Weekly Report # 21 3/9 to 3/13

This has been a fun week, full of questions and research. James is supposed to be putting together a time capsule for cub scouts which will be sealed at the end of the month and reopened when he becomes a boy scout 3 years from now. We have had fun discussing what to put into the box, helping him make a list of what he wants to include and deciding how he wants to decorate the box.

Plus, whenever James comes up a question, instead of me answering it, I am having him look it up in the World Book encyclopedia. He's still a little iffy on looking things up in alphabetically order and so using that as an educational opportunity. Ever since we started teaching James at home, I've discovered life is full of educational moments. You just have to be aware and take advantage of the moments, rather than pass them off. Being available and open 24/7 to answering questions and guiding him to find the answers, rather than just giving answers or the famous "because I said so or it just is" is a lot of work, but well worth it.

What we accomplished this week:

Explorer Bible Study: Lesson 5 - Genesis 4 The First Family. Interesting trying to explain about the relationship between Cain and Able, why God chose Able's gifts over Cain's, Cain's jealousy and the resulting consequences placed on Cain by God.

Voyages in English: Started Section 6 Adverbs and Conjunctions. Completed 6.1 Adverbs and 6.2 Adverbs that tell When and How Often.

Spelling: Completed Lesson 20 Irregular Plurals. With the start of Lesson 20, the list words are all in cursive which is a good test of his cursive reading skills.

Cursive: Lessons this week including copywork of one paragraph each about Galileo and Aristotle. Also Synonyms and Antonyms. For the Synonyms and Antonyms, he had to translate the printed word to cursive which is still slow going for him. He is trying to write the cursive letters from memory, but if has difficulty will look back in the book for examples.

Writing with Ease - Instead of WWE this week, used the time capsule exercise for dictation. Last week at the cub scout meeting, the leader dictated a list of things the kids needed for their time capsule. James didn't catch all the items, but fortunately Father wrote them all down. So took his list and dictated it to James, plus spent time during the week, working on and writing stories to add to the time capsule.

Math: Lessons 18 through 21 subtracting from 14 and 15. James is starting to see the patterns, which is great. He has a hard time going from subtraction to addition and back again so we are concentrating on just the subraction at the moment. During the week, James went on IKnowThat.com and did the Leon Math Games. Besides, the easy addition and subtraction, he tackled the multiplication and division ones which I walked him through.

Science: In Chemistry, he and Father read Rates of Reaction, plus all about The Halogen Elements in the periodic table.

History: We read Chapter XV in This Country of Ours about "How the Colony was Saved." Father has requested we do the readings on Wednesday which is the day we are all off together because he really likes the book and listening to the stories about history. This week was all about the fight between the colonists and Pocahontas's father Pohawtan and the indians. The story details how Pocahontas was lured on to the colonists ship and held hostage until Pohawtan relented and gave back the guns and other stuff they had stolen, plus the colonists they had captured. James asked a lot of great questions, as usual, as we worked out way through the chapter. Which tells me he is actively listening and interested.

Reading: James loves the Magic school bus books and reads one a night to me at bedtime. This week he has re-read MSB Inside the Human Body, Explores the Senses, Inside the Earth, Inside a Hurricane and On the Ocean Floor. Plus the MSB Chapter book - Search for the Missing Bones. It is probably time for me to buy more of the chapter books, since he is so fascinated by them.

He is up to 119 power stars on his Mario Super Galaxy Wii Game. However, getting the 120th power star is proving difficult. I've tried playing the game and find it difficult because you have to use both the remote and the numchuk, basically playing with two hands. James is very adept at it and simply amazes me. Father tried it, with James telling him what to do, and is proud of himself for getting a couple power stars. James started a new game and is going through it again, very quickly this time. I think he's trying to build up his confidence for completing that very last challenge. We found a video online showing how to complete the last challenge and I've been having him watch it. There is a specific pattern that needs to be followed in order accomplish the goal within 3 minutes. I'm sure he'll get it soon.

That's is for our week.