Home's Cool: Week Five

This week started a little rocky. It is hard for my oldest to get back into the routine after being "free" for the weekend. And if I am honest, it is hard for me as well. As the week progressed things got much smoother and we were able to enjoy our learning time together. So here is how week 5 went for us...

Bible - We are still memorizing John 8:12. We made light switch covers.  These will serve to remind us that Jesus is the Light of the world every time we flip the switch.

This is Julia's

The kids saying their memory verse, John 8:12...

History - This week we began learning about the Pilgrims and what life was like for them. Tuesday we made an oiled paper window. We learned that they didn't have glass for windows so they oiled paper to use instead. We tried it for ourselves to discover that an oiled paper lets in more light and keeps water out. We have also continued to learn about Squanto's life and read about how he helped the Pilgrims. At the end of the week we planted corn with three pieces of raw fish, just like Squanto taught the Pilgrims to do. I echo a fellow home school Mom when she said, "If the fish start stinking, I'm throwing the whole thing out!" Amen sista! I will only take our learning experiences so far!! :)

Putting oil on the paper (don't you just love Isaac in a cowboy hat?!)

Testing the oil paper window  and regular paper with water drops

Planting corn

with pieces of stinky fish

Ew!!

Squanto would be proud!

This week for history we have also begun learning the song "America". Isaac and Julia memorized the first verse this week. Take a peek at how they did...

Science - We started learning about flowers this week. We learned about the parts of a flower and their different jobs. We dissected a flower and drew the flower anatomy. Friday we went on a flower nature walk to collect different flowers. This was kind of hard to do when everything is scorched from the summer heat. It was fun trying though! An update on our herbs.... they still haven't started growing. Bummer. However, our beans did start growing. The kids were surprised that the beans in the dark were the first to grow rather than the ones in the window. But we did learn that seeds don't need light in the beginning. They only need warmth, water, and air to "wake up". We got the growing beans in some soil on Thursday. Fingers crossed they continue to grow! Above the flowers and the bean seeds, my kids favorite topic in science this week was carnivorous plants. Fascinating! We learned about the Venus Flytrap, the Bladderwort, the Sundew, and the Pitcher Plant. God is so imaginative in His creation!!

Flower Dissection

Flower Anatomy

Our growing beans

Carnivorous Plants

Isaac is such a science kind of kid. He LOVES this stuff!!!

Julia said, "Look, the testa fell off" That's my girl!! She has learned a thing or two!!

Planting the sprouted bean seed.

My Little Botanists!

Proof that our herbs still haven't grown. Not that you didn't believe me, but thought I would take a pic anyway!

Art - This week I gave the kids free reign with the Draw Write Now books. Tuesday they drew Native American pictures and on Thursday they drew Pilgrim pictures. They worked very hard and were happy with the outcome.

1st half of Julia's picture

2nd half of Julia's picture

Isaac's picture. His Native American village is in the forest.

Math - We had a great week of math! Can I get a hallelujah?! Isaac is still working through stuff that he is pretty familiar with so it comes easy to him and the assignments haven't been too long. To Isaac the length of the assignment is much more daunting than the difficulty of the assignment. I have to be careful there. Julia is working through some different ways to solve subtraction. I am realizing that a lot of the foundation that Isaac got by doing Math U See for the first few years, Julia doesn't have. I may need to go back and teach her some of the Math U See tricks and lessons.

Reading - Isaac is still learning about the writing process. He worked with me to proofread and revise our writing from last week. Then he worked on his own personal story using the steps in the writing process. I will post his final draft next week when he gets it completed. Isaac has started reading Stuart Little and will be doing varied activities around this book. He will make a lapbook and work on reading skills such as comprehension, vocabulary, story sequencing, etc. Julia is still working through the MFW reading activities. She is zipping through them pretty fast. It is amazing to me how well my children read when this is one of the things that made me nervous to home school. So proud of them. Julia is on chapter 4 of her book, Andi's Pony Trouble. She is enjoying putting her lapbook together. This is what her lapbook looks like so far...

Spanish - Both are doing GREAT with Spanish. Isaac was able to start Lesson 2 this week. He was happy to move on and learn something new. Julia worked very hard this week and was able to get 92% correct on vocabulary. So now all she needs is to work on is grammar and then she can move on as well. I better get back to my own Spanish lessons before they get ahead of me!!!

REACH - We had another wonderful day at REACH. We are so blessed to be apart of this group. There is such a large home school population in this area, especially at our church. I love that our children don't feel "different" when most of their friends are home schooled as well.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - I have been reading this book to Isaac and Julia the last few weeks. We finished reading it on Friday and thanks to a friend who let us borrow her movie we spent Friday afternoon watching the original movie.  Fun way to end our week!!