Week 15 in Review -- Dec. 21-25

Hi all,

We began the week with a Winter Solstice/1st day of Yule celebration. We lit some candles and made a few crafts.

Thought you might enjoy a little movie of our 1st day of Yule celebration, it's short video and a little dark, but it's a new tradition in our house. We decided to start celebrating the season in our own way.

Here's a few pictures of the crafts we worked on today as well.

We've had a lot of fun over the past two weeks while on break. We are looking forward to getting back to our regular lessons on Jan. 4, 2010, but for now we'll just enjoy the last week we have with Matt home.

Tune in Jan 8, 2010 for Week 16 in Review.

Week 14 in Review -- Dec 14-18

This week was Yule week here at Fawkes Academy. We spent the week watching holiday movies and doing holiday crafts.

Here's a few things the kids made. We'll be back in session starting January 3rd.

What a great week, We only had 6 days of school this week and are now done until December 7th. We're heading out next week for a trip to the Midwest, and it was Annika's 8th Birthday the 19th, so we're having a party at The Little Gym on Saturday. The kids also have a Thanksgiving Parent Survival Night party at The Little Gym on Friday night. I'll use those 3 hours to be a productive as I can in packing and making cupcakes for the birthday party.

Here's the rundown.
Everett:
Grammar: Unit 7 in Junior Analytical Grammar was completed this week, and it went well. He usually misses 1-2 things but all in all enjoys grammar and understands it. We'll be starting Growing With Grammar 5 when we get back to school just to make sure things aren't lost over the rest of the year.
Spelling: Spelling Workout arrived and we started with Level C, I didn't want to jump into it with a level that was too challenging. He passed the lesson 1 pretest with flying colors, so we jumped right to lesson 2, he did ok on the pretest, getting 4 wrong. I decided that meant we needed to go through the lesson and although I told him to skip the writing assignment at the end he asked to do it, he actually did pretty well on that too.
Writing: Writing with Ease level 2 was put on hold this week, while I figure out how far ahead we can jump. He has done pgs. 26-29 in his Handwriting without tears cursive success book.
Reading: The Battle of the Labyrinth, book 4 in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series was finished and he really wants books 5. He'll get it but as a surprise after we get on the road for our trip. I'm such a sneaky mom.
Math: Teaching Textbook 5 lessons 111-114 and quiz 16 were completed this week, which means he's officially finished grade 5 math. He'll begin on Teaching Textbooks 6 when we return and after perusing Life of Fred Fractions, he wants to add that in for fun math Fridays. I also have him working through Evan Moor's Daily Word Problems, although he does 2 problems a day instead of 1. He really enjoys these and I like that they are getting him to think a bit more about the wording used in mathematics.
Geography: Daily Geography week 13 completed. He worked on reading a Physical Map of Washington State, which turned into a little side lesson on what it was like for Matt when we lived there. Ev read the name "Strait of Juan De Fuca" and thought it sounded funny. I told him how Matt used to got through there when the ship went out to sea. This turned into a question of how we got off the 'island' where we lived in Bremerton, which isn't actually an island but a pennisula. Anyway this led us to a discussion of The Tacoma Narrows Bridge and looking at old news reel clips of "Galloping Girdie" It was quite a fun rabbit trail and gave the kids some insight of our lives from just after Matt and I married until shortly after Everett was born.
Science: No science this week folks, we need to make it last the year. :)

Annika:
Language Arts: McRuffy phonics lessons 121-125 were completed. She learned about the Long I sound this week and I'm amazed everyday by how well her ability to read is coming along. She should be able to finish level K by the mid February unless we continue with 7 day a week lessons that would have her wrap it up by the end of January and we'll move right into level 1 after.
Penmanship: Handwriting without Tears Printing Power pgs. 25-28 were completed
Writing: I also put Writing with Ease Level 1 on hold for her, she's doing so well we need to skip ahead a bit to a more challenging part.
Math: McRuffy math 1 lessons 86-94 and the Unit 2 test were completed. She's really enjoying the Fast Facts Flip and Draw books which we've used in place of the timed tests in the program. She's doing really well in math and should complete the level 1 program by the end of January if we switch to a 5 day a week plan, if we continue with a 7 day a week plan she'll finish by mid January, and will move into level 2 immediately
Geography: Daily Geography week 13 completed. The topic was reading a simple map of the world.
Science: No science here either folks, although Animals and their worlds is working pretty well for us. I may alter the schedule a bit but only because she would love to do much more in a day than is listed.

BOTH
History: I've done some serious thinking in the area of history and realized that as much as I wanted our current program to work it just wasn't. I have decided to leave History Odyssey level 1 and go back to Story of the World with the activity guide for Volume 3, Early Modern Times. The Story of the World program has treated us well in past years and although I've tried History Odyssey each of the last 3 years we always seem to come back to Story of the World. This change will mean I have to go back and figure out which chapters we've covered and that we'll go cover the American Revolution again, but I'm ok with it, and the kids have said they think it's a great idea.

Lucas:
Preschool: Lucas has been working through his Kumon My First Book of Tracing and it's really helping him with those fine motor skills. I have many other books for him, which is good because he's begun wanting to do school every day of the week.

We'll be back in 2 weeks with the Week 14 in Review.

Have a great, safe, and happy Thanksgiving!

Weeks 11-12 in Review -- Nov. 8-15

I labeled this post weeks 11 and 12 because with schooling going on here 7 days a week, we've actually accomplished 2 "school weeks" in one calendar week. We had a few snags with some outside classes due to some crazy weather but all in all some great times. We're currently riding out a Nor-Easter down here in Hampton Roads and it's just crazy. We've gotten about 8 inches of rain since Wednesday and yesterday most of the area was shut down because you couldn't get down the roads due to standing water and streams, rivers and canals bulging over the banks. High Tide ended up about 5 ft. higher than normal for this time of year. We're all safe and managed to get a lot done while hold up from the rain.

Here's the rundown.
Everett:
Grammar: Everett wrapped up Unit 6 of JAG and seems to have a pretty good grasp on adverbs. He's getting much better at diagramming sentences and actually seems to enjoy it.
Spelling: Spelling was put on hold this week while we await the delivery of Spelling Workout. Ev has asked for a more traditional approach to spelling, with a weekly word list, worksheets to complete and a end of week test. I'm happy to oblige him, Sequential spelling is a nice idea but we're more workbook/textbook type of people.
Writing: He worked on Week 11 in Writing with Ease level 2 which includes an excerpt from 101 Dalmatians His writing work in WWE has culminated in him attempting to write a story all on his own. The Adventures of Super Echidna was pretty rough in the beginning but he's learning a lot about writing while working on revising it. He has done pgs. 23-25 in his Handwriting without tears cursive success book.
Reading: The Battle of the Labyrinth, book 4 in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series Chapters 15-19 were read this week.
Math: Teaching Textbook 5 lessons 104-110 and quiz 15 were completed this week. He only has 6 more lessons and 1 more quiz until the program is complete.
Geography: Daily Geography week 11 completed. The reading a road map of Montana.
Science: He finished unit 3 in his My Pals are Here 5/6 Systems book and is really starting to come into his own in the area of science. The program is getting him to think about what he's learned and come to conclusions without having it spelled out word for word in the book.

