Week in Review: Week 4, August 24-28 2015

It's about that time of the year where I start to lose steam.  Yep, we are only 4 weeks in, but I am getting exhausted.  Homeschooling is not for the faint of heart,  It really does consume every aspect of your life.  I notice if I do not stay on top of my work, I have a very unorganized week.  So, I was a little unorganized this week and all three of the boys came down with colds.  Back to School season is in full swing including the sniffles being past around.   But even with an exhausting week, I am so glad I am home with the boys.  This is what our week looked like. 

Morning Work

 Here is what our calendar looks like one day of the week, although it is changing due to adding in co-op and extra curriculum activities.  

 All three boys doing their morning work packets.  I think they forget that we live in one of the hottest places on Earth.  Always in sweat jackets and long pants. 

 We took our morning work to the coffee shop and had some breakfast and completed a little of the work for the week. The big boys are doing a Story of the World coloring page.

Britton is working on his math.  He is over halfway through his kindergarten math curriculum.  Really proud of how hard he is working!

 It's fun to change things up every once in a while.

FIAR- The Little Red Lighthouse & The Great Gray Bridge

I loved the lesson and moral that is taught from this story, no matter how little or unimportant you think you are, you have a purpose. Such a wonderful lesson to go over with children. Five in a Row has helped me discover books I may have never read otherwise and they have ended up being some of our very favorite stories we have read.

                                  

Britton really enjoyed this story.  He loved that is based on a real lighthouse and bridge. 

 We learned about river life because the story takes place on the Hudson River. 

 Britton watched a video on how to draw a river. 

 His completed river, the Atlantis River.

 Learning how rivers flow. 

 Finding the personification in each picture. 

 Watching a clip of Beauty & the Beast to see a wonderful example of personification. 

 He made his lighthouses have faces like in the book. 

 We read another wonderful go along about lighthouses.  This is a beautiful story and inspired us to learn even more about lighthouses. 

 For FIAR Friday, the big boys had to build a lighthouse.  Ben and Greyson built it out of Legos and added a motor to make it spin.

 Then they added a candle for light like in our story.  The top was made from a yogurt container and reflective tape.

We made a New York cheese cake to finish out the week. It was delicious!

100 Book Challenge #49- Ella Enchanted

We are still working our way through Ella Enchanted and we are all really enjoying this story.  Ella is such a likable character. It's hard not to root for her and hope she can turn the tables on the ones who have been terrible to her.
                                                    

History & Geography

This week in Story of the World, we learned about Justonian and Theodora and how they were incredibly just and respected.   We decided that since they both came from humble beginnings, it must have played a part in them becoming the type of Emperor and Empress that you would want ruling your kingdom.  We talked about the beautiful Hagia Sophia and made paper dolls of the royal couple. My boys really love the laid back structure of Story of the World.

Geography- Massachusetts & New Hampshire

We learned about Massachusetts and read about two famous people from that state, Johnny Appleseed and Benjamin Franklin. We also made a Boston Cream Pie, Boston Baked Beans & Pulled pork Sandwiches. 

                                     

We learned about New Hampshire. We were very interested to know that NH produces 900,000 gallons of maple syrup a year, but in order to make 1 gallon on syrup they need to collect 40 gallons of sap!  That is a lot of sap!

 Poor Lincoln felt terrible this day and had a fever, but wanted to work so we  wouldn't have to have school on the weekend.  He was figuring out how many gallons of sap they would need to collect to make 900,000 gallons of syrup.

 Art

I found a fun sun catcher craft, but it called for baby oil, which we didn't have.  We tried it with soy bean oil and it worked for a few minutes, but then spread too much.  We would all like to try it again with baby oil, because they were quite pretty.

 We also started learning about Georgia O'Keefe.We will be studying her for the next 2 weeks.

 Language Arts

Britton is moving right along with Hooked on Phonics.  He is also working on sight words and doing quite well.  I have also been having Lincoln read a story to Britton during this time.  I love listening to them read together.  Britton has also been adding to his journal.  He loves to write words he knows, draw pictures, or even do math in his journal.

 Spanish

The boys focused mostly on Duolingo this week and working to build their vocabulary.  I also have been getting simple books in Spanish at the library.

 Tea on Tuesday

We just continued reading Shel Silverstein's poems.  We absolutely love his poems and they have been a great way to get the boys excited about writing their own poetry.  Lincoln even wrote his own poem this week!

 We had tea and biscuits and honey for our tea time.

A littel nerf couldn't hurt a fly. 

A little nerf with a needle inside.

Oh well, it's just a myth

Let's try it on my brother Britt.

-Lincoln

Science

Britton is learning about the body and we focused on muscles and the heart this week.

Showing me his muscles. 

Reading about muscles. 

Squeezing a tennis ball to understand how hard your heart squeezes.  It's really quite amazing that your heart doe this 70-100 times a minute.

We love The Magic School bus. There is an episode to help me cover everything!

Greyson and Lincoln had to look up elements and figure out what their purpose is in real life.  They loved doing research on the computer.  This was the first time they really got on the computer and did a project on their own. 

We also learned how to read food labels and searched for the most common elements added to food. 

 Special Moments

How have I been a parent for 10 years and just now read my first Olivia book?

Found an amazing, locally owned, all natural bath and body shop.  They even ship to the States!

Check out The Gold Bar.

Got into a little argument this week with a woman who thought it was unfair to teach or test children differently.  Needless to say, that didn't set well with me. 

Lincoln started basketball this week and loved it!

Lincoln working on a k'nex set.  I think I have Christmas ideas for him!

I can't believe we have already been in school for 4 weeks.  This year is already moving by too quickly.  Now, time to clean up this week and prepare for the next.

Linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschooler's Weekly Wrap up