Getting close to the end of our second year

I feel like we are coming down the home stretch.  We're completing many of our planned activities and I think the kids and I have a sense of accomplishment about this school year.


Here's what we've been up to the last three weeks:

Language Arts:


We've been reviewing the material we've learned.  The boys have memorized the lists of linking verbs, subject and object pronouns, and have a good handle on the list of prepositions.  They started memorizing The Pear Tree by Edna St. Vincent Millay for the last poem of the year.

We've analyzed more sentences:

We've done some more punctuation review and more work on homonyms.  Andrew was on a roll with this one.  His pear is holding a knife- a tribute to Annoying Orange.

Ed did a beautiful job on his handwriting for this dictation.  I was so pleased I let him pick two stickers.

In spelling, they had words ending in -ge and -dge, words with a soft c, and words that end in f which change to ves in the plural.

In handwriting, we've covered the cursive capital letters N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U & V.

For book club, the chosen book was Mr. Popper's Penguins.  Since we already read it last year, I'm just doing a quick re-read through aloud with the boys.  They are reading independently for an upcoming book report.  Ed is reading The Fighting Ground by Avi, and Andrew is reading The Printer's Apprentice by Stephen Krensky.

We are still listening to Inkspell in the car, but the end is now in sight.  I think we only have like 4 more discs left.

Math:


We finished up MUS Gamma.  We made it through!  I was beginning to doubt that they would ever master multiple digit multiplication, but they seem to have a slightly better attitude toward it now.  I let them check their answers on the computer's calculator, and they are always pleased when they've found the correct answer.

This is side 2 of one of Ed's pages.

We did some extra stuff, like learning about right triangles and Roman numerals.  Those were fun lessons.

History:

We learned how the English brought the opium trade to China and the devastating effects it had.  We read Confucius: The Golden Rule by Russell Freedman.  The kids were very interested in Confucius.

We learned about the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte and his eventual crowning himself Emperor.  We learned of his sale of the Louisiana Territory to the United States in order to fund his wars in Europe.  We read The Louisiana Purchase by Michael Burgan.

We learned about the Haitian Revolt, and read Toussaint L'Ouverture: The Fight for Haiti's Freedom by Jacob Lawrence.

We also learned about the proliferation of factories in England and the United States and how the Luddites revolted against the inhumane working conditions.

Science:


We finished reading the Periodic Table book, then we read Elements and Compounds by L & R Spilsbury.  We made a huge model of the periodic table on the sunroom floor with our element cards.  This was difficult for the boys, but they liked seeing the finished product.

Then we did an experiment where we saw how two compounds combined to make two different compounds.

French:


We did a bit of review of many things, including subject pronouns.  We learned the direction words, and they played many games on French 10 Mins. on the computer.


Latin:


We learned Magister mundi sum and in principio.

Music:


They practiced several songs and started learning Old McDonald.

Health:


They did a worksheet on bicycle safety.

P. E.:

They did a Swim & Gym at CSU.  I didn't take any swimming pics this time, but I did try to get one of flag football.  That wasn't easy while holding a squirming baby! lol!

They've played outside often:

And we've taken many walks, including a lovely stroll along the river in Chagrin Falls today.


Art:

They learned about the discovery of shards of pottery underground in the Near East and how they were designed with various patterns etched in.  They made their own creations out of wet clay onto which they etched their own designs.

Then they learned about Minoan fresco paintings and did an oil pastel and watercolor version of their own.  These came out kind of nice, for these guys.

Theatre Class:


The final theatre class of the year was this past Monday.  The kids did a performance of a revised Cinderella.  It was the best show I've seen them do so far.  They were all very funny!