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 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.
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