The Flight of the Phoenix

Weekly reviews January 23-Feb 3

2012-02-03T15:05:00.000-05:00

I'm reporting for the last two weeks because they've just been a blur. Things are starting to get back into a rhythm now that we're over the initial shock of the news about my dad. Things are going ok for him, he had surgery to help with his nausea issues and starts Chemo on Tuesday. Unfortunately it's his birthday that day, but he just wants to get things going.

Sammy loves laying on Annika's desk while she works

Everett is really focused on his paragraph about the panda's habitat

Annika did 5 lessons and a quiz in Teaching Textbooks 4, completed step 5 and most of step 6 in All About Spelling 2. She also did some reading work as well as her usual vision therapy homework.

Everett started up Institute for Excellence in writing's Student Writing Intensive B, but I'm letting him pick his own topics for the first 2 units since they are a review for him.

He also started up Junior Analytical Grammar again, and is doing well and finding it not as frustrating as last time we tried it. He also completed 5 lessons and a Quiz in Teaching Textbooks 7, as well as completing step 10 and starting step 11 in All About Spelling 3.

Lucas is cruising right along in math and LOVES his All About Reading Level 1 program. He finished lesson 3 and is most of the way through lesson 4.

He's starting to sound out simple consonant-vowel-consonant words and learned the sight word "the" this week. He's doing really well and is very proud of himself. We also had a few fun days at the YMCA, using the pool. Annika and Lucas start swim lessons next Tuesday, and I also signed Lucas up for Little League which starts next month.

Hope you all have a great weekend. We plan to really jump back into things more next week now that we seemed to find our groove again.

Weekly Report -- January 16-20, 2012

2012-01-20T17:01:00.003-05:00

This week there isn't much to report. We were hoping it would be a great new week and we'd add in a few subjects, well then I got a phone call from my mom and brother.

My dad got pretty sick after he returned home from his trip out here to see us and after they admitted him to the hospital and tried to get his nausea under control, they found out that his cancer has returned and spread. Most people that have what he has are given 9-12 months, so we're going to hope that he is one of those strange medical cases, but will also do as much as we can to enjoy every day he's with us.

We tried really hard to do some school work, but only got a math lesson and a spelling lesson done for Everett and Annika. Lucas managed a math and half of a phonics lesson.

I think the shock is finally fading and we'll be able to get back to a more normal schedule next week.

Weekly Review -- January 9-13, 2012

2012-01-14T12:53:00.001-05:00

We're finally back in session. It was great to take a nice long holiday break, but now it's time to get back on the horse. We took it easy this week and just did the basics.

Monday

Annika had vision therapy and her 16 week progress eval for it. The Doctor was very happy with the progress she's made. She has made a lot of progress in her reading abilities since starting therapy. It has definitely been worth it.

Everett did a math lesson, and Lucas had gymnastics and played a math game with me.

Tuesday

Annika did a math lesson, a spelling lesson, read a little and her vision therapy homework.

Everett did a math lesson, a spelling lesson and a grammar review page. Lucas did 2 math lessons and a phonics lesson.

Wednesday

Annika did a math lesson, a spelling lesson and her vision therapy homework.

Everett did a math lesson and a spelling lesson

Lucas did 2 math lessons and a phonics lesson

We then took off for the bowling alley on at the Navy base. Lucas bowled 3 games and Ev, Annika and I each bowled 5 games. As always we had a great time. I retained the weekly high game trophy with a score of 152.

Thursday

Annika did a math lesson, a spelling lesson and her vision therapy homework.

Everett took a math quiz and did a spelling lesson. He also reviewed some writing pages.

Lucas did a math lesson and played a game with me.

Then we took a trip to the library where they all picked out a backpack full of books.

Friday

We took the day off and went to see Beauty and the Beast 3D.

Then the kids did had some free art time in which they made Key Blades (something from the Kingdom Hearts video game) of duct tape and cardboard. After this they spent a couple hours playing outside with these crazy creations.

We'll be starting up more subjects next week, we have a little revamping to do with the schedule and curriculum, but nothing major.

All About Reading 1 has finally been released

2011-11-28T23:05:00.001-05:00

I know many have been interested in when All About Learning Press releases new items.

All About Reading 1 has officially been released.

Just click on the link above or here and you'll be taken to the All About Reading 1 webpage.

We have loved using All About Reading level Pre 1 and can't wait to dig into level 1

Weekly Review -- October 31-November 4

2011-11-04T20:19:00.001-04:00

This week we kept it easy and light so we could do lots around the house to prepare for Matt's visit. We're all very excited and can't wait to see him. He comes in tomorrow (the 5th) and it will have been 70 days since we last saw him.

Everett...

Completed pages 11-13 in his Key to Fractions book and 3 lessons and a quiz in Teaching Textbooks 7. He finished step 8 in All About Spelling level 3, and completed 4 pages in his penmanship book. He spent quite a bit of time reading to his little brother and played board games with both his brother and sister.

Annika...

Had her first progress evaluation in vision therapy and the Dr. was so happy with the progress she's made. She's such a happy kid since starting this therapy. She finally realizes that with the right tools she can learn to be a great reader. She also completed 5 lessons Teaching Textbooks 4 and was so excited to be getting into multiplication more. She did 8 pages in Explode the Code book 4, finished step 3 in All About Spelling Level 2, and completed 4 pages in her penmanship book.

Lucas...

completed 4 lessons in McRuffy math, 8 pages in his penmanship book and 2 lessons in All About Reading Pre-1. His fine motor skills are really coming along. He loves having school time each day and looks forward to it each day.

Next week Matt requested that we plug along with school work while he's here, so he can join in on the teaching and it sounded like a great time to finally bring history and science into the mix. The kids can't wait to start those subjects. So I'm going to plug away tonight and get all the prep work done for next week so we can just open our folders and go!

Weekly Review -- October 23-28, 2011

2011-10-28T13:16:00.000-04:00

This 'week' worth of school took us two calendar weeks to get through because we had a run of head colds come through and then lots of appointments mixed in there. We're all getting very excited because Matt will be home for a visit in 8 more days. It will be great to have him home even if it's only for a short while. Here's what we did this past two weeks.

Everett...

Working on his Peter the Great paragraph

Completed pages 6-10 in his Key to Fractions book and took his first spot check on the Key to Tracker and scored 90%. He also completed 3 lessons in Teaching Textbooks 7, and half of step 8 in All About Spelling Level 3. He did 3 penmanship pages and I must say his cursive is really coming along nicely, he starting to use it more often then print in his assignments. He also worked through week 1 days 2 and 3 in Writing With Skill. They were tough lessons for him because he's moving from summarizing short paragraphs to larger stories. He had a rough time with the day two assignment on the excerpt from Wolves of Willoboughby Chase but was super excited when the next days excerpt was from The Story of the World: Volume 3 and was about Peter the Great. I was happy with the paragraph about Peter he turned in. Lastly he got braces this week and is very excited to have them. He had pretty sore teeth for about 3 days, but says it's getting better everyday.

Annika...

I finally got a picture of her.

Has been doing really well is vision therapy and has begun reading me a picture book each day. She's really enjoying the books and doing an amazing job in working on her fluency and decoding. It so nice to see her being able to enjoy reading instead of dreading it. The books she's read are listed on the sidebar. Her book work this week included 4 lessons and a quiz in Teaching Textbooks 4, 6 pages in Explode the Code book 4,finishing step 2 and half of step 3 in All About Spelling Level 2, and 5 pages in her penmanship book.

Lucas...

completed 8 lessons in McRuffy math, 6 pages in his penmanship book and 3 lessons in All About Reading Pre-1. He's having so much fun playing the games again and doing the letter pages this time through.

Art

I bought a huge bucket of air dry clay and let the kids go to town with it, they make a few dragon figures and then painted the. They also helped me make our Angry Bird costumes for Halloween.

Weekly Report-- October 10-14, 2011

2011-10-15T09:54:00.001-04:00

Well we finally made it through week 3. The schedule got a little off track, but we're still making progress and have a good plan in place for the next few weeks that works around some appointments we have coming up. Here's what we did this week.

We started the week by going to our first play, it was a children's theater show called Maximus Mars. The kids loved it and can't wait to go back next month for the next play in the series.

Everett...

completed a lesson in First Language Lessons 4, which he apparently requires the use of his homemade Emu Quill ballpoint pen.

He also completed two penmanship pages, 2 lessons in Teaching Textbooks 7, Step 7 in All About Spelling Level 3, pages 3-5 in Key to Fractions book 2, and wrote a paragraph about Whooping Cranes.

Annika...

refused to let me take any pictures of her working, so all I have is a short write up. She did an excellent job at Vision Therapy which means she got to drop two of her least favorite therapy homework assignments. She completed 2 lessons in First Language Lessons 3, 4 pages in her penmanship book, 4 pages of Explode the Code book 4, 3 lessons in Teaching Textbooks, and half of Step 2 in All About Spelling level 2. I also wanted to get her reading again, she's been a bit reluctant to read because of her difficulties and vision issues. I remembered a post on a homeschool forum by a mom that mentioned she got her daughter to enjoy reading practice more by using picture books instead of leveled readers. So we stopped at the library after therapy and picked up 8 books, she's read two this week and was so proud of herself.

Lucas...
completed 5 math lessons in McRuffy math K and 2 penmanship pages. He was super happy to see Ziggy the Zebra from All About Reading make a return. I dug out our AAR level Pre-1 stuff while we wait for level 1 to be released. We went through this level before but he wasn't interested in the worksheets, so we picked those up where we'd left off. He did the pages for Captial letter K and L and had fun playing games with Ziggy. Here he is with his completed Letter "L" page.

All in all a decent week, now that we're back on track things should go much more smoothly.

Weekly Report -- September 26-30, 2011

2011-09-30T21:33:00.003-04:00

Week 2 is done. It was an ok week, not as much was done as I would have liked, but we had some days of "life happens" in there.

Everett...

completed 3 lessons in Teaching Textbooks math 7, and took the pretest for Key to Fractions books 1 and 2 on the Key to Tracker online program. He tested out of book one, but thinks book 2 will be fun. He also did 4 pages in his penmanship book, 1 lesson of First Languages Lessons Level 4, another part of Step 7 in All About Spelling level 3, and finally finished the first day of Writing with Skill. Yes this was supposed to all be done in one day, but I stretched it out so he would really understand what was expected of him. He did great and I really think he'll enjoy this program.

Annika...

had fun again at Vision Therapy, and has been diligently doing her therapy homework. She completed 4 lessons and a quiz in Teaching Textbooks math 4, 1 lesson in First Language Lessons Level 3, we pulled out Explode the Code book 4 and she did 4 pages. She also completed 2 pages in her penmanship book.
Lucas...
did 3 lessons in McRuffy math K and 4 pages in his penmanship book. I also decided to not use McRuffy for his Phonics work, he preferred All About Reading Pre-1 level, but for now we'll work through Get Ready for the Code and Go for the Code until All About Reading level 1 is released. I'm also thinking of starting him on All About Spelling pretty soon as well.

