Weekly Review

Here is our week in review:
The 5yo learned dr, gr, & cr blends in Explode the Code. She is not happy about the d-r blend, because it sounds like j-r (jress for dress). But she's learning. You can kind of see her unique invented handwriting...
In Math, the 5yo learned how to use subtraction when comparing items. We practiced with lots of cheerios (and practiced eating them!). Here is a photo from her math page, comparing farm animals...
We did most handwriting on the whiteboard this week, but today she wanted to use her workbook so she could get stickers. She did a great job writing her d's and a's. She thinks d's are the "prettiest".
Here is the 7yo's work this week. Grammar is not pictured. In Grammar, she learned about using "they" and "them". She was rather surprised that anyone would confuse the two and not use them correctly while speaking ("Them went to the store"?). Yeah, I thought it was rather intuitive, as well.

In Math, she learned when you add larger numbers, you group ones with ones, and then add the tens. She practiced re-writing 52 + 4 as two steps: 2 + 4 = 6, 50 + 6 = 56. Later, she finished a drill page that skips this step and just adds the two numbers together. We also played around with grouping items and writing them as multiplication problems (non-workbook stuff). We learned the pattern to multiplying 10.

In handwriting, she learned how to connect tow truck letters to other letters. Some letters connect with a line, others connect with a smile. Here is her review page - we played Freeze Tag.
In Spelling, she completed Lesson 11, Long vowel e words (ee and ea). She got all of her words correct.
Other:

Bible: Elisha the prophet

History: we read from Hero Tales about Adiron & Ann Judson, and George Muller. The 7yo hates Hero Tales, but the 5yo likes it.

Science: invertebrates (i.e., creepy crawlies!)

Also, the 7yo's fish (named Shell) died last weekend on Good Friday. We celebrated Easter with our church; we had a nice dinner and an easter egg hunt. This week, we had mild weather (nearing 50 degrees, woohoo!) and the kids spent a lot of time running around outside. They also enjoyed "sledding" down a large gravel hill while sitting on their winter jackets. I'm not so sure the winter jackets will stay intact for next year!

We are ending this week with a full day of homeschool co-op classes.

LOL...beer in my kitchen:)

Looking at the post below this one, for our Weekly Report, I felt it necessary to add a few comments and corrections.
First of all, my apologies that our writing from last week was scanned in sideways!
Second, looking through the 7yo's list of words of Things Found in the Kitchen, you'll notice the word "beer" (at least I did, and sort of scratched my head at that one). Ok, now, since your already looking sideways, now turn the b around to be a d, and then it'll read "deer". That's right, she saw "deer" out our backdoor, and she had asked me if she could count things that she saw from the kitchen, not necessarily in the kitchen. There are a few other words that had reversed letters..."a tadle" (table), "winboes" (windows). Oddly enough "bole" (bowl) and "bodle" (bottle) were written in the right direction. Use your imagination for the rest of the words, except "beepaper" which is actually bee paper (notice the space) because it is a picture of a bee made out of paper. But it sorta looked like beer something or other upon first glance.

So...no beer in my kitchen today:-)

Weekly Review

I know, I'm behind! Its been a whirlwind crazy few weeks. For my weekly review (the past 2 weeks): designed a 96 page web site for a customer (we have a home business), had 6 physical therapy sessions, a doctor appt, a dentist appt, an MRI, a full day of homeschool co-op classes, and now everyone is sick and awake coughing all night. I'm tired!!! And we're out of clean underwear!


The kids did GREAT on their lessons this week. Everything went smooth and I began to think, "hmm, maybe we're doing OK afterall."

We've been working on our writing skills. Below was a game from Games for Writing by Peggy Kaye. You and your child race to see who can write the most words in 10 minutes. We had to write things that we see in our kitchen. Here is the 7yo's list:

Today we wrote a story game (also from Peggy Kaye's book). You roll dice to decide how many words you'll contribute to the story. You each take turns rolling the dice and writing that many words in the story. The 7yo wanted to use fancy writing - that is why both of our lettering has swirls. Below is the cover page to the story, and then the story itself.

The 5yo decided that this game looked fun, so we played this also. Here is her story (if you can figure out the phonetic spelling and backwards bs and ds).

Here is what we learned this week:

5yo:
math: telling time / adding bigger numbers / order of addends (2+6 is the same as 6+2)
phonics: beginning & ending word blends - Explode the Code book 2
handwriting: we put the book aside and did practice on the whiteboard

7yo:
math: reviewed book 4, started book 5 (adding tens and ones). Review of place value and counting to 100.
spelling: long vowel o words. Passed the test with 100%.
grammar: using "we" and "us" in sentences
handwriting: cursive letter v and connecting tow truck letters to other letters

Other:
Bible: Elisha the prophet
History: travel 300 years ago until today (finished Living Long Ago)
Science: finished mammals, started reptiles and amphibians

Wordless Wednesday - wood pile (about 12 cords unstacked)

Weekly Review

Here is our week in review!
Below is the Long U spelling words - the 7yo made her own word wall (her idea). She color coded the words according to the way it is spelled (u_e, ue, ew, ou)

We started a conversation journal - one of our conversations looked like this (see below). This kick started a page full of journalling, in addition to more silent conversations throughout the day.
Below is the 7yo's handwriting page - she worked on cursive b this week. We only have a handful of letters that haven't been taught yet. We took it easy on the cursive work this week, due to all the journalling.
The 5yo reviewed telling time to the hour in her workbook. Today she was introduced to counting around the clock by 5s. We are nearing the end of our book (only a few weeks left, eek!)
The 5yo started Explode the Code 2 this week. Because it is getting a little more challenging, we are having to slow down in the workbook and in our reading practice.

