Week 32

In case you're ever wondering what Hyrum does during school time... Sometimes he's off making mischief with Ellie, sometimes he is playing with toys on his own.  Other times, he steals the iPad or my phone and runs off.  If he's got the iPad, he is usually watching Netflix or another video stored on there.  But there are no shows or videos on my phone, so if he's got that, he's very often playing Starfall or Tozzle (because Mom's boring and doesn't put any more interesting apps on there).

He's got Starfall going here.

Preschool

Letter Craft

It's been rainy lately, so we did U is for Umbrella.  Ellie did hers backwards...

Like has been typical the last little bit, Hyrum has enjoyed participating and decorating his own letter.

Junior K

Language

Reading

While Owl at Home was a bit more of a stretch last week, this week Emmett flew through it!  He's been practicing on his own and decoding words is getting easier for him.  He finished up Owl at Home and moved on to Frog and Toad are Friends.

Spelling

Emmett learned the two ways we can spell the /k/ sound at the beginning of a word.  We actually went to the white board and used blank tiles as he learned when to use the letter c and when to use k.

This week, he spelled his first sentence from dictation!  When he focuses, his handwriting can pretty nice for a 5-year-old boy!

Math

Emmett did some review of math facts.  I am finding he needs to constantly figure sums.  Abby memorized her facts rather quickly.  Emmett, on the other hand, has a much better grasp of counting on and other methods of figuring out his facts that he is not focused on memorization at all.  I prefer this, but would like for him to eventually become more fluent with his facts.  Luckily, he thinks it's cool to race against the clock.

First Grade

Language

Grammar

Abby learned about helping verbs this week.  We are working on memorizing the whole list.  Once again, I'm grateful that we bought the audio companion to FLL because the song and chant on there has been really helpful!

Writing

Abby's writing selections came from "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" which is a story in King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table.  I wasn't sure how she'd respond to the story, but she really enjoyed listening in.  Her copywork focused on command sentences.

Reading

Abby finished up Winn-Dixie this week.  She's excited to watch the movie on Sunday.

Spelling

Abby worked with vowel teams "oa" and "ow" this week.

Handwriting

Cursive was skipped this week.

Math

Abby moved into clocks this week.  She has been having an off-focus week, though.  She can tell time to the five-minute mark now, though!

All Together

History

I should have looked ahead because we had a chapter on Confucius that only had one section that we could have easily completed last week when we talked mostly about China.  Oh well.

After we finished up that, we moved back to Rome and began discussing Julius Caesar.  We read books about pirates, the consuls of Rome, etc.  We talked about how Romans made mosaics using tiles and then did our own mosaics!

I intentionally got ones geared towards younger kids.  They came with the picture pre-planned out and we just added the foam stickers.  Ellie loved this and sat quietly at the table for about an hour finishing up two different ones!

Science

Our strawberries are growing nicely!  I think next week we'll use their leaves to observe what happens to their chloroplast when they are NOT exposed to light.

Week 31

Preschool

Letter Craft

We did letter Q this week.  Ellie was very excited to make a girly figure for her queen.  Hyrum enjoyed tagging along with his q, and thought the googly eyes and glue stick were fantastic.  (And of course, he was excited about just the idea of a big letter.)

She drew her own nose and placed the additions on her own.

Junior K

Language

Reading

Owl at Home is definitely more difficult for Emmett than the previous books he had been reading.  It's not unattainable, but the there's a lot more sounding out going on.  We've repeated a few stories for fluency which helps immensely.  A couple of days we took a break and did Little Bear's Friend, which is definitely comfortably at his level.  Yesterday we went to the park and he did his reading there.

Emmett also picked up a Splat the Cat book that he read on his own at bedtime.  I told him we could pick more up at the library, and he seemed pleased about that.

Spelling

Emmett spelled words with beginning blends this week.  AAS says that beginning blends are usually more difficult for students, but he seemed to do a lot better with the beginning blends over the ending blends.  We repeated and reviewed a bunch of words from last week as well.

Math

Emmett worked on subtraction mostly this week.  The curriculum also moved on to position and ordinal numbers, which he found very easy.  He needs some solidification of his facts.  He can figure them, but I'd prefer them a bit more automatic.  We might play some games with it or maybe just have him do some extra Miquon sheets before his next few lessons.

First Grade

Language

Grammar

Abby continued copying and illustrating her poem about the year.  She also learned about commas separating words and numbers in a list.

Writing

Writing this week came from some poetry selections.  The copywork was longer, which was surprisingly not an issue.  Abby also narrated the poetry back really well, which was interesting because the language used is not colloquial.

