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"