Our week in Review----Week 38

Joey finished up his math unit on estimating.  Math is definitely not his strong point and I am not sure how to keep going with him.  He is in 6th grade and no where near ready to handle pre-algebra even.  In fact, he forgets steps in simple addition problems.  I know it frustrates him also.  

We started reading about what happened in the Ohio Country during the Revolutionary War.  

He worked hard on separating subjects and predicates in his grammar.  Joey finished his George Washington Book.  We both found out some great facts about this hero for Adventure Club.  

In Science he finished up his unit on plants and spores.  We had a failed science experiment, so we re-started our experiment this morning.  Turns out the furnace definitely keeps our house too dry in the winter for mold.  So we had to create a green house effect using gallon bags this morning.  He dissected a seed to discover the seed coat.  And then he is going to start growing them in the little "greenhouse" now.

He put the beans in water to soak overnight to make them more easy to dissect.

 I actually cut the bean apart.  I couldn't allow him to do it.

 Our other piece of bread dried out horribly.  So we put the new slice in a gallon baggie to create a "greenhouse" effect.

 He also planted the remaining beans to see what would happen.

Even through whining, crying and tantrums....he got his work done.

Brayden sat with me to do his schoolwork everyday.  He finished up learning about bees today.  I am trying to get the Bee movie cartoon for us to watch with him.  We used to have it, but I can't find it.  He finished reading Bad Kitty.  He "restarted" multiplication.  It's refresher from when he regressed in some skills last fall.  Hopefully we'll get back to where he needs to be pretty quick.

Caty had a good week.  We worked on Hooked on Phonics and these Letter finds from Living Life Intentionally.  She loves using the Bingo markers.  

She worked on a unit on Fire trucks and fireman.  I found this wooden model at the store, and she really liked it.

She did not like painting with pencil erasers to do dot art.  It was rather comical...have you noticed this weeks favorite shirt...lol.

Practicing speech sounds playing Go Fish with a game from Speech Therapy Ideas.

Lydia did really well.  She is working on her Math in Touch Point Math.  She is actually begging to do the software side of the program.  It is definitely a new approach to math.  She got very frustrated...as did I...trying to make the Egyptian Beaded Collar today.  We both gave up, and agreed that neither of us are Egyptian Princesses.  So we wore fancy necklaces and watched a movie instead...lol.

Her artist study this week was Joseph Cornell...watch for the upcoming post.  He is famous for collage boxes.  She decided to do a collage box for Justin Bieber.  Go figure.

For her smash journal, she did a page on science toys she saw in a catalog.  Our Smash Club starts Monday and she is super excited!!!

We watched this video on Ancient Mesopotamia to help tie in with her studies in Story of the World V. 1.  And Joey was bummed that our Liberty Kids episodes were erased, so I pulled this oldie but goodie off the shelf to play one morning.

We went to the Toledo Symphony - Music Around America concert.  It was wonderful.

And we looked at some beautiful new art on our way in.  This was her favorite.  Part of the Chemo exhibit.  All art is done by cancer patients at the Hospital.  This was done by a teenager.  Lydia loved the colors and the blending.

Killing time waiting for Caty's dance class to finish.  She's playing Minecraft on her iPad.

She just started All About Spelling 1.  For letters, we are using these plastic ones, instead of the little letters that come with it.  She likes these better.  She did really well with alphabetizing this week!

We had a pretty good week at school.  You can tell because our house is a wreck!  I was so tired after all the schoolwork, and basic cleanup that I didn't do a lot of cleaning.  It was also a bit crazy flipping between all 4 kids.  Brayden regressed in working in independently.  He will only do some work by himself, and even work he can do by himself he insists I need to "help" him with.  Which really just means he wants me to read directions to him. We'll work past this "bump", smooth it over and get ready for our next "bump".  We know it's just ahead...lol.

I hope everyone had a wonderful week!!!  Linking up with other homeschool families at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Our week in Pictures - Week 37

This is what our week looked like.  It always seems like a lot, but it's definitely manageable.  I was so happy that we did finish everything on our list!!  Ok..not everything.  Joey will continue his Jacob and Esau study for another week, and since Caty was a bit under the weather this week she only did one art project instead of two.  Since she painted a snow storm with a toothbrush, she didn't do her "artist" re-creation this week.

