Friday, September 24, 2010

Weekly Wrap-Up: VERB! That's What's Happening

Remember Schoolhouse Rock?  I do and very well, it seems.  We own four VHS tapes (yes, tapes), which comprise Grammar Rock, Multiplication Rock, America Rock, and Science Rock.  So I pulled out the grammar one just for fun.  The girls have watched these once or twice when they were younger; but they are really at ages to get a kick out of them now.

Since we've been reviewing nouns and verbs and studying subjects and predicates, we spent one grammar lesson this week watching TV.  We enjoyed "A Noun Is a Person Place or Thing," "Verb: That's What's Happening," and "The Tale of Mr. Morton" (subjects/predicates) so much that the girls begged for more (who wouldn't??).  So we then watched "Unpack Your Adjectives," "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here," "Conjunction Junction," and "Interjections!"  I knew most of the words to all the songs, which the girls thought was a hoot.

We plugged along in all our subjects.  Here are some highlights:

We started a new spelling program, Spelling Power.  Since we only just began, I haven't formed a complete opinion.  But my early impression is that it will work well for us.

In science, we learned more about our skin.  We performed an easy experiment from How the Body Works that showed us a bit about how the sebum on our skin helps to keep our skin supple and protect us from too much water soaking into our bodies.  Sadly, I neglected to photojournal our activities.  I was too busy conducting the experiment!  Also, Tiny Girl needed to bring in photos of the sun for her astronomy class.  We found some great ones on the National Geographic website.  My favorite is the one taken by the SOHO spacecraft, which orbits the sun, and depicts a developing sun storm.  Frankly, I had no idea!  Sometimes it shocks me how little I actually know. . . .

The girls are loving the logic puzzles in the Mind Benders book and have asked to be allowed to do more of them each day.  I'm sort of suspicious.  If they love it, it can't really be educational, can it?  (That's a joke, by the way.)  Being that I'm a newbie to the field of formal logic study, and read up on it this week and wrote a post about my discoveries.  You can read it here, if you are so inclined.

We are laying the groundwork for the colonial American period in our history studies.  Thus far, the settlements have not been wildly successful, except for the summer fishing colonies in Newfoundland.  The folks there were wise enough to pack it in and go home for the winter.  I'm looking forward to the weeks ahead because we have some neat books scheduled to read and some fun activities, too.

I'm happy to report that Miss Priss decided, on her very own, to do some of our readings independently.  Prior to this, she wanted me to read everything except her free reads.  We're at an awkward point in our journey in that she should be doing more reading on her own (she is fully able to do so with several selections), but Tiny Girl still prefers for me to read aloud.  So this week, Miss Priss read history and Heidi on her own, and then I read them to Tiny Girl on the same days.  And that's okay.  I'm encouraging the elder to take on more independent work, so it may be that some book sharing will be necessary in the days ahead.

That's our week!  How was yours?

Since I didn't get my camera issues resolved until after we came back home, I'll be  periodically posting some photos of our summer in Maine:


The girls atop Cadillac Mountain, in Acadia National Park, Mt. Desert Island, Maine

13 comments:

  1. We LOVE Schoolhouse Rock! We have the CDs and DVDs (including the 25th year anniversary). We listen and sing to them in the van on the way to activities. Lotsa fun!

    We're Maine homeschoolers! We love Acadia (but it's 4 hours or so away and we only get there occasionally).

    Jessy
    clicked on Weekly Wrap-up from Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers
    www.homeschoolblogger.com/Jessy

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's funny! I just commented on someone else's wrap up about Spelling Power. I love it. I think a lot of people are intimidated by the "how to" section on it, but once you get past that and learn how it works, it is fantastic. It's the only program we've ever used, actually!

    ReplyDelete
  3. My one son watches Schoolhouse Rock just about every day.
    What a great week you have had.

    ReplyDelete
  4. We have all the Schoolhouse Rock videos, too!! We all love them! Thanks for dropping by and for the spelling curriculum recommendation, too.
    Your pic from ME is beautiful! I've only been there once, but would love to go back.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love that picture! Thanks for stopping by.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh my gosh, how funny - we just pulled out our Schoolhouse Rock DVDs this week, too. We really focused on the Noun one, but of course we had to listen to Lolly, Lolly, Lolly - Get Your Adverbs Here, too!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Gorgeous photos! We love those School House Rock songs, too. I have a CD that I play in the van sometimes and, other times, just pull out when we're learning something specific. Interjections is my very favorite.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Conjunction Junction what's your function? Love it. Beautiful photo in Acadia. Great week!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Learning through song is effective and fun! Sounds like a great week!

    ReplyDelete
  10. We ordered School House Rock for my Ipod touch- it is great. My son loves to watch the movies. And, I get flashbacks. :) One of my older daughters used to take her logic puzzle book - similar to Mind Benders and by the same company- to bed with her to do at night. I figured- go for it!!

    Great week! Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  11. That is a gorgeous picture. Makes me want to go sit there too. Looks so peaceful.

    Ah... Schoolhouse Rock. Another friend was using these in their homeschool a week or two ago. Apparently there's quite a collection on YouTube. I need to go look up Conjunction Junction. That's my favorite.

    ReplyDelete
  12. We used those too--all on youtube, and that's responsible for how we memorized the preamble! Love it! I knew all the words, too! Those songs have a way of getting stuck in your head!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I remember Schoolhouse Rock, too! We have the whole set on DVD. I've been thinking about them lately, but forgetting to pull them out. You've inspired me to go ahead and do it this week! =)

    ReplyDelete

I love reading comments! And I appreciate the time you take to leave them. Thanks!