3-20-08 Weekly Check-In

granolamom6 · Post by **granolamom6** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 9:53 am

I'm just getting this thread started because Mary asked me to.

She is currently in her van with her sweet husband and her four boys on her way to her parents' house.

I will be posting about my week soon. But anyone else can jump in a get us started!

blessedmomof4 · Post by **blessedmomof4** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 10:43 am

This is spring break for us, but that doesn't mean no learning took place

There was Ken Ham for my son and me, my daughters made some cute sculpey creations, my youngest daughter is now up to the third book in the Indian in the Cupboard series, my middle daughter is planning to draw some favorite animals from our North American field guide, and my oldest daughter fixed hem on my skirt by hand

I'm ashamed to say, I can't sew for beans

but my dear young lady seems to have inherited an aptitude for it from both grandmas-she even taught herself to crochet

I do look forward to returning to the routine of Bigger Hearts, because we just love doing it-but a break is nice every now and then.

silly · Post by **silly** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 10:48 am

Well, like I posted in the main forum, this week has been absolutely incredible. A week ago, Erik didn't seem to understand how to draw a circle and now he can write his A's (and has been writing them on everything he can

) He also has memorized "Adam and the Animals" which is amazing since his speech is so incredibly delayed. I'm absolutely ecstatic with the progress both he and Jake have made.

I do have a blog, and have been keeping it pretty up to date:

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/jahayfamilyschool/

It's got some pictures, though not a whole lot, because my camera is acting funny

My husband and I are just so happy and impressed. It's like a door has been unlocked and now he's just totally blooming. We're seeing the sunshine now

granolamom6 · Post by **granolamom6** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 12:22 pm

Here is what we did this week:

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/granolamom6/501853/

6timeboymom · Post by **6timeboymom** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 1:28 pm

We just finished unit one of "Bigger" with my 12, 9, and 7 year olds.

We start the day with the independent studies-Handwriting, Language Arts, and Math. By the time those are done, the breakfast dishes are (well, I was going to say "done" but what would be more accurate would be to say "in the sink"

)

Then we start with the together stuff-History, Bible, Science. As I finish up with Ben, (7) Jesse (12) and Jamie (9) start their independent extension pack studies. One will read "Pedro's Journal" while the other reads "A Child's Story of America" and then they switch. Usually the talk about what they read with each other, too...competing to see how much more one can narrate back then the other.

(If you didn't know this about boys-everything, I mean E V E R Y T H I N G becomes a competition...anyway...) Then they will take turns reading the Science extension book, and then we are usually done. This week we haven't done dictation, poetry, or reading. We will add those in gradually over the next few weeks. We've used DITHOR for several years, so we know how it "works" and we wanted to start slowly with a new way of doing things, kwim? Ben is going to do the emerging reader's schedule, Jamie will do DITHOR level 2/3 and Jesse will do level 4/5.
Jamie (9) has been having fun saying he's already in 4th grade now.

Jesse thinks it's "easy" but he doesn't realize how much he's learning! He files stuff in that brain of his and doesn't think of it as work! There's no more fighitng about school work this week-that's been the BEST part!!

Then I got a second copy of LHTH (I loaned out my original copy and decided to gift it to my friend so I could justify getting myself a new one

) And Greyson (4) and I started day 1 yesterday. He's done most of the book before, here and there, and actually Ben (the 7 yr old doing Bigger) did it as his preschool curriculum. So it's been really fun to see Ben sing along to some of the hand rhymes with Greyson. He's even said, "No-it goes like THIS" when I've not remembered how we did the actions when he was little!

And Gabe (who's almost 2) has gotten into the groove of painting (I bought him finger paints) and singing and doing some of the hand motions. This isn't school-this is FUN!!!

mom2boys030507 · Post by **mom2boys030507** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 3:22 pm

We had a great week. This is the first time in a long time that we actually got 5 days of school in. My son enjoyed listening to "The Courage of Sarah Noble." He also liked making a texture map in Unit 24 on day 5 of little hearts. These are the things that stick out for me, it just feels good to actually have done school and progressed.

1shortmomof4 · Post by **1shortmomof4** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 3:39 pm

No weekly report here. We had decided to take a relaxed week since the PS was on spring break which turned out to be a good thing because on Wednesday, my ds who is working on Beyond got a stomach flu and now a day later the youngest ds and oldest ds are both sick so no school at this house for the week. That also has meant to preparing the craft for Sunday School, no getting the baskets ready but it has meant cuddle time and just extra time to sit and read or take lots of naps. My fingers are crossed that my dd doesn't come down with it tonight or tomorrow....
Heidi

Melanie · Post by **Melanie** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 3:44 pm

Karen...we're making that map tomorrow!

Yep...we are still on the same unit 24 of Little Hearts. Hopefully, we'll finish tomorrow and start unit 25 on Saturday. We have been reviewing memory verses and tried to see how many of the rhymes in motion we could remember (that was fun!)

We very much enjoyed building a ship today as we read about Peter the Great. We're a little sad to be finishing up Chatterer, but they'll be surprised when we start Buster Bear (I've kept it hidden and a big secret). My son loves bears!!

OK Gina....you're officially a week ahead of me now!

beandip71 · Post by **beandip71** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 4:53 pm

Melanie-I am not that far ahead of you.

