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 23

Preschool

Ellie wasn't pushing to do school much this week.  I was fine with that because she spent it with constructive play and me time to clean the house.  LOL

Junior K

Language

Reading

He worked through the first two stories in the Free and Treadwell Primer.  I love that these are common stories!

We've also kept up with decoding words in a list form so he can't guess based on context or picture.

Spelling

He spelled CVC words with short i this week.  He loves that his brother wants to do spelling time with him.

Math

Emmett's focusing mainly on reading, so his math is somewhat self-directed.  When he feels like it, he grabs his folder and does a few sheets.  This week he worked on addition sheets from Miquon Orange.

First Grade

Language

Grammar

We worked through lessons 90-92 this week.  There was a poem narration and we moved into discussing sentences.  I also grabbed video of Abby reciting Mr. Nobody.

Writing

This week's narration and copywork came from How to Eat Fried Worms.  The kids have heard this book on audiobook, so Abby was pleased to revisit it.

Reading

Poppy definitely is taking it's time to work through.  She only reads it half an hour a day.  The rest of this past week, she's been working on reading a bunch of books to earn points for Book Adventure.  This past weekend she asked when she could get her own library card.  She suggested when she got 1,000 points on Book Adventure and has been working toward that goal in the evenings at bedtime.

Spelling

This was her last week with All About Spelling Level 2!  The step this week worked with differentiating when to use "ou" and when to use "ow" for the sound of /ow/.  Toward the end of the week, she even copied her words in cursive.

Handwriting

We skipped any formal work this week, but worked with the white board connecting letters and reviewing some strokes.

Math

This week we moved into two- and three-digit mental subtraction.  As I predicted, she struggled a bit with it more than the addition section.  It's not because it was too hard, but because she throws up some kind of block or something when she sees it's *gasp* SUBTRACTION!  So, instead of it being a cakewalk, we actually pulled out the rods here and there to work through some problems.

All Together

Science

We moved into the plant kingdom this week!  I'm realizing we only have but a few weeks of science left.  We will be finished with RSO: Life long before the school year is done.

We studied the reproductive parts of flowering plants this week.  We made our own diagram, and then I bought a huge lily so we could see the petals, stamens, and pistil easily.

History

We learned about ancient Americans this week.  We attempted to close our eyes and maker our own version of the Nazca drawings.  We learned about the Olmecs and their ancient heads, which Emmett thought was fascinating.

Chess

We are continuing to work on the strategy of attacking with the bishop.  I don't want to have to move too quickly through chess since they are so young.  They still love it, though.  :)

Week 11

Not a whole lotta' pictures this week... We did have sick kids and a bunch of appointments for Mom and the aforementioned sick kids.  So, we took it a bit easier than normal this week and will do a few more fun projects this weekend.

Preschool

Letter Themes

Ellie didn't really want to do a letter this week, and I didn't push that.  :)

PreK Activity Book

Ellie LOVED what was in her book this week.

She did both the Old Lady that Swallowed a Fly AND Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush.  She liked this youTube video for Old Lady.  We also did a few for the Mulberry Bush, but she didn't love either one.  Searching youTube, though, did segue us into finding a bunch of different videos for the kids to dance and sing along to.

Junior K

Reading

Emmett read through I See Sam readers this week (specifically books 14-18).  I'm hoping to build his fluency and these are easy for him.

Math

This is one of those things we skipped.  Not because he didn't enjoy it last week, but because I sent it with Dad to get the spine chopped off and we didn't get around to it till yesterday.  So, it sat in the car all week.  Whoops!

Handwriting/ETC

Skipped this this week as well.

First Grade

Language

Grammar

Because we're ahead here, this was one of the first things to drop because of everything else.

Writing

Writing this week involved the Trumpet of the Swan, which is another E.B. White book.

Reading

I let Abby choose between a few books and she chose to read Ramona, the Pest.  These chapters are a bit longer so she only read through chapter two this week.

