Weekly Update - October 29 - November 9, 2018

Again, I missed a week in posting a weekly update. 

But, we have been making progress.

History:

Megan has been studying the missionary Jim Elliot.  In the process, she has also been learning about the Aucas, South America, the Waodani, the Andes Mountains, animals native to the area, the climate of the area, and Ecuador.

Bible:

In New Testament studies, Megan has been reading and learning about the book of Hebrews.  She has also been reading about John the Baptist, the birth of Jesus, Simeon and Anna, the Magi, and Mary and Joseph fleeing to Egypt.

McGuffey:

Megan read three McGuffey stories in the last two weeks.  We do McGuffey daily, but each story takes several days as she rereads, does vocabulary, draws original artwork, writes narrations, answers questions, and does copywork. 

Literature:

Megan continues to read Miracle at Camp Friendship.  She has also learned about Owls, first and third person point of view, homophones, phases of the moon, and lizards.  Yes, all of that was in her literature study.

Megan finished When Will This Cruel War be Over and began reading Derwood, Inc. 

Word Building:

Megan has continued to progress in her learning of contractions and the months of the year. 

Science:

Megan finished the science workbook she had been studying and went back to reading about the Birds of the Air.  When she finishes that book she will be jumping into a special study about horses.

English:

Megan has continued to study about making words plural.

Math:

Megan has been learning more advanced place value, fractions, sequencing, Greatest Common Factor, and Factoring. I am proud of how hard she has been working in her math and the gains she has made.

Read Aloud:

We have been switching off our time between reading Anne of Green Gables and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.  She is enjoying both books immensely.  We just read the part in Anne of Green Gables where Anne dyes her hair green. Megan was laughing hysterically at that part. 

Things are going to be changing up a bit over the next few weeks as we dive back in to some delight-directed learning. 

Weekly Update - October 22-26, 2018

We actually completed a five day week! 

Some Megan Art in McGuffey

History:

Megan finished learning about Adoniram Judson and began to learn about the missionary, Jim Elliot.  She will also learn about Ecuador and the Waodani tribe. 

Bible:

In New Testament study, Megan began to study Paul's letter to the Hebrews.  She also had begun to read about the Birth of Jesus in her Illustrated Family Bible.

Megan's Art

McGuffey:

Megan spent the week studying the story "Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter."  She also has created some original artwork to go with the story.

A Megan Landscape

Literature:

Megan read three chapters in Miracle at Camp Friendship this week.  She has also been studying metaphors, similes, point of view, and personification. She has nearly finished When Will This Cruel War Be Over.  

 

Word Building:

Megan finished her first "spelling" test.  She got a perfect score, so I know dictation has been effective.  Eventually we will go back to alternating dictation and spelling, but she is doing well with the spelling program that is helping her with some phonetic rules.  She began her new workbook, which includes "ch" words and contractions. 

Science:

Megan continued to learn about accurate measurements.  She learned about why there needs to be standards in measurement.

English:

Megan is learning about the different ways to make words plural. 

Math:

Megan dived into more advanced multiplication, factoring, and prime numbers this week.  She needed some work to understand factoring, but I think she gets it now.  She will be venturing into GCF and reducing fractions in the next couple of weeks.  She also covered three more chapters in Life of Fred: Honey.

Read Aloud:

We read several more chapters of Anne of Green Gables this week, putting us at 64% through the book.  

Weekly Update - October 15-19

We had a four day week, and it was a bit stressed.  I got sick and struggled each day to function.  School happened, but I had limited participation due to illness.  On Friday, we skipped school entirely so I could pick up my glasses from the eye doctor, which is an hour away from our home.  But, we had a good time hanging out at Barnes and Nobles for an hour or so.

History:

Megan continued to study Adoniram Judson.  She also learned some of the history of Robert Fulton and his steamboat.  She learned about Myanmar; the climate, geography, natural resources, and the culture.  She will finish her study of Adoniram Judson next week.

Bible:

Megan read about the Poetry and Wisdom books as well as the Prophets in the Old Testament.  She learned about Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, and Job.  She read a bit about Amos. 

McGuffey:

Megan finished the story "More Stories about Little Birds."  She did a lot of copywork and drew pictures of various birds.  She began "Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter."

Literature:

Megan began reading the book Miracle at Camp Friendship, reading the first three chapters.   She is learning about point of view in her literature study, such as first person and third person.  She also played an alphabet game where she had to come up with a word for each letter of the alphabet having to do with a topic.  She thought that was a fun activity.

