Week Four

As anticipated, this was a pretty quiet week. We didn't have any field trips or too many places to go. We did our normal "busy day" where we had ice skating followed immediately by art class, but that was the only day of the week that we had to be anywhere and that was really nice!

History:

Elaina learned about the first English settlement of Jamestown this week. We bought a Toob of Jamestown settlers and she made a diorama of the settlement. She had a lot of fun with this!

 

 

Hannah and Grace moved on into studying a bit of the geography of the ancient world. We studied how many early civilizations settled very near rivers and then we made a topographical map of the Tigris and Euphrates River area out of Rice Krispie Treats and blue frosting. We had fun eating it after it was done!

 Science: We've moved into studying how the pollinated flower becomes fruit and will be studying the various kinds and processes for the next couple weeks.

A highlight of this week was actually over the weekend. Eric took the girls on their first Father/Child campout. Sean was too young so he stayed home and had a special weekend with me. The girls seemed to love their special time with daddy!

Sean and I went up to meet them for apple picking on Sunday afternoon and we enjoyed a fun family day before returning home for what promised to be a really hectic week.

Weeks Two & Three

What a busy couple of weeks! I figured I might as well combine the weeks! I postponed updating until the girls had time to finish their history project and that didn't happen until the end of this week so we'll just kill two birds with one stone!

In truth, our weeks were not that different. Week 2 was truncated because of Labor Day. We managed to get all our work done but it was squeezed into 3 days instead of 4. It wasn't until Friday that I realized that I had skipped science for 2 of the 3 days...oops! No wonder we'd had been able to get it all done!


History:
Hannah and Grace moved on to study the Ice Age. This is not a topic I've studied at all. Granted it is important to keep in perspective when studying this subject that most of what we know is theory and there are more than one theory. We studied the book Life In the Great Ice Age.

  

It is the story of a boy named Jabeth who is supposed to be a descendant of Noah. It follows the Tower of Babel and theorizes what life would have been like for those tribes that separated at the tower and went their separate ways. The idea behind the ice is that the flood would have caused just a dramatic climate change that the earth would have experienced the opposite of a greenhouse effect, freezing the earth instead. The book explores this idea. 

The girls made rainbows in week 2 to remember God's promise to us:

 

 

 Sean wanted to make a rainbow too--his turned out more abstract!

And then in week 3 they recreated cave art after reading about a mammoth hunt:

 Elaina studied Columbus in week 2, and then followed him up with the study of a few Spanish explorers in Week 3. We quickly decided that those Spanish guys were not the nicest as we read about how they came looking for gold and effectively killed off the indigenous people. 

 Handprint Nina, Pinta, and the Santa Maria. She loved doing this.

 Exploring the New World!

Science: As I mentioned we missed a bit of science. This week we did much better. We are still studying pollination but will be moving on next week. We studied how things like hummingbirds, butterflies, moths, and bats aid in pollination. I had no idea that so many animals and insects were involved in the process! And each were created for a different type of plant. 

Gym: We started ice skating during week 3. It was in the 80's outside so that made it very difficult to go into a frozen ice rink! But the girls were so happy to be back on the ice and really had a good time. We also attended our Fall Fitness during week 2, but we played hookie during week 3 because it had rained all night before. And in Fall Fitness much of the time is spent in the grass, wet and muddy or not.

Week 3 was probably the most busy our weeks would get. We have a few things that are scheduled on bi-week or monthly times. This week they all landed on the same week. This will happen periodically but thankfully not often. 

Monday the older girls had a class at the Wildlife Sanctuary. A friend of ours set this up for older kids. The youngers will go do something with Mommy! Hannah and Grace enjoyed a "behind the scenes" tour of the Sanctuary. They will do this once a month for 8 months. They're  very excited and looking forward to it!

Tuesday we had a field trip to Apple Valley Orchard. 

Honestly, we were a little disappointed in this field trip. Now we've experienced some awesome field trips to Orchards and that probably does raise the bar a bit. But they greeted us with a myriad of rules (many, such as no kids in the salesroom, are obviously meant for school groups but we were told we had to abide by them anyway even though if we had come back an hour later, on our own, we could have brought our children into the salesroom with us). After the rules, they sent us on our way to give ourselves a self-guided tour and pick a few apples from the orchard. Again, on our own. I'm not really sure how that constitutes as a "tour" in any way, shape, or form but we enjoyed the time together and that is what is important. And next time we'll take our business to an orchard that really does well with field trips, like Little Farmer.