Reading

Abby finished up the Whipping Boy this week, but didn't care for the book AT ALL.  She could tell me what happened in short snippets, but didn't understand some of the smaller nuances.  Nor did she care about any of those nuances as she really didn't care for the book.

I bought Because of Winn-Dixie for her to begin on Thursday.  When I handed her the book to read, she asked if Winn-Dixie was the dog.  When I answered in the affirmative, she skipped off happily and devoured the beginning of the book.  After only two days of reading, she is already a third of the way through the book and enjoying it greatly.

Spelling

Abby learned another way to spell the sound of "ee" this week.  Specifically, the curriculum taught that if the "ee" sound is at the end of a multisyllabic word, we usually use "y."  She also learned that we typically double consonants to protect a short vowel (ie, the difference between happy and hapy).

Handwriting

We had a full week with Daddy flying and gone most of the week.  As a result, I was a lot busier with the kids.  Cursive is the first thing that got dropped.  She only completed lowercase v this week.

Math

Abby completed the rest of fractions.  She will have a review on Monday, I think, but will move on to other concepts next week.  I might pull out the Miquon fraction pages as she has enjoyed those in the past.

All Together

History

We finished up our chapter on China.  The kids enjoyed talking about the Great Wall and the Terracotta Army.  I think it might be fun this weekend to make our own clay soldiers...but we might use Play Doh instead.  :)

Science

We observed our strawberry plants growing and read a few more books on photosynthesis.  I was ready to move on in RSO, but we need a plant that has a few good leaves and we're still not there yet.  I'm hoping to plant a bean plant this weekend so we might be able to use it... Of course, with the weather turning nicer, we also spent a lot of time outside.  :)

Week 30

We are nearing the end of the school year. With only 4 weeks left until my due date and 6 weeks until we are "done" with the school year, I'm feeling like the school plan has gone pretty well! 

Preschool

Ellie did some Starfall, to the detriment of my computer mouse. She dropped it. And while it's been dropped several times, this time around it hit the edge of the chair on the way down whacked the mouse and wheel. She was just getting pretty good with it too. Next week, she'll be back to working with Starfall again, though, with the use of a new mouse (thank you, Amazon Prime!).

Letter Craft

Ellie did letter R this week. She colored Rs red (or rainbow in Abby's case).  Then she helped me dye some rice red

 

And then she glued the rice on the R. Of course, playing in the rice after she glued it to the R was lots of fun too!

 

Junior K

 Language

Reading

Emmett finished A Big Ball of String.  The next (and last) book in the schedule is The Bravest Dog Ever: The True Story of Balto.  I looked through it, though, and decided to skip it with him.  So, he moved into Sonlight Grade 2 readers.  The first big chunk, though, is the Beginner's Bible, which he also skipped.  So he moved into Owl at Home.

The last few books have been at his independent reading level.  Owl at Home is more at his instructional level.  He read the first story twice to solidify some words he had to decode.

Spelling

He didn't repeat last week's lesson, but I did have him heavily review last week's words.  For whatever reason, he has a harder time remembering the "ch" phonogram.

This week's words were full of ending blends.  He skipped a few blends here and there, but mostly n-d blends.  He'll review those words along with the consonant team words he struggled with a bit for the next week.

Math

This week Emmett worked through subtraction problems.  The big concept he worked on this week was what-used-to-be-called "fact families."  It's basically the idea that with any given number bond, 4 sets of math sentences can be created.  In Emmett's case, I expect him to be able to create two addition and two subtraction sentences.

First Grade

Language

Grammar

Abby finished up talking about linking verbs, reviewed sentences, and began copywork of a poem about months of the year.

Writing

This week's selections focused on a story from the Jataka Tales.  Since we have just read about the Buddha and the Indian time period around these tales, Abby thought it was really neat to be hearing a rendition of one.  Her answers to the review questions came easily and narrations were painless this week (which they mostly are...).

Reading

Abby completed Pippi Longstocking.  I offered the Cricket in Times Square, but she didn't want to read it for whatever reason.  So, she's reading The Whipping Boy.  Apparently she doesn't care for this book very much.  Lucky for her, it's very short.  I guess I need to figure out what to have her read next...

Spelling

Abby's lesson this week dealt with the /ur/ phonogram.  She also learned about Handyman E, which takes care of all other silent Es that the other jobs don't.

Handwriting

She did mostly review this week and focused on connecting letters.

Math

Abby completed a review of previous concepts this week and moved into fractions.  Apparently she really likes fractions.  Her math lessons were typically quick and without any complaining.  I might pull out some of Miquon's fraction books for review/enrichment as she's done them in the past and enjoyed them.