She is still reading When Will This Cruel War Be Over. 

 Word Building:

Megan continued to study "ge," and "dge," words as well as the days of the week.  She also began some plural word spellings, which include words where the spelling changes when it is plural. 

Science:

Science has been relegated to every other day.  This week Megan was learning about Celcius and Fahrenheit.  She also read about how gravity impacts the weight of things.

English:

Megan finished learning about different sentence types and alphabetizing.  This next weeks she will move on to reviewing and learning new skills in nouns.

Math:

I realized I forgot to update Math last week.  Megan has made a lot of progress in her math.  She has been reviewing fractions and ordinal numbers.  She has also been practicing her long division and is doing very well.  The constant review in Ace Math helps her to solidify her skills.  I am proud of her progress.  She will be introduced to some new skills in the coming weeks, and I am certain she is ready now.  She also conquered another couple chapters in Life of Fred Honey. 

 

Read Aloud:

We are continuing to read Anne of Green Gables in the mornings.  We read four chapters, which was pretty good considering my cold limited my ability to read aloud.  

Weekly Update - Crazy Week - October 8-12

School did not happen as normal last week.  And, I am perfectly fine with that reality.  My second grandson was born on Wednesday.

He was in the NICU for a couple of days, fighting low blood sugars because his mom is a type-one diabetic.  So, there was a lot of time spent up at the hospital.

Then, on Friday, we skipped school completely for eye exam day.  This year my little bookworm-in-training needed glasses.  We had avoided them last year, as she was borderline then, but this year the doctor felt that her near-sightedness was getting bad enough that she could use them.  If she was in school, she would have probably struggled to see the board or Power Points.  At home, she does a lot of reading, but she isn't straining her eyes to see, and that might have helped.

With school happening only sporadically, I did make a decision.  I changed up our routine a bit, because Megan seemed to be getting dragged down.  I noticed she had skipped some work, and I don't want her doing that in a rush to get through her day.

History:

Megan is taking a break from World History to study Adoniram Judson and Myanmar.  She is also learning a bit about ships in her lessons.  I find it interesting that a young Adoniram Judson was not a Christian despite growing up in a home where his father was a minister.  This delved into studies about Lazarus and the Rich Man as well as The Prodigal Son.    A break from normal studies seems to help Megan to refocus later. 

Bible:

In her New Testament study, Megan continued to learn about Paul's Letters to Phillip and Thessalonica.  She also read Daniel 10 and part of Daniel 11. 

McGuffey:

In McGuffey, Megan finished up "Stories about Birds" and worked on "More Stories about Birds."  Above is her drawing of a canary.

Literature:

Megan is learning about synonyms and antonyms as she prepares to start Miracle at Camp Friendship.  She is still reading When Will This Cruel War be Over for her independent reading.

Word Building:

We are taking a break from dictation for a few weeks and delving into some Word Building.  Megan and I love dictation, but variety sometimes helps.  Word Building deals with more than just spelling, but adds in some vocabulary and handwriting practice. It also helps to reinforce words through repetition and word groups.  Last week she studied words that has the "o" before "r" sound, such as storm and forty.  This week she is reviewing "dge" words as well as the days of the week.  It's not her favorite, but she can work independently.

Science:

In science, we paused Megan's study of birds to focus on learning about length, weight, temperature, and time.  We will go back to birds when she finishes this study.  Doing two different studies at one time was getting confusing. 

English:

We set aside the Language Lessons briefly to study dictionary skills and alphabetical order.  I realized a couple weeks ago that Megan had not gotten much practical use in using a dictionary for awhile because we were using dictionary.com too often.  It's easy to rely on technology and not use real books.  Because of this, I made the switch and Megan is refreshing skills she hasn't used for awhile.

Read Aloud:

We are loving Anne of Green Gables.  We didn't get as much read aloud time in last week as we would have liked.  We stopped at chapter nine.  But Anne and Megan are quite similar in temperaments and chattiness. 

Weekly Checkup - September 10-14, 2018

 Weekly Checkup

September 10-14, 2018

This week went quickly.  We didn't do school on Monday as there were appointments.  But, that didn't stop my daughter from being such a good help with her nephew while we were in the waiting room.

On Tuesday, we dove back into our studies... both of us.  My college classes continue, and I work steadily beside my girl. It is working well for us so far this year.