Thursday is going to be our busy day every week. This is the day we began ice skating. Immediately following that we have art class. Several families have pooled together to hire an art teacher and she teaches our older children some of the finer points of art while we teach our preschoolers. And then, every-other-week, we'll hurry home to eat so that Eric can take the girls to their STEM meeting. That was this week. They built little robots and made a hovercraft from a CD and a balloon.

And then, if we had not skipped, we would have had Fall Fitness on Friday. Phew. On a typical week we'll just have Thursdays full (and Fridays for a while yet). And of course an occassional field trip.

This week we also went to Old World Wisconsin on Saturday with my brother Calvin and his fiance Remi. Eric and Hannah were unable to join us (Eric had to work and Hannah was under the weather) but we still had a good time. Though part of my heart got left behind at home and that always steals some of the joy.

 Next week promises to be a little slower paced! We are looking forward to that.

Back To Work

Week One:
The first week is always a little bit of madness. That's just a given going into it. I compare it a little toward having a newborn baby--the first time you go through it you've never experienced being so needed (or sleep deprived) before and it is a bit of a shock to the system. When your second baby comes along you know what to expect and somehow it just doesn't seem as bad, even if it is. That was my experience anyway. So I know beforehand that the first week of school will be rough and having that knowledge keeps me from becoming too discouraged by the end of it!

We are changing this up considerably this year. Just with a change in curriculum. So the girls had to adjust to some different tasks. I made up a grid for each of them this year so they can keep track of their assignments easier. They are having a hard time reading it so far, but I think that once they are familiar with it they will really appreciate it. Last year Hannah got behind in her grammar because she didn't do the right amount of pages and then pent the rest of the year catching up! So this way she can be sure to stay on track.

History:
Hannah and Grace are studying the beginning of history this week. We started reading Grandpa's Box. 

So far it has been interesting. The premise is simple. The grandpa appeals to his grandson's interest in all things war history to retell the story of the Bible through the eyes of Spiritual Warfare. Good vs. Evil, God vs. Satan. It was a different way of seeing it and the kids seemed to enjoy that. We ended at Noah's Ark for the week.

The girls had to research what a Coat of Arms was. Then they made their own Shield of Faith:

Elaina is doing American History. So she began studying Vikings and Leif Erickson this week.  We read through a couple picture books and she really resonated with them. Much, much better than last year. She was excited to hear the story and seemed to remember much more than before. So fingers crossed we have some actual retention this year. End of the week she made Viking Bread!

 

Science: This week the kids studied pollination. In particular how bees help pollinate flowers. In particular we studied orchids and how unusual they are and the different ways they attract bees. The girls got to create their own kind of flower, one that appeared to be an animal.

We are also joining a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) group this year. Eric is going to help out with that. Hoping the kids will get to make a few fun projects and also learn some valuable things through that. We won't have our first actual class for a couple weeks, but this week they had a planning session to discuss.

Reading: Hannah is working on reading The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander and Grace is reading Mr. Popper's Penguins. We are doing something different his year in that when they complete their book I made up a book of "Book Project" ideas. So instead of just writing a report they will do some sort of creative project. I'm looking forward to what they come up with.

Bible:
Hannah and Grace are working through the book The Dig For Kids. They'll be studying the book of Luke for the first part of the year at least.

Elaina is reading through the Jesus Storybook with me. This week it actually lined up very well with what Hannah and Grace was studying so she was able to contribute to their discussions. As with history she remained engaged and really enjoyed listening.

Gym: For the next few weeks at least we are doing Fall Fitness. This is basically parent-led homeschool gym. We gather together at a park. The kids do a couple laps, warm-up, and then split up into different age groups to play various games. Hannah and Grace played Capture the Flag where Elaina's group played Sharks and Minnows. They like to do this and other than feeling like 2 hours of gym is just too much gym for this gym-hating Mama, it is a good part of our week. Next week we will also add in ice skating!

That about sums up the first week! I thought it went pretty well for the first week. By the end it really felt like the girls were learning what was expected of them. We''ll see how the upcoming week goes being that it is a shortened one!

Beginning Of A New Year

It has actually been an entire year (more than) since I've written a thing. Too much life has gone by to sum it all up in one post so we'll just continue on from here. What are the chances of me keeping up with this if I try again? Probably not very good, but nevertheless it is worth it to make an attempt. I do love the idea of chronicling our journey.

