It was a pretty standard week for the big kids. I didn't get to do very much with the littles because I was busy trying to get as much packing started as I could.
Language Arts
Mikaela read about subject complements. She completed an end-of-the-section review which included any punctuation, usage, and errors often seen regarding the parts of a sentence. She'll be moving on to part 3 of her grammar book next week. For vocabulary, she finished list 3 and got 100% on her test. She's been enlisting Sam's help in studying with her flashcards; he's going to end up knowing all of he vocabulary for next year before he even starts! Her poetry took a close look at poetic elements used in a couple of Alfred Lord Tennyson's poems, "Cross the Bar" and "The Charge of the Light Brigade".
Samuel finished his grammar book. After taking a practice test, he took the final test and began analyzing sentences in the practice book. I have him scheduled to complete one sentence a day, but he requested doing two a day, which he has been doing. He completed lesson 6 in vocabulary, learning the words ostentatious, inexorable, doleful, indolent, and alacrity. He loves finding his words in books that he reads. In poetry, he read about different kinds of meter. I also have him practicing reading comprehension from a free download I got from Scholastic's last sale.
This is Sam's final grammar test. It required him to label the part of speech of given words, part of a sentence of given words, type of phrase, and type of sentence.
Math
In math, Mikaela learned subtraction with negative numbers. She's been reading the teacher's manual on her own (since I've been so busy) and doing the worksheets on her own. She's been doing really well with this so far.
Ironically, Sam is learning essentially the same things Mikaela is covering. He just started Art of Problem Solving's Pre-Algebra. Where her book covers adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing with negative numbers over four weeks, his covers all of them in one chapter. Her's mostly tells you what you need to do, while his leads you to discover the rules, shows you why they work, and then uses those rules in advanced problem sets. The explanation of how to do certain types of problems reminds me of geometry proofs. Each step shows you what to do and lists which rule applies. He's doing well. Some of the problems are quite challenging, but he's learning (as am I).
History
In history, the kids read about how China felt they were the center of the universe and didn't need western goods, thereby closing their borders to foreign traders (with the exception of Canton). They read about the rules regarding foreigners. They also learned about the opium trade and opium addiction.
They also worked on a geography project I gave them: create an imaginary continent that has a bunch of required landforms (have to know what they are to include them). Then draw and color it on poster board, label places with their names, add a compass rose, a scale, and a legend. They have been really enthusiastic about this project.
Science
In astronomy, Sam is learning about light and telescopes. Mikaela took her test for the last chapter about the sun and started reading about Mercury. I did not give them a lab.
In meteorology, we learned about the transfer of heat energy and energy balance. We discussed a couple of demonstrations that we couldn't do because of the weather and completed a lab showing the effects of carbon dioxide on air temperature. We thought the lab failed; it just took longer to show results that it was suppose to.
In geology, the kids completed a streak test with brick, chalk, a penny, and different pieces of sand. We had difficulty with this because it can be hard to tell the difference between a streak and a scratch (for us anyway) and hard to pick out quartz, feldspar, and mica from the tiny pieces of sand. But we did the best we could.
Foreign Language
Both kids completed three thirty-minute sessions on their respective Rosetta Stone languages.
Art
Mikaela and Samuel both completed a very simple art project that involved tracing around masking tape to create rings and then erasing appropriate lines to make some rings appear in front of others. Then they colored them.
Field Trips
We took the kids back to Lattin's Country Store and Cider Mill. We were hoping the yellowjackets would be gone; they weren't. After doing a few things there, we headed over to Tumwater Falls to see the salmon running. I posted about it here.
Littles
I didn't get to do much with the littles because I was busy with packing. They did enjoy making bracelets with plastic pony bracelets and pipe cleaners. Maddie wore hers for a couple of days.
Language Arts
Mikaela read about subject complements. She completed an end-of-the-section review which included any punctuation, usage, and errors often seen regarding the parts of a sentence. She'll be moving on to part 3 of her grammar book next week. For vocabulary, she finished list 3 and got 100% on her test. She's been enlisting Sam's help in studying with her flashcards; he's going to end up knowing all of he vocabulary for next year before he even starts! Her poetry took a close look at poetic elements used in a couple of Alfred Lord Tennyson's poems, "Cross the Bar" and "The Charge of the Light Brigade".
This is Mikaela's vocabulary test this week. She had to give the meaning of the stem that is in all capital letters. I goofed and put the same word down twice and missed putting one word on there completely. (I could photocopy the tests, but I find it easier to just type them out.)
Samuel finished his grammar book. After taking a practice test, he took the final test and began analyzing sentences in the practice book. I have him scheduled to complete one sentence a day, but he requested doing two a day, which he has been doing. He completed lesson 6 in vocabulary, learning the words ostentatious, inexorable, doleful, indolent, and alacrity. He loves finding his words in books that he reads. In poetry, he read about different kinds of meter. I also have him practicing reading comprehension from a free download I got from Scholastic's last sale.
This is Sam's final grammar test. It required him to label the part of speech of given words, part of a sentence of given words, type of phrase, and type of sentence.
Math
In math, Mikaela learned subtraction with negative numbers. She's been reading the teacher's manual on her own (since I've been so busy) and doing the worksheets on her own. She's been doing really well with this so far.
Ironically, Sam is learning essentially the same things Mikaela is covering. He just started Art of Problem Solving's Pre-Algebra. Where her book covers adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing with negative numbers over four weeks, his covers all of them in one chapter. Her's mostly tells you what you need to do, while his leads you to discover the rules, shows you why they work, and then uses those rules in advanced problem sets. The explanation of how to do certain types of problems reminds me of geometry proofs. Each step shows you what to do and lists which rule applies. He's doing well. Some of the problems are quite challenging, but he's learning (as am I).
History
In history, the kids read about how China felt they were the center of the universe and didn't need western goods, thereby closing their borders to foreign traders (with the exception of Canton). They read about the rules regarding foreigners. They also learned about the opium trade and opium addiction.
They also worked on a geography project I gave them: create an imaginary continent that has a bunch of required landforms (have to know what they are to include them). Then draw and color it on poster board, label places with their names, add a compass rose, a scale, and a legend. They have been really enthusiastic about this project.
Science
In astronomy, Sam is learning about light and telescopes. Mikaela took her test for the last chapter about the sun and started reading about Mercury. I did not give them a lab.
In meteorology, we learned about the transfer of heat energy and energy balance. We discussed a couple of demonstrations that we couldn't do because of the weather and completed a lab showing the effects of carbon dioxide on air temperature. We thought the lab failed; it just took longer to show results that it was suppose to.
In geology, the kids completed a streak test with brick, chalk, a penny, and different pieces of sand. We had difficulty with this because it can be hard to tell the difference between a streak and a scratch (for us anyway) and hard to pick out quartz, feldspar, and mica from the tiny pieces of sand. But we did the best we could.
Foreign Language
Both kids completed three thirty-minute sessions on their respective Rosetta Stone languages.
Art
Mikaela and Samuel both completed a very simple art project that involved tracing around masking tape to create rings and then erasing appropriate lines to make some rings appear in front of others. Then they colored them.
Field Trips
We took the kids back to Lattin's Country Store and Cider Mill. We were hoping the yellowjackets would be gone; they weren't. After doing a few things there, we headed over to Tumwater Falls to see the salmon running. I posted about it here.
Littles
I didn't get to do much with the littles because I was busy with packing. They did enjoy making bracelets with plastic pony bracelets and pipe cleaners. Maddie wore hers for a couple of days.
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1 Comments:
We have been working a lot on fine motor as well!
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