Weekly Wrap Up–The Washington Edition

So, just in case you think I’m making it up about our crazy weather, here is a photo of Monday in Virginia.   In case you’re having a hard time making it out there are 6 snow people, and a snow dog in the middle of the photo.

I failed to take a photo Thursday while we were outside enjoying the 76 degrees (I kid you not).  In one part of our state it was 86 on Thursday!

Geography:   We finished up our United States unit study with Washington State.   It took us three years (yes, REALLY), but we are finally done!  Here is what 3 years of work looks like in notebook form.

Books we used:

Washington, The Evergreen State; by Leslie Strudwick
Mount Rainier National Park; by Sharlene and Ted Nelson
Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument; by Sharlene and Ted Nelson
The Life and Times of the Apple; by Charles Micucci
The Tragic Tale of Narcissa Whitman and a Faithful History of the Oregon Trail; by Cheryl Harness

Spelling:   Olivia finished up her spelling curriculum for the year.  Lindsey still has several weeks worth of spelling to go.

Science:  We continued with our study of the solar system.  We learned more about the moon and its craters.  We also learned about Halley’s Comet.

Latin:   The first declension was our topic for the week.  I must admit, we rushed through Latin this week…but give me a break, we were invited out to eat at a Chinese restaurant that day and you wouldn’t BELIEVE how long it’s been since I’ve had Chinese!

Ballet:   This week the girls performed in the Performance Awards.  This was Lindsey’s first year and she earned a silver medal with double distinction.  This was Olivia’s third year and she earned a gold medal!!  The photos below show them receiving their honors from Mignon Furman, director of the American Academy of Ballet.

Can you tell their Dad is proud??  

I know for a fact we did a lot more this week.  However, as I’m typing this I’ve been up for 46 hours straight and it’s all a bit fuzzy.  So head on over to the Weekly Wrap Up and see if anyone else remembers what they did!

Weekly Wrap Up–The Hawaii Edition

 

We had another wild weather week here in Virginia.  No snow this week, but we did have heavy rains, thunderstorms and tornado watches spawned by the terrible storm systems that moved through from the midwest. Please continue to pray for the people and communities nationwide that were hit by this line of storms.

Geography:  This week we studied Hawaii.   We all enjoyed the DVD from the library and watched it several times.   The girls were especially impressed by the coverage of the volcanic eruptions.

We made our own little paper volcanoes from this free printable at the Crayola site.  (Yes, I know I should have made a paper mache volcano with a real soda/vinegar/food coloring eruption….)

Books and DVD’s we used:

Discoveries America, Hawaii (DVD
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park;By Stephen Feinstein
Hawaii; by Deborah Kent
Hawaii; by Martin Hintz
Children of Hawaii; by Frank Staub
Folk Dances of Hawaii; by Vivian L. Thompson
The Attack on Pearl Harbor; by Allison Lassieur
Air Raid – Pearl Harbor!; by Theodore Taylor

Science:   Our science curriculum has us revisiting the solar system, so we pulled our model back out and worked with it.  Imagine my joy when the girls actually remember the names of the planets in order!  

Math:   Lindsey is loving fractions!!  We used straws, cut into 1/2 – 1/4 and 1/3 to help her visualize the concept and she loved it.   Olivia is working on reducing fractions, and well to be honest she wasn’t as thrilled with it as her sister was!

Spelling:   Both girls are doing great with spelling.  Olivia is just about finished with her program for the year, so we’ll be doing some review work.

Reading:   Olivia plowed through Stuart Little this week.   Thankfully she thinks the book is much better than the movie.  I keep telling her that movies are usually a poor rendition, and I think she’s finally starting to believe me.  Lindsey started on Aesop’s Fables this week.

Latin: This week we worked on question words of who, what, where, and why?   We also reviewed counting to 10 and the names of the constellations.

Ballet:  This is the last week of winter lessons.  Next week is stage week and Performance Awards on Saturday.  Then we’ll be heading full throttle towards the Spring Recital.

Tennis:   Olivia’s 4 week snippet ended and she’s in LOVE with the game.  Thankfully there is a 6 week summer camp in our area that is very inexpensive so she’ll be waiting patiently for that to start.

Baseball:  Yes, its getting to be that time of year.   Baseball sign ups were this week.   The beloved coach from years past has decided he can’t handle the 5 year old set again this year, and apparently there is a big shortage of coaches in this age bracket.   So, yeah, I very well may end up being a baseball coach this year.   When will I learn to say no???

Awana:   Lindsey finished her book and Olivia has 2 more pages to go in hers.  Now we’ll begin the process or reviewing the book.  However, we’re also getting into the part of Awana where they are working on derby cars and year end things so it’ll be good to not have to push to get verses said during all that.

In other news, I’m looking at the idea of starting a weekly co-op.  I’ve put some feelers out to see what kind of response there is.   We have several good co-ops in the area, but they are all on the other side of our county, so I’m hoping the skyrocketing gas prices will make some folks want to do something on this side of the world.  I’ll keep you posted, but feel free to give me any pointers!!

Check out the Weekly Wrap Up as well!

Weekly Wrap Up–The Alaska Edition

Interestingly, our only significant snow fall of the year (10 inches) came on Monday as we started our study of Alaska.  Since I’d worked all night and was a bit incoherent, I sent the girls out to play with the dog in the snow while I slept, so yeah no photos.   By Tuesday much of the snow was gone and by Thursday we were in the 70’s.   Today we have sustained winds of 50+mph and tornado watches.   Crazy stuff!!

Geography:  The girls really enjoyed our study of Alaska.   They were really interested in the Northern Lights, Kodiak bears and whaling.   Although they both swore off EVER eating blubber.  Olivia also reread White Fang this week.

