Weekly Report...Week 34

This week wasn't as rough as the previous 3, but still not where it should be. School is definitely winding down for us and I am wondering if that may have a bit to do with it. We've finished some major units and have started some less intense work in those subjects. We have 5 weeks left with a welcomed interruption of grandparents visiting.

History (Both)
We finished up our Revolutionary War unit with a look at our Constitution. I read A More Perfect Union by Maestro and the boys watched the final episodes of Liberty's Kids. We're in the process of putting their Lap/Notebooks together. Next week we'll begin an easy study of US Geography using a fun book I found. You'll have to come back next week to see what we're doing.


Science

Magnus...Read through his collection of Nature Friend Magazines (thanks Poppy and Nana!). If you are not familiar with this particular publication, I highly recommend looking into it. The articles are well written and full of information. I personally enjoy the incredible photography flooding the pages. It is written from a Christian perspective and doesn't include any advertising.
He also worked on his wolf lapbook some more.

Thane...Finished his Giant Panda lapbook! He is very proud of it. We'll be starting a new lapbook next week, but we haven't decided which one. Homeschoolshare doesn't make it easy to choose! These women have created many great lapbooks.

Language Arts (Magnus)

Writing...He read through a paragraph about Peter the Great, completed the keyword outline, wrote his first draft, edited it, and is in the process of writing his final draft. He isn't used to using the checklist yet and had to make some changes in his rough draft. He wasn't too happy about that.

Spelling...He finished up list 15 and will move onto list 16 next week.

Grammar...He completed some worksheets I printed off about proper capitalization.

Language Arts (Thane)
Whew! I have spent so much time reading, researching, and asking questions about dyslexia and various curricula. I plan on writing a separate post about all of it soon. I am pretty sure I have most of it figured out though.
In the mean time, he read from the Beehive Reader 1 from All About Spelling and completed several different assessments while I tried to figure out the major issues to help him with.


Math (Both)
I used to dread teaching this subject. Dread. I've changed it up and it is working more smoothly.

*The boys are working together now, at the same level. Magnus it a bit behind (my fault) and Thane is a bit ahead (his fault).
*I switched from a real teacher intensive curricula (Right Start) to a less teacher intensive curricula (Math Mammoth). Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Right Start and will probably use Level D (along with Math Mammoth) next year with the boys. It just wasn't working for us at this time. The boys have mentioned on several occasions that they like doing the MM worksheets. I about fainted.
*I broke it up into two different times during our morning. First thing we do is learn our new concept using manipulatives and complete a couple of worksheets. After working on some other subjects we come back to math doing our estimation jar, playing some games or reading a math influenced book, completing anther worksheet or some story problems, and doing their timed math facts assessments from Right Start. (Like how I avoided using the term "test"!)
*We play a lot of games. Our current favorite, taking the spot of Zeus on the Loose, is Count Across. These are a great way to work on math facts.
*I try to add in more "living" math throughout our week.

Fun Day Friday
We read an very entertaining math book called Sir Cumference and All the King's Tens. We discussed it being easier to count things grouped by "tens" then individually. It was a cute story and I'm looking forward to reading the others in the series.

We're continuing our study of Claude Monet and his Impressionist style. We read a book called Sunshine and Waterlilies by Steven Packard.


My favorite part of the book was the two page spread showing Monet's painting of La Grenoulillere next to Renoir's. These two Impressionist painters had different priorities when it came to painting the same scene. "Monet tried to paint the feeling of the whole place", while "Renior seemed more interested in painting the people and their clothes."
The boys like Monet's better.

I like Renoir's.


We studied Monet's painting titled "Blue Water Lilies" and used it as an inspiration for our art project. I saw this idea on another homeschool mom's blog, Follow the Tumbleweed. There are so many creative mom's out there and I love getting ideas from them.





Activities

Monday...Winnie the Pooh Rehearsal (Magnus), Library
Tuesday...AWANA
Wednesday...Fencing (Magnus), Rock Climbing (Thane)
Thursday...Winnie the Pooh Rehearsal (Magnus)
Friday...Fun Day Friday, Gym and Park Day with Homeshool Friends

Weekly Report...Week 31-33

I can sum up the past 3 weeks in just one word...rough. And that is all I am going to say about it.

