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Weekly Wrap-Up ~ Homelessness and the Bayeux Tapestry

This was one of those weeks where it was busy and ordinary all at the same time.

Dawson ~ 8th Grade

Dawson's week was one of mostly mechanics .. getting through the lessons so that Spring Break could begin. He did well all week, worked hard and did thorough work. But, he didn't really do too much exciting work.

Probably the highlight of his week was an accident. We were studying the Battle of Hastings and read about the Bayeux Tapestry. We decided to look it up, and when we did we stumbled upon a "Bayeux" Tapestry generator. Dawson sat down and started playing with it and generated a few scenes out of the book we are reading, Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray.


Additionally in history we learned about the establishment of the middle class in Middle Ages and the Magna Carta. In science we studied biomes and how herbs were used for medicines.

We also received our greenhouse from the CSN giveaway I won so we moved our herb seeds into it and put it in a sunny place upstairs. We have now added some broccoli seeds, as well.


Dawson completed Life of Fred: Decimals and Percents and will move onto Pre-Algebra with Biology after Spring Break.

We also read many Bible verses on stewardship and Dawson wrote an essay on the topic.

He has already left for a weekend at the lake with his best friends and his dog, Crusoe. I am sure he is currently doing "boy" things that I'm better off not knowing about. He opted for staying home this next week while me and the other three kids go to Pensacola to my parents' vacation home. So I hope he has a great week off!

Brynne ~ 1st Grade

Our focus book this week was Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting. It is about a father and his young son who are homeless and live in an airport. As part of that study we had a lot of discussions about the homeless and how we are called by God to take care of them. We discussed ways we could help. We also talked about how we take care of the "homeless" birds in our back yard and how important it is that we provide them with birdhouses and water and food and not disturb the nests they build.


On that topic we also read the book Great Joy by Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline (love him!). Brynne did two mazes, one helping a bird find the center of his birdhouse and one helping his dog find his way home.

The coolest thing we did on this topic was to brainstorm about what Brynne thinks of when she thinks of "home". She listed several words. Then we used those words to rewrite a poem by Catlin L. Crawford called "When I Think of Home", by filling in the blanks at the end.

And this was Brynne's poem ...

"When I Think of Home" by Catlin L. Crawford and Brynne
(You can go here to see the original poem. Click "handout" under "Materials".)

When I think of "home" I think of burned out lightbulbs.
When I think of "home" I think our house is big.
When I think of "home" I think of toys under the bed.
When I think of "home" I think of times when we dig.

When I think of "home" I think of fun.
When I think of "home" I think of family.
When I think of "home" I think of quiet.
When I think of "home" I think of my neighbor Ellie.

When I think of "home" I think of warm weather.
When I think of "home" I think of homeschool.
When I think of "home" I think of comfy pillows.
When I think of "home" I think of furniture that's cool.

Her letter-of-the-week was "Q" so she read several "Q" books, did her tracer page and her mini-book.

In math we added the concept of money to our study of 10's and 1's (using dimes and pennies). We played store with Brynne paying me for school supplies she purchased. She also played a fun math game focusing on the concepts of grouping 10's and 1's.


On Thursday we went to the Tulsa International Airport for a field trip.


And on Friday she had her Coop P.E. and Music classes.

And school is complete because we are now on Spring Break! We leave at 4 a.m. tomorrow for Florida! So ..... talk to you in a week!

We are linking up with Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Comments

  1. Oh, I hope you had a wonderful trip! Sunny Florida! LOVE the greenhouse! Happy planting!

    Jessy

    ReplyDelete

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