Homeschool Wrap Up Week 9

We had a great week in our homeschool!  Keep in mind, that just because I say it was a great week, does not mean everything was perfect.  There are always moments that are not great: temper tantrums, arguments, frustrations (students and teacher!), and moments when everyone needs you all at the same time.  No week is EVER perfect, but I wouldn't trade it for anything!

We are moving right along with Math U See.  Mondays are video days followed by worksheet A, then worksheet B on Tuesday, C on Wednesday, and D on Thursday.  If the children do not understand the concept by then, we will complete E and F, if not we move on to the next lesson.  We have not yet had to complete E and F this year, but there are some topics that are harder for children to understand and I am sure we will.  Fractions were a hard topic for Nick to understand (mostly because we were using a curriculum that moved through the topic too quickly), and I am so pleased that Zeta (decimals) has been so easy for him so far this year.  Alex is moving through Gamma, Anthony through Beta, Christian through Alpha, and Chelsea through Algebra 2.  I confess that we skip the Primer level of Math U See and jump right into Alpha in first grade.

Just because pictures make blog posts more interesting and because he is so cute, he is a picture of Christian doing his Math.

I mentioned last week that we are moving very quickly through IEW SWI A, so this week we did an "extra" key word outline and rough draft just for practice, and next week we will be moving on to The Boy Who Cried Wolf.

In History we are learning about the early settlements of America.  The read aloud for this section is Sign of the Beaver.  Everyday there is a section to be read in the text, a mapping assignment, a lesson review page, and often a timeline entry as well.  We are really enjoying America the Beautiful!

Everyday I have Christian (6) and Anthony (8) use the Handwriting Without Tears app on the iPad.  This app teaches all the capital and lowercase letters, and numbers.  I cannot believe how much Anthony's handwriting has improved since I started this!  I commented to him the other day that his handwriting is coming along nicely and he said, " Thank you.  It is because of the HWOT app."  I would highly recommend this app if you have an iPad.

Those as his All About Spelling words.  I waited a year to do AAS with Anthony so I could do spelling with him and Christian at the same time.  It is going very well!  The words are a little easy for Anthony, but he is learning all of the spelling rules, and helping Christian along too.

Science this week was fun!  We had a chance to do some experiments and to complete some notebooking assignments.  Even though I have been using Apologia for Science for years, this is the first time I have had a chance to use one of the Junior Notebooking Journals.  They are great!  Alex is not ready for the regular notebooking journal and this way he and Nick both have their own.

Our experiments were a lot of fun, although Lily tried to run away with the food coloring.  Luckily I noticed it and her missing at the same time and sent the boys looking for her before any damage had been done.

We also had a great time on a field trip learning about bats and making bat houses!

Art Class was cancelled on Friday, but hopefully we will be back in class this week.

I hope you had a great week in your homeschool!