Annika:
Language Arts: McRuffy phonics lessons 113-120 were completed. This program has really helped her to become more confident when trying to read. She truly enjoys it and can't wait to finish this level and move on to the next.
Penmanship: Handwriting without Tears Printing Power pgs. 22-24 were completed
Writing: She completed Week 11 in Writing with Ease level 1 which includes an excerpt from The Trumpet of the Swan. We worked on being more concise in her narrations and being a bit more careful when doing copywork.
Math: McRuffy math 1 lessons 70-85 were completed. We also received our Fast Facts Flip and Draw math drill workbooks this week, and they've become a huge hit. She really enjoys them and the fact that she can correct them herself.
Geography: Daily Geography week 11 completed. The topic was reading the map of a town.
Science: We finished the 2nd week of Animals and their worlds which featured the Lion, one of her favorites. She enjoyed all the readings and the project which was making a lion from a small box and paper bag.

BOTH
History: We've watched Liberty's Kids episodes 8-14 and discussed the events that lead up to the colonists deciding to fight for independence. We'll wrap up the American Revolution next week before we leave for our Thanksgiving trip.

Lucas:
Preschool: Lucas finished his Bigger Steps workbook and began working in his My First book of Tracing from Kumon. He's also watched quite a few educational videos and played quite a few games this week.

Tune in next week for "The Week 13 Review"

Week 10 in Review -- Nov. 2-7

We had a pretty productive week here, the kids are willing to work hard so we can wrap some things up before going on vacation for Thanksgiving.
Here's the rundown.
Everett:
Grammar: Everett began Unit 6 in JAG which covers adverbs. Adverbs can be tough so I decided to slow it down a bit and only do a few sentences per day instead of all 5. He completed exercises 1 and 2 of the unit and is doing pretty well. I think the slow pace is helping.
Spelling: Sequential Spelling Days 12-14 were completed. I've noticed that this is starting to spill over into his writing which is a very good sign.
Writing: He worked on Week 7 in Writing with Ease level 2 which includes an excerpt from Ginger Pye. He's doing really well with dictation and narration so I think we may jump ahead a bit in the book to add a little more challenge to it. He has done pgs. 21-22 in his Handwriting without tears cursive success book and has even asked to start doing his spelling tests in cursive.
Reading: The Battle of the Labyrinth, book 4 in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series Chapters 9-14 were read this week.
Math: Teaching Textbook 5 lessons 99-103 and quiz 14 were completed this week. He's working on this 7 days a week so he can be done with TT5 by the time we leave for vacation. Matt and I have decided we'll let him start Teaching Textbooks grade 6 when we get home from our trip.
Geography: Daily Geography week 10 completed. The topic was Picturing the World.
Science: He began unit 3 in the Systems book which covers circulation. He's doing really well and we'll wrap this unit up next week.

Annika:
Language Arts: McRuffy phonics lessons 107-112 were completed. Lesson 111 introduced the long A sound which a whole new ball game for her. We've only worked with short vowels thus far and I'm happy to report that long A due to silent e came pretty easily for her.
Penmanship: Handwriting without Tears Printing Power pgs. 18-21 were completed
Writing: She completed Week 7 in Writing with Ease level 1 which includes an excerpt from Peter Rabbit. which is one of her favorite stories. I've been having to reign her in a bit with narrations because she seems to have jumped right to summarizing on me. I guess I need to push her up in the book a bit so she can be a bit more challenged.
Math: McRuffy math 1 lessons 56-69 were completed. I also ordered some math fact practice books from McRuffy to help her cement those addition facts. The calculadders were working ok, but she hit a snag with them so we'll try a different approach for a while.
Geography: Daily Geography week 10 completed. The topic was Picturing a the United States.
Science: We finally started Animals and their worlds. We still don't have our Habitats, Hollows and Homes journal, but it should be on the way. I may just save it and do it over the summer instead. I have a plan to add a simple lapbook in which will I print out backgrounds of the different habitats we'll study and as we learn our animals of the week we'll add them to the picture of the appropriate habitat. Saturday we'll work on a painting of a hippo using a potato and carrot for paint stamps.

BOTH
History: We've covered the world history of Early Modern Times so this week it was back to the birth of the United States. We were starting the American Revolution so we read Can't you make them behave King George? and And then what happened Paul Revere? We also watched the first 7 episodes of Liberty's Kids and placed a few pictures in our notebooks for the Stamp Act, the Townsend Acts, The Boston Massacre and The Boston Tea Party. The kids loved the Liberty's Kids DVD and can't wait to see more.

Lucas:
Preschool: Lucas completed pages 24-29 in his Bigger Steps book.

Tune in next week for "The Week 11 Review"

Week 9 in Review -- Oct. 26-31

Another great week under our belts. Matt will be out again for most of November so the kids and I have decided to buckle down and work on weekends too, in order to get some extra work done before our trip in late November.

Everett:
Grammar: JAG unit 5 on Verbs was completed. I thought he was having some trouble with it, but turns out yesterday was a bad day and today he passed his unit test with flying colors. Spelling: Sequential Spelling Days 8-11 were completed. This method seems to be working really well with him.
Writing: He worked on Week 6 in Writing with Ease level 2 which includes an excerpt from My Shadow. by Stevenson. He continues to do well with his narration and his dictation is really coming along. He has done pgs. 18-20 in his Handwriting without tears cursive success book.
Reading: The Battle of the Labyrinth, book 4 in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series Chapters 1-8 were read this week. I'm not sure what we'll do when he finishes this series. I sure hope Mr. Riordan gets his Camp Half-Blood series going soon.
Math: Teaching Textbook 5 lessons 93-98 were completed this week. He wrapped up the lessons in the first half of the Singapore Primary Math level 3A extra practice book so it will be set aside until we begin PM level 3B around Christmas time.
Geography: Daily Geography week 9 completed. The topic was reading a Mercator Projection Map Picturing North America.
Science: He completed Unit 2 in MPH 5/6 Systems. He did an experiment about lung capacity and is looking forward to the unit on circulation.

