Weekly Reports 2008:30, 31, 32

In the last three weeks, we took the middle week off for a holiday at my MIL's farm in Albany and then last week (with another two assignments for me to do for my night courses) we didn't do much. I'm glad we're only doing Kindergarten and Pre-Primary!

Circle Time
We haven't done much for the last few weeks, except finish learning "Consider Christ" and begin learning "How Deep the Father's Love". We have finished reading about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob are ready to move on to Joseph next week.

Literacy
Joshua has finished reviewing the Bob Books second set and we've moved on to the fifth set, of which he has read the first two books. He reads half of these a day and is finding them a much greater challenge but he has kept the skills of using his own finger to keep track of where he's at.
Anna has also just finished the second set (reading through it for the first time) and I am very proud of my big girl. She's going to start the third set next week.

Literature
This is one area we did keep on with at the farm. Over the past three weeks we've read Roverandom by JRR Tolkein, Dot and the Kangaroo by Ethel Pedley (an Australian children's classic from 1898) and begun The Wizard of Oz by Frank L Baum.
Surprisingly, Joshua hasn't complained about two books in a row with a female heroine. He was a bit overwhelmed when we got the animated movie of Dot and the Kangaroo out from the library, however (after finishing the book). It's about a young girl who gets lost in the bush near her home and is rescued by a kangaroo, and through a series of adventures finally finds the way she has lost - how to get home. The movie was really quite true to the book, with only a few stretches, but it ended on a much sadder note than the book. Instead of mentioning that the kangaroo always visited Dot and they remained friends because Dot's father had made their settlement a haven of sorts for bush animals, the movie ended with Dot weeping as the kangaroo left. This was very sad for the kids. I think they cope with things happening in books a lot better than they do on the TV: the visual elements are too confronting, especially for Joshua.

Mathematics
We have finally finished Singapore Earlybird Mathematics 2A. It ended with some lessons introducing addition and the 2B book begins with the same topic so it is great to see there's consistency. The kids are looking forward to starting a new book. Joshua is beginning to be able to do some very simple addition sums in his head (sums to five or less). He has got a good handle on it, and Anna can also manage simple addition when it is presented concretely (with objects, fingers or counters).

Science and Geography
We are finished with the polar regions now. The kids have loved reading and watching stuff about polar bears. We got a fantastic movie from National Geographic through the Sunday Times newspaper for only $2 and the kids really loved that in particular. Actually, they loved the entire series with the exception of the last on Dian Fossey and the mountain gorillas of Africa. That one was just too graphic and gruesome. We'll be beginning a study of China next week, if I can get some good books at the library tomorrow afternoon.

I'm looking forward to next week. Not least because I have now officially finished my two night courses. Provided I pass my assignments, that means I'll be able to graduate from the Certificate in Christian Studies at the same time Jeff graduates from his MDiv. Hooray!

I just downloaded some pre-writing sheets from Donna Young's amazing website. Now I am wondering if the bigger kids would like to use them (I am sure they would, perhaps we will use some for craft time when I am not up to 3D craft) but I am also thinking Abigail might like to join us for some lessons perhaps once a week. I'll see how we go.