Learning More Things- Week of 2/5-2/11

Another great week of homeschooling is wrapping up. James and Ben are in the living room playing with the Trio blocks from Grandma. Delilah is listening to Tim play guitar. Patrick is here somewhere...

This week I've been thinking a lot about why we homeschool and why we've continued to for years. We started out when Patrick (the oldest) was three and we made the decision to "home-preschool" rather than signing him up for preschool somewhere else. I wanted the flexibility and freedom that not having an outside school schedule to worry about offered. I still enjoy that. I also wanted to be the one who got to see my kids learn new things. I still love that too. It's been thrilling being the one to teach Patrick and Delilah to read (working with James on it now). I love when the kids get into learning about a new thing and I get to be the one who's helping them find information on it. I'm their facilitator, their tutor. sometimes their bossy mom, but mostly their tour guide through learning.

On Saturday, Delilah went to the kids' workshop at the Home Depot by our house. She made a heart shaped shelf for Valentine's Day at the store and painted it when we got home.

Bible- Tim has started reading to the family from the book of Luke in the evening. Patrick did four lessons in Bible Elective 1, Book 3 (and finished the book). Delilah did three lessons in Bible 105 and has been practicing the Lord's Prayer.

Math-  Patrick did three lessons in Saxon Math 6/5, spread out over four days. Delilah finished Math Practice 1A and did three lessons in CLE Math 205. James didn't do any math other than playing board games, but that counts, right?

Lang. Arts- Writing With Ease 3 is going well so far. I had Patrick do "Week 1, Days 2-4" and "Week 2, Day 1" this week. He doesn't seem to mind the narration and dictation as much as he did creative writing, so I think he needed the help. He also read the graphic novel "Hamlet" this week. Delilah did two pages in Writing Skills 2. James did Funnix Reading, lesson 3 and played Alphabet Bingo.

History- We did what felt like a lot of reading in history this week. On Monday, I read the kids chapter 17 from Story of the World while they colored the picture that goes with it. Patrick read a graphic novel on Wednesday called Lords of the Sea: Vikings Exploring the Atlantic. Then today, I read them the first section of SOTW ch. 18 and Theseus and the Minotaur by James Ford. Patrick also read The Librarian Who Measured the Earth, about Eratosthenes.

Science- We read about slugs, snails and beetles and the kids made notebook pages about it. The kids also watched videos online about snails.

Latin- Patrick worked on ch. 26 in Latin for Children A.

Spanish- All of the kids watched the lesson for chapter 8 in Spanish for Children A.

Music- Listened to Greek music to go along with our Greek history studies.

Art- Art class with Miss Donna at the library:

 P.E.- Wednesday- 1/2 hour swim lesson, 45 minute gym class. Then Patrick went to the teen raquetball league for an hour.

Momschooling- "Confident Nutrition Counseling" class with Gloria Lemay.