Annika:
Language Arts: McRuffy phonics lessons 101-106 were completed. Things are coming along really well with this program. She's enjoyed that we added the spelling component back in. Penmanship: Handwriting without Tears Printing Power pgs. 12-17 were completed
Writing: She completed Week 6 in Writing with Ease level 1 which includes an excerpt from Mary Poppins. She is doing really well with this program and loves the book excerpts that we've heard so far from it.
Math: McRuffy math 1 lessons 48-55 were completed. . Singapore math wasn't a good fit for her, so we've dropped that, but have continued with our Calculadder drills. She's passed the level 4 one and will move on to level 5 next week.
Geography: Daily Geography week 9 completed. The topic was Picturing a Place and used picture map of a classroom.
Science: She completed pgs. 15-25 in her Singapore Earlybird Start Up Science workbook 1. Which wrapped up all the lessons about animals in that book. Next week we start our Winterpromise Animals and Their Worlds curriculum.

BOTH
History: We took a trip to the Ottoman Empire this week. The kids enjoyed it and look forward to next week when we'll be returning to America to start our weeks on the American Revolution.

Lucas:
Preschool: Lucas completed pages 19-23 in his Bigger Steps book

We finished off the week with a Halloween Boo Bash at the kids gym which was a lot of fun.

Tune in next week for "The Week 10 Review"

Week 8 in Review -- Oct. 12-Oct 16

It was a good week with a great field trip to the pumkin patch on Saturday.

Everett:
Grammar: We're back to Junior Analytical Grammar and he's really getting it. This week we worked on Unit 4-- Prepositions. We will finish the unit up next week when we take the test.
Spelling: Sequential Spelling is still working well, He completed Days 5-7. Hopefully this will be the program that does the trick for him.
Writing: He worked on Week 5 in Writing with Ease level 2 which includes an excerpt from Misty of Chinoteague. He has progressed to the point where he's writing his own narration out which is a huge step forward for him. He has done pgs. 15-17 in his Handwriting without tears cursive success book.
Reading: The Titans Curse, Chapters 11-19, tonight he'll finish up this book and move on to Book 4 in the series.
Math: Teaching Textbook 5 lessons 91-92 and Quiz 13 were completed this week. He also completed pages 15-25 in Singapore Extra Practice book 3.
Geography: Daily Geography week 8 completed. The topic was reading a Mercator Projection Map
Science: He worked on Unit 2 of MPH Systems. He also completed activity 2.1 which was making a lung model with a plastic cup, 2 balloons, a straw and some playdoh.

Annika:
Language Arts: McRuffy phonics lessons 98-100 She's slowly but surely progressing in her reading. We also started doing lessons in The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading, she completed lessons 46-49 this week and really looks forward to this book.
Penmanship: We finally got our Handwriting without Tears Printing Power book and she completed pages. 6-11.
Writing: She completed Week 5 in Writing with Ease level 1 which includes an excerpt about The Princess and the Frog. Her narration has gotten so much better and she's really enjoying the stories from this book.
Math: McRuffy math 1 lessons 45-47 were completed. . She completed the unit 1 test in Sinapore Primary math 1A and started in on unit 2 about number bonds.
Geography: Daily Geography week 8 completed. The topic was reading a map grid.of the state of Ohio
Science: She completed pgs. 10-14 in her Singapore Earlybird Start Up Science workbook 1.
Hopefully we'll receive the last few book and teachers guide for our new program this week. We've decided to start using Winterpromise's Animals and their Worlds as her science program, she's very interested in animals and is looking forward to the new program and books.

BOTH
History: We've taken a step away from American History and wrapped up a unit on the Industrial revolution in Europe. Next week we'll work on the Ottoman Empire.

Lucas:
Preschool: Lucas was really into school this week and completed pages 13-18 in his Bigger Steps book, a few pages from his Kumon Let's Color book and watched a few educational DVDs.

We wrapped up the week by taking a field trip to the Pumpkin Patch. We had a hayride pulled by 2 beautiful Belgian Draft Horses who were very sweet. Unfortunately we had a camera malfunction. Turns out I forgot to grab the battery off the charger on my way out the door. :( Oh well, maybe next weekend we'll go back for another hayride and get some pictures then.

Tune in next week for "The Week 9 Review"

Week of Oct 5-9-- No School but the Halloween Costumes are Done!

We took the week off of school so the kids could have a much deserved break and I could work on sewing their hallween costumes. Lucas decided to keep his from last year, I may have to adjust the sleeve hems if he grows at all before trick or treat night. Everett decided to be a wolf which turned into a huge fest of flying fur while I was sewing. Annika decided to be a tiger which was much easier to sew because I found tiger print fleece which doesn't shed the way gray fake fur does.

Here's some pictures of the finished projects. I hope you enjoy them.

We'll be back to schooling next week so tune in then for a week 8 review.

Week 7 in review -- Sept. 28-Oct. 2

It was a good week with a great field trip to the movies on Friday.

Everett:
Grammar: He completed Lessons 10-11 in First Language Lessons Level 3. We will be going back to Junior Analytical Grammar now that we have some more understanding of Nouns and Pronouns and will use FLL 3 to reinforce JAG when necessary.
Spelling: Alphabetter drill #4 was passed. Apples and Pears wasn't a hit, so we tried the free lessons from Sequential Spelling and so far so good. We'll most likely be use that for Everett for the rest of this semester and then I'll see how things are going and decide if we'll keep going with it or find something else.
Writing: He worked on Week 4 in Writing with Ease level 2 which includes an excerpt from Dr. Dolittle.
Penmanship: He has done pgs. 13-14 in his Handwriting without tears cursive success book.
Reading: The Titans Curse, Chapters 6-10 have been read and he's still completely hooked on this series. He even named his new Webkin Percy.
Math: Teaching Textbook 5 lessons 88-90 were completed this week. He's completed still working on calculadder drill #26. We started our Singapore math level 3 Extra Practice book this week and he has really enjoyed the lessons, they were a review of place value but he had fun with them. Singapore EP pages 1-10.
Geography: Daily Geography week 7 completed. The topic was reading a Robinson Projection Map.
Science: He finished up the homework pages for My Pals Are Here Systems Unit 1.

Annika:
Language Arts: McRuffy phonics lessons 95-97 were completed along with adding the spelling part of McRuffy back in. She's coming along nicely and her speech therapist said her "L" sounds are getting much better. She also completed Episodes 50-52 in Headsprout Reading. Headsprouts gotten quite a bit ahead of her other program so we're going to take a break from it for a while.
Penmanship: I think I finally got the issues with our Handwriting without tears order worked out and we should have her Printing Power book by next week.
Writing: She completed Week 4 in Writing with Ease level 1 which includes an excerpt about Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Math: McRuffy math 1 lessons 43-44 were completed. She passed calculadder drill #3 and is working on Drill #4. She completed pgs. 7-10 in Sinapore Primary Math 1A and Extra Practice pgs. 3-6
Geography: Daily Geography week 7 completed. The topic was reading a map grid.
Science: She completed pgs. 7-9 in her Singapore Earlybird Start Up Science workbook 1.

