Our weekly triumphs and accomplishments

History--We are going to be looking at Ancient Babylon

Science--We'll be working on Genes and our Senses

Art--We are going to do a Still life and popcorn Art for National Popcorn Day

Bible Study--We are going to look at the life of Job, Abraham and Issac (and how they remained faithful under trial)

US Geography--Alabama 

World Travelers--Ethiopia (this week, just locating and flag info)

Math--Boys continue Teaching Textbooks and Lydia is continuing MUS Primer.  She's working on Lessons 21 and 22

Reading--Lydia will continue site word practice, and using Reading Eggs.  We will also be using All About Reading Level 1 starting this week.  Watch for the Upcoming Review.

American Girl Club--We will be working on weaving and why sheep were so important to Josefina's family

Reading Comprehension--Boys will be continuing with Reading Eggspress

Spelling--The boys have been using another program, and have gotten bored with it.  So we are going to try another spelling program.  They will also be restarting their All About Spelling program, which we discontinued to try another program...which didn't work for them.

Health--We will be looking at the difference between Real and Processed Foods.  They will be using food circulars to create food collages of real vs. processed.

Language Arts--Adjectives

Joey has requested a goo project this week also.  So we are going to do the Cornstarch and water...is it a liquid or solid project this week too.

We actually got a lot checked off our list!!!  


For History they built a Ziggurat Temple out of Duplo Blocks.  We learned about Hammurabi's Code and how some of the laws seemed severe in punishment, but the laws themselves actually made sense.

 For Martin Luther King Jr. Day we talked about Civil Rights and watched a Biography special on his life.  We also made these cute little diversity pins and Joey wore his proudly to the doctor for his checkup that day.

We learned about the state of Alabama this week.  This was our southern meal.  We had Hoppin' Johns served over rice w/ sausage on the side.  We also had sauteed spinach and corn bread.  The kids all loved the corn bread.  I'm the only one who liked the spinach and Joe loved the corn bread, sausage and Hoppin' Johns.

We are reviewing All About Reading #1.  Lydia flew through 4 of the sections this week.  She is keeping the chart on the fridge and she's putting her sticker on here.

We changed up our Josefina project this week for American Girl Club.  I didn't get the weaving ready in time, so I pulled out this leather pouch project.  It is like what Josefina would have carried.

I promised Joey his gak and flubber project.  So I printed the instructions for this project I found a long time ago on Currclick from Teacher Book Bag.  

 Is Corn Starch and water a liquid or a solid???  They had a blast playing in it.

Then we made flubber w/ Borax and glue.  This was awesome.  I have never done it before.  It was so cool to see the two liquids make this congealed solid-type substance.  I highly recommend this project set (and no I did not receive this for free or Teacher Book bag did not pay me for a review)...we had a blast that morning.

We also went for a walk that day...It was sort of warm.  The girls helped me walk 1.25 miles that day.

For Health we learned about the difference between real and processed foods.  Both Joey and Lydia did very well on this project.  It was fun to cut apart the food ads and create our collages.

 For Art Class, they actually did two lessons this week.  One was self-portraits and the other was still life.  Well Lydia decided to paint Rocky, since he was laying so still sleeping.

 And then it was Joey's turn.  He painted his two Build-a-Bear friends that we now carry all over. 

On Thursday I took the girls to Barnes and Noble for their Storytime.  It was Pajama Time, so they wore their favorite PJs to the store. This was the first time we ever went there for storytime.  Caty had fun and one tantrum.  Lydia said the stories for kind of babyish (because she didn't like the one book).  But they both want to go back again! 

 They made puppet llamas for the story, Llama, Llama, Red Pajama.

Then we ate our packed lunches and the girls changed their clothes and we headed to Girl Scouts.  It was a field trip to a Flower Shop!!  They each made their own arrangements.  A creative mom in our troop made all the vases the girls were using.  They were soooo cute!!

 When we got home from that trip then, we celebrated Popcorn Day by popping popcorn with no "processed" ick and read the story
and 

And then they made popcorn art.

Lydia made a butterfly

 Joey made a panda bear

 And Caty's looks a bit like a dinosaur.

It was a busy and fun week.  Can't wait for the next week to start.  Joey and I started the Amanda Bennett Popcorn Unit Study, and we'll finish it next week.


Lydia worked on counting by 5s.  Joey worked on fractions.  


Joey is doing well in Spelling.  I am going to have to up his challenge.  Just looking at the AAS level that will work for him now, since we didn't really use that program with him.


In Science yesterday we worked on our 5 senses project.  I had a bunch items out, both edible and inedible, and they had to determine which senses we would use to determine what an item was.  They were amazed how many senses it could take to realize the object, but then we had a nice discussion about what would happen if we lost a sense.  And how the other senses become stronger to help make up for the loss.


For World Travelers Club, we will be learning about Ethiopia.  This week we talked about food, and I cheated.  We watched a really cool Andrew Zimmer episode on the food and food culture of Ethiopia.  It was pretty amazing the differences and etiquette there.  Joey had decided that this will be his topic and we were taking notes about eating.


You may have noticed that Brayden has been MIA most of the week.  I have been doing little projects here and there with him separately.  His ADD is horrible off meds.  And we still have until the second week of February until he sees the doctor.  It's already been a long month, and it's not getting easier.


Check out what other homeschool families have been up to this week.