Weekly Report

This was a really good week at our house! We kicked it off with a bang at The Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History. (See Monday's post here.) Overall, Cullen was cooperative and fun to be with, which as you can imagine, does help quite a bit!

Basics rolled along smoothly. Spelling, Bible, D'Nealian Cursive, Explode the Code 4 phonics - all without a hitch. Cullen memorized a few Bible verses and should tackle a poem next week. He finished reading The Sword in the Tree and is excited about beginning Adventures of King Arthur tomorrow.

Rounding out language arts, he read and wrote a response to one of Aesop's Fables and learned about synonyms and pronouns. After we read The Hero Beowulf together, he narrated a super short summary back to me. (I hope that these narrations grow a little longer as time goes on!) I jotted his sentences down, then wrote out two of them for him to copy. He added a gory illustration of Beowulf with sword in hand and a green, bloody monster arm at his feet. Typical little boy, yes, but don't get the wrong idea. He also wrote a couple of sentences with pronouns for me which read, "I have some butterflies. They are beautiful." There is a sweet side, too!

Math was pretty relaxed. He's been working hard on some fairly new concepts, so we mostly just did review work and word problems this week. On the top of the stack for this weekend's read aloud books is The History of Money from Weekly Reader Library series. Cullen saw this earlier and can barely wait to get into it. He finds money VERY interesting!

Due to time constraints last week, which means "we didn't get it all done," this week we combined some of Tapestry of Grace Yr2 week 3 with week 4 to catch up with the schedule, covering the rise of Islam, Charlemagne, an introduction to the Feudal System and what life would have been like in a Medieval village. This is such a fun period to learn about!

Crustaceans were the focus of our science, with a little reading and making a page for Cullen's notebook. Tomorrow, we plan to hunt down a pill bug, sow bug, or roly-poly as I've always called it, to get an up-close look at a land-dwelling crustacean. Now that I think of it, I guess we could spend a few minutes at the lobster tank in the seafood section of the grocery store, too.

Cullen created these clay pieces at his weekly art class - a castle and a goblet. (Perfect for our Middle Ages theme!) I was a little puzzled (silently, of course) at the castle until it suddenly hit me. It's a giant inflatable bouncy castle!


Most of Cullen's free time over the past several days has been spent hunched over a pile of legos and an instruction manual. He has made small things on his own before, but this week was a milestone. After three days, he completed this giant Coast Guard ship with all the bells and whistles - all on his own! The only assistance I provided was to help him backtrack a few steps to find a mistake, then he forged ahead to finish.

He's quite proud of this accomplishment! I am, too!