Friday, February 29, 2008

Week in Review

It's time once again for the week in review.

I spent a lot of time this week working on next year. I am not sure what sparked the need to figure it all out...possibly because I realized that I don’t have it all figured out. My big issue right now is what history curriculum to use. Right now we are using Story of the World…which only goes through 4th grade. I had planned to move to History Odyssey for next year – I even bought the guide book. But after looking it over, and reading some discussion about it on the Well Trained Mind boards, I realized it might not work. What I like about SOTW is the activity guide and its discussion questions, map work, outlining/narration details, reading lists, projects and tests. HO does not have these things. There is a guide for the work to be done – but no discussion. Some reading lessons but no additional notes on those – it just does not seem meaty enough.

The next program that I looked at was Tapestry of Grace. It looks wonderful. It is a multi layered programs with appropriate reading/books/questions/projects for elementary, middle and high school. It looks like it provides an outstanding parental guide. However, I do not want a religious history program. I’d rather keep my religious instruction to church. Probably not a common approach…but it’s what works for us. TOG is also a pretty expensive program…but I am thinking that I would like to see it and see if I could use it in a secular manner – or maybe even combine it with HO.

Finally out of frustration, I pleaded my cause to the members of my e-group and got some great suggestions: Sonlight, Mystery of History and one I had never heard of: History at Our house. Now that last one looks so intriguing. I still have questions about it…but we’ll see. Homeschooling looks to be quite different around here next year – if we use HAOH, Katie will get a class via teleconference; and if we use IEW, her writing lessons will be on DVD.

MATH: Katie continued with multiplication and division of fractions by moving into multi-part word problems. Some of these were quite challenging to her (yippee…we found a math challenge!). Here is one for you to try: Mrs. Klein made some tarts. She sold 3/5 of them in the morning and ¼ of the remainder in the afternoon. If she sold 200 more tarts in the morning than in the afternoon, how many tarts did she make?

HISOTRY: We started the week with a test on Chapter 23 (the chapters we covered last week). She finished reading “The Night Journey” by Kathryn Lasky and “Stalin” by David Downing. She had to choose one to write a book report – and she chose “The Night Journey” saying that doing it on “Stalin” would be too easy! Below is her report – kind of hard to read with the pencil and the reflection from the scanner. Next week we’ll try pen!


Next she started Chapter 24 and read about Mussolini (Il Duce – and we talked about the Latin root for his nickname) and Fascism in Italy. Today she is going to start “The Wave” by Todd Strasser.

PHYSICS: Katie continued with week 24 of the Noeo Physics curriculum and learning about Magnetism. She learned about magnetic fields (am I the only one that reads this and thinks about the tv series, LOST?!!) and how to make a non-magnetic object magnetic. I hadn’t realized that was possible!

SPELLING/GRAMMAR: In Grammar, Katie worked on proper adjectives and adjectives used to compare; in Spelling, she continued working with suffixes.

WRITING: This week Katie had to take the floor plan she made of our house and write a written description of it in a five paragraph essay form.

PIANO: Katie is working on sheet music, doing a practice piece from the technique book and reviewing scales this week.

OTHER STUFF: Our homeschool group is still on break so there was no Latin or Folk dancing – but it will start again next Thursday. Yesterday, Katie went to the “America’s Got Talent” audition at the Cobb Energy Theatre. She was gone for 7 hours! Her friend “Squirtle’s” mom’s marching band (Seed and Feed Abominables) were auditioning. Katie is under strict instructions to not reveal who is going forward…so I have no idea if they are “Going to Vegas” or not…But I hear that Katie might be shown on camera with her antics in the audience. I guess I’ll have to watch now!

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22 comments:

GBK Gwyneth said...

I just got package with the History Odyssey Level 2 this week. I think I will supplement with outside stuff just as we have with SOTW. We're going to be doing SOTWI with Chloe at the same time, so hopefully things will line up fairly well.

