Our Week in Review

Four mornings a week we start our day with me reading a book aloud to all the boys.  I did a lot of evaluation and praying over our school year while on vacation this summer, in order to be intentional this year with those things that we deem most important.  Reading outloud is one of them.  In just a few short years we won't be able to do that anymore, so we have built it into our school day this year by putting it as the very first "official" thing after breakfast and devotions!

This week we finished Huguenot Garden, about a Christian family in France during the time of Protestant persecution, and started William Bradford Pilgrim Boy.   I love, love, love this time together with my boys, and they love it too.  Even the senior secretly enjoys it, but don't tell him I told you. ;)

Then we head to the schoolroom and do our "Morning Routine," which consists of these 5 things. The vocabulary word is a greek or latin root, and we learn all the derivatives that have since come from that root word.  The boys take turns leading morning routine.

This week Little Man and I worked on writing a report from multiple sources.  He is learning how to make an outline from each source and then "fuse" them into one outline he can use from which to write a rough draft.  He is doing GREAT.  I love being his writing teacher!

Son L is learning Latin for his high school foreign language, and the homework is quite intense.  He translates, memorizes vocabulary words, and does the exercises in his textbook nearly every day (for a class that meets in person twice a week).

He is also learning physics at home with me and his dad this year.  This was an experiment that taught velocity using an inclined plane.

And this was prepping some play dough to hold a pencil at an angle in order to measure vector.

When I was in high school I worked my hiney off (well, not really...I wish!) in physics.  It was hard for me to grasp, partly because math had not been my strong suit during those years, but in spite of how hard it was I absolutely loved it.  I am determined to re-learn it this year along with son L, so this was one morning's work for me....reading his physics textbook and intermittently watching a helpful video on the Khan Academy website.

In history this week we learned about the British colony at Jamestown, Virginia.  Ever since we visited there as a family it has held a special place in my heart!  Sons G and L studied the colony in depth, son C learned about Galileo's life and discoveries, and Little Man compared the lifestyles of the Jamestown colonists with those of the Powhatan Indians.  This afternoon we had a history discussion all together where everyone shared what they had learned with everyone else.

In spite of some challenges it was a good week of learning, and I am thankful!