Summer Fun Weeks 5-9

Well, it's been a bit of time since I've written here.  Summer has kind of created it's own routine.  On Mondays, we go to the movies (the inexpensive kid ones).  Tuesday is gymnastics.  Wednesday I have a meeting.  Thursday we have playgroup.  Friday is our only free day!  Luckily, though, we only have one more week of gymnastics and then the kids will be off till the school year starts again.

The Math

Abby is cruising through MEP y2.  By the end of this week, she'll be done with the first six weeks of lessons.  She has really enjoyed this session of math and it has come fairly easier to her.  Must be nice!  She also has gotten really good at mental math.  She can add and subtract three-digit numbers with relative ease!  She also is capable of working out simple multiplication and division.  I'm sure by the end of this school year, she will have her multiplication tables memorized.  She can already easily figure the x2, x3, and x4 tables.  Today, I asked her what the smallest 3-digit number she could think of was.  She thought for a bit and said, "Negative one-hundred!"

Emmett has started Miquon Orange.  He really enjoys the autonomy the rods give him to figure out the problems all ON HIS OWN.

Ellie begs to math every time one of the older kids pull out the rods.  She has started to play with them, and especially likes to use the ABC book we have for them.

The Reading

Abby has read through plenty of longer picture books, her favorite being the Billy and Blaze series.

Emmett made it to lesson 60ish in 100 Easy Lessons.  He started getting really fidgety during the lessons, so I started splitting them in half.  One day, I thought he might like Funnix, so we gave it a try and he loves it.  There is less fidgeting, and he is flying through.  I jumped back to lesson 40 in Funnix because it has a different scope and sequence.  It's a good thing, because he is double-timing it through and sometimes does two lessons a day.

Ellie, I am realizing, knows a very large amount (if not all) of her letters/sounds.  She plays around on Starfall, but is more frustrated by the mouse than the actual letter parts.

Unplanned Summer Fun

We've taken a bit of time to just enjoy summer.  This week (the last of June) has been the first week where we've been consistently in the triple digits.  As a result, we've done a lot of fun things!

• We've been to the zoo a few times.  One time we even went while it was raining!

• We pulled out the easel and the kids had a great time.  Hyrum thinks it's a buffet table with all of those crayons.  We were surprised to find a cute little drawing Abby must have done over a year ago!

• In our scripture study one week, we read about Captain Moroni and the Title of Liberty.  So, we used tissue paper to make our own "coats" which we then rent into our own titles of liberty.

• All of our tadpoles turned into frogs.  Rather than buying mini crickets or meal worms, we opted to release them.  The kids loved growing tadpoles!  Last week, we saw a few little frogs that were bigger than the ones we released, but not full grown, and wondered if they were our "pets."

• Our blackberries produced a ton of fruit! I didn't get to eat much because the kids were constantly back there nibbling!  Ellie and Hyrum loved it.  Ellie ate nearly anything that resembled black.  Hyrum, on the other hand, was not that particular.  If it didn't break off into his hand, he ate it off the cane.  He ate a few crunchy ones and didn't seem to be bothered one bit!

• The pool has a new aqua climb that Emmett loves to do.  He can actually make it to the top square!  He had to pass the swim test to be able to do it.

• One week, the library had a Reptile/Amphibian day.  The kids loved seeing all the different animals!

• Hyrum is not only a walker... he is now a climber too!

(...and a stripper too!)

• Emmett has been bug-hunting all summer long.  He finds bugs, holds them, names them, and even build them little homes/nests.

• We've been to plenty of parks.

• We've played in plenty of splash parks and water areas trying to stay cool.

• We took advantage of $3 bowling (including shoe rental!).

• We painted.  We even let Hyrum paint.  He did a pretty good job for the first little bit...until he decided to eat the painter.

• We worked a bit in the garden.

• We even learned what happens when you try to jump a car with the cables on the wrong ends.  Whoops!

Summer Fun - Weeks 3 and 4

In true summer fashion, these past two weeks there has been no theme or much planned learning. Sometimes it's nice to just be off!

The Math

Emmett didn't have much planned learning.  We did do a fair amount of math stories and a fair amount counting without a curriculum.

Because Abby finished Singapore Math 1b, we moved on to work with MEP year 2.  We only worked half-pace, though, with our own added math review problems.

The Reading

Abby has been reading whatever suits her fancy, including a lot of Dr. Seuss, a few library books, etc. She's excited to enter a few summer reading programs and earn prizes this year.

Emmett is still working through 100 Easy Lessons.  He slowed down a bit these last two weeks, but is still doing wonderfully... The lessons at this point get longer and he doesn't have stamina or maturity to sit that long.  So, we've started splitting the lessons.  He's finished just past lesson 50.