Spelling

This week we introduced words that are spelled with "ee."  This included her first "rule-breaker."  In AAS, we send the rule-breaker to jail.

The next few times she was told to spell the word, she denoted that it was a rule-breaker.  The first time, she tried to draw a sheriff like what was on the card.  That proved to be a bit more involved than she wanted.  The next few times, she settled for a sheriff's star.  LOL

Handwriting

Definitely skipped this one this week.  :)

Math

Math this week went over measuring in meters, centimeters, yards, inches, and feet and the differences between them all.  She really enjoyed math this week.  On Friday, we did another review.  She did great, except for two problems with subtracting three digit numbers.  Again, she tried to solve it in her head and really confused herself.  I imagine either she WILL figure out how to solve such problems in her head, or she'll just start using the standard algorithm.  Either way, I'm not worried...

All Together

Science

Well, our worm experiment didn't go as it was planned.  We moved the jars to the kids' closet.  When we took them out next, they were a bit moldy and they had random red splotches on the sides.

Upon further insepction, even the worms at the top had large bulges.

Our best guess is that those bulges on the worms exploded or something.  This is our first "failed" science experiment.  I have no clue what happened, but have a couple of emails in to worm-y people and hopefully the will respond.

We have one other experiment to complete that will illustrate if worms have senses.  We were going to use these worms, but they were pretty sick looking.  So, we had to wait till we bought some more worms.  Then we'll do that this weekend.

History

We moved into the New Kingdom of Egypt this week.  The kids learned about Thutmose I, Hathsepsut, Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten, King Tut, and Howard Carter's discovery of Tut's Mummy.  This weekend we are planning on setting up a little "treasure discover" ourselves.

Week 10

This was our last week with Daddy home recovering from surgery.  It was so fun having home (after the immediate recovering part)!

Preschool

Letter Themes

We did the letter P this week.  This craft was easy to throw together.  Ellie made a Pink Paper Polka Dot P.

PreK Activity Book

Ellie worked with comparing colors some more in her book.  She also did a page which required her to line up ant stickers in a line and then a circle.  She really liked that one.

Junior K

Reading

I pulled out Green Eggs and Ham at the beginning of this week, thinking it would be a good book to read through for the whole week.  Emmett read through the whole thing in one sitting!  He just wanted to keep going!  Towards the end he did get a bit exhausted and started making goofy mistakes.  The rest of the week, he read Hop on Pop.

Math

I got Singapore Essentials Math book B this week.  It's a kindergarten-level curriculum for the second semester of K.  It starts out with one more than and one less than, which is still too easy for him.  I imagine he will accelerate through these pages until he finds something that's a bit more challenging...

Handwriting/ETC

We didn't do any this week.  :)

First Grade

Language

Grammar

Abby did lessons 61-63 in grammar this week.  The first involved proper pronoun usage when answering, "It is I."  The second was a narration from the story the Pitcher and the Crow.  The third was a review of the months of the year and days of the week.

Writing

We worked through some selections about Davy Crockett and Sacagawea.  She had a hard time with the narration about Sacagawea.  I wonder if that's just partly exposure...

Reading

Abby finished Stuart Little!  She really enjoyed this book and was happy to finish, but really bummed that it was done.

Spelling

This week's step involved plural vowel-consonant-e words.  The only word that tripped her up was "lakes."  She spelled it "lax" even though she properly spelled "brakes."  After a few days, though, she was working at  it with no problem.  Still, that particular card is under the review section.

Handwriting

We completed the letter j and I did some letter review with her on the white board the rest of the days.

Math

Her math introduced the traditional algorithm for regrouping (or "borrowing") this week.  She worked through it fine.  If she lines the problem up, she has no issues completing the problem.  She still tries to complete a problem in her head, though, and if it involves regrouping within more than one place, it seems like it's a lot to hold in her head.  She is still INSISTENT on solving problems her own way.  I'm sure some of that will change with maturity and experience.

All Together

Science

We began our unit on worms this week.  We went on a worm hunt.  The kids were supposed to hypothesize where they might be.  Since we've had some gardening moment and Emmett is our current Critter King, they went straight to the garden spaces.