History (Both)
We're finishing up the Revolutionary War. I had grand plans, but fell short. Remember, rough. The Liberty's Kids DVDs have been a real blessing. We've read some books, completed a map of the battles, and finished our timeline. I feel, in spite of the last few weeks, we all gained a greater understanding of freedom, loss, and liberty.


Science (Both)
We finished NOEO Chemistry. I chose not to do the rocks and minerals part because we will be doing an extensive unit on them next year. We did have a first-hand experience watching the life cycle of a butterfly. If you missed our pictures you can see them here. This week, Magnus worked on his Wolf lapbook from Homeschool Share while Thane and I completed some of his Giant Panda lapbook.

Language Arts (Magnus)
Well, remember the "roughness" of the past three weeks?

Grammar...I have decided to put MCT aside for the remainder of the year and pick up with it next year. He doesn't have a great knowledge of punctuation, so I found a great site and printed off some worksheets.

Writing...IEW is working wonderfully. He has been inserting his own ideas into the stories he is supposed to rewrite, and I like that initiative.


Spelling...still working through Phonetic Zoo. He is on list 15.

Language Arts (Thane)
Without going into great detail, I have been investigating and researching the possibility of dyslexia. Nothing severe, but things I am concerned about nonetheless. I am in the process of revamping his entire language arts program. In the mean time, we'll continue with WWE and reading through the All About Reading Beehive reader.

Math (Both)
We're almost through Math Mammoth Subtraction 1 in the Blue Series and will immediately go into Addition & Subtraction 2A. We've been playing a lot of games to aid in our quick retrieval of facts...Zeus on the Loose and Count Down are among the favorites. I've decided to continue with Math Mammoth next year and will have the boys work through the Light Blue complete curriculum. I may also have them doing Right Start Level D, but I haven't yet decided. Oh, and our estimation jar activity continues to be a big hit!


Latin
Not doing it anymore. At least not this year. There. I said it.

Fun Day Friday
We met with our charter school adviser and that takes up most of our morning. She brought a big box of goodies I had ordered which included art supplies from Dick Blick and more math games and a few books from Rainbow Resource. The boys wanted to use their new watercolors and brushes so that was our school day. Then we headed to the park with our homeschool group.

Activities

Monday...Winnie the Pooh Rehearsal (Magnus), Library
Tuesday...AWANA
Wednesday...Fencing (Magnus), Rock Climbing (Thane)
Thursday...nothing :o)
Friday...Fun Day Friday, Park Day with our Homeschool Group

Thanks for stopping by!

Weekly Report...Week 30

Wow! The year has flown by! I can't believe it is week 30 already! As far as our Charter School is concerned, we only have 6 weeks left. As far as I am concerned, we have more than that. As far as the Charter School is concerned, this week was Spring Break. As far as I am concerned, it wasn't.

History (Both)
We continued learning about the Battles in New York during the Revolutionary War. I'll admit it, the Liberty's Kids videos taught the boys again. I did read The 4th of July Story by Dalgleish and we added many items to our timeline. Magnus read, and reread, and reread Toliver's Secret by Brady. Needless to say, he really liked it.



Science (Both)
We suspended a solid into a liquid creating a suspension that acted both as a liquid and a solid. That's just a fancy way of saying...we mixed cornstarch with water and made a huge mess!


We also created a polymer and ate it!


And finally, we created a thixotropy concoction. It stays put until you apply some sort of pressure, like your finger, and then it acts as a liquid.




We only have 3 more weeks left of our Chemistry unit. The boys are pretty sad about that. We have had a great year learning about all kinds of properties and phases and changes and such. For the remaining weeks, I let the boys choose an animal to research and a lapbook to complete from Homeschoolshare.com. Magnus will be studying Wolves while Thane and I learn about Giant Pandas.

Language Arts (Magnus)

Grammar...Well, we are going back through our MCT Grammar Island Level book. I dropped the ball and did not have him working through the Practice Island workbook consistently after we finished the grammar book and I want to make sure he has an extremely thorough understanding of what he needs to know. It has nothing to do with a weakness in the program. It was all me. I may actually take a step back from it next week and see what I can do as far as creating some sort of mini office to go along with it. I don't know. Just brainstorming and typing as I think. That is one of the main reasons I have a blog. Helps me think.

