Weekly Report #45

We've been enjoying summer but have had a few surprises. We spent the wee hours of Monday morning in the emergency room when Sweetie awoke at 1:32 a.m. with difficulty breathing. No fooling around - DH was quick to say, "We are going to the ER." No need to go into detail - she was diagnosed with croup and we were sent home with advice to simply take it easy. We thereby canceled plans to swim later that day but did manage to get a lot of schoolwork done in lieu of our usual Monday activities.

According to my Master Plan, we aren't to begin Medieval Times until Sweetie's 2nd grade year (August) but serendipitously, we have been coming across numerous opportunities to learn about the tales of Merlin and King Arthur. This time period in history is one of my favorite and of course, I've always been enraptured by King Arthur. Sweetie says, "That's good. We will know something already when we read about it in history."

Math, Logic & Problem Solving

• Sweetie completed Exercise 23 and did exercises 24, 25 & 27 in Singapore 2B. She also skipped ahead and did exercises 33 & 37 with B! while we were camping over the holiday.
  

Science, Geography & Nature Study

• Two Letterbox hikes while camping over the holiday provided us with opportunity to review plants of the coastal range and observe wildlife. I saw a blue-tailed skink but it darted away too quick for the kids to see.

Literature & Reading

• Watched the animated story Merlin and the Dragons by Jane Yolen (voices by Kevin Kline) and the NBC production of Merlin. The animated story we stumbled upon at the library as Buddy is passionate about dragons and the cover illustration had caught his eye. I was certain to TiVo NBC's Merlin as I suspected it was a show we'd all enjoy... I was right!
  
• Read aloud Around the Pond: Who's Been Here?, In the Snow: Who's Been Here?, and In the Woods: Who's Been Here? all by Lindsay Barrett George, one of my favorite children's book authors. Sweetie selected them 'for fun'.
  
• Finished reading aloud the chapter book, Trolls Go Home!
  

Writing & Research

• Sweetie & Buddy completed several copywork assignments without prompting. I was very impressed with Buddy's attention to detail and self-motivation.
  

Foreign Language

• Mandarin with Fanny 2x
• Mandarin Immersion 1x (on holiday)
  

Culture, Heritage & History

• Read aloud Chapter 28 - The Roman Empire from Story of the World Vol. 1 - The Ancients. DD and DS completed the color pages and map work.
• Recalled the video we watched a few weeks ago, The Myth of Perspehone (Animated Tales of the World: Greece by Schlessinger Media). Perspehone and Ceres were Roman Goddesses, however, so the title we discovered was erroneous. The tale were from Rome... not Greece.
  
• Watched the video Journals Through History: Ancient Rome by Discovery Education.
  

Sports & Extracurricular

• Taekwondo 1x (on holiday)
• Family walk 1x
  

Art, Handcrafts & Music

• Sweetie worked on her Kantha embroidery
  

Adult Skills, Current Events & Service Learning

• Picked up debris and trash while Letterboxing along the Rogue.