Our Week

It has been a week of ups and downs. Monday was a bit of a right off as everyone was tired and nobody felt like obliging me in our lessons this day. However with perserverence and perhaps a little bit of badgering from me we did get a reasonable amount done eventually. 

Ds 2 still continues to cause constant disruption to our days as you will note in the photo above. LOL Here he was protesting my lack of attention to him when I was reading to the older kids. Sometimes I worry that nothing is sinking in with the older kids thanks to Mr. Mischiefs constant interuptions and distraction.

However sitting here now on Friday night I can honestly say we have achieved a good amount this week despite Mr. Mischiefs input into our days LOL.

Each day there was math completed from their various levels of Saxon and daily Bible study and devotions. Ds13 also has a research project that he must work on each day and then on top of this we did the following....

Monday:  Read from a variety of sources about the Inca Civilisation and then had the children copy out a list of Inca words and their English meaning. We read about how the Inca used Llama to carry their belongings and so I had the children write a story from the perspective of a young llama who lives near Machu Pichu during the time of the Incas they were to try to include as many realistic details as possible but they were fee to take their story in any direction they chose. My 2nd son struggles a lot with writing so he often narrates to me and then copies out what I write down for him. He refused to do this writing assignment and so he just did some copywork instead. Read about how the muscles work in the human body.

Tuesday: We read more about the Inca and a bit about the Aztecs and then followed this up with introducing a book called 'Treasures of the Snow' that uses a lot of descriptive language it is totally unrealted to our theme but the use of descriptive language is something that my children all struggle with so I wanted a book that would cleary demonstrated the difference this can make to a story. From here I tied it into our theme and had them look at some photos online of an Inca man, an Aztec warrior and an Inca lady. I then had them write a 1 paragraph description of what they saw in the picture and they could draw a picture to accompany their description if they chose to.

Wednesday: We started reading about the Amazon rainforest and the Andes Mountain ranges. We talked about some of the animals that live there and the type of environment the Inca lived in and how this would have effected the way they live and their cultural practices. The children then had to pick aspect of the Inca's environment and describe it in their own words they were also encouraged to accompany it with a picture. We read about Lake Titicaca and the Island of the Sun and the myths relating to the origin of the Inca people.

Thursday: FREE. I play netball in the am and the older boys play basketball in the afternoon and then dd8 goes to music lessons after this. So we are too busy for any formal academics on this day.

Friday: We read about and discussed the differences between the pyramids of the Maya and the pyramids of the Ancient Egyptians. We brainstormed together on the whiteboard and came up with some key words and then the children had to write a cinquain poem about either these structures or about the Maya people themselves. They then wrote a good copy into a printout of a Mayan pyramind and they decorated this and pasted it onto a coloured card background. Afterwards they made some model boats using corn husks and flax leaves to replicate the small boats used by the Inca to carry sacrifices across Lake Titicaca to the Island of the Sun in the middle of the lake. This was the kids idea which they came up with while helping me to peel corn for dinner yesterday and noting the similarity between the corn husks and the plant material used to make the Inca boats.

And that's pretty much our week at a glance.

Totally unrealated to this post but I just had to add this picture of Mr. Mischief and I taken by one of the older kids.