Friday, August 28, 2009

Weekly Report - Week 2

We are still not on a full schedule yet, though I did add another subject to our schedule: reading/literature.

Mika:


Language Arts -- Mika and Sam had a few rehearsal sessions for Mika's video project. While video making is Mika's special subject this year, Sam will be included as voice over actor or actor as needed. He enjoys helping out. Hopefully, we'll be able to get the video editing program for her soon. We also added in reading/literature this week. We covered various techniques like onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance, similes, metaphors, personification, imagery, and symbolism. Mika understands most of these pretty well already so most of it was review for her.

Math -- Mika completed lesson 2 in Math-U-See Epsilon. It was really easy: building fractions and naming them with numbers and words.

PE -- Playing outside and bike riding was Mika's PE for the week. She also participated in bowling lessons, which she gets for free every other Thursday evening.

Home Ec -- It was Mika's turn to do the egg lesson for home ec. We didn't have as much time to devote to it as I had hoped but she did hard-boil some eggs and make deviled eggs. We'll be making a lemon meringue pie tonight, and I hope, french toast and scrambled eggs this weekend.


Samuel:

Language Arts -- We covered nouns (singular and plural) and pronouns, including discussing the difference between subject and object pronouns.

Math -- Sam completed the test pages for Math-U-See Epsilon lessons 7 and 8, which included comparing fractions with unlike denominators and adding three fractions with unlike demoninators. He then completed a unit test for lessons 1-8. He finished out this week with lesson 9 which covered multiplying fractions.

PE -- Sam completed 5 hours of taekwondo this week. He also had bowling lessons this week and did great. The coach was surprised to hear Sam talking to himself about the angle he needed to throw the ball to pick up the spare...that's my math kid for ya! He got a strike and several spares too!


Both kids:

Problem Solving -- We worked through the first four Olympiad problems in our problem solving book. My goal with this book is mostly to expose the kids to these thinking skills. The problems are quite difficult if you aren't used to thinking the way the problems require. I start with writing the daily problem on the white board and letting the kids guess on the technique we should use. Then we work through the problem together. Hopefully, they'll be able to do the problems on their own at the end of the year.

Logic -- We worked through our first four perplexors puzzles. Mika found the this first set way too easy, completing three of them in about five minutes. Sam does pretty good with some help. The level I chose is supposedly for 5th and 6th grade so I can see why they'd be a little challenging for Sam.

Science -- We've completed our dinosaur chapter. We even completed the experiment at the end of the chapter which demonstrates the difference between lizards and dinosaurs, based on their leg/hip angle.

History -- We listened to chapter 2 of Story of the World Volume 2. It covered the Celts and barbarians, the beginning of the Anglo-Saxons, and Beowulf. We also completed the corresponding map page and a coloring page of Beowulf. We made Celtic double-blade war axes, which came out kind of cool. We are also reading this retelling of Beowulf which is perfect because it is full of alliteration examples.

Literature -- We began our literature study with a review of various literary devices such as onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance, simile, metaphor, personification, and symbolism. Mika knows what most of these are so it was review for her. Sam had a harder time with it so I also printed off some worksheets I found online for them to practice with. It was pretty challenging for him, but again, my goal is to expose him to it not gain mastery yet.

Reading -- We're listened to more to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on CD. Both kids are waiting for more Warriors books from the library. Two of them are waiting, but for one of them (the second of the three) we're number 3 in queue so it might be a while.

Joshua:

Preschool Prep -- Our themes were the letter B, number 2, green, and jungle. We didn't even come close to getting much done with him. He did "color" with a pencil some of the sheets I printed off. I'll use them in a file folder I'm making him for each week. We didn't get to a song or nursery rhyme. However, he did enjoy several of the jungle-themed picture books I checked out for him. His favorite, I think, was How Loud is a Lion. He cracked up every time we read it as nearly every page ends with "Shhhh! Listen!" Josh also got involved with making his own Celtic war axe; he got to paint his own handle.



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5 Comments:

Mommy to One said...

Sounds great! Hey, has Sam ever played pool? Sounds like he'd be an expert at that in no time!

Deb said...

Sounds like ya'll are off to great start. Can you send me info on your cooking cirr.? Eli is wanting to learn to cook this year :)

Angela said...

What a great week!

Cyn said...

Sounds like you all had a great week!

Twisted Cinderella said...

Sounds like a great week!