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Thursday, March 4, 2010

Week 22 in Review -- Mar. 1-5

March has started out as a good month for us.  Hopefully it will continue.  Our February was pretty rough and we were hoping to turn things around for the better once March rolled in.
We moved into things gradually this week and had a few unexpected interruptions when some appointments ran long, but all in all a good week.

Here's the run down.
Everett:
Grammar: He completed the Unit 2 test and exercises 1 and 2 of Unit 3 in Junior Analytical Grammar.
Spelling: We returned to All About Spelling and Everett began Level 2, he completed half of step 1, which was quite a bit.  He did great with the review and can't wait to jump in full force next week.
Writing: We received our Institute for Excellence in Writing Student Writing Intensive A, and he worked through the keyword outline , rough draft and final draft of the Sea Snake paragraph.  Because we tried IEW SWI before he asked if for the next one he could find a paragraph on the animal of his choice instead of doing the desert tarantula again, and I agreed.  I guess we'll see next week what animal it turns out to be.
Reading: He finished  Nighty Nightmare. I don't know what the next book will be, but most likely he'll pick the next in the Bunnicula series.
Math: Teaching Textbooks lessons 29-31 were completed. These lessons worked averaging, estimating and long division with 2 digits.  He's doing well and still enjoys the program.


Annika:
Language Arts:McRuffy Phonics and Reading 1 has become a bit too much, she did Lessons 5-7, and because it adds in the Grammar and usage stuff at this level, she just isn't enjoying it as much.  We're planning to start working through ETC books 2,3 and 4 and using the readers from McRuffy with it.
Spelling: We returned to All About Spelling for Annika as well because she asked to do it again.  I started her in Level 1 to make sure we have a solid foundation and she blew through Steps 1-5.  I was so impressed and she loves putting the bee stickers I bought on her chart.  She's really looking forward to continuing this program.
Math: McRuffy Math 2 started out well but lessons 5-7 were rough.  It seems to move at a much quicker pace.  I have Saxon 2 on the way, and we'll see if that would be better for her, she's still struggling to retain those math facts, and I know Saxon presents them differently.  Ev enjoyed Saxon so maybe Annika will.


Lucas:
Preschool: He's completed lessons 21-23 in both his My first book of Coloring and My first book of Mazes. He's doing so well and loves doing school each day.


History: We watched a few more episodes of Liberty's Kids and finished reading  Meet Felicity.  We also read George the Drummer Boy.   The kids are loving this new relaxed version of American History as am I.  They really seem to just eat it up and retain quite a bit from the videos and books.
Science: Well after thinking it over, we're continuing with Earth and Space, but moving the Astronomy Units to the front and saving the rest for later in the year when the weather is a bit nicer.  So far we've done some reading on the moon and will begin tracking the moon for a month next week.  


We wrapped up the week with a trip to the local homeschool curricula store to pick up the ETC books and to the library for books on our science topics.  The kids found about 12 books on the planets they brought home and Lucas found a bunch on Dinosaurs.  We plan to make Thursday our weekly library trip day.  I also plan to take them on a field trip to the Air and Space Museum because not only did they open a new planet exhibit they are also offering free admission to active duty military and their dependents for the month of March. 


We're looking forward to a fun and productive month.
Tune in next week for our week 23 review.
 

7 comments:

Julie said...

Hey! I love the pictures of your school room! WOW!

Our Westmoreland School said...

It sounds like a very productive week. I hope the spelling switch works out.

We've started leaning on some tv programs for history too. A GREAT resource is hulu.com. They have history and biography programs, not to mention Nat'l Geographic ;)

Daisy said...

Relaxed American History is the WAY to go. There are a million resources out there and kids just soak it up like a sponge.

Glad to hear AAS is working out well this week.

Tonia said...

Looks like your kids got quite a bit accomplished! We love AAS - glad it's working for you too!

Robin Johnson said...

Your school room looks wonderful. Glad the week was so good.

WildIris said...

My kids LOVED Bunnicula. hulu.com sounds interesting..um.... we're going to look into this. I like your blog set up. Where did it come from?

Kel said...

My blog is simply the "scribe" template and I changed the background with some files I found online.