Monday, May 21, 2012

Weekly Wrap Up: 2 Weeks again & Getting Back to Chemistry

Again, I'm having to combine two weeks into one post :) Just the way it works sometimes;)

Bible
 Besides reading through a Bible story or two during our read aloud time, we've also started praying for others during that time, too! We had gotten out of the habit of praying during our read aloud time :(

We have been reviewing our previous memory passages in preparation to start memorizing a new passage this summer. It's always cool to see how much the kids remember from these long passages. It shows me how important it is to lead them in hiding God's Word in their hearts both at Awana and home (and during the summer!)

Speaking about Awana, last week we finished for the summer;) They had a little program for the end of the year. This was my first time attending the program. It was sweet!!

We have been soo blessed by the Awana program and the loving and great teachers my children have each week!

Language Arts
Everyone is now officially finished Grammar:) Anna is working through some Dictionary Skills in the back of her book and we're doing some of the Oral Exercises together with Chris and Lydia;)

Chris and Lydia are still working through lesson after lesson in their reading book. They are also wanting help to read through some of the library books they have checked out! It's fun to sit on the couch with both of them taking turns reading and sounding out words. 

IMG_8800

Preparing for the last Awana night, the kids and I worked on a little gift for their teachers. The best part was the notes they were determined to write for each of their teachers (including the Commander and Game Directors).
IMG_8805

 I wrote Nate's letters but he added the color;)
IMG_8798


Math

We are getting to the end of our Math year! The kids are learning all the extras before the end comes;)

IMG_8794
Anna has been doing the rest of the division facts, long division and the order of operations. This has been the most challenging single math topic for her, I think because there are soo many steps. It can be overwhelming... so we've been taking it a little more slowly. I'm thankful we're tackling these at the end so we can continue to practice them over the summer!! She has two lessons left... so we should be completely finished Saxon 3 by Tuesday or Wednesday!

Chris finished in the middle of Saxon 2! I thought of continuing math through the summer but with the move still "looming over us" it will be nice to have the books packed up and all the kids working on the same thing.... math facts:)

Lydia's math has almost finished up. She has ONE lesson left.... hooray;) The last two weeks she has been learning the remaining of her math facts (subtraction and addition), writing about the seasons, place value and counting quarters.


History
The first week we worked on the discovery of Australia by the British explorer Captain James Cook. Reading about his life and travels was fascinating... I am learning soo much;) LOL!! Coloring pages, map, reading the section in the encyclopedia and books about Australia kept us pretty busy!

I guess this should be Science, but as we learned about Australia we also spent a good amount of time talking about the unique animals of Australia! We had studied some of these animals before (2 years ago) but we needed some refreshing! We all know about marsupials now;)


The second week we learned about the French Revolution! Besides our Story of the World book and our encyclopedia, there really weren't many resources for the kids about the French Revolution :( Again, thankful for the history activity book for the review game, map and coloring pages;)


We did read some books set in France and about France. The read aloud we worked through was called  The Family Under the Bridge. It's a story of a hobo and a homeless family in Paris. We aren't quite through it... even though it's a short book!  I'm really interested in how it ends, so maybe we can finish it today! 


Science
So as I have looked through our year, I am slapped in the face with how poorly I have done with Chemistry this year. I can blame it on the busy house, the "unsettleness" that I let affect me WAY too much or that I don't have the right materials.... but the truth is... I stink at Chemistry! And that I need to get over the fact that I stink at it an start learning so I can teach my kids. And realize that they don't have to master high school chemistry right now in the elementary years:)

So it's back to basics for us... urgh!!

This week we spent a couple of afternoons on Chemistry. And this is what we did:)

 Worked reading through the first 2 sections of our Usborne Science Encyclopedia on Materials. The majority of both pages were "review".... but not really :(  So we talked again about the structure of the atom, the sub-atomic particles and the atomic numbers and mass numbers and their meanings.

IMG_8833

The best thing about the Usborne encyclopedias is their collection of online websites and activities that match the topics;) We worked the most on these websites!
Extras:)
The week before last we ventured out to the Home School Roller Skating time! We LOVE going.... and that day was especially nice because we had told friends and we all made it a goal to be there and it was such a WET day... nice for the kids to have place to run off some energy with friends;)

On Friday night we attended our home schooler's Field Day and End of Year Party! We had a blast and I hope to blog about it later this week:)

IMG_8871

I feel like we've already have transitioned to a summer schedule... LOL!! Our days are getting more and more laid back:) I'm hoping to share our goals and resources for Summer School this year!

And we had some great news about the house! Brian was able to get our 30-year mortgage set-up! This means that the house will be completed in 30 days or less;) It's very exciting to now only have a month... but it's going to be a busy month... we have birthdays, a BIG anniversary, Father's Day, a trip for Brian and packing and moving!! Yikes.... just thankful are core schooling will be over this week:)

Linking up to Weekly Wrap-Up!

2 comments:

Jenny said...

WooHoo about the house being ready in 30 days or less! That is so great. I am so excited for you all.

The field day looks so fun. I remember doing that as a kid. I actually hated field day, because I was no good at sports, but LOVED not having school. LOL!

You all have done some great stuff in school.

grandma said...

It thrilled me to see the expressions on the faces of the children as they did the different games!