Week in Review: Week 3, August 17-21, 2015

Virtue: Gentle

Our virtue this week was gentle.  This is a hard one in a house with three rough and tumble boys, but we are working on it.  The biggest issue is speaking with a soft voice and getting them to keep their hands to themselves.  It's like the only way they know how to show each other love is to punch their brother.  I am sure this is part of the reason I need to color my hair!  Being gentle is a work in progress in this house.

 Morning Work

No pictures of the big boys completing their morning work this week, but I am happy to say they completed their work by Wednesday night again.  They are working so hard and have seemed to mature a lot over the summer.  (When it come to their school work.)

 Britton working on his map workbook

 Explode the Code

Handwriting practice- Lower case

His favorite activity to do during the week, Draw Write, Now

Five in a Row- Miss Rumphius

I have rowed this book with the older boys a couple times, but this was the first time that Britton had ever heard the story.  This is such a beautiful story and really related to us because of all the traveling that Miss Rumphius does during her life.  We loved when she traveled to the island because we have been to islands very similar to that in Thailand.  

 Britton decided he could make the world more beautiful by building houses for the homeless. This was completely unprompted and was an idea he came up with on his own.

 We looked more at how plants grow. 

 Labeling the parts of a flower. 

 Making his own flower pictures with stickers and crayons.  He had to draw everything a plant needs to live on the picture. 

 We learned more about the importance of a library.  Super cute book if you can check it out. 

The big boys learned how to search for books on the library website.

On FIAR Friday, the big boys joined in and painted Lupines. 

100 Book Challenge: Book #49- Ella Enchanted

This is the first "traditional" fairy tale that I have read the boys and I cannot put it down.  As soon as you start reading this story, you are drawn into Ella's world and wrapped up in her life.  I have never read the story or watched the movie, so I wasn't sure what to expect with this book, but I can already tell it will be high on our recommendation list!

                                                       

History & Geography

We moved on to Chapter 3 of SOTW and we learned all about Christianity coming to Britain and Medieval  monasteries.  We also read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,  which is a story about the conflict between Christianity and paganism in Britain.

We learned all about Maine and Maryland this week in Geography.  We read about moose and the boys were quite astonished to know that they lose the velvet part on their antlers. We finished up with If you Give a Moose a Muffin, and then made some blueberry bread.

Art

We finished up our unit on Picasso this week and decided to try to replicate one of his face paintings.  I gave each of the boys a template and then they had to paint and arrange the facial features.


                                 

 

Language Arts

We have been using Writing with Ease for the past two years and I have been very happy with this program.  Writing is not an area that I am overly confident in and this program had made teaching writing much easier for me.  The boys also hit a milestone this week when they finished level two and jumped up to level 3!

Greyson reading his summary

      

      Lincoln reading his summary

The boys moving on to level 3 of Writing with Ease!

     

 We have also been using All About Spelling for the past 3 years and I am really pleased with how much the boys have improved with their spelling skills. They don't hate spelling anymore!

 Spanish

I have been really impressed with Risas y Sonrisas Spanish program.  This program comes with everything you could need to teach Spanish: worksheets, songs, DVD's, CD-rom's for proper pronunciation. The boys are having a blast learning Spanish this year.  Here they are having a very simple conversation with each other in Spanish.  They know the basics right now.

We also use Duolingo to supplement and reinforce what they are learning with our Spanish program.

Sensory

The way our week went this week, Britton didn't get to many sensory activities.  He did have fun weaving pipe cleaners through this basket though.  And it kept his attention for a really long time.

Tea on Tuesday

 Britton was pretty excited to put this "Super Reader" badge on that we received in the mail from our Tea on Tuesday co-op group.

 We read the poem "I'm Tired" by Shel Silverstein.

 The boys had to write their own "I'm Tired" Poem. 

Lincoln was so tired he could not even write. 

Science

 Britton is learning all about the body and this week we studied the bones. 

 Lincoln and Greyson both got 100% on their science test. 

And now we have moved on to some scary territory for me...THE ELEMENTS!

Special Moments this week

 Piano Guys on Pandora is the boy's favorite channel to listen to while doing work.  I think it makes them excited to know that they could be playing songs they know in the future. 

 My husband found a creative way to keep the bananas from getting mushy.  

 Lots of piano practice now that piano starts back up next week. 

 We had a fun visit with another wonderful homeschooling family in our area.  It has been a joy getting to know another family that understands what it is like to homeschool and our kids get along really well.  Plus, every time I talk with their mom I feel so encouraged afterwards.  

 They made it to FRIDAY!  It was a tough week. 

 This little guy and I had a date night while Ben and the boys were out.  He paid for our dinner and dressed "handsome" for me.  It was wonderful having one on one time with him.  

Ben and the boys had a great night at the Welcome Back party for his school. I hear the boys danced the entire night away with their new friend. 

This week, a tragic event happened in Bangkok. A shrine in a very populated area of Bangkok wasbombed and 20 people were killed,.  It is a very scary situation as the bomber still has not been caught.  Please keep Bangkok in you thoughts and lets all hope this person or people are found soon.

 

Linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschooler's Weekly Wrap-Up