Weekly Recap-- Year #4 Week 20

Wow! How did it get to be Friday already?  This was one of those weird weeks where it felt like it was a long week but now that Friday is here I'm thinking the week sort of flew by.

I think partly it has been so long since we've gotten out of the house and had some fun that it was both busy and tiring.  We did have a fun week though and we actually accomplished a lot of book work this week too which I am so grateful for.  I've been feeling like we're really neglecting our schoolwork this year.  We've been on the go so much and our books have taken a back seat so often that I'm feeling behind.


Usually winters are slow and I'm loathe to sign us up for anything since I don't like leaving the house when it's cold and snowy but because this winter has been so mild we're keeping pretty busy and I'm finding that I miss our days of just staying home and getting our work done.  I'm being much more mindful of what I sign us up for the next few months and trying to make sure we're home at least a few days each week to really tackle our work.

Reading-- Alec read some more of Fablehaven and the whole Diary of a Wimpy Kid Old School in just two hours!  Ian read Dino-Swimming, The Fort That Jack Built and finished his Diary of a Wimpy kid book.  Evan read a non- fiction book called Now I Know Baby Animals, another one called Now I Know Birds, Puppy Mudge Takes a Bath, and A Bad, Bad, Day.  I found Evan watching a Pokemon movie over the weekend that had all subtitles and he read the whole episode out loud (to himself) with little to no errors.  He was so proud of himself too!  We finished up our book on CD; Star Wars a: A New Hope The Princess, The Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy and began reading The Hero's Guide to Being an Outlaw together.  We read The Library Dragon and This is My Home This is My School (a wonderful picture book about homeschooling!).

Math-- They each completed several more pages in their math workbooks.  Evan has been randomly requesting that we quiz him on his multiplication facts and instituted a new rule that he can't use any screens until he answers a multiplication question. We've also introduced telling time this week.  Ian and I played a few fun games of Qwirkle before bed a couple of nights taking turns keeping score. The older two boys started using Are you a Math Genius? from the Thinking Tree.  They were not happy to have "bonus" math work but they did enjoy coloring the page in and found that answering two extra questions was not that big of a deal.  I plan to use this book just once a week as a supplement to our regular math work.   They had a great time at the Children's museum making all sorts of wonderful block creations.  My three boys fought over playing the game Square Up that they had out in one of the rooms there too.

Ian using Are You a Math Genius?
Evan building (and making
up a huge story to go along with it)

Alec made a lot of pictures using these magnetic chains 

Trying to build a puppy using colored blocks 


Writing/Language arts-- The older two boys worked on a page in their cursive books.  Evan and I played a fun game called Silly Sentences.  We had a great time making and reading sentence after sentence.  He was laughing so hard he almost fell off his chair a few times.  He had really NOT wanted to work with me at all but with sentences like "A hairy woman saw the green firefighter" and "The blue dinosaur jumped on the little donkey" it's hard not to have fun!  I told him the next time we play I'd like for him to choose his favorite silly sentence he'd like to remember and copy it down in his journal.  The older boys started their new Thinking Tree spelling journals and we bought some gel pens just for use with all of our Thinking Tree books.  Evan worked on a few more pages in his Star Wars book.  All three boys spent a morning doing some copywork in their journals.  Evan and Ian decided to use a Draw Write Now page while Alec used a How to Draw book to draw a picture of a Phoenix and then using the facts they had written about the mythical creature he made up his own four sentences.

Putting together silly sentences 

Alec's phoenix writing 

Geography-- The older boys and I played Geodice one day; working on names of countries and continents.   We also talked a lot about the state of Rhode Island; what types of places we've been, facts about the state, what we know about it, etc. while at the children's museum. My husband left for a short business trip to North Dakota and we used the map to check out his journey.  We've also been comparing our weather to their weather each day when he calls.


Art-- We worked on some coloring.  Ian started a page on the read tailed hawk in our Hidden Feathers coloring book. All three boys have been having a great time using our new Gel pens.  They all did a drawing to go along with their Draw Write Now page and had fun working on some paper snakes while at a birthday party this week.

Sight Words-- Evan read through most of the 3rd grade sight words and we wrote up some new tower reading cups for him to practice those words he still does not know.  He had fun practicing with them and I added a few word family words too like night, fight, sight, light, etc.  We just write the words on the bottom of the cups, stack them together in an empty/ clean Pringles can and they're ready to go whenever he wants to practice.  He loves to build them up and knock them down (or shoot them down with Nerf guns).
   

