Weekly Wrap Up – The One With All the Presidents

This has been a very busy, and very productive week on the educational front!  We’ve covered a LOT of materials this week.  So lets start with the subjects that the kids do together.

Cantering the Country – We are still in Virginia, both literally and figuratively!   This week we spent our time learning about the eight presidents who were born here.  We completed a biography page for each president to go in each girls State Study Notebook.  We also colored a drawing of each president thanks to the Crayola Coloring Pages site.

Books we read:
Profiles of the Presidents George Washington; by Michael Burgan
Profiles of the Presidents Thomas Jefferson; by Ann Heinrichs
Profiles of the Presidents James Madison; by Andrew Santella
Profiles of the Presidents James Monroe; by Michael Teitelbaum
Profiles of the Presidents William Henry Harrison; by Robin S. Doak
Profiles of the Presidents Zachary Taylor; by Robin S. Doak
Profiles of the Presidents John Tyler; by Robin S. Doak
Profiles of the Presidents Woodrow Wilson; by Robert Green
Thomas Jeffersons Monticello; by Thomas Jefferson Foundation

Science – We spent our time this week learning about igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks.   We read about how the various types of rocks are formed then did a few rock experiments and collected samples of rocks to try and identify them.

Books we read:
Igneous Rock; by Rebecca Faulkner
Sedimentary Rock; by Rebecca Faulkner
Granite and Other Igneous Rocks; by Chris and Helen Pellant
Rocks, Gems and Minerals; by Herbert S. Zim and Paul R. Shaffer
Materials, Materials, Materials Rock; by Chris Oxlade
Let’s Go Rock Collecting; by Roma Gans

Latin – We finished up chapter 6 in Song School Latin.  Olivia is really doing a great job with Latin!   Lindsey is doing well, but surprisingly, this is an area that she’s not excelling in…I guess that 5 year old brain has to work at a 5 year old pace on something, huh?  But that’s ok!   Up until now we’ve been learning phrases and sentences, now we’ve started on nouns (person, place, thing specifically).   I thought it might be good to have the girls work on their own Latin “pictionary” as we go. I pulled out some 10X7 mini-manila folders, added construction paper for the pages and put a title on the front.   The girls colored their book title, and added photos and words for this week and last weeks lessons.

 

First Language Lessons – Both girls are doing great with this curriculum!  The short lessons and built in review are really doing a great job of teaching both girls!  This week we moved on to our fourth memorization poem “Days of the Week”.

All About Spelling – Olivia  worked through Level 2 lesson  10 this week.  We could have finished the lesson in 1 day as it’s not a new concept for her, but I’m still trying to make it last the year.  I may have to bite the bullet and finish this up and move on to Level 3 this year after all. 

Math was a bit rocky again this week for Olivia.  We’ve been working on 1/2 and 1/4 which has been a challenge but doable.  However we hit a major roadblock when our curriculum hit a review of counting money (especially QUARTERS) right in the middle of learning about fourths.   Olivia’s brain seized up and still appears to be a bit stuck. 

Lindsey’s math is moving along slowly (she’s doing great, the product is just SLOW).   Next week I’m going to go back to doubling her lessons each day.  She’s getting too bored with how slow it’s moving.  She’s counting to 100 independently and her curriculum has her counting to 20….so yeah….major jumping ahead is in our future.

Reading – Olivia always has independent reading time each day.  I never thought to put it in the Weekly Wrap Up before.  Not sure why.  In any event, this week she read books 1, 2 and part of 3 in the American Girl Kaya series.

Again, Lindsey has been bored with the lack of reading in her phonics lessons.  So on Tuesday I decided to give her a book and just work with her.  We sat down with “Beehive Reader 1” (now known as “Cobweb the Cat”)  from All About Spelling.   We opened it up to the first story and she proceeded to read the entire thing to me, with only a few stumbles.   So, yeah….more changes coming in this area as well.

 Awana – We use this as the majority of our Bible work during the week.  This week, Olivia recited all the books of the Old Testament and 1 additional Bible verse (Deut. 31:8).   Lindsey had not received her book yet, so we only worked on one verse (I John 4:14).  However, she got her Hang Glider book this week so we can get busy from here on out.

Ballet and Tap – The girls are thoroughly enjoying their dance lessons this year!  I’m enjoying the fact that both classes are the same evening.  Now that the craziness of the first few weeks has passed by the waiting room is much more quite, so I’m actually getting to read and work on some book reviews.   On Saturday, we went to the costume fittings for the Nutcracker.   We were surprised, and happy, to find out that Olivia has TWO roles, she’s both a soldier and a clown.   Rehearsals (13 to be exact) start October 16 and run until the performances on December 11 and 12.   It’s going to be VERY busy around here!

Piano – Lessons are going well.  Olivia is practicing a lot, without having to be told to.  She’s picking up on it really well.  So I guess we better start looking for a piano of our own.

Baseball – The sport that never ends!  We had the year end picnic for the Pirates on Sunday.  Good turn out, lots of food and good times.  This is Olivia’s last year of baseball, she’ll be moving to softball in the spring….but it doesn’t end….Lindsey starts baseball in the spring…sigh.

I hope you had a productive week as well!  Be sure to visit the Weekly Wrap Up!