Weekly Review-- Year 4 Week #9

We finally had a pretty quiet week around here and spent several days at home trying to catch up on schoolwork and housework.  We did get out and enjoy the nice weather spending a day at the park too.  We're hard at work on our science fair projects and getting all ready for Halloween.



History-- We read Thomas Jefferson's Feast, a few more chapters in Cracker! The Best Dog In Vietnam, and started reading Who Was George Washington?

Science-- We've been hard at work on our science fair projects.  Ian has read Bridges Are to Cross, Bridges by Joy Richardson, Bridges; Amazing Structures to Design, Build and Test, Bridges and Tunnels: Investigate Feats of Engineering, and The Bridge Book.  He has also been hard at work building bridges with his K'nex STEM kit.   The bridges have been amazing.  I just wish the kit were big enough that he could have more than one bridge built at a time.  Evan read Nocturnal Animals: Aye- Ayes, Aye- Ayes an Evil Omen, and Lemurs, Lorises, and other lower primates.  He finished writing up his report and since they're such rare animals we're looking for more ideas to fill up his display board.   Alec read Life Cycles: Ocean, Ocean Food Webs by Paul Fleisher, What Eats What In an Ocean Food ChainOcean Seasons, Nature's Bounty: Ocean, and Deep Ocean Food chains.  He typed up a few food webs and finished his display board!   Both of the younger boys participated in a science class with the 4-H club on Saturday and spend a fun morning making goop and running all sorts of wonderful candy experiments.

The suspension bridge he made 


Reading-- Evan read Hooray for Fly Guy! and Fly Guy vs. The Flyswatter.  His favorite book we read this week was Pouch!  He thought this was a hilarious story and he read it with so much expression too.  While waiting for some more Fly Guy books to come in from other libraries we stumbled upon Carl's Halloween and realized that Carl is a whole series too.  He really enjoys these books as well since there are many pages with beautiful illustrations and no words at all. We also read Carl's Masquerade.  Evan has also spent a lot more time practicing letter sounds and blends on Teach Your Monster to Read as well as working on blends in his Star Wars phonics book.  Ian finished Ms. Cuddy is Nutty and went back to reading Divergent.  Alec finished up Garden of the Purple Dragon and started reading Tombquest book 3; Valley of Kings.  We all read Gorgonzola: A Very Stinkysaurus together and finished listening to How to Ride a Dragon's Storm.

Math-- Evan worked some more on adding coins, fact family houses, and in his workbook.  He totally surprised me one day working on word problems with me (that he chose to do) and was not at all phased when adding large numbers; often in his head.  Ian finished up his last Key to Measurements book completing the practice test too and spent a few days on Khan Academy and playing on-line math games at Coolmath.com.  Alec worked in his workbook everyday this week completing two pages each time.  Ian had some real-life math practice this weekend figuring out the tip for our lunch.  Evan earned some money working this weekend and just for fun started adding by 20's.  He also figured out how much money he had altogether for spending adding together the money he already had in his bank and the money he earned.  All three boys ended up adding up all their money and the older two boys asked if they could make a deposit in the bank after buying some Christmas gifts for the family.  So all three boys sat down and picked out gifts for one another keeping track of what they were spending and trying to make sure they were picking out gifts that their brothers would love.

Life Skills-- Ian spent the day on Saturday working with my husband organizing the shop and tools.  All three boys spent the day Sunday working outside clearing land and trimming blueberry bushes.  None of us were all that certain how to properly trim the trees but we worked hard to understand how they grown and are hopeful that we did more good than harm.  The boys each took turns hauling brush out to the woods, learning how to use the clippers, and pulling out weeds of other plants that were growing in the blueberry patches.  The boys also helped with laundry and housework too.  We're trying really hard to get back into our routine of cleaning just a bit of the house each day and having one boy help out with dinner each night.

Health/ Physical education-- Alec spent some time at the dentist getting his tooth pulled.  Luckily, he recovered quite quickly and all three boys were still able to get to karate class and continue honing their skills.  We also spent a day at the park with my nephews and the kids used the swings, played ball, rode bikes and scooters and played all over all the playground equipment.  Ian wanted to spend an afternoon at Zoinks Fun Factory as a reward for finishing up his math workbook series and since I just loved that his reward included exercise we squeezed that into our week too.  We've been consciously adding more exercise into our days and routine and one small thing we've added is a family rule that they have to do 10 push ups, 10 sits up and 10 jumping jacks before turning on any screen.  It's a bit silly but it's quick and they don't mind and even after just a week we've seen a big improvement in their stamina; especially when it comes to push ups!

Socialization--  We met lots of new people at the Saturday Science club. We also met up with our homeschool group for a healthy Halloween party this week.  We played games, had fun relay races and enjoyed some yummy snacks.   I think everyone's favorite game was our version of musical chairs; where you take a chair away but not a kid so they have to smoosh in and share and pile on top of one another.  It was hilarious. The boys had a great day playing with their cousins and they always enjoy talking to the other kids and adults at karate too.  All three of my boys are pretty social and strike up conversations with people they meet wherever we go-- clerks at the store, children and adults at the library, the gas attendant at the gas station, etc.

All the kids piled on 4 chairs; laughing and helping each other out. 

Weekly Wrap-Up

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