Another pretty easy week, but we're getting back into the groove of things. Hopefully after one more basic week we'll start adding history, science, art and music back in.

Weekly Report--Sept 19-23, 2011

2011-09-24T21:06:00.000-04:00

The new school year has begun. It's exciting to begin the year, but we started later than usual because we were able to take a 6 week trip to the Midwest starting the end of July. We got to visit with lots of family. If you'd like to know what we were up to those 6 weeks you can see that at my other blog The Cackling Stump.
Here's what we did this week. I kept it nice and light, because I think it would be best to gradually get into the swing of things.

Everett...

was happy that school was starting again, but was a little worried because he's now a 7th grader and knew the work would get tougher. He completed 2 lessons in Teaching Textbooks math 7, 2 pages in his penmanship book, 2 lessons of First Languages Lessons Level 4, part of Step 7 in All About Spelling level 3, and lastly dived in to the first lesson of the soon to be released Writing With Skill (the author, Susan Wise Bauer was gracious enough to send us the first 20 weeks as part of a Beta Testing of the program). He really enjoyed the first lesson even though we had tested the program about a year ago. I wanted to start at the beginning again, because there had been some updates and it's been quite a while since we had done the original Beta Testing.

Annika...

also was happy that school was starting again and began our first day with a trip to the Vision Therapy doctor for her first appointment. It went well and she's done her vision therapy homework without complaint this whole week. She completed 2 lessons in Teaching Textbooks math 4, 2 lessons in First Language Lessons Level 3 (which she was excited to start), Step 1 of All About Spelling Level 2, and 4 pages in her penmanship book. Next week we'll add her Explode the Code workbooks back in, she's still not done with phonics due to her vision issues, but she's looking forward to getting that resolved through therapy this year.

Lucas...
couldn't have been more excited to start 1st grade. He eagerly did 2 lessons in McRuffy Phonics and Reading K, 2 lessons in McRuffy math K and 2 pages in his penmanship book. Yes he's using programs that say "Kindergarten" as the level, but they seem a bit advanced compared to some other programs to me.

As you can see, it was a pretty easy week, but I didn't want to bite off more than we could chew right away. The kids had fun and are anxious to continue our lessons next week. We'll keep adding things in until we're at a full course load.

2011-06-29T17:02:00.000-04:00

The new school tables finally arrived on Tuesday night, so I spent part of the afternoon on Wednesday finally digging through all the shelves weeding out things we don't need anymore and packing up things that won't be used for some time. I got everything organized and now the school room is ready for our 2011-2012 school year. I've updated the pictures of the room which will be on the sidebar, but thought they also deserved a post of their own.

I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Our Curriculum the 2011-2012 school year.

2011-06-14T22:14:00.001-04:00

I've made the final choices for curriculum for the 2011-2012 school year. I'm still amazed that it will be the beginning of our 6th year of homeschooling and that I'll now have a 7th grader, 4th grader and a 1st grader. I'm sure it will be a tough year, but a fun year all the same.

So now without further ado...

The 2011-2012 Curriculum Line Up

For Everett

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For Annika Clare

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For Lucas

Focus on Lucas John

2011-06-13T21:47:00.000-04:00

I had mentioned a while back that I was going to from time to time do a post that would focus on one of my children and a special interest or talent they have. My youngest is a wildly energetic boy who absolutely without a doubt loves Pigs. He has yet to meet a pig he doesn't like, and yes that includes liking to eat them. He collects stuffed pigs and wanted me to show off his collection. I hope you enjoy Lucas John's

Parade of Pigs

A new addition to the School Room

2011-06-06T10:42:00.001-04:00

Before he left for a week at sea, Matt helped me with my latest project.
I always hang "counting our way to 100 days" chart for our school year. Unfortunately the one I picked for this coming year was a poster that was 38" wide and needed to be on a magnetic surface because the pictures you add to it are actually magnets. My magnetic whiteboards (for extras) are only 36" wide. I didn't want to put it on my large white board because I use that for teaching grammar, math and other lessons on. So I went on a quest at home depot for some magnetic metal sheets. I found 16" x 36" panning in the duct work section. Dh and I bought 3 of them, some finishing washers and some screws, came home and screwed them to the wall. It was so easy and now I have a 36" X 50" magnetic surface on my school room wall. It took us about 10 minutes to put it up. I used a nail set to punch holes in the panning (it's very thin so one good whack made a small hole) and used the finishing washers to give it a nicer look. It has a bent up edge on one short side of the panning, but you can either cut it off or leave it. I decided to just leave it on and just made sure that edge was always on the top of the boards when putting them up.

Here's some pictures.

The 100 day poster I needed to come up with a solution for is on the bottom and I hung another poster on the top for safe keeping until I figure out if I want it there or somewhere else.

Each panning sheet cost $5.44, the screws were $1.06 and the finishing washers were $2.56, so it the whole thing was under $20.

Last Day of School 2010-2011

2011-06-01T12:53:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was the official last day of school for this year. We were very happy to be able to go on our traditional last day field trip to the Children's Museum of Virginia in Portsmouth. We were unable to do this last year because they were closed for a huge remodel. It was well worth the wait, the kids had a blast!

Enjoy the slideshow and see you in the fall. I have made our curriculum picks for next year but will post about that closer to the start date of our 2011-2012 school year.

Weekly Review -- May 16-20, 2011

2011-05-20T22:30:00.000-04:00

This will be my last weekly review until we start school in full force again next Sept. For the remainder of this month we'll be doing math only on a 7 day a week schedule. Other than that we're done for the year.

Everett...

Tried out Life of Fred and didn't care for it, so he'll just continue with Teaching Textbooks as his only math program. I'm fine with this, he loves it and learns well from it. He also worked on some writing of the story from his "Brain" that he wrote a story sequence outline for a few weeks ago.

Annika...

completed lesson 28 and Quiz 4 in Teaching Textbooks Math 4, we covered 5 lessons in AAS 1, which were doing as a phonics remediation. She also did a good amount of reading out loud to me and took a DORA test, which told me just what I thought. Her reading level is high 2nd grade, but her comprehension of something read to her is mid 11th grade.

Lucas...
did a little bit of Math and Get ready for the code, but was very excited to get Singapore Earlybird math from the UPS man on Friday and insisted on doing the whole first unit in book A right that moment.

Art
Since Friday was Everett's 12th birthday he requested a special art lesson of a trip to the local paint your own pottery shop. The kids had such a blast and talked to the owner about what art camp days they'll be attending. She's so nice to them (as is her husband) and does really wonderful camp days during the summer where the kids can make some great things.

Here's a few pictures of them at the studio and Everett's cake (not my best work but it was hot so the icing was really melty). I'll try to remember to post more after we pick up our fired pieces.

Weekly Review -- May 9-13, 2011

2011-05-14T09:16:00.000-04:00

We had a few appointments this week, but managed to get some school work done.

Everett...

completed lessons 25-27 and Quiz 3 in Teaching Textbooks 7. He also completed a grammar lesson and Step 6 in All About Spelling Level 3

Annika...

completed quiz 3 and lessons 24-27 in Teaching Textbooks Math 4, pages 5-6 in Explode the Code, and Step 1 in All About spelling Level 2.

Lucas...
completed lessons 23-29 in McRuffy Color Math K and a few pages in Get Ready for the Code.

Science

We've wrapped up science for the week by finishing the element books the kids have been working on. Group 18 was completed with experiment that involved a helium filled balloon that took a trip in the freezer.

Annika also went for her appointment at the Developmental Optometrist which showed she will need some Vision Therapy. Hopefully we'll be able to start that in the fall.

Friday we took another trip to the Strawberry farm and picked another 10lbs of berries. They are so yummy!

Weekly Review -- May 2-6, 2011

2011-05-06T12:44:00.000-04:00

Due to lots of appointments and other things going on it was another like week of Math only.

Everett...

completed lessons 22-24 in Teaching Textbooks 7.

Annika...

completed quiz 3 and lessons 22-23 in Teaching Textbooks Math 4.

Lucas...
completed lessons 19-22 in McRuffy Color Math K.

We also spent Monday on current events and I talked to the kids a bit about the tragedy of September 11, 2001 and the significance of what was on the news.

Friday was a fun field trip to the Strawberry picking farm. The kids had a blast talking to the workers about the berry plants and managed to pick 12 pounds of berries. They are graciously giving me 3 whole pounds to use for jam making and are determined to eat the rest all by themselves. Knowing my kids this really isn't much of a challenge.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and to all of my fellow Moms, Happy Mother's Day!

Weekly Review -- April 24-29, 2011

2011-04-29T19:02:00.000-04:00

This week we took it easy. All three of the kids seemed to come down with some sort of cold that resulted in lots of stuffy/runny noses and horrible hacking coughs. Because of this we just did some math, science and art.

Everett...

completed 19-21 and quiz 2 in Teaching Textbooks 7.

Annika...

completed lessons 18-21 in Teaching Textbooks Math 4.

Lucas...
completed lessons 16-18 in McRuffy Color Math K.

Science and History

No history again this week. For science the older kids worked on group 17 of the periodic table. Their elements of focus were Fluorine and Chlorine. For our first experiment (which I prepped last week) we observed an egg that we'd soaked half of in toothpaste for a week to see what happened to the calcium of it. The egg didn't look too different, a little brighter white on that half. Then we soaked the whole egg in vinegar for 10 hours and observed it again. Well the side that hadn't been stuck in toothpaste for a week got very soft and squishy. The kids thought it was great fun.

Art and Music

I've decided that art needs to be more consistent here and music needs to actually become part of our schooling. Music will start next week with 9 note recorder and a lapbook study on composers. This week I finally started the Meet the Masters program that I've had for over a year. We worked on the Preview unit, which is an overview of what we'll learn. The kids then made portfolios to keep their finished artwork in. They really enjoyed it and can't wait for the next lesson.

Weekly Review -- April 18-22, 2011

2011-04-22T21:15:00.001-04:00

A pretty good week overall. We got a good amount of work done. We were able to go for a field trip on Tuesday to see the movies Hop and Rio. Unfortunately our art project didn't turn out.

Everett...

completed lessons 10-12 in First Language Lessons 3 and has told me that he prefers this approach to grammar. Lesson 12 was a narration exercise about Bats which he really enjoyed. He watched another lesson in IEW's Student Writing Intensive A and learned about Adverbial Clauses. He loved the lesson and in the end said "Those will be easy, I've been doing those already and just never knew that's what they were called. He also worked on a Story Sequence Outline for an original story he'd like to write. We decided to not use Writing with Ease for now and just stick with narrations through First Language Lessons and other areas we work in. He completed pages14-17 in his Universal Handwriting Level D book. He finished step 5 in All About Spelling Level 3 and completed Lessons 16-18 in Teaching Textbooks 7.

