SL Week 35 (70th week on Core D) April 30-May 4, 2012

This was a bit of a "light" week.  After the IOWA testing we really wanted a bit of a break.  So, we did our lessons; but not as heavily as we usually do.  We didn't have any planned activities; except AC was coming over on Friday night to spend the night.  We needed to spend some time really cleaning Dd's bedroom and rearranging her furniture, so we got a lot of housekeeping done too.


Tuesday May 2nd, 2012:
We went to the Children's Museum!  
We went to the Science Lab and each made a glove of 4 different seeds.  We also really enjoyed their microscopes and lots of interesting slides.  In the Science Port Dd made a parachute, and especially enjoyed playing the hand-held remote control for various flying aircraft-viewed through a computer.  She could have done that ALL day!  We rode the carosel two times.  Like usual we brought our lunch and ate in the cafeteria.  We spent a great deal of time in the Dinosphere.  We made rubbings from brass reliefs, sculpted dino heads with this cool stuff called: "Think Putty", etc.etc.  We went to the Water Works.  We were at the frog pond when they announced an activity was beginning.  They gave each child a clip-board, binocular, and identification papers.  They had the children listen to a short presentation about pond life, frogs, toads, etc. and then had them go on a frog search. They had to locate each frog/toad and draw an "x" on where they found them on the map located on their clip-board.  Then they had to fill in other supporting information--like sounds, smells, or other items found  (like grasses, fish, snails).  It was a lot of fun.  I've never seen them do that activity before.

This was the lab for the day--making a glove with 4 different seeds inside- it is really fun watching the seed open and the plant begin it's new life.

Bible:
"Who Is God?" by Apologia
Nightly bible: book of Revelations
Praise and Worship CD: "To God be the Glory"


Math:
Life of Fred (LOF)  "Butterflies" Chapter 11, 12, 13, 14,15,16,17,18,19
LOF "Cats" Chapter 1 (again)


Language Arts:
Thank you letter


Art:
Knitting!  really enjoying knitting
Clay Figures (the weird colored, oily clay--not her usual red pottery clay)
Piano playing every day


Music:
Debussy



Audio:
"The Boy of Mount Rhigi" by C.M. Sedgewick - finished
"Percy Jackson and the Last Olympians" by Rick Riordian - finished
"A Wrinkle In TIme" by Madeleine L'Engle - finished




  Dd's Readers:

Material World: A Global Family Portrait by Peter Menzel, Charles C. Mann and Paul Kennedy

Marie-Grace and the Orphans (American Girl) (American Girls Collection) by Sarah M Buckey and Christine Kornacki

  

 The Salem Witch Trials (Graphic History) by Michael Martin and Brian Bascle

"Farewell my Lunchbag" by Bruce Hale

 "Run For the Hills, Geronimo!" by Geronimo Stilton

 

 

SL Week 34 (69th week on Core D) April 23-27, 2012

Week 34 on Core D

This was the BIG WEEK of IOWA TESTING!!  Wed, Thur, and Fri Dd spent her mornings taking standardized tests!! The horror!  This was really hard for Dd and she was not use to this type of thing.  So after testing on Wed. we went to the park and she played with AC; and then we invited AC to come home with us and continue to play at our house.  After testing on Wed. we went to another park and she played with AC.  Then after testing on Fri. we invited GG to go to the YMCA with us and go swimming, and eat at Subway with us too.  Then she came home and played until about 8-ish.  All the playing really helped Dd get a nice reward.

We had our normal IG activities and readings.  We are getting really tired of listening to track 15 on the Sing the Word: Great in Counsel and Mighty in Deed CD!!  We listen to it sometimes on our LOW weeks too; so that makes us hear that song over and over.

We are enjoying "Swift Rivers" -- not as much as we (I) loved "The Journeyman".....which was such a great book.

Audio's this week:
"The Horse and His Boy" by C.S. Lewis (in kitchen)--finished
"Boy of Mount Rhigi" by: C.M. Sedgewick (in home library)
"Peter Pan" by J.M. Barrie (in van)--finished
"Percy Jackson - The Last Olympians" by Rick Riordian (in kitchen)
"A Wrinkle in Time"  by: Madeleine L'Engle (on the  Playaway)

Dd Readers:
"Bright Path-Young Jim Thorpe" by Don Brown
"Chet Gecko-Farewell my Lunchbox" by Bruce Hale
"The Invention of Hugo Cabaret" by Brian Selznick

Bible:
"Who Am I?" by Apologia
Nightly Bible- Revelations

Flashcards-
Math
Latin/Greek
Grammar terms---what is a verb? adjective? adverb? sentence? preposition.......

