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