This year has the potential to be a great year! Hannah is now in 5th grade, Grace 3rd, Elaina 1st, and Sean is just going along for the ride. This year we will try to get him involved, but for now he has just been practicing tracing lines, getting him ready to write his letters! 

Last year we did a side-bar year and tried out a new curriculum Winter Promise American Story 2 which covered the Civil War-Modern Times.  I liked a lot of this curriculum but ultimately it was only intended to be a one-year filler. We really wanted a curriculum that was fairly open-and-go, scheduled a 4-day week, and easily combined grades. That really narrows it down and we eliminated our original plan of doing Heart of Dakota's Bigger Hearts For His Glory because of the 4-day week issue (it scheduled 5 days). I really didn't want to give that up.

So for Hannah and Grace this year, we have returned to Heart of Dakota. This year they are doing Preparing Hearts for His Glory which is the first HOD guide that plans a 4 day week (woohoo!). This year they'll be doing an overview of World History beginning at Creation and ending somewhere near WWII. 

 

We have some awesome "storytime" titles that we'll be reading through. In addition to this each girl has a set of independent reading books that are age-appropriate and correlate with the history that we are studying. 

They are using Teaching Textbooks again this year for math. This has been a great blessing for me and both girls seem to like it as much as they ever like math. 

 

For the first year ever, Language Arts was not a struggle for me to choose. Last year we tried Winter Promise LA because we were doing their full program. Even though this year we aren't doing the history portion, I was a fan of their LA so that was a no-brainer for me. This year we purchased the e-books and though that involved more work for me (printing and printing...) it means that I will never have to buy those guides again. For future years I will just have to print them again! But it saves a lot of money in the end.

 

Within Winter Promise LA, they use Spellwell spelling. We were using this anyway so it was nice to be able to just continue doing so. It is a very simple program and the kids don't mind doing it at all.

Science we are actually continuing from last year. All three girls join in for this subject as Apologia is for K-6. We began Apologia Botany last year after we had completed Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day. So we decided to split Botany between two years. Later this year we will pick up with Chemistry & Physics. 

 

Elaina was a bit trickier for me this year. Last year she had zero attention span for history once we'd made it through reading and math. I struggled for most of the year to get her to recall anything we'd studied with very little success. So I knew I had to come up with something different for her this year. While I was browsing at our Homeschool Curriculum Sale, I came across a used copy of Truthquest. Truthquest is unique in that it isn't a complete curriculum but more or less a book filled with topics and outlines complete with recommended reading lists. What drew me to this was the idea of using mainly picture books for her as the likelihood of holding her attention throughout a picture book was far greater than reading out of a text.

Ultimately I used very few books actually listed in Truthquest, mainly because our library did not carry them, but I did use it as a foundation for my planning. In addition to this I planned weekly activities for her and tried to find applicable coloring pages and movies. I'm hoping it will be a gentle but informational year for her! 

For Math I am still using Modern Curriculum Press. It does the job and so we stick with it. 

 

Elaina is still struggling with reading so we are being fairly informal with it at this point. We are just reviewing and basically saturating ourselves in phonics. I am hoping that when she has a better grasp on things we'll move on and continue with First Start reading. When that happens we'll also begin handwriting and Thinking Skills. At this point, I am trying to save her attention for the main subjects!

That about sums up our plans for this year! We'll see if I can keep this up to date. 

 

March

Maybe we'll just start doing a "monthly wrap up" as I don't seem to be able to remember to do this every week. We covered weeks 23-26. Lots of things happened in March that have kept us hopping!!

History: The last few weeks have been focusing on the events leading up to the Revolutionary War and then the war itself. We actually covered the events of the Revolution much more in-depth last year. This year was more of an overview, specifically focusing on stories of children during the time of the war. There was a lot of uncertainty for kids left behind while their brothers or fathers went to war. This week we studied George Washington, our first president, though we have been talking about him off and on for the last few weeks anyway.

History Reading: Hannah has been working on Five Smooth Stones which is the diary of a little girl during the Revolution.

Storytime: We have still been reading through Pagoo. We probably should have been done by now but it is often the thing that gets left on on a busy day! We are enjoying reading about the adventures of the little hermit crab Pagoo as he grows up.

Science: We've been booking it through the body! We've covered the nervous system, including the brain, spine and the five senses, the circulatory system including blood, heart,and muscles, digestive system including teeth and stomach, and finally the excretory system including kidneys and bladder. We are slowly working on coloring parts of the body and we will eventually glue them onto outlines of our bodies!