BOTH
History: We decided to just to a quick overview of colonial times since we've covered that over the summer because of living so close to Jamestown and other fun historical places in VA.

Lucas:
Preschool: He did a few pages in his Bigger steps book and from his Kumon books. He also drew many scribble drawings and had fun at his 2 gym classes.

We wrapped up the week by going to a 10am showing of Toy Story 1 and 2 in Digital 3D. It was so fun to see the movies on the Big screen, they had been long out of the theaters by the time the kids were old enough to see them. Everett actually went to Toy Story 2 with us when he was about 6 months old, but I'm sure he doesn't remember it.

Tune in next week for "The Week 8 Review"

Week 6 in Review -- Sept. 21-25

It's been another great week at Fawkes Academy. Here's what we've done.

Everett:
Grammar: He completed Lessons 7-9 in First Language Lessons Level 3 and is doing really well with it.
Spelling: Alphabetter drill #3 was passed and he's working on drill #4. We also started our Apples and Pears spelling lessons. He completed Level 51 and half of Level 52. The first day with it was a bit hard for him because of the different style of learning, but he's warming up to it. Writing: He worked on Week 3 in Writing with Ease level 2 which includes an excerpt from Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. His dictation and narrations are really coming along nicely.
Penmanship: He has done pgs. 1-12 in his Handwriting without tears cursive success book and his penmanship is really looking good.
Reading: The Titans Curse, Chapters 1-5 have been read and he's still completely hooked on this series.
Math: Teaching Textbook 5 lessons 85-87 were completed this week. He's completed Calculadder drill #25 and is now working through drill #26. Next week we'll also start our Singapore math books.
Geography: Daily Geography week 6 completed. The topic was reading map coordinates.
Science: He started working on Chapter 1 in My pals are here science Systems. He did the chapter reading and is currently working on activities 1.1 and 1.2. So far he's enjoying it and I'm letting him take the activites and run with them. He's feeling great about being able to preform them with just a little observation from me.

Annika:
Language Arts: McRuffy phonics lessons 93 and 94 were completed along with lesson 41 in the Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. She also spent some time reviewing many of her McRuffy readers. She also completed Episodes 48-49 in Headsprout Reading.
Penmanship: We're still waiting on her new HWOT book, but she's getting some practice with copywork in WWE.
Writing: She completed Week 3 in Writing with Ease level 1 which includes an excerpt about Rumplestilskin from The Blue Fairy Book.
Math: McRuffy math 1 lessons 39-42 were completed. She'll also start Singapore math next week with 1A, it will be a bit easy in the beginning but will teach her some new strategies for completing math facts. She's also working on calculadder drill #3 which is proving to be a bit of a challenge.
Geography: Daily Geography week 6 completed. The topic was reading a map key.
Science: She completed pgs. 3-6 in her Singapore Earlybird Start Up Science workbook 1. She's really enjoying the quick colorful lessons.

BOTH
History: We read a little about colonial times and did a map of the 3 different areas of colonies. Next week we'll start in on our History pocket about living in colonial times.

Lucas:
Preschool: He did a few pages in his Bigger steps book and from his Kumon books. He also drew many scribble drawing and had fun at his 2 gym classes.

Tune in next week for "The Week 7 Review"

Week 5 in Review -- Sept. 14-18

We had a good solid week back. We still have no science report for this week because our new stuff just came in. I ordered Singapore Earlybird start up for Annika and MPH 5/6 for Everett. Both look wonderful and the kids can't wait to start it next week. We still haven't gotten back to the zoo to see the lion cubs, but we may be able to do that this weekend. We do plan to go see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in 3D tomorrow.

Everett:
Grammar: He completed Lessons 4-6 in First Language Lessons Level 3 and says he likes it much more than JAG. I'm also very happy with it and how the program works.
Spelling: He's now completed Alphabetter drill 2 and working on drill 3. We also received our Apples and Pears Spelling and he took the Level 40 mastery test which he passed and I'll give him the Level 50 mastery test tomorrow to see if we can advance even further in them.
Writing: He worked on Week 2 in Writing with Ease level 2 and really enjoyed the excerpt about the patchwork girl. He did great with his dictation which is something completely new to him.
Penmanship: He has done pgs. 8-10 in his Handwriting without tears cursive success book and his penmanship is really looking good.
Reading: He raced through The Sea of Monsters at lightning speed and couldn't stop telling me about it. He loves this series and it brings such joy to me that he's finally found his love of reading. Tonight he started The Titans Curse, and couldn't have been more excited when I gave him the book.
Math: Teaching Textbook 5 lessons 82-84 and Quiz 12 were completed this week. He's still working on Calculadder drill 25 but is on the verge of passing it and moving on.
Geography: Daily Geography week 5 completed. The topic was lattitude and longitude again.

Annika:
Language Arts: We wrapped up a few lessons in McRuffy Phonics this week and began the 2nd workbook this week. We haven't done anything in OPGTR this week, but will definitely pick it up again next week. She also started Speech Therpay at the local school today and said it went well at the 1st session.
Writing: She worked on Week 2 in Writing with Ease level and loved the excerpt from Pinnochio. She's starting to get the hang of narration.
Penmanship: Cursive proved to be a bit to much for her so I have Printing Power on its way from Handwriting without tears. She's looking forward to getting it.
Math: McRuffy math 1 lessons 31-38 were completed. She's still enjoying math and it's been a lot of fun.
Geography: Daily Geography week 5 completed. The topic was reading a map key.

BOTH
History: We started Colonial Times this week and did some reading as well as a map on Jamestown.

Lucas:
Preschool: We played games, watched leapfrog videos and the other fun preschool things. I received a box from Carol's Affordable Curriculum this week and can't wait to do some of the projects in there with him.

Tune in next week for "The Week 6 Review"

Week 4 in Review -- Sept 7-11

This week went pretty well. We stuck to the basics of Geography, Language Arts and Math, again because it's a short week with the holiday being Monday.
Here's what we did this week.

Since Matt was home Monday because of the holiday we started the week with a trip to the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk to see the new 4 month old lion cubs. Unfortunately due to the weather we were unable to see them, but we did see 2 baby Bongos which were very cute. We'll get back to the zoo in the next week or two to check out those cubs.