Books and DVD’s we used:
Alaska; by Barbara A. Somervill
Alaska; by Tamra B. Orr
Arctic Thaw, The People Who Whale in a Changing Climate; by Peter Lourie
Discoveries America, Alaska (DVD)
Balto; by Natalie Standiford
Going Rogue, An American Life; by Sarah Palin

Science:  We focused on seasons and the changes that come as the earth rotates.   Oddly, we had winter/spring all in one week here…I had 4 inches of tulips buried beneath the snow.

Latin:  We worked on conjunctions and verb sentence structure this week.  

Math:   I went back to being Olivia’s only math instructor and it went much better this week.   She’s learning lots about fractions and we made it through an entire week without any tears.  Lindsey is learning fractions too, but on a much more basic level.

Writing:   Olivia is still working through the Abeka Cursive Skill Book.  She’s really enjoying the short lessons about animals and world travels.   Lindsey’s handwriting is amazing, much neater than mine!

Reading:  As I mentioned earlier, Olivia reread White Fang this week.   Lindsey finished two of her Abeka readers, and a portion of the Old Testament.

Extra Curricular:  Ballet, tap, piano and choir are all going well.   Olivia is loving her tennis lessons as well. 

Nothing super exciting this week, just plowing through the basics.   Visit the Weekly Wrap Up to see how creative everyone else was this week.

Weekly Wrap Up–The Arizona Edition

Another fun filled, action packed week has whirled by.   We started out Tuesday with our homeschool groups Valentines Day Party.   There was a life size Candyland game that the kids LOVED. It wrapped through the entryway, down the hall and through the fellowship hall.    Of course there were also crafts and SUGAR….lots of sugar.

Geography:  Arizona was our focus state for the week.  We focused mainly on the Grand Canyon and the Navajo people.   Although, we did still do our maps, state coin, state flag and famous person study on Wyatt Earp.  (Although Wyatt wasn’t born in Arizona, but he was a lawman there.)

Books and DVD’s we used:

Discoveries America, Arizona (DVD)
Arizona; by Barbara A. Somervill
Arizona; by Dan Filbin
Grand Canyon; by Anne Fitzpatrick
The Grand Canyon; by Cynthia Klingel and Robert B. Noyed
Wyatt Earp, by Carl R. Green and William R. Sanford
Wyatt Earp; by Rob Staeger
The Navajo; by Alice Osinski
Eagle Boy, A Traditional Navajo Legend; retold by Gerald Hausman

Science:  We studied and identified different forms of materials (solids, liquids, gases).  We also studied icebergs and the formed our own icebergs in the freezer….and um, no I didn’t think of taking photos.

Latin:   This was a built in review week.  We reviewed all of the vocabulary and verb conjugations we’ve worked on this year.

Math:  Olivia worked on writing remainders as fractions.   Lindsey is learning to add and carry to the 10’s column.

Language Arts:   Both girls are working on their spelling, reading and writing individually.

Ballet/tap:   Both girls continue to learn pieces for the Performance Awards and the upcoming “Swan Princess”.   Lindsey’s instructor invited the parents in for a presentation on Thursday to see the girls new skills.   See more photos here.

Awana:   Lindsey is almost finished with her Sparks book for the year.  She’ll be finishing it next week.   Olivia is about 3 weeks away from finishing her book up.   Then we’ll go back and review for the remainder of the year.

This week was also our monthly Activity Day with the homeschool group.   In honor of Black History Month, the girls and I studied Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad this month.

I hope everyone had a great week.  We are gearing up for a snowstorm for the weekend, so hopefully I’ll have time to read everyone's entry in this weeks Weekly Wrap Up!

Weekly Wrap Up–The New Mexico Edition

On Saturday the girls attended a Victorian Tea at the Woodrow Wilson Museum locally.   This was Olivia’s 2nd year to attend, and Lindsey’s first.   Last year, Olivia’s photo made the papers and even the news coverage of the tea.   This year was Lindsey’s turn to shine as she ended up being covered rather extensively, browse through the photo gallery at Victorian Day at WWPL

Here are the girls wearing the hats they made at the tea, they apparently were feeling a bit goofy after being proper all day.

Geography:  We focused on New Mexico this week.   The girls loved learning about Geronimo and the pueblo dwellings of  some of the other natives tribes.   They also found the UFO stories from Roswell to be interesting, and the photos of the “aliens” to be a bit creepy.   We even made some fry bread for a snack.  I also noticed that we somehow missed Washington, so we’ll do that at the end of our states study.

Books we used:

Geronimo; by Bill & Dorcas Thompson
Geronimo, Apache Freedom Fighter; by Spring Herman
New Mexico; by Michael Burgan
New Mexico; by Deborah Kent
New Mexico; by Therese De Angelis

Olivia competed in her first spelling bee this week.   The competition was for grades 1-8.  Olivia make it to the 4th round of competition before misspelling a word.   The winners worked up through round 12.   It was a great experience for her, we’ll definitely do it again next year.

Both girls continue to do well in the core subjects.   I’m finding that Lindsey is a little learning machine, she can plow through work like a tank!   I’d noticed Olivia has been struggling in math a bit more since I’ve been working.  I found out today that the my husband somehow didn’t know there was a teacher manual for her math and has just been giving her the worksheets to figure out on her own.   Needless to say there was some tense discussion over this, and so I’m going to have to go back through her work and see what she’s been taught and what she’s been guessing at.

In addition to our normal extra curricular activities (ballet, Awana, choir and piano), Olivia started tennis lessons this week at the YMCA.   She LOVES it, and it seems to be a good fit for her to replace softball.

For those of you who have been following my prodigal family member story, I’ve posted what should be the final episode on S.A.H.M. I Am! 

Be sure to visit the Weekly Wrap Up!

