What an interesting week this was. We enjoyed a day on the road, where surprisingly we accomplished everthing we need and then some. We were overscheduled this week, but we enjoyed all of the activies. I have a feeling this is going to be a very busy season for us and managing our time well will be a must.
In language arts it was a huge relief to be back to normal with Chiggie. She is starting a new writing book and works on that each morning while I am working with the little girls on calendar and handwriting. So far we love this book. It breaks the writing process down into very simple steps. She is also doing a literature study on the book Trumpet of the Swan which she is enjoying. She also got all of her spelling words correct with no trouble. Tea read a new story in her Forest Friends book and worked on adjectives and commas. We also worked in spelling with ea words which she grasped quickly. Midge's focus this week was on sharing and being thankful. She read several stories with this theme. Each week she is learning new sight words and while progress is slow at this point she is learning. Both Tea and Midge like working on handwriting and it is a great time filler when I am working with Chiggie.
In Bible we are talking about the Fall and how it effected the earth we live on. The girls have been acting out Bible stories on their own with their barbies as well. I like the book we are using, but might look for something more for Chiggie next year.
I am finally seeing why I feared math the most. It's not that it's really hard, it's just very time consuming at this point. They are all 3 learning new concepts and need one on one. I don't foresee this lasting very long though. Chiggie is learning to solve equations with +,-,/, and *. She is finally liking it I think. Tea is adding 3 digit numbers, money with decimals, and continuing to advance with telling time and fractions.
In history we learned about Marquette and Jolliet along with Peter Stuyvesant. I like that the curriculum we are using covers such a wide variety of topics. The girls enjoy it. We will be learning more about pirates soon and they're very excited for that. We also made pilgrim hat place settings for Thanksgiving. I think they turned out nicely.
We are still talking about planet Earth in science. This week we made advertisements selling the planet. They were very creative. Midge's had several drawings of things from other planets such as volcanoes, craters, and clouds of sulfuric acid with x's through them. It was very cute and shows me how much she is learning. They were all great. We also made edible Earth's. The Crust was chocolate, with a rice krispy treat mantel, and a fireball making the inner and outer core. Of course they loved this and they were pretty tasty.
As a family we are reading
Stuart Little. It is much different than the movie and we're liking it a lot so far. Next week we are only doing school on Monday and Tuesday. We are excited for our 5 day vacation!
Our Holiday recovery has seemed slower than normal this year. I think many factors are involved, but we were hit with a stomach virus and several of the kids and myself just haven't felt well. Buster tried to make me feel better by cooking me up a snack, but I just wasn't hungry. Our new family room really is great in the aspect that we are able to have so many toys in there without feeling crowded. That wasn't true in the old house.
