A Week in Review

Another full week at Aspiring Oaks Academy!  We had our first big snowfall of the season yesterday, about 5 inches.  We had to delay school so all three kiddos could go out and have a romp in the snow. 

Math:  J-Straco is still working with decimals, Farm Boy is working on multiplication.  We're still loving Math Mammoth. 

Grammar:  The boys worked on diagramming direct objects and predicate nouns.

Latin:  We have been doing a lot of review of our vocab words, including a fun game in which I hang our vocab flash-cards on the dry erase board, Latin side out.  When I call the English equivalent, the boys shoot the correct card with their nerf guns.  They get 1/2 point for hitting the correct word, and another 1/2 point for correct pronunciation.  They had so much fun doing this, I think we'll expand the game to our geography studies. 

History:  We slowed things down a little to go further in depth with Ramses II.  We watched a PBS special on Ramses II and watched our Great Courses DVD on Ramses II as well.  We read the poem 'Ozymandias' by Shelley since the poem was about the statue of Ramses the Great.
We are still reading Hittite Warrior which is tying everything together so nicely.

Music:  Both boys are working on transposing music.  J-Straco  on his guitar chords and Farm Boy on his piano music

We will start a new writing curriculum next week.  I love the ideas in BraveWriter, but really feel the need for a structured curriculum.  We will start Winning With Writing 5 next week.  I think this will be a good transition since they have finished WWE but are not quite ready for WWS.

We are reading 'The Lost Hero' by Rick Riordan as a family read-aloud in the evenings.  We all snuggle on the couch and take turns reading a page. 

We listened to 'Pericles' from our audiobook Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare.

We have also been enjoying one of the boys new Christmas Presents.  The board game 'Word on the Street'.  I thought I'd crush them since I'm the reigning scrabble champ of the household, but the boys' imaginations proved unbeatable.  For example, "A cause of death" was one question they picked.  Their answer???  'Intestinal Bleeding'!! 

The Princess spent a lot of time outside while we had such warm temps at the beginning of the week. She loves to putter around the chicken coop and play with the chickens.  She claims that she is going to be a farmer when she grows up, and that I am welcome to come over and help her milk the cows!
She was also very busy with her Activity Boxes from the library.  This week she chose the wild animal box. 
She has been very interested in the passage of time; days, weeks, and months.  I printed a calendar for her and we talked about days of the week and months of the year. 

Our Greatest Obstacle This Week: