The Week That Was... Week 2

Our second week started with the introduction of a couple of extra subjects, in an attempt to make the beginning of our school year gentle and not too "scary" for the kids, particularly Micah who would like everything to stay exactly the same all the time!  So in addition to Hebrew and our "fun" Read-Aloud, we began our Bible Study, Missionary Story and Copywork.

So what did we actually do this week...

Bible:  We started the first lesson in our study of James, using "Boy, Have I Got Problems!" by Kay Arthur and Janna Arndt.  Atarah just loves the idea of reading the Bible and working out the answers.  Previously we have just read from the Bible and I  had them narrate back to me.  Now we are trying to do an indepth study of the Word and see how it applies to us today.  The lessons are long so we will take much longer than suggested to complete the book.  But that is okay.  We only did it one day this week, but hope to do it twice a week in the future, alternating days with our Missionary Stories.

Missionary Stories:  We began reading "George Muller: The Guardian of Bristol's Orphans".  We have only read the first two chapters and Atarah keeps asking, "How does this guy who lies and steals become a missionary?"  So, we are looking forward to continuing with the story next week to see how God starts working in his life.

Hebrew:  Micah and Atarah have progressed well this week.  They have added ד (dalet) and א (alef) and a couple of vowels to their repertoire.  A couple of the lessons were longer and required more reading, so we didn't cover as many letters as I had originally planned.  But they are reading well, so I think it is better to take it slower and provide more opportunities for practice.  Hopefully this will help them retain what they are learning.

Copywork:  Last year I typed and printed copywork passages (poems and scripture verses) from whatever we were learning at the time.  I always felt disorganised and did not have a system for teaching cursive.  This year I have decided it will just be easier to have an open-and-go workbook to do all that for me.  The kids started their "New American Cursive: Workbook 2" books, doing 10 minutes each day.  Atarah loves the style and has progressed quickly.  Micah has been reluctant to move away from printing, but is perservering and making steady progress.

Read-Alouds:  We finished our latest Roman Mystery (The Colossus of Rhodes) in the series of "The Roman Mysteries" by Caroline Lawrence.  The children have enjoyed this series immensely but we will take a break from these books now and will start reading books connected with our History studies instead.  I've enjoyed the books too, but I am looking forward to a change as well :)

Tirzah:  This week Tirzah's was in the Jungle, learning about jungle animals and plants.  We watched the movie "Tarzan" and read a couple of folk tales from Puerto Rico about Tiger and Rabbit.  She also learnt the letter B, the letter ב (bet), the colour green and the number 2.  She had a fun week painting, cutting and pasting.

To top off a great week, Abba (Aaron) returned from Hong Kong on Friday loaded with gifts for the kids.  Christmas came early this year :)