We also created our own composting jars to observe the worms composting our layers or oatmeal, sand, and soil.  Unfortunately, though, we put them in the garage and then our weather turned cold.  Rather than beginning to compost, the worms huddled on top of the jar and went dormant.  Whoops!  We moved them into a closet and will check on them next week.

History

We talked about the Middle Kingdom of Egypt this week.  The kids learned about Amenemhet and the Hyksos this week.  I tried to show the kids what a chariot was, but was having a hard time explaining.  One day, though, we were at Target and saw this Lego box.  The kids are going through a Lego stint so it was a perfect way to explain to them...except the mummy/skeleton/monster-ish part.  LOL

Week 9

We are one-fourth through the school year!  Yay!

Preschool

Letter Themes

We did the letter J for jellyfish this week!  It went along with our science studies, and Ellie was sure she wanted to do a letter, but wasn't specific about which one.  Unfortunately, she thought it was an umbrella...LOL But at least it came out cute.

PreK Activity Book

She is back into her book and loving it.  We did the Itsy Bitsy Spider and used circle stickers this week.  The shapes and colors stuff is mostly review (except for the red/green confusion), but she still likes doing it all.

There was one section which had her drawing lines.  She has a very fist-like grip, so we tried pencil grips to help her grip the pencil correctly.  She didn't get that, so we're going to be working that by doing a lot of coloring with broken crayon pieces.

Hyrum, though, loves to draw with a pencil.  His grip is a lot better (at 16 months!) but sometimes he grips way up high.

Junior K

Reading

Emmett finished up The Cat in the Hat this week.  It has improved his fluency a little bit.  Next week I think we'll move on to Green Eggs and Ham or something similar.  He is enjoying reading real books.  He also finished his Book It chart and was happy to earn a coupon for his OWN pizza.  :)

Math

We played a few math games this week.  He liked play addition war.

Handwriting/ETC

Emmett got annoyed with me just having him form letters when I wanted.  Apparently he needs to see a means to an end.  So, I pulled out Explode the Code 1.

These are good review for him as they are just CVC words.  BUT, we will also use it to teach proper letter formation.

First Grade

Language Arts

Grammar

We completed through lesson 60 in FLL1.  We reviewed pronouns, identified action verbs, and introduced initials.

Writing

This week's narration and copywork focused around Charlotte's Web.  Abby was excited because she was familiar with the story AND because Stuart Little is written by the same author.

Reading

Abby is still cruising through Stuart Little.  She did freak out over a few words of vitamins (riboflavin, thiamine, and something hydrochloride).  I just repeated them a billion times and told them they were vitamins and minerals.  It wasn't worth the drama.  She has 19 more pages to finish the book.

Spelling

We completed step 11 which deals with vowel-consonant-e words that begin with a blend.  I wasn't sure that we were going to complete a new step this week as I didn't get to until Thursday.  But, it wasn't a huge leap for her to take all the CVE words we've been working with and then apply the blends at the beginning.

Handwriting

Abby worked on more review and Js in her handwriting book.  I should probably have her spell some of her spelling words in cursive if she's covered the letters in handwriting...

Math

Abby had a bit of excitement on Monday during math time.  She lost tooth number five while working some of her problems!

There was really no hang-up with math this week.  She was completely able to apply renaming all the way across different place value areas.  The only thing that was new this week was that Singapore introduced the vertical representation of adding three-digit numbers with "carrying" (or as Singapore calls it "renaming").  She only really saw the value of writing vertically when she had three large addends.  She did write them vertically and solve that way when asked, but otherwise she preferred to solve the problems in her head.  She had no problem applying the vertical algorithm with larger numbers either.  This seems to be a theme with Abby.  She has no problem intuiting into an area where she's not yet taught.  It's as though she inherently understands that such methods can be applied in other areas.

All Together

Science

This week we discussed cnidaria.  Emmett didn't seem to be as interested in such things, but once we got into it, he enjoyed it almost as much as the human body.