All Together

History

We moved back to China this week!  We learned about the first unified state of China - the Qin dynasty.  This week we talked about calligraphy and Chinese characters as well as introduced the kids to the Qin and its emporer, Qin Zheng.  Next week we'll finish up the chapter.

Science

We picked up a strawberry plant and planted it this week.

It's getting warm enough to the point that we might be able to pick RSO back up this coming week!

Week 29

Preschool

PreK Activity Book

Ellie worked through some of a new Kumon Sticker and Paste workbook.  She liked the stickers, but didn't feel like it was really "schoolwork."

I did also have her play on Starfall, which she seemed to enjoy, but didn't want to play it as long as the other kids used to.  I think part of that, though, is that she's not as adept with the mouse/computer as the other kids were at her age.  I think it's slightly frustrating for her.  So, we'll keep doing Starfall (we have the "more" subscription) and hopefully she'll gain some more computer control.

Letter Craft

We skipped a letter craft this week in favor of Mom cleaning the fridge.

Junior K

Language

Reading

Emmett finished up A Fly Went By and started A Big Ball of String.  For not having ever even OPENED the book, he's doing really well with it.

Spelling

Emmett spelled words with "th," "sh," and "ch" this week.  He had a hard time remembering what consonant team said "ch" and figuring out if the word I was dictating said "v," "f," or "th."  I am sure the latter issue is related to his speech.  He spent more time looking at mouths and watching the way words are formed.  I'm unsure as to whether we'll repeat this week or not...he did get most of the words correct.

Math

So far Emmett's lessons are super short and super easy.  He finished up the unit on methods of addition.  He surprised me with his ability to "count on."  This was a concept that was lost on Abby at this age.

Emmett began some mental math practice as well.  Abby was stressed if I suggested timing her mental math practice.  Emmett thrived on trying to beat his time, however.  Different kids and all that.  His first go at Mental Math 1 was completed in 2:37.  His second time around, however, he completed it in in 1:58.  Mental Math 2 was a lot more difficult of problems and he took longer.  The first go he completed them in 5:37; the second in 4 minutes even.  He loved watching his times go down.  :)

Towards the end of this week, he moved on to talking about subtraction and what that actually means.

First Grade

Language

Grammar

Abby had lessons that discussed linking verbs.  She was very amused that they are THE SAME as state of being verbs.  We did an exercise where we used the verbs to link nouns and descriptive phrases.  This was a favorite activity.

Writing

This week our selections came from All-of-a-Kind Family.  The selections focused around the part where Sarah loses her library book.  Since Abby recently got her new library card, she was very somber about the loss of a library book.

Reading

Abby finished up Sarah, Plain and Tall and began Pippi Longstocking.  The kids heard this on audio book a few years ago and loved it.  I asked her if she remembered the story and she said she didn't, though.  She is really enjoying the book and says it feels familiar.

Our library has this edition and Abby really is appreciating the illustrations in it.  I wonder if I can find other good quality literature with fun illustrations like this one has...

Spelling

Abby learned some more about consonant-l-e syllables this week.  I taught her why we may double consonants in some consonant-l-e words (ie bubble, puzzle, fiddle).  She also learned about homophones and watched a Veggie Tales song about homophones.

Handwriting

Abby wrote "U"s this week.

Math

Abby worked through subtracting money this week.  This money unit has been a good way to review addition and subtraction with larger numbers.  She practiced both the standard algorithm and mental math.  She has a review/practice at the beginning of next week and then she'll move on to another unit.

All Together

Science

We talked a bit briefly about photosynthesis this week.  We also picked up a strawberry plant that we'll start this next coming week.  Soon, we will be ready to pick up RSO again and actually observe real plants!

History

We learned about the Mauryan Empire of India this week.  One of the big themes we touched on was how cities are stronger when they are united into one empire rather than when they fought each other.

Chess

Emmett and Abby have both solidified in ways they can attack with the bishop.  We talked about moving a piece out of danger and then we moved on to attacking with the rook.

Week 28

Preschool

I ordered a Kumon sticker and paste book for Ellie for the next little bit.  I think that might satisfy her want for "school work," but my want for her to do something other than the next Core Knowledge PreK book.

In the meantime, she is enjoying more read-alouds.  Even Abby reads to her sometimes.

Letter Craft

We stamped As with apples this week.  I've mentioned Hyrum's fascination with letters on here.  Ellie liked this letter craft, but Hyrum loved it.  He had been crying and whining at me all morning due to an ear infection.  The instant I gave him his A, though, he grinned and started saying the short sound of A.

