End of the Week ~ Almost

This hasn't been the best week for us. On Tuesday I had some major dental work done and I've felt rotten ever since. Dr. Ruth put me on an antibiotic which makes me very ill every time I take it (ever 6 hrs). I think I've found just about the only negative thing about following the CM approach; if your mouth hurts too much to read your homeschool comes to a dead stop. So this is how our week has gone so far:

Monday I've already posted about. Would say it was a total success!!!
Tuesday's run down:

• Spelling: He practiced the two words he was unsure of. We have always used the See-Say-Spell-Write method of learning spelling words. He practiced these for a bit, then I told him to practice saying the whole passage, including the punctuation. He was still unsure of the semi-colon when we stopped.
• Grammar: We worked on Lesson 1:2 A-F working on proper nouns
• Handwriting: He is doing great with his handwriting lessons. He did the letter a and practiced connecting it to the letter c.
• Vocabulary: He loved the workbook. He only had a few questions to answer but he loved doing them. Amazing how for one child a workbook is drudgery and means lots of tears and another child just finds them fascinating.
• Science: We read the first few pages in his Astronomy book and discussed what we read.
• American History: We read The Corn Grows Ripe Ch 1, The Secret of the Andes Ch 2, Exploration and Conquest P 6-7, You Wouldn't Want to be an Inca Mummy Ch 3-5, and Incas Aztecs Mayans P 19-28; we finished assembling the map of Cortez and Coronado, it took some work as we couldn't figure out how to get the little boat to move. It's still not working as well as I had hoped. for the next one I plan on glueing it to cardstock first to make it more sturdy.

Wednesday I took the day off. Jake read the book The Planet Hunter The Story Behind What Happened to Pluto. I still haven't had a chance to ask him what he thought about it.

Thursday's run-down:

• Spelling: He thought he was ready for his dictation, so I had him practice once more before starting. I read each line and paused for him to write. We did that for all five lines. He did great. He did write the letter "m" instead of "n" in the word can but that was more of a typo than spelling it wrong. He knew that it was an "n" but often gets these two mixed up when writing them.
• Grammar: We completed Lesson 1:3 A-F practicing his spelling words
• Handwriting: Still going good here. He worked on the letter "d" today. Then practiced connecting it to the letter "a", coping the word "dad" several times.
• Vocabulary: He breezed right through exercise two.
• American History: As I was still in pain I had my oldest DD(18) do all the reading and we skipped all the planned projects saving them for another day. DD read The Corn Grows Ripe Ch 2, The Secret of the Andes Ch 3, Exploration and Conquest P 8-11, Inca Mummy Ch 6-7, and Inca Aztecs Mayans P 29-40.

Friday's run-down:

• Grammar: We did Lesson 1:4 A-E practicing punctuation in a telling/declarative sentence.
• Vocabulary: We did exercise three and he had no problems.
• Science: My DD helped out by reading the rest of Ch 1 for me.
• American History: Again my DD helped out by reading all the literature and we postponed the projects for another day. She read The Corn Grows Ripe Ch 3, The Secret of the Andes Ch 4, Exploration and Conquest P 12-14, Inca Mummy Ch 8-10, and Inca Aztecs Mayans P 40-47. JJ watched the rest of the Ice Mummy movie and really enjoyed it. He wanted to watch the Ancient Inca movie but the tape was damaged. He was disappointed but I told him I had one more to watch later on.

Because I was feeling ill again today, we skipped his handwriting and spelling lessons. Both of these are at your own pace type of lessons so skipping them won't impact the schedule. For American History, Grammar, and Vocabulary, I'm planning on having lesson on Saturday to keep us on track.

That was our week. Not as promising as I had hoped but most of the work got done and more importantly JJ learned alot and enjoyed every bit of it. My DD says The Secret of the Andes book is a dud. She says it's very boring.


eChildblessedf

Our 2010 Homeschool Year Plans

Since day one of our homeschooling journey, I have always started planning and buying our school year curriculum in February. It's the time of year that we have the most money all at one time. We then usually start that school year in April or May and school year round. This year I'm trying some new things and everything I've ordered (one of the biggest orders I've ever had) has come in right on time. So this coming Monday, March 8th, will be our official start to 2010.

One of the new things planned for this year is a small summer vacation. Last year we took one week off in March and then a day here-n-there throughout the year, plus holiday weeks. I'm thinking maybe 3 or 4 weeks off, soaking up the sun, taking a trip to Ohio and doing a long weekend at the beach. Ahhh, sounds so relaxing already.

Another new thing is the choice of curriculum that I'm using this year. I'm eclectic again, but I'm adding a ton of notebooking and living books, with a twist of charlotte mason and lapbooking.  Here's my complete list of curriculum choices and daily schedule.

Subjects	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri
Math:
Teaching Textbook 3	R	R	R	R	R
History:
Early American History	R	R	R	R	R
Science:
Apologia Astronomy		R		R
Spelling:
Spelling Wisdom	R	R	R	R	R
Vocabulary:
Wordly Wise 3000 Bk 3	R	R	R	R	R
Penmanship:
Handwriting Without Tears	R	R	R	R	R
Grammar:
Learning Language Arts Through Literature	R	R	R	R	R
Bible:
Rod & Staff Bk 2			R		R

In addition to the above table we are reading extra "living books" as we find time. I'm in the process of posting our American History curriculum on squidoo by topic. I also plan on blogging weekly on what we do daily. The Math curriculum isn't available for purchase until April, so we won't have that resource right away. It's such a good program that I don't mind waiting for it to come out. I'm nervous and yet so excited about this year. I've been homeschooling for 14 years and yet I have quivering butterflies like it's the first year all over again.
eChildblessedf