Weekly Wrap Up Week 13 {2014}

Like I mentioned in my little girl's post, I'm a bit behind on my wrap ups.  I may never catch up, so I'll just move forward like it never happened (except the part where I skip from week 10 to week 13).  I figure I could go into all the reasons I got behind, but I think I'll just stick with the part where I'm 30 weeks prego and am homeschooling 4 kids.  That seems good enough for me ;).

I also appears that I have all of four photos to show you from this week.  But, hey, that is 400% better then the zero I had a few weeks ago, so at least we have improvement, right? Right.

So let's see...

History

Our biggest activity this week was learning about Abraham Lincoln.  We've been reading a little page about each president and we finally made it to Lincoln.  I decided that we should spend more then 5 minutes learning about him, so I checked out Abraham Lincoln by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire. 

Really, I just chose it because it had cute pictures, but it turned out to be a gem {maybe if I had noticed the part that it was a Caldecott award winner before we read it I would have been clued in}!  Man, am I glad we got to read it!!  It's super awesome and the kids loved it!! Of course, it totally avoids parts like... Mary Todd Lincoln was a bit nuts...and....Abraham Lincoln got shot....but overall, it had a ton of fun info.  


We will probably read another Lincoln book this week that fills in the (kinda important and memorable) gaps.  I highly recommend this one, though!  


Science

We're still using our Space calendar cards and the kids begged me to bring out the planets model that we have.  I can't blame them, it's really cool.

The lights were actually off when I took this (cause the sun lights up).  I can't believe how bright my flash is!

We also watched Bill Nye's The Planets {Yes, I'm a Creationist, but this is what our library had.  Thankfully, he just talked about the current properties of the planets-which is what I was hoping for}.

Math

I introduced triple addends with the beads.  I love how simple Montessori Math is to explain, understand, and work through!  

We also started the multiplication layouts, but no photo. Actually, we don't technically have enough beads to do the entire layout at once.  I'm hoping it won't scar the kids forever.  I've now got more beads on my want list!

Both Mustang and Charger have finished the basic addition strip board and charts.  Mustang knows her addition facts well, and Charger is working on memorizing them.  We've been working on IXL to solidify their memorization (instead of flash cards and games).  They are doing well and love it.  (We received our subscription free last fall for doing a review).

Language Arts/Reading

Charger has been asking to work on his Primary Arts of Language (PAL) a lot lately.  Though, I guess in this particular photo it looks like he is interested in the glue.  He is solidly reading now, though still needs help with bigger words.  

I'm always amazed when I realize that I {by the grace of God} taught 2 kids how to read.  It really does help with confidence to believe that this homeschooling thing really is working out!

Everything Else

I signed both Mustang and Charger up for baseball and softball.  For the month of June they will each have 2 ball games a week, and I'll have a new baby.  Should be interesting, but it's actually local (which is rare) and Mustang has been begging to get out of the house and make new friends.  Hope she likes it!

Charger is one verse away from finishing his AWANA book and Mustang just has a couple more.  I was actually concerned they wouldn't finish since we missed a ton last fall when I was sick and then this winter with all the snow.  So, I'm really excited that they are going to finish!

I've also finally started getting ready for the new baby.  Hard to believe that if she were to come as early as Charger did (I hope not!) she could be here in just 5 weeks.  Eeek!  At least with the 5th child you know you don't need much :).

I hope your week has gone well!!  We are planning to start our human body unit next week.  It will be our LAST unit before our 2 month baby break, so I'm just amazed it is coming so soon!

Have a great weekend and God Bless!

Lisa  

Things we used this week (amazon affiliate links in this widget).

Weekly Wrap Up Week 10 {2014}

Well, it was bound to happen.  A week where there was more life then school.  But, well, that's life, right?  :)

Our week started with our annual gym night at the gymnastics center in town.  This is the night that all the kids look forward to and talk about all year long!  They get 3 hours to run, jump and play on all the gymnastics equipment.  The parents get 3 hours to sit, talk, eat some yummy snacks, and let their kids run wild.  It's really a great night!  (Yes.  This is homeschool socialization).

Sunday night we went to Mustang's Spirit Squad recital.  To mark the end of their season, the team hosted a pizza and awards night, and then the girls performed their routines for all their family and friends that wanted to come and see.  Mustang received a certificate for participation.  Sorry that the picture on the right is a bit blurry, I had to crop it close so that the other girls on the team weren't in the picture.

The rest of us enjoyed pizza, snacks, hanging out with other families, and a performance.  (Also considered homeschool socialization, ha ha).

On a not as happy note, we received word that our Great-Grandpa passed away on Wednesday night.  He lived far away, so we will not be attending his funeral.  But, we have spent a lot of time this week remembering him and discussing what happens when we die.  We, thankfully, have the hope of knowing that he knew Jesus as his Lord and Savior, and someday we can see him again if we, too, know Jesus as Savior.  So, we've had some conversations about how one gets to Heaven, too.  It's been a good week of discussions.  