Here's a breakdown of my Meggy's week:

History:  

Megan is continuing to record the prophecies and fulfillments of Christ.  This week was about Christ coming out of Galilee. She is also reading about Assyria and the Assyrian King, Sennacherib.  She finished the book, God King, and began to read the book of Jonah in the Bible.  She continued to read the book, Palace Gates.

Bible:

This week Megan read about Hezekiah and Josiah in The Illustrated Family Bible.  In her New Testament study, she also read about Paul writing to the churches of Ephesus and Colosse. 

Science:

Megan is studying the book Birds of the Air in science.  This week she learned about how birds sing and the different types of nests they build.     Last week, she began a book where she will draw different kinds of birds over the next few weeks.

Poetry:

Megan is studying the poem Once by the Pacific by Robert Frost.  This week she painted an ocean with whitecaps.  (I didn't get a picture.)

McGuffey:

Megan is studying the 48th lesson in the Second McGuffey Reader (original), Stories About the Monkey.   She researched facts about monkeys, drew a monkey picture, answered questions, looked up vocabulary words from the story, and wrote original sentences.

Language Lessons:

In Megan's Language Lessons this week, she first reviewed Capitalization.  She reviewed syllables. Then she dived in to learning about Haiku.  She loves using Language Lessons, because it isn't drill and kill and she gets to write more. 

Literature:

In the beginning of the week, Megan finished up a book project over the book Five Smooth Stones.  She then dived into the next genre, Fantasy.  She will be reading My Father's Dragon and The Bridge for this genre.  She began My Father's Dragon on Wednesday. Her study has her searching out different moods in the book as well as differentiating between realistic and unrealistic aspects in the story.

Having a literature focus, I have assigned extra reading every day. She also finished up Penguin Puzzle in her extra reading and began Scripture Sleuth.

Read Aloud:

We finished up Penderwicks in Spring, which broke our hearts.  It was the best one so far.  We began The Penderwicks at Last.

Dictation:

Megan has been completing her dictation as copywork for a day or two before we do the actual dictation.  I like this pattern as she learns the passage much better and has less repeating due to less errors.  The dictation passages are listed in the back of the Heart of Dakota guide and are taken from Dictation Day by Day: Book One by Kate Van Wagenen.  Megan is on Level 4, passage thirty nine. 

Math:

Megan is using two different math curriculum at this time.  She is using ACE Math and Life of Fred at this time.  I really want to strengthen her skills.  We are still doing some review, making sure the skills are strong before we dive into new material. 

In Life of Fred Goldfish, Meg read chapters 7 and 8, which covered sequencing, algebraic concepts, polygons, and perimeter.

In Ace Math, she practiced place value, multiplication and division concepts, expanded form, and fractions.  She complained at first about going to a "drill and kill" program, but she is changing her attitude.  She is understanding so much better and her confidence is growing as she does well on the problems.

Piano:

Megan has practiced a few times.  Her lessons begin again next Monday. 

This was our homeschool week.  Sometimes I wonder if we are doing enough, especially when she completes her entire day in a few hours.  As I go back through the week and actually type all that she has accomplished, I am surprised.  It is definitely a full schedule with a lot of variety in her learning. 

Enjoying our Half-Speed Start

I am so glad we started school this year early, at half speed.  We have just finished week two, which is week one in the plans for Creation to Christ.  Pretty soon we will kick it up to full speed, having already gotten a start on what is expected. 

Laura is enjoying the program so far.   She is reading about Creation and the early start of our world.  We are both enjoying the study of dinosaurs with the book Dinosaurs of Eden by Ken Ham.  Laura is also enjoying The Story of the Ancient World .  She did very well on her first written narration of the school year.

Science has been another favorite.  Laura is a complete animal lover.  Apologia's Land Animals of the Sixth Day has been a blast for her.  She excitedly comes and tells me all the stories about the animals as she is reading.  Today was her first science experiment.  She was learning about camouflage using colored paper and Skittles candy.  She was very independent in the experiment.  She didn't really need mom for anything other than making copies of her science lab sheet.  In fact, mom's biggest job was to keep the little sister and dad from eating the candy before the experiment was finished!

So far, I haven't heard much complaining about any of the work this year.  Laura is enjoying what we are learning so far.  I expected to have a difficult start, even with half days, because summer vacation is still going on for most of the children in our area.  Laura has shrugged it off.  She is still done early enough to have plenty of time with her friends.  Plus, I think she was getting a bit bored with summer. 