We created our own sea jelly model and discussed their life cycles.

On Friday, we visited the zoo on a hunt to SEE some cnidaria.  We didn't get to see any jellies, but we DID get to see a lot of coral and anemones.

We also introduced our kids to the beginning of our Anamalia collection.  As we go through and study different animals that represent each phylum, we will earn a stuffed buddy.  The kids have to pick a stuffed animal to donate to some less fortunate children AND eventually we'll have a whole diverse many of stuffed animals to sort into their own phyla! We'll mostly be getting beanie babies because they are small.  The kids like that they come pre-named.  This guy is Goochy.

History

This week we read the chapter on Western Africa.  The kids were fascinated the Sahara Desert wasn't always a desert.  They LOVED the Anansi stories.  Everyone colored their own picture of Anansi and Turtle.

We also played a review game that I found on the Run of the Mill Family Blog.   Before we played, I had the kids sit down with their history books and read their narrations and check over their maps.

The kids didn't really care about points, but they did enjoy answering the questions.  Abby surprised me with hardly needing to use her book and only actually not remembering the answer to one question (about silt).  We played it again, but with our Chutes and Ladders gameboard, and Abby didn't even need her book at all then.

We also changed the salt mixture in King Cluck.  He only has two weeks left in the salt.  It's amazing the transformation he's made in only a month!

Week 8

Daddy is finally feeling better to the point that we are out and about more frequently.  We still got all of our school work completed this week, even though we took a day at the fair and had other adventures out.

Preschool

Letter Themes

Ellie wasn't very interested in doing her letter craft this week, so we didn't push it.

PreK Activity Book

She made up for her lack of interest in crafting by completing last week AND this week in her book.  I guess now she's "caught up" (even though I didn't really feel as though she was "behind").

Junior K

Reading

Emmett's moved into reading real books.  We began the Cat in the Hat this week, popcorn style.  He didn't finish it, though.  Next week, I guess.

Math

He's still counting things.  We're just going to work on correctly counting with math names rather than worry about English varieties right nwo.

Handwriting

We worked on forming ms with the correct size when compared to his capital E.

First Grade

Language Arts

Grammar

We hit a section in First Language Lessons where Abby is reviewing a lot of previous memory work and ideas.  I'm pleased with Abby's retention so far.

Reading

We are still working through Stuart Little.

Spelling

We began the next step in AAS that introduces the idea that the long sound of U in VCE words sounds less like "U" and more like "ooo."  She also learned one word that is spelled with a z at the end of the word: size.

Handwriting

Cursive is usually the first thing to drop if we get busy. I think we got some review writing done, but that's it.

Math

We worked with place value and started the section on renaming.  It seems that since Abby is familiar with renaming ten ones as one ten, she has applied the same concept to ten tens as one hundred and ten hundreds as one thousand.  This next section shouldn't be too rough except that we will be introducing the vertical representation of adding with renaming.  She does get stuck with doing things just one way.  I guess we'll see...

All Together

Science

We finished up the section on genetics with a lab on fingerprints.  The curriculum told us to draw a dark mark on a paper with a pencil and then rub our fingers on the graphite and pull the fingerprint off with tape.  I'm glad we followed that instead of doing a stamp pad because it was very easy to see the characteristics of each fingerprint.

Genetics was the completion of our study of the human body. So, we moved on to the next section which illustrated the difficulties scientists might have in classifying animals into different groups.  This activity was a little harder for the kids to grasp until I started drawing the chart on our big sliding door.

History

This week we read about ancient China.  For our project, we created our own Ming Dynasty plates.  We grabbed some plates from the dollar store, then used specialized blue paint to paint on them and fired them in the oven.

We even took the plates to Panda Express to eat "Chinese food" (or the closest the kids will eat) on our plates.

Week 7

Tuesday of this last week was September 11th. That morning, we told the kids (in an age-appropriate way) what that day stood for. Then, they helped Daddy put out the flag.