For the 'official' school front, we were able to spend 2 days doing work.  

This week we learned about Vincent Van Gogh.  I found a wonderful book (left) of huge and colorful prints of his work.  It was great for giving the kids a true chance to view and appreciate his paintings.  

We started watching a biography about Van Gogh and really enjoyed it (but we need to finish it on Monday-it was kinda long!).  I learned a lot of things I never knew about Van Gogh.  Did I mention that I LOVE homeschooling my kids? I learn so much!! :)

The booklet to the right is free from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  I added this booklet to their workplans.  Mustang chose to do it right away, so this is her book.

One of our two days of school included 'outdoor learning' AKA soak up the 72 degree day in March!  Well worth it!

We've continued with our calendar days about space.  The space cards are from 1+1+1=1.  This has been a blessing, because on his days off school.  Charger has begun his own learning about space exploration, space stations, rockets, and more.  

He brought me his homemade NASA station (interesting because I didn't even know he had seen a picture of it).  Apparently Daddy had shown him a few photos online that I didn't know of.  

I have to be honest I was rather impressed.  No one told him to make this, or how to do it.  On the right you see the space station control center-with a window to see out to the rocket launching.  Not sure if that's exactly how it looks in real life, but Charger thinks it should.

To encourage his interest, I picked up a nice stack of books at the library this week.  He seemed very interested, but has yet to start reading them.  He has been more interested in building instead.  So, we may end up reading a few of these together this coming week.

Mustang turned her free days to reading American Girl books.  I'm always pleased at the history she learns from reading them.  These were her picks for the week.

We did get some math in.  I thought I'd show you this photo just in case you have a kid that just doesn't do well with the Montessori layouts.  If you have the strip board, you know that all the little sticks are supposed to come out of the boxes and layout next to it.  He refuses to take them out of the boxes and say that it's too much work-he will just take out the one he wants wen he needs it.  You also know that the idea is to put the rug UNDER the work-not wadded up next to them.  But, he got a rug, right?  LOL!!  Good news is that he completed his subtraction problems and got them correct.

Mustang used the gold beads for a review of various math problems.

We continued reading Leprechaun in Late Winter (Magic Treehouse) and read about Franklin Pierce, but pretty much this was our week.  I hope to get back on track this next week and hopefully spend 4 days doing school.  But, overall, I am quite pleased with the learning that went on this week.

I hope your week went well, too.  

Thanks for stopping by!

God Bless,

Lisa

Things we used this week (Amazon widget contains affiliate links).

A is for Astronomy and Space

Ever since I heard about Blogging through the Alphabet at Ben and Me, I have wanted to join in the fun!  Well, if I do it THIS week, I can start at A and {hopefully} get all the way through!!!  So, wish me luck, here we go {you can join in the fun, not too late!}.

Thanks to a review product {a lapbook from A Journey Through Learning} we have been learning about Astronomy and Space.  This is NOT the review-come back in a couple weeks for that.  This is just the-wow we are having so much fun I want to blog about it NOW post :).

The way that the lapbook is set up, is that you read a bit and then answer some questions.  It's really great, because it gives me just enough info to get the kids interested in a topic.  Then, I use my creativity {AKA web-surfing skills} to come up with some great Montessori extensions!

So far, we have covered Creation {Biblical Creation}, Solar System, and the Constellations.  And there we are currently stuck.  The kids do not want to move forward, they are LOVING the study of the stars!!

I actually made up a Pinterest board of the activities we are using, or plan to use as we go through this study. You can find it here.

These free Solar System Nomenclature cards come from The Helpful Garden.

I enjoyed seeing Mustang helping Mini Cooper on these!

Charger has had all kinds of questions since we started this unit.  

And these great Constellation Nomenclature cards are from Montessori For Everyone-also free!  Scroll down to constellation.pdf on that page.

This was my attempt to recreate the constellation building that What Did We Do All Day?  had on her blog.  The little girls wanted to count stars instead.   

Charger *kinda* got it, but not really.  He liked making up his own instead.

Also from What Did We Do All Day? I got the recommendation for this book:  

Find the Constellations by H.A. Rey.  AWESOME book!!!  And, Mustang has just poured over it.  She doesn't want to do the extensions, or move on to the other cool things we have planned for this unit.  All she wants to do is read the book.  AND she is retaining the information!  

One night, she asked if she could go out and observe the stars.  Those were her words!  She drug me out and told me what she thought all the different constellations were (I need to read the book, I guess, because I had no clue).  She was also able to tell me how they went together, the North Star, and more.  I was impressed!  So, yes, buy the book :)-not the Kindle version, either!

I have lots more fun ideas to come with this unit, but I will have to wait until they are ready to move on!! 

Check out what others did with the letter A at Ben and Me :).  Next week....letter B!

Thanks for stopping by and God Bless!

Lisa

*We did receive the unit lesson from A Journey Through Learning free, but this is not my review :).  Also, the Amazon link is NOT an affiliate link.