Everett:
Grammar: We decided to try First Language Lessons for Grammar. JAG was ok, but was getting a bit to fast paced for him. He did Lessons 1 and 3 in FLL and really enjoyed it. We'll see if it will be a good fit as we move along.
Spelling: We're waiting for our new spelling program to arrive we need a little more to a program than daily tests. We are adding in Alphabetter drills which we got with our Calculadder drill CDroms. He had a lot of fun with drill 1 and looks forward to doing more of them.
Writing: He completed WWE level 2 week 1. He is happy to be doing writing this way again, and it went really well.
Penmanship: I pulled out his new Handwriting without Tears workbook this week and he did the cursive warmups. He's very excited to have a new HWOT book.
Reading: Everett wrapped up his reading of The Lightning Theif while we were on our 2 week break and had to immediately start the next book in the series The Sea of Monsters. He read the first 14 chapters this week and just can't seem to put these books down.
Math: Teaching Textbook 5 lessons 80-81 were completed this week. We also added in Calculadder drills which are a huge hit. He completed drill 24 and has had 2 attempts at drill 25.
Geography: Daily Geography week 4 completed. The topic was the a mapgrid of Austrailia

Annika:
Language Arts: McRuffy is going well yet and she completed lessons 82 and 84. She read the story Sam and Kit. We also started adding in The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. She completed lesson 40 and looks forward to more of them.
Penmanship: She got her new Handwriting Without Tears Cursive workbook and did the warm ups. She's very excited to start cursive writing.
Math: McRuffy math 1 lessons 27-30 were completed. This program is so nice to use and she's really retaining things well.
Geography: Daily Geography week 4 completed. The topic was reading a picture map of a school

Lucas:
Preschool: We played games, watched leapfrog videos and started Karate this week. He'll also continue with tumbling class.

Tune in next week for "The Week 5 Review"

Fun with nature when taking a break from school

About a week ago Annika noticed a chrysalis hanging on our front porch pole. We were unable to get any pictures of it to turn out so we eagerly waited for the butterfly inside to emerge.

Then just a few minutes ago the kids came rushing in from outside and sitting in my Annika's hand was a beautiful monarch butterfly. It had hatched from it's chrysalis on our porch.

She's always wanted to hatch Monarch's but we were unable to find a place to order them from.

I was able to take a few pictures of each of the kids holding it and even got some video of it climbing around on Annika.

We hope you enjoy the pictures and video

Week 3 in Review -- August 17-22

This week went pretty well. We stuck to the basics of Geography, Language Arts and Math, because our 12 year old dog went in for surgery Monday and we've been busy taking care of her. Next week will also be a Basics week because Lucas will be back at The Little Gym for camp.

Here's what we did this week.

Everett:
Grammar: Junior Analytical Grammar Unit 3 was completed. It covered Pronouns. He's still doing well with this program and I'm grateful that he's remembering what he's learning.

Spelling: Phonetic Zoo Lesson 2 is complete! It took him 5 attempts but he finally got it mastered. Although it was a tough rule and group of words, we had quite a few laughs. It's hard not to laugh when one of your sons daily spelling test words is Wieners!
Writing: The only writing this week was on the Playing with words page of Junior Analytical Grammar. We received our Writing with Ease workbooks this week so we'll add those in next week.
Penmanship: No actual penmanship papers this week, but he was careful on his regular assignments. Penmanship will start to be covered by Writing with Ease and the copywork/dictation it includes.
Reading: Everett read The Lightning Thief chapters 9-13 this week.
Math: Teaching Textbook 5 is still a big hit. He completed lessons 76-79 and Quiz 11. He's doing really well with long division and oddly enough he's mastering his multiplication tables now that he's started division. I guess he's just a little backwards there.
Geography: Daily Geography week 3 completed. The topic was the four Hemispheres.

Annika:
Language Arts: McRuffy is still a hit. We've decided to push things a bit and have read the books Map and Ham, The Ram, The Big Pig, Hot Dog, Lill and Cat Nap this week. We picked which workbook pages from their needed to be done for reinforcement and will now move along at a lesson a day pace. Her reading is coming along fairly well now. She's not ready for anything big, but she's having fun and isn't struggling to sound out every single word anymore.
Penmanship: She did a few McRuffy penmanship pages and will now switch to Writing with Ease Level 1 for both Penmanship and Writing.
Math: We're having a lot of fun with McRuffy math 1, she's still going at a 2 lesson a day pace so this week she completed lessons 17-25.
Geography: Daily Geography week 3 completed. The topic was learning the basics of reading a map.
Lucas:
Preschool: We had fun with some show on Noggin, and did a few Kumon pages as well as playing games like Blokus and Great States Junior.

All in all, not a bad week for us.
Tune in next week for "Week 4 in Review"

Week 2 in Review: August 3-14

Yes, the second week of school took us two calendar weeks. We had some issues with the Central Air Conditioning which unfortunately forced us to put the week on hold. We just finished up this week by do a little each day after Annika got home from Camp.

Here's what we did.

Everett:
Grammar: Junior Analytical Grammar Unit 2 was completed. It covered Articles and Adjectives. He did pretty well and is still enjoying the program. His final score on the unit test was an 85%.
Spelling: Phonetic Zoo is still working well. He worked on Lesson 2 this week which is the dreaded "I before E, except after C..." rule. He had a bit of trouble in the beginning but he's very close to mastering it.
Writing: This week we took a break from writing while I wait for our new Writing with Ease books come in. I'm going to start him in Level 2 this year and focus on his narrations and dictation. This will also mean he won't have a separate penmanship to do because WWE will have some copywork for him to do.
Penmanship: He worked on a page I made for him about Musk Oxen.
Reading: Everett is still reading The Lightning Thief. He's really enjoying the book and we're very excited for him. He's never read this much without a lot of prompting.
Math: Teaching Textbook 5 is still a big hit. He completed lessons 73-75. We also played a few board games that have a math theme as a fact refresher.
Geography: Daily Geography week 2 completed. The topic was lines of latitude, longitude, the equator and prime meridian.

Annika:
Language Arts: McRuffy phonics and spelling is a HUGE hit. She looks forward to all of her McRuffy curricula lessons. This week she completed lessons 34-41 and read the readers. A Can, The Hat, and Nan.
Penmanship: We decided to use a modern manuscript for her now as a gear up to cursive. She will continue with the one that match her McRuffy Language Arts lessons and once Writing with Ease arrives she'll begin Level 1 again. She did part of it last year but wasn't really ready for it, I think she'll really enjoy it now.
Math: She really likes her McRuffy math. Some of it is review but there's so many fun things in it that she's moving at a fast pace. She completed lessons 11-15 this week.
Geography: Daily Geography week 2 completed. The topic was learning the basics of what was on a map.

Lucas:
Preschool: We worked on a few pages from his Kumon workbooks for Ages 2+. He did 2 coloring pages and got to use markers, which was a real treat for him. Then he did 2 pages in Let's Cut Paper and 2 pages in Let's Fold.

