Week 20's Triumphs and Accomplishments

I can't believe that I just typed Week 20!!  Time flies by.  One of my favorite things about homeschooling is our ability to change things up.  We can spend extra time on a subject that we may be struggling in and if we get a new skill in less time than I thought we would, boom we can move on quicker.  This week has been one of those.  Caty is struggling with reading, so we are working and restructuring to slow down for her.  Lydia needed a little extra time for multiplication skills, so instead of introducing too many numbers this week, we slowed off and practiced the numbers she was struggling with.

We covered a lot of school this week.  Joey has started his study of World War I.  He is using Heritage Christian studies and I am supplementing.  This week he learned about trench warfare and the beginning of the war.  One assignment this week was to make model magic and create a trench model

 His finished model after painting and adding details.  He had help, of course, since he cannot use a glue gun without injuring himself.

Caty worked on not just knowing the days of the week, but recognizing these words.  We are using the story Cookie's Week with felt board pieces I cut out and laminated for her.  I have had these put away for a while now.  Used them with Lydia and Brayden also.  Caty knows her days of the week, we are working on word recognition now.

 I made a fishing game with her words for the week.

A project she needed to complete by following the one I made.  She did really good!

 Making glow in the dark Flubber.

The girls working with their "model magic".  They are attempting to make a safari to go with their study of Kenya.

Caty was dying to play in the facepaint.  We had just been learning about the Maasai tribes in Kenya.  She decided to paint her own face like theirs.

 Of course Lydia had to play too.

 Doing art on her own.  She was creating a picture of the pyramids after watching the Dear America series episode on Cleopatra.

 Lydia was working on her detective badgework this week.  She is looking fingerprints here.

 Caty looking at her fingerprints.

They tried to lift fingerprints too.  This was a lot harder than they thought it would be.

 Doing our exercises one morning.

We did the chicken bone experiment with vinegar.

She thought this experiment was cool and very yucky & stinky.

Pulled out Learning Wrap Ups - Multiplication for Lydia to practice her multiplication with.

Working on adjectives, Lydia started a Who I am board.

The girls both had riding this week.  Joe took Lydia and I took Caty (they are on separate days until November).

While Caty was doing her lesson, Lydia volunteered to help out in the stable.  She has decided that the Horseless Horse project is going to be one of her 4H projects.  She has already started reading and learning a bunch about horses for science.  I highly recommend the Magic Tree House Fact Tracker book on Horses.  She has learned so much, still has a lot to go...lol.  The book Horses! by Gail Gibbons is also wonderful!

Lydia has a thing for Nutcrackers.  She found one at Hobby Lobby last week and finally was able to start painting it.  I'll post pics when she's done.

We had a great week.  Everyone got their schoolwork done.  I made some adjustments of subject activities for some of the kids as I saw necessary.

We are working on writing skills with Joey.  One of his assignments this week was to write me a letter from the trenches.  He was supposed to tell me how he felt, what sounds he heard, and even what he was doing to pass the time.  He was assigned this after we had done lots of reading about the trenches, looked up pictures and watched a movie and documentary about life in the trenches.  He is definitely all boy.  He is supposed to email me his assignments.  The first email, I let him do completely on his own.  I got a two-sentence email.  I had to snicker, but like most men.  He said, "Hi, life is awful in the trenches.  It's muddy."  So then we had to work on adding information to his email.  I told him that when so many families had  people that loved them so far away, most families appreciated more than two sentences.  Then that led to the discussion about how many hours these men had to pass, and they would've hopefully had time to write home more than two sentences.

Brayden is at a steady place right now.  We are maintaining skills and hopefully learn some new ones.  I found some science that he is enjoying.  Currently he is using the Magic School Bus Chapter books.  I can combine science with reading comprehension.  I am going to sneak a few experiments in next week for him.  Currently though he is learning about bats, so looking for some science stuff.  Maybe even the Sound - MSB episode.

Next week is a relaxed week, they are not doing formal studies, just a few projects.  We were supposed to be in Washington DC, but the plans changed.  I didn't plan actual school, so I just left the plans I made in place for our schoolwork.  Made a few adjustments for the girls.

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