grade 4, block IV norse myths (lang arts)

monday, january 11


(read on own, 45 minutes, "thor's wedding day")


*workbooks (spelling, math & general ed)


main lesson:


*copywork:


"the elfin-beam
shall bear a daughter
ere fenris drags her forth;
that maid shall go,
when the great gods die,
to ride her mother's road"


*nature study/outdoor hour...
the weather was amazingly warm today (for january), so we worked in the garden. we did a bit of weeding, and gathered compost from our bins...i can't wait for spring!


lesson b:
form drawing, p. 21, fig f



tuesday, january 12th

(read on own, 45 min, "thor's wedding day")

*workbooks (spelling, math, and general ed)

main lesson:

*tell story, "loki's punishment" (d'aulaire's, p. 137-139)

*project, textile art of loki's attempt to escape

this was a fun one...the net brought back memories of doing string art when i was younger, and i love the mixed medial feel of our work



lesson b:
handwork, continue work on colored pencil roll/holder






wednesday, january 13th

(45 minutes 'free reading', as orin finished "thor's wedding day" (much!) sooner than expected)

*workbooks (spelling, math & general ed)

main lesson:

*write summary of story, on own, rough draft...

lesson b: baking
orin has been helping me make meals lately, as he has become quite the cook (thanks to our years of both homeschooling & waldorf :) today we made chicken & dumplings, his favorite.



thursday, january 14th

(45 minutes 'free reading')

*workbooks (spelling, math & general ed)

main lesson:

*edit summary, copy into main lesson book
orin has always taken a long time with his writing, is it his least favorite subject for sure. but today we noticed that part of the problem is that he doesn't say in his head "...the boy ran..." he says "the...t..h..e..", "boy, b..o..y..". once lance pointed this out, i took a different approach. orin does really well with spelling, probably because of how much reading he does.

so, i dictated his summary to him, reading off a few words at a time, unless it was a really big one, then i would do that one on its own...if he asked me to repeat myself, i said to trust what was in his head, if he asked me to spell a work out, i said the same thing. the verdict: very helpful. normally he would have taken a good 1 - 1 1/2 hours copying his summary, and we were done in a 30 min easy. not too shabby, eh??

aside from the time factor, dictation too is an important life skill, no??

lesson b:
handwork, continue work on colored pencil roll