Today we were getting back into our regular schedule after having a very disrupted schedule due to canning hundreds of pounds of apples. We had a couple of hiccups but it went fairly well for the most part.
Religion - We read a little page about pioneer children and games they might have played. Then we tried playing the stick-pull game. Racer won against everyone except me. It's good for him to have a little competition. They all really enjoyed playing the game and Sunshine even got in on the action.
Math - The kids took a long time doing their Xtramath or something. We had to finish our math workbooks after school for homework. Turtle was having a rough morning and said he didn't want to do his reading lesson so I decided not to push it. Hopefully we will get it done next time. When Racer finished his math book and I corrected it, he found out he had gotten half of his problems wrong. He was extremely upset about it and swore up and down that his dad would be mad and angry at him. He was so upset about the grade that he got. We had to have quite the discussion about how to handle poor grades, what to do when you don't understand a concept, and the value of checking your work. I gave him the opportunity to correct his work for half credit. He was mad that he would only get a C with that, but I just kept giving him two choices. He could leave the work as it was and keep the F he had, or he could correct his work for half credit and get a C which would be a better grade. He has a lot of pride so I couldn't watch him as he made his decision and snuck his book back on to my pile to grade. I wish he would learn to be humble now when the price tag is so much smaller. I worry that his pride will be stumbling block to him when he is older.
Science - We read about work and force and talked about their definitions. The scientific definition of work is a little different than the English definition of work. If nothing happens, you didn't do any work, scientifically.
Spelling - We actually got to spelling!! Chicklette's spelling was about the ending phonogram ck. We only use ck right after a short vowel. She got the concept but we'll definitely have to continue practicing it to cement the rule into her brain. We also reviewed the Floss rule where we learned that f, l, and s are often doubled at the end of a one-syllable word. Racer's spelling was about spelling the months of the year and the abbreviations Mr. and Mrs. We also reviewed the fact that all months must be capitalized when they are written.
History - We read all three of our history books last Friday. They were about Sequoyah, the Cherokee who invented an alphabet for his people, The Trail of Tears, about the Cherokee forced migration, and Andrew Jackson, our seventh president. This week we just have Road Trip USA to do. We finished up Arkansas and since the Duggars had visited Crater of Diamonds State park, I let the kids watch that episode of 19 Kids and Counting. We also pulled out the honeybee for Arkansas' state insect and the mockingbird for their state bird.
Latin - We continued our TV time by watching our Lesson 9 for Prima Latina. The kids were less than enthused, but we did it anyway.
Grammar - Chicklette's grammar was story narration. I read a short story to her and helped her summarize the important details with leading questions. Racer's grammar was to diagram sentences with adverbs and adjectives.
Writing with Ease - Chicklette just had copywork from Charlotte's Web and Racer read about C.S. Lewis. Then he summarized what he read to me. We had a big discussion about the causes of World Wars I and II and how they ended. We'll talk about it a little bit more near the end of the year.
I'm happy that we got everything done I wanted to get done except for Turtle's reading lesson. We will g