Week in Review: Week 12 November 3-7

We are still chugging along, trying to get all of our work accomplished.  This seems to be getting harder everyday to stay motivated and on top of everything.  I am still, yes STILL, trying to figure out the best schedule for us.  I am finding it really hard to fit in history, science, and our language arts after lunch for the big boys and work on science and language arts with Britton.  There is just not enough time.  I have been tossing around the idea of switching history and science every other month, so I feel like we actually put the time in that I would like too.  We will see.

We are slowly working on our FIAR & BFIAR books.  It is taking between 2 & 3 weeks for us to complete one book, due to so many other projects and activities.  Greyson and Lincoln are reading Storm in the Night and Britton is reading The Big Green Pocketbook.  Both are great stories and I hope to finish them up next week and move on to Thanksgiving activities.

Britton filling his green bag

Britton is learning about the 5 senses in science.  We worked on hearing and smell this week.  I hid a timer around the room and he had to listen for it, we read books on hearing, and we did a hearing Safari where he had to listen for different sounds outside.  I had him smell all different types of spices and he put them in good and bad groups.  This was funny to do with him!

 Sound Safari

 Writing good and bad smells

 bad smell

Much better

Greyson and Lincoln just started their Nancy Larson Vol. 3 science. They are learning about the solar system.  We read quite a few books about the sun and had some great discussions about how important the sun really is.  They also did a fun sun craft.

 Smooshing (that's a word, right?) colors together to make a sun

We made it almost every single after school activity this week!   Next semester we are simplifying a bit.  I need at least one day off after school.  They are all doing great with swimming and the big kids are still loving soccer.  They also were very excited to get their Christmas songs for piano. They have been practicing for their Christmas recital.

One exciting thing that happened this week was that I was pretty sure that my motor bike was going to explode on the way to the school.  About halfway there I almost turned back home because the sound was getting louder and louder.  By the time I made it to the street the school is on I made the boys hop off because I thought any extra weight was just going to push my bike over the edge.  I pulled into the drive thankful I had made it.  Ben tried driving it and it completely stopped moving! We called the bike shop, they came and picked up my motorbike and had it all ready for me the very next day!  Service really is amazing here.  They even fixed my broken break handle for no extra charge!  Thankfully, my bike wasn't completely dead and  it just had something to do with the clutch.

We celebrated our favorite Thai Holiday, Loy Krathong this past Thursday.  Check out my post here. We had a great time at the neighborhood festival.

This week, we also said goodbye and a massive thank you to our maid, O.  She has been with us since we moved to Thailand and I could not say thank you enough for all she did for me everyday she came to my house.  Honestly, she kept me sane!  She kept me organized and and feeling like I had some control in my life.  She actually works right across the street from us, so we still get to see her everyday.  I am very thankful for her!

Lincoln completed reading 40 chapter books so far this school year. Once you read 40 books, you can pick an activity to do to celebrate, so Lincoln chose to go to the mall and play video games.  We had a great morning celebrating Lincoln!

We also finished reading Hatchet  by Gary Paulsen this week.  If you have not read it, put it on your list.  What an amazing story!
                                                           

So, that was our week.  Ready to move on and start planning Thanksgiving.  And have I mentioned the HUGE surprise we have for the boys?!  It's happening on Thanksgiving and I cannot wait. Anyone have any guesses?

One more sweet moment:  Greyson & Lincoln both reading at breakfast

Week in Review: Week 8 September 22-26

Morning Routine: Calendar, Virtue, & Chores

This week the boys worked on being gentle.  That is a hard one for three boys to work on.  There is always rough housing and loud voices going on in my house, so we worked on having a quieter voice and keeping our hands to ourselves.  This one will probably be in a work in progress until they all move out! They have also been slowly adding stickers to their "100 Days of Virtues" poster.  Hoping we can get to at least 20 next week!  Britton has mastered the days of the week and the big kids have mastered the months of the year and the 50 States. We worked on all three of those tasks during our morning calendar time.  

