Back to School: Week 1 ( Aug. 5-7, 2015)

Wow!  Summer went way too fast.  It feels like we were just wrapping up the year. Here we are again getting the school room all organized and ready to go for another first day of school.  But this year, we are in a new house and a new school room and I am really excited about the curriculum and new schedule we will be putting in place.  Lots of fun, new, exciting things going on at "The Roth School for Boys."  I will be doing a post later on our new schedule and what curriculum I chose for this year, but now about our first week back at school.


1st Day Back to School

Like every year, I set up a fun "Back to School" breakfast for the kids.  I was so excited about this great freebie from Amanda's Parties To Go that I found.  It had all the printables I used.  The place mats, flags, banners, bag toppers, & cupcake toppers.  They offer even more, but this is just what I used.  I also found this cute bookworm printable and Starburst printable to be added to the special treats the boys were getting. The kids also get a bagged lunch on the first day of school.  It's so funny how excited they get over a bagged lunch!

Morning Work

Morning work is different for the boys this year,  Every Monday the boys will be receiving a packet with all of the work I want them to complete.  This has handwriting/cursive pages, reading comprehension, Draw, Write, Now pages, editing, and grammar pages.  They will get 20-30 minutes every morning to complete the work and this will also be there "homework" for the year.  If they complete their work before Friday, I will let them have technology time during their morning work time.  It's motivation for the boys to complete their work.

During the morning work time, we also go over our virtue of the week and have started a book called 365 Manners Kids Should Know.

                                                          

Math

Britton is still working on his Horizon's math program and is about halfway through his kindergarten book.

Greyson and Lincoln are also working on Horizons math, but have also started IXL math and seem to really like the change.  We will just alternate between the two programs.  The boys really like the idea of being able to work on their Kindles for math time.

Writing/Spelling/Reading

Greyson and Lincoln are still using All About Spelling. We are very close to finishing Vol. 3 and they both have improved so much with their spelling skills.

We are also very close to finishing up Vol. 2 of Writing with Ease.  I am still very happy with both of these programs and will continue with them during this school year.

Britton is moving right along with Hooked on Phonics app and also practicing his sight words.

Computers

Having a designated computer time is new for us this year,  The boys are working on their typing skills with Typing Club and all 3 are enjoying it.

They also have joined classes at Homeschool with Minecraft and are having so much fun. Greyson is learning about animal habitats, Lincoln is learning about chemistry, and Britton is learning about weather.  If your kids like Minecraft, check out these classes.  They love it!

Five in a Row-Harold and the Purple Crayon

Britton is my only one this year using Five in a Row.  We have used this program for a couple years and have created so many memories. We only have time to work on FIAR on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and  Greyson and Lincoln are joining in on Friday for "Five in a Row Fridays".  This week we were rowing Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson.

                                      

We read a couple Harold books.  Britton loved Harold.  He giggles through the whole story.  I had Britton practice his cutting skills by cutting out buildings like Harold draws in the book.  Then Britton had the chance to illustrate his own "Britton and the Purple Crayon".  I had to keep adding paper during the week because Britton wanted to keep on drawing.

We read the story during snack time and the boys got to decorate purple cupcakes and had purple Gatorade. I know it was not the best of snacks, but they had a good time decorating their cupcakes.

On Friday, we end school early to work on preparing our theme meal for the week.  This week we made 3 pies to go along with Harold drawing 9 pies in the book.  The boys helped make everything. Britton helped with the pie crust.  Greyson worked on cutting apples and making the filling for the apple pie.  Lincoln made the filling and the peanut butter crumbs for the peanut butter pie.  They all really do enjoy cooking. They were pretty proud to show their dad the meal they had made.

100 Book Challenge- Book #47

I had never heard of this book before our chapter book challenge.  This story has held the boys attention from the very beginning. They liked it so much they were all hoping that there were additional stories, which there are!  I found the movie on Amazon prime and read the summary to the boys.  It didn't sound anything like the book and the boys decided together that they were not going to "waste their time with a movie that was not like the book."  I feel like we hit a huge milestone.  Forty-seven books in and we finally have readers!

                                                     
History & Geography

We started Volume 2 of Story of the World this year.  The boys really enjoyed history last year and hopefully that will continue this year.  We are still learning about the Romans and the empire they controlled.  We read a book on the Ancient Romans worked on a Roman Standard or Signum.  Still need to get that finished.

We are also starting Confession of a Homeschooler's Road Trip USA.  I was starting to worry that the boys know so much about Asia and not much about the United States. This week we learned about the Statue of Liberty, the flag, and the Pledge of Allegiance,  We also went over our favorite "50 States that Rhyme" song.

Art

The art program we use is called Artistic Pursuits and we will keep working through it this year.  I am still not quite sure what I think of it, but I want to at least give it another try.  I will be adding in additional art projects.  This week Greyson and Lincoln had to do a pencil drawing of something realistic with an imaginary background.  Britton had to draw a water picture with crayons.

We are also using Confession of a Homeschooler's Artist study and have been learning about Picasso.

