Wrapping Up Week 22 (2014-15

Posted on January 18, 2015 by Deanna

This week felt more like we were mostly back into the swing of things after the holidays, and we’ve fallen into a workable routine.

Bible/Circle Time

The kids are making their way through the Animated Stories from the New Testament videos first thing each morning as they eat breakfast. Then after they’ve gotten through their morning responsibilities we continue reading through two chapters from Little Pilgrim’s Progress each morning, with Ian creating pages for his book. His pictures were all starting to look alike (two stick people), so I told him he needed to put a little more effort into making sure the pictures helped tell about each chapter. I did see some improvement after that discussion. Now we need to work on making sure every word gets written. (He narrates back to me and then helps me come up with a sentence, which I write down for him to copy.)

Math

This week we worked on learning the 3s on the times table. While I didn’t push Ian to memorize them at this point (though the lesson plans do suggest it), he was definitely becoming familiar with them. Since he’s still working on this addition facts on xtramath.org, however, I’d rather he save his multiplication facts for later. I don’t know of any other curriculum that expects 1st graders to know them, so I’m not too worried about it.

Literature

So far in our readings for Ambleside Online, Year 1, Ian hasn’t been too fond of Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories, but this week I realized that the problem may have been that I had him listening to an audiobook as we drove. This week we read about the Armadillos, and he didn’t want me to put the book down. Kipling does have a unique style of writing, and I think perhaps the accent of the reader made it hard for Ian to understand.

History Cycle

We continued reading Our Little Roman Cousin of Long Ago by Julia Darrow Cowles. Ian enjoyed looking through pictures from my first trip to Rome many years ago, and especially seeing the same places I told him about when we watched the first episode on Imperial Rome from Kid’s Animated History With Pipo and the first episode on ancient Rome from Drive Thru History.

Science

This week we talked about the respiratory system (lessons 27-28 in The Human Body from God’s Design for Life). Ian like the activity comparing our lung capacities by seeing how big we could blow up a balloon using only one breath.

These lessons sent Ian running to get our copy of one of his favorite books, See Inside Your Body. He also enjoyed catching up on the pages about circulation and respiration in The Usborne Human Body Sticker Book.