All children together:
History: Week 2 we looked at some of the items that came out of the agricultural and industrial revolution and learned about James Watt and his work on the steam engine as well as Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin.
Science: In Real Science Odyssey Chemistry this week we learned about how small atoms are and did some experiments that helped the kids to "see" how atoms move in different temperatures. We also read the book What's smaller than a Pygmy Shrew which is one of there all time favorite science books.
Read Aloud: We continued reading Half Magic by Edward Eager. This week we read chapters 4-5.

Annika also spent the mornings at Guppies to Puppies camp at The Little Gym. She had a really fun time and got to see hedgehogs, guinea pigs, many kinds of lizards, a scorpion, a tarantula, some baby ball pythons and an 11 foot snake. She said it was the best thing ever.

If you take out the part about our Air Conditioning going on the fritz and the fact that we then felt like we were baking alive in our 88° house for 2.5 days, it was a pretty good week. We're looking forward to getting back into a normal routine this week.


Tune in next week for "Week 3 in Review"

Week 1 in Review: July 27-Aug 1

This was our first week back and the kids and I had a lot of fun and are settling in nicely.

Here's what we did.

Everett:
Grammar: Started Junior Analytical Grammar and completed Unit 1: Nouns. He did really well and got a 97% on his unit test.
Spelling: Another new program to try. Phonetic Zoo was a big hit. He enjoys learning the rules and loves the idea of building his zoo. I made him a lapbook to build it in and it's been pretty fun. It took him 3 attempts on the Lesson 1 list (which is really good) and he's taken the Lesson 2 test once. I'm sure he'll have those down in a few more tests.
Writing: We did a few Keyword Outlines using the first few source texts from IEW's All Things Fun and Fascinating to review Unit 1. Next week we'll return to IEW's Student Writing Intensive Level A for Unit 2.
Penmanship: We continued to work on cursive penmanship using some pages I made up myself.
Math: He's continuing with Teaching Textbooks and completed lessons 69-72 which worked on double digit by double digit multiplication and some basic division as well as review of many other concepts.
Geography: Daily Geography week 1 completed. The topic was reading a map of the US.


Annika:
Language Arts: We started our McRuffy Language Arts this week and she completed Lessons 26-33. It reviewed the "at" and "an" family. This program also includes her spelling. She took her first spelling test this week with it and scored 100%. She's very excited about this new program. It's colorful and a lot of fun.
Penmanship: We continued to work on cursive penmanship using some pages I made up myself, as well as the penmanship practice in her McRuffy LA program.
Math: This is another area where we switched to McRuffy and she's doing great with it. She completed lessons 1-10, doing 2 a day and loves the fun activities that are intertwined within the program.
Geography: Daily Geography week 1 completed. The topic was learning the basics of the Globe.


Lucas:
Preschool: He did about 10 sheets from his Bigger Steps workbook. We're still working on fine motor skills by tracing lines. He also sits in on our read aloud and plays with math manipulatives. He's got most of his letter names down and can count to 10. We're working on 11-15 now.

All children together:
History: Week 1 was a look at the changes the agricultural revolution had on farming. We're once again using History Odyssey Early Modern Times. We're picking up where we left off last year and in a few weeks we'll start in on the American Colonies and study American history through Westward Expansion.
Science: We're using REAL Science Odyssey Chemistry 1 this year. It's been fun so far. We learned a bit about the scientific method this week as well as a bit about how chemicals are all around us. Next week we'll move on to Atoms.
Read Aloud: The kids asked me to re-read a favorite, so we're reading Half Magic by Edward Eager. We've read the first 3 chapters the week and it's just as fun this time around.

This was an excellent first week and we're looking forward to next week. Everett has been doing really well with his time management and is doing much of his work without any assistance from me. Everett has also discovered the joy of reading and we've had a hard time getting him to put his book of choice down. He decided to make his first independent reading book The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, and he's completely hooked! Annika is doing really well with her new programs and although her reading is slow going it's moving forward which is a good sign.

Tune in next week for "Week 2 in Review"

The First day of the 2009-2010 School Year!

Today was our first day of school for the 2009-2010 school year. The kids were all very excited and welcomed the changes in curricula that I made. They started the morning by picking some tomaotes from our plants that seem to be everbearing.
After they came in from picking they stood by the front door so I could take their 1st day of school pictures. As you can see they were all very happy about it.



After pictures we headed into our school room and I took this picture.



We then went over the objectives of the year and the class rules.
They were raring to go so we dove right into the things.
Here's a rundown of how the day went.

We started with Science and completed the week 1 day 1 lesson for REAL Science Odyssey Chemistry level 1. They were really excited about starting Chemistry and had a blast learning about how all of their favorite things are all made from chemicals. After spending an hour on science we moved to the living room, had a snack and started our read aloud. The kids choose to have me re-read a favorite from last year, Half Magic by Edward Eager. After the read aloud and snack we moved back to the school room where Lucas played with math manipulative, colored and had quite an adventure with the playmobil roman soldiers. Everett and Annika worked on Geograpy, Math, Language arts and penmanship. Annika had so much fun with her new McRuffy math and LA programs that I had to reign her in a bit so we wouldn't go too fast. We did take a break around 12:30 and had some lunch. Annika had finished all of her work before lunch so she and Lucas worked on setting up a restaurant with the play food while I finished working with Everett. Ev had a lot of fun with Phonetic Zoo, which is his new spelling program, and was very happy to have only missed 2 words on his quiz. He and I had a lot of fun working on the first Keyword Outline from IEW's All Things Fun and Fascinating.

Over all it was an excellent day and I was amazed at how quickly we were finished. We started about 9:30 and wrapped up the day at 1:30. The only thing left for the day is for Ev to do his free reading. He asked if he could read it as a bedtime story to us all later. I thought that was an excellent idea, so later on tonight we'll all listen to him start reading The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan.

For all still on summer break have a great one, and for those that have jumped back into the pool that is homeschooling I wish you luck.

Work Binders

After some more thinking I've decided that workboxes won't work for me. I have however adapted it to be a "Work Binder" Basically I'm giving each child a binder with 8 tabbed pocket dividers These have 2 pockets (one on each side) but I thought this would take up much less room than workboxes.




So what did I do with all those drawers I bought? I left them right where they were an repurposed them as art paper and supply drawers. It's worked out great and the kids are really excited about their binders.

The Final 2009-2010 Curriculum Choices

This years decissions have been a real roller coaster ride. There are lots of great things out there, but I had to try to figure out what would be the best for us all.

Here's the final selctions.

Everett 5th grade
Language arts: Junior Analytical Grammar, IEW All things fun and facinating, Phonetic Zoo, Penmanship pages I made myself using Startwrite based on the Draw Write Now books.
Math: Teaching Textbooks (finish 5 move on to 6) with MUS for extra fact practice.


