Week 12 (11/21-11/25)

Catherine made these neat patterns all on her own one day. I love self-directed learning!

Scripture:

1. Boys - DILIGENCE: I work hard to finish a task.
2. Girls - Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth. Proverbs 10:4
   

Reading:

1. C&C - Finished Piper Reed. They both discussed liking the characters in the book. Piper taught us that you can be too entrepreneurial.
   
2. Madelyn - Started Morning Girl by Michael Dorris. I've asked her to really focus on the setting. I'd like to explore with her what the United States was like prior to its 'discovery'.

Social Studies: We didn't do a lot this week in Social Studies. We will be doing mostly Social Studies over the next two weeks as we launch our small business venture. The girls have selected their crafts. Now it's time to execute!

Math:

1. C&C - Completed Unit 3, Chapters 1, 2 & 3 in Singapore Math 2A. This unit is about length.
2. Madelyn - Finished up Unit 2 in Singapore Math 4A and did a cumulative review and test.

Writing:

1. C&C - Completed Week 8 in Writing with Ease.
2. Madelyn - Completed a keyword outline, draft, edit and final composition on Pearls. While she is doing well with this program, I learned this week that she needs a little more teacher supervision to ensure that she is understanding the content of the texts she is working from. Regurgitation of information does not equal understanding.

Science: We did labs this week on solar heating and on food energy. For solar heating, we made sun tea. For food energy, we made a food pyramid showing how energy is passed from a producer through a chain of consumers.
Preschool: The boys completed Week 10 of their Pre-K Sonlight program. They learned to print capital C, O, Q and G using Handwriting without Tears. They continue to work from Essential Math and Developing the Early Learner.

Week 11 (11/7-11/18)

At the High Desert Museum in Bend. We learned a lot about Oregon history!

It's taken us two weeks to get a week's worth of schooling done. We travelled to Bend, Oregon for 9 days. We tried to fit in some schooling there but learned quickly that playing with our 1-year-old niece/cousin was much more fun!

Reading:

1. C&C - Read Chapters 9 & 10 in Piper Reed.
2. Madelyn - Finished Toothpaste Millionaire.

Social Studies: We visited the High Desert Museum in Bend. We also spent a lot of time in the car estimating distances and direction.

Math:

1. C&C - Took the Unit 2 Cumulative Test. The girls are so excited about test for now. Also completed Unit 3, Chapter 1 from Singapore Math 2A.
2. Madelyn - Took the Unit 2, Chapter 2 Test. As a 4th grader, Madelyn has developed a healthy amount of test anxiety. It's a good thing she takes them often. Also completed Unit 2, Chapter 3, Lessons 1-3 from Singapore Math 4A.

Writing:

1. C & C - Finished Week 7 from Writing With Ease. Started Week 8. Still a little behind on this one.
2. Madelyn - Completed Week 2, Lesson 2 from IEW Program. She's really liking this.

Science: We learned about renewable and non-renewable resources. We built a terrarium to demonstrate the second.

Natural gas is non-renewable as demonstrated in this lab. The girls were more excited that it worked after a delayed response.

I love when the girls take charge of their learning. While in Bend, they took samples from all the trees and identified them with a field guide.

Preschool: The boys completed Week 9 of their PreK Sonlight program. They learned to print capital X, Y and Z using Handwriting without Tears. They continue to work from Essential Math and Developing the Early Learner.

Week 10 (10/31-11-4)

Happy Halloween!

Reading:

1. C&C- Read Chapters 8 & 9 in Piper Reed Gets a Job.
2. Madelyn - Read through Chapter 16 in The Toothpaste Millionaire by Jean Merrill.

Social Studies: We decided to have a holiday bazaar as our business venture. We'll be on a tight timeline for this but I hope the girls will enjoy it. We also volunteered at the food bank.

Math:

1. C&C - Completed all the tests I missed in the first two units. They did a great job!
2. Madelyn - Completed Unit 2, Chapter 2 in Singapore Math 4A.

Writing:

1. C&C - Completed Week 7 in Writing With Ease. I can definitely see improvements in their comprehension and dictation skills.
2. Madelyn - Completed Week 1 in the Institute for Excellence in Writing Student Writing Intensive A. She likes having her own writing teacher even if he is on a DVD.

