Week 23: Gettysburg or Narnia...

This week we covered week 23 in Year 3 of Tapestry of Grace. We all enjoyed the lower grammar selection Thunder at Gettysburg, about a young girl who inadvertently gets swept up into the battle. Molly was staring at me wide-eyed when I finished--I could tell that she had really identified with the main character, Tillie, by the end of the book. We also enjoyed the book Just a Few Words, Mr. Lincoln. She also did a very good job finishing her illustrations for her Phonics Road booklet. When she puts her mind to it, she draws very well.  We also completed another week in WWE and decided to skip ahead 20 lessons or so in her reading book. It was getting too easy!

Matty has been reading and enjoying the book Behind Rebel Lines. It is the true story of a young woman who poses as a man and enlists in the Union Army. It's very exciting and full of unexpected events. It is definitely a book that appeals to both young women and young men.

Matty has pushed through his review of some math concepts that he needed to work on, and is going to be finished with MUS Epsilon soon. Of course I've been saying that for ages now...it seems like we are never going to be finished with this book. I am adamant, though, that we are not moving ahead until he has fractions mastered. I asked him if he likes doing fractions and he replied, "It's better than long division."

In the process of reviewing with him, I have discovered a wonderful little app for my iPad called Educreations. It is a virtual white board, and I can work a problem with him on it and record the explanation, and he can go back over it again and again as needed. Thumbs-up for that. I'm like my own little Sal Khan. We like Sal, too, but this is tailored just for him, using examples from his own books. Imagine the possibilities! Diagramming sentences is next, baby. Look out!

 

The weekend the kids and I were sick, they decided to have a Narnia movie marathon in which they watched all three movies back-to-back in one day. I watched quite a bit with them. That set Matty on a Narnia kick and he decided to fill in his Narnia gaps by reading The Last Battle and The Magician's Nephew. (We had attempted the Magician's Nephew in the past, but couldn't finish it because the witch gave him nightmares. This time he enjoyed it.) I love to see him enjoying quality literature. The result of this has been an interesting              dichotomy of discussions in the house lately--Civil War or Narnia.

I have the winter blahs at the moment, and decided I did not feel like doing school in the basement schoolroom for a couple of weeks. It is very cheerful and bright down there, but I love the sunshine streaming through the kitchen door onto our table in the mornings, and I can still prepare food and what-not. We had one or two very rainy March days this week, and it called for staying in pajamas and having hot chocolate while doing school work.

Another way I decided to change things up was to place those Ikea cubbies on the low wall between the kitchen and family room so we can quickly and easily clean up our books at mealtime. One reason I never wanted to do school in the kitchen was because it was always a wreck and I got tired of clearing space on the dining table to eat. Problem is solved. The kids seemed to enjoy the shift in venue. We'll move back down soon, I'm sure, as all of our other books are there.

Overall it was a solid week. As I was considering this weekly update, I had to ask myself, "what constitutes a good week of school?" Look for my response to that question in an upcoming blog entry this week.