A New Path in Math!

Up until now we have used Saxon Math.  We've used K, 1, 2, 3, 5/4, 7/6, 8/7.

Flower used 7/6 and 8/7 (6th & 7th grades) but isn't keen with staying with Saxon for Algebra I (8th grade).  We choose to go with Teaching Textbooks Algebra I concurrently with Life of Fred books and Khan Academy if she runs into problems.  I "think" with these together, we will have a well rounded Algebra year. (She is using the pre-algebra LOF now)

Thumper has been pretty happy with Math Mammoth and Life of Fred together.  He always opts to do LOF first and then MM.  After using Saxon K &1st with him, I decided to not move on with 2nd level for him.  He dreaded math every day and that is not the hopes of any parent.  In the middle of the year we started MM (that's when we completed Saxon 1) starting with MM 1-A.  He is nearly finished with 1-A and I hope we can get through 1-B before September, but I'm not going to rush it.  He'll get there when he gets there as long as we stay on track and not go over too many bumps.  We have read LOF Apples and are halfway through Butterflies, now.  I catch him drawing Fred and Kingie a lot and on everything.  For review and more practice, we use ixl.com....Thumper isn't crazy about it but that's because some of it is challenging for him.  We are working through that!

Artwork by Thumper



Bambi has used Saxon 2/Horizons 2 in second grade, Saxon 3 in 3rd, and has just finished Saxon 5/4 for 4th.  This year has been tough in math for her.  She tested just dandy on her yearly testing in May and outstanding in applied problems in math.  Saxon 5/4 I feel just jumped around too much for her to handle this year.  This the reason for switching.....I gave her the end of grade 3 placement test for MM last week and she scored a 163.  A score of 166 is 80% which would qualify her to move on to grade 4 MM.  Just looking at grade 4 MM, I knew we wouldn't even attempt it.  It's that advanced compared to Saxon.  So, unsure of where to place Bambi, I emailed the creator of MM (Maria Miller) for her advice.  The difficult parts for her in the test were Fractions (which we only touched on in Saxon), Measurements, & Geometry.  Her advice was to go over those three topics in grade 3 then move onto grade 4.  Or, we could do them concurrently.  Luckily, I bought levels 1-6 of MM on Buyers Co-op for a ridiculously low price.  Bambi has started LOF Goldfish and will work on her own pace through intermediate by the end of 5th grade.  This summer her goal is to catch up with difficult areas and master facts! 

Out of curiosity, I gave Bambi the placement tests for Teaching Textbooks.  She took the placement test for Math 5 and Math 6.  She ended up on Math 6 TT.  Over the summer, we are going to think about letting her use Math 6 with MM and LOF.  Doing the demo on TT, got her excited about math.  So, if we just try to find a used copy to let her use to boost moral, then so be it!  Plus she will be learning! 
I know this was a pretty lengthy math post but it was much needed on my end.  I see the whole path before me when I read it! 

Bambi's Science Notebooking Pages

I think Bambi likes having her brother as a partner for science.  At the beginning, she wanted to do science all by herself.  I think she realizes that it's so much more exciting with a buddy!  Here are some of her notebooking pages that she has created while we have been studying Earth.

Not sure where her Mars page went.

Thumper's Science Notebooking Pages!

Thumper and Bambi have been doing a great job on their notebooking pages.  I'm trying to get Thumper to write more and he doesn't groan much when it comes to writing in science.  We are finishing up the Sun, Moon, planets, and Solar System before following Flower the rest of the way with Elemental Science.  They will move onto climates and weather this summer!

Thumper's Creations:  He loved learning about volcanoes and created this picture himself on his dry erase board.  You can check out our volcano we made on the Elemental Science Page. 

Monarch Poem

Flower wrote a poem about Monarchs after our butterfly fieldtrip!  She has entered this poem into a local contest for a chance to win $1000.....we will keep our fingers crossed!!

 

 

Monarchs and Their Wonderful Place

Monarchs fly with beauty and grace,

They amaze the human race,

They fly so far to reach a place,

A very, very special place.

 

The people of that special place,

Honor the Monarchs' beauty and grace,

A part of their culture that can never be replaced,

Oh, the Monarchs' flight to that wonderful place.

 

We must protect the Monarchs place,

The trees give them warmth through the cold winter phase,

The big, green trees must be saved,

Oh, let's honor the Monarchs and their wonderful place.

 



The Incredible Journey of the Butterflies

We are going to The Butterfly Farm today for a fieldtrip!  We have been studying butterflies and then watched this video from PBS about the flight of the monarchs.  This is just the first chapter of the video. Go to PBS to watch the whole thing!

Watch The Incredible Journey of the Butterflies on PBS. See more from NOVA.

Birds Hatched!

The bird eggs in my jade plant have hatched!  Two out of the three have hatched......I took a little clip of the baby birds.....the kids love checking them out while the Mama bird is off the nest! 

Baby Birds & Screech Owls

This makes twice that I have removed a bird's nest from my jade plant that sits by my carport door.  The bird just kept coming back and I didn't get the nest out of there in time....she layed 4 eggs in that nest!  She has already kicked out 1 that sits outside of the nest.  I have moved the whole plant stand to the side of the carport away from the door so we don't scare her away from her eggs.  But really, with such a big yard and lots of trees....why did this house wren decide to start a family by my door?

The other day my husband was walking along at the edge of our property and spotted an owl up in the tree......he called me to come down to get some pictures!  I was right up under the tree maybe two foot from the base of it.  I was a little bit nervous that the owl was going to jump on me.  Whenever I moved, his head would follow me all the way around the tree.  It was pretty freaky but amazing!

 

 This is a screech owl and though he looks big in the picture, he really was not very big.  I was shocked how the picture made him look bigger than he was up close.  Here is a website from Cornell Lab talking about Screech Owls.