Weekly Update: March 7-18, 2011

I haven't posted in almost a week!  Last weekend was my kids' performances of MacBeth.   All the stress, late nights, long hours of memorizing, extra classes, and time spent were TOTALLY WORTH IT!   The show was a great success.   

Opening fight scene

Three Weird Sisters

MacBeth after becoming King

MacBeth and Banquo discuss their meeting with the three weird sisters

Lady MacBeth telling MacBeth how things are going to go down

Banquo Dies!

I knew this experience had cemented a love for Shakespeare when I overheard my kids using lines from MacBeth to insult each other!  

What Say You---Whey Face!   

You were of women born

Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men.

Geese, villian!

 (said with as much scorn as one can muster)

For the most part these past two weeks, we stuck to our normal routine--though day light savings threw a ratchet in the time we started school this week.  

Grammar---We finally finished pronouns in Rod and Staff.   E-R and I-E bombed their tests.    They just never picked up on the concepts of the different cases of pronouns.    After spending way too long on trying to teach the concepts, I've decided to move on.   Next year R&S 6 will reteach most of the concepts, and perhaps their brains will remember a little something from this year.   They have moved on to the next chapter on Adjectives and Adverbs and studied descriptive and limiting adjectives.   E did well on his pronoun test.    Usually all the levels of R&S  follow the same outline of topics.   For some reason level 6,  switches the adverb and adjective chapter with the punctuation chapter.   So, E is studying punctuation.   It's been all review for him, so far---end marks, quotations, split quotations,  and indirect quotations.   Everyone worked in their Building Thinking Skills books.   E worked in his test prep and word roots vocabulary books.   E-R and I-E worked on reading comprehension and free writes through-out the week.  

Lit---E's Window to the World has finally been found!    It was sitting on a shelf in his room.    He read and took notes on chapter 10 Setting.  I-E and E-R finished reading A Family Under the Bridge.    This book is an easy read, but is full of such great discussion fodder.    We discussed what makes a family, how one achieves self respect,  how fear affects our actions, how appearance affects your actions and others perceptions, and how we determine what is right and wrong.  For their final project,  both girls decided to make a budget for a small family living in our little town.   It was an eye-opener for them to see exactly how much things cost.    We were able to look at the budgets and discuss how homeless can happen.  

Math---E-R and I-E worked on a short geometry section in Singapore.   They learned how to determine the measurements of angles in triangles and quadrilaterals.  They also worked on a cumulative review and took some tests on line at Brainchild.   E worked on Aleks Math.and mastered square root simplification, factoring a perfect square, and proportion word problems.  

Science---This week in science we read chapter 23, It's a Gas Take its Temperature!   Covering four scientist, Joseph Black, Henry Cavendish, Karl Scheele, and Joseph Priestley, this chapter managed to cram a lot of info in a small amount of reading.   In order to help the kids process all that info, each kid picked one scientist to study indepth.   Then we had a panel discussion about their discoveries and important contributions to science.   Poor Karl Scheele had the bad habit of tasting all the chemicals he experimented with and it is believed that he died by poisoning himself with one of these tastes!  

History---Last week in history we covered the Magna Carta using a Jackdaw. 

We read the broadsheets about King John, Barons and Feudal Lords, Magna Carta: What it was, and what it was not, The signing of Magna Carta, King John and History, and England in 1215.   We then read the Magna Carta (well most of the Magna Carta---it was dry and not a bit entertaining!)  E-R and I-E created Venn Diagrams comparing and contrasting governments today and in King John's time.   E wrote an essay comparing the way the barons settled their dispute with the king, with general elections, strikes, and arbitrations.   We also enjoyed the copies of the original Magna Carta and the poster showing how the Royal Standard from King John's time through today has developed. 

This week we started our study of the Byzantine Empire.   I-E and E-R wrote reports on the history of the Hagia Sophie,  Justinian, created mosaics, and drew and labeled maps of the Byzantine Empire.  

PE--Everyone swam and have a meet today.   I-E started working with a water polo team.   She's one of the youngest, but seems to be holding her own. 

Fieldtrip--We did squeeze a fieldtrip in.   I posted about that here.

Be sure to check out everyone else's weeks at the