Homeschool Discoveries

So, raise your hand if you are still tired in the mornings even though it is has been almost a week since the Daylight Savings time change???  I know we certainly are.   Surprisingly enough, Monday wasn’t too bad — we prepared for our day the night before and even got an early start on school.  It was all the other days that we had a hard time getting going.  Hopefully next week will be easier in that department!

First a few schoolwork highlights from this week:

1. History:  Miss M (age 8, 3rd grade) has been reading like crazy about slavery and the underground railroad the last two weeks.  One book didn’t even make it in the picture, so she has read 13 books from the book basket already for this unit.  Given her speedy reading pace, we’ll probably only spend about another week or so on this topic.  I’ve read a couple of these picture books aloud to the boys and hope to read a few more to them next week.

2. Bible:  I don’t mention it very often in my weekly wrap-ups, but the kids read or listen to the Bible each day.  Miss M reads from her own Bible while the boys listen to the Bible using the YouVersion app for iPad.  Mr. K (age 4) doesn’t always listen, but Mr. E (almost 6, Kindergarten) looks forward to Bible time every day.  Sometimes he just listens, sometimes he listens while eating breakfast or snack, and sometimes (like today) he draws a picture while listening.  The picture wasn’t related to the Bible reading though — it was a picture of an imaginary Star Wars battle scene.  🙂

3. Math Games:  I played Bead Card Memory (a RightStart A game) with Mr K on Monday night while the big kids were at a volunteer opportunity with Tony at our neighborhood boys and girls club.   I played Addition Old Main with Mr. E this week and Multiplication Old Main (both RightStart games as well) with Miss M.

4. Math Lessons:  Mr. E started RightStart C and completed lessons 1-5, which are all review.  He is enjoying making an addition table.  Miss M started the Fractions chapter in Math Mammoth 3-B.  It was mostly review with a few new concepts and a few “old” concept presented differently. Miss M really took issue with Math Mammoth using the term “pie models” (RightStart doesn’t use these at all) to describe fraction models that weren’t circular.  “Mom, pies are NOT shaped liked hexagons, octagons or pentagons!”.  LOL!

5. Spelling/Phonics/Reading:  Mr.  E finished 4 lessons of Logic of English Foundations.   He isn’t always too excited about the reading that comes with the curriculum (he would rather read a real book), but I have him read some of the Foundations workbook exercises anyway.  This week we discovered that reading with a hi-liter in hand made reading it SO much more exciting!  He chose to highlight all the long vowels and two letter phonograms after he read each sentence.  Miss M worked on lesson 29 of Logic of English Essentials for spelling.  This was probably her hardest list ever in this program, and she got more wrong than right on the test.  Good thing next week is a review week so we have time for more practice on the ti/ci/si phonogram words!   Mr. K just practiced his phonograms with the LoE app this week.

Science (not pictured):  I’m starting to see a pattern in our science studies…the weeks I teach the 1st/2nd grade science at co-op, I have a hard time pulling together a different lesson at home.  So, my kids got a review of BFSU 1 lessons D-1 and D-7 on gravity, as well as watching a bunch of youtube videos on the topic and a magic schoolbus episode about gravity. We watched a couple other Magic Schoolbus episodes as well.  Next week, we’ll be back to a lesson in BFSU Vol. 2.

On Thursday, we celebrated Pi Day at home (and I celebrated at c0-op with my science class):

Most of our celebrating this year was of the eating variety, but we did re-read Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi.  🙂 I brought the “pi pie” (blueberry in flavor) to co-op for my students along with a store-bought turtle pie.  My family wasn’t too disappointed that I brought home most of the blueberry pie.  Miss M made the Pumpkin pie in the lower right corner with just a bit of help from me with the pesky can opener and moving the over-full pie to the oven.   “CT” Mr. J (“Cute Trouble”, 16 months old),  helped himself to the lid of the pie filling can (don’t worry – it wasn’t sharp!) and an empty-but-for-a-few-crumbs bag of sugar for a tasty treat while I was a bit too focused on helping Miss M with her pie.

The kids had a lot of opportunities to be creative this week:

1.  Miss M created a Pirate disguise, inspired by an Usborne arts and crafts book

2. We attended the monthly Family Day at the Minneapolis Institute of Art last Sunday.  This month’s theme was “cityscapes,” so we made skyscraper hats!

3. Besides playing math games while his big siblings were gone on Monday night, he got to bake cookies!  Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies from a cookie mix are just the right speed for a 4-year-old, and he could do almost all the work himself!

4.  and 5.  With just a tiny hint of spring this week (aka, temperatures above freezing in the mid to high 30s a couple of days), the kids begged to make mud pies.  I let them, despite the mess it caused requiring immediate baths and laundry afterwards!

6.  With the leftovers from her pumpkin pie, Miss M created this cute mini-pie and a couple of “cinnamon pie crust rolls”.   Those treats were her personal Pi Day dessert!

Have a wonderful weekend!

I’m linking up with Collage Friday, The Weekly Wrap-Up, and Homeschool Review!