Week Six

It was nice to have a break last week, but we got right back to the grind this week. To be honest, it was an "okay" week. I had to deal with some undesirable behavior from one of my children throughout the week. So tiresome. And I was pulled in a lot of different directions this week, so my attention to school was a bit lacking. Anyway, besides all that the rest of the week went pretty well. Here is a run down of our week...

Bible

Our memory verse this week is Matthew 4:19, "Come follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." We talked a lot about how God calls us to follow him and often asks us to leave our comfort zones. As I presented this to the kids, my tenderhearted Julia got all teary eyed thinking about leaving her family right now at the age of 6. She is such a sweet girl. I assured her that God may ask her to leave her comfort zone in many ways other than leaving her family and home.

Geography

We are still exploring the country of Mexico as well as Central America. This week we learned about farming and industry in Mexico, interesting facts about the Mexican flag, and the nature and climate of Mexico. We played the North America geography game again. The kids (and me) have all but a few of the countries' locations memorized. Wednesday we had a Mexican feast... tacos and homemade empanadas for dessert. I had planned to let the kids make their own pinatas and display their painted Mexican inspired pottery, but alas we didn't have time to make the pinatas and our pottery is still not all painted. The tacos and empanadas were yummy though!!

Ready to celebrate Mexico

 

 

TACOS

She loves to be in the kitchen

Mmmmm, peach empanadas

All Smiles

 

Painting her Mexican pottery

N. Am. Geography Game

Science

We have been continuing to learn about deserts and how the animals and plants cope with the dryness. We also learned about oases.

Music

This week we learned two new songs. One from Puerto Rico called El Coqui (the frog) and the other from Jamaica called Chi Chi Bud (chi chi bird) We had a lot of fun singing and dancing to these songs.



Poetry

This week our poem was Fly Away, Fly Away by Christina Rossetti. We discussed the feeling evoked by this poem and also about alliteration and lymric poetry.

Reading

Both kids learned about figurative language through their Skill Builders books. They got a kick out of some of the idioms we talked about! 


Isaac

Here are a few things Isaac is learning this week...
*multiplication by 5
*tricks for multiplying 5 by larger numbers
*word tenses
*correct usage of most and almost
*oral reading skills


Julia

Here are a few things Julia is learning this week...
*counting and writing numbers 1 to 100 (she found this quite boring - ha!)
*correct usage of a and an
*writing compositions
*answering questions in complete sentences

Caleb

This week Caleb learned the rhyme "Baa Baa Black Sheep". He made learned to count objects to three, learned to recognize the number three, and learned about triangles. We also worked on some fine motor skills by stringing beads and playing with play dough. I got out my Dr. Jean CDs and introduced him to some fun songs. This week we sang and learned "Going on a Bear Hunt" and "Baby Bumblebee". I wish I could have videoed him doing the motions for the bear hunt song. So very cute!!

I was very distracted this week getting things ready for my husband's 40th birthday this weekend. We are having some family fun on his actual birthday which is Friday, then we are having a party for him on Saturday. So with all that going on as well as keeping up with school, it has been a VERY busy and hectic week. On top of that, I am nearing 8 months of pregnancy and have started to get very uncomfortable, tired, and dealing with a ton of Braxton Hicks contractions. All that to say, I am worn out. We may not have accomplished everything I wanted to this week, but I am very happy that we got done what we did. Better than nothing, right?!

Project Week One: Charlotte's Web

Wilbur

This was our "break" week. We still did school, but not any of our regular stuff. Instead we did a book study of Charlotte's Web. We snuggled down together on the couch every morning and read through at least 5 chapters every day. Then the kids worked on different parts of their Charlotte's Web notebooks. They completed comprehension questions, learned about fantasy, learned vocabulary from the book, did character studies, researched and wrote a short report on E. B. White., and the list could go on and on. So you see, we can have a "break" week and still learn a lot.

On Wednesday we took a field trip to Fiesta Farm. We had a wonderful day there. The kids enjoyed seeing the animals and they even had pink little pigs. We named one of them Wilbur. I think all three kids liked the rabbits and guinea pigs the most. They fed them hay and carrots. Caleb was all giggles and squeals of delight. He adores animals so this field trip was suited perfectly for him. Julia too! She got up close and personal with the horses and bunnies, her favorites. Our admission came with pony rides. Isaac thought he was "too cool" to ride a pony so he gave his turn to Julia who happily accepted. This was Caleb's first time to ride a pony and he was all smiles. He soaked up every minute and wanted to do it over and over and over. Everyone had a great time until we went to the playground. There was a tire swing and sadly Isaac spun himself sick....literally. We had to leave early because he became super pale and was very nauseous. We made it about a minute down the road before I had to pull over for him. Poor guy! Lesson learned.... don't spin that much for that long, you will pay the price.

The kids enjoyed feeding the rabbits hay and carrots

His first pony ride. He LOVED it!

Just chillin'

Isaac sipping some water, trying to calm his upset stomach

The twisting tire of terror as Isaac called it

Mr. Cool

She made friends with this bunny and even had a name for it.

She is my horse lovin' little gal.

  

After co-op on Friday we came home, finished reading the last few chapters, and then popped some popcorn and watched the movie. Isaac made sure to comment every single time the movie differed from the book. Glad to know he was paying attention.