Annika...

completed step 24 in All About Spelling Level 1, and received her completion certificate for this level. She's doing so well with this spelling program and can't wait to start Level 2. She worked through lessons 62, 76, and 87 in The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading, again covering some review topics. She seems to like using this book as the lessons are short and to the point. She also picked a new book to start reading, A to Z Mysteries Book 1: The Absent Author by Ron Roy. She completed pages 25-26 in Explode the Code book 4 and now we're going to shelve it for a while because the beginning lessons of All About Spelling Level 2 cover some of the things she's struggling with in Explode the Code 4. We'll pull it back out when she's a bit more confident about dividing syllables. She completed lessons 15-17 in First Language Lessons level 1 which included memorizing her 2nd poem Work. She had it 98% mastered by the 2nd day. I feel she really enjoys the memorization work. She completed pages 30-37 in her Handwriting Without Tears Cursive book and is doing great with it. Lastly, she finished lessons 15-17 in Teaching Textbooks Math 4.

Lucas...
completed lessons 7 and 8 in All About Reading Level pre-1 and lessons 14 and 15 in McRuffy Color Math K. He then seemed to start getting a cold with a runny nose and hacking cough, so spent the rest of the week resting and playing Cut the Rope, Angry Birds, Pocket Frogs and Drop the Chicken on the Ipad2.

Science and History

We didn't do any history work this week, but I'll bring it back in next week.

Baking the Meringues

We did 2 science lessons this week. The first covered Group 15 on the Periodic Table focusing on the elements Nitrogen and Phosphorus. It involved us making meringues showing how we incorporated air (nitrogen) into the egg whites. Annika thought they tasted pretty good, Everett and Lucas thought they were gross.
The second lesson covered Group 16 and focused on the elements Oxygen and Sulfur. For a sulfur experiment we over cooked a hard boiled egg to show how sulfur starts to stink when it mixes with oxygen and how it turns the outside of the yolk green. Then we put hydrogen peroxide on a cut potato to show how it reacts to form bubbles when it comes in contact with catalase, which is why it bubbles when you put it on a cut. The kids were surprised that it wasn't the germs it reacts with.

Will they be yummy?

Art
Like I mentioned above, the art project I had planned didn't turn out. I spent a good chunk of time on Thursday shaving down crayons and we were supposed to use the shavings to make the shape of an earth and then melt them into a sun catcher with an iron. I had the kids make them too large so they were to fragile to keep. Oh well, at least we tried.

I hope you all have a great Holiday Weekend.

Weekly Review -- April 11-15, 2011

2011-04-15T14:35:00.002-04:00

This week we got a lot done, not as much as I had hoped but all in all it was a good week.

Everett...

completed a few grammar quizzes which helped me see where we need to review more. We'll start up First Language Lessons 3 again next week. He also completed the rough draft of his Story Sequence paragraphs about his Paul Bunyan story and will type up the final draft next week. He also asked if he could add Writing With Ease back in because he likes the narrations and dictations from that. A year ago I never thought I'd hear that from this boy, because he hated to pick up a pencil for any reasons. He completed 4 pages in his Universal Handwriting Level D book. He's enjoying this cursive style a bit more than Handwriting without Tears, so we'll go with it. He finished steps 3 and 4 in All About Spelling Level 3 and was really excited about the Silent E book. He also completed Lessons 12-15 in Teaching Textbooks 7.

Annika...

completed steps 21-23 in All About Spelling Level 1, one more to go and then we're on to level 2. She worked through lessons 48, 54, 60, and 61 in The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. We were reviewing some trouble spots she was having with the ending blends of "ng" and "nk" as well as introducing then ending blend "ength", and the beginning blends of "ph" and "wh". She did really well with them, but we'll be taking her to a COVD.org Optometrist to check on any vision issues that may not show up on a normal vision test. She completed pages 17-24 in Explode the Code book 4 and did a grammar test and two grammar worksheets. I've decided to go back to using First Language Lessons for grammar since she is still struggling with reading, but does so well with the oral approach of FLL 1. She tried the Universal Handwriting book like Everett is using, but said she prefers the method and style of Handwriting Without Tears cursive, so we'll stick with HWOT for her. She also completed Lessons 12-14 and Quiz 2 in Teaching Textbooks 4 and is really loving the program. She's doing really well and even earning quite a few extra points in the math fact bonus rounds that come up every few lessons.

Making Pattern Block Animals

Lucas...
completed lessons 5 and 6 in All About Reading Level pre-1 and lessons 8-13 in McRuffy Color Math K, he also joined in on some history reading and observed Ev and Annika's science experiment.

Working on the turtle pattern

Science and History

Watching the marshmallows to see what happens to the
carbon in them when they are heated.

For History I finished Walk the World's Rim aloud, and Everett finished reading Pedro's Journal. We'll be returning to Story of the World next week, but will add in many of the Sonlight historical fiction books when they fit in.

For science the kids learned about Carbon and Silicon from Group 14 of the Periodic Table and did an experiment called S'more Carbon. It involved observing a marshmallow as it baked in the oven for 10 minutes. They completed their Group 14 page in their element books.

Recording their observations on their lab sheets
as the marshmallows bake to total annihilation.

I hope you enjoy the pictures, I know it's not a lot, but at least I took some this week. We're hoping next week will be productive. We will be taking a field trip to the movies one day next week to see Hop and Rio.

Weekly Review- April 4-8, 2011

2011-04-08T14:49:00.002-04:00

I went into this week knowing it would be a week of odds and ends, and not much would be done. I had to have some tests done on Monday and Tuesday for my stomach so those days were pretty much days off. In the end I decided to just learn by having fun the rest of the week. The kids all did math Mon-Thurs, and we had math game day on Friday.

Everett...

completed Quiz 1 and lessons 9-11 in Teaching Textbooks 7

Annika...

completed lessons 8-11 in Teaching Textbooks and finally finished Magic Tree House #1: Dinosaurs Before Dark! We're very proud of her. She'll be going to see a developmental optometrist in early May to check for issues that may require Vision Therapy. I've also decided that although we love McRuffy, she needs to move at a faster pace so it's back to OPGTR (Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading) to touch on the phonogram sounds she needs work on and we'll use real books for practice.

Lucas...
completed lessons 5-7 in McRuffy Color Math K, and played lots of math games with me and his older siblings.

Science and History
we caught up on a couple chapters in Walk the World's Rim and Pedro's Journal that we'd fallen behind on last week.

We're now ready for a big week back to everything full force next week. The kids will enjoy a Parent Survival Night at their gym on Saturday, not sure what Matt and I will be doing, but most likely dinner and then browsing the bookstore.

Weekly Review -- March 28 - April 1, 2011

2011-04-01T12:29:00.003-04:00

This week was supposed to be our great week to get back into the groove, and then Everett woke up with a head cold on Tuesday and I ended up spending a lot of time at the gastroenterologist on Wednesday. I also had to go for at test on Friday and have more tests next Monday and Tuesday. So needless to say it was a week of not much getting done and next week won't be much better.

Everett...

completed lesson 2.4 in Growing with Grammar 6. He wrote his first paragraph rough draft on his Paul Bunyan story. He completed Step 2 in AAS level 3, and completed lessons 6-8 in Teaching Textbooks 7.

Annika...

completed lessons 76-79 in McRuffy phonics and reading 1. She read the reader If a Skunk Gets Scared. She completed lesson 20 and part of 21 in All About Spelling Level 1. She also completed lessons 6-7 and quiz 1 in Teaching Textbooks 4. She really loves TT and I'm happy that she's doing really well with it.

Lucas...
completed lesson 4 in All About Reading Pre-1 level, and continues to love it. He also completed lessons 1-4 in McRuffy color math K. He's doing really well with his work and I'm amazed at how much he's started to enjoy sitting in on our history lessons.

Science and History
There was no science this week but we got week 2 of Sonlight Core 3 done. The kids are having fun with this new approach to history and the stories are pretty good. We have about a week's worth of reading left in Walk the World's Rim and finished up The Corn Grows Ripe. Everett also finished reading A Lion to Guard Us to his sister and brother, and I began reading Pedro's Journal. I went to a Sonlight meeting at a local homeschool book store on Thursday night and it made me even more confident in my choice to switch. I was also able to take a good long look at Science E and think that may be fun for next year if Real Science Odyssey doesn't get Physics 1 out by the time I need it.

Now we just have to get through a rough week next week and then we should be able to get back on the right track.

Weekly Reviews -- March 14-25, 2011

2011-03-25T16:56:00.002-04:00

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

2011-03-11T22:32:00.002-05:00

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

2011-03-04T19:55:00.000-05:00

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

2011-03-04T13:27:00.002-05:00

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.

Exciting News from All About Learning Press

2011-02-28T14:11:00.003-05:00

It's Here! It's Here!
That's right, All About Learning Press, the makers of All About Spelling are launching the first installment of of their new learning to read program aptly named All About Reading and it's now available Here

Here's a picture of the Pre Level 1 program.

This picture shows the deluxe program kit.

The Basic Package is $79.95 and includes everything you'd need to teach the program
The Teachers manual/student materials pack
Letters sounds CD rom
Divider cards
The Zigzag Zebra: alphabet rhyming book
Lizard Lou: rhymes old and new book
These last two are quality hardcover books

The Deluxe package is $119.95 and includes all of the items in the basic kit plus
Zebra Puppet
Activity card box to hold all your student cards
All About Reading Tote Bag.

If you order before either of the above packages before March 7th, you'll also receive free of charge the audio book versions of The Zigzag Zebra and Lizard Lou, a $20 value.

All items are also available separately,
please click here, then click on products and then click on the yellow sunburst to see individual component prices as well as samples (Scroll to the bottom of the product page for the samples)

All About Learning Press is also currently offering these two free ebooks.

Click here to receive your two free All About Reading Pre-Level 1 ebooks

Free E-Book #1: In the Kitchen with the Zigzag Zebra

The Zigzag Zebra is in the kitchen cooking up a storm, and your child can help! And while your child is helping Ziggy, he or she will be absorbing critical pre-reading skills. The activities in this e-book focus on rhyming, identifying the first sounds of a word, oral blending, and clapping syllables--all designed to reinforce phonological awareness.

Free E-Book #2: Safari Stories with the Zigzag Zebra

We're on safari with the Zigzag Zebra, and your child can come along! The activities in this e-book focus on listening comprehension, which is a precursor to reading comprehension. You can foster listening comprehension by discussing stories and characters, expanding vocabulary, and exposing children to a wide variety of activities. Sequencing activities--such as those found in this activity book--are also great for improving comprehension.

Weekly Review -- February 21-25, 2011

2011-02-25T10:41:00.001-05:00

This week started out with a fun day of enjoying the gorgeous weather. Matt was off of work Monday so we spent the day playing out in the yard with the kids and then took Lucas to gym class. The rest of the week we hit the books and had fun with some new curriculum I bought.