Spectrum Practice pages - 2 days

Math:
MUS 16D & E
Life of Fred (LOF) Cats- chapter 1

Art:
Pottery Wheel : Made 6 pots and 1 apple--almost every day she worked in clay. On riday she had GG over and they drew big drawings of themselves in chalk on the driveway.

Cooking/Home Ec.:
Made Ice Cream from scratch, cheese tortillas, and fruit smoothie

Brain Pop & BP Jr. daily

This was our LAST week of Swim & Gym!  Dd finally got to put her Butterfly Stroke all together.   It was difficult; but she liked it.

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SL Week 33 "A" LOW (week 68 total on Core 3/D) April 14-20, 2012

Another wonderful "LOW" (left-over's week) on Core 3 or Core D; whichever you choose to say.  I guess I should begin to get use to the new names of the cores.  SL has changed the names three times in the few years I've been a SL'er.

This week our big activity is going to a Indianapolis Indians Baseball game.  The pictures are already posted before I could get this data entered.  The game was a lot of fun!  We parked in the zoo parking lot and walked across a big bridge to the game.  Our other big thing this week is that we are preparing for the IOWA tests coming up.  We are using a "Spectrum Grade 4 Test Prep" book to help us get ready.


Bible:
"Who Am I?" by Apologia: Pages 15-30
Nightly Bible as a family--book of Revelations
Praise and Worship CD- "I have decided to follow Jesus" song

Music/Composer:

Handel

Language Arts:
All About Spelling--Step 16, words & sentences for 4 days/test on the Friday the 5th day-passed.
Thank you letters--7 completed

Spectrum Test Pages--numerous

Math:
Math-U-See 14 E & F
Teaching Textbooks 91,92, quiz, 93,94, 95,96

Piano--big, big piano week.  Dd really played a lot this week!

Read Aloud:
We started "Swift Rivers"

Dd's Reader:
"Tikta'Liktak" by James Houston----finished
"The Mystery in Venice"-Geronimo Stilton

Audio's:
*"Bridge to Terabithia" by Katherine Paterson
" Peter Pan" by J.M. Barrie

 Activities:
Swim & Gym class on Tuesday
Knitting!!

Making Things - April 2012

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new art

Here are a few new things Dd has been working on-

an apple--she painted it later and gave it to me as a birthday present!

Indianapolis Indians Baseball Game

Indianapolis Indians Baseball Game

We went with our LHE co-op group to a baseball game and had a great time!

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Posters for Church

Posters for Church-- I didn't come up with the wording; I just put it down on poster for our group.

Birthday Pix

Birthday Pictures

We cleaned up Dd's room for the party:

Where Dd makes her music:

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SL Week 33 Core 3/D April 9-13th 2012 *our 67th week on this core*

SL Week 33  Core 3/D  April 9-13^th 2012  *our 67^th week on this core*

We had our normal SL IG and added in some extra books.  This week held Dd’s birthday, so we had a fairly light week on our lessons.  Thursday was her b-day and Friday was her birthday party.  Her grandparents drove up and spent the Friday night with us; and left on Saturday.

The books we added in this week:

Read Alouds:

“The Amazing Impossible Erie Canal” by Cheryl Harness

“Daring Cell Defenders” (microquests) by Rebecca L. Johnson

Dd’s Readers:

“Skylark” by Patricia MacLachlan

“High School Musical: Stories from East High #1: Battle of the Bands” by N.B. Grace

“Swiss Family Robinson” *Graphic Novel

Audio:

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

DVD:

Dd received “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” for her b-day and watched it happily!

The poet for the week was Lawrence Ferlinghetti.  I had never heard of him before; so I learned something new too!

We had a mix-mash of bible—one day we went back and re-read some of our “Leading Little Ones To God” book.  We enjoyed a second bible time with Dh each evening.  We have begun Revelations and it is a little hard to understand that book.

As usual we enjoyed Brain Pop and BrainPop, Jr. most days.  Dd has been keeping her journal each night; very faithfully.  She has also been very keen to play her piano each day; some days 3-4 times in the day!!  It is funny how it comes in waves.  She learned a new song this week; one of my absolute favorites: “Stand Up, Stand Up For Jesus”. 

Cooking/Baking:

Dd and Dh made her birthday cake for the party and two days later they made Lemon Squares together.

Art- She used her small loom to weave a small rectangle out of soft purple yarn; about the size of a potholder.  She finished her last hemp necklace for her b-day party friends.  She made each of the girls (3) their own hemp necklace as a gift for their gift bag.