Junior K

Language

Reading

Emmett finished up One Fish, Two Fish.  He was excited to get his OWN Book Adventure account and take his first quiz!  He now wants to earn HIS own library card.  :)

He started A Fly Went By for the rest of the week.

Spelling

Emmett's lesson this week focused on words that end in "x" and "s."  The words in this list were still fairly simple for him, which makes for great time to reinforce his handwriting.  Look at how nice it is!

Math

All of that play with number bonds last week made this week's jump into reviewing number bonds to ten and beginning addition super easy.  He won't probably won't have a huge challenge with his math until we get to the section on completing a ten to add over ten.

First Grade

Language

Grammar

We finished up talking about state of being verbs.  We only did two lessons this week because the next lesson goes into linking verbs so it was a very natural breaking point.

Writing

Our selections this week came from Little House on the Prairie and On the Banks of Plum Creek.  Abby found the selection on the grasshopper cloud particularly humorous.  I asked her if she wanted me to pick up these books and she said maybe On the Banks of Plum Creek would be fun to read.  I'm not sure how I feel about her reading the Little House books out of order, but at the same time, if she read and enjoyed one, she might go back and enjoy the rest of them...

Reading

On the same day that Emmett was riding a high of taking his very own Book Adventure quiz, Abby finished Trumpet of the Swan.  They were both so excited, that we took up the excitement and cashed in their Book It coupons for lunch!  It is so neat to be able to do that RIGHT THEN!

After completing Trumpet, she started Sarah, Plain and Tall.  I offered either that or Gooney Bird Greene.  She grabbed the latter first, but brought it back in seconds telling me it was "ridiculously baby-ish."  LOL

Spelling

Abby learned the fourth job of Silent E this week: It adds a vowel to a consonant-l-e syllable.  Her words all ended in consonant-l-e except the rule-breaker "said."  She LOVES when there is a rule-breaker in her lesson!

Handwriting

We focused on connecting letters and not having so much space from one letter to the next in a word. Her cursive is starting to really look nice!  She will definitely be ready to take some copywork in cursive next year.

Math

Abby worked on adding money this week.

There was one day where she was supposed to practice adding where the cents would go over a dollar with the standard addition algorithm.  Abby doesn't use the standard addition algorithm much because she finds mental addition so much easier and quicker.  I was pleased to see that she had no problem applying the algorithm and solving it that way.

She also had a lesson where she was adding money where one of the addends was very near to a whole dollar amount.  She quickly and successfully reasoned that she could add the whole dollar and then subtract the missing amount without me even introducing the lesson.

All Together

Science

We read some books on photosynthesis this week.  Just a few more weeks and we should be able to get back to APPLYING and OBSERVING all of this talk about plants.

History

We read about the Aryans of India.  This included an introduction and discussion on Hinduism and Buddhism.  Not surprisingly, our library didn't have many kids books discussing these topics.  We did find a few, though.

Yes, Ellie is asleep in this picture.  LOL

Chess

We skipped it this week.  We usually do chess on Fridays and yesterday was a bit rough in the morning.

Week 27

This past Thursday was Valentine's Day.  We took some nice time in the morning to make paper valentines.  Some went to neighbors, others went to Daddy.  :)

Preschool

PreK Activity Book

We got Book 2 of the activity book, but I want to have space between book 1 and 2.  We're continuing with lots of picture books,, but Ellie still asks for "her schoolwork."  I may have to find some other activity books that would be good middle ground.

Letter Craft

We did the letter G this week.  Of course, this was a favorite because it included GLUE and GLITTER.    It was a girl's dream.

Her pajama shirt is so fitting. :)

Junior K

Language

Reading

Emmett read most of One Fish, Two Fish this week.  He's still doing pretty well.  This is a good non-frustrating level for him.  :)

Spelling

Emmett's spelling words this week were all short e sounds.  He has cruised through these lists of short vowel words.  Spelling is also reinforcing proper letter formation and handwriting in a very natural way.  This little guy has great handwriting for newly five!

Math

We paused a bit this week in any book work to play number bond games.  Abby loved being the "helper" here.  :)

And, of course, games for math makes for fun math!

First Grade

Language

Grammar

We reviewed pronouns and action verbs and moved into talking about state of being verbs.  We now own the FLL Audio Companion and Abby listened to and sang the chant for these verbs.

Writing

We worked with material from A Christmas Carol this week.  It helped that we had watched the muppet version a few weeks back, I think.

Reading

Abby is nearly done with Trumpet of the Swan.  She's really loving it!

