Weekly Review-- January 24-28, 2011

It was a fairly good week.  Matt is out of town again, so the kids and I did as much school as we could to help the time go by quickly.

Everett...

put a lot of effort into his story sequence outline last week and started writing his rough draft paragraphs this week.  I think he did an amazing job and can't wait to post his story next week once it's finished.  He's really started to enjoy writing and the story sequence unit has been right up his alley.  He completed step 14 in All About Spelling level 2 and it was great to see how much he had retained over our long break.  Saxon math is going really well.  I love watching the Art Reed DVDs, which I use to make notes, then I use those notes to teach the lesson.  He loves the interactive time with me and is doing a great job on his assignments. He completed lessons 7-10,and his first test of the year in math is next Monday, so we'll see how he does.

Annika...

Completed pages 68-79 in her Explode the Code 3 workbook.  She's doing a wonderful job and her reading is coming along really well.  She finished step 9 in All About Spelling level 1 and did lessons 5 and 6 in Growing with Grammar. Saxon math is also going really well for her.  She completed lessons 17-20 in Saxon math 3, which included a test.  

Lucas...

finished pages 16-23 in his Get Ready for the Code book.  His fine motor skills are really coming along and his printing is getting better everyday.  Sure his work still looks like it was written by a serial killer, but then again he's only 5.5 years old.  He also completed lessons 4-7 in Saxon Math K, which he's really enjoying.  His calendar skills are growing in leaps and bounds.

Science and History
It was a Science week. The kids asked to take a break from Chemistry and because we were at a good stopping point in our curriculum I thought it was a great idea.  They asked to do some Life science stuff on animals so we're currently working on reading some things from the Kingfisher Science encyclopedia, as well as many of the other animal reference books we have.  I also found a bunch of great lapbooks on www.homeschoolshare.com and we're working on the animal classification one right now.  I don't have any pictures to share this week, because the kids wanted to wait until the lapbooks are completed to post them.

Not the most lively, artsy, fun week, but we did get a lot accomplished. 
3 weeks down, 33 more to go for this school year.  

Weekly Review-- January 17-21, 2011

We had a fun week here at Fawkes Academy.  We are still easing into our work, but had some great projects and a lot of good work was done.  I spent some time on Thursday rearranging furniture and organizing the school room.  Our Spelling corner is all set up now, so we'll be adding that back in next week.

Everett...

worked on his outline for the Story Sequence. It was some pretty intense sessions, he has so many great ideas, so I needed to step in and help him pare it down. He's very excited about his changes and will start writing the rough draft next week..  He completed lessons 5 and 6 in Saxon Math7/6. I received my DVDs from Art Reed's website and they are excellent.  They really help me see what to cover in each lessons, and Ev is loving the new interaction during math.

Annika...

Completed about 12 pages in her Explode the Code 3 workbook.   She completed lessons 3 and 4 in Growing with Grammar, and completed lessons 15 and 16 of Saxon Math 3.

Lucas...

worked on his Get Ready for the Code book a little and we worked on Lesson 3 in Saxon math K.  We spent the rest of the week playing games for math and working on our calendar. 

Science and History
It was a History week.  I'm using the Homeschool in the Woods Time Travelers, New World Explorers CDrom program.  We worked on Lesson 1 this week.  The kids colored and labeled a map of the continents, we started our lapbook and made a project for it on 5 reasons for exploration.  They loved it because it included taping in spices and dirt, as well as using glitter glue and sticky "gems".  After our maps and lapbook project was completed I made the Spice ornament dough recipe and the kids used our new cookie cutter set to cut out a bunch of shapes.  After they dry they can use more glitter glue, or other items to decorate them. 

Art

This week I didn't plan any specific art projects.  I let the kids have fun with what ever art supplies they could find.  The boys drew some pictures, but mostly did active art by reenacting history.  Annika decided to make me some of her yarn pompom animals. Everett got a dragon and an owl, and  I got an owl.

Another good week down.  The kids are looking forward to wrapping it up with a bit of fun at the Parent Survival Night at their gym.

It was time to reorganize

It's that time of year again when I look at the school room and think, "You know, that would look much better over there,"  or, "I wonder if that would fit better over there?"
So I told the kids to go play upstairs and dug in.  I moved some things around brought our old whiteboard easel down from the closet and now we're all set for some productive school time.

I hope you enjoyed the slideshow.

Weekly Review-- January 10-15, 2011

Everett...

Completed lesson 2.1 in Growing with Grammar 6.  I've since decided that his grammar is at a good place, so we need to switch the focus on writing.  He watched the 2nd disc in IEW's Student Writing Intensive A, about the Story Sequence and outlined The Boy Who Cried Wolf along with the class on the disc.  He's very excited to make changes and start writing his own story next week.  We didn't work on any spelling this week, but will bring it back sometime next week or the week after.  We reviewed lessons 1 and 2 in Saxon Math 7/6 and he completed lessons 3 and 4 with very little assistance from me.  Next week I'll start teaching him the lessons instead of having him just read it in the book to make math a bit more fun and so that I can have a better knowledge of what he's working on.  I also ordered Art Reed's Saxon DVD lessons, which I can watch to make sure I'm touching on all the important points of the lessons.  

Annika...

Worked on quite a few pages in her Explode the Code 3 workbook, and is doing really well.  She also did no spelling, but will start back with in the next week or two.  She started Growing with Grammar 1, and completed lessons 1 and 2 with minimal difficulty.  We reviewed lessons 10-12 of Saxon Math 3 and she completed Lesson 14 and Test 2. 

Lucas...

was very excited to get back to regular school work.  He completed 6 pages in his Get Ready for the Code workbook and did lessons 1 and 2 in Saxon Math K.  We started Saxon math over, because we hadn't made it too far in,  and I wanted to make sure we didn't lose  ground over our long break. 

Science and History
I've decided to take a different path on scheduling History and Science.  We will be focusing on only one of these subjects on any given week.  This week was science, and we wrapped up Unit 3 of Real Science Odyssey Chemistry level 1.  We learned how scientists could perform tests on elements in family groups to prove they belonged in that family. We performed some of our own tests on Sodium (using table salt) and Potassium (using salt substitute) and seeing how they reacted in various settings.  We also showed how certain elements will cause a reaction in things and that without those element present things can have very different outcomes.  This was achieved by baking muffins both with and without baking powder.  

Art

That's right folks, we actually did some art this week.  The kids had found a mosaic kit at Target and dug it out.  We talked a little about designs that could me made with mosaics and looked at examples of some online.  Then the kids made mini mosaics with their kits.  Everett made a turtle, Annika made a flower and Lucas made a mouse.  They really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to making sure Art time is definitely included in our weeks.

I feel it was a pretty good week for our first one back in over a month.  The kids had fun and we got a reasonable amount of work done.

New products for All About Spelling

 Because the sale is over I've moved the post over to my All About Spelling Link Page.  If you'd like to see it, just click on the page link at the top of the blog.