Week 4

This week was a short, but good week.   Tuesday we volunteered at the Bishop's Storehouse.  The girls loved it.  They got a shopping cart to fill with food.  It was like shopping on their own.    I packed tomatoes into bags of three pounds each.    I also came home with a box of bruised tomatoes to make into sauce.   Good day all around.

Thursday was a day off school for E and A-M, so we planned a field trip to a local botanical gardens. .

Math:  This week we entered into the realm of negative rational numbers.  The girls got the hang of it pretty quickly.   They continued to work in their Key to Fractions and Percent books as well.

English:  We covered Direct and Indirect Objects.   We used

to review some of those pesky punctuation rules that have been a problem for I-E and E-R.  

Literature:  E-R and I-E choose vocabulary from Black Beauty to learn and took a quiz on those words on Friday.    Most of the words were specific to horse care.   We've ditched The History of the Horse because E-R and I-E just hated it.  Instead they will read the books, pick vocabulary to learn from each book, and complete a final project after reading each book.  This week and next week they are reading Black Beauty, and the following two weeks will be project time.  

Art:   This week was a review of positive and negative space.   Working on a collage, E-R was most impressed with the little 1.24 oz glue bottle that came in her art kit.   

Sometimes it's the little things in life that are the most appreciated.   

Geography:  Biblical Lands was the map learned this week.   

History:  Continuing on with the artists of the Renaissance, we also learned about the Medici family.   The Jim Weiss CD  "Masters of the Renaissance" 

did a beautiful job of weaving the stories of the Medici family into the stories of the artist we have been studying.   If you haven't listened to any of Jim Weiss' CDs, you are missing out.   Many are available at most public libraries.   

Shakespeare:   This week the kids played improv games, so the instructors could get a feel for each students personalities and acting abilities.  Next week is the big day when the kids find out which play they will be performing.   I-E is hoping for a Comedy of Errors.    E-R is crossing her fingers for Much Ado About Nothing.