We took the day off on Thursday because Kathryn spent the day with her dad, but we still got in a pretty full week of school. We're slacking on our nature studies, but we'll get back on those after Thanksgiving (or maybe even do one next week if we have a chance!).
Our character trait for the week was flexible, as in being flexible about changes of plans and those sorts of things. Our memory verse was Colossians 3:2 ~ "Think about the things in heaven, not the things on earth." Everything on earth is subject to change, so we will be upset if we're wanting things to stay just as they are!
We're using Big Truths for Little Kids as a devotional, and we love it. Each lesson is just the right length, and presents Biblical truths in ways that kids can relate to, but doesn't water it down.
Kathryn is progressing nicely with her handwriting, and still excited about how wonderfully neat she'll be able to write notes. Even when she has to write words in her math workbook, she uses her new cursive italic. {smile} In math, multiplication tables are getting a little easier for her, and she's also working on equations, estimations, interpreting line graphs, place value to the ten thousands, and adding and subtracting 3-digit numbers.
We haven't been reading as much poetry as I'd like, but we still sprinkle it in here and there, and now that I've realized we're slacking off on that, I'm going to make more of an effort to incorporate it into most of our school days again. Currently we've been reading the poetry of Walter de la Mare. And it still amuses me, and surprises me a bit, that Kathryn looked at this week's list of readings and yelled a happy "Woohoo!" when she saw Shakespeare on the list. We use the version by Charles & Mary Lamb, and this week we read All's Well That Ends Well.
Our big breakthrough this week was with narration. Kathryn is a voracious reader, and reads at a level much higher than her grade. However, because she reads so fast and so easily, she sometimes doesn't have as much comprehension as she should, and narration has been a battle for us. We did make a little progress through my sneaky narration techniques, but it was still sort of like pulling teeth. After she'd polished off three more Kit books (from the American Girl series), she was in search of something to read, so I directed her to a shelf intended exactly for those days when she complains of having nothing to read. She chose The Red Fairy Book because she loved last years readings from The Blue Fairy Book. If you're not familiar with these, they are the original and much more interesting versions of some familiar fairy tales, and they contain some pretty complex, old-fashioned language. I wasn't sure how much she was "getting," but I asked her what she'd been reading, and she started telling me about "Rapunzel." She told me the whole story in great detail. When she was finished, I said, "That was the most fabulous narration you've ever done!" She just grinned at me. The next day she told me all about another story, and this time she even told me she'd narrate it to me. This is a major breakthrough, people!
For just plain fun, as well as some life skills, I suppose, Kathryn was a fabulous babysitter for a little friend named Catherine when they came to have supper with us last weekend. On Monday, we visited sweet baby Kaley, and Kathryn got to hold her. She loved it, and told me she would've liked to hold her all day long. (Say it with me: Awwwww!) Aren't they ADORABLE!? Kathryn had hair like that when she was a baby, too.
We're officially going to take next week off, but we've already started some fun handicraft sorts of things to make for Christmas presents, and we'll be attending the play Charlotte's Web at a local theater later this morning. I hope your week was wonderful, and that your Thanksgiving week will be even better!
Our character trait for the week was flexible, as in being flexible about changes of plans and those sorts of things. Our memory verse was Colossians 3:2 ~ "Think about the things in heaven, not the things on earth." Everything on earth is subject to change, so we will be upset if we're wanting things to stay just as they are!
We're using Big Truths for Little Kids as a devotional, and we love it. Each lesson is just the right length, and presents Biblical truths in ways that kids can relate to, but doesn't water it down.
Kathryn is progressing nicely with her handwriting, and still excited about how wonderfully neat she'll be able to write notes. Even when she has to write words in her math workbook, she uses her new cursive italic. {smile} In math, multiplication tables are getting a little easier for her, and she's also working on equations, estimations, interpreting line graphs, place value to the ten thousands, and adding and subtracting 3-digit numbers.
We haven't been reading as much poetry as I'd like, but we still sprinkle it in here and there, and now that I've realized we're slacking off on that, I'm going to make more of an effort to incorporate it into most of our school days again. Currently we've been reading the poetry of Walter de la Mare. And it still amuses me, and surprises me a bit, that Kathryn looked at this week's list of readings and yelled a happy "Woohoo!" when she saw Shakespeare on the list. We use the version by Charles & Mary Lamb, and this week we read All's Well That Ends Well.
Our big breakthrough this week was with narration. Kathryn is a voracious reader, and reads at a level much higher than her grade. However, because she reads so fast and so easily, she sometimes doesn't have as much comprehension as she should, and narration has been a battle for us. We did make a little progress through my sneaky narration techniques, but it was still sort of like pulling teeth. After she'd polished off three more Kit books (from the American Girl series), she was in search of something to read, so I directed her to a shelf intended exactly for those days when she complains of having nothing to read. She chose The Red Fairy Book because she loved last years readings from The Blue Fairy Book. If you're not familiar with these, they are the original and much more interesting versions of some familiar fairy tales, and they contain some pretty complex, old-fashioned language. I wasn't sure how much she was "getting," but I asked her what she'd been reading, and she started telling me about "Rapunzel." She told me the whole story in great detail. When she was finished, I said, "That was the most fabulous narration you've ever done!" She just grinned at me. The next day she told me all about another story, and this time she even told me she'd narrate it to me. This is a major breakthrough, people!
For just plain fun, as well as some life skills, I suppose, Kathryn was a fabulous babysitter for a little friend named Catherine when they came to have supper with us last weekend. On Monday, we visited sweet baby Kaley, and Kathryn got to hold her. She loved it, and told me she would've liked to hold her all day long. (Say it with me: Awwwww!) Aren't they ADORABLE!? Kathryn had hair like that when she was a baby, too.
We're officially going to take next week off, but we've already started some fun handicraft sorts of things to make for Christmas presents, and we'll be attending the play Charlotte's Web at a local theater later this morning. I hope your week was wonderful, and that your Thanksgiving week will be even better!
