Week in Review: Jan. 30 - Feb. 3, 2012

NOTE: Baby Bear is no longer the baby, so his new nickname on the blog will be 'KP'.

Since I've had some boring Weeks in Review, I decided to spice it up by giving more detail as to what we are actually accomplishing each week.

Math In Math Mammoth, both of the children started the week working on "Mystery Numbers." They were given clues such as "This number has 5 more tens than 36" and they had to follow the clues to find the answers. In the middle of the week they took Chapter 4 Math Mammoth test (and did fantastic)! We ended the Math Mammoth week by delving into time, in particular whole and half hours.

In Math U See, BamBam finished up on multiple digit column addition and started his chapter on multiple digit subtraction. He's aced every single worksheet on multiple digit subtraction! I'm so excited for him. He's stronger in reading, so seeing him have these accomplishments is wonderful. I've been emphasizing that this is easier for him because he's worked so hard on the addition. YAY!

Primpress finished her unit on subtraction ending with answers in ones and zeros. She started her unit on twos and a general fact review. It's fun to see her build her basic math skills. She's working hard and is more mathy than her older brother. She starts on her math first thing in the morning because she likes it so much.

Baby Bear, aka KP, got his nose mauled by his little brother.

Language Arts In spelling, BamBam worked on words which end in silent e and adding endings. Remember drop the y and add an i? Yep. That's what we did this week. Primpress worked on spelling words that make the long e sound (ea, ee, e).

BamBam has been reading three books this week; Pinocchio, The Spiderwick Chronicles #4, and he's re-reading The Tale of Despereaux on his own. Primpress has been reading some easy-readers from the library, as well as working on words with the silent letter b (lamb), silent letter h (ghost), silent letter u after a g (plague), and r-changed vowels (ar as in car). She's flying through it and will be finished with The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading by the end of the year.

Seamus and his big blues.

In Grammar, BamBam continues to work on linking verbs and past/present tenses. He added was, were, have, has, and had to his list. He also worked on making sentences with more than one verb. After a little bauble, he caught on and finished out the week perfectly. He enjoys the short lessons in Rod & Staff. Primpress continues to review pronouns, months of the year, and days of the week. First Language Lesson has LOTS of review. LOTS.

For writing this week BamBam worked on sentences from Little Women. For copywork and dictation, he reviewed direct and indirect quotes. His summaries have greatly improved, and I'm so impressed with his dictations. Almost always, his spelling and grammar is perfect. He got his Dad's writing genes! Primpress is still working on narration and copywork for her first year of writing instruction. This week she copied sentences from How to Eat Fried Worms. It's fun to listen to the kids talk about their writing for the week. BamBam will tell Primpress how much he enjoyed a certain chapter. Their little conversations are hilarious!

Primpress and her (rainbow-inspired) North American folk tale

History It was a week full of fun mysteries: the Nazca line drawings and the Olmec heads. We made a little detour from Greece to jump to the other side of the earth and the Americas. The kids learned about the Nazca drawings in South America. We looked up actual pictures of the lines on the interwebs. I don't think they fully understand the scale and mystery of the lines just yet because they were much more enthralled with the large Olmec heads of Central America. In particular, their favorite fact is that the heads are so large you can put your entire hand up the nose of one of the heads. Hahaha! Thank you SWB for sharing that little tidbit. We ended with a folk tale from the people of North America, Rabbit Shoots the Sun. We also incorporate map work, a lap book page, and lots of supplemental books from the library.

This week's library books for history.

A page out of Primpress' science notebook.

Science Science gets its own entry this week! Daddy Jayhawk is responsible for science instruction in this house. He's way more fun that I would be! To go along with airfoil, thrust, and drag, the kids tested out different shaped wings on homemade airplanes. That's cool! 

Daddy building an airplane with thin wings.

Working through the scientific process.

Other In Bible we learned about Jesus teaching us how to pray, nature, and the story of the wise and foolish men. We watched a documentary on gardening (Back to Eden) together as a family, and then went to the local gardening store for seeds (they sell Seed Savers). We will be starting broccoli indoors this week. On my own, I'll be working on an herb and tomato garden. We've made bread twice this week using a new recipe - Amish White Bread. Oh, is it sooo good - isn't most homemade bread? Yep, it's white bread, but I'd love to try this with freshly ground hard white winter wheat. I'll have to wait until I save up to buy a wheat grinder first. Another thing we did this week, or rather I did, but we'll be doing as a family, is set up an account with Azure Standard. Once a month we will be unloading a big semi-truck full of fresh, organic produce. I'm looking forward to placing my first order later this month, and the kids are looking forward to meeting the big semi-truck.

And the highlight of my week: 

A surprise note from one of my dear children.

Have a great week!