Week in Review - April 8, 2011

We actually accomplished "stuff" this week.  Yeah some might look at my current educational approach as lazy and unmotivated....but I will not reply to them in an unChristian-like way....I'll just say "Mind your own beeswax!!!"  HaHaHaHa!!! 
The boys are chucking along in Teaching Textbooks #3.  We will not finish it this year, but we also fell behind a bit and will finish it most likely in July.  (SSSHHHHHH....don't tell the curriculum police:)!!!)  They finished All About Spelling Lesson #3.  Brayden is still struggling, ok he has some regressing that has happened.  He can tell me the vowels, so I am not overly worried.  So far we are liking this program though.  Joey worked on some drawing with a Toy Story Learn How to Draw that I found at the library.  Brayden worked in a puzzle book that he received as a gift from his Uncle and Aunt last weekend.  He loves puzzle books and word searches.  So I just put the ones they got him straight in his workbox drawers.  We have been talking about the early part of Jesus life, and Joey has suddenly decided he wants to read his Bible Story book on his own!!  (And yes I am doing a little happy dance inside, because it would embarass him if I did it for real.)  

Lydia started Headsprout Phonics.  She has been playing on Starfall and loses interest in it pretty quick.  I even paid the subscription for More Starfall.  She enjoys the songs on that, but again....gives up easily.  Another homeschool mom suggested Headsprout...the cost scared me....ok I freaked a bit.  But she tried the free trial and really liked it.  She doesn't complain when I say it is time to do phonics.  She jumps up and comes running.  What a shocker!!!!!!  She did some of the K12 Math program this week, and again we had issues.  She so far does not like anything that we received from K12.  I spend more time supplementing than educating I feel like.  So she and Caty started the Preschool/kindergarten program that I found through blog hopping.  It's called ABCMouse.  Both girls seems to really enjoy the online format.  The cost is quite nice also (7.95 a month or 79.00 a year).  We are trying monthly right now, due to our attention levels being close to zero at times!! 

For Science we chugged along on our Rainforest Unit from Hands of a child.  We started the habitat series this week.  I'm not sure what we will start next.  But we may do a Earth Day unit before starting our next habitat.

Since all the kids start soccer over the next few weeks, we started the Amanda Bennett Unit study on Soccer.  We have watched lots of skill videos online and got one from the library also.  For a treat we watched Soccer Dog.  I also got a Soccer Video game for the Wii....but Joey and I tried that today and we are both scratching our heads!!  We have a bunch of fun soccer fiction books checked out from the library.  We have been doing a fun story before each section of the book.  There was some from Lazy Town series, Froggy, and just some about bunnies playing soccer.  Something worked a bit this week because even Brayden was yelling to make sure he could see the pictures:).....{Yeah I was doing a happy dance again...in my mind!}

I thank the Scholastic giant again for the Magic School Bus series.  We turned to them again for a cool video on Rainforests.  We also added the LEGO Creationary game to our agenda this week.  That is a very complicated game for the boys.  Joey builds with LEGOs more than Brayden.  Today while we were trying to play it, poor Brayden was trying to build the creations and I could tell he was becoming overwhelmed.  One thing is they are tiny LEGOS and not his normal DUPLO blocks.  His fine motor skills for building with tiny LEGOS are still being worked on.  Since we have to adapt the directions to the kraziness of our family, attention spans grew bored while waiting for the other team to finish their building.  We may have to institute a timer to keep attention in check.  It also would help if Brayden doesn't start singing "Row, Row, Row your Boat" while we are trying to build the boat for the other team to guess about.  Brayden is not real subtle.  All in all though...it's a good game.  I just don't think it's worth almost $40.00!!!

For Geography we visited Poland this week.  It was fun.  We did not get our "international" meal this week.  I just didn't have time to make homemade pierogies, and the store was out of the frozen kind.  I feel bad, but I don't think the kids even missed it this week.

Next week we are going to work on our Geography Fair Projects.  The kids have not decided what they want to do yet.  I need to get that nailed down this weekend.   We are going to finish up our Rainforest Habitat unit by discussing Aquatic Animals and endangered species.  This actually works about well to blend right into a few days doing an Earth Day Lapbook.  The timing will actually be great.  I am going to let the kids decide which habitat we'll do after that.  The boys will start AAS#4, and continue in their current Math program.  The girls will continue ABCMouse and Lydia will continue Headsprout.  We are going to be working with Lydia's "teacher" from K12 on Tuesday.  I wasn't real happy with their last one-on-one computer session.  I'm not sure how it will go this week.  Trying to be positive about it.