Weekly Wrap Up–The Oklahoma Edition

February in Virginia is typically cold, icy/snowy and gray and dreary.  However, this year the first week of February has been amazing!!   Highs in the high 70’s, sunny days, bright skies and FLOWERS are blooming.   Yes, my tulips have been fooled into thing spring is here.   I’m sure that the tulips, and the rest of Virginia will get a rude awakening soon enough.   In the meantime, the girls spent a lot of time outside this week playing with the dog and riding their scooters.

The week was once again packed with appointments, meetings and lack of sleep as the quest for the best option for a family member has run it’s course.   It appears things will be changing next week and then hopefully life will get back to normal around here.  (And hopefully I can get some real sleep each day.)

So having said that, once again we didn’t get go Latin, science or language arts.   We did focus on geography and history as we studied Oklahoma.   I even broke out my photo albums from my trip out west in the late 80’s. 

Books we used:

Beautiful Land, A Story of the Oklahoma Land Rush; by Nancy Antle
Will Rogers, Cowboy Philosopher; by Mary Malone
The Oklahoma City Bombing, Terror in the Heartland; by Victoria Sherrow
Oklahoma, By Tamra B. Orr
Oklahoma; by Linda Saylor-Marchant

Math, spelling, reading and writing are going smoothly.   Piano, ballet, choir and Awana are running like clock work.  So, that pretty much wraps up our week!   Be sure to check out the Weekly Wrap Up!

Weekly Wrap Up–The Utah Edition

I really need to spice up our school week.  My wrap ups are SO boring anymore!   I’m not making excuses at all, but things are just crazy right now.  If any of you have been following my other blog, S.A.H.M. I Am!, you understand why.   However, there does appear to be a light at the end of the tunnel (and I’m hoping it’s not a on coming train).   This will be another busy week of appointments, but things should get better soon!   Thankfully, for now my overtime at work has been minimum, so I’m only working the regular 11pm until 7am shift, five days a week.

We did managed to squeeze in a field trip to the post office this week.   My husband took the girls, as I was busy with appointments.  Before this strange new journey began he had been leery of helping with school at all (translation he flat out refused).  But now, he’s actually enjoying it!

I also managed to squeeze in some craft time with the girls this week.  We used our Bedazzler to add some bling to little tote bags.  The girls will use these to carry their Bible, notepad and pencils to church in.

We also finished up our 4th grading period. We only have 49 more days in this “school year”!!

While the girls did do all their core subjects of math, reading and writing, geography and history was our main focus for the week.  Our state was Utah and we studied a lot about Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of the tv.

Books we used:

Utah; by Karen Sirvaitis
Utah; by Deborah Kent
The Teen Who Invented Television Philo T. Farnsworth and His Awesome Invention; by Edwin Brit Wyckoff
TV’s Forgotten Hero, the Story of Philo Farnsworth; by Stephanie Sammartino McPherson
Blaze and the Lost Quarry; by C.W. Anderson

Olivia’s piano instructor was well enough this week to resume lessons.   (Although, with a fractured skull I have to think the sound of kids and piano had to be painful for her.)

Choir is just fabulous!  I so wish we’d done this earlier.   The girls love it and I can tell such a big difference in their singing already. They will have their first concert in May!

Ballet if full throttle ahead to the Performance Awards.   Lindsey was bumped up a level so she’ll be doing Level 1, the rest of her class will be doing Pre-Level 1.   Olivia is doing Level 3 and will be working on 3 solo pieces.

That’s the extent of our schooling this week.  I hope you had a great time.  Be sure to visit the Weekly Wrap Up!

Weekly Wrap Up- The Wyoming Edition

Another fast paced week has raced by me!!   We had a productive week.  Monday was pretty normal.  Tuesday was only school and ballet.  Wednesday was choir and Awana.  Thursday was a super busy day.  The girls had dentist appointments in the morning (no cavities!!), followed by our Activity Day meeting in the afternoon and then ballet in the evening.  Friday was supposed to be piano, but Olivia’s teacher suffered a pretty serious concussion over the weekend and is out of commission for a while.

Geography:  Wyoming is the 10th largest state, but it comes in dead last on population.   I’d love to be in those wide open spaces!!   We studied Buffalo Bill Cody and Chief Red Cloud to round out our state study.

Books we used:
Wyoming; by G.S. Prentzas
Wyoming; by Nathaniel Burt
Buffalo Bill Cody, Showman of the Wild West; by William R. Sandford and Carl R. Green
Buffalo Bill Cody; by Charles J. Shields
Buffalo Bill Cody Western Legend; Karen Bornemann Spies
Red Cloud Sioux Warrior; by William R. Sandford
Chief Red Cloud; by Judy Monroe

Science:  We learned more about changes to matter (water-ice-steam).   Did a few fun experiments and enjoyed some melted chocolate!

Math, language arts, writing and spelling went well.  Nothing major to report though.

I was happy to be listed among the Top 100 Homeschool Blogs this week.  I’m not sure how I made the list, but was in excellent company!  Be sure to check it out.

We are expecting our first major storm of the winter over night.  Ice….bleck.   Have a great weekend, stay warm and visit the Weekly Wrap Up!

Weekly Wrap Up–The Montana Edition

Our week started off with some fresh snow, yeah, snow,in Virginia, in October.  Nutcracker performances were almost cancelled due to treacherous roads and power outages.  Then the temperatures rose, and we had mud; and now we’re back to very chilly weather, with frozen mud.

Geography:  Studying Montana was especially fun for the girls.  My husband and father-in-law have traveled “out west” several times to go elk and buffalo hunting, so they had lots of stories to share with the girls.   Although both children are convinced they’ve never eaten elk or buffalo.  I’ll just let them live in their make believe world on this topic.