Spelling

We made a Silent E book this week and reviewed the first three jobs of Silent E:

1. Silent E helps the vowel before say its long sound.
2. Silent E makes c or g say its soft sound.
3. Silent E prevents a word from ending in u or v.

We'll learn a bit more about Silent E next week.

Handwriting

We worked with letter T some this week.

Math

We began working a section on money.  We reviewed coins and how much each were worth.  She wrote amounts in dollars and cents and practiced making change for $1, $5, and $10.

All Together

Science

We worked through a few pages of Evan Moor's Giant Science Resource books.  It's been kind of nice to take a break through science, though I can tell the kids are itching to get back to doing experiments and projects.

History

We learned about the Punic Wars this week.  The kids, especially Emmett, were fascinated with how Hannibal used ELEPHANTS to fight.  

Chess

We parked it a bit on attacking with the bishop since Emmett can only readily see one way to attack in any given situation..  After a bit of prompting, he can see the second.  I want this to be fun, slow, and easy.  It is a game, after all!

Week 26

This week was a scheduled off week...BUT when I made up the school schedule, I wasn't pregnant.  I'm due in April and we are scheduled to be schooling the whole of April.  So, since we have a good flow and routine going, we schooled through this week in order to prep for when the new baby comes.

Preschool

PreK Activity Book

Ellie is basically to the end of her PreK book.  The book introduced opposites at the very end.  It was a bit confusing to her at first, but if I pose the question as a fill-in-the-blank, she does really well with it.  She was also asked to draw zig-zag lines, which is difficult for her.  She needs some fine motor work, I think.  I should look into getting her some Kumon tracing/cutting books... I also ordered the next level activity book.


Letter Craft

We didn't do a craft this week because we were active with other things... (Mostly she enjoyed playing and coloring in large boxes we have around the house.)

We did put up some missing letters on our coconut tree.  Then Ellie points to every letter and tells me their names and sounds.  This is too easy for her...and apparently Hyrum too!

Junior K

Language

Reading

After finishing up Little Bear early, we moved on to Put Me in the Zoo.  I believe Little Bear is at a higher level.   (According to Scholastic's Book Wizard, Little Bear: grade level equivalency is 1.8, whereas Put Me in the Zoo: grade level 1.4.)  Apparently Put Me in the Zoo was fascinating, though.  Instead of reading it over a few days, we got to the appointed stopping place and Emmett said, "I want to read more!"  I couldn't deny that!  That is HUGE for this guy (who really doesn't care much for stories and would much rather read about ants, spiders, volcanoes, etc).  So he read the whole book in one sitting!

He moved on to The Cat in the Hat, which must not be as engaging (probably because he's heard it and knows the story line).  He's not in any rush to read beyond what I've planned, and that's fine.

I will have to say that just last week I was calling my mom wondering about this boy and his progression in reading.  It seems like it's come in fits and starts and some points have had me frustrated and scratching my head with what to do with him.  Now, I've decided that's doing great!  Moving to real books for readers has made a huge difference.  He feels less like he's having a lesson and more like he's just reading to me, which is a big confidence booster for him.

At this point, Abby was reading many simple readers on her own volition.  Emmett is not.  I have a feeling that he will need explicit instruction and reading help longer, but I don't think that's necessarily bad.  She was willing to practice more because it allowed her to stay up late at night.  On the other hand, Emmett doesn't care about staying up later to read.  He gets in bed, may thumb through a book, but is typically sawing logs within ten minutes of laying down.  It's also difficult to for him to read books he's interested in when he's really interested in non-fiction science books.  It's hard to design phonics-controlled readers for a beginning reader who wants to read about bugs and spiders and volcanoes and what's inside the earth, you know?

Spelling

Emmett spelled words with the short u sound this week.  He breezed through those words.  If I were in any rush, I'd have pushed him through most of these short-vowel words within a week or two.  Instead, I don't feel the need to rush.  It's easy for him and I don't have to be super intensive with it.  He's still young. :)

Math

I did start Emmett in Singapore Math year 1, though.  We had the books and I really do wonder if doing some math would really strike his fancy.  Like I've said previously, he can count well beyond 100, knows addition facts of his doubles and +1s.  If I phrase a question in certain ways, he can figure other sums in his head easily.  ("What's two bigger than six?" rather than "Two plus six is what?")  He breezed through the beginning section on counting (of course) and began work with number bonds.  Again, I'm not planning on breezing through the number bond section because I really would like him to remember a fair amount of bonds when we finish this section.  He does already know his bonds to ten... I just want him to be a bit stronger or more sure about his bonds for sex, seven, eight and nine.  That just means some game play next week...which he'll love.

