Learning Notes Week of December 14

Monday December 14

Both girls did math and copywork.

I had to take Ben to the dentist. He’s got several cavities including a tooth that will have to be extracted. So our family dentist referred us to a pediatric dentist who will do all of that. This was our evaluation with that dentist. And the upshot is its going to be several visits worth of work and this is going to be no fun for Ben or for me. Today was traumatic enough. They couldn’t get the x-rays they wanted because Ben’s gag reflex is very strong and his will to be cooperative is not so strong. He did try, valiantly, but it wasn’t enough. Anyway, that took up the morning for us so I did not do any school stuff with Ben.

Afternoon stories: Coot Club. The first few chapters are rapid-fire meeting new characters, diving into a new milieu. The kids are still a little unsure, but I know they will come to love all the characters.

Mystery of the Periodic Table. We read about Lavoisier. Death by guillotine. Ugh. We’re getting some basic ideas about science and chemistry, learning some ground rules.

Lord of the Rings. It is taking us forever to get through Moria. Bella needs to stop and breathe. Which I try to understand, but I want to push forward.

Bedtime stories: Frog and Toad, the good old standby.

Tuesday December 15

Both girls did math and copywork. Sophie is doing the MEP book and loving it, Bella is doing fractions in Miquon. Bella picked a passage from The Fellowship of the Ring and her hndwriting was beautiful. I did math with the boys and then they practiced letters with the Montessori sandpaper letters app. Sophie read to me from the picture book about Nikola Tesla.

We all took a walk around the block after lunch. The unusually warm weather is causing some of the fruit trees to blossom. So weird.

We read The Lord of the Rings and then went to pick up my sister.

Wednesday December 16

Bella did a page of Miquon math and copied out two more lines from Boromir’s poem. Sophie did math and was done for the day, too frustrated. Anthony read me three pages of Frog and Toad, lots of help with new words, but he is recognizing a lot of words now. Then he practiced writing Qs. No math for the boys, too hard to break them away from Auntie Tree.

Afternoon stories: Lord of the Rings, Coot Club, Mystery of the Periodic Table, Story of the World chapter about Prussia and the Second Reich.

Thursday December 17

Bella did Miquon math, more fractions, they seem to be coming pretty easily to her. Copywork from Fellowship of the Ring. She’s reading By the Great Horn Spoon and narrated the first part to me. We also looked up the Straight of Magellan on the map. She also read me a selection from the book.

Sophie did some MEP math, copywork from her Memoria book, and cursive. She read me a Christmas book about the birth of Jesus.

I did math with Anthony and Ben. Anthony practiced writing Rs. He’s very good with them. He read me from The Three Trees. He’s obviously got some of it memorized, he was doing really well sounding out words too, though. Ben and I worked on identify and writing letters and he read some letters with me from The Legend of the Christmas Rose.

Afternoon stories: Coot Club, Lord of the Rings (Galadriel’s Mirror), The Mystery of the Periodic Table, Walking with Gorillas, a picture book from the library.
While I read Coot Club they worked on coloring pages: knights and birds. Sophie wanted her sparrow to be colored accurately so she got out the field guide, Ben did his accurately too. He did a male, she a female house sparrow. Bella and Sophie also colored in cardinals. And Bella did a goldfinch.

Bedtime story: Tree read to the kids Far From Shore: Chronicles of an Open Ocean Voyage by Sophie Webb. I read/sang Bring a Torch to Lucy.

The kids spent a lot of time doing math games on the iPad: dots, threes, slice fractions, mathris.

Bella is also re-reading the Jane Goodall books.

Friday December 18

Sophie did her math page, her copywork, some cursive.

Bella did most of a page of math and eventually got her copywork done right before dinner.

I did math with the boys, but no reading.

Bella is reading Jane Goodall and By the Great Horn Spoon and a bird guide book.

Afternoon stories: two chapters of Coot Club; The Lord of the Rings, half the chapter about leaving Lothlorien; The Mystery of the Periodic Table; Pope Pius XII.

Kids watched two episodes of Life of Birds. Spent time playing math games on the ipads.

Bedtime stories: book about Roger Tory Peterson, book about coral reefs.