Books we used:

Montana; by Conrad R. Stein
Montana; by Charles and Linda George
Where the Waters Divide, a 3,000 Mile Trek Along America’s Continental Divide; by Karen Berger and Daniel R Smith
Grizzly Cub, Five Years in the Life of a Bear; by Rick McIntyre
The Grizzly Bear; by Steve Potts
The Biggest Bear; by Lynd Ward

Math:   This was mostly a review week for Olivia.  I was really glad of that.  She’s still having some struggles with finding the unknown number in an equation.   She knows the correct answer, but can’t for the life of her get the hang of how to lay it out on paper to prove the right answer.  Lindsey began working with thermometers, and telling time to the half hour this week.  No issues with either!

Science:   We learned about rainbows and mirrors this week.  We created a rainbow with a bowl of water, a mirror and some white cardstock.  Pretty cool stuff.

Writing:   Olivia has almost finished her first Writing Strands book.  She’s doing much better with her composition, so it’s working!  Lindsey has started doing more copy work, focusing mostly on neatness and cursive formation.

Latin, spelling and First Language Lessons are just plugging away. Nothing particularly noteworthy in any of these areas.

Ballet/tap/piano:   Regular lessons are full swing.   Nutcracker practices are slowly taking over. 

I spent a lot of this week getting ready for the newest life altering event.  (In the last 5 months we’ve had a parent move in, and added a new puppy.)  Check in next week to learn about the latest change.

Be sure to visit the Weekly Wrap Up and see how everyone else’s week went.

Weekly Wrap Up–The North Dakota Edition

Busy busy busy!!  Yes, really…I’m sure you can’t relate at all, right?

Early in the week be headed to the woods to gather walnuts and acorns for the animals at the Virginia Wildlife Center. 

Midweek was a flurry of doctor appointments, job interviews and playing catch up.

On Thursday we had our first Activity Day of the year.   I’m teaching on famous women in history and this month we focused on Helen Keller.

Friday we hit the pumpkin patch with my brother and brought home WAY too many pumpkins!  But, for $25 for all you can fit in a wagon, it was still a great deal!

In between all of that we actually managed to get some education in!

History/Geography:   North Dakota was our state of the week.  We also read about blizzards as North Dakota can get some extreme winter weather.

Books we used:

History of North Dakota; by Elwyn B. Robinson
North Dakota; by Darlene R. Stille
North Dakota; by Robin L. Silverman
North Dakota; by Dennis Brindell Fradin and Judith Bloom Fradin
Blizzard; by Jim Murphy
The Blizzard; by Betty Ren Wright
City of Snow, The Great Blizzard of 1888; by Linda Oatman High

Science:  I’m not going to lie to you here…we never got around to it this week.

Spelling:   Yep, ditto.

Language Lessons:  Ditto, again.

Latin:   We did work on Latin and now know our number 1-10.

Math:  More 4 digit division for Olivia.   Lindsey learned to identify the hundreds column.

Ballet/tap:  Both girls are working on their performance awards pieces.  In addition, Nutcracker practices have started too.

Piano:  Olivia memorized “Oh When The Saints” this week.

To my knowledge, Kris will not be hosting a Weekly Wrap Up this week due to a tragic loss in her close circle of friends.  Please keep both Kris and Christina’s  families in your prayers this week.

Weekly Wrap Up–The Colorado Edition

 

This has been a crazy weather week.  We had temperatures in the 80’s one day, in the 50’s a coupe days, low 40’s at night, a thunderstorm, some tornadoes and another earthquake, followed by three days of rain.   This is October?  In Virginia?

Besides the ever changing outside world, we had a pretty productive week.  We didn’t get in as much walking because of the weather, but we did enjoy a couple of spur of the moment afternoon teas.

Geography/history:  Colorado was our state of the week.  We also learned about Quanah Parke.  Although Quanah was not born in Colorado, he tied in because of his legacy with the Comanche people, who’s homeland was in part of Colorado.  Truthfully, my girls love any opportunity to study about Native Americans. 

Books we used:

Colorado, Land of Liberty; by Sandra J. Christian
Colorado; by Barbara A. Somervill
The Comanche; by Willard H. Rollings
The Comanche Indians; by Martin J. Mooney
The Last Comanche Chief; The Life and Times of Quanah Parker; by Bill Neeley
Quanah Parker, Comanche Chief; by Claire Wilson
Plains Warrior, Chief Quanah Parker and the Comanche's; by Albert Marrin
Purple Mountain Majesties; by Barbara Younger

Reading:  Olivia read Prairie School by Avi.  It was a short read, but it went with our study of Colorado.  Lindsey finished up the Beehive Reader this week.

Language Arts:  We continue to work on prepositions.  We also reviewed all of our memorized poems as well.

Spelling:   Lindsey’s spelling lists work on the special sounds she’s learned in phonics.   Olivia finished up lesson 8 in All About Spelling and spelling list number 10 from Super Teacher Worksheets.

Math:  Lindsey began working with calendars this week.  Olivia began working with triple digit division. Early in the week we were doing well…by mid week, not so much.  Much of Friday was spent in review.

Science:  We began studying electricity this week. We worked on simple circuits, and circuit breakers.  We also identified things throughout the house that need electricity to operate.

Latin:  The main focus in Lesson 9 was the numbers 1-5.  The girls keep switching mid-stream into Spanish, which is similar but not what we’re going for.

Awana:  Moving along quickly here. This week both girls will be reciting the books of the New Testament.  This was an easy week as they both have these memorized already.  I had a very light class this week…1 student is all!

Ballet:   Both girls have been learning dances for the performance awards (in March).  This weekend begins Nutcracker rehearsals so it’s full steam ahead now!

Piano:  Olivia’s piano instructor has gone back to work full time and we’re doing a different day and time for her lessons.  The new time/day works well for us, but so far the instructor has been late or had to reschedule each week…so we may need to make a change here, which I truly don’t want to do.

