Our week in unit 4

Wow a whole month of school has come and gone!! I cannot believe it has been that long. We did start a little earlier than most BUT I wanted to have flexibility for the year to take off and to end by at least the end of May. We have been on schedule so far and the girls are a little ahead in things such as math and handwriting. That helps us out on Co op Days. 

This week was unusually busy for us but with the kids all taking on a new activity this year it seems like this may be our new norm. Ian was sick on Monday with a fever virus : ( He was scheduled to go to baseball practice and speech but had to miss out on both. Needless to say it broke his heart o miss baseball but speech not so much. Tuesday was a blur of Co op from 9-12 and Ally's first dance class. She had the BEST time and has been practicing non stop. She has ambitions to try out for the Nutcracker! Wednesday was another whirlwind of school, speech, piano, doctors appointment, and the first night of this years AWANA's! The rest of the week we got to slow down and finish up some school projects and just relax before taking a three day weekend. I am pleased that all three kiddos worked hard for me this week. 

I did prepare for this busy schedule or at least meal wise. My mom is helping out by cooking a few meals during the week at her house since she lives in town that Ally has her dance and Ian has his ball. I did my part by planning a months worth of meals that are easy, inexpensive and mostly healthy : ) I couponed and shopped the sales and got everything to feed our family of six for a little over $200!!!  Most meals are one dish crock pot or casseroles all of which can be done in a little time. This week it went well! 

Now on to how school went this week. Ian is on unit 4 of LHTH and working on the number 4, his colors, and the letter Dd. I am so happy that he is finally grasping and recognizing letters!! I am using My First Workbook by HWOT with him and we are doing colors and hand coordination activities. I am also adding a letter of the week craft in addition to the one that he does with HOD. Ian can count up to 13 and we are working on getting to 20. I am so proud of my little guy! 

Audrey and Ally are on unit 4 of Bigger and were very busy with school work, though you could not tell it with the amount of fun they had doing many of the activities and lessons. 

Bible: Proverbs 3:20-30/Trustworthy With AWANA starting back up this week, I did not make the girls memorize the verse for the week though we did discuss it at length and apply it. They always have fun doing the activities and usually wind up knowing the verse by the end of the week. We focused on being trustworthy and ways we can show that trait to others. I even trusted them with small jobs around the house such as playing nicely with their little brother, or carrying the baby down the hall.

Poetry: "The Arrow" In our poetry sessions this week we looked at metaphors and compared them to similes as well as came up with some of their own. I did not go in depth as I know we will hit on this later.  

Language: I am still finding Preparing to Build English 2, very easy and repetitive for the girls but we are doing. It does not take us long and the review is good for them. Sometimes I have them write on their white boards or in their language section in the binder. We looked at how to properly answer a question when having to write the answer. They are doing well at this. 

Dictation: Audrey is doing especially well with this and I am starting to see it carry over into her writing sometimes. She is still very phonetic at spelling and even though the improvements are small, I am seeing them. Both of the girls said that they like dictation better than spelling. 

Music: Ally is almost done with her piano book!  Yay! Audrey is also coming along nicely. The girls enjoy Holy, Holy, Holy, but are ready for a new song. I did go ahead and let them listen to our next one. 

Handwriting:  I am still enjoying HOWT and cannot wait to see how Ian will do using the program from the start. 

Story time:  We finished Ben and Me and the girls were sad! I usually have them do a big project at the end of a book but we were so busy this week that instead of something big I had them each give an oral presentation to their Daddy about the book. They all enjoyed that. Next week we will move on to our adventure books!


DITHOR: We finished up our first genre! The girls made a fact quilt to represent the book they read. They turned out very cute and neat. We enjoyed the rubric and the activity. I used the Take Home Projects book recommend by HOD. We will move on to adventure in this as well next week and the girls will be reading different books. 

 

Vocabulary: This weeks words were wigwam, idle, and colony. We talked a little about homophones because at first the girls thought idle was like the word idol. They look forward to vocabulary each week.  

Writing: We still used the book Amazing Grace as our spring off point this week. The girls had to pick a goal they want to accomplish and write out the steps to get there. Ally's goal is to be a famous dancer and Audrey's goal is to have six kids. I let them pick whatever they wanted. Here is what they wrote: 

Ally's Journal: "I want to become a famous dancer. I need to take dance lessons. I will have to practice. I will have to get discovered. I will do a lot of plays. Then I will be a famous dancer. " 

Audrey's Journal: "I want to have six kids. I will go to college and meet a boy. I  have to ask Mommy and Daddy if I can get married. Then I can get married. I will one baby. Then I will have 5 more babies." 