Everett...

completed the rest of Step 17 and all of step 18 in All About Spelling level 2. Saxon math 7/6 lessons 15-17 and Test 2 were completed. Penmanship with Handwriting without Tears Cursive is going really well. The biggest changes came when I pulled out Writing with Ease level 3 and First Language Lessons level 3. He truly enjoyed the Writing with Ease lesson, he wrote a summary of The straw, the coal and the bean by the Brothers Grimm and did such a wonderful job. He also did his first dictation in WWE and I was so impressed at how well he did and easily he handled remembering the passage. First Language Lessons level 3 was also well received. We're only 2 lessons in, but so far so good. After this first dictation and FLL lesson he exlaimed, "I love being homeschooled. Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise are awesome" This was such a wonderful boost to my confidence, I just hope he continues to enjoy them.

Annika...

started Explode the Code Book 4 and completed pages 1-4. She was happy to see the elementary writing lines are no longer in the ETC books. She finished step 12 in All About Spelling level 1. Saxon Math 3 lessons 27-29 were completed. After lots of hemming and hawing over what to do for grammar I decided to check out the Peace Hill Press website and realized that First Language Lessons Levels 1 and 2 were just what I was looking for. She completed lessons 1 and 2 in FLL level 1 and had a fun time with it. She's having a blast learning to memorize The Caterpillar by Christina G. Rosetti. I also pulled out Writing With Ease Level 1 and we started with week 5, I was so excited when she rocked the first narration exercise. She really enjoyed the story and was able to dictate a whole page summary back to me.

Lucas...

finished pages 42-47 in his Get Ready for the Code book. He completed lessons 12-13 in Saxon Math K.

Science and History
This was a History week so we brushed off our copy of The Story of the World Volume 3 and jumped in. We read chapter 6 about the puritans, who left England for Holland, and eventually left Holland for the New World. The kids enjoyed the reading and did a great job on the map work. I also found some paper models of a windmill and Dutch step house that we'll be working on over the weekend.

As many of you who follow my blog will have noticed, I decided not to use the Funnix reading program. After viewing more of the lessons and thinking it over, it just didn't seem like it would be a good fit over the long haul. I've decided instead to keep Annika working in Explode the Code, practicing her reading (she doesn't know it yet but we're getting her a Kindle this week) and All About Spelling. I've also come to the conclusion that phonics doesn't need to be complicated, so I'll be using The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading for Lucas and any remedial brush ups Annika may need.
We're also looking forward to next week, as the Virginia Zoo is finally getting ready to open The Trail of the Tiger exhibit and is offering a sneak preview for zoo members. Annika can't wait, they've been working on this exhibit for so long, and her favorite animals, the tigers, have been off exhibit the entire time.

Weekly Review-- February 7-12, 2011

2011-02-12T10:37:00.001-05:00

We were able to buckle down this week and got quite a bit accomplished. We were also able to go on a field trip to the Aquarium. It was an ok field trip, but a little hard to see all we wanted because of all the school groups that seemed to be lacking adult supervision.

Everett...

finished writing his story The Owl That Cried Crow, completing his first story sequence assignment. The Owl That Cried Crow
He also completed step 16 and half of Step 17 in All About Spelling level 2. Saxon math 7/6 lessons 12-14 were completed. We began Handwriting Without Tears cursive from the beginning to hammer out some issues we have with letter formation. Pages 7-11 were completed and he's really enjoying it. Grammar will be coming back next week, I sure hope he's ready for it.

Annika...

completed pages 92-106 in her Explode the Code 3 workbook, which means Book 3 is finished. I gave her the Funnix placement test and we'll begin Funnix 2 next week. We will go back to ETC once she gets into All About Spelling level 2, and I can coordinate some of the lessons from ETC 4 and up with it. She finished step 11 and half of step 12 in All About Spelling level 1. After reconsidering shelving Growing with Grammar level 1, I've decided that we'll bring it back and just take it nice and slow. She can easily do the work, but because of her slow moving in reading some days are really tough, but it does give her extra reading practice which is a good thing. Saxon Math 3 lessons 24-26 and Test 4 were completed.

Lucas...

finished pages 32-41 in his Get Ready for the Code book. I had him do Funnix Beginning Reading lesson 1 and he really enjoyed it, so we'll be starting that in earnest next week. He completed lessons 10-11 in Saxon Math K.

Science and History
This was a Science week and we've stuck with REAL Science Odyssey Chemistry. This week we set up our element books, and worked on our first group. We had some fun with sodium, by using table salt to make salt water and show how it improves buoyancy. To do this we floated an egg in a glass. They also completed their element book group one page, highlighting the elements Hydrogen, Lithium and Sodium. We took a field trip to the Aquarium, but I told you about that in the very beginning of the post.

We will be going back to Story of the World, the kids miss it. Time Travelers is fun, but not their cup of tea. As you can see it was a full week, and we had lots of fun. I hope next week is just as full and fun.

Weekly Review-- January 31 - February 4, 2011

2011-02-04T12:19:00.001-05:00

This week had a few hiccups due to some appointments and the crazy weather. We were fortunate to not be in one of the states hit with huge amounts of snow, but Wednesday was like a perfect late spring day with temps in the mid 70s, so the kids spent most of it outside, we'll call it PE day. Then on Thursday we had to meet Matt at the Naval base so Everett and I could get new ID cards. After our appointment we headed to the base bowling alley for lunch. I know it sounds weird but they have really good food and it's ridiculously cheap. We were able to feed a family of 5 for $20 there, after lunch Matt headed back to the ship for meetings he needed to attend and the kids and I stayed at the alley and bowled a few games. I think I'll count that as another PE day. We still managed to get some other work done as well. Here's the rundown of what else we did.

Everett...

started typing up his final drafts of the story he wrote for his Story Sequence unit. So far so good, he should finish it up soon. He completed step 15 in All About Spelling level 2 we've started stretching out the lesson to make sure we do most of the dictation phrases and sentences. Saxon math is still going well. He took Test 1 and passed with a 90%. He also completed Investigation 1 and lesson 11. On Monday he asked if it would be ok for him to work on his typing using our Typing Instructor For Kids. He really enjoys the program and is excited to be up to 11 words a minute, not bad for a kid who's only been working on typing for about a week.

Annika...

Completed pages 80-91 in her Explode the Code 3 workbook, she should finish this book next week and we'll probably take a break from Explode the Code for a while. I know that book 4 has some heavy duty work with syllables, and she's not quite ready for that. I'll most likely have her take the placement test for Funnix 2 and use that for a while to help build her reading confidence and fluency. She finished step 10 in All About Spelling level 1 and did lessons 7-8 in Growing with Grammar. I have decided to shelve Growing with Grammar for now, as it's just to much of a struggle with her reading issues. We'll still go over some simple grammar, but not with a workbook format. Saxon math is still a hit with her. She completed lessons 21-23 in Saxon math 3.

Lucas...

had a rather simple week because he got ahead of schedule last week. This week we did a few things in our books, but spent a lot of time playing and having fun. He finished pages 24-31 in his Get Ready for the Code book. He really enjoys the series and is doing great with it. He completed lessons 8-9 in Saxon Math K, he truly loves this curriculum and I'm so happy to have found something fun that he looks forward to.

Science and History
It was history week and we completed Lesson 2 in our Time Travelers Explorers unit study. The kids had fun reading about the lives of explorers. For our hands on project we bought a wide variety of dried fruits and the kids tried them. They were not a big hit, my kids love fruit, but prefer it fresh to dried.
I took a short video of them after we'd tried about 12 different kinds of dried fruit.

They've also requested that we not do the animal lapbook, because what they'd been trying to tell me is that they want more field trips, not a break from our chemistry program. Field trips I can do, so look for more pictures from those in the future.

Weekly Review-- January 24-28, 2011

2011-01-29T15:22:00.001-05:00

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

2011-01-21T14:20:00.001-05:00

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

2011-01-20T19:37:00.000-05:00

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

2011-01-15T18:32:00.001-05:00

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

2011-01-13T13:46:00.002-05:00

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.

Our Curricula for School Year 2011

2010-12-22T10:14:00.000-05:00

I thought that because I am calling a "DO-OVER" that I would do a post about the curricula we will be using once we start over. All of the stuff will also be listed on the sidebar and most of them will have links.

Everett

Annika

Lucas

We're all really excited about the changes, and about the fresh start. See you in the New Year!

A crazy season brings some changes to our homeschool

2010-12-18T21:49:00.001-05:00

With the craziness that is the holiday season I always begin to worry about our school schedule, how much we've done, and how much we have left to do. This year like most of the others started out great, then took a sudden nose dive into extended periods of time off. We then got things righted again and as soon as we start to coast the winter holidays are upon us. We're done for this part of the year.

We do have a few things that I'd like to have behind us before we are back to a full time schedule, but it will be done at a relaxed pace between now and December 29th. Matt should be on leave from the 29th of December until the 9th of January, so we'll have fun family time then, and then come back to school refreshed, myself ready to teach and the kids ready to learn.

For now we with you all a wonderful Holiday Season and hope you'll come back and see the weekly reports I'll be posting starting in mid January.

Review -- Dec. 13-17

2010-12-16T14:17:00.002-05:00

This week was a hodge-podge week. We had a few appointments to deal with and the boys both seem to have caught some sort of cold. We did what we could when we got around to it, because of that, I have not included any slideshows. There wasn't much to see.

Everett...

completed lesson 1.7 in Growing with Grammar 6, which I thought he'd done last week. He's also played lots of math games with Lucas. He is very congested and has a pretty ugly cough and runny nose, so I haven't asked much of him school wise. We did receive our Soaring with Spelling and Vocabulary level 3 book and hope to start that next week.

Annika...

read chapters 3 and 4 in Magic Tree House Book #1: Dinosaurs Before Dark and is doing pretty well with it. She was very excited to see her CLE Math 2 items arrive and has done pretests 1 and 2 from workbook 201. She is so excited about this change in curriculum and even enjoyed the flashcard work.

Science and History for Everett and Annika

was simply watching episodes of Mythbusters this week, through our Wii with their netflix instant streaming channel. All the episodes the kids picked had a little history as well as science.

Lucas...

played lots of educational games with his older siblings and drew lots of pictures for me.

All in all, it was a pretty unproductive week, but at least we got a little bit done. Hopefully next week will be more productive.

Review -- Dec 6-10

2010-12-10T12:40:00.002-05:00

Week 12 has been a good, but short week. We're working on some school but we've also been feeling really run down and a little burnt out. I think it has something to do with the big swing in temperature here. We were used to nice, not too hot-not to cold days and then we plunged down to pretty cold days with some nights below freezing. I know it's not as bad as other places, but for us wimps that are used to more gentle winters, it's been pretty rough.

Everett...

Completed lessons 1-3 in Saxon math 7/6 and did pretty well with it. We switched back to Growing with Grammar 6, because he needs more work on each section than Junior Analytical Grammar is giving him. He completed lessons 1.6 and 1.7 which worked with sentence types. His new Soaring with Spelling and Vocabulary level 3 came in so we'll start that next week. I moved him back a level to go back and cover a few gaps he has. I'm working on a new penmanship plan for him now that he's finished what I originally bought for him.

