Did another week go by already??? Phew... :)
Bible
Continuing to work through our Bible StoryBook.
And we worked hard on our Awana verses this week. Lydia finished her Cubbie book at Awana this week. The reason this is amazing to me is that we had only started going back to Awana in January. So she completed her whole book in 4 months!! Yay to Lydia:)
Language Arts
Anna finished her Spelling this week.... We are using Spelling Power and I wasn't sure how to end. She had started a new level a month or so ago and I knew we probably weren't going to finish another level before we would end. I guessed when we finished math we'd stop spelling, too!!
But then on Tuesday morning as she was preparing to take her spelling quiz (we do one every morning) she realized she didn't have any more Spelling Power sheets in her book. I guess we could have made our own... but it was then I decided we'd finish formal spelling for the school year.
Instead, Anna will be keeping a notebook and entering in new words she encounters in her reading. She will then look them up in a dictionary and then choose one (or more) to use in a sentence. I have seen this done in other families as their "spelling"... I like Spelling Power and Anna worked through 2 (and had started on her 3rd) levels. We will start it again in the Spring, until then we're going "informal" :)
Anna also finished her formal Grammar for the year. There are some Skills lessons in the back we can still work on! She does really well with Grammar.... there was one morning I had a LOT on my plate and Anna jumped in and worked with Lydia and Chris on their Grammar lesson :) Once I established that Anna was "in charge" (sigh!) it was sweet to hear them working together. Anna remembered the poem they were working on and gladly did the little activity with them that went with the lesson:)
We did some more reading, Grammar, Chris and Lydia tackled some spelling, too:) My favorite was there spelling sentences... those two crack me up! I am thankful they enjoy making up creative sentences/stories with their spelling words.
Our read aloud was finishing Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo. By the end, we all wanted to know how it ended. I'm ready to watch the movie, too:) There were a couple of words that I skipped or substituted like "silly" instead of "stupid", etc!! And then we started on Misty of Chincoteague. I remember reading it sometime in my elementary years.... I'd love to visit the islands of the setting of the book sometime!
Math
Anna worked on multiplying 3 or 4 digit numbers by a single digit. After a couple of examples she caught on:)
One of Chris' lessons this week was to follow a recipe!! He was very excited to be in the kitchen with me baking up a treat for everyone to share. They are called Apple Jack Cookies. They had apples/apple sauce and were really cakie cookies! Chris had to read the ingredients, measure everything and follow the directions. He did everything but scoop the batter onto the cookie sheet and use the oven!
Oh, my favorite part was when Chris decided NOT to use the nutmeg in his cookies like the recipe called for. He didn't like the smell. We opted for some cinnamon instead!
History
This week we started talking about Russia and Peter the Great. We read and did our maps. We focused on how Peter the Great wanted a sea port so he could trade with Western Europe and he finally got to win and establish St Petersburg. It is truly amazing to see how big Russia is on our maps and we colored the water blue so we could really understand Peter's initial problem.
Anna also completed a country fact sheet for Russia.
I had intended to do two Russia lessons, Peter the Great and then Catherine the Great, in one week. When will I learn that the Spring is too busy for overachieving;) So we will work on Catherine the Great this week:) We have paper dolls and I'm hoping to add some creativity to our narrations this week... totally inspired by our field trip.
Science
We did no formal science :( But the kids played with the science experiment from the activity after the Science Fair;) And Grandma used balloons in the bathtub showing the kids that a balloon filled with air wouldn't stay under the water;)
Other Activities
Our field trip was to a local small town newspaper office!! It was interesting to see all that goes into making ANY newspaper, including the smaller ones! The kids had a chance to work with a staff writer and make their own "newspaper"!
I have to be honest that my kids acted really "bored" during the discussion and then putting together of our news "story" for the paper :( But when they got that "newspaper" in their hands with our group's picture on it... they were excited! They read it, re-read it and the showed it to Grandma and Grandaddy as they arrived for their quick weekend visit.
And of course it's always nice to meet up with some homeschooling friends and have lunch together:) We definitely made a memory as we tried to "picnic" at an outdoor McD's playground only to have a huge, dark storm come quickly over us....we ate the rest of our meal inside, creatively played with McD's toys and then watched the rain die down before we made a run for the minivans:)
We also had a great visit with Grandma and Grandaddy:) They came Thursday afternoon and stayed through until Sunday after lunch.... we tried to get them to stay longer. But I think Grandma was having a hard time sleeping in Anna's twin bed with Anna.... LOL!! just kidding... they are promising to be "on call" when we need their help in packing and moving:)
So we hope to see them again REALLY soon.... wishful thinking;)
Tot in the Schoolroom
Nate playing with his snack:) Stringing Fruit Loops on pipe cleaners;)
Bible
Continuing to work through our Bible StoryBook.
