Weekly Report - Weeks 23, 24 & 25

It's been three weeks since my last weekly report. Even though they have become less frequent they are just as important for me. Thatcher loves seeing his work online; it gives him a great sense of satisfaction! I love having a place to "think out loud" and process. That said, here is our (multi)weekly report:

Math : Horizons is still going well, and I'm happy to say we finally started our supplemental math program (I will link to it soon. Right now their site is down). I love it! It only takes five minutes a day but it encourages a different kind of thinking. Thatcher has really enjoyed it, too. We've only done the first four lessons, so I'll keep you updated on how it's going as we continue to work through it. One of the best things...this program is free! :)

In the past few weeks on the WTM Curriculum Board there have been very encouraging threads about how well dc are prepared after working through Horizons from beginning to end. All of the moms who have used it K-6 said their children were more than ready for higher levels of math, and most added that they didn't supplement Horizons at all. You can read all the reviews in the world from "experts" but for me there's nothing like a "It's worked for me and my dc." from a respected mom who has been there, done that!

Spelling: This week we started Spelling Workout B. Thatcher has been so excited to have a change from ETC after 3 years. SWO B starts out very easy but increases in complexity pretty rapidly. I want Thatch to experience success to build confidence with a new program. One of the things I like best is the new skills he is learning: ABC order and editing were introduced just in Lesson 1.
Grammar: Here is what we have been doing for Grammar since we dropped FLL -

Each day I write two new sentences on the board ~ usually something that will be of high interest to Thatcher. These sentences were about his Daddy coming home from Washington. :) First he recites the required definitions to me and then he underlines all nouns and circles all verbs. This is working well for us.

Poetry Memorization: Now that we are not doing FLL I also had to come up with a way not to forget poetry memorization each day, too. I went through FLL and The Harp and Laurel Wreath and chose poems I wanted Thatch to learn for the remainder of this year. I wrote them on our "Memory Work Chart" and we review that week's poem each day. Right now Thatcher is learning "The Whole Duty of Children" by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Logic: We also started Mind Benders this week. To say that Thatch loves it is an understatement. He has always loved detective stories and, to him, this is just like solving a mystery!

History: We are still learning about Ancient Greece. Thatcher loves this period in history. Here are the two books we finished this week and Thatcher wearing a toga (admittedly not a very good one but Thatcher loved it nonetheless).


Science: We finished our unit on animals a few weeks ago and we have yet to start our human body study (my fault - can't get it all prepared with everything else going on lately). We did enjoy some nature study this week at our local nature trails.

We wondered what all has called this place home!

Thatch was fascinated with the idea of termites eating this tree. He asked me,
"Will you put this on your blog, please?"

My personal favorite of the day: West Indian Lantana
Yahoo! My first flower to identify all by myself thanks to this site!


This is from a beautiful garden someone planted behind their fence that
backed up to the trail we were on. Not sure what this one is.

From the same garden but couldn't identify this one either.
I made the assumption it was a type of daisy???


We enjoyed a picnic lunch and some playtime at the park before we started our hike. I had to include these photos just for the sake of a mommy brag!

Spanish: United Streaming continues to go well but like with several things I needed to step it up a notch (even if all I can manage is a tiny notch right now. Lol!) Here is a copy of the letter Thatcher sent to his Spanish penpal, Grace. I met her mom, Tammy, through the WTM board and learned they would be using US for Spanish too.

The other thing I am doing is being more deliberate to use the things we already own on the days we are not watching Sra. Cano on US. You can see some of these things in an old post about Spanish. Here Thatch is playing with Spanish matching cards ~ while balancing a lid on his head!

One more thing: These past few weeks I have gotten back to writing a checklist of all we need to accomplish each day on our dry erase board. I did this at the start of the year but dropped it because it seemed redundant and tedious. Recently, as I though of ways to speed up our days this came back to me. I can really tell how much Thatcher has matured this year because of how well he is using this tool to help him navigate his day. He loves to check those boxes and move on to the next thing! You can see, it's nothing fancy - just very practical (at least for us!).

And one last photo, just to make you smile. Here is my sweet Haddon dressed up like "Super Batman" (notice the cape and the mask!) while holding his favorite bear. How cute is that?!