Week 5

We started out our week with a trip to the apple orchard. We celebrated Boo's 7th birthday and had a hayride, pumpins, donuts, and cider (apple cider slushies, my favorite...yumm!!!)


Is this school year over yet? I know it's just started, but unfortunately that's how I feel this year. I really think the reason I feel this way is because I'm just being pulled in too many directions trying to teach all three girls different things. I've found that the things we do together as a family are the parts of school that we actually enjoy. The first half of our day Sis is off reading about ancient Egypt and Genesis, Boo and I are studying pilgrims, Baby Bear is coloring or drawing. Everyone has questions about what they're learning and I feel like I can't give full attention to anyone. I'm realizing that a family cycle like My Father's world is really what will work best for our family. We like to learn together. The girls like to do projects and activities together. I like both of their curriculum, but this year feels like they are too disconnected. I think that is one reason why Science and art are our two favorite subjects this year because those are the two things we are all doing together.

Science: 
We're learning about light (Creation Day 1 is Unit 1) This week we learned that light is actually made up of energy and the energy produced by light is called radiant energy. Then we learned that there are different kinds of energy and what they are. We did an experiment where we put a piece of a black plastic bag and a white plastic bag in direct sunlight. After 5 mins we observed that the black bag was hotter than the white. The black bag absorbed the light and changed it into thermal energy (heat) the white repelled the colors in the light and stayed cool. We learned that is why people who wear black on a sunny day get hotter than someone wearing white. Sis and Boo did worksheets showing the different forms of energy. Sis wrote about what she learned and Boo drew pictures. Boo's drawings are to the right and Sis' work is below...

I have to take a second to brag on my Baby. Baby Bear continues to amaze me everyday. For a 3 year old she is so attentive at school time and she remembers a lot. Sometimes Boo has trouble remembering something we learned and without fail Baby Bear blurts out the right answer...it's scary! So far this year she's pointed out where Michigan is on the map, that John Smith was the name of the man who met Pocahontas, answered math questions, told me that some words have 2 ll's" the list goes on and on. These are all things that nobody has tried to teach her! I guess she is just a super sponge and picks up on everything, Sis was that way too when she was little. Anyway funny story...Baby Bear sits at the table with us and likes to watch the science experiments even if she has no clue what we're learning (or so I think.) This week she got up one morning, came into the kitchen and said to me "Mom I'm hungry, I need some chemical energy!" not only was she listening, but she remembered which form of energy was food! Mind blown!

Art/Poetry: Art is the other subject that we do together 3 days a week. This year we are painting watercolor pictures to go along with a Robert Frost poem that we read. Sis' paintings are twice the size of the other girl's and she glues a verse from the poem someone onto her paintings. I am actually doing most of the paintings along with the girls to demonstrate. I love art so I've been enjoying it. This week we read the poem "One Step Backward Taken." Our painting was of  large rocks.

History: Boo is learning about the pilgrims. We will go back and have another lesson on this the week of Thanksgiving, but this week was an introduction. We read a story about a pilgrim boy in our American Pioneers and Patriots book. We added pilgrims to our timeline and Boo did copy work. There's so many fun projects and crafts that we could have done along with pilgrims, but we didn't get time for anything extra. 

The same thing with Sis who is learning about Ancient Egypt right now and Moses. I have a whole book of Egyptian projects but like I said earlier with me being pulled in so many directions we're ending up not having time to do many extras. It makes me sad. As a result I've already made up my mind that our whole family will be returning to the My Father's world cycle and doing history and Bible together next year. Sis completed her reading and note booking

assignments. Here's some of her work. I've really been getting on her for her handwriting. She really does have much neater handwriting than she uses in her note booking. I think it's a combination of having unlined paper and trying to get through her school work quickly, but both her drawings and handwriting are way sloppier than I know she's capable of. I hope int he weeks to come it improves. Content wise though I'm very happy with her work on her narrations and summaries.

Math: We have been waiting to really begin math until we were back from vacation and ready to buckle down for the school year. Up till now we have pretty much been reviewing math. This week Sis began her Math U See Epsilon. I like that MUS is not grade leveled, but rather labeled by the Greek alphabet and they complete each book at their own pace regardless of what grade they are in.This curriculum has been a great fit for Sis. The entire year of Epsilon deals with fractions. Lesson one was a review of what we learned about fractions last year in Delta.
MUS however is not a good fit for Boo. I have been trying to find her something for math that will be a better fit. For now she is still learning her addition facts. This week we learned +9.

Baby Bear: Baby Bear has been having fun learning her alphabet and sounds. So far we are on letter E. We have been doing one letter a week. I love the book "Big Thoughts for Little People." I used this book with all three of my girls. It uses a letter of the alphabet to teach a short devotional and has some questions to get your little one thinking. Like what color hair does the little boy driving the train have? what color hair do you have? Does God love both people with blond and brown hair?  This week was E is for Everyone. God loves everyone. There are also colorful pictures that they can look at to find things hidden objects that begin with the letter. I can't say enough good things about this book.