RTR Week 4

This week in history we learned more about life in Ancient Rome such as family life, entertainment, games, and bathhouses. We're reading about Herod in our Augustus Caesar's World book. One project we did was make a "Knucklebones" game. This game was played around the public baths. The game is played by tossing the knuckle bones in the air and trying to catch as many as you can on the back side of your hand.  We made our knucklebones out of clay and then played the game for a while.

Another game that we played is a Roman board game that we made called "Rota" or "Three Man's Morris" (basically Roman Tic-Tac-Toe.) In this one each player has 3 dots which they place on the board where ever they want (just like tic tac toe.) After all pieces are places players take turn moving pieces (you can only move one space or you can jump one space if you opponent is blocking the way.) play until someone gets 3 in a row. The girl's liked this game better and we spent a while playing it.

For Bible we finished memorizing the books of the New Testament. Boo still need a little practice on a few of them, but she has them down pretty good. We'll continue to practice saying them and finding verses for the next couple weeks.

Every Friday Sis does writing for English instead of her English composition book. She's been using Writing Strands so far this year. Last week she had to list characteristics of someone she knows (details of what they look like, personality traits, facial expressions, things they like, etc.) then she wrote the rough draft of a two paragraph paper about that person. This week she wrote her final draft. The purpose of the assignment was to learn to use detailed descriptions in writing. She loves to wirte so these are her favorite kind of assignments.

6th grade math continues to get harder with each chapter, mom's about to throw in the towel! Not really, but I'm trying my best to explain this stuff and act like I know what I'm talking about. Boo is still doing great with her new math book. I like that every now and then they have her do a random fun thing. It makes math time more enjoyable to her, because each day she doesn't know what to expect. Whereas Sis knows exactly what she's going to be doing (watching her DVD and doing a worksheet.) This week Boo is working on subtraction. She made her own flashcards and did her workbook pages, but in this weeks math story the twins notice that trees subtract leaves in the fall. So, there was a leaf rubbing project at the end of the week.



Right now we're doing science once a week. I plan on increasing to two days a week soon. This week we did an experiment with crayon shavings that demonstrated the rock cycle. We learned that just like the water on earth recycles it's self with the water cycle, so does the soil and rocks. Last week we learned that rocks break up and the tiny bits form soil. This week we saw that soil and small bits of rock actually join back together to become more rocks! In our two part experiment we first put our crayon shavings in foil and smashed them together with a hammer. We ended up with a crumbly thin sheet of crayon representing a sedimentary rock.

In the second part we heated the sedimentary "crayon rock" in the foil with a candle. Our rock melted and then cooled and formed a new rock representing an igneous rock.

Baby Bear learned all about the sun and the letter S this week. She made a picture box with pictures of "S' words, used a salt tray to practice writing her letter, learned about shadows and raisins, and painted a sun badge.

This was our last week with Daddy home on sick leave after having him here for 6 weeks. So next week we will have to adjust to things getting back to normal. We've gotten use to having him here for school time though, so we're all a little sad.