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"