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!).