Remember its time to nominate your favorite blogs for the Homeschool Blog Awards!

That’s pretty much our week.  Be sure to visit the Weekly Wrap Up!

Weekly Wrap Up–The Nevada Edition

It’s officially fall, wohooie!  The leaves are changing, there’s a nip in the air and we’ve had to break out the sweaters and long pants.  I love this time of year!  Our fall vegetables are doing nicely.  The cool weather crops are coming in and we still have some summer crops producing.  Although, with the threat of frost this weekend, it may be the end of my tomatoes and peppers! 

Also this week, Lindsey had two more teeth pop loose…doesn’t she remind you of a little jack-o-lantern?

We were cooped up a lot this week due to rain, but hopefully we’ll be getting more outside time in the next few weeks!  We will be cutting our week short for a field trip adventure on Friday, so I’ll post my weekly wrap up a day early.

Geography/history:  Our focus was on Nevada this week.  The girls were really impressed by the size of Hoover Dam (via photos of course); and Death Valley was pretty interesting, but Sacagawea was the hottest topic of the week.

Books and DVD we used:

Nevada; by Suzanne M. Williams
Nevada, The Silver State; by Krista McLuskey
Nevada; by Ann Heinrichs
Death Valley National Park; by David Petersen
Hoover Dam; by Craig A Doherty and Katherine M. Doherty
Hoover Dam; by Elizabeth Mann
Sacagawea; by Monica L. Rausch
Sacagawea, Heroine of the Lewis and Clark Journey; DVD
The Shoshoni; by Dennis B. Fradin
The Shoshoni; by Alden R. Carter

Science:  We were learning about magnets this week.  Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find a regular old bar magnet these days?  My goodness you’d think I was asking for an alien implant device when I went to the hardware store!  Geez…but finally in a little mom and pop hardware store I found a lovely 2 inch purple bar magnet, and so we were able to complete our science experiments.

Reading:   Olivia finished up Pilgrims Progress and is now reading Anna’s Blizzard by Alison Hart.  Lindsey is starting on the Beehive Readers by All About Spelling/Reading.

Math:  I dodged the bullet, again!  Olivia moved into more complicated division this week and it went really smoothly!  (Thank you Jesus!!)   Lindsey is progressing well, but is a bit careless in her subtraction so we need to work on that area more.

Ballet/tap:   Nutcracker magic is in full swing already!  This year, there are three performances! Olivia has two roles again this year.  She’ll be a mouse and a baker, and performing in all three performances.  Lindsey’s debut will be as a gingersnap and she will only be in the Saturday matinee.  You can’t imagine the amount of giddy we have going on here!

Awana:  Lindsey got her new Sparks book and completed her first memory verse (from memory from last year).  Olivia completed her introduction booklet and is now ready to order her first TNT book.  My kindergarten class is just too cute!  We only have 3 regular girls so it’s a small, but fun group.

That’s pretty much our week.  Nothing too exciting, but productive.  I’ll post a link to the Weekly Wrap Up when it’s available.

Weekly Wrap Up–The Kansas Edition

This week was the end of our first grading period.  (Only five more to go!)  The only reason I do grades at all is because Abeka has grading period sheets.  I do find that it’s helpful in giving me a more accurate picture of where the girls are in their classes. 

We had a small life altering happening this week.  Nothing horrible, so relax!  We did however add another new member to the household, a 7 week old beagle/blue tick mix.  He’s lovely, although his tummy isn’t adjusted to his new world just yet.  Read my post from earlier this week to find out how we came to get Shalom.

Now on to the school work!

Geography/history:  Kansas was on our road map for the week.  The “famous” person from Kansas was Russell Stover (of chocolate fame) and we couldn’t find a single book about him at the library.  So we ended up studying chocolate instead.

Books we used:

Sarah, Plain and Tall; by Patricia MacLachlan
Kansas; by Deborah Cannarella
Kansas; by Jenifer Nault
Kansas; by Charles Fredeen
Kansas; by Rebecca Olien
Chocolate From Start To Finish; by Samuel G. Woods
The Biography of Chocolate; by Adrianna Moranelli

Science:  We worked on learning the parts of a plant and the job of those parts.  We did some labeling and checked out some of my flowers in the gardens.

Math:  This week was MUCH better.  My review week apparently helped a lot.  Olivia moved into division and is doing well with it and multiplication now.  Lindsey’s new skill was counting change (dimes and pennies together).  So far so good.

Latin:  This was a built in review week so we went over our first 4 lessons, a lot.

Spelling:  Olivia finished lesson 5 in AAS.   Lindsey completed her 2nd list of spelling words this week as well.

Ballet/tap:   Dance started back up this week.  Both girls are really enjoying the twice a week classes.  This weekend is Nutcracker auditions!

Piano:  Olivia started back to piano last week.  We moved to a new day and time and that seems to be working much better with our schedule as well.

I’m also hosting a wonderful giveaway this week.  One super lucky winner will receive a free download of My Memories (digital scrapbooking software).   Enter to win by reading my review/giveaway post here!

Be sure to visit this weeks Weekly Wrap Up when you get a chance!

Weekly Wrap Up–The Oregon Edition

At the end of last week I headed out to the Women of Faith Conference in Washington DC.  I had an amazing time, and am SO thankful to BookSneeze for giving me the tickets, and ultimately grateful to God for orchestrating an entire weekend for me!

This week was pretty routine, no natural disasters or anything!

Geography/History:  We studied Oregon (specifically the Oregon Trail) this week.  The girls really enjoyed the “diaries” that we read.  Olivia is especially fond of history, so working historical fiction into her studies really helps her to take hold of the timeframes.