Annika 2nd grade
Language arts: Finish McRuffy Language Arts 1 move on to 2, Apples and Pears Spelling, and penmanship pages I made myself using Startwrite based on the Draw Write Now books.
Math: McRuffy math 1 and with MUS for extra fact practice. Move on to McRuffy math 2 with MUS as a supplement for math facts as needed.

For Both Everett and Annika
History Finish History Odyssey Early Modern Times (we only got through about 1/3rd of this last year, but took our time and followed lots of rabbit trails)
Science Sonlight Science 2 (this is the one that didn't change)

Art and music will be Artistic Pursuits and Pianamals. I have really been thinking about if I want to throw Latin in there, but he more I think about it the more I don't really think Latin is for us. We'll probably do some of The Complete Book of Spanish for fun.

Lucas Pre-K
We'll be using a combination of some books from Sonlight's P4/5 list and Kumon workbooks.

My newest spelling creation

Hi all,
Since I have no weekly reports to do lately because we've been on vacation I decided to share a new project I worked. I have decided that even though I love All About Spelling and will continue to use it next year with Annika, that Everett needs to move a bit faster and since he loves taking quizzes (not sure about why) that we're going to try Phonetic Zoo for him next year. Well in looking things over I loved the idea of creating a "Zoo wall" but we don't have the space for one, nor do we have the space for the poster they show in the Teachers resource guide, which is like a large trifold diplay. I decided to go with something I know the kids enjoyed in the past, Lapbooks! Well over the last day I made a Phonetic Zoo Lapbook. Here's a slide show of it along with some simple instructions of what I did.

I started by folding 2 standard manilla file folders in a shutter fold manner. Then I glued the two together joining them at one of the small flaps.

I then cut out the referrence things I wanted from the printable pages that came with my PZ teachers guide download. I also cut some pieces of contruction paper slightly larger than the referrence items, this isn't necessary but since I was just using plain folders I decided the colors would help brighten things up. I folded up the lapbook and glued the title to the front, then I opened it so I was looking at the folder on the left and glued the rest of the referrence items in where I thought they fit best. I didn't use all of them, but you can if you'd like and just fit it all together in a way that's appealing to you. I then opened it so I was looking at the folder on the right. I taped 2 8.5x11" pieces of colored cardstock to the top and bottom to make the flaps. I then used those flaps and the folder itself to glue the "cages" to. The only cages I had to cut apart were the Personal Spelling Victory ones. Those I glued to the smaller flaps on the right folder.

That's all, now I'll have my son use Animal stickers to decorate the cover and any areas in the referrence area that look bare to him. As we go through the program he'll now have a place to build his zoo.

Annika can't wait until she's older and get her own zoo. We'll see, I'm not sure if it would be a fit for her, and we have something that works for her now, so I may have to find another way for her to create a zoo.

Hope you all enjoyed a peak at my latest foray into the lapbooking world.

Our 3 day Field Trip to Washinton DC

Hi all,
We're back from Washington DC and had an amazing time. The kids had a blast and thought everything we saw was great fun. They all wanted to stay longer, and maybe next time we will. There were so many things we didn't get to see this trip, but the ones we did see were all definately worth the 3.5 hour drive.

Here's a few slideshows of things we did and saw.

I hope you all have a wonderful summer filled with fun things to do.

Fawkes Academy has Finished the 08-09 School Year!

Yes you read that correctly. We are finished with the 2008-2009 school year. The kids pushed hard after getting back into a groove at the beginning of the year and we wrapped things up today. We'll be taking 2 weeks off and then we'll do some light Math and Language Arts work over the next few months just to keep things fresh.



Our official start date for 2009-2010 will be July 27th.



I will do my best to keep updating here with some of the fun things we'll do this summer.
We're kicking off this Summer break with a trip to Washington DC. I'm sure we'll have plenty of pictures from that.



So until next time, Have a great summer.

Weeks 25-27 in Review -- April 12 - May 2

It's been a while since I posted a review of our week, but with not much left to finish up the year there wasn't much to report. I thought it would be best to wait and put a few weeks together. We haven't done a full 5 day week since we started back after testing, but we've been having lots of fun with outdoor fun, life skills and field trips.

Here's the latest news on the school front...


Everett
Grammar: He wrapped up the chapter on nouns and then I started him on Institute for Excellence in Writing's Student Writing Intensive level A. He is having a blast with IEW. So far he's written Keyword Outlines, rough and final drafts for paragraphs on Sea Snakes and Desert Tarantula's. He loves that the SWI gives him a new "teacher" since they show Dr. Pudewa teaching a class. I love that the program uses models for him to learn to do keyword outlines from thus enabling him to write a paragraph in his own words. He's not caught off guard with things like "Write about your favorite sport" with no idea what to do. He was given very specific steps and loves that one of the rules is that I can't complain about his penmanship on his outline or rough draft. He also enjoys the fact that I'm to be his "human dictionary" thus taking spelling out of the writing mix. It's a great program and has turned him into a boy that wants to write, and enjoys it.

Math: 54-63 and quizzes 8 and 9 were completed. These covered decimals - both with carrying and regrouping, money word problems, thousandths, and beginning division. Other than an issue with the screen on the laptop he was using suddenly going all white with no way of knowing how to fix it, things have gone well. Hopefully when Matt returns he'll be able to find a way to get the old Math 5 file off of it so we have a record of the first 62 lessons and all the quizzes he did.

Annika
Phonics: She has made it through lesson 26 in the CLE Learn to Read program. She's doing so well. We've reached the point where she gets to read a new 1 page story (3-4 short paragraphs) with each lesson. She's now read 10 new stories in her primer and loves it. She likes that she doesn't have to keep reading the same story over and over again. I love that I know she's not just memorizing the stories. She's even read Matt a few of the stories via Skype so he can see her progress. Sure it's not fluent, expressive reading like an adult would do, but she is reading and so proud of herself. I just wish I would have found the program sooner.

Math: CLE lessons 58-67 were completed. She's now reached the 1st quiz in lightunit 104, she is still doing very well with the program and looks forward to math everyday. Her math facts are coming along great and it's such an easy program to teach.


Everyone:

The kids are still really enjoying their gym classes they take weekly and are very much looking forward to the half day, week long summer camps the gym is having that they will be attending. We've enjoyed some beautiful weather here and even got to spend the other morning at the YMCA pool. We also took a field trip to the Zoo and had a blast looking at all the animals and riding the brand new train they put in.