Writing...He wrote a rough draft from one of the stories in IEW SWI A, made corrections with me, and wrote the final copy. Complain, complain, complain. "I hate writing"..."I don't want to do this"..."Do I have to write my final draft today"...blah, blah, blah.

Spelling...He completed list 12 and is working on list 13 of Phonetic Zoo.

Language Arts (Thane)

Phonics...He completed some episodes of Heasdprout. I am a little sad as he is almost finished with the program. I feel it was completely worth the money and has helped him learn to read.

Reading...We started reading through George the Drummer Boy. He is doing real well.

Writing...We did Week 8 of WWE. He really likes writing...at least he did this week.

Spelling...He spelled all of his words correctly! All About Spelling is the perfect fit for him!

Math (Both)
We're continuing to work through the Math Mammoth Blue book on subtraction and they are both doing very well. I am so glad I made the decision to have them working together. It's a lot easier on all of us.


We did our Estimation Jar and Thane won the prize (Reeses Peanut Butter Cup) for estimating the closest. In case you missed the explanation of the Estimation Jar, you can visit this post.


We played a number (HA!) of games of Zeus on the Loose.

Latin
Giving this some thought. No action. Just thought.

Fun Day Friday
We're starting our artist study of Monet but I wanted to give the boys an idea of what the Impressionist style is. I read the book, Katie Meets the Impressionists by Mayhew, to the boys. They both really enjoyed the book. However, if they are ever blessed to see Renoir's Girl With a Watering Can in person, I have a feeling she will get a lesson in honesty from Magnus. He didn't care to much for her in the story.

We worked through a really fun math book today. It's called Math Adventures: Firefighters to the Rescue. Thane, who wants to be a firefighter, really liked it. I really liked it because of the different operations and kinds of math the boys had to work through. It included word problems, addition, subtraction, picture graphs, telling time, multiplication, ect.


For art today we messed around with our science concoction.

Activities

Monday...Winnie the Pooh Rehearsal (Magnus) and the Library
Tuesday...No AWANA :o(
Wednesday...Fencing (Magnus) and Rock Climbing (Thane)
Thursday...Winnie the Pooh Rehearsal (Magnus)
Friday...Fun Day Friday

Thanks for stopping by! See you next week! :o)

Claude Monet Artist Study

We're diving into Impressionism for the last weeks of the 2009-2010 school year with the "Father of Impressionism", Claude Monet. I'm curious to hear the boys' opinions on his work since they didn't care for the paintings of NC Wyeth's that were not within his usual 'realistic' way of painting. I have gained an appreciation and love for this style of painting and I am excited to learn more about some of the artists who use it.

We'll be using these Monet art cards to study and then the boys will add them to their art album.

We'll be reading lots of books:

Charlotte in Giverny by Joan MacPhail Knight

The Magical Garden of Claude Monet by Laurence Anholt

Katie Meets the Impressionists by James Mayhew

Claude Monet: Sunshine and Waterlilies by Steven Packard and True Kelly

What Makes a Monet a Monet by Richard Muhlberger

Getting To Know the World's Greatest Artist: Monet by Mike Venezia

I'll get some ideas for projects from here:

Monet and the Impressionists for Kids
Discovering Great Artists
(Love this book!)

Found this DVD at the library for us to watch:


I also ordered these J-I-N-G-O games from Rainbow Resource.

Lastly, if you are looking for some incredible notebooking pages to go along with your Impressionists study, look no further. Nadene from Practical Pages has created some. They are simply amazing! Oh, and check out this great narration idea her kids did for Seurat's "Bathers at Asnieres". We are so doing this!

If you missed the post about how we do art study, you can read about it here.

Weekly Report...Week 29

We didn't have a typical school week. We took it easy, had fun, but still managed to learn stuff.

History (Both)
I let James and Sarah of Liberty's Kids teach the boys this week. They learned about The Declaration of Independence, Washington crossing the Delaware, and Molly Pitcher. Magnus also read another Jean Fritz book, "Will You Sign Here, John Hancock".

