Week 15

I'm about 2 weeks behind on my blog. We have a lot going on right now and it's hard for me to keep up. Here is a little of what we did a couple weeks ago for week 15...

I still can't believe we are already half way into January. That means there are only about four more months until summer break! I really feel like this school year just started. We have been moving so slow this entire school year, that there is no way we're going to finish everything by summer...panic! Take a deep breath....I have to remind myself that it's ok. My kids are learning. We can set our own pace and whatever we don't get to we can incorporate into next year. I have been trying to re-evaluate this past week though and set some end of the school year goals to make sure we cover the most important things. I'm also planning, researching, and preparing to buy next years curriculum already. I always order in February, so it's coming soon! I have some really fun ideas that I think I want to try out next year...we'll see.

History: This week in history Sis learned about Israel falling to the Assyrians and Judah being saved. We finished reading God King, whose plot takes place during this exact time period. So, all year I have been nagging Sis about how sloppy her history notebook is. It drives me nuts that she is fully capable of neat handwriting, but her handwriting looks like slop in her notebook. Also this girl can draw, she has been drawing since she was two and is able to produce some pretty good artwork for a kid her age. When she draws for pleasure her drawing are great, however her artwork for history a lot of times looks like my 4 year old drew it. I just can't understand, why I can't motivate her to try harder at school work. I know a lot of the time she just wants to rush through the written work so that she can do something else. This week though she actually put some effort into it. This is the neatest I have seen a notebook page all year, so I'll take it!

 

Also Sis made an origami prayer box for her history project. The lid has 4 letters to remind her of 4 types of prayer: A-adoration, T-thanksgiving, C-confession, S-supplication. Inside the box there are prayer requests written on strips of paper. This is for her to use during her prayer and devotion time.

 



Boo learned about four new States in her U.S. history; New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, and North Carolina. We reviewed a little bit about Jamestown and the early settlers on the day we learned Virginia. That is definitely on our vacation bucket list for site seeing/ field trips in the future.

On the day we learned about New York we did a study on the Statue of Liberty, also on our bucket list...you'd laugh if you actually saw the length of our bucket list. There are so many awesome historical and beautiful things to see in this nation and just not enough time or money to see it all. That's why I'm not a huge fan of repeat vacations. There are some favorite places or places a few hours from home that I like to visit every now and then.  I guess what I mean is that although all of our trips have been fun and if my family wanted to I would gladly do them all over again, I would rather choose to go somewhere new and see things that we've never seen any day. There's just so much I want to experience and want to show my kids. I want them to be able to see as many states and sites as we can firsthand as a family before they are grown. Ok, vacation rant over. Once I get started talking on this subject I usually can't stop. Anyway, we will be visiting Northern New York with the girls for the first time in a few months, so that made the state a little more exciting to learn about.

Boo and I read a book about the statue of liberty. We also did some really fun measurement activities...such as "How wide is your mouth? How wide do you think the Statue of Liberty's mouth is?" then we did nose, arm, height. It's crazy how big she is!

In our bird book we read about the Northern Cardinal. This is Virginia's state bird but we learned it's also the state bird of many states. We learned that the common bright red cardinal's are the males, females are a lighter pale color. The kids were not happy about this fact because they had to rename their stuffed bird.hahaha.

 

Science: We are finally nearing the end of our light unit in science. At the back of each unit are a few bonus lessons. We decided to try out the first one. last week we learned that fiber optic cables can be used to bend light. This lesson taught us that light can also be used to send information through the use of fiber optics. Most telephone and internet providers now use fiber optical cables, because light can carry information faster than electricity. We used a simple experiment using Morse code and a flash light to show how a message can be sent without using sound. The girls each made up a 1-2 word message and then used a flashlight to shine "dots or dashes" on the wall while the others had to figure out the message using the chart. They had fun with it, and Baby Bear's message was "oranges" they all thought that was random and funny.

Language Arts: Sis and I have been working double time on English (Rod and Staff Building With Diligence.) We doubled up on a couple lessons this week and plan to do the same for a few weeks. We are not even 1/3 of the way through the book yet! Luckily most of this year's material is review for her, so there are several easy lessons that she already knows that we can skip too.

Boo is still working through her Language Lessons for Today book. This week she had a poem to memorize, write, recite and draw a picture to go along with it. She had no problem learning it, but my problem is I can't get her to quit. She's been saying it over and over all week even in the shower!It is driving me nuts! I'm glad she's enthusiastic about learning her poetry though. Her poem was:

There was an old man with a beard,

       Who said, "It is just as I feared!

Two owls and a hen,

Four larks and a wren,

Have all built their nests in my beard!"

Math: Ok I don't write about math much, because there's just nothing that exciting about it and (don't tell my kids) I hate math. I have to pretend to not hate it so that my kids won't hate it too, so I never say that in front of them. However, math has had me in almost in tears this week. Boo is usually the one who gives me blank stares when we talk about numbers, but this week Sis' 5th grade math has been so frustrating. I understand the concept, but when I try to teach it to her she has no clue what I am trying to say. By Friday I think she was finally starting to understand. I'm scared for the rest of the year. I hope it doesn't get much harder!

Art: Our watercolor poetry painting this week was of ocean waves using blue and green paints.

We used a crumpled paper towel while the paint was still wet to soak up some of the paint making white tops on our waves. 