Unplanned Summer Fun

• We had lots of ice cream!

• We flew kites.

• For whatever reason, my kids (especially the middle two) LOVE to watch the garbage truck.  It is the highlight of their Monday.

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• Emmett is constantly picking flowers for me.  What a sweet boy!

• We noticed our blackberries were ripe!  So we enjoyed a taste - yum!  Ellie eats as many as she can.  Hyrum full fists them into his mouth.  Even Emmett checks everyday to see if he can spy a ripe few.

• Abby lost tooth number three!  She pulled it out all on her own.

• Hyrum became a walker!  I guess he is now making the shift into toddlerhood!

• This past Friday we made a trip to Enid to visit Leonardo's Discovery Warehouse.

• While we were in Enid, we visited their splash park where the kids had a BLAST.

• Before heading home, we stopped at just one more park.  The kids were fascinated with the merry-go-round there.

Daddy is off this next week, so who knows what kind of crazy fun we'll cook up!  

Summer Fun - Week 2

Theme - Under the Sea!

We painted with bubbles and food coloring to represent scales.  This is a simple activity.  Pour some water, a touch of Dawn, and a whole lotta' food coloring (the more you put in, the darker it is).  Then, grab a straw and start blowing some bubbles!

My kids never get to blow bubbles in their drinks, so this was a neat activity for them.

After you've blown your bubbles, scoop them out onto a piece of paper.  We used a soap-covered spatula (the soap allows the bubbles to transfer easier).

Finally, let the bubbles pop and then let your paper dry.

We used these papers a couple of days later and drew fish on them.  Then we cut them out.

Then, using Draw Write Now vol 6, we tried our hand at drawing our own sea creatures of choice on our second page of "scales."

Abby chose to draw a dolphin.  Then, by accident, she cut off its tail.  She tried to draw it again on a clean piece of paper, but was very frustrated with herself.  She couldn't get her arch how she wanted it and her dolphin turned out fatter than she was aiming for.  She was very distraught and cried a great deal.

I tried to encourage her and tell her that her dolphin was fine, and it takes practice to be a good drawer.  My little perfectionist got really irritated, though, and then spat out, "It's so fat it looks like a whale.  Besides, dolphins aren't fish, they're mammals... And they DON'T HAVE SCALES!"  It was very obvious she had reached her limit, so I sent her to go sit on her bed and cleaned up the activity.  We'll attempt drawing again in a few days.

We also visited the zoo, where we got to see lots of sea animals.

We also played in the water spouts at the children's section and spied the flamingos!

The Two-Year-Old

This kid was a big handful this week!  She kept getting into things that she shouldn't have been in.

This is our garden after she "helped" by pulling up all of our bush beans!

I did buy a big container of chalk and she loved it.  We've only had yellow and blue pieces for the last little bit, so she was understandably excited when there was PINK in the new bucket!

All of her mischief, though, is understood when we find her asleep in random spots.

The Reading

Abby finished the entire Mercy Watson set this week and is back to reading Dr. Seuss.

Emmett has moved through his lessons at his regular clip and is halfway through his book!  Yay!

We are also reading The Hundred Dresses which is a great lesson in treating people nicely, no matter what they look like.

The Math

Abby completed Singapore Math 1B!  The only problems that tripped her up were double digit with carrying problems.  It probably doesn't help that she doesn't have her teens number bonds memorized so anytime she is completing a problem like that, she may have multiple steps.  Singapore teaches 42-26 as 42-20-6 so she subtracts 42-20 with no problem, but when she gets to 22-6 she has to think 12+10-6 which she processes into 12+4=16.  It seems long and involved when she's walking through the steps, but I'm certain she's definitely got a good foundation in place value as well as working mental math.  The more she does it and the older she gets, the easier it will be.

Emmett worked with a bunch of dot-to-dots to really solidify his counting to thirty.  He has a better grasp of place value than Abby did at this age.

We also played Monopoly Jr.  It's a great way for Emmett to work on addition with the rods and a good review of math facts under ten for Abby.

Unplanned Summer Fun

• The kids have found many caterpillars this week.  

They even built this guy a nest!

• We're getting pretty warm here and The Husband and I are trying to go as long as we can before turning on the AC.  Subsequently, the kids spend a lot of time outside in their swimsuits.

Sometimes we pull out the water balloons and the kids have to answer a math or language question before they get a new one.

• Our tadpoles are all still alive and getting bigger!  These little buggers sure are active!

• Hyrum is fascinated with all things involved with writing.  He is figuring out pens, pencils and markers and any time anyone has one, he complains until he gets one too.