It feels like we’ve been all over the place this week, school-wise. Rockford and I didn’t get back into town until Monday afternoon, so there wasn’t any schoolwork on Monday. Starting the week that way always makes the rest of the week feel a little off for me, so I’m feeling kind of like we didn’t actually accomplish anything this week.

This is one of the good things about writing it all down. If we really didn’t do anything, I know I’ll need to get things back on track next week. And if we did accomplish something, then I can stop worrying so much, I guess.

Math
Poppy started the second chapter of her math book this week. It’s subtraction, and so far she’s having no problem with it whatsoever. She also did her usual 30 minutes a day on Dreambox Learning.

Recitation
“Fog” by Carl Sandburg is the first non-rhyming poem I’ve asked Poppy to memorize, and she’s having a hard time with it. So we’ll continue it next week.

Reading
We’re near the end of “The Secret Garden.” Poppy’s done a great job with her 20 minutes of free reading this week. Yesterday morning, in fact, she tucked Pete into her bed and read to him. And I didn’t even ask her to do it! I was stunned and so very pleased.

Science
It was our week to host the Ballerina Science Club again. We read “The Magic School Bus Blows Its Top” and watched a short video of volcanos erupting and magma flowing about. And we made a volcano. We made it erupt three times; it was a big hit.

It appears we did accomplish some things! So that’s good.

I almost didn’t write an update this week, because things are pretty much the same as they were last week. I’m choosing to see that as Moving Right Along rather than Being in a Rut, though. So everything is well, but I wasn’t sure how to write “we did exactly the same stuff” without saying it just like that.

Anyway, next week’s update will be fresh and new and packed with field trips!

Math
Math was mostly smooth this week. Poppy loves Dreambox Learning, so I’ve been using that as an incentive to get her daily worksheet finished. She doesn’t need any extra push at all to do the word problems, happily. She loves drawing out the pictures to accompany the problem. Which makes me think, again, that RightStart math and all its manipulatives might be the best thing for her.

Spanish
Poppy had been getting less than enthusiastic about her daily Spanish lesson, so we’ve started doing it four rather than five days a wee. I think the mid-week break is making it seem like less of a hassle.

Physical education
Ballet.

Recitation
This week’s poem is Emily Dickinson’s “Hope is the thing with feathers.” It’ll be next week’s poem as well, because she doesn’t quite have it down yet.

Hope is the thing with feathers
Emily Dickinson

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune–without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

Reading
“The Secret Garden”

Geography
Connecticut.

Science
This was another parent’s week to host Science Club. She arranged to have it at the library, which meant I got to wander unencumbered while Poppy and her friends learned about blood and the heart. Oh, it was lovely. And she learned about white blood cells and red blood cells and platelets. So that part was good, too.