Books we used:

John Jacob Astor and the Fur Trade; by Lewis K. Paker
The Oregon Trail; by Elaine Landau
A Historical Album of Oregon; by Charles A. Wills
Oregon; by Dennis Brindell Frading and Judith Bloom Fradin
Oregon: by Terry Miller Shannon
A Frontier Fort on the Oregon Trail; by Scott Steedman
Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie – The Oregon Trail Diary of Hattie Campbell; by Kristiana Gregory
The Journal of Jedediah Barstow – An Emigrant on the Oregon Trail; by Ellen Levine

Math:  Olivia started simple division this week.  She did pretty well with it.  However, I want to strengthen up some of the multiplication areas before we move on.  So next week will be a remedial week.  Lindsey has moved up to the 6 addition family.  Overall she is doing well with math, but she’s very sensitive (TOUCHY) when she doesn’t grasp a concept quickly!

Science:  We studied endangered species as well as extinct animals.   Interestingly enough, while sitting at the doctors office this week Olivia found a great article in National Geographic about baby mammoth fossil that was found in Siberia.

Latin:  We’ve finished our first 5 lessons of Prima Latina.  We’re studying verbs, which goes along nicely with our First Language Lessons unit on verbs and adverbs.

Spelling:   Lindsey had her first spelling test this week and did really well.   Olivia is moving along nicely with AAS Level 3.  She has also signed up to participate in our local spelling bee, so we’re plodding through spelling lists as well.

I think that pretty much wraps up our week.  Nothing too exciting, just normal everyday life.  Next week should be more interesting as I have a few surprises up my sleeve for the girls!

Be sure to visit the Weekly Wrap Up over at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers!

Weekly Wrap Up–The Minnesota Edition

Well at least we had some excitement this week!  Granted it wasn’t anything I planned, but seriously, how often does Virginia have a 5.9 earthquake??  It was pretty freaky.   We had just finished up our school work and I’d gone into the bathroom to start cleaning.   Just as I started to spray the shower walls the whole house started to shake and “groan”.   I’m sure people who have been in earth quakes instantly recognize it for what it is, I didn’t.   I quickly looked out the bathroom window then bolted to the kitchen where the girls were working on chores.   They heard the noise, but didn’t pay attention to the shaking (how can you NOT notice the whole house moving???)   Then I headed outside to look around, still not realizing what was going on.  Yeah, I guess I’m slow like that.  About 2 minutes later my elderly neighbor called “Did your whole house just shake??”….The thought popped in (and back out) of my brain, that maybe it was an earthquake…but this is Virginia we don’t do that here, so my next thought was there must have been an explosion, but no signs of that either.    Face Book finally clued me in…duh!

So yeah, cramming 5 days worth of school work into 3 days can’t quite compare to such an event.  However, since I’m leaving tomorrow for the Women of Faith conference, and since I already had the lesson plans written, I had to….I’m OCD like that.  

Geography:  Minnesota was our focal point for the week.  The girls are still distraught over the Lindbergh baby.

Books we used:

Minnesota; by A. P. Porter
Minnesota; by Anny Heinrichs
Minnesota; by R. Conrad Stein
Minnesota; by Judy L. Hasday
Minnesota, the North Star State; by Neil Purslow
The Chippewa; by Christin Ditchfield
The Chippewa; by Alice Osinski
An American Hero, The True Story of Charles A. Lindbergh; by Barry Denenberg
Charles A. Lindbergh, A Human Hero; by James Cross Giblin

Reading:  Olivia finished up “Caddie Woodlawn” and began reading "On the Banks of Plum Creek”.   Lindsey is still working through her readers and snatching up books and magazines.

Math:  Well this week went much better.  It’s amazing how different an area of school work can be when you pray about it every night before bed and every morning before lessons begin! 

Spelling:  I skipped Olivia’s All About Spelling this week to save some space in my schedule.  Lindsey started her first spelling list this week.  Her first response was “oh no, I’m too little”…but she soon got over it.  I also signed Olivia up for the local homeschool spelling bee preparation program.

Science:  We studied various animal facts this week.  We learned about classification, male/female titles (doe vs. buck for example), names for offspring and life spans.

Latin:  Still working on verbs.  This week we focused on “invisible verbs” such as love and adore.   Both girls are enjoying our new program.  Olivia is still excelling in this area, amazing, truly.

I’m also hosting a GREAT giveaway this week.  The End of Molasses Classes – Getting Our Kids Unstuck – 101 Extraordinary Solutions for Parents and Teachers, by Ron Clark.  (Seriously, the title is a bit much, but the book is really good.) Be sure to read my review and enter to win here.

I know I’m early with my Wrap Up, but I’m almost out the door.  I’ll post a link to the Weekly Wrap Up when I get back this weekend!

Weekly Wrap Up–The California Edition

 

Our third week is gone, poof!   It’s crazy how quickly time is moving!  It was a pretty typical week.  Nothing too exciting going on.  We did however find out that our Activity Day program is back on for the upcoming year, so I’ll be working on projects for that.

Tuesday we went to Praise in the Park again.  Each week the announcer leads everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance, and then the National Anthem is sung before the performances start.  It always bugs me that the gentleman leading the pledge is always reading it off a card (he’s my age, he should KNOW it).  Apparently last week I made a comment about it bugging me.  So this week we get to the park and get our chairs set up and Lindsey asks if she can go speak to the man about something, so her dad goes with her.  She asked if SHE could lead the recitation for the night and he agreed.  So up on stage she went in front of hundreds of people, microphone in hand, other hand over her heart as she lead everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance.  A proud mommy moment….and me without my camera!!

Geography/history:  California was our focus this week. The girls were amazed by the giant redwoods!  Truthfully so was I, I knew they were big, but my goodness they are HUGE!  We worked on mining for gold (painted rocks) using a pie pan with some holes poked in it and a large tub of water.  Richard Nixon didn’t leave a lasting impression, but I digress.

