, she's recovering and no one else has caught it!

The Basics: No math lessons this week; I wanted to take a week to review concepts so we played a lot of math games instead. We finished up the last lesson in All About Spelling book 1 so we'll be starting book 2 after Thanksgiving. In other subjects – more about pronouns in Grammar, proper nouns in writing, and animals in French.

History: We covered another two chapters in history again this week. We learned about the Phoenicians on Monday and the rest of the week we spent in Assyria. We read about David and the Israelites, Ashurbanipul, Nineveh, and Jonah. It was quite a full week. TJ's favorite part was building a siege tower. There was an an epic battle between the Playmobil nation, who, along with the Little Ponies, fought valiantly against the Lego man leading his army of Strawberry Shortcake allies.  Alas, Lego man was defeated because of the vast size of the Playmobil army. ;-)

Science: We learned about shrimp in our science co-op this week. TJ is diligently observing the growth of her brine shrimp. She's also doing an independent science period each week. Right now she's working through a 2-page spread in Science with Water, reading the pages, doing the experiments, writing something about what she learned in her science journal, and watching the corresponding experiments on Sonlight's Discover & Do dvd.

Reading: We have a few chapters left to finish in Betsy and Tacy go over the Big Hill. We finished our last Ramona book (with much rejoicing from me!) and started Mr. Popper's Penguin. TJ's still reading through Calvin & Hobbes, a few Annie and Snowball books, and she's reading a chapter a day of a Henry & Mudge book aloud. We're still reading through The New Oxford Treasury of Children's Poems during our "Poet-tea".

I'm linking this post to Weekly Wrap-Up.

From the Teacher's Desk

Here's the plan for week 7:

Morning Devotions: The Children's Bible in 365 Stories and Leading Little Ones to God; TJ's also reading one section of The Beginner's Bible each evening

Drill and Recitation: Matthew 6:9-13; Psalm 23; various poems (from First Language Lessons and others); systems of the body; counting by 2s; +5s math facts; counting in French; grammar definitions; French vocabulary

Math: Review; Games

Writing: Writing with Ease, week 14

Spelling: All About Spelling lesson 24

Grammar: First Language Lessons 1/2, lessons 51-52

French: Mission ABC, lesson 14; French lapbook

History: The Story of the World 1, chapters 15-16

Science: Animal study – shrimp; science experiments from Science with Water

Read-Alouds: Breakfast – Ramona Quimby, Age 8 and James Herriot's Treasury for Children; Evening – Betsy and Tacy go over the Big Hill and history or science books

Week in Review: Week 6

We had a fairly uneventful week. Things went smoothly and we completed everything on the to-do list. I can't really ask for more than that!

The Basics: TJ aced her math test this week and we played a new math game – Corners. TJ is enjoying it and it's good addition practice. We covered plurals in spelling, pronouns in grammar, and 'froid' and 'chaud' in French.

History: We spent another week in Egypt, this time focusing on the Israelites and the Exodus. We talked a bit about the Israelites wandering the desert and I had TJ collect manna (chocolate chips! hey, they say manna was sweet!) one morning. We made ten commandment cookies but they didn't quite work out as expected. Still tasted good though!

Science: Another week of no science co-op since our friends are away on vacation so I had TJ catch up on some of the animal observation pages that we hadn't finished. She also collected some rocks and looked them up in her rock and mineral guide. I'm taking a 'hands-off' approach to nature study and TJ is having fun doing her own exploring.

Reading: We're about half-way through our nightly read-aloud, Betsy and Tacy go over the Big Hill. We've also been listening to a few audio books – James Herriot's Treasury for Children and another Ramona book. We also read The Tale of Custard the Dragon, a few stories from the Random House book of Bedtime Stories, a few books about Moses (Exodus by Wildsmith was TJ's favorite). TJ finished Frog and Toad Together, another Annie and Snowball book, and spent a ton of time reading Calvin & Hobbes. We're still reading through The New Oxford Treasury of Children's Poems during our "Poet-tea".

Since our science mini-coop is going so well I decided we'd do the same with art. Another homeschooling mom and her son will be joining us once a week for art lessons. This week we learned about abstract art, Piet Mondrian, and primary colors.

I'm linking this post to Weekly Wrap-Up.