Weekly Reviews -- March 14-25, 2011

This week came to us after a not so fun week of the stomach flu.  As many of your read in my week 8 review, Lucas got the stomach flu that week and by the weekend it had found it's way into Everett.  Then after Everett was finally feeling better it made it's way on to Annika and then finally to me by weeks end.  I'm glad to say that this week has been much better, we're all feeling great again and managed to get lots accomplished.

Everett...

completed lesson 2.2-2.3 in Growing with Grammar 6.  He watched the remainder of the 2nd disc in IEW's Student Writing Intensive A, about the Story Sequence and together we outlined a short story about Paul Bunyan and Babe the Big Blue Ox. I gave him his completion certificate for All About Spelling Level 2 and we completed Step 1 and part of Step 2 in AAS level 3.  We also decided that returning to Teaching Textbooks for math is best for him.  It frees me up to work with Lucas more and he does much better with TT's approach.  He completed lessons 1-5 in TT grade 7.

Annika...

has been doing some review work for phonics.  We pulled out some of her old McRuffy Readers and she's been reading those as well as some of the All About Spelling Readers to practice her fluency.  She's got one chapter left in Magic Tree House: Dinosaurs Before Dark, and we're so proud of her for making it through this book.  She completed lessons 17-19 in All About Spelling Level 1. It amazes me how her brain can take sounds and convert them to letters for spelling so easily, but when going the other way for reading it's so  much more difficult for her, but she's is always slowly making progress. We also placed her into Teaching Textbooks math, and she placed into their Grade 4 level.  She completed lessons 1-5 and loves the program. 


Lucas...
was very excited to see me pull out our new All About Reading Pre-1 level package.  He loves his Ziggy the Zebra puppet and was all giggles during our 1st lessons with it.  He really likes the alphabet sheets he's getting to do and his fine motor skills are making great strides due to them.  I'm so happy this program finally came out, we're really enjoying it.  He'll be going back to McRuffy math K next week because Saxon is just too easy for him and he enjoys the McRuffy games and worksheets.  

Science and History
I finally downloaded the pictures for our Slime that Ate Slovenia lab from Real Science Odyssey: Chemistry level 1, so I'll include those in this weeks reports.  We also got our Sonlight Core 3 books and began that this week.  The kids are really enjoying the stories and discussions.  Currently I'm reading Walk the World's Rim and The Corn Grows Ripe to them and Everett is reading A Lion to Guard Us to his sister and brother.  I wasn't sure how he'd like assigned reading, but so far he's really enjoying the story and the responsibility or reading to his siblings.   

Art/PE

No art this week, but we did take a PE day on Friday and went to the base bowling alley and had fun with that.  The kids really enjoy it and I have to admit I have a lot of fun too.

I think it was a pretty good week considering we were coming back from illness.  Hopefully the approaching spring will make for some fun school weeks. 

Weekly Review -- March 7-11, 2011

This week started out well, but then Lucas got a 24 hour stomach bug Wednesday night and was not feeling well for the rest of the week.  We also got some bad news on Friday, when I found out my dad has cancer.  It was a really rough day, because we won't know much until he sees the oncologist next week.   I don't really have it in me to do a fun review like usual, but wanted to post something for those that follow my blog.

Everett...

completed the last 4 steps in All About Spelling level 2. Next week we'll move on to Level 3 Saxon math 7/6 lessons 20-22 and Test 3 were completed. Although Saxon is a good program, he really misses Teaching Textbooks and was doing well with it.  Once again the "grass is greener" syndrome hit us and we've come to our senses.  We'll be going back to TT when it arrives next week. Penmanship with Handwriting without Tears Cursive is continuing to go really well. We may end up just winging penmanship with things I make up for them since they have the basic letter formation down.  First Language Lessons level 3 is still going well, he completed lessons 6-8.  We did no Writing with Ease this week and he's asked if he can do his narrations from our history lessons, which is a step in the write direction as far as I'm concerned, so we'll be doing that soon.  

Annika...

completed pages 11-16 in Explode the Code Book 4.  She finished steps 15 and 16 in All About Spelling level 1.  Saxon Math 3 lessons 32-34 were completed. She will also move to Teaching Textbooks next week.  We worked through lessons 7-10 in First Language Lessons level 1. She will also start doing history narrations and has asked to use Draw Write Now for her copywork, which should be fun.