First Grade

Things are moving rather easily along for Abby.  Again, I'm sure we could accelerate a bit, but we are having a nice period of coasting.  We might consider it towards the fall...or maybe not. :)

Language

Grammar

We began First Language Lessons 2!  We only did two lessons this week, one that focused a bit on nouns and then the next one re-introduced the poem "The Goops."  She's working on memorizing that one now.

Writing

Abby's selections this week came from The Tale of Benjamin Bunny.  Abby loved Peter Rabbit last year and I don't think she's realized there are other stories by the same author.  Time to pull down the compilation, I think!

Reading

Abby took the Book Adventure quiz for Poppy.  Every once in a while I wonder what she really pulls from a book so far advanced (Poppy is at a late 5th grade reading level), but when she takes the quiz and completely aces it and can tell me the gist of the story and her favorite parts, I stop wondering.  It still boggles my mind at times, though.  The points from her Poppy quiz pushed her over 1,000 points. Come Saturday, she will be the proud owner of a library card.  She is ecstatic about that.

For lack of anything better to read at the first of the week, Abby took all of an hour to read a Magic Tree House book (Hour of the Olympics).  Later in the week, we took the kids to the book store to pick some new reading books.  When presented with a few choices, she immediately chose The Trumpet of the Swan, knowing it was by the same author who did Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web.  She's already into chapter four and enjoying it.

Spelling

No new words were introduced in this last step of spelling.  She did a lot of dictation and sorting words with the long a sound.

Handwriting

We focused on the letter s this week.  She's nearing the end of her alphabet...I imagine when she finishes the book, we'll do some small sentences copied in cursive for a while to cement formation before I start having her write other school-y things in cursive as well...

Math

Abby worked through some pages in Challenging Word Problems 2 as well as finishing up the section on multiplication and division.  The next section is division with a remainder.  At the end of 2A she seemed to be sort of frustrated with word problems and whether the problem was asking her to add, multiply, subtract, or divide.  We worked on that a bit, but apparently letting it percolate in her brain was right because lately she's not struggled with that at all.  In fact, her biggest complain about doing word problems this afternoon was that I would just not let her blurt the answer.  She had to write the math sentence or number bond or show me with rods or a bar diagram how she arrived there.

All Together

Science

We have put RSO: Life on definite hold for the next few weeks.  We worked through some more Evan-Moor's Giant Science Resource Book, but it is definitely pretty light compared to what we were doing.  On top of that, there aren't many kids' books at our library on how flowers reproduce.  There's a smattering of books on how plants get their energy, but nothing that goes into terms such as chloroplast and photosynthesis, etc.  We've been watching a lot of YouTube and some Magic School Bus too...

History

We finished up a long chapter on Rome.  We have more learning about Rome to do, but this week we learned about Roman gladiators.  That really caught Emmett's attention.  And, of course, the kids loved the book You Wouldn't Want to Be a Roman Gladiator.  (They love all of the books in that series!)

Chess

We actually worked some on this this week!  I was surprised when Ellie remembered all of the names of the pieces except pawn.  And, of course queen and king, which I didn't teach her.  Abby has definitely mastered the concept of "attacking" the rook with a bishop from two different directions.  Emmett struggled with it a bit more.  I bet he'll get it by next week, though...

Week 25

Preschool

PreK Activity Book

Lately Ellie asks me, "Is it a school day?"  If I answer in the affirmative, she says, "Yippee!" and grabs her activity book.  She only has a few pages left so I'm trying to slow her down a bit.

She's also been drawing people!  This is the first person she drew.  It's actually a picture of Emmett.

Letter Craft

We did H is for house this week.  The kids had a good time constructing their own houses.  Ellie even put her door up high and then asked me to make her a ladder for it.  LOL

Junior K

Language

Reading

I started Emmett on the first grade Sonlight Readers this week.  We jumped in reading Little Bear.  The first reading seemed rather frustrating, though I'm not quite sure why.  By the end of the week, he was sailing through most of the reading.  He loved that he could watch the same stories after he finished them.

Spelling

We took a break this week to review words Emmett has spelled in the past.  His ability to segment CVC has improved drastically in the last few weeks.

Math

We played War and read a few math stories.  I am beginning to think that we should start Emmett in Singapore Year 1.  The EM K is too easy for him and I think he'd really thrive with math.  He already has his addition facts to 5 and doubles facts memorized.

First Grade

Language

Grammar

We zoomed through the last five lessons of FLL 1 this week.  Abby was too excited to wait any further.  She finished up her sentence work and reviewed everything she learned within the first book.

