This week, we started an in-depth study of the Reformation, and our first attempt at lapbooking, besides! We’ve already read a picture book about Martin Luther, started a Reformation lapbook, designed our own coat of arms using the language of blazonry, and learned about John Wycliffe/created a lapbook dedicated to him. Some days, our Reformation lessons are replacing our regular history lessons, because they take so long, but I’m not abandoning American history altogether for the month–we’re just alternating which time period we’re learning about!

Turkey and Bunny have really been enjoying their work in Writing Strands this week. They’ve been practicing writing and embellishing “core sentences.” They started with sentences and questions dictated by the text, which they completed with their own answers, then graduated to making their own sentences and questions, along with answers. I have to admit, some of what they’ve been writing is a little on the silly side, but their sentences make sense, and they’re getting the idea of how to write a more complex, interesting sentence, so if that sentence turns out to be silly, well, I’m OK with that!

Speaking of being silly, we starting learning about the digestive system in our Apologia Anatomy and Physiology lessons this week. It is impossible to discuss the G.I. tract with a nine-year-old, an eight-year-old, and a five-year-old without copious amounts of giggling. At the beginning of every lesson, I told them what we’d be studying, and gave them a chance to laugh about it. This helped curtail the giggles while I was trying to teach, but there were still a few random chuckles here and there. Oh well…I blame this on their father, our kind homeschool “headmaster.”

The biggest news of the week is that Ladybug has started reading! Simple consonant-vowel-consonant words, but reading is reading. She was able to read all of the words in her lesson, as well as some additional words I gave her, and then even went in search of more words on her own, some of which she found she could actually read. This is always a very exciting time in the life of a homeschool, but frustrating, as well, because when a child learns how to read a few words, she is always disappointed to realize that she can’t read all of the words yet. We’ll get there, though.

I’m looking forward to Monday, when, in addition to our Reformation studies, we’ll also be learning about Christopher Columbus, in honor of Columbus Day!