Wee bit excited to have a movie day

Cuddle bunny

 I had so many other things planned to do this week, but we didn't get to them all. Oh well! It was a nice to take a break from our regular schedule and have some fun.I think I am going to like these project weeks.

Week Five

This week started out with birthday celebrations for Caleb. His actual birthday is on the 4th, but we did all of our fun family birthday stuff with him on Monday because Gabe had the day off. I can't believe he is already 3 years old and about to become a big brother. For more on our birthday boy head back to our family blog.

Because we missed school on Monday and began our home school co-op on Friday, we had to squeeze a week's worth of school into 3 1/2 days. Easier said than done, but we did it! Here are the highlights...

Bible

Our memory verse from this week is Matthew 4:4. We talked a lot about hungering for God's Word in the same way that (or frankly, more so) we hunger for food. As we read through Matthew about Jesus' life as a baby and child, we have located Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Egypt, Nazareth, and the Jordan River on a map.

Geography

Isaac and Julia got their passports this week!! We traveled down south from the U.S.A. to Mexico and Central America. We learned a lot about the location, climate, and geography of Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies.

Science

We began studying deserts this week. As we read through Properties of Ecosystems we learned a lot of interesting facts about hot and cold deserts. The most interesting fact (in my opinion) was animals that estivate. Maybe I learned this way back when and forgot, but I thought it was fascinating. Estivation is just like hibernation but in opposite conditions. Animals that estivate in a desert go into a deep sleep through the summertime to survive the extremely hot temperatures. Isaac thought that the Saguaro cactus that can grow up to 50 ft tall, weigh tons, and live for 200 years was pretty cool.

We also did an experiment about how cold blooded animals cope with desert temperatures. We placed a cut out of a turtle with a thermometer taped to it in the sun for a few minutes and then recorded the temperature. We did the same by moving the turtle to the shade. We discussed how the sun helps warm the turtle.

We did a similar experiment by placing an ice cube in a shady place and one in the sun. As soon as the ice cube in the sun melted we checked the one in the shade and discussed how shade helps keep animals cool.

Music/Art

This week we got to learn two new songs, one from Mexico called Pin Pon and another from the Caribbean Islands called Tingalayo. The kids really enjoyed trying to figure out the Spanish words in Pin Pon since they are learning Spanish through Rosetta Stone. They also enjoyed Tingalayo for its silliness. Isaac also loved listening to the steel drum.

One day this week we talked about Mexican clay pottery as a prominent art form. We used air dry clay and the kids got to create anything they wanted. It is so interesting watching how differently the kids respond to activities like this. It almost drove Isaac crazy that he could have a perfectly formed anything instantly. He doesn't have much patience for tedious art projects. Julia on the other hand does and really got into creating a small pot with a sun decoration on the front. (we learned that in Mexico the sun is used a lot in their art) Isaac tried to make a bowl, scrapped that and ended up with a donut that someone had taken a bite out of. He is such a boy!! Caleb said his was a turtle, though I wouldn't have known that had he not told me!

 

We also studied the artist Claude Monet by looking at his painting Water Lilies. We talked about impressionism and re-created our own versions of this painting.

Studying the Monet paintings

Caleb's Water Lilies or better named just Water

He enjoys art but gets easily annoyed by it when it doesn't look "perfect"

Isaac's Water Lilies painting

She LOVES art

Julia's Water Lilies painting

Read Aloud

This week we started reading a book about Cameron Townsend, the founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators. It is a biography. You would think after weeks of fascinating stories from Kingdom Tales a biography would be kind of a bore, but it is actually very interesting.

We got outside one morning this week before it was scorching hot and read together on the back porch swing. So looking forward to fall temps to arrive so we can do more of this.

Isaac

Guess what? Math is another review week. Isaac is learning about multiplication by 10. Easy stuff. In reading he learned about vocabulary in context. For writing he is learning about making and writing descriptive observations. We took this week to review all the spelling words from the last 4 weeks that he needed to study further. Overall, it was a very successful week for Isaac.

Julia

Math was super easy for Julia again this week. Maybe I should have skipped over some of these first lessons, but I wanted to make sure she has the basics down before we move on. She worked on some simple addition this week again. She also learned about vocabulary in context in reading. In writing she is learning about ordering events. And in Language Arts, the main thing we have been working on this week is reading a passage orally for a presentation.

Caleb

My birthday boy got the week off from preschool. Because we had less time this week to get our regular school done with the big kids, I sadly didn't have time to work with Caleb. He didn't seem to mind and played the days away. He of course joined us for art and reading times throughout the week. He is super happy to officially be 3 years old. He is growing up so fast. I just want time to slow down sometimes.

We successfully made it through our first 5 weeks of school. Next week we will put aside our regular school work and spend a week having some fun as we read and do a book study on Charlotte's Web. We have a fun field trip planned for next week as well. Other than having a bit of fun, this week "off" will give me the opportunity to re-evaluate what we have done so far and adjust things as needed.It will also give me an opportunity to write the lesson plans for everyone for the next five weeks. It works better for me to do this all at once rather than week by week.

So I am off to get things ready for Charlotte's Web week. Check back at the end of next week to see pictures and a post about all the fun we had.