Week of March 25 - 30

We studied the last two planets in the Solar System this week: Uranus and Neptune. Lily and Gabe completed narration pages and Lily made several diagrams about various aspects of each planet.  We preformed an experiment from Astronomy for Every Kid illustrating how atmosphere density affects sight. This led to a discussion on light, heat and how the atmosphere can be changed.  It was a great opportunity to discuss pollution and Climate Change.

Lily completed 6 math lessons this week including an Investigation into the geometric construction of bisectors.  Gabe and John each worked hard at math with Gabe focusing on subtraction and John learning to count by 10s.

Gabe, doing his math at the chalkboard for a change of pace from paper.

John showed real progress and diligence with his reading this week.  He read pages 46 through 55 in his Hooked on Phonics workbook and read a little book titled Tag.  He is continuing to practice his handwriting.  I am going to look into purchasing a cursive workbook for him - the printing book is too large and when he uses cursive his letters are much tidier.
Gabe began reading from Christian Liberty Nature Reader 1 this week out loud.  It was very helpful for me to hear where his reading is at although he's reluctant to be put on the spot and read aloud.  He is working through his  cursive workbook with very good handwriting. He wrote several summaries for science and history this week and completed a spelling and grammar lesson.

Lily completed a couple writing lessons this week and one of them happened to coordinate nicely with our science.  She also worked on spelling and grammar. She has been reading Treasure Island (the original) and D'Aularies' Greek Myths. This morning, while working on our history portfolios, we listened to Greek Myths via booksshouldbefree.com.

Lily and Gabe completed their swim lessons last Friday.  Although neither passed their level both worked hard, learned lots and had lots of fun.  This week was a return to dancing and Judo, as well as bike riding.

Trojan Horse Project

Spring Break was the perfect time to finish up our Trojan Horse!

Art project

Gabe's

John's, with substantial help from Mom

Lily's

Weeks of March 4-16

 Reading with John - he's really doing great!

 Working on models of the planets.

Our finished planets hanging up in order above the school table.

Lots of the standard school work this week.  Plugging away at math lessons, spelling, language, and French.  We studied Jupiter this week; did an experiment showing the effect of hurricane type winds on particles and began putting together models of all the planets.  Our moon diary project continued with some good opportunities for viewing the moon.  Everyone enjoyed running more of our paper route with the nice weather and spent lots of time outside climbing trees and riding bikes.

Lily and Gabe started swim lessons this week.  They are really enjoying being back in the pool and like the Spring Break lessons which go everyday for two weeks.

Weeks of February 20 - March 2

It's amazing how easy it is to fall behind in posting!  We've been busy with our usual school work though this last week was a bit more relaxed due to runny noses and headaches and general malaise.

All three kids are making good progress in math, slogging away each day with their lesson.  John in particular has really gotten into the habit of daily lessons which I hadn't been forcing too much before.  He is making real progress with adding doubles and ones.  Gabe is subtracting 9s and 2s and reading and recording the temperature to the nearest 2 degrees.  Lily's math has focused on fractions: reducing, multiplying and dividing.

Our study of the Solar System is going strong.  Lily and Gabe both began a 30 day project of charting the moon's phases.  We've been playing the Solar System games - with great success. Reading more about Mars and Uranus and exploring the iPad apps. 

We've been watching a lot of the Brain Pop videos (default mode when no one really feels like up for school) and doing the quizzes.  Videos have included Uranus, Angles (very timely as Lily was introduced to supplementary and complementary angles this week), Renewable Energy, Nutrition, Leap Year, Architecture, Teeth and Main Idea.

Lily has been settling into her writing lessons with really diligent daily work.  She is also really enjoying reading the Greek Myths.  Gabe and John are both progressing with their reading and Gabe is doing good spelling work.  John is now writing both his first and last name.

We finished reading, journaling and studying the Middle and New Kingdoms of Egypt and began studying Ancient Greece.  We've listened to the chapters in Story of the World about Greece and watched Drive Thru History: Greece.  We will return to the Story of the World chapters in the coming weeks but have began work in the History Portfolios.

We went swimming last week. Lily and John also went tobogganing in addition to our usual PE activities.

In addition, John learned how to play checkers this week.  It has been wonderful watching him learn strategy and play games with Gabe.  We also played rounds of Yathzee and Backgammon.