Weekly Wrap Up–The California Edition

 

Our third week is gone, poof!   It’s crazy how quickly time is moving!  It was a pretty typical week.  Nothing too exciting going on.  We did however find out that our Activity Day program is back on for the upcoming year, so I’ll be working on projects for that.

Tuesday we went to Praise in the Park again.  Each week the announcer leads everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance, and then the National Anthem is sung before the performances start.  It always bugs me that the gentleman leading the pledge is always reading it off a card (he’s my age, he should KNOW it).  Apparently last week I made a comment about it bugging me.  So this week we get to the park and get our chairs set up and Lindsey asks if she can go speak to the man about something, so her dad goes with her.  She asked if SHE could lead the recitation for the night and he agreed.  So up on stage she went in front of hundreds of people, microphone in hand, other hand over her heart as she lead everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance.  A proud mommy moment….and me without my camera!!

Geography/history:  California was our focus this week. The girls were amazed by the giant redwoods!  Truthfully so was I, I knew they were big, but my goodness they are HUGE!  We worked on mining for gold (painted rocks) using a pie pan with some holes poked in it and a large tub of water.  Richard Nixon didn’t leave a lasting impression, but I digress.

Books we used:

California; by Tamra B. Orr
Redwoods, The World’s Largest Trees; by Jeremy Joan Hewes
Richard Nixon, Thirty-seventh President; by Mike Venezia
Profiles of the Presidents, Richard M. Nixon; by Robert Green
Our Presidents, Richard M. Nixon; by Anny Graham Gaines
Striking It Rich, The Story of the California Gold Rush; by Stephen Krensky
The California Gold Rush; by Jean F. Blashfield
The California Gold Rush; by Mel Friedman

Science:  We studied animal classification, habitats, housing choices and dietary needs.

Latin:  This week we focused on verbs such as navigo, oro,porto, laboro and specto.  Notice that each word ends with an “o” showing that it’s a verb.  We’ve also memorized the first three lines of The Sanctus.

Reading:  Olivia is continuing to read “Caddie Woodlawn”.  This book was part of our library list from last weeks study of Wisconsin, but it didn’t come in until late in the week.  Lindsey is working through her curriculum readers, and is also picking up everything else in the house that she can attempt to read.

First Language Lessons:  We worked on addressing a mailing envelope and writing thank you notes.  The girls also memorized the poem “The Little Bird”.

Spelling:  Olivia finished up lesson 3 in All About Spelling, focusing on the 4 ways to spell the long “a” sound.

Writing:  Olivia continues to enjoy the Writing Strands, although I’m finding that she’s not quite ready for the working alone aspect yet.  So, I’m finding a little more guidance and involvement from me is necessary.   Lindsey’s cursive writing is improving, but we aren’t working on composition yet with her.

Math:   Monday and Tuesday were pretty rough days for Olivia in math.  No clue why we go through this every now and then, but it’s very frustrating when she can’t remember simple things that she’s known for a long period. Tuesday night we all added “and please help Olivia with her math” to our prayers.  Wednesday morning we prayed again before starting math and it went MUCH better.  Now why didn’t I think of that earlier??

That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.   How was your week?

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