Tuesday

We must have really needed that break b/c school has been going so smoothly since we resumed. We went through the normal subjects today... Bible, History/Reading, Science, Math, Spelling, and Language.

Ryan did a few select problems from three review pages in his book. I do NOT know why they put THREE review pages in a row. But I just circled some problems from each section so he could review all the concepts and we'll go ahead with a test tomorrow. I was checking his pages and noticed this problem: 24 gallons = ____ quarts. He'd just filled 96 in the blank but there was no work in the space they give to work out the problem. I had to write out the multiplication problem to see if he got the right answer (he did!). So I asked him how he did it. He said he just multiplied in his head. He multiplied 24x4 in his head!!! I was pretty impressed and he was giggling at the thought of being smarter than Mommy. LOL I'm sure that's one lesson he'll be sharing with Daddy tonight.

We read more about protozoa in our Science book and I had them draw a picture of their favorite protozoan. They both chose flagellates (sp?) b/c they have tails. Then, for Language, I had them write a paragraph about the protozoan they chose. We brainstormed together but the paragraphs were totally independent. Tomorrow we're going to revise and rewrite.
History helped reinforce my decision to homeschool (not that I really need reinforcement). I was trying to cut expenses when I ordered Sonlight so I didn't order the books that are available at our library. I'm finding that some of the books in the library catalog aren't for interlibrary loan and the one main book for History is not the complete book... it's just the second half! So I needed a spine for History. I've been using Houghten Mifflin Build Our Nation b/c someone gave it to me. It's one that was "loaned" through the public school. I'm not sure if it's the book the schools are currently using or an old one. We've been using it for a couple chapters just to supplement the real books (non textbooks) we've been reading for History. Anyway, to finally get to the point, the stupid book is so-o-o liberal as to insult Andrew Jackson! We're reading the chapter on Jackson's presidency and westward expansion. They had pages and pages about how horrible the poor Indians, er, excuse me... Native Americans were treated when white settlers moved west. There was no mention of anything good about the white settlers or westward expansion and no mention of anything bad about the Indians. They did take a few scalps, ya know!! Needless to say, I skipped more than I read and I'm so glad I didn't assign the chapter as independent reading. I am going to go over that information as some people's point of view but not until I find some information from other points of view to balance it!