HS BLOG #5 (& #6!)

[twiliyte]

So sorry! I am "on time" (whatever the crack that means) today, but... as you know I never made it this far LAST week! I just can't seem to get my head screwed on (or my ass in gear for that matter)!

I purchased 5 x 7 inch spiral bound "planahead" brand assignment books- dated for the school- year, and on clearance for .75 each (YAY! GO ME!) so we could all keep up with EVERYTHING we do for school. The kids were convinced that they weren't "doing" enough (WOW, right?). Each day is divided in 2 columns of eight lines each. We ignore the times (7a through 12 noon on the L and 1p to 6p on the right) and use the left hand column to list "sit down" work- then we use the right side and put down things like time on the trampoline (PE- recess), websites (coolmath.com and pbskids.com, for example) with an estimated amount of time spent there... Now WE CAN ALL see, that even though we feel like we did nothing, we actually learned quite a bit!

So here goes- In child + week form

M- Along with daily chores, Axl was given a list and was pretested on 18 spelling words. He read 3 chapters in "Farmer Boy" by Laura Ingalls Wilder (and was "quizzed").  We listened to the Greek Myths about Arachne, KingModas, and Perseus/ Andromeda on Audio while travelling to visit his great grandmother (a shut- in) in the suburban. He used the PSP and played a new enrichment game called "spelling challenge" (a virtual spelling bee). They had half an hour or so on the trampoline with math problems, then it was off to our first cubscout meeting of the year. Fenix was also assigned and pretested on 12 spelling words and read a Choose Your Own Adventure Book titled "Mysteries of the Maya" and logged 30 minutes on an electronic crossword puzzle game on the PSP. Andromeda was given 10 spelling words and pretested and read the first 3 chapters in "Powerpuff Girls: Fright Night".

T- We have co- op classes (of the Christian kind) on Tuesdays. They are learning about the human body through creationism. AxL is in a 4th grade boys' class, Andi and Fenix are in class together and Xander is in a kindergarten class. They learned a basic overview of the body systems, bones and more. Andi and AxL are also taking a basketball "course" through the co- op. We all listened to the story of Hercules between classes. While they were practicing, Xander played the PSP spelling bee game and Fenix played through a brainquest question deck. Andi had her first girl scout meeting, and since today (9th) was Victor's birthday and Friday (5th) was Xander's birthday, we had a bunch of family over for a birthday celebration.

W- Aside from the daily chores, the kids had worksheets over their weekly spelling words, they read (AxL from "Farmer Boy", Fenix form "Legend of The Bluebonnet" and Andi finished her PPG book.) Math was place values, commutative property, and part/part whole framework. In science we discussed jungles and hot lands, had sink and float discussions and experiments, and Animal Kingdom work. In Social Studies we went over colonial America, the 13 colonies, rban, suburban and rural community areas... And in in grammer we worked on alpahabetizing beyond the first letter (through the 5th), 4 kinds of sentences, Adjectives, and synonyms and homonyms. They also had time to play and watch cyberchase, coolmath.com and play on the trampoline.

Th- In math we worked on addition with regrouping, addition, and opposites of equations... AxL read from "Farmer Boy", Andi read "Annie the Apple Farmer", and Fenix re-read and discussed "Bluebonnet". Spelling words were practiced, and in grammar we worked on figurative and literal language, adjectives and the correct use of good, well, bad and badly. In science we worked with animal classification, foil: fold and float experiments, and temperate regions- and in Social studies more wrok on commi=unities and 13 colonies reasearch and wordsearches.

F- Along with chores, the kids read...All were tested on their spelling- Andi and Fenix made 100's while Axl only scored a 70%- he had to write the missed words and re test over them. He got 5 out ofsix of those correct when retested... We discussed tundras and cold landsand  AxL had to design a flag for Jamestown and write a letter to his "bride (from the Virginia Company)" introducing himself for social studies.

Xander spent the week learning about body parts, the 5 senses, colors, numbers, skip counting, size, top, middle, bottom, left, right, dental hygiene and reading 3 letter words.

It is late- I will add this last week tomorrow- I didn't realize how long a 2 week post would get!

Cya