Weekly Wrap Up–The South Dakota Edition

We finished our second grading period this week.  Both girls did well, although Olivia’s spelling grade dropped to a B, because she failed to review two of her spelling lists and scored poorly on those two tests.  We’ve changed her procedure for independent work so hopefully she’ll be less likely to “skip” sections this time.

Geography/History:  South Dakota was pretty interesting for several reasons.  The first of course being Sitting Bull and the Battle of Little Big Horn.   It was very interesting at dinner to listen to them retelling Sitting Bulls life story.   (Did you know his original name was “Slow” because even as a young child he seemed to be slow and methodical?)   The other really interesting thing was Mount Rushmore.   I was thrilled that Lindsey could identify all of the Presidents on it, even Roosevelt! 

Books we used:

South Dakota; by Karen Sirvaitis
South Dakota; by Dennis Brindell Fradin
Mount Rushmore; by Andrew Santella
George Armstrong Custer; by Zachary Kent
George Armstrong Custer,  The Indian Wars and the Battle of Little Big Horn; by Paul Christopher Anderson
Sitting Bull; by Herman J. Viola
A Picture Book of Sitting Bull; by David A. Adler
The Sioux; by Alice Osinski
The Dakota Sioux; by Jeanne Oyawin Eder
Picture of the Past Life of a Sioux Village; by Sally Senzell Isaacs

Math:  Olivia started learning how to find the unknown number in an equation.   It went well, but it’s going to take a bit to get the hang of it.  Finding the number isn’t the issue, it’s all the steps to finding it that is causing her brain to lock up.  Lindsey began working with half of an item.   In addition to our normal school work, I added some living math books to our reading for the week.  I thought this would be a fun and helpful way to see how math is used every day.

Books we used:

Divide and Ride; by Stuart J. Murphy
The Doorbell Rang; by Pat Hutchins
Anno’s Mysterious Multiplying Jar; by Masaichiro and Mitsumasa Anno

Spelling:   We plowed through two lessons in All About Spelling this week.   We got a bit behind early on and I’m trying to get Olivia caught back up.   Lindsey is on her 9th spelling list for the year.

First Language Lessons:   Antonyms and synonyms were our new topics for the week. We also worked on improving our memorization of the list of prepositions.

Reading:  Olivia is reading The Light and the Glory for Children by Peter Marshall and David Manuel.   Lindsey has finished her second Abeka reader, Tiptoes.

Science:  We finished up our study of electricity, circuits and switches.  We also learned identify natural lights (moon, sun, stars) made by God, and man made lights (flashlight, lamps etc.)

Awana:    Olivia’s T&T Awana book has an extra credit section that requires her to read about a missionary to a foreign land.  So I decided to combine that with her reading work for the next little while.  So she’s currently reading David Livingstone, Africa’s Trailblazer by Janet & Geoff Benge.    Lindsey is averaging 2-3 verses each week.

Ballet/tap:  Having dance lessons twice a week has really been a great thing for the girls this year.  I can see a much bigger improvement in their skill level.    They are both preparing for performance awards in addition to Nutcracker work.

Piano:  Olivia is playing real songs now (abbreviated versions).  This makes it much easier for me to be able to pick up on errors and help her.

We made popcorn balls last night (and no, I didn’t think to take photos).   Then tonight we headed out to our annual October weenie roast…in the SNOW!!  I kid you not, we have at least an inch of snow on the ground already.   Photos tomorrow I hope!

Be sure to visit the Weekly Wrap Up and link up!