My Quivers Full - April School Update

Apr. 29, 2009 - April School Update

Holy Moly I finally figured out how to get the pictures off of my camera and on to the new computer!! It only took me four months Here's something I've wanted to post since Christmas, it's the World's Best Christmas Present:

My kids have practically been living on this sucker. It's been so great!! Trampolines and pool noodle light sabers are a wonderful combination.

Also, in unrelated school news, Little Monkey (6) has FINALLY lost another tooth:

It's been so long since he lost his last one, we were wondering if he'd go thru life with baby teeth ;) Now there are two other loose teeth, one of them being the other front tooth. I foresee a lisp coming on!

Okay, onto the actual school update!

Reading:

Big Man (9) is on Level 4, Lesson 6. We took a couple of weeks to review all of the things he's learned over this year. He's been a little shaky on a couple of things, but having the review helped all of that come back. Now he's on to Schwa's.

Little Monkey (6) is still on that pesky Chicken Picnic Basket rule in Level 4, Lesson 4. He's right on the verge of having it, I think one more time thru the lesson will do it for him.

I wouldn't say either boy was thrilled to learn we would be continuing this program over the summer. When I explained the potential loss of skill over those months, they understood and were a bit more receptive to it. But still not thrilled.

Math:

Big Man is at the tail end of his Math U See book. He may finish the book with two weeks left to the school year! He's come such a long way in math this year, I'm so proud of him! The last big thing he has to tackle in this book is triple digit by triple digit multiplication (like 394 x 127). When he started multiplying a triple digit number by a double digit number he panicked a bit. We stayed on that lesson for a couple of weeks, bumping up to triple digit by triple digit may make him panic again.

Little Monkey has been taken off of Abeka for the remainder of the school year. They started throwing in things that were very confusing, so we decided we would use the rest of the school year to focus on learning his multiplication tables. He's doing really great, only the 7's and 8's are left!! That little boy rocks math!

Grammar:

Eech. Still going. We don't like the drudgery of doing grammar, but both of the boys are doing well. I won't miss it over the summer

Handwriting:

Big Man only has two more letters to learn in cursive, then it's on to a whole lot of copywork. He's happy he can sign his name in cursive. It looks much more grown-up that way, you know.

Little Monkey has a loooong way to go before he can move on to cursive!! I'm thinking about having only one letter a month that we concentrate on. That seems to be the only way the correct formation transfers over from "handwriting time" to actual writing throughout the day. I'm really tired of saying "Where do you start your letters? At the top!" Only ten more years of this and I may be thru the alphabet with him

Science:

Still LOVING science! We learned about mixtures, then how we can unmix a solution. We used Borax in one solution and Epsom Salts in another solution. I wish these pictures turned out better, they are really beautiful!

Here's Big Man's star, made out of Epsom salt:

And Little Monkey's star, made out of Borax:

This week we had a week I called "The Magic of Polymers" Daddy was in Seattle on business, so we worked hard to learn four different magic tricks using polymers. My. boys. loved. this. The day after he got back, we put on a show. We did a "Magic Sand" trick, with colored sand that had been coated with polymers....it stays dry, even in water. We did a "How Many Drops Can You Hold On Your Finger" trick. In this one, Little Monkey challenges Dad to a competition. "I bet I can hold more drops of water on my finger than you!" Daddy goes first, only getting a few tiny drops to stay on there. Little Monkey goes next, very un-slyly dipping his finger in a powdered polymer (we really need to work on their sneakiness if they're taking this act to Vegas!) Little Monkey's finger held about 30 drops of water. Third in the line-up was a "Guess Where the Water Went" trick. Three white styrofoam cups, one with a teaspoon of powdered polymer in it. Pour a cup of water into one of the cups with a flourish, shuffle the cups, and have him guess which cup now holds the water. When he gets it wrong, turn that cup upside down. Repeat with the remaining two cups. When you're down to the last cup, turn it over.....none of the cups spilled. Sneaky polymer! Last, the favorite trick of everyone, the "Cup Over the Head" trick. Have a white styrofoam cup with a teaspoon of polymer in it, pour a cup of water into the white cup. Place an index card over the top of the cup, and turn it upside down (quickly) over the "victims" head. Remove the index card with a flourish. No water. Sneaky polymer!! Oh man, my kids could do these tricks for days!!!

They really enjoyed going on a polymer hunt in our house, and were amazed at all of the things that polymers are used for. Their favorite was seeing how many cups of water could fit into a diaper (10!!), then cutting it open to see the saturated polymer crystals inside.

My new books just came in the mail for next year, Real Science 4 Kids Physics. My kids saw the books and actually got excited!! THAT'S how I know we have a great curriculum for science!

(Little Monkey found the Chemistry book on the table and decided to curl up in Daddy's chair and have some "study" time)

History:

We've been learning about the Civil War, Pony Express, Buffalo Bill, and Annie Oakley. They're really enjoying this time in history. Unfortunately, I haven't had much time to add in the fun extras like we normally do. A couple of books they especially enjoyed for the Civil War were "Hold the Flag High" by Catherine Clinton and "Thunder at Gettysburg" by Patricia Lee Gauch (which is based on the journal entries of a girl that lived thru the Gettysburg battle). Their very favorite part of learning about the Civil War? Watching portions of Gods and Generals. I selected two battle scenes, one in a town and one in a field. We had talked about what a battle would be like in both of those places, but seeing it in the movie really captivated them. If I had unlimited funds...and unlimited time...we'd pack up and travel to some battle sites. Oh well, I can dream.

A fun little item I picked up at the homeschool convention was a wooden covered wagon kit. We made one a few weeks ago out of an orange juice container, but they wanted a sturdy one to keep and play with their Lincoln Logs. We'll get that put together this week.

Peanut Update: Oh, little Peanut (4) needs an update time, doesn't he? He's been working hard at his speech therapy. He likes speech. Ask him. He'll tell you it's because of the candy at the end. Whatever works, man. We've noticed progress with his speech, which is very encouraging. He has a long way to go, but he's doing well. He's also been working hard with "Miss Michelle" over at Occupational Therapy. He's not as thrilled with this time, but he always gives it his best. No candy, and she pushes his little sensory system as far as she can without pushing it over the edge. He works his little heart out! But he says he likes Miss Michelle, so we're both happy. He's especially happy when the time in the swing is done!! On the plus side, having so much "homework" has been good practice for having school time next year. In fact, I'm able to slip a little work in on him now and then:

Here he's practicing coloring, cutting (O.T. time), stickers, clipping laundry clips on the side of a bucket (O.T. time), and picking up cotton balls with tweezers & putting them in the bucket (O.T. time). He was in a particularly agreeable mood this day, so we got a good bit of work done

The countdown is now on. Four weeks until the end of our school year!!! The last couple of weeks will be dicey. We'll have family in town for a few days, then we'll be leaving town for a few days, but eventually we'll be done! The next school update will probably be a wrap up of our school year. I intend on doing a couple of posts about our time at the Cincinnati Homeschool Convention. It was SO great with lots of fantastic seminars, lots of fantastic tips, lots of fantastic vendors, etc. I am still sorting through all of the notes I took, and reading through one of the books I bought, but I hope to have a coherent post put together sometime in the next week or so!

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