So I did really good on updating weekly for about three weeks, right? I am so proud! LOL But as expected life has been very busy and filled with lots of things that keep me away from blogging. So tonight you get a nine day update!
I am excited about my post-it planner and record journal because it has really helped me keep up with our school work as well as keep myself motivated.
Here is what we have been working on:
Bible:
We have completed two more articles and activities from the Lad Magazine. The boys are well on their way to earning their next lad badges. We have to come up with a few mission projects, I better start thinking about that! We also worked four more lessons from our Stick Figuring Through the New Testament curriculum. The boys learned two more verses. 1 Peter 4:10 and "Encourage One Another" 1 Thessalonians 4:18. Fitting, right? :)
We are working on sorting laundry for our life skill. The boys are not so excited about it, as you can imagine. LOL But they do it and they do it well. Hopefully they will live their lives free of pink undies! ;)
Nature Study:
I love nature study...I admit science is not my favorite subject, but I do enjoy nature study. Our back neighbors put horses in the pasture and let me tell you they have been a hit with the boys! :) They were up near the fence, so the boys and I went out to get a closer look. We ended up spending an hour out there petting and feeding them grass.
While we were out there we found the coolest caterpillars. Check them out!
Datana perspicua - He is going to become a moth it
seems...I am hoping that we get to see some of them emerge.
We have continued reading in our nature reader as well. We continue our study of crabs, what they eat and how they live. We also had a discussion on camouflage. The boys remembered the octopus at the aquarium that was so well camouflaged, we couldn't even find it!
Science:
We did the glider experience again using paint stirrers instead of straws. Daddy helped us build our planes. While I don't think it was completely accurate or that the boys really understood lift and drag - they had fun. That's what really counts, right?!?! ;) We also did some reading about instincts and had a great discussion about various instincts not only in animals, but also in humans. We discussed habitats and they journal-ed a bit about what they remembered.
Texas History:
We had a discussion on the state capital building and colored a picture for our journal. Then using the Texas symbol drawing book we drew our own capital building. :)
Art:
Draw Write Now Book 2...we are currently working on the weather portion and started with a plane in the clouds. This sparked a discussion on clouds and what they are made of. We also drew a log truck in the rain and sledding in the snow. Of course snow reminded us how much we'd like to see some this year. ;)
We also studied our first artist - John James Audubon. We read about who he was and what he did. We looked at several examples of his work and talked about what we saw in them. We also discussed similarities of the pieces.
Spanish:
The boys have been attending a Spanish class with a fellow home schooling mom in town on Tuesdays afternoons. They are working on animals right now. So we have been working on those animals using their workbooks here at home. It is so funny to hear me and my little Texans trying to roll "r's" and speak Spanish words with a twang. LOL Fun times!
Poetry:
Just this week, we have added poetry study. We started very slow. I introduced them to Jack Prelutsky and we discussed his work a bit. We read several of his poems. Have you ever read him, he is so stinking funny. I love his work! We talked about whether the poems rhymed and how many lines they had. I had Bug go ahead and look for a short poem to memorize. He is going to recite it for us. What did he pick you ask? My brother is totally bonkers by Jack Prelutsky. Of course, right? LOL
Literature Study:
We have finished up The Wizard of Oz and began 5 Little Peppers and How They Grew by Margaret Sidney. We are about halfway through and the boys seem to be very very interested in it. The kids have just gotten over the measles and Bug and Red are excited to see what happens next. (Of course we had a discussion measles as well.)
Bug's Work:
Math: We started out strong and he completed three lessons scoring 100% on each and then the laptops' CD Rom went "caput". Sigh...one more thing right? Since the dino PC (that hasn't been turned on in months) sits in the corner of the very messy "official" school room - turned storage right now - we haven't dug it out. (Looking sheepish right now.) I have all my ECCHO class stuff laid out on two tables and various piles of curriculum, books and such that I have been de-cluttering. So I will just admit that we haven't done much TT math this week. We have been concentrating on math facts. He is currently on the 4's - just finished them up this week. He took a whole minute off his time and only missed one on his test Tuesday! Woo-Hoo! Go Bug! He also took 1:03 off his time for his addition fact test and scored 100%! Yippee!
Language Arts: Nothing new there, he has been working on the usual - Explode the Code, Daily 5, Reading - he's completed two more stories in his pathway reader level 3 and he has also completed another unit in spelling. He is really a very good speller. This last week was compound words, some of which have to be hyphenated. That can be pretty tricky, but he studied hard and did very well. I am so proud of his spelling progress. We have also continued our study of verbs. He doesn't like to write very much, but he does understand what a verb is and how to use it. I am hoping he will develop a love of writing as we continue to delve into it further.
Red's Work:
Math: We continue our journey through Saxon Math 1 and he is doing so very well. He can actually read numbers into the thousands place (I was pleasantly surprised!); he has a great understanding of light and heavy. When I asked his to hypothesize which item would be heaviest, he actually reasoned it out on his own using the balance and the three items. So before we even began he had them in order from lightest to heaviest. :) He understands the concept of 0 and has a great grasp on graphing (thank you Thursday MOW graphs!). He scored 100% on his last assessment. Yeah!
Language Arts: My Red is becoming a really good reader. While he does not seem to love it yet, my prayer is one day that love will click in and wah-lah - he will! But in the mean time, just listening to him reading so very well warms my heart. He continues to work through ETC and word study. He is also doing his spelling book - he is a good speller like his brother. Yeah! We completed two more units of short vowel words and he made a 100 on both tests. We have worked through several more phonics lessons and while he doesn't really seem to enjoy them much, he is doing well. We completed another story in his pathway reader - I am excited to say he does seem to enjoy this reading. YEAH! He will actually ask if we are going to do it!
Computer: Red is getting a little bored with the Time For Learning Program, so I have put it on hold for now. I will have to find something else to do on the computer for them. I really want to get Red started typing...I suppose Dance Mat Typing will be coming soon!
On 9/11, we took some time to do a little research on 9/11. We watched some youtube videos and read several articles about what happened on that day. We listened to a few different survivors accounts and discussed what 9/11 meant to our nation.
Aquarium Field Trip:
We took a field trip with our home school group and boy did we have a blast. We went to the Children's Aquarium at Fair Park and had a great time seeing all the aquatic animals. The boys got to "pet" stingrays and various other water creatures. It was a great experience.
Check out this ray!
The kids, diving hands into the water to pet the rays. Bug ended up with half his shirt wet before we left this area!
Here is one of Red's favorite animals - a zebra shark, which is funny because he has spots instead of stripes!
Check out this horseshoe crab - isn't he great! He goes perfectly with our nature study reading on crabs right now! He is actually turning himself around right here. Very cool animal!
ECCHO Co-op Classes:
We attended co-op classes last Friday again. The boys have so much fun - Lego of course is very exciting - all that building! In sand art our theme was animals - that produced some very interesting pictures! In Astronomy they discussed the Milky Way and actually made a spiral galaxy - COOL! PE of course was a hit...even Red told me that was his favorite class. He said he likes it because they get to play dodge-ball ..leave it to my kid to like it because they get to chunk balls at others. Sigh...boys! ;)
Well look at that...all updated for now...boy does that feel good! :) Until next time...love one another! we-
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