Annika...

completed lessons 76-77 in McRuffy Phonics and Reading 1. She asked me if she could start reading regular books and picked out The Magic Tree House #1: Dinosaurs At Dawn. She read chapters 1 and 2 and thoroughly impressed me with the fluency with which she read it. There were parts she struggled with, but over all it was an incredible accomplishment, which had me reevaluating her phonics and reading programs. At this point I have decided to let her use the Explode the code workbooks 3-8 at a pace that is challenging, but comfortable for her and we'll just keep reading beginning chapter books she picks out. She completed a couple lessons in McRuffy Math 2, but has been complaining it's too easy, and asked to try something else. I found the Christian Light Education placement test online and gave her that. She enjoyed the types or problems and found it to be a nice challenge, so we'll be using that once the books arrive.

Science and History for Everett and Annika

We have done no history this week, but had a fun Science/Art day on Friday. We worked on introducing Atomic Mass, and understanding why they call it The Periodic Table of Elements. We tried making some playdough from cream cheese, honey and powdered milk. It didn't turn out so I brought out the regular Play-doh and the kids had a great afternoon with that.

Lucas...

Has been doing well and completed a couple lessons in McRuffy Math K and a couple of lessons in McRuffy Phonics K. He's having some issues with blending, so we'll take a break from McRuffy and use some of the Explode the Code primers to go over letter sounds again.

Not a packed week, but not bad either. Next week will be similar due to some appointments, but we'll keep plugging along the best we can.

Review -- Nov 29 - Dec 3

2010-12-04T23:02:00.001-05:00

I thought Week 11 would be rough after a two week break from book work, but it turned out to be a good week with a fair amount of work accomplished.
On Day 1 we...
started out with a field trip to Matt's ship. It was no ordinary field trip, we were there to see Matt get promoted to the rank of Commander. We are all very proud of him and were all extremely excited to be able to be a part of the ceremony. (sorry the pictures are so small, I'm not sure why that is)

Everett...

completed quiz 14 and lessons 86-88 in Teaching Textbooks 6 and after looking into the rest of the book I've decided he's done with it and we'll move on to our next math program. He chose to use Saxon 7/6 which I'm actually pretty excited about, as I'll actually be the one teaching him again. He finished the 5th unit of Junior Analytical Grammar covering Subjects and Verbs, and did great on the unit test. All About Spelling level 2, has been shelved and we'll begin working on Soaring with Spelling level 3. Although I love the idea of AAS and have waffled with it, in the end it's just not challenging enough for him. I'm also glad to say that he's gotten back into the habit of reading every night.

Annika...

completed lessons 73-75 in McRuffy Phonics and Reading 1 and she finished reading Blaze and the Flock. I was really impressed with the progress she made in her reading fluency. She's still a little choppy but her speed has sure picked up and things seem to be sticking in her mind a little more. She asked to go back to McRuffy math 2 and completed lessons 3-6. We'll be doubling up lessons for a little while until we hit a more challenging spot.

Science and History for Everett and Annika

In history we listened to Chapter 5 of Story of the World Volume 3 about the Warlords of Japan, they each colored a picture and did some map work. I'm always amazed at how colorful they make the pictures. For science we've returned to Chemistry with R.E.A.L. Science Chemistry level 1. We started making periodic tables, and made a flipbook of the the first 18 elements.

Lucas...

Asked me if he could start doing his "ruff dog" papers again, which means his McRuffy work. I had put it away because it seemed to be moving to fast, but pulled it back out to give it a try. He did great. The math was fun and pretty easy for him and he completed lessons 15-18 in McRuffy math k. He also complete lessons 15-17 in McRuffy phonics K, and did pretty well on blending the letter sounds into some simple words. He also completed lessons 10 and 11 in McRuffy Science K which completed unit 3 on weather.

We'll be working most days for the rest of the month with the 24-25th and the 30-31 off besides weekends because Matt won't have much time off other than that. We will take our winter break the first week of the New Year instead.

Review -- Nov. 15-19

2010-11-26T16:03:00.001-05:00

We had so many fun educational outings or days while my mom was in town it was like doing school without even knowing it.

We started the week by going bowling where we practiced math facts (adding the pins) and got some physical education. The next day we went to visit the Jamestown settlement which was wonderful and only 45 minutes away. The kids loved it and were amazed at the replicas of The Susan Constant, The Godspeed and The Discovery. The Native American Village was Lucas's favorite because he was allowed to touch everything and even play with the items.

The next day mom and the kids had a Home Ec day and made cupcakes for Annika's birthday and then we all worked together to make a wonderful turkey dinner so we could celebrate Thanksgiving a bit early while mom was still in town.

Friday was Annika's 9th birthday and the kids went to The Little Gym for a Parent Survival night which must have been great fun because they slept like rocks that night.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, I'm sorry this was a week late in posting but it's been crazy here.

Review -- Nov. 18-12

2010-11-13T15:07:00.001-05:00

This week was the wrap up week for our first quarter. That's right, we finally have 1/4th of the school year behind us. Not much work to be done this week so I won't be including any slideshows. I'll make sure to put them in again when we're back to school after our 2 week break.

Everett...

completed lessons 82-85 in Teaching Textbooks 6. He began the 5th unit of Junior Analytical Grammar working on Subjects and Verbs. He's doing alright, but those pesky Pronouns are still a thorn in his side. He completed steps 11-12 in All About Spelling level 2, and worked on some penmanship practice pages I made for him using startwrite software.

Annika...

completed lessons 70-72 in McRuffy Phonics and Reading 1 and she started reading Blaze and the Flock. She completed lessons 11-12 in Saxon 3 and is loving it. She also did a few pages in Handwriting without Tears Cursive.

Science and History for Everett and Annika

Nothing to finish up for this week.

Lucas...

did a few penmanship pages from HWOT Letters and Numbers for Me and completed lessons 27 in Saxon Math K this week as well as played some math games with me.

We'll be on break for the next two weeks. We take a bit longer than most this time of year because Annika will celebrate her 9th birthday next Friday, and my mom always comes to visit for the kids birthday weeks. During our break Everett will focus on reading more since he's slacked off on that, and Annika will be going back to re-read some of her favorite McRuffy stories to help build fluency. We'll be back after Thanksgiving, and will be changing plans for science. NOEO has great books, but the kids want Experiments, Experiments, Experiments, so we'll be starting up Real Science Odyssey again.
We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Review -- Nov. 1-5

2010-11-06T17:07:00.001-04:00

This week is finished. It seemed pretty crazy, but at the same time feels like we didn't accomplish much. I think we're starting to get restless about our upcoming time off for a visit from my mom and Thanksgiving. Here's a run down of what we did.

Everett...

completed lessons 79-81 and Quiz 13 in Teaching Textbooks 6. There isn't too much left to TT 6 and then we'll be moving on to Saxon 7/6, to make sure it all sticks. He also completed the preposition unit in Junior Analytical Grammar and did well, but still thinks "Pronouns are tough." I'm sure it's the whole "they can be adjectives too" that makes them hard, but he's working through it. He completed steps 9-10 in All About Spelling level 2. I've slacked off a bit with spelling, so I'll have to get back on the wagon next week. We've shelved Institute for Excellence in Writings Student Writing Intensive A until we've completed JAG then we'll bring it out and focus on writing for the rest of the year. He also did a page in Can Do Cursive, and I'll now start making up penmanship practice pages for him using startwrite software.

Annika...

Finished up lessons 57-65 in McRuffy LA 1, and she read The Singing King. I'm happy to say that even though she stumbles on some words, her reading is moving along again. She completed lessons 4-10 in Saxon 3 and is loving it. All About Spelling Level 1 will be pulled out again just to reinforce her McRuffy lessons. AAS will be review for her, but she enjoys it so we'll do it and then once we're done with McRuffy I won't have to worry about where to go for spelling. She also did a few pages in Handwriting without Tears Cursive. She also read me a story about Gump the Turtle, from her new AAS reader The Runt Pig and other stories.

Science and History for Everett and Annika

History has been put on hold for now because we're ahead of where I had hoped to be at this time. For science we read about the five kingdoms of living things and animal classification and the kids did a notebooking page.

Lucas...

did a few penmanship pages from HWOT Letters and Numbers for Me and we jumped ahead in Saxon math after review some concepts. He completed lessons 25 and 26 this week as well as played some math games with me.

No art again this week except for their random crafting projects.

Review -- Oct. 25-29

2010-10-30T16:33:00.001-04:00

This week was supposed to be a normal school week, but then I woke up Monday and had no energy. So our set up for the blog entry this week will be a little different. I got my inspiration for listing this week by day from another homeschooling friend who blogs.

Monday

All the kids did a math lesson and a penmanship paper. Everett did grammar lesson, Annika did a phonics lesson, and the older kids did a science lesson.

Tuesday

I figured out that the bowling alley on the Naval base had a great daily special so I declared it PE day and we went bowling. The kids had so much fun, they couldn't wait to go again (see Friday).

Wednesday

We were going to do some lessons, but woke up late and needed to get to the base by early afternoon to pick up Matt for the couple of days he'd be home this month. So I pulled out the game 10 days in the USA and we had a fun morning of US geography.

Thursday

The kids each did a math lesson and a penmanship paper. I was trying to keep it light, because Matt was hoping to get home early that day. Then the Navy changed our plans and the kids did whatever while I dealt with Matt having no idea when he was coming home and the schedule changing every couple of minutes, at least it ended with Matt being home and extra day and having that day off. Ah, military life, you gotta love it.

Friday

After the Thursday schedule fiasco, which at least ended up with Matt having Friday off, the kids woke up and asked him if they could "do bowling for school". Being the principal he decided that was a great idea, so off the to Navy base bowling alley we went. We all bowled 3 games and had lunch. We made a quick stop at the base exchange (it's the base's equivalent to Walmart or Target for my non-military friends and family) and then headed home for a break. After being home a while we did "art" by picking designs and carving pumpkins. Lucas refused to scoop out the guts, he said "This is just gross." Annika and Everett did some of their own pumpkin gut scooping. I carved Lucas's pumpkin for him and Ev and Anna did as much of theirs as they could. They turned out great and we can't wait for trick or treat night.

I hope you'll all enjoy the slideshows of the bowling outing with Matt and Pumpkin carving from Friday. Matt has returned to sea again for the next few weeks, so we'll be back at our normal lessons full force next week.

Bowling Day Slideshow

Pumpkin Carving

Review -- Oct.18-22

2010-10-23T14:55:00.001-04:00

This week has been fun. We managed to accomplish a lot, had some curriculum changes that we started. I'm thinking of changing our schedule starting next week but we'll see how I feel after thinking about it over the weekend.

Everett...
completed lessons 73-76 in Teaching Textbooks 6, and would like to go on record as saying that "Decimals are much easier than fractions." He also completed the pronoun unit in Junior Analytical Grammar and did well, but said "Pronouns are tough." He completed steps 5-7 in All About Spelling level 2. We also started Institute for Excellence in Writings Student Writing Intensive A again and completed a keyword outline, rough draft and final draft on Andrew Jackson. He also did a few handwriting pages in Can Do Cursive.

Annika...

