Weekly Wrap-up ~ All About ...

... Dogs

Brynne's week has been all about studying the Download-n-Go Dog unit we purchased from Amanda Bennett. We have had fun learning about Labrador Retrievers (or "Lavender" Retrievers, as she calls them), German Shepherds, English Springer Spaniels, and Newfoundlands. She has read non-fiction books about each of the breeds, and a fictional book, as well, and watched a couple of movies.

She did four spelling words each day, about dogs, and then orally gave me each word in a sentence. She has done lots and lots of drawing. We learned about working dogs, dogs owned by American presidents, and the Newf, Seaman, owned by Meriweather Lewis.

My favorite part has been learning dog Idioms: "Top Dog", "That Dog Won't Hunt", "Doggie Bag". I had her write the Idiom, then draw a picture underneath it of what she thought it meant by reading it. Finally, we looked up the real meaning and she wrote it at the bottom of her page. These were fun to do.

We move on to four new breeds next week.

... The Civil War

I think Dawson and I could study the events leading up to the Civil War and the war itself forever. There are so many facets of it that it could be a whole class itself.

Last week we finished The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick. This week we are reading Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson. In my personal time, I am reading I am Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira. And we have been watching an episode of North and South each day.

I love, love, love how all of these books and the mini-series have topics that overlap. We have learned about how initially 75,000 men volunteered for the Civil War, until they realized that people really died, and then the rich paid poor boys to take their place. We have learned about laudanum and the different ways it was used in the medical field. We have seen President Lincoln in many different ways, but always the same. We have read about the attempted murder of Secretary of State Seward on the night Lincoln was assassinated, and seen his advisement of Lincoln in the mini-series. We have seen the many, many things going on that had the North and South so heated up that an explosion was bound to happen. And we have seen how blacks were being treated during this time. Whew! It was a contentious time nationally, politically, socially, and personally.

We are going to do our best to finish up The Civil War this next week, but I can't make any promises.

... Others

Today Brynne and I ended our week by meeting up with our Homeschool Co-op friends and visiting a local nursing home to deliver handmade Valentines. Brynne made hers yesterday.

Those types of situations cause Brynne a lot of stress. After a while, though she started to warm up. The kids sang songs to the residents and walked around and handed out their Valentines.

The man sitting in this wheelchair was someone who received one of Brynne's Valentines. I talked with him for a long time.

A special moment occurred when a nurse asked us if we could go sing to a resident who was bedridden. When we entered the room, the lady was sleeping. The nurse woke her up, although she was pretty incoherent. The kids started singing "Jesus Loves Me", and she started wiggling and dancing in her bed. The kids just lit up her spirit.

Brynne and I discussed having the Co-op choir teacher record the children singing so that we can purchase a cd player for this lady so she can listen to their singing as much as possible.

... Fred

Life of Fred, that is. Dawson is about half-way through Beginning Algebra and this week he had a breakthrough while learning how to multiply polynomials. If you are at your whit's end with your current math curriculum and you don't know where to turn ... turn to 6 year old Fred and see if he can get your child back on track. He has been a God-send to us.

These topics above kept us very busy this week. Dawson will be finishing up his Fermentation project this weekend. My daughter is here for a visit, so we will be soaking up as much time with her as we can.
 
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