And we worked hard on our Awana verses this week. Lydia finished her Cubbie book at Awana this week. The reason this is amazing to me is that we had only started going back to Awana in January. So she completed her whole book in 4 months!! Yay to Lydia:)
Language Arts
Anna finished her Spelling this week.... We are using Spelling Power and I wasn't sure how to end. She had started a new level a month or so ago and I knew we probably weren't going to finish another level before we would end. I guessed when we finished math we'd stop spelling, too!!
But then on Tuesday morning as she was preparing to take her spelling quiz (we do one every morning) she realized she didn't have any more Spelling Power sheets in her book. I guess we could have made our own... but it was then I decided we'd finish formal spelling for the school year.
Instead, Anna will be keeping a notebook and entering in new words she encounters in her reading. She will then look them up in a dictionary and then choose one (or more) to use in a sentence. I have seen this done in other families as their "spelling"... I like Spelling Power and Anna worked through 2 (and had started on her 3rd) levels. We will start it again in the Spring, until then we're going "informal" :)
Anna also finished her formal Grammar for the year. There are some Skills lessons in the back we can still work on! She does really well with Grammar.... there was one morning I had a LOT on my plate and Anna jumped in and worked with Lydia and Chris on their Grammar lesson :) Once I established that Anna was "in charge" (sigh!) it was sweet to hear them working together. Anna remembered the poem they were working on and gladly did the little activity with them that went with the lesson:)
We did some more reading, Grammar, Chris and Lydia tackled some spelling, too:) My favorite was there spelling sentences... those two crack me up! I am thankful they enjoy making up creative sentences/stories with their spelling words.
Our read aloud was finishing Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo. By the end, we all wanted to know how it ended. I'm ready to watch the movie, too:) There were a couple of words that I skipped or substituted like "silly" instead of "stupid", etc!! And then we started on Misty of Chincoteague. I remember reading it sometime in my elementary years.... I'd love to visit the islands of the setting of the book sometime!
Math
Anna worked on multiplying 3 or 4 digit numbers by a single digit. After a couple of examples she caught on:)
One of Chris' lessons this week was to follow a recipe!! He was very excited to be in the kitchen with me baking up a treat for everyone to share. They are called Apple Jack Cookies. They had apples/apple sauce and were really cakie cookies! Chris had to read the ingredients, measure everything and follow the directions. He did everything but scoop the batter onto the cookie sheet and use the oven!
Oh, my favorite part was when Chris decided NOT to use the nutmeg in his cookies like the recipe called for. He didn't like the smell. We opted for some cinnamon instead!
History
This week we started talking about Russia and Peter the Great. We read and did our maps. We focused on how Peter the Great wanted a sea port so he could trade with Western Europe and he finally got to win and establish St Petersburg. It is truly amazing to see how big Russia is on our maps and we colored the water blue so we could really understand Peter's initial problem.
Anna also completed a country fact sheet for Russia.
I had intended to do two Russia lessons, Peter the Great and then Catherine the Great, in one week. When will I learn that the Spring is too busy for overachieving;) So we will work on Catherine the Great this week:) We have paper dolls and I'm hoping to add some creativity to our narrations this week... totally inspired by our field trip.
Science
We did no formal science :( But the kids played with the science experiment from the activity after the Science Fair;) And Grandma used balloons in the bathtub showing the kids that a balloon filled with air wouldn't stay under the water;)
Other Activities
Our field trip was to a local small town newspaper office!! It was interesting to see all that goes into making ANY newspaper, including the smaller ones! The kids had a chance to work with a staff writer and make their own "newspaper"!
I have to be honest that my kids acted really "bored" during the discussion and then putting together of our news "story" for the paper :( But when they got that "newspaper" in their hands with our group's picture on it... they were excited! They read it, re-read it and the showed it to Grandma and Grandaddy as they arrived for their quick weekend visit.
And of course it's always nice to meet up with some homeschooling friends and have lunch together:) We definitely made a memory as we tried to "picnic" at an outdoor McD's playground only to have a huge, dark storm come quickly over us....we ate the rest of our meal inside, creatively played with McD's toys and then watched the rain die down before we made a run for the minivans:)
We also had a great visit with Grandma and Grandaddy:) They came Thursday afternoon and stayed through until Sunday after lunch.... we tried to get them to stay longer. But I think Grandma was having a hard time sleeping in Anna's twin bed with Anna.... LOL!! just kidding... they are promising to be "on call" when we need their help in packing and moving:)
So we hope to see them again REALLY soon.... wishful thinking;)
Tot in the Schoolroom
Nate playing with his snack:) Stringing Fruit Loops on pipe cleaners;)
1 comment:
LOL about the nutmeg, I'd probably go with cinnamon too.
That's awesome that Anna has finished her spelling and grammar.
What a cool field trip too!
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