Our read aloud of The Magician's Nephew was pushed to the wayside for a while but we found an audio version at the library and are now back on track listening to that. It's performed by Kenneth Branagh and he does a phenomenal job. I'm enjoying the story a lot as well, which is always great. We're about halfway through and the kids are so excited for the next chapter which is "The Founding of Narnia" they've only seen previews for the movies and never read any of the books, I think this will be a fun journey. Lucas has been asking to do school along with us and is almost done with the first About Three workbook, he's doing a great job and has been a joy to add to our school time at the desks. The poor boy has been stuck working on an inexpensive end table propped up on a kaboost chair booster, so I've been scouring craigslist trying to find him a small desk, but have had no luck yet. Hopefully I'll find something soon.



Well I hope you enjoyed the review, I'll be back in a few weeks with another one.

Week 24 Review -- April 5-11

This was a slow week here at Fawkes Academy. It was our standardized testing week. Everett and Annika managed to get there Iowa Test of Basic Skills completed in 3 days and we sent them off for scoring today. Hopefully within about 6 weeks we'll get the results back. I think that they both did well and expect great scores again this year. Other than that I've been battling a cold so we've just hung around the house and enjoyed the fairly decent weather we've been having. This weekend we'll bake some spring cookies and enjoy the time together. Annika already has the Veggietales Easter Carol all set and ready to go for Sunday.

Our Painted Lady butterflies also hatched last weekend and early this week. We kept them for about 5 days and then released them yesterday. It was fun as the kids got a few of them to sit on their hands before they flew away. Annika's really seemed to like her, it sat on her hand for about 4 minutes before it flew off. Here's a few pictures of that.

We also got the last of curriculum we'll be using next school year. I'm going to work on getting things unpacked, labeled and pictures taken so that I can post something about it here later in this weekend or next week.

Hope you all have a wonderful Easter.

Week 23 Review -- March 30 - April 4

We've been spending a lot of time with Matt before he leaves for RI. We'll really hit the books hard while he's gone and we should wrap up the year in about 6 weeks then.
Here's the rundown for this week

Everett
Grammar: He started the chapter on Nouns and has been doing well.

Math: Lessons Quiz 7 and Lessons 50-53 were completed. He's still doing really well.


Annika
Phonics: Headsprout is still going well and the CLE Learning to Read is really helping her progress. She's really starting to read simple readers well. She not spending nearly as much time sounding out each and every letter.

Math: CLE lessons 54-57 were completed. She loves math and is really starting to get those math facts down.

BOTH:
Science: We're still waiting for the caterpillars to hatch. Hopefully any day we'll have butterflies.

We are continuing our read aloud of The Magician's Nephew from The Chronicle's of Narnia series.

Lucas has been so excited about school this past week. He is doing well with his About Three workbook and does about 4 pages every other day. His favorite thing though, is the books from Sonlight's Core P3/4. I bought them when the Core was first released and he just wasn't interested. Just today he ran to get the book we're reading from now and we read for about 30 mintues. He just couldn't get enough.

Come back next week to check out our Week 24 review. I've made my final curriculum picks for next year and hopefully it will all arrive within the week. We'll have our History, geography, and literature tomorrow and I'm hoping to see language arts and science early next week. We already have our next years math curriculum. Once it all arrives I'll take pictures and post about it.

Week 22 Review -- March 23-27

Due to the kids getting colds, this was a short week. We don't have much left to do so that's ok. We only have Math and Language arts at this point that needs finishing.
Here's the rundown of what we did.

Everett
Grammar: Everett completed chapter 1 in his new Bob Jones University Press English Writing and Grammar 4 book. It was a review of the 4 types of sentences, but he needed it.

Math: Lessons 48-49 were completed. Math continues to be a fun subject for him.

Geography: Daily Geography this week covered reading a map of Washington DC. He really enjoyed this because in about a month and a half we'll be going to DC for a family vacation with my mom.

Annika
Phonics: She is continuing with Headsprout and seems to really like it. We also started using CLE's Learn to Read program and it's looking really good so far. It uses a mix of phonics and sight words which seems to be just what she needs. This week she was able to read phrases like "as many as" and "the brown mat" this may not seem like much but for a struggling reader it's a major milestone. The program has given her confidence quite a boost.

Math: CLE lessons 52-53 were completed. She really enjoys this program and looks forward to it, although because of her new Learn to Read program it's now tied for her favorite subject.

Geography: Daily Geography this week covered reading a map of a zoo. This was a fun one for her since she loves animals so much.

BOTH:
Science: This week we have been observing the caterpillars we got last week. Just yesterday they finally all put themselves in their chrysalises and we're now anxious to see them hatch out as painted lady butterflies. We also bought a marshmallow plant to see if we can get them to lay eggs.

We are continuing our read aloud of The Magician's Nephew from The Chronicle's of Narnia series.

Lucas has decided that he wants to do school work again so I've started using the About Three series from Rod and Staff publishing for him, along with books we read from our Sonlight Core P3/4.

Come back next week to check out our Week 23 review. In a few weeks I'll also be posting our final curriculum picks, so keep an eye out for that.

The curriculum that has made my daughter a happy girl once again

As many of you that follow my blog and know me are aware, Annika has been struggling with learning to read for about a year now. She has known all of her letters and sounds for quite a while but putting them together to read has been extremely difficult for her. After trying many other programs that all brought her to tears we decided to try one more thing. Since she was having such success with Christian Light Education's math program I decided to get their Learn to Read program as a last ditch attempt to help her. It has changed so much for her. She now looks forward to phonics time and after only 2 weeks with the program she's already reading phrases like "as many as" and "the brown bat." She is beaming with confidence and can't wait to get to the next lesson. The program uses both a phonics and sight word approach and the teacher's manual tells me just what to do to use the program to get the most benefit out of it. I couldn't be happier with it and am so greatful to have found something that clicks with her.

Week off for us at Fawkes Academy

Well I'll try this again, because I typed something up and it seems that it wasn't saved.

We had the week off here and I have done some thinking on what to do for the rest of the year. We will considere history finished and pick up next year with the discovery of America and the rest of Early Modern times. Science will wrap up in the next week or two depending on our painted lady caterpillars. Once they hatch into butterflies we'll wrap up science for the year. We'll then focus on Language Arts and Math for the last 10 weeks of our year. I've decided to shorten the year because the kids have worked on weekends for the past couple of months so they deserve a shortened year. This means we'll finish up the middle of June. During these last 10 weeks we'll continue math, but will focus on reading for Annika and on writing for Everett. They'll be taking their Iowa Test of Basic Skills in mid April and I'm sure they are more than ready for them.
We're also looking forward to a visit from my mom in May, during which we'll take a 3 day trip to Washinton D.C. and then my mom and dad will be back in June and we'll spend some time at the Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg. Matt's mom and dad will also be coming out in June and although we don't have any specific attractions we'll be seeing I'm sure it will be a nice visit.

That's all she wrote this time around (after all I tried this once already today.) Come back next week for the Review of week 22.