We really like the finished product on this one. It reminded us of the Atlantic ocean that we visited last fall. The waves were rolling and beautiful. Baby Bear's painting is on the left (I still can't believe how well she does with these paintings for a four year old!) and Boo's on the right.

  For some extra fun we also did glow in the dark markers on felt stickers one day for art.

 

Dad had the whole week off for week 15 and it was hard getting much done. Now that the holidays are over and he is back to work hopefully things will get back to normal around here. I'm hoping to get caught up to date on my blogging this weekend ( I'm going to try anyway.)

Week 14

After having over two weeks off for holiday break, it has been so hard getting back into school. We've been trying to get as much done as we can, but it's been difficult motivating anyone. We had a good Christmas and got a lot of rest though. Here is a little bit of what we've been working on the past week.

History:
Sis is learning about the Assyrians in her history studies. She did research on Aram or Syria to gather information about the area. She has been reading all of the bible stories and history lessons on her own, then she adds to a timeline, takes notes, and writes narrations about what she learned in her notebook. Honestly I do not love this method of learning. I wish I was more involved in her history studies. next year we will all be learning history together, so I can't wait! We are still reading the book God King together which talks a lot about the Assyrians.

I didn't take a picture of Sis' notebook pages from this week, but she did all of those as usual.

She also did a mosaic project this week. She had to draw and color picture of a soldier riding a chariot. Then she had to cut the picture into 64 half inch squares and number them. Then she glued the squares into her notebook to make a mosaic. Some of the squares got cut a bit too small and didn't quite line up, but it still turned out pretty good. Sis loves any kind of art project, so she enjoyed this assignment.

Boo is still learning about the states along with the state birds and flowers. This week we added the States of Maryland and South Carolina to her map and learned some cool facts.

Spelling: I just wanted to give some recognition here to Boo for getting all of her spelling words right this week! This is the first time that she has been able to get them all. Spelling does not come easy to her and she gets so upset when she misses words on her tests. She had a couple that she really struggled with earlier in the week, but she was able to remember them by Friday. I'm very proud of her.
We also did a lot of handwriting practice this week. We are working on forming all of her letters properly and writing on smaller lined paper (Boo tends to write her letters huge.) She has improved so much since last year. I couldn't believe it when she brought me this worksheet. The top word she traces and the one underneath she does by herself. It is almost perfect and this is from a kid who had really sloppy handwriting a year ago!

Science: In our study on light we learned that with the right tools light can be bent to make it go where we want it to go. We did a fun experiment where we cut a small hole in a plastic bottle and filled it with water. We shinned a flashlight on the hole through the bottle and put a hand in the sink underneath the stream of water pouring out. As we moved our hand close to the bottle a light appeared on our hand where the water was hitting it. The water bent the light and causing it to shine on the hand rather that traveling straight ahead. We then learned how we can use fiber optics to get this same result. Many occupations such as doctors and plumbers use this technology to do their jobs.


The girls drew pictures of the experiment with arrows showing the light passing through the water, reflecting off the air, and back into the stream.






Reading:
Boo and I are still reading Farmer Boy for her read-aloud. Sis started reading my Narnia book on her own. She just recently started to getting interested in these books. She read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe on a long car ride on vacation last fall. I've put off letting her read this series until I felt she was old enough to understand the allegory and the good vs evil. After that we watched the first movie together and she loved it. So, this past week she started reading Prince Caspian. I told her when she finishes we'll discuss it and watch the second movie. As a writer for children, I've always been a Narnia fan. My favorite part is when the lion (Aslan) is voluntarily sacrificed in place of Edmond for his mistakes of betraying his family and following the White Witch. I typically do not allow my children to read books or watch movies that contain any sort of magic or witchcraft, just a rule we have in our family. For these I make the exception. Here's why; these books were written by a christian for the purpose of helping children understand truths about Christ and our enemy through allegory. They do not glorify witchcraft but are meant to show that there is no place for it in the Kingdom of God. They have such a powerful story of redemption, Christ's sacrifice, great examples of our battle against Satan, and victory over the evil one. Also, they are great conversation starters. I'm really glad that one of my girl's is finally old enough to share them with me.

Art/Poetry: This week we read a poem called "The Road Not Taken." We painted a road that divided into two roads. The girls were excited to get back to our watercolor painting after having a few weeks off.

I addition to our paintings we did a lot of other art activities this week. The girls got a lot of art supplies and activities for Christmas. So they've had plenty of coloring and marker type activities and arts and crafts. We got over 6,000 beads for Christmas from Grandpa so the girls spent hours one day making bracelets. I love getting gifts that we can use for school projects.

 Boo also had a fun time this week making things with her new Sew Cool machine. She wanted this so bad. She asked to learn how to sew, but after researching I decided that since she is only 7she is not quite old enough to learn to use a real sewing machine with a needle. Most are for ages 12 and up. When I discovered that she mostly wanted to be able to make cool things for her dolls more than she actually wanted to learn to sew. I found this. This sews felt sheets without having to use thread, has a protective shield so that you can not touch the needle and comes with some fun projects. You still have to guide the felt under the needle as you would with a real sewing machine, so she is learning a little about how to really sew. When she is older I will buy her a real one, but for now this was good. She made some pillows for her dolls, a doll purse for herself and Baby Bear, and an eye glass case for Sis. I thought it was sweet that she used some of her felt to make gifts for her sisters.