Science: This week we learned about currents, batteries and magnetic potential energy. I wish I took pictures of our labs. The only one to fail so far was the battery one and that's one they've done a million times at our local science museum.

Preschool: The boys completed Week 8 of their PreK Sonlight program. They learned to print capital V and W using Handwriting without Tears. They continue to work from Essential Math and Developing the Early Learner.

Week 9 (10/24-10/28)

Scripture:

We decided that last week's Scripture lesson merited an extra week of study.

Reading:

1. C&C - Read Chapters 6 & 7 from Piper Reed Gets a Job by Kimberly Willis Holt.
2. Madelyn - Started reading Toothpaste Millionaire by Jean Merrill. She's reading two chapters a day.

Social Studies: Interviewed Mr. Brian, the home builder. The girls were sold on his homes. Mark introduced charisma as a vocabulary word. He explained that owning your own business takes charisma.

We also brainstormed possible kid-friendly family businesses. We categorized them as either products or services. I'm not sure how much time we're going to have for this but I hope that I at least planted the seed to entrepreneurship.

Math:

1. C&C - Completed Unit 2, Chapter 5 from Singapore Math 2A. The concept is subtraction with renaming. We did a lot of block work this week in order to construct meaning before introducing the algorithm.
   
2. Madelyn - Completed Unit 2, Chapter 1 from Singapore Math 4A. The concept was Addition and Subtraction with an emphasis on estimation and mental math. Madelyn scored a respectable 92% on her end-of-chapter test.

Writing:

1. C&C - Completed Week 6 in Writing with Ease. Mini-lessons were given on 'drop the -y + add -ies' as well as on the structure of poetry. I love that homeschooling allows you to do unplanned, on-the-spot mini-lessons!
   
2. Madelyn - Completed Wordly Wise: Grade 4 Lessons 1A through 1D. She did a great job with the vocabulary work offered by this program. I think we'll take this program up sporadically and what we don't finish during the formal 180 days of instruction, we'll complete over the summer.

Science: We're still investigating energy. This week we learned more about thermal energy. I'm hoping to pick up the pace on science next week.

Preschool: The boys completed Week 7 of their PreK Sonlight program. They learned to print capital H, K, L and U using Handwriting without Tears. They continue to work from Essential Math and Developing the Early Learner.

The girls performed in their first piano recital on Friday.

Week 8 (10/17-10/21)

Scripture:

1. Boys - Obedience: I obey right away without delay.
2. Girls - Obey your leaders (because) they keep watch over you. Hebrews 13:17

Reading:

1. C&C - Read Chapters 4 & 5 of Piper Reed Gets a Job by Kimberly Willis Holt.
2. Madelyn - Read Chapters 8-10 of Eddie, Incorporated by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Completed a timeline of Eddie's business ventures in Excel. We're hoping Daddy will help us create some kind of neat graph with our data.

Social Studies: Madelyn interviewed Ms. Veronica (her dance teacher and owner of the studio) and scheduled an appointment to interview Mr. Brian, the homebuilder.

Math:

1. C&C - Completed Unit 2, Chapter 4 or Week 6 from Singapore Math 2A. The concept was adding with renaming.
2. Madelyn - Completed Unit 1, Chapter 6 from Singapore Math 4A. She learned about negative numbers and took a cumulative review test on Unit 1.

Writing:

1. C&C - Completed Week 5 in Writing With Ease.
   
2. Madelyn - Completed Lessons 158 through 164 in Primary Language Lessons. The book is now complete! Onward to apply her knowledge to a new program.
   

Science: We completed labs on mechanical waves and heat transfer. If nothing else the girls should all know the law of conservation of energy. We have witnessed time and again how energy is transformed, not lost or gained.

Preschool: The boys completed Week 6 of their PreK Sonlight program. They learned to print capital R, N and M using Handwriting without Tears. They continue to work from Essential Math and Developing the Early Learner.

Week 7 (10/10-10/14)

Our fall is flying by! As eager as we all were to start school, we get easily distracted by other outdoor learning opportunities. My plan book is always so lofty just as I remember when I taught in the public schools. I like having this space to reflect on what we actually accomplished over the week.