Writing

Abby narrated and did copywork from Pollyanna this week.  Abby had a hard time keeping characters straight, but otherwise didn't mind the story.

Reading

Abby finished Poppy this week! She even read some at the doctor's and in the evenings to finish it up!

Spelling

Abby's list this week worked with vowel teams "ai" and "ay."  She probably will need to read through the list a few more times to gain some visual retention of these words verses a-e words.

Handwriting

We moved on to writing capital letter R!  She also did some review of letters in the past.

Math

These multiplication sections are fairly straightforward.  I'm not requiring memorization of the facts because, well, she's only six.  AND, we're planning on moving on to Beast Academy next year which will have a whole new section on skip counting and multiplication.  To solve most problems now, she's skip counting or using rods, which I'm fine with.

All Together

History

We began a long chapter on Rome.  This week we learned about Gods and Roman builders.  The kids were fascinated about constructions of roads so we drew a lot of roads and looked at a lot of pictures of famous roads such as the Appian Way.  I told the kids their Uncle Joey served a mission in Rome.  They thought that was really neat.

Science

We did a bit of RSO on chloroplast and why leaves appear green.  After that, though, we have basically stopped RSO: Life.  It's going to take a month or so for spring to spring here so we can finish studying plants more extensively.  Until that point, we are working some plant pages from the Giant Science Resource Book.

Chess

Skipped again this week!

Week 29

Emmett's moved to a point where he is being folded into school work more often. This week, he came to me and told me, "Mom, I already know that one and one make two, two and three make five, two and two is four, four and four is eight, and two fives makes ten. I think it's time that I'm in math." Okay, then! LOL I was planning on waiting with any kind of math instruction with him until he was solid on reading...but when he is asking for it... Well, I'm not one to disappoint! Because he's starting to work more and more, for the next little bit (or maybe *gasp* forever), I think I'll start recording his work under subjects like I do with Abby. So, for now, there will be no PreK section...which makes me a little sad because I keep begging my kids to STOP GROWING UP. When will someone listen to me?!

Also, apparently I only had the camera handy for when we were doing math this week. Language things tend to happen on the floor, couch, bed, whatever. My camera isn't as readily-available at those times...

Tot School:

Ellie continues to flit around during school time. Sometimes she's making a mess in the bathroom, other times she's in the kitchen sink. When I'm lucky, I can entice her into a puzzle (she actually loves to do puzzles).

Every so often she climbs up and steals the C rods. Then she likes to be the distraction as she puts the purple one in her mouth (gross, I know) and then proceeds to launch them as far across the dining room as her little breath can get them. This afternoon, she launched one completely over the table. And yet, she says she can't blow out a candle!

She is constantly begging me to read her books. I wish, though, they wouldn't be the same books over and over again. Variety is the spice of life, kid!

She also consistently climbs up to the table and declares that she needs to "do maff."

Occasionally, I will pull a completed MEP sheet off the fridge and let her "do maff."

When she's decided that she's disrupted enough, she sneaks off with the iPad and a set of headphones. Her favorite apps include Miss Spider's Bedtime Story, Cut the Buttons, My PlayHome, and LetterSchool.

Math:

Emmett began a bit more work with C rods. He has used them informally, but I want him to get more familiar with them and their potential values.

He sorted them by color and then again by length. Waddya' know?! They're the same groups!

I also handed him a sheet to color in the corresponding rods. He liked this one a lot.

The best thing, though, was playing our invented game of Yellow. The goal of the game is to capture cards that make a train equivalent to the yellow rod. He was really quick at this!

He also worked on his counting some with some dot-to-dots.

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Abby worked through Week 31 of MEP 1. She zoomed through most of the problems without trouble.

Today, we skipped our MEP lesson and did a bit of Miquon. She liked these lab sheets as they were about multiplication. Like cursive, apparently multiplication is more "sophisticated" and therefore it has more draw.

Abby's also saving up for a toy at Target. I've been paying her in pennies for extra chores.

One day, I told her she could have earn extra coins by doing a few math challenge problems. She was excited for these. This is a great opportunity for her to learn first-hand about money and coins.

Language Arts:

Emmett is zooming right along with his reading. I thought video would be a better option here...

Abby is reading two books at this point. She had started a Magic Tree House book a few weeks ago, but it was lost. Apparently, Ellie had put it in a bag full of toys and we couldn't find it. So, to tide her over, she read a bit of Fire Cat (which was entirely too easy). I really should move her on to the third grade Sonlight readers. We found the Magic Tree House yesterday, so she read me a chapter of that tonight.

