Weekly Wrap Up–Goop & Pop Rocks

Our school days are going really well, but truth be told, I’m having a hard time getting our evening schedule to flow smoothly.  Between the two girls, we’re at ballet 5 nights a week now (that’s about to change to 6 a week, but really who’s even counting at this point?)   The issue isn’t the frequency, but rather the time.   5-6 M/W for one, 5:15-6:15 T/Th for the other, and then 4:15-5:15 Fridays for both.  

Dinner is the big issue. By the time we get home from ballet, and I cook dinner it’s after 7 when we eat most nights.   Wednesday has been deemed sandwich night because everyone can eat in the van on the way to church (which starts at 7).  I’m going to have to get a few more go-to crockpot recipes to make this work more smoothly.   If you have any tried and true crock pot recipes, please feel free to share them with me….please!

Math:   We’re all still happy with our switch to Horizons math.  One thing Olivia and I have noticed is that Math Mammoth wasn’t as “advanced” as it claimed.  She’s running into things she’s never seen and it’s in a review format, so apparently it’s a concept that Horizons covered in 5th grade.  This is slowing us down a bit as I’m having to teach the “review” and the “new” together.   

Language Arts:   I so wish I’d switched to Learning Language Arts Through Literature sooner!  Both girls are really enjoying the format, but they are also learning so much more (and retaining it) through this method.

History:  We’re still working on our Wild West Unit, and have managed to create an American Indian Unit in the works.   I’ll be sharing both of those in the next few weeks. 

Science:  We’re still learning about matter in it’s various states.  Along those lines, Goop, or rather “Non-Newtonian Fluid” was by far one of our biggest hits of the week.  This part of our science experimenting took on a life of it’s own and lasted for several hours.  I was perfectly fine with that, and enjoyed getting goopy myself.

Remember Pop Rocks candy from way back in the day?   Well that was one of the necessary evils for one of our science experiments, and believe it or not…Pop Rocks isn’t as easy to find as one might think. None-the-less, the combination of soda and Pop Rocks does make a balloon inflate.

Art:  Our artist this week was C.M. Russell (1846-1926).   He was an American painter and sculptor, and was famous for his scenes of life in the wild west.  He fit nicely with our western theme in history.  I think our sunset watercolor paintings turned our lovely.

Poetry:   A Home for Mr. Emerson was the ONLY book I could find at our library about Ralph Waldo Emerson.   I find that disturbing, but I’ve found that artists and poets aren’t easy to research with books anymore.

P.E.:  The girls completed 3 weeks of intensive and conditioning at ballet.  I’ve taken the liberty to add what they learned to our daily work and have created a ballet/P.E. hybrid.  I have 4 index cards, each listing 4-6 different exercises/stretches.  Each girl grabs a card between subjects and works on those skills.  It’s not uncommon to see this during lessons.

Linking up with the Weekly Wrap Up and Collage Friday.