Joey

Math - Comparing & rounding thousands

Grammar - Essentials in Writing - Simple Sentences

Science - The Plant World

Ohio History - Early Europeans in Ohio

Spelling

Bible - Jacob and Esau

Scholastic News - Learning about Rosa Parks

Adventure Club - George Washington

Handwriting - Handwriting without Tears cursive

Brayden

Math - Review topics from this month

Grammar - Essentials in Writing

Science - Start lesson on Bees

Scholastic News - Learning about Rosa Parks

Spelling

Bible - Lot

Social Studies - Harriet Tubman

Adventure Club - Finish George Washington Book

Reading Comp - Reading Bad Kitty and Reading Comp book

Lydia

Math - Starting Touch Math Grade 2 (watch for the upcoming review)

Science - Finish learning about Caniforms & Experiment from Hooked on Science

Spelling - AAS#1 & 2 (We are going very slowly with this.)

Reading - McGuffey reader

Phonics - A Beka Letters and Sounds

History - SOTW Book 1 CH 1 Earliest People

Bible Study - Creation of Man

Geography - Canyon and Cape

Art - Mark Rothko

Handwriting - I downloaded a new cursive writing app

Caty

Letter/Phonics - Hooked On Phonics PK (she will be starting this new this week)

Handwriting - Handwriting without Tears Wet/Dry app

Math - Practice Counting to 25, counting by 2s and writing numbers

Gym - playing catch with a very soft ball

Science - Shadows

Geography - What are maps?  Draw a large map of our house

Art - Dot Painting

Games - Frog Hop, Dora Uno and Puzzles

Speech therapy - Concentrating on the F and S sounds (playing with Go Fish speech cards)

Stories - Winter stories

Joey and Brayden started their section in Ohio History about Fur Trade in Ohio.  We also talked about the French and Indian War, and why this was a definite turning point in the colonists beginning to fight for their independence.   We watched most of Last of the Mohicans to go along with this study.

The boys got a little behind on their Scholastic Newsletter.  It seems a bit overwhelming for them.  I asked them to do question and answer sheets to go with these (that I created).  They do not like comprehension questions.  I may not do that again for a few weeks.  The boys also officially started a new grammar program (watch for the upcoming review), and they seem to like it so far.  Brayden finished his George Washington book, and Joey is almost done with his reading.

Lydia started Touch Math Grade 2 (watch for the upcoming review)..She has willingly spent hours, actually begging to do the software side of the program.  So watch for our upcoming review next month.  She also continued doing All About Spelling Level 1.  She did two lessons this week, and did a great job.  I actually didn't think we would make it through 1 & 2, but I want to take it slowly, but she really is picking up on hearing the different sounds in a word.  Problem is she doesn't remember this when she gets to a word she does not remember.  She just freaks out and asks for help.  Yep...reading is coming very slowly, but she has made great improvement!

Caty (watch for Caty School posts on Tuesdays), did pretty good this week.  I kept lessons short (roughly 15 minutes max) to help with her learning.  She is loving the Hooked on Phonics alphabet song!!  Hoping this is the program that "speaks" to her and says..."Please yes...continue reading with me...lol"  After all we have been through with Lydia, really hoping for an easier route with Caty!

We had so many little projects ..... Lydia learned a little this week about the European Pine Marten that lives in Belgium.  I learned that they are cute, yet nasty little critters that force people to wrap their cars at night sometimes in chicken wire to keep them from chewing on important car parts like brake lines!

Lydia actually begged to keep playing on her math software.

Joey had a game.

 Lydia and I were going through magazines for her Smash book/Scrapbook.  Yeah...we had a huge mess!

For History we learned about the Nomads.  She did Cave Art, which also happened to be our theme for Art Class this week..lol.

We also read The First Dog by Jan Brett.  Lydia has started Story of the World V. 1 again.  

 For our Artist Study, she learned about Mark Rothko.

Working on her math.

 Joey and I attempted to make a pumpkin custard the way GeorgeWashington loved.....Yeah, mommy was stupid and forgot to check on the pumpkin.  It was yummy, but burnt :(

Caty started her Hooked on Phonics program.  A lot of review for this time, but she really likes the DVD and songs.

Brayden working on his bees unit.

 Lydia being silly...she's reading her McGuffey Reader with a magnifying glass.

She attempted a Word Ladder worksheet.  She thought it was cool, but we are going to wait a couple more months before we do more.

 Lydia loves Mo Willems....this is a newer one at our library.  And of course we loved it....

 And then we made some homemade chocolate pudding to go with our reading.  Reading about all that pudding made us hungry!!

