Friday, September 2, 2011

Week in Review: Aug. 29 - Sept. 2, 2011

We had a short school week. Daddy Jayhawk was off Thursday and Friday.

BamBam learned how to round numbers to the nearest 10 in math. And gosh, that's a lot more difficult than you can imagine. You first need to learn to find the nearest 10s. That proved harder for Bam than figuring out the whole 5-or-more round up deal. But, a few short lessons throughout the day and some online game playing made for a successful math week! Primpress had a very easy week with her +0 facts.



Speaking of game playing... have you heard of the Million Minute Family Challenge? We signed up a few weeks ago. This week I received the welcome kit in the mail. It even came with a few games. The kids can't wait to get started! We love family game night around here.



BamBam and I decided to stick with Rod & Staff Grammar. We know that it gets less churchy as we go along. It's rigorous and it works. We do most of the work orally, however once a week I have him complete a written assignment.


Bam started reading The Littles this week. He loves it. He reads a chapter a day to me and then he insists on reading the same chapter to Daddy Jayhawk later in the day. Primpress is plugging along in her Beginner's Bible and Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading.


Recently on the Well-Trained Mind homeschooling boards someone asked about draw and tell stories, particularly like those Ma Ingalls had played with Laura and her sisters in On the Banks of Plum Creek. I had forgotten all about draw and tell stories! Since the kids had just finished the book with Daddy Jayhawk, I thought it would be fun to find some draw and tell stories. Our library had a ton of these books!


They are a hit with the kids! They are learning story retelling, sequencing, drawing, memory recall, plus developing their imagination. The instructions in the book are very easy to follow. The kids practice drawing the story while reading the story. Once they've gone through the story several times, they are ready to perform the story/drawing.


We also completed 2/3 of our Bible for the week, one worksheet for history (the rest of this week's history will take place next week), and spelling. Academically, the plan is to finish this week's work during next week's short week, along with some projects.


This week's projects have included: painting the front door (no picture), painting the hallway (no picture), cleaning up said hallway when a child steps on the paint can lid then keeps walking down the hallway with paint on foot,

(good thing he's cute!)

sewing a dress for Primpress,



painting the outside of the house (almost 3/4 a way finished!!!), cleaning out flower beds, moving what seemed like a ton of mulch from the driveway to under the kids' swing set (yeah, we're exhausted and it's only Friday - we still have the rest of the weekend!),


and watching the most amazing tree removal operation. I wish I would have had my camera with me. A company specializing in high-risk tree removal removed a tree from my mother-in-law's home. The tree was over the top of two homes, a fence and a hedgerow. The company used ropes and pulleys to direct the branches. Since I don't have any pictures, I found a video on you tube. This is not the same company that we worked with, but much of the rope technique was the same (our company was able to use a cherry picker rather than have to climb the tree). It was fascinating!

Punk doesn't make much of an appearance on the blog since he started public school. This week he got his service uniform for color guard. As long as he keeps all As & Bs, he'll get to serve on the honor color guard, as well as perform with the armed exhibition and drill teams. (I'm not sure what's on his lapel - it doesn't show up in person - weird!) I think he looks stunning in his uniform!


Have a great Labor Day weekend!

2 comments:

Daisy September 2, 2011 at 7:50 PM  

Your photographs are GORGEOUS!

I love the Draw and Tell books. I'm going to have to look for those. My daughter would enjoy learning some of them.

Great week.

Mandy in TN September 3, 2011 at 4:18 PM  

Wow, those pictures really are amazing!

That same rounding difficulty turned up at my house. My extra student didn't do well on her rounding lesson, but when I sat with her I quickly realized that she could round just fine. She had just forgotten place value names!

About This Blog

Homeschooling Mom to 5 beautiful children.

Daddy Jayhawk = My husband. Best. Husband. Ever.

Punk = 16 yo son in public high school

BamBam = 8 yo son, homeschools

Primpress = 7 yo daughter, homeschools

KP, aka Baby Bear = 4 yo son, makes messes

Seamus = 1 yo son, absolute chaos

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