Weekly Wrap Up! 1st Week of 2015

Howdy!!  I know have been MIA for over 6 months (well except the super brief, 2 day, attempt at daily posting in November...what was I thinking?).  To be honest, it has been a mixture of not knowing where my head is, to not having 2 hands to type with, and not feeling like I had anything worth posting about!

But, we are back, with REAL Montessori (or at least Montessori inspired) schooling.  Last semester we used workbooks and curriculum.  So, we are finishing up on those and transitioning into more Montessori lessons again.  I'm ready!  

We started out this year with a new theme for our calendar.  We use the Calendar Connections from 1+1+1=1, and we are using the cards that focus on the Arctic and Antarctic.  Seems about right, since the high yesterday was all of like 4 degrees, and the windchill was below zero ALL.DAY.LONG.

Our discussions have included ice, glaciers, icebergs, and polar lights.  We've also talked about latitude and longitude, hemispheres, and the arctic circle.  

We used these wonderful Arctic Animals set from from Trillium Montessori. 

And I was thrilled when Mini Cooper, completely on her own, went and found a journal and wanted to draw pictures and copy the names so she could remember her work!!

We had a refresher course with our Little People animals and the Article and Noun presentation.  I also presented Grammar Box 2 (which I see I have no photos of).

Working through Grammar List 1.  We enjoyed the discussion of what some of the words meant.  We even watched a Youtube video of a wringer to learn what that was!

Explorer completely enjoyed getting to work on the Continent puzzle.  We also sang the Continent song, which she loved.  We used this to talk about where Antarctica was at.

Mini Cooper had a really fun day when she spelled her first word!!  She is certainly at a language sensitive period.  Always wanting to know how to spell things and write them down. She had no idea it would be possible that she could spell her own word!

When we started pulling out the Montessori Materials, it apparently brought inspiration to the sensorial materials.  The girls spent a lot of time building together this week.

For Christmas, Charger got this super cool Snap Circuts set!  We will be working on this a lot!  

We made the fan fly!  Super cool!

We learned about how ice melts by using a fun experiment I found from Art and Creativity.  First, we sprinkled it with salt, and then we put food coloring on it.

You could then watch the salt make tunnels through the ice as we watched the food coloring go through the tunnels.

The kids spent a good hour watching their ice cubes melt, adding food coloring, and experimenting.  Mustang was adding salt to get hers to melt faster and even pulled out a magnifying glass so she could get a better look.  Very fun experiment.  

One last little fun activity the big kids have been doing is to play the Oregon Trail.  This was a flashback for me and we've all been enjoying trying to get to Oregon without having our oxen stolen, our friends die, or to get sick from dysentery.  Lots of strategizing, planing, and discussion has come from this game!

All in all, it's been a great week back!  I hope yours was as well!  See you next week :).

God Bless,

Lisa

We're going to link up:

Weekly Wrap Up 2014 Week 7

Before I start, I just wanted to thank you for stopping by!  I love having visitors :).

Secondly, something I read this week made me think about the fact that some people think blogs are used to brag about that person's life.  I just wanted say that I only blog to share what we do each week to show that average moms CAN do this homeschool thing, and give ideas to those who are looking for them.  Well, that and to keep us accountable!!

If you are new to this homeschooling thing, just know that if I can do this, anyone can!!  Good luck on your journey!!

With that....we had a so, so, week.  We actually learned a lot, but MAN those late nights watching the Olympics really put a wrench in my routine!  We ended up staying up later, getting up later, starting school later, getting done later....you see the trend, right??  We don't usually watch the TV at night and now I am sure that won't start!!  That's also why my post is 2 days later then I try to post, and school is being trimmed back this next week-I am behind in my school planning!

The Olympics were, once again, our major theme for the week.  Just one more day and we will be moving on.  It's been a great series of lessons, though!

We finished up our A Journey Through Learning Olympics lapbook.  I LOVE how each day there was a little bit of information to read, and then Mustang would have just a few questions or thoughts to write about.  We also finished up Hour of the Olympics.  I'll be honest that *I* found it a little dull, but my 6 year old LOVED it.  He has now determined that he is going to read every Magic Treehouse book ever, so it was well worth the little time we spent reading it each day.  

Each day we went through the medal standings.  This took a LOT of time, but was well worth it.  I had Mustang and Charger take turns finding the country by flag and on the globe.  I am quite sure they really remembered some of these!!  I know I couldn't find the Ukraine when *I* was 6 years old...oh wait, it didn't exist.  Oh well.  We got the medal standing book (Free) from Enchanted Homeschooling Mom.

Our lapbook lesson mentioned that this year's Olympics were being held in Russia for the very first time.  Before, it was held in the USSR.  Me, being the pack rat I am, I still had this book (that's actually very cool and useful) that showed USSR as one country.  So, we were able to compare the current globe and the map from 1990 in my book.  We also looked at the old Yugoslavia.  Turns out, the book was very helpful!

Thanks to an awesome (FREE) printable pack from Every Star is Different, we were able to take our Olympics theme into other areas of our learning.  I present each activity to both of them, together, and then add the work to their workplans.  The one on the left is matching time.  On the right is labeling grammar in sentences. 

Once again, we have continued with our daily dose of Black History month.  These calendar cards are from 1+1+1=1 and I can't say enough about them.  This week we talked about Mary McLeod Bethune, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, Garrett Morgan, Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, Jesse Owens, Jackie Robinson and Shirley Chisholm.  Yes, that's more then 5, but we covered some weekend people.  

We also read about Harriet Tubman.

We discussed President James Polk this week, and Mustang chose to work on her booklet about him.  

They both finished their first subtraction strip board books.  I appreciate that, while they may already understand the concept, the boards allow them to 'play' while memorizing the facts.

Charger chose to complete lesson 16 in his All About Spelling book.  He learned about choosing letter k or c at the beginning of a word.

And, like I mentioned before, we watched LOTS AND LOTS of Olympics!!  

This next week will probably be a slower week, finishing up our Olympic medal books, and Black History month. I am looking forward to spending more time with the Montessori materials and less on 'themes' :).

I hope you all have a great week!!!

God Bless, 

Lisa

BTW, I have 2 giveaways going right now if you like to enter that sort of thing.  My Warner Bros. DVD giveaway ends tonight.  (2/23) and my Del Monte Prize pack (coupons and $25 Walmart Card) ends Wed 2/26.