This week was our first FULL week of normal school since before Christmas break! Our first week back was a short 4 day week because we were away for the week-end at an out-of-state swim meet. Last week was only a two day week since we went to an indoor water park for my daughter's 13th birthday on Wednesday and then we took Friday off as well. So, it was really "back to the grind" this week!
We continued our Ancient Greek Mythology and Ancient Greece unit study. I am extremely pleased with one of the resources that we are using for the unit study, D'Aulaire's Greek Myths Teacher Guide and D'Aulaire's Greek Myths Student Guide from Memoria Press. These two books coordinate perfectly with D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths. The Teacher Guide and Student Guide divide D'Aulaire's Greek Myths book into 25 lessons complete with vocabulary and comprehension questions. These resources have been incredibly helpful in working through the D'Aulaire book, which we are all enjoying immensely.
We learned about the Agora, the military, clothes, and travel in Ancient Greece. As one of the writing assignments for the week, my children had to design their own little sign for their shop at the Agora. On the back, my youngest had to write one sentence advertising his business, my middle child had to write at least 3 sentences, and my oldest had to write a paragraph. For some reason, both of my boys decided to sell fish. Maybe they just wanted to go into business together!
We sell big and small fish.
We have big fish, small fish, lard fish, catfish, goldfish, fried fish, crunchfish, and munchfish. Top it all with an extra large fish shake. (I know it's only 2 sentences but I thought it was pretty catchy so I let him slide.)
My oldest made a lovely sign for a wine shop. "We have a wine for everyone's tastes! Pick up something for your next symposium. Or pick out something nice for your wife. Our selections have been aged, just right, for maximum satisfaction!
Thanks to Kris at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers, all three of my children are now systematically reviewing and practicing their multiplication facts. After reading her positive review of Facts First, I tried the demonstration on their website and was impressed. So, I was happy to find a good resource to fill a needed hole in my children's math work each day. As Amber moves into higher level math, knowing those basic math facts as quickly as possible is important.
I was quite happy that my 7th grade daughter wrote another chapter in her novel this week! Amber has been working on a novel of her own since last summer loosely using Learn to Write the Novel Way. She seized the curriculum last summer when it arrived in the mail with our school books and she really made it her own project. I have been trying to just be as supportive as possible...and stay out of the way. She didn't have swim team one day this week and she chose, all on her own, to work on her novel. Her plan is to really focus on her novel more once she is completely done with Growing With Grammar 7 for the year, which will be in March. But, for now, she has 4 of 10 planned chapters completed. Way to go, Amber!
Lastly, we completed a normal art lesson this week! Once again, I was so pleased with the process and the results of the art lesson from Atelier Art. This week's lesson was on Composition and the art project was modeled after the art of Charles Wysocki and other similar artists. Since Charles Wysocki is one of my most favorite artists, I was so very pleased with the paintings that my children created. I think I may even have to invest in some inexpensive frames for these gems. All three of my children really took a lot of care and time creating their paintings and the crayon-resist technique turned out great.
I adore the quilt hanging on the side of Amber's farm house and the pumpkins in the field. She also did a good job of using perspective in her picture.
Mason's painting is so colorful and he was even able to sneak a bit of his quirky personality in the picture - note the little alien ship up in the corner!
My youngest, Duncan, was really pleased with his artwork this week. I thought he did a fabulous job putting his farmhouse in the front and a ship on the river in the back. Good job, Duncan!That's our week in review! Next week we will start working through our Spectrum Test Prep books in preparation for standardized testing in April. I expect HUGE groans from all three children next week! If you would like to see what exciting things other homeschoolers were doing in their homeschools this week, check out the Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
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