Week 10

We had a very full week, just not full of school!

Daddy had Monday off and we went to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate Emmett's birthday. Before that, though, we took Hyrum to the doctor because he had been MISERABLE. It turns out he had pharyngotonsillitis. He was happier with a bit of tylenol. He was prescribed an antibiotic for a budding ear infection which seemed to take care of other things because he was like a new baby on Tuesday!

Daddy flew on Tuesday which meant I was with the kids all on my lonesome until about five minutes before bed. That was also a long day.

Wednesday we had a mega-clean. The house has been a mess with a two-year-old to mess it up and a baby to prevent me from cleaning it too much. Daddy's been pitching in, but it needed an over haul.

Before:

After (the carpet even got steam cleaned!):

Also, on Wednesday night we went grocery shopping as a family. We were ending our shopping trip when Ellie stood up in the cart and then fell out and landed on her head on the concrete. She had a severe breath-holding spell and we felt it prudent to take her to the ER to make sure she was okay. Her x-ray and CT came out normal, but it made for a long night.

This left us recovering from that on Thursday...

(You can kind of see the huge knot on her forehead here.)

Friday, Daddy was off and we ran a lot of errands.

Because it was such a long week with many unplanned interruptions, we skipped spelling completely this week and our unit study is stretching into Week 11. We also skipped ABCs and did a lot of crafts in preparation for Halloween this week. That's the beauty of homeschooling!

Crafts:

We were gifted this haunted house activity last year. It's just stickers of windows and doors and boards to stick on the house. Perfect for a two-year-old.

This was a repeat from last year. We use tacky glue on the shiny side of freezer paper and when the glue dries, we peel it off for an awesome spider web. This year, we made thumbprint spiders to put on our webs.

We made spiders out of egg cartons and pipe cleaners.

We made a spiderweb fort that the kids climbed in and out of. Our egg carton spiders hung out on here too.

Abby wove a spiderweb with some yarn.

We also made spiders out of our palms, but for whatever reason, I don't have a picture of that one in action. I do have a picture of our displayed crafts where you can seem them, though. You can also see the glue webs dry. They really come out neat.

Our last craft was the monster we traditionally make out of all the kids' outlines. They think it's awesome with all of that paper on the floor and the markers spread out.

Reading:

I'm still reading Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle as our read-aloud. In the car, we listened to Pippi Longstocking. Abby loved this one almost better than Pooh. We finished the entire audio book within a week. Abby read an assortment of picture books to me for her reading.

Math:

Abby finished off the first unit in Singapore that deals with addition and subtraction. This week the focus was on position and ordering, which was almost like having a break in math.

She continued to review pairs that make ten. She liked playing pyramid solitaire this week.

She also did some measuring pages in her Miquon Orange book.

I've started a bit more formal time for Emmett to work with the rods so he is more familiar with them. He is ready for beginning Miquon/Gattegno stuff, I think. Abby was much older, but having done it with her, I think I could have started her earlier if I had had the resources.

Unit Study:

We've been reading How to Make a Cherry Pie and See the USA and have been talking about symbols of the United States. We discussed the White House, the Liberty Bell, the Pledge of Allegiance and Old Glory. We didn't get through everything I had planned with everything that happened, so we'll continue on with it.

We did watch National Treasure on Thursday...I figured it tied in. And it's a good movie. :)

Swim:

Emmett moved up to a Level 4/5 class. His teacher commented about how he teaches to the group and then to Emmett. He gives the group 2-3 things to work through, and Emmett 9-10 things to work through. Emmett is just that skilled. And he's the youngest by at least two-and-a-half years. LOL

Ellie's kick is coming along. Once she becomes more efficient with it, she will be swimming. She can float with the best of them.

Abby is still working through her breast and butterfly strokes before she moves up to the class Emmett is in.

The kids don't mind waiting through one of their sibling's lesson because it is the only time they get free time with the iPod/iPad and don't have to "pay out" to do it.

Life:

The older two had an impromptu lesson with what bitter is when we were doing our mega-clean on Wednesday. Daddy had left some baking cocoa out and I let them try it out.

They also have been working on doing handstands while playing.

Week 9

We had a four-day week again this week, but for good reason. I have been concerned about Emmett's speech and intelligibility for a bit. I had him evaluated nearly five months ago at an impromptu speech check type of deal. There was a speech pathologist there who said he wasn't very delayed, but she would say he was probably delayed enough for therapy. I took him to his pediatrician who recommended a fantastic place for a speech evaluation. While we were there, we also saw a pediatric audiologist who checked his hearing. Daddy took off so he could watch the other three and I took Emmett to the appointment.

His appointment was all morning long and very enlightening. He passed his hearing test just fine. In fact, he can hear things I cannot. The part that took forever was the speech part where they administered the language portion of an IQ test. The tester began it at the four-year-old level and he just kept cruising through the questions, missing a very few. Many of the ones he missed were developmentally appropriate.

