School is Cool!

Well a least a couple of my students think so!

This has been one of the better weeks we have had in the last month. We are still busy, busy, busy...but I am slowly feeling more organized. I spent the past weekend organizing our homeschool supplies a little. I repurposed an under-used metal shelving unit to store the tubs with preschool materials. Now Robbie and Emily can pull out what they want to work on and easily put it away. Amazingly, they are doing the clean-up too!!

I also cleaned out the cabinet where I store previously used material and reference material for topics we are not currently studying. Over the last six months it had becoming a dumping area and I hated going in there to look for anything. Out went used coloring books and activity books that no one was going to use again. And, I have a pile of books to donate/resell.

This leaves me with a lot more room and I organized everything by subject...so hopefully I will be able to find what I am looking for six months from now.

This week we accomplished:

~ Mary began working on the chapter in math on time and measurement

~ Katie is working on adding numbers greater than 10

~ Emily began working on even numbers

~ The girls are working through Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading as a group. Emily needs to learn how to work together and the phonics/blending review will not hurt Mary & Katie.

~ Read about the end of The Revolutionary War and the Articles of Confederation

~ Mary began working on memorizing the Preamble to the Constitution. We began by reading through and defining the more difficult vocabulary. This helped us understand how the Constitution was a response to the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.

~ Read Betsy Dowdy's Ride by Nell Wise Wechter aloud. Mary enjoyed it because it has a girl as the heroine and is set in Currituck, NC a place we really enjoy visiting.

~ Mary is reading through The Secret Soldier: The Story of Deborah Sampson by Ann McGovern.

~ I continue to read Doctor Dolittle to Katie.

~ Katie is reading The Littles.

~ We finished reading and exploring China this week with Emily. Complete with hanging lanterns strung across the family room.

~ We read about the solar system this week. Mary and Katie added drawings of the solar system to their "Book of Space".

~ Mary worked on singular and plural nouns in grammar.

~ Katie scored 100% on her spelling test.

~ Since the atmosphere was so clear last night we had an impromptu star gazing session.

~ Watched the Olympics, staying up way too late~

~ Began reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as our evening read aloud.

~ Katie practiced the flute and is finally starting to make some noise.

And to round out the week the girls had their rec department classes and Brownies for Katie.

Currently they are hanging out watching Magic School Bus videos (Mary is trying to act like she doesn't like them anymore). All their neighborhood friends are gone for the weekend.

This weekend we have more cookie booths for GS, I need to finish planning Emily's next literature/geography unit (South Seas/Australia), finish planning everything else for next

week...and maybe resting since next week will be a doozy.

Peace,

Amy