Week 1 - Getting Started

We got off to a bumpy start as each of us is trying to adjust to the new schedule and learn what we're supposed to be doing. (Some of us are just trying to adjust to using our brains at 7:30 in the morning.) Overall it's been a great week. We haven't started literature, history, or new Latin; but everything else in well underway. Here what we accomplished.

BIBLE

Jessie completed dig 1 in The Hidden Treasures of Philippians. Violet completed week 1 in Wrong Way, Jonah. Benny and I (sometimes with Henry and sometimes without Henry) read the first 5 stories in Egermeier's Bible Story Book and completed the comprehension questions in the back of the book orally for each story. I'm hoping to start a family Bible time in the next week or so once I get organized.

MATH
Jessie started her Singapore 6A books this week with an introduction to algebra. Basically she practiced writing equations with a letter in place of a number, simplified a few equations (aka 3x+4x-2=7x-2), and solved the equations when given a value for the variable. She finished the first unit in the textbook and workbook on Thursday and started the corresponding section in the IP book on Friday. In CWP, she is working on the review problems at the end of the CWP 5.

Violet began her Singapore 4A series with a unit on numbers to 100,000. She wrote numbers from words and vice versa, identified the number in a specific place (ie. tens, thousands), and explained the value of each digit in a number. She also learned to round to the nearest tens place or hundreds place. In CWP 3, I decided to restart from the beginning and really focus on drawing the diagrams correctly. She finished the first section on Thursday and started the second unit on Friday.

Benny and I decided to back up in the 1A book. I want to make sure that he has mastered the concepts and give him some more practice before we get to the 1B books. This week we started with unit 2 on number bonds. It was a little easy for him, but it was a great confidence booster. We actually did double lessons for the first few days so we finished the entire unit in the textbook and workbook. Some of the work I had him write, and other pages we did orally. Next week we'll move on the IP book and start back into the Miquon Orange book again.

LANGUAGE ARTS

In spelling, Jessie picked up in SWO H on lesson 19 and scored a 100 on her first test. Grammar was all review this week covering complete subjects, simple subjects, complete predicates, and simple predicates. The only new twist was the addition of prepositional phrases between the subject and verb. Most days I just had Jessie complete the corresponding worksheet for the lesson and skipped the exercises in the books. In CW, we've started level 6 which has the student rewrite a model by starting in the middle of the action and then going back to explain the previous events.

Violet started SWO F this year. I've slowed the pace down to one lesson a week because I don't think she'll be ready for the level G book this year. We also started some daily dictation practice which we can also use to discuss spelling and punctuation. I tried having her write the dictation in cursive this week, and she kept stopping to ask me how to write different letters. I think we'll add some cursive copywork in for at least the first part of the year and gradually try to shift to more and more of the work being written in cursive. In CW, she analyzed, rewrote, and illustrated "The Goose with the Golden Eggs". Her grammar lessons have also covered sentences, subjects, and predicates.

Benny and I have been reviewing in Phonics Pathways this week. We did review lessons for the 3 letter words, words ending in double consonants, words ending in -ck, and words ending in -y. We did a random page in the Pyramid book one day for a break. He's been reading one Bob book each day from the A1 series to work on fluency. We've also added Explode the Code this year to give him more phonics practice. We've started in book 1 so the lessons are a nice easy review for him. For handwriting, we spent Monday and Tuesday writing out the alphabet. I made a few more corrections to his letter writing than I expected, so we're going through the alphabet at a pace of 3 letters a day. This way I can make notes of which letters need more practice before we start copywork.

GEOGRAPHY

Jessie and Violet each built our Europe puzzle. Benny had a try with our LeapPad geography book, but it was a little much. I think I'll have him try one of the games on the Shepherd software pages next week.

SCIENCE

Jessie started Apologia's Exploring Creation with Anatomy and Physiology. I'm having her do a combination of making vocabulary cards, writing summaries, and outlining. This week she typed a summary of the history of anatomy and physiology, wrote out a scientific speculation sheet for the mummified apple experiment, outlined the information on cells, drew a sketch of a cell, and made a model DNA molecule using pipe cleaners and beads.

Everyone started God's Design: Our Universe together this week. I've created notebooks for the girls that include the review questions for each lesson, the student worksheets and quizzes, a few scientific speculation sheets, and a few notebooking pages for famous astronomers. Benny is doing a lapbook I put together. For lesson 1 he wrote astronomy on the front of a booklet and drew different things that astronomers study on the inside. For lessons 2 and 3, I typed the key information in the booklet. We had fun with the gravity experiment in lesson 2. In lesson 3, (for Benny's sake) we acted out rotating and revolving. I stood in the middle and called out either rotate or revolve, and the kids had to switch back and forth. There were lots of giggles and a few crashes. They actually did really well at the end when we tried both at the same time.

Our extra books for the week were: Maria's Comet by Hopkinson, I Fall Down by Cobb, Nicolaus Copernicus by Fradin, and What Makes Day and Night by Branley.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Jessie started Greek this week using The Greek Alphabet Code Cracker by Classical Academic Press. She's having a great time with it. We've also been reviewing Latin vocabulary from LfC A and B as well as chants from LfC B.

ART

Jessie completed the preinstruction self-portrait in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. (She didn't want me to post her picture. Violet and Benny wanted to fingerpaint, so I set out the supplies and just let them have fun.

HENRY'S CORNER

Henry's theme for the week was farmers. We read: Big Red Barn by Brown, Farmer Brown Goes Round and Round and Farmer Brown Shears His Sheep by Sloat, and Old MacDonald Had a Farm by Pearson (which naturally we sang) along with any other books he picked out for the day.