I apologize for the pathetic Weeks 8 & 9 post, but it was the best way I could describe our progress, which was virtually non-existent. This week, we’re back on the wagon!
Mathematics: We started Life of Fred: Dogs, and so far we have been learned a lot about doubling (including what happens when you divide a piece of spaghetti in half 100 times…it’s a BIG number). Lillia learned how to do double-digit addition in school last year, but she seemed confused when it came to three(+)-digit addition. Although not in the book, we went over how to add multiple digits to multiple digits and she was pretty proud of herself for figuring out how to add 87,654,321 to 87,654,321. It’s always fun to watch her gears turn.
Language Arts: We are making progress in the Classical Writing Primer. This week our passage was a poem by Emily Dickinson. Lillia also drew a picture of the view to the South of our house (she has previously drawn a North view, and an East view) and worked on doubling consonants when adding -er to a word.
Autumn
by Emily DickinsonThe morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry’s cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town.The maple wears a gayer scarf,
The field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old-fashioned,
I’ll put a trinket on.
History & Geography: We started a new unit on the Ancient Near East, and have been learning about various Mesopotamian civilizations. I am hoping to do some map work with her next week.
Literature: We are reading Gilgamesh by Bernarda Bryson. This is a great version of the Gilgamesh story that is very much appropriate for children. The violence and sexuality of the original story are very, very subdued. I would say Bryson’s version is appropriate for just about any age child. We will also be reading the Geraldine McCaughrean version, Gilgamesh the Hero. I downloaded a nice literature study for the McCaughrean version from Beautiful Feet.
Miscellaneous: We’re still plodding our way through the cursive alphabet. We’re now on the letter F. Also, we have finally finished all of the Latin letters and diphthongs, and will hopefully be moving on to some vocabularly. These are the two hardest subjects for Lillia because, well, honestly, they’re not very fun. But, some things just have to be practiced.