We had a cool week, I'll spend this afternoon making adjustments for next week.  So the boys don't feel overwhelmed.  That and planning our Fire House unit for Miss Caty next week.

Hope everyone had a wonderful week...Linking up with other Homeschool families at:

Our Weekly Triumphs and Accomplishments

What a week.  We had a bit of a relaxed atmosphere this week.  There were fights about Math.  Nothing new there.


This was part of an awesome deal I got at Goodwill on Saturday.  Joey is starting to like Lincoln Logs. They are different from LEGOS and he has to be more careful around his creations.  But's he's liking them even more.

 For school this week, we learned about Maple Syrup and how to make it.  That's another post for tomorrow.  We attempted maple syrup candy, and it didn't work out.

 The girls rowed their first Five in a Row book.  We have used Before Five in a Row, but I decided to try one from volume 1of FIAR this week.  I think we will be switching between both books for the next few months.

 The kids were antsy as I worked between kids.  Caty especially, and so she and I read some dinosaur books and I dug out a dinosaur dig activity to keep them busy as I moved between kids.  We were going to start reading more about dinos anyway, I just started a bit early.

 I found these cute pens at the Dollar Tree Saturday, and knew the kids would love them.  They though they were awesome.  Joey and Lydia use them all the time, but Caty and Brayden saved theirs for handwriting books.

 I printed these sheets from Montessori Printshop.  We have the other phonics cards (something I unfortunately lost within all the junk that we have and I need to sort through).  Now that Lydia is really grasping reading....YEAH....I pulled these out.  Laminated them.  And she is using a dry erase markers to fill them in.

 More dinosaur shots.  I had three eggs that they worked on.  Don't know how I ended up with only 3.  But even Brayden got involved in this one.

 I let Lydia make lunch one day this week.  I measured out all the ingredients to get her started and set them on the counter....everything is here except the almond milk.  We had pumpkin pancakes and maple syrup.

 Here Lydia is working on reading/phonics.  We are using a combination of programs right now and I really like all of them.  We are using All About Reading Level 1, and online Reading Eggs and Headsprout.  I have the Tag Speller which she likes to use for letters instead of the other letter tiles that come with the programs. Sometimes we use the pen to help with letter sounds, but since she is getting more comfortable with sounds we don't use it as much.  The pen can become a huge distraction.

 For Science this week, we started Supercharged Science.  I thought we would try it for a couple months and see how Joey enjoys this program.  This week we just mainly reinforced Scientific Method.  The experiment was to see how much water would fit on top of the penny until the "bubble" popped.  Then we changed the "variable" and tried a quarter.  

 Lydia and I went to the Toledo Symphony Young People Concert Series for their "Feathers and Tails" concert.  It was a tribute to animal inspired music.  She had a lot of fun this time!  They did Peter and the Wolf also.  We had read the book and watched the cartoon on Netflix, so she could visualize the whole story while she was listening.

 And then we visited the Family Center at the Art Museum for a few minutes where she made a craft.

 We took a couple weeks off from American Girl projects.  We still talked about Josefina every now and then if we saw something that reminded us of her.  But no major projects.  Our weaving did not go well at all.  It was sad actually, I need to practice more with her.


But this week, we talked about pottery and made coil pots.

We also learned about how important sheet were for Josefina's family.  We finished listening to all 6 books now and she actually was answering questions for me.  I let her choose what our last square will be about next week.  Shhhh....it's a surprise....but it does have to do with the last book.

 I forgot about this game.  I got a "new" desk off a local online garage sale group on Facebook, and when I was moving my old one found this game.  It's called Spot a Word and it's from Scholastic.  You have to pick two-different colored spots and see if the spots make a word.  Great reinforcement for her right now.  She had so much fun playing this and I had to make her stop playing because we had been playing so long and I had to work with Joey.

 The girls started back ballet this week.  Here's our little ballerinas.

It was a fun week.  The one thing that I don't have pics of is from Health Class.  We are attempting a Gluten Free friendship cake recipe.  Not sure how it will turn out.  But the idea behind this is that we were reading about how we have good and bad bugs in our body.

Joey and I also started reading Woodsong by Gary Paulsen.  It was NOT a good fit for him.  He wanted to learn more about the Iditarod Race (yeah more about Alaska...lol), and since the race is coming up I said it was great.  I found two more books that were more kid friendly for his level and we started reading them.  He liked the new books better.

Linking up with other homeschool families at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.