Weekly Review-- January 31 - February 4, 2011

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.