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Friday, March 16, 2012

Weekly Review -- March 12-16, 2012

This was a hard week to get school done.  The weather outside was beyond perfect.  Temperatures were in the High 70s to Low 80s most days, so we spent lots of time outside, but still managed to get a bit of school work done.

Annika
... had another great week at vision therapy, then we stopped at the library for another batch of picture books.  She loves reading them because the stories are short and don't overwhelm her.  They also tend to have harder vocabulary than the typical leveled readers or chapter books that most at her reading level choose.
... completed lessons 74-77 and Quiz 11 of Teaching Textbooks 4, which wrapped up the chapter on angles, triangles, quadrilaterals, perpendicular and parallel lines, squares, rectangles, perimeter and area.  PHEW, that chapter covered a lot!
... wasn't sure about sticking with All About Spelling, but after talking it through with me decided that with a few changes to our approach that it would be the thing to stick with.
...told me she's finally ready to move on in her phonics study.  We had to take a break due to her getting overwhelmed, so we focused on just reading.  We now plan to use All About Spelling as a phonics program with her, but we'll move at a faster pace than with spelling.  We'll go back to the beginning and go through it quite quickly, but this way we'll review all she knows before jumping into the thick of it.
... had another great week bowling, every game of hers was over 100, and she set a new high score for herself with a 129. 

Everett
... completed unit 5 in Junior Analytical Grammar on Subjects and Verbs.  He did great and scored another "Mastery" level or and A on his test.
...completed lessons 69-72 and Quiz 10 in Teaching Textbooks .  This wrapped up the Decimals in the Real World Chapter.  He was excited about this chapter which included topics like balancing a checkbook, stock prices, and using a calculator.  The last two lessons started the Percents chapter, which he's loving and says it's really pretty easy.
...completed step 14 in All About Spelling 3
...had a lot of fun at bowling this week and had a few games in the 80s.

Lucas
...wouldn't let me take any pictures of him this week
...finished lesson11 in All About Reading level 1, which had him reading 2 new stories in his reader.   
...started McRuffy Math 1 and completed lessons 1-7. He loves that it has him doing simple timed tests and the problems are starting to be written out with just numbers instead of always having pictures.  He said, "Cool, no more baby math"


Science
We did some science this week and completed week 21 in Real Science Odyssey Chemistry.  It was an introduction to matter.  Instead of using Lego pieces to build molecule models I busted out an actual molecule model kit I'd bought.  The kids had a blast with it.  I'm going to be really sad when this program is over in a couple months.  The kids have thoroughly enjoyed it.  I hope the company is able to release something new before we start the new school year in the fall.


After my reflection time about the curriculum we're using, I've decided that everything we're finishing up is what we'll continue to use.  It works and our days run fairly smooth with the programs we're using.  I'm still figuring out what I'm going to do with history next year, but I have a pretty good idea.  I have nailed down geography which is one less thing to stress over.  

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