In our studies this week we visited France...Monday morning we had a french breakfast of croissants, yogurt, and other pastries compliments of Panera. We also had hot chocolate with whipped cream, peppermint mocha for me ;) Of course school got off to an enthusiastic start. NuNu asked if we will have a french breakfast every morning while in France. :0 Ahh ....no.
I'm taking this opportunity to study the Impressionist artists while studying France - Monet, Renoir, Degas. I've been trying to figure out how to include artists studies with all the many things we must do each week and this just seems to work perfectly. I'm using the following resources and notebooking to accomplish the study:
The usual mapwork was included this week- identifying the physical features of the country, famous landmarks and other interesting facts. I purchased french bread and brie for tasting this week as well. We made sandwiches out of the bread but didn't get to the Brie, maybe next week.
We received the second essay graded by the community college professor this week. Princess received a similar grade as the first paper with helpful comments included on improving.
I've decided to take a different route with Literature & Composition with Pumpkin starting next week. We've been working diligently through Excellence in Literature (Intro to Composition) but it takes her longer to read the works assigned. She just finished Jane Eyre with the help of an audio book. I've been helping her with outlining for the essay assigned when I realized she could use additional help with writing instruction. My normal routine has been read (which takes about 4 weeks) then write which takes 1-2 weeks. Too much time goes by before we get to another writing assignment so she doesn't get as much practice as I think she needs. I purchased 3 public school texts about a year ago at a library sale and as I read through the 9th grade text I knew it was the perfect solution.
I have already scheduled out 2-3 months of assigned reading and writing. I am excited about this new direction and I am so glad I go to the library sales religiously. I purchased 9-11th grades for $1 each!
The book gives her directions to jot down ideas after reading short stories that become notes for writing a paper a few weeks down the road. Her first writing assignment will be writing a narrative.
15 weeks of working through this text will give her good experience in knowing what it takes to write a good paper. It teaches her to annotate and keep notes in her writing journal as she reads the assigned stories.
I've told her to do this as she reads as it will help her locate the information she needs for writing but she never does it. Now she has a text that specifically tells her what to look for while reading and to ask herself specific questions and jot down the answers in her reading journal. Excellent!
I'm hoping this text will start some good habits that she will then take into her lit/comp studies for next year.
Head over to weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers and Daisyhead to see what other moms were up to this week.
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