We just finished Day 3 of Unit 25 today. My kids really enjoyed the textured map of the Blue Ridge Mtns. I will be putting our week in review on my blog in a little while, and it will have photos of their maps. I will post a link when it is done.

Gina

inHistiming · Post by **inHistiming** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 5:32 pm

This week we did not get far in Little Hearts, still just in Unit 1...we're trying to incorporate youngest DS into the olders' school day. But, I am excited about what we did accomplish. We are practicing our memory verse; Matthew 19:14. We worked on making circles (o's) and straight and slanted lines in A Reason for Handwriting. We have also been practicing more with writing his name. We read from History for Little Pilgrims, and will be working on starting the timeline tomorrow. In Reading Made Easy we have gone through lesson 4. He is able to recognize the aaa sound, and just learned the p and mmm sound. With help, he can now 'read' the am and ap sounds. Please see the link below for a view of his handwriting.

http://perfectbydesign.blogspot.com/200 ... ading.html

We are really enjoying Little Hearts...and can't wait to get the older two started with Bigger...this summer!

Candice · Post by **Candice** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 5:47 pm

Well, the "stomach flu monster" came to visit our house this week so, I spent most of my time trying to keep my daughter Danielle as comfortable as possible as she experienced being soooo sick. My little sweetie wished that I could be sick instead of her, and I so wished the same. Nothing more heartbreaking than seeing your little one in pain. I decided it would be a wonderful opportunity to pray over her so she could hear mommy praying to God to show mercy on her and relieve her pain. She felt a bit uncomfortable with this but, I went ahead and shortly after, she was able to get into bed and promptly fall asleep for the entire night. God is good.

Today, my Danielle is feeling much better (I know for sure because she asked if I wanted to play Polly Pockets). We ended up doing a unit in Little Hands that had her write letters with diluted glue and then add glitter. She loved it, we did letters A-D and let me tell you, the glitter was flying! My daughter thought it would be fun to go ahead and empty the glitter bottle all over me! She made wonderful letters and was so proud of her abilities.

Looking forward to a healthy and happy week ahead!

Candice

beandip71 · Post by **beandip71** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 8:04 pm

Candice-I'm so sorry your dd was sick. I hope she is well soon.

Here is a link to my blog with our week in review.

http://beandipblog.blogspot.com/2008/03 ... ew_21.html

Gina

Dorla · Post by **Dorla** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 9:07 pm

Here is our update http://escuelitaaparicio.blogspot.com/2 ... there.html
I really enjoy reading all of your blogs and seeing your pictures. I like to share it with my son so that he understands that there are many homeschooled children just like him and even doing the same school work!
It makes him proud

Dorla

Tansy · Post by **Tansy** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 9:16 pm

Well today my DD Actually LISTENED!!! wooottiiess and then narrated about 5 incomplete/sentences. But they were on topic and she made commentary on them that meant she understood what was going on in the story. Stuff like this came out of her mouth---->>>>> "Jean was a real pest. 'are we there yet, are we there yet, are we there yet, are we there yet' " I was sooooo happy.

Estimating problems in Math (always a struggle) but this time the answers were "popping into her head"

She also surprised me at the bagel place. Don't know if I posted this already it happened late last week, but I'm still so happy about it. While we were sitting at a restaurant all the chinese came pouring out. She used it all and made up new sentences. It was sooooo cool.

When we did the science notebooking she had to draw birds, well my child doesn't draw well at all. So taking a page from MUS I started teaching her by modeling. We looked though a bird book to find pictures of the birds hovering, flapping ect.. then we just looked at over all the shapes ovals, triangles, lines, and arcs. Then I drew a sample breaking it down into bite size pieces and very simple. WOW! she did great!!! if hubby hadn't hidden the camera I'd be posting it! Step by step she drew each part and was so happy and excited MOM MOM it looks like a bird!!!
later that day I found her looking though the bird book. Wooties Score One for HOD!
Also in her copy work she is adding the italic cursive all on her own even if I printed the stuff she is copying. and its making her handwriting so much nicer and neater.

my3sons · Post by **my3sons** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 9:43 am

LHFHG:

Here's a picture of my ds doing the math activity from LHFHG. He loved gluing the cheerios on each flower to match the number in the center. It wasn't that long ago that he skipped numbers when counting to 20. The activities in LHFHG have helped him count so well now, and he can even read the number words too.

BIGGER:

This was a huge favorite of everyone in the house this week! This picture shows my ds with his land claim, mining for gold. The pennies are the gold, and the land claim is staked off with masking tape. He is stomping his feet 50 times for each piece of gold - working hard to dig for it! He LOVED it so much.

Of course, little brother had to stake a land claim too. He's showing you his gold. He didn't fare as well as big brother - only 3 pieces of gold. However, a stuffed animal representing another miner at a different land claim had NO gold. Then he felt very blessed!

Here they are trading their gold for outrageously priced food and beverage. They have such an understanding of gold mining and how some people found no gold, others struck it rich, and others had just enough to buy the expensively priced goods. They played this at least a dozen times later in the day during their play time, though the mining camp moved rooms many times. What fun we had!

I haven't gotten to read everybody's post yet here - I'm saving it for the afternoon as a special treat for finishing the week. Plus, I have to read the weekly check-in drinking my International coffee - just becoming tradition I look forward to!