Weekly review

Our school week this week wasn't as productive as normal since we had illness going around our house. Ellie spent most of Wednesday lying on the couch. Dan was also sick with a cold this week and Kara's had a cough. So far Darin, Natalie and I haven't been ill.

History: We continued to study the influences of feudalism in the Catholic Church and some of the reformers of that time--namely St Dominic and St Francis of Assisi. We also learned that St Dominic developed a system of governing that the current English and American governments are modeled after. We also read about the Crusades--the good, the bad, and the ugly. Ellie and Kara learned how to play 9 Men's Morris--a medieval game similar to tic tac toe. They also finished painting the salt map they started almost a month ago. A few of the geographic features that they chose to put on there are an island, a peninsula, the source and mouth of a river, an estuary, and an ocean. Here is the map sans labels.

Math: Not much new here. Both girls continue in their studies.

Bible: We are still working on the catechism questions (and will be for quite awhile) and singing hymns. Kara is working through an Explorer's Bible Study book for her devotional time and Ellie is working on a study about willingness that I got from Keepers of the Faith.

English: Didn't get much done here this week--only 1 lesson each I think.

Science: This week we learned about complete and incomplete metamorphosis. We looked at the life cycles of several insects and caterpillars/moths/butterflies. One of the insects we studied was the mosquito. Only the female mosquito bites as it needs blood before it can lay its eggs. We also learned about surface tension and how some bugs use it to either stay on top of the water or hang just below the surface.

Latin: Since Ellie wasn't feeling well we didn't start a new Latin lesson this week.

Handwriting: Kara started a couple of lessons on beginning cursive this week. Ellie is a bit bummed that Kara is learning cursive because now Ellie can't be cryptic by writing in cursive.