Lucas...

finished pages 55-59 in his Get Ready for the Code book. He completed lessons 17 and 18 in Saxon Math K.  As I said above he then got a stomach bug, but seems to be on the mend.

Science and History
We completed chapter 9 in SOTW and did the Persian puzzle map which was fun.  This week in History the kids learned about Group 13, we made slime with borax and glue and the kids will complete their Group 13 page in their element books with Matt this weekend.

  
We received our All About Reading package and will be starting that for Lucas in the next week or two.  We've also decided to switch to an American History focus and will be starting Sonlight Core 3 next week.

Focus on Annika Clare

I've decided that every so often I'll make a post that focuses on one of my children and something that is of special interest to them.  All of my children love to draw, but my daughter Annika Clare has always excelled in this area.  I honestly don't remember a time after she learned to hold a crayon that she wasn't drawing something.  At 3 year old she was able to draw well enough that everyone knew what she was aiming for.  She's also very detail oriented in her drawings and tries to make them as real to life as possible.  She loves all things animals, from the tiniest creepy crawly to the largest mammals on earth.  Almost daily she surprises me by leaving a drawing she's made on the table by my computer or next to my bed.  I've decided to share with you two of her most recent pictures.  


When we started our new school year I found this drawing at my place on the school table. It is a drawing of our school mascot, the phoenix.  After I found it she told me it was rising up out of the ashes to begin anew, and that it was to represent the beginning of our new school year. 

Earlier today we watched the Disney film Secretariat, which I felt she would really enjoy because one of her favorite animals is the horse.  She hopes to one day own a few of them.  About 30 minutes after the movie was over she emerged from her room (which she often calls her art studio) with this drawing of the title character.  She told me she used one of her Schleich figures as a model so she could be as accurate as possible. 

My daughter is truly a joy in my life and brightens it daily with her kind, loving nature.  I love that she embraces her creative side as often as she possibly can.  
I hope you have enjoyed her drawings as much as I do.

Weekly Review -- February 28 - March 4, 2011

This was a good week, we hit the books and got quite a bit done.  The weather was crazy, warm, then cold.We were able to do take a field trip and did a fun art project.

Everett...

completed the rest of Steps 19-21 in All About Spelling level 2. Saxon math 7/6 lessons 17-19 were completed. Penmanship with Handwriting without Tears Cursive is continuing to go really well.  First Language Lessons level 3 is going well, he completed lessons 3-5.  He also completed week 2 of Writing with Ease level 3, and has really enjoyed the reading passages from the.  His narrations are getting better every time we do one, and he's doing extremely well with the dictation exercises.  He even wrote out one of his narrations in cursive, which was great practice, and a huge surprise for me.  I've included a picture of it here.

Annika...

completed pages 5-10 in Explode the Code Book 4.  She finished steps 13 and 14 in All About Spelling level 1.  Saxon Math 3 lessons 29-31 were completed. We worked through lessons 4-6 in First Language Lessons level 1.  She's memorized The Caterpillar by Christina G. Rosetti, but is having trouble remembering the authors name.  Over all I'm really impressed with her work in FLL.  She had fun with Writing with Ease level 1 week 6, she managed to cut her narration down to include just the highlights.

Lucas...

finished pages 48-54 in his Get Ready for the Code book. He completed lessons 14-16 in Saxon Math K.  Here's a few pictures of him having fun with pattern blocks during math.

Science and History
This was a Science week, but we also did a little history.  For science we worked on the elements beryllium and magnesium from group 2.  The kids dissolved some epsom salt and then let the water evaporate to show the difference between the crystals of the dissolved epsom salt and the way it comes when purchased.  For history we read about the start of the slave trade in america and then made some african stamp paintings.

  


We also had a fun field trip this week.  We went to the Virginia Zoo because they were allowing zoo members in to get a sneak peak of the new Trail of the Tiger exhibits.  The tigers weren't out yet, as their habitat is not quite finished but we saw lots of other fun animals and had a great time.  The zoo was fairly quiet which made for an enjoyable trip, where the kids were able to see all the animals an ask zoo staff questions about them.

We're ending the week by anxiously awaiting the arrival of our new All About Reading Program for Lucas.  Hopefully we'll have some nice weather as well.