Schoolwise we had a much more productive week this week than last. We accomplished most of our school-work huddled in my bed under comforters, and wearing robes, jackets, and in the case of my daughters, multiple layers of socks. The reason for all the layers of clothing is that it has been extremely cold all week, and we have yet to turn the heat on. We live in a 70 year old house, with the original boiler and radiator heat. I detest turning the boiler on for 3 reasons:
*I'm terrified of it, and am so afraid we will one day be the victims of a boiler explosion
*Once it is on, the heat in here is atrocious, and the humidity levels drop to near zero. This results in several months of the girls and I being miserable with dry, itchy, painful skin. My hands become bloody nubs, from doing dishes, laundry, and all the other assorted household tasks that involve me putting my hands in water. This doesn't bother my husband in the least, and he lives by the "warmer is better" theory. It is often 75° in our home. The first thing I do when he leaves for work is shut the heat completely off, and by 6 or 7 hours later it cools down to a more survivable temperature...just in time to finallly stop sweating, and have hubby arrive back home from work. and crank the heat back up.
*The main reason our heat isn't on yet, is that our power bill goes from a managable $150-$200/month to well over $500/month, and in the REALLY cold months of January and February it has been known to be over $600 for one month. That's 2 full weeks of pay from my husband, and we obviously can't afford to spend literally half his monthly earnings on a mere luxury such as heat.
So, with a little extra clothing on, we made it just fine through school this week. We had such a boring weekend last week that we did 2 full days of first grade, and caught up on what I neglected to do for fifth grade the week prior. We continued on every weekday this week.
C began her literature last Saturday, and she LOVES it! I intentionally chose a book she would like for her first book study, "Laura Ingalls Wilder", a biography of the author of the Little House books. I had to read the book first, before assigning it, and I felt it was dry, and poorly written, and probably a little above my daughters reading level due simply to the dryness of it. Much to my surprise, she is an avid "Laura" fan, and begs for more and more pages to be assigned. She doesn't like being limited to certain pages/chapters. She is doing very well with the written assignments, and only has one minor difficulty applying the difference between describing someone's PHYSICAL traits as compared to describing what makes the person unique.
C finished chapter 4 of her BJU English. Her final assignment was to write a persuasive business letter...not an easy task for a 5th grader. Not really an easy task for ME...I can't think of a single time in 37 years I've ever had to write a persuasive business letter, but I do think for someone hoping to eventually run her own no-kill animal shelter it's a skill she will use over and over. If you're going to run a non-profit business, you'd better be good at writing letters asking people to give you money. On her own she came up with an idea for writing her own letter. She chose to write to the local pet stores and ask them to donate any expired or damaged goods and supplies from their inventory that she could then donate to our own local no-kill shelter. We actually mailed the letters, so I'm praying at least one of the pet stores contacts her.
She then moved on to Chapter 5 in English....VERBS. Oh, how she and I hate verbs. If it was simply a matter of recognizing a verb we'd be fine. It's all this other nonsense....linking verbs, state-of-being verbs (which are both the same thing), helping verbs, participles, predicate adjectives, predicate nouns, objects of the verbs. ACK! Who cares?!?! I never learned this stuff. Not once. I think I am able to write fairly well. I've never gotten anything lower than an A in anything English related. This is the point C and I were both in tears last December, and finally gave up on Abeka's English. I still see absolutely NO use for all this in-depth study of a verb. But I am remaining calm. We patiently did day 1 of this chapter. She did much better than I expected, but not as well as I'd hoped. I ran off copies of extra-practice worksheets, and we worked yesterday on the extra practice for the first days lesson. (Thank you, M, for letting me use your printer!)She did better, but still not 100% on the extra worksheet. It'd be nice if there was more than 1 extra worksheet per lesson. I've never needed them before, but with this chapter I need 10 or 12 per lesson. Please pray for C and I to make it successfully through this chapter.
C also did 4 or 5 lessons in math, and took 2 math tests yesterday. She only needed to take 1 math test, but she wasn't paying attention, and did test #12, which she had already done the week before, so she had to then take test #13, which is what she was supposed to take. LOL She got an A on it. She is really flying through her math this year.
We're finishing up with chapter 5 (I think...it's too dark to go double check) in science, and in history we read about Islam. Her history book devoted a mere 22 pages to Islam, most of it a fictional story about Sinbad. Unlike many Christians, I feel it is imperative to learn about other religions, and other beliefs, so we are now taking a break from her history book, and spending a good month or two studying in-depth the middle east, Islam, and the Muslim culture in general. I have 3 AWESOME books for her age on this, and conveniently, have a Muslim neighbor who adores the girls, and isn't offended by any questions we come to him with. He has even been so kind as to loan us his Q'raan to see and compare it to our Bible, and Christianity's teachings.
C bagan her 2nd light unit in Bible, and this one is MUCH better than the first one. Each lesson is one of the parable's of Jesus, and she and I are both LOVING the lessons.
We had a review week in spelling, and next week is week 7 of our official school year, which means we get to skip spelling. C is also still working on one page a day of Daily Grams.
As far as first grade is going...E is currently flying through her math, too. Danny hasn't done math with her for a good 4 or 5 weeks, but she's been working almost daily in it with me, in addition to timing her on her flash cards. I would like to take this moment to say to my husband, "I TOLD YOU SO!!!!!" Yes, I know that is not a proper, humble Christian attitude, but I really did tell him so. LOL The way I see it, I had 2 options. I could have nagged him every day, and angered him, or I could have just quietly noticed he was not doing math like he promised, and done it myself. E's handwriting has also improved by leaps and bounds. It is so pretty (if she has lined paper) I wanted to actually scan some of her work to post here, but my printer/copier/scanner has died, and I no longer have a way to get photos on here. Oh, wait...I have a digital camera, so I guess I could. We'll see if I actually get around to it. LOL
Anyway, E has had a wonderful week. She has worked VERY hard, and done tons in all her books. It's hard to break it down, but I am definitely seeing a big improvement in her attention-span, and her willingness to sit still and write. Thank you, God!
Still going through some personal strife and issues, but I'm used to that, and my main priority is the girls' education, happiness, and well-being. We had an excellent week. Blessings to you all!
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