The Learning Room

February 8-19

I’m glad I now write down what it is that we actually do during the week. Since we’ve been sick I’ve not been very motivated to “do school” everyday and we have just done a little here and a little there formally and a lot of child-led interests informally as prompted. But writing it down today – even if it pans two weeks instead of one – let’s me know that we did just fine and that I really don’t have to stress about getting it all squeezed in!

History

Finally finished Betsy Ross: Designer of Our Flag.
Read A More Perfect Union: The Story of Our Constitution.
Practiced memorizing the 13 colonies by singing them to the tune of Yankee Doodle (and Lily was pretty proud that she actually memorized the words to Yankee Doodle as well!).
Made Colonial Paper Dolls including: Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Washington, a Redcoat, a Patriot, Betsy Ross, and a colonial boy.
Read IF You: Lived in Colonial Times (kids thought there were some pretty weird things people did – a very kid-friendly book).
Narrations of the colonial times.

Math

Gabe – finished chapter 15 practice pages and test, watched video 16, did practice page 16A (multiplying by 8)
Lily – watched video 21, did practice pages 21A & B (finding the missing sum); worked on abacus
Luc – working on counting (and I mean counting EVERYTHING!); counting puzzle

Language Arts

Latin ~ Gabe learned new words non, ad; reviewed flashcards
Literature ~ Read more chapters from Pippi Longstocking and Return to the Hundred Acre Woods; Audio ~ started listening to Artemis Fowl
Grammar ~ Gabe ~ worked on alphabetizing and synonyms, practiced using a thesaurus; Lily ~ learned about the question mark and practiced reading and writing sentences with question marks
Penmanship ~ Gabe ~ cursive X; Lily ~ capital and lowercase E, F, G
Phonics ~ Lily ~ has really taken off with practicing reading on her own with all kinds of books around the house and is more interested in trying to read to the little ones. Luc ~ has blossomed in ways that I didn’t see coming. All of the sudden he is putting the letter sounds he hears together and asking what words spelled. The other day he spelled cat for me after figuring it out in his head. He will be reading before we know it! Delilah ~ has still wanted to watch Letter Factory every day and we have added in Talking Words Factory to supplement her learning and Luc’s desire to spell and make words. Both Luc and Lilah received an alphabet puzzle and that has been the highlight of their week. Luc is using it to spell words and Lilah is using it to practice letter sounds.

Book Reports ~ Lily read an I Can Read Book ~ Fancy Nancy: The Dazzling Book Report and was so taken with it (was on one of her favorite historical figures – Sacagawea) that she wanted to do her own book report. And, of course, she wanted to do in in the Fancy Nancy over-the-top artistic way so out came the ephemera and markers to create an elaborate picture book to which she narrated orally to me (I dictated for her) and added her very first book report to her beautiful pictures. This was a project she did completely on her own account with no prompting from me!
Independent Reading ~ Gabe finished Matilda; started (again!) on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator; read Roald Dahl’s Revolting Recipes; read various Ramona books; read his first Choose Your Own Adventure Book: The Green Slime

Science

Everything Dinosaurs ~ Watched all three Jurassic Park movies. (That’s educational right? I must say I actually knew what every single dinosaur was called this time! And it did inspire me to reread the books again.) Then watched the Nova special The Real Jurassic Park, which Lily kept informing us was boring but Luc wouldn’t let us turn it off.
Listened to my new mix of Science songs (kids favorites: Electricity, The Elements, The Sun song, and the Friction song – all of which I’ve heard them humming around the house while playing!).
Gabe – played Snap Circuits electricity set.
Gabe – made pretend snot and discovered what mucus is used for in the body with his Disgusting Science Kit.