The Wilderness Road to Kentucky

This week we started our westward expansion covering the Wilderness Road and Kentucky. We enjoyed this week much more then other because we were back to history and not just fast facts on states. We condensed what was supposed to be 3 days of reading from American Pioneers and Patriots down to 1 day. Each day was supposed to consist of 2-3 pages of read aloud. Um... while the kids are enjoying this book ( hence it is still in the curriculum), its not like its so packed with knowledge that 2-3 pages are overloaded with knowledge that needs to be discussed. Maybe its just my girls, but it drives them nuts to read 2 pages in a story and then say wait for next time, but I digress.... After reading the unit, we went over the review questions at the end and discussed a little more in depth how much work it was for the pioneers to made everything (such as cloth) for themselves. This led to a nice discussion of consumerism. The girls drew me a picture representing what they learned or remembered from the story, While I read some more about the Wilderness Road from the aptly named The Wilderness Road by Sarah De Capua. Girls enjoyed it. We finished up Farmer Boy this week, and I think we may throw in Adventures on the Wilderness Road, 1775 by Laurie Lawlor to fill in the gap we have until the next Scheduled read aloud. I don't figure it would take more then a week aloud.
This week we are also trialing the website Time4Learning.com for our Language Arts instruction. I am struggling desperately in this area because a: Its so not my strong suit. I am an avid reader, but not a grand writer, speller or grammarian ( hence the typos, spelling, and run ons here..lol). b) I am having trouble placing my girls in a path and track. They are bored to tears by most 2nd grade level reading exercises. I bought a book just two weeks ago and already realize its so easy its pointless. Yang can read the passage and answer the questions in under 3 min. Ying just rolls her eyes.I AM FRUSTRATED!!!! So, we are trying plan 387. I placed them in second grade and already know its under them but they are enjoying it as review so I am OK with it. They finished what would be assigned for a week to complete second grade material by the end of April ( so condensed year) in just under 30 min. Why am I OK with this? Because, it is reassuring me that they got it and its not just a mom with a rosy picture of her kids abilities. Then they can just roll right into the third grade work when they have finished the 2nd grade stuff with no fuss. Yes, I admit I am still stuck in the compare yourself to the "school" yardstick, but there is still like a 25% chance the girls will return to public school next year so ....
Science.. the girls read lots of book on tornadoes and other weather phenom.
Math.....
Spelling... The girls played better attention this week to their lessons. We have started adding the missed words from our test on week to the work for the next week. Motivating to have to copy and write sentences for extra words each week...lol
Music... We have done our thing listening to The Nutcracker Suite and other works by Tchaikovsky. This week the girls got HOOKED on the Cd Tchaikovsky Discovers America. This is from a series called Classical Kids, and the girls are begging for others from the series. Gonna have to do some investing..lol... We also are nearing the girls musical and we are practicing daily all 12 songs, plus solos. Its very consuming to do well so the patriotic songs have taken a back seat.
The best parts of the week involved just regular childhood ;) Park day that involved cardboard "sledding" down a sod hill. We tried to meet up with a new home school group, but the park was so crowed due to it being election day and a public school holiday we never located the group. Gonna try that one again next week.