Finished up lessons 53-56 in McRuffy LA 1, Super Pork Makes Friends is her favorite of the readers so far. We started into Saxon Math 3 and although it's easy, I won't have her "test out" of any lessons. She did lessons 1-3 and is enjoying it. All About Spelling Level 1 has been shelved because there is spelling built into her McRuffy lessons. She also did a few pages in Handwriting without Tears Cursive. She has recently asked if she can write in cursive on some of her pages other than the HWOT book. This is definitely a move in the right direction.

Science and History for Everett and Annika
They listened to chapter 4 of Story of the World vol. 3 about Champlain and Hudson and the quest for the Northwest Passage. They did some mapwork and colored a picture of Champlain's journey. Science was fantastic again this week. We used our microscope a lot this week looking at sugar crystals and various types of paper. NOEO Biology 2 is working out really well so far, and the kids look forward to it daily. I posted pictures of the history and science pages in their slide shows above.

Lucas...
did the first 6 pages in his Rod and Staff ABC series Book D, he's really enjoying the variety in the pages. I also started Saxon Math K with him and he is loving it. He also did 4 pages in Handwriting without Tears Letters and Numbers for Me. There are not as many pictures for him because I didn't scan in his R&S workbook, maybe I'll do that next week.

No art was done this week, but we plan on carving pumpkins tomorrow.

Review -- Oct. 11-15

2010-10-16T15:43:00.001-04:00

Another week done, but also another week of crazy schedules. We didn't accomplish as much as I would have liked, but we did get to break into our new science curriculum which was a lot of fun. I'll apologize in advance for the lack of pictures this week. I didn't get a chance to scan anything in or take any pictures.

Everett...
is almost finished with the first decimal unit in Teaching Textbooks 6 and only has 45 lessons or quizzes left before he's done with this level. He finished up the Articles and Adjectives unit in Junior Analytical Grammar and is continuing to do well. He completed step 4 in All About Spelling level 2, and did a few handwriting pages in Can Do Cursive.

Annika...

is continuing to read Super Pork Makes Friends to work on her fluency. We should wrap up the lessons on this book next week. She did lesson 2 in McRuffy math and although she likes it enough says the pages are a bit short. We'll probably add to this using Saxon math. She completed step 7 in All About Spelling level 1 and a few Handwriting without Tears Cursive pages. Her cursive is coming along nicely and she is enjoying learning to form the letters.

Science and History for Everett and Annika
They listened to chapter 3 of Story of the World vol. 3 about James III of Scotland and James I of England, colored a picture of The Susan Constant and did some mapwork about James and the ships he sent to America which lead to the settlement of Jamestown. They also asked if we could take a trip up there in the spring to see it. Sounds like a great field trip to me. Science was fantastic this week. We started our new NOEO Biology 2 lessons and made waterscopes with a piece of cardboard, a thin piece of plastic (small piece I cut from a page protector), some tape and a drop of water. They have done 3 narration pages with this program so far and love it. I am very happy about this because we tried NOEO in the past and the narration pages were a bust, now that Everett is willing to write more and Annika isn't as afraid to ask for help on them they are doing a wonderful job.

Lucas
He completed lesson 14 in both McRuffy Phonics and Reading K and McRuffy Math K. He also did lessons 5-6 in McRuffy Science K which continued our unit on the five senses. He finished a few pages in his Handwriting without Tears Letters and Numbers For Me book. He's starting to hit a wall with McRuffy due to the quick pace of it, so we'll put it on the shelf for a while and work through The Do It Carefully book from Rod and Staff's ABC series of workbooks.

Art for All
We did no formal art this week, no fun project packs or anything. The kids just had fun doing drawings and other various art type things throughout the week.

Due to the crazy schedule we also had a Home Ec day where we spent time going over general household chores and cooking things. We also had a Math Game day where we spent the whole school day playing different games to work on math skills.

Enjoy your weekend and come check us out again next week.

Review -- Oct. 4-8

2010-10-09T20:08:00.003-04:00

This week was a bit hectic, we had lots of appointments on Tuesday and Thursday, but still managed to have a great school week and lots of fun.

Everett
Continued working through his decimals unit in Teaching Textbooks and is doing really well with them. He says they are much easier than fractions. He finished up the Noun unit in Junior Analytical Grammar and started in on Unit two: Articles and Adjectives. He completed steps 2 and 3 in All About Spelling level 2, and did a few handwriting pages in Can Do Cursive.

Annika

Asked to return to the full McRuffy Language arts program instead of just doing the dynamic phonics and we worked on lesson 51 and she read half of Super Pork Makes Friends. She completed a few lessons in Teaching Textbooks 3 and said it's kind of boring and could she use McRuffy math again. She admitted she likes it when I teach her math better, which gave me a huge ego boost. We did lesson 1 in McRuffy math 2 and will be back at it full force next week. She completed steps 5 and 6 in All About Spelling level 1 and a few Handwriting without Tears Cursive pages.

Science and History for Everett and Annika
We did not do any science this week and will start our NOEO Biology level 2 curriculum next week now that it's arrived. For history we listened to Story of the World Volume 3 chapter 2 about the Protestant Revolts and colored pages of William the Silent and Mary Queen of Scots as well as a map page. I asked them to give the Story of the World audio book another chance and said they thought it was nice. I guess Jim Weiss doesn't have such a creepy voice now that they are a little older.

Lucas
He completed lessons 11-13 in both McRuffy Phonics and Reading K and McRuffy Math K. He also did lesson 4 in McRuffy Science K which started our unit on the five senses. He finished a few pages in his Handwriting without Tears Letters and Numbers For Me book. He's doing really well and is starting to get the hang of blending some letters together to make words.

Art for All
This week we got out another craft box I picked up at AC Moore and made paper plate bugs. The kids have been having so much fun with these, but unless I find more we'll have to go back and finish left over projects from the ones we've done or try something else.
Here's a few pictures of the art day fun.

The last thing we did this week has nothing to do with school, but we'd like to share. Annika and I were out picking up a few pet supplies and the local Petsmart was having Adoption Days. We found a very loving, cuddly, 6 year old, big lump of a cat that really needed a home. It was his last chance for adoption and would have been put down if nobody chose to take him today. We just couldn't see leaving such a sweet, gorgeous cat like him behind. He's truly a joy and is settling in very well in our home.
Here's our new Big Boy... SAMMY!

We hope you enjoyed this weeks review and will come back next week.

Review -- Sept. 27 - Oct.1

2010-10-02T14:01:00.002-04:00

This Week was a basic week, we did as much as we could and had fun along the way.

Everett
Started working on his decimals lessons in math and so far he's doing well with it. He started using Junior Analytical Grammar again and asked to start at the beginning. He worked through most of the noun unit and although it's easy it is a great review. He'll take the test next Monday. We started up All About Spelling again and he had a great time working on Level 2 Step 1. I know we'll move quickly through this level and then move right along into level 3.

Annika

Has been enjoying her McRuffy Dynamic Phonics book and worked through lesson 43 this week, focusing on the -er, -ir, and -ur sounds. She'll bring in -or next week and that will wrap up the r-controlled vowels. She is currently reading Super Pork Makes Friends which is a very cute story. Teaching Textbooks is a great hit here. She completed lessons 5-7 and got her first "bonus" section when doing lesson 7. She did well with it and earned an extra 2 points which gave her a 109% on the assignment. She was very excited and proud of herself. I began All About Spelling level 1 with her again and she blazed her way through steps 1-5.

Science for Everett and Annika
This week we worked on learning about the layers of the earth. We made models out of crayola model magic and had lots of fun playing with the left over "clay"

Lucas
He did really well with his phonics test again and is having loads of fun in kindergarten.

Art for All
We wrapped up the week with another art day project. I got out another kit that I'd bought. This one is the Paper Bag Puppet Kit. It was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed it. Here are a few pictures of the kids working on them and the finished projects.

We look forward to another great week coming up. I hope you'll come back next week to check out our next Review.

I've had a lot of people asking me how we did the tissue paper art.

2010-09-24T15:22:00.000-04:00

Many have been asking me how we did the tissue paper art today, I bought it as a kit from Target. Here is the link to it on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Alex-My-Tissue-Art/dp/B000HV2TY2/ref=sr_1_1?s=gateway&ie=UTF8&qid=1285355915&sr=8-1

It comes with 6 shapes that are already sticky. You just peel off the backing roll the provided tissue paper squares (or cut your own from fancier tissue paper you may have) into little balls and smush them on the backing. It also comes with the google eyes.

Review, Part 2-- Sept. 20-24

2010-09-24T13:33:00.002-04:00

Part 2 was a great success. It was a nice, casual week because we were just working to catch up on things that had to be put on hold last week.

The kids asked why we weren't doing history this year, so I asked them what they'd like to do. They wanted to review what we'd started last year and then move on, so I pulled out my copy of Story of the World Volume 3: Early Modern Times and decided to start at the beginning. We'll also be using the activity guide for it. Everett and Annika both did some language arts and math lessons, but I won't bore you with those details. Here's a slide show of the history pages and a cursive sheet for each.

Everett

Annika

Lucas wrapped up his week with phonics, math and science work. He's really enjoying all of his McRuffy curriculum.

We wrapped up the week with a fun art day project. I pulled out a tissue paper art kit and the kids had a blast making their tissue paper pictures.

As promised, here are the finished items.

Here are few curriculum changes to note. Everett was getting bogged down with Growing with Grammar so we'll be moving back to Junior Analytical Grammar and he asked to start at the beginning. I will oblige him there, extra review is always good. After finishing the Writing with Skill beta testing, he'll be using Writing with Ease instead of IEW. Spelling is the last area of change for him, Soaring with Spelling didn't even get it's full trial, he's just bored, so we'll be pulling out All About Spelling again, and I will not try anything else. That's the one that works for him and I should stop worrying about it. Annika is using McRuffy's Dynamic Phonics Learning book in hopes to speed up phonics and focus more on reading than all the other Language arts stuff. I'll also add in Writing with Ease for her and if she'd like to do All About Spelling we'll start that for her.

I hope you all enjoy the slideshows and video. Tune in next week for another review.

Review Part 1 -- Sept. 13-17

2010-09-17T13:45:00.002-04:00

This week had it's ups and downs, because of them I've decided to call this Part 1 and next week we'll finish up with Part 2.

We started out the week with a fun Art day. I put out tempra paints and just let them kids go to town. They had lots of fun and created some nice looking paintings.

Monday we did some math and language arts and then Annika and Lucas had their first gym classes of this semester. Late Monday night I found out that Colonial Williamsburg was having it's fall Home Educators Week this week and next, so we took off Tuesday morning and spent the day up there. It was lots of fun and although we saw a lot, we didn't get to it all. We plan to go back in the spring.

Wednesday was a day of life happening and errand running. Then Thursday I had to take the van in and spent 2.5 hours of my morning in the rudest car dealership I've ever had to deal with. I can't wait until we are able to purchase a different vehicle so I never have to go back there again.

I hope you enjoy the slideshows again, I received many compliments on them last week, so I decided to make them a permanent part of my weekly reviews.