Field Trips: We've had a few field trips this month. We attended Charlotte's Web at the theater which the kids really enjoyed. We also went to a presentation on exotic animals...that includes animals like a boa constrictor, an African turtle (that grows up to 150 lbs!), two different types of lizards, and a cockatoo. The presenter was very informative and the kids enjoyed this a lot! We also got to visit Henning's Cheese where the kids got to watch them make cheese curds and then take a tour of the coolers. They enjoyed getting to sample the different types of cheeses made there and especially enjoyed the Blueberry cobbler variety!

Family News:
We are transitioning from Eric having a flexible position where hew as able to work at home and cover for me as often as needed for field trips to him having a new job where he will have to work in the office. This will ultimately be a good move for our family, but still a bit of an adjustment. We've also been spending a lot of time the last month working on our basement and preparing to have new carpet installed (thank you very much to our sassy cat who made it necessary). We are also getting ready for spring! Who isn't? We fled the house on the very first day above 50 of the year last weekend:

Can't wait until it is warm enough to do school on the deck and spend our afternoons cleaning up the yard!!

Week 21-22

I'm going to combine the next couple weeks just for the ease.

History: In week 21 we learned about the settlement of Detroit. We actually covered this last year so it was mainly review. For week 22 we've moved into Colonial history and we learned about Ben Franklin inventing the Franklin stove, along with the building of Fanueil Hall in Boston.

History Reading: Hannah finished up the book Growing Up In A New World and started The Scarlet Stocking Spy.

Storytime: We read Phoeby the Spy together, which is the story of a little girl who is employed in the house of General Washington in order to discover a plot to murder the general. It was a very interesting story and the girls enjoyed it. Week 22 we began the book from our nonfiction genre, Pagoo.

Science: We finished up the Respitory System with our study of the lungs and alveoli. Week 22 we moved into the study of the Nervous System beginning with the brain and reflexes. We took turn banging on each other's knees to watch our knees jerk up!

Reading: 
Grace moved into working through the book Reading Pathways. It seemed like the perfect fit since it works primarily on reading fluency. Grace spent one week working through the book and announced to Eric that she felt like she could really read now. And while she has a long way to go, I have noticed that she is suddenly attempting to read more things in everyday life.

Family News:
In between weeks 21 and 22, we took a vacation from school and work. We took a trip to Wisconsin Dells. And while it was a far cry from Florida, it was still nice to hibernate inside the resort for a few days and not have to face the cold winter weather!

 Enjoying the jacuzzi after a chilly walk back to the room from the waterpark.

They didn't want to go home!

At the end of this last week we had the blessing to celebrate Elaina's 5th birthday. She is a true joy and we enjoy her so much!

Week 20

This time I have a good excuse, I promise. I had two take a couple weeks while my computer was being updated and I had little access to my desktop or its pictures. But it is back and up and running now and so I can update on week 20.

History Reading: Hannah has been reading the book Growing Up In A New World which is just an overview of life in America.

History: This week we studied schools in early America.

Science: We have now moved into our study of the Respiratory System. Each system receives two weeks worth, so this week we studied breathing. We did an experiment where the girls found their resting breath rate, their mild activity rate, and then their active breath rate. They had a lot of fun doing jumping jacks until they had to do them for a straight 2 minutes!

Reading:  Hannah continues to work on reading Ginger Pye. This is a pretty long book so it will probably take her awhile. In her fun time she has started reading a series by E.D. Baker which is good to see since those books are closer to the 5th grade reading level and challenge her a bit more. She will sit for hours with her nose planted in a book, busy exploring another world.

Grace spent this week finishing up Hooked on Phonics. Apparently we had less left than I realized. She does really well reading the words during the lesson and also while watching the video. But when those words are put into paragraph form she finds it to be more of a struggle. I think after this we will just start working on fluency.

Gym: Still working on the ice skating. Hannah is thriving and really taking to the ice. She's able to skate a little bit by herself now and she's growing in confidence. Grace isn't enjoying it quite as much. She finds that her feet get cold and she's chilled easily. I've wondered if a bigger pair of skates wouldn't work so that she could put some thermal socks on.

Family News:
This week was the Daddy/Daughter dance. The girls look forward to this all year. It is the event for them. Eric takes them out to dinner and then they go to the dance. Next year Elaina will be old enough to attend and then it will be just Mommy and Sean left at home.