Weekly Wrap Up : Extra Practice, Solar Models & Little Hats

Another fun, but busy week:)
Here's a glimpse into our week:)

Bible
Again, we worked on our Awana verses and activities!!

And then we reviewed Psalm 19:) We will have to start another series of verses.... I'm really thinking about us memorizing the 10 Commandment verses together... Still thinking/praying through it, but I think it would lead to good discussions and be verses they'll be thankful to know by heart now and later in life.

I have been trying to make it a habit to pray together in the mornings during our "Bible time". Sometimes we're distracted or just "off", but this week while we did miss some prayer times, the kids have been talking about how the people we've been praying for are getting better. I am soo thankful that my kids are seeing the difference that prayer makes and that they WANT to pray for family and friends. It's definitely motivation for this momma to get her priorities RIGHT.

Reading
Chris started off slow in reading this week... he was very thankful that our mornings got hectic and he could "sneak" out of reading. But he worked hard the last 3 days and even finally got into long vowels made by the "silent e" :)

Lydia is very much in "review" mode with Reading... she's not ready to progress but I was thankful this week that she was little less resistant to using the reading book and actually asked to read the practice sentences.... must have wanted more Skittles!!

Chris and Lydia also worked on a series of worksheets about consonants and vowels. This was review to Chris and right where Lydia needed, so it was nice that they worked together and it made it easier for me to really check their understanding;) Love that they sang the LeapFrog vowel song while gluing:)

Anna also worked on a series of worksheets about suffix rules;) After a couple of spelling units on suffixes I realized that we needed a little more practice and was glad to find some worksheets that were perfect for re-enforcing learning how suffixes work:)



Anna and I enjoyed some "reading together" time in the afternoons while the 3 youngest napped... but I got soo sleepy and ended up taking a 10 minute "power naps" a couple of the afternoons;)

She also started reading a Magic Tree House book to Lydia and Chris, but during the afternoon while I was busy she finished the whole book. She kind of giggled when she told me she was only going to read 2 chapters but wanted to know the ending!!! They've always been pretty good about listening to books being read to them, but I am always soo excited when they WANT to read on their own:)

Math
This week we started to work on the 5 Family. This one is review for Anna, but good for Lydia and Chris to start working on;) We traced Lydia's hands and Anna wrote in the 5 numbers as we counted each hand.


We also counted how many hands and toes there were in our house;) Can you believe we have 60 fingers, 60 toes and 120 fingers/toes!!! No wonder the house stays cluttered:)

We continue to chug through Saxon;) Anna completed 5 lessons this week and Chris did 4;) Chris really has enjoyed Saxon math... it's funny how much I worried about him liking it and now how much he really does like it.

Anna and I have been trying to complete her math lessons in the morning versus waiting until the afternoon when we're both ready for a "break". It's actually working out well. I know one of the reasons we are finding the time is because the lessons have been pretty easy to her.

Is Saxon an easier program??? Just wondering, compared to others I've seen it doesn't seem as rigorous. Anyone know how it compares to other math curriculum?

Science
We have continued to work through the planets... this week we did Mars and Jupiter (we'll return to the asteroid belt in a few weeks!!). Last week I was wanting to add some extra activities into out Science lessons... so I added "special fact" and "what's in a name" lapbook elements. The kids have liked finding fun facts to add to the little booklets.

This was our favorite Science book this week!!! I love the futuristic aspects of the book. And that it includes some of the terrain of Mars as well as the weather from the perspective of a kid.

One thing that is the hardest thing about the solar system for me is the SIZE! I just can't grasp how big it is... like millions of miles between the sun and plants?? So...

We are also starting to put together our solar system in the school room! I got calculations and model sizes from a solar system library book. This week we made the planets and we started to hang them up.






While the activity is providing us a good "visual" of space, it also gave me an opportunity to explain what a "model" is to the kids. And I think they got it...

Chris kept himself busy with interlocking cubes while Anna and I painted planets and really wanted me to share his model of a Brontosaurus:)



History
This week we continued working through Knights and then Samurai of Japan. I liked that this week was more cultural and no new names... LOL!! The kids and I enjoyed different knight and samurai legends. And Brian and the kids have really enoyed reading King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table;)

On Monday we put together a knight and made our code of arms;) Cute projects and the kids loved pulling out the paints again:)

(I had to include Chris' knight in the pre-glue stage... it looked like he was dancing!!)

Then on Thursday when we studied about the samurai, besides coloring a picture of a samurai we made origami helmets...

I think I needed to use paper that was a little bigger???
Gotta love Chris and his crazy faces... he's trying to do a brave Samurai face;)


Other
On Monday with the beautiful weather we were able to meet up with Andrea and her crew in the late afternoon for a little while, then dinner and grocery shopping! Phew:)

We all were excited to get to start a new month:) Adding birthdays we know about and some fun holidays and possible trips;) Lydia got to make the calendar this month;)

On Friday we got word of a kids science museum that offers free admission in the afternoon on Fridays:) We had some other errands to run in the same town, so we set out for a long evening;)

Lydia racing the animals, Anna waiting her turn to race!

Lydia lifting 100 pounds.... with the use of a long lever:)
the power of simple machines;)

Nate enjoying the toddler room, going down a tiny slide:)

The kids had fun at the museum:) And it was a fun way to end our busy week:)

Linking up to Weekly Wrap-Up :)