Review -- Sept. 6-10

2010-09-09T20:42:00.003-04:00

We had a great week back. Matt was able to be home with us for our first day and took pictures of me and the kids on the front porch.

This year we're putting history aside and working on geography alone in that area. We are using pages from Home School in the Woods' Olde World US maps. They pack a lot of information onto them. We are also watching the History Channel series, The States, which the kids are really enjoying.

Here are some slideshows of what the kids each did in their other subjects.

Everett

Annika

Lucas

We will be making some small curriculum changes. Annika will use Teaching Textbooks 3 for math and Everett will be using Soaring with Spelling and Vocabulary instead of Spelling Power. I hope you all enjoyed our week in review. We had a lot of fun and are looking forward to next week.

The Official 2010-2011 Curricula picks

2010-09-01T22:00:00.003-04:00

The 2010-2011 school year is right around the corner. We will begin on Monday, September 6th. Yes that is Labor Day, but this gives Matt a chance to join in the actual homeschooling day, which he doesn't get to do often. I have officially finalized my curricula choices for this year and think it's going to be a productive and fun year.

Although continuing to work on Annika's reading and Everett's writing will be a focus area, I'm also making a great effort to make sure we get Art in on a more regular basis. I will also be adding Lucas in on a bigger level. It's his Kindergarten year, so I want to make it lots of fun without being overwhelming to him. He's a very bright boy and should fit into the mix without any issues.

Without further ado, here are the picks for this year.

For Everett

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For Annika

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For Lucas

I look forward to writing my "Week in Review" posts in the upcoming months.
I wish you all a wonderful fall.

Summer School Week 5 -- June 21-25

2010-06-25T15:18:00.001-04:00

We've been gone a while, due to standardized testing and then a busy week of appointments. This week we did a little bit of summer school work but mostly enjoyed hanging out together.
Everett:
Reading: He's finished reading  The Fire Within and has begun reading Icefire. He is really enjoying the series and has quite a list of books he wants to read over the summer and for the next school year.
Math: I decided that we'd use Math-U-See for summer math maintenance and he completed lessons 1 and 2 in Gamma. He's going through it quickly which is fine, because we'll catch any holes and make sure to fill them in.
Writing:  He asked to do some writing this summer so we brought out Writing with Ease: level 2 again and he completed the first 2 days of week 1. We're taking it slow and relaxed. I was really happy with the narration he did, since it's been a while.

Annika:
Reading: She's been asking to just try reading real books instead of phonics lessons and I thought, why not give it a try. She trudged her way through One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish over a weeks time. There were some rough spots but she's doing really well and it seems like some things are starting to click. She's now working on reading Green Eggs & Ham.
Math: I also put her in Math-U-See for summer math maintenance, and she did lessons 1 and 2 in Alpha this week. She's really enjoying watching Mr. Demme on the DVD and says he's fun and funny to watch.
Writing:  I also thought I'd pull Writing with Ease: Level 1 back out for her and she completed days 1 and 2 of week 1. She said she remembered doing this before and liked it, and although narrations can still be tough I think she'll make great strides with it soon.
Lucas:
Preschool: I've brought out the Rod and Staff preschool books and we started working through Adventures with Books.  He's excited to have a new book to work in and is doing well. He still has some some issues with coloring in the lines, but we're getting there.

I also received the kids standardized test scores this week and was pleased to see they did well. We have a few areas to work on, but no surprises there.

We're officially on summer break now, see you again in September

Summer School Week 4 -- May 24-28

2010-05-28T13:44:00.003-04:00

After a two week break we had a few lessons this week. The first of our weeks off was spent painting and reorganizing our school room, the second week was spent enjoying some time with my mom who came into town. We went to the Virginia Aquarium, the Virginia Zoo and Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Everett also celebrated his 11th birthday.
This week we did some lessons on Monday-Wednesday and spent Thursday and Friday doing fun art projects.
Here's the run down.
Everett:
Grammar: Growing with Grammar 5: He completed lessons 3.19-4.3, he wrapped up the verb unit and started in on pronouns.
Reading: He's continuing to read The Fire Within and is really enjoying it. He asked me to pick up the other 3 books in the series and plans to read all of those over the summer.
Math: We've reached the point of math maintenance for the summer. He's working through Evan Moor Daily Word Problems and other various fact sheets I give him.

Annika:
Language Arts: CLE LTR and LA was moving a bit slow so we've dropped the workbooks and are just using flash cards and the primers. We're also doing some lessons from The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading which she's enjoying since I started writing out the parts she's supposed to read on the white board. She's also working on Explode the Code workbook 3. She asked to start using ETC again, because she likes the funny pictures. She also has only two more speech therapy sessions left for the year. It's amazing how far she's come.
Math: She's been working on Horizons math and has completed Lessons 1-12 as well as test 1 since the books arrived. She's really enjoying all the colorful pages and loves that she's working with the hundreds and thousands place now. She's doing really well and I've noticed her addition facts are almost all mastered.
Lucas:
Preschool: Lucas continues to do some fun pages from Kumon books, playing with his smartcycle and listening to someone read him a story.

All three kids worked on some Model Magic presto dot kits that I bought and had a lot of fun with it. I'll have to work on bringing stuff like that out more often.

We've received all of our curriculum for the next school year and have placed it all on the shelves so it's ready to go when we start up full time again. It may be a while since we're enjoying our summer.

Next week will be another casual week because we have some appointments to take care of and the following week is standardized test week.

Our School Room Make Over is Complete

2010-05-15T10:57:00.000-04:00

Hi All,
I know I've posted many school room revamps in the past, but this was by far the biggest change. We were not quite pleased with the eggplant purple color that the landlord left that room. We had lived with it for 2 years, but decided it was time to brighten the school room up. The kids and I decided on keeping the two color paint scheme with the white chair rail in between, and thought Peacock blue and Ocean Water blue were the best shades for our room. I was then able to move some furniture take a large desk out and use the public school type desks the kids were using into their computer centers. The kids asked to school at a single, large table instead of separate desks and I was able to find a farmhouse table and chairs at a local consignment shop for a great price. The table was in good shape, just needed a light sanding and refinishing and the chairs were in perfect condition, just needed new felt pads on the feet to keep from scratching the wood floor. I still have a lot of open wall to hang our maps and stuff on, but we decided to wait a little and we'll hang things as we need them. We want to savor the color before covering too much of it up. One of the best parts was by changing out the desks and putting in the table we now have a lot more room to walk in the room and we were able to clear stuff away from the windows, which will let in a lot more natural light. It will also allow the cat a better place to sit, because since he couldn't get to the windows before he used to sit on someone's desk. It's not easy to do your seat work with a cat laying across you papers.

I hope you all enjoy the pictures.

Summer School Week 3 -- May 3-7

2010-05-07T15:07:00.001-04:00

Well not as much got done this week as I'd hoped because it's time for our annual "Dear landlord, the A/C isn't working again" issues. It's been a long week of trying to get this company to understand that my landlord lives in Nevada and wouldn't you know it is a pilot for the US Navy and can't drop everything to wait around for their calls when they finally decide to let him know what's wrong. We've done as much as we can and had a few placement tests taken as well. With Everett's birthday coming up we also went shopping for new bikes because he asked for one so he can finally learn to ride a two wheeler. We got them Monday and within 2 minutes he was up and running. I'm so proud of him and he's just giddy with himself. So the kids have spent a bunch of time riding bikes this week.
Here's what school work we did get done.
Everett:
Grammar: Growing with Grammar 5: He completed lessons 3.16-3.18, he's done really will with all the participles that have come his way lately as well as those pesky irregular verbs.
Spelling: Nothing this week.
Reading: Bunnicula Strikes Again just wasn't holding his interest so he asked to pick a new book. He decided to read The Fire Within which he picked up at Barnes and Noble on our last trip, so far he says it's pretty good. He was also excited to see the newest Rick Riordan book, The Red Pyramid, arrive as an early birthday gift.
Math: Teaching Textbooks lessons 61-62 were completed. He also completed the Saxon Middle grade placement test so I can see what level we'll be starting soon.
Annika:
Language Arts: CLE's Learn to Read and Language Arts programs are going really well. She's completed her LTR lightunit 5, started LTR lightunit 6 and completed LA lightunit 1. She's enjoying the stories in the Primers and her reading fluency is progressing, things aren't as choppy when she read anymore.
Spelling: Nothing this week, other than what's in the CLE program.
Math: Saxon math2 lessons 62 and 63 were completed, and she took the Horizons Math placement test. Saxon's working ok, but the amount of review is a bit light and it's moving a bit slow for her. She saw Horizons at the homeschool book store when I was there and loved all the color and types of problems on the page, so I plan to try it and then keep Saxon as a back up just in case.
Lucas:
Preschool: Is just doing his thing and asking me to read copious amounts of books to him.

We're anxiously awaiting the rest of our Sonlight History and Science items to arrive and have plans to paint our school room soon. We are also counting down the days until my mom arrives for her visit.

Tune in next week for our Summer School Week 4 review.

Summer School Week 2 -- April 26- May 1

2010-05-02T10:38:00.000-04:00

So far our summer Language Arts and Math lessons have been going great. We have a few things ordered we're going to be trying out. First is Jackris publishings, the makers of growing with grammar, new spelling program. The kids are interested to see what it's like. We also have Sonlight curriculum's Core 3: Introduction to American History Part 1 items on the way. We had a lot of them so we figured we do a more thorough study of American history and that starting at the beginning was the wisest thing to do.
Here's what we did this week.
Everett:
Grammar: Growing with Grammar 5: He completed lessons 3.11-3.15. Verbs can be tough but he's doing well and seems to be retaining it.
Spelling: All About Spelling 2 steps 16 was completed.
Reading: He's taken a break from reading Bunnicula Strikes Again to read other non-fiction books around the house. He's also been reading picture books to his little brother.
Math: Teaching Textbooks lessons 56-59 and Quiz 10 were completed. Multiplying and Dividing Fractions was a rough road in the beginning but he seems to have caught on and thinks fractions are fun now.
Annika:
Language Arts: Well we started our CLE program this week and she completed Light Unit 105 in the Learn to Read series. She is doing well in her Language Arts lightunit 101 and should finish that next week. That leaves 5 Learn to Read lightunits and 9 Language Arts lightunits left to go. She's enjoying the work and is more confident when she reads out loud. I think the flashcards for words and phrases as well as the mix of phonics and sight reading approach is just what she needed. I just hope things continue to progress well.
Spelling: On hold until our new Soaring with Spelling comes. We hit a wall in AAS 1 and she's not ready to move forward there, so we'll just sit and stew a bit and try out SWS when it gets here.
Math: We hit a spot in Saxon math 2 where it was all review again so we went back to doing a test a day until we found her next hurdle. This means she passed the tests allowing her to skip lessons 41-60 and finished lesson 61 this week. Her addition and subtraction facts are coming along well. We've hit the part where they teach what they call the "oddball" facts. Things like 8+5 and 7+4 where they're is no real pattern to the set of facts that can be taught.
Lucas:
Preschool: Is just doing his thing. Playing with his smart cycle, doing a work page here and there, having fun being 4 for a few more months.

