Our tenth week: November 1-5

Good gravy, ten weeks?!?!

This has been a week of good (Halloween fun) and bad (the one year anniversary of my mother's death).  Right now I'm writing this in a sleep-deprived fog after waking at 4:30am to drop my husband off at the hospital for a knee reconstruction.  The next  few weeks will be a little challenging to us both, I expect!   For now he's doped up on the couch after successful surgery :) 

I ended last week with uncut fabric on the dining room table (Friday afternoon)

and miraculously was done before the neighborhood Halloween party at 4pm Sunday, despite the almost debilitating neck/shoulder pain I woke with Saturday morning.

Mike went to the party and trick-or-treating with Daisy dressed as The Mouse himself.  Daisy doesn't yet care how he's dressed----the teens on the other hand...

I stayed at home to hand out the candy and nurse my neck and shoulder.  Older Sister went trick-or-treating with friends one neighborhood away and Older Brother went out with a friend across town.  The weather was clear and dry, perfect for costumes and jack-o'lanterns.  This year's offerings featured FrankenPumpkin, a cat who swallowed a mouse, and a classic face.

Mike really enjoys creating fantastic creatures each year.

Of course, we had to admire the haul!

But alas, the fun was all over the next morning when it was back to school...

Math
We covered a mix of topics this week starting with unit conversions (single and multiple steps as in converting gallons to milliliters), then moved on to a variety of  worksheets solving for x in the forms ax=b and a/x=b and then ax+b=c etc.  Daisy has internalized the steps yet I insist on seeing her work, as I know when she reaches more complicated equations it will be very easy to forget a sign or miswrite a coefficient. 

One day was spent on contest-type problems in

which she is enjoying immensely, more so than the MOEMS (Elementary Math Olympiad) materials, mainly old tests, that we've been using.  I think the amusing cartoon characters interspersed through the problems and solutions really help!

We officially started Patty Paper Geometry after just messing around with the patty paper.  A box of 1000 sheets is a lot of patty paper LOL


The first section introduced/reviewed various terms and techniques

(Sorry about the poor quality of the pictures!)

And one afternoon, Daisy organized her Halloween candy by type, then created a color-coded table and bar chart for the candy.  No one will be able to snitch anything from that bag!

Science
I still haven't posted all the labs we've been doing.  I hope to get to that this weekend.

This week Daisy finished Chapter 5: Earth's Environment in CPO Earth Science-----specific heat of land vs water (including Investigation 5B), the Chapter Connection on crazy hurricane hunters, an activity demonstrating Bernoulli's Principle with cheeseballs and bendy straws, concluding with the Chapter Assessment, done orally still.

History
Ancient China was the main topic this week.  She read from K12's Human Odyssey, from Oxford Press The Ancient Chinese World (chapters 1-5) and from the April 2008 Dig issue on China's Hidden Caves.  Daisy filled out a map detailing the area around the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers and discussed modern-day geography of the ancient civilizations studied thus far---Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus Valley and the Yellow and Yangtze Valleys.  With that, she finished Unit 1 of Human Odyssey!

Today (Friday) while at my sister's house during Mike's surgery, she began reading about Confucius and Confucianism in both Human Odyssey and The Ancient Chinese World (Chapter 10)
English/Language Arts
On hiatus for the month of November while Daisy works on her NaNoWriMo story!  She's writing it in longhand in a spiral notebook and patient Older Sister is typing it all up for her.  So far, so good!

French
Never learn French words for foods and eating before lunch.  A growling tummy is very distracting.  We've started Chapter 3 in Galore Park French Prep (So You Really Want to...) which so far has introduced eating breakfast and a bunch of regular ER verbs.  We're been doing a page or two each day and reviewing every fourth or so day.  Fridays are now Flashcard Fridays when we go over vocabulary, writing flashcards for the new words of that week.  Daisy has asked for quizzes/tests so I'm going to purchase the Galore Park assessment CD through an online bookseller next week.  She was able to practice speaking French with my sister today :)

Other Fun Stuff
At Girl Scouts on Tuesday night, the girls made a Thanksgiving craft and started making ornaments for a local nursing home.  They'll be working with the nursing home as part of their Bronze Award this year.  Daisy's Earth Explorers class at the local state park was rescheduled due to rain.  It's kind of difficult to teach map reading and orienteering in a downpour.

The Best of the Week: Halloween!  Chocolate!  Fall foods like butternut squash!

The Worst of the Week: getting through the anniversary of my mother's death :(

Looking forward to next week:  It will be interesting while Mike recuperates from his knee surgery to repair his meniscus and reconstruct his ACL.  I hope he's cleared to drive before Thanksgiving!  Older Brother's very last regular season high school marching band performance will be next Friday, at the end-of-season major rivalry game versus Older Sister's school.  I hope I don't cry and embarrass him at the Senior Ceremony LOL

I'd like to publicly thank everyone who visited the blog and commented this week.  Your thoughts truly helped during this difficult time.  Thank you all so much!