Books we used:

California; by Tamra B. Orr
Redwoods, The World’s Largest Trees; by Jeremy Joan Hewes
Richard Nixon, Thirty-seventh President; by Mike Venezia
Profiles of the Presidents, Richard M. Nixon; by Robert Green
Our Presidents, Richard M. Nixon; by Anny Graham Gaines
Striking It Rich, The Story of the California Gold Rush; by Stephen Krensky
The California Gold Rush; by Jean F. Blashfield
The California Gold Rush; by Mel Friedman

Science:  We studied animal classification, habitats, housing choices and dietary needs.

Latin:  This week we focused on verbs such as navigo, oro,porto, laboro and specto.  Notice that each word ends with an “o” showing that it’s a verb.  We’ve also memorized the first three lines of The Sanctus.

Reading:  Olivia is continuing to read “Caddie Woodlawn”.  This book was part of our library list from last weeks study of Wisconsin, but it didn’t come in until late in the week.  Lindsey is working through her curriculum readers, and is also picking up everything else in the house that she can attempt to read.

First Language Lessons:  We worked on addressing a mailing envelope and writing thank you notes.  The girls also memorized the poem “The Little Bird”.

Spelling:  Olivia finished up lesson 3 in All About Spelling, focusing on the 4 ways to spell the long “a” sound.

Writing:  Olivia continues to enjoy the Writing Strands, although I’m finding that she’s not quite ready for the working alone aspect yet.  So, I’m finding a little more guidance and involvement from me is necessary.   Lindsey’s cursive writing is improving, but we aren’t working on composition yet with her.

Math:   Monday and Tuesday were pretty rough days for Olivia in math.  No clue why we go through this every now and then, but it’s very frustrating when she can’t remember simple things that she’s known for a long period. Tuesday night we all added “and please help Olivia with her math” to our prayers.  Wednesday morning we prayed again before starting math and it went MUCH better.  Now why didn’t I think of that earlier??

That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.   How was your week?

Visit the Weekly Wrap Up!

Weekly Wrap Up–The Wisconsin Edition

 

Our second week back to school had some snags along the way.  Monday we were off school to take a family member to have some medial testing done.  Tuesday was one of  those math day for Olivia where her brain went to mush.  Thursday we were going to work on baking skills and the oven died.  So through it all we learned about patience, kindness and self control (me being the one having to use the self control).

On a super positive note, Olivia had an answer to prayer this week and we added a piano to our home!   Read more about that here.

Math, as I mentioned was not Olivia’s shining moment this week.  So we had to stop and do a lot of review of borrowing when subtracting, and paying attention to wording in word problems.  Lindsey is working on her addition math facts.

Olivia completed Lesson 2 in All About Spelling.  I’ve also added spelling lists from Super Teacher Worksheets.   Lindsey’s spelling lessons haven’t begun yet.

The Writing Strands program is really working nicely for Olivia.  It took her a while to get used to working independently, as she tends to get easily distracted.

Science was fun this week.  We learned about the eyes, ears, and teeth.   We did a fun experiment with a glass of water to show how the fluid in your inner ear keeps swirling after you stop twirling.  It was a great way to show the girls why you get dizzy after going around in circles.   And yeah, we also practiced going in circles until we could no longer stand up, all for the love of scientific investigation.

In geography we focused on Wisconsin this week.  We even tried a few different types of cheeses.  Our famous person was Laura Ingalls Wilder, and you seriously can’t go wrong with my girls and that topic!

Books we used:

“Wisconsin”; by Bettina Ling
”Wisconsin”; by Gretchen Bratvold
”Wisconsin”; by Jean F. Blashfield
Wisconsin; by Janice Parker
”Extra Cheese, Please! Mozzarella's Journey From Cow to Pizza”; by Cris Peterson
“I Remember Laura”; by Stephen W. Hines
”The Laura Ingalls Wilder Country Cookbook”; by Laura Ingalls Wilder
”Laura Ingalls Wilder Country”; by William Anderson
”Homesteading on the Plains, Daily Life in the Land of Laura Ingalls Wilder”; by Mary Dodson Wade
”Caddie Woodlawn”; by Carol Ryrie Brink

We were going to make Laura Ingalls Wilder’s gingerbread recipe.  However, our oven picked this week to die.  So we’ll be making that sometime later I guess.   Here is the recipe if you’re oven is more cooperative than mine!

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup molasses
2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup boiling water
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. each ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease 9X9 baking pan.

Blend sugar, shortening and molasses.

Add baking soda to boiling water and mix well.

Combine flour and spices and sift together.  Combine sugar/molasses mixture with flour mixture and add the baking soda water.  Mix well and pour into prepared pan.

Bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

The county fair started this week.  I had NO clue how many things the girls could have been participating in until this week.  So I have our handy dandy fair book and we’ll be working on entries over the winter for next year (where have I been all this time?).  In the meantime, we went on a little field trip this afternoon to watch one of Olivia’s friends show his goats at the fair.  And, yes, I did take photos…but I can’t find my camera.

Be sure to visit the Weekly Wrap Up!

Weekly Wrap Up–The Back to School/Iowa Edition

We had a really great first week back to school!   The first day back was lots of fun and everyone (especially me) was glad to get back into a routine!   Both of the girls are really enjoying the Prima Latina and the Start Up Science.  We also managed to squeeze in our first field trip of the year!

We studied Iowa this week.   Our famous Iowan was President Herbert Hoover.   We also studied Amelia Earhart, who lived in Iowa for a period but wasn't born there.  The girls really loved reading about her.

