Our new pets

Matt and I decided to let the kids get some new pets. Nothing large, in fact they are each only about the size of a golf ball.

They are super sweet and cute as can be to us.

Tutter is the dark brown/white one.

Scarlet is the tan one with red eyes.

Rosie is the tan/white one

This is there new house

Week 12 Review -- December 14-19

This week was a wrap it up week for us. We did a little school to finish up somethings that were in the works. We also took a field trip to the Children's Museum in Portsmouth VA. The kids and I had a lot of fun and even saw a nice show in the Planetarium about the different holiday celebrations of the season.

I won't list the assignments we actually did since it was just a little of this and a little of that.

Here's a slideshow of our field trip.

We're taking the next 2 weeks off, so we'll see you again in 2009 for our next week in review.

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season.

Week 11 Review -- December 8-12

It was a hectic week here as Matt was not around, so it was just me and the kids.  We did our best to get some schooling done but with the holidays approaching it's getting harder.  We did get a little bit done and also had some fun days out exploring the library.  Lucas had a hard week and although all injuries were minor they seemed like catastrophes to him.  The first came Monday when he was running into Everett's room to say good night, tripped and landed face first on the window sill.  He ended up splitting the inside of his lip up pretty bad and after 10 minutes we got the bleeding to stop.  He had a fat lip for a few days but seemed no worse for wear.  Then on Wednesday he was walking through the toy room and managed to find the one tiny shard of glass Matt and I didn't find on Saturday when the penny jar fell off the shelf in the school room and busted.  He had a tiny cut to the bottom of his heel which only bled for a little while, and he even allowed me to put a bandaid on it, which for him is big, as he absolutely hates bandaids.   We also had a loss in the family as Everett's black mystery snail "Shadow" died.  We think she died of old age, but we also found a tiny snail in the tank, so we think someone may have had a baby, which would be weird as we never saw an egg clutch or anything, but we didn't add anything new to the tank that would have brought this snail in.  We've decided to leave it in the tank and see if it grows at all.

Here's the run down of what we did accomplish. No pictures again this week as all the worksheets were pretty boring stuff.

Everett
Grammar: Shurley English 4 arrived on Monday and we spent Tuesday and Thursday doing the first 2 lessons of chapter 1, which was all goal setting and organizing, but it was fun for Ev to pick out some new notebooks for his vocabulary book and journal.
Penmanship: We did a few pages of HWT, but kept penmanship pretty minimal this week.
Spelling: Completed step 14 of All About Spelling level 1. 
Writing: We started Copywork for Trumpet of the Swan, but we'll stretch this week out and skip week 12's copywork and narration.
Math: The new presentation method Matt and I decided on for Saxon 5/4 is working well. Everett completed Test 5 and Investigation 3, which we spent and extra day on since he was having fun with it.

Annika
Spelling: She completed step 10 of All About Spelling, we'll set it aside for a while until phonics catches up with it a bit.
Penmanship: She did a few pages and stills has wonderful handwriting.  She is really enjoying the Handwriting without Tears format and style.
Phonics: The Hooked on phonics CD-Rom arrived this week and she spent a few days doing some of the lesson on it in a review of what we've done in the Yellow book so far.
Writing: We started Copywork for Trumpet of the Swan, but we'll stretch this week out and skip week 12's copywork and narration..
Math: Rightstart Math level B continues to be a hit.  She completed Lessons 4 and 5 and can't wait to do the next one.  Math has become fun again which is just what we were looking for.

BOTH:

History:We worked a little on history this week, by working on our 1st pocket of our Native American History pocket.  Next week we'll hopefully move on to the Seminole tribe.

That's all she wrote for this weeks folks, tune in next week for the Week 12 review.

Week 10 Review -- December 1-6

Well we had a nice vacation of 2 weeks to celebrate Annika's birthday and Thanksgiving. We read a few books on the first Thanksgiving and did a few crafty type things too. It wasn't easy coming back but we've been in a rut lately with someone seeming to have a cold every time I turn around. Gym class has been consistent at least and kids really enjoy it. We've focused on only Language arts and Math this week, the next 2 weeks we'll be keeping it light with the holidays coming up and Matt's work schedule being a bit hectic until the holidays.

Here's the run down of what we did accomplish.  No pictures this week as all the worksheets were pretty boring stuff. 

Everett

Grammar: He started working on Direct and Indirect quotations.  Growing with Grammar is a nice program but the amount of writing is becoming to much and he would like more interaction in grammar from me.  We will be trying Shurley English once it arrives in a few days and see if that fits his style better.

Penmanship: He's still working through Handwriting without tears and his cursive is getting much better.  We may even have him start doing some of his other work in cursive.

Spelling: Completed step 12 and 13 of All About Spelling level 1.  This curriculum still seems to be a big hit with him.

Writing: Copywork  about Davy Crockett and Sacagawea was done this week with some oral narrations.

Math: Saxon 5/4 is still working well for him, we have had to adjust it a bit so that I present the lessons instead of him reading them on his own and now we work the new concept and practice problems on the board instead of on paper.  He completed Lessons 28-30

Annika

Grammar: We've decided to put grammar on hold with her for now until her reading takes off a bit more.

Spelling: She loves using All About Spelling level 1 and we've noticed it is helping her in phonics so we're using it at a very slow pace.  She completed steps 8 and 9 this week, we'll do a few more steps before taking a break from it.

Penmanship: As usual her printing is amazing.  She's very precise and loves handwriting without tears.

Phonics: Hooked on Phonics seems to be the thing we've been waiting for.  She's even getting brave enough to try some other easy readers we have in the house now.

Writing: Copywork  about Davy Crockett and Sacagawea was done this week with some oral narrations.

Math: She started Rightstart Math level B this week and so far it's going well.  She is "getting it" and likes the more hands on approach.  She doesn't seem to miss the Saxon worksheets at all.  We only completed 3 lessons this week, but it's a very different approach to math so we're taking our time with it and having fun as well.

I've decided to put of Vocabulary for Everett until after our trial run of Shurley English and Latin just hasn't happened.  We did get some art covered but mostly just projects we did for fun.  We'll start our actual art curriculum this week.  Maybe we'll get Latin in there too, I guess we'll just see how it goes.  We did decide to give the Library another shot and found they've done some rearranging there and it's much more user friendly now.  We will mostly likely start weekly or biweekly Library trips into our schedule.

I'll be back next week with the Week 11 review.