CHRISTEPHI

We made it to Week 5! This is significant because our whole year is blocked off in five week chunks with a break between each one.  So after this week, we have a whole week off.  A much needed week off, I might add.  And not because we aren't liking the curriculum.  Just the opposite!  We are having so much fun in school that the housework is suffering.  Not the worst problem to have, but I'm still glad to have a whole week to catch up on things. (And maybe even sew something!) Miss M worked all week on finding equivalent fractions, adding like and related fractions, and reducing fractions to their simplest form.  She couldn't understand why she had to express each answer in its simplest form, so I turned to the helpful ladies in My Father's World Facebook group for some good reasons to satisfy her questioning.  The main reasons given had to do with preparing for higher level math, practicality in real-life situations (especially in the ...

I started the week by sorting a whole bunch of library books I got for the next couple weeks.  I love our library!  And so far this year I've only had to pay less than 50 cents in library fines.  Considering I consistently have over 50 books checked out at a time…that's pretty good!  It helps that I can manage our books, due dates, holds, and renewals online!! We learned about the Santa Fe Trail, Oregon Trail, and the Gold Rush this week.  Many people in our area made a lot of money outfitting wagon trains headed west.  William M. Paxton, who recorded the history of this area 150 years ago, said that of the many people who left our county with gold fever, most were never heard from again.  Very few returned, most died, a small handful made it rich and stayed out West.  He lamented the loss of so many of the county's fine people. We have two student desks, a child-sized table, and a spacious kitchen table…yet Miss M consistently choos...