Pennsylvania Week 5 Wrap Up

Woohhooo!  Another state completed! Only 48 to go!   We're really enjoying using Cantering the Country as we work our way through the 50 states.    Although, in hindsight, I could have saved  the money for the curriculum by just using the library and internet.  I'm really changing my entire mindset about prepackaged products...but that's another post all together!

In our Pennsylvania studies this week, we focused on the state bird (Ruffed Grouse), state flower (mountain laurel) the state quarter and our pages in our United States Coloring Book.   We also completed our state report and then used the maps/brochures we had to create our lovely state collages.  Saturday we'll have our Pennsylvania meal of chicken paprika, carrot fritters and pumpkin nut cake (it'll just be a pumpkin cake, because I forgot to buy nuts).    I believe I've mentioned before that the recipes come from the Eat Your Way Through the USA book; but here it is again in case you're curious.

Olivia's math program started working with liquid measurements this week.  Although, I have to admit I wasn't really thrilled with the way it was covered in one day and then not mentioned anymore.  So I took the liberty (oh how I love having liberty in our teaching) to create this handy dandy "activity center" for the week. 

The tub holds a funnel, 1 cup measuring cup, 2 pint milk containers, 1 quart jar and a 1 gallon plastic jug (and an unrelated egg carton for working with dozen).  So we spent some time each day working with measuring 2 cups into the pint; and then 2 pints into the quart and of course 4 quarts into a gallon.  Then we switched around to see how many cups and pints are in a gallon and how to find the sum of  any of the measurements based on our knowledge base  By the end of the week, Olivia had a strong grasp of the amounts, and pruney finger from playing in the water.  The handy dandy tub not only stored everything, but kept my kitchen floor relatively dry during all the pouring with the gallon jug.

Lindsey is doing well with math, she's counting great and can add and subtract in her head (pretty impressive for a 4 year old) but she's been having issues with recognizing the  numbers 7, 8 and 9.  So I made some "puzzles" for her to work with all week.  The seven was simple, a #7 with 7 green hearts to place properly.  The 8 was fun, because I used two "cookies" for the circles and used the wording of "the number 8 ate two cookies"  which helped her greatly.  Her curriculum describes nine as "a ball on a stick"...k..whatever, so I made a ball, and a stick for her to match.  So by the end of the week, she knew the names of each and was allowed to glue the parts onto the patterns and place them in her notebook.

Tuesday we worked on life skills.  The girls helped with sorting, folding and putting away laundry.  They also helped me to work in the garden and flower beds pulling up all the dead vegetation (we had a HEAVY frost this week and everything was killed for the most part).   Our compost bin is completely full, and I had to start another pile in the corner of the garden!

Both girls finished memorizing the books of the Old Testament this week.  Now we're moving on to the New Testament, with daily recitation of the OT, so as not to lose it.

Oh, and we had our first official Crazy Hat Day!   Lindsey's hat kept sliding completely over her face, which made for some interesting handwriting assignments.

Tomorrow we're back to co-op and ballet, so that wraps up our week.  Head over toWeird Unsocialized Homeschoolers to check out everyone else's Weekly Wrap Up.