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Friday, April 23, 2010

Massachusetts ~ Week 1

Weekly_Wrap-Up

We started our study of Massachusetts off by delving into the history of the State.    We revisited our study of the Pilgrims and Squanto and the Wampanoag, and the Mayflower Compact.

Books we used:

The History of Massachusetts Colony, 1620-1776, by Roberta Wiener and James R. Arnold
A Historical Album of Massachusetts, by Monique Avakian
The Colony of Massachusetts, by Susan Whitehurst
Land of Liberty Massachusetts, by Fran Hodgkins
This Land is Your Land Massachusetts, by Ann Heinrichs

We labeled and colored our state map and state flag.  We also spent time studying the state flower, the mayflower, isn’t is lovely?

www.hiltonpond.org/images/Mayflower200905.jpg

Olivia is finishing up Aesop’s Fables this week.  She is also working her way through the Little House chapter book set.  She’s already finished “Pioneer Sisters” and “School Days”.  This week she’s reading “Laura’s Ma”.  (I secretly wonder if Caroline Ingalls was really as sweet and proper as Laura perceived her to be.)

Laura's Ma

We are in the last few weeks of our curriculum for the year.  Language arts isn’t really introducing any new concepts other than new spelling lists.  There are lots of tedious worksheets, but Olivia enjoys doing them.  Thankfully, I can leave the majority of her worksheets for her to do on her own while I’m at work.   I check them for errors, go over anything that she may have had questions on and then move on for the day. 

Lindsey is doing well with her work.  She’s reading fairly well.  I’m thinking about using “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons” over the summer and see how that works for her.  She’s asking to do more reading than the 3-4 sentences in her “readers” and I really think she could jump way ahead. 

We worked on Olivia’s derby car for Awana.  She wanted it to be a “dog car” because everyone knows dogs can run really fast.  (Translation:  they (Thomas and Olivia) have never built a fast car, and she’s wanting to win this year!)

Baseball is going great!  Olivia’s team had an incredible game on Monday, they won 15 – 0!  Their coach has been doing a lot of group activities with them, to build their friendship and team thinking.  It’s paying off!  They worked really well together this week, no one-man shows!  Lindsey’s baseball is fun for her.  I’m disappointed in how little of the fundamentals they are being taught, but I guess it’s not all about learning (I cringed just typing it).

Only THREE more weeks of Co-op!!  I had seriously considered not going this week since I have a lot to get done on Friday and not enough time.  I had already told the husband that I thought we’d skip it…next thing you know, one of the teachers who I assist called and needed me to fill in as the teacher for her class and my hopes of playing hooky were dashed upon the rocks of responsibility….sigh.

Visit the Weekly Wrap Up to see how everyone else managed this week.

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3 comments:

  1. Looks like a great week. We love the Little House books, too!

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  2. Sounds like a great week! I know what you mean about co-op! We only have 2 more weeks left in ours!

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  3. I just love the Little House books. I don't think my kids ever got into them as much as I did though. We visited the Wilder home in Mansfield, MO a couple of years ago.

    Janet W
    http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/wdworkman/

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