Books we used:
Iowa; by Sandra J. Christian
Iowa; by Jean F. Blashfield
Iowa, An Explorer’s Guide; by Lauren R. Rice
Profiles of the Presidents, Herbert Hoover; by Michael Teitelbaum
Herbert Hoover, Our Thirty-First President; by Gerry and Janet Souter
Herbert Hoover; by David A.Y.O. Chang
Getting to Know the Presidents, Herbert Hoover; by Mike Venezia
Amelia Earhart, More Than a Flier; by Patricia Lakin
Amelia Earhart Flies Around the World; by Kath Davies
Amelia Earhart, This Broad Ocean; by Sarah Stewart Taylor
Amelia Earhart, Photo Illustrated Biography; by Marilyn Rosenthal

Olivia has finally gotten to where she’s enjoying reading.  This week she read Treasure Island, along with the daily newspaper, a couple of magazines and her Bible!

Lindsey’s reading has drastically improved as well.  Now that “Mamaw” lives here, she enjoys reading to her and gets lot of extra practice. 

I hope you all had a great week!   Be sure to visit the Weekly Wrap Up!

Weekly Wrap Up–Florida

Believe it or not, it’s time AGAIN for the Weekly Wrap Up!

Saturday both girls completed in the Awana Sparks games.  They were scheduled to compete against four other churches, but two dropped out at the last minute.  Our group had two teams, and my girls were on separate teams.  Olivia’s team won first place and Lindsey’s team came in fourth.   They both had a blast and that’s all that really mattered!

On Tuesday Olivia visited James Madison University to take part in a research program in the Cognitive Development Lab.  Getting to go to college, and play video games made her day!

Geography/history:  Florida was our state of the week.  We spent most of our time studying manatees, including a lap book.  We spent a lot of time on the Kennedy Space Center as well.

Books and videos we used:

Dancing with Manatees; by Faith McNulty
Florida Manatees, Warm Water Miracles; by Meish Goldish
Face to Face With Manatees; by Brian Skerry
Endangered Mermaids, The Manatees of Florida; Janson Videos
The Everglades and the Gulf Coast; by Daniel Blaustein
Florida; by Karen Sirvaitis
Florida; by Ann Heinrichs
Apollo 11, First Moon Landing; by Michael D. Cole
Kennedy Space Center; by Timothy R. Gaffney
Armstrong Lands on the Moon; by Gordon Charleston

Science:  We studied the circulatory and respiratory systems and added new organs to our “mini me”.



Latin:  This was a built in review week.  So honestly, we hit it 2 out of 5 days this week.

Language Arts:  The girls learned about adjectives and predicate adjectives.  We added a few more pages to the poem books they are making.

Math:  Olivia is learning about making change.  Lindsey is working on addition facts and counting by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s.

Ballet/tap:  We are in recital mode now.  Both girls brought home their costumes and are now working on their routines.

Piano:  Olivia continues to do well.  She’s memorizing songs left and right.  She’s working toward her year end recital as well.

Baseball/softball:  Olivia was placed on the girls 10 and under softball team this year.  She signed up for the 8 and under team, but there weren’t enough participants.  So, she’s head and shoulders shorter than the other kids on the team.  Thankfully, her baseball coach taught her well and she’s holding her own, and even surpassing some of the big girls.

Lindsey’s baseball team is going to take work…lots of work.  There are 13 children, most are 5, there’s one 6 year old and one 4 year old.  Thankfully at this age it’s about learning the basics.

Both kids are averaging 2-3 practices per week.  Lindsey’s team has scrimmages next week and then we go into the regular season.  Softball games won’t start until mid April.

So yeah, if you need me, check at the ball fields….I’ll be there a lot between now and mid June.

Weekly Wrap Up - Michigan

Another fun and busy week has flown by! Life is just a blur of activity anymore!   Friday night we went camping in the basement.   Saturday Olivia competed in her 2nd Performance Awards.  Tuesday we attended a free concert by the United States Air Force Band. Wednesday was the norm, piano and Awana.  Thursday was Activity Day and 4-H.  Friday back to the norm…just ballet.  I.am.tired.

Yet, in the middle of all that hustle and bustle, we managed to do some school work!

History/geography:  Michigan was our state of the week.  We talked about the Great Lakes and learned the definition of a peninsula.  We had two famous people, Henry Ford and Derek Jeter.  I figured with baseball season starting this week it wouldn’t hurt to read about a pro ball player!  Of course we did our usual state map, flag, fact sheet and state coin.

Books we used:

On the Field With Derek Jeter; by Matt Christopher
The Wanigan, a Life on the River; by Gloria Whelan
The Smithsonian Guide to Natural America, The Great Lakes; by Michele Strutin
Eat My Dust, Henry Ford’s First Race; by Monica Kulling
Along Came the Model T!; by Robert Quackenbush
Thundercake; by Patricia Polacco
Michigan; by Martin Hintz
Michigan; by Elizabeth M. Johnson

Science:  We’ve started studying human anatomy. We learned lots of bone and organ names this week.   We learned how to splint a broken bone.  Please note, we did NOT learn how to do it without worsening the injury,sigh.

We also made “mini-me’s” of the girls.   This week we added the skeletal system and the digestive system.  More to come next week!

Latin:  This week the topic was the sky.  So we learned the words for sun, moon, star and sky.   Amazing how many Latin words I already knew, but didn’t know they were Latin!  We added more pages to our dictionary.

Language Arts:  We have entered the world of contractions.  This went pretty smoothly except on the ones that change too much; such as “will not” becoming “won’t”.  We’ll be reviewing this again next week.

Reading:  Lindsey is doing much better.  She’s reading with a lot more inflection.   Olivia caused my brain to tilt when she asked “Mom, can I read more than is on my work list?  Can I pick out another book to read at bedtime?”….insert angelic choir singing here.

Math:  Olivia is working on the 5 multiplication and division tables.  Lindsey is learning the addition families through 10.

Ballet/piano/Awana:  Still making progress.  Nothing new to report.

I think that was pretty much our week.  Be sure to visit the Weekly Wrap Up!