Homeschooling Week in Review

I always want to share what our weeks look like.... nothing really exciting, just fun to share with some pictures!!

So here goes by subject:)

Bible
I am forgetting where I read this quote, but somewhere in the last few weeks I read this,"Our kids should be more familiar with the Bible stories and Scripture than their Saxon lessons!" Ouch!! I'm not sure how many days we zoom through the lessons to eat lunch at a decent hour and skip over our memory verses or lessons.

That being said, the kids and I were very intentional last week to work on their (but it ends up being mine too) Awana verses. And these times always begin conversations about what the verses mean and how can we obey them. And for Cubbies we've enjoyed the little activities although some weeks we don't completely finish:(

We're also trudging our way through Psalm 19... we had taken a break from working on them. But it's such a beautiful and foundational psalm;) SO we're back, and last week we memorized

¹¹ They are a warning to your servant,
a great reward for those who obey them.

Math
All together we've been learning the number families, something I've wanted to start since our friends visited in Oct:) So this week we started the 3's... I told the kids the little rhyme that we sang in softball, "3, 6, 9, batter looks like Frankenstein", just to be silly. They have been butchering that rhyme all week... argh... it's hard to listen... LOL!!

Chris has been ROCKing Saxon 1.... I planned for him to do one lesson every other day because I thought he wouldn't want to sit through the meeting book, lesson and practice sheets.... but I was WAY wrong! He LOVES it and asks to complete all his math;) And just beams when he finishes and I get to lather on the praise:)

In fact, he got tired of waiting on me to start math, so he made his OWN worksheet:) And then completed it. And he was super excited to start counting pennies and drawing pictures for word problems;)

Anna continues to buzz through Saxon 2:) She was excited to finally start carrying over in her addition problems. And this was the 1st week she had a 100 problems in 5 minutes challenge... she did a little more than half during the allotted time... I was really glad she STUCK it OUT and that every problem she completed was RIGHT... which is more important to me:)

Lydia has been working on puzzles, math manipulatives and a matching games. She counts with us and hears all that is going on during math times... she can't wait to start something more formal;)

Reading
Chris and Lydia are slowly working through Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. A few days we deviated and I let them pick little readers to work through.... like Bob Books or LeapFrog Phonics books:) While I'd love for them to buzz through it, I really want them to LOVE reading... so my goal is 10+ minutes a day versus completing a certain amount or a lesson!

Anna continues to work through library books to add to her reading log as well as working through her grammer and spelling books:) She also read fairy tales originated in France to Lydia and Chris and with me;) And some cave books;)

Anna also had to write some letters to family and friends as part of her grammer. She dictated what she wanted written as I wrote it on paper, but then she got to type it out:) She enjoyed learning how to work on the computer and I like extending activities to include other skills;)

Science
We took on two topics last week just to push our way through so we can start Space and Astronomy in Feb:) So we talked about Caves and Mountains... pretty simple;)

For caves we read through our main book, read library books and then I had the kids illustrate things that they'd find in a cave! So we had bats, bears, Stalactites and Stalagmites, underground rivers, etc all on papers. And then we built a cave in Chris' room using his bunk bed and couch. Poor Andrea called as I was rearranging the room pushing the couch to build our cave;)

Our Mountain lessons were also very simple!! One thing that was "new" to the kids were avalanches and we covered that with some fun educational online videos:) And I wanted them to know some of the mountain terms... snowline, peaks, pass, etc!! There was a cool printable graphic that I never had the chance to print... so we MADE our own by painting a mountain range with the different terms...


Of course they all look different by age:)
I thought Chris' was cute with mountain climbers on each peak:) And little mountains in front of the big ones;)
I was soo impressed with Anna's though.... I helped her with an outline of some mountains, but she did all the outlining, painting and following the different mountain layers herself....

I HAD to display it!!
(thanks to Uncle Scott and Aunt Bea, I think I found a great spot for the easel and the artwork!!)

History
We are starting to work through Western Europe in the Middle Ages... so this we studied Clovis and the beginning of France (hence the French fairy tales). While we dove into books about modern Paris and France (learning a little culture) thanks to our amazing and soo very awesome children's librarian (and sweet friend), we don't have alot of resources about soo many of the topics covered in SOTW.

We used the Activity guide this week for the Clovis coloring sheets and making a Fleur de lis symbol:) And then I love using the SOTW resources collected by this awesome homeschooling blogger. So my kids have at least heard of someone named Clovis and the start of France... something I DIDN't know until this week:)

Other:)
We also jumped into the world of Legos:) Chris received a few smaller sets for Christmas that he really liked. SO this weekend we pulled out Brian and Uncle Scott's old sets.... WHOA!! These kids have been building ever since... it's soo great to see what they create and soo much better for them than just sitting in front of the TV during "down times":)

(can you see Chris saying "awesome" in this blurry pic as Brian pulled out his Legos for the kids to play with????)


Our dining table (which we always eat on) has been covered in Legos for days:) And while they are tucked neatly away right now, I don't see them staying neatly away for very long:)

Well that's about it.... I have some pics of what Nate (the Great) was up to while we attempted to school... he is becoming quite the "distraction"!!! More motivation to school HARD while he's napping;)

Thanks to all the homeschooling ladies who weekly share what you are doing, you all inspire;)