Weekly Wrap Up – The Trail of Tears

 

The first week of November is history!  I really just don’t know where the time is going, and I know I made mention of that fact last week…but GEEZ people!   But, on a positive note, the time changes Sunday morning at 2am, so we get to sleep a little later.  Well, hypothetically we do…my kids internal clock doesn’t reset.

So what did we get accomplished this week?  Lots!

Language Arts:  The girls both have a firm grasp of nouns, pronouns and action verbs now.  We’re working on more memorization and also doing more copy work these days.

Spelling:  Lesson 15 has been completed.  I’m thinking of taking a break for the next few weeks, just so we’ll be sure to have some spelling work left for after the holidays!

Geography/history:   We finished up North Carolina this week.  We focused on the Cherokee people, and the Trail of Tears.   We read lots of books, and even made a map of the evacuation routes that were used with the Cherokee were relocated.   This ties with slavery for being the two most emotional topics we’ve studied so far.  

Books we used:

The Cherokee; by Emilie U. Lepthien
The Trail of Tears; by Joseph Bruchac
Cherokee Sister; by Debbie Dadey
The Journal of Jesse Smoke, A Cherokee Boy; by Joseph Bruchac
The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears; by Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green
If You Lived With the Cherokee; by Peter and Connie Roop
Amazing Cherokee Writer, Sequoyah; by Mary Dobson Wade

Science:  We studied the various climates of the world, made a “patchwork map” coloring each type of area (tundra, rainforest, desert, etc.) a separate color.

Math:  Our curriculum finally worked its way back around to liquid measurements after not having mentioned them since midway last year.  So this was pretty much a new topic.  So again I set up a liquid measurement center.  Included were 1 cup, 1 pint container, 1 quart container, 1 gallon container and a washtub to catch the spills.   Olivia worked on measuring, pouring and memorizing the facts, again.

Lindsey began counting by 10’s this week.  She’s also memorizing her math addition facts.  Something fun I’ve noticed is that she is using her snacks (grapes, goldfish, raisins) to work out subtraction problems while she eats.  Too bad I didn’t think of that!

Latin:  We’re working on more command words and singular/plural versions of those words.  Again this week we did some fun Simon Says sessions, all in Latin!

Ballet/tap: We only have 2 more regular weeks of ballet before we break for Thanksgiving – New Year.  There will be no Nutcracker practice this weekend and then we’re fast and furious towards production!

Life skills:  This is an area we work on a lot, but I don’t necessarily post about often. However this week has been busy in several ways.  The girls learned some dynamics about yard work here.  We worked together to make some yummy popcorn balls for snacks.  We used this yummy recipe from my other blog S.A.H.M. I Am!

However, by far the greatest class project of ALL times arrived early Tuesday morning!  Meet Eliana!  

This cutie will be added to our mix several days a week.   What better opportunity to teach the girls about caring for babies?   Quite honestly, I was 35 when I had Olivia.  I had NEVER held a newborn baby, had NO clue what to do with one either.   So these girls will at least have a faint clue!

We’re also working our way through a Unit Study that I’ll be sharing with you in another week or so, once we’re finished up….so keep checking back!

To finish up our week, we had a lovely Afternoon Tea, you can read the post at S.A.H.M. I Am!   Be sure to stop by this week’s Weekly Wrap Up!