Preschool

Letter Themes

Ellie chose to do z this week.  Zebras are one of her favorite animals, so of course we had to make zebras!

She still loves putting her letters on the coconut tree.

Of course, Hyrum loves it too.

PreK Activity Book

Ellie didn't request to do much of her book this past week, and I didn't push it.  She much preferred to hang out with Daddy.  When she does ask to do it, she usually wants to do more than one page, so she should "catch up" (whatever that is for a three-year-old) within a few days next week.

Junior K

Reading

Emmett still needs work on fluency.  For his reading this week, we broke up his stories into sections and printed them off. Then, he used a highlighter to find "teams" such as "ai."  He's doing really well.

Math

I realized that Emmett counts to twenty just fine, but skips fifteen.  When he uses "math names" he counts appropriately, so he obviously understands the progression of numbers.  Somehow, though, he's constantly forgetting fifteen.  We're working on counting normally and NOT skipping fifteen.  He counts snacks, lines, stairs, food, whatever.

Handwriting

We didn't work on any proper letter or number formation this week.  If there was something he was writing that we noticed was off, we fixed it.  We didn't do anything formal, though.

First Grade

Language Arts

Grammar

We still worked a bit more with verbs.  I'm sure I could accelerate through FLL, but I don't really want to do any rigorous grammar at this level.

Reading

Abby began reading Stuart Little this week.  She's really enjoying the book.  I preread the chapter, then work through any unfamiliar words with her.  She'll be reading it for the next few weeks.  I purposefully am treating it like a "school assignment" so she doesn't zoom through this book like she has others.

Spelling

This is the last week of review through AAS Level 2.  She did fine remembering that with VCE words, we have to use K at the end rather than C because they DO end in E.

Handwriting

We only got through some review and I this week.  Slow and steady wins the race.

Math

This week was more review.  Abby wanted to go further, but we slowed it down and pulled out the manips and really looked at comparing numbers.  It's nice for me to only do the one easy lesson a day because we are done REALLY quickly.

All Together

Science

We finished up the section on the nervous section by doing a lab about the five senses.

One of the things they used smell for was vinegar.  Our kids couldn't tell us that it was vinegar, but both Abby and Emmett said that it smelled like painted or decorated eggs.  We counted that as correct because we do use vinegar when we dye eggs on Easter.

Vinegar was also a sight item, but it was in a jar.  Of course, the kids all believed it to be water.  After the lab, we talked about what other lab could help them know for sure.  They eat chose to taste the liquid.  Abby scrunched up her face, but Emmett liked it and kept dipping his fingers and eventually took the jar outside.  LOL

On Thursday, we moved on to discuss genetics.  Our kids have never actually asked how babies are made, so we very gently introduced them to the idea that a dad gives a cell and a mom gives a cell and then those two cells grow into a new baby.  They enjoyed the lab sheet where they checked out different features mom and dad had and then seeing which they got from each parent.

History

We learned about the people of the Indus River Valley.  The Story of the World introduced the idea that ancient peoples all lived near a river and used the river not only for water for their crops and to drink, but also to use as roads.  We also discussed citadels and the mystery of Mohenjo-Daro.  One of the activities in the activity guide was to make our own mud bricks because the houses surrounding citadels were made with bricks.  Well, we know what happens when our kids get near mud and we didn't wanna' open that can of worms.  So, we used food to create our own little replica of Mohenjo-Daro.

Our chicken mummy's salt was not wet enough to change this week, so we're waiting till sometime next week to switch it out.  

Week 6

Daddy had surgery on Tuesday, so I was a lot busier this week.  Besides the surgery and busing him and then the kids back and forth to the hospital, when he got home I had to take care of him on top of the kids.  He had a microdiscectomy/laminectomy to take care of a prolapsed disc in his back.  The relief of the sciatic nerve issues has been almost immediate, but the rest of the healing is taking a little longer than he'd like.  It's actually amazing the progress he's made in nearly a week, but he would still have liked to come home and be back to his daily routine in a couple of days.