In grammar, Abby focused on proper nouns for places.

In spelling, she learned the first two rules of syllabification.

Geography:

The kids made review booklets of all of the landforms and bodies of water we learned about. I was surprised that they retained all of the pieces we did. Emmett even properly pointed out a valley!

Next week, we'll be moving on to continents, I believe.

Extra:

• A family that used to live near us had their fourth baby (and first girl) three weeks before we had Hyrum. Sadly, towards the end of July last year she died of SIDS. They are running a service project for children's hospitals around the country on her behalf and we are trying to collate as many things as we can. This week, we focused on making placemats for kids who are in the hospital. I instructed the kids to put their name and age. Abby chose to draw her age as five-and-a-half. I don't think it's a coincidence that the hands look a bit like Moby's.

• Hyrum is fascinated by all things wheels, switches, and flaps. I love this stage in baby-hood where everything is fascinating and new!

• We also picked up and added a new shelf in our living room. These two bookshelves hold only part of our kids' books. We have shelves in the hallway, my closet, and one in each of the kids' bedrooms. Yes, we like books a tiny bit...

Week 26

Daddy only had a two-and-a-half day work week, so our school week was accordingly light.

Also, my camera has been in the shop for the last couple of weeks. I've been relying on iPhones and it is really difficult to get good pictures. I tried, though!

PreK:

For the last few months, Emmett hasn't been interested in the idea of anything academics related. I've been fine with be very unschool-y because he is only four.

This week he started building CVC words with our word whammer and has started asking to learn to read. I started out with the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading, but he seems to need a bit of help blending beginning sounds (the ends are no problem). So, we are working through some of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. We will keep OPGTR as a complete phonics guide, but probably work through 100 Easy Lessons for a while. He is super pleased with his progress and his ability to sound out CVC words.

Math:

Abby worked through week 28 of MEP 1B. This week was a daydreamy week. While her pages weren't a struggle and there was no crying, there was really no focusing or real paying attention.

She also worked through some problems in Singapore's Challenging Word Problems 1 and she loved those.

She did make me laugh on Thursday, though. She had an appointment at the doctor's for some warts. The doc said she wanted to see her in three weeks for a medication application. Abby said, "Three weeks. That's seven days three times..." As we walked out she waved to the pediatrician and said, "See you in 21 days!"

On Friday, I handed her a few challenge problems. Even though we haven't really covered two-digit addition yet, she knew that she needed to add the tens and the ones separately. I was pleased with that.

Language Arts:

We completed three lessons in grammar this week. Abby has no issue with the difference between common and proper nouns now and FLL is already starting to seem repetitive. I also read her the story of the Lion and the Mouse. Her narration was thus: "The mouse saved the lion from the net." I haven't finished listening to Susan Wise Bauer's lecture on the writing process, but I do believe this was an okay narration for this story for a five-year-old.

Our next step in AAS2 has us learning the beginning processes for spelling words with more than one syllable.

We did mostly review this week in cursive. We had a beautiful week weather-wise and cursive was the first thing to be dropped in favor of parks. You're only five once! We did learn the rock curve in preparation for other letter formation.

This week Abby read Nate the Great. She moaned when we went to reading it, but did enjoy the story after the fact.

The kids and I are reading the Wizard of Oz before bed. We are only four chapters out from finishing the book and Abby and Emmett are really enjoying the time spent reading. The chapters are short enough that Emmett can pay attention for that amount of time, and the book we have has good pictures.

Geography:

Since we finished our continent unit study, we moved on to talking about different landforms. We're working out of Beginning Geography and I'm requiring Emmett to sit in a bit while we do it. They both enjoy it as it is very gentle and there is a lot of coloring and cutting and pasting. This week we worked on hills, mountains, volcanoes and islands. Even Ellie wanted to color a volcano! The first time they sat to it this week, Abby exclaimed enthusiastically, "This is so much fun! It's better than schoolwork!" LOL

Extra:

Daddy had Monday off and it was a beautiful day. So, we went to the zoo! The highlight of the zoo that day was feeding the giraffes!

This Friday was Dr. Seuss's birthday. We celebrated by having brownies for breakfast, reading a few of his book, coloring some pictures and then we surprised the kids and went and saw the first showing of the Lorax that day. It was definitely a good day!

Hyrum came down with a tummy bug Saturday morning, so we've spent much of the weekend catching vomit. We were hoping that he would be an isolated case, but this evening, Eleanor is telling me she has to throw up. To make up for Daddy's short week at work last week, he has a 12+ hour day scheduled tomorrow. I am praying that we don't have a vomit week this next week...