Laura's First Week of Creation to Christ

Laura completed her first week of Creation to Christ at half speed.  She did well and, I think, enjoyed her schooling.  I am glad that we are starting off at half-speed.  It gives us both a chance to ease a bit into the program.  I guess it isn't entirely half-pace.  We are doing some things, such as math, on a daily basis.

Laura will work at a half pace until Mid-August.  Then we'll jump into full pace.  Already Creation to Christ has been a blessing to me and my daughter.  We are loving the history.  She is enjoying the science.  And since she is a painter, the poetry lessons are perfect for her.

A Review of our Week

This week has been different.  A sick child, flooding (in the local area and some in my basement), and just a general busyness has led me to not take many pictures, and to slow down on our schooling.  This isn't a permanent thing.  Hopefully next week will be back to normal.  I did wish to share some of the pictures from this week that I did take!

Megan using toys to learn about First, Next, and Last

Laura and I use the little dry erase board A LOT!

A few days ago, this was a road.  We took prom pictures on the stumps on the right.  Now, need a boat to cross.

Jasmine and Tasha at my mom's Birthday Party

 

My mom (Grandma) and Tasha at my mom's birthday party

Happy Birthday Mom!

Laura studies mold.

Pajama schooling and the letter "G"

Finally... a nice day!  Laura reads outside.

Next week I am hoping that we are all healthy and things can get back to normal.  We are winding up with only four weeks left of schooling before we begin break.  I really don't want anything to hold us back.  We have worked hard this year and we are all looking forward to summer, Tasha's homeschool graduation, and a relaxed schedule!

Weekly Wrap-Up 11-19-10 and the Coming Plans

We are only going to work on school stuff three days this coming week.  With Thanksgiving on Thursday, I almost decided not to have school at all.  However, I decided to use this week to finish up some reading.  We'll throw in some math and, of course, devotions.

Laura has been working for a long time on two books that I've scheduled her to finish.  My Secret War and Mother West Wind's Children are two books that we have had checked out from the library for weeks.  It's time to finish them and get them back.  I like going through books slowly, but I think we took too long with these two.  Part of that is because I simply piled too many books into our reading schedule.  However, we finished with North to Amaroqvik on Friday, and with two more finished this week we will almost have a fresh slate.

For History, we are still in the middle of Ben and Me.  Missionary Stories with the Millers, our read aloud, is only about half finished.  Laura is making her way through James Herriot's Treasury for Children as a nature reader.  Laura is nearly done with Finding the Constellations, but we aren't even going to do much for science this week.  I'm seeing that our progress is slow going with some of Charlotte Mason's principles.  I don't believe that taking things slow is a bad thing if it is effective for Laura.  I just don't always like to keep library books out for six weeks or more at a time.  It's different with books that I purchase, however.

One of the next novels I'm going to have Laura begin is Heidi.  It is one of ACE's selections.  We probably won't use the workbooks since we will be starting a different program for Language Arts.  I still would like Laura to read the books... especially since I like the stories from ACE.  Heidi is a classic that I think will touch Laura's heart.

Other books planned for this year include Trumpet of the Swan, Meet Addy, A Dog of Flanders, and Caddie Woodlawn.  I have some others I may throw in, but it just depends on our course load and how Laura is doing.  I don't want her too bogged down.

I have some other books planned for science too, such as a books about Leonardo DaVinci and Louis Pasteur.  I have a Nature Study through Living Books guide for My Side of the Mountain planned for after Christmas... when getting outside to study nature will be difficult.  I also have planned for Laura and I to learn about Coral Reefs from a One Small Square book.

Our study of U.S. History is full of literature.  There are at least two more books from the Sower Series that we are going to cover.  I also have a couple Sonlight selections ready.  However, the focus of our history studies seem to have taken a turn.  While we are still using and reading out spine, A Child's Story of America, we are totally enjoying the Learning History Through Living Books study guide from Queen Homeschool Supplies.  Ben and Me has been quite interesting.  I'm looking forward to Mr. Revere and I.  Depending on how these go, we may change our focus a bit.

There is plenty of reading planned for the rest of this year.  I am excited about the quality of literature that Laura is reading.  She seems to slowly be developing a taste for it.  I've caught her re-reading books that we've already finished.  She is starting to like diary or journal based historical stories too.  Compared to last year when she didn't want to read anything historical, this is a big improvement.

Weekly Wrap Up 9-24-10

The weekly wrap up is a bit late.  We had a good week last week.  Friday was not a full day since we had an appointment.

