Weekly Recap: The Week We Went to the Seaport

We had a nice fun week and even managed to squeeze in a fun field trip between rain storms this week.  We checked out an old whaling village and learned about the history of whaling.  We got a lot of reading done and started in on our new science unit about birds.

Math: The older two boys each completed a Minecraft compute and color page from our new Minecraft math book.  Evan started one but since he really does not enjoy coloring asked to work in his regular workbook instead.  All three boys completed two pages in their math workbooks most days this week with the two older boys also working in their Are You a Math Genius? books.  Ian started in on book two in Key to Percents. Alec ended up working on a lot of math problems in both of his Minecraft Activity books; Volume 1 & Volume 2 (which he completed in a week!).  All three boys have been playing Life, Checkers, Chess, Clue, and Sorry! working on all kinds of math and logic skills.

Reading: Evan finished reading Humphrey's Puppy Problem, read I'm the Best Artist in the Ocean, and started reading Miss Daisy is Crazy.  Evan and I read How to Babysit a Grandpa.  Ian has been reading book 3 of the Treasure Hunters, started reading Futureworld: Tomorrow's Technology Today, and read Extremely Cute Animals Operating Heavy Machinery.   Alec made it part way through book 2 in the Treasure Hunters, read Hephaestus and the Island of Terror,  Clash of Creepers,  book 7 in Amulet, and Justice League versus Bizarro League.  Alec and Evan have also been reading a few more chapters in Confronting the Dragon.  We have read several more chapters in book 4 of the 39 Clues too.  The boys and I spent an afternoon at Barnes and Noble dropping off our summer reading papers so we spent quite some time reading new books, looking through books and finding all sorts of new reading materials and toys to add to our wishlists.

All three boys enjoying some new books!

Science:  Alec read One Small Square; Arctic Tundra.  All three boys and I read Hatch! and Bird Talk: What Birds and Saying and Why.  Evan and I read Monarch and Milkweed and the Secret World of Walter Anderson.  The boys all worked on a lesson about the rain forest using EdTech Lens.  We learned about the forest floor and many of the animals that live there; even watching some cute videos about them.

We've moved our caterpillars into their netting cage since they have all gone into their chrysalises.

Art: We made oil pastel flowers; you can read about how to make them here.

 We made fingerprint dandelions (here).

We made glass bead sun catchers (here).

We spent part of our day at Mystic Seaport looking around the various art galleries they have set up and learning about wood carving.

Alec used some oil pastels and drew a few Minecraft pictures

Spelling/ Language arts: All three boys completed two more pages in their spelling journals.  Alec finished up both of his Minecraft activity books working on crossword puzzles, word searches, word scrambles and other various activities.  Evan also worked in his activity books completing a few more pages and working on two more pages in his Star Wars reading book.  The older boys worked in their cursive books one morning and Evan finished up another Draw Write Now page.

Life Skills: Ian has started mowing his great grandfather's lawn so I dropped him off one day and he worked to mow and trim the whole yard; going out to lunch with him as well.  Alec learned how to mow our lawn one night while my husband worked alongside him weed wacking.

History/ Geography:  The boys and I spent a day at Mystic Seaport learning about life in an old New England whaling town..  We learned about designing boats and drag, we learned how to use navigation equipment, we learned about the history of whaling and it's effects on the ocean, we even learned about simple machines.

A street in the village 

Learning about simple machines 

Learning how to use navigation tools 

Physical Education:  The boys all had karate this week.  We went on a family walk after dinner and rode our bikes/ scooters another time.  We spent a whole day walking around the village and the boys spent lots of time playing on our swings and chasing each other around the yard.