We're excited about our lessons lately and I hope that continues. We're also looking forward to a visit from my Mom in about 2 weeks. She'll be here for a week which should be lots of fun.

Tune in next week for our Summer School Week 3 review.

Summer School Week 1 -- April 19-23

2010-04-23T14:37:00.000-04:00

It's our first official week of summer school. This will actually be a long session because we wrapped up a lot of subjects early this year and because we'll be starting later than normal so we can have lots of time off when Matt comes back from deployment.
Here's what we did this week.
Everett:
Grammar: Growing with Grammar 5: He completed lessons 3.6-3.10 even sneaking down Wednesday night when he couldn't sleep to get his grammar work for Thursday to work on in the middle of the night. He's doing so well with this program and things seem to be sticking.
Spelling: All About Spelling 2 steps 14 and 15 were completed.
Reading: He is reading Bunnicula Strikes Again. He's purposely slowed down to try and stretch the book out.
Math: Teaching Textbooks Quiz 9 and lessons 52-55 were completed. I think he finally understands GCF and LCM, and has now moved onto Unit 10 which works on multiplying and dividing fractions.
Annika:
Language Arts: UGH! That's almost all I can say about LA with this girl. We're still working on reading at grade level and fluently. Saxon phonics ended up being a flop, so we're back to Christian Light Education Learn to Read. She only needs to do the 2nd half of it because we did the first half last summer. She'll also be adding in CLE's Language Arts along with it since that's how the program is set up. We spent the last 3 days of this week doing a review of the first 4 lightunit workbooks for Learn to Read using the reading primers, word and phrase flashcards. She did so well with it, I guess she wasn't as far behind as I thought, now I just have to keep moving her forward. I will get this girl reading fluently if it kills me, which many times I've thought it will.
Spelling: Nothing in All About Spelling, but we'll have some spelling work in our CLE work.
Math: I'm so glad that math has been figured out and finalized for her. Saxon is working great and she enjoys it. She completed lessons 36-40 this week and seems to have mastered those pesky doubles +1 facts.
Lucas:
Preschool: He's still working away at his Kumon maze, number and cutting book. I do have the Rod and Staff ABC series on it's way for him because he's blazing through these other books.

Because the kids asked about continuing history in a relaxed way I've decided to just read Story of the World Volume 3 to them at a leisurely read aloud pace through the next month or so. We'll probably throw in a coloring page or map from the activity guide from time to time. The reason I decided this is because our last program didn't have us read this book in order, which made somethings a little hard to understand. The kids enjoy the book and were very excited to hear I'd decided to read it all over again in order.

Tune in next week for our Summer School Week 2 review.

Week 28 in Review -- April 12-16

2010-04-17T17:13:00.001-04:00

This was our last official week of this school year. We will now be in Language Arts and Math only summer session. I know for many it's not anywhere near summer but we started this year really early and despite some set back the kids rallied and completed more than I thought. Because some of the curricula was started at the half way point of the year we'll continue those through our summer session.
Here's the run down.
Everett:
Grammar: Growing with Grammar 5, Unit 3 on verbs was started. He completed lessons 3.1-3.5. So far so good although verbs can be tough for him.
Spelling: All About Spelling 2 steps 12 and 13 were completed. We also took the time to do a review test of all 100 words he'd learned in steps 1-11. He was stoked that he only misspelled 4 of them. Not bad, not bad at all if I do say so myself.
Writing: Writing is on hold for now, although we'll do some writing from our Growing with Grammar lessons.
Reading: He began and finished reading Return to Howliday Inn was finished and Bunnicula Strikes Again was began. He's really enjoyed this series but was sad to see there is only 1 book left after this one.
Math: Teaching Textbooks Quiz 8 and lessons 48-51 were completed. He's still having some trouble with LCM and GCF, but it's getting better each lesson.
Annika:
Language Arts:Explode the Code Book 2 was finished. Saxon Phonics 2 lessons 5-8 were completed and it's turned out not to be what was needed. We've decided to go back to CLE Learn to Read which we had tried in the past and was going ok. The new 2nd edition looks like it's remedied the few issues we had with it.
Spelling: All About Spelling level 1 step 17 was completed. She also received her Beehive Readers Saturday and was really excited. She even offered to read her brothers a story.
Math: Saxon Math 2 is going well. She completed lessons 30-35 this week and did really well. The doubles plus one facts have been a real thorn in her side but she's starting to overcome them. I think most of it was fear that they were "too hard" but we're working on that.
Lucas:
Preschool: He's been having a great time with his new Kumon books especially the My First book of Cutting. He's also progressed to writing something that looks like his first name on his papers, which is a major step forward for his fine motor skills.

They have asked to continue with some history lessons yet, so we'll most likely cover westward expansion at a leisurely pace when we can through read alouds.

Tune in next week for our Summer week 1 review.

Week 27 in Review -- April 5-9

2010-04-09T12:41:00.001-04:00

It is also Science Week here at Fawkes Academy. We've had gorgeous summer like weather all week so we spent it doing science experiments and working around the yard.
Here's the run down.

Subjects we all do together.
History: We watched discs 4-6 of Liberty's Kids thus wrapping that up. We also finished reading Ben and Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin By His Good Mouse Amos. History is considered finished for the year as we've made it through the time of the American Revolution which was the goal.
Science: We wrapped up our trip around the planets covering the outer planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and the dwarf planet Pluto. We'll do a short week on Stars next week and then Science will be finished for the year.
Here's a great video of the most fun science experiment we did all week. We made the storms of Jupiter in a pie plate.

Next week will be our last official week for the year then we'll start our Language Arts and math double lesson summer session. I dare you to say that 3 times fast :)

Tune in next week for our week 28 review.

Week 26 in Review -- March 29-April 2

2010-04-02T12:46:00.002-04:00

We had a good week although it contained a bump in the road on Tuesday when Lucas had to go for a check up and received 3 shots. He had a really rough day but bounced back the next day. We had a fun field trip to the movies on Thursday where we saw How to Train Your Dragon in IMAX 3D. It was a great movie and the kids had a blast.
Here's the rundown of the school work we accomplished this week.

Everett:
Grammar: Growing with Grammar 5, Unit 2 on nouns was completed. He gaining a lot of confidence in his ability to understand grammar and has come to enjoy it.
Spelling: All About Spelling 2 steps 7-11 were completed he's found his groove in this program and so far it's working well.
Writing: We took a break from Writing this week, although he did finish watching disc one of Student Writing Intensive A, he's excited to start disc two next week and begin the story sequence soon.
Reading: He began and finished reading Return to Howliday Inn the next in the Bunnicula series he's really enjoyed. I'm still amazed at how his love of reading grew over the past few months.
Math: Teaching Textbooks lessons 44-47 were completed. Factors have been rough, but I think he's finally got it.

Annika:
Language Arts:Explode the Code Book 2 is almost finished and she's done really well with it. We have decided to put HeadSprout on hold for now, because it's gotten a bit ahead of her and is starting to frustrate her. Saxon Phonics 2 lessons 1-4 were completed and she's really enjoying it. There has been a little bit of coding introduced and so far she likes it a lot.
Spelling: All About Spelling level 1 steps 13-16 were completed. We have decided to finish level 1 of AAS and then put it on hold until we see how Saxon phonics and spelling goes. She is really enjoying the Saxon, and if spelling is included I don't want to over do it.
Math: Saxon Math 2 has been just the ticket for her in math. She completed lessons 26-29 this week and looks forward to math and even the timed fact drills.

Lucas:
Preschool: He's completed his My first book of Coloring and My first book of Mazes. He's really looking forward to the My first book of Cutting and others that are coming up next.

Subjects we all do together.
History: We watched the last two episodes on disc 3 of Liberty's Kids and I began reading Ben and Me as a history read aloud. So far the story is a good one and the dvds are always a big hit.
Science: We wrapped up our Earth unit by observing out biosphere and discussing it's similarities and differences with our planet. We also did our Mars experiment but must watch it over the next few days as we wait for the rust to form.

Tune in next week for our week 27 review.

Week 25 in Review -- March 22-26

2010-03-26T14:15:00.000-04:00

This week's weather has been quite enjoyable, not too cool, not to hot. We're having showers today as I write this but all in all a great week to enjoy being outside. The kids have been very diligent in their work and we seem to have found our stride again.
Here's the run down of what we did this week.

Everett:
Grammar: Growing with Grammar 5 is working really well, he's enjoying the lessons and doing quite well with them. He completed Lessons 2.7-2.11 working with nouns and plurals.
Spelling: All About Spelling 2 steps 5 and 6 were completed and he's doing really well with it. We may speed up the pace a bit since the upcoming lessons are more of a review for him.
Writing: This week he did the reinforcement lessons with the model The Cocks and the Eagle, he's doing well with it and enjoys writing. He's even jumped ahead on his own to start changing the details to create a similar but unique story. I guess he's ready to move on to Unit 3 and the story sequence.
Reading: He had gotten through about half of How to Train Your Dragon with the kids and they are all looking forward to seeing the movie in IMAX 3D when finished. I see a field trip in our future.
Math: Teaching Textbooks lessons 41-43 and Quiz 7 were completed. He completed the unit on fractions and began the unit on Factors.

Annika:
Language Arts:Explode the Code Book 2 is going well and I've noticed just the reading in this workbook has helped her a great deal. Saxon Phonics 2 arrived this Wednesday and she's very excited to start that next week. I think it will help her quite a bit. The coding will be a new thing we've never done, but I have a feeling it will help her make sense of things. She's also completed episodes 61-64 in Headsprout which leaves her only 16 episodes until she's finished, she's very excited about it and I noticed that she has very little trouble reading while doing her episodes. I think reading out loud to me makes her a bit nervous, so we'll have to work on making her more comfortable with that.
Spelling: All About Spelling level 1 steps 11-12 were completed. We may put AAS on hold for a little while, so we can get Saxon Phonics 2 up and running, because it does include spelling.
Math: Saxon Math 2 is going great, she really likes the lessons and was excited to see drawing boxes for the some-some more and some-some went away stories (also known as word problems) come back. After working over last weekend with the assessments to find a better placement for her she completed lessons 21-25 and is doing really well with her math facts.

Lucas:
Preschool: He's completed lessons 32-35 in both his My first book of Coloring and My first book of Mazes.

Subjects we all do together.
History: Nothing again this week, I really have to get us back on track here.
Science: We have continued to track the moon on the nights we can see it and have found a NASA website that shows us what it looks like when we can't see it for ourselves. We also completed units on Venus and Earth. For our Venus unit we did a lab using a glass jar to show how the thick atmosphere on Venus traps in the heat from the sun making it incredibly hot on the surface. For our Earth unit we made a biosphere out of a used 2 liter soda bottle and hope to see the results of our work later next week so we can complete our lab sheet. Next week we move on to Mars and then across the asteroid belt to Jupiter.

Tune in next week for our week 26 review.