Scripture:

1. Boys - Honesty: I speak truthful words and act truthfully.
2. Girls - Tell your neighbor the truth because we belong to each other. Ephesians 4:25

Reading:

1. C&C - Read Chapters 1-3 in Piper Reed Gets a Job by Kimberly Willis Holt.
2. Madelyn - Read Chapters 5-7 of Eddie, Incorporated by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.

Social Studies: Madelyn worked on interview questions for our entrepreneur friends, Ms. Veronica (dance studio owner) and Mr. Brian (the homebuilder). We also volunteered at the food bank this week.

Math:

1. C&C - Completed Sprints! Also completed Unit 1, Week 5 (Addition and Subtraction w/o Renaming) of Singapore Math 2A.
2. Madelyn - Completed Sprints! Also completed Unit 1, Week 4 (Order of Operations) of Singapore Math.
   

Writing:

1. C&C - Completed Week 4 of Writing with Ease. The good thing about having purchased the workbook version of this program is it's exposing us to great texts, thereby giving us many book recommendations.
2. Madelyn - Completed Lessons 148 through 157 in Primary Language Lessons. She should finish next week.

Science: We studied potential and kinetic energy this week. We used the slide and origami frogs as examples.

Potential energy=top of slide

Kinetic energy = moving down the slide

Potential energy = preparing to leap

Art: The girls started taking stamping classes with their Great-Grandmother. It's a great art lesson and a good multi-generational learning experience.

Preschool: The boys completed Week 5 of their PreK Sonlight program. They learned to print capital D, P, and B using Handwriting without Tears. They continue to work from Essential Math and Developing the Early Learner.

Week 6 (10/3-10/7)

When I was a public school teacher, I charted out year after year of instruction using conceptual planning. Although my classroom now looks much different and my pupils are far more multi-aged that I previously worked with, my planning method remains the same. Our concept for the year is interdependence. We spent the first five weeks laying down the foundation for this study by really articulating our family's interdependence on each other as well as with our country, our Earth and our God.

Now, we are shifting our studies to consider entrepreneurship. We will be looking at how people in our community work individually and within groups to develop an interconnected local economy of unique services and goods. I hope that our children will contribute to this web with their own small business venture.

Scripture:

1. Boys - Thankfulness: I show gratefulness with words and actions.
2. Girls - Let the peace of God rule in your hearts...and be thankful. Colossians 3:15

Reading:

1. C&C - Read Arthur's Pet Business by Marc Brown.
2. Madelyn - Read Chapters 1-4 of Eddie, Incorporated by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.
   

Social Studies: We are exploring the concepts of small business ownership and entrepreneurship as a group. We started this week defining entrepreneurship and brainstorming friends we know who are entrepreneurs. Then we brainstormed business ideas for our family. Finally, we researched the elements of a business plan.

Math:

1. C&C - Continued working on Math Sprints, which they will finish next week. Also completed Unit 1, Week 4 of Singapore Math 2A.
2. Madelyn - Also continued working on Math Sprints. Completed Unit 1, Week 3 of Singapore Math 4A. After Sprints are done, I need to continue reviewing factors and approximation with Madelyn. The test this week was tough on her.

Writing:

1. C&C - Completed Week 3 of Writing with Ease. The trouble with not making everything up from scratch is that the objectives sometimes become clear after, rather than before the lessson.
2. Madelyn - Completed Lessons 140 through 147 in Primary Languge Lessons. It won't be long before we get to start the Excellence in Writing Program.

Science: We are now looking at Energy. We defined energy as the ability to do work. We also quantified it as work=force x distance. We studied the law of conservation of mass. I demonstrated this by weighing two liquids and then combining them to create a solid (chemical reaction) and proving that even as a solid the weight was unchanged. We are using Energy for Every Kid by Janice VanCleave for these labs and information.

(Experimenting with friction during work experiment)

Preschool: The boys completed Week 4 from their PreK Sonlight program. They also started handwriting using Handwriting without Tears. They continue to work from Essential Math and Developing the Early Learner.