Laura has really surprised me.  Last week we switched from merely time limits with goals to assigned pages per day.  Laura has done wonderfully.  Our read aloud time still isn't as productive as I would like.  I have it scheduled after lunch, but it has, at times, gotten pushed aside if we have something come up that needs done.   Usually, this means an unexpected errand.  I've yet to come up with a perfect solution except to just do the best I can, and to be firm.  We may still have things come up, but I'm trying to be more firm about what I allow to take priority.

Math - Laura finished her pace last week.  She is going at a quick pace, but she seems to be grasping things better than she has ever done.  I've slowed Laura's pace a little as new concepts have been introduced, but she is doing so much better than last year.  I've hoped that things would "click" with her one day.  My hope is that is what is happening.

Science - Laura is studying elements like Iron, Carbon, Hydrogen, Calcium, Nitrogen, and Oxygen.

Word Building - Laura finished her pace.  She got another perfect score on her spelling test.  She past the pace with a 98%.  I am very proud of how well she is doing.

English - Laura's pace that she began last week is mostly review.  We are now officially in the fifth grade English, having completed all the extra fourth grade paces I had left over.  This pace is mostly review of handwriting and dictionary skills.  I was going to skip it, but something told me not to.  Laura needs the extra handwriting practice.  She doesn't like cursive, even though her handwriting is nice when she puts her focus into it.  I am considering getting her another handwriting practice book.  I wasn't going to.  She has the skill to write in cursive.  She just needs more practice so that it comes more naturally.

Literature and Creative Writing - Laura is nearly done with Choice Stories for Children.  I slowed her down on how much work she was doing so that she could take things more slowly.  I was worried that, with two extra paces from the fourth grade, that Laura would be running behind.  Since she is actually ahead, despite the extra paces.  Laura has been studying using a dictionary to find information, main ideas, and topic sentences.

Social Studies - Laura has been doing map work on the first colonies and states.  She has also been studying the Sovereignty of God in History, and learning about the Line of Demarcation.

Independent Reading - Laura is still reading These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  She is making a lot of progress, despite the fact that this is a rather large book.

Read Aloud - We finally finished the book Boys and Girls of The Colonial Days, though it took until Monday of this week to get it done.  I am relieved.  The stories were good.  I just think it is time for something a little different.

Character Traits - Laura learned about being observant, truthful, equitable, and humble.  She also studied Proverbs 25:8 and how to settle differences in a Biblical way.

Laura is still doing her personal devotion time and time with me in devotion.  I beginning The One Year Book of Devotions for Kids.  Our Daily Bread is great, but I wanted my devotion time with Laura to discuss things at her age level.  Eventually I may change again, but this will do for now.

Weekly Wrap Up 9-17-10

For two weeks in a row it felt like the house was fighting illness.  Laura was doing better after the first couple days of the week, but she still had some recovering to do.  By the end of the week we had transitioned from a strict schedule to pages assigned for Laura's work.  I love the schedule.  It isn't gone completely.  I am simply revamping it.  Laura has made such good progress that, at this rate, she'll be done with her work within a brief few months.  For most subjects this is fine because she can just move up to the next grade level.   I don't mind her going fast either.  However, I do want to slow her pace down a bit so I can have time to add character training.  I also have decided that I want to give her a little bit of time per day to delve into her own interests, whether that be art or just a book she wants to read.

Math - On accident, Laura skipped a whole pace.  She grabbed the wrong new one and began working.  By the time I realized it, I also realized that the pace she skipped only contained one new concept.  The rest of it was simply review.  So, I looked at the couple pages that covered the new concept, and worked them with Laura.  The rest of the pace we just left.  Laura practiced the new concept again in the pace she started on accident, so she learned the concept.  It is amazing how she is flying through math this year.  I already have to order the next quarter of materials.  I guess I don't have to worry about her being behind.  She's not only catching up to the Saxon 6/5 level, but to the whatever she may have lost over the last year when she was struggling with memorizing multiplication tables.  Thank God!!

Science - This was the first official fifth grade pace for Laura.  Until this point we had been using up some leftover fourth grade paces.   In this pace, Laura is learning about living and nonliving matter.  She is learning about molecules and molecular theory. 

Word Building -  Laura aced her spelling test again this week.  She is doing so well lately with spelling.  I feel like last year we struggled a little with spelling.  I honestly think she is doing so well this year in her subjects because her brain has matured some and she is ready for tougher concepts.

