Saturday, February 8, 2014

Week in Review - February 7, 2014

It is hard to believe that it is already the end of the first week of February. We spent Sunday cheering on the Seahawks. Miss K was really getting into the game and yelled "Go Seahawks."

We are continuing with Mystery of History and this week we read about William the Conqueror, Pope Gregory VII, Henry IV and the Investiture Controversy, and The Crusades. We added two more dates to the important dates to learn -- 1066 and 1096. I am trying to review the dates at least once a week. Two years ago we were part of Classical Conversations and there we learned the timeline.  I love how MOH is giving us details to some of the points in the timeline.  We even reviewed our CC timeline and realized it has been a long time since we did that.

We began reading a new book that is about to be released, Asia: Its People and Its History. Asia has been a big part of my life since 1991 when I moved there. I am excited to read this and learn about the people and also how to pray for them. More on that later.

The kids continued to request Middle East Geography. It might have been for the treats -- we have used marshmallows, M&M's and Goldfish. They are learning along with the snack.

I had a dream that this year Bob would be self-motivated, diligent, eager, and just go do his work on his own. I would say that he does that about 50 percent of the time but it does require mom to check his work as he will answer one word, skip the hard questions. Realizing that I decided that we would move Latin back to during our together time. We spend about 15-20 minutes on it but I know what is happening. I have tried to make it fun and we have played charades and memory.

We had some cold temperatures this week. That brought the sound of water as a pipe froze. Thankfully for us it was the pipe coming into the garage and so no damage was done and it was actually fixed in about two hours.

We have had some birds and squirrels enjoying the seeds on the back porch.


I know normally we don't have toys at school but we needed some extra students and so the whole herd of animals came. I had a bit of time and so I taught Bob's math lesson to him just as if I were in a classroom. I used my teacher voice and taped paper on the pantry doors to use as chalkboard. I don't know if he liked it or not but was have done it a few days. I was tired of all the questions on how to do the problems.



Miss K is learning to make her own sandwich. It looks like she needs to learn to brush her hair. She does and five minutes later it looks like this.


I went to the Homeschool Store here which is a consignment store. I have not been there for months. I am planning things for next year and wanted to look at science for Bob. I know what I want but they didn't have it.

I did buy two readers for Miss K. I am making an effort to sit and listen to her read. It does mean I need a cup of coffee before I sit down. She is amazing in what she is reading but it is slow to sit and listen.

I also bought a new math book for her. I need to do a Miss K math review. She is enjoying her new book so maybe that will help and reduce the math struggles.

Today I had her work on Math Puzzle. This was something that I had found at a thrift store. There are addition and subtraction problems and the answers fit with the problem so there is a self-checking built into the puzzle.


I love those little hands. Those hands are so eager to help. She climbed up on a stool to help make soft pretzels. They hands want to learn. She really wants to learn to knit. Those hands are small but they are just the way God made them.


I had my second and final knitting beginner knitting class that doesn't mean I am no longer a beginner rather I finished that class. I am still knitting and ripping out. It has been fun to have a new creative outlet.

We don't have much planned for our weekend -- grocery shopping, the library, my husband is preaching in a Chinese church, and then AWANA where I will be doing the missionary lesson.

Do you like quiet stay at home weekends or to be out doing things?

Beth
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8 comments:

  1. I sure wish we had a consignment shop here! I just bought a used Sonlight Core G World History Part 1 for my boys for next year. The history spine is Story of the World, book one and two, and Kingfisher History Encylopedia, along with others. I have to put a rubber band around the first part of the Kingfisher book, because of the evolution content. I am wondering if I should get MOH to supplement, but in reading a lot of reviews, it seems it is not as engaging, but I haven't seen a sample anywhere. SOW has more secular history with Bible history included, while MOH is Bible history with secular history thrown in. Some argue that the Bible history in SOW is not accurate, but my husband would pick up on any errors and we could correct them. These decisions are so hard. Does Bob stay engaged with the MOH reading? Does he read it, or do you read it to him? I would not have time to read it to the boys, because of the teaching time I must devote to the girls. My husband does the boys' read aloud at night after the girls go to bed, and they read all the rest of their material. I think I read that there are three levels of MOH, depending on what age your children are? What level would you recommend for boys ages 10 and 12? Thank you!

    We had a pipe freezing a month ago, but a space heater in an indoor closet did the trick pretty quickly. It did scare me as I feared the horrible cost if anything got damaged. Husband was at work so we used the Internet for advice as to what to do.

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    1. I like MOH because of the way that Bible History is taught and included. I will say that I have never read SOW so any thoughts are just based on what I have heard which is the same as you. We have only done MOH so that is all my son knows and he enjoys it. He has read a few of the lessons aloud but normally I read it to both kids. Miss K just sits and listens. The lessons are short about 10-15 minutes to read. He writes a 3x5 card summary. Confession - we do not do all the activities in fact it is a special week if we do any activities. We read the history, write the summary, and I keep track of the dates we are to memorize. There are pre and post quizzes which we don't always do. We do the quarter tests.

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  2. Your week was busy and it looks like you all accomplished a lot. I am curious to hear what you have to say about Asia.

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  3. My children would love the geography game too.
    I'm interested in your thoughts on the MOH question too. We've used SOW and I don't like the Bible history parts although find it well written and enjoy the fact that it covers world history. I brought volume 1 of MOH in the summer but think that it will be less easy for my younger two to manage. I was a bit frustrated with its description of Jeremiah's exile to Egypt and thought that this wasn't what the Bible describes. I haven't read the whole book though-I read the Jeremiah part as that was what I was reading in the Bible, at the time. I guess we will mix and match but am not sure about buying the latter volumes of MOH. Would love your thoughts.

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  4. We did CC last year and we haven't reviewed our timeline in awhile. We need to do that! It's easy to forget! The new math game looks fun :).

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  5. She has beautiful hands, I would love to see her learn to knit, she may just become a great knit artist! My son still sometimes needs me to work alongside him, I've learned to embrace those times, because they are becoming fewer and fewer. Great post this week!

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  6. I like Bob's math classmates but Bob doesn't look too thrilled. :)

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    1. He has hit that age where he doesn't want his photo taken.

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