When he's awake during the day, some of the kids will migrate towards him.  Sometimes they get a quick cuddle and head back off to play.  Other times, Daddy's feeling up to letting them watch a show on the TV in our room.  This is a rare treat in the middle of the school day.

For having dealt with major surgery in our family, I'm amazed that we missed as little school as we did.  On Tuesday, we basically missed the whole day.  But, because Friday is a light day, we were able to make up the excess without too much issue.

Preschool

Letter Themes

Ellie chose the letter C this week.  So, I hauled out the glue and pom poms and we made caterpillars.  She did this one all on her own and was very pleased with her caterpillar.

Having the pom poms out led to Hyrum wanting a turn.  He enjoyed our magnetic ones.  :)

PreK Activity Book

We did some color review, which was super easy.

The book introduced the story of the Three Little Pigs this week.  As I read the story to Ellie, I was reminded of when Abby was three.  She was OBSESSED with the three little pigs.  They played it in the back yard, she drew them on paper, we read the story over and over, she even made a huge cardboard box her very own brick house.  That year, for Halloween the three kids (at the time) were even the three little pigs and Daddy was the Big Bad Wolf.  Oh, memories! (Squee!  Look how TEENY they were!)

Anyway, Ellie enjoyed the Three Little Pigs.  Of course, we pulled out our three little pigs and the big bad wolf and played with them.  When Abby heard Ellie, she wandered over to join in the fun.  It's still fun to do those things!

Junior K

Reading Lessons

Emmett was still giving me grief over reading lessons.  He's got most of his basic phonograms down, so this week we moved back to 100 Easy Lessons.  I'm hoping that just reading the stories at the end of the book will give him a bit of fluency.  That is ALL he needs.

He has also been reading Daddy some of the rookie readers we have.

Math

We're still just playing games.  Sometimes Daddy will play war or something with Emmett.  We're trying to coast sideways because he still is not-quite-five

Handwriting

Emmett worked on forming numbers properly.  Eight and five still give him troubles.

First Grade

Language Arts

Grammar

We're still working with verbs.  This week, we put some nouns on different cards and action verbs on their own cards.  Then we paired nouns and verbs and made short sentences.  She's had some copywork where she is required to identify the noun(s) and verb.,

Writing

This week focused on copywork and narration from Mary Poppins.  I wonder if she would enjoy the book because she seemed to really enjoy the selections this week...

Reading

Abby read Miss Nelson is Missing and a few other picture books.  I have been searching for another good reading book for her.  She loved Miss Nelson, though.

Spelling

We worked the next step of vowel-consonant-e words this week.  She tested them all correct on Monday, but since it was a tumultuous week, we were both grateful to just sail through spelling this week.



Handwriting

We got through G and H this week, which was pretty good... We do lowercase than uppercase and then repeat with the new letter.



Math

We got Singapore 2a this week!  Abby completed the first unit this week, which was basically three weeks of assigned work.  The first few days she was flying through it, but the last couple of days I slowed her down and we are going to plod through slowly the 2a book.  (When I say slowly, I mean at the designated pace.  LOL)  I am hoping to slow her down with math.  She has really enjoyed being back in Singapore.

This week the focus was on extending the number line up to 1,000.  She loved trading out her tens for hundreds and figuring out was 63 tens make.

All Together

Science

Because Daddy had his surgery on Tuesday, we skipped a day of science.  That left one day for science, which we used to introduce the nervous system.  We did a lab where we tried to catch a ruler to test how fast our nerves worked.  I would have thought that Emmett, who has great hand-eye coordination, would have done great at this.  However, he could hardly catch the ruler!  I guess his nervous system isn't as developed as I had assumed!

History

We learned about Hammurabi and his Code as well as the Assyrians this week.  I checked out the Gilgamesh trilogy from the library.  We are planning on reading those this coming week for some review as well.

Our chicken mummy is coming along well.  A few days after surgery, Daddy was able to sit long enough to help change out the salt.  Here it is after two weeks!