Math—Teaching Textbooks-lessons 88 & 89.  Math U See- 14  A,B,C,D.  We did our "doubles family & the '8 family' " too.

Language Art:
All About Spelling-Lesson 16 (in progress)
A Reason for Handwriting

We had Aqua Athlete’s on Tuesday.  They got to add the arms and legs together to do the Butterfly Stroke.

Music—Debussy…..ahhhh,  I love Debussy.  Dd is getting a little tired of Debussy.  She says that every song sounds the same.  I don’t agree; but it is interesting to hear her point of view.

Dd also played the piano every day and is really loving it.  Her other interests this week: wove on her small loom with soft purple yarn; she made a hemp necklace for her friend Rachel.  We also went to the library, played basketball in driveway, and she held a wonderful birthday party for her best friends.

SL -Core D-Week 32 "LOW- A" (66th week on this core) April 2-6th, 2012

SL Week 32- a "LOW" (left-over's week)

Hard at work-- IEW--Excellence in Writing

Our Read Aloud this week was FANTASTIC: The Journeyman by Elizabeth Yates.  What a great book! and that is an understatement.  I really loved it.  Yates really captures the feeling of New England.  It felt similiar to Understood Betsy- that same earthy feel.  I will keep this book for as many years as I can!

She was dipping a empty calligraphy pen in her black ink-more fun, I guess!

Dd had a few new books she read this week.  For SL she read "Sarah, Plain and Tall" by Patricia MacLachlan; and some of Skylark (the sequel).  "Meet Cecile" (American Girl Collection) by Deise Lewis Patrick.    "The Call of the Wild-Graphic Novel" by Jack London/Neil Kleid/Alex Nino.  "Amelia Earhart- An American Flying Pioneer" by Cynthia Benjamin.

IEW final draft

The math book I added-In:
"From Simple Shapes to Geometry" by Jerry Pallotta.  We watched some of "Khan Academy" about fractions.  We also watched some "Mathtacular" on fractions too.

Oil pastel of a hot air balloon

Math was 6 lessons from Teaching Textbooks; and 5 lessons from Math U See.

Oil Pastel of a basketball

Excellence In Writing-IEW- This week Dd wrote a paper on Andrew Jackson (kwo, rough draft, and final draft).

We worked on ASIA this week in Geography

Odds:
Reason for Handwriting; BrainPop (M,T,W,Th,F) and BrainPop, Jr. (Monday); First Language Lessons-Lesson 31; A Child's History Into Poetry-Langston Hughes; Landmark History.  We are still working on a few print-out worksheets from the Spectrum Grade 4 Test Prep for the upcoming IOWA test.  More hemp necklaces made.  Geography focus was Asia; we did the maps twice and listened to "Geography Songs" cd.  Dd was definitely feeling artsy this week---she made a bowl out of clay, numerous oil pastels, drawings, hemp necklace, and she has been writing in her journal every night---and don't for get the piano daily...she is on a roll.

Dd making a necklace for a friend

We are also working on some flashcards - some for math (measurements); Grammar (definitions from First Language Lessons; and English From The Roots Up (Greek & Latin).

Here is the close-up of the necklace-hemp & beads

VHS: The Magic School Bus-"Takes Flight".  Maybe all the "flight" stuff at the Children's Museum piqued her back into flight again.  You know, Dd made her own kite last month.  She took it to the backyard and flew it.  I should get a photo of that.  She did it all on her own; I don't know where she thought that whole thing up.

Our activities for the week:  Dd had Swim & Gym on Tuesday.  They didn't get to do the swimming b/c the pool was too busy with the Spring break people.  We invited one of Dd's friends to come home with us so they could play for the rest of the day.  We took her to her soccer practice at 5:45pm.  We played basketball in the driveway a few nights.  We went to the library.  Dd has been really enjoying the piano every day.  She has been figuring out "Jesus Loves Me" without the music; by talking to Giz on the phone.

We fit in some different books for our morning bible study.  We also used our Explorer's  Bible too.  In the evening we had our evening bible study as a family.  Our church has given the congregation a bible devotional for the month.  For us to pray as a church about the possibility of building a new church.  We also read our normally scheduled bible readings.  This week we read from John, Psalms, and Timothy.

Punchinello and the Most Marvelous Gift (New Stories and Products in Max Lucado's) by Max Lucado

The Easter Story by Brian Wildsmith

 The Way Home: A Princess Story by Max Lucado

 

Someone got a haircut--by Momma!

Haircut Today!!!

Hey Everyone-- See my haircut!

Here I hope to post a picture of the clay bowl Dd made this week:



It is for a dog- it has dog paws and a bone.
























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