I don't think Camille is going to be into the cutting and pasting in the pockets, but I've been wrong before.

Keys to the Magic Travel said...

Hi Gwyneth! Thanks for stopping by! I was thinking the same things about the History pockets - I am not into crafts...and I think Katie would get bored with them easily. I feel compelled to use HO as we own it already...but I am trying to see what else is out there.

Wee Pip said...

Good luck with your history decision! Your dd sounds very bright and motivated. I'm sure she'll do well with whatever you choose.

Sherri in GA said...

I've been thinking a lot about next year over the past few weeks. When I do that I seem to have trouble doing what we are currently studying. It looks like you are still getting a lot done and you guys had a great week!

So, do I get some kind of prize for guessing your WW post?! :)

Keys to the Magic Travel said...

Welcome Wee Pip and Sherri! The history is a difficult decision -- I have easily (and confidently) made curriculum choices these past four years...but this one is driving me nuts. I am "waffling" a lot! And you are right...Katie will be fine with whatever we decide to do.

Sherri--hmmm...a prize?! You should get one...How about a simple "congrats" and pat on the shoulder?! :-) Us moms don't get enough of those...

my5wolfcubs said...

I have just spent a LONG time trying that math problem -- using the order form in the back of the Rainbow Resource catalog as my scratch paper!. I kept getting 400 as the total.
It has now been 30 minutes and I'm still getting 400. She sold 6/10X in the am and 1/10X in pm, right? And 200 + 1/10X = 6/10X.
Now it after midnight and I can't figure it out...
*cries*
Lee

my5wolfcubs said...

Okay, after 15 or so more minutes, I'm thinking 400 total is right...I'm putting down 400 tarts and turning this math test in!
Lee

Tonia said...

How are you liking Noeo science? I am considering my options for the grammar stage for my daughter and this one looks good.

Keys to the Magic Travel said...

Yeah!! Lee - the only one (that I know about) who felt challenged to do the math problem! And yes...she made 400 tarts.

Welcome Tonia! We really like Noeo science. We had used R.E.A.L. Science...and foundered when they stopped publishing after Earth Science...and stumbled upon Noeo. The work on a three year rotation rather than the WTM's four year - they split the Earth Science between Chemistry and Physics. Right now we are just skipping those parts - but as we head to level two I am going to have to decide if we'll move to a three year science roation or if I am going to create my own curriculum for "year two."

Tina in WA said...

Wow, lots of decissions to make wiht curriculum. "History at Our House"... That one is new to me too. It is an online class for history?

Your week looks wonderful. :o)

~Tina

Keys to the Magic Travel said...

History at Our House is a teleconference curriculum. You can choose to be a live member of the class...or just download it via mp3. Check out the hyperlink of it from the post -- it is really really intriguing me these days!

Lisa~ said...

Neo science?? I would like to know how thats going too... oh pretty please. *Ü*

You had a woderful week... you all accomplished a lot! woohoo...

andmay I say... we are Lost finatics here at our casa!! *Ü* So no you are not alone! lol

Have a wonderful upcoming week!!

Rhea said...

My husband has three infected teeth. He's on antibiotics and painkillers. Lovely, huh?!

Rhea said...

So, he's been home from work this week...but just went back to work today, thank god.

Rhea said...

And I'm still job searching, but there's just nothing out there to be excited about so far.

I do have a free lance writing assignment I need to be working on.

Tiffany said...

I'm loving your weeks in review posts. It's interesting to see "inside" another hs'ers house. Makes me feel like I'm needing to be doing much more though. eeks

Tiffany said...

Has Rhea found a job yet?

Unknown said...

Seriously, the more I read about what you are doing with Katie, the more I think how lucky she is.

This is what learning should be like!!

Rhea said...

Did Katie give up on her commenting?

Rhea said...

Did she get in trouble for commenting and not working?

Rhea said...

Another book order due tomorrow. I am pondering whether to order more books or not...

Rhea said...

It's so hard to resist...