Anyway... this test was very interesting. As a child, I was tested for giftedness and my score was very high. I like to think my kids are smart and have noticed they are a bit different. This test confirmed my suspicions when Emmett hit the ceiling on it. It's not formal because of the manner in which it was done, but the psychologist who talked with me labeled him as "highly gifted at the very least." Reviewing the questions and thinking about Abby in comparison to this test, I feel very comfortable making the assumption that Abby is gifted as well.

It certainly does explain a few things!

And, now, on to our week in review...

ABCs:

Jelly bean Js this week! I thought for sure the kids would eat all of the jelly beans, but they didn't. Ellie was the only one to eat them. She ate her entire bowl, except the black ones. LOL

PreK:

We didn't push much this week. Emmett isn't interested in anything but being read to and playing outside. His articulation test did show that he has some issues articulating certain sounds (namely /s/, /sh/, and /ch/). The speech language pathologist wants us to work on them and gave us some ideas to do so and told us to come back in six months if he hasn't improved. We will be working these sounds into life. (She also said the reason people have a hard time understanding him is because nobody expects a four-year-old to use such a wide array of words.)

Math:

We moved on to subtraction in Singapore 1A. Abby really firmly understands all four number sentences that can be written from a number bond.

On Friday, we did a bit of "magic math" with our math balance. This was a great way to illustrate that the equals sign really means "is the same as."

She also is finished with most of the addition and subtraction pages in Miquon and is moving into shapes and measurement type pages. These will be easy and lots of fun for her.

Spelling:

Tuesdays and Thursdays are our spelling days, but Emmett's evaluation was on Tuesday so we skipped one day this week. We reviewed the lesson on compound words. The ones on this list were really easy for Abby. The next time we review, though, we will be reviewing syllables. I had to explain it to Abby that a word is composed of parts, like a number (then I wrote a 6). That word can be broken down into syllables (3 and 3), or just straight sounds (then I wrote 6 ones). Abby really seemed to understand this parallel.

Read-Aloud:

Well, we finished Winnie-the-Pooh in the car. Now I have to find another audio book... We'll have to find one at the library.

We also began reading Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, which I am very happy about. I loved this book as a child!

Five in a Row:

This week we rowed How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World.

Social Studies:

• We studied and researched the places named in the book: Italy, France, Sri Lanka, Europe, Jamaica, and Vermont.

• We discussed some geography features extensively, especially the oceans. Did you know that geographers now consider the earth to have five oceans? When I was growing up, it was only four. We used a song to the tune of My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean. Lyrics are:

Our earth has five vast and blue oceans. Our earth has five vast and blue seas. Our earth has five vast and blue oceans. More water than land, can't you see?

Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic and Southern too.

Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic and Southern too.

Our earth has five vast and blue oceans. I named them all, now can't you?

Language Arts:

• Our lesson was on the word "pantomime" and its origins. We pantomimed a few actions from the book.

Art:

• We compared two pictures in the book of the street the market is on. We realized these two pictures were a continuation of each other!

Science:

• I think this was the kids' favorite subject this week!
• We made butter from heavy whipping cream. We started out shaking it, but then it was dinner time, so we tossed it in the mixer which took quick care of it. We also added a bit of honey to use on bread for dinner. Two days later, Daddy had the realization that this is how we also get buttermilk for pancakes. LOL

• We grated up some cinnamon sticks and talked about the differences between a physical change and a chemical change.

• We set out some saltwater and I asked Abby how we might get the salt out of it. She thought about pouring it out, then mixing it...and finally had a light bulb moment and said, "Evaporation!" It took four days for the water to evaporate out. I did "help" it along a bit because it has been colder and not very sunny this week. Abby illustrated the process and I took a picture of it. I love her drawings!

Of course we did a few extra apple-y things this week!

• We had apples as snacks all week. Everyone likes apples here. We even let Hyrum have his first taste of something other than breastmilk!

• We even dipped some of our apples in jello powder. This was really yummy! (Strawberry was my favorite. :)) It did take Ellie a bit to get used to it (and that's not jello in her hair, but paint).

• We had an "apple party" and invited a friend over to share with us. That's when we did our apple prints!

• And, of course, we made an apple pie!

• Abby loved the apple pie, but I don't care for it. I made cherry pie, which is a great segue into our next unit using How to Make a Cherry Pie and See the U. S. A.

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Life:

• Besides the testing Emmett did, he also went on a campout with Daddy (who went to help out our local scout troupe). I would post pictures here, but Daddy is a bum and hasn't loaded any. Rest assured, though, he had a blast!
• Emmett turned four today and in preparation for his birthday Abby authored a book for him. She dictated the story, I put it on the computer, pro-clicked it and then she illustrated it.
• Hyrum learned to stay in his exersaucer for a while. This one is old and the elastic for the seat is starting to give way. Hyrum sits in it so well that Daddy and I are on the hunt for another one...

• And, of course, Emmett turned four today! I can't believe he is so old (and yet so young!).

Week 8

Daddy was off work for most of Monday and Wednesday, so we took a light this week this week and focused only on math and spelling so we could enjoy our time with Daddy!

ABCs:

We only have three letters left. This week we did letter I and we painted it with ice. We poured jello powder on our Is and then used ice to wet it down and color the Is.

