Week 20

I look at the number 20 above and think how far we’ve come this year.   We’ve made it past the half way mark of our school year! 

One thing that stood out this week was our literature discussion about I Am David by Anne Holm. 




We had gotten behind in our Blackbird &Company study guide,



and since the girls have been doing so much writing in other areas, I decided we would work through the guide orally.  The discussion questions in these guides never fail to impress me.
 

         Johannes once said, “Greedy people can never be happy,” he also said, “When you very much             want something you haven’t got, you no longer care for what you have got.”  Do you agree with these statements?  Why or why not? Can you give examples to support your opinion.

This question brought about an awesome discussion on those that have, those that don’t have, gratitude, materialism, ambition, and the attitude of always wanting more.

 
Of course Iva was disappointed the dog died!  And I kinda have to agree!  Perhaps publishers around the world should ban together and refuse to publish any children and young adult books where the dog dies!
    
Joy was restored when I pulled out the new highlighters!  What is it about office supplies that make us so happy?



   
Valentine’s Day was celebrated by heart attacking  our adopted grandma.   We also had a nice supper which E-R and I-E helped prepare and set the table with chocolates and roses at each place setting.
  
We finished our Key to  Algebra Book 1.   I-E is moving onto Book 2, while E-R decided to start the Key to Geometry Book 1.   Our new Singapore Math books (6B) arrived on Thursday, so we will start those next week.   I’ve decided to slow down on the Hands of Equations program to concentrate a bit more on our test prep book.   I’ve found that E-R and I-E understand the concepts that will be on the standardized math test, but don’t always understand the  terms those concepts are presented in, so we are practicing math problems with those terms.
      
In Spelling this week, E-R and I-E were thrilled to have tested out of list 6.  E-R was also excited to test out of list 7 and move on to list 8.   That left I-E by herself working on list 7.   She was very upset, this being the first time something like this has happened.    I knew that eventually one of them would pull ahead of the other in something.   I-E and I have talked about it, but she’s still not happy.   I do think this may push her to work a bit harder, and maybe in a few weeks things will be switched  up with I-E working ahead of her sister.

We finished up verb usage this week in English.   Next week we’ll move into pronouns.     In Grammar of Middle School: Sentence Composing we worked on absolute phrase.   Essay Voyage covered formality this week.

History introduced Spain’s political history during the Renaissance.  The girls took the note taking they’ve been practicing a step further by organizing those notes into outlines.   It’s a skill we’ll keep practicing for the next few weeks.   We also started reading an adaptation of Don Quixote.   E-R thinks the author must have been a bit crazy!
 

E-R

and I-E

working hard