The 7yo learned the difference between using I or me in a sentence (grammar). In math, she did some "algebra", with problems like - A,B,and C are numbers. B is 80. C is 40 less than B. A is 10 more than B.

In science, we continued our study of mammals (mammal reproduction, hmmmm). In history, we learned how various people traveled (Vikings, Chinese, Medieval times, etc.) In Bible, we keep reading a reoccurring them about how kings and prophets were chosen by God, and how God answered the prayers of those kings and prophets that asked for His help.

Today we have piano practice. The 7yo will finish her Developmental Math 4 book tomorrow (yes, she opted to do math on a Saturday so she could finish the book). Then we will take a week break next week.

Thurs, Mar 6, 2008

I'm a few days late here...
I'm continuing physical therapy. Working harder. Getting sorer.
Today I brought home new journals for the kids. The journals are smaller, and therefore easier to fill a page (rather than the standard notebook size). We are using them to do various writing type exercises. Today's writing was this - set the timer for 15 minutes and spent the time writing notes back and forth to each other, asking questions, and writing answers. It was a lot of fun!

Today we accomplished...
5yo:
Math: telling time to the hour, practicing number recognition, before/after/between
Phonics: Explode the Code 2, 1.5 pages

7yo:
Math: 2 pages of Developmental Math 4. Questions like Start with 30, add 20, subtract 10. And finding patterns...20, 40, ? (answer: the pattern was adding 20, so 20, 40, 60); or 90, 60, ? (pattern was subtracting 30, so 90, 60, 30).
Grammar: I and Me
Spelling: long vowel u words (u_e, ue, ew, ou)

Science: Mammal babies (awwww!)
History: travel by stagecoach
Bible: King Ahab

Monday, Mar 3, 2008

Today was my last day of therapy, even though I'm not even close to being "finished". Will see the orthopedic dr this week and see what he says. Also had a dental cleaning - kids were very good about doing their schoolwork while I was gone this morning. The 7yo taught the 5yo and they were finished by the time I got home.

Last night, I gave my 7yo the assignment of designing a menu for a mermaid restaurant, and handed her a colored file folder. At first, she seemed excited until she realized that she'd actually have to write something. And then she completed the assignment with much tantruming, tears, and whining. And then she demanded to know which words she spelled wrong (which was nearly every word), but I wouldn't tell her, because she was really only trying to prove that she *can't* write, and there wasn't anything productive I could see from pointing out spelling errors. Grrr. Someday I think she will be an avid writer, filling journal after journal. But not today. And probably not for a long time.

The kids are arguing up a storm lately. Please tell me this ends when the weather gets better and everyone can go outside. Please tell me that winter is going to end next week. This has been the coldest. longest. ugliest winter in a very long time.

The 5yo started Explode the Code 2 today, under her sister's instruction. She read her story, "Baby Moses" to big sis. And she completed 2 1/2 math pages on measurement. She is about 6 weeks away from finishing her math book (BJU K). I'm debating what we'll do when she finishes. I'm thinking of putting her into Developmental Math or BJU 1. I love BJU's materials, but it has been difficult to integrate the teacher's manual activities with the workbook. It tends to really zap both of us to spend so much time doing manipulative type activities from the TM and then complete the 2 workbook pages. The 5yo seems to prefer just doing one or the other (usually the workbook). Mastery of the subject is dependent upon use of the teacher's manual, and we miss out if we are only doing one or the other. Also, I'm seeing how the typical scope & sequence of grade level materials is mostly about "hurry up and crunch in as much as possible". Then forget about it until next year, and then hurry up and review, and crunch in more. It sounds impressive when 2nd graders are adding/subtracting with regrouping and memorizing multiplication facts. But how much is really being mastered?

The 7yo did 2 pages of math story problems and did fabulously. She has 1 week left of her Level 4 math book, and then we will be starting Level 5, Add/Subtract Tens and Ones without regrouping (probably take a week break, though, first). She started on Long Vowel U words in spelling (week 9?). And she finished her cursive w page. She read our science aloud to us.

We read about King Ahab and Elijah the prophet in Bible. We read about Viking travel in History (Living Long Ago). I tried to convince kids to color in some Viking coloring pages, but they resisted. They're more interested in pretty girls or horses. But the 5yo did agree to color this Viking Chic on a Horse (not my artwork, I should add). I can almost hear the opera song, Ride of the Valkyrie, when I see the picture.