I have not done a weekly report in a bit. So, to wrap up another 6-week session, here goes:
The Oldest Twin has completed 6 painful Latin translations in Ecce Romani. Suffice it to say she is not enjoying this text anymore. It did get quite ... tedious rather quickly. We are not giving up on it, but we will add Latina Christiana II back in, along with the Ludere activities, and our on-line reviews. I have had a difficult time procuring the teacher's manual for Ecce Romani, so trying to explain the grammar concepts without the guide was a bit of a challenge. I will be thankful for the break from my Latin homework for a bit.
Oldest Twin has also completed Math-U-See Zeta through Lesson 18, as well as Life of Fred: Decimals & Percents. She received a 100% on the Unit Test following Lesson 16 in MUS, so I feel good about our progress towards Algebra. I am trying to decide what program we will use next. I have already purchased Fred's Algebra book, having found it at a clearance price. I prefer this series as a supplement, though.
O.T. has completed her study of China, Mongolia, and Russia in her Eastern Hemisphere Studies from Sonlight. We supplemented with a lot of videos, and learned a good deal about the modern cultures of these countries. One of our favorite books, surprisingly, was Genghis Khan and the Mongol Horde. To take a murderous tyrant and make him into an interesting character study ... well, that takes some talent. Kudos to the author! I did add quite a few books to our literature selections, including Peter the Great, Story of the World, Child's History of the World, Window on the World, and the Edith Nesbit books, The Railway Children and The Book of Dragons. The last two have nothing to do with our geography/culture studies, but were nice reads. The others brought some more geographical information and/or historical perspective. I think you could make this course into a two-year study if you wanted to focus more on the historical aspects of each country. I am not trying to stretch it out as much as give it more historical dimension. Plus, my child is almost through with all the books, readers and read-alouds.
As for the Youngest Twin, we have finally, finally, finally found a math program that fits!!! After attempting Saxon, Math-U-See, MCP, MEP (available free on-line), Rod & Staff, and Singapore, we gave Christian Light Education's new Sunrise Edition a shot, and we have success. He loves the workbook format, the explanations are written directly to the student, and the amount of work is not overwhelming. The first unit was a review of the previous year, and brought him up to speed with their grade-level work. That is the difficult part of changing math programs - each publisher seems to approach grade-level work a bit differently. But he has found his niche and is enjoying math now. It was not a matter of not being able to do the work. It was just a matter of finding an approach - workbook format, not too cluttered in print, explanations clear, no switching back and forth between text and workbook and extra practice books - that felt comfortable to him.
Y.T.'s studies of Greece are going well. We are in Sparta now. He is doing well with the narrations I have added a la The Well-Trained Mind method. We have also been studying outlining in our grammar course, and I am requiring he work on honing that skill in his history studies. He is loving his biology studies, and especially enjoys telling me esoteric facts concerning sea life. The Sonlight Biology books include incredibly detailed, vivid pictures of sea creatures and amphibians, and reptiles, and ... icky things. Sometimes even my child has difficulty looking at the creature of the day. But it is interesting.
Youngest Twin has also continued his studies of Greek Myths. His knowledge of the Greek gods is excellent, and enables him to read books like Black Ships Before Troy with a bit more understanding of the basic plot and some of the action, especially when the gods and goddesses involve themselves in the war between Greece and Troy. As I read the book, I was glad I had been studying with him. I could not imagine understanding Black Ships ... without a good working knowledge of Greek mythology. This realization has me concerned about Oldest Twin's return to her study of the Ancients next academic year. While YT has a love of the classics, OT does not share that love. She much prefers the Sonlight literature selections. So, while I hold Omnibus I from Veritas Press lovingly in my hands, stroking the beautiful cover and longing to delve into its pages along with my oldest girl - who definitely has the brains for the challenge - she will not enjoy the journey. She is a Sonlight girl, through and through.
Back to our review: We studied Handel as our composer for a few weeks. Handel's Hallelulah Chorus is easily recognizable now. The children enjoyed listening to Hallelulah Handel from Classical Kids. We also worked on our classical music timeline. Group Art Appreciation has not happened for about two weeks, although the Oldest Twin continues her work in God and the History of Art, focusing on Rembrandt.
Little Bear continues to make headway in her work. She has almost completed her Rod & Staff math books for the year, as well as her spelling book. Her handwriting is beautiful in both cursive as well as print. She adores copywork, using the McGuffey Reader just for fun. Our science studies are going well, and she has learned quite a bit of world geography. She is able to label all the oceans, continents, and hemispheres, as well as major countries such as the USA, Russia, China, Japan, Australia and Canada, and knows about the equator and various weather patterns. After the new year, we will begin her third grade studies. I am not sure yet how we will proceed, but I am leaning toward a more WTM approach than Sonlight, simply because I do not see the maturity in my little guy necessary to bring him along in Little Bear's studies, and I do not have the time to utilize another entire SL core with this one student, in addition to all else. I still have time to decide.
Well, those are the highlights. Life goes on, we plod on, making the best of things. Hopefully, there is a field trip in our near future. Other than that ... onward we go.
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