All the kids love to do our letter crafts. This time, though, Abby didn't care as much about painting the I. "This powder is delicious!" she exclaimed. From then on, she mostly ate the powder. LOL

I made them strip to their underwear so they didn't stain their clothes. Ellie, however feels that underwear is optional any time we're at home so she was naked.

PreK:

Emmett has been fairly resistant to any idea of learning. Lately all he wants to do is watch TV. And if he doesn't have enough stars (we use Chore Pad) then he chooses to play outside. I'm fine letting this because that is what being four (or nearly so...his birthday is on the 23rd!) is all about. He still counts as we play. We identify colors and shapes in everyday life. He helps pick up. The luster of "homeschool," though, and "doing school" has worn off. He still tells everyone he does homeschool.

Reading:

I'm trying to ascertain where Abby is reading-wise and see what would be good for her to read aloud to me. We have some Pathway Readers, but I don't think they'll interest her as much. We picked up Mr. Putter and Tabby Feed the Fish at the library. While the interest level is good for her, the reading was definitely easy. She only sounded out one word in the entire book. This weekend I'm going to be spending some time on Scholastic's Book Wizard to find something maybe a bit harder...Or maybe we'll park it here for a bit.

Math:

We are nearly done with section E (addition and subtraction) in Miquon Orange. We also completed the first addition unit in Singapore Math 1a. The only lesson that was a bit confusing for her was the last one where it discusses "counting on." I tried to explain it to her and she was frustrated because "adding is faster!" She was confused because I have been trying to NOT have her count. When adding one or two more I say, "Six and two more" and she will respond with the correct answer. I do believe she is "counting on" in her head and isn't realizing it's the same thing I'm trying to explain.

So we glazed over it and then went to check what addition facts she is shaky on. We're focusing only on addition up to ten and she only was hesitant on a few facts: 6+3 and 5+3 being the big two.

I know that it's becoming second-nature, though, because we were at a park yesterday and she wrote in the sand, "10 = 6 + 4 = 8 + 2 = 9 + 1 = 5 + 5 = 7 + 3 = 5 + 5 = 1 + 4 + 3 + 2!"

One day we did math outside. We wrote a bunch of numbers on the ground and then I sat with the whiteboard and wrote problems for Abby and Emmett. Abby's were typical number bonds, addition sentence type problems with a few reading problems thrown in. Emmett's were mostly counting objects, which is really too easy for him. When they knew the answer, they rode their scooter over to it.

We also bought Double Shutter on clearance at Target. It will be a great game to review some addition facts... Daddy and I also love to play it. It's a bit addicting. :)

Spelling:

Because we had such a light week, we reviewed mostly. We did finish lesson 21 which taught the digraph /nk/. It was good to review this week because she kept spelling ring like "reng" or think like "thenk." I was at a loss at how to tell her we really spelled it with an even though we pronounce it with a long e sound. And then I realized AAS had given me the tool for this when I introduced the phonograms and told her that /ng/ is rarely in front of an e and /nk/ is never placed after an e. She looked confused and said, "Well, how do we spell this?!" and I commented, "Do you know another vowel that can say that sound?" It was then that she made the connection that we place an i there and use it's third sound of "eeee."

Read-Aloud:

We've been reading through the Magic Tree House books we have. We also checked out a Winnie-the-Pooh audiobook that the kids have really enjoyed. We got it from the library on Tuesday and as of Friday night we were well into the third CD. Now I'm on the hunt for another audio book for the kids to listen to.

Swim:

We finished up our last session of swim lessons this week. Next session, Emmett will move on to level four, Abby will stay at level three to review a few more strokes, and Ellie will continue to split between the mom-and-tot class. We have seen marked improvement in Abby's technique. now she just needs to hone it. The class that Emmett will be moving into is a longer class and will require more of him. The teacher he's getting seems to really love his job and be very capable with little kids. We're also hoping the class we'll place him in is the least populated of the two he teaches.

Ellie has made strong improvement in her swimming this session as well. She can now float on her front and back without freaking out. She can glide in the water. She would be swimming but she has yet to make the discovery that if she starts kicking while she's gliding on her tummy, she would move forward. I'm sure that discovery will be coming soon.

Extra:

Because Daddy was off on Monday, we took the kids to the zoo! It's been a while since Daddy's been to the zoo. The kids and I went last month, but it's much more fun to go with Dad.

The children's section of the zoo is still fairly new (added within the last year). The climbing things are classic for them, even Daddy participates!

We saw a condor spread his wings. He sure is a big bird! The kids even imitated him.

We even saw some prairie animals which had us talking about Three Names.

We did the lorikeet exhibit. We try not to do this too frequently so it doesn't ruin the magic. The kids love this part, and this time we bought nectar to feed the birds!

Emmett is awesome at holding the birds. He holds super still and just watches. This is one of the few times we see him still.

Abby is a big spaz when it comes to holding the birds. She has gotten better, but she really has to focus on not flipping out when they stand on her.

Since this was the first time we'd been in a while, it was the first time Ellie really got what was happening without flipping out. She really wanted to hold the birds and couldn't figure out how to get them. Daddy finally helped her out.

Even Hyrum got to hold the birds!