Week #5 Whew!

This week seemed really long. It wasn't just me, the kids keep saying they are tired too. Next week I have 'Fall Break' scheduled on Thursday and Friday. It can't get here soon enough. Ok, what have we done. Let's shorten this. The kids worked on in their LA, Reading and Math books and it's all good.

History~We read about Leif the Lucky and Vinland from several sources and made Viking shields.

Science~We continued working with cells and plants. We also spent a day on chemistry studying filtration, mixtures and evaporation. We mixed salt and sand in water.

We filtered it and low and behold the sand came out, but where's the salt? Look, it was there all the time.

We skipped ahead to Week #6 of our Weefolkart Harvest Time pre-school curriculum to read about Johnny Appleseed and apples in general. That's because we took a field trip to the orchard on Thursday. No pictures of the actual apple picking because older dd had my camera for her college lab class.

To finish the unit we made apple prints on fabric squares I hope to turn into a lap quilt. We'll see how that goes.

Week #4 in Review

Birthdays were observed over the last holiday weekend. No one cared that they were late since we had time to enjoy them.

School wise I feel like we've hit our groove. No melt downs and minimal whining this week. Yeah! The weather was spectacular. I'm sure we'll pay for that at some point so we finished our leaf books and generally spent tons of time outdoors. If I point out the names of all the weeds we hike by it's nature study, right?

Fman~

LA~got an 88% on his grammar quiz but he's never going to love grammar so we're going with it

Math~97% doing happy dance, it was continued story problems, multiplication/division and decimals

History~finished Native Americans, I asked him if he wanted to make a diorama. He was not into it so I let it go. He told me all about what he learned and that was good enough for me. I don't test in history or science so a narration/explanation works. We did make dream catchers this week.

Science~here's a shock, we're off topic. We were doing chemistry but L is making a cell model for school so he wanted to learn cells too. He's learned about structure and organelles. We're going to touch on DNA/RNA next week and I'll have him make a cell model too.

Spanish~class starts Monday so we've been reviewing

He also spent time putting together a new lego set and this dinosaur. It's a deinonychus so I'm told.

Miss Mel~

LA-more punctuation and the use of is/are. She's doing really well. Her reading is coming along great and she reads words I'm shocked she can read. Of course then she'll have to sound out sunset or something but that's ok.

Math-added facts 3+4 and 5+2, and graphs

History-same as Fman

Science-I didn't think she was ready for the endoplasmic reticulum so she's been studying plants, plant parts and plant life cycle. She also took part with Miss Ads in Weefolk Nursery School and enjoyed the stories. She also spent lots of time doing some new puzzles I got.

Her biggest accomplishment as far as she is concerned is losing a tooth. She must have teeth with roots to China. She will be 7 in October and it just came out.

Miss Ads~we've begun using http://weefolkart.com/content/harvest-time-preschoolkindergarten-curriculum. This week was vegetables. We read Tops and Bottoms, The Vegetables We Eat and The Turnip. She is young for this but likes picture books and got that veggies grow in the ground and we eat different parts.

Week #3 in Review

I need to start taking more pictures of actual educational activities.

Math~

Fman-worked through some simple division, decimals and took a LU quiz. He got 99% Woot!

Miss Mel-learned the new facts 5+2=7 and 4+2=6. Did lots of place value with the abacus and generally thought math was easy

We enjoyed the tail end of summer. Monday and Tuesday were downright hot. We enjoyed the splash park almost all by ourselves.LA~

Fman-took the LU test and got 93%. He also wrote a friendly (it was supposed to be friendly but his mood made that iffy) letter. We've moved on to paragraphs.

Miss Mel-continued in LTR at a blistering pace. She could probably jump ahead but I don't want to push. She has mastered the period and question mark.

We enjoyed picnics too.

History~we continued our Native American studies. We compared woodland, plains and Pacific coastal tribes. We made totem poles (which I can't find to photograph). We read many, many library books on the topics. We also made cardboard (birchbark) canoes.

Science~I was gifted an AO Lifepak 4th grade science set. The first unit is plants so we finished that (Miss Mel listening in) and worked on identifiying tress in our area. We started a leaf book. We identified the leaves and made crayon rubbings of them too. We talked about what each tree is used for. Miss Mel also listened to the story The Class Leaf Project.

Some of us lay down and thought deep thoughts.

Read Alouds~Fman and I finished The Birchbark House. He didn't like it. Oh well. We also listened to a Cherokee storyteller on Teacher Tube tell some traditional stories which was cool. Miss Mel grudgingly sat through some House at Pooh Corner to get to her obsession with Junie B. Jones

Some of us didn't think such deep thoughts.
Extras~We did paintings in the style of Mondrian, had soccer practice, went to L's cross country meet, went to the older boys' Court of Honor and generally kept very busy.

Why We Spend So Much Time Outdoors

3. The World is certainly a great and stately Volume of natural Things; and may be not improperly styled the Hieroglyphicks of a better: But, alas! how very few Leaves of it do we seriously turn over! This ought to be the Subject of the Education of our Youth, who, at Twenty, when they should be fit for Business, know little or nothing of it.

4.We are in Pain to make them Scholars, but not Men! To talk, rather than to know, which is true Canting.

William Penn

September

The Shepheardes Calender: September

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run. . .
KEATS (Vol. 41, p. 879)