Sensory Activities

At the end of the day when the older boys are finishing their work, I have a sensory activity set aside for Britton.  This week he played with Kinetic sand.  A huge favorite in our house right now.   I also froze a few super heroes in a block of water and Britton had to rescue them.  He had the best time doing this and spent at least 30 minutes trying to get them out.

Science

Greyson and Lincoln are still working though Nancy Larson's Vol. Science.  The boys are learning about comets and made foil comets to hang in our room.

Britton is starting REAL Science.  He is learning about living vs. nonliving things.

Extra Curricular Activities

After school activities and co-op have not started up yet, but the boys have been staying busy with their piano practice and also their Minecraft classes.

That was our first 3 days of school.  I feel like we crammed so much in and have a pretty full schedule this year, but I am excited about all we will be learning.  I just need to get better organized and maybe plan more than a week in advance!!

I will add a post soon with all the links to our curriculum choices along with everything I add in to the morning work packet.

  

Inspiration:
Reading Chain
Harold Cupcakes
Britton and the Purple Crayon
Cutting Activity for Harold

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

Week In Review: week 24 February 23-March 1

Theme: Three Names, Tornadoes, and Ground Water

                                               

We worked on finishing up our unit on prairie life and our FIAR story of the week, Three Names.  In the story, it mentioned that the kids have to use a hand pump to get the water from the well.  So, we read a story about ground water and discussed how we should take care of the ground water.  Each of the boys made a poster about keeping the water clean.  (I forgot to take a picture.  I did a terrible job this week.)

Then, we used our water filtration kit to see how really dirty water can be cleaned.  It is pretty amazing to think that the water we drink starts off pretty dirty.  The boys loved this activity and we were all surprised at how clean the water was in the end.

Our story also takes place in tornado alley and mentions tornadoes in the book.  We looked up where tornado alley is in America.  I always thought tornado alley was right in the center of the country, but tornado alley actually extends all the way over the northwest Ohio, where we are originally from! Maybe they have updated the map with all the crazy weather that has happened in the last couple of years.  We read a book on tornadoes and also pulled out our tornado bottle connector and made a tornado in a bottle.  The boys also made a fun tornado art project.  I loved how Greyson's turned out. The other two are still working on theirs.

100 Books: Henry Huggins

Can you believe that I have never read this story? The boys actually really liked this story.  They have been say "golly" and "swell" quite a bit this week and it has made us all laugh.  We had very mixed feelings on the ending of this book.  We were happy, but also sad.  Have you read this book?  What did you think?

                                                

We decided we have had enough of the Unfortunate Events books for now.  We started the 5th book and just couldn't get into it.  It felt like a chore to read, so we thought we should take a break for a while or maybe forever.  I am happy to just be focusing on our 100 books now.

Tea on Tuesday

We hit the jackpot this week with letters in the mail.  We got four letters in the mail and two postcards.  I love how mail has gotten my boys excited about poetry.  Before we joined this group, I could not get the boys interested in poetry at all.  The would complain and drag their feet, but now they cannot wait to see what has been sent to them.  They also get excited about writing simple poems and sending them out to the families back in the States.  This week, because it was Britton's birthday week, we sent out a Dr. Seuss birthday poem and our favorite chocolate cake recipe.  Hopefully our recipients like it!

We were also very excited that some of our tea came from the Boston Tea Company, home of the Boston Tea party.

What we are learning this week:

Greyson is still plugging away at his 4th grade Horizons Math and really doing a great job.  He is very excited that he is finally "getting" long division!

The boys have been learning about the Celts this week and we read some Celtic fairy tales.  We also watched Modern Marvels on Netflix, ep. 11 about the Barbarians.  This fit in perfectly with our lesson.

                                   

I also had the boys start a Minecraft writing page and they were so excited.  I think that was the first time they actually jumped at doing some writing.  I need to do more writings like this to get them more interested in it.

Here is a cute picture of Britton asleep in the taxi after our Co-op this week.  Anything look strange to you in this picture?

Britton's 5th Birthday!

How is my baby already 5 years old?  It just doesn't seem possible and I told him he has to stay 5 forever now!  So, we make a huge deal of birthdays in our house.  Britton started out his birthday with cake batter pancakes.  They were a huge hit and have already been requested by the other boys for their birthdays.

We headed to the mall to go ice skating with some friends.

Then had lunch at his favorite place, Carl's Jr. We also stopped to get some ice cream for dessert.

 Britton had some birthday money to spend, so he went and chose a couple gifts.

Once we got home, Britton had a couple friends over for more ice cream and an awesome dance party!

Then it was present time.

And we finished his night off with a birthday brownie.  He doesn't really like cake.  Crazy, I know!

 Britton was supposed to have a friend birthday party on Saturday, but Lincoln woke up early in the morning and was sick, so we had to cancel.  He handled it without any complaints and was pretty happy that all of his friend will be able to come to his re-scheduled party.  He is a glass-half full kid for sure.

Now, to prepare for next week.  It is that time of year that I am starting to get a little burnt out with teaching.  Time to push through.  In a few weeks we will be at the beach for a much needed holiday! Have a great week!

Linking up with:
Homeschool Mother's Journal