Smrt Lernins

Like my friend Patchfire, I feel like this week was a big less…rigorous, I guess, than last week.

In history, this week, Captain Science covered the Middle and New Kingdoms of Egypt. He finally finished The Golden Goblet, but barely got started on Mara, Daughter of the Nile. I, however, did pick up this book and am rather enjoying it. He’ll have to read it by the end of next week. I wrote about his history lesson in greater detail on Wednesday, so not much need to say more here.

In grammar, he did a review of Growing With Grammar chapter 3 and a quiz on the materials covered (mainly capitalization). He did chapters 4.1-4.3, covering action verbs, direct objects, and linking verbs, with sentence diagramming for the direct objects.

We started a new writing curriculum, Writing Strands, which, while not the most intense or rigorous curriculum, is certainly more enjoyable. The Captain didn’t balk at doing the work for Day 1 and Day 2 in a single sitting. We’ll be doing more than a day’s worth of work a day, because the lessons are a bit light. If this encourages him to write, though, I’m all about it. It’s more light-hearted, to be sure.

Math didn’t get off to a great start. Due to complete lack of reading directions, Captain Science couldn’t pass the bridge in Life of Fred: Fractions after chapters 6-10 the first four times he tried it. He knew the material, but didn’t write the answers as requested, or didn’t give the part of the answer required, or didn’t reduce all the way. Maybe it was because it was Dawdlin Day Thursday, but kid could NOT focus. Today (Friday), he did chapter 11 with no problem. Distracted Boy is distracted.

In science, Captain Science and Eclectic Girl started magnetism. I had to run off to a dentist appointment, so I left the Captain at Patchfire’s house while he did his science lesson. When I returned, I found that he had not actually written down the answers on two of the five sheets of work, which did not please me. He had to finish them at home, but I can’t vouch for their accuracy. I think Patchfire is going to have to knock some heads together.

We listened to one music lesson this week, on Leonard Bernstein. I can’t say if the Captain was impressed or not, though he did seem a little more interested in Bernstein then he was in Bach or Beethoven.

Co-op is going well, though he might end up being booted from Officer Daddyman’s martial arts class if he doesn’t behave. He’s alternating between wild and apathetic. I don’t know if this is a “my dad is my teacher” thing or he just doesn’t want to do it and won’t speak up. He’d better figure that out, though, because he’s about one more bad lesson away from spending that class period in study hall working on his writing.

The Tank continues to love preschool. He got kicked in his face (accidentally) by another boy on Thursday, but is otherwise pleased with the whole thing. He’s brought home painted pictures of apples, pictures of apples with real seeds pasted to them, painted pictures made by using half an apple as a stamp, and a note about his favorite color of apple. I’m sensing a theme here.

Babypie is still working on her crawling, but has mainly mastered crawling in place, which is hilarious for me, but frustrating for her. She crawls and crawls, but never makes it anywhere! I am kind of feeling the same way this week.