Theme of the Week: Five in a Row

                                                        

Over the past two weeks, Greyson and Lincoln have been working on Owl Moon by Jane Yolen .  This is a sweet story about a little girl who gets to go out with her dad (without her brothers) to go look for owls.  We learned about Owls over the past two weeks and had the excitement of dissecting owl pellets, studying nocturnal animals, and thanking their Dad for working so hard and taking care of all of us.  We had a great two weeks reading this book. 

                                                      


Britton worked on Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown over the past two weeks. This is a classic book that most American kids have read to them when they are little ones.  To be honest, I have never really liked this book, but I enjoyed it so much more this time reading it through with Britton.  We learned about the moon, went over right and left, learned the nursery rhyme "Hey Diddle, Diddle", and played with some fun erupting moon sand. 

Science

Greyson and Lincoln studied owls all week long.  We learned where they lived, what they eat, why they are protected animals, and finished the week with dissecting owl pellets and the end of unit test.  The boys loved the dissecting the owl pellets.  I was grossed out. Mostly, because I have a very irrational fear of mice and both of our pellets had mice in them.  Both of the boys started off strong, but once it really sank in what exactly it was they were dissecting, they started to lose their interest.  They also both finished out the week with perfect scores on their science test!

Britton joined in a lot of our science lessons this week.  We watched a Magic School Bus on nocturnal animals and I think he can teach a lesson about nocturnal animals now!  We watched MSB "Going Batty" and "In the City" episodes.  We also worked a little more on mixing colors by using two jars of colored water and have them mix on a paper towel.  This didn't exactly work for us, so we just switched the paper towel around and then the colors started mixing.  Britton liked it even though it didn't work out perfectly.  

100 Book Challenge

This week we are reading The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katheine Patterson.  The same author who wrote The Bridge to Terabithia.  This book does not seem to be grabbing the boy's attention like her other book, but we are pushing through.  I think it is a great story with a really great lesson to be learned.  I have had to edit the book a bit.  We are hoping to finish it up next week.
  
                                                          

Math, Reading & Art

All the boys are doing great with their math.  Greyson just moved up to his 4th grade book and was very excited about that!  

The boys have also been adding quite a few stickers to their reading charts.  Lincoln just finished up his 2oth chapter book for the year! We are trying to find another series that Greyson will be interested in.  We have previewed quite a few, but I just can't seem to find one that he likes.  So, if you have any suggestions, I would LOVE to hear them.  Britton is now reading two-three sentences per page in his readers.  I am so proud of how well he is doing!

We worked on clay owls in art this week and Britton made a cute moon scene to go along with Goodnight Moon. 

Story of the World

For the past two weeks we have been learning about India.  We studied the Ganges River and learned why it is so important to the Hindu religion.  Our friend, Mala, taught us about henna and bindis.  

We also learned about Buddha and Buddhism.  The boys know quite a bit about this religion since we live in a Buddhist country, but it was interesting to learn more about who Buddha was.  We read a few Jataka tales, that are lessons from Buddha.  We will continue to learn about Buddha next week.  

Special Moments

On Thursday this week, I needed a day to get caught up.  I was getting behind in all of my planning and decided to switch the day around for the boys.  Greyson and Lincoln played a long game of Monopoly, we baked some pumpkin bread, and Greyson worked on an estimation project to figure out how many people live in our little section of our neighborhood.  I was quite surprised to find that over 1000 people live in our little part and up to 10,000 people live in our whole neighborhood!  

The boys also decided all on their own to make fitness calendars, so they can work being healthier.  This was something they came up with without any suggestions from me.  It has been cute to see them come with  their own fitness plan and makes me happy to see them want to take control of their health.  We also made delicious Nutella pastries (this was before the fitness calendar started!) We also found pumpkins at our local market.  This is the first year I have seen small orange pumpkins here.  We also saw a cute little frog in our front yard. 

Next week, we are moving on to all things apples!

Inspirations:

Erupting Moon Dust
Moon Craft
Moon/window craft
Clay Owl
Color Mixing
Nutella Pastry