Weekly Update

It was our first week back at school after the 2 weeks we took off for Christmas and it went pretty well (except for Thursday's dryer incident--see below post). So here is our summary for the week.

History: We learned about the Phoenicians who were the first people to dye fabric purple. Apparently the shellfish that they got the dye from really stunk so you could insult someone by saying that he stunk like a man from Tyre. We also learned about King Asherbanipal who brought the Assyrians back to power after being in captivity under the Babylonians. He was a mean king whom all the towns were afraid of and he liked to hunt lions for fun.

Science: Didn't get it done this week. On Tuesday I was a zombie from working Monday night and Thursday school got sidelined due to needing to fix the dryer.

Math: Both girls got several lessons done.

English: I started Kara on First Language Lessons this week. It is very easy to use and we both like it. Kara learned the definition to nouns and common nouns. She also memorized a poem. Ellie got some of her lessons done but we'll have to play catch-up next week.

Handwriting: I've started Kara on Daily Handwriting Practice. She seems to have forgotten how to properly write some of her letters so we are working on that. Darin started working in Getting Ready for the Code. He finished the letter f and started on the letter b. He loves doing his schoolwork and keeps asking me to do more.

Latin: Ellie finished lesson 12 this week.

Music: We learned the 2nd verse of A Mighty Fortress is Our God. We also reviewed Holy, Holy, Holy which Natalie also knows how to sing. We also read about Mozart. He died at age 35 after working himself to death. They also suspect he had some kidney problems. The girls also listened to a CD of Mozart's music. While they did that, they drew pictures of images that the music conjured in their minds.

Art: We finished our book about Rembrandt and memorized The Self-Portrait. We also reviewed all the other paintings we have learned this year so far.

Bible: Ellie continued her work in Genesis. We have been reading several Psalms and a Proverb for our devotional time. We have also started to have time for prayer requests and everybody praying, not just one person.

Reading: Ellie is reading Caesar's Gallic Wars and we have been reading various stories throughout the week.