Science-- We went to a birthday party at a nature center over the weekend and the boys were able to touch and learn about fossils, frogs, turtles, snakes, and frogs.  We spent Monday at the Kettle Pond Nature Center learning about GPS and geocaching.  We then spent some time outdoors hiking and trying it out using handheld GPS systems and smartphone apps.


We spent an afternoon at the Providence Children's Museum; the boys are taking a three- part class on water.  They learned about surface tension and had to see how many drops of water they could fit on the face of a penny.  They also got to make their own paddle boats, their own milk jug crafts and used tin foil to see who could make a boat that would hold the most pennies before sinking.  It was great fun!
Trying out his paddle boat in the water 

Seeing how many pennies he could fit in his
tin foil boat 

Comparing tin foil boats 

Trying out his milk jug sail boat

Building his sail and trying to figure out
how to keep them up 

Ian had a double hulled, double boat! 
We went for a walk to our mailbox and with the slight dusting of snow we had on the ground we discovered all sorts of animal tracks.  This led to some unexpected lessons and a fun Animal Tracks Memory game after dinner one night.

Wild Turkey tracks

We're pretty sure there are snowshoe hare tracks;
We didn't even know we had snowshoe hares around here!

Bird tracks in and around our yard near
the bird feeders 


Physical Education-- We went hiking on Monday.  The boys had karate and then we went to Soarin' Indoors on Tuesday working through the obstacle course.  Wednesday we walked all around the museum and shoveled snow.  Ian and I spent an afternoon working out on the treadmill and elliptical; I'm trying to get more purposeful about exercising every day (again!).  We also walked up to our mail box  just to get some fresh air and exercise... I should mention our mail is delivered at the end of our road not our driveway so it's a good 30 minute walk round trip.    

This kid is just not afraid of heights at all; he loves hanging by his harness!

Powering through the ropes 


Socialization-  We had a busy week meeting up with tons of homeschoolers at the nature class, Soarin' Indoors and the children's museum.  We met new people and happily saw some of our best friends.  We spent time with family at the birthday party and were just so happy to be out of the house and seeing other people besides ourselves.

Life Skills/ Self- Help-- Alec had another check up with the orthodontist and we talked about proper tooth care and what to expect from missing teeth (some have been missing for a lOOOOng time).  Evan helped me cook supper one night learning how to prepare kielbasa and rice pilaf (his favorite!).  With my husband gone to North Dakota this week the boys have been pitching in extra around the house doing a bit more housework than usual.





Comments

  1. The class at the museum looks like lots of fun! That would be a great field trip/learning adventure.

    My daughter is going crazy with the Wimpy Kid books too - she's not an avid reader so I'm glad she's reading!

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    1. Ah! That's my oldest son; he's not much of a reader either and it bugged him to no end that his brother could read the book in two hours when it took him almost two or three weeks of just reading a bit each day.

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  2. My kids love parquor (we have a gym nearby) getting them active is a big challenge. You all had a fun packed week. Visiting from Weekly Wrap Up!

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    Replies
    1. We really did. I find it's most difficult to keep active in winter; it's just so hard when we can't get outside all the time.

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  3. How are your boys enjoying the Spelling journals? Looks like such a fun and busy week. I love the Draw Write Now books, and I want to buy some for my kiddos!

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    1. They really enjoyed them so far; they were also vocab. journals since they didn't know what a few of the words meant! :)

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  4. Looks like a fun week! Thanks for sharing about the Geodice game, and the sight word towers sounds like an amazing idea! I hear what you mean about being busy. We did homeschool today, because yesterday was just too crazy with errands. Hope you have a nice weekend :)

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    1. You're welcome! Hope you have a wonderful weekend too.

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  5. What a wonderful week. The rope climbing looks amazing. We need to pull out Geodice again now that dear daughter is into geography!
    Blessings, Dawn

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  6. Winters are DEFINITELY slow here! With snow and ice, it's better to stay home safe and sound, although I feel like we're not taking enough field trips or experiencing new things...You all did some pretty awesome hands on stuff this week!

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    Replies
    1. It's always that toss up between staying home and getting some book work done or enjoying our field trips and learning through life. It's not easy to find that perfect balance.

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