Science (Both)
I didn't plan anything this week, but we did get a lesson about squirrels. Some students on campus have been collecting data about reproduction in squirrels. They have been trapping them, marking them, and giving them birth control shots. Yes...you read that right. Birth control for squirrels. We were able to watch and ask questions. The boys got to see a male and a lactating female up close. It was pretty interesting. We also studied butterflies, but I wrote about that in the Fun Day Friday section.

Language Arts

Magnus...He read a paragraph and completed a keyword outline.
Thane...Completed a few episodes of Headsprout and continued reading to me from Sam the Minuteman.

Math (Both)
Math took center stage this week and probably will for the rest of the school year. The boys completed some worksheets from Math Mammoth and I got a shipment of games from Amazon. We had a lot of fun with math this week. If you missed my posts about it, please find them here and here. You won't be sorry for clicking on the links.

Fun Day Friday
We're "growing" butterflies and received our caterpillars in the mail yesterday. Today we read a book about their life cycle and the boys drew their own butterflies and labeled its parts.

Our picture study included another painting by NC Wyeth called "A Fight In the Forest".


Magnus named it "A Deadly Quarrel" and Thane liked "Indian Defeat". Thane discovered that if you turn the picture around and look at it from various angles, different parts of the painting jump out at you. Picture study still continues to be a favorite part of our week. So glad I finally got off my tush and planned something.

In the afternoon we met up with our homeschool group at the roller skating rink. I was a little nervous taking the boys since they have never been on skates and it's been nearly 15 years for me, but we had SO much FUN!!! Magnus got the hang of it pretty quickly and Thane was able to do a good job too. I saw my life flash before me only once! We're hoping to do it again real soon.

Oh...great news! Magnus auditioned for a part in our community theater's production of Winnie the Pooh and he got cast for Christopher Robin! 32 kids auditioned for 9 parts and the director said he was "perfect"! Guess I'm going to be a stage mom now! ;o)

Activities
Monday...Audition for Winnie the Pooh (Magnus)
Tuesday...Drama (Magnus) and AWANA (Both)
Wednesday...Fencing (Mangus)
Thursday...nothing
Friday...Homeschool skate at the roller rink

We're hoping to go to the beach tomorrow and on Sunday, Collin and I will be celebrating 12 years of weddedness! :o)

Thanks for stopping by!

More Math Fun

We have had a fun math filled day! We started out by playing a new game called Zeus on the Loose.

I had a feeling this game was going to be a big hit because of the mythology theme. My boys (especially Magnus) LOVE all things mythology. This game is so much fun! It is a great way to practice addition, subtraction by 10, and rounding. The only thing I don't like about it is the pictures of the gods are very...um...pronounced.

Next, we watched a couple episodes of Sid the Science Kid.

"The Sticker Chart" was all about how and why we use charts. "Enough with Seashells" was about how and when to estimate.

We took what we learned a step further and created our own charts after making estimations.

I placed the same size legos in a jar which we are calling our estimation jar. The boys took out 10 legos and piled them on the table to get a good idea of what 10 legos looked like. We placed them back in the jar and the boys gave their best estimation.

Magnus estimated 50 and Thane estimated 47. The actual total was 43. The boys then made a chart showing who got the answer correct. I will fill the jar periodically with other items and whoever estimates the closest will get a sticker. Once they get 3 stickers, they will get a small prize.

After a quick bike ride to the store to get M & M's, we did some more estimating and graphing. The boys opened their packages and estimated how many were in their bags. Can I just say that Magnus' had significantly less than Thane's and I feel cheated out of my $.99. Then I had them sort them out. I found this page on the internet to help out with that.

Once they were sorted, the boys had to graph how many they had. We used this graph to record the data. Magnus was able to record his data using each square having a value of one. Thane, however, had to think of each square as two because he had so many M & M's! It made the lesson more of a challenge for him, but he figured it all out!


Once they had their chart filled out, they had to add all of the columns together to get the correct amount of M & M's that were in their bag. Then they had to figure out how much they were off by. Magnus guessed 21...actual total was 32 (yep...only 32)...he was off by 11. Thane's estimation was 32...actual total was 55 (yep...23 more than Magnus' bag)...he was off by 23.

We are all looking forward to having more math lessons like this to go along with our regular lessons. I'll blog about those too, so be sure to keep checking back!