Our Week Ahead - 18 August 2012

This week will be a complete-n-catch up week with history and everything else is as per normal, whatever that means ☺


SOTW4:
We've placed about 12 or more weeks of time line figures - think history review, in our timeline books  today  and we hope to the relevant time line figures for our composer of the term studies and artist study placed in on Friday.  We do like Sonlight's book of time and the children enjoy flicking back through the keep sake they are making.

Science/ Nature Studies:
Our science of late has been focused around the lambs, and so the children haven't done any work with human anatomy. I have placed the lab set for human anatomy out in full view but no one is interested enough to delve into it, right now that is. Dealing with lamb formula and  their wet feet is much more interesting!

Science reading - and indepth science dialogue with DH, continues though.

Math & Language Arts
We are continuing on with our 'next' lessons in each area of study. 
I have got Daisy pausing for reflection on division over at Khan Academy.
And she has just started level 3 of WWE (happy smile).
Bobs is doing so well with WWS with little - to no, input from me.

Art:
Art and craft is coming along champion ☺ Daisy wants to carry on practising her water colour technics and Bobs is crafting world war scenes - think hours of painting and assembling teeny-tiny figures, and we are trying to resurrect a more regular sketching time during the week.

History Read Aloud:

In the evenings we're reading aloud Days of Terror by Barbara Smucker (details the early years - in one Ukrainian based family, after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.)

Readers for Bobs:
The Good Master by Kate Seredy (SL 7)
The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy
And he's hoping, absolutely, that the next Robot Wars book will arrive from book depository.

Readers for Daisy:
Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright  (SL 4) and a huge pile of picture books!!
 One of the picture books in Daisy's pile is a really lovely New Zealand history story:  Le Quesnoy: The Story of the Town New Zealand Saved by Glyn Harper.
 DH & I have both enjoyed reading this delightfully relayed tale of NZ's history in WW1.

The story in a nutshell:
Le Quesnoy (pronounced Leck con wah) is a town in northern France. It is surrounded by high walls and deep trenches. In World War I it was occupied by the German army for four long years. In November 1918 the town was liberated by soldiers from far-away New Zealand. Because these men used a bit of kiwi ingenuity they were able to take the town back without a single civilian life being lost. This has become one of the most famous stories in New Zealand military history and the relationship between Le Quesnoy and New Zealand continues to this day. This book tells the story of Le Quesnoy's liberation through the eyes of a child living in the town at the time. Stunning watercolour illustrations and simple language make this an ANZAC picture book that young readers will be able to imaginatively engage with.

We purchased our copy at a local book supplier.