Math: We have moved on to more multiplication this week working on four's. I am not having them memorize facts just yet just working on the process of multiplication. 

History/Geography: The kids had a GREAT time in history and geography this week! Even Ian had a hand in learning. We learned how John Smith made the first map and so we made an edible map out of a cookie and m and m's. We also used a giant floor puzzle of the world to help us out. We learned about Captain John Smith and Pocahontas. The girls loved it and we may watch the movie this weekend. The girls wrote and acrostic poem in their history notebook about her. We also did a bartering activity to show how John Smith and Indians bartered to get what they wanted or needed. I read the book Ox Cart Man to fully develop the importance of bartering. 

Science: In science we looked at classifying animals. We did a big unit on this at the end of last year before our zoo trip. This was fairly easy for them. They learned how to classify mollusks and what bivalve and univalve means. They also looked the different invertebrates found on the shore and in a tide pool. They also learned how fish and seaweed can float, because they have an air bladder. I did not take a photo of their science notebook page as they will finish it up next week. We did our science lab report on regular paper as I could not find my copies : ( 

 Art: For art this week the girls made a drawing on an Indian blanket using the reflection method with lines and designs. These turned out really cute.  They loved getting out the markers and making these. 

                                           Weekly Homeschool Lesson Plans 2014/2015          

Week of                                                    Unit # 4 Topic: Captain John Smith and Pocahontas

	Day 1                Day 2                    Day 3                   Day 4                Day 5
Prayer, Calendar
Language		p. 40-41	p. 42-43	p. 44-45	p. 46-47	p. 48-49
Bible		Verse:   Proverbs 3:29-31  Trustworthyness       Devotion: Little Pillows p. 89-91
Poetry		“The Arrow”
Dictation		Passage 7	Passage 7		Passage 8	Review
DITHOR		Day 15 Start ProjectAdventure Thank you p.43	Day 16 Work on book project	Day 17 Work on book project	Day 18 Work on book project	Day 19Share project and complete reflection
HWOT		Favorite Activity p. 165	D words p.67 Number 3 p. 141	G words p. 68 Letter Story p. 58	Words p. 69 Number 4 p. 142	Sentences p. 70
Read Aloud		Title: Ben and Me      Genre:  Biography     Story Element:  character      Trait: Responsibility
Writing		Amazing Grace Explanatory Writing		Writing Warm up p. 33 Amazing Grace Work on writing	Work on Grace writing	Journal: Grace writing published
Math		Subtract 98 or 99 TB 17 WB Ex 12	Practice 1B TB page 18	Practice 1C TB page 19	Review WB Review 1
Science		Seashores p. 34-35 Retell/ Narrate	Notebook from p. 36-39	Seashores p.36-37 Experiment	Seashores p. 38-39 Narrate/Retell	Seashores p. 40-41 Experiment
Art					Make blanket
Geography			Map the continents
History		First Book of American History p. 29-31 Jamestown Trading Game	First Book of American History p. 32-34  Going Back to England	First Book of American History p. 35-37 Narrate Henry Hudson VOCABULARY!!!	First Book of American History p.38-40  Pocahontas Marries	Notebook: Write an acrostic poem Timeline Entry
Music		Kids Heart Vol.1 Track 1 “Holy, Holy,Holy” Pages 18 and 19  and Piano Practice
Extra’s		Technology	Liberty Co op	Piano Lessons	PE	PE /Technology

Ian’s Lessons	Ian’s speech
Letter Dd Bible/Activity Issac and Rebeka Finger Play One Dusty Camel Music: none this week Count on Me:
	Rotating Number 4, marker designs, shorter, father, play wrestle,	ETC/HWOT

Weekly Notes: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________­­­­­­­_____

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Curriculum Resources: Heart of Dakota: Bigger Hearts for His Glory, Singapore Math, Handwriting Without Tears, Internet, Library, Drawn Into The Heart of Reading, Preparing to Build 2, Heart of Dakota: Little Hands to Heaven, Get Ready for the Code