Social Studies - Laura has began American History.  She has spent the last couple weeks studying John Eliot and the Native Americans.  She finished the pace in ten days.  She did good, but I think if I slow her down a little she might not be so overwhelmed with information. 

English - Laura has been learning about letter writing in English.  She has learned all the parts of a friendly letter and a business letter.  She has written letters of her own.  She actually enjoyed this quite a bit.  On her own she wrote a friendly letter to her aunt.  She is now requesting a stamp and an envelope so she may address and mail it.

Literature and Creative Writing - Laura finished another pace in her Literature and began a new one.  This is the last pace that goes along with the book Choice Stories for Children.  This is the one subject Laura would skip if she could.  She loves to read, but this subject is usually tough for her.  This is another area where I've decided she definitely needs to slow down just a bit.

Bible - Laura's New Testament Reading is going well.  This week we read from 1 Corinthians 7 through 1 Corinthians 15.  At this rate we should be through the New Testament by Christmas.

Independent Reading - Laura had gone to the library a couple weeks ago and picked up These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder to read on her own.  However, when she finished Rosa, I decided to schedule the book for Laura's school time.  She wants to read it, and the other book I had planned can wait.

Read Aloud - We are still reading The Boys and Girls of Colonial Days.  We aren't moving very quickly.  I think the next book we will take a break from historical fiction.  Laura likes it.  I'm the one wanting something different.

Character Traits - Laura studied several character traits this week.  She worked on Proverbs 25:8, which talks about settling differences in a Godly way.  She worked on Tolerance, being concerned, being observant, and being generous.  We began a character notebook that I hope to share more details about soon.

This next week will hopefully find us all healthy and well.  Laura is working hard, and the results show.  The fact that she is buzzing through some of her work shows that she is making steady progress.  Her grades have been good too. 

Weekly Wrap Up 9-10-10

This was a challenging week.  With illness in the home, things seem much more difficult.  It seems like half our home was fighting a cold.  Laura was the only one not suffering.  The rest of us were fighting a battle against the invading germs.

Laura did quite a bit on her own.  Reading was a bit off for me... as was breathing normally.  Read aloud time, both with Boys and Girls from Colonial Days and The Bible, was not very productive.  Oh well, weeks like this will happen. 

Reading - Laura did wonderful with Rosa, covering a chapter per day.  Read aloud time with mommy suffered though.  We only read two chapters in The Boys and Girls of Colonial Days. Next week we hope will be better.

Bible - Devotion time is going well, both what Laura and I do together and what she covers on her own.  Bible reading suffered a little due to my cold, but Daddy stepped in when he could.  Laura finished Romans and read until chapter six in 1 Corinthians.

Word Building - PERFECT SCORE!!!  Laura got her first perfect on her spelling test.  I was so proud of her because I thought these words were difficult.  However, she worked hard and aced the week's test.

Math - Laura finished one pace and began another.  She is working very hard in math.  Our daily drills of flashcards and Timestales has made all the difference in the world, both in Laura's skill level and in her confidence level.  I am very proud of her.

English - This week Laura has been working on writing paragraphs.  This hasn't been overly challenging for her.

Science - This week Laura has been studying famous scientists.  She has read about Galileo, Redi, Pasteur, Maury, Linnaeus, and Newton.  She seems to think they are interesting.  She hasn't complained.

Literature and Creative Writing - This week Laura is still working on anecdotes while she reads Choice Stories for Children.  Her pace also had some cursive handwriting practice.   She has a final draft of an anecdote due early next week.  She is having good practice with redoing and perfecting work.

Social Studies -   Laura has had a big week this week beginning U.S. History.  She made a tepee for a project.  She has learned about John Eliot and the Algonquin Indians.  She learned more about the Pilgrims, Squanto, and Mr. Bradford.  She is beginning to study different groups of Early People.  She started with the Eskimos.  She also did some map work concerning the prime meridian and the different Hemispheres.

Character Traits - This week Laura covered  character traits such as Decisiveness, Tolerance, being Purposeful, being Truthful, choosing a Godly way, being Discerning, and being Concerned.

I am tweaking the schedule for next week.  Laura is making outstanding progress.  In fact, in some subjects she is going way past goal every week.  That's fine to a degree, except I don't want her to burn out.  I also would like to take some time for character training.  Learning about different character traits in the ACE paces is wonderful.  I want to be able to study some of them in depth, maybe practice some of them.  I have some goals to set and plans to make in this area, but I think it will pay off in the end.