What's up for school this week? (Crayons' Grade Five)

I find it's easy to get into a rut by sticking to the parts of the curriculum that are already going well, and letting the other things slide a bit.  It's important to keep things balanced, though, so this week I want to make sure that we do some nature study, that Crayons has time to work on an applique she started a couple of weeks ago, and that we read only enough at a time to let her narrate properly.

Bible: We are just getting to the part of Samuel where Saul comes into the story. We finished Ephesians and are studying some of the Psalms.

Math: We are only on "February" of Math Pet Store, but we have also been doing Key to Fractions and assignments from Critical Thinking's Math Detective.

Grammar and Composition: Learning Language Arts Through Literature is going along steadily, if not terribly excitingly. This week's work is mostly based on Tennyson's "The Eagle." Crayons is supposed to write a description of an animal, and later write her own poem using "The Eagle" as a model.

French: I've been posting about this, so I won't go over it again. We are a bit behind where I expected to be in Mission Monde, but that's really okay because we're still doing way more French than we did last year. Or the year before. We've been adding what I call "power verbs": the ones that let you say things like "I want" and "I can." Very useful because you can use them with other verb infinitives, to say (for example) "I want to dance."

Literature and Shared Books: We are partway through Great Expectations, and it's going very well; Crayons asks if we can read it even on the days it's not scheduled. We are reading Tennyson's poems and some miscellaneous poems from an anthology. Madam How and Lady Why is not a real favourite, but the "Coral Reef" chapter has been easier to follow than the one before it. She just finished Carry On, Mr. Bowditch as extra reading.

History: We spent a short time on the War of 1812, and are now back to talking about the settlement of Upper Canada (Ontario) in the early 1800's. This week the textbook talks about the region where we live, so that's a good chance to get out and see history up close. We are also speeding through Trail of the Conestoga.

Science and Nature Study: The ABCs of Nature has been getting short shrift, as we have been putting more time in on simple machines (Dad's focus) and Bones, Muscles and Joints (Mom's topic). But that's okay...we can always pick it up later. This week's machines topic: levers.

Citizenship: We are almost halfway through Plutarch's Life of Poplicola.

Fine Arts: We have not gotten many projects done from Artistic Pursuits, but try to get something done in it about every other week. This week we will be reading the "What  is American Music?" chapter in the Young People's Concert series. We'll probably use some of the video as well.