30th Week of School

We had school all 6 days this week. I think that is a record for us. We had Ram's birthday celebration on Tuesday and we had an all afternoon of haircuts and errands on Thursday afternoon. Ram was the teacher on Saturday while Ewe went to the seminar. Here's what we accomplished this week.
Math: We finished lesson 18 and began lesson 19. Ram used pennies for subtraction instead of the MUS blocks when he worked with Lamb 1 on Saturday. Lamb 1 was happy to keep the pennies they used!
Reading: We finished My Book House volume 3. We have now read volume 1 twice and volume 2 and 3 once. We are going to take a break from My Book House and read some Just So Stories and other classics this summer. We'll resume My Book House in the fall.
We didn't learn any new poems, but the Lambs recited The Little Turtle at the bank.
We read The Very Last First Time. I was talking to Looper Cathy about it at the seminar on Saturday. It is so exciting when your children have both read the same book and you can discuss it. I had no idea that they got mussels under the ice before I read this book. It was a very cool FIAR book. Lamb 1 asked to read it more than 5 days in a row-he's never asked to read a FIAR book more than 5 days before this. We also started reading The Glorious Flight. We have just been reading the FIAR books for 5 days, we haven't been doing activities with them.
Lamb 3 has been taking books one at a time, getting comfy with them, and then turning the pages and "reading" the book. Ram figures he's probably really telling the story, we just can't understand him! It is so cute!
Much of the seminar on Saturday was on classic literature and I gained a few ideas that I can use right now with the Lambs. She has another seminar in September that is for the younger students and I really hope that I'm able to go.
Science: We've been reading books about animal life cycles and parts of a plant.
Handwriting, Phonics, Religion, History: We're still taking a break from these. I have a few ideas after the seminar to start doing. I plan to get organized for these subjects this week and get back to at least some of this after our break.
Spanish: We had our last Spanish class last week. We learned the alphabet, colors, numbers, a few parts of the body, and a few names of animals. Unfortunately we missed the 3rd week so we were a little behind the class, especially on knowing the names of animals. Their ECFE teacher knew Spanish (from either high school or college?) and she made me feel really behind when she helped her daughter in the class. I suggested they have Spanish class at least twice a year instead of just in the spring. The babysitter offered to continue to work with them so they don't forget what they learned in Spanish this month. We will resume Latin this month now that Spanish class is done. I've missed Latin!
This week we should be able to get a lot done in school again. On Wednesday we will go to the school for Papa's last Released Time class. We'll have a difficult decision-should we make cupcakes or cookies for the kids? We have a few things on the calendar, but it's not nearly as busy of a week as the rest of May is!

28th Week of School Report

We had school every day except for Friday and Saturday last week. On Friday Lamb 1 went to the dentist and on Saturday we relaxed after our long day on Friday. Here's what we accomplished last week. Our babysitter came and we had Spanish class on Tuesday. We worked on getting the garden ready to plant on Wednesday and Thursday. The Lambs played outside a lot all week with the beautiful weather. This coming week Ram has a funeral, an appointment for our recalled Toyota, and a one day conference. We should be able to do a lot of school in the morning and work on the garden in the afternoon this week while Ram is so busy. Lamb 2 vomited a little bit this morning so we didn't go to church-hopefully he's just tired from Friday and we're not starting a new round of sickness in our home this week!
Math: We finished MUS lesson 17 and began lesson 18. Lamb 1 began subtraction this week. After many lessons building a foundation for this, it was easy for him. I was glad for the change because addition was getting a little challenging for him so he could use a change now.
Reading: We continue to read My Book House. We were waiting for some FIAR books we requested at the library so we didn't do any FIAR this week. I picked up 3 FIAR library books on Saturday so we'll continue this week. We did not do any new poems this week.
Spanish: We did not do Latin this week while we are attending Spanish class. We continue to learn the alphabet, colors, numbers, and body parts (eyes, nose, mouth etc.) in Spanish. We played Uno several times this week too.
Phonics/Religion/History/Science: We still are taking a break from these subjects. I hope to pull out some more books for history and science this week.
Music: We continue reading and listening to The Story of the Orchestra. We are currently doing percussion instruments now.
Art: We read Hana in the Time of the Tulips by Noyes. I thought it was a book about art (Rembrandt), but it was a history book too. They did a few craft projects at Spanish class. They have been going to the park with their babysitter instead of painting or play doh.

Latin

We listen to the vocabulary CD that came with Prima Latina, but we don't do the bookwork. I feel a little guilty since I still have my vocabulary lists from when I was teaching at Zion and maybe I should be doing more Latin with my boys. But so far, it has been enough for our 6 and 3 1/2 year old to just listen to the vocabulary. Hopefully we will add more Latin including bookwork next year.
Last night on the way to church we listened to the Latin CD. We were doing a review of a few lessons and then started a new lesson. The first lesson we reviewed had unda (wave) as a vocabulary word. You can imagine my surprise when Lamb 3 started waving his hand frantically to try to get our attention. It wasn't that kind of wave, but at least we know Lamb 3 is paying attention to Latin when we do it with the other Lambs!
Lamb 1 and 2 have always done more than just repeat the Latin and English words on the CD. While the CD is playing, they quickly repeat the words and then they make up a sentence with the Latin word. For example they would say "cena=dinner, we are going to church to eat cena" "patria=country, our church is in the patria". Both Lamb 1 and 2 do this.
They were thrilled to learn the numbers in Latin in their vocabulary last night. The lesson we were on just did 1-5 so of course we had to listen to a little of the next lesson to learn 6 since Lamb 1 just turned 6. Today when we listened to the Sing the Faith CD, they said the Latin numers of the commandments. I don't remember learning numbers in Latin when I was teaching so I'm learning this along with the Lambs.
In April, Lamb 1 and 2 will attend Spanish class once a week. It will be interesting to hear them during Spanish class-I'm sure they will try to tell the teacher the Latin words are similar to the Spanish words. The teacher teaches the entire class without ever speaking one word of English. It will be interesting how she handles the Lambs, especially if they try their vocabulary pattern that they do with Latin during Spanish class.