I think we got our school groove going well though. This week has felt successful as well as each day taking way less than what I had them scheduled for. No complaints there, it actually makes things go much smoother. Although we are doing a lot more work, a lot of it only takes 5-15 so we zip through fairly quick. This way we have time in the afternoons now to go to the library (which is just down the street) or run errands/buy groceries for dinner. I bought her, her own grocery bag because she has the habit of wanting certain treats when we go. I told her anything she wants, she has to carry home in her own bag.
This is her not happy that I have to carry my own stuff face.
When one goes out, one must always sport some kind of wings. This is her new obsession.
So onto what we learned this week. Roo memorized the Early Periods of History, which she recited for my husband and then stared at him until he clapped. I had to pull him aside and tell him that was what she wanted so be prepared for next time. She started to memorize the Continents (and location on a map) and almost has down The Caterpillar poem from First Language Lessons. We did week 1 of Writing with Ease in which I have to consistently rephrase her answers for her so she answers in complete sentences. In phonics OPTGR we have entered into the two syllable words and the use of the shwa. I saw the moment of comprehension when she realized that a large word can be broken into smaller words to make it easier to sound out. She also liked the concept of clapping to break down the syllables in a word. There is a lot of clapping currently going on in the house as she speaks. It's very distracting and somewhat irritating. In Spelling we completed lesson 1 and had her first spelling test. Any words she missed are written several times and tested each day until she gets them down.
We started Latin this week and she loves it. The songs annoyingly get stuck in your head, but it works. She uses Salve and Vale all the time and I heard her muttering to her Barbie Discipuli to listen to the Magistra yesterday. In French which we started this summer, we learned different animals from the zoo and had a quiz on the various questions we have learned and what they mean in english.
Singapore Math is so much a better fit for us than Saxon was....so far at least. She doesn't complain, I don't dread it and she actually asked to do more workbook pages than was scheduled for the day. I'll keep my fingers crossed with this one. Story of the World - Ancients is what we are using for history and she seems to like it, has good comprehension of what we read and asks good questions. I am excited to progress through this because History is one of my passions. Actually Medieval History is, but that's for next year:)
For Science I chose Elemental Science because of how it was based on the WTM recommendations. I must admit that I really like this program and the way it is set up. It's so easy to follow, and it was easy to change it from a 5 day schedule to a two day schedule which works better for us. Every time I pull out the Science binder she yells, yay science. I guess we must be doing something right. Hopefully this will get her away from conducting her own experiments that include putting random gross things in an empty water bottle and then filling it with water and leaving it sit to see what happens.
Drawing something from a science book while I was reading.
For our art and music study this week she did week 1 from Artistic Pursuits which included a picture study and an ebony pencil drawing. We did Hildegarde von Bingen week 1 of our Composer Study and she decided to draw a picture of Hildegarde while we were listening to some of the music.
This is her interpretation of Hildegarde von Bingen
This week went from extremely hot to Fall weather cool in a 24 hour period and it is so much nicer. On Thursday we signed her up for Ballet class for the first time. I need to go out and find her the proper requested dance attire before next Friday though. She wanted me to take some photos of her doing various "dance" poses after we signed her up.
So we had a good week. We both learned a lot and I can't wait to see how much we learn over the next few months.
