Weekly Report

I haven't reported on the past two weeks and it's almost time to report for a third week, so this may not be as thorough as usual. I just need to catch up my report so that I can keep it up.

We have been busy here with a camping trip (including preparation and clean up--ugh), many service opportunities, and schoolwork, of late. We have struggled to get in as much as I would like on a daily basis, but when I look back over the week we've accomplished a lot.

Read Alouds: We have been listening to Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder in the car. While we were on our trip, we switched over to The Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis (from the Chronicles of Narnia) and loved that, of course. Kimball read the series earlier this year but still enjoyed listening to the CD with the family. I am also reading aloud the last book in The Series of Unfortunate Events. I think we may need to have a party to celebrate when we finally finish this series. And write a lengthy book report!

Other Reading: Coming in my next post.

Math: We did Saxon Math--math fact worksheets everyday and three lessons a week. It is easy to slack on math lessons if we are busy because it isn't Kimball's favorite and I'm not doing a math curriculum yet with Henry beyond the basics. We have learned the multiplication facts now for 0, 1, 2, 5, and 10 and review them frequently. Kimball also helped on our many shopping trips to calculate our purchases as we went along, so we knew how much we were spending before we got to the checkout line. I taught Kimball & Henry how to play checkers correctly when I discovered that they were using crazy rules (probably concocted by Kimball). And our friends Rob & Teresa, who invited us to camp with them, taught the boys (Kimball) how to play chess, which surely counts as math!

Copywork: Did not happen.

History: We studied one chapter a week from SOTW. First, we learned about nomads and early farmers in the Fertile Crescent. We did cave paintings, did some map work, and wrote a paragraph about what we learned. The next week, we started on Egypt. We did map work, learned a story about Osiris and Set, and did an art project depicting King Narmer, the first king to combine Upper and Lower Egypt and to wear the Double Crown of Egypt. This is my boys' (and maybe my) favorite time of day.

Science: The kids went camping both weeks. The first week, with Daddy on the annual Fathers and Sons campout sponsored by the church. It was very hot that weekend--about 100 degrees. They did a little hiking near the lake but in the end drove home to cool off in Grammy & Papa's pool. The second week, the entire family went for four days to Santa Cruz. We got to explore the beach (where Bronwen continued her sand taste test, which she seems to be doing at every beach we hit this year),the wooded area where we camped, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, one of our favorite spots. You can read more about it here and about previous visits here.

Music: We learned Come Unto Jesus and God, Our Father, Hear Us Pray for our Hymn of the week. Kimball continues to make progress in piano lessons. And everyone got a chance to jam on the harmonica while Chris, a fellow camper, played the guitar. I almost cried when I came back to camp from washing dishes near the bathrooms and found them playing together--camping with my family growing up always involved Daddy's guitar.

Scripture Study: Alma 14 and 15. There are some powerful stories found in those chapters that our children enjoyed. What little boy doesn't love a story about prison walls crumbling and crashing down, killing the wicked lawyers and leaving the prophet/missionaries untouched? I love how the chapters about Alma and Amulek's ministry show how powerful and miraculous missionary work can be, and how God watches over those who serve Him. As we saw in chapter 14, he doesn't always take away their adversity, but he does love and bless those who put their trust in him.
We also took some time to discuss the sacrifices that Amulek made for the Lord. ". . . Amulek having forsaken all his gold, and silver, and his precious things, which were in the land of Ammonihah, for the word of God, he being rejected by those who were once his friends and also by his father and his kindred;" We talked about how sometimes when people join the Church, their families and friends do not support their decision and even cast them out. We talked about how important it is to love Heavenly Father and His gospel more than we love the things of the world and more than we care about what others think.

Having Fun: This was a no-brainer with our trips. When we asked the kids what they liked best about camping, they said:

• the s'mores
• the aquarium
• the beach
• sleeping in a tent
• playing games

I'm surprised that they didn't mention going a few days without baths! I know that my favorite part has not been the post-trip laundry. Finally, four days later, it is finally getting under control.