Week 1 in Review: July 27-Aug 1

This was our first week back and the kids and I had a lot of fun and are settling in nicely.

Here's what we did.

Everett:
Grammar: Started Junior Analytical Grammar and completed Unit 1: Nouns. He did really well and got a 97% on his unit test.
Spelling: Another new program to try. Phonetic Zoo was a big hit. He enjoys learning the rules and loves the idea of building his zoo. I made him a lapbook to build it in and it's been pretty fun. It took him 3 attempts on the Lesson 1 list (which is really good) and he's taken the Lesson 2 test once. I'm sure he'll have those down in a few more tests.
Writing: We did a few Keyword Outlines using the first few source texts from IEW's All Things Fun and Fascinating to review Unit 1. Next week we'll return to IEW's Student Writing Intensive Level A for Unit 2.
Penmanship: We continued to work on cursive penmanship using some pages I made up myself.
Math: He's continuing with Teaching Textbooks and completed lessons 69-72 which worked on double digit by double digit multiplication and some basic division as well as review of many other concepts.
Geography: Daily Geography week 1 completed. The topic was reading a map of the US.


Annika:
Language Arts: We started our McRuffy Language Arts this week and she completed Lessons 26-33. It reviewed the "at" and "an" family. This program also includes her spelling. She took her first spelling test this week with it and scored 100%. She's very excited about this new program. It's colorful and a lot of fun.
Penmanship: We continued to work on cursive penmanship using some pages I made up myself, as well as the penmanship practice in her McRuffy LA program.
Math: This is another area where we switched to McRuffy and she's doing great with it. She completed lessons 1-10, doing 2 a day and loves the fun activities that are intertwined within the program.
Geography: Daily Geography week 1 completed. The topic was learning the basics of the Globe.


Lucas:
Preschool: He did about 10 sheets from his Bigger Steps workbook. We're still working on fine motor skills by tracing lines. He also sits in on our read aloud and plays with math manipulatives. He's got most of his letter names down and can count to 10. We're working on 11-15 now.

All children together:
History: Week 1 was a look at the changes the agricultural revolution had on farming. We're once again using History Odyssey Early Modern Times. We're picking up where we left off last year and in a few weeks we'll start in on the American Colonies and study American history through Westward Expansion.
Science: We're using REAL Science Odyssey Chemistry 1 this year. It's been fun so far. We learned a bit about the scientific method this week as well as a bit about how chemicals are all around us. Next week we'll move on to Atoms.
Read Aloud: The kids asked me to re-read a favorite, so we're reading Half Magic by Edward Eager. We've read the first 3 chapters the week and it's just as fun this time around.

This was an excellent first week and we're looking forward to next week. Everett has been doing really well with his time management and is doing much of his work without any assistance from me. Everett has also discovered the joy of reading and we've had a hard time getting him to put his book of choice down. He decided to make his first independent reading book The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, and he's completely hooked! Annika is doing really well with her new programs and although her reading is slow going it's moving forward which is a good sign.

Tune in next week for "Week 2 in Review"