Weekly Report

Another week of fun for us! We didn't get to finish everything on my plan for the week, but I have to say that is not unusual. Cullen learned a bit and made progress in the important areas, so all is well.

Memory ~ Proverbs 9:10, as well as another short verse for Sunday School which I don't have written down here and can't remember. (Maybe I should be doing some memory work, too!)

Math ~ Moving along through Horizons 2 at about half a lesson per day, with continued drill work on facts. The bright spot for me on Friday was Cullen's sitting down to tackle his math without trying to negotiate fewer problems. He just got busy!

Language Arts ~ Handwriting is showing more consistency and care. Spelling comes easily to Cullen, and he loves taking his quiz every Wednesday. Reading and phonics work are moving along nicely. Switching to Explode the Code online was a really good thing for us! We are doing oral grammar about 2 days a week, which is working out pretty well.

History/Social Studies ~ We tried to wrap up studies of Egypt and of Mesopotamia this week, working on History Pocket projects. The papyrus project we began last week still isn't done, but it is ready to roll out for drying. I think we'll get that done tomorrow afternoon. This upcoming Monday, we (Dad, too) have tickets to go see the King Tut exhibit here in Atlanta. Our history and geography readings next week move us to the Indus Valley, but we will likely be finishing up a few odd Egypt projects at the same time.

Science ~ This was a highlight for Cullen this week. We began Real Science 4 Kids Chemistry Pre-Level 1, reading about atoms and molecules and making observations. I plan to do one chapter a week, with lab time on Fridays.

At the beginning of the year, he begged to learn about motors. I did find a small kit appropriate for his age from Thames & Kosmos, but I wanted to cover basics of motion, force and simple machines first. Lego Education has great kits for learning about simple machines, so I ordered a couple hoping that they would not be too advanced for an eager six year-old. I pulled out the Levers set this week and it was perfect for us! Cullen built different types of levers, exploring the effects of changes in placement of the fulcrum and of the load, etc.

After putting all of the little pieces away, I asked if he could create a lever to move an object from among his things. It took only a couple of minutes for him to set something up that worked, then he decided to explore changes in the height of the fulcrum on his own. I just stood back and enjoyed watching!

Cullen's Wednesday chess class was especially fun for him this week because he got to play his coach twice and earned extra points for managing to keep his queen one of those games. He may already play better than I do, but has a long way to go before giving his Dad a run for his money!

As a matter of fact, that is one of Cullen's life goals at this point - to beat his Dad at chess. Must be a boy thing!