Weekly Wrapup..or three

It is a good thing that I haven't been blogging.  This way you know that I've actually been busy doing school and not just putzing around on the computer.  (Although there's definitely been some of that, too.) 

Three weeks of school have already raced by.  We're jumping right into things and have already gotten through quite a bit. 

In science we're studying weather.  Why I chose to do a weather unit at this time of year in southern California, I don't know!  Gracie's homemade rain gauge is feeling feeling very purposeless.  Fortunately we've had a few cooler days that brought a bit of meteorological diversity at least temperature-wise.

Social studies has been all about the fall of Rome, and the Celts and the Anglo-Saxons.  We've borrowed Favorite Medieval Tales from the library read a version of Beowulf.  There's lots of great stories in this book that go along so nicely with what we're studying this year.  Sir Gawain and the Green knight is next.  Did you know that it was written as an allegory representing the conflict in Britain between Christianity (Sir Gawain) and paganism (the Green Knight)?  The faux pas of the year (so far) was our fallen column made of cookie dough.  Sound simple enough, right? Well, Gracie's column looked rather like a part of the male anatomy.  Enough said.  Sorry, I will not be posting pictures of it, thank you very much!

Language Arts has been here and there.  I'm still waiting for a few books I ordered before we really get started.  In the meantime we're learning about verbs and syllabication, and even starting cursive!  I'm very proud of my little reader, though.  Over Labor Day weekend, she started and finished The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  (I will tuck this away as a bit of happy reassurance during those homeschool mom self-doubting moments.) 

In math we jumped right into the middle of Saxon 2, and have been working on regrouping/carrying in 2-digit addition.  So far it's been fairly painless!  I just hope that multiplication will be, too.

So far we've been doing great in our Charlotte Mason memory verse system.  We've reviewed the verses we learned last year (not so many) and have done it just about every day.  I'm really excited that this system is working so easily!  In Bible we're in Ezra and Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the temple, which has not been the easiest, but we're getting through it, hopefully with some retention!

The biggest change we're implementing this year is the switch from an all afternoon schedule (to make the most of nap time) to staring with Bible, memory verse, and math in the morning and finishing with everything else in afternoon.  That transition has gone surprisingly smoothly as well.  The 2 younger kids have been occupying themselves playing together, finishing up breakfast, or going outside.

There's been lots of other things going on:  trips to the DMV, visits from the plumber and a new toilet, meeting with our new teacher, starting ballet, and a few doctor's appointments.  The very first thing we did on the very first day of school was go to my ob appointment, which is probably symbolic of the focus of this year, since baby #4 is expected in February!  

I hope your beginning of the year has been good, and I hope you've been able to blog more frequently than me!

Weekly Wrap-Up is hosted by Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers