Weekly Review, Week 20, 2011-2012

Both:  we started Singapore Challenging Word Problems 3, and have been working through the story problems together.  A was able to solve this problem easily (and had to explain it to her mom):

Steve had 500 more marbles than Richard.  He gave Richard 300 marbles.  Who has more marbles now and by how many?

I was impressed by her simple thinking strategy: "pretend Steve has only 500 and Richard doesn't have any."  I tend to complicate things and get upset by those unknown marbles, lol.  I'll probably divide the kids up and have them work alone next week.  There was too much of one person taking over the problem.

Both kids also worked on Codecademy (www.codecademy.com), which is javascripting.  I've never done javascripting before, so anytime the kids were stuck, I had to jump in and catch up quickly, in order to answer their questions.  They seem to be enjoying those lessons, though.

We had Homeschool Gymnastics on Monday.

We began Michigan History on Tuesday evenings.  It has been a class I've wanted the kids to take for awhile now, but the opportunity hasn't been available for both of them to take it - until now.  They learned about early Europeans coming into Canada/Michigan, the French establishing fur trades, Champlain, and Brule.  Brule was a rather interesting character, lol.  Both kids really like the class.  They had a two page worksheet to complete on Wednesday.  We're also supposed to make pine needle tea, but haven't yet - we'll try to do that before the next class.

On Thursday, we went to a McDonalds with a play area.  We met friends there - 2 moms that share in teaching 2 co-op classes with me.  The moms planned and crafted for our classes, while the kids played.

A:
In math, she did lesson 121 Decimal Tenths, 122 Hundredths, 123 Thousandths, 124 Compare and Order Decimals, and 125 Rounding Decimals.  She likes these lessons because it is quick and easy!.  She completed 2 sections in AWANA this week.  Her spelling lists were days 67 through 73, and got into some tricky words (command, commandments, demand, defend, offend - these were hard because some words doubled the m, f, while others did not).  In History, she read chapter 21 (somehow skipped it the week before), and 23-26.  She is not thrilled with history, this year.  She did her Encyclopedia J-K, most of the week focusing on Jesus Christ and Jet Engine Propulsion.  She was surprised that Jet Engine Propulsion had more pages than Jesus.  She also practiced piano.

Z:

Z's AWANA car, "Bible" with Philippians 2:3-4 printed on it

head on view of the Bible car

She completed a blank multiplication chart every day.  She also went back to Horizons 3rd Grade Book 2.  Most of it is easy, except for the beginnings of long division (29 / 3, where you have a remainder), and reducing fractions (2/4 reduces to 1/2).  She took off with division this week, though.  It's amazing how much easier division becomes after multiplication facts are memorized.  My kids, thus far, have only been able to get so far with a cheat-chart.  Something about knowing their facts really boosts their understanding.  She completed days 58-61 in spelling.  She read 3 chapters in History: 24-26.  She finished her chapters early because she loves history, lol.  She continues to work through Encyclopedia H.  She practiced piano and made up a few songs.  She passed 3 sections in AWANA and participated in the race car derby.  Her car this year was a Bible:)  She won 2nd place out of 3 girls for speed.  She won 1st place out of 7 girls for design.  It was the first year our family produced a car that won